Editorial

Last Sunday, President Hugo Chávez urged the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to free all their hostages and end their decades old insurgency.

Before his long harangue of VS Naipaul was read at the Calabash literary festival in Jamaica, Derek Walcott spoke at length about film, music and the state of West Indian literature.

With the conclusion of the Democratic primaries in the United States, and Hillary Clinton’s concession to Barak Obama, the first stage of the United States presidential elections has come to an end.

Departing from convention, police officers took the opportunity of their annual conference to congratulate the Traffic Officer and members of the traffic department on the “significant reduction” in road fatalities up to the end of April 2008, in comparison to the similar period in 2007.

When Mr Toby Mendel of the Article 19 group told members of Parliament at a seminar last month that it was an embarrassment for a country that presented itself as a democracy not to have a Freedom of Information (FOI) law he wasn’t saying anything that the MPs were unaware of.

So now we know. The Office of the President is not in need of enlightenment – or more accurately “enlightenments” – from anyone outside the boundaries of the Co-operative Republic’s 83,000 square miles.

The world, it seems, is down on its luck. As the global food crisis threatens to get worse and the price of oil soars almost daily, leaders haggled on Thursday over the wording of a document proposing actions to deal with hunger.

The Organization of American States (OAS) is marking the 60th anniversary of the adoption of its founding Charter in Bogotá, Colombia.

Yesterday we carried a Reuters report about Venezuela’s new ‘spying’ law.

One paradox at the heart of the present world food crisis is that the same market forces which threaten to starve millions in the developing world are the ones that have led to chronic overconsumption and an obesity epidemic in the west.

Last month’s rural rape-murders have again highlighted how low the level of human security is, particularly for women and girl children, in certain areas of this country.

In the aftermath of the questions raised about the deal for the Sanata Complex the Privatisation Unit (PU) and the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) have made admirable efforts to explain the reasoning behind the decision.

It is perhaps a measure of how polarized the society has become that much of the language which is being bandied about in the political arena and by commentators is so immoderate.

What legal consumer product can harm everyone exposed to it, kills half of the people who use it as intended, is the single most preventable cause of death in the world today and will kill more than five million people this year?

President Bharrat Jagdeo last week signed a treaty in Brasilia to establish the so-called Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

For most of the last twelve months, John McCain has been the luckiest man in American politics.

Around the Caribbean many will be surprised at the continuing protestations by factions within the Cabinet of the United Workers Party of St Lucia that threaten to lead to the removal of Prime Minister Stephenson King, or cause the collapse of the UWP government altogether, and a return to the polls.

Vast as they are, the numbers of dead and missing do not reflect the true horror of the recent earthquake in China.

As we all await the returns from the reform of the police force and the expected greater feeling of security there is much to be concerned about.

On Thursday the Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee was unusually the recipient of a rebuke – by implication – from the Office of the President.