Editorial

In the wake of the stunning allegation that eight presidential guards spearheaded an enforcer operation on behalf of a Brazilian businessman that involved vandalism and a series of other crimes, one would expect the immediate standing down of the Head of the Presidential Guard, an instant shake-up of arrangements for presidential security, a risk assessment and an inquiry into exactly what transpired.

It is impossible at this distance in time to fully grasp the extraordinary brutality of the eighteenth century slave system and the extent of the suffering both physical and mental which it inflicted.

Police in Norway have yet to determine whether Anders Behring Breivik acted alone when planning and carrying out the bombing and shooting spree that claimed at least 77 lives in Oslo last week.

Norway, a country comparatively unknown to most Guyanese, has in the past couple of years become relatively more familiar because of its interest in the preservation of our rainforest.

Over the years, judges and magistrates have railed at police prosecutors and the police in general over poor prosecution, insufficient evidence, illegally obtained evidence and a host of other missteps that have caused cases to collapse and be thrown out because guilt could not be proven.

The ruling last week by a Trinidad & Tobago court making awards to investors in Clico and a statement from Prime Minister Denzil Douglas of St Kitts and Nevis, as Chairperson of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, on the fate of the Antigua ABI Bank, remind us that difficulties emanating from the 2008 recession continue to be unresolved, and are forcing themselves on Caribbean policy-makers.

Former FIFA Vice President Austin ‘Jack’ Warner having been the first victim of his promised football Tsunami, it may now be the turn of the entire Caribbean to feel the full force of the cash-for-votes tidal wave that has buffeted FIFA, international football’s governing body over the past few months.

Given that this administration has only a few more months to run, the haste with which important and challenging legislation is being brought to the House suggests that President Jagdeo wants to go down in history as the leader who presided over the passage of Access to Information and Broadcasting reform bills.

The horrendous minibus accident which occurred on Homestretch Avenue on Monday prodded the PPP into issuing one of their customary releases, in which drivers were urged to act more responsibly and commuters were exhorted to insist that drivers conduct themselves responsibly.

Although the imminent starvation of millions in the  Horn of Africa has now, finally, been classified as a famine – a term the UN and other international aid agencies reserve for only the most dire emergencies – there is little hope that aid will arrive in time to prevent tens of thousands more deaths.

Love him or loathe him, everyone recognizes that President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is a fighter.

Road rage is the term used to describe a violent incident, which results from stress caused by an accident (mainly minor) or other road incident, where a driver expresses aggressive behaviour.

The apparently serious illness of President Hugo Chávez has taken observers by surprise, as it has, from all accounts, taken the President himself.

Trinidad and Tobago is in the midst of one of those high-octane political periods with which we in Guyana are altogether unfamiliar.

For 24 years while in opposition, the PPP railed against rigged elections, human rights abuses, corruption and lack of transparency in government.

The Friday before last President Jagdeo gave a news conference at his office during which he told reporters on the matter of reforming the presidency: “There are things I think I would like to see… But I don’t see anything major because… we did the major thing, which was to limit people who sit in this job, unlike any country in the Caribbean.”

The phone-hacking scandal which has brought News International to the attention of British media regulators will surprise no one who has followed the career of Rupert Murdoch.

What more can one say about Shivnarine Chanderpaul that has not already been said?

Treasurer of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown Mr Andrew Meredith confessed on Monday that he has been having difficulty sleeping and the reason for this is the poor state of the city’s finances.

After over fifty years of fighting, or civil war, even preceding the attainment of independence by the Sudan, and after about two million recorded deaths, South Sudan obtained its independence from the larger state relatively peacefully last Saturday.