Editorial

The army band struck up the national anthems of Brazil and Guyana; the flags of the two nations were solemnly raised; earnest prayers were said; and two thousand people watched in eager anticipation as the Takutu Bridge, the new link between Guyana and its continental hinterland, was opened to the free flow of traffic for the first time.

A hundred days is not enough time to assess the likely prospects of a second baseman, or a running back, but that has prevented no one from large verdicts on Obama.

Cuba was on practically everyone’s lips in hemispheric political and diplomatic circles before and during the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

Every time a person lights up – a cigarette that is – his or her blood pressure immediately rises, temporarily.

We have already noted the amount of controversy characterizing the Summit of the Americas to its very end.

Minister of Home Affairs Mr Clement Rohee doesn’t speak much about the plague of piracy that continues to affect this country’s coastal and riverine waters.

The diabolical attempt on the life of the Commissioner of Insurance Ms Maria van Beek has brought back into sharp focus three law enforcement challenges: the ease with which firearms – legal and illegal – are available to criminals, the hiring of hit men and the shocking failure of the police to solve crimes in this category.

PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar is the latest ruling party figure to have his say on the local government task force, following Mr Clinton Collymore, Dr Roger Luncheon and President Jagdeo.

Washington has spent the last week debating the government’s decision to publicise the Bush White House’s torture memoranda.

The Fifth Summit of the Americas last weekend was a big deal for Trinidad and Tobago.

Anyone who has ever experienced thirst, not the urge to drink water that is readily available, but true thirst like that which occurs when one has been dehydrated as a result of illness or has no access to sources of clean water, knows the truth of the slogan ‘water is life.’

The appearance of President Nelson Mandela at the election rally of the African National Congress last Sunday, a few days before the country’s general elections, suggests that the ANC is taking no chances.

Two weeks after Commissioner of Police Henry Greene passed the normal age of retirement and celebrated his thirty-fifth year in the Guyana Police Force, he remains on the job.

President Jagdeo’s insistence on the linking of a probe of CLICO (Guyana) to one of Globe Trust is unacceptable and reveals the most cynical application of political manoeuvring.

We have already noted the amount of controversy characterizing the Summit of the Americas to its very end.

On the day the attempt was made on Ms Maria van Beek’s life, the airways were full of the suggestion that this was intended to send a message.

Twenty years ago on Valentine’s Day the British writer Salman Rushdie was placed under a death sentence by a foreign government for writing an “offensive” novel.

There has been some debate in our letters column about the wisdom of including $184M in the budget for the purpose of constructing airstrips on Leguan and Wakenaam.

In a presentation at its first roundtable held towards the end of March, the Pickney Project reported that cases encountered were  “interesting and deep” and that all forms of abuse had been found.

A perusal of the Trinidad & Tobago press during the last month or so indicates a mounting, and somewhat surprising, crescendo of mostly negative comment, on the decision of the Government of Trinidad & Tobago to host the forthcoming Summit of the Americas.