Conversation Tree

VESTIGES OF SOCIALISM

In response to a complaint by Dr. Terrence Campbell that higher wages and salaries by government and foreign companies areattracting workers away from local businesses which cannot compete, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo responded that “people want the vestiges of socialism still to hang on…” (Dem Waves Jan 9). It appears that the Vice President meant that the plea for the protection sought for local business is tantamount to relying on the ‘vestiges of socialism.’

DEFENDERS OF DEMOCRACY HONOURED IN US, NOT IN GUYANA

On Friday last President Biden presented the Presidential Citizens Medal to 14 US citizens – policemen and civilians – who resisted attempts to undermine the elections of November, 2009, and resisted the mob that violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, to overturn the election results. President Biden said that history will “remember your names, remember your courage, remember your bravery.” The Trump Administration, and President Trump himself, had engaged in devious strategies to manufacture votes to ensure a favourable election result. When that failed, efforts were made to select fraudulent delegates to the Electoral College to vote for Trump, notwithstanding the election results. Attempts were also made to pressure Vice President Pence not to declare a result or to declare one in favour of Trump. This is the first time within living memory that the US has faced the prospect of its presidential elections being rigged.

GUYANA GRASPS AT THE PROSPECT FOR PROGRESS IN THE NEW YEAR

Predictions of significant economic growth in Guyana due to the developing petroleum industry are being realized. Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021 was US$8.04 B., representing a 20 percent growth rate. GDP reached the US$4 B mark in 2012 and increased to US$5 B in 2019. From US$8.04B in 2021 the GDP is projected to grow in 2022 by 56 percent which will take its projected GDP to US$12+ B. Its per capita income grew from US$9,000+ to US$10,000+.

IT’S CHRISTMAS!

Guyanese would probably think of better things to do than read the newspapers today. For those who choose to read this article, please accept my best wishes for a Happy Christmas. For other readers of Stabroek News, and all Guyanese, I wish you also Happy Christmas. Stabroek News has generously published the articles that I began to write for my blog, Conversation Tree (conversationtree.gy), and still do. I had begun writing for the Mirror several years before, taking over Mrs. Janet Jagan’s page 3 after she passed. But I was later relegated to the second to last page, amidst the sports news, after Mr. Donald Ramotar, campaigning for the PPP’s nomination, like me, took over page 3. Of course, I was not notified and thought that the Mirror had stopped publishing me. It was only upon inquiry I was notified of my ‘demotion.’ Unusually, Stabroek News occasionally ran a news story on my Mirror articles. After the PPP and I fell out in 2012, I began the blog and SN began to publish the articles I wrote for the blog. At this time of giving thanks, which marks approximately ten years of publication, which I thankfully acknowledge and wish its Editor in Chief, its editors, its staff in general and its Sunday Editor and staff in particular a Happy Christmas.

THE MUSLIM STATE OF ‘ALI IRFAAN.’

Former Prime Minister and Mayor Hamilton Green, writing in one national newspaper on December 15, suggested that Guyanese should not be surprised if Guyana is renamed the ‘State of Ali Irfaan.’ Unlike current Mayor of Georgetown, Pandit Ubraj Narine, who sees the emergence of a Muslim State in conflict with Hindus, the now self-styled ‘Elder,’ sees the new State as embracing Hindus. His prediction is that the Georgetown will be renamed ‘Bharrat City.’ This convergence of a Muslim State with a Hindu Capital should give some solace to the Mayor, who feared personalized conflict. At least the Mayor, a Hindu Priest, would be presiding over a capital city that bears a Hindu name, ‘Bharat,’ an ancient name for India.