DISASTERS: ELECTRICITY: How Long Would Society Last During a Total Grid Collapse?
A summary of how other systems of infrastructure (like roadways, water, sewer, and telecommunications) depend on electricity and how long each system could last under total blackout conditions.
Most of the great cities in the world were not planned. They had their beginnings in small or modest settlements which owing to their advantageous locations for the purposes of trade, then gradually expanded. They grew organically and usually haphazardly, absorbing neighbouring communities until they reached the magnitude of the metropolises we know today.
Our own Georgetown was both a planned city and grew haphazardly. It was planned in the sense that in 1781 the British selected the site for a town, building a fort somewhere near the museum – although no one is sure exactly where it was − and deciding that the seat of government would be on the strip of land which ran south from the Brandwagt or Dutch signal station, around where Stabroek Market now stands. Continue reading →
There is no dispute that much poverty still exists in Guyana. Its existence and alleged absence of solutions to relieve it were among the highlights of the Budget Debate last week, uninspiring as many of the speeches were.
The United Nations has more experience than any other international agency in the study, measurement and eradication of poverty. It has embarked on the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018-2027), having completed a first and a second decade. In its recent reports tracking poverty rates, the UN has used earnings of below US$1.90 per day as the basis of measuring poverty. Those living on less than US$1.90 per day are considered as living below the poverty line. Numerous measures have been discussed and debated over decades to lift people above the poverty line, and prior to the covid-19 pandemic, great successes have been achieved in reducing poverty. Continue reading →
A Vacant Home Tax of one per cent of the Current Value Assessment (CVA) will be imposed on all Toronto residences that are declared, deemed or determined vacant for more than six months during the previous year.
That unkempt, overgrown property on your street could soon finally get some tenants thanks to a new City of Toronto tax clamping down on vacant homes.
Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky | Foreign Affairs
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin
The regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin is living on borrowed time. The tide of history is turning, and everything from Ukraine’s advances on the battlefield to the West’s enduring unity and resolve in the face of Putin’s aggression points to 2023 being a decisive year. If the West holds firm, Putin’s regime will likely collapse in the near future.
Yet some of Ukraine’s key partners continue to resist supplying Kyiv with the weapons it needs to deliver the knockout punch. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden in particular seems afraid of the chaos that could accompany a decisive Kremlin defeat. It has declined to send the tanks, long-range missile systems, and drones that would allow Ukrainian forces to take the fight to their attackers, reclaim their territory, and end the war. The end of Putin’s tyrannical rule will indeed radically change Russia and the rest of the world — but not in the way the White House thinks. Rather than destabilizing Russia and its neighbors, a Ukrainian victory would eliminate a powerful revanchist force and boost the cause of democracy worldwide. Continue reading →
CHINA-AFRICA: The Myth of the Chinese Debt Trap in Africa – video
Over the past two decades, China has built large infrastructure projects in almost every country in Africa, making Western powers uncomfortable amid wider concerns about Beijing’s investments across the continent. However, a deeper look shows that accusations of so-called debt trap diplomacy turn out to be unfounded.
Of note, is the roughly US$1b in oil revenue which has been allocated to the 2023 budget.
There is no doubt that the 2023 budget which has been pegged at $781.9b, a hefty 44.1% above the 2022 figure, holds out the prospects of expansive development in the country. Just for comparison purposes the 2010 budget was pegged at $143b.
This is the fourth budget produced by this PPP/C government and the 2021 and 2022 editions also contained substantial outlays for infrastructure and improvements in key sectors. The upshot of all of this is that major development work is in the pipeline and how it turns out will provide valuable insight into whether the country is on the right trajectory. Continue reading →
Jan 20, 2023 – Kaieteur News – Around five percent of Guyana’s population is undernourished and a further 43% cannot afford a healthy diet, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has concluded in a new report released this week.
With Guyana’s population averaging around 800,000 the five percent of undernourished people works out to about 40,000. Titled “REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF 2022: TOWARDS IMPROVING AFFORDABILITY OF HEALTHY DIETS,” the report also concluded that in 2020, 42 percent of the population in the world could not afford a healthy diet, almost 3.1 billion people. Due to the higher cost of a healthy diet, this percentage in Latin America and the Caribbean was 22.5 percent, or 131 million people, an increase of 8 million from 2019. According to the report South America accounts for 57 percent of people unable to afford a healthy diet in Latin America and the Caribbean (74.2 million), followed by Mesoamerica (43.1 million) and the Caribbean (13.9 million). More than half of the Caribbean population (52 percent) cannot afford a healthy diet, followed by Mesoamerica (27.8 percent) and South America (18.4 percent). Continue reading →
GUYANA: Georgetown and Silica City – Commentary
Our own Georgetown was both a planned city and grew haphazardly. It was planned in the sense that in 1781 the British selected the site for a town, building a fort somewhere near the museum – although no one is sure exactly where it was − and deciding that the seat of government would be on the strip of land which ran south from the Brandwagt or Dutch signal station, around where Stabroek Market now stands. Continue reading →
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