War in Ukraine has aggravated a crisis that long predates the conflict
The Economist
A demographic tragedy is unfolding in Russia. Over the past three years the country has lost around 2m more people than it would ordinarily have done, as a result of war, disease and exodus. The life expectancy of Russian males aged 15 fell by almost five years, to the same level as in Haiti. The number of Russians born in April 2022 was no higher than it had been in the months of Hitler’s occupation. And because so many men of fighting age are dead or in exile, women outnumber men by at least 10m.
War is NOT the sole — or even the main — cause of these troubles but it has made them all worse. According to Western estimates, 175,000-200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded over the past year (Russia’s own figures are lower). Somewhere between 500,000 and 1m mostly young, educated people have evaded the meat grinder by fleeing abroad. Even if Russia had no other demographic problems, losing so many in such a short time would be painful. As it is, the losses of war are placing more burdens on a shrinking, ailing population. Russia may be entering a doom loop of demographic decline. Continue reading →
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and NEHGS Researcher Meaghan Siekman
Dear Professor Gates: RE the Rohlehr family
I am a first-generation American whose family hails from Guyana (and, further back, Germany). My father has a German last name: Rohlehr (pronounced “Rohlair”). I would like to know more about my ancestors in that line who first came to Guyana from either Germany or the Netherlands.
The story goes that during the Bismarck era in Germany, my ancestor Gertrude Rohlehr had seven sons. Six were killed in war, so she sent her remaining son, Swartz, away from Germany to save him. He made his way to New Amsterdam, Guyana, from Holland, where he ended up having two sons, Peter and John, with an unknown African woman. Continue reading →
…says will continue to monitor policies, decisions that affect the lives of indigenous peoples
Feb 22, 2023 – Kaieteur News – Against the background of recent attacks on the organisation, by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) said it is unfazed by the action of the government official, reminding that it has a responsibility to monitor the policies and decisions that particularly affect the lives of indigenous peoples in Guyana and will continue to do so.
Last week during a meeting with Amerindian leaders, Jagdeo lashed out at the organisation for its criticisms of government’s handling of the carbon credit sale initiative it has embarked on. The APA is not the only organisation that has criticised the initiative. In responding to Jagdeo the APA said the VPs vilification of the organisation is a continuation of the attacks by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall. “However, the APA remains resolute in its objective of ensuring that indigenous peoples’ rights are protected and respected by all. The APA also wonders why the organisation is being used as a scapegoat and distraction, and why the real issues are not being addressed.” Continue reading →
In a world where norms and codes of conduct mattered, George Santos’s would be an open and shut case. But as long as he remains useful to the narrow Republican House majority, the chronically dishonest congressman likely isn’t going anywhere.
Last November, a thirty-four-year-old Republican from Queens who currently identifies himself as George Santos was elected to represent New York’s third congressional district. Beyond these somewhat rudimentary facts, however, the objective reality of “George Santos” has become increasingly difficult to discern. Indeed, the millennial human being — who has also gone by the monikers Anthony Santos, George Devolder, Anthony Zabrovsky, and George Anthony Santos-Devolder — appears to have premised his entire public-facing identity on a series of falsehoods and fabrications so brazen and audacious that they make even a seasoned bullshit artist like Donald Trump look like Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar. Continue reading →
Kaieteur News – By the time this is over the dominant narrative about what happened in Mocha would have settled in solidly. It is that the PPP Government was kind, patient, longsuffering, and generous, while the residents of Mocha that had to move were hostile, uncooperative, goonish, and greedy. Because of the complexions of the two sides engaged in this battle of wills, Guyana’s historic ills, the raw polarizations of this country, are rekindled and released in even more toxic flares if that can be imagined.
I find it difficult that a matter that should have been dealt with honestly and frankly was not, and that the inevitable deterioration had to occur. In blazing prejudice. Into politics. From standoff to square-off to flare-up to the blowup that we all know was going to be where matters concluded. That is, the mechanized might of machinery aimed straight at the heart of men and women in Mocha. It is how populations are radicalized. Continue reading →
Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his electoral defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in the capital on Sunday. The incident has drawn comparisons to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, something many political analysts and the judiciary have warned about for months.
By: Denis Chabrol in Demerara Waves =Saturday, 7 January 2023
The headquarters of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).
Just days after President Irfaan Ali fended off opposition accusations of racism against Afro-Guyanese such as the demolition of houses in Mocha, East Bank Demerara, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) insisted that the grant of titles to stronghold supporters raises concerns about apparent racial discrimination.
“ These actions are in stark contrast to the issuing of titles to “squatters” in communities deemed to be supportive of the government. The government cannot not know that the perception and reality of unequal treatment undermine its own stated mantra of One Guyana,” the WPA said. “The events in Mocha Arcadia, therefore, opens the government to charges of racial profiling and racial discrimination in the process of governance,” that party added. Continue reading →
Ghana grants citizenship to African Americans & Caribbeans as part of beyond the return initiative
Ghana grants citizenship to African Americans & Caribbeans as part of beyond the return initiative. Ghana has granted citizenship to several African Americans and Afro Caribbeans as part of the country beyond the return initiative to attract resettlement of Africa descendants. In 2019, Ghana successfully hosted the Year of return with a raft of activities, at home and abroad, to encourage the descendants of those who were forcibly sent into slavery to return home to Africa.
Huge crows outside the Office of the President – Paramaribo. Suriname
July 18, 2022
(Suriname Herald) Protests against the policies of the Santokhi government are getting grim. At the Office of the President, protesters just tried to enter the grounds of the Office of the President. They were stopped by presidential security.
There is a huge crowd at both the Office of the President and the Independence Square. The people are very heated. One chants “Down with Chan!”. Continue reading →
In February 1999, as the second round of negotiations on a successor Agreement to the Lome Convention advanced – the name Cotonou had not as yet been determined – the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group and the European Union (EU) travelled to Senegal to hold those discussions, honoring the tradition of an ACP Member State playing host to a session. Besides the EU’s intention to “balkanise” the grouping into six regional trade blocks and to dispense European Development Fund assistance differently, a priority area for them in the political dimension of the cooperation arrangement was on introducing good governance, which included addressing bribery and corruption, as an essential element. Continue reading →
Guyana: How Did My European Ancestors Migrate to Guyana? – Rohlehr family
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and NEHGS Researcher Meaghan Siekman
Dear Professor Gates: RE the Rohlehr family
I am a first-generation American whose family hails from Guyana (and, further back, Germany). My father has a German last name: Rohlehr (pronounced “Rohlair”). I would like to know more about my ancestors in that line who first came to Guyana from either Germany or the Netherlands.
The story goes that during the Bismarck era in Germany, my ancestor Gertrude Rohlehr had seven sons. Six were killed in war, so she sent her remaining son, Swartz, away from Germany to save him. He made his way to New Amsterdam, Guyana, from Holland, where he ended up having two sons, Peter and John, with an unknown African woman. Continue reading →
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