— there must be push back Today is an important date on the world’s calendar. On this date, in 1838, Africans in the British Empire were emancipated from chattel slavery. It is incumbent to examine the African condition with regards to where the group stands today. Every person brings to this conversation his/her own experiences. My experiences as a trade […]
Eye On Guyana
The 11-year industrial dispute between the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) and Bauxite Company Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) could have been settled long ago were there political will by successive governments. Whereas the workers had the political support of the then opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Alliance for Change (AFC), and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), when […]
Throughout this nation’s history the advancement of workers/citizens’ welfare requires political support. We could go as far back as slavery and note the importance of the abolitionists, joining with the resistance of the enslaved, agitating in the British Parliament to end the slave trade and chattel slavery. There was similar political participation in Britain, alongside the indentured, that brought an […]
There are so many angles from which one can look at the Haitian dilemma. Though Haiti has become notorious for its poverty and struggle, being classified as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is also known for its resilience, its spirit of revolution. Haiti located on the upper most side of the Caribbean and shares island border with […]
I don’t believe a word of Robeson Benn’s statement that within the last three years more than 30,000 Haitians who travelled to Guyana cannot be accounted for. Neither do I believe the reason the Irfaan Ali regime is instituting entry visa requirements for Haitians is because there is some widespread human smuggling ring and Guyana is being used as a […]
The flood waters + destruction in its wake Weeks after the flood the situation in the affected and adjoining areas remains critical. Rather than finding solutions to the problem that has caused the flood, operatives of the Central Government find it more convenient to play partisan politics, putting at risk the lives, health, and possessions of the people. The Bible […]
Last Tuesday morning, 15th June, at about 3:25 a.m. I received a call from Daphne telling me her father, JB, died. JB or Uncle James, as he was fondly called, lived to the ripe age of 105. He was the oldest member of the Thomas and Sally Lewis clan alive. His mother was my grandfather’s sister. His passing has left only […]
The recently published International Labour Organisation (ILO) study on the closure of sugar estates, which is anchored in the country’s Decent Work Programme, has its genesis around 2015. The study set out to investigate the impact of estates closure on the workers and their communities dating back to the closure of the Diamond Estate, which happened under the People’s Progressive […]
The letters by Justice Claudette Singh, Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to Keith Lowenfield, Chief Election Officer; Roxanne Myers, Deputy Chief Election Officer; and Clairmont Mingo, Region Four Returning Officer, fly in the face of established international principles, natural justice, and common law tenets. Those letters, asking the named officers to show cause why they should not be […]
When people speak about the wrongs in society and discriminatory treatment meted out to some there is an attempt to shut us down, deny or trivialise the seriousness of the claims. This could only be for one reason, i.e., the misplaced notion that we are not all equal and deserving to be treated with respect and dignity and guarantee exact […]
