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 readJamaica 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 readJamaica 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 readJamaica 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 → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readDe Boys Seh
De Boys Seh is written from the perspective of Speedeet and Wilar — two 12-year-old boys from Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown. Speedeet is Black, Wilar is East Indian. They are best friends and they have opinions about everything.
WILAR: Speedeet. Speedeet. Yuh hear de government give out $100,000 to people?
SPEEDEET: Yeah man. My granny get she cheque. She buy a new pot and put de rest in de bible.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Guyana Daily Brief
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Your 5-minute morning briefing. Four papers. All the drama.
THE CRASH GYANT APP
(Kaieteur News)
The $100,000 cash grant rollout was supposed to be the government’s shining proof that Guyana has entered the digital age. Instead, it’s proving that Guyana has entered the age of digital suffering. Kaieteur News reports that despite the much-celebrated app launch, only about 90,000 people have actually received their money through it — on top of roughly 46,000 public servants who got theirs the old-fashioned way. Finance Minister Ashni Singh has acknowledged the frustrations but says the portal stays open and the government “will work with you to resolve it.” Meanwhile, hinterland residents face the added obstacle that many of them don’t have bank accounts — and opening one requires documentation most of them don’t own. So yes: the most oil-rich per-capita nation in the hemisphere launched a cash giveaway app that doesn’t recognise your fifteen-year-old ID card photo. Progress.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
Miss Violet’s Barbados Bulletin
Brooklyn, New York | Thursday, April 9, 2026
Miss Violet taught civics at a secondary school in St Michael for twenty-two years before she retired to Brooklyn. She reads the Barbados Today every morning. She has expectations.
THE HERITAGE SITUATION
Minister Prescod is correct that Barbados children need to know their history better. Miss Violet has been saying this for thirty years. The curriculum was insufficient when she was teaching it and she has no reason to believe it has improved in the years since she left. You cannot build a nation on people who do not know where they come from. Miss Violet taught Form Three students who could not name a single person from the 1937 labour uprising. This was unacceptable then. The Minister is now saying it publicly. Progress, at whatever pace.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readBajan Brief
The Bajan Bugle
Bridgetown, Barbados | Thursday, April 9, 2026
The news from the island that runs things, whether or not anyone admits it.
PRESCOD: THIS ISLAND IS FORGETTING ITS HERITAGE
Minister for Pan-African Affairs and Heritage Trevor Prescod has renewed calls for stronger history education in Barbados schools, warning that the island risks losing touch with its identity by teaching generations too little about their own past. The Minister’s concern is noted. Whether the curriculum will change, and how quickly, is the bureaucratic question. Barbados has a remarkable history. It would be a shame if the people who live here had to learn it from a podcast.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readTrini Brief
The Trini Dispatch
Port of Spain, Trinidad | Thursday, April 9, 2026
The news from the twin islands. Delivered dry.
KAMLA IS GOING TO VENEZUELA FOR GAS
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced Wednesday that a diplomatic delegation will travel to Venezuela soon to secure Trinidad and Tobago’s “just share” of cross-border oil and gas resources. This is a renewed push to advance the Dragon and other stalled cross-border energy projects, which were frozen when the Trump administration revoked OFAC licences earlier last year. The Hormuz crisis has made this conversation considerably more urgent. T&T’s energy sector is running on mature fields and optimism. The Venezuela gas situation represents either a breakthrough or an extended diplomatic exercise, depending on how Caracas is feeling that week. Kamla is going to find out.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 3 min readJamaica Brief
The Yard Report
Kingston, Jamaica | Thursday, April 9, 2026
News from the rock. Unfiltered.
GAS GOING UP. AGAIN.
Effective today, Thursday April 9, gasoline prices at the pump are going up. The latest ex-refinery figures confirm the increase. Nobody is happy about this. The relevant minister will explain it in terms of global market conditions, the Strait of Hormuz, and forces beyond anyone’s control. Motorists on Washington Boulevard will explain it in other terms, none of which are printable. The price of a coaster bus fare will adjust by next week. The price of a beef patty will follow shortly thereafter. This is the cycle.
Read More →