Editorial

This is far from the most propitious juncture at which to set before the people of the Caribbean the   calumnies of their cricket.

Absorbing what Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal had to say last week about electricity supply would have left many consumers shaking their heads and wondering whether time had stood still.

The United Nations has more themes it wants to highlight than it has days in the year to mark them.

Haussmann’s Paris The Paris we know today did not emerge haphazardly over a number of centuries but rather it is the completed vision of Baron Haussmann (1809-1891) who was given the remit by Napoleon III for a reconstruction programme for the city to recapture and commemorate the grandeur of his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte, The First Emperor of the French Republic.

Three days ago Prime Minister Mark Phillips issued a statement in which he spoke of his “profound disappointment” that Deputy Speaker Lenox Shuman had accused the government of not consulting the Indigenous Peoples on significant issues.

For the month of November this year, 180 sex abuse lawsuits were filed against the Roman Catholic Church of New Jersey, USA as the December 1 deadline for the state’s suspension of the civil statute of limitations for such suits loomed.

Quite often when an event of significant importance occurs, other noteworthy happenings tend to be overshadowed, are quickly lost in the shuffle of time and never garner the attention they deserve.

The announcement last week that the Ministry of Education has commissioned a Sixth Form at the Anna Regina Multilateral School that will roll out a curriculum designed to provide access to the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) is good news if only because it comes at a time when the country’s education system has had to endure a torrid time purely to deliver an acceptable day-to-day curriculum in the face of a coronavirus pandemic that has driven a devastating high speed train through it.

Following the discovery on November 25th of 1,100 lbs of cocaine at the Dutch port of Rotterdam in a shipment of Guyanese rum, the authorities here have made concerted efforts to downplay the possibility that the narcotic was stashed in the container while it was in this country.

Constitutional reform always has more appeal for a party when it is out of office than when it is in government.

When you live in a country and city infested with garbage, after a time you learn to unsee it because to continually have to do so might turn you insane.

Last month this newspaper spoke to a number of fishermen, all of whom complained about the disappearance of fish stocks.

Recent allegations levelled at members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) point to a level of mental and emotional cruelty that is unfathomable in an organisation with the motto service and protection, even in these disturbing times.

Last Friday, Captain Malcolm Chan-a-Sue, AA, an aviation man and a son of our soil was laid to rest.

The fact that President Irfaan Ali choose, recently, to convene a forum at which to ‘reason with’ local building contractors who are either involved in the execution of state contracts or hope to secure such contracts in the future, is, on the basis of what has been revealed in the media, a good sign.

Underlining that it is far from being defeated, the detection of the B.1.1.529 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the province of Gauteng in South Africa has already triggered waves of concerns and led to the closing of some borders to travellers from the affected region.

When a President addresses the nation it is usually with respect to a situation or occurrence which affects everybody, or at least is of direct relevance to everybody.

The liberalisation of the telecommunications sector on October 5 2020 was one of the first decisive moves by the current administration albeit a fortunate gift delivered by its predecessor’s protracted negotiations with GTT.

Earlier this month President Irfaan Ali and his team jetted off to Glasgow without consulting anyone regarding the nation’s climate change plans, although they still committed to an agreement there on forests and land use.

In its moves to eliminate avoidable plastic waste, it was announced this week that England is looking to add plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups to the list of items already banned, which includes single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds.