Jagdeo and the PPP – Lifestyle and Politics – by Ralph Ramkarran

JAGDEO AND THE PPP – LIFESTYLE AND POLITICS

Ralph Ramkarran

Posted on March 21, 2015 –  by Ralph Ramkarran

In an article for my blog, www.conversationtree.gy, published in SN last Sunday, I took issue with a statement by former President Jagdeo that implied that Cheddi and Janet Jagan lived in luxury. His argument that the Jagans lived such a lifestyle, comparable to his own at the time his house was built, was an attempt to justify his own Cadillac lifestyle, which over the past few years has come under severe scrutiny and criticism.

There were outraged responses by many people to Jagdeo’s statement, including from Clem Seecharran and, more indirectly, Peter Fraser, two distinguished Guyanese historians living and working in the UK. But the most telling came from Nadira Jagan-Brancier, the Jagan daughter, Dr. Tulsie Dyal Singh and Sadie Amin. Dr. Singh, who conferred with Dr Jagan about his medical condition just before he died and visited his home, said that his own family home in Palmyra on the Corentyne when he was growing up in the 1950s was of similar size to the Jagan home. Sadie Amin gave a description of the modest lifestyle and home of the Jagans, including its leaking roof.  

Nostalgia 372 – The Fabulous Fifties in Guyana – By Godfrey Chin

Updated in 2008 by the late Godfrey Chin 1937-2012

With Guyana celebrating it’s 42nd Anniversary of Independence, May 26 .. I share this Nostalgia as a ‘stimulant’ to these ‘topsy-turvy times’. Lets meet at LasLapLime, Toronto , Canada where my Pictorial Exhibition – of 1001 Guyana Delights – will be featured. Please introduce yourself. Ya think it easy!………GODc.

Nostalgia 372 – The Fabulous Fifties in Guyana.

Godfrey Chin – “Nostalgias”

By Godfrey Chin

“It was the Best of Times”. My great Grandfather boasted this at the commencement of the last century, when for $1.50 he bought his family house rations for a week. Now at the dawn of this new Millennium, my three sons with their streaming high tech ‘Blackberry,’ relish their times as ‘the best.’

On the contrary – every generation looks upon their times ‘and wonder what the ‘world is coming to’. Yet every generation survives – for the next – to wring their hands in turn – a few decades later.  Mankind’s ingenuity always overcomes.

For me a Nostalgia Buff, I choose the Fabulous Fifties as the best of times in Guyana – these last hundred years. Isn’t it quite a coincidence that ‘this was the Centerfold Decade’ – a period when most of the Guyanese foremost Icons and Professionals today, were just completing their Public/Secondary education – and  everlasting footprints were already being ‘carved’.  

Guyana Elections: The return of Mr Jagdeo – commentary

The return of Mr Jagdeo – commentary

Former President Bharat Jagdeo

March 23, 2015 · Stabroek News – Editorial

After maintaining public silence for more than three years, former President Jagdeo seized the centre stage earlier this month, first at Babu Jaan on March 8th in a widely reviled presentation and then on March 10th at a hastily convened press conference at Freedom House where he sought to defend his actions but only succeeded in stirring up animosities over his remarks about the Jagans.

Just over two weeks earlier, Mr Jagdeo also featured prominently when President Ramotar mind-bogglingly named him to head up a National Economic Council which one presumes would take off if the PPP/C were returned to office. Why would the President see the need to make this appointment now or to limit his options after the elections are over? Further, it is most unusual for a President to accord his immediate predecessor such an important position in policy making and even rarer for the predecessor to accept. Who would really be running the show? The President or Mr Jagdeo? 

Guyana Elections: Voters list is “dirty”- Granger

Voters list is “dirty”- Granger

Monday, 23 March 2015 06:41 – Written by  Denis Scott Chabrol – Demerara Waves

Opposition Leader, David Granger has raised concerns about what appears to be a “dirty” bloated voters list and urged supporters to be vigilant on polling day.

Addressing supporters of the coalition A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) at a fund-raising event in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York, he urged them to be vigilant.

“Do not take things for granted. Do not be complacent. The list has suddenly gone up by a hundred thousand to 567 thousand. Keep your eyes open. We do not believe in that. How in three years in a country in which the population is falling the voters list has gone up by a hundred thousand,?’ he told more than 300 persons at the fund-raising meeting held at Naresa’s Place.  

