• About

Three Worlds One Vision

~ Guyana – Brazil – USA

Three Worlds One Vision

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Guyana Elections 2015: Can younger generations end the nation’s racial politics?

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Guyana

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Guyana Elections 2015, Guyana Electoral Commission (GECOM), Guyana Politics, Guyana population by age group 2014, Guyana President Donald Ramotar

Parliament Buildings - Georgetown - GuyanaParliament Buildings – Georgetown – Guyana
Source: Guyana Government Information Agency (GINA)

 

After suspending the nation’s Parliament last November to avoid a no-confidence vote, Guyana President Donald Ramotar finally made the long-awaited announcement. General and regional elections will take place on May 11, 2015.

Official representatives from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom stationed in Guyana released a joint-statement applauding the announcement. “We are hopeful that the upcoming electoral process will allow the Guyanese people to debate the important issues that are facing the country. We are committed to working with GECOM [Guyana Electoral Commission], all political parties, and civil society to support free, fair and peaceful elections,” they stated.

Since the 1950s, when working class Guyanese came together to demand independence from Great Britain, the nation’s politics evolved along racial lines of the majority Indo- and Afro-Guyanese populations. In power since 1992, the ruling party enjoys the support of the majority of East Indians. Regardless of the hardships they face under Ramotar’s government, older generations of East Indians continue to maintain them in power.

Results of the last elections indicate that support for the ruling party is wavering. Influenced by a wide range of factors at home and abroad, younger generations change with the times. Not all of them share the same allegiance, beliefs, prejudices, and fears as their parents and grandparents.

Based on estimated population figures by age group for July 2014, available on the CIA World Factbook for Guyana, only 12.6 percent (94,327) of Guyanese are 55 years and over, compared to 37.2 percent (273,456) in the age group 25 to 54 years old. Individuals ranging from 20 to 34 years old make up 23.6 percent (174,000) of all potential voters. Since figures are not given by specific ages, it’s difficult to include the number of potential voters 18 to 19 years old.

Born between the years 1980 and 1996, voters 18 to 34 years old did not live through the racial violence of the 1960s and 1970s. Those born in 1980, the year of Walter Rodney’s assassination, would have been five years old when the former black dictator Forbes Burnham died. The majority of these young adult Guyanese have lived under the dictatorship East Indian government. They have had twenty-two years or less to evaluate the performance of the ruling party.

Today, the younger generations have the voting power to say “No” to racial politics that has served only to stifle Guyana’s social and economic progress and enrich a small group of the local power elite. Inform yourselves about the issues. Inform yourselves about the leadership and goals of the opposition parties. Be engaged. Demand accountability. Demand change.

Working together with The Other is the only way forward. Bridging that gap takes courage, openness, and acceptance. If you haven’t yet taken that first step forward, do so today.

State of Chronic Crisis

18 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Human Behavior, Nature and the Environment, United States, Urban Violence

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), Charlie Hebdo, Fossil fuel industry, Global power elite, Globalized capitalist economic system, Greenhouse gas emissions, Transnational corporations, War on Terror

Police Special Force - Manhunt for Charlie Hebdo assailants - France - January 2015Police Special Forces – Manhunt for Charlie Hebdo assailants
Northern France – January 8, 2015
Photo Credit: Francois Lo Presti / AFP

 

Terror struck Parisians on January 8, 2015, when jihadist gunmen targeted the cartoonists and writers of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo for their profane depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

We continue to kill each other in defense of our gods and our freedom.

How long will we persist in feeding on half-truths and fabrications dished out by the global minority power elite? How long will we persist in allowing them to manipulate tragic events to perpetuate fear of The Other? How long will we persist in responding to violence with more violence that makes our lives more insecure?

Our global “War on Terror” foments terror in distant regions under fire and propagates new generations of terrorists. In the name of our homeland security, we in the West now live in militarized police states under electronic surveillance of our movements and communications. Only those freedoms that serve the agenda of the global power elite are tolerated and promoted.

When are we going to wake up from our stupor? When are we going to realize that we are disposable pawns of the global power elite? When are we going to take action to end our state of chronic crisis?

While we are manipulated to fear, hate, and kill The Other, the profit-driven transnational corporations, run by the global power elite, are destroying our planet’s ecosystems that support human life. In pursuit of continual economic growth – which means more money in their coffers – they destroy natural habitats and contaminate our air, water, and soils. We are not without guilt. As voracious consumers, we are collaborators in their plunder and destruction.

