Editorial

At the end of April this year, China passed a food waste prevention law that now prohibits competitive eating and the making of binge-eating videos; people caught performing either of these two acts face hefty fines.

It is quite understandable if at around nine o’clock last Sunday evening, sports lovers fell asleep on their couches, in front of their television sets, where they might have been ensconced for the previous 48 hours, their source of deep slumber an overdose of a sporting fanatic’s ultimate dream weekend.

The fact that recently installed President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr.

ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) has embarked on a series of public hearings for the crafting of the terms of reference for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that will have to be done for the Gas to Energy Project Onshore and Offshore Guyana.

Unless a hurricane strikes, the international media pay little attention to Haiti in the normal course of the news cycle, since they conclude, rightly or wrongly that it is in a state of permanent crisis and there is consequently never anything new to report.

Monday was Caricom Day, and as is the norm for these occasions the senior politicians of the land, beginning with President Irfaan Ali, gave voice to warm sentiments in respect of the regional organisation.

The assassination of  Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on Wednesday and the wounding of First Lady Martine Moïse during an invasion of their home just outside of the capital Port-au-Prince must be deplored in the strongest possible terms. 

On Friday last, millions of people around the world watched aghast as the news and social media proliferated with photos and videos of what was virally proclaimed as an “eye of fire” burning in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last Thursday, with the start of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics a mere three weeks away, the news broke that American sprint sensation Sha’Carri Richardson had tested positive for a chemical found in marijuana at the USA Olympic Trials, where she had blown away the field on 19th June, in a time of 10.86 seconds.

The Guyana Police Force finds itself, not for the first time in recent years, between a proverbial rock and a hard place, the consequences of that circumstance having implications for its public image as much as for its ability to hold itself up above the sorts of controversies that impinge on its ability to discharge its responsibilities without having to look over its shoulder to encounter expressions of derision and scorn.

Police Commissioner (ag) Nigel Hoppie has been left in a veritable quandary at the end of the latest bout of confrontation in public life – this time between the Executive and the Police Service Commission (PSC).

Much has changed in Guyana over the fifty-plus years since Independence except for one thing: the politics.

This year’s Fourth of July celebrations find America at a political crossroads.

One of the consequences of Covid is the widening of the gap between the affluent and the poor, a problem which applies to developed countries as much as developing ones.

In 2019, North Carolina filed a lawsuit against American electronic cigarette (e-cigarette)  company, Juul, alleging that it had deliberately targeted teenagers resident in that state in its advertising and was therefore instrumental in creating what was described as “a vaping epidemic”, by the state’s attorney general.

Whilst the West Indies were reverting to familiar ways (pre the last six months) last week Sunday, collapsing for under 200 like a set of bowling pins for the fourth time in as many innings in the Second Test against South Africa, in St.

There will, presumably, be an inquiry into the likely cause of the June 19 fire that effectively rendered the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School unusable that, in its own way, has added to the current crisis in our education system resulting from the advent of Covid-19 and the necessity to close schools and place the formal education of thousands of our children on an indefinite hold.

It has been more than a month since the Ministry of Health announced that second doses for Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines have not been available.

Minister Robeson Benn announced recently that the Central Fire Station was to be relocated from Stabroek Market Square to somewhere in the vicinity of D’Urban Park.

The forced closure of Apple Daily is the clearest sign yet of China’s exasperation with democracy in Hong Kong.