Guyanese OnlineThe Library, the Novelist, the Community and the Movement – by Francis Quamina Farrier
The four elements listed in the Headline above, will all be in their 110 anniversary this year 2019; they are The National Library in Georgetown, The Guyanese novelist, Edgar Mittelholzer, of New Amsterdam, The Village of St. Ignatius in Region Nine and the Guyana Scouting Movement; they all commenced in the year 1919. Novelist Edgar Mittelholzer, of course, passed on in May 1965.
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY in GEORGETOWN
The Guyana National Library which is located at the corner of Main and Church Streets in Georgetown, was founded in 1909. The 7,000 pound sterling cost for the construction, was donated by the Scottish-American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who had a passion for literature, and for making it possible for those who did not have the means to buy books for their reading pleasure and information, to still be able to read the books they desired, by becoming members of “Free Libraries”, and borrow the books they needed. Continue reading
Guyana at Risk: Ethnic Politics, Oil, Venezuelan Opportunism and Why it Should Matter to Washington
Evan Ellis | Global Americans
On Friday, December 21st, as attention in Washington, D.C. shifted from the fight over the border wall and impending government shutdown to last-minute Christmas shopping, the government of Guyana, one of Latin America’s most overlooked strategically important countries, imploded.
Charrandas Persaud, a member of parliament (MP) with the Alliance for Change (AFC), the small centrist partner in the governing coalition, voted against his own party’s leadership in a no-confidence motion. This broke the government’s fragile 33-32 majority in the 65 seat National Assembly, setting the clock running for new national elections within 90 days.
Persaud’s defection set in motion far more than fresh elections and a likely change in government. Continue reading
Editorial – Stabroek News – 25 December 2018
There is little peace and good will in the political arena this season. And that applies not just to Guyana, but also to some of the leading democracies such as the UK, France and, of course, the US, to name a few. There is President Donald Trump whose administration stumbled into farce a long time ago, and which has since been disintegrating into chaos. As has become customary in more recent times, lawmakers agreed a short-term spending compromise to carry the government over into the new year.
However, Mr Trump has refused to sign the bill unless the Senate attaches funding to it for a border wall fence. So far he has adhered to that position, effectively partly shutting down the government, and sending thousands of its workers home without their end-of-year salaries. Apparently he does not remember that the Republicans paid a heavy price for refusing to sign a compromise when President Clinton was in office. Continue reading
Stabroek News – 22 December 2018
ExxonMobil has paused seismic activities on the Stabroek Block after members of the Venezuelan military approached one of the vessels subcontracted by the oil giant to work in Guyana’s territory.
Efforts to reach Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge for confirmation have so far failed but sources at the Ministry have confirmed that an incident occurred, they would not state whether it involved Venezuela. The Ministry has promised to release a statement on the incident within the next few hours.
Meanwhile a press release from the company stated that activities on the Stabroek Block have been paused until they can be safely continued.
A Guyanese Christmas in Washington. DC
– by Francis Quamina Farrier
The traditional annual Christmas Get-together of Guyanese at the Guyana Embassy in Washington DC, brought together Guyanese of every background, as they mingled together the way Guyanese do at most fetes. Some of those who were in attendance have not been home for many years, while there are those who visit regularly. As such, there were lots of discourses about the developments taking place across the ten Regions of Beautiful Guyana, including the recent announced discovery of Oil and Gas within Guyana’s Atlantic Sovereign territory. Continue reading
Brace for more Venezuelans U.N urges scaled up support in Guyana, other Caribbean countries
…plan seeks to provide financial assistance
Venezuela – Click to enlarge
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency estimates that a Caribbean response in 2019 will cost at minimum US $34M based on the projection that the refugee and migrant population from Venezuela will grow to around 222,000 by the end of 2019 with irregular arrivals expected to continue. Continue reading
Lake Capoey. Essequibo Coast. Guyana
There are many ‘paradises’ on Earth. A few are in Guyana. Some are spectacular while others display nature’s simplicity. On the Essequibo Coast, between the villages of Queenstown and Little Affiance, south-west of the coastal highway, a rustic road takes you to a vista of spectacular simplicity and beauty – Lake Capoey!
The name, according to Ralph Hendricks, the village toshao, means ‘rising of the moon’ –and curiously, is said to be a Wapisiana word, for a decidedly Arawak community with a population of about 500 people. Although I’ve never seen the lake by night, an image grabs my fancy.
It’s that of a full moon rising from behind the lake’s encircling vegetation, appearing to settle there, its beams dancing on the dark, rippling surface as fiery sunset fades to night, and it is easy to see how the name might have originated. But even in the daytime, Capoey can both soothe and excite the senses. Continue reading
USA- Racial Conflict: Travels with the “Green Book”
Travels with the “Green Book”
A sign of the times in the era of Jim Crow. CBS NEWS
CBS News 13 January 2019
Watching Mary Wilson, feeling the love at New York’s glamorous Café Carlyle, it’s hard to imagine what she felt at the age of 19 when, as a newly-minted Supreme just out of high school, she went on her first-ever road tour with a regular who’s-who of Motown stars. Traveling by bus with Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, The Temptations and others, Wilson was confronted by hate in the still-segregated South.
She recalled. “We were getting off the bus, and there were gunshots.”
“They were shooting at the bus?” asked correspondent Martha Teichner. Continue reading →
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