Shaun Michael Samaroo

Fresh ideas and innovative thinking create the kind of foundation for progress to happen.

We start the year 2012 with the hung Parliament hanging over our heads, as the political parties bicker and quarrel in acrimony and strife over the Speaker’s chair.

Time marches on with such rapid haste. As we usher in 2012 in a couple of days, the global village settles into its stride to tackle the enormous challenges facing the 21st century human family.

In a world that shrinks as the microprocessor squeezes every bit out of every nanosecond, this nation must start thinking of our place in the global village.

Living in this country could be such a beautiful experience. The natural environment of breezy warmth, the sunny weather bathed in lush tropical rains, the leafy greenery and fertile land – these offer a lifestyle of tranquil beauty, of a quietude of the soul.

Listening to people voice their concerns across this country shows voters want urgent action on three fronts: rampant State corruption, pervasive organized crime, and promised Constitutional reform.

Port Kaituma bustles with taxis shuttling people to and from the small airport, a hyper-busy commercial centre crammed with pickup trucks, SUVs, cars and ATVs, and boats traversing the calm, brown Barima and Kaituma rivers.

Travelling around the hinterland talking to Guyanese inspires a great belief in the future of this nation.

Statistics tell one story. It’s quite different to experience the reality of what those stats mean.

Choosing what kind of government we want to govern us as a people is the whole point of free and fair, democratic national elections.

By Shaun Michael Samaroo in Toronto Noting that he “still does not know why my wife was killed in Guyana”, Bob Persaud, brother-in-law of slain government Minister Sash Sawh, made an impassioned plea for a change in government as he    declared his support for the Alliance For Change in Canada on Friday.

In this elections campaign, Government hails its macro-economic policies and parade economic statistics to prove that it has developed this country over the past 19 years.

How do we nurture this society to be the best place for Guyanese to spend their days, to call home?

Even as experts bemoan the fact that 85 percent of this country’s skilled people migrated and gave their talents to overseas societies, we still have a pool of great people who stayed here and battled the tide of deterioration.

Serena Williams lost the US Open tennis final recently, and ended up on the front page of the world’s newspapers.

Democracy promises power to the individual. Yet, the average person feels powerless and unable to influence the shaping of this land, of making a positive impact on his or her society.

Working hard to hone and develop inner character rewards one with a deep appreciation of life’s beauty.

Cultivating the reading habit presents any person with the greatest of gifts.

Words play a vital role in a person’s life. We negotiate the wilderness of our social environment with words and language.

Democracy works best as a triangular love affair between the people of the society, elected government under free and fair national elections, and an independent, diverse, credible and ethical mass media.