Editorial

The Speaker of the National Assembly Mr Ralph Ramkarran in his column in the Weekend Mirror and on his blog www.conversationtree.gy

Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett was reported in our Wednesday edition as criticizing the current Surinamese administration in the National Assembly for its silence on a plan by a previous government to invade this country’s New River Triangle.

Less than a fortnight ago, in the middle of a national drought in which parts of the country were “enduring days, and sometimes weeks of no water,” readers of the of the Trinidad Express learned that “clear water [was gushing] from more than four plant sprinklers over the lawn grass at Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s residence…” This scoop ran beneath a damning photograph, courtesy of an anonymous “citizen journalist,” of a gardener monitoring the extravagant watering.

A few weeks ago, we commented on the victory of conservative businessman, Sebastián Piñera, and his “Coalición del Cambio” or “Alliance for Change” in Chile’s recent presidential election.

Last Saturday, the Ministry of Health issued a press release in which it revealed that for the first four weeks this year over 11,000 cases of diarrhoeal disease had been reported, representing a slight increase in the numbers reported for the corresponding period in 2009.

The Obama administration seems to be moving towards a more rigid stance in its attitude to Iran, induced by at least four factors that would not have seemed so intractable when he assumed office a little over a year ago.

President Bharrat Jagdeo, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee and Commissioner of Police Henry Greene all took time to talk about the country’s war on drugs in their respective addresses to the Guyana Police Force’s Annual Officers Conference last week.

Given the now customary absence of budgetary measures and announcements of new initiatives in the annual budget speech one could reasonably question the wisdom of having the Finance Minister use up the precious time of the legislature retracing developments during the year.

The cabinet has never been discomfitted by accusations of philistinism. It is perhaps the mark of a true philistine if the members of an official body do not suffer even a little pique when they are so described.

On June 9, 2006, three high-value terrorist suspects in Alpha Block, Guantánamo Bay, were found hanged in their cells.

The year has not begun well for President Hugo Chávez and Venezuela, although the latest news from Caracas would indicate a positive shift in his government’s policy towards investment in the petroleum industry.

It was Charran ‘Sanjay’ Sahadeo’s battered face with eyes swollen shut that first gripped the attention when it appeared on the front page of this newspaper on February 1 this year, followed by the news that this horror had been perpetrated on the three-year-old boy allegedly by his stepfather, supposedly in the presence of his mother and that he had subsequently been evicted from his home.

Every so often China chooses to remind the rest of the world of its insistence that Taiwan is an integral part of the People’s Republic and that it will tolerate no other designation from the international community.

It is easy to blame the inspectors and sergeants for all of the problems of the Guyana Police Force.

In a television programme on NCN on February 1, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who has responsibility for mining, launched a thoroughly misplaced attack on the Stabroek News in relation to its coverage of the dissent in the mining sector.

Bartica gave the government a jolt. The revolt against the proposed six-months’ notification rule before mining can commence was unexpected for a number of reasons.

The recent death of JD Salinger, at the age of 91, has brought to a close one of the strangest chapters in modern American letters.

There are some important lessons to be drawn from Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s historic election to the post of political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago.

In May last year, local nurses met at a two-day summit where they sought to evaluate themselves and the profession generally and look at strategies to improve the sector – not the health sector, but their particular area.

Amidst the turmoil caused by the earthquake and extensive destruction and loss of life in Haiti, and the focus of the international community on rescue and recuperation efforts, there has been little time to pay too much attention to the unfolding of  events in the Central American republic of Honduras.