Opinion

Dear Editor, Having observed the successful demonization of a US presidential candidate who spent the majority of her adult life in public service by the self-serving millionaire Trump and his trumpets, and closer to home, the attempted character assassination and actual assassination of Ronald Waddell, my late partner and political activist, I am moved to speak on a similar matter that came up recently.

Dear Editor, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, during his 2017 Budget speech, announced that the government will be reintroducing the environmental tax on plastic bottles, which would be $10 per bottle.

Dear Editor, In spite of the billions allocated for medicines and medical supplies in the 2017 budget, there is little hope that shortages of medicines and medical supplies will be reduced in the public health sector.

Dear Editor, Permit me to address your editorial ‘Youth and politics’ first from the perspective of its primary fallacy, the almost caricaturist representation of Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan as a lone heroic figure who “steadfastly tries to break the glass ceiling that seems to be affecting young politicians.”

Dear Editor, The Finance Minister on the TV programme, ‘Budget in Focus’, December 1, stated that the movement of a range of household items from a zero rating to exempt status would reduce the price charged to consumers.

Dear Editor, As the judiciary continues to haemorrhage because of judicial vacancies, and the consequent sloth which afflicts the machinery of justice continues to magnify, Attorney General Basil Williams continues his campaign in the press to defend and justify the President abdicating his responsibility to appoint persons as and to promote judges recommended by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), as mandated by the constitution.

Dear Editor, Enough has been written already about the far-reaching effects of that 14% electricity hike. 

Dear Editor, Guyanese are known to be hospitable and helping people.

Fidel Castro remained a paradox up to end of his life.

Dear Editor, The pronouncement by the Finance Minister in his budget speech that the Income Tax Act will be revised to authorize the GRA to “garnish” funds from bank accounts held by taxpayers who have outstanding tax arrears has caused great anxiety and concern both to the business community as well as the ordinary citizen.

Dear Editor, I turned up at the New Amsterdam Hospital Dental Clinic, taking time off from my work to have a filling done, only to be told that there was no dental chair and I would “have to check back next month.”

Dear Editor, Kindly permit me a few lines to comment on one aspect of the recently presented national budget for 2017.

Dear Editor, A very important and critical infrastructural development was highlighted by the Minister of Finance during his budget speech.

Dear Editor, This 2017 Budget has caused me to reflect on an idea that I have toyed with all my adult life – why can’t truth and politics go together? 

Dear Editor, I read Laurie Greenidge’s Nov 25th letter in the Stabroek News captioned ‘Neighbour burns garbage under my bedroom window’ with outrage after learning of such bellicose residents in his community. 

Dear Editor, Since 2015 certain interventions at the national level have brought to the local environment a climate which one wit claimed (or declaimed) as ‘veteranism’.

Dear Editor, People are looking but in vain expecting to find something that would inspire confidence and renewed hope in the 2017 APNU+AFC Budget.

Dear Editor, I am constrained to respond to Tony Vieira for the last time on this issue (out of necessity) so that the public is not unwittingly misled (‘Craig’s letter contained numerous areas of misinformation’ SN, Nov 30).

Dear Editor, Allen Stanford, the man who spent tens of millions of dollars to promote the shorter version of cricket in the Caribbean, has lost his final bid to be released from prison after he was convicted and jailed for a ponzi scheme in which he fleeced hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.

In October 2016, the Commonwealth Secretariat released its second Global Youth Development Index, mere days after the Guyana Government passed its National Youth Policy in Parliament, a policy which was said to, inter alia, “[encourage] leadership, participation and representation.”