Editorial

You have to give it to Bharrat Jagdeo. He has been trying to “sell” Guyana’s rainforest since the early 2000s going around the world saying if you don’t buy our trees they may have to be chopped down.

In the Press Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders last year, Guyana secured a commendable 34th place out of the 180 countries reviewed. 

One imagines a number of jaws dropped on Monday when PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo submitted that party’s list for the June 12 Local Government Elections, inclusive of the name Patricia Chase-Green.

The Guyana contingent to the 50th Junior Carifta Games, held in Nassau, The Bahamas from 7th to 10th April, returned home last Thursday evening basking in the glow of their fifth place finish, to a rousing welcome of drumming, confetti and bouquets of flowers.

Quite how it turned out that a contingent of national athletes travelling to represent Guyana at the CARIFTA Games in The Bahamas found themselves issued with one-way airline tickets, is a bit of a mind-boggler though it has to be said that astounding anomalies in the administration of sport have not, historically, been altogether alien to us.

On December 11th last year, more than four months ago, there was a confrontation in the Providence Police Station between two civilians during which a gunshot was fired and the cops fled for cover.

It is difficult for anyone who has never stood in front of thirty secondary school students averse to learning to understand exactly what is involved.

The dream of owning one’s own home is probably a widely held aspiration for the remaining renter/landless class of Guyana.

“Members of the public can look out for the Guyana Police Force’s proactive arrangement in terms of dealing with noise pollution, which is expected to bring some degree of relief,” said acting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken in July last year in reference to a ceremony where the Environmental Protection Agency had officially handed over noise meters to the GPF.

Last Friday, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrated its 75th anniversary highlighting the contributions it has made over the years and the progress in global public health, World Health Day was observed under the theme ‘Health for All’.

Last weekend – Easter – would certainly have created a treasure trove of priceless memories for many of our younger generation; lots of sunshine, Easter Monday kite flying on the seawall, or in open spaces, bundles of fun, the overwhelming delicious smells of barbecues, cook-outs, and spending time with family and friends.

The fact that political control of the state-owned media in Guyana has, over time, ceased to be a matter of any meaningful national debate is a reflection of the extent to which we have come to accept the reality that control of both the administrative and operational levers of those media houses that are funded by our ‘tax dollars’ has become a fait accompli.

The Ministry of Public Works should be applauded for issuing an ultimatum to businesses to remove trucks and trailers on the city’s roadways.

The capital city has always represented a challenge for a PPP government.

It might be asked why so many column inches are being expended on the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

As multiple crises continue to threaten the world, the United Nations estimates that 350 million people will face acute food insecurity this year.

Here in Guyana, for the last 40-odd years, we have been deluged with hours of American television programming to the point where local aficionados have begun to identify with professional sports teams as though they are actually living in those cities, whether it be the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, or the NFL’s New England Patriots of Boston, or Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees.

Some of the earliest ‘returns’ from the recent disclosure that President Irfaan Ali would be moving in the direction of ‘decentralizing’ his own office along with those of various Ministries and other state-run agencies in order to make their services more accessible to Guyanese residing beyond the capital were made public in the Stabroek News of April 1st.

Posterity will record that a doughty battle is being waged by civil society activists, the media and ordinary citizens for accountability in the oil and gas sector, to ensure that the environment is not compromised and to make certain that the country and its people are not being cheated of what belongs to them.

Last week in an advertisement in this newspaper, miners, shopkeepers and the residents of Eteringbang related how they were being harassed and robbed by the National Guard and infamous Sindicato gang of Venezuela.