A quarter of a century ago, Harvard’s Samuel Huntington unfurled his “Clash of Civilisations” thesis which seemingly became the working model for western, especially US, foreign policy strategists. In the wake of the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the timing was maybe more than just fortuitous. After all he was also part of the US think tank that had conjured up the “modernisation” thesis after WWII that became the western blueprint to win the hearts and minds of the Third World…
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Guyana on downward economic trajectory
Dear Editor, The PNC-led Coalition, through its Finance Minister, has finally admitted that the economy is in declension. In fact, he used a euphemistic term to describe it, saying: “The economy did not perform as well as…had (been) predicted. Truly euphemistic terms used to explain away a dire, doomed situation. But even this was not of his own undertaking; he only came out to admit his gross falsification of the growth figures after he was backed into a corner by stern agitation from the Opposition Leader. This has been the…
Read MoreEarth Day 2018
The observation of Earth Day on Saturday , April 22nd marked 48 years since the day’s genesis. Earth Day owes its origin to Senator Gaylord Nelson, who sought to make the business of the environmental health of the earth a political one. At the time, it was still legal for factories to pollute the air and water, and there was no environmental protection agency. Through the actions of some twenty million Americans on April 22nd 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was born the following December; and the Clean Air, Clean…
Read MoreViolence Against Women, a national crisis being neglected
Below is an opinion piece done by former Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy It appears to have been missed by our government, but Domestic Violence Against Women (Intimate Partners Violence) has long passed a national crisis in Guyana. It is with deep concern that I make an appeal to President Granger and his APNU+AFC Cabinet. Guyana is presently in the midst of a serious crisis of domestic violence and this national crisis demands the attention and attending action of the President and his Cabinet. The physical, sexual and mental…
Read MoreDiscontinuation of charges against Ministers a violation of constitutional rights
Dear Editor, The PNC-led Coalition, through its Finance Minister, has finally admitted that the economy is in declension. In fact, he used a euphemistic term to describe it, saying: “The economy did not perform as well as…had (been) predicted. Truly euphemistic terms used to explain away a dire, doomed situation. But even this was not of his own undertaking; he only came out to admit his gross falsification of the growth figures after he was backed into a corner by stern agitation from the Opposition Leader. This has been the…
Read MoreDodging the race question
In his column “Cheddi Jagan on the WI Federation: CLR James on Cheddi Jagan” (SN4-25-18), former long-term PPP executive Ralph Ramkarran wrote: “Divided societies like Guyana suffer from a phenomenon whereby historic events which, when they occurred, gave rise to allegations of ethnic bias, never seem to go away. The West Indies Federation, which lasted from 1958 to 1962, is one such. It is an historic event which is hardly relevant to contemporary Guyana today. Yet the debate on Jagan’a attitude to the Federation rages, as if the event occurred…
Read MoreBurnham and the PNC
The PNC is commemorating its 60th anniversary. Exactly thirty years ago, as part of a paper, “On the Guyanese Dictatorship” I analysed its “Founder-Leader” LFS Burnham’s imperatives to launch the party after his three unsuccessful challenges to Jagan to become leader of the PPP and the defeat of his PPP faction in the 1957 elections. The same imperatives drive the present PNC, under Granger, who has vowed to fulfil Burnham’s “legacy”. “Burnham craved to be leader for three reasons: His undeniable personal ambitions; his realisation that Jagan and other…
Read MoreIs Guyana prepared?
By: Ashley Anthony “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” James 2:10 Trinidad and Tobago has very recently made a very forward step; a judge has ruled the country’s homophobic laws unconstitutional. The reaction to this is mixed. There are many who hope that this ruling will have a domino effect, spreading into other Caribbean countries (and Guyana); whilst others are personally trying to stop the dominoes from falling. Some of the loudest voices against the legalisation of homosexuality…
Read MoreNo “Good Life”
One day after it was exposed by this newspaper, Finance Minister Winston Jordan finally conceded what analysts had been claiming for some time: that the economy was contracting, rather than growing. From a growth rate of 5.2 per cent in 2013, during this regime’s stint at the helm, it had dropped by 2015 to 3.2%; 2016 3.3% and now an abysmal 2.1% for 2017. Jordan’s excuses for the latter were pointed out since the beginning of the year: less gold and sugar produced, so one wonders what caused the delayed…
Read MoreEngendering trust
It is not hard to discern that trust is a commodity that is in very short supply among our people, after almost three years under the PNC-led APNU/AFC coalition. While one could not speak of a “groundswell”, there was certainly enough trust engendered to have squeaked past the PPPC, even though the long incumbency of the latter might have been the overriding factor. However, since then, the trust has evaporated like fine mist exposed to sunshine, after a series of unfortunate actions, ranging from their immediate 50 per cent raise…
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