Editorial

In 1978 the writer John McPhee began a series of journeys across the United States to inspect rock formations along the 40th parallel, and to meet the geologists who examined and interpreted them.

Mention the phrase “consumer protection” in Guyana, and the name ‘Eileen Cox’ must immediately come to mind as her name had, over the years, become almost synonymous with the concept.

Back in the 1990s, scientists who were working on antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV—as it had been established that treating the virus would prevent the patient from developing AIDS—had predicted that in time and with better drugs, HIV would become like incurable communicable diseases in the sense that as long as those infected took their medications and followed doctors’ instructions as regards lifestyle adjustments they would live long, fairly healthy lives.

Peter Sellers, the English comedy actor is best remembered for his acting roles as Inspector Clouseau, an inept inspector in the French Sûreté, in the Pink Panther film series and as Hrundi V Bakshi, a bungling Indian actor who is accidentally invited to a lavish dinner party, in the film, The Party.

A cursory glance at what is just the preliminary report of the Commission of Inquiry into the state of education in Guyana tells us – as if we needed to be told, anyway ‒ that the system is underperforming woefully and that the need for a comprehensive overhaul has reached the point of a national emergency.

Justice Franklyn Holder’s decision to recuse himself from the case at whose March 23rd hearing he later reported that the Attorney General Basil Williams engaged in “despicable” conduct leaves unsettled quandaries for both the judiciary and the presidency. 

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the simple planning capacity of the public service has become seriously degraded.

As we contemplate the shift towards an oil economy in Guyana, we would do well to take note of petroleum’s impact on other countries and, perhaps, learn from their mistakes.

At the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg in March this year, 170 delegates held discussions on how to foster entrepreneurship and scale up new businesses while acknowledging that too many people sit on the periphery of the formal economy in many countries.

Dr Noel Blackman, a former Guyana minister of health, is soon to be sentenced in the United States for his role in providing a large number of people in that country with prescriptions for oxycodone, a drug known as an opioid, which while useful in providing pain relief, leads to addiction.

The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), the world governing body for athletics kicked off its 2017 international season with the first meet in the Diamond League in Doha, Qatar last Friday, but the main topic of conversation was not this season’s centre piece, the 16th edition of the IAAF World Champion-ships scheduled for London, England in August.

The least that regional governments can do is to engage in serious introspection – and perhaps even vigorous discourse at the level of CARICOM –  following the very pointed and profound public comments made in February by the President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr.

Article 119B of the Constitution provides for the establishment of Parliamentary sectoral committees on foreign relations, natural resources, social services and economic services.

Exactly why the government bundled two essentially different exercises like Amerindian and African land issues together under the umbrella of one Commission of Inquiry is not altogether clear, more especially as it seems to have recognised that even within that framework they would have to be treated separately.

The designation of May 3 as Portuguese Arrival Day – to commemorate the 1835 docking, in Demerara, of the Louisa Baillie from Madeira – is a welcome gesture of inclusivity and an overdue acknowledgement of our diversity.

In September of 2016, the Guyana Police Force launched “Operation Safeway” – a road safety initiative that was intended to positively impact the road safety environment in Guyana.

Late last week, City Hall, through Town Clerk Royston King, announced that this year’s Independence flag-raising ceremony was billed for the Stabroek Market Square and that preparing the venue for this august event would cost some $100 million and take two weeks.

Older folks will probably remember that title from the blockbuster comedy from the 1960s.

Even allowing for the fact that the Com-mission of Inquiry (COI) into the state of education in Guyana required a good deal of investigatory leg work (and a good deal of contemplation and analysis, as well) that would have taken the Commissioners into the various remote corners of the country, it took too long (a year or thereabouts) before we finally arrived at the juncture of a preliminary report on the findings of the undertaking.

For the year 2016, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) again failed to meet pivotal benchmarks including those pertaining to overall systems losses and the number of blackouts and their duration.