Kaieteur News

Page 04

Kaieteur News

KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8491, 225-8458, 225-8465 Fax: 225-8473 or 226-8210

Editorial

Sliding further downhill The majority of our skilled people is migrating, and not only does this not augur well for the future, it means that the country is getting less for its investment in human development; training people is a very costly exercise. The country is gradually sliding downhill and those with alternatives are quickly taking their leave. In other words, not taking chances with their chances.

For as long as we could remember we have been producing our own teachers, nurses, skilled artisans and the like.

Such was our training regimen that all those who graduated were good enough to work in any part of the world.

There was a time when the cost of living was such that we were content to stay and serve. But there was always the lure of life overseas. That lure now has so many of us leaving that we cannot train people fast enough and even those we train are never good enough because their foundation was rather weak. Things had even reached the stage where we were forced to lower the entrance qualifications to our top learning institutions.

What makes it worse is that all those who leave seem to have very good reasons. People can now say that they left because of the crime situation. In the past they said that they were running from a dictatorship. Some even left because, as they said, they were the victims of discrimination.

What we do not hear a lot of is the migration of people because they are dissatisfied with the pay. This was the talk for most of the time, as recruiters came from every part of the world to solicit skilled people from Guyana.

Our decision-makers are wise enough to realise that they cannot stop the outward flow of the skilled people. They also say that they cannot match the financial rewards offered elsewhere. But there must be something that we could do.

It is a given fact that we do not have the money to recruit foreign skills to replace those that we have lost. Other countries have been able to secure foreign funding to help them replace the lost skills and the people from those countries do not migrate in the numbers like we have been doing.

It has been recognised that foreign aid cannot develop a country, but foreign investment would. Foreign investment would also help reduce the brain drain, but there must be something that the government must do. It must allow the foreign investor to pay the kind of wages that the investor feels is real.

The government often dictated to the investor the kind of money that he/she should pay to avoid a conflict within the society. What is considered a fair pay in most societies would be seen as super salaries in Guyana, given the low value of our currency.

But even before any investors come, a lot has to happen.

One of the things in particular is political stability. By no stretch of imagination can we say that we have a stable political climate in Guyana. Every time it seems as though something is going to happen to make the climate stable, someone or some event serves to widen the rift between the parties.

More recently, the various parties have been trading barbs over Local Government Elections. One wonders why its importance should even be debated. Probably the administration has the answer. And we appear to be heading for more heartache. Common ground has not been, and it seems will not be, reached on anti-money laundering legislation, and we are resigned to our fate.

Whatever the case, one can expect continued bouts of hostility, especially between the two major Parliamentary entities. Of course this will do absolutely no good for political stability, and consequently we can safely assume that no meaningful foreign investor is going to come.

Without these foreign investors the economy is going to slide further downhill and our skilled persons will continue to leave at an alarmingly high rate. What is most worrying is that no one seems to be doing anything to effect a change in our condition. No one seems to care.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur M@ilbox Send your letters to Kaieteur News 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown or email us kaieteurnews@yahoo.com

The Region 10 administration will continue to hold BSL accountable DEAR EDITOR, On-going revelations of the government’s investment policies provide enough evidence for concern that our best interest, the protection and preservation of the c o u n t r y ’s r e s o u r c e s , environment and laws aren’t primary factors guiding decision-making.

Citizens are confronted daily with situations that are causing growing disquiet in our confidence that the government cares about us.

Many Government investment arrangements are

shrouded in dubious dealings and secrecy, with the voting public always holding the dirty end of the stick. Thus, it came as no surprise Baishanlin is now embroiled in legal wrangling.

Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) categorically denies recent BSL’s statement that it was hindered by our administration in the construction and development of a processing plant at Conception, Bamia.

Over the years, the region has been engaging BSL with the aim of facilitating mutually

beneficial relationships consistent with our laws and the communities directly impacted by its operations.

BSL, in violating our laws, disrespecting our rights and threatening our environment for its enrichment, is unabashed in its deception to achieve its end. The government’s response to these abuses with a public relations campaign is bound to guarantee a crisis of confidence in its management. At all times, BSL has failed to fully honour its commitments to

agreements, residents and Region 10. In some cases, BSL sought to defraud the people, and it is generally felt this happened with the government’s connivance.

Cases in point are:COOMACKA From the outset, BSL assured the RDC that with the establishment of a processing plant, there would be jobs available for some eighty (80) residents.

Presently, this plant employs less than 25% of Guyanese workers, with a number of (Continued on page 6)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox Blessing from the hands of tin gods DEAR EDITOR, The approach being used by the PPP administration to distribute the $10,000 grant to parents of children who attend the government schools demonstrates anything but ‘care’ as is shouted by the massive, expensive billboards all across the country.

In fact, it is just another example of the crass contempt and callous disdain with which the PPP continues to regard poor ordinary Guyanese.

Where is the care and concern for the parents and the students who must forgo their jobs, their schooling and other personal commitments on one specific day to gather en masse at a designated location so that the PPP can satisfy its insatiable appetite for cheap political mileage?

Apart from enduring the sweltering heat from our present drought conditions, parents and students have no choice but to listen to the verbiage of President Donald Ramotar who makes it appear that $10,000 will put an end to the suffering of all the poor people spread out before his very eyes: people who could have better spent their time earning additional dollars to add to the paltry sum of $10,000, to deal with the harsh economic realities they face under the PPP administration.

Many of those parents may be self employed or may be working for private companies that do not pay a dine to workers who are absent, ( And this is something that the government should look into) even when they present a medical certificate.

Additionally, some parents may have children attending school in different educational districts and may

therefore have to engage in this tedious exercise more than once. After all this, the PPP then takes these poor people back to the bread lines of the 1980s, which the PPP itself never fails clamour

about as the darkest era in our political and social history.

Ordinary poor and desperate people must line up for hours in the blazing sun to receive their blessing from (Continued on page 6)

NCN’s HOT F.M’s dubious milestone DEAR EDITOR, The National Communications Network Inc (NCN) 98.1 Hot FM just turned 17 years but I am clueless as to what they are celebrating.

Seventeen years later and yet the transmission cannot reach Berbice; seventeen years and they do not have an online radio stream. The music is also still atrocious for most part.

One would have thought that the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) would have brought some fresh air into the organization but that

sadly that has not happened.

NCN would say that their transmission reaches Berbice, but where and how? I’ve complained on numerous occasions about their comeand-go online streams.

However, it seems to have been permanently down for the past 2 years or so. These are simple issues that can be solved with forward thinking but who’s thinking in this manner at NCN? NCN is celebrating, but for me, 98.1 FM has not moved a bit in my book. There’s still lots of work to be done.

Leon Suseran

The people are behind Kaieteur News in its anti-corruption fight DEAR EDITOR, Please be advised that this “fringe element” is behind your newspaper in its fight against corruption and other wrong doing in our society.

I would like to also take this opportunity to ask every citizen of this country who is on the side of law and order and good governance to just write two lines to you and ask that their names be published.

Let us show our true mettle collectively, as good, upstanding citizens of this country by supporting what is good without fear of

retribution for my intuition tells me that this is a signal moment in time for our country, so carpe diem my countrymen… lets seize the moment. It is now. It is time.

Rise up with the pen my people.

I have done so now; it is everybody else’s turn. Let us just do it and for every letter, every word we write, let it be another nail in the coffin, another bell that tolls the death knell of this corrupt and inept “thing” we call a government.

J. Mark London

Page 5

Kaieteur M@ilbox Hunger in the midst of plenty DEAR EDITOR, A BBC Report stated that some 500 million children are at risk because of malnutrition.

According to the article, half a billion children could grow up physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years because they do not have enough to eat.

The report warned that much more needed to be done to tackle malnutrition in the world’s poorest countries.

According to the findings of a survey done, many families could not afford meat, milk or vegetables which are protein-rich foods necessary for healthy living.

The survey covered families in India, Bangladesh, Peru, Pakistan and Nigeria and found a significant number of children who were forced to leave school to help out their parents by working for food. A third of parents surveyed said their children complained about not having enough to eat.

The survey was carried out in the five countries where more than half of the world’s malnourished live.

Rising food prices are only adding to the plight of the poor. In addition, there is an increase in the number of children who have stunted growth, meaning that their body and brain have failed to develop properly due to malnutrition.

It is a sad situation when 2.6 million children die each year due to malnutrition. The situation is all the more depressing when consideration is taken of the billions of dollars that are spent annually on wars and on the military.

These billions of dollars are more than adequate to send every child to school and to provide them with enough to live healthy and

intellectually stimulating lives. Guyana with its abundance of agricultural land, waterways and pastures makes us not only selfsufficient in terms of meeting our food requirements but provide us with a comparative advantage in terms of food exports to the wider Caribbean and beyond.

Yet, our food import bill is relatively high due mainly to our eating habits which to a large extent is conditioned by our colonial past.

We still have a preference for imported foods even though our local products are much more nutritious and palatable. Even a cursory look at our supermarkets will indicate the wide array of imported food items on display which not only consume scarce foreign exchange earnings but also work against our domestic economy since it creates employment opportunities

not for our local farmers but for those in the developed north. One can argue that the banning of food items under the Burnham era was an attempt to change the consumption patterns of Guyanese and to promote the production of local food. This however was not the case.

Those of us who grew up and experienced life under the days of indiscriminate bans on essential food items would know that even the locally produced items were beyond the reach of the average Guyanese and in some cases were more expensive that imported items.

This was largely due to failed and misguided agricultural policies and mismanagement by the then PNC regime.

Actually, wages were so low that a basket of goods necessary for a well balanced diet was unaffordable for the (Continued on page 6)

Page 6

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Hunger in the midst of... The Region 10 administration will...

From page 5 vast majority of Guyanese many of whom could hardly afford the barest necessities of life from their meager earnings.

Those were the days of what was known as the ‘underground’ economy.

Many Guyanese in order to bring in food items were subjected to all kinds of humiliation at airports and points of entry. I recall on a return visit to Guyana as an in-transit passenger at the Piarco airport in Trinidad, we were all bundled in a separate room and were not allowed access to the airport shopping facilities unlike intransit passengers from other countries. This type of

differentiated treatment is still prevalent at some Caribbean airports, even though much has changed for the better thanks to representation made by the Guyanese authorities.

Guyana has come a long way in terms of food sufficiency over the decades.

During the colonial days, a survey done since the 1940’s found that that Guyanese were not consuming a healthy and balanced diet due to high intake of carbohydrates as compared to protein and fats.

The Nutrition Committee in 1948 found roughly 25% of school children neccessitious.

As mentioned earlier, we are blessed with rich fertile

agricultural lands and many rivers and creeks from which we can have a wide array of fish which is rich in protein.

Our vast hinterland pastures especially in the interior savannahs have the potential to provide enough meat for the entire Caribbean. It is clear that we have a comparative advantage in terms of meeting the food needs of the wider Caribbean.

This would require huge capital investments and cheap energy which currently is a limiting factor in terms of being competitive on the market. The generation of cheap energy is a critical factor in terms of agroprocessing and other linkages, both vertical and horizontal.

With the harnessing of hydro-power in the years ahead, Guyana will be better positioned to take advantage of its unlimited potential as the breadbasket of the Caribbean.

Hydar Ally

From page 4 employees being paid $500 a day to stay at home.

BAMIA Protestations of residents against NICIL’s non-renewal of leased lands brought to the fore BSL’s intention to establish a processing plant at Conception. The Government of Guyana has issued no official word on this matter.

Efforts to access information on this project from relevant authorities such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GG&MC), Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Lands & Survey, proved futile.

These agencies could offer little, if any relevant information. The RDC has since raised the issue with Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, and is still to be provided with answers. The RDC remains concerned BSL’s operation has been sanctioned without proper environmental assessment conducted by the relevant authority.

MOBLISSA BSL has destroyed the $40 million ‘farm to market’ road with the use of its heavy duty vehicles. This has resulted in increased prices for farm produce and has imposed physical hardships on residents relying on the road as main access.

After repeated attempts through the 21st August 2012 engagement with Central Government, several meetings with Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and BSL’s representatives including the General Manager, Guyana Forestry Commission’s representatives, and the region’s

consultant Mr. Charles Ceres, the company committed to repair the road in a timely manner.

Further, BSL has failed to honour its commitment to: 1. Immediately halt the unauthorised removal of loam from areas in the region. It is to be noted that 47 tonnes had already been removed, posing threats to contamination of ground water, compromising the structural integrity of the Moblissa road, etc.

2. Conduct an environmental assessment of the impact of the crater created through BSL’s operations.

3. Conduct an ESIA on its operations in Region 10.

4. Employ a social scientist to allow the company to better understand the extent of its impact on the residents of this community.

The RDC in seeking to have BSL rehabilitate the Moblissa Road arranged to have access granted for the removal of material from laterite pits at Wismar.

Additionally, the RDC sought the cooperation of the Linden Mayor and Town Council to waive McKenzieWismar Bridge or Kara Kara booth tariffs for BSL transportation of the material.

Unfortunately, BSL abused this concession and, in a three-day period, transported more than 140 truckloads of material to further the construction of its processing plant at Conception.

And even after an agreement and granted concession, it took repeated engagements with the company and threats by the residents to realise the

rehabilitation of the Moblissa Road. It also took two cease orders from the GG&MC Commission for BSL to halt its removal of loam from Moblissa.

It is noteworthy that BSL’s attempts to fix the road - from the Soesdyke-Linden Highway to the creek - have not been satisfactorily completed.

KWAKWANI The same uncaring attitude of BSL that resulted in the destruction of Moblissa road is seen on the LindenItuni-Kwakwani Road. A journey that previously took an hour and a half to two hour is now taking in excess of three hours . On September 5, 2013 Kwakwani residents had cause to protest the destruction of the road.

RDC’S POSITION The RDC is not interested nor has ever sought to undermine BSL’s investment in the region. The RDC is interested in achieving, and is seeking to achieve, a situation that provides mutual benefits to the residents and BSL in tandem with the laws and regulations needed to build Guyana, protect the people and secure the environment, and this goes for every business.

The Region 10 administration will continue to hold BSL accountable to these standards and looks forward to the day when the people can confidently say their government desires the same and is prepared to support and protect them.

Sharma Solomon Regional Chairman Region # 10

Blessing from the hands...

From page 5 the hands of these tin gods.

Why then condemn the PNC? Is there a difference between this forced gathering of people at the numerous public squares out of a necessity created by the PPP’s maladministration, and the gathering of people who

had a similar need, at the Hope Estate under Forbes Burnham ?

If the PPP really cared they would have made allowances, like they do with the annual $1500 school uniform voucher, for parents to receive monies at their own convenience at the schools their children attend.

It is about time that Guyanese as a nation recognize the PPP for what it really is: a party in government that cares only about itself, and cares nothing about the people other than to use them to further its self interest.

Deon Abrams Educator and Community Activist

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Storm toll jumps to 43 in Nepal’s worst trekking disaster

Rescue team members carry avalanche victims to safety at Thorong La pass area in Nepal (AP Photo/Nepalese Army) (saved as avalanche) (AFP) - The death toll from a devastating snowstorm in Nepal’s Himalayas climbed to 43 on Saturday, in the worst trekking disaster ever to hit the mountainous country.

Tuesday’s storm, which triggered avalanches, struck at the height of the trekking season, catching hikers unaware on their way up to an exposed high mountain pass along the scenic Annapurna Circuit route.

Officials said on Saturday that 11 more bodies had been found, bringing to 43 the number of those known to have died — with fears that more bodies could be lying under heavy snowdrifts and ice.

“We have located the bodies of nine Nepalese people on the border between Dolpo and Mustang districts,” said Keshav Pandey of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN), an industry body organising search-andrescue efforts.

“We have also recovered the bodies of two Japanese tourists at the Thorong La

mountain pass.”

At least 19 of the dead are tourists, from countries including Canada, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, India and Vietnam.

Four days after the blizzard hit, all surviving trekkers who were left stranded are now believed to be safe, officials said, with 385 people rescued after frantic calls for help.

“We have not received any further calls for rescue or for information about stranded people,” said Binay Acharya of TAAN. “We understand all remaining trekkers in the region are safe.”

The focus has now shifted from rescue to the grim prospect of retrieving more bodies feared to be lying on the popular trekking route, which goes as high as 5,416 metres (17,769 feet).

Nepalese army choppers circled the upper reaches of the popular trekking region to locate bodies on Saturday, while officials arranged to fly in a team of experts from Kathmandu to assist with the

operation.

The dead include at least 26 hikers, guides and porters on the trekking circuit, three yak herders, and five people who were climbing a nearby mountain.

Further details about the nine Nepalese found near the route were not available.

Thousands of people head to the Annapurna Circuit every October, when weather conditions are usually clear.

However, the region has seen unusually heavy snowfall this week sparked by Cyclone Hudhud, which slammed into India’s east coast last weekend.

The disaster prompted Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala to announce plans to set up a weather warning system across the country, which relies heavily on tourism revenues from climbing and trekking.

The Annapurna Circuit is particularly popular among tourists, and has come to be known as the “apple pie” trek for the food served at the small lodges, known as teahouses, that line the route.

Page 7

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 9

AFC calls for comprehensive Some people waiting strategy to address suicide Dem boys seh...

to strike like cobra Some people deh like cobra. Dem raise dem head and dem set, waiting to strike at de Waterfalls paper and de boss man fuh suck he blood. One cobra deh in jail already.

Wha dem don’t realize is that de Creatah is de only protector and he don’t sleep. De same Holy Book wha de fat crook and some others does read got a Psalm that seh, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for the real Boss Man is beside me.”

He is de one who guide dem boys all de time. Is he pave de way fuh dem boys get all de email and de BBM and WhatsApp messages that shocking Guyana. When de rest come out it gun shock de whole world.

Dem boys hear that de government people had de Chief Marshal waiting to strike like a cobra and de man seh that he ain’t even a water snake.

Dem mek he sit down fuh hours in a car without a/c waiting fuh serve de summons pun de Waterfalls boss man last week. De boss man come to wuk late that day and by de time he come de Marshal was soaking wet.

He was suh happy he see de boss man that he run out de car and up de step. He nearly fall down and if de security didn’t catch he, de man woulda deh in hospital by now.

When he go back he cuss everybody, even Anil and Cee fuh Satar who seh dem in this thing together.

Donald and all talking bout inclusion. He seh that he want de opposition, civil society, and even de people in de mad house to come together. He hear Ebola on its way to Guyana and want all of dem fuh go to front. He think he can hide behind dem.

But dem boys got a better option fuh he—put de Bees in front. Dem like deh in front of everything. De like de attention. And believe it or not, if Ebola knock dem de whole country will vote fuh Donald de next day.

Talk half and wait fuh Donald line up de Bees at de front.

Soldier drowns at army training school Army officials are probing the death of a Guyana Defence Force private, who drowned at around 13.00 hrs yesterday at the Colonel Robert Mitchell Jungle and Amphibious Training School, (CRMJATS) located at Makouria, Essequibo.

Sources identified the victim as Darrel Prince, and said he resided at Corentyne, Berbice. Indications are that the rank drowned in the

Essequibo River while training. However, army officials were unable to provide any information on the circumstances that led to the tragedy.

It was just last year that another rank died by drowning at the same training base.

On April, 21, 2013, army medic Kevin Calder, 28, died while swimming with another soldier in the Essequibo River.

As she pointed out the fact that Guyana has the highest global rate of suicide which is four times the global average, Alliance For Change (AFC), Member of Parliament, Cathy Hughes identified the need for an urgent national think-tank to address this crucial issue.

Hughes, at AFC’s most recent press conference held at Georgetown Club, Camp Street, said that there is no indication of efforts by government to reverse t h e w o r r y i n g t r e n d of suicide and suicidal activities in Guyana.

The Member of Parliament told media operatives that it is clear to her that the young people in Guyana are not being taught the skills needed to deal with many of life’s challenges.

To support her conclusion, she pointed to the recent incident of a 16year-old from the West Coast of Demerara.

The teen, Alex Persaud, who was a fifth form student of the West Coast Demerara “Swami” school committed

AFC Member of Parliament, Cathy Hughes suicide a day before his parents were expected to meet with the principal over his expulsion.

Persaud of 18 Stewartville, West Coast Demerara bought the gramoxone herbicide at a shop nearby his home, ingested the substance and succumbed in hospital a few days after.

The young man was expelled reportedly after he was found to have been having a questionable

relationship with an 18-yearold Information Technology teacher. The female teacher was fired because of the “friendship”.

Hughes, during the AFC press conference, also pointed out that there are the numerous incidents of murder/suicide “where again, a lot of our young people, experiencing difficulties in their relationships, resort to killing their partner then taking their own lives.”

The Parliamentarian declared that Guyana’s human resource is the country’s most valuable asset and the suicide rate clearly indicates that Guyanese, mostly the young, do not have the necessary skills to face life challenges.

She said, “The global statistics show clearly that suicide in Guyana has reached epidemic level and the Alliance For Change is urging that as a matter of priority, a team of experts be pulled together to analyse the situation so that a comprehensive strategy to address the situation can be

implemented.”

Hughes sought to make it clear that addressing the levels of suicidal activities in Guyana is not and shouldn’t be treated as a political issue or one confined to a particular ethnic group.

She said that the impact of suicide and suicidal activities will affect Guyana as a nation and questioned “How can we speak of growth and development when our people are ill equipped to face life challenges.”

The Member of Parliament said that more attention needs to be placed specifically on the mental health and wellbeing of our people. She recommended that there be centres or some mechanism where adolescents are taught life skills, where persons who experience emotional trauma can go for help.

“Our teachers, sports coaches, religious leaders and others must be taught to recognise early signs suicidal tendencies. The problem of suicide cannot be left unattended,” said Hughes.

(Abena Rockcliffe)

$80.704M road upgrades completed in Region Three under CRIP The Ministry of Housing and Water, through its Community Roads Improvement Programme (CRIP), has paved the way for over 2000 residents to directly benefit from improved roads in Anna Catherina, Windsor Forest and La Jalousie West Coast Demerara, Region Three. The roads were upgraded from double bitumen surface treatment to asphaltic concrete surface.

