Editorial

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.

The WPA has let half a cat out of the bag.

A common theme among the many claims routinely made for digital technology and the efflorescence of social media is the bold idea they are collectively abolishing the traditional constraints of time and distance.

As expected, President Hugo Chávez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) obtained a majority of representatives in the National Assembly in last Sunday’s legislative elections.

From a meeting at the Office of the President on Tuesday, it has emerged that local religious leaders have “agreed to be more active in helping to curb domestic violence” and have indicated “their willingness to be part of a standard training programme specifically designed to sensitize and equip them to deal with the issue.”

A curious event occurred last week, and continues into this week, in the area which the Western powers (and we ourselves following them), have traditionally referred to as the Far East.

The official ‘Response of the Government of Guyana to the Universal Period Review’ presented by Ms Gail Teixeira in Geneva on September 13 was a dangerous setback for public security.

A series of visits to agricultural communities by SN reporter Gaulbert Sutherland has focused a piercing light on many issues connected with the government’s Grow More Food campaign.

The thing about Guyanese politics at the moment is that everything is in suspension.

Last month, Nicholas Negroponte, leader of the One Laptop per Child Foundation and founder and former chairman of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warned his audience at a technology conference that printed books would be “dead” within five years.

The rotating chairmanship of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) was officially transferred from Ecuador to Guyana at a meeting of foreign ministers, on Tuesday, in New York, in the margins of the UN General Assembly, and it was agreed to hold UNASUR’s next summit in Georgetown on November 26.

There might have been a time when people in the Caribbean viewed Alzheimer’s disease and other age-onset dementias as problems associated only with North America and Europe, simply because these are the continents where they have been recognised for what they are for years.

Controversy and differing interpretations continue to follow Fidel Castro’s statement that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for Cuba any more,” with experts trying hard to read the tea leaves in the still intensely closed political system of that country.

Senior officers of the Guyana Police Force seem to make their strongest statements about the virulence of the illegal narcotics trade only after some tragedy has occurred.

Chief Justice (ag) Chang’s ruling that Clico (Guyana) be wound up will bring immeasurable and welcome relief to hundreds of hard-working Guyanese who had health and other insurance policies with the company and had been lured by unrealistic rates to invest in a business whose parent was spinning Ponzi-like schemes.