Guyana welcomes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Apart from relations with Caricom in relation to energy security, illegal immigration and criminal networks as defined by US Assistant Secretary of State Mauricio Claver-Carone, the issues of importance in Guyana’s relations with the US are Venezuela, China and Cuba.
Continue reading “THE VISIT OF US SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO”THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF DESCENDANTS OF THE BRITISH
A letter in Stabroek News by Keith Bernard entitled “The British – and Durch – descended populations historiography seems to have been drowned out by larger ethnic narratives” caught my attention yesterday morning. One of the most prominent professional institutions that have emerged from Guyana’s colonial history is the law firm of Cameron & Shepherd which was established by two British solicitors William Stuart Cameron and Charles Edward Shepherd and whose Senior Partner up to 2006 was Joseph Arthur King, popularly known as “Joey King,” whose great grandparents were British.
Continue reading “THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF DESCENDANTS OF THE BRITISH”PRESIDENT ALI MUST NOT BE A SUPPLICANT TO MADURO
So Maduro wants to talk based on the provisions of the Geneva Agreement. In the first place, President Ali must not give credibility, or fall victim, to the hoary tale of Venezuela’s false interpretation of the Geneva Agreement that it mandates a resolution of the border controversy by negotiation between the two countries. Negotiation was mandated only in relation to the Mixed Commission for a period of four years. Article 1 states: “A Mixed Commission shall be established with the task of seeking satisfactory solutions for the practical settlement of the controversy…” Article states: “If within a period of four years of this Agreement, the Mixed Commission shall not have arrived at a full agreement it shall, in its final report, refer to the Government of Guyana and the Government of Venezuela any outstanding questions. Those Governments shall without delay choose one of the means of peaceful settlement provided in Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Continue reading “PRESIDENT ALI MUST NOT BE A SUPPLICANT TO MADURO”GUYANA SEEKS MEASURES FROM THE ICJ TO BLOCK VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s most recent belligerent act, the unprovoked and aggressive intrusion into Guyana’s maritime space, attracted widespread condemnation, including from the United States. This atrocity is certainly intended to intimidate Guyana and to escalate tensions. It may also well be that with a US company, Exxon, with partners, engaged in extracting oil from within Guyana’s EEZ, one of Venezuela’s objectives was to send a message to the US that it can create trouble in this region after the US terminated Chevron’s licence. Venezuela has got its answer in the US’s condemnation.
Continue reading “GUYANA SEEKS MEASURES FROM THE ICJ TO BLOCK VENEZUELA”THE BANKS AND THE STONE AGE
The institutions most often criticized by the Government and private sector officials are the banks. The most recent is that the banks are in the stone age. If the Government has the power to legislate, and the banks are among the most regulated institutions in the country, a relevant question is: having regard to the existing regulations, or the lack thereof, who has placed them in the stone age and who is keeping them there? Recently the Security Interests in Movable Property Act was passed in the National Assembly as an effort to extricate them out of the stone age. I wrote on it, describing it as “A transformative economic and financial instrument” in December 2024. For years officials have been ranting and raving about banks being ‘backward’ in not opening up lending possibilities without taking into account the absence of legal instruments to secure such lending. Now that legislation is in place lending is now possible on security other than mortgages of real property or by way of debentures on companies’ assets.
Continue reading “THE BANKS AND THE STONE AGE”