Suriname hands over UNASUR chairmanship to Uruguay

UNASUR pro-tempore chairmanship passed on to Uruguay 

December 15, 2014

PRIME MINISTER Samuel Hinds and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett led a Guyana team to meetings in Eucador which demonstrate both regular business and progress of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

The new UNASUR headquarters in Ecuador

On December 4, at a meeting of Heads in Guyaquil, the annual Pro-Tempore Chairmanship of UNASUR was passed from President Desi Delano Bouterse of Suriname to President Jose Alberto Mujica Cordano of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.

On December 5, in Quito, the new modern magnificent headquarters building of UNASUR was inaugurated during day long ceremonies of great pomp and splendour.  The location, known as the “Centre of the Earth”, lent greatly to the grandeur of the occasion, set at the foot of a low hill leading to a temple to the Sun God, amidst peaks of the Andean mountain range; the Equator is marked on a line through the Centre of the Temple.

The 12-member UNASUR comprise: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Peru, Paraguay, Suriname, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.

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Guyana decides that Guyana/Suriname Bridge will be placed at Moleson Creek

The Guyana Government has begun the process of building a bridge across the Corentyne River to link Guyana and Suriname. Advertisements for bids to construct  bridges along the access road to the main bridge have been placed in a Guyana newspaper. An advertisement in the state-owned Guyana Chronicle last week invited bids for the project which will be done under the Ministry of Public Works’ Capital Bridges Programme.

President Bouterse and President Ramotar

The Invitation For Bids (IFB) said that the construction period for the bridges is to be 40 weeks.

Bids open on December 2.

Geoffrey Vaughn, Coordinator of the Works Services Group of the Ministry,said

Guyana has already decided that the bridge will be built in the vicinity of the Moleson Creek stelling, Corentyne, Berbice, which currently has a ferry operating between the two countries.Suriname is still finalizing details on where the bridge will be anchored on the eastern side. One proposed location is President Desi BouterseSouth Drain, Suriname to Parrot Island to mainland Guyana.

Takutu Bridge Guyana /Brazil

The idea for the bridge was developed after a visit to by Surinamese President, Desi Bouterse, in September 2010.

Earlier this year, Guyana Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, said that the Chinese Government will finance the construction of the bridge through a joint loan to the two countries.

This loan will be part of the US$3B in loans to 10 Caribbean nations, that was announced by Chinese President, Xi Jinping in 2013.

 

China's President with Trinidad and Tobago PM

Both Guyana and Suriname are working to link their countries to Brazil and South America. Guyana has recently linked to Brazil with a bridge across the Takutu River.

With a bridge connecting Guyana and Brazil at Takutu, Region Nine, a link with Suriname has been seen as  a massive step for the integration of South America.

In 2010, Suriname’s then Minister of Public Works Ramon Abrahams signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with two Chinese companies: Cheng Don International and China Harbor, for US$6 billion worth of investments. Other projects include the construction of a new deep-sea harbor, a sea dam from Albina to Nickerie, a new highway from Paramaribo to the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, and 8,000 low-income houses.

"The idea of linking Suriname to its neighbors is part of the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America," Mr. Abrahams  said.

According to Abrahams financing from other Chinese sources will go towards building bridges that will span the Corentyne and the Marowijne rivers, which form the natural borders between Suriname and Guyana and Cayenne respectively.

Feasibility studies have already been conducted for the Corentyne River bridge .

Suriname's president warns U.S. over interference

Feb 26,2014

PARAMARIBO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Suriname's President Desi Bouterse warned on Tuesday that the U.S. ambassador may need to leave the country due to the alleged interference in the upcoming election.

The U.S. ambassador in Suriname will most likely get a warning letter from the government of Suriname on Feb. 26,in which he will be asked to defend himself, said Bouterse during a ceremony commemorating the Revolution Day.

"If the ambassador cannot properly defend himself,he may be asked to leave the country," he added.

According to Bouterse, the U.S. ambassador said and did things to avoid the coming election in Suriname because "the other president is not ready."

Bouterse said he is well aware of possible scenarios to influence the election results, but they do not worry him.

"No matter the election is held earlier or later,the opposition has no chance of winning. The president that the people of Suriname want will come to power," Bouterse noted.

He stressed that Suriname is not happy with interference from foreign countries in its national matters.

The general election for a new parliament and government in Suriname is scheduled to be held in May 2015, but the political battle has already broken out.

Invictus - an inspirational poem

"Invictus" is a short Victorian poem by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). It was first published in 1875 in a book called Book of Verses,


 It originally had no title.Early printings contained only the dedication To R. T. H. B.—a reference to Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce (1846–1899),  a literary patron.  When the poem was included in The Oxford Book of English Verse  the title "Invictus" ( "unconquered" in Latin) was added by Arthur Quiller-Couch, the editor

While in prison on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery. 

In the movie Invictus, Mandela gives the captain of the national South African rugby team the poem to inspire him to lead his team to a Rugby World Cup win, telling him how it inspired him in prison. 

In reality, as opposed to the movie, Mandela gave the captain, Francois Pienaar, a copy of "The Man in the Arena" passage from President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt's speech Citizenship in a Republic instead.

The Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stated, "This poem had inspired my father, Aung San, and his contemporaries during the independent struggle, as it also seemed to have inspired freedom fighters in other places at other times."

Surinamese President Desi Bouterse also finds the poem inspiring and has a wall sized version on the wall outside his office.Like Mandela,Bouterse is committed to creating National unity through sport.

In a recent speech welcoming the FIFA World Cup to Suriname he made reference to the last two lines of the poem.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.
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