In June this year, the

Ministry of Housing and Water awarded contracts totaling $80.704M to Bardon Construction Service, which was tasked with upgrading the Main Access Road to the cemetery-The Last Street and first cross street in Anna Catherina, Mandir Street in Windsor Forest, and Gap Road in La Jalousie.

Potholes and depressions that once caused inconveniences on the roadways have been replaced

with smooth surfaces, boasting safety features for drivers and pedestrians.

Residents as well as members of the business community have expressed satisfaction with the quality of road works executed in their respective areas.

According to Sham Mahadeo, proprietor of ND&S Furniture Store, who has been operating his business at La Jalousie for the last 20 years, residents of the

area are highly satisfied with the road upgrades. He opined that asphaltic concrete is the ideal surface for the roadway since it is heavily traversed.

“From a business perspective, having the improved road is definitely more convenient for travel to and fro… monies spent on repairing vehicles would also reduce…I am looking forward to having more customers because potholes tend to Continued on page 58

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Log export doubles in 2014

Guyana’s log exports for the first eight months of this year have more than doubled compared to the same period of 2013.

According to the Forest Products Development and Marketing Council of Guyana Inc. (FPDMC) in its August 2014 Market/Export Report, a staggering 86,250 cubic meters of logs were exported between January and August. This earned US$14.5M. Last year, for the same period, 41,518 cubic meters were exports, earning over US$7M. This meant that log exports have doubled this year.

For this year, until August, log exports represented about 46 percent of the total forest exports as against the 30 percent for last year.

The increase of exports would have significance in light of the debate over logging activities.

The regulatory body, Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has insisted that it has a handle on activities with harvesting still way below expectations and targets.

While Government has

introduced a phased increase in royalties and taxes on log exports, there is nothing in the law to stop the trade.

There have been criticisms over what is perceived to be heightened activities by especially Asian logging companies, especially the Chinese and Indians.

According to the report, for August of this year, out of the US$2.27M earned, exports to China accounted for US$1.9M alone with 10,000 cubic meters. India followed next with US$311,000 and 1,537 cubic meters.

Some 60 cubic meters went to Hong Kong in August, earning US$12,681.

The report said that logs continue to be in demand by the Asian market with a “valuable contribution towards the total export earnings for the month of August 2014.

China was the top earner for logs with a solid contribution of total volume of 86.28% and a total value of 85.75%.”

It was around that time that there was significant media scrutiny on the forestry

sector.

There had been questions especially over the activities of Chinese logging firm, Bai Shan Lin, and Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc., a company owned by India’s Coffee Day. A five-year agreement with Norway signed in November 2009 that binds Guyana to protect its forests in return for up to US$250M in payment, had brought the spotlight down on logging and other activities. Strict measures are in place to monitor activities, Government said, to ensure deforestation is kept with the allowed margins. Authorities

said that the deforestation rates have dropped.

Figures from the report seen by Kaieteur News indicated that for August of this year, there was a marked reduction of logs by total volume of 42.43% and total value of 34.86%.

According to the FPDMC report, the figures for August alone indicated that forest products continue to earn favorably, “making a sterling contribution towards the total export earnings during the month of August 14.

Logs made a contribution of 54.48%; sawn lumber earned a fair share with 27.47%; round wood and fuel

wood made an input of 8.51%; split wood absorbed a segment of 4.76%; plywood secured a portion of 4.66%; value added products made a marginal contribution of 0.11%.”

The month of August of 2014, in comparison to the previous month of July 14, recorded a reduction in the export of forest products earning by 24.67%.

“The comparative year to date figure of August 2014 and August 2013 recorded a n i n c r e a s e i n the total forest export earnings by 36.39%.”

FPDMC is a non -profit entity incorporated under the

Companies Act of 1991. It replaced the Forest Products Marketing Council.

The main goal of the FPDMC is to promote and enhance the sustainable growth and competitiveness of the forest products industry through targeted industry development initiatives.

These include, but are not limited to, the provision of support in product development and innovation, technological modernisation, market research and promotion, information sharing and networking, and relevant training.

(See table below)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 11

“The cursed list system”…

System of nomination and selection of MPs needs to be radically overhauled - Chris Ram

By Kiana Wilburg As talks of looming early general elections continue, so do the varying criticisms about the political parties.

And the competence of most of the parliamentarians on both sides of the House is now a crucial talking point for most political critics.

Some political reviewers are of the view that the lack of militant and meaningful contributions in the National Assembly by some parliamentarians has to do with the fact that the selection process for the nomination of parliamentarians to the House by the respective political parties does not always guarantee that the “best and most competent actually makes it to the House.”

Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram in his two part analysis of A Partnership for National Unity which has a total of 26 seats in the House spoke on this “nomination process.”

In the second part of his series published in early August on his website (www.chrisram.net.com), the Attorney-at-Law believes that the reason for ineffectiveness on both sides of the aisle in the National Assembly is because of the election process of parliamentarians which he said does not look for competence or accountability from MPs. Under the list system, Ram explained that nomination for general elections requires each party to identify a leader of the list, its presidential candidate and 65 persons. He said that the voter at that stage has no idea of the persons who will be

- “More competent, qualified and committed persons could make an immense difference in the National Assembly.”

Chartered Accountant, Chris Ram

Opposition Leader and Chairman of the Constitutional Reform Commission, David Granger

APNU Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine

selected from that list for nomination to the National Assembly.

“In other words the voter casts his vote not for a person but for the list and a final decision on who goes to the House rests not with the elector but with the hierarchy of the party,” he added.

Ram is of the firm belief that this system should be abolished. The Chartered Accountant also opined that to compound the situation, “experience and ability may often prove subordinate to loyalty to the party leader.”

He said that if the Parliament is to be more effective, the existing system of nomination and selection of MPs from the list of candidates needs to be radically overhauled.

He said that the voters and the country do not receive value for money from the existing system which requires neither

accountability nor representation.

“More competent, qualified and committed persons could make an immense difference in the National Assembly. We saw this vividly when persons of the caliber of Eusi Kwayana, Dr. Clive Thomas and Sheila Holder sitting as sole MP of the Working People’s Alliance in the National Assembly enhanced the quality of the debate and the polity both inside and outside of that body.

Kwayana, a non-lawyer brought more private legal actions against the agencies of the state than all the MPs on the opposition side have brought in the past 10 years.

Kwayana did not need to call people out on the streets to be an effective MP, but rather did his homework and got results,” Ram said.

Ram in his analysis, said too that Opposition Leader,

David Granger must accept responsibility for the failings and ineffectiveness of the MPs under his command. He said that it falls on him to assign his MPs both general and specific tasks and to ensure that they perform.

The Chartered Accountant said that Granger has the power to call on MPs to resign, or to sack them if they do not perform. But this has never been done as Granger has repeatedly told the media that he is absolutely satisfied with the performance of his parliamentarians.

Ram’s comments were recently placed before APNU’s Shadow Minister of Agriculture and the Environment, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine. Roopnaraine remains a longtime serving member on the Constitutional Reform Commission which would also examine such matters referred to by Ram. In his assessment of

Ram’s comments, Dr. Roopnaraine concluded that the Chartered Accountant provided a fair and unbiased analysis on the nomination and selection process of nominees.

“I agree that the list system promotes lack of accountability. In 1999, the Commission which was looking at the system made two recommendations to change the manner in which the lists were presented to the electorate…we went further to increase the powers and remove the alphabetical format which was to choose members based on how they were listed alphabetically on a list. There was supposed to be a proposed amendment for there to be listing done by priority but that was opposed since some persons felt that those who were not high up on such a list would not be seen in the same light of importance and not given the fair share of work to do.”

“The question of electorate reform falls under the Constitutional Reform Commission now headed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Granger. The weaknesses identified by Ram have been placed before the Commission for some time now and amendments are yet to be implemented in that regard.

Since 2011, the Commission has met only twice, once to elect a chairperson and the other at which we identified as experts, Mr. Haslyn Parris and the other, Dr. Harold Lutchman to work alongside

the Commission.”

“The Constitutional Reform Commission really has some unique powers of its own though. But I cannot offer a reason as to why we have not returned or met as yet,” Dr. Roopnaraine explained.

This publication subsequently asked Granger when next the Commission will meet, and whether it will seek to aggressively implement the amendments to the nomination process.

To this, the Opposition leader said that there are scores of amendments before the Commission and he would have to see the text of the amendments first. He said that the Commission is currently going through them.

Asked if he believes in his estimation that there are weaknesses of the nomination process and to state why there has been a delay in the meeting of the Commission, he said, “there is a huge backlog and we agreed to a process. We agreed to appoint someone who can go through them and see what’s achievable.”

“The Commission hasn’t met much for the last 13 years and since 2001 there has not been an attempt to deal with the backlog of amendments.

It’s not a new problem and this is the first time you have a non PPP member heading it.

And we decided on having a technical officer that will look at it and decide which ones should be brought to the house for approval.”

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Republic Bank commissions $508M D’Edward branch

By Leon Suseran President Donald Ramotar officially opened Republic Bank’s new branch at D’Edward Village, West Bank Berbice yesterday afternoon. The branch was previously housed at Rosignol Village, West Berbice, but was expanded and newer and more modern banking facilities added. The new branch promises its customers a spacious, modern, energy efficient and comfortable environment.

The facility is outfitted with two Automated Teller Machines, with provision for a third.

Construction of the facility commenced in October of 2013 and was completed in September of this year. The $508M project boasts the status of the largest Republic Bank branch in East and West Berbice and will have a staff of 26 inclusive of the Manager, Mr. Imran Saccoor. The edifice was designed by architects Mr. Albert Rodrigues and Mr. Deonand Dass, while the building contractors were Messrs. Mohamed Raffik and Javed Raffik of Raffik & Sons Construction Services.

The facility boasts retail and commercial deposit and credit facilities; residential mortgages, foreign banking and card services as well as electronic banking.

Mr. Derwin Howell, Member of the Board of Directors of Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited during his address linked the opening of the facility with the solidification of the bank’s vision to strengthen relations with Region Five. The bank’s journey to West Berbice, he added, began 16 years ago.

“It is this vision that guides our strategic focus for expansion, upgrade and innovation,” he posited.

He boasted about the financial institution’s

laudable customer service which he added has defined the bank’s corporate character, “and differentiated us for providing banking services in Guyana…At the beginning of this project, our vision was one of fulfilling the needs of our West Berbice customers in an environment that reflects the value we place on our relations with customers…”

Howell added that the opening of the new branch symbolizes, “our having achieved our objective, as customers can expect an enhanced banking experience—delivered in a superior physical environment by our friendly, courteous and knowledgeable staff.”

The official noted too that the bank has also commenced a series of staff volunteerism activities focused on improving the environment in D’Edward Village. “Our vision to set the standard of excellence in banking for our stockholders, customers and staff has, over the last thirteen years, seen us introduce new facilities in Georgetown, Vreed-en-Hoop, Anna Regina, Diamond and more recently, Lethem at a total cost of over GY$3B.” He added that expansion plans are underway on the land which was acquired at Triumph, East Coast Demerara and plans are afoot for the construction of a new branch at Rose Hall Town, Corentyne.

President Donald Ramotar, while delivering the feature address, said that the bank’s new edifice and expansion is an outward act of confidence in Guyana’s economy. He spoke at length about the, “growing confidence investors have in Guyana.” He labeled the institution as the “Number one financial institution in the Caribbean.” The Guyanese leader thanked the bank for

President Donald Ramotar, other officials and Minister Singh, cut the ribbon into the new Republic Bank, West Berbice branch

The spanking new West Berbice Republic Bank

expanding its services outside of the capital city, bringing their services closer to the rural areas. “Over two decades ago, everything of this nature (banking) had to be done in the city of Georgetown, and now, more and more, these are being made available throughout the different areas of our

country.”

Ramotar then talked at length about the NoConfidence Motion in the Parliament. He charged the bank to make it easy for loans to be accessible by small and medium businesses in our society.

“Allow me to congratulate the

Management of Republic Bank for bringing this facility closer to our people, and to congratulate all those who were involved in the project—here it stands with pride in the community…and hopefully it will stimulate further investment—further development, create more jobs within the society, and

give people more choices.”

President Ramotar was assisted by Mr. Howell and Mr. John Alves, Managing Director as well as Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh in the cutting of the ribbon and unveiling of the plaque.

The officials were then involved in a brief tour of the banking hall and rooms.

Grandfather wants justice for pregnant 12 yr-old The grandparents of a 12-year old girl, who is due to give birth to a baby in a few weeks time, are upset that the man who is reportedly responsible for her pregnancy may get off scot free.

The child had reported that her stepfather had impregnated her, but although the man was reportedly detained and questioned, he was released without being charged.

The girl has since been placed in the care of the Child Care and Protection Agency.

Speaking with this newspaper via telephone from the Rupununi, the

child’s grandfather Desmus Andrew said that he is convinced that her stepfather is the father of her unborn baby.

Andrew, who hails from the village of Caponarib, said that the child was born in neighbouring Brazil and had been in his care ever since she was a baby.

He stated that she had developed some mental complications and has been receiving treatment for most of her life.

Andrew is convinced that the child became pregnant early this year when she went to spend time with her mother and stepfather in the city.

“This thing had to happen

in Georgetown during the time she spent four months there from January.”

Andrew told this newspaper that during that period the child’s mother had returned to the Rupununi for a funeral, leaving her with the stepfather.

According to Andrew, when the child’s mother returned to the city, she noticed that the child had some marks (hickey) on her neck and when she enquired, the child told her that her stepfather was responsible for them.

He said that the child’s mother kept that incident quiet.

However when the child

returned to the Rupununi, Andrew’s wife, observed her slightly bloated stomach and decided to question her.

“My wife check her and found out that she pregnant and the child told her that is she stepfather do it,” the grandfather stated.

He said that they immediately reported the matter to the police at Lethem.

“On the 7th May, we told the police at Lethem, Detective Alfred, but nothing happen,” Andrew told this newspaper.

But when this newspaper contacted Divisional Commander Courtney Ramsey, he informed that he was unaware of the matter

since it was not reported.

He added that he was only made aware of it when he read about it in the newspapers.

The child’s grandfather said that she remained in their care as her pregnancy developed and she was told that she would be due to give birth by October 15.

He said that on October 12 the child complained of feeling slight abdominal pains and since they did not want any complications, he and his wife decided to travel from their remote village with the child and take her to the Lethem hospital.

But because of her age, medical personnel there took

the precaution of sending her to the city where the matter was given the attention it deserved.

“We want the Child Care and Protection Agency to know about her condition,” said her grandfather, who added that he is worried that the person who is responsible might evade justice.

“He boasts that he has police friends and he might not be charged,” Andrew stated.

According to reports, the child’s stepfather had also previously impregnated the child’s older sister.

He reportedly admitted (Continued on page 64)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Four outstanding women honoured for contributions to the Arts There are many women of substance in our society whose contributions over the years go unrecognised or simply are not duly highlighted. And there are many outstanding women of Guyana’s soil who are deserving of immense recognition.

Their c o n t r i b u t i o n s understandably cannot be adequately portrayed in the limited pages of a publication such as this, for they are so remarkable.

However, just for today, we will seek to recognise four daughters of the soil, who recently received accolades for contributions they made towards developing the Arts in Guyana.

The work of Dr Doris Elrina Rogers, Mrs Meighan Steele-Duke, Mrs Vivienne Daniel, and Mrs Gem Madhoo-Nascimento was particularly emphasised when the Institute of Creative Arts, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, hosted its inaugural Convocation at the National Cultural Centre last month at which a total of 58 students graduated.

There is always calm before a storm and this time around the calm is due to the pressures that the law enforcement officials have placed on people who were making the society nervous.

However, some people are not taking too kindly to being idle, so they are moving away from the city and its environments. One gang is going to attack a vehicle coming from the hinterland and they are going to use a lonely stretch of hinterland roadway.

However, their unfamiliarity with the location and the fact that

Regarded as ‘legends’ the four were presented with lifetime awards, owing to their unselfish and transformative contributions to Guyana.

And so it was a vital part of the Convocation ceremony to have their individual works amplified in order to showcase some of those who were instrumental in bringing life to the Arts in Guyana.

DR DORIS ELRINA ROGERS It was no surprise when Dr Rogers was recognised for what was described as a “lifetime career that has truly enhanced art in Guyana...”

She was therefore admitted as a Lifetime Fellow of the Institute, given the fact that she has been recognised as “a distinguished national expert in the fields of Art Education and the preservation of the oral traditions.”

Dr Rogers, who has a vast academic background, has been classified as a painter extraordinaire, a Professor of Art and Art Educator, who was honoured with the status of Professor Emeritus by the University of Guyana following her retirement from that institution in 2008.

She however started her career in Rose Hall and Port Mourant in Berbice as a teacher of Science before seizing the opportunity to study Art. The switch from the Sciences to the Arts was to pay very high dividends for the nation, as she went on to make monumental contributions in the fields of Fine Arts, university administration, research in art,

they would appear as strangers to the residents would lead to some surprising arrests. *************** The rivers at this time are being affected by forces not unusual to the conditions that now prevail. Some care needs

to be taken yet there are those who always feel that they are exempt from the problems that lurk around the corner.

This lapse is going to prove costly to the owner of one speedboat but the people would come to no unnecessary harm. ************* Look out for another road accident caused by a driver who is not only unlicenced but who, in a bid to escape from a police patrol, would drive recklessly and slam into a stationary object. Damage is going to be considerable.

Mrs Gem Madhoo-Nascimento accepting her award

Author recounts hard-fought...

(From page 20) foundation of Jamaica, its mores and its outlook. An island-wide phenomenon, it created standards of living and behaviour.

It showed people how they could remain in their homes and prosper.

It therefore had a much more profound and permanent impact on the island than did the small increases in wages that the unions arranged. It was the difference between eating a bulla–cake and learning how to make one. It was a nationalist agency for social change and renewal at a com-

munity level. It was a massive, broad and successful programme of upward mobility through self-help.”

Today's successful use of micro-financing throughout the Americas and other parts of the world is based on this principle. This timeless philosophy for equanimity, growth and personal development was the cornerstone of Jamaica's National Movement.

Undoubtedly, Walters has deftly delineated the elements that forged the National Movement in a deliberate, analytical and spirited mode, leaving

readers well apprised of a phenomenon that carved the character and moulded the psyche of a people and nation.

F e e d b a c k : glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby We Come From Jamaica: The National Movement 1937-1962 by Ewart Walters Publisher: Boyd McRubie Communications Inc., Canada ISBN 978-0-9812504-2-7 Available: amazon.com Rating: Highly recommended

and especially, in art education.

She graduated as a Trained Teacher First Class and studied Art and the teaching of Art after being awarded a UNESCO Fellowship to the South Australia School of Art. She then studied Art at Howard University followed by a Doctorate in Art Education at Penn. State University.

During this time she also accumulated a considerable depth of experience and established her professional life. Her overseas career also saw her assuming the position of Programme Coordinator at the Paul Robeson Cultural Centre, Instructor in Art Education at Pennsylvania State before moving on as a senior academic at the University of

Mrs Meighan Steele-Duke is presented with her accolade by Mr Ivor Thom Benin in Benin State, Nigeria from 1981 to 1988.

Upon her return to Guyana she served as Art Specialist to the Ministry of Education and taught at The Bishops’ High School after which she started her distinguished service to the University of Guyana in 1988.

Her unique contribution to the development of the university includes her design and introduction of the Bachelors of Art Degree programme in Fine Arts in 1990, and the important establishment of Art Education on both the Turkeyen and Berbice Campuses while she was Coordinator in the Division of Creative Arts from 1988 to 2003.

Because of Dr Rogers’ input, the external image of the

university was advanced and the quality of its graduates deepened by her initiation of the summer attachment of final year Art students at Toogeloo College, Mississippi, for exhibition and workshops, as well as annual public Exhibitions by University staff and students.

Professor Emeritus Rogers’ value to the institution and to the nation was also enhanced by the fact that she is an exceptional painter, celebrated among the foremost national artists of Guyana, who has researched the art and its techniques in Nigeria, and has been exhibited extensively in India, Nigeria, Guyana and North America.

Of pointed relevance to the honour she was recently (Contineud on page 29)

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

The detective’s dead wife

By Michael Jordan If buildings could speak, then surely the house on Front Road, West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, would tell us how a cop’s pretty wife ended up with a bullet in her head, and with an unlicenced gun by her side, 15 years ago.

Patricia James’ relatives think they know who pulled that trigger. They are certain that it wasn’t Patricia. Her father went to his grave believing that he knew who had snuffed out his little girl’s life. But like the other relatives, and the detectives who handled this case, they just can’t prove it.

Patricia James was an attractive 19-year-old student of the Cyril Potter College of Education when she married Police Corporal William

- How did Patricia James end up with a bullet in her head and an unlicenced gun by her side?

Henry in December 1996. He was in his thirties. They had no children and they lived in West Ruimveldt.

At around 09:00 hrs on Saturday, October 9, 1999, several residents heard two gunshots. The sound came

from the couple’s home.

Detective Corporal Henry would later tell investigators that he was washing some clothes outside of the house when he heard the shots. He then ran inside and found his wife lying lifeless on the

couple’s bed.

An unlicenced handgun was in one of her hands and there was a bullet hole in her head.

Corporal Henry contacted his colleagues and informed them of the tragedy.

Police investigators placed the dead woman’s hands in plastic bags to preserve any gunpowder residue, before having the body removed. They also ‘bagged’ Corporal Henry’s hands and escorted him to the East Ruimveldt Police Station.

There are reports that the weapon with which Patricia James had been shot was seized during a raid on the East Coast of Demerara.

When one finds someone dead with a bullet in the body and a gun in one hand, suicide is usually the first thought that springs to mind.

But Patricia James’ relatives were sure that the young teacher hadn’t taken her own life.

One family member who entered the house shortly after the woman’s death said that he saw three half-packed bags with Patricia’s belongings nearby. Family members said that she had indicated that she was severing the relationship with her husband, and the halfpacked bags seemed to indicate that she was preparing to move out.

She had also told a close family member that she had received death threats. A similar report was also allegedly made to a group that assists battered women.

According to this family member, Patricia had slept at a friend’s house on Friday, October 8, 1999, the night before her death. This friend reportedly brought her home next day.

