Editorial

The disclosure that the complex on Camp Street housing the offices of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) seemingly poses a threat to the safety and health of the authority’s employees should not come as a complete shock to the public.

A legal dispute has arisen over the appointment of Ms Rosalie Robertson as Registrar of Lands following the sending off on leave of the previous holder of the position, Ms Juliet Sattaur.

At least the government is still listening to criticism, and that is a major point in its favour.

If a quarter of the food wasted each day could be given to people who need it, there would be more than enough to feed every malnourished person on earth, according to the UN.

Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine has been named to chair the National Commemoration Commission (NCC), comprising representatives from government agencies, civil society and the diaspora, to oversee planning for Guyana’s golden jubilee next year.

Along with the ugly concrete high rises that have gone up around the city in the past few years, the ones that have been touted as signs of development by the new opposition, then in government, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of city beggars.

The formal reopening of embassies in each other’s capitals, marking a formal resumption of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States will have been generally welcomed around the world.

Those citizens of our capital who thumbed their noses at City Hall’s announcement over the weekend regarding tomorrow’s ‘Green Georgetown Restoration Consultation’ at the National Cultural Centre might be forgiven for doing so given all the circumstances that attend the event.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s budget has won plaudits from the private sector and other sections of society for the practical prescriptions and measures announced.

Last Monday Stabroek News reported that Dr Veerasammy Ramayya had left the AFC.

Modern news coverage often suggests that we are perpetually in crisis.

Dr Rudi Webster, the renowned sports psychologist and former West Indies cricket team manager, has, in a recent article, ‘The WICB: over-managed and under-led’, provided some telling comments on the afflictions of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) amidst some illuminating insights into the difference between management and leadership.

News last week that Guyana had relaunched its Suicide Prevention Helpline was more than welcome and many Guyanese would have breathed a sigh of relief.

Readers, particularly those interested in regional integration systems, will have been drawn to follow events in and around the European Union in recent times.

The events of recent years have sent those of us with an interest in football and even those with no interest in the game whatsoever, a clear and unmistakable message about the Fédéra-tion Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA’s) global status as the game’s unquestioned powerhouse.

It is easy to empathise with the Minister of Finance on the matter of being unable to announce a decrease in the rate of the Value Added Tax (VAT) as had been promised by APNU+AFC while in opposition.

It is clear that there needs to be a parliamentary committee set up in relation to the Venezuela border controversy as soon as possible.

Few actual journalists would have deserved the sendoff given to Jon Stewart as he took leave of the fake news show he has made into a staple of late-night television over the last 16 years.

History, especially post-conflict history is, as we are repeatedly reminded, usually written by the victors.

The Georgetown City Constabulary has spent the past few days trying to defend its archaic and discriminatory policy against women, which insists on a two-year probationary period and makes becoming pregnant within that period a firing offence.