Category: Editorials

In the last couple of years, the Guyana government has unveiled and begun implementing its plans for information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). From the beginning, there has been a steady chorus of criticism from some quarters, especially on the fibre-optic cable, the One Lap Top Per Family (OLPF) initiative and the Education Television programmes. While it is our view that all governmental initiatives should be subjected to scrutiny, we believe that much of the negativity is grounded in a misapprehension of the transformative potential of the new technology.…

Read More

While Guyana has pulled itself out of the grouping of “Least Developed Countries” over the past decade, we have to recognise that our gains need to be consolidated and augmented, so that we may enjoy an increasingly higher standard of living. Earlier this month, the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries was convened in Istanbul, and its findings should be of interest to our policymakers and the politicians vying to replace them in this election year. The 8931 delegates, including 36 heads of state and government, 96…

Read More

Guyana’s tourism industry undoubtedly is making tremendous strides in capturing the attention of the world with its truly unique ecological, nature and adventure tourism. As we have said before; the tourism sector holds great potential, and can contribute to our development by helping to generate income, investments, foreign exchange, and employment for the benefit of every Guyanese. Subject Minster Manniram Prashad was very much on target when he said that tourism is the industry of the future, and we must concede that the sector holds great promise for our country.…

Read More

Sections of the media in Guyana have recently, once again, come under the spotlight for crossing the boundary line; and questions have begun to be raised about the role of the media in building and maintaining a democratic, fair and peaceful society. We take a brief look today at the role of the media, and how well the media have been fulfilling those expectations, considering the fact that the media act as a public watchdog on behalf of the people, and always hold others accountable for their actions. All of…

Read More

In the last week, there was a confluence of three events that signalled a rise in the agricultural profile of our country. These were the commissioning of the GuySuCo Packaging Plant at Enmore; the signing of a third mega-contract for rice and paddy with Venezuela; and (with somewhat less fanfare, but no less significance) the harvesting of rice and beans in the Rupununi. These are important advances, particularly against the background of the rising food insecurity that is plaguing large swathes of the world. Sugar remains a linchpin of our…

Read More

Osama bin Laden, arguably the most hunted man in all of history, was finally run to the ground and killed on Labour Day. As the founder of al- Qaida, which had bombed U. S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, he most notoriously earned his place at the head of the U. S.’ most wanted list after he inspired the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers on September 7, 2001, and thumbed his nose publicly at the Americans directly afterwards. This was an event that altered America forever.…

Read More

There is hopefully a greater appreciation of our democracy now that those that are too young to remember the dictatorship that existed prior to 1992 are absorbing the heroic efforts to dismantle one in Egypt. But older folks would recall that in Guyana, in the creation of our dictatorship, there were several forces deployed relentlessly to destroy the institutions of democracy, even as they abused the freedoms guaranteed by that democracy. We take a look this week at the role of journalism and the press. There is the aphorism that…

Read More

Earlier this month, when the Executive Committee of the PPP chose that party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming general elections, in the words of Dr Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, they did so in a “consensual” manner. This had been the tradition of the party over the years, he explained; but, this year, with five candidates vying for the position, they would have resorted to a “secret vote” if consensus on a single candidate had not been arrived at during the fateful meeting. As we all know by…

Read More

Women’s activism over the years has led to the enactment of legislation and policies to get rid of the differentiation and discrimination against women. It should be mentioned too that over the past few years there has been a clear shift in attitudes towards the participation of women in the workplace, outside of housekeeping and in society in general, but it is a widely accepted view that much more needs to be done to bridge the gender gap. In one of the latest international reports on Guyana, the World Economic…

Read More

As we reported on April 5th in our daily edition, after great speculation and a widening, democratic process of presidential candidate selection, the PPP’s Central Committee unanimously chose their general secretary, economist Donald Ramotar, to be their standard bearer in the general elections, scheduled for later this year. Ramotar is no newcomer to the Guyanese political scene. He joined the PPP in 1967 at the age of 17; and as an employee of the party’s commercial venture, GIMPEX, in Georgetown, he would have been in the thick of politics by…

Read More