Editorial

After all the patter about inclusion and constitutional reform to which the public has been treated by President Irfaan Ali, the evidence that these statements are to be invested with any substance is scant.

This week the White House reported more Covid-19 infections than 12 entire countries and several European nations were imposing emergency measures to dampen the impact of a second wave of the pandemic.

At least a glimmer of sanity flickered uncertainly in the darkness of our health crisis on Wednesday, when it was announced that a strike by the nurses of the Georgetown Public Hospital was to be put ‘on hold’. 

Viewed on a graph, Guyana’s COVID-19 figures are on a quickening upward climb.

The arms of the local metaphorical rumour windmill have started gathering speed and names are being bandied around for the vacant post of Director of Sports.

Last week’s small squall arising out of the handling of the official disclosure that the strictures relating to Public Servants’ work schedules were being removed and that the COVID-19 curfew window was being pushed open further resulted largely from the brusque manner in which the announcement was made.

At his press conference on Friday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo shut the door comprehensively on the use of the approval of the Payara licence as a means of leverage to improve the scandalous Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) concluded by the APNU+AFC government in 2016 with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary EEPGL and its partners Hess and CNOOC.

We live next door to a criminalised state.  The formal structures which normally sustain governmental operations in any nation have been subverted in Venezuela by entrenched corruption. 

An ‘October surprise’ is what the US media call late-breaking news that can tilt an election.

The revised Cummingsburg Accord which sets out the terms of the APNU and AFC political alliance has been breached yet again. 

During his presentation on the 2020 National Budget, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony claimed that the former APNU+AFC Govern-ment did not test samples from deceased persons who displayed COVID-19 symptoms.

Our boy, Dave Martins, songwriter extraordinaire, and leader of the famous Tradewinds band, has penned many songs which have provided insights to our unique approach to life in the West Indies.

Last week, in a somewhat thespian sort of manner, Minister Kwame McCoy summoned members of staff of the Office of the President to a ‘sit down’ meeting to declare that the President’s staff would be leading the way in the reopening of the Public Service to full time work, departing from the rotation arrangement that had been in place in recent months as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement by the High Court that it is preparing to have criminal trials resume on October 6th when the final assizes for the year is expected to be declared open must be welcomed.

Despite the fact that in May nearly all territories had asked the Caribbean Examinations Council to rethink their proposals for this year’s CSEC and CAPE exams, their concerns were not taken on board. 

When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Senate Republicans blocked president Obama from installing his successor as a matter of high principle. 

Minister Kwame McCoy who holds responsibility for Public Affairs within the Office of the Prime Minister told Stabroek News in an interview that the government could see no immediate reason for disbanding any section of the state media. 

In many societies, a gift of jewellery is an expression of love and sometimes a form of commitment.

“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations – one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people’s lives.

Setting aside the loss of life resulting from the advent of COVID-19, the next biggest tragedy has been the erosion of our education system, the requisites of social distancing resulting from the nature of the pandemic wreaking havoc with our accustomed method of education delivery in circumstances where there exists no feasible option that can match what, in the short to medium term at least, has been lost.