AUBREY NORTON IS AT A FORK IN THE ROAD

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 16th April 2022, 9:00 pm

The fundamental objective of a political party is to gain political office and implement its policies for the benefit of the country. After months of grueling effort, Aubrey Norton has finally succeeded in overcoming ‘factionalism’ in the PNC by being nominated for a seat in the National Assembly and being elected as Opposition Leader. The word ‘factionalism’ is adopted from an editorial in Village Voice, an internet newspaper that is generally sympathetic to the Opposition. It discussed Norton’s journey from candidate to Opposition Leader.

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LAW WEEK

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 9th April 2022, 9:00 pm

Law Week, sponsored by the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), is yet another innovative and imaginative effort by the legal profession to highlight and promote the importance of law and a law-based society in Guyana. Law Week commenced with the ceremonial opening of the April Assizes which involved for the first time a procession of Judges and lawyers behind the Disciplined Forces Parade. This was followed by speeches by the President of the GBA, Ms. Pauline Chase, the Chancellor (ag), The Hon. Yonette Cummings-Edwards, the Chief Justice (ag), The Hon. Roxane George-Wiltshire and the Attorney General, The Hon. Mohabir Anil Nandlall.

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THE TRINIDAD CONNECTION

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 2nd April 2022, 9:00 pm

A robust debate has been triggered by Guyana’s Local Content Act (the Act) between Guyanese and Trinidad and Tobago business organisations, businesspeople and involving some Guyanese public officials. The debate has had little input from ordinary Guyanese citizens. For example, there has been few, if any, letters in the press from Guyanese expressing outrage against Trinidadians for any reason. However, while the debate is limited to Trinidad’s business practices, trade policies and importance to Guyana as a Caricom member, there is a strong undercurrent in Guyana of resentment against what is believed to be Trinidad’s historically unflattering view of Guyanese due, it has always been believed, to Trinidad’s sense of its own superiority by virtue of its oil wealth as against Guyana’s relative poverty.

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THE US AND GUYANA

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 26th March 2022, 9:00 pm

The visit of US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Barbara Feinstein, to Guyana, and her wide-ranging discussions, mark an important step in the evolving relations between the US and Guyana. In the past, Guyana was not on the itinerary of high-ranking US officials. Prior to the visit of Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State in 2020, the last visit of a senior official was that of Phillip Habib, US Under Secretary of State, in June 1977 when he said as regards human rights: “This is not, in our view, a problem in Guyana.” The US was then mending a quarrel with the Burnham administration over the terrorist bombing of a Cuban aircraft in October 1976 in which 73 persons, 11 of whom were Guyanese, died. Now expected to play a greater role in Latin America because of the discovery of large petroleum resources, in which US companies are involved, the US interest in Guyana has escalated.

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AT HOME WITH CHEDDI

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Tuesday, 22nd March 2022, 6:00 pm

In 1991 Vidya Naipaul, the Trinidad born Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, visited Guyana for the second time. He had first come in 1961 and had met Cde Cheddi and Cde Janet. On this second occasion he visited them both again and spoke at length with Cde Cheddi here at his home. This is how he described the scene:

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The Conversation Tree is both physical and philosophical. The physical is the tree itself, which has given its name to the road from which it originates at the intersection of the Rupert Craig Highway. It was reputedly first planted by Napleton William King in 1876 to celebrate the birth of his son Napleton Walter. As...
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