Editorial

The most famous Dead White Male author since Shakespeare has been in the headlines ever since Oprah Winfrey, host of what is arguably the world’s most influential book club, announced plans for “a date with Dickens” over the Christmas season.

Some would say that President Hugo Chávez took off the gloves in Venezuela a while ago but now his many detractors are suggesting that his democratic mask has been definitively removed.

Mrs Mara Thompson, the widow of the prime minister of Barbados David Thompson, announced last week that she was contesting the January 20, 2011 by-election for the St John parish seat which became vacant on the death of her husband in October last year.

As the second decade of the new century rolls in, it would appear that even the major powers of the world, including the United States of America cannot, with confidence, set a path of movement in international politics and economics which they feel will proceed relatively smoothly.

Towards the end of last year the Commissioner of Police publicly declared that the extent of the attendance at the annual Police Gymkhana could be taken to mean that the Police Force still had many friends among the Guyanese people.

By way of a letter in the SN dated December 30, 2010, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Mr Dindyal Permaul disclosed that veterinarian and Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally had been appointed as Chairman of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA).

A quick recap of the big news stories from last year shows just how random our impressions of the world have become in an age of nonstop broadcasting.

Tonight at midnight, as we say goodbye to the Old Year and usher in 2011, the strains of ‘Auld lang syne’ will be heard at parties across the country, and many of us will sing or warble a rendition of the traditional ballad.

On Friday December 24, Christmas Eve, Mr Lyndon ‘Jumbie’ Jones, a well-known local actor, stand-up comedian and MC, was invited to the police station by police officers who knew him, and once there he was placed behind bars where he remained until Monday, December 27.

As 2010 recedes, there can be little doubt that much that was hoped for, by way of economic and social performance in most our Caricom countries, has not seen the light of day.

Quite a few thieves, would-be thieves and suspected thieves have been caught and mercilessly beaten by outraged residents of the communities that they have targeted.

Christmas in Guyana is a time when optimism for our possible futures seems most plausible. 

For many Guyanese who followed his career from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, he was the closest thing we had to a non-political national hero.

In three days, the holiday most celebrated universally will have come and gone.

In the face of post-earthquake distortions of the Haitian society and economy, it would hardly have been expected that elections for the presidency would have gone particularly smoothly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Service in particular have not grown or prospered under the PPP/Civic administration.

However he may try to spin it, the record will show that President Jagdeo described Guyana’s experience tapping forest protection funds from Norway as a “nightmare”.

Mr Ramotar, the General Secretary of the PPP, is becoming rather well travelled.

A decade from now, perhaps even sooner, newsprint may be as marginal to our daily lives as video cassettes and vinyl records.

The Christmas season is well under way and apart from the festive libations, the nostalgic juices are also in full flow.