…the Ides of March The “Ides of March” was a medieval marker for the 15th of several months – including March – from where one could count how far in the month one had advanced. But the Bard, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, made it eternally famous when he had a soothsayer warn Caesar, “Beware the ides of March”, even as Caesar was surrounded by his closest friends, Brutus and Anthony, and was at the height of popularity, with the masses clamouring to make him king. Well, for us in Guyana,…
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CAL passengers get travel voucher for Monday’s delays
Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) has compensated passengers on a direct flight from New York to Guyana, who endured more than 10 hours delay on Monday. Passengers had complained about the treatment from the airline, including the fact that they were stuck abroad the aircraft for five hours at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York and then another two hours at the Piarco Airport in Trinidad. Flight BW527 was scheduled to depart New York at 12:25h on Monday, but owing to the inclement weather, left until 04:26h. Added…
Read MoreBerbice man remanded to prison over murder of young father
A Berbice labourer was on Tuesday morning arraigned at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Courts on a murder charge. Thirty-six-year-old Kareem Charles of Benet Dam, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice (WBB) was not allowed to plea to the indictable offence read to him by Magistrate Renetta Singh. It is alleged that on March 1, 2019, at Rosignol, Berbice, Charles murdered Muhammed Ally. He was remanded to prison and will make his next court appearance on March 25. It was previously reported that the young father, who was killed as he was on…
Read More‘No elections date, no meeting’
…Jagdeo slams Govt over ‘fraudulent behavior’ Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, said that he would not be accepting an invitation to meet with President David Granger to discuss the current political situation unless he abides by the provisions of the Constitution and call a date for General and Regional Elections constitutionally due by March 19. Speaking at a Press Conference at his office, Jagdeo related that he would no longer be writing the President regarding additional agenda items he wished to discuss at the meeting as there is no…
Read MoreGECOM’s CEO at Caribbean Heart Institute
…following suspected heart attack On the heels of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) being ordered to start preparations for the holding of General and Regional Elections this year, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has been hospitalised. According to reports, he was admitted on Tuesday at the Caribbean Heart Institute located in the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) compound. Doctors believe Lowenfield suffered a heart attack as a result of high blood pressure. GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Warde confirmed that the Chief Elections Officer was taken to the hospital. She…
Read MorePresident Granger instructs GECOM to prepare for polls
President David Granger has urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to begin preparations for General and Regional Elections, while promising to make the financial resources necessary, available. In a letter dated February 25, 2019, and addressed to Chairman of GECOM, retired Justice James Patterson, the President laid out these promises and urged GECOM to start its work. “The Government of Guyana is committed to doing everything possible to ensure that the Commission is provided with the financial resources and has sufficient time to conduct credible elections,” he said. The information…
Read MoreNY Mayor, Governor announce 10-point plan to transform and fund MTA
NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo have announced a proposal to transform the MTA and create dedicated and sustained funding streams for the agency. The proposal includes the joint endorsement of congestion pricing and a plan to reorganize the MTA. 1. MTA will develop a reorganization plan to make the agency more efficient and effective. The antiquated structure will be fundamentally changed to centralize common functions among the 6 existing entities. Currently – NYCTA, LIRR, Metro-North, MTA Capital Construction, MTA Bus, SI Railway – operate as…
Read MoreCentral Bank still in the dark over acquisition plans – Finance Minister
Close to three months after it was announced that Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) had plans to acquire Scotiabank’s banking operations in Guyana, that process is yet to commence. As such, the Bank of Guyana (BoG) has also been left in the dark as it relates to the RFHL’s plans in this regard, as it is still to submit certain documents to start the acquisition process. This is according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan, who told the media at the sidelines of an event on Monday that the status quo…
Read MoreGuyana Govt was well aware of negative impacts of closure of sugar industry, yet it proceeded
Dear Editor, Once again, the GAWU cannot allow the patent falsehoods of Vice President and Minister of Public Security and AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan to be left unanswered lest his remarks related to sugar be considered truthful. The Public Security Minister, a known lighting-rod of controversy, appearing on an online programme titled “Is there a constitutional crisis looming?” that was broadcasted on the internet on February 23, 2019, made, from our point-of-view, a number of incorrect statements regarding the sugar industry. The Minister, on the matter, said that the Administration…
Read MoreBeing Guyanese: Unity with many roots
By Ravi Dev In “Gardening in the Tropics”, the mixed heritage Jamaican poet Olive Senior uses the activity of “gardening” as an extended trope to analyse the brutal colonisation of the Caribbean by the Europeans, and their influence in the formation of our identity. Gardening, after all, does involve “rooting out”, discarding” “cultivating”, “nurturing”, “grafting”, “hybridity”, and so many activities which are also at work in cultures and relationships in the construction of identities. All of us have been — and continue to be — “cultivated”, whether we like it…
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