Guyana Elections: Opposition coalition lashes back at PPP attacks in Queens, New York

Opposition coalition lashes back at PPP attacks in Queens, New York

Sunday, 22 March 2015 23:38 – Written by  Denis Scott Chabrolm- Demerara Waves

In the face of counter-punches by Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) that the recently minted opposition coalition would eventually collapse and that the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) was a violent party, the coalition on Sunday struck back with assurances of its survival and a promise to improve public safety and security.

The coalition appeared to have deliberately targeted its message to the predominantly East Indo-Guyanese community in Queens, New York who have been traditional backers of the incumbent PPPC.

Assurances- although not entirely watertight- that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) would not kick out the Alliance For Change (AFC) from the coalition on winning the May 11, 2015 election were given against the background that the PPPC has been claiming that there would be a repeat of the PNC had booting the United Force (UF) four years after coalescing in 1964. “It will work my friends. We have to make it work. This is not about us. It is about you. This is what you want….National unity is now on the cards,” Nagamootoo told more than 300 mainly Indo-Guyanese.  

Guyanese Canadian Cultural Association of British Columbia – Dinner/Dance 30 May 2015

Guyanese Canadian Cultural Association of British Columbia

Click to Enlarge

2015 Spring Independence Dinner And Dance

Saturday, May 30th, 2015 – 7:00pm – 1:00am

 Fleetwood Community Centre

15996 – 84 Avenue, Surrey BC. Canada.

Music by Redemption Sounds – Door Prizes

Tickets: $40 for Dinner and Dance

Tickets available from:

Clyde Duncan       604-317-1771

Wayne Jemmott    604-970-6047

Tanuja Lafleur        604-777-1875

Sylvia Jemmott      604-589-1852

Guyana: Capitol TV News Videos – 20 March 2015

Guyana: Capitol  TV News Videos – 20 March 2015

• Man nabbed trying to smuggle 89 pounds of cocaine in seasoning
• Stanley Ming presents Guyana 2030 Plan
• No Police records of Crum-Ewing complaints about threats he received
• Coalition says will investigate Crum-Ewing, Sash Sawh deaths if elected
• Joint Services in elections preparedness
• A Look at the Courts
• Sports

Click links below to view the videos:

Man nabbed trying to smuggle 89 pounds of cocaine in seasoning

Posted: 20 Mar 2015 01:09 PM PDT   

What I learned about politicians and government growing up in Guyana

Thanks Rosaliene.

Three Worlds One Vision

Assassination of Courtney Crum-Ewing – Guyana – March 10, 2015
Photo Credit: Kaieteur News

On March 10, 2015, Courtney Crum-Ewing was gunned down during his one-man crusade in his neighborhood, calling on residents with a bullhorn to vote out the current government in the upcoming May elections.

Growing up in Guyana during our struggle for independence from Britain and over subsequent years under an authoritarian government, I was not surprised by this brutal act against an unarmed, political activist. One of the advantages of growing up in the administrative capital of a small developing nation was the opportunity to get a close up view of politicians and government in action.

At a young age, I learned that the government was not some entity separate from we-the-people, but rather an integral and vital part of our daily lives. When a government is efficient and effective in executing its diverse functions, no…

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“Guyanese or Indo-Caribbean?” – By Aminta Kilawan

“Guyanese or Indo-Caribbean?”

Aminta Kilawan

By Aminta Kilawan

“Hot cross buns-hot cross buns-one a penny-two a penny-hot cross buns,” my dad would sing, with an air of nostalgia reminiscing about Eastertime in Guyana. On Good Friday, an Afro-Guyanese woman would walk down the road singing the tune, with fresh buns in a basket on her head, distributing to her Rose Hall Town neighbors in remembrance of Jesus’ crucifixion.

My dad and his family are Hindu. His weekly chore as a child was to offer prayers and flowers in the murthi-laden mandir built in their backyard. Yet my dad and numerous other Hindus attended Sunday school, where they learned and recited the Psalms in the Bible. When I saw my parents close their eyes and state the “Our Father” at my junior high school graduation Mass, I was taken aback by them, the very individuals who taught me the popular Hindu prayer “Twameva Mata.”

Paloma’s Tribute to Courtney: Requiem for the Unknown Soldier

Paloma’s Tribute to Courtney: Requiem for the Unknown Soldier

Click to enlarge

—

Paloma Mohamed Martin (Ph.D)
Communications/Sociology/ Social Psychology

Anthony Sabga Caribbean Laureate ( Excellence in Arts and Letters) 2015

And above all things grant me the wisdom to know love when I see it,

the grace to touch its face in  reverence and the good fortune to see it reflected in myself.
Paloma
February 2003.