Year: 2017

‘Kamarang’ by Micheal Jordon

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A Book Review by Petamber Persaud The power of the written words in this new Guyanese novel, “Kamarang”, will bewitch and haunt, thrill and satisfy, educate and entertain, the reader from the eerie beginning to the bewildering end, gnawing at the reader’s entrails, sucking at the reader’s grey matter long after the end is revealed and the mystery solved because the end will beset the reader with a new goal – a longing to learn more about the inexhaustible heritage of the land known throughout the world from the 16th…

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Mystery…

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…in sugar? The Government boasted that sugar workers have nothing to worry about their future, since some 70 companies have submitted bids for the four estates they’re closing down and selling off. Really?? A number of questions come to your Eyewitness’s mind. The first one has to do with the Trinidadian expert the Government brought in to advise them on their “divestment”. It was advice only people in this APNU/AFC government in general, and its Minister of Agriculture in particular, needed to be told. Anyone with even the slightest connection…

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Of mice…

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…and cats Robert Burns reminded us that, “The best laid schemes of mice and men / Oft go awry.” And we can see this unfolding so well with the sad but inevitable sidelining of the AFC by the PNC. Ahhh…the AFC had it all planned out, didn’t they? They’d been launched, back in 2005, to exploit the “floating votes” they insisted existed in even Guyana’s ethnically polarised society. These floating votes would come from all of the various ethnic groups in Guyana, and like Jagan more than a half-century before,…

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Raleigh’s Second Expedition to Guyana

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By Dr. Odeen Ishmael Shortly after Raleigh left the Guyana region, soldiers from the Spanish settlement of Cumaná, west of the Orinoco, were sent to apprehend the two Englishmen Raleigh had left behind. They managed to hold only one of them named Francis Sparry; the other had been killed and eaten by a jaguar. The young Englishman, and the Amerindians with whom he resided, informed the Spanish soldiers that Raleigh was expected back in March 1596. In 1596, Raleigh sent his lieutenant, Lawrence Keymis, back to Guyana in the area…

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Lethem airstrip to upgrade to a regional hub in 2018

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The Guyana government is in negotiations with a multilateral donor to secure a US$15M loan to finance a project for further aerodrome and airstrip development across the hinterland. According to DPI, under that programme, the Lethem airstrip will be upgraded into a regional hub and international aerodrome, in order to receive flights originating from Brazil and other Latin American neighbours. This was revealed by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan during his presentation of the 2018 Budget in the National Assembly on Monday. Meanwhile, according to DPI, a sum of G$250M…

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“Personal experiences led to my activism” says budding doctor

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By Lakhram Bhagirat As cliché as it sounds the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see,” is the driving force behind everything that young Shazam Somwar does to make his mark and leave behind a legacy that would do his generation proud. Shazam is a 21-year-old medical student of the Greenheart Medical University, but what makes him exceptional is his drive to help others and address the issues that affect them. Hailing from Kilcoy, Corentyne, he is the eldest of three children from a family…

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Development of Guyana’s tourism sector to be

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Growth in Guyana’s tourism sector continues at a steady pace, with visitor arrivals totalling 170,322 between January and September of 2017. This is a 5.7 per cent increase over the same period in 2016. This was revealed in Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s 2018 Budget presentation to the National Assembly. Minister Jordan noted, however, for the tourism sector to become a significant economic driver, in the effort towards diversification, the approach to its development must be multi-faceted. To this end, the Finance Minister reported that the Guyana Tourism Authority, in the…

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Guyana Govt to release Exxon contract

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…following mounting public pressure Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said that the contract between international oil giant, Exxon Mobil and the Government of Guyana, along with its terms and conditions, will be made public sometime during the month of December. “I can up and say that the matter was discussed at Cabinet and what I would say also is that the Exxon contract with the Government of Guyana, will be made public during the month of December and that is the contract and all its terms and conditions,” he told…

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Guyanese among Caribbean nationals detained during US immigration sweep

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The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) says several Caribbean nationals were among 55 immigrants detained in New York during a six-day operation conducted by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). ICE said that ERO officers “targeted at-large criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants, and immigration fugitives during the operation,” which ended on November 20. ICE said that among those detained were five Jamaicans and a Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana national. It said that the other detainees were from Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Yemen, Bangladesh,…

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Guyana’s private sector laments absence of ‘job creating investments’ in Budget 2018

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Despite lauding Government for removing several measures that were imposed on the Private Sector, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has raised several burning concerns that it believes were not addressed in Budget 2018, including job investments. In a detailed press statement issued on Wednesday the GCCI said it was hopeful that a clear plan would have been articulated on the way forward for job creating investments, or facilitation of job creating investments. The Chamber also noted that there was no elaboration on a strategy to absorb workers…

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