Month: January 2013

Rohee condemns opposition’s shortsightedness

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Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had chided the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) for rejecting major reforms of the security sector. The minister reacting to the opposition’s posture said, “they fail to see the forest and are only looking at the trees… you cannot deal with crime if you do not address certain reforms within the institution that is tasked legally and constitutionally with the responsibility to address those problems.” On December 31, 2012, Minister Rohee hosted a special forum where he outlined…

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Tribute?

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Satiricus was a bit riled up. He was also quite confused. He’d been following the debate on the siting 1823 Monument quite closely. His forbears were originally from East Coast Demerara and he still had quite a few relatives there. Why shouldn’t the government listen to the representatives of the African organisations? But then again, while he wasn’t of African descent, he was also quite proud that “East Coast” people had stood up and fought against overwhelming odds. A question for the brain trust. “Budday, nah because yuh a East…

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Objectives of the Education Strategic Plan may not be achieved – GTU

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By Samuel Sukhnandan With this being the final year for the implementation of the Education Ministry’s Strategic Plan, the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) said it is concerned that most of the objectives set out in the blueprint may not be achieved. The ministry’s Education Strategic Plan was launched in 2008 and will come to an end this year. GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald notes that many of the goals set out in the plan are only “still on paper”. She believes that it is highly unlikely that many of these…

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A Nelson’s Eye

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Iniquitous inquiry Even though he betrayed his British military training when he supported Burnham’s call for officers to swear fealty to him (Burnham), David Granger is a military man. He knows about the story (whether apocryphal or not) of Lord Nelson’s blind eye. He knows that “to turn a Nelson’s eye” is to ignore all the evidence of what is clearly before you. And this is what Granger does when, in seeming righteous indignation, he notes the “criminal violence in Guyana during the ‘period of troubles’ on the East Coast…

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Freed treason accused ‘picking up the pieces’

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– say they have learnt many life lessons By Bhisham Mohamed A family portrait of the Munroes It has been almost eight months since Carol Ann Monroe, Bruce Monroe and Leonard Wharton were acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence that they were planning to over throw the government at that time, but from all indications, they have reintegrated themselves into society using the incident as a learning experience. “You learn to restructure; you learn to be cognisant about the people around you; you learn to pay attention…

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Caricom gets Guyana classics

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Culture, Youth, and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Monday presented a number of publications to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat. The publications, comprising the Guyana classics’ series by authors such as Mark McWatt, Ian McDonald, Sir Walter Raleigh, Denis Williams, Sister Mary Menezes, Martin Carter, Charles Barrington Brown and David Dabydeen, were presented to Caricom Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, at the Secretariat’s Documentation Centre. The minister also presented a compilation of speeches made in the National Assembly between 1947 and 1987 by former President of Guyana Dr Cheddi…

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750 deported to Guyana last year

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– many for drugs, illegal entry Seven hundred and fifty Guyanese were deported from various countries, including the United States and Canada, mostly for crimes ranging from drug trafficking to illegal entry. This is according to a Guyana Police Force statement that listed the end-of- year crime statistics. Guyana has struggled over the years to manage the large influx of criminal deportees, and a U.S.- backed International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme to help resettle the returnees, had virtually flopped, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana D Brent Hardt had told this…

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Quick response from fire service saves Mash Secretariat

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By Kristen Macklingam The quick response of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) on Monday night saved millions of dollars from going up in flames at the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry’s annexe located at Middle Street, Georgetown. Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told media operatives at the scene that the fire service received a report from the Guyana Police Force about the fire around 21: 00h. Four units responded to the alarm and rushed to the scene; two from the central fire station, one from Alberttown, and the other from West…

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Eye-pass

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Town backras Not even a year has passed since the death of the great iconic artist and sculptor Philip Moore. The same motley crew that is now posturing and protesting about the site of the 1823 Monument had made just as much noise about giving the man a state funeral and constructing a ‘meditation centre’ for him in Georgetown. Never mind that the relatives of the man indicated that the great African visionary had wanted to be interred in his home village of Lancaster on the Corentyne Coast. This newspaper…

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All TIP cases in Guyana are thoroughly investigated – Minister Webster

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Human Services Minister Jenifer Webster said there were six confirmed cases of Trafficking in Persons last year, all of which are being prosecuted in court. This was disclosed during an end-of-year media briefing at her office last Monday. Webster said while there were some 30 reports, after investigations, only six have been found to be true. “What happens is persons normally would mix Trafficking in Persons with prostitution; most of these cases that are reported would be persons that are over the age of consent,” she highlighted. The minister said…

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