Checking…

…a guardrail

While we in the Caribbean are very young as far as nations go, we’re now facing a conundrum as old as civilisation!! The Romans posed it in Latin as “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” – who will judge the judges?? The Judiciary, of course, is our third component of governance and they’re the ones who intercede in the fracas between the squabbling parties in the Government and the legislature! Which – as we know to our cost has now become the reflexive, default situation seeing as how our parties aren’t given to settling disputes on their own!!
Your Eyewitness sees our present situation as more acute given that the Judges in question are from our highest court and judicial authority – the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)!!  The reports are astounding: five of the CCJ’s six sitting Judges have reportedly raised concerns about President Justice Winston Anderson’s leadership –- including allegations of an authoritarian or “dictatorial” management style, attempts to influence colleagues, and concerns about the handling of judicial panels!! Most significantly for us in dear old Mudland, Justice Peter Jamadar reportedly referred specifically to an alleged attempt to influence Judges whose views differed from the President’s in the Sanction Man’s extradition matter!!
That doesn’t, by itself, establish that the Sanction Man’s judgement was improperly decided!! Not that you’d suspect this from the jubilation in his camp – especially from his two sisters! – who would naturally grasp at any straw!! The CCJ’s published position is that the appeal was dismissed, allowing the extradition proceedings to continue – and the judgement was delivered publicly as a UNANIMOUS decision!! But the internal allegations create a serious institutional question that can’t simply be dismissed because the judgement happened to go against Mohamed!!
The real issue is for Guyana and us Guyanese!! The irony is most painful since we’ve spent decades building the CCJ as an institution capable of replacing the old colonial judicial Privy Council!! Quite a few heavyweights – and several territories – including T&T where the Court is located – expressed doubts as to whether local jurists could maintain their impartiality!! The doubting territories didn’t sign on – and the revelations have come at a time when they were being pressured to do so!!
They were being assured that the CCJ was precisely what it was supposed to be: a Caribbean institution whose authority rests on independence, intellectual seriousness and public confidence rather than political power!! We could do it – yes we could!! But if the Judges can’t be confident of independence from their own President, how can we poor shmoes be confident it’s independent of everybody else?
It gotta protect its authority – and do this pronto – by demonstrating that even its President is subject to the discipline of judicial independence!!
Res Judicata!!

…birth tourism
For years, some Guyanese – especially some big ones!! – discovered one of the world’s most ingenious immigration strategies: if you couldn’t get America to give you a passport, you could always arrange for America to give one to your baby!! It was migration planning with a maternity ward attached. Fly to NY on a visitor’s visa, have the baby, collect the birth certificate and return home with the proud announcement: “Baby is American!”
Suddenly the family had an insurance policy against local uncertainties — and a ticket to Uncle Sam’s land of opportunity. But now Pres Trump has decided that the maternity ward ain’t no immigration office!! His latest executive actions target “birth tourism” – tightening the rules on children born in America to foreign visitors!! The irony is delicious: America spent decades telling the world it’s the land of opportunity for all.
But with Trump’s “No Baby Loopholes” in place, all those who were planning to benefit next year, the stork may’ve missed the visa appointment!!

…water
We’re known as the “Land of Many Waters” …it’s our international tag line!! So, why are some upset the Govt started bottling water – to join all the private companies doing so??
Who’s to decide the limit of “many” but the Govt??!!