April 11, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
Good morning. Miss Violet is seated, coffee in hand, ready to speak.
THE DROUGHT WATCH
A Hydrological Drought Watch has been declared for April. Groundwater is low. The authorities are asking for water conservation. Miss Violet has been asking for a national water conservation education programme since before most of you were born, and has been told variously that it is “not the right time,” “not in the budget,” and once, memorably, “people already know about water.” They do not. The evidence is the drought watch.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
Good morning from the rock. The sun is out. The reservoir is not full. Let’s proceed.
HYDROLOGICAL DROUGHT WATCH DECLARED FOR APRIL
Barbados is officially under a Hydrological Drought Watch this month. Groundwater levels are below seasonal norms. The Meteorological Service would like you to conserve water. The Barbados Water Authority would like you to conserve water. The Bajan Bugle would like you to conserve water. You will not conserve water. This is the annual ritual. It will rain in May and we will have this conversation again next April.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
Good morning! Auntie Cheryl calling from Chaguanas, just finished my puja and ready to talk news!
NGC MADE THREE BILLION DOLLARS AND AUNTIE CHERYL IS PLEASED
Three billion, two hundred and eighty-five million dollars profit! Best year in eleven years! Kamla announced it in Parliament yesterday and Auntie Cheryl nearly choked on her sada roti. Stuart Young came out immediately to say it’s not Kamla’s doing — but Stuart, darling, somebody has to be in charge when the numbers look good, and the lady standing at the podium seems to have found that position. Auntie Cheryl will take the win.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
Good morning. Pour some bitters in your cocoa tea and settle in.
PERSAD-BISSESSAR DEMANDS CARICOM SECRETARY-GENERAL EXIT
Trinidad’s row with its Caribbean neighbours — simmering since the disputes over US drug policy, Venezuela, and the reappointment of the CARICOM Secretary-General — boiled over publicly on Friday. PM Persad-Bissessar is now demanding that the Secretary-General not receive another term past August. The fight is officially no longer subtext. What began as a disagreement about procedures at the Basseterre summit has become a Caribbean diplomatic fracas of the first order. Guyana’s President Ali, notably, had just shaken hands with Persad-Bissessar in Port of Spain hours earlier on the bilateral trade agenda, which means the region is simultaneously having a unity summit and a breakup. This is the Caribbean. Both things fit on the same Friday.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 3 min readRamesh Sees It Differently
Good morning. Ramesh is well. Ramesh had a productive Easter. Let us proceed.
THE PRESIDENT WENT TO TRINIDAD AND SPOKE TRUTH
President Ali addressed the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce on Friday, and the speech was, in a word, visionary. He laid out the full case for a Guyana-T&T economic partnership that could reshape the region — energy integration, food security, technology exchange, soybeans, cocoa, storage infrastructure — and he did it with the kind of bluntness that only a leader operating from a position of strength can afford. “Lock ourselves up for 72 hours and fix the damn problem.” That is not the language of a man who is uncertain about where his country is headed. It is the language of a statesman who has run out of patience for ceremonial slow-walking. PM Persad-Bissessar agreed on a full development agenda and will visit Guyana soon. Progress.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning from Georgetown. Here’s what you missed while you were sleeping off Easter.
PLANE DOWN IN REGION 8 — PILOT STILL MISSING
An Air Services Limited Cessna 208 went down Friday morning somewhere between Mahdia and Imbaimadai in dense, mountainous jungle. The pilot — Nicaraguan national Captain Ryder Castello, 20 years of experience, employed with ASL for ten of them — departed at 8:10 a.m. and was due at 8:40. He never called in. The crash site has been located on the side of a mountain, the hard part is getting to it. The GDF dispatched special forces and medical personnel via Bell helicopter, but the terrain requires climbing one mountain and descending the other side. Weather at the time: heavy rainfall, reduced visibility. Everybody is racing against the clock.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 2 min readBack-a-Truck
Back-a-Truck: the things Guyanese people actually say. Overheard, reported, and presented without further comment. Every Saturday.
AT STABROEK MARKET, TUESDAY MORNING
“De cash grant reach?”
“Not yet.”
“Dey say Region 9 getting it now.”
“I ain’t in Region 9.”
“Well.”
“Well.”
