Race

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has begun investigating a report of alleged racially insensitive remarks by Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member, Desmond Trotman against the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Gerry Gouveia. ERC Chief Investigator, former Deputy Police Commissioner Alvin Smith told Demerara Waves/News-Talk Radio Guyana that he has asked Trotman for a meeting. Gouveia has said ...

By GHK Lall There has been a sporadic drumbeat relative to some mechanism for shared governance as the way forward. I offer a high-level view, as to why this is the only measure that facilitates some movement out of the political and racial gutter. I now identify some of the pluses and disadvantages of such a shared apparatus, whatever shape ...

By GHK Lall “NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has made ‘whiteness’ toxic, Department of Education insiders claim” (NY Post May 18). Unfortunately, switch the color scheme to ‘brownness’ or ‘blackness’ and that claim would quickly find volume and mileage right here in political and bureaucratic Guyana. All one has to do is weigh the years. First, some foreign context. The ...

Afro-Guyanese on Sunday signaled they would be accelerating lobbying for a return to village councils because the existing local governance system has removed their ownership and direct responsibility for their villages, but the Guyana Reparations Committee said a special law is needed for land rights and local governance. Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G), ...

Internationally renowned Guyanese historian, Professor Kimani Nehusi on Sunday called for African-Guyanese organisations to unite, and he singled out the need for that racial group to have a sense of identity if they are to lobby the State to redistribute lands and spend some of the oil revenues on addressing the horrendous impacts of slavery. Speaking at an interactive session ...

General Secretary of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Joseph Harmon says the upcoming general elections would not be easy, even as his party leader expressed confidence in regaining power. “Mr. Harmon warned that these elections were not going to be a “cake-walk” and urged members to continue mobilizing and organising at the group, district and regional level to ensure ...

By GHK Lall The first thing I wish to emphasize is that I am for a unity government, or any other name that it may be called, once that underlying, defining cornerstone is an integral aspect of the mix. Despite all the failures from local history and unconvincing, pseudo-inclusive exercises, such an ensemble has never been genuinely tried. Talked about ...

By David Hinds This past week, one of the architects of our relatively young nation, Eusi Kwayana, celebrated his 94th birthday. Kwayana, by any measure, is a rare human being—a priceless gift to humanity. I use this occasion to remind Guyana that we have given this remarkable gift to ourselves and the world. As a Caribbean civilization, we are not ...

By GHK Lall I came across something that I just had to share with any section of Guyana that cares enough to desire fervently something different, and then to be willing to work tirelessly to contribute to making that difference a reality. In view of the stormy history and even more combustible undertones of current elections struggles, I risk sanction ...

Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin on Tuesday disclosed that Guyanese might go to the polls later this year to elect a new government of their choice. Addressing a forum on “Oil and Gas Development in Guyana”, at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas, Gaskin noted that elections are usually held every five years unless some constitutional ...