The end factor of the Enmore Martyrs’ sacrifice
Dear Editor, On 16th June, 1948, five sugar workers paid the ultimate price by losing their lives, whilst protesting for better working conditions on the sugar estates, being governed by their colonial masters. As the nation in unison joins hearts and hands in commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs’ Day, much improvement is still needed in [...]
Who really has the spy equipment?
Dear Editor, I have read President’s Jagdeo’s denials of Dr. Ramsammy’s involvement in the purchase of spy equipment. President Jagdeo should familiarise himself with the Burnham Constitution, which the PPP rejected in 1980, but now fervently embraces. One of the tenets of that Constitution is that ministers of the government are mere assistants to the [...]
Berbice also plagued by noise nuisance
Dear Editor, Notices from the Ministry of Home Affairs about noise-makers in Guyana are in the daily newspapers. Though this is a welcoming move to the Ministry finally recognising this problem, the proof would only be when we begin to see people being brought and tried before the courts. The Ministry of Home Affairs, according [...]
Bypassing the Judicial Process to give legitimacy to an illegal act
Dear Editor, When a government uses its clout and lays Orders in Parliament, which are designed to bypass the Judicial Process and give legitimacy to an illegal act, that government can only be considered to have rendered the Rule of Law of a country a nuisance and an irrelevance. Such a government then becomes the [...]
Forgetting our oneness at our peril
Dear Editor, I have been following the news reports about the deportation of Guyanese and other Caribbean nationals from Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. While I accept that these and any other countries have the right to manage their immigration policies in the best interest of their people, I find it quite interesting that such [...]
When would the Naamryck all weather road be completed
Dear Editor, I write in disgust and total frustration. The problem is the completion of a farm to market access road at Naamryck on the East Bank of Essequibo. This is a farming community with immense potential and if this Government is really serious about developing agriculture, then they should start looking at this basic [...]
The buck stops with the President
The 2007 Auditor General’s report on the Public Accounts of Guyana, which has just been released, makes for depressing reading. It is a report filled with accounts of misappropriations, unaccounted disbursements, unauthorised use of the Contingencies Funds, overdrafts and inactive accounts, overpayments, overstocking etc – all from the moneys that we have entrusted to this [...]
Commemorating Mittelholzer’s birth centenary, part 8
by Petamber Persaud The short fiction of Mittelholzer (An extract of an interview with Professor Victor J. Ramraj in February 2009, Georgetown, Guyana. Dr. Ramraj is attached to the University of Calgary, Canada. He was editor of ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature. His main interests are International English Literature, Post-independence Literature, Theory, and [...]
The Baccoo speaks
The rains have prevented some strange things from happening but they are also contributing to a disaster. With schools about to close their doors, some enterprising young men are going to go swimming with fatal consequences. The swimming is often done at a location in the city because of the absence of swimming pools. This [...]
CARICOM leaders must move the Region forward or pay the price
By Sir Ronald Sanders When heads of government of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) meet in early July, a big responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo as chairman to heal the wounds that are causing the regional project to haemorrhage. President Jagdeo will have to dig deep within [...]
Agricola businessman threatens legal action against racer Mark Vieira
…claims more than $14.3M in losses An Agricola businessman is threatening legal action against City Hall and ace race car driver, Mark Vieira for allegedly removing millions of dollars in tyres to a location unknown, damaging property and for beating him. On Friday, more than 500 used and damaged tyres were removed from a premises [...]
Iran’s Thermidor?
Thirty years ago, the twenty-six year old regime of Shah Mohamed Pahlavi in Iran ended ignominiously as he fled from the wrath of a popular revolution. And a revolution it was: the break from the past was as abrupt as one could envisage as a new social, political and economic order was ushered in. Installed [...]
THE PPP HAS TURNED RIGHT
If Martin Carter was the intellectual fountain of the People’s Progressive Party, then my name is Karl Marx. Carter was one of the initial leaders of the PPP and sat within the Executive Committee of the PPP. But he never became a member of the Legislative Council or a Member of the PPP Cabinet. He [...]
We are ignoring a national treasure
By Adam Harris For the past few months I have been focusing on one woman. I met her 13 years ago when she was sprightly. As now, the rains were here but in greater intensity. The place she called home was flooded but that meant nothing to her. It was her birthday and a special [...]
The case of the vanished child
Could I help a family bring closure to a mystery that had happened half a century ago? By Michael Jordan She contacted me last week; this woman that I’d never seen before, to help her solve a case that happened before I was born. The details she gave me were sketchy, but she believed, even [...]
Man stabbed five times
-suspect had robbed him last week A 22-year-old East La Penitence resident is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital, after he was stabbed more than five times by a man whom he claimed had robbed him about a week ago. Reports are that Carlton Westford had just left a group of friends and [...]
Police nab Corentyne bandit
Police in Berbice have detained a bandit shortly after he and his accomplice robbed an Alness, Corentyne housewife of jewellery at her home. The man was nabbed by police who had received information and a description of the suspects. According to reports, shortly after midnight, Friday, Usha Ashram was alone at home when she was [...]
Michael Jackson: Larger than life
I was having dinner with my wife at New Thriving when my daughter called my phone to inform me that Michael Jackson had died. When she was a little primary school kid, my daughter, like most girls her age on Planet Earth, had a fantastic obsession with Jackson. Every day in the car, while taking [...]
Coast Guard doing well despite shortcomings – Commander
The Guyana Defence Force coast guard is doing well. It is getting good results for this year despite not having the financial resources and the best modern equipment to cover the area. Coast guard commander, Godfrey George, in a recent interview, said that his unit has experienced several breakthroughs that have thwarted illegal fishing and [...]
The Firefly or Lightning Bug
They are locally referred to as the Candle Fly but in many parts of the world these winged beetles are commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs. Falling within the family Lampyridae these insects of the beetle order Coleoptera make conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. They are in fact capable of [...]
The Ring
By Michael Jordan Part Four — Night Screams She was standing by Wayne’s crib when Maxwell entered the room. Her body was half-turned to the door as if she had been listening for his footsteps. “Yuh home early.” He tried to read the expression on her face, but she had already turned back to the [...]
New Horizon Guyana 2009 scheduled for July 1
…to build 30X60 school for $250,000 Close to some 650 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are preparing to take part in New Horizons Guyana, a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored annual exercise, starting July 1. This project is designed to strengthen ties with partner nations in Central and South America through combined quality-of-life improvement projects. The [...]
Illegal withdrawals from bank account was due to customer’s negligence
An official at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) has disclosed that a customer, who had earlier claimed that monies were withdrawn from his account after he had misplaced his debit card, was indeed responsible for his on misfortune. The customer had alleged that when he went to report that his savings debit [...]
An Amerindian Affair
By Raphael Trotman AFC Leader The PPP/C activists are busy at spreading a ridiculous rumour that the AFC intends to close the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs when it gets into government. However, as our leaders and activists move through these communities we learn that the rumour is ineffective and we learn as well of the [...]
