The general consensus is that there is need for change. Regardless of political affiliation, religious persuasion or social standing Guyanese are united in their conviction that there must be a shift in the status quo; time for an upgrade, if you will, since the present programme has all but crashed.
The political tensions arising in Washington over the arrest of a Nigerian accused of having been trained and directed by al Qaeda from Yemen, to detonate a bomb on an American aircraft, suggest the continuing influence of the 9/11 New York bombing on United States foreign policy decision-making.
It is high time that the Guyana Police Force acknowledges the fact that there is a serious problem of corruption within its ranks.
Imagine being told one day that pursuing your long-established livelihood now required six months notice to the state before a decision could even be made whether you were still allowed to do this.
As the political temperature heats up – and unfortunately it will be raised for two years, since after disposing of local government elections this year we will then have to face a general one next year – most citizens will no doubt try to keep their heads down and confine themselves to attending to their own business.
A year-end report on criminal gangs in Trinidad and Tobago offers little hope that violent crime there, or elsewhere in the Caribbean, will be significantly reduced during the next decade.
Pope Benedict XVI has marked the celebration of the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace on New Year’s Day with a message, entitled ‘If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.’
On the first working day of this year over 130 former casual employees of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) had no job to go to and for most of them – in the current straitened circumstances of the local economy – no prospects either.
Most of our region’s people must be wondering what the new decade will bring, as most countries are struggling with the effects of the global recession or with the lack of productivity of some of the economic activities which have carried us through in the past.
The unease which some native Surinamers feel about the increasing intrusion of Brazilian miners into their country exploded into serious disorder including arson, assault, rape and robbery in the towns of Albina and Papatam on Christmas Day.
It is perplexing – as some in the union movement and other parts of society have argued – that the strike at Aroaima has been allowed to subsist for so long without the Ministry of Labour taking decisive action.
Perhaps there is something to be said after all for the fact that the calendar has these convenient divisions every twelve months, so at least for a fleeting period we can pretend we are sloughing off the old year like an unwanted skin and entering on a brand new era.
Last night, as most of us rang in the New Year, we also celebrated the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
2010 starts tomorrow. A new year and one would hope a new beginning, not just in our personal lives, but on a national scale.
As we come to the end of the last year of the decade, it is probably not an overstatement to say that in many countries the sentiment of gloom and foreboding that has accompanied the eruption of a major global economic recession remains.
The criminal justice systems of the cities of Bridgetown, Barbados and Georgetown, Guyana function differently.
The New York Times recently carried a fascinating account of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring in the dying hours of the Copenhagen Climate Change conference which was aimed at salvaging some type of accord since a binding agreement was no longer possible and even a political pact which had been the minimum outcome expected was itself out of reach.
When the historians of the future look back on 2009, they may well view it as one of those ‘catalyst’ years that set up the conditions for change in the political firmament.
Most Guyanese, regardless of race, colour or creed, celebrate Christmas. Admittedly, some of us sometimes lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas and its deep spiritual significance for Christians, choosing instead to celebrate the holiday in a decidedly more secular manner.
The Jamaica Gleaner reported on Monday last that in the face of endless criticism and threats of street demonstrations Prime Minister Bruce Golding withdrew a planned J$21 billion tax package.
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