Editorial

On Friday the design for the proposed bridge over the Corentyne River was unveiled in the presence of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and his Suriname counterpart, Dr Riad Nurmohamed.

A year ago, a number of multilateral agencies collaborated on a report aimed at highlighting the chasmal global crisis in education.

Over the last twenty odd years of perennial losing, die hard West Indies cricket fans thought that their team had found every conceivable way of losing matches and shattering their hopes.

In quick succession, between June 8th and June 25th, the Government of Guyana released news, first, of the signing of a contract worth $688 million for the rebuilding of a new Christ Church Secondary School to replace the one destroyed by fire back in January, and just last week, the commissioning of a $585 million ‘state-of-the-art’ Abram Zuil Secondary School in Region Two.

On Tuesday, President Ali held impromptu community meetings in Lamaha Gardens, Campbellville and Newtown Kitty.

It was Trinidad Prime Minister Keith Rowley who told the University of the West Indies last week that it had fallen away from its mission in scientific research.

December 17, 1903. On a small island off the coast of North Carolina, a contraption made of not much more than wood and cloth with a small engine and propeller strapped to its front flew a distance of 120 ft along the sand dunes.

Britain’s former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been compared to America’s Donald Trump.

“Empty belly life Rotten smelly life Full of sorrow life No tomorrow life…”  – Excerpt from the lyrics of “It’s the Hard Knock Life”, the theme song of the 1977 musical Annie On Monday, June 12, 13-year-old Rovin Mark Williams of Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast died in what can perhaps be termed an industrial incident, except for the fact that his employment was illegal.

On Saturday evening at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, Guyana’s Men’s football team beat their Grenadian counterparts 5 – 3 on penalty kicks, after the game was tied 1 – 1, at the end of regulation time.

A month ago Guyana had, unexpectedly, found itself immersed in a condition of shock and awe, having learnt that there had been a horrific fire at a state-run Dormitory at Mahdia.

Approaching three years since his government took office, President Ali continues to refuse to convene press conferences, a most extraordinary circumstance as far as modern governance goes. 

There was PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday assuring Georgetowners that the government had a plan to transform their city and would adhere to it.

While spin doctors from the two main parties are busy declaring victory in this week’s local government elections, it feels more like they fought each other to a draw which points to perils and opportunities for both sides ahead of 2025. 

“This is clearly a wipeout,” said a jubilant Bharrat Jagdeo following the announcement of the local government elections, “[We have] made phenomenal inroads in APNU strongholds.”

On March 11 this year, Mr Neptrid Hercules, who was just seven months shy of retirement, having worked in the mining industry for some 42 years, disappeared along with the bulldozer he was operating when an earthen structure in the area where he was working collapsed.

Two recent occurrences, seemingly worlds apart, bear a common thread. The tragic fire at the school dormitory in Mahdia which led to the loss of 20 children, and the charges under the Espionage Act laid against former American president Donald Trump, have prompted the same question: wherein lies the extent of the moral and legal responsibility of government officials?

Whenever tragedies of the magnitude of the May 22 Mahdia Dormitory Fire occur our earliest thoughts rush in the direction of the victims, anchoring us to the tragedy, causing us, from our respective distances to tender condolences which we hope might translate into some measure of comfort.

Three weeks after the fire at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory that claimed the lives of 20 children and left many others injured and traumatised the government is still to announce the anticipated inquiry into the tragedy.

Tomorrow Guyana goes to the polls for Local Government Elections.  In numerical terms the PPP/C always does better in these than does the opposition simply because there are 70 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and ten municipalities, albeit of varying sizes and consequently with varying numbers of council representatives.