Editorial

Last week a New York jury recommended an $8 million fine against a mayor who seized copies of a local newspaper which had criticized him and his police department.

On October 10, 2010 – the unique-to-this-century, and for most people, the once-in-a-lifetime calendar alignment of 10/10/10 – the Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist.

Just last month, four major international organizations announced in a jointly released report that worldwide there had been a drop in maternal deaths by a third.

Some observers of the United States’engagement in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, may have been inclined to see then candidate Obama’s election campaign giving withdrawal from Iraq priority, as akin to the advice alleged to have been given to an American President during the Vietnam war: that he should simply declare victory and withdraw his troops and the American presence from the country.

The Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon last week purported to instruct the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on the manner in which advertisements and notices connected with election activities should be placed.

On October 8th, the Guyana Police Force began issuing a series of bulletins for persons it said were wanted for questioning in connection with murder.

It is not often that the Guyana Police Force is commended for doing the right thing, but late on Friday it did just that by apologizing to a victim of unlawful acts on the part of its officers.

“Where is China heading in the twenty-first century?” asks the remarkable document which brought the Chinese intellectual and political activist Liu Xiaobo to worldwide prominence in 2008.

It was the ultimate reality show seen by an estimated global television audience of one billion.

Four months ago, three children between the ages of five years old and one year old were removed from their parents’ home and taken into the care of the state after signs of physical abuse – being burned in the face – were discovered on one of the children; their father was subsequently charged and is currently before the court.

It is now just under two years since the December 2008 general elections in Barbados when the Democratic Labour Party, led by Mr David Thompson, gained a convincing victory over Mr Owen Arthur and his Barbados Labour Party, taking the DLP back to office for the first time since 1994.

The murder of 16-year-old Queen’s College student Neesa Gopaul provided the administration with another opportunity to blame the Guyana Police Force for incompetence.

President Jagdeo’s dire warning to Corentyne residents last week that if the ambitious Skeldon factory failed that sugar was dead must have come as something of a shock to the residents of the area.

Here we are in a kind of phony campaign season, with the focus of interest still on the distant past, rather than on the shape of the future, as would be the case in any other democracy. 

Watching a religious ceremony in Gabon, during a five-country tour to assess the effects of animism, foreign faiths and leadership cults on the progress of African civilization, VS Naipaul returns to a familiar theme.

By rejecting the West Indies Cricket Board’s central contracts, Chris Gayle has effectively handed in his resignation as West Indies captain and Dwayne Bravo has disqualified himself for consideration.

At 16 years old, Neesa Lalita Gopaul who should have been at this moment involved in preparing school-based assignments ahead of writing the Caribbean Secondary Certificate Examination next year, is dead.

Since the new Conserverative-Liberal Democratic (LibCon) coalition came to office in the United Kingdom, two discussions at governmental level have seemed to preoccupy the government.

Unanswered questions linger about the 22nd April 2006 assassination of Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh.

Senior Citizens’ Month which is being observed in October will undoubtedly give rise to platitudes from many sectors on how the golden years of the elderly will be bettered.