By GHK Lall By Guyanese standards, it has been a relatively dignified December. In fact, it has been the most placid month of this stormy year. Still, I had to wait for the safety of over two thirds of the month to pass, before I am able to say that a strange quiet took hold, mostly on the political front. ...
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OPINION: It is reform season: believe at own risk
By GHK Lall For me, it is more than the silly season. I look in passing, in passing only, at the national elections landscape and it is at once comic, pathetic, and tragic. And when I lump all of those together, there are those elements from limited politicians, who think of themselves as the smartest people around, but who succeed ...
Read More »OPINION: New political arrivals: the other side of their existence
by GHK Lall As is now an almost reflexive aspect of election traditions in Guyana, there has been the usual appearing and flocking of them around this time. This would be the new faces, new voices, and the new sounds of the new political parties taking their places in the parade of aspirants for the attention and hearts of Guyanese ...
Read More »OPINION: ExxonMobil contract, from the horse’s mouth: Guyana held to ransom
by GHK Lall The Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Raphael Trotman, MP, has now spoken a little more about what could have—perhaps, should have—been negotiated, finalized, and executed at the time with the now standing, sacrosanct ExxonMobil contract, and all of its troubling terms. Mr. Trotman is on the money on a few things about that contract, but I ...
Read More »OPINION: Manifestos: exhibitions in political pornography
by GHK Lall What is a manifesto, other than a collection of words and a rush of marketing messages? What is a manifesto, besides being a piece of paper made to mean something, especially that which the circumstances demand? Give the people what they want to hear, what sells, and the rest usually takes care of itself. As I see ...
Read More »OPINION: No longer about the lesser of two evils, just the plainness of two evils
by GHK Lall The opposition should be delighted with where it is positioned today, how it is well-poised for that decisive burst of perverse brilliance as the electoral finish line appears in sight. I would, too, given the circumstances of the competition, in view of its twisting and turning airlessness existence. For, as I see things, the opposition can conserve ...
Read More »OPINION: Queen Elizabeth fired her own son; nobody getting fired here
by GHK Lall “Step back from public duties for the foreseeable future.” That’s what His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew announced that he was going to do. In these politically disinfected and perfumed times, that’s the sweet syrupy version of what went down last week. I believe this royal rogue was “fired” by his mother. I really have little patience and ...
Read More »OPINION: When number 2 is really number 1, in reality, in positioning
by GHK Lall It is a reversal of all that we were taught in math classes, and which forms the backbone of our understanding of the hierarchy of numbers, of the serenity of settled order, and of the strategic placement of people and things. In the real world, number 1 is number 1, and that’s it. Nothing else counts. Well, ...
Read More »OPINION: Sleeping policemen. Who watches out for whom?
by GHK Lall Wikipedia offered this extended description cum definition of a sleeping policeman: Speed bumps (or speed breakers) are the common name for a family of traffic calming devices that use vertical deflection to slow motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. Variations include the speed hump, speed cushion, and speed table. “[F]amily of traffic calming devices” and ...
Read More »OPINION: Who is going to be the real, big boss? And who is going to find that acceptable?
by GHK Lall I had to travel all the way from the USA to find Stalingrad by the Demerara. With that announced preference by the PPP candidate for much-needed supporting material, there is no more cat in the bag, no disagreements about whether a cat is present and lurking. No discussions as to what kind of predatory animal it is. ...
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