On Tuesday, a video of a New Amsterdam Technical Institute student violently assaulting colleagues went viral. On social media, persons expressed disgust as the teen is seen removing his belt and inflicting blows on his colleagues. But more worrying is that the mother of the teenager in the video has since taken to social media, justifying her son’s behaviour claiming that the students he violently assaulted had teased him about his lunch. Violence in schools in Guyana has always faced the harsh realities that in some cases when teachers act…
Read MoreCategory: Editorials
Checkmate
In the last few weeks, as the countdown to March 21 drew closer, there was apprehension from some quarters that there might be “trouble” – as had occurred during the last two decades after the PNC disputed the outcome of elections. With great confidence, I assured my interlocutors there would be “no trouble”. The PNC, after all, were not trying to get the PPP out of office; while the latter and their supporters might be frustrated and even angry, they are in no position to “make trouble”. It is a…
Read More‘Judicial adventurism’
The Appellate Court’s panel of three justices: Chancellor Edwards-Cummings, Justice Rishi Persaud and Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes, in a 2-1 split decision — with Justice Persaud dissenting — surprised many objective observers by reversing the holding of the High Court that the 33-32 vote in favour of the NCM in the National Assembly was valid. What occasioned the surprise was the rationale offered by the two justices for their decision. They accepted the arguments offered by the Grenadian attorney for the Government that, unlike the passage of “normal” legislation, that of…
Read MoreRejecting hate: Lessons from New Zealand
The world, more particularly New Zealand, is trying to come to grips with the horror of last Friday’s (March 15) shooting that left 50 people dead and many others injured, some critically. Many watched in complete shock on social media as a lone gunman opened fire on the gatherings at two Mosques during the Friday prayers. It was an attack that was well planned in advance based on various now known facts most evident from the live-streaming. From reports, the Australian-born gunman had earlier published a manifesto in which he…
Read MorePhagwah and Power
A short while back, there was a dispute about which day exactly we should celebrate the festival of Holi or Phagwah. Thankfully, that has been resolved, but this year Guyanese are confronted with another challenge: what to do when the agreed-to date for Holi happens to coincide with the date when the present Government loses its legitimacy through the operation of the Constitution, which both parties across the divide, the PPP and PNC (forget about the “others”: they are “rounded up”), agree on the supremacy of that Constitution? How should…
Read MoreAPNU/AFC’S tight grip on power
While there are some doubts as to whether Emperor Nero actually fiddled while Rome burned, when the history of Guyana is written, there is no question that David Granger will be known as the president who fiddled while Guyana burned. Being a historian, more than most, he is aware of the deep schisms in our society, which have been refracted by the political system to create a very volatile and incendiary condition whenever elections are in the air. When that systemic condition in concatenated with the specific circumstances that have…
Read MoreBeing Guyanese: Unity with many roots
By Ravi Dev In “Gardening in the Tropics”, the mixed heritage Jamaican poet Olive Senior uses the activity of “gardening” as an extended trope to analyse the brutal colonisation of the Caribbean by the Europeans, and their influence in the formation of our identity. Gardening, after all, does involve “rooting out”, discarding” “cultivating”, “nurturing”, “grafting”, “hybridity”, and so many activities which are also at work in cultures and relationships in the construction of identities. All of us have been — and continue to be — “cultivated”, whether we like it…
Read MoreGuyana Govt was well aware of negative impacts of closure of sugar industry, yet it proceeded
Dear Editor, Once again, the GAWU cannot allow the patent falsehoods of Vice President and Minister of Public Security and AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan to be left unanswered lest his remarks related to sugar be considered truthful. The Public Security Minister, a known lighting-rod of controversy, appearing on an online programme titled “Is there a constitutional crisis looming?” that was broadcasted on the internet on February 23, 2019, made, from our point-of-view, a number of incorrect statements regarding the sugar industry. The Minister, on the matter, said that the Administration…
Read MoreGovernment’s role in business
The ongoing three-way contretemps between RUSAL, its workers and trade union, and the Government has once again brought to the fore the vexed question of the PNC-led Government’s position on the now dominant neo-liberal “night-watchman” state. This model did not just shrink the Government’s role in the economy, but rejected it taking any responsibility for alleviating the condition of the poorer elements of society. Unions were demobilized, and workers reverted to dealing directly with employers. The PNC stuck doggedly to this position when it shut down four of the seven…
Read MoreThe illegitimate Natural Resources Fund
President David Granger has just signed the “Natural Resources Bill”, which is the name of our “Sovereign Wealth Fund” and which arguably deals with the most important issue since the granting of our independence. The fundamental question is how are the funds that would be generated from our oil reserves be utilised to deliver the greatest benefits to Guyanese of this and following generations. But just as arguably, while the President might have signed the Bill, he did not sign it in law. The substantive contents of what should be…
Read More