Year: 2019

Diwalia: a global celebration

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Diwali is celebrated throughout the world to ward off the darkness and welcome the light into our lives. Celebrating the triumph of good over evil and spanning five days each autumn, Diwali is considered by some to be the start of the New Year. In 2017, Diwali will be celebrated on October 27. In Guyana, this “festival of lights” is believed to have been brought to Guyana in the 1800s by the first indentured people from India. The celebrations hold special significance: wearing new clothes is a symbol of healthy…

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Unravelling…

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…hyphenated identities As happens like clockwork around every election, someone or other will throw into the boiling pot of our politics that cleaves around ethnic identities. “Oh why can’t we all be just GUYANESE, why do we have to be hyphenated-Guyanese??” And of course, then sanctimoniously announce THEY’ve been able to do it and why can the rest of us follow in their hallowed footsteps??!! The assumption, of course, is that hyphenation is a bad and backward thing!! Now right away we gotta point out that this hyphenated-Guyanese business isn’t…

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Higher sea defences needed

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…as high tides batter several villages in Guyana  With intense overtopping along the costal stretch as a result of high tides this past year, persons residing on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD) are calling for stronger reinforcement to the sea defences. The effects of climate change are beginning to worry scores of residents, who have, for three times already this year, battled with extreme flooding from overtopping caused by unusually high tides. Guyana Times International visited communities on Wednesday, including Stewartville, where the sluice suffered a breach on Tuesday…

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‘Demon’ among 4 charged for gold dealer’s murder

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…Doctor, others charged for accessory to murder Two weeks after businessman Deon Stoll was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in front of El Dorado Trading Inc on Da Silva Street in Newtown, Kitty, Georgetown, eight persons were hauled before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. Four were charged with murder, while the others were charged with accessory to murder. Those charged for murder are 38-year-old Shane Morgan called “Demon”, a graphic artist of Lot 45 East La Penitence, Georgetown; Wayne St Hill, 38, of Lot 27 Dowling Street Kitty, Georgetown…

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Coalition politics and opportunism

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The present contretemps between the PNC and the AFC over the fate of their Cummingsburg Accord in general, and who gets to choose their Prime Ministerial candidate, in particular, is the seen as the “politricks de jour”, temporarily shoving aside discussions on how precisely the PNC would rig the next elections. But behind these proximate causes lie deeper structural reasons for the dissonance in decision-making in the coalitions – within APNU and in the APNU/AFC combine. These emanate from the nature of the coalitions these parties formed; their relative sizes;…

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Writing Back to Guyana

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(Extract of an interview with Kim Sheldon, Georgetown, Guyana, September, 2019. Sheldon is a novelist and historian.) PP History is fascinating. Research is fascinating. Guyana is fascinating – from El Dorado to sugar to oil, yes, Guyana is fascinating. The most fascinating thing of Guyana though is its people especially those who have settled in the Diaspora, those who are writing back to Guyana. This writing back to Guyana is important. I am addressing you as a writer and historian, why have you come to Guyana? KS The reason that…

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East Canje woman is 100 not out!

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Rachel Isabella Michael celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday, three days after she became the country’s latest centenarian. Despite being confined to a chair, starting just about one year ago, Michael is up and about – cooking, attending church, and reading without glasses. Born on October 23, 1919, Michael has five children aged 75, 73, 68, 62 and 53. She has lived to see her fourth generation, having 19 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and several great-great grandchildren. Born at Betsy Ground, East Canje, Michael spent most of her life there. During…

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Moving goalposts…

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…on handmaidens It must be rough being a handmaiden, but Moses Nagamootoo is handling it with aplomb, if not outright glee. The handmaiden who brought the role to public notice was, of course, Bilhah, who served Rachael, consort of Jacob. When Rachel, jealous of her sister Leah, became frustrated when she couldn’t do her job – which in those days was getting children, especially sons – she said to Jacob: “Here’s my handmaid Bilhah. Go have sex with her. She can bear children on my knees so I can have…

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Young attorney admitted to Guyana’s bar

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After graduating with honours from the Hugh Wooding Law School this year, 23-year-old Janet Adeba Ali has been admitted to Guyana’s bar to practice law in Guyana. Ali’s petition was presented by Attorney-at-Law Jamela Ali before Chief Justice Roxane George. During the petition, the Chief Justice advised Ali to always seek guidance from her seniors in the profession and to always keep abreast with and uphold the laws of Guyana, in order to have a striving career. Ali’s early education started at Queens College where she gained 12 subjects at…

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The little Mud Diya: a connection with our ancestors

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By Lakhram Bhagirat On what is described as the darkest night in the year, Hindus celebrate the auspicious occasion of Diwali, and the epic that goes with this festival states that it was the night Shree Ram, along with his wife, Sita, and brother Lakshman returned home to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. It goes on to say that as the people in the Kingdom of Ayodhya prepared for the arrival of their beloved Shree Ram, they lit the pathways with little earthen lamps so as to illuminate the…

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