Ian on Sunday

It is described how Confucius when asked by one of his disciples what he would do if he were given his own territory to govern the Master replied that he would first and above all “rectify the names” ‒ that is, make words correspond to reality.

I have been re-reading, slowly and with renewed love and admiration, all of Martin Carter’s poems.

At the ripe old age of eighty-two, when one is fully aware that it is time to make sense of what has happened in one’s life, I am convinced about two major things.

We are richer by far in having a varied media as part of the life of the community.

Good poetry holds its truth and relevance throughout the ages. It may retail the facts and thinking of its own era, but part if it will always express what is eternally true and recognizable.

In Guyana, there is a pervasive anxiety about the state of things in general which currently focuses on the seemingly unstoppable spread of criminal activity and violent crime in society.

The end of the world as some of us know and love it is here.

The burden of debt is overwhelming country after country. Greece is in the headlines now but there are scores of others teetering on the precipice.

There is an entry in my father’s diary which moved me deeply when I read it after he died.

In Guyana getting a good education is defined as getting good exam results.

We are fortunate in Guyana that even in the worst times of party paramountcy the full ruthlessness of power was never exercised wholesale.

“The writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed – love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.”

Isaiah Berlin, who died a few years ago at the age of 89, was in my view the most distinguished political philosopher and historian of ideas of the 20th century.

There are, you may be surprised to read this Sunday, more important things than constitutions, the results of elections, the making and unmaking of presidents and the first steps, and missteps, of a brand new government.

The new government is going to need to plan wisely and execute efficiently, but of the two I think the actual doing is where the nation has lately been falling way short and is where a huge improvement is essential.

The recent wave of lethal crime will have heightened the sense of life’s fragility in all of us.

We have emerged from a very fraught period. The 2015 election was beautifully run until the time came to convey the results to a tensely waiting world.

An excellent thing about America is that no one dissects America better than Americans.

We will be completely justified in trusting the outcome of this election.

I am reissuing the personal manifesto I have issued in previous general election campaigns and will no doubt continue to issue until time runs out on me.