Under police escort, Detective Corporal William Henry attended his wife’s funeral, where he received a cold reception from Patricia’s angry relatives and close friends. He did not go to the cemetery.

And it soon appeared that the relatives’ suspicions were justified. While the forensic investigators found no trace of gunpowder residue on Patricia James’ hands, their tests indicated that there was gunpowder residue on Corporal Henry’s hands.

With everything seeming to point to murder, and with Patricia’s husband as the

prime suspect, investigators sent their report to the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dennis Hanomansingh. According to reports, DPP Hanomansingh was preparing to recommend that Corporal Henry be charged with murder, when Henry’s attorney dropped a bombshell.

He informed the DPP that the test that the forensic team had used was an outdated and unreliable one. In fact, scientists had discovered that the “dermal nitrate test” or “paraffin test,” was so unreliable that international forensic experts had abandoned it. The seasoned legal expert told the DPP that the evidence would not stand up in court. Local forensic experts reportedly now use a more internationally accepted test for gunpowder residue.

Presented with this information, the DPP had no option but to inform the investigators that Henry could not be charged.

But a relative of Patricia James says that they were promised that an inquest would be held into her death.

That has not been done.

Fifteen years after her death, relatives of Patricia James still want to know how she ended up dead, and who took her life.

If you have further information on this case or any other, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office or by telephone. We can be reached on telephone numbers 2258465, 225-8491, or 2258458. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: mjdragon@hotmail.com.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 23

== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

Be true to your thoughts, you will be what you want to be Last week over lunch, Lincoln Lewis explained an incident in 1968 between the bauxite union and the government in Mackenzie. He described the betrayal of the workers and mistreatment of the union by a government that was supposed to be on the side of workers, workers who helped that government to power. Lincoln said people who you think would be better in the use of power many times turn out to be worse.

I mentioned this event because I want to write my memoirs. I made a start, only to find that I cannot locate the notes I begun with. Should I write my memoirs before the next general elections, I wonder if I would succeed the way Kevin Pietersen did with his autobiography? The revelations of Pietersen are reverberating throughout the cricketing world.

I have seen so much nastiness in people that this nation look up to, and that the Guyanese people trust to be democratic, that it will cause many to think that the people who criticize the PPP aren’t different from them at all. The reason for this column stems from the personal pleas I got from two lovely persons who were shocked at what I revealed about Miles Fitzpatrick in my last Saturday column.

Both of them said that they cannot believe what I wrote about Fitzpatrick because for them, Fitzpatrick is a huge figure of positive value. They said if Fitzpatrick did what he did, there must be an explanation. They wanted to know why I think Fitzpatrick acted like this because for them, he is not that type.

I told them I don’t normally lie and they should be prepared for a heart attack if I enumerate the vicious attitude of Miles

Fitzpatrick towards me. And they are many like Fitzpatrick who I know fought against the PNC, now fighting against the PPP, that may be more intolerant and undemocratic. On the issue of why Fitzpatrick was so poisonous, I have spoken on the subject to two persons only; they are two very close friends – Catholic Standard editor, Colin Smith, and my former student, attorney Gino Persaud.

No need to mention Fitzpatrick’s legal defence of the Stabroek News only and not the columnist, when Dr. Hughley Hanoman sued me and the paper. In April of one year, Mr. de Caires, the editor, went on holiday and left Fitzpatrick as editor. The gentleman made my life miserable, openly telling me in writing that a newspaper should not have columnists, a letter I have kept up to this day.

Fitzpatrick finally succeed in removing me when, in 1994, de Caires called me in to say that Fitzpatrick was in a rage over my column which described Jocelyn Dow of the WPA as being facilitated by Dr. Kenneth King of the PNC as one of the opposition members of the Elections Commission.

It was the truth, but Dow was alarmed that I exposed her. She ran to Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick got his chance to remove me. Next, one of Stabroek’s senior journalists got admitted into UG illegally.

That was in my Faculty and it was unthinkable that the Dean would do that. In a quarrel with the journalist, she knew Fitzpatrick hated me, so she complained to him. Fitzpatrick advised that she call in the police.

Fitzpatrick never advised Moses Nagamootoo to call in the police when Doreen de Caires

was very abusive to him for walking up the Stabroek stairs without checking with security. Fitzpatrick never advised the Stabroek staff to call in the police over the extreme loud-mouth insults of Doreen de Caires, one of the most ill-mannerly women I ever met in my life.

Finally, Father Morrison asked me to help with the editing of his book. The next week Father said sorry, because Fitzpatrick refused to have me on the team.

There is no scope in a column to analyze the Fitzpatrick hate. But briefly, from the fifties onwards, the Fitzpatrick class was the crème de la crème of Guyana.

The Fitzpatricks, De Caires, Ian McDonalds, Joey Kings, Kit Nascimentos, Peter Taylors, among others too numerous to mention, were the inheritors of the white

Frederick Kissoon colonial world My mistake was that I didn’t realize that I was a darkskinned nobody from Wortmanville that should always bow to the class of the Fitzpatricks and acknowledge them as our masters. I was the only one to refuse to do that and it brought out the aristocratic hate to the fullest in Fitzpatrick.

My parting advice to young people is stick to your dreams, be true to your thoughts and you will be what you want to be in the end. Am I not still around and aren’t you still reading me?

Yes, I will write my memoirs one day.

Page 24

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

GNCPP advocates pre-election referendum on Constitutional and Electoral Reform The Guyana National Council on Public Policy (GNCPP) has called on Guyanese to decide on the country’s political direction by way of referendum. This call comes in light of the expected no-confidence motion to be addressed in Parliament.

GNCPP’s Founder and Chairman, Dr. Phillip Mozart Thomas explained that the agency’s philosophy and programme of public policy formulation recognizes that the general population is not being educated comprehensively by all sides of the political system since, “the state of inter-play seems to suit those elected and those yearning to play the dubious

role of representatives whilst ensuring that their agenda are fulfilled.”

“The Political System, in which Guyanese have traditionally reposed confidence and responsibility for managing the country’s resources, has failed them miserably and continuously.

It is either that elected leaders, over generations, lacked the capacity and political will to eschew partisan governance and selfish, corrupt practices, or they had and have, coopted themselves into systems that benefit only themselves and their loyal groups, whilst our democratic institutions crumble.”

The GNCPP says that the time is now, “because if we as

a people fail to stand-up now in our Constitutional Article 13 fiduciary duty, there is no amount of money or words that can repair the catastrophic and detrimental harm that this generation and the next generation will suffer”.

The GNCPP is currently planning a December 2014 Summit of Guyana’s NGOCivil Society Organizations (CSOs) to elect Guyana National Civil Society Council (GNCSC) to organize itself to truly empower Guyanese in keeping with the inclusionarydemocracy provisions of Article 13 of the Constitution.

The body contends that before any general or local government elections are held,

“a new mandate in the form of Constitution Reform and Elections Reform must be derived directly from the people through a process of a ‘National Referendum.’”

“Since sovereignty belongs to the people, they should demand and have constitutional reforms, for example, which are completely legal and in keeping with the procedures as outlined in the very Constitution which currently exits,” Dr Thomas charged.

He explained that persons should desist from describing the Constitution as “the Burnham Constitution” since there have been numerous deletions and amendments since 1980, “with many of them enacted illegally.”

Also, the present arrangements and composition of the Elections Commissions must be changed to adhere to the Constitutional requirement of “no interference and intermeddling by the Political System” and that the present arrangement whereby the two major political parties hold three seats each, was only supposed to be an interim accommodation by virtue of the Saint Lucia Statement and Herdmanston Accord.

“In this regard, Guyanese will never realize a legally constitutional free and fair election until the national elections’ apparatus is devoid of this present arrangement.”

The GNCPP further contends that when groups, parties and individuals call on the Local Government Minister or President to set a date for Local Government Elections, “most of them know very well that these functionaries do not have or are vested with the constitutional authority or prerogative, in addition to the political will and

GNCPP Chairman Dr. Phillip Mozart Thomas capacity, to call or enact a process for the Local Government Elections to take place.”

Dr. Thomas charged that the 1980 Constitution calls for and mandates for a Local Government Commission to be set-up to oversee the functions and working of the Local Government system.

The authority vested unto the Local Government Commission only is the “Prerogative” for Local Government Election.

Constitutionally, no other person, authority or agency can act on this Prerogative, but the Local Government Commission (LGC).

The GNCPP says it is aware of the tactics of the political system in delaying the establishment and operationalization of the Local Government Commission (LGC) which must precede any Local Government Elections, as polls held otherwise can easily be subjected to judicial overturn.

“If we are to examine the process and pre-judge the

outcome of the impending “No Confidence Motion” one can readily conclude that it will fall prey to the same common course of gaming and barratrous conduct we have all witnessed in the recent past that happened to any and all such Parliamentary Proceedings which should have only be dealt with by the Parliamentary process and without any court intervention,” Dr. Thomas said.

“Guyanese are constitutionally entitled to the correct legal processes of national governance and management,” he insists.

“And since those elected to represent the people’s causes have failed to demonstrate both the capacity and political will to do so in a manner which is meant to provide a sustained decent standard of life, then the people should, most directly stand up and uphold their Constitutional Article 13 Fiduciary duties, responsibilities and obligations by dedicating a new mandate by way of a National Referendum.”

This involves that the electorate tells the legislative, executive, even the judiciary branches of the Government exactly what measures and reforms are immediately needed.

The GNCPP shares the view that any election in Guyana at this time without the people’s preference for Constitutional and Electoral Reforms, will result in “moreof-the-same,” attitudes regardless of who become the new temporary winners.

The GNCPP stands ready to elaborate on its policy of “Reforms-throughReferendum” and will do so even as it prepares itself to launch Guyana’s first-ever National Civil Society Summit.

To date, the GNCPP has met with, and conducted briefings with over 400 Civil Society Organizations.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 25

MY COLUMN

Trust me, it’s all in the mind Cats never fail to get my attention and I am sure it is the same with other people who hear them at nights more than they do during the daylight hours.

As a country boy I grew up hearing cats with their caterwauling and the noise always got to me.

Sometimes the mind can play tricks. People say that if the mind conjures up something then you can bet your last dollar that you will see what the mind wants you to see. I have heard of people who saw ghosts.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but there are people who would try their utmost to convince me. Poor me, recognizing that I am in a losing cause, would simply cease my protestations and life would go on.

As much as I say that I do not believe, there were times when I literally picked up my heels and sprinted to safety. I must have told this story before, but it will certainly not hurt to tell it again. There I was in my native Beterverwagting heading home late.

I was about fifteen, but I was already disobeying my mother. So there I was out

late—it was about nine in the night, but in rural Guyana that is considered late—and heading home. I had to pass by a cemetery. Before I could reach the cemetery I saw a white object that later turned out to be a piece of cloth in a drain. My mind said ghost, so I started a sprint. I ran through a huge brick pile and by the time I came to a stop huge patches of hair had disappeared from my head and skin was somewhere on the bricks. I did not even see two people who were chatting on the other side of the road, so transfixed was I on getting out of the way of that white object.

But I had started to talk about the cats. Anyone who would hear the amorous felines at nights would swear that they are hearing children crying. On one occasion I came out of my sleep at the sound and I wondered at the child who was making that noise.

I must have been on tenterhooks having seen the body of a man stuffed under some trees in the cemetery earlier that day. It is this aspect of life that sometimes gets to me. And I have seen a lot in my life. I have seen

human disfigurement in many forms.

But then I tell myself that in every society there will be the things that reduce human beings to the level of the lowest of animals. I have heard people talk about mindnumbing experiences. There was a woman who swore to high heavens that she saw her dead mother standing under a tree and that she tried to point out the object to the people who were with her.

Needless to say, they saw nothing.

But I have friends who made no bones about seeing dead people. One man who has security cameras at his home and who, like me, is skeptical about ghosts, swore that he saw his mother on his porch. He said that he happened to glance at the monitor and there she was.

He went out of his house to the spot where his mother was supposed to be, but saw nothing. He was not hallucinating.

But I am willing to bet that if he had a cat and the animal had brushed against his leg at that time he would have leaped so high that he would have touched the moon. And I have known this happen to

ordinary people. One day I saw a woman on the streets screaming and hopping.

When the episode was over she explained that she thought that she had stepped on a snake. It was a piece of cloth that her foot had hooked. But the mind does funny things. The woman almost threw a fit and it took a lot of time for people to calm her down.

Then there was the man who was walking home one night. He felt something tapping him on the back and when he looked back he saw nothing. He walked faster and the taps became more frequent.

The man started to run and the taps became a staccato. It was not until the man reached home that he realized the source of his panic. It was his hat band that had become loose. A piece of cloth could have given him a heart attack.

During the crime wave there were kidnappings. One

man who lived at Melanie Damishana got taken. A ransom was demanded and paid. The man was released but he was never the same again. I helped him seek counseling, but it would seem that it didn’t help. One of his friends told me that this man drove into his yard and his dog simply leaped up to his window and pressed its nose against his neck. The man fainted.

It is all in the mind. That is why we daydream; it is why some of us get nightmares and it is why some of us see

Adam Harris ghosts. It is also why cats sound so much like wailing babies and had me waking out of my sleep.

Page 26

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

The Myth of the PPP-C’s invincibility

By Dominic Gaskin Perhaps because of our strong ethnic voting patterns, the role of swing voters in Guyana does not feature much in the national discussion when it comes to politics and our elections.

With the national demographics favouring one political party, our election results have been fairly predictable over the last two decades, to the point of discouraging any detailed analysis of electoral data.

The fact that swing voters are more likely to be found outside of the ethnic support bases that sustain the two major parties has probably not helped to highlight their significance.

However, with a third party now a permanent feature on the political scene, swing voters could become the determining factor in who governs Guyana, going forward.

Swing voters are those electors who are not permanently stuck on any particular political party, and are therefore prepared to cast their votes in favour of the party that appeals to them the most (or disgusts them the least) whenever an election comes around.

It is fairly easy to assess the impact of swing voters in recurring two-party elections.

However, a three-party race adds a layer of complexity to the matter, presenting quite a challenge to the political analyst looking for a plausible perspective.

The existence of swing voters in Guyana is perhaps best demonstrated by a look at the results of the last three elections in Regions 4 and 10.

In the 2006 elections the amount of valid votes counted in Region 4 dropped by approximately 26,000 relative to the amount counted in 2001. In that election the PPP-C and the PNC experienced drops in actual votes of approximately

11,000 and 25,000 respectively compared to their 2001 results.

The fact that the PPP-C’s percentage of the vote remained virtually unchanged while the PNC’s declined by nearly 8 percentage points, makes it logical to conclude that a significant amount of the 13,876 (9.5%) votes won in the region by the newly formed Alliance For Change came from voters who had voted for the PNC in 2001.

While this indicates that voters were willing to break away from a party which they

a smaller scale. There, however, the fluctuations in percentages of votes cast for the three parties are much more pronounced.

Were one to breakdown the results for the entire country, polling station by polling station, and compare them over the last three elections, the totality of those fluctuations would prove to be much greater than the net voter migrations reflected in the regional or national results. Allowances can be made for new voters and

authority over the public purse, and was continuing to spend monies in blatant defiance of the constitutional safeguards and the people’s representatives.

The widespread public support for the NoConfidence Motion does not gel with the notion that the PPP-C Government can retain its plurality indefinitely, regardless of how lawless, corrupt, incompetent and abusive it has become. Yet some would have us believe precisely that.

hand, is still enjoying the advantage of its newness and is growing its support base nationwide. The party will enter its next election campaign in a much stronger position than it did in 2011 and will be targeting a plurality this time around.

The fact that a third party election victory would be unprecedented in Guyana, and in fact is unusual anywhere in the world, is no excuse for political analysts to avoid a proper numerical analysis of past election

Dominic Gaskin

had previously supported at the polls, the results of the 2011 elections show that many within this group were just as willing to revert.

In that election, while the AFC and the PPP-C experienced declines of over 3,000 and 1,500 votes respectively, APNU recorded an increase of nearly 17,000 votes over the PNC’s 2006 vote count.

The logical conclusion is that most of the votes lost by the AFC went to APNU and this would mean that in three elections some voters have moved from the PNC to the

departed voters in order to estimate the size of our swing voter population. There’s got to be an app for that.

Some of our leading political pundits have dismissed the Alliance For Change as a fly-by-night party, incapable of winning an election in Guyana.

In fact many of them had predicted that the AFC would have dwindled away after the 2006 elections. In doing so they have misread both the Guyanese public and the Alliance For Change itself, and are completely ignoring the numbers.

In terms of actual numbers of voters, both the PPP-C and the PNC “maxed-out” their natural support base some time back, and their votes have declined by 43,000 and 25,000 respectively from 2001 to 2011. While this does not mean that these two parties cannot increase their electoral support, any increase would have to come from first-time voters or swing voters.

The PPP-C lost major ground to the AFC in both Regions 5 and 6 at the last election and has done little, if anything at all, to alleviate the growing discontent in those

results and to ignore evidence that a growing section of our electorate today has no allegiance to any particular party.

While there is no evidence pointing to an AFC victory in the next election, there has been a progressive decline in the actual number of persons voting for the PPP-C. In 2006, the party’s votes decreased in nine of Guyana’s ten regions. In 2011, this decrease continued in the same nine regions. The overall votes cast in favour of the PPP-C were 209,031, 183,887 and 166,340 in 2001,

AFC and then back to the PNC (APNU). These are true swing voters whose votes cannot be taken for granted by any political party. The results in Region 10 are similar to those in Region 4, albeit on

The tabling of the NoConfidence Motion in the National Assembly was not a publicity stunt. It was a move to address a serious national crisis, in which the Executive had grossly exceeded its

Regions. It is unlikely to regain what it lost and there’s no good reason why it should receive more first-time voters than the other two parties at the next election.

The AFC, on the other

2006 and 2011 respectively.

Do any of our respected political gurus seriously believe that this slide would suddenly reverse itself in the next election? And if so, why?

The swing voters of

Guyana will not view kindly the abusiveness that has characterized the PPP-C Government since they last voted. The new young voters on the list are not likely to confuse their situation with any rosy depictions presented by campaign slicksters.

This is the reality that confronts the Government and this is why a motion of no-confidence is the last thing they need right now.

The myth of the PPP-C’s invincibility does not withstand even the most basic analysis of the available data. To suggest that a government with the track record of the PPP-C can look forward to being returned indefinitely insults the state of mind of our electorate.

The PPP-C Government, by its own actions, has antagonized and alienated a very large section of our population, and is now ducking and hiding from a simple one-line motion that awaits the next sitting of the National Assembly.

The AFC was formed to bring about political change in Guyana and will pursue this objective in the firm belief that Guyana will only become a better place when its people begin to hold their governments accountable.

Sunday October 19, 2014

SUNDAY SPECIAL PLOT TO SILENCE K/ NEWS MOVES BEYOND MERE EMAILS… SATTAUR BYPASSES GOVT, SEEKS INFO FROM INTERPOL, US EMBASSY Amidst a systematic wave of attacks against the Kaieteur News by Government, evidence has surfaced that Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, has been making other moves on his own.

He attempted to solicit information from International Police (InterPol) and the US Embassy in Georgetown.

However, both the Embassy and Interpol last month rebuffed Sattaur ’s attempts for information.

From the US Embassy he sought personal information on two remigrants who are United States citizens.

The embassy immediately wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs citing procedural breaches and advised the Ministry to restrain Sattaur.

The Embassy in a reply which was addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month, said that it could not accommodate the request, explaining that it must be forwarded through the “correct channels”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs seemed to have been caught unaware of Sattaur’s request for information, and called on the GRA boss to follow the correct procedures in the future. The Foreign Ministry in turn wrote the GRA Commissioner General asking him to forward such request through the Ministry, providing details of what he wants and the actions he is seeking.Sattaur did not stop at the United States embassy.

He wanted to trace phone calls which he said were made to him by Glenn Lall from the United States of America.

Sattaur alleged that during the telephone calls, Lall threatened him. For the telephone call information, Sattaur wrote InterPol, Washington DC. He wanted a record of calls made to his phone and the owner of the telephone number. However, that international security organization in its response made it clear that it is barred from releasing the information.

MONDAY EDITION APNU INVESTIGATING HOUSING COMPANY CLOSELYASSOCIATED WITH BAI SHAN LIN The main opposition political force in Guyana, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has launched an investigation into the deal

Kaieteur News

between the government and the owners of Sunset Lakes Inc. Sunset Lakes is a Chineseowned company that has ventured into developing a massive housing community in Providence on the East Bank of Demerara, just behind the National Stadium. The name of the housing scheme which is now coming under scrutiny is ‘New Life Community’.

APNU leader, David Granger at his most recent press conference told the media that his coalition has an interest in the project and wants to know the details. He disclosed that APNU’s General Secretary, Joseph Harmon, who sits in the National Assembly as the shadow Minister of Public Works, is handling the investigation.

GUYANATAKES ON MASS PREPARATION APPROACH TO TACKLE EBOLA - OVER 1600 MEDICAL PERSONNEL TO BE TRAINED Guyana has a mass preparedness campaign onstream as the dreaded Ebola virus continues to cause worldwide uproar. This is according to Dr. Johanna Cole, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s Internal MedicineInfectious Diseases Consultant.

Speaking at a Continued Medical Education (CME) session Monday morning at the Regency Hotel, Hadfield Street, Dr. Cole noted that the Ministry of Health has taken on a mass preparedness approach towards the virus.

She pointed out that 1,600 medical professionals are to soon commence training on dealing with the virus, and the necessary approach towards administering care to

Page 27

persons who have contracted the virus as opposed to those who are suspected to have it. In addition, emphasis will be placed on safety and precautionary measures for health care providers, who may come in contact with an infected person or environment, as the Ebola is highly contagious and spreads rapidly through direct or indirect contact with bodily fluids.

TUESDAY EDITION KN PUBLISHER, WIFE RELEASED ON SELF-BAIL -AFTER GRAALLEGES TAX EVASION CHARGES ON LEXUS VEHICLES On Monday, Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall, and his businesswoman wife, Bhena Lall, appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Beharry, and were released on self bail.