EAST BANK, MORNING TRAFFIC, WEDNESDAY
“Move de car nah man!”
“Where I moving it to?!”
“I don’t know — ANYWHERE.”
“Is one lane! Where you want me go — de canal?!”
“At this point, yes!”
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 3 min readBounty Board
⚠️ The Bounty Board is satirical fiction. All ‘wanted notices’ target fictional situations, systems, and concepts — never real individuals. Published every Saturday.
🎯 BOUNTY BOARD
Week of April 6–11, 2026
“Wanted: answers. Reward: closure.”
🔴 WANTED: THE CORENTYNE RIVER FEES SOLUTION
Status: At large since approximately forever
Last seen: Being discussed at a press conference
Description: A bilateral agreement between Guyana and Suriname that would resolve the controversial charges imposed on vessels using the Corentyne River. Described as “imminent” multiple times. Has not appeared.
Reward: Regional trade goodwill and the gratitude of every boat captain on the river
Tip line: Ask the Ministry. Then ask again. Then wait.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
Bridgetown. Friday. The CARIFTA swimmers are home and the dengue numbers are not improving. Both things are true and one of them requires more urgency than it is receiving.
CARIFTA SWIMMERS RETURN
Trinidad and Tobago’s CARIFTA swim team landed at Piarco to a reception. Barbados’s own contingent had a creditable showing at the Games in Grenada. Across the region, the 53rd CARIFTA Games reminded everyone that the Caribbean produces competitive athletes at every age level with a fraction of the infrastructure budget that larger countries use to produce roughly equivalent results. This is either an argument for the talent of Caribbean youth or an indictment of how little we invest in it. It is probably both.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
Good morning. I am Miss Violet. I have been watching the news and I have several things to say about the state of Caribbean civic preparedness, sporting achievement, and mosquito policy. Please sit.
THE SWIMMERS EARNED THIS
I want to be clear that the CARIFTA swimmers did not land at Piarco to polite applause because they were expected to do well. They earned that reception through months of training in pools that are not always in ideal condition, with coaching that is not always funded at the level it deserves, representing countries that do not always have the national sports budgets to justify the results they somehow consistently produce. When we celebrate CARIFTA athletes we should celebrate them knowing the full cost of what they accomplished. That cost includes everything that was not provided and had to be overcome anyway.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning, Guyana. It is Friday. The money is flowing, the roads are still chaotic, and the government has a new plan involving a database. Sit down.
Q1 OIL REVENUES HIT $159 BILLION
The Natural Resource Fund collected more than G$159 billion in oil revenues during the first quarter of 2026, according to receipts published in the Official Gazette. The figures cover the period December 30, 2025 through March 31, 2026 and include profit oil payments from ExxonMobil’s Stabroek operations. Offshore crude production averaged approximately 918,000 barrels per day in February, with the Uaru development expected to push output past one million barrels by year end. President Ali described this as evidence that Guyana is becoming “a global model” for responsible resource management, which is exactly the kind of thing you say when $159 billion has just landed in your account.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 4 min readTraffic Report
🚗 DJ ROADBLOCK — Friday April 10, 2026 🚗
Spinning the hits and dodging the potholes since forever
Goooood morning Georgetown! It is FRIDAY and DJ Roadblock is LIVE in your ears, your eyes, and unfortunately also in your windshield because traffic is not playing today, people. Buckle up. Literally. It is the law and also survival.
🔴 EAST BANK DEMERARA: FULL LOCKDOWN ENERGY
People. East Bank this morning is what the government would describe as “a dynamic transportation situation” and what everyone sitting in it is describing as something I cannot print. The usual suspects: school drop-off traffic converging with people heading to Georgetown for work, construction equipment parked in a way that suggests the operator believes cars are optional, and that one minibus that has decided its personal schedule supersedes all traffic laws and the concept of lanes.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readYard Brief
Aye yo it’s Leroy. Calling in from the Bronx. Cousin Merle just text me the news and I had to sit down.
