Category: Letters

Dear Editor, The Budget 2016 calls for the banning of used tyres and old cars in Guyana. As a result some sections of the population are outraged. My solution: have importers take out insurance and extended warranties on these products. Moreover, insurance companies should offer insurance products to drivers based on whether they intend to use old tyres on their very old car. Such insurance would heighten premiums in order to protect policy owner against liabilities caused if products are found to be defective. Another suggestion is a Bureau of…

Dear Editor, Have you ever felt that your life is in darkness and all you want is some light? At some point you may feel worthless. The pain is too much, you cry every day and sometimes scream in the pillow to muffle the sound so you can’t be heard. The agony, the torture, the pain all in your voice as you cried. You feel as if your world has crumbled. No one is there to comfort you and the person you had hopes on left you in sorrow. Not…

Dear Editor, It is not surprising that once again the APNU/AFC Government has failed to deliver on its promises as outlined in its 2015 Elections Manifesto. The coalition has eroded the confidence of its supporters to such an extent that they are crying foul and vowed never to be bamboozled again. The Manifesto spoke about a ‘phased reduction of VAT within the first 100 days. One of its Canadian financier, T Lilmohan, in a letter to Stabroek News, is claiming that it would be a ‘disaster’ to reduce the VAT…

Dear Editor, Another of the stalwarts and great champions of the Test match era has called – rather was forced – to call time on his great career that spanned over two decades. To true connoisseurs of real, attritional Test match cricket at its best, this is an irreparable loss, the end of a golden era. Shall we see the likes of him ever again? No. They simply don’t make Test match champions of Shiv’s ilk these days! Hearing news of the Tiger’s retirement brought a lump in the throat…

By Ravi Dev   (What else is there to say on suicides? The following is excerpted from a 2012 piece.) Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about the phenomenon of suicide. It’s not I’m morbid. As an Indian Guyanese, I’m not sure how one can avoid such thoughts. With almost 200 suicides annually and more than three-quarters of them being Indians, there’s hardly a week you don’t get a call from some friend or acquaintance about someone they or you know who took their life. Who hasn’t been touched?…

Dear Editor, I appreciate sentiments expressed in EB John’s letter, “Kanhai was a great Guyanese – not Indo-Guyanese ? cricketer”, (SN 07-01-15). Mr John was responding to Prof Clem Seecharran’s SN news item, “Rohan Kanhai: Indo-Guyanese Hero Turns 80” (25-12-15). Mr John was correct in stating that when Guyanese like Kanhai and Lloyd played cricket for the country or the WI team, we did not see their ethnicity – we saw them as Guyanese cricketers. Mr John, however, fails to garner that one’s ethnic background is an important frame of…

Dear Editor, With suicide becoming more prevalent in our society, it must be clear that we need to do much more towards its prevention. I now think that, because teenagers form the largest group of victims of this terrible scourge, it is time for all our young people to ask themselves what they can do to stop their fellow teens from even considering it as a solution to any problem they may encounter. It is a fact that every problem, no matter how unsolvable it may appear on the surface,…

Dear Editor, The security and first line of defence of a family are the very members of that family, buffered by the culture and individual and collective consciousness of that unit. In fact, history tells us that as far back as 3000 BC, the head of a family was also the head of the security arrangement in that family and all able-bodied members of the family were its defenders. The same holds good for any organisation: club, business, church, etc. In some countries “Neighbourhood Watch”, comprising residents within laid-out wards,…

Dear Editor, I speak for most Guyanese when I appeal for unity in our beloved country. But if most of us want unity, why is the line on unity not yet mended? At least we need a starting point and I would like to suggest we start from the promises made by APNU/AFC and PPP/C during the last elections. On the campaign trail the current government promised a new start, to turn a new page and move forward. A very progressive and promising message that implied one important and game…