Guyana Oil Wealth

President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali

Has announced that every Guyanese citizen aged 18 and older as of January 1, 2024, will receive a $100,000 cash grant

Guyana is at a crossroads in its history —a small South American nation with a population of over 800,000 people, experienced a significant oil and gas boom that transformed it into the world’s fastest-growing economy.

With its 11.6 billion barrels of oil reserves and plans to boost production to 1.3 million barrels per day by 2027, Guyana ranks among the top non-OPEC+ producers poised to drive global supply growth.

“As a responsible Government, as a Government that understands that we have a responsibility that all feel included and part of the system, it is important that we build a system that is robust in delivering this grant and the simplest and most verifiable way is the $100,000 for every Guyanese 18 and above with the qualifying date of the 1st January 2024, that is achieving the age of 18 at the 1st January 2024”, President Ali reiterated. Instead of the one-off cash grant of $200,000 for every household as previously announced.

The simple means of verification is the possession of a national valid identification card, a Guyanese birth certificate, and/or a valid Guyanese passport.

The President also announced that in addition to abolishing the tuition fees for the University of Guyana from January 2025, the Government will also be abolishing the tuition fees at all Government technical and vocational schools.

The decision has found favor with many Guyana citizens, based on the responses on social media.

Empowering Guyanese. When citizens elect someone responsible who cares about them.

Greater financial empowerment for households: The policy represents a progressive step forward by recognizing the unique financial needs of Guyanese individuals, ensuring that each person has the financial flexibility to address their personal needs.

This policy respects individuals and also provides support for senior citizens and vulnerable groups.

The new policy ensures that elderly individuals living on fixed incomes or relying on pensions will receive the $100,000 cash grant, providing much-needed financial relief. This additional income can help cover essential costs such as medical expenses, utilities, and groceries, offering our senior citizens more comfort and security in their daily lives.

This action exemplifies the President's unwavering commitment to building a thriving and just Guyana, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to succeed and contribute to the nation's overall economic growth.

President of Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali

The announcement by President Dr. Irfaan Ali during a special sitting of Parliament, marked his second address to Parliament since taking office. The cash grant is part of a series of measures that the President says will form a blueprint to propel Guyana forward and safeguard the quality of life. All public sector workers will earn no less than $100,000 GYD monthly by the end of 2025. Additionally, food security is a priority for Guyana's government, and efforts are underway to create a digital economy for the country.

Angela Brooks for YAME

Barbados: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Preparedness

In the spotlight

By Theo Edwards

The Covid-19 pandemic is shedding light on the vulnerability of health systems, including in rich countries, that many thought were best prepared to face epidemics. The situation remains fluid as data and statistics on cases and mortality due to Covid-19 move rapidly.

The pandemic was confirmed to have reached Barbados on 17 March 2020 with the announcement of the first two cases.

COVID-19 Preparedness

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Preparedness in Video: Barbados. The pandemic was confirmed to have reached Barbados on 17 March 2020 with the announcement of the first two cases.

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public

To get information and guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), add the WHO official number +41 79 893 18 92 to your phone contact or mobile device contact list with web and mobile data access.

• Go to WhatsApp messaging application installed on the device (If not installed, get it from Google Play Store for Android OS or Apple wallet for iPhone).

• Text the word "Hi" to WHO contact on the WhatsApp messenger. The materials are regularly updated based on new scientific findings as the epidemic evolves.

This service provides the latest information from the World Health Organization (WHO) of coronavirus (COVID-19) first reported on 31 December 2019.

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We Got This

Vibe Barbados: In a Caribbean cultural collaborative unlike ever seen before in the region, 25 West Indian born singers including internationally acclaimed stars, award-winning vocalists, and various calypso and soca monarchs have come together to gift their talent to the fight against the dreaded COVID-19 virus.

25 voices. 14 countries. 1 message. In a Caribbean cultural collaborative unlike ever seen before in the region, 25 West Indian born singers including intern...

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Emancipation Day, Trinidad & Tobago

A national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery

By Theo Edwards

“Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and his wife Sharon take a picture with members of the Shell Invaders Steel Orchestra during the Prime Minister’s Emancipation Celebration at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, on Saturday.”

A dual-island Caribbean nation with distinctive Creole traditions and cuisines, Trinidad’s capital, Port of Spain, hosts a boisterous carnival featuring calypso and soca music.

First colonized by the Spanish, the islands came under British control in the early 19th century. Sugar plantations dominated the colonial economy throughout the nineteenth century. Sugar cane fields cover the island and mills for refining it. Until the abolition of slavery, the main source of labor was force enslaved Africans –men, women, and children brought from Africa to the Caribbean.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution spawned the rise of a new group of influential men in the British Parliament who believed that slavery was no longer economically viable.

