In 1943 Cheddi Jagan returned to a British Guiana that was a cauldron of poverty. The report of the Moyne Commission published in 1945 concluded that for the labouring population, “mere subsistence was increasingly problematic.” The defeat of Nazi Germany with the help of the heroic Soviet Union inspired many; India, China and the colonial world were on the move. In 1947, with Janet Jagan, Ashton Chase and Jocelyn Hubbard, Cheddi Jagan established the Political Affairs Committee (PAC). In the same year he fought and won a seat in the Legislative Council. These events were at the cusp of momentous developments in British Guiana.
Continue reading “CHEDDI JAGAN – SOME REFLECTIONS”GUYANA’S PROBLEMS CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED BY DEMOCRATIC MEANS
During the 2020 events surrounding the attempts by APNU+AFC to rig the elections, the idea arose that the dominant issue was not elections but a political solution. It was suggested that efforts ought to be concentrated on persuading the APNU+AFC Government and the PPP to resolve the electoral crisis by establishing a power sharing government. In the absence of a formula determined by a popular mandate, it was not known at that time in what proportion each party, and maybe others, would share the government. That alone would have been a deal breaker. But a more fundamental issue arose. No one that I knew, including many who were not PPP supporters, were willing to allow a dictatorship based on fraudulent elections to once again emerge to haunt Guyana, perhaps for decades to come. The sentiment appeared to be: democracy first, shared government after.
Continue reading “GUYANA’S PROBLEMS CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED BY DEMOCRATIC MEANS”POLITICS AND THE JOINT SERVICES
In a statement yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Services, Brigadier Godfrey Bess, reminded citizens of Guyana that, irrespective of its ethnic composition, the Joint Services of Guyana is an apolitical institution and will continue to serve the people of Guyana. The Chairman said that the Joint Services is guided by the Constitution and not by any “partisan values and interests.” Brigadier urged “social activists and commentators to refrain from misleading and mischievous remarks which incite racial tensions.” Stabroek News remarked that it is “unclear what exactly triggered the statement today.
Continue reading “POLITICS AND THE JOINT SERVICES”RIOT ACT
Guyana has the second highest rate of suicide in the world, a higher rate of death by violence than Mexico and is at 63rd place out of 183 countries in death by road accidents. These figures are based on per thousand of population and are provided by the World Health Organisation for 2020. There is only an occasional voice of concern raised about suicides. There are no horror stories about death by violence in Guyana, as there is in Mexico.
Continue reading “RIOT ACT”THE BLOWING UP OF THE NORD STREAM PIPELINES
Seymour Hersh is a prominent US investigative, Pulitzer Prize winning, journalist. He has claimed in a recently, self-published, article on Substack, “How America took out the Nord Stream Pipeline,” that US Navy divers destroyed three of four Russian gas Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September in a CIA operation ordered by President Joe Biden. The White House described the report as “false and complete fiction.”
Continue reading “THE BLOWING UP OF THE NORD STREAM PIPELINES”