We delude ourselves that we can continue on the path of our globalized capitalist economic system without self-destructing. We delude ourselves that we are not responsible for Earth’s climate disruption. We delude ourselves that we are separate and above the natural world.

We have come to a period in our civilization when we must end dumping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. We urgently need to come together as members of the human species to work towards transitioning to life-sustaining societies. We cannot allow the power elite of the fossil fuel industry to frame laws intended to phase out our use of fossil fuels and transition to clean renewable energy resources.

In February, I will introduce a new weekly blog feature: Climate Disruption – Thought of the Week (up to 50 words). My goal is to spread awareness of the greatest challenge of our times, share success stories at home and abroad in addressing anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), and offer resources for individual involvement in making the transition.

To fail to act now is to condemn our children, grandchildren, and future survivors (if any) to a world of widespread chaos.

 

Corruption Scandal at Brazil’s Oil Giant Petrobras

11 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Economy and Finance

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Alberto Youssef, Corruption, Money laundering scheme, Operation Car Wash, Paulo Roberto Costa, Petrobras, Petrobras corruption scandal, President Dilma Rousseff

Petrobras LogoPetrobras Logo

 

On January 1, 2015, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff began her second term marred by the corruption scandal at Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras, the state-run oil giant and largest company in the nation. During her address before the National Congress, President Dilma affirmed her commitment to “rigorously investigate all the wrong done and strengthen [Petrobras] even more… and know how to punish [those involved], without weakening Petrobras, or diminishing its importance for the present and the future.”

The Petrobras corruption scandal erupted in March 2014 with the Federal Police money-laundering sting, codename Operation Car Wash, executed across six states and the Federal District (Brasília). They seized R$5 million (US$1.9 million) in cash, 25 luxury cars, jewelry, paintings, and weapons. Among the seventeen people arrested was Alberto Youssef, a black-market money dealer and suspected leader of the scheme. Continue reading →

“I Come from the Nigger Yard” – Poem by Martin Carter

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Guyana, Poetry

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Black lives matter, East Indian indentureship, Guyanese Poet Martin Carter, Marginalized urban populations, Suspension of the British Guiana Constitution 1953, Working class oppression

Homeless Woman outside Parliament Buildings - Georgetown - GuyanaHomeless Woman outside Parliament Buildings – Georgetown – Guyana
Photo Credit: Mark Jacobs

 

My Poetry Corner January 2015 features the poem “I Come from the Nigger Yard” by Guyanese poet Martin Carter (1927-1997). Following the suspension of the British Guiana Constitution in 1953, the poet-politician composed this poem during his three-month detention, together with other political leaders, by the British Army.

For readers unfamiliar with the history of Guyana, a former British colony until May 1966, slavery ended in 1834. East Indian indentured laborers began arriving from India in 1838 and continued until 1917. Other immigrant workers came from Portuguese Madeira (1835-1882) and China (1853-1879).

In the 1890s, living conditions on the British-owned sugar plantations remained deplorable. Occupying a section of the plantation, the “nigger yard” consisted of crude huts built on low-lying, badly drained land. When the indentured East Indian workers arrived, they lived under similar conditions in logies, barrack-type mud-floor ranges in the “bound-coolie-yard” [Cheddi Jagan, The West on Trial: My Fight for Guyana’s Freedom, 2004, p.30]. Continue reading →

Subscribe

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011

Categories

  • About Me
  • Anthropogenic Climate Disruption
  • Brazil
  • Economy and Finance
  • Education
  • Family Life
  • Festivals
  • Fiction
  • Guyana
  • Health Issues
  • Human Behavior
  • Immigrants
  • Leisure & Entertainment
  • Nature and the Environment
  • People
  • Philosophy
  • Poetry
  • Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Poets & Writers
  • Recommended Reading
  • Relationships
  • Religion
  • Reviews – The Twisted Circle: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Reviews – Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Save Our Children
  • Social Injustice
  • Technology
  • The Twisted Circle: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • The Writer's Life
  • Uncategorized
  • Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • United States
  • Urban Violence
  • Website Updates
  • Women Issues
  • Working Life

Blogroll

  • Angela Consolo Mankiewicz
  • Caribbean Book Blog
  • Dan McNay
  • Dr. Gerald Stein
  • Foreign Policy Association
  • Guyanese Online
  • Writer's Digest
  • WritersMarket: Where & How to Sell What You Write

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,852 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Three Worlds One Vision
    • Join 2,852 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Three Worlds One Vision
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...