The Lalls were jointly charged with conspiring to evade taxes on two vehicles imported by two remigrants.

The couple was also charged with attempting to defraud the GRA of revenue.

Publisher Glenn Lall, and his wife, Bhena, denied all the charges read to them in the court.

The court appearance came less than a month after a series of shocking emails between the CommissionerGeneral of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, the Attorney General Anil Nandlall and former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, which spoke of a plot to silence Kaieteur News. It was a packed courtroom that heard Chief Magistrate, Priya Beharry as she read the charges Monday.

The Lalls are being represented by a battery of high profile lawyers led by Senior Counsel, Rex McKay, Attorneys-at-Law, Khemraj

Khurshid Sattaur, GRA Boss

Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall

Ramjattan, Nigel Hughes, Joseph Harmon, Robin Hunte, Brenda Glasford, Bettina Glasford and Christopher Ram. Appearing for GRA were Attorneys-at-Law Sandil Kissoon and Mahendra Satram.

It was alleged that the Lalls, between June 18 and September 30, 2013, knowingly dealt with goods with the intention to defraud GRA. It was further alleged, that the Lalls aided and abetted the evasion of duty on the two Lexus vehicles between June 18 and September 21, 2013.

recently registered a subsidiary locally to pursue a number of projects.

Professor Suresh Narine of the Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (IAST) and Manu Bansal, Executive Director, Pinnacle Green Resources (Guyana) Limited, on Monday inked a Letter of Intent meant to be transformed into a binding Memorandum of Understanding to pursue a Public Private Partnership, meant to have a positive impact on the energy sector in Guyana.

The agreement will see Pinnacle Green Resources (Guyana) Limited, investing in three projects and being allocated some 5000 acres of land in the Pomeroon, to pursue a plantation-type establishment meant to supply a 200-ton a day wood pellet manufacturing plant.

US$30M PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP INKED WITH INDIAN COMPANY …5000 ACRES SET ASIDE IN POMEROON FOR PLANTATION-TYPE ESTABLISHMENT With a promise of providing employment for between 400 and 500 persons, an investment of US$30M, the generation of 8MW of electricity and a five per cent equity stake in the new company, some 5000 acres of land has been set aside for an Indian Company which has

WEDNESDAY EDITION GUYANAPLAGUED BY POLITICS OF DOMINATION AND VENDETTA – AFC’S NAGAMOOTOO Leader of the political opposition, David Granger recently opined that political

competition has degenerated to one that reflects open conflict and antagonism and it has become such, largely because of the government.

This, he said, has a negative effect on the electorate.

In support of his perspective, Vice Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Moses Nagamootoo also said that the current state of political competitiveness in Guyana has affected the citizenry. He stressed that politics should always seek to inspire rather than what it is being used to do by the current administration–to suppress.

“We have obviously seen the cases where the government misused its organs because it was fuelled by malice and it wants to silence those who speak or represent the truth and want to share that with the people.

For example, we have seen emails between high-ranking government officials which were published by this newspaper and which obviously exposed a plot to shut down the Kaieteur Newspaper simply because the Newspaper and its publisher stand firm against abuses and executive lawlessness. This is the use of authority in a vindictive way and this kind of behaviour has been extended to the political opposition who were elected to represent the people. The government does not like political competition simply because it would seek to ensure good governance. It would call on them to answer to the people.

They are highly opposed to that,” Nagamootoo stated.

“Guyana is plagued by a politics of domination and vendetta.” Opposition “not

yet consulted” on Budget 2015 preparation While Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh has already (Continued on page 47)

A model of the houses to be offered by Sunset Lakes

Page 28

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

The PPP general secretary and everyday crime Hopes that Clement Rohee’s appointment as General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on 19th August 2013 would lead to his removal from office as Minister of Home Affairs have faded.

Donald Ramotar had given as his own reason for demitting office as PPP General Secretary, his realization that working as both President and General Secretary had become too onerous for him. He felt that the PPP needed someone who could dedicate more time to the party, while he (Ramotar) paid more attention to running the country. This encouraged him to support Rohee’s appointment.

Rohee, when asked at the time whether he (Rohee) would retain his portfolio as Minister of Home Affairs as well as General Secretary given the demands of the public security sector, responded “that is something that we will obviously have to look at some time down the road.”

That time has come. The country is now “down the road.” Rohee, like Ramotar before him, cannot perform both tasks. As elections approach, the Minister seems to be spending more time at press conferences, lambasting the Guyana Elections Commission, lamenting the registration process and labouring to rebuild his broken party than paying attention to the deteriorating security situation.

Rohee has been taking care of the Party. No-one has been taking care of the public security sector. It is no surprise, therefore, that there has been an alarming surge in the rate of violent crime ¯ especially armed robbery, murder, suicide, rape, road and river deaths, piracy and other inter-personal violence.

The Guyana Police Force, for which Rohee has ministerial responsibility, occasionally releases partial statistics on violent crime. The data published last week for the period 1st January to 30th

September 2014 are incomplete but, nevertheless, point to a dangerous deterioration in the state of human safety. Both the President and Minister of Home Affairs have been silent on the current surge in violent crimes over that period (January-September 2014).

The Police reported that there had been an increase of 15 per cent in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms and a two per cent increase in armed robberies in which instruments other than firearms were used. The rate of ‘robbery under arms’ increased by 11 percent.

Fatalities resulting from road traffic accidents surged to 100 compared to 75 fatalities for a similar period in 2013.

Data for suicide, however, are not usually made available by the Police. Former Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had reported that approximately 180-200 people die as a result of suicide every year. Guyana, with 26.4 suicides per 100,000 people

(2006), is said to have the fourth highest suicide rate in the world. In terms of homicide, one hundred and seven persons have been murdered compared to 100 for a similar period last year.

Data for rape, similarly, are not usually made available.

The US Department of State’s Report on Human Rights calculated that, during 2012, authorities charged 102 persons for the crime of rape.

Only 28 of these were convicted; 89 persons were charged with statutory rape and four were convicted.

Several non-governmental organisations recently launched public protests to call attention to official attitudes to reports of the rape and sexual assault of indigenous women in the hinterland.

Data for piracy attacks, like those for suicide and rape, are not usually made available.

The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) reported 12 deaths and the disappearance of eight persons ‘lost at sea’ as a result

of marine accidents and violent attacks by pirates on fishermen and other marine workers during the first half of 2014.

A Surinamese government official criticised Guyana’s response to piracy stating that, “Pirates come from Guyana and are deliberately targetting their countrymen who illegally fish in Suriname, knowing that they cannot turn for help to the Surinamese authorities.” Decomposed bodies have occasionally been found on the river banks, suggesting that victims had been killed and dumped overboard.

Violent crime is sucking the oxygen out of economic development. Guyana is becoming an increasingly dangerous country while the Minister of Home Affairs functions as his party’s election campaign manager.

The United Nations Development Programme’s Caribbean Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security Report 2012 identified Guyana

as a country affected by high levels of crime that is hindering development.

That Report confirmed the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Crime, Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean Report of 2007 that noted that high rates of crime and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare and impeding social development.

The PPPC administration must provide greater protection for citizens from violent crime.

The public security situation in Guyana today demands the undivided attention of a full-time minister. The nation has been paying a high price for Rohee’s distraction. The President and his Minister of Home Affairs must explain to the nation exactly how they intend to stop the surge in violent crime. If Rohee cannot do two jobs, let him choose one.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 29

Four outstanding women honoured...

(From page 21) bestowed by the Institute of Creative Arts is the specific way in which Dr Rogers established the Bachelors Degree in Art at the University to allow graduates of the Burrowes School of Art to complete a full degree at UG in two years. This articulation was an important collaborative step in the network of tertiary institutions offering programmes in the creative arts.

MRS. MEIGHAN STEELE-DUKE And it was for a lifetime career that has brought together in a creative and developmental way, music, the teaching of music, broadcasting and distance education for the enhancement of music in Guyana, that Mrs Meighan Steele-Duke was recognized by the Institute as yet another Lifetime Fellow.

Duke’s involvement in Educational Broadcasting began at an early age in the 1960s when she was employed as a Clerical Assistant in the Broadcast to Schools (BTS) Unit of the Ministry of Information. Her interest and love of music enabled her to give advice to Senior Producers on appropriate musical selections.

When the BTS Unit was formalised in 1965, Meighan became a full-fledged producer of educational broadcasts with the focus on the accurate dissemination of information, attention to the spoken word and the use of music to enhance educational programming.

This was the background, the foundation and the launching pad for a noted and exemplary career in music education through broadcasting, training and practice that was to leave its everlasting mark on music and music education in Guyana.

Duke was appointed Schools’ Broadcasts Organiser and helped the concept of Distance Education in Guyana, because of her belief that educational programmes reaching from the Rupununi to Skeldon could bring curricula reform to teachers, pupils and the wider community.

During the 1980s she met with Distance Education specialists while attending Conferences or Training Programmes in Guyana, the Caribbean, United Kingdom and Canada and was given the opportunity to increase her knowledge on integrating Distance Education into schools’ curricula.

The GUIDE (Guyana InService Distance Education) programme, initiated by

herself and Ms Florine Dalgetty, provided official certification for untrained teachers from several regions.

And Mrs Duke also taught Language Arts, French, English Literature, Dancing and Music and has prepared a National Songbook of Guyanese Songs under commission from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.

An active member of St Andrews Presbyterian Church Choir and the Woodside Choir for over 40 years , she is also an executive member of Korokwa Folk Group, an offshoot of Woodside.

She is now involved in voluntary teaching to children in need and presents a Singing by Radio Series for Broadcast to Schools, within the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) which emphasises her continued contribution to the land of her birth.

MRS VIVIENNE DANIEL Because of her exceptional achievements in the fields of dance, Guyanese dance, research, choreography, dance theatre and theatre production, as well as in the training of others, Mrs Vivienne Daniel was also admitted as a Lifetime Fellow of the Institute.

She has been involved ‘formally’ in dance under the Department of Culture since 1973 when she became a Student of the Advanced Class of the National School of Dance.

She graduated with Distinction in the first batch of ‘Trained Dance Teachers’ in 1974 and in 1978 she represented Guyana at the Ballet Festival in Cuba as – Artista Invitada.

Thus began the national career of a dancer, a dance teacher, a theatre director and manager and a choreographer of the highest order, led by one who has become a main supporting pillar in Guyanese dance theatre.

Daniel has performed nationally and internationally in Cayenne, Suriname, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Cuba and Canada.

In 1979 she became a Founder-Member of the National Dance Company and received specialist training in the planning and conducting of auditions as well as specific assessment procedures for the selection of prospective students for classical ballet.

From 1980 onwards, Daniel has shared her skills extensively through the training of others in dance, and was appointed Coordinator of the One Year Dance Teachers’ Certificate

Dr. Doris Elrina Rogers receives her lifetime award from Prime Minister Samuel Hinds Training Programme as well as a tutor for courses in Modern Dance, Choreography, the History of Dance and Research.

She is also Dance Educator-Resource person attached to the Unit of Allied Arts, Ministry of Education, Tutor for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Theatre Arts and Lecturer in Dance and Movement at The National School of Theatre Arts and Drama.

She is currently the Director of The National Dance Company, which she has guided as an artistic leader, mentor and visionary, and is Senior Instructor at The National School of Dance.

Daniel also conducts posture classes for The Physiotherapy Department for persons with scoliosis.

Her efforts over the years have seen her being the recipient of the Theatre Arts Award for Best Director; the Award of the International Dance Day Committee (Guyana) for selfless contribution and outstanding dedication to the performing arts; Artistes in Director Support-celebrating 20 years of service (Award) for outstanding contribution and support; the Rehabilitation Services of Guyana Dedicated Service Award - in recognition of outstanding and dedicated service; Metro Toronto Caravan (Canada) for contrib u t i o n re G u y a n a ’s Cultural Heritage through the performing arts, and the Guyana Cultural Association NY Inc. - Guyana Folk Festival Award in recognition of outstanding contribution to Guyana’s Cultural Heritage.

Moreover, the Guyana Institute of Creative Arts was compelled to recognize Daniel’s lifetime career that has “truly shaped, developed and guided dance in Guyana” even as she rose to the status of being the nation’s foremost, most outstanding and influential

choreographer.

MRS GEM MADHOONASCIMENTO Understandably Gem Madhoo-Nascimento was recognised among the outstanding women admitted as a Lifetime Fellow of the Institute of Creative Art. She started her theatrical life in 1973 with the PSU Drama Group, and continued it with outcomes of significant proportions when she joined the Theatre Guild of Guyana a few years later. It was as a member and an executive officer of the Guild that she honed and developed her own craft in the theatre and began a career that was to contribute to the growth of the professional theatre in Guyana and the training and development of several others on the Guyanese stage.

A former banker with training in accountancy, she used these skills to become a pioneer in professional theatre.

Madhoo-Nascimento has been able to guide many amateur performers into becoming paid professional artistes, since 1981, with the

Mrs Vivienne Daniel receiving her honour formation of The Theatre Company. In partnership with Ron Robinson, she cofounded and managed The Theatre Company, the first professional performing company which opened doors, thus contributing substantially to the definite development of the modern era on the local stage.

She has been jointly responsible for The Link Show the longest running, most popular and most successful production in Guyanese theatre, and has managed several overseas tours to the Caribbean and North America.

Today MadhooNascimento owns and manages GEMS Theatre Productions and GEMS Youth Theatre. She has used theatre to raise funds for many charitable and sporting organisations, staged productions in recognition of International Women’s Day, given visual artists exposure through theatrical productions and harnessed a young group since 2007 into ‘edutainment’ in a number of schools and performing at venues regionally.

She has participated in and received training from international fora and workshops such as the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, and has contributed regionally to Theatre Information Exchange of the Caribbean.

Madhoo-Nascimento brings to the theatre industry over 40 years of experience and in excess of 200 productions on a Guyanese stage whose high profile, prolificity and professionalism she has helped to build.

She was recognised with the YWCA’s ‘Women of Distinction’ Award in 2002; the 2006 Guyana Folk Festival Award – ‘In recognition of outstanding contribution to Guyana’s Culture and Heritage’.

And so the Guyana Institute of Creative Arts also recognized MadhooNascimento for a “lifetime career that has truly enhanced drama in Guyana while rising to be the nation’s best in the fields of Stage Management, Theatre and Production Management as well as in the training of others.”

Page 30

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Caribbean common fisheries policy authorised for implementation The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), comprised of ministers responsible for agriculture from across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has confirmed the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy as a final policy document for the Community.

The Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP) is aimed at fostering greater harmonisation across the Caribbean in the sustainable management and development of the region’s fisheries and aquaculture resources, with special emphasis on promoting the most efficient use of shared resources while aiming to improve food security and reduce poverty in the region.

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has said that CARICOM policies, once authorized by COTED, are binding on the countries. At its meeting held in Suriname on October 10, COTED gave its stamp of approval to the CCCFP and said that the newly authorized policy should be applied by member states as far as possible. The formal signing of the CCCFP by member countries is expected to commence in the months ahead.

The recommendation to COTED came out of the fifth special meeting of the CRFM’s Ministerial Council, held on October 9, in Paramaribo, Suriname, coinciding with Caribbean Week of Agriculture. On that occasion, the CRFM’s executive director, Milton Haughton, presented a paper on the first CARICOM Strategic Plan (2015 – 2019).

The CARICOM Secretariat and all other CARICOM institutions along with the CARICOM countries will all be following a single plan for the first time following its approval by the heads of government in July 2014.

THREATENED SPECIES On 2 September 2014, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), government of the United States, announced its finding and determination that “the Nassau Grouper meets the definition of a threatened species” and proposes “to list it as threatened under the Endangered Species Act”.

The CRFM Ministerial Council discussed the USA’s proposal to list the Nassau Grouper, an important commercial fish species in many CRFM member states, as a threatened species.

The Ministerial Council said that member states would need to be proactive in addressing this challenge.

It called on member states of the CRFM to compile the best

available data and information on the status and active management of Nassau Grouper in their countries, particularly information that could inform NMFS’ final listing and proposed conservation measures. The window of opportunity for submitting public comment closes on 31 December 2014.

The Council also expressed grave concern over extra-national activities and decisions that impact on the social and economic conditions and international trade of CRFM Member States.

STRENGTHENING COOPERATION WITH FRENCH C’BEAN Apart from its endorsement of the CCCFP as a final policy document, COTED also endorsed the decision arising out of the fifth special meeting of the CRFM Ministerial Council, held the day before the COTED meeting, to strengthen cooperation between CARICOM/CRFM States and the French Départements Outre-Mer (DOMs) in the Caribbean, particularly Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana.

Since 2011, CRFM states have been discussing ways of improving cooperation with the French territories in the Caribbean, when the issue was discussed within the context of strengthening management and conservation of the Eastern Caribbean flying fish fishery and combating IUU fishing in the region.

The initiative comes at a time when the CRFM has adopted the first regionally approved management plan for flying fish, a known shared species that is harvested by up to seven countries in the Eastern Caribbean: six CARICOM states and Martinique. The flying fish plan was approved by the CRFM in May 2014 and closer cooperation with the French will support its successful implementation and provide opportunities for further dialogue and collaboration on other challenges facing the fishing industry of the countries concerned.

CURACAO APPLIES TO JOIN THE CRFM On 17 April 2014, Curacao submitted its application for associate membership in the CRFM. The Ministerial Council, acting on the recommendation of the Executive Committee, supports the application of Curacao to join the CRFM as an associate member.

Consequently, the Ministerial Council has authorized the CRFM Secretariat to commence the process of negotiating an

association agreement with Curacao, which should be finalized and ready for signature for the ninth meeting of the Ministerial Council slated for April/May 2015.

The Ministerial Council is empowered to admit any state or territory of the Caribbean region as an associate member, providing the Ministerial Council is satisfied that the state or territory is able and willing to discharge its obligations.

EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE SHARING USING ICT TECHNOLOGIES Representatives of the CRFM countries and stakeholder organisations also discussed strategies for enhanced knowledge management and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for information sharing and cooperation in the fisheries sector as a way to improve the welfare and livelihood of fishers.

The issue was discussed at both the Executive Committee meeting and at a one-day workshop made possible through the CTAfunded Knowledge Platform Project. The workshop reviewed materials and strategies being used for communication among fisheries professionals and stakeholders in the fishing industries across the region and considered ways of improving the effort. The workshop also sought to strengthen the use of ICT in fisheries and identified ways to promote sharing of information and technology for improving participation of stakeholders in policy development and the management of fisheries.

CTA is the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union (EU) which aims to improve food and nutritional security and encourage natural resource management in ACP countries.

At its subsequent meeting, the Ministerial Council underscored the need for countries to use modern ICT tools to enhance policy dialogue and the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of programmes and activities within the fisheries sector. The Council expressed its support for the regional fisheries workshop on promoting blue growth, scheduled for 20 to 21 November 2014 in Grenada.

UPDATE ON CASE 21 TO TACKLE IUU FISHING In relation to (Continued on page 31)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 31

Guyana-born entrepreneur receives coveted OBE Although he left these shores more than a decade ago, Ronald Ramjattan still has a very prevailing presence in Guyana, throughout the Caribbean and further afield. He is the business mogul standing firmly behind the well known Baron Foods Limited.

As a Food Entrepreneur for many years he has maintained a flawless and distinguished reputation which was perhaps enough for him to be awarded with the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace.

The award was bestowed upon him on October 9, last,

by Queen Elizabeth II. According to Ramjattan in an invited comment to this publication yesterday, “it was indeed a humbling experience for me as a Guyanese coming from a normal background.”

With unreserved modesty, he spoke of being an entrepreneur in Saint Lucia, his adopted home, for more than 24 years, and was elated to not only be recognized, but be auspiciously honoured by the Queen.

“I am indeed fortunate,” said Ramjattan who has been exporting his over 125 food products from Saint Lucia to Guyana for the last 20 years.

All of his products have also been consistently maintaining an ISO 22000 Standard and are also exported throughout the English, Dutch and French Islands of the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

His integral support to the Saint Lucian economy saw the Government there nominating him for the OBE award which was accepted by the Queen. Though grateful for the recognition, Ramjattan is of the belief that the honour “is a plus for Guyana and Guyanese living outside.”

His cousin Khemraj Ramjattan, prominent Attorney at Law and leader of the Alliance For Change, said that he is “over the moon with pride and joy” because of the achievement.

In a congratulatory note, he outlined that he is “proud of this magnificent moment, this crowning achievement for a man of such humble beginnings. Sir, you have not only walked with us ordinary mortals, but now with Royalty. You are our Champion and Hero.

Continue making us proud brother.”

But Ronald Ramjattan is however convinced that had he remained in Guyana he would not have been bestowed with such a high honour.

This is in light of the fact that since becoming a Republic, Guyana does not currently have the capacity to nominate a candidate to receive an award from Her

Ronald Ramjattan receives his award from Queen Elizabeth Majesty the Queen.

Like a number of other Caribbean territories, the Queen remains the head of Saint Lucia and can accept nominations for such awards.

But according to Ramjattan, what Guyana can seek to continuously embrace is the notion of national accolades for those who so deserve. He turned his attention to West Indies star batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whom he believes should have long been the recipient of, at least, Guyana’s Order of Roraima, a feat that “(many) people have been clamouring for.”

In fact it was very concerning to the OBE awardee that “the Government of Guyana has not even been recognizing the lawyers of Guyana for the longest while…”

The Guyana-born Ramjattan has manufacturing plants in St Lucia and Grenada and has plans to expand further with the introduction of a plant in Trinidad. He has been constructing the latter proposed plan for the past two years.

He is a well known personality when it comes to outstanding business performances, evident by the fact that he had copped, for the fifth consecutive year, the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for OCEC countries.

Ramjattan coveted the Best Pepper Sauce Prize (2014) in Brussels, ahead of being awarded the OBE. He is currently President for the Saint Lucian Manufacturers Association and Chairman of the Trade Export Council of Saint Lucia.

“That alone shows my background and my export capabilities and what I am doing must be right for the last 15-20 years to be receiving all these awards,” said an ecstatic Ramjattan who noted that “my products have been receiving awards locally, regionally and internationally.”