In 1833 Thomas Buxton presented The Emancipation Bill in Parliament. The Act passed and came into effect on August 1, 1834. On that day, thousands of slaves in the British West Indies became free men and women.

On August 1, 1985, one-hundred and fifty-one years later, the government of Trinidad and Tobago declared Emancipation Day a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

Video Image Courtesy: Andy St-John

Prime Minister Emancipation Day Message

“My Fel­low cit­i­zens to­day we cel­e­brate Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, as a na­tion­al hol­i­day. It is im­por­tant to note that we, in Trinidad and To­ba­go, are unique in that since Au­gust 1, 1985, we have been com­mem­o­rat­ing, every year, the abo­li­tion of slav­ery in the for­mer British West In­dies, on this date.

We have long recog­nised slav­ery as the sad, dark side of hu­man ex­is­tence, in that al­most every peo­ple, every race across the world has had this wretched ex­pe­ri­ence but we from West Africa have suf­fered the worst.

His­to­ri­ans con­tin­ue to doc­u­ment these cru­el ex­ploita­tions, in hu­man so­ci­eties, from cen­tu­ry-old events in the Arab world to the evo­lu­tion of democ­ra­cy in an­cient Greece, de­vel­op­ments which helped to shape mod­ern West­ern civil­i­sa­tion of which we are a part.

Our schol­ars iden­ti­fy the African slave trade, and slav­ery as dif­fer­ent in the en­tire hu­man ex­is­tence.

Slav­ery ex­ist­ed there, be­fore the Eu­ro­peans came, but it was con­sid­ered “in­ter­nal” and “pa­tri­ar­chal”, ac­cord­ing to our own renown, in­ter­na­tion­al schol­ar, CLR James, who al­so told us that in the 16th cen­tu­ry Cen­tral Africa was a ter­ri­to­ry of peace, and a hap­py civil­i­sa­tion; the home to a peas­antry, which in many re­spects was su­pe­ri­or to the serfs in large ar­eas of Eu­rope.

But this way of life was dis­rupt­ed by the Eu­ro­pean’s in­ter­ven­tion. In a UN­ESCO study on Race and His­to­ry, Claude Levi-Strauss, de­scribed this in­ter­ven­tion as “the de­ci­sive mo­ment in the his­to­ry of hu­man civil­i­sa­tion”.
Our late Prime Min­is­ter, Dr Er­ic Williams demon­strat­ed con­clu­sive­ly, in his ac­claimed work, Cap­i­tal­ism and Slav­ery, that it was the cap­i­tal, de­rived from the slave trade and slav­ery, which cre­at­ed the In­dus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion of the 1760s. This then trans­formed Eng­land in­to the work­shop of the world and lat­er al­lowed it to cre­ate its glob­al em­pire.

Slav­ery has left many a black per­son scarred and de­nud­ed of ba­sic val­ues. In the eyes of some, the per­cep­tion re­mains that blacks have been placed at the bot­tom of every “good” list, and the “top” of every bad one. De­spite, their strengths, re­source­ful­ness and in­tel­li­gence, they are forced still to cry out to the world that “Black is beau­ti­ful, too”.

This is the 21st cen­tu­ry, a tec­ton­ic shift is tak­ing place; there is a new “Scram­ble for Africa” The world’s su­per­pow­ers are turn­ing at­ten­tion to Africa, again, as the new eco­nom­ic fron­tier. The UN pre­dicts that by 2025 there will be more Africans than Chi­nese peo­ple in the world, as African economies are among the fastest-grow­ing in the world.

What this means for the African per­son in Trinidad and To­ba­go is a ques­tion that every one of this race must ask. I urge that we all ac­knowl­edge this past. We must con­tin­ue to re­search the rich, his­tor­i­cal an­ces­try of African civil­i­sa­tions – the lega­cy from whence we came. We must con­tin­ue to re­mem­ber how we came here and what we are en­gaged in build­ing here, a new so­ci­ety based on equal­i­ty and har­mo­ny in our colour­ful and vi­brant democ­ra­cy.

Re­mem­ber the strug­gles of the fore-par­ents on and off the plan­ta­tions to the birth and growth of this na­tion.

Then let us find ways to un­lock, and eman­ci­pate our­selves from the men­tal chains, and, fi­nal­ly, em­brace the op­por­tu­ni­ties of the 21st cen­tu­ry — with an un­der­stand­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go will on­ly achieve the fu­ture which we all, as cit­i­zens, cre­ate for our gen­er­a­tions to come.”

— OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

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