Oct. 23 2015 Vol 1 Issue 11 Diaspora Times International E-Magazine 2 FROM THE EDITOR’S DESKTOP Long live the Times! Content By Frank A. Campbell PAGE 3: Not a blade o’ grass PAGE 4-5: Extracts from President here is much happening in Guyana these days. There is Venezuela. Granger’s address to the UN There is the increase in ministerial salaries. There are whispers about PAGE 6-8: Venezuela File possible criminal charges against PPP big wigs. Yet, for more reasons PAGE 9: Chronicle calls out PPP- Tthan one, this seems a good time to reflect on the half-year or so of the exis- PAGE 10-11: Amerindians owned it tence of Diaspora Times. This existence mirrors much of the story of the PAGE 12: Development & the Diaspora APNU+AFC coalition. So we can get a glance at the lives of the two entities PAGE 13: The President, Prime by reviewing the topics in “From the Editor’s Desktop.” Minister, Vice Presidents & Ministers PAGE 14: How much money does a In the first editorial, I wondered whether the birth of APNU+AFC could rep- politician need? resent a return to 1953, the days of the united People’s Progressive Party. A PAGE 15: Government’s turn to later editorial, entitled “Imagine a Country,” asked readers to foresee a pros- trust the people. perous and united Guyana, and to vote, or encourage their loves ones back PAGE 16-17: Do we know where home to vote, to translate that imagined country into the Guyanese reality of our children are? the future. The next issue reported on how Guyanese, from the teenager to PAGE 18-19: How Diaspora the centenarian, voted “like a boss.” I entitled the accompanying editorial, improves children’s education. “Today belongs to the people.” PAGE 20: If it was wrong then, it is Another editorial applauded President Granger’s refusal to adopt a racist, wrong now. divisive or triumphalist response to his coalition’s victory. Then came PAGE 21-22: New hope for unity ... Venezuela’s illegal decree and its generally aggressive stance against PAGE 23: A goobie is not a calabash Guyana. Our editorial, focused on the appropriate lament and potential role PAGE 24-25: Remittances of the Diaspora, was captioned, “What you assume to be your country.” The PAGE 26: Guyana’s transformation- ninth editorial discussed how promises of press freedom and universal al leadership PAGE 27: What our readers write. access to state media are “easy to make, difficult to fulfill, but politically PAGE 28: Guyana news summary rewarding if faithfully followed.” It also gave notice that Diaspora Times, which started out providing electoral support to the APNU+AFC Coalition Editorial Board against the PPP, must now transition to a stance of critical support. The Chairman Desmond Roberts publication must now hold the government to account for its election Editor Frank A. Campbell promises. In that context, the issue you are now reading praises the presi- Freddie Shivdat, Dr. Lear Matthews, dent’s adept handling of the Venezuela crisis and is balanced regarding its Halim Majeed Lurlene Nestor. less than stellar treatment of the salary issue. Ave Brewster-Haynes Hugh Hamilton Dr. Rohan Somar So, now, here we are. This is our 11th editorial. Because one of the 11 was a guest editorial, this is my 10th. It is also my last. A few weeks ago, I notified Contributors my colleagues on the editorial board that the time had come for me to trans- Frank A. Campbell Lincoln Lewis fer the pleasure of editing this publication to some worthy successor. I Neil O. Wray T. Eric Matthews remain available to share with the Times what little writing talent resides in Lear Matthews Desmond Roberts my heart and hands. Joshua Chowritmootoo Sharma Solomon David Hinds I thank our readers for the continued generous evaluation of our work. I express my appreciation to members of the editorial team for the honor of Photographs being called their colleague and their friend. And I say special thanks to our www.chaacreek.com desktop publisher Claire Ann Goring, who, together with her artistic partner Office of the Presidency Ashton Franklin, is also leaving. Thanks, Claire, for using your artistic imag- United Nations Graphic Design & Layout ination to make an artistically challenged editor look good. Claire Ann Goring Ashton Franklin We are going. But Diaspora Times is not. Long live Diaspora Times! LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters to the editor to [email protected] Diaspora Times International E-Magazine GUYANA STRONG 3 NOT A BLADE O’ GRASS Dave Martins & The Tradewinds We are a peaceful people This land is our land now, Struggling we struggle We gonna make it somehow And we don’t ask for trouble We will bend like a bow, Just ask around. But never break. But when outside faces, From foreign places Our fathers came