Year: 2018

WINNERS OF THE 2017 BURT AWARD FOR CARIBBEAN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

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Once again, the Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature has delivered on its mandate which is ‘to champion literacy, build language skills and foster the love and habit of reading by ensuring that young Caribbean readers have access to books that they want to read’ by gracing the region (and further afield) with three new novels that are written and designed to woo man, woman, boy and girl back to books, to the pleasure of reading and to all the glories associated with reading, reading of good literature, for…

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5-month-old electrocuted in Berbice

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A five-month-old infant was on Tuesday electrocuted at his Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) home. Dead is Mason Cush of Lot 207 Number 76 Housing Scheme, Corentyne, Berbice. Reports are the infant’s mother Onessa Jackson, 27, took him off her bed at about 12:00h on Tuesday and placed him on the floor as she straightened the bedding. However, while on the floor, the infant grabbed hold of an electric wire which had scotch tape on a section which was broken. The infant reportedly made contact with the exposed part of the…

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HEALTH SCREENING AT FAITH ASSEMBLY CHURCH QUESTIONS TRADITION

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…second screening set for Jan 5th, 2019 Did you know that heart disease is the most common cause of death? It kills as many men as women and ten times as many women as breast cancer (AHA, 2016) – think about that for a minute. According to the CDC Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, about 630,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. This occurrence is also prevalent in the West Indian community, where high blood pressure and heart disease are all too…

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Govt walkout of National Assembly unheard of anywhere else

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Dear Editor, The coalition Government (APNU/AFC) qualifies for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. It is the first Government to boycott itself in Parliament– first time that a Government in any part of the world has walked out on (boycott) itself (its own parliamentary sitting). The Government Members of Parliament (MPs) walked out when Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, the main PPP respondent in the ongoing budget debate, delivered his contribution. The Government asked for the sitting and it asked for the debate. Therefore, it behooved the Government to…

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Spreading misinformation for a particular purpose

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Following the destruction of the once iconic World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, a war on Iraq was launched. It was premised primarily on information suggesting that Iraq, at the time led by Saddam Hussein, had possessed weapons of mass destruction. That information was also used to convince the United States Congress, its people and allied nations. In the end, Saddam was toppled and the USA for a brief period took control of the country. What happened afterwards came as a shock to many, if not all, around the…

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Transparency watchdog welcomes move to publish names of defaulters

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…who fail to submit income declarations The Transparency Institute of Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) has thrown its support behind the Integrity Commission, which only recently published the names of various Ministers and parliamentarians who have failed to submit income declarations. In a statement issued over the weekend, President of the anti-corruption organisation, Dr Troy Thomas lauded the Commission for its work. While the body congratulated these officials who did comply with the requirements, it noted that publishing the names of the delinquents was a step in the right direction. “TIGI hereby…

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The lost tradition of house to house caroling

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“Silent night, holy night All is calm and all is bright Round yon virgin, mother and child Holy infant, so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace.” That is how it always started. I remember it like it was just yesterday. The first time the carollers visited our small home. They were from the church my father attended and it was Christmas Eve night, mommy was in the kitchen hurriedly trying to finish baking a cake so the carollers would be able to indulge. It is one of my fondest…

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More sugar workers likely to be terminated soon – GAWU

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The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has announced that plans are afoot to terminate the services of dozens of sugar estate workers, adding to the thousands already jobless. The Union noted that these are workers that were retained following the closures of the Wales, Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Demerara estates to maintain skeleton operations at the factories. These workers were involved mainly in security, drainage and irrigation and power house operations. It reminded that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) had indicated that it was always its intention…

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Guyana monitoring developments in Venezuela

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…says military exercises do not constitute threats Four Russian military aircraft, including two Tu-160 (Blackjack) bombers, one An-124 (Condor) heavy-lift cargo airplane and an IL-62 (Classic) passenger aircraft are seen in this DigitalGlobe satellite image at Simon Bolivar Airport in Maiquetia, Vargas, located about 21 kilometres from downtown Caracas, Venezuela in this December 10, 2018 (Courtesy Satellite image ©2018DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company/Handout via Reuters) In an effort to quell the growing anxiety of some Guyanese after it was revealed that two state-of-the-art Russian bomber aircraft have been deployed to neighbouring…

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PM should take responsibility for delays in constitutional reform, says Ramkarran

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Although Prime Minister Moses Nagamotoo has said that the blame should not be placed solely at the feet of the coalition Government but the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform, political analyst Ralph Ramkarran has a different view. He said in his weekly column, Conversation Tree, that no member has apparently requested the Chair, Attorney General Basil Williams, to convene a meeting of the Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform to discuss the Constitution Reform Commission Bill. “The failure of the Standing Committee to conclude its consideration of the Bill –…

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