The married father of one was born in Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, and grew up at Number 47 Village, Corentyne, Berbice. He worked his way up the food business chain first as a Laboratory Technician at the Guyana Sugar Corporation then as Production Manager at Ricks and Sari.

While his heart remains in Guyana, Ramjattan is currently not too keen on returning to these shores.

According to him, “the situation has to change; the crime rate has to reduce…Guyana itself has to scale up fiscal incentives for manufacturers who just don’t have to go and sit down and make request to the Government.”

“I feel just like Trinidad (for instance), you apply, you

Caribbean common...

(From page 30) developments in international fisheries law, the CRFM’s Ministerial Council welcomed the ongoing deliberations by the International Tribunal on the Laws of the Seas (ITLOS), to clarify international law on matters such as flag state responsibility and liability in the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Legal counsel for the CRFM, Professor Pieter Bekker of Dundee University, Scotland, had presented oral arguments to the full Tribunal of 21 Judges on 5 September 2014.

Bekker’s submission was well received and noted internationally.

get through…in Saint Lucia you apply and you go to the Trade Export Board or something like that…but Guyana you have to come and appeal and be singled out…there is not a fiscal

incentive for manufacturers alone or for every sector; you have to come and make your case to get (that),” said Ramjattan. According to him, he has in the past made a few applications, but none were

successful to the point of getting off the ground.

He nevertheless was keen on emphasizing that young local entrepreneurs must seek to remain focused although he is somewhat pessimistic about the business climate.

“So many of us are so successful outside of Guyana, but when you come here it is a few companies that are so successful, but the young entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector remain at a low level,” said Ramjattan.

This state of affairs he has linked to the low disposable income in Guyana and a lack of an enabling environment.

“I am reading with concern what is happening with Kaieteur News and its owner; I am reading with concern about several other business owners who are trying to do good and yet they are not being successful, because the enabling environment is not there,” said Ramjattan, whose products have however found much favour on the local market.

Page 32

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

More commitment pledged to Reparations continuity

Former Jamaican PM P.J. Patterson (far left, top row) and Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne (next to Patterson), pose with other attendees including Dr Hilary Beckles CARICOM Reparations Commission Chairman (second left bottom row) and Eric Phillips Guyana’s Reparations Committee chairman (second right, bottom row) Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne has registered his commitment to continue the Region’s push towards Reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery.

Leaders from across the Caribbean were last week in Antigua and Barbuda for the second Caribbean Community (CARICOM) conference on Reparations which began on Sunday. The three-day conference was aimed at intensifying discussions regarding the Community’s CRC’s 10-point plan on reparatory justice which was adopted by Caricom Heads last March.

Former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson gave the charge and entrusted the continuity of the pursuit of Reparations to Antiguan PM who assured that “the current Caribbean leaders have accepted the torch (for reparations) and will never allow it to be extinguished.”

Patterson in his address paid special tribute to the Rastafari brethren and ‘sistren’ in the audience whom he said “were among the first to carry on the struggle of indigenous and slave ancestors for reparatory justice. In the post-colonial period they stoked the embers and fanned the flames of the dying reparation fire. It has now become an unstoppable conflagration.”

The former PM focused his address on the issue of Africa’s role in the historic evil of human trafficking and challenged critics that assert that Africans should share moral responsibility for the crime against humanity that was committed because they were complicit.

“One should not place on a victim the guilt for a crime;

so we should stop putting the guilt of the collaborator on the shoulders of the victim. The African continent was the victim of imperial exploitation and slavery and suffered a massive loss. It resulted in a major depopulation of Africa, with its heavy male bias. It destroyed age old political traditions, undermined tribal systems, corrupted both moral and civil practices. In short, it crippled the potential for economic growth and social development,” he said.

Patterson also pointed out that the infrastructure established to support the heinous trafficking of Africans was not known in Africa before the mass exportation of Africans to the West.

Patterson asserted that “The ideology of racism and the articulation of superiority and inferiority linked to race and colour were absent in Africa before the transAtlantic trade in Africans.”

He also posited that the history also showed that some African leaders were induced by intimidation or bribery or greed, to collaborate in the capture and transport of Africans destined for slavery.

Patterson stated emphatically that, “There is no principle in law which permits the organizers of a criminal enterprise to escape responsibility because others collaborated in carrying out the enterprise. Legal responsibility is not affected by any collaboration,” he stated.

“It was European nations who conceived the trade, put the enterprise into motion, controlled its operation and were massively enriched by it.” PM Browne in his address opined that, “no other region

in the world, with such very small populations and limited resources such as ours, has achieved nearly so much. Despite being robbed of our material well-being for centuries, the Caribbean has acted as a crucible for excellence. Think how much more we could have done, had we begun the task of building our countries with the basic tools to do it. That is why we are pursuing reparations,” he told the gathering.

“We are also pursuing reparations because the international community appears unmindful of the legacy of neglect upon which we have built. While some may be limited in their knowledge of this issue others are intentionally ignorant of it.”

The PM explained that, “the transnational slave trade resulted in the separation and destruction of many families and in the cultural values, tradition, beliefs and artefacts of our people. The atrocities committed against our people rank among the worst examples of human barbarism.

This institutionalised trade in humans and its attendant atrocities have resulted in a state of underdevelopment in the Caribbean and Africa, 180 years after its abolition.”

Gaston posited that there is no doubt in his mind that the year Caribbean leaders will burn the flames of reparations and not let it out.

A number of expert economists, lawyers, academics, historians, faithbased leaders, community activists, scientists, journalists and artists to further map the national and regional strategies to advance the case for reparations from Europe were present.

(Zena Henry)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 41

Cuba to host regional summit on Ebola tomorrow - GCSM President

President of the Guyana Cuba Solidarity Movement, Haleem Khan Cuba will host a Regional Summit on Ebola tomorrow as Heads of state and governmental representatives of various countries that make up the regional integration bloc will gather in Havana to address a joint contribution to the prevention and fight against Ebola, the deadly epidemic currently affecting

West Africa, according to President of the Guyana Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) Haleem Khan.

This meeting comes on the heels of the U.N. Secretary General making an international appeal for additional support and help in preventing and coping with the epidemic.

Meanwhile, Khan noted that Cuba is positioning itself for a post-embargo era and the Cuban government will welcome renewed diplomatic relations with the United States and would not set preconditions.

As a first step, Khan explained that the Obama administration should remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of nations that sponsor terrorist organizations, which include Iran, Sudan and Syria. Cuba, he said, was put on the list in 1982 for backing terrorist groups in Latin America, which it no longer does.

Most notably, Khan disclosed that Cuba has answered America’s calls for help with Ebola. Cuba sent 165 health workers to hard-hit Sierra Leone, a disproportionately large number for a tiny island nation.

They join cadres of medical workers in West Africa from several nations who are under the auspices of aid groups.

For the moment, Khan said that American officials recognize that Havana is playing a constructive role in the conflict in Colombia by hosting peace talks between the government and guerrilla leaders.

The GCSM president further noted that fully ending the embargo will require Congress’s approval. But there is much more the White House could do on its own.

For instance, it could lift caps on remittances, allow Americans to finance private Cuban businesses and expand opportunities for travel to the island.

Khan said restoring diplomatic ties, which the White House can do without congressional approval,

would allow the United States to expand and deepen cooperation in areas where the two nations already manage to work collaboratively, like managing migration flows, maritime patrolling and oil rig safety.

“Engaging with Cuba and starting to unlock the potential of its citizens could end up being among the Obama administration’s most consequential foreign-policy legacies.” Khan stressed.

In recent years, Khan said the devastated economy has forced Cuba to make reforms, a process that has gained urgency with the economic crisis in Venezuela, which gives Cuba heavily subsidized oil. Officials in Havana, fearing that Venezuela could cut its aid, have taken significant steps to liberalize and diversify the island’s economy. The pace of reforms

has been slow and there has been backsliding. Still, these changes show Cuba is positioning itself for a postembargo era.

Starting in 1961, Washington has imposed sanctions in an effort to oust the Castro regime. Over the decades, it became clear to many American policy makers that the embargo was an utter failure.

Khan further asserted that the Obama administration in 2009 took important steps to ease the embargo, a patchwork of laws and policies, making it easier for Cubans in the United States to send remittances to relatives in Cuba and authorizing more CubanAmericans to travel there.

And it has paved the way for initiatives to expand Internet access and cell phone coverage on the island.

Page 42

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

CHIKUNGUNYA stages and relapse (From the Desk of the Vector Control Director, Dr Reyaud Rahman) Chikungunya has affected many countries worldwide and has spread like wildfire throughout them. Those most affected have the conditions conducive for this disease to progress and thrive. The types of mosquitoes which spread this disease are abundant in local environments and homes.

Our surroundings therefore allow these mosquitoes to breed freely without being hampered or affected and we often do not protect ourselves adequately

enough to prevent being bitten.

This virus presents in different stages and affects individuals as such. The stages are known as an acute phase and a chronic phase.

Some studies even mentioned a sub-acute phase.

The acute phase generally last for about 10 days and then resolves. This period commonly last for one to two weeks before there is a very common relapse and symptoms return. If there is a sub-acute phase, patients generally have symptoms for four weeks to twelve weeks and then symptoms

commonly resolve in some patients. After this acute phase, if symptoms still are present this is known as the chronic phase.

It is noted that in Guyana persons have experienced the relapse period of this disease after the acute phase; this is brought on by factors such as excessive exercise or exacerbation and exposure to cold weather mostly. The chronic stage of this disease can severely deteriorate a patient’s quality of life for months. The joints in the hands, knees and tendons will be mostly affected and impact the individual’s life

tremendously and could result in persons requiring prolonged sick leave.

This disease stage will more likely affect persons over 40 years of age mostly with underlying conditions like arthritis or persons who have been involved in serious accidents (traumatic diseases).

Not all persons infected with Chikungunya develop symptoms. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of persons develop symptoms. When symptoms do present, they occur abruptly and last for about a week before resolving. In the chronic Dr. Reyaud Rahman stage of the disease, 30 to 40 percent of patients experience mostly joint pain. Deaths from Chikungunya virus remain rare and mostly affect those over 65 years of age with underlying medical conditions.

If individuals have had a relapse of the Chikungunya virus they should use Panadol

for fever, Ibuprofens (or other NSAID’s prescribed by their doctor), drink over two litres of fluids daily (water, coconut water etc.), rest and do not do strenuous exercise or work.

These recommendations will assist with a speedy recovery and decrease further discomfort and pain to the affected individual.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 43

‘Million Man March’ observances…

Guyanese activist, Trinidadian Muslim - intend to take leader refused entry to Jamaica matter to CCJ Chairman of the Black Consciousness Movement (Guyana), Gerald Perreira, was on Friday last ordered off a flight in Antigua, on his way to Jamaica, where he had been invited by Minister Louis Farrakhan to participate in the 19th anniversary of the ‘Million Man March’.

Perreira said he was told by authorities in Antigua that he was being removed from the flight because he had been refused permission to land in Jamaica.

Perreira is a part of the regional think tank set up to plan the event in Jamaica which will be broadcast live throughout the Caribbean

today. The think tank, which brings together social and political activists throughout the hemisphere, including South and Central America, is charged with formulating solutions to the many problems facing the region.

A few days prior, Imam Abu Bakr from Trinidad and Tobago, who was invited by Minister Farrakhan, was also refused entry into Jamaica. He was detained on arrival at Norman Manley International Airport, along with his wife and son. His wife and son were eventually allowed to enter the country, but Abu Bakr was forcibly returned to Trinidad on a private plane;

A pastor's virulent...

From page 35 between a mass murderer or a petty thief in prison and a Black doctor, when it comes to this crucial perception.

Ironically, Manning admits that as a youngster, he was involved in criminal activities similar to those he now decries in African-Americans, including burgling about 100 homes and threatening an associate with a shotgun He emphatically declares he is not a Black man, and don't you dare call him an AFRICAN-American. He notes that in 'that big ole continent of Africa' they never built one boat that was seaworthy … never built one monument (except for Egypt which he claims is not Africa) nor any great cities. He declares that turning South Africa over to Mandela has resulted in disease and crime that is 'running wild in Johannesburg' even as he condescends to acknowledge that 'apartheid had some brutality in it'. When Mandela, who he claims didn't believe in God, passed earlier this year, he mockingly proclaimed 'The fool is dead.'

But his most pejorative vitriol is reserved for President Obama, his wife and his ancestry. He continuously refers to Obama, whom he says is Kenyan, not American, as a pimp, a long-legged mack daddy (think women and sex) and the son of Satan.

However he also believes he is gay, and recently posted a sign outside his church which says that 'Obama has released the homo demons on the Black man'.

Michelle, whom he calls the fist-bumper, is King Kong's sister, Obama's mother was 'White trash' and his father a pathetic alcoholic bigamist. He advises however that he has now opened his mind

to the possibility that Barack Obama Sr., is not the president's father, but someone called Frank Marshall Davis, an American.

Interestingly, one of the reasons he says Obama isn't fit to be president is that he is only half-Black, and that a Black president should come from a Black womb. Manning stereotypes Black people as being worthless yet upholds the virtues of Black icons like Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Nat Turner - the last a Virginian slave preacher who led an uprising that killed 60 whites and led to retaliatory actions by Whites that killed about 200 Blacks.

The piqued pastor sometimes appears incensed by the notion that maybe Obama has never even heard of him although he once held a show trial at his church where he prosecuted the president for wire fraud and opined that he should be hanged.

Obama's apparent indifference seems to have gotten Manning's goat.

The Reverend James David Manning has spewed much more venom about President Obama and Black people than can be even alluded to here in this brief 'story'. I think it's safe to say that he despises certain 'types' although he claims he really loves Black people, and wants to help them face the truth about themselves. (He excluded?) But of course being just an armchair analyst, I'm not absolutely sure. I'd love to hear what others think - maybe Freddie, one of 'dem boys' or the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. According to Manning, Putin will soon reveal some titillating information about the leader of the free world. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath.

costing the Jamaican government some US$36,000.

Abu Bakr, leader of Jamaat Al Muslimeen, described the Trinidadian government as the ‘mischief makers’, assuming that they had contacted the Jamaican government and fingered him as some kind of threat, Perreira stated.

However, it was noted that the Jamaican authorities in a statement denied any

interference by the Trinidadian government in the decision to refuse entry to Abu Bakr. They stated that the Jamaat al Muslimeen leader was refused permission to enter Jamaica “under the country’s Immigration Restriction Commonwealth Citizens’ Act.” The statement continued that the decision was in the interest of national security given the threat posed to public safety.

The incidents also come at a time when Jamaica called on Trinidad’s National Security Minister, Gary Griffith to “‘refrain from continuing to muddy the integration waters’ as it responded to his statement that the influx of thousands of illegal Jamaicans into Trinidad and Tobago is putting a strain on its resources.”

Only last week the

Trinidadian authorities detained a number of Jamaicans. They claimed to have not been given food, made to sleep on the floor, and denied a phone call before being deported, and it was opined that these problems between the territories maybe created the problem for the Jamaat al Muslimeen leader.

However, Perreira believes that Jamaica’s refusal to allow (Continued on page 44)

Page 44

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Guyanese activist, Trinidadian...

From page 43 him entry into the country raises new concerns for both men. Perreira said he has no criminal convictions, but has been denied visas for the United States and other western destinations, including Canada and Britain, for some years now, and is not able to transit any of these countries.

In addition, he said his wife and children have also been denied transit visas for the US and have been harassed when they have attempted to transit other ports such as Canada on their way to and from the Caribbean, where they reside.

“I have never been given

a reason from these alleged democracies for this denial of my right to travel freely, and can only assume that it is a result of my outspoken criticism of their foreign policies and interference in the domestic affairs of my homeland Guyana, Africa and other parts of the Global South. The US, Britain and Canada are good for moralizing and lecturing us about freedom of speech and the virtues of democracy and when we must hold elections, while only paying lip service to such matters themselves – their hypocrisy is blatant and they are extremely vindictive when it comes to anyone who opposes them on any level.”

Perreira has published extensively on issues affecting Africa and the Caribbean and his recent articles condemning the invasion of Libya and in defence of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Qaddafi, have been widely circulated and translated into numerous languages.

Up until now, Perreira has been able to freely travel in the Caribbean region. Only last month, he said, he joined Minister Farrakhan and others in Barbados for a region-wide meeting. Perreira said he is convinced that the refusal of himself and Abu Bakr to land in Jamaica to join others for the commemoration

of the ‘Million Man March’ was ordered by the US State Department, with or without the knowledge of the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller.

He opined that, ‘this seemingly unwarranted move is about trying to prevent us from coming together and joining with one of today’s greatest Black leaders, the Honourable Minister Louis Farrakhan, to build a strong and united movement across the region against neocolonialism and for the advancement of our people”.

“One of the themes for the Million Man March event is the urgent need for political self-determination in the

Gerald Perreira

Abu Bakr

region, and how timely, given that two Caricom nationals, free of any criminal convictions, could be refused entry to a Caricom country on the orders of an outside power.”

Perreira and Abu Bakr are “demanding clear information and evidence” on how they could be perceived as posing a threat to the national

security of Jamaica. Perreira said such a claim is nonsensical and both he and Abu Bakr, “as Caricom citizens and descendants of captured Africans”, are preparing to take this issue to the Caribbean Court of Justice to assert their right to freedom of movement in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.

Some financing models...

From page 38 customers the option of signing a formal rental agreement.

Families that qualify can occupy homes, and part of their monthly rent goes towards their future mortgage down payment.

This option enables clients to build a payment history in the formal financial system through the rental payments while they save to pay for their home. The incremental housing category includes two business models - the core house model and the home improvement model.

The core house model developed by the housing finance company Fomepade in Mexico - targets low-income state workers. Fomepade first helps clients to consolidate and refinance all of their outstanding debt, then extends a housing loan to buy a core house (a newly-built basic house of modular design) or undertake a house improvement. The design of core houses facilitates rapid, lowcost improvements and additions.

The financing for this model is provided by government subsidies, the family's down payment, and Fomepade's loan. This model is unique, because it links social housing developers, public sector employees, and government subsidy programmes.

According to the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) website, the home improvement model has been used by different entities such as microfinance banks, municipal savings and loan funds, and wholesale financing institutions.

The publication finds that these groups are increasingly using microfinance lending methodologies to help customers make small (roof, floor, water, etc.) or large (room, second story) improvements to their homes. Besides funding, in partnership with other

entities like social housing developers, non-profits, and hardware stores, these institutions provide technical assistance, materials, and labour.

CFI says that what is interesting about these different business models is that they are not only making it easier for customers at the base of the pyramid to buy a home, or slowly build one, but also that in some way they are bringing this customer segment into the formal financial system.

Habitat for Humanity, an experienced non-profit organization itself, has said that affordable housing finance options must satisfy the criteria for affordable housing – housing that targets the economically disadvantaged.

Hence, disposable income is a primary factor in determining affordability, and since affordable housing is housing that tries to meet the pockets of those who fall below the median income, accessibility relates to the scope of households that fall into this category, some of which might not even be bankable (do not have stable income). I have already spoken about this.

Now I may have been a little technical with regards to the models of financing, however, it is the hope that Government and other stakeholders seriously look at these models. They could prove to be good initiatives. Incidentally, I have been provided a copy of the Government's “Housing Policy and Implementation Strategy” which is dated in 2012. With the debates over where Guyana is going, we can examine this, and some more of what Habitat for Humanity is talking about, in the coming weeks.

Enjoy the weekend and keep the calls coming on weekdays to 225-8491 or 682-1256 or drop those emails to gildarie@ yahoo.com.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 45

How to stay as healthy as With extra weight, possible if you have diabetes kids’ hearts change shape

Many patients may ask their doctors and other health care professionals the question, what can I do to stay as healthy as possible if I have diabetes? The answer is very simple. If you have diabetes, the most important thing you can do is to control your “ABCs”: “A” stands for “A1C” – A1C is a blood test that shows what your average blood sugar level has been during the last few months.

This test can be used to diagnose as well as to monitor your interventions such as medicine, diet and physical activities in controlling your blood glucose levels. A1C levels below 7 percent should be the target.

“B” stands for “blood pressure” – If you have diabetes, controlling your blood pressure is just as important as controlling your blood sugar. High blood pressure puts you at risk for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. These complications will further complicate your life and can lead to disappointments and frustration. Blood pressure below 140/90, or lower in some cases should be the target. “C” stands for “cholesterol” – Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in the blood. High cholesterol is another factor that increases

Dr Raj Kumar your risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious problems. LDL cholesterol level below 100 (LDL is one type of cholesterol, often called the “bad cholesterol” or “lousy cholesterol”) should be the target.

It is advisable that you and your doctor can work together to create a plan to keep your ABCs under control. Your plan might include: Ï%Medicines – Take prescribed meds to control your Blood sugar, pressure and cholesterol. Ï%Lifestyle changes – Choices you make every day about the foods you eat and the way you live can have a

big impact on your ABCs and your general health. Below are some things you can do to help keep your ABCs under control or reduce your health risks: - Make healthy food choices – Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Limit the amount of meat and fried or fatty foods that you eat.

- Be active – Walk, garden, or do something active for 30 minutes or more on most days of the week.

- Stop smoking – Smoking increases the chance that you will have a heart attack or stroke, or develop cancer.

- Lose weight – Being overweight increases the risk of many health problems.

- Avoid alcohol – Alcohol can increase blood sugar and blood pressure.

To make a change in your life there is a need for selfdetermination and the endeavour to be healthy.

Please feel free to send an email to kumarsukhraj@yahoo.com or call 6228032 for further enquiry and discussion on the topic. Patient education plays an important in the diagnosis and management of diabetes and any other illness. Please look forward for a continuation of the discussion on health issues in the next publication.

There are noticeable differences in the shape and function of hearts among obese and normal-weight adolescents, researchers say.

“We do not know if (these changes) are clinically meaningful or necessarily dangerous,” said Dr. Norman Mangner of the University of Leipzig Heart Center in Germany. “This is a cross sectional study and, therefore, we cannot answer this question.” Still, some of the heart characteristics of obese adolescents were similar to those of children with leukemia after chemotherapy, he wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

The researchers write in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, which is a journal of the American College of Cardiology, that obesity is tied to changes in the heart in adults. Those changes may occur even earlier among obese children, however.

