The new year is here, complete with wishes for a “Happy New Year” from the two major political parties and Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, Dr Irfaan Ali. According to the PPP/C, the new year is a chance to rebuild Guyana after the wreckage left by the incumbent government. The Party in its New Year message to the nation said that over the course of 2019, Guyanese saw for themselves the desperation of A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) to hang on to power by using…
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Berbice murder, manslaughter accused charged
Two persons accused of separate murders on the Corentyne between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were arraigned on Monday, with one suspect being granted bail. Terry Roopnarine, 27, of Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, was charged with manslaughter when he appeared before Magistrate Alex Moore at the Whim’s Magistrate’s Court. It is alleged that on December 24, at Rose Hall Town, he killed Steven Lewis, also called “Terence”. The prosecution had no objection to bail being granted and Magistrate Alex Moore released the man on G$200,000 bail. As a condition for…
Read MoreJagdeo details plans to tackle corruption
As parties gear up to contest next year’s General and Regional Elections in about two months’ time, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has outlined plans that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will implement to tackle corruption in Government if it wins the upcoming polls. Jagdeo pointed out that leading up to the 2015 elections, which ousted the PPP from office after 23 years, the APNU/AFC coalition played on the perception that the then Government was corrupt. However, he pointed out that after nearly five years in office, the governing coalition has…
Read MoreChanging politics in Guyana
Whatever their faults, our parties, like parties everywhere, do not merely affect, they also reflect the nuances of their societies. So the “fault” – if there is any – might also lie in ourselves. Politicians cannot lead followers wherever the politicians want them to go, for followers will only go in directions they find preferable to the alternatives available: leaders can catalyse but not initiate ethnic reactions. Political parties arose in a Europe that had already “solved” its ethnic problem by transforming it from a national question into an international…
Read More2019 year in review: Books
Preserving our literary heritage by Petamber Persaud The number of books published during 2019 was not as large as in 2018 but this does not take away from the quality of the works published. Below are some books crossing my desk during 2019*. ‘We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture’ ‘We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture’ edited by David Dabydeen, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and Tina K. Ramnarine was launched in Georgetown on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. This book was published to mark…
Read MoreBerbice handyman to spend 20 years behind bars for raping schoolgirl
A handyman was on Monday jailed for 20 years after a jury found him guilty of rape. Justice Brassington Reynolds handed down the sentence on 44-year-old Ramgolam Tyrone of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). The jury found him guilty of raping the grade four student in April this year; however, the sentencing was deferred to Monday to facilitate a probation report. In presenting the report on Monday, Probation and Welfare Officer attached to the Social Services Ministry, Judith Vankennie, told the court that Tyrone lost his father when he was very…
Read More‘Sugar estates represented a beacon of sustenance and hope’ – GAWU
By Shemar Alleyne Though the future of the country’s sugar industry remains unclear, there is a lot of positives with regards to their re-opening. This is according to General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Seepaul Narine in an exclusive interview with this publication. The union representative stated that viewing the industry through an economic lens, the argument for sugar’s minimisation becomes even weaker, but noted that the estates were more than just producers of sugar and molasses but rather they were the hive of activities…
Read MoreDestined for a higher call, Rose aims for the NBA
By Timothy Jaikarran As the Shakespeare quote goes, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”, that was the situation for Stanton Rose as he followed along the lines of his father. As a child growing up in Kwakwani, Rose Jr was taken by his mom to many of his father’s basketball games and was particularly inspired at a tender age on how the sport unified the people in the village. Born on December 26, 1999, to Vashawn Hopkinson and Stanton Rose Snr in…
Read MoreUS$3.4M power plant to bring relief to Bartica residents
President David Granger, on Saturday commissioned a US$3.4M power station at Dogg Point, Agatash in Bartica, Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven), where he noted that it will bring unprecedented relief to residents who have experienced severe power outages over the years. In his address at a simple ceremony, the president said it is inconceivable that Guyana can be on a path of development and ignore the evolution of its hinterland communities. He is quoted by the Public Information and Press Services Unit of the Ministry of the Presidency as saying that the…
Read MoreGladwin Hanover: From school dropout to Guyana’s Best Cop
By: Devina Samaroo At the age of 15, Gladwin Telston Hanover was forced to drop out of school to help take care of his family. At the time, he was attending the Richard Ishmael Secondary School, with hopeful dreams of becoming a police officer, just like his dad. But as he got older, those dreams slowly began drifting away, as Hanover became saddled with life’s various responsibilities. Hanover grew up in Ann’s Grove, a peaceful little village on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). He had seven siblings; two brothers…
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