here Talk about taking over, And they lived and died here, We ain’t backing down. And we ain’t moving from here Make no mistake No, we ain’t giving up no mountain, We love the open country And we ain’t giving up no tree of the Rupununi, And the Essequibo, daytime or night We ain’t giving up no river, That belong to we. They criticize it, Not one Blue-Saki, This is our home, we love it, Not one rice grain, And we mean to keep it, Not one Curass, We have that right! Not a blade o’ grass! The corrected version of the song. Diaspora Times International E-Magazine 4 GUYANA STRONG GUYANA, WITH FORCES ONE-FORTHIETH THE SIZE, RESISTS VENEZUELAN AGGRESSION uyana is a small state. Guyana is a new state – a product of the By David Arthur Granger post-World War II promise of peace. Guyana is a child of the (Extracts from President United Nations. Guyana will, eight months from now, on May 26, Granger’s first address to United G2016, mark the 50th anniversary of its independence. For 50 years, our Nations General Assembly) small country has been prevented from fully exploiting our rich natural resources. Venezuela has threatened and deterred investors and frustrated our economic development. For 50 years, our territorial integrity has been violated by Venezuela, which has occupied a part of our territory, the most recent incident being on the 10th October, 2013, when it sent a naval corvette into our maritime zone and expelled a peaceful, petroleum exploration vessel that was con- ducting seismic surveys. For 50 years, Venezuela has promulgated spurious decrees claiming our territo- ry, the most recent being on May 26th, 2015, our independence anniversary, when it issued Decree No. 1.787 with specified coordinates purporting to annex almost our entire maritime zone. That decree constituted a reassertion of its claim to five of Guyana’s ten regions. Diaspora Times International E-Magazine GUYANA STRONG Venezuela has retarded Guyana’s development by 5 Guyana, with forces threats that are intended to force a small state to yield its birthright. Venezuela’s expansionist ambitions can- one-fortieth the size, resists not be allowed to unsettle the principle of inviolability of borders, undermine the tenets of international law Venezuelan aggression and unravel borders that have been undisturbed for decades. • Guyana recommits to preserving the Caribbean as a zone of peace. Border settled 116 years ago • Guyana renews its pledge before this august General Guyana rejects the threats and claims by Venezuela, Assembly that it will pursue the path of peace for all time. which are in defiance of international law. Guyana • Guyana reaffirms its commitment to the peaceful set- resists Venezuela’s acts of aggression in defiance of the tlement of international disputes. Charter of the United Nations, which prescribes the peaceful settlement of disputes and proscribes the use • Guyana reposes total confidence in international law. of armed force. • Guyana seeks a resolution of this controversy that is Guyana’s border with Venezuela was settled 116 years consistent with the Charter of the United Nations. ago. The whole world, except the Bolivarian Republic of The Geneva Agreement of 1966 signed between the gov- Venezuela, accepts our borders. ernments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Guyana, at the 23rd Session of this Assembly in 1968, Northern Ireland, Venezuela and British Guiana on explained to the world how, in 1897, a Treaty of February 17, 1966 provides for the Secretary General to Arbitration was signed between the United Kingdom take action to bring a resolution to the contention occa- and Venezuela. That treaty provided for the establish- sioned by the claim made by the Bolivarian Republic of ment of an arbitral tribunal “to determine the bound- Venezuela that the Arbitral Award of 1899 is null and void. ary-line between the Colony of British Guiana” and Obnoxious claim Venezuela. That treaty committed the parties “to con- Guyana has the fullest confidence in the judgment and sider the result of the proceeds of the Tribunal of capacity of the United Nations, through the Office of the Arbitration as a full, perfect, and final settlement of all Secretary General, to identify solutions that will vali- the questions referred to the Arbitrators.” date the ‘just, perfect and final’ nature of the award. We The tribunal issued its award on the 3rd of October, thank the United Nations and the Secretary General for 1899, giving Venezuela 13,000 square kilometers of our appointing various Good Officers to help to resolve this territory, an area bigger than Jamaica or Lebanon. controversy over the past 25 years. We feel that this Venezuela was bound under international law to respect process has now been exhausted.