LOVE AND FOOD

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 12th February 2022, 9:00 pm

Cynthia Nelson has fascinated Guyanese for over a decade and a half with her “Tastes Like Home” articles in Stabroek News. She is an artist of the highest calibre and her supremely creative work in nurturing, creating and promoting Guyanese cuisine with an intensely patriotic enthusiasm, over such a long period, suggests a creative dedication that few can sustain. Cuisine is part of our culture and Ms. Nelson has mastered the unique spirit of our ancestors not only in producing and promoting the foods that they created through struggle, necessity, inventiveness and experimentation. But Ms. Nelson is, by far, the most imaginative interpreter of our cuisine that Guyana has produced. Utilising, combining and manipulating local ingredients and tastes into the most unique and delightful of dishes is no mean feat, and doing so with such dedicated excellence has elevated Ms. Nelson to one of Guyana’s leading cultural ambassadors.

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MUDWATA

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 5th February 2022, 9:00 pm

MUDWATA, still defiantly profane and homophobic, is back, daring the authorities to find him and ridiculing their arrest of Keron Bruce. It is not certain whether MUDWATA is a comedian, a campaigner against evil, or a vulgarian seeking to appeal only to the prurient. Some will argue that his profanity and homophobia disqualify him from aspiring to legitimacy. But I rather suspect that he doesn’t care and the people who tune in to YouTube who find him funny, notwithstanding his deterioration in quality since he has been publishing on YouTube. It may that his undoubted talent is not enough to sustain any greater ambitions.

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UKRAINE – THE DRUMBEAT OF WAR

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 29th January 2022, 9:00 pm

The crisis which emerged after the Russian deployment of troops on its border with Ukraine in recent weeks has led to diplomatic discourses between the United States, Russia and NATO. The Russian Government put forward an eight-point draft treaty, the core issues of which relate to the rollback of NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe since 1997 and Ukraine’s permanent exclusion from NATO. It is hardly likely that the Russian Government expects that NATO will return to its pre-1997 borders or that NATO would agree to officially limit its expansion, including to Ukraine. But enlightened observers have expressed the view that Russia may be prepared to accept an undertaking that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO in the foreseeable future and the limiting of intimidatory and threatening military exercises.

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YESU PERSAUD

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 22nd January 2022, 9:00 pm

The editorial of Stabroek News and the letter by Clement Rohee in yesterday’s edition provide two of the most excellent tributes to the late Yesu Persaud that have been written. While the full scale of the contributions made by Yesu Persaud would require much more than a few articles, so monumental they were and so pervasively they impacted on the creation of the modern Guyana, at least they capture some of the significant aspects of his long and productive career which have shaped the ideals of modern Guyana. His very life story reflects the struggle of Guyana and the Guyanese people for a better life. Emerging out of a logie as an illiterate rat catcher on Bookers’ sugar estates, then scaling the heights of the business sector, transitioning from the private to the public sector, rising to a business titan and humanitarian, his story embodies the struggle, hopes and aspirations of every disadvantaged and oppressed person in the world. He is a Guyanese patriot whose principles and accomplishments surpass those of most others.

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A DISUNITED PNCR IS NOT GOOD FOR GUYANA

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 15th January 2022, 9:00 pm

Trends have emerged in Guyana where political parties, principally the PNCR, sometimes define their responsibilities as relating to only those who they ‘represent’ or their ‘supporters’ or who ‘voted for them,’ even though, as Government or Opposition, they are expected to represent the interests of all Guyanese. But political polarization over the years has created an outlook so partisan in nature that political parties are tempted to look out for, or confine their responsibilities to, only those who voted for them. The PNCR, as the PPP generally does, should hold itself out as representing all Guyanese and its policies should be so explained, if it intends to acquire and retain, broad appeal. With both parties adopting a national mandate, a division in either weakens its capacity to represent the interests of the Guyanese nation.

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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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