Editorial

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.

The sweeping victory of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s Dominica Labour Party – 18 seats to 3 –  in the country’s December 18th general elections, represents a substantial vote of confidence in the party’s tenure of government.

Even as Police Commissioner Henry Greene was expressing satisfaction with this year’s performance and congratulating awardees at the Guyana Police Force’s annual Awards Ceremony last week, reports about police conduct continued to make the news.

Given the tortured electoral history of the country and the ease with which it could be spun into top gear, the rumblings about distorted images on the new ID cards being distributed by the Guyana Elections Commission were exceedingly worrying.

The latest strategic plan for the University of Guyana on which we reported last week, in its generality really doesn’t tell us anything which we didn’t know already and which earlier reports hadn’t also identified.

“Thousands have lived without love,” wrote the poet WH Auden, “not one without water.”

Tiny Dominica goes to the polls today, amid controversy over party campaign financing and allegations of dual citizenship against candidates of the two main parties, including Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who has admitted to being a French citizen.

Almost three years after he boldly announced that all schools and other buildings which fall under the Ministry of Education would be no-smoking zones, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy is still in a fog over tobacco control.

President Barack Obama’s speech on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize has been the subject of as much critical attention as was the award itself.

The Liliendaal Declaration on Crime Prevention published in this newspaper last Sunday is a magnificent statement of intent.

Earlier this year, just after the launching of the first draft of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the visiting Commonwealth Secretary-General Mr Kamalesh Sharma in an interview with this newspaper had perceptively spoken about the need for countries like Guyana to break out of the monocultural-type economy and to diversify their revenue streams.

On November 4, former Commissioner of Police Floyd McDonald, Assistant Commissioner Seelall Persaud and Head of CANU James Singh went bounding off to Caracas for a meeting of the Guyana-Venezuela Mixed Commission on Drugs.

Tiger Woods used to live in a world of his own.

It is a little ironic that just one week after the Commonwealth Business Forum in Trinidad, at which Caribbean prime ministers, government ministers, the Caricom Secretary General and various captains of industry were attempting to sell the region as a place to do business, the President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Professor Compton Bourne, was painting a less than rosy picture to the annual dinner of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), on December 2.