Ralph Ramkarran

Without context, the victory of the PPP at the last general elections was a landslide. Within the context of elections in Guyana, where the PPP has gained

Pokrovsk, a town in north-east Ukraine in the Donetsk region, has long been surrounded by Russian troops and the noose has been tightening. It is reported

The question posed in the headline might appear to be trivial. But behind it lies the fundamental issue of the PNCR’s reckoning with the election results and the policies it will adopt towards the Government and the PPP. The question many will ask is: Has the PNCR taken any lessons from its catastrophic loss in the elections? In 2006 a perceptive and courageous Robert Corbin figured out that the PNCR’s loss of 5 seats to the AFC was wholly or partially due to his leadership. He invited David Granger to be the presidential candidate. It appeared at that time that his intention was to remain Leader of the Opposition if Granger had lost the elections. But, having lost the elections, David Granger became Leader of the Opposition and Robert Corbin retired completely from politics. In the next electoral round, Granger became President.

The complaints of workers at Aurora Gold Mines bring into focus the weakening capacity of the trade union movement in Guyana. The early era of trade union activity in the Caribbean took place amidst intense worker unrest in the 1930s which triggered a British investigation published as the Moyne Report in 1945. Moyne said that for the “labouring population, mere subsistence was increasingly problematic.” The unrest flowed from the heightened poverty in that period involving some trade union activity.

In November last year, 11-month-old girl Melveena Angel Blair died in a fire at her home in Sophia while her brother suffered burn injuries. Along with another child, they were home alone. The elder brother had jumped through a window to call his mother who immediately arrived on the scene. Both parents had been at work making dog food for a living. Today, one year later, the family is in even more dire circumstances and the officials who attended and sympathized are not in evidence. The children’s father, a security guard, is now in prison on a marijuana conviction. The mother is unemployed and lives in one room with the children at her ex-boyfriend’s grandmother. Apart from some help from the grandmother who works at a dumpsite, some assistance from social services is being provided but it is clearly insufficient. The State officials who visited at the time of the tragedy have not been seen since. This story appeared in the Stabroek News on November 25.

I kind of like Jeremy Cobin, the former leader of the British Labour Party. He came to politics early and spent his entire political life on the radical left, promoting progressive causes, including peace, disarmament, social benefits, poverty alleviation and other worthy causes. He was on every forum, every demonstration, every platform that promoted the objectives he considered to be worthy. He was activist, not an ideologue, was soft spoken, dealt with policy not personality, used aways moderate language, never insulted or personally criticized anyone. When he said recently that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is not the person you think he is, this was considered to be so out of character that headlines resulted. He could have had an illustrious career as a Labour front bench politician, the traditional trajectory for a Labour politician. That meant that he would have had to make compromises with the Labour ruling circles. But he had character based on principles. He never made a show of them but spent a modest, unpretentious, life promoting causes which advanced peace and the alleviation of poverty.

Two photographs in Stabroek News on Saturday caught my attention and brought back a sense of nostalgia. Although on a completely different issue, the

Few in Guyana have any sympathy with Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan regime which rigged the last elections to remain in power. Notwithstanding Caricom’s advocacy of the Caribbean as a zone of peace, meaning that American warships and troops, threatening the Maduro regime, should leave the area, opinions are sharply divided. The Trinidad and Tobago Government, reacted presumably to the flow of drugs and illegal guns that have fueled an extensive increase in crime over the past decade. Trinidad has strongly supported the US policies regarding Venezuela and has engaged in vocal criticisms of Caricom and individual Caricom countries. No doubt Trinidad may be reacting also to the six Caricom countries which are members of ALBA, a Venezuelan front organization that supplies cheap oil.

In a swift, surgical, strike, the US has captured Maduro and his wife after areas in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, were bombed. In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said: “The United States has successfully carried out a largescale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. The operation was done in conjunction with US Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M. at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.” At his press conference, President Trump, accusing Venezuela of stealing US’s oil, said: “We will run Venezuela” until a government is established.

The use of the word ‘imperialism’ went out of fashion after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the emergence of a unipolar world with the US as the