Editorial

Last June, twenty-four Sinn Féin politicians attended the funeral of a senior IRA figure despite public-health rules introduced during the pandemic.

The government has been in office for more than eight months yet still it has not named heads to some key missions, despite all the talk about the role they could play in encouraging investment to this country.

One of the highlights of this time of the year in many places around the world is the blooming of Sakura or cherry blossoms.

The FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifiers have commenced and the attention-grabbing headline story in the CONCACAF zone has been the ongoing squabble between the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and their players over match fees.

It is difficult to dismiss the advent of a distinct sense that Guyana is now entering into a decisive ‘zone’ insofar as the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned.

On August 24th last year, Stabroek News reported Minister of Public Affairs Kwame McCoy as saying that President Ali would be having regular engagements with the media and public.

It was All Fools Day when it came to public attention that the section of Merriman Mall between Albert and Light Streets was being converted into a car park.

It is not often that a funeral oration attracts nationwide attention. 

Since his appointment as Minister of Health in August last year, Dr Frank Anthony has not been shy about lambasting the previous government over what he said was a “broken healthcare system”.

“Caribbean cricket has been hijacked by a small clique of people who are hell bent on destroying Caribbean cricket and my position [is], unless the question is answered as to who owns that asset, we’re spinning top in mud,” stated Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in mid-April 2017, during an interview on the Trinidad and Tobago television station CNC3’s Morning Brew show.

If there appears to be a tiresome redundancy of comment on the extent of public indifference to the strictures associated with the country’s efforts to keep the worst excesses of the Coronavirus at bay, that is because of the need to constantly remind ourselves that we are in the midst of a global emergency and that we ignore those strictures, possibly at our own peril.

Savagery is one of the few words to describe the putting down by Myanmar’s security forces of protests over the military coup on February 1st this year. 

When a government has it in mind to follow a course of action which is less than defensible, it likes to present its people with a fait accompli.

Allison Herren Lee, acting Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), gave a rousing address to the Center for American Progress two weeks ago.

It seems like many moons ago since street banditry took the form of choke-and-rob, with the assailant armed with no more than a knife.

It is estimated that during last year, some 30 million metric tonnes of plastic were added to the trillions already polluting the world’s waterways and killing marine life.

“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” Translation: “I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts” – Virgil’s Aeneid Book II, line 48 As the People’s Republic of China’s world economic power continues to expand rapidly, it is being accompanied by a shrewd willingness to increase its influence on the direction of global affairs.

There is something to be said for the sharp contrast between how the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic is being administered in our colleague CARICOM member country, Barbados and how it is being handled here.

It is passing strange that there has been no official announcement by the Government of Guyana on the accreditation of Charrandass Persaud as Guyana’s High Commissioner to India on March 18.

One of this country’s great natural treasures is not even appreciated by a majority of its inhabitants.