Editorial

The visit of President Raul Castro of Cuba to Russia last week, and his signing with President Medvedev of a series of agreements indicating a “strategic partnership” between the two countries, marks the formal resumption of active relations between them, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Russia’s turn to a form of capitalism and market relations under President Yeltsin.

The idea to convene  the Guyana Police Force’s Conference for Inspectors and Sergeants held last month under the theme “Frontline Management: a Catalyst for Hastened Reform, Effective Partnership and Professional Policing” was refreshing.

As the Sunday Stabroek editorial of January 25th noted, President Jagdeo’s ultimatum on January 19th  that MPs deliver up returns to the Integrity Commission  in two weeks was quite puzzling and as time ticks by it seems it was  a fit of pique prompted by the PNCR’s jibe that a forensic scrutiny of finances should apply not only to customs officers.

In statistical terms we do not know how successful the Ministry of Education’s literacy drive was last year.

For over two weeks, the nation has been agog with the revelations made by Ms Varshnie Singh, some of which amounted to serious allegations against President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has elected not to respond to them beyond the brief statement he made after she first went public.

Last Sunday, about 60% of the votes cast in Bolivia’s referendum were in favour of the constitutional reform being promulgated by the government of President Evo Morales.

Last spring, while their government concerned itself with the Olympics, a small group of Chinese dissidents drafted an imprudently truthful document about the political realities behind the official narrative of modernisation and liberalisation.

Controversy continues in the Caribbean and well beyond on the nature of the negotiations and accompanying dealings which the various ACP member-states have had with the European Union in arriving at regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Removing the Commissioner of the Civil Defence Commission in the wake of serious flooding on the East Coast of Demerara is a serious matter.

Just over nine months after it was commissioned by President Jagdeo, the report on the alleged collusion by customs officers with Fidelity Investments Inc./

It is something of a puzzle as to what inspired President Jagdeo last week to issue an ultimatum to parliamentarians who failed to make full declarations of their assets as required under the Integrity Commission Act.

Yesterday UNICEF launched its annual publication ‘State of the World’s Children’ with Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy delivering the feature address, even as many in this country and the diaspora grappled mentally with what had recently been the fate of four innocents virtually left adrift in the floodwater at Pine Ground, Mahaicony Creek, East Coast Demerara.

It was a good speech, a very good speech indeed. Maybe in time, President Barack Obama’s inauguration address will even be judged to be a great speech.

There should hardly be any surprise that the lead-up to the February referendum on ending terms limits for the President of Venezuela and other officials has taken a violent turn.

Clearly the debate on the extent of the efficiency of the decision-making and implementation structure of Caricom will not go away.

How seriously does the National Assembly take national security? Given the unhurried, five-year career of the special select committee established to review the report of the Disciplined Forces Commission, last week’s barefaced resolution to extend the deadline for the submission of its report to August 6 was astonishing.

If the election of a new mayor and deputy mayor of Georgetown will fundamentally improve the stewardship of the capital city and propel it into the trajectory of modern governance we say let it be held this minute.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza last night.

Economic migration, where individuals and entire families leave the land of their birth to live and work elsewhere is fast giving way to labour migration, which involves developed countries competing to attract skilled immigrants.

President Hugo Chávez, as expected, is pushing ahead with plans for an early national referendum, on February 15, to have Venezuela’s constitution amended to allow for indefinite presidential re-election – in this particular instance, his own.