No gov’t minister at UN anniversary event

Dear Editor,
I have just returned from a quite impressive ceremony at the Promenade Gardens to mark the 64th.  anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN). Presentations were made by the UN Resident Co-ordinator and PAHO/WHO and FAO Country Representatives and others. The EU and the Diplomatic Community were fully represented.

Guyana has twenty ministers, some with apparently little to do, yet not a single member of the Government was in attendance, being represented instead by a public servant, albeit a senior one. I hesitate to think that this is how the Government of Guyana treats the premier world body and the rest of the international community. The same body and community we beg, seemingly on a daily basis, for money to build a road, a school and hospital, to strengthen our justice system and more recently to support our Low Carbon Development Strategy.

In these circumstances this poor display of protocol is hardly helpful.

Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram