According to press reports Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, Chairman of the Alliance For Change and the leader of its parliamentary contingent, has indicated that the AFC intends to vote for the reduction of allocations to various agencies. One objective is to reduce the number of contact employees. The total sum being cut amounts to $3.8B. To […]
Author Archives: Ralph Ramkarran
In 1978 the PNC administration proposed the Administration of Justice Bill which sought, among other things, to increase the number of offences which could be tried summarily, that is to say, before a Magistrate. These offences which were known as indictable offences, were heard before a Judge and jury. There was great opposition to the […]
More than fifty years ago the United Kingdom gave recognition to a reality that had existed for centuries or even millennia. It decriminalized homosexual acts by repealing legislation which made these acts illegal by providing that consenting adults are not guilty for such acts done in private. Such legislation, inherited from our colonial masters, who […]
The sense of déjà vu cannot be avoided. It took a while coming this time. But the refrain by APNU immediately after the elections about irregularities gave a hint of what was to come. Notwithstanding earlier assurances by Opposition leaders that their examination of the Statements of Poll would not show that the final results […]
The year 2011 has been proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of People of African Descent. My first article for this year commemorates this significant event by reviewing some ideas and views that shaped the character and motivated the sacrifices of the greatest African, and the most admired human being, alive today.
Ubuntu is an African concept which means that we are only human through the humanity of others; that if we accomplish anything it will be equally due to the achievements of others. Mandela explained this concept in the Preface to a book, Mandela’s Way, as one which is understood by its author, Richard Stengel, who had collaborated with him in the arduous task of writing Long Walk to Freedom. Mandela’s modesty would not allow him to tell us that he achieved anything in his lifetime. But his explanation of the concept allows him to tell us in a manner as elegant as the man himself, that if Stengel attributes any successes to him, it was equally due to the efforts and sacrifices of his colleagues.
