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EDITORIAL

By GODFREY WRAY

Democracy in Guyana

Constant claims of discrimination and a patent lack of democracy in the Guyana body politic seem to be gaining currency as every week goes by. Since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic retained power by overwhelmingly winning last year’s elections, there have been troubling signs that dialogue with any person, group or organization tagged with an opposition taint, will be out of the window. No less a person than President Bharrat Jagdeo had magnanimously announced that his government would engage the opposition parties in discussions to help the nation move on. Five months in the new year…still no talks. Not even a whisper.

CREATING AN IMPACT

SEX — Please Give Us A Break — Part 1

SEX, you are a bad man or woman, don’t get me wrong now — whether male, female, gay or lesbian — we like you, we cannot do without you, but why do you have to cause us so much hurt; so much pain; so much destruction; so many legal entanglements and so many transmitted diseases. SEX, I was thinking about writing to you for a long time, but (a) I was embarrassed to do so; and (b) I did not want you to get angry, and come down upon us with further fire and brimstone. But SEX, I am finally going to follow my mind, and have a few conversations with you, because you are continuing to overcome men and women, boys and girls with temptations; SEX, since example is better than precept, I am going to come back to you with more specific instances, but I have been pushed into this conversation with you, because you are on a roll, promoting and causing damage and destruction in this country and other parts of the world.

 

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME

This week I begin my discourse with two quotations: "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and dishonest." - John. F. Kennedy; and "One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." – Carl Sagan. These two quotes poignantly capture where America stands in the scheme of international politics.

 

THE BASIL SPRINGER COLUMN

Some weeks ago, I advised that, in the context of a WI cricket captain, the inner or personal qualities of an individual that constitute effective leadership include humility, values, character, motives, habits, traits, competencies, style, behaviors, and skills. Based on these qualities, I recommended that Ganga be selected as West Indies captain ahead of Sarwan. I received a response "I would go with Ganga as captain because of his superior leadership skills and he seems to be a more socially mature person." I like the "socially mature" phrase. Indeed, it expresses what I wanted to say but I could not find a way of saying it without appearing to be offensive.

GEORGETOWN DIARY

I sometimes get very angry with myself. I will tell you why. Sometimes after writing an article and re-reading it I would begin to wish I had done it differently. I sometimes feel that instead of dashing the article off I should have spent more time over its construction and information I would normally put in it. Today this is what I want to do. We have reached a very important phase in the history of this country. Unless we as a people take intelligent decisions based on the right information we might lose everything. I am not exaggerating. I have been reading the e-mails and some of the various articles about Guyana in cyber space and I am mortified that a lot of my compatriots at home and abroad do not seem to understand that this country has undergone a profound and revolutionary change. The old order has changed yielding place to something new which as yet does not have a name. This is so in the politics, economics and sociology of our society. Let me see if I can find the details to fit my argument.
 

Drug Nation

Recent statistics from a variety of organizations have pointed to an alarming fact of life in the United States – we’re quite literally a nation of junkies. From over-the counter drugs, prescription drugs, painkillers, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, steroids, crack, cocaine, heroin, meth, glue and on and on Americans are on some substance or the other. Getting zonked out is a routine; binge drinking at the nation’s college is part of "adult education" and alcoholism is the creeping epidemic in poor and depressed ghettoes across America.

CAN WE TALK

The Revolution of Heightened Expectations

In the 1960’s, just prior to the surge of the incipient "new immigration", African Americans it was argued, were imbued and catalyzed with the "revolution of rising expectations" emanating from the post World War 11 era of economic and political liberalism engineered by successive democratic administrations and concomitant big government. Unfortunately the war in Vietnam and the contending imperative in the fight to end the war on poverty - which unequally affected African Americans - led to a dismantling of social programs even as the war in Vietnam spiraled out of control. Then it was argued that African Americans engaged in social protest to decry this disengagement and the damper of their rising expectations of low poverty, effective schooling, economic empowerment and vertical social mobility.

PLUG INTO ENERGY

Twelve countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela - making up the South American Community of Nations (CSN) participated in the first South American Energy Summit which took place recently in Margarita, one of the Venezuelan islands. Entitled "For Southern Union," the summit set out to tackle energy integration of the regions’ oil and its derivatives, hydroelectric energy as well as alternative sources like biodiesel and ethanol. This event was seen as an opportunity for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to enhance relations with left-leaning South American allies following his recent meetings with the United States over biofuels. In two meetings, Lula and US President George W. Bush agreed to work on efforts to boost production and use of ethanol, derived from sugar cane in Brazil and corn in the US.

IN DEPTH

A lively contest for the top position of Guyana’s opposition People’s National Congress has being brewing for decades now. Since 1985 when the founder leader, the late President L.F.S Burnham died, many expected a vicious contest between Hamilton Green and the late Desmond Hoyte, but it never happened, though tension between the two remained high. It was when Hoyte lost power to Cheddi Jagan in 1992 that the bottled-up tension between Hoyte and Green exploded. In the aftermath of the PNC’s 1992 defeat and Green’s feud with Hoyte, Green was expelled from the party. A memorable line from that public feud was Green’s reference to Hoyte as a "Sunday school boy". Green’s expulsion helped Hoyte to tighten his reigns on the leadership of the party and sent a strong message to those harboring thoughts of challenging the leader to beware of the consequences.
 

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

ANGLOPHONE CARIBBEAN POETRY

In earlier articles, we discussed the contributions of the female poets Una Marson and Louise Bennett to the evolution of Anglophone Caribbean poetry. We would recall that these two women were among the earlier poets and then there was no mention of other female writers. The reason for this silence is, of course, the fact that it was not until the 1970s that Caribbean critics began to place greater emphasis on the poems of female poets. Such neglect was no doubt due to the fact that Louise Bennett’s single publication, Jamaican Labrish (1965) was the only such publication by a female poet. Furthermore, the only other notable female poet of renown in the 1950s and 1960s, Barbara Ferland, migrated in 1971, disappeared from the literary scene and did not publish her first anthology, Without Shoes I must Run, until 1994.

I CALL IT AS I SEE IT

Islands in the Beijing-Taipei storm

NEW YORK - The newly elected United Workers Party (UWP) government in St Lucia has finally put truth to the rumors that have been spreading since it took office. It has reopened diplomatic ties with Taiwan. China has been blustering for several weeks in anticipation of the event, which was heralded by several high-level visits from Taipei. St Lucia had switched from Taiwan to China in 1997 when St
Lucian Labour Party leader Anthony Kenny won the election.
The Caribbean is rich in music, rums, beaches - and United Nations envoys. Most of the small islands are sovereign members of the UN, and each has the same vote as mighty China in the General Assembly. Indeed, each of them also has one more vote than medium-sized Taiwan, which has led to a war of attrition over several decades between Beijing and Taipei, with each wooing the governments of the small states for recognition. In fact, 12 of the 25 states recognizing Taiwan are Central American or Caribbean.

 

An Essay By Michael D. Roberts

Twenty-six years after the passing of Bob Marley, the Third World’s only superstar his people are still "in a rat race." Born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945 this Jamaican music prodigy would grow up to the pioneer of reggae music the world over. He would leave a legacy of music that even today is still being appreciated and a void that is still left to fill. Had he lived today her would have been 62 years of age and the world is left to speculate as to exactly how a 62-year young master musician and lyricist would have commented on "today’s rate race inna Babylon."