Opinion

Dear Editor, Your editorial 24th May 2023 regarding the Mahdia tragedy stated the following “In light of the fact that sensor alarms and sprinklers probably will not work in the hinterland owing to electricity issues, is there an alternative alarm system in place?”

Dear Editor, There are numerous instances, even when justice has been done by the prosecution securing the criminal conviction of the perpetrator, where victims of crime are left to fend for themselves with injuries that arose out of the unfortunate incident.

Dear Editor, The first thing I want to do is to give condolences from my narrow circle and myself to the relatives and communities who have suffered as a result of the dormitory fire at the Mahdia secondary school.

Dear Editor, ExxonMobil will have its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday May 31st, 2023.

Dear Editor, May 26 marks another year of our Independence and I wish you and all Guyanese a Happy and Thoughtful Independence Day.

Dear Editor, Every seller of cacotopian oil spill nightmares is asking for billions of USD of spill insurance for the Stabroek block development operator, most, if not all, ignore the fact that payment of this policy is added to the cost of oil and is fully recoverable by the operator.

Dear Editor, The road to independence was fraught with much intrigues.

Today is Independence Day.  This year it hardly represents an occasion for celebration, and the government was right to convert the planned festivities in Lethem to a night of remembrance and prayer for the children who died at Mahdia.

Dear Editor, Your editorial of 24 May (Mahdia tragedy, https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/24/opinion/editorial/mahdia-tragedy/) on the horrific deaths of 19 children in a dormitory fire on Sunday night (and other children who are seriously burnt, all the children scarred for life) reminded us of the government’s serial failures to learn from the earlier deaths of three schoolgirls in Waramadong Secondary School dormitory in August 2008 and the fire that razed the boys’ dormitory of the Bartica Secondary School 8 months earlier in December 2007.

Dear Editor, We reflect on the risks involved as ExxonMobil drills through ~2,000 metres of water (>1 mile) and ~3,700 metres (> 2 miles) of rock to get to the petroleum and associated gas located under the weight of such pressure in Guyana’s offshore territory. 

Dear Editor, Your 24 May 2023, editorial fails on a number of fronts: First, hindsight is 20/20.

Dear Editor, No one can replace a child who died. No one can erase the helpless horror of parents who live the final terrified moments of their children’s lives as the fire roasts and smokes them to death.

Dear Editor, As we observe another Independence Day in Guyana, there is nothing to celebrate.

Dear Editor, Our nation has lost nineteen young lives and we are all grieving for their innocent lost.

Dear Editor, They stood by you but you could not stand vigil, hold a candle and say a silent prayer for them. 

Dear Editor, According to our country’s fire safety regulations GCP 9-3 Fire Safety, code of practice for buildings part 3: Fire safety use and occupancy (from 2005) 5.1.1.5, a school is considered an Occupancy Group A-4 structure.

Dear Editor, Things all dormitories, orphanages, and shelters where children are housed must have: 1.

Dear Editor, Probably, it has taken hundreds of thousands and perhaps trillions of words, printed and spoken nationally and internationally, to explain how and why the nineteen school children perished along with the nine who have been hospitalized as a result of the fiery conflagration that ripped through the girl’s secondary school dormitory at Mahdia, at Region 8.

Dear Editor, On behalf of the World Trade Centers’ Association and myself, I am reaching out as we hear the horrible news of fire at the dormitory in Georgetown on May 22nd that took so many young lives.