The legacy of Dr. Cheddi Jagan emerges for consideration in March every year, the month of his birth and of his passing. Dr. Clem Seecharan’s book, “Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War 1946-1992,” has provoked some discussion this year. Dr. Seecharan is an historian of modest accomplishments who wrote mainly about cricket, until he was […]
Tag Archives: history
THE PRICE OF PROGRESS
I live in ‘Old Bel Air.’ It was previously known as ‘Plantation Bel Air.’ The prefix, ‘Plantation,’ fell into disuse after Old Bel Air became part of Greater Georgetown in the late 1960s or thereabouts.In order to distinguish it from Bel Air Gardens, Bel Air Park and Bel Air Springs, it began to be referred […]
CIVIL SOCIETY
Civil society began to attain prominence about fifty years ago as non-state actors outside the political and business communities. The World Bank defines civil society as “a wide array of organisations: community groups, non-governmental organisations [NGOs], labour unions, indigenous groups, charitable organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, and foundations.” Under generally accepted principles of democracy and […]
‘HE NEVER REALLY LEFT THE PLANTATION’
Dr. Baytoram Ramharack is a leading protagonist of the view, held by a section of educated Indian Guyanese opinion, that Cheddi Jagan was a plantation idiot. This view is argued with singular clarity in much of Professor Clem Seecharran book, ‘Sweetening Bitter Sugar’ (2005), ostensibly about the life and times of Jock Campbell. While Professor […]
D’URBAN PARK
D’Urban Park and D’Urban Backlands are named after Sir Benjamin D’Urban, appointed Governor of Demerara-Essequibo in 1824. He became, with the addition of Berbice in 1831, Governor of British Guiana from 1831 to 1833. D’Urban Park was home to Guyana’s most famous horse racing track. I remember when, still a child, I was taken there […]