Editorial

Amaila and trust

For a government that has never been shy of railroading laws and big-ticket projects through Parliament and other places, it was passing strange that in recent months the Ramotar administration seemed more solicitous of the opposition’s views on a clutch of important issues.

Government obstruction

In January of this year Mayor Hamilton Green convened a meeting to explore approaches to saving City Hall, which is in a critical state. 

Transparency after Snowden

Yet again Edward Snowden’s predicament – his asylum-seeking and the penalties he will likely face at the hands of the US prosecutors ‒ is back in the news.

A double-edged sword

Jack Warner may have convincingly won the Chaguanas West by-election in Trinidad on Monday but there are arguably more losers than winners after this particularly nasty and game-changing political battle.

How free are we?

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds…” Bob Marley (Redemption Song – 1980) One hundred and seventy-five years ago African slaves who had been brought to this part of the world were freed ‒ some four years after the Slavery Abolition Act was passed ‒ from that abominable condition which effectively dehumanized both the masters and the enslaved.

Egypt’s turmoil

It is undoubtedly the case that the essential structures of authoritarian rule, using the army as a critical instrument of stabilization, were constructed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, in his long period of domination following the military’s abolition of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952, and his takeover of the presidency of the country from General Naguib in 1956.

Finding a road to Amaila

If Thursday’s meeting of stakeholders on the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) was government’s way of energizing Article 13 of the Constitution which mandates the involvement of the people in the decisions of the country, particularly those that directly affect their well-being, then it was a masterstroke and indicates changed thinking by the Office of the President and by extension, Freedom House.

Muddle

Government spokesmen were getting their tongues tied in knots last week.

Alternatives to the war on drugs?

Speaking in Rio de Janeiro earlier this week, Pope Francis warned that the “liberalization of drug use” would not help to curb the “spread and influence of drug addiction” in Latin America.

Worrying times for sport in the Caribbean

Jamaica and the rest of the region are still reeling from the shocking disclosures that five Jamaican athletes, starting with the legendary Veronica Campbell-Brown and including their beloved Asafa Powell and 2004 4×100 Olympic gold medallist Sherone Simpson, have tested positive for banned substances.

The minibus culture

The assault of a female minibus driver by a male colleague, whose only concern appeared to be bending the rules so that he could earn an extra dollar and do it while putting lives at risk, should raise the ire of every one of us.

Brazil’s government facing revolt

As Brazil’s President Dilma Rouseff has been preparing for two significant events this year, the first a visit by Pope Francis of Latin American origins, and the second a visit by the President herself to the White House in October, she has suddenly, and obviously unexpectedly, found herself under political siege at home.

Like whistling in the wind

Following the spate of armed robberies that occurred in the city last week the top brass of the Guyana Police Force tried once again to put a brave face on its limitations.

The Amaila project and Parliament

President Ramotar’s use of language such as terrorism and blackmail to describe the defeat of two matters on Thursday in the opposition-controlled legislature pertaining to the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project obscures a very important point. 

Rushing to judgement

A striking photograph of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Bomber, appears on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Trying to understand ‘convergence’

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s reference, in her opening remarks at the recent meeting of Caricom Heads in Port of Spain, to the view that “Caricom, as it was originally envisioned, has reached its political, socio-economic and ideological limits,” may have its genesis in the thinking of her foreign minister, Winston Dookeran.

Nelson Mandela

Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.

Caricom heads’ conference again

It seems worthwhile to return once again, editorially, to the subject of the recent Caricom Heads of Government conference held in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this month.

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