Editorial

What do the numbers 70, 600 and 1,000 have in common?

Forty-three years ago this month, in 1967, the island of Anguilla voted in a referendum in which its leaders sought to confirm their secession two years before, from the then British colony of St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, re-baptised as an Associated State of the United Kingdom.

Had the public security situation throughout the country not been so dreadful, the public might not have realised just how much time the Minister of Home Affairs spends on issues which have little to do with everyday violent crimes. 

Amid the daily diet of crime, unprecedented violence against women and children, the divisive and bitter politics that suffuses every part of life and the increasingly oppressive hands of the government and the opaqueness of its business, it is easy to forget that positive things are also happening.

Considering that as far as the public was concerned Venezuela has not been on the foreign policy radar for so long, last Wednesday’s visit by President Bharrat Jagdeo to Caracas came as something of a surprise.

The story of Shirley Sherrod, a US Department of Agriculture official recently fired for allegedly making racist remarks in a speech to the NAACP, is a cautionary tale about the fragility of truth in a digital age.

It is 65 years since the end of the Second World War.

Yesterday, the world’s largest social networking hub Facebook announced that it had reached its 500 millionth member.

Responding to much expression, through the media, of public concern about the direction of Caricom, the Heads of Government once again committed themselves, at their recent 37th Meeting, to seeking to find a more appropriate form of governance than presently exists.

All eyes were on Trinidad and Tobago’s new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisessar at the annual meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community earlier this month in Jamaica.

The unnerving ease with which the government recently announced that the once-grand old New Amsterdam Hospital will be torn down should cause sleepless nights for those who have had a life-long affiliation with the Bourda Cricket Ground and have nurtured undying memories of tense test match finishes and absorbing draws there.

So finally we have the confession from the horse’s mouth. The citizenry has known the truth all along, of course; but to secure an unforced admission from the government was something which no one could have anticipated.

In 1997 the literary critic Hugh Kenner gave a fascinating series of lectures on the ways that new thoughts circulate in a culture.

It would have been a sporting travesty of the highest order if Holland had snatched the FIFA World Cup from Spain in last Sunday’s emotional and pulsating, albeit ugly, final.

Take a walk on the wild side today and venture into the foul streets of this city.

A sustained effort of relatively quiet European diplomacy on the part of the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church towards Cuba on the issue of human rights, has brought a result, with the Cuban Government’s announcement at the end of last week of its intention to release fifty-two persons held in prison for some years.

Expressing ‘sympathy,’ rather than apologising, to the parents of the 16-year-old schoolboy Kelvin Fraser who a policeman killed last month, Minister of Home Affairs Mr Clement Rohee confessed that elements of the Guyana Police Force displayed poor training and “bad judgement” in their duties.

A grievous blow has been dealt to the mining community of Mahdia by the July 1st fire that swept through its commercial centre, razing many small businesses, causing millions in losses and leaving several families homeless.

A week last Wednesday, we reported on the contents of a press release issued by the Ministry of Education, which said that Minister Shaik Baksh was considering offering scholarships and special incentives for trained Mathematics and Science teachers as a means of promoting the two subject areas in schools.

Anyone who was a child in the Burnham era will recall the absolute unbridled thrill of a (contraband) bar of chocolate or even a tin of sardines at a time when neither could be found on the shelves of local shops.