Stabroek Weekend

Over the space of the last two weeks I have participated in a number of meetings both small and large in the Caribbean and in Europe.

Introduction In detailing the government’s capital expenditure budget of $43 billion in 2008 the Budget Speech gave a troubling indication of how vast sums are expended year after year with scarce regard for basic principles of economic and financial investment decisions.

It has been hundreds of years since women were burned at the stake after being “convicted” of witchcraft.

(Reprinted from the Trinidad Sunday Express, February 24, 2008) BC Pires: To Trinidadians, the wholesale murder in Guyana seems other-worldly; how are Guyanese coping?

The Caribbean Beat January/February 2008 issue carries, among many other articles, two contrasting features on the Caribbean’s great cultural traditions, reggae and calypso.

In the supermarket the six-year old clutched her mother’s skirt and said “Mommy, the chips,” as she pointed to the boxes of potato chips on the shelves.

The art of re-packaging aid The development dimension of the EPA crucially hinges on the provision of development assistance by the EU aimed at boosting CARIFORUM’s institutional, infrastructural, regulatory and productive capacities at the national and regional levels so as to promote a sustainable expansion in exports both to the EU and the Rest-of-the-World.

Lloyd Searwar Selected Editorials edited by Barton Scotland (Guyana: Guyana Publications Inc.,

Introduction Small incision surgery has revolutionized the field of gynaecological surgery and changed the way lower abdominal surgery has been practised over the past decade.

My eyelid was itchy yesterday and now it’s swollen and feels like a boil is in the lid.

The local chess fraternity remains stunned beyond comprehension by the brutal murder of 23 of our citizens in Lusignan and Bartica.

Just under a week ago, to virtually no one’s surprise, Raul Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as President of Cuba.

Let me stress that I appreciate the importance of metricating Guyana, if that is the right phrase.

Many years ago – almost longer ago than I care to remember (and indeed almost longer ago than I can probably remember) I developed an intimate acquaintance with the University Botanic Garden at Cambridge, and a long friendship with its then Director, John Gilmore, a Fellow of Clare College a taxonomist and a humanist of monumental repute.

Introduction The announcement by the Minister of Finance in his 2008 Budget speech that the government was embarking on consultations on making the country into an off-shore financial centre must have taken those with whom he did not consult with considerable surprise.

Central to many of the contentious planks that remain (especially 4-9) is the observation of Timothy Kondo (Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa) that the draft EPA, which formed the basis of negotiations for his region was prepared by the EU, (Third World Economics, October 1-15, 2007).

For much of the last week I have been speaking to smaller Caribbean companies about the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.

In any given situation we assume that people, including ourselves, will act sensibly.

Of the several publications in literature and culture coming out of the Oxford University Press (OUP) for 2007 and 2008, there are many that are of particular interest.

Norway’s teenage sensation, 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen, is excelling on the world chess stage.