March 2018 – Page 6 – Guyana Times International

Guyana’s draft Green State Development Strategy closer to reality

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

Government’s Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) draft framework could be approved in a matter of months. This will pave the way for a final policy document that will guide the country’s plans for the environment, its eco-system, and how this will tie into the social and economic development of the country. Environmental Consultant to Go vernment, Andrew Bishop, made this disclosure at a workshop held by the Environment Department on Monday at Parc Renaye. The focus there was primarily on the RIO Mainstreaming Project, which is aimed at sensitizing media…

Jagdeo slams Gov’t over “repressive, anti-poor decisions”

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

…says biggest fear is whether 2020 polls would be free and fair General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo believes that some of the repressive and anti-people decisions taken by the coalition Government since its assumption to office, which have had a severe effect on the lives on many Guyanese, were well orchestrated to dismantle the pro-poor policies set by the party’s founder, Dr Cheddi Jagan. Addressing an audience which comprised veteran politicians and members of the diplomatic corps on Tuesday evening at Red House, Jagdeo said…

127 graduate from Sophia Training Centre

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

One hundred and twenty-seven Sophia Training Centre (STC) students graduated on Wednesday after successfully completing the 31st Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training Programme (YEST) in a variety of disciplines. Speaking at the graduation ceremony held at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), Social Cohesion Department’s Programme Coordinator, Sharon Patterson told the graduates that the completion of their course was a stepping stone to a better future. “I am certain that many of you here today would be repeating this particular journey at some other stage of your life. I believe you will…

Think-tank slams Govt for wasting money

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

The Guyana Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI), a think-tank of financial professionals who have been analysing successive budgets from the Government, is of the view that funds were so poorly allocated that few will benefit from any trickledown effect. This is expressed in the group’s report, ‘Guyana; Taxpayers lost almost G$1 Billion to Financial waste and abuse at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure over two years’. According to the report, the Public Infrastructure Ministry was flagged for almost G$1 billion in financial mismanagement, waste, abuse, and non-compliance with the law.…

Sir Wilson Harris: Guyana’s literary master

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

By Albert Baldeo “His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, and say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!” -William Shakespeare Sir Wilson Harris, who recently died at the age of 96, was an iconic figure among the writers of the Caribbean and Central America. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature on more than one occasion, with some of his original manuscripts stored in the Harry Ramsen Collection at the University of Texas in Austin, he ranks right up…

India expresses interest in oil blocks offshore Guyana

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, on Thursday during a press conference said that his Government is interested in oil blocks offshore Guyana and has indicated this to the Guyanese Government. Discussions in this regard, this publication understands, were held during the recent high-level Ministerial and Presidential visits to India. Additionally, the Indian government, which currently buys oil from several Latin American countries, said it is also interested in purchasing oil from Guyana when production starts in 2020. Guyana’s Head of State, President David Granger recently visited India to…

Addressing objections to a federalised Guyana

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

By Ravi Dev Most of the objections to the federalist proposals have come from African-Guyanese. This is a remarkable position, since minorities across the globe, from Assam to Zimbabwe, have been clamouring for federalist principles to be instituted to protect their interests against actual or potential majorities. The reason is that, in Guyana, Africans literally do not see themselves as a “minority”. Their history of having slaved to build the foundations of the country, their dominant Creole values, their occupancy of the key state institutions etc. have served to engender…

Man charged for assaulting mom, sibling

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

A 31-year-old man was on Tuesday released on bail after he denied two counts of assault when he appeared before Magistrate Sherdel Marcus- Isaacs at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. Shaheed Murray of Lot 4610 Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Rasville, Georgetown, is accused of verbally assaulting his mother and young sibling. The court heard that on March 18, 2018, the father of three used threatening language against Ann De Ruche and Hassan Murray. A second charge was read to him which stated that Murray on the same day also threw stones at…

The Commonwealth

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

“Commonwealth Day” came on March 12 with hardly a flutter in Guyana, save for a modest ceremony at the Public Buildings, where an almond tree planted on Commonwealth Day 2013 was fenced. The rather strained analogies made by the few speakers, on the robust growth of the tree to the Commonwealth relations, only served to highlight questions about the relevance of the organisation in this new millennium. Commonwealth Day, of course, succeeded “Empire Day” in 1958, just after Ghana had received independence the year before, and a full decade after…

The anomaly…

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 administrator

…of “democratic” propaganda The Chronic is in the news again; and ultimately, for the same reason it scandalised folks who actually believed this PNC-led coalition would be any different from the first PNC government in 1964-1985. Right after it slid into government in 2015, during its first Budget debate in August of that year, a Chronic reporter penned a story headlined: “Govt blunders on Budget Estimates…violates laws assented to by President Granger”. PM Nagamootoo, who’d been reduced to running the state media, objected vehemently to the headline and story, and…