UPLIFTING MOMENTS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 8th October 2016, 9:00 pm

The Investiture Ceremony at the National Cultural Centre on Wednesday last was an uplifting event. Those fortunate to be present were able to witness the best of Guyanese, most of them unknown to the public but who have dedicated all or most of their lives to the service of Guyana.

For a brief moment at the ceremony, and later in media reports, Guyana is reminded of the numerous Guyanese who contribute daily, and for entire lifetimes, to the welfare of other Guyanese. It is hardly to be expected that such Guyanese set about their decades’ long service with the objective of eventually obtaining a national award. Most Guyanese who have been honoured are representative not only of their own achievements but also of the numerous other Guyanese who daily give of themselves but who are not nationally recognized. The objective of the awards is to demonstrate to Guyana what commitment, service and patriotism are about.

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CHINA

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 1st October 2016, 9:00 pm

As China celebrates its National Day, it is dealing with complicated challenges on multiple fronts. Much has been written by experts who have spent lifetimes studying China and its relations with the rest of the world so that anything that comes out of our little corner of the world is very much a subject of our own limited perspectives. The defining background, of course, is China’s development into a great economic and military power in the past thirty years. For Guyana, our relations with China began in 1972 when diplomatic relations were established. Even though courageous at the time, Guyana followed the United States and did not anticipate US hostility to its move. The PPP had relations with the Chinese Communist Party long before as fraternal parties, This was disrupted during the period of the dispute between the Soviet Union and China, but resumed later.

President Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ was seen as a thinly disguised attempt to ‘contain’ the growing military power of China, which the US presumably felt would later be a threat to its allies in the region, including Japan and South Korea. While controversy has existed for a long time about China’s claims to ownership of islands claimed by other countries, including Japan, in the South China seas, the heightening of tensions by increasing US military activities, is an integral part of the efforts of the West to ‘contain’ China.  The latter’s interest in retaining influence or control over the South China seas is to protect its trade routes and its security.

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THE FRIGHTENING REALITY.

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 24th September 2016, 9:00 pm

The frightening reality is that the race for the presidency in the US is so close, and getting so much closer, that Donald Trump may well win the presidency. On Monday evening the two contenders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would have their first debate so as to give the American people a further opportunity to decide which candidate to support. While there is a large number of undecided or independent voters that each candidate will seek to win over, each faces specific hurdles which need to be overcome in order to ensure victory in the elections.

Hillary Clinton is struggling to attain a knockout punch because, having been hounded by the press for over twenty years, compounded by lapses in judgment, she faces skepticism in a part of the electorate. ‘Untrustworthiness’ of her has flourished because of her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State. Even though there is no evidence that she treated with confidential material, apologized and previous secretaries of state have conducted official business by private email, the Republicans and the US media have been unrelenting in their criticisms and allegations of ‘lies.’

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ROAD RAGE

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 17th September 2016, 9:00 pm

For over 50 years State authorities have continually lamented that Guyana has one of the highest percentage of road deaths in the world. Little or nothing of any substance has ever been done to reduce road accidents because, to be cynical, there are no votes in it and foreign pressure is not applied. Trafficking in persons and money laundering receive funding and national attention because if they do not, sanctions are applied to Guyana. Since road deaths do not attract sanctions by aid donors, they will continue to escalate unless another type of sanction is applied, namely, massive public pressure mobilized against the authorities to do something about it.

In the 1970s and 1980s enforcement of laws by the Police was routine. Taxi drivers were charged for smoking while driving or driving with unclean clothing. Overload taxis and private hire operating illegally as taxis were relentlessly pursued. There were no speed guns but drivers who were caught speeding were charged with careless driving. The owners or drivers of private cars were not spared. Not stopping at major roads, careless and dangerous driving and other jeopardies faced motorists. Cyclists knew that they were taking chances if they rode without brakes, a bell or without a headlamp at night. If caught charges were inevitable. Quick justice was once administered when I was caught by a plainclothes policeman riding without a light just as it was getting dark. He took out the valve stem from one wheel and threw it away. Even with a more effective enforcement regime at that time and far less vehicles on the road, road deaths were among the highest in the world.

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A LIAR AT THE HEART OF AMERICAN POLITICS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 10th September 2016, 9:00 pm

A liar, racist, demagogue and misogynist is the presidential candidate of the once great Republican Party. He won the nomination by exploiting the deep insecurities generated by decades of growing inequality in the United States. This in turn exacerbated and exposed the racist hostility to Mexicans, Muslims and African Americans, which lies just below the surface of American life.

The general consensus among progressives in the US is that the large and growing inequality is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump and the ‘angry white man.’ For conservatives, led by a Republican Party which has been moving further to the right since Barry Goldwater became its presidential candidate in 1964, the problem is President Barack Obama. The fact is, though, that the Republicans have now reaped in Trump the kind of politics they have been sowing since 1964. Nixon’s Southern strategy, designed to win the support of Southern whites from the Democrats by exploiting fear and hatred of African Americans, attained its apotheosis in the Republican leadership’s open hatred of Barack Obama.

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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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