For the new study, Mangner and his colleagues took blood samples from 101 adolescents between age nine and 16 years, including 61 who were obese. They also took sonograms, known as two-dimensional echocardiograms, of the adolescents’ hearts to watch their beats. The obese youngsters had enlarged

chambers on both sides of their hearts. They also had thicker walls in the left chamber, which pumps oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. The obese adolescents’ hearts also appeared to be working harder by pumping a higher volume of blood with each beat, compared to thinner participants, according to the researchers.

Obese adolescents had higher blood pressure readings than

thinner participants. The blood pressure readings were still within normal limits, however. Obese participants also had more “bad” LDL cholesterol and less “good” HDL cholesterol than the non-obese kids.

“I think this was already pretty well known,” said Dr. Sheldon E. Litwin, a cardiologist and cardiac imaging specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Family dinner-table dynamics linked to childhood obesity Families who express more warmth, group enjoyment and positive reinforcement at family meals have children with reduced risk of obesity, according to a new study.

“Past research has shown that having frequent family meals is protective against youth obesity, but we don’t know why this is the case,” said lead author Jerica M. Berge of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “The current study was designed to answer the ‘why’ question,” Berge told Reuters Health by email. The study involved 120 children, ages six to 12, from families in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area who reported eating dinner as a family at least three times per week.

Family meals were videorecorded on iPads for an eightday period.

They recorded types of foods, meal length, communication and interaction between parents and children and between siblings. Researchers also

used parent and child surveys and interviews. Threequarters of the children were African American and half were overweight or obese.

Kids who were not overweight were more likely than overweight kids to have family meals last longer and to have a father or stepfather present. Overall, dinners lasted about 16 minutes, with an average of 18 minutes for healthy weight kids and 13.5 minutes for overweight kids.

“This finding may mean

that when children have structure and more supervision at the meal they have more protection against overweight or obesity, (meaning) maybe a less chaotic meal environment and more chances to connect,” Berge said.

The kitchen was the most common location for dinners; 80 percent of healthy weight kids ate dinner with their families in a kitchen, compared to 55 percent of overweight kids. More families of overweight kids tended to eat in family rooms, offices or

bedrooms.

Families with more warmth and nurturing, as rated by researchers observing the videos, were less likely to have overweight or obese children.

Hostility, inconsistent discipline and permissive parental attitudes were associated with increased likelihood of childhood obesity.

“This may mean that in households where children are not overweight or obese there are more positive interactions at the family meal,

which provides a sense of security, regularity and predictability which may help children regulate their own daily lives better, including self-regulating their eating behaviors,” Berge said.

Families who communicated more about food were less likely to have overweight or obese children, according to the results published in Pediatrics. These findings only identify associations between meal habits and childhood obesity, and do not prove that mealtime dynamics cause obesity, Berge said, but there are some known healthy strategies parents can employ at the dinner table. “It is important for families to try and promote a positive atmosphere during family meals,” she said. “For example, don’t use the family meal as a time to lecture children about their homework. Instead, take time to connect with each other such as asking each family member to talk about a ‘high’ or ‘low’ from their day to promote connectivity among family members.” Another childhood feeding and

obesity study, published in the same issue of Pediatrics, found that among samegender twin pairs, mothers tend to be more restrictive when feeding the child with the higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight to height. Researchers studied 64 pairs of twins ages four to seven, measuring their BMI, body fat percentage and waist circumference. Mothers reported their feeding styles toward each twin in a questionnaire, which assessed restricting food items, pressuring a child to eat and monitoring the child’s eating.

Observing twins helps to partially rule out the possibility that heavier children are genetically predisposed to have poorer eating self-regulation, or that they were shaped by their environment, since twins have the same genes and environment, said senior author Myles S. Faith from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His results suggest that restrictive feeding may influence weight gain.

Page 46

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Michael Jackson tops Forbes list ‘Friends’ will ‘be there for of highest-earning dead celebrities you’ in Netflix streaming deal Five years after his death, singer Michael Jackson is generating a fortune and is the tope a r n i n g d e a d c e l e b r i t y, raking in an estimated $140 million in the past year for his estate, Forbes said on Wednesday.

He earned more than twice as much as singer Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 and came in second with $55 million, and three times more than cartoonist and Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz, who took third place with $40 million.

“Few celebrities prove the point that there is (financial) life after death better than Michael Jackson,”

according to Forbes. It is Jackson’s second straight year atop the list. He regained the title in 2013, a year after being pushed into second place by actress Elizabeth Taylor.

J a c k s o n ’s second album released after his death, “Xscape” debuted at No. 2 on the pop charts in the past year and the singer also appeared as a hologram at the Billboard Music Awards.

Two Cirque du Soleil shows, “Immortal” and “One,” account for much o f J a c k s o n ’s e a r n i n g s along with his music catalog and publishing empire.

Ta y l o r, w h o d i e d i n

2011, came in at No. 4 with $25 million and reggae singer Bob Marley completed the top five with $20 million in earnings in the year to October 2014.

Marley died of cancer at the age of 36 in 1981.

Singer John Lennon, the former Beatle who was gunned down in New York in 1980, was No. 7 with $12 million. The 13 deceased celebrities included on Forbes list earned a total of $363.5 million.

Forbes compiled the list by talking to estate managers, lawyers and licensors and analyzing estimated posthumous earnings between October 2013-14.

“Friends” may have wrapped up ten years ago, but Ross, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Phoebe and Joey will appear on Netflix beginning in January, Warner Bros. TV and the online Internetstreaming service said on Wednesday. All 236 episodes of the popular NBC 10-season series, one of the mostwatched U.S. shows of all time, will be available for streaming in the United States and Canada on the subscription service beginning Jan. 1, 2015. The show launched the careers of actors Jennifer Aniston,

Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow, and made them household names. Netflix announced the deal with a music video of the show’s hit theme song “I’ll Be There for You” performed by pop duo the Rembrandts at the show’s local coffee hangout, Central Perk. The cafe was installed as a pop-up in New York this month to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the “Friends” premiere.

“Friends,” which aired its final episode on May 6, 2004, has previously only been

available in broadcast and cable television syndication in the United States.

The agreement is the latest step taken by Netflix to attract subscribers in the premium-TV market as its main competitor, Time Warner’s HBO, also announced Wednesday that it would launch its own stand-alone streaming service.

Netflix, like HBO, began as a subscription movie service, but has also branched out into high-production TV series, talk shows and original movies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Rapper Iggy Azalea leads American Music Award nominations Australian rapper Iggy Azalea scored the most American Music Award nominations with six nods, including the coveted artist of the year and favorite single and hip hop album, according to an announcement on Monday. Singers John Legend and Pharrell Williams and pop star Katy Perry were not far behind with five nominations, followed by New Zealand’s Lorde with four. English pop star Charli XCX and singer Jason Derulo announced the nominations in five categories on the ABC early news show “Good Morning America.” Charli XCX will also perform at the three-hour awards ceremony for the first time. The Nov. 23 show will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The American Music Awards nominees and

Australian rapper Iggy Azalea winners are chosen by the public, who vote online and via Twitter. Azalea will vie with Perry, Williams, Lorde, Legend and Beyonce for artist

of the year, a category that has been increased from five to 10 nominees this year.

Country singer Luke Bryan, rapper Eminem, alternative rock group Imagine Dragons and British boy band One Direction also received nods in the category.

The 10 artist of the year nominees will be whittled down to five based on fan votes received through Nov. 13, with the winner selected from the total number of ballots submitted during the voting period.

Azalea’s “Fancy,” featuring Charli XCX, is up for single of the year, a category whose nominees have increased from three to five this year, along with Legend’s “All of Me”; Perry’s “Dark Horse,” featuring Juicy J; Williams’ “Happy”; and “Rude” by the group Magic.

Sunday October 19, 2014

From page 27 announced that preparations for the 2015 Budget have commenced, the political opposition claims to have not been contacted or had any related discussion.

Given some of the well-known “clashes” over the budget in the past, opposition members told this publication Tuesday that it would have been expected that the government would be wise enough to ensure consultations this time around.

“The government seems to be looking for a catastrophe rather than a clash now,” one senior member of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) opined.

In a brief interview, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan expressed that his party has not received correspondence of any sort from the Minister of Finance to participate in discussions on the Budget 2015 preparation process.

APNU’s Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge also confirmed that neither he nor the coalition’s leader, David Granger, was contacted in that regard and as such, he believes that there is no interest on the government’s part for this to occur.

THURSDAY EDITION HEAD FOUND IN PLASTIC BAG…RELATIVES ID REMAINS AS MFK TRADING BOSS Speculation turned into reality Wednesday, when relatives positively identified the human remains found at Cummings Lodge, East Coast of Demerara, a few weeks ago, as that of missing businessman Mohamed F. Khan.

The relatives confirmed their worst fears when a nephew of the businessman was able to identify a belt and a pair of trousers that were found on the skeletal remains.

However, investigators are insisting that they will still need to do DNA tests to ascertain definitively if the corpse is that of Khan. “His former wife and his nephew went to the parlour where the remains are being kept and identified it,” a police source confirmed Wednesday night.

The remains of a man of East Indian descent was discovered on a dam at Cummings Lodge on September 23rd last, a month after Khan disappeared.

The skull, which was wrapped in a plastic bag, was located several feet from the body.

FRIDAY EDITION GOV’T/ SURENDRA ENG. FOR COURT BATTLE OVER BREACH OF CONTRACT

Kaieteur News

- ADMINISTRATION SEEKS US$4.2M AND G$100M IN DAMAGES The Government of Guyana has moved to the courts to have Surendra Engineering face the law with regards to breach of contract for the Specialty Hospital.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, government is seeking damages to the tune of US$4.2M in addition to G$100M. Surendra Engineering, according to court documents, has to make an appearance in the Commercial Court, which Justice Rishi Persaud presides over, on December 3, 2014.

In the statement of claim, Attorney General Nandlall notes that Surendra has failed to complete works as specified in its contract.

There is also the claim by the government that the company was engaged in corrupt or fraudulent practices when it submitted a document saying it had originated from the central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago when that was not the case.

EBOLA THREAT…REGION IMPOSES TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS FOR WESTAFRICA International travel has been disrupted as restrictions have been implemented and enforced by a number of territories in light of the prevailing Ebola outbreak that has been ravaging sections of West Africa.

And Guyana, like a number of C a r i b bean and international territories, has also embraced this restriction in order to ward off the potential entry of the virus.

Speaking of deliberate implementation moves Thursday was Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, as he hosted his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing.

Dr Luncheon told a gathering of media operatives that although the viral epidemic continues to devastate West African territories evident by high cases of fatalities, and has reached other continents, it has however not yet invaded the South American continent, in which Guyana is situated. In its desperate attempt to prevent the Ebola Virus from entering Guyana, moves have been made by Government to institute restrictions against travellers from West Africa.

SATURDAY EDITION RAMOTAR TO ENGAGE

Page 47

Newly-admitted Attorney Shaunella Glen, is flanked by Justice Nareshwar Harnanan, Attorney at law Khemraj Ramjattan, Businessmen Glenn Lall and Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed and her mother Desiree Glen at her admission ceremony OPPOSITION, CIVIL SOCIETY IN EBOLA RESPONSE (FULL TEXT OF STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT DONALD RAMOTAR LAST FRIDAY EVENING) Fellow Guyanese, I am addressing you on a matter of great significance to Guyana and to the world, that is, the Ebola Epidemic.

As you are aware this deadly disease has been having a devastating impact o n c o u n t r i e s o f We s t Africa. I wish on behalf of the government and all Guyanese to extend our profound concern and solidarity with the governments and people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, in particular, in West Africa, who are battling this deadly disease.

The International Community is only now in the process of providing assistance to combat this disease and to stop its spread.

Guyana, in its own small w a y, h a s j o i n e d t h o s e efforts to muster resources to assist these countries in halting its spread.

However, despite this we have seen it crossing continents into Europe and the United States of America.

In the world that we live in today in which globalization has spawned the most massive m o v e m e nt of people in history, no country is guaranteed that it would not be affected. Here in Guyana we also have to take preventative and curative measures to protect our people. If, per chance, this disease reaches our shores we must be prepared to limit its effect to contain and bring it under control as fast as possible. We have already taken steps in that direction.

In the first instance, residents from a number of West African countries are not being issued with visas to come to Guyana during this epidemic. We are also advising our citizens to avoid travelling to those destinations for the time being, but if they must, they must declare if they have visited any of those countries affected by Ebola, or, countries that are at risk in West Africa.

We have stepped up surveillance at ports of entry.

Passengers arriving in Guyana are being more thoroughly screened at these ports. In this regard, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and Ogle Airport Authorities, the Ministries of Works and

Health have been working closely to monitor the arriving passengers.

Modern equipment is being used and more is being acquired to raise the effectiveness of this exercise.

The government has been, and will be acquiring additional medical supplies including more protective gear, gloves etc in order to be better prepared. Retention centres are being identified and established for quarantine and monitoring of suspected cases.

In the event of the discovery of suspected cases, the Public Health responses have been organised.

Suspected arriving passengers will be quarantined at holding centres at Ports of Entry.

Elsewhere, suspected persons, if hospitalised, would be cared for under conditions of strict isolation.

Larger population of suspected cases would be mandatorily quarantined at identified facilities established in the country.

This situation, I am sure you will appreciate, is one that calls for the full cooperation of the whole population of our country. I propose to seek maximum cooperation on this urgent matter.

I shall be formally inviting the Leader of the Opposition and the leaders of all Parliamentary Political Parties and civil society to join forces with the government in a national response to prepare and protect our people from the deadly Ebola disease.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Torginol, Continental Group contribute to anti-domestic violence campaign

Miss Guyana World, Rafieya Hussain (centre) receiving the donation The latest anti-domestic violence campaign being spearheaded by reigning Miss Guyana World, Rafieya Husain recently received a boost through a generous donation made by Torginol Paints Incorporated and Continental Group of Companies.

The paint giant donated twenty five (25) gallons of paint as well as a quantity of putty and thinners for the Domestic Violence Outreach Centre the young queen is working towards establishing at Land of Plenty, on the Essequibo Coast.

The paint was handed over last week at the company’s headquarters at Ruimveldt, Georgetown. At the presentation ceremony, Continental Group of Companies Office Manager, Ravi Brijnandan commended the reigning Miss World Guyana for endeavoring to help victims of Domestic Violence in Guyana.

“It could not have been at a better and opportune time, as domestic and genderbased violence is on the increase in Guyana. We, at Torginol Paints Incorporated are very pleased to be collaborating with you in this venture and will remain committed in partnering with you in this fight,” Brijnandan said.

Husain expressed her appreciation for the company’s commitment to

seeing this project come to fruition.

“Thank you for all the work you’ve put in...This is a great cause and I’m glad that you can be part of it,” she stated.

The reigning queen’s goal is to raise US$10, 000 to open the outreach center that will serve to educate, correct behaviors and ultimately prevent domestic violence.

The center is part of her Shatter the Silence campaign.

The 22-year-old is in fact using her crown to inform youths and raise awareness of the early signs of interrelational violence, particularly within the youth population.

During a press conference last week, Husain had said that her mission is to promote advocacy and support domestic violence victims.

“The center will tirelessly advocate for all affected by domestic violence as it relates to ending and preventing it.”

The ambitious 22-year-

old also founded a non-profit organization in Georgetown named, ‘Rivah’. According to her, “It gives a strong voice that will echo as a leader in bringing awareness to the early signs of domestic violence, educating young people on early warning signs and eradicating such behaviors by introducing corrective measures to prevent teen related violence which in turn will minimize domestic violence altogether.”

Husain had said too that she will be visiting schools in Guyana to, “launch an awareness campaign, connecting with our youths and having them commit to values of old. I am excited and happy to launch “I-COMMIT TO” bracelets.”

These bracelets will be awarded for acts of valor to students and young people in Guyana who share their success stories with her. She believes it will encourage others to do the same.

Page 61

HUG releases special Diwali magazine This weekend Hindus Unite for Guyana (HUG) released its second issue of Noble Journey, its Hindu Magazine. The first issue was released in May 2014.

This issue is a Diwali special. In it, the reader finds useful facts and information about Diwali, its history and its significance.

This religious magazine is very colorful and filled with revolutionary information about Hinduism, presenting a new view of this ancient religion. Of the very interesting and new paradigms presented by this magazine are the rich colors and images. The front and back covers, for example, provides one smooth image flow of a Diwali message that can be seen beautifully presented when the covers are opened.

Another very special and unique fact about the magazine is the centre spread, in this issue, the symbolism of Mother Lakshmi. Stories, shlokas, scriptural quotes and practical instructions are presented in this magazine all put together in a powerful presentation for the Hindu person who can be proud of their religion. The magazine is produced by Hindus Unite for Guyana (HUG) and printed by Inspire Inc. It is for free distribution.

Page 62

FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754.

Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943 One 14" Dredge/Draga in working condition – Contact: 694-4828, 663-0742 Just Arrived! A new shipment of combine parts, Italian made - Call: 660-0342, 222-3538, 335-3100,3353434, 335-4122 One Massey Ferguson Tractor, plough & cage wheel – Call: 269-1106, 6679049 Pressure Washer & Vacuum (9Gal) Wash, price negotiable – Tel:667-4389, 680-7772 One Canter tray, length: 11ft, Width: 5ft 7", Complete Steel Tray, Price $250,000. Contact F. Ahamad, Tel:256-3156, 6709063 Two 8ft American pools table – Tel:639-2821, 693-1432 1000 Lb Nylon Seine + One 15hp Yamaha and flat bottom boat – Call: 691-3633, 223-4552 Transformer -25KVA Industrial Single Phase 480/ 240/120V USA- Tel:623-9761 Generator: 65 KVA Perkins 4236 Engine – Tel: 623-9761 Two female & 1 male short fluffy dogs- Contact: 6996006 Games for PS2, PS3, XBOX360, WII, consoles also available – Call: 6722566, 265-3232 One stall for sale at The Vendors Mall, StabroekContact:611-8291 Massey Ferguson 390 4X4fully renovated – Call: 6886274, 691-3851, 678-8698 Perkins engines 1000, 1100, 4236 & 6 cylinder complete on bed, 320 BL excavator$14M- Contact:691-2921 Lincoln generator welder$850,000, pallet jacks, fork lift, model M truck- Contact: 691-2921 18" speakers in box, mixers, amplifiers, 15" speakers in box- Contact: 622-4700/ 2236490 Massey, Yanmar Ford 5000 Logging/ Agriculture Tractors, parts, Loader & Ford Truck- Call:615-1578/ 694-3595: Tools & Chainsaw-668-2831

Kaieteur News

FOR SALE 1 Model M Bush Truck with winch & dump, 1 Honda ATV 4-wheel bike – used only for prospecting, 250 hours.

Excellent condition. Contact: 672-4536.

Food warmer 8 trays- Tel: 6616795 Shimano 7/8 speed rear derailleur $10,000, Shimano hyper- glide 8 speed cassette (11-32 teeth)- $12,000, original XBOX games$2,000- Contact: 642-9901 Brand new 6500 WATT power fist gasoline generator on wheels- 110-220 voltPrice:$150,000- Contact: 6172205/ 681-1032 Pools table, original, cloth, cue stick, balls, pocket, coinshute, coin, rubber, spring, chalk – Call: 669-9927, 616-1886 Commercial buildings/ houses- Contact: 223-8479/ 647-3768, www.spaceseek.gy Chicken Hatchery (Robbins), 28,000 eggs capacity fully ready, all racks, trays, complete, $2.9M neg. Tel: 639-2000, 227-3939, 621-4000.

Two super scoop bass box with 2 RCF P300 18 inch speakers – Call: 623-9679

CAR RENTAL DOLLY’S CAR RENTAL CALL: 225-7126/ 2263693 DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM/ WWW.DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL.COM Aidan’s Car & Pickup rental, cheap rate, low security – Tel: 698-7807/ 690-6494 PROGRESSIVE AUTO RENTAL: CARS & SUV FOR RENTAL-$4,000&UPPERDAYCALL: 643-5122, 219-3900, EMAIL: PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM Top Quality cars for rental, latest series and models, best prices - Call: 692-1051, 6855011

CATERING Roxy’s Catering: We offer a 10% discount, Holiday Special – Call: 223-0092 or 223-0095, one snackette attendant needed!

