The 2017 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 23) — held in Bonn, but actually hosted by Fiji — was wrapped up last Friday on a more positive note than had been expected, after US President Donald Trump’s bellicose opposition to the COP 21 agreement crafted in Paris two years ago. That agreement had committed the countries gathered to collectively limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the tipping point for irreversible climate change. The fly in the ointment being that individual national targets had not been made mandatory, the goal…
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Challenges of Budget 2018
Budget time has come again and the honourable Finance Minister will soon present his budget to Parliament. The Minister has declared there would be no new taxes and this is of course a welcomed statement, since the population is already overtaxed and further taxes would have helped to destroy the country’s economy with even greater speed and cause great sufferings to the poorer sections of the population. If the main point of the budget is to impose no new taxes for 2018, it would be sterile as the omissions and…
Read MoreA frightening lesson
The events that unfolded following the unilateral appointment of the new Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have attracted much debate; for and against. Many arguments have been made regarding constitutionality or lack thereof through interpretation and/or misinterpretation. While that will seemingly continue unabated, one certainty is the said appointment was clearly an act of bad faith. This conclusion is based upon information in the public domain, which alluded to the establishment of a bipartisan committee to “search” for a suitable candidate if the third list of nominees were…
Read MoreDonor Conference in NY an excellent initiative
In November, the Caribbean Community (Caricom), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will hold a high-level Donor Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to mobilise international resources for its members devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. This is an excellent initiative aimed at rebuilding the devastated countries and helping the wider Caricom Region improve its resilience to natural disasters. It was announced by Caricom earlier this week that international development partners; friendly countries; Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); prominent personalities; Private Sector entities and foundations have…
Read MoreChanging our political culture
In light of the storm unleashed over President Granger’s unilateral appointment of former Justice James Patterson as Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, it might appear matters of culture may be farthest from the mind of the average citizen right now. But that would be a mistaken view, and in fact, “culture” in general and political culture in particular, lie at the heart of the storm – the eye of the hurricane, so to speak. We all know “culture” is our “way of life”, and no matter how divided we may…
Read MoreBridging Guyana’s ethnic divide
Most Guyanese would concede that ethnicity plays an inordinate role in our politics and that the way the latter has structured our political participation has not been positive. Since the claim that “modernisation”, set into motion after WWII , would soon make the “primordial” roots of ethnicity disappear has been proven quite premature, it behoves policymakers to take another look at our political system and institute changes that could steer our political behaviour in more positive directions. In fact, evidence gathered during the last 50 years had demonstrated that ethnicity…
Read MoreThe benefits of developing “rounded” students
By Ashley Anthony In the past, I have spoken about the argument of extra-curricular activities vs extra subjects, stressing that the two are not mutually exclusive. I implored that certain minimum standards should be met, after which no child should be limited in any area. I still believe this to be true, however, I feel the need to speak of the importance of encouraging children to engage in extra-curricular activities, even those they might be bad at. Guyanese, I believe, have this mentality that you should do what you’re good…
Read MoreRight action
Over the past few years as the Government settled into office, there has much discussion about morality – or conversely and more frequently, its lack in governance and in the rest of society. In Government, the predilection for corruption has astounded even its loyalists, while in society, the murders and general violence continue unabated. The solutions or at least the approaches to address this moral decline have taken two forms – encoding morality into law then seeking enforcement through legal sanctions and through the creation of institutions that herd individuals…
Read MoreWhy we should forgive
By Ashley Anthony “Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place” – Iain Thomas There is no one who has lived a life in which everything has gone perfectly. We have all made mistakes, wronged others and been wronged. The question becomes then, how do we handle situations like these? The…
Read MoreGECOM and public trust
When the issue of the controversial purchase of 50 Very High Frequency (VHF) communication radio sets by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for close to G$100 million first broke, it sparked much criticism and prompted a special probe by the Auditor General’s Office into this and other similar transactions conducted by the organisation. This newspaper reported, a few days ago, that the special audit has progressed to the point where the AG has submitted his report to GECOM with the hope that the Commissioners would take the necessary actions against…
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