Editorial

It was the Irish philosopher Edmund Burke who said: “Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it.

Last week Guyana entered the realm of the truly absurd. The last vestiges of hope that anyone might have entertained that we could inch towards a more rational ordering of our affairs, now appear to have been dashed.

As the United States readies itself for another hard fought election, the character, style and record of President Obama are beginning to take centre stage.

Angelo Dundee, the man who worked with some of the greatest names in boxing, died at the beginning of the month, at the age of 90.

Before Ms Simona Broomes and her colleagues launched the Guyana Women’s Miners Association, the average Guyanese would only have known about a few women miners, one of them being Ms Cyrilda DeJesus, who for years had been the face of women miners in Guyana.

The direction of the civic uprising in Syria must seem increasingly incomprehensible to outside observers.

It took two years after former President Bharrat Jagdeo assented to the Private Security Services Act (2009) for the Order actualizing its provisions to be signed by the Minister of Home Affairs.

As stated in the February 5, 2012 Sunday Stabroek editorial, after two decades in office inclusive of a major disaster seven years ago, the PPP/C government has run out of excuses where it relates to viable solutions and a comprehensive plan to confront flooding.

“As willing as my government is to exercise patience, forbearance and reasonableness in the interest of all of our people, my administration will not be held [to] ransom… [by] intractable postures,” President Ramotar told parliamentarians in his first address to the National Assembly on Friday.

As the race for the US Republican party nomination meanders between four different candidates, the use of negative campaigning has assumed new significance.

Just in case anyone believes that Caricom states are still capable of consistently clever diplomacy, then think again.

It was reported last Friday, that following one of their meetings, the government and the parliamentary opposition agreed to set up three committees that would, broadly, deal with issues affecting governance, the constitution and the economy.

It would not be odd if, in various capitals of the smaller states and economies of the world, both officials and citizens are beginning to be somewhat fearful of the continuing economic crisis among many countries in the Eurozone, and of what has appeared to be a gridlock between the centres of government and Congressional  decision-making in the United States.

About a week ago, Labour Minister Dr Nanda Kishore Gopaul made an eye-catching comment in a section of the print media about what he described as “brazen disrespect for the country’s labour laws by some local and foreign companies.”

Parliament’s new configuration and the PPP/C’s loss of its accustomed majority will test all sides in and out of the House on several seminal questions.

One wonders what else there is to say about flooding in Guyana that hasn’t be said many times before.

Valentine’s Day this year will mark the twenty-third anniversary of the Iranian fatwa against the novelist Salman Rushdie.

Wednesday’s editorial, ‘Britain and Caricom,‘ raised a few questions about the coordination, coherence, efficiency and efficacy of Caricom’s collective diplomacy.

With 2012 just a month old, there have already been at least four reports of serious crimes committed against children in Guyana.

The dominating thought in the minds of those who would have heard of an imminent meeting between the foreign ministers of Caricom and their counterpart from the United Kingdom, William Hague, a little over a week and a half ago, must have been whether he would be bringing fresh, positive news about what Caricom considers the exorbitant Air Passenger Duty (APD) imposed by the British.