VEHICLE FOR SALE One Toyota Ax10 - $2.1M Negotiable, One Toyota Spacio $1.8M Negotiable Tel: 678-0109 or 618-2576 1- L Touring Wagon car, Toyota Corolla – Call: 6632882 Toyota RAV4, Fun Cargo, Raum, AT212, AT192, AT170, EP71 Starlet, Tacoma, Vigo, Nissan Titan – Call: 644-5096, 697-1453 Special Sale: New Model Spacio with front & back camera, TV/DVD/CD, body kit, unregistered -$2.1M – Call: 617-2891 Toyota Premio $2.3M, Toyota Voxy - $1.8M, Vehicles fully loaded, never registered – Call: 617-2891 One Unregistered Noah Call:652-0709; 276-0556 One pit bull 19 Seater BNN, Excellent Condition- Call: 652-0709, 276-0556 Jailing Scooter 125 CC, silver, like new, 6,000kms, priced to sell- Contact: -616-0427/ 6893612 Toyota Forerunner, 4X4, automatic, power steering, A/ C, bargain price negotiableContact: 616-0427/ 689-3612 Honda CRV, fully loaded, very nice condition, must be seen, give away at $1.3Million- Contact: 6160427/ 689-3612 1 Hiace super custom bus BSS Series, with AC, TV, CD, Sunroof, mags, never worked on the road – Tel: 677-8359 One new model Raum PRR – Tel:277-0672, 696-7341 One Toyota Spacio $1.8, one AE 100 Corolla Wagon $750,000- Tel:611-6632/ 6643488 Mitsubishi Hyab canter GPP series- Tel:622-3468 2008 Toyota Rush for saleCall: 642-6079 2010 F150 4WD, excellent condition- $7M- Call: 663-9251 First Class Auto: In stock Premio, Spacio, 212, Sienta, Rush, Fielder, Bluebird- Tel: 609-8188/ 602-6307 1-Dodge Ram 4x4, model 2002, 4 wheel drive $2.6M. 1-F150 model 1999 $2.2MCall: 674-4929 L-Touring wagon, excellent conditions, 15" rims, TV, CD, alarm, $1,200,000 NegotiableContact: 667-9013/ 231-3709 Venus Auto Sales, Raum Body kit- $2.2M, Noah$3.2M/$1.8M, Allion body kit- $2.350M, Spacio$2.350M (rims)- Contact: 624-5617 1 Toyota Rav 4 old model, manual & 1 Toyota 170 Corona both good condition, AC, owner leaving countryContact: 610-0662/ 677-9762

VEHICLE FOR SALE One Mitsubishi canter, GSS 4470- Contact: 684-5928 We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30 seater buses; Extra Cab pickups; 2006 TacomaCall:680-3154 AT192, 212, Allison, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms- Call:680-3154 Toyota Hilux, 4X4 single cab, diesel turbo, pick-up registration GRR, no reasonable offer refusedContact: 616-0427/689-3612 Nissan- 200SX sport car, turbo, like new, price to sellContact: 616-0427/ 689-3612 Toyota Premio and Spacio with TV, CD, AC, (front and rear camera) $2.4M and $2.2M – Tel: 681-7117 Black Levin 1498cc –AE110, automatic, PJJ Series, lady driven, price negotiable – Tel:218-1289; 644-4244 Reduced: Hummer H2 SUT Model 2006, $17M neg. SUT model 2006, transferable, upgraded 22" rims PNN series 639-2000, 621-4000 Reduced: $1.5M Cash Mitsubishi 3000GT sports car, 18" rims, excellent condition Tel: 662-0844, 639-2000 1 Suzuki 4 door car/van (Jeep) Automatic, Fully Powered with A/C, hardly used – Price:$1M Contact Rocky: 621-5902/ 225-1400 1- AT 192 Carina (Private) automatic, fully powered, mags, A/C - price$1M Contact Rocky:225-1400 1 - Toyota RZ mini-bus BNN series, gear, mags, hardly used, (EFI) - Price:$1.8M Contact Rocky:621-5902 or 225-1400 1 Isuzu Canter (open back) short base manual, excellent condition, price - $1.3M Contact Rocky 621-5902/2251400 Toyota Tundra Extra Cab (unregistered) manual (5 speed) fully loaded 4x4 (V6) price $2.9M – Contact:6215902/225-1400

Sunday October 19, 2014

VEHICLE FOR SALE One Toyota Dyna Canter ( long base), manual, hardly used – Price: $1.7M- Contact Rocky: 621-5902 or 225-1400

1- Toyota Raum, automatic, fully powered, AC, mags, alarm, price $1.1M- Contact Rocky: 621-5902 or 225-1400

Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad Call: 647-1773

CG 125 Honda - $260,000 – Call: 699-7870, 665-2475 1 EFI RZ Minibus, good working condition - $700,000 negotiable – Call: 680-3370 Toyota Noah new model, excellent condition - $1.6M – Tel: 612-2258 Toyota Ipsum, excellent condition, sunroof, etc – Call:612-2258

SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.–CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620 Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call Sabita: 225-6496, 662-6045 Guyana Passport & Visa Forms Application, USA, Canada and England. Tel: 626-7040; 265-4535.

Repairs & spare, fridge, freezer, A/C, washers, stoves. Contact Nick: 683-1312, 627-3206 Repairs, sales & spares air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & stoves.

Ultra Cool, call :225-9032, 647-2943 FOR LOW COST: REPAIRS TO FRIDGE, FREEZER,A/C UNIT, MICROWAVES, TV & WASHING MACHINE CALL: 629-4946 OR 2254822 Hibiscus Jewellery & Pawn Shop, 15-16 American Street, Best price offer, open from 9:00-4:00 – Tel: 225-7252 BrianMoe@642-3543; Computer Technician; FB:Brian.Moe.165; Home and office visits at your comfort!!

1-AT212 Toyota Carina (new model) automatic, fully powered, A/C, Alarm, mags, Price $1.4M– Contact Rocky: 621-5902 / 225-1400 1-Honda CRV (immaculate condition) automatic, fully powered (hardly used) price $2.3M – Contact Rocky: 6215902 or 225-1400

SALON

LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel: 644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997 PEN PAL East Indian male, 47 seeks female friends- Call: 649-4914

FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 GT TOOL RENTALS: COMPACTOR; CHIPPING HAMMER RANSOM & FLOOR SANDER, (SALE) AND MORE, SAWS & DRILLS -$10,000 - CALL: 675-0767, 667-2535 15X15 Space, to rent , located on Public Road – Call: 6130448/672-8625 Furnished apartment to rent, perfect for students, single or working couple @ Industry E.C.D – Tel: 222-6001; 6192388; 684-7853 Two bedroom apartment, to rent at Lot 72 West Ruimveldt - $40,000 per month – Tel:6927377, 672-7194 Bond located on Broad Street 9000 Sq – Contact: 223-8479, 647-3768 Building on Lombard Street, Three floors high, Contact: 223-8479, 647-3768 One two bedroom apartment at La Parfaite Harmonie West Bank DemeraraContact: 682-4076/ 645-0489 Four bedroom luxury house, located at Bel Air ParkContact: 223-8479/ 647-3768, www.spaceseek.gy Houses and apartmentsContact: 223-8479/ 647-3768, www.spaceseek.gy One three bedrooms furnished apartments (top flat) Diamond/Grove E.C.D, $90,000 per month – Tel:6975933, 651-6263 Office space at 43 Croal Street Stabroek Georgetown, currently available for immediate occupants – Call: 225-3269 Prime commercial property, Cummings & Middle, Albertown , 3 Lots (business), (Nut Centre),$3,000 /$4,500 neg . Agents Welcome. Tel 6214000, 639-2000 FOR SALE/FOR RENT One American Slate Pool table – Call:679-8534 Located @ Lot 5 Block ‘K’ Walkers’s Delight W.C.D – 4 bedrooms all self contain.

Price $25M/ per month $100,000 – Tel:674-4929/ 662-0187 (Continued page 63)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 63

Taxi driver’s mutilated body found in Tuschen The dead taxi driver’s house.

WANTED

(From page 62)

Urgently Wanted! Thirty Five (35) security officers, apply @ Security Alliance, Barrack Street, Kingston (upstairs FedEx).

Cashiers, salesgirl, porters and a domestic maid, Apply to 1E Dennis & Middleton Streets Campbellville Live in maid to work in town Call: 669-6030 One cook to cook in kitchen in the interior – Call:681-6044 Over edge and straight stitch operator to work at Garment Factory Call:222-2541 (Monday – Friday) Welder, mechanic, Accounts Clerk, Trainee Machinist, Day Security, apply in person: Technical Service, Lot 18-23 Industrial Estate E.B.D One nail technician (air brush an asset) @ Nalini Beauty Salon, Vreed En Hoop Junction – Call:604-2900, 6581200, 625-3899

Hassan’s car

We buy land in Parfaite Harmonie, Schoon’Ord, Eccles, Providence, Herstelling and Phoenix Park– Tel: 675-7292

Police are hunting for the killers of a 48-year-old taxi driver, whose body was found at around 23:30 hrs on Friday on Sheriff Street, Tuschen Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo.

Abdool Hassan, a father of eight of Lot 2509, Tuschen Housing Scheme, was found lying in the street with several stab wounds to his neck. He was still clutching his car keys, and his vehicle, bearing registration number PGG 2410, was found in a nearby street.

Kaieteur News understands that Hassan had driven from the Tuschen Public Road at around 23:00 hrs on Friday, with a car load of passengers, to transport them into the community.

Investigators believe that someone lured him to the deserted Sheriff Street, where he was then robbed and slain.

Hassan’s cellular phone and the money he would have made that night were missing.

“From the position his body was found in, we believe that he managed to get out of the car with his keys to seek help, but collapsed a short distance away,” a source told Kaieteur News.

The dead man’s daughter, Bibi Hassan, said that she was in bed when a man called out for her and said that something had happened to her father.

She immediately travelled

Live in couple, wife: domestic duties, husband driving , Arc/ Acetylene welder, good accommodation and ratesTel:227-1830

DEAD: Abdool Hassan to the location where the shocking discovery was made.

“When I reach I see him lying on the road with his car keys in his hand and his eyes were open… I called for him but I got no response,” a tearful Bibi Hassan related.

She also observed what

appeared to be several puncture wounds in his neck.

It was later reported that the father of eight was stabbed some 14 times.

“They juk he up… the police said that they use a fine object to bore he.”

A devastated Ms. Hassan said that her father was a very peaceful person who never had problems with anyone.

She added that the 48year-old man had been operating his taxi for a number of years and had never been attacked or robbed.

Meanwhile, the taxi driver’s reputed wife of six years, Mala Mohabir, said that her husband left home at around 18:00 hrs on Friday.

The woman said that she was later informed of his death.

No one has been arrested as yet.

However, police are checking the dead man’s car for finger prints and other clues.

1 diesel vehicle to buy $200,000 call:662-8884 Farm worker, carpenter and mason- Call: 265-3586 Experienced log truck driver, log scaler- Call: 683-2575 1 Cleaner to work in snackette & bar , must know to cook, age 20-35yrs – Tel:647-7432, 223-579 Live in waitress 18-25 yrs, salary $50,000-$60,000 monthly, boarding and lodging free- Tel: 610-5043

PROPERTY FOR SALE VACANCY LORRY DRIVER, Clean Driving Record, Residing on East Bank Demerara. Tel 266 4427 Earn $5,000-$20,000 – Daily, working from home (free training) jobfairworld wide.com or Tel: 233-6517/ 622-1957 Immediate opening for salesman/ driver and porter to work on the Essequibo Coast- Tel: 654-8111 Bond clerk, Grader operator and Accountant, interested persons can contact us on Tel: 603-4094 One night security, apply in writing with a valid police clearance to GCC Ground, Bourda.

Pharmacy assistants and part time pharmacist to work at Pharma Choice Pharmacy on Durban Street – Call: 6758790, 661-3124 Day guard: apply @ Technical Service Inc, 18-23 Eccles industrial Site.

One Accounts Clerk – Call: 614-4358 International Cruiseline Purser officer, waitresses, waiters, cooks, receptionist, storekeeper, cleaners, electrician, carpenter, plumber, musicians etc – Tel: 231-6296, 650-9880 Experienced salesman/ driver needed, basic salary + commission- Contact Vegetarian Gardens: 2277714

MASSAGE Happy Touch Day Spa: Come & Experienced heavens touch, visit us today! – 6684554

LAND FOR SALE One land Located at Cornelia Ida W.C.D, Phone, water & light – Contact: 6520709; 276-0556 Parfaite Harmonie, Phoenix Park $4M, $1.3M (Dairy), Eccles - $4.5M, Providence $4M, Herstelling -$4M, Schoon’Ord - $3.5M – Tel:675-7292

Albouystown: Corner Spot Business and residence, 3 bedrooms upstairs, parking - $10M negotiable – Contact:227-0583 House & Land for sale by owner at Cemetery Road Helena No1 Mahaica E.C.D, For details call: 689-0820, 674-3902 Eccles: Two Flat Executive Concrete House; Three bedrooms upper, Two bedrooms Lower (separate flats) – Price: Negotiable – Tel: 602-2135 Prime commercial property, Cummings & Middle Albertown, 3 Lots (business), (Nut Centre) ,$140M neg.

Agents Welcome. Tel 6214000, 639-2000, 2273939 Two story business building at the corner of Ketley and House Street, Charlestown – Tel: 623-9679

TO LET 1-1 Bedroom apartment at Uitvlugt Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara – Tel: 680-4990

Labourer / handyman for three half day per week- Call: 226-3736 One person to work on chicken farm- Contact: 6276416 Experienced dispatcher and hire car drivers at Gem’s TaxiContact: 667-9013/ 225-5075

1 - 2storey wooden & Concrete house with 5 bedrooms upper flat & lower flat 4 apartments located@ Shell Road, kitty - $30M - Tel: 642-7898 2 Storey building , 8 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, hot & cold water - $19M, Lot 11 Coghlan Dam, W.C.D, Just off main Road- Tel:264-1582, 679-7587

TO LET Top flat one bedroom apartment - $40,000 – Tel: 672-3699 FOR HIRE Trucks for interior locationsCall: 662-8884

One fully furnished 2 bedrooms apartment: TV, Air Conditioned, hot & cold, cable (South), 1 Bedroom apartment @ Bent St. Call: 689-5877 One two bedroom apartment – Call: 617-3001 One two bedroom apartment for rent in Diamond New Scheme – Price$40,000, preferable no children – Call: 216-2339, 604-2431 Alberttown (new)- $80,000, Bel-Air- US650, Camp StreetUS1300- Contact Diana: 2272256, 626-9382 One 2 bedrooms apartment with toilet & bath, only decent married couple, price $40,000 monthly @ 91 Middle Road, La Penitence – Call: 621-5902

Page 64

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Grandfather wants justice for... Lone gunman caught after robbing domestic worker

(From page 12) that he is HIV positive and had infected the child’s mother. However, HIV tests conducted on the pregnant child returned a negative result. A source close to the child’s family told Kaieteur News that her mother is defending her reputed husband, claiming that her daughter is mentally challenged.

The latest incident came to light days after a 15-yearold Amerindian girl gave birth to a full term baby at the Lethem Hospital. The man who was responsible for impregnating her was released by police two Fridays ago on $50,000 bail after spending three days in custody.

In January this year, an Amerindian Chief from Region One was remanded to prison after he was charged with two counts of rape committed on his daughter who is just 10-years-old.

The man was arrested

after medical officials in Region One realised that the 10-year-old was four months pregnant. She had gone to a community health centre complaining of feeling ill.

Because of the child’s age, medical officials had to abort that pregnancy.

Also, earlier this year police in the North West District were hunting a man who impregnated an 11 year old girl, who had been living with him with the knowledge of her parents. While the incidents are cause for concern, it is not too surprising, given the rate of teenage pregnancies in Guyana.

“The State of World Population 2013,” produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), lists Guyana among the six countries of the Caribbean with the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy.

The UN report called on Governments to help girls achieve their full potential

The King's School - providing...

From page 15 have the children exposed by taking them on tours to various locations in the country and the Caribbean. “ We find that most of our students better understand what is being taught to them in practice rather than theory so what we do is visit places like, Parika, Mahaicony, Kaieteur Falls and even Suriname because it is a threefold experience for them. They learn, have fun as well as get the exposure they need.”

She says that the school has partnered with a number of persons and agencies, who have assisted in financing the special projects.

“We taken the children on tour at a number of places in the past and we want to continue to assist the children, and influence and affect their lives in a direct way and with the help of our partners locally and overseas we hope to do so for years to come.”

The principal reiterated that the School does not discriminate and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programmes, and activities generally accorded to students.

through education and adequate health services.

“Too often, society blames only the girl for getting pregnant,” said UNFPA executive director Babatunde Osotimehin.

“The reality is that adolescent pregnancy is most often not the result of a deliberate choice but rather the absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control,” he added. “It is a consequence of little or no access to school, employment, quality information and health care.”

It also points out that a country’s economy is also affected by teenage pregnancies as adolescent mothers are prevented from entering the workforce.

The report noted that out of the 7.3 million births, two million are to girls who are 14 years old or younger, many of whom suffer “grave long-term health and social consequences from pregnancy.”

The report says that an estimated 70,000 adolescents in developing countries die each year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. The report seeks to offer a new perspective on teenage pregnancy, looking not only at girls’ behaviour as a cause of early pregnancy but also at the actions of their families, communities and Governments.

Local authorities have indicated that incidents of teenage pregnancy in Guyana are most prevalent in the interior region, especially in the Rupununi.

The situation has led to calls from residents of Lethem for the establishment of a child protection office with more than one officer in that community.

GUNMAN: Horice Weekes

Swift action by ranks on mobile patrol led to the arrest of a lone gunman around 13:00 hrs yesterday, minutes after he had robbed a domestic worker on the Good Hope Public Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

The gunman has been identified as 24year-old Horice Weekes of Sparendam, ECD. He is in police custody assisting with the

- Revolver, 12 matching rounds found investigation.

Kaieteur News understands that 54-yearold Bibi Deonarine had just disembarked a mini bus when the bandit approached her on a bicycle and placed a gun to her neck and relived her of the little money she had in her possession, in full view of bewildered residents.

He had not gotten far when a mobile police patrol happened to be travelling through the area.

This newspaper was told that an angry onlooker alerted the ranks and gave a description of the gunman.

The ranks were pointed in the direction in which the bandit fled.

The ranks gave chase and managed to corner him in a yard at Plaisance, ECD. The domestic worker’s bag was recovered and a revolver with 12 matching rounds was found in Weekes’ possession.

The bandit reportedly told police that he had purchased the weapon from a man in the interior. Investigations are ongoing.

The revolver recovered by police along with the matching rounds and the domestic worker’s handbag.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 65

Page 66

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Hawaii island hit by winds, rains from hurricane KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Hurricane Ana was on course Saturday to miss Hawaii by more than a hundred miles but was generating high waves, strong winds and heavy rains that prompted flash-flood warnings throughout the islands.

The center of the powerful Pacific storm was about 215 miles southwest of the Big Island and about 150 miles southwest of Honolulu, the National Weather Service said.

A tropical storm watch remained in effect for much of the rest of the archipelago.

The heavy rains on the Big Island prompted officials to close Mamalahoa Highway, the only road connecting some communities to the eastern side of the island, a region known for its coffee farms.

Police set up roadblocks between Naalehu and Pahala and a bus was stuck on one side of the flooded thoroughfare.

The heaviest rains were falling along the southeast slopes of Mauna Loa, in the Puna district — which was hit hard recently by Tropical Storm Iselle — and the Kau district on the southeast side of the island.

“It’s still raining, and raining quite hard in some places,” said Bob Burke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Exact rainfall totals weren’t available but about 6 to 8 inches of rain was expected, with some isolated areas possibly getting up to a foot.

The heavy rains were headed to Oahu, where the island’s North Shore and Koolau Mountains were already getting hit with precipitation, Burke said.

Waves were expected to crest to 10 to 15 feet on the south shores of the islands and remain high through Sunday.

“Any of the islands could experience tropical storm impacts ... so it’s important to still prepare and make plans,” said Chris Brenchley, a weather service meteorologist.

Ana became a Category 1 hurricane Friday when it was about 230 miles south of Hilo.

Large swells pounded the Big Island’s south shores Friday afternoon, with 15-foot waves seen in Pohoiki Bay. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph Saturday morning and was churning along its course at 13 mph.

The hurricane was expected to gradually weaken and again become a tropical storm by Sunday afternoon, Burke said.

The approaching storm didn’t stop some tourists from spending time around the beach on Friday.

“We cannot see any threat here,” said Sergei Bygchkov of Vancouver, Canada. “It’s just a little bit rainy and that’s it and a little bit windy.”

Kim and Adam Stocker from New Hampshire were exploring the Big Island’s West side Friday and weren’t going to let a storm interfere with their first vacation to Hawaii. “It’s like ‘I don’t care, I’m going.

Hurricane or not,’” said Adam Stocker, 49. “I got the time off. It’s already paid for.”

Gov. Neil Abercrombie proclaimed an emergency to help the state respond to the storm.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 67

Anxious wait for Nigeria girls Mission Unaccomplished: after Boko Haram ‘deal’ Containing Ebola in Africa

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is seen in a video obtained by AFP on October 2, 2014. (AFP Photo/) Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) More than 24 hours after Nigerian officials claimed to have reached a deal with Boko Haram militants to free more than 200 schoolgirls, relatives of the teenagers were Senior government and military officials on Friday said they had struck a ceasefire agreement with the Islamists ravaging the country’s north.

The deal reportedly included the release of the 219 girls whom the extremists seized from their school in April in a case that drew global outrage and sparked a #BringBackOurGirls campaign that included the likes of US First Lady Michelle Obama and Pakistani Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai.

But there was still no confirmation from Boko Haram’s leader and some senior Nigerian officials have questioned the claim.

Reports on Saturday of attacks by gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamists in Abadam, a town near the border with Niger, further threw the purported truce into doubt.

The claims could not be independently verified.

A precedent of previous government and military claims about an end to the deadly five-year conflict and the fate of the missing teenagers have also left the relatives cautious.

“We hope it is not deceptioný because we have some doubt,” Enoch Mark told AFP from Chibok — the town where the girls, including his daughter and two nieces, were kidnapped.

“This is what we have been itching to hear for the past six months,” said Ayuba

Chibok, whose niece is among those seized. “My prayer is that the two sides will honour the agreement.”

Friday’s announcement was made by Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Alex Badehand and Hassan Tukur, a senior aide to President Goodluck Jonathan.

But the Nigerian government’s own security spokesman, Mike Omeri, said that no deal had yet been reached on releasing the girls.

And Ralph Bello-Fadile an advisor to Nigeria’s National Security Advisor (NSA), cautioned that the NSA has been inundated with fraudsters claiming to represent Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.

The United States said it could not confirm whether a deal had taken place.

Jonathan is expected to declare his bid for re-election in the coming weeks, and positive news about the hostages and the violence would likely give him a political boost.

Jonathan’s aide Tukur said he represented the government at two meetings with the Islamists in Chad, which were mediated by the country’s President Idriss Deby.

“Boko Haram issued the ceasefire as a result of the discussions we have been having with them,” said Tukur. “They have agreed to release the Chibok girls,” he said.

Leaders of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which has been pressuring the government to act, gave a cautious welcome to a possible release.

“We are really cautious because there have been many times that such

optimism has been expressed but did not materialise,” Obi Ezekwesili, a former education minister said in a television interview on Saturday.

“But all the same, we are hopeful,” she said.

Ndjamena refused to comment but security sources in the country said Chad, which Jonathan visited for talks with Deby early last month, had been involved in the discussions.

The source also said a ceasefire agreement was reached as well as the release of 27 hostages, 10 of them Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped in northern Cameroon earlier this year.

