Category: Editorials

Nothing showcases Caribbean culture in Canada as does Caribana -call it what you may, with all the recent clarifications of who owns the name ‘Caribana’. To paraphrase the Bard, ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a Caribbean Festival by any other name would smell as sweet.’ But we have to admit that ‘Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival’ just does not connote the ‘joie de vivre’ of the peoples of the Caribbean. But the two-week ‘largest street festival in North America’ is slated to outdo itself this year with organisers…

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The global Islamic community, including those in the Caribbean, have begun their annual month-long period of fasting called ‘Ramadan’. This event reminds us of the multi-religious nature of our region, which is an integral feature of our strength that is not often acknowledged. Formed as states in the wake of the European conquest of the ‘new world’, Christianity was inculcated into both the Indigenous Peoples and those that were brought in as slaves and indentured labourers. In fact, the practice of other religious traditions by the peoples outside of Europe…

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A decade after ratifying the “UN Convention on the Rights of The Child” most Caribbean countries are still grappling with the institutionalisation of its strictures. They had accepted an obligation to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect our children from all forms of violence, as set out in Article 19 of the Convention. One of the criticisms of the Caribbean’s response was the lack of a co-ordinated approach to their responsibilities. Last Friday, the Council for Human and Social Development (C OHSOD) of CARICOM met…

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The scandal emanating from Barclays Bank in England struck a chord in the memory of Caribbean peoples everywhere. Barclays, after all, had been the “Banker to the Caribbean” (then known as the Colonial Bank) going back to 1836 – smack in the middle of the emancipation of slavery. Caribbean peoples were being prepared for the transition from “slavery” to “consumerism”. With very good reasons, now even more apparent, some would say that the latter status was simply another type of the former. By 2001 Barclays Bank PLC and Canadian Imperial…

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Not many West Indians remember that CariCom was launched on July 4 (1973). Maybe in Guyana and St Vincent, which commemorate the event as a “CariCom Day” public holiday, the citizens are grateful for another day off. But in their minds there is little connection with CariCom: for the very good reason that for most Caribbean citizens – in including those in the diaspora, CariCom has been a failure. While not stated in such stark terms, this was the conclusion of the report by an international consulting firm (Landell Mills)…

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Over the past three years or so, Guyana’s tourism industry has undoubtedly made tremendous strides in capturing the attention of the world with its truly unique ecological, nature and adventure tourism. More and more persons are becoming aware of what the country has to offer. It is widely accepted that the tourism industry has great potential as it can contribute to the country’s development by helping to generate income, investments, foreign exchange and employment for the benefit of everyone. Just recently a high level delegation headed by Minister of Tourism…

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The US just issued its 2012 report on “Trafficking in Persons” (TIP) and it is certain to raise the hackles of Guyanese officialdom once again. As we reported earlier this week,  “Guyana remains at Tier Two in the U.S. ranking for countries in the fight against TIP. A Tier Two ranking means a country’s government does not fully comply with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards. Just before the release of this report, the Minister…

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At the end of May, the local edition of our newspaper reported on a study conducted by the IDB – “Antipodes of Violence”. It should be studied by our policy makers who may be wringing their hands at the violence that is wreaking havoc in all sections and strata of our society. “Antipodes”, of course, refers to things that are direct opposites. The findings of the study, which was conducted in several Latin American cities, found remarkable echoes in our own experience. It bluntly concludes that any successful strategy to…

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In what was regarded as a spot-on 46th Independence address to the nation, considering the present challenges facing our democracy, President Donald Ramotar utilised the opportunity to throw out a challenge to the parliamentary opposition to show that they are really serious about working together to move Guyana forward. It is well accepted that the challenges confronting the work of Parliament and governance as a whole requires more than just political rhetoric from key stakeholders, in fact, it requires concrete action to match the talk. The president has issued numerous…

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Independence Day” reminds us that we were supposedly once ‘dependent’ – on Britain, in this instance – and that on May 26, 1966 we became ‘independent’. One way to gauge our progress on the ‘independent’ front might be to cast a glance back at the ‘dependent’ relationship. What strikes one immediately is the chutzpah of the imperial power that enslaved and indentured us to labour and produce goods for their consumption, to then define us as ‘dependent’. We were ‘dependent’, the ‘mother country’ informed us, because we were simple, benighted…

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