Editorial

The President’s New Year address for 2023, replete with grand promises and projections for “transforming” Guyana, included his declaration that government intended to “step on the accelerator” with regard to the country’s growth and development.

Two Sundays ago, Guyanese were participating in Christmas celebrations with friends and family not suspecting that a swathe of shame was once again enveloping this country’s name 8,500-odd miles away, in New Delhi, India, at a function hosted by the former disgraced Guyanese High Commissioner Charrandass Persaud.

On Friday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Integrity Commission provided an end-of-year report to the public on its accomplishments.

So here we are at the start of a new year, although just how new it will be for most of us remains to be seen. 

When one thinks of drones it is often in the form of recreational models or military versions such as the “Kamikaze” drones being deployed by Russian forces in Ukraine to destroy vital infrastructure. 

Here we are about to enter the New Year with one of the highest poverty rates in Latin America, according to a World Bank report in October.

At the end of October, one imagines after much debate, the principals at Collins Dictionary chose permacrisis as its word of the year 2022.

Is there any such thing as luck? Or is it just a myth?

The Guyana Police Force was upbeat last week about its pre-Christmas statistical announcements, although this time, perhaps, there was some cause for the officers to indulge themselves with a measure of modest satisfaction.

In a speech before the Atlantic Council in April, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen used the term friend-shoring to describe America’s interest “in working with countries that “have strong adherence to a set of norms and values about how to operate in the global economy and about how to run the global economic system….”

Following a meeting with former PPP/C heads of state held shortly after President Irfaan Ali’s accession to office he was reported by the Department of Public Information as saying: “The whole issue of National Unity, how do we achieve national unity, were discussed … How do we look for example at the Racial Hostility Act to make it stronger with greater penalties for those who are bent on creating mischief and dividing our people?”

Even as local enterprises like the Backyard Cafe with its market tours and fresh-cooked meals, and the Pandama Retreat with its ‘Luv in a Calabash’ and fruit wines among others, go all out to foster food culture and promote food tourism, Guyanese palates are constantly being lured by foreign fast-food franchises.

The dicey subject of firearms was, once again, on the front burner of a heated public debate last week following the involvement of a gun in the suspected murder/suicide of a couple in their early 30s at Belle West, Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara.

In times when it has become altogether commonplace for even some of the most seemingly inconsequential occurrences to become deluged by an avalanche of public speculation, we cannot honestly feign surprise over the surfeit of public chatter that has attended the events that occurred at State House early last Thursday morning.

In recent weeks a variety of suggestions have arisen for modernising voting on polling day so that ostensibly the casting of a ballot will occur faster and results will be made available quicker.

The government through its holding company NICIL is now seeking expressions of interest for the sale of its shares in the Marriott Hotel.

A strike by speedboat operators crossing the Demerara River started on Friday December 9th as part of their long running demands for a price increase on the $100 fare frozen for eight years.

On Wednesday Mayor Ubraj Narine along with MP Sherod Duncan were escorted to the Brickdam Police Station and charged with attempting to excite hostility or ill will on the ground of race, using a computer system in an attempt to excite ethnic division on the ground of race and obstructing traffic.

The announcement by President Irfaan Ali on Sunday that 150 homes were to be constructed for vulnerable members of the  population across the country, by members of an initiative dubbed Men on Mission which he leads, was deserving of plaudits.

Last Saturday, at the 56th University of Guyana Convocation Ceremony, internationally renowned musician and songwriter David Anthony Martins, founder of the famous Tradewinds band, was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.