THIS SHANOYA GIRL THOUGH
Listen. 22.11 in the 200. Last week she run the fastest 100 in the world. She running the whole world by herself right now. I show my coworker Marcus — Marcus is from the Dominican Republic, he does not understand cricket or anything — I show him the time and he look at me like, “is that good?” Is that good? Marcus I need you to leave my desk area immediately. 22.11 is not “good.” 22.11 is your grandmother bragging about you to everyone at church for the next six months. Shanoya, you doing the whole diaspora a service.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readYard Brief
Jamaica, April 10. It is a Friday. Shanoya Douglas ran 22.11. A soldier killed his girlfriend. A bartender was shot in Red Bank. A Member of Parliament has been summoned by the Ethics Committee. The US dollar closed at $158.93. Normal.
JDF SOLDIER CHARGED, GIRLFRIEND DEAD
Damanice Tyrone Williamson, 27, a member of the Jamaica Defence Force, has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend Tanzanya Dunkley and remanded until May 20. He appeared in Manchester court. He raised his hands for the cameras in the way people do when they want to indicate they are handcuffed and should not be photographed like this. The court did not particularly care. Tanzanya Dunkley is dead. The JDF has not issued a statement that adds anything useful to this sentence.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 4 min readPatriots Portfolio
Patriots Portfolio: your weekly look at Guyana’s economic landscape — what’s growing, what’s coming, and where the opportunities are for Guyanese building toward the future.
THE HEADLINE NUMBER THIS WEEK: US$761 MILLION
Guyana received US$761 million in oil revenue in Q1 2026. Annualised, that projects to approximately US$3 billion in oil receipts for the year — before accounting for the Uaru development coming online and pushing production toward one million barrels per day by year end. For context: Guyana’s entire GDP was around US$27 billion in 2025 and growing. The oil revenue is not the whole economy. But it is the engine that is funding everything else described in this column.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readRamesh Sees It Differently
Good morning. The numbers are in for the first quarter and they confirm, once again, what this administration has known all along: vision, discipline, and petroleum produce results.
THE $159 BILLION QUESTION
Let us be direct. When critics said this government could not manage oil revenues responsibly, we noted their doubts. When they said the Natural Resource Fund would become a political instrument, we noted their fears. G$159 billion in a single quarter. Deposited. Documented. Published in the Official Gazette for any citizen to read. This is not an accident. This is the consequence of a government that insisted on transparent governance of petroleum wealth when the easier path would have been to spend first and account later. The easier path was not taken. The results are visible.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
Cheryl here. Chaguanas. I had to put down my phone three times before I could write this today.
THAT LITTLE GIRL AT PIGEON POINT
I cannot. I cannot. Seven years old. Her name was Angelica. Her mother brought her to the beach on a Wednesday. A Wednesday! A normal family Wednesday at Pigeon Point, which is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in all of Tobago, and a jet ski come and take that child’s life.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
Port of Spain. Friday. Let us begin with the thing that matters most.
ANGELICA JOGIE IS DEAD
Seven years old. Pigeon Point Beach, Tobago. A runaway jet ski. Her mother Salisha has asked that jet skis be banned in Tobago entirely. The Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is weighing that option. The Maritime Services Association wants stricter legislation and tougher penalties. A 29-year-old tour operator was stabbed at Buccoo Beach the same morning, which tells you something about the Wednesday Tobago had.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
Auntie Cheryl’s Trinidad Update
Chaguanas, Trinidad | Thursday, April 9, 2026
Auntie Cheryl reads the Guardian over her morning tea. She has a lot of feelings about national affairs.
KAMLA GOING TO VENEZUELA AND AUNTIE CHERYL IS SUPPORTIVE
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that a diplomatic delegation will travel to Venezuela to secure T&T’s share of the cross-border gas resources. Auntie Cheryl says: about time. We have gas sitting right there under the sea and we can’t access it because of permit problems with the Americans. Now Kamla going to get it sorted. This is what leadership looks like. Auntie Cheryl has put on her good blouse in spirit.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readYard Brief
Cousin Leroy’s Jamaica Update
The Bronx, New York | Thursday, April 9, 2026
Leroy reads the Jamaica Observer every morning in the break room at work. He has opinions.
GAS PRICES
They raise gas prices in Jamaica again. I see it on the Observer website this morning. Effective today. Every time I go back to visit, something cost more. Beef patty, bus fare, gas — everything. My cousin in May Pen texted me and said the coaster bus already announce a new fare. I said to him, they don’t waste time. He said the driver announce it before the government even put out a press release. That is efficiency.
Read More → 