A GENTLEMAN by the name of Emile Mervin who is a daily contributor (yes daily) to the comments section of the online edition of the Stabroek News (the only Guyanese newspaper you cannot read for free online) noted in a letter to the Stabroek News that he intends to write on the vital role the Guyanese media is playing in Guyana.

Please see my column on the politicised and anti-government role of the private media in Guyana – Wednesday, March 13, 2024, “The press educates Guyanese? Really!” What is the private media educating Guyanese on and in the process of educating Guyanese is the private media, miseducating its readers? I would say that to inform readers that the two major conflicts in the world today is the Ukrainian war and the troubles in Venezuela is not only miseducation but propagandising nastiness.

The major occupation in people’s thoughts right now all over the world is genocide in Gaza. Yet the Stabroek News did an editorial with the headline: “Global chaos: Ukraine and Venezuela.” Can you imagine that? Can any sane person imagine that? Can any human with commonsense imagine that? The most tragic manifestation of global chaos is genocide in Gaza (for a reaction to the editorial, please see my column for Wednesday, February 28, 2024, “A Guyanese newspaper that has embarrassed the post-colonial world.”

Is this what Mr. Mervin calls educating the Guyanese people? Maybe we can attempt to educate the Guyanese people by looking at the real facts of global chaos. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will be facing off a second time for the American presidency. Isn’t something wrong with the world?

The US has a population of 331 million. Yet of that population, the two men contesting the presidency are in advanced age. Mr. Biden is 81. Mr. Trump is 77. Much more important than that is the frightening fact that people voted for Mr. Trump in the Republican primaries. We are living with the global chaos that Mr. Trump will be the next president of the US. Can a normal person with all their senses in intact vote for Mr. Trump. No human should vote for Mr. Trump.

In India, a law has been passed and at the moment is being carried out. It grants citizenship to refugees who entered India before 2014 from neighbouring countries. Those who are Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis will be awarded citizenship but not Muslims.

It is impossible to understand how people living in India before 2014 who fled turmoil in other countries can receive citizens but not Muslims. Something is not right here. A refugee is a refugee irrespective of their religion. That this could happen in one of the world’s greatest democratic countries and one of the best countries in the world is a sign that the world is becoming difficult to make sense out of it.

The Italians elected the female version of Trump, Giorgia Meloni. Ms. Meloni is what political theorists would classify as a far-right, authoritarian figure. But Ms. Meloni is much more than that. This lady is the definitive female version of Trump. It is as if they were joined at the hip at birth. In Holland, recent elections resulted in the fascist party, The Party For Freedom winning the most seats in the 150 seat parliament.

Its leader, Geert Wilders, is close to fascism than any other leader in Europe. He refers to Arabs as scum and said if and when he becomes Prime Minister, he would ban the Islamic religion, ban all mosques and deport Muslims and refugees. Such a person’s party won more seats than any other party. This is how the people of Holland voted.

A billionaire in the UK who donated 10 billion pounds to the ruling Conservative Party has created a controversy that is sweeping the UK and beyond. The donor, Frank Hester, says that looking at Diane Abbot makes you want to hate all Black women and that Ms. Abbot should be shot. Diane Abbot is one of the senior leaders in the Labour Party of the UK and one of its senior parliamentarians (36 years in Parliament). She is a Jamaican/British Black woman. She was the first Black woman to be elected to the UK parliament.

The UK government has closed the matter because it said Mr. Hester has apologised. So, he will not be charged for saying that Ms. Abbot should be shot.

Over in New York, maybe the most liberal part of the Western world, the governor from the Democratic Party mouthed off that Israel would be justified in wiping out Gaza. This is the world we live in today.