Last Friday, the country completed 20 years of governance under a PPP/ C government. It is as good a time as any to review the trajectory our country and society have travelled during those two decades. As with individuals, it is important to know from whence the country came to understand where we have arrived and where we might be going. This look of retrospection is not intended to castigate but merely to acknowledge that, as Faulkner pointed out, the past may still be with us. Take the charges of…
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The Caribbean at the UN
The traditional end-of-September opening of the UN General Assembly this year drew its usual complement of 100+ of world leaders – including most of those from the Caribbean. PM Kamla Persaud-Bissessar was one of the more than one-third who decided to stay at home. As usual, the US president dominated the press coverage, even though he treated it more as a campaign stop in the ongoing US presidential sweepstakes. There was no Gaddafi this year, striking his tent in Central park to compete for primetime reportage. Obama’s half an hour…
Read MoreThe Road Travelled
On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the independence of T&T, with an eye on her father Dr Eric Williams’ legacy, Erica Williams-Connell reflected on the state of the nation at the Independence Gala in Toronto last August. Her remarks, while contextually specific to T&T, are quite relevant to the other members of the former British Caribbean – especially Guyana, which shares Trinidad’s demographic profile. She began by citing the caution that Dr Williams offered to his country at independence: “a country will be free, a miniature state will…
Read MoreThe Caribbean in Harlem
The discovery of a previously unknown novel by the Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay (1889-1890) brings to the fore, once again, the seminal role played by persons of Caribbean origin in shaping the Afro-America ethos – and the wider world. The manuscript, “Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem,” written c1941, was dubbed “a major discovery,” by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard University scholar, “It dramatically expands the canon of novels written by Harlem Renaissance writers and,…
Read MoreBleak Outlook
Back in April, the IMF lowered its projections for economic growth in the region from the earlier 4.3% down to 3.5%. For some individual countries, the outlook was even bleaker: Jamaica’s present 1% was supposed to remain unchanged for 2013 and rise to just 1.5 per cent in 2017. Barbados’ figures were similarly depressed. This macro-indicator of economic performance was obviously troubling to the authorities in view of the negative social effects that would ensue. Last week officials from the IMF, the Caribbean Development Bank (CBD), several heads of government,…
Read MoreMigration: An ever-present dilemma
Migration has for quite some time been at the forefront of the political agenda of governments all around the globe. On one side of the coin, many countries have to grapple with the problem of key skills and labour disappearing from their shores, while on the other, some have to carefully manage the influx of people who want to seek a better quality of life for themselves and their families. The history of the movement of people is perhaps as old as mankind, with the hunt for food and shelter…
Read MoreMan on the Moon
Last Saturday, Neil Armstrong passed away at the age of eighty-two. He needs no introduction – having become a household name since he became the first human in the history of our species to place his foot on an extra-terrestrial object, back in 1969. As he said laconically when he stepped off the moon-lander: “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” But behind those now iconic words, there is a story that summarises the history of our planet in the second half of the last century.…
Read MoreCaribbean heroes
“Keshorn will shine as a beacon of light to the young people of the nation”. These were the words of Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar while addressing a large gathering of persons at the Piarco International Airport to welcome home their latest hero – Keshorn Walcott. In front of a capacity crowd at London’s Olympic Stadium, Walcott’ s 84.58 metre javelin toss edged his closest rival, Ukrainian Oleksandr Pyatnytsya to win gold in that event, creating a world record for being the youngest athlete to have won in…
Read More‘Strengthening the Traditional, Embracing the new’
Preparations for this year’s GuyExpo are in full swing, as Guyana’s premier trade fair and investment show looms closer. This year’s exhibition is being held under the theme, “Strengthening the Traditional, Embracing the New” and the authorities are confident that the event will provide the perfect platform for the showcasing of local businesses and investment opportunities. GuyExpo, which began in 1995, is now a national event that has a permanent place on the Tourism, Industry and Commerce Ministry’s annual calendar of events. This premier exposition and trade fair offers business…
Read MoreLinden as a metaphor
The protests by Lindeners against the gradual equalisation of their electricity rates with the rest of Guyana and the killing of three of those protestors have once again made that interior community the cynosure of all eyes. In more than one sense, Linden is a metaphor for all Guyana and maybe a recap of its history will offer us all lessons towards a resolution of our troubled politics. The discovery of bauxite in our “Hilly Sand and Clay Belt” eventually led to some interesting “robber baron” manoeuvres by one Mackenzie,…
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