The Freddie Kissoon – Put Conversation Tree in the Dutch cemetery
I would think it is very unwise to employ a foreign consultant to make recommendations on the dissolution of the city’s traffic congestion. The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is capable enough of assessing the situation. The basic requirement for understanding where the bottlenecks lie is experience. A majority of motorists know where the difficulties are. [...]
Peeping Tom – Marie Curie: A Role Model For Our Children
I did promise you that from time to time I will be dedicating this space to aspects of science which I feel will be of interest to the general public, a task that is all the more necessary considering the decline in the teaching of science in our classrooms. Improving the teaching of science within [...]
The cause remains the same
DEAR EDITOR, I refer to the article, “The teaching profession is falling into disrepute” which appeared in the June 12 issue of Kaieteur News. The writer made a few points with which I agree – indeed too many young and inexperienced teachers can be harmful to the system. The same can be said of the [...]
Peeping Tom – COOL DOWN, BHARRAT! COOL DOWN!
“When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.” – Confucius I have never known a society to be at peace with itself where there is an absence of respect for the elderly; and, more especially, where that respect is lacking [...]
Freddie Kissoon – Time for the PPP to rein in Mr. Jagdeo
Under Both Presidents Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte, opposition politicians got inside information about secret meetings of the nerve centre of the Government. The WPA in particular had insiders that were live transmission wires. Hoyte was particularly so peeved at the haemorrhaging of confidential information to the WPA that he passed the Public Corporation Act, [...]
Strategising for food security
It is our intention to comment on the recently concluded Regional Agriculture Investment Forum held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, but that initiative must be considered within the broader pattern of response by the rest of the world in response to the global crisis in the price of food. In Rome last week, the [...]
Freddie Kissoon – Mr. Jagdeo will end his tenure not knowing this country
There are things that each of us in this world know so that we can say; “I know this thing a little better than you.” I will now say to President Jagdeo that I know what the Guyanese people expect from a newspaper more than he does. I have been associated with all the major [...]
Mocha Access Road needs some attention
DEAR MR. EDITOR. The community of Mocha/Arcadia is situated on the East Bank of the Demerara River approximately five and a half miles from Georgetown and one and a half miles east of Ramsburg by the Providence Police station. Its inhabitants are predominantly Africans with a population of several thousands. Mocha/Arcadia was once a slave [...]
Peeping Tom – Time to End the Debate
One race has ended in the United States of America. Senator Hillary Clinton is today expected to concede to Senator Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic Nomination for the Presidency of the United States. It became clear last week after the delegates made a decision in relation to Florida and Michigan that the [...]
The primitive approach to communication must cease
DEAR EDITOR The University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) is the body which attends to any student welfare and ensures that the UG Administration provides a safe studying/working environment for its students. However, we the Executive of UGSS headed by Mr. Jason Benjamin found it alarming and inaccurate when the Deputy Registrar announced via the [...]
Kudos Minister Ramsammy !
DEAR EDITOR, I am relieved that Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy has now spoken publicly about the connection between domestic violence, health and the economy. I would like to draw attention to two (of several) other connections he needs to make: 1. Laws criminalizing prostitutes weaken the fight against HIV and contribute to one [...]
Focus needs to be placed on City Council
DEAR EDITOR I am quite enthused to observe the efforts by the government and more particularly by the President, for whom I want to applaud for genuinely trying to root out corruption and financial irregularity at government entities, with the more recent actions against Customs Anti Narcotic Unit and the Customs and Trade Administration of [...]
Pensioners should be paid earlier in the month
DEAR EDITOR, Every year the Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance issues a circular to Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Department setting out the dates in each month of the ensuing year when salaries for Governmental employees and pensions to retirees are payable. In all cases, payment to the employees are made at least [...]
I was there when Guyana became a sovereign nation
DEAR EDITOR I was there at the National Park forty two years ago when the British Flag the “Union Jack” was taken down and our own Golden Arrow Head was hoisted by our own Major Desmond Roberts. Immediately after that we were no longer “British Guiana”. But we had become a Sovereign Nation, we had [...]
We Forgot At Our own Peril
It seems just a short while ago that this nation was plunged into torrents of mourning following two successive atrocities, the likes of which were unprecedented in Guyana. Yet it has been over four months since the mind-numbing massacre of eleven persons at Lusignan. This was the first of the two heinous crimes which pained [...]
Thanks to the Acting Chief Justice the judiciary seems to be the executive branch’s Achilles heel
DEAR EDITOR, I will let Mr. Terrence Duncan provide a direct response to Mr. Kwame McCoy’s letter, “Criticisms of the judiciary are the cross-checks and balance of power”, (Kaieteur News, June 4), but there is a salient point in Mr. McCoy’s letter that targeted the judiciary, which can also be used to target the executive [...]
My experience at GPL has left a bitter taste in my mouth
DEAR EDITOR, It is with great consternation that I pen this letter after an entire working afternoon was spent at GPL, Main Street. I accompanied a family member to GPL on Wednesday, 2008-06-04 with regards to an application for a new meter from the entity. After obtaining all the prerequisite documents, the individual was being [...]
Teachers must perform their duties with purpose
DEAR EDITOR, From the start of this year to present time I have read of three incidents of teachers being sexually involved with students. One of those incidents was involuntary, but sadly the other two were apparently voluntary. Even sadder are the realities of the common element in all three incidents being teachers who have [...]
Peeping Tom – WHAT ABOUT PHYSICS?
I am a science aficionado and someone fervently concerned about the decline in the standards of science education in Guyana. This past week, my concern was deepened when I picked up the newspaper and saw an advertisement inviting our secondary school students to register for places in the Sixth Forms of our secondary schools. I [...]
A poorly conducted competition
DEAR EDITOR, A few weeks ago I watched what I believe was a poorly conducted Spelling Bee competition at the Republic Bank in Rose Hall Town. I say ‘poorly conducted’ because I believe it was done to great injustice to the children that represented primary schools in Region Six. Furthermore, I say that it was [...]
Freddie Kissoon – The Ancient Mariner in Guyana
How can anyone from the British Commonwealth who did the British school examination, General Certificate of Examination (GCE) ever forget that poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge? There can be no doubt about it that if in any country there has developed a political satire around this lugubrious piece of [...]
What is CARICOM doing to help?
DEAR EDITOR, I write in relation to the editorial carried in Kaieteur News of June 05, 2008. The responses by most Caribbean countries for their treatment of Guyanese have been varying, but are along the lines that Guyanese are migrating to their countries and will put pressure on their small social system; are taking employment [...]
These are not interchangeable terms
DEAR EDITOR, For quite some time we have been reading and/or hearing of various airlines offering, starting or contemplating Direct Flights from Guyana to North America, when the correct terminology should be Non-Stop Flights. Direct and Non-Stop are not interchangeable terms. Non-Stop is self-explanatory. The aircraft flies from departure airport to destination airport without any [...]
‘Do so not like so’
DEAR EDITOR, Kwame McCoy waxes pontificatingly about the right and propriety of criticism of the judiciary, as a means of, and here he purloins Justice Chang’s point in his initial response, maintaining a distance between the executive and the judiciary. What makes these lofty arguments facetious, however, is that those on whose behalf he is [...]
Blame the government – Freedom of Information is coming
It would seem that a day does not go by without a finger being pointed at the government and this is what life is about because people should constantly be examining their government. It is they who elected the government and the government must be accountable to them. It is for this reason that ever [...]