The release of the hostages last weekend was “a first strong signal” from Boko Haram to prove their good faith, the source added but did not mention the schoolgirls.

Cameroon announced on Friday that eight of its soldiers and 107 Boko Haram fighters were killed during fierce fighting in its far north region on Wednesday and Thursday.

A police officer told AFP that at least 30 civilians had been killed by Boko Haram before the military ambush.

Doubts about a possible deal were also raised over the man whom the government claimed to have represented Boko Haram at the Chad talks, Danladi Ahmadu.

In an interview Ahmadu gave on Friday on the Hausa language service of Voice of America radio, he claimed not to have met Shekau; referred to the group by a name insurgents never use themselves; and did not mention their unwavering demand, the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.

(AP) Looking back, the mistakes are easy to see: Waiting too long, spending too little, relying on the wrong people, thinking small when they needed to think big.

Many people, governments and agencies share the blame for failing to contain Ebola when it emerged in West Africa.

Now they share the herculean task of trying to end an epidemic that has sickened more than 9,000, killed more than 4,500, seeded cases in Europe and the United States, and is not even close to being controlled.

Many of the missteps are detailed in a draft of an internal World Health Organization report obtained

by The Associated Press. It shows there was not one pivotal blunder that gave Ebola the upper hand, but a series of them that mounted.

Nearly every agency and government stumbled. Heavy criticism falls on the World Health Organization, where there was “a failure to see that conditions for explosive spread were present right at the start.”

WHO — the United Nations’ health agency — had some incompetent staff, let bureaucratic bungles delay people and money to fight the virus, and was hampered by budget cuts and the need to battle other diseases flaring around the world, the report says.

In a statement, WHO said the draft document has not been checked for accuracy and that the agency would not comment until it was finished. WHO’s chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, did not respond to AP requests for comment, but told Bloomberg news service that she “was not fully informed” as the disaster evolved. “We responded, but our response may not have matched the scale of the outbreak and the complexity of the outbreak,” she said.

Outside experts say the point now is not to grab necks or find fault, but to learn from mistakes.

“By the time we recognized this was serious, the genie was already out of the bottle,” said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota public health expert. “Nobody is to blame because everybody is to blame.”

Ebola had caused two dozen smaller outbreaks elsewhere in Africa before it appeared in the western part of the continent earlier this year, “so people were caught off guard” by its rapid spread, said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. “We thought we would do what we usually do and that this would come under control, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.”

EARLY BLUNDERS The first mistake came Jan. 11 at a hospital in Gueckedou, Guinea, where the grandmother of the first two children known to have died in this outbreak sought care.

It was a rare opportunity — most people just seek help from traditional healers. But instead of detecting and stopping the disease, the hospital compounded the problem: Two new chains of transmission began, among patients and health workers, and in another village.

On Jan. 27, local health officials and Doctors Without Borders missed a chance to diagnose Ebola after seeing bacteria in blood samples — they concluded cholera might be the culprit. Ebola wasn’t confirmed until March 21. By the end of the month, it had spread to Liberia.

In April, Doctors Without Borders warned that the outbreak was out of control, but a WHO spokesman insisted it wasn’t. In May, the funeral of a traditional healer in Sierra Leone spread the virus to hundreds of people.

“It was a turning point. It refueled the epidemic in Guinea and it was the start of major epidemics in Liberia and Sierra Leone,” said Dr. Peter Piot, co-discoverer of the Ebola virus and director of

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Little went smoothly.

WHO’s Guinea office was accused of not helping a team of experts get visas to that country. Some $500,000 in aid was held up by red tape.

In early July, Piot “called for a state of emergency to be declared and for military operations to be deployed,” he said. It didn’t happen.

HOW COUNTRIES FELL SHORT In Guinea, the ministry of health at first would give WHO information only on lab-confirmed Ebola cases, hampering the investigation.

Messages to the public about the lethal nature of the disease discouraged people from seeking treatment. When masked teams arrived to disinfect hot zones, people thought they were spraying toxic chemicals and attacked them.

Early international aid was mishandled. Guinean President Alpha Conde set up a panel with the ministers of health, communications and social affairs to fight the disease, but the minister of health couldn’t formulate an effective strategy and little money was dispersed.

Finally, a new committee of independent experts was appointed and funds began to flow.

In Liberia, early government messages stressed that Ebola had no cure, so sick people saw little reason to go to a hospital, and the disease spread even more. In August, the government quarantined a Monrovia slum, sparking clashes with security forces that killed a teen. Ultimately, health officials realized they couldn’t track or limit Ebola spreading in the slum. Many bodies were dumped into nearby rivers.

In Sierra Leone, the government sent politicians to warn people about Ebola rather than relying more on charitable groups and medical professionals, said Joseph Smith, a community activist in the capital city of Freetown.

Page 68

Kaieteur News

Trinidad set up ebola centre Trinidad Express - Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan has said the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, has been added to the proposals to prepare for the imminent threat of Ebola.

He also said the authorities will be “beefing up” the number of port health workers at the Piarco International Airport and the ANR Robinson Airport in Scarborough.

He also said contrary to prevailing information passengers disembarking from an aircraft interact initially with port health workers before heading to immigration officers.

To date, Khan said, a ban has been instituted on travellers coming to T&T from African countries which have been stricken with Ebola.

Among them are Sierra Leone, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Nigeria. People who visited those countries within

Dr. Fuad Khan the past weeks will not be allowed entry. Ebola is a deadly virus disease originating in parts of West Africa. It is classified as a haemorrhagic fever and may be transmitted through bodily secretions and fluids.

Asked if people had entered T&T from any of the

banned countries yesterday, Khan said, “No, I have not been apprised.”

Asked about quarantine plans, Khan said: “In Caura and there are certain wards at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.

We are making these available should we have to quarantine someone. We are putting in beds and boards.”

Dr Khan said it was unfortunate the “Ebola imagery” that was being created in people’s minds was creating panic and anxiety.

He quickly reiterated: “Ebola is a dangerous and deadly disease.”

He added: “You are not going to get a shipload and a planeload of people with Ebola. That is not the correct imagery. They have one or two people. Not a whole planeload. People have to stop that image. It will be a small number of people. But Ebola is a dangerous and deadly disease.”

Sunday October 19, 2014

Minister of Health announces trip to Cuba as part of Ebola response Jamaica Gleaner Minister of Health, Dr Fenton Ferguson will be leading a delegation to Cuba to seek support in light of the threat of Ebola. Ferguson made the announcement on Friday, October 17, at the official reopening of the Llandewey Health Centre in St Thomas.

“I have met with the Cuban ambassador and a broad delegation including the private sector will be visiting Cuba to seek support from the Government. As we are aware, Cuba sent a mission to West Africa in the response to the Ebola outbreak in that region and we would like some support from their medical doctors to help with our national response.” Ferguson stated.

Minster Ferguson called for unity in the coordinated response to Eloba. “While we are going through the

Dr. Fenton Ferguson chikungunya outbreak, we know that the mortality rate for this disease is less than 1 per cent but Ebola is no joke.

The Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal illness with a death rate of up to 90 per cent. The prime minister has elevated the country’s response to a National Health Response.

We are calling on every citizens of this country to unite around this response,” he stated.

The reopening of the Llandewey Health Centre forms part of the ministry’s strategy to build and restore more health facilities to allow citizens to access care easily.

More than one hundred health centres have been repaired as a demonstration of the ministry’s commitment to develop the primary health care infrastructure across the island.

Renovation of the Llandewey Health Centre was at a cost of approximately $11 million and included repairs to the ceiling and roof, grill installation, painting, erection of fencing, as well as an expansion to facilitate additional storage for the pharmacy and lunchroom for the staff.

US disappointed at Belize decision Castro: Cuba would cooperate with US against Ebola regarding possible Ebola victim

BELMOPAN, Belize CMC — The United States says it is disappointed that Belize had refused a couple, including a woman suspected of having the Ebola virus, from disembarking from a cruise ship and using the Phillip Goldson International Airport (PGIA) to be flown back to the United States. “…we’re disappointed by this. We think it could have been handled differently.

Decisions like these need to be made based on information and science and not fear, even though we know this is a very serious disease, serious threat,” said Marie Harf, US State Department deputy spokesperson.

“The ship is on its way back to Galveston, Texas right

Dean Barrow now. It is expected to dock today and obviously we’ll be giving any care to this individual that is needed and

we’ll keep having the conversations with countries if something like this arises again,” she added.

But Prime Minister Dean Barrow held on to his administration’s position that he would not be putting the lives of Belizeans at risk.

“I stuck to my line which was that in the circumstances we couldn’t take any chances,” he said, noting that US Secretary of State John Kerry had also urged his administration to rethink its position.

“He did ask whether I would consider, whether I would explore the possibility of their sending a helicopter that would land on the deck of the cruise ship and then take the two passengers straight across to the PGIA. “In other words he thought that an option could be explored that would mean that no Belizean would come into any kind of contact with these passengers. I said well have your people tell us what would be the logistics of that.”

Barrow said that the option was not feasible because Belizean nationals would still be engaged and adding that in the circumstances he was convinced that his original position would remain “because I could not let the circumstances be possible to do what the Americans were asking without exposing some Belizeans to some degree of risk”.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba stands ready to cooperate with the United States in the battle against Ebola, former leader Fidel Castro said in an article published yesterday.

Cuba is sending about 460 doctors and nurses to West Africa to help fight Ebola, an effort that was praised on Friday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The U.S. is sending hundreds of soldiers to set up clinics and train health care workers and it also has sent officials from the Centers for Disease Control to help in training.

“With pleasure we will cooperate with U.S. personnel in that task,” the 88year-old ex-leader wrote in the Communist Party daily Granma. He said it would not be to seek peace between two countries long at odds, but “for the peace of the world.”

Castro did not say what

form cooperation might take.

He also noted that Havana plays host tomorrow to a meeting of leaders from the ALBA alliance of leftist Latin American nations that is meant to raise more support for the fight against Ebola.

He said such medical cooperation is “the greatest example of solidarity that a human being can offer.”

Jorge Perez, the head of Cuba’s top tropical medicine institute, told The Associated Press on Friday that Cuba is ready to send still more doctors if there is enough funding and infrastructure to support them.

“There are countries that have resources and can send money, but there are also those who can send human resources. It’s not just doctors. We also need nurses, technicians,” he said.

In Washington on Friday, Kerry mentioned Cuba as one

Fidel Castro of the “nations large and small stepping up in impressive ways to make a contribution on the front lines.”

Perez said that despite the United States’ chilly 55-year relationship with Cuba’s communist government, Kerry’s words were “an important gesture.”

Kamla: Ministries to conduct OUTREACH PROGRAMMES Trinidad Express - Prime Minister Kamla PersadBissessar has said that the World Health Organisation has advised this country to be prepared to detect, contain and manage suspected Ebola cases.

Speaking at a Divali dinner hosted at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s on Thursday, PersadBissessar said that the risk of importation of the virus into

this country by air and sea is low, but a plan of action must be put into place.

The Prime Minister said the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications will conduct Education Outreach Programmes in respect of Ebola. She added that the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs Ministry and National Security will all take necessary action to give immediate

effect to the measures with respect to the quarantine and prohibition of entry of persons in consultation with the Attorney General.

Persad-Bissessar said that the Health Ministry has been proactive in collaborating with the Regional Health Authorities, stakeholders at the airports and seaports, the Ministry of National Security and other agencies.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 69

“The bubble has burst for West Indies!

Déjà vu, all over again, maybe!”

“Synchronicity” tells of related events happening all at once, participants seeing them as meaningful coincidences. In business, travel, health, even with present Ebola crisis, that might be so.

In cricket, it seldom happens, and has not, for this West Indies v India 2014 series.

That India shellacked WI in ODI’s 2 & 4, after No. 3 was abandoned, was no coincidence, even after WI miraculously curbed India’s vaunted batting in ODI No. 1.

Whole WI put up a formidable public front after

that first game, it was easily discernible, from team body language, that something was seriously wrong in WI’s camp.

All have now come to full fruition, or, as known in the Caribbean; “The bubble has now burst, so the s…. has hit the fan!”

WI’s entire team turning up at start of proceedings for ODI No. 4 gave clues of immediate things to come, its fielding in India’s innings of No. 4 as fetid as ever, an unbelievable lack of any concentration. The dye was already cast; genie out of the bottle. That smell was fully

in the open!

How West Indies Cricket Board, West Indies Players Association and especially present, touring WI players emerge from this debacle could be distinctly messy and far reaching!

Few sports team, however they fool themselves, can divorce fiction from reality.

Publicly peeved at their representatives, these WI players have put their mouths, even careers, where their money was, may even still be, for their futures.

This one is far from finished!

Similar, not same,

Sunday October 19, 2014 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Be careful about being too boisterous and chipper around people who don't exactly feel the same way, Aries. Be sensitive to other people's feelings, and don't make jokes that are too harsh for the occasion. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Your mood should be quite good for the most part, Taurus, but there's apt to be some tension in your relationships. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): There's a deep longing to be comforted and reassured, Gemini. You may want nothing more than for someone fix you some warm, homemade soup. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): You may feel like you desperately need something, Cancer, yet you're unsure as to what it is exactly. Someone close to you may be trying to fit the missing puzzle piece into place, but this may be next to impossible if it's unclear which piece is actually missing. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): You may want to remedy every situation by talking things out or taking some sort of action, Leo. Be careful of making any sudden moves before you really understand what you're feeling. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): Compliments are apt to feel like gold to you, Virgo.

There's nothing you need more than love and affection on a day like this.

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): If you find that there's tension in a close relationship, you may get the feeling that this isn't the right partner for you, Libra. Don't automatically assume that the problem lies in your partner. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): When tension builds, your sense of security is likely to falter, Scorpio.

You may have a hard time dealing with other people.

You could be tempted to turn to food or alcohol for inner nourishment. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): You might have difficulty expressing your needs, Sagittarius. The bottom line is that there's no right or wrong way, although it may be difficult to see this on a day like today. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Although you may find it hard to express yourself in some ways, Capricorn, the one avenue that's completely wide open today is art. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): You might be feeling rather insecure when it comes to your peace of mind, Aquarius. Because of the insecurity, it may seem like your relationships are on the rocks. ********************* PISCES (Feb. 19 March 20): You may feel more reserved than usual, Pisces, especially when it comes to romantic relationships.

situations; re payments to participating players; have happened previously.

However, this is the very first time, period, anywhere, that an entire tour will have been cancelled over; note; just internal squabbles, on payments and finances for players of a presently touring team.

What a bad precedent to set at this time. Ramifications would be loud, clear and numerous!

1948/49, (Sir) Frank Worrell refused to tour India, for he disagreed with stipends players had been allowed.

That tour proceeded, with WI scraping a 1-0 win.

Sir Frank returned spectacularly; England 1950; as WI beat the hosts for the first time ever, 3-1; then also playing well against India and Australia, before leading to Australia 1960/61, and England, in 1963, to be eventually revered universally as probably the best captain WI has ever had!

In 1978, WI, including yours truly, decimated Australia in two Tests in Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados. Then, that smelly stuff permeated the air in Guyana, when Desmond Haynes and Richard Austin, two of three new recruits to World Series Cricket (Kerry Packer), were dropped for no apparent cricket reasons.

The third; me; would have been disposed of too, had Test No. 3 not been scheduled for Georgetown.

WI then captain Clive Lloyd would have none of it, he and selected team refusing to play, surmising that it was just open victimization that players were dropped for trying to make better livelihoods.

Again, WI played on, a second team hastily mustered, under Alvin Kallicharran’s captaincy. WI held their own eventually, winning that series after crescendos of agro; 3-1!

1978/79 WI tour to India included no “Packer” players; those already in Australia for “unofficial” series.

1998, WI undertook its first ever official tour to South Africa. Senior players, including Carl Hooper and captain Brian Lara bluntly refused to tour unless certain policies, finances and situations were properly put into place, negotiations happening at London’s Heathrow Airport hotels on the way to SA. Even guarantees from SA’s then new President,

Nelson Mandela, were ignored.

Already in SA, one of contracted commentators, I had direct communications with Dr. Ali Bacher, Cricket South Africa’s then President, as he feverishly bargained for that tour to commence and continue, so I knew all about that entire situation.

Continue that tour did, but WI were so poor on the field, decimated by totally abysmal psychological preparation, that they lost all five Test matches badly, winning only one of seven ODI’s!

2009, v touring Bangladesh, WI endured similar fates when senior players, including Shiv Chanderpaul, refused to play for exact reasons as were present in 1998, Bangladesh thus winning its first series overseas.

But this new situation in India is quite different, a cricketing brotherhood infighting, openly eating itself alive, but, surprise, surprise, not fighting against WICB. So, only WIPA could bring conclusions to, and emergence from, this morass; repairing itself, if that is indeed possible!

Colin E. H. Croft says: This is not WICB’s fault, even if this scenario is being played out under its purview, in full public view.

WICB, though, could pay directly and dearly for this, as India will not take this lightly.

International Cricket Council will be keenly listening too to developments.

If India confirms litigation against WICB, and ICC does sanction WI, where does that leave WI for ICC’s premier, blue-ribbon competition; World Cup 2015?

What shambles!

Dogs and cats are never friends, as it is impossible for mongooses and snakes, especially cobras, to co-exist.

Could a “good” relationship between WICB, WIPA and especially players be of similar ilk?

Only time will tell in this present atmosphere of confusions, innuendos and refusals! Enjoy!

Page 70

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

The curious case of Guyana’s Technical Director In January 2014, the GFF announced Mark Rodrigues as Technical D i r e c t o r f o r t h e M e n ’s S e n i o r N a t i o n a l Te a m , which up until that point, had not played a competitive game for over a year. Rodrigues, who resides in USA, has vast experience of coaching youth and women’s teams both within the USA and also in Guyana, where he was previously Technical Director of the successful Women’s Senior Team from 2009 to 2011, helping the team, which comprised of mainly Canadian-born players, reach the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time in Guyana’s history in 2010. Rodrigues was named GFF Coach of the Year in 2011 as a result and there is no doubt he has a very good track record in women’s football.

However, questions have been raised this year as to the specific nature of Rodrigues’s role within the Men’s Senior Team, mainly the fact that he has not publically communicated his long-term vision on the selection policies of the coaches, selection criteria for players, player performances or a general plan on how he will help to grow the game in Guyana.

In fact, since his appointment in January,

Rodrigues has only publically commented on Guyana’s under-17 team, who were eliminated in the first round of CFU regional qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and at the time he made no remark as to how the senior team was being assembled.

This should be a cause for concern for Guyana for a number of reasons: firstly, t h e r o l e o f a Te c h n i c a l Director is crucial to the formation of any National side, their role is to identify talent and build the best possible squad for the manager to work with and also to help develop

football at a grassroots level with the aim of helping football grow in the country, yet some fans would argue the game has shrunk in Guyana in recent times.

Antigua and Barbuda hired Piotr Nowak, a former International player for Poland and former assistant to the USA National team, as their Technical Director, whilst Barbados have also recognised the importance a director plays, having recently hired Brazilian Marcos Falopa as their Technical Director in order to increase the quality of the side.

Our Did you know series with Charwayne Walker continues this week as we look at the only international drawn series in Guyana’s football history with Trinidad and Tobago.

Did you know that the only time Guyana Senior Soccer Team drew an International Series against the Soca Warriors was October 1970. Trinidad backed by star players – Selwyn Murren, Bugs Haynes, Gerald Figeroux, Steve David, Keith Renaud found the going rough against a Guyana line-up that included Lloyd King, Patrick Britton, Ken Gibbs, Simeon Andrews; Goalkeepers – Michael Hampden and ‘Suicide’ Sutherland; in the Series Opener played in front of a full house at the Guyana Sports Club Ground.

Trinidad and Tobago went ahead in the 15th minute courtesy of an educated free kick from Keith Renaud that left custodian Michael Hampden flat footed. Guyana equalized in the 30th minute; the goal scorer was Simeon Andrews. Both teams had

several opportunities but at the end of 90 minutes the score read Trinidad one – Guyana one.

In the series finale played at the same venue, Guyana, buoyed by the opening results, took the fight to their more illustrious rivals and went ahead in the 35th minute when the elusive Patrick Britton outmaneuver Trinidad custodian Mervyn Joseph but just before the fat lady started to sing Keith Renaud beat Guyana custodian ‘Suicide’ Sutherland with a beauty that denied Guyana a memorable series triumph, the contest ended one all and the series ended in a stalemate. The 1970 historic squad that drew the two match series with Trinidad: Alvin Braithwaite – Captain – Malteenoes Ovid Henry – Malteenoes Michael Hampden – Malteenoes Patrick Britton – Malteenoes Gordon Forde (deceased) – Thomas United Michael Pierre – Thomas United Lloyd King – Thomas

United Desmond Morgan – Thomas United Ken Gibbs – Thomas United Vibert Williams – Santos Clive Browne – Santos Winston Callender – G.F.C Simeon Andrews (deceased) – G.F.C Robert Fernandes – G.F.C Eric Sutherland – Victoria George Greene – Coach Trinidad and Tobago (1970): Gerald Figeroux – Goalkeeper Mervyn Joseph – Goalkeeper R. Ramann L. London Selwyn Murren Steve David H. Dennie E. Sebro R. Aimey Keith Renaud C. Lewis C. Lennard U. Haynes U. Henry L. Brewster R. Roberts M. Archibald K. Henry – Coach L. Carter – Manager

GFF President Christopher Matthias and Mark Rodrigues (right) attending a lavish FIFA Conference held in Brazil.

Falopa brings with him a wealth of experience: he was assistant manager of Brazil in the 1980s, managed famous Brazilian club Santos FC, and most importantly, was Technical Director of CONCACAF for seven years, looking after North America, Central America and the Caribbean as a whole.

Falopa is a man with fantastic credentials, whose knowledge of the game will undoubtedly elevate football in B a r b a d o s , a s Te c h n i c a l Director, he will advise and provide technical assistance to both players and the management team of the National Team.

By no coincidence, Antigua comfortably qualified for the 2014 Caribbean Cup, whilst Barbados performed exceptionally well in the qualifiers and were one win away from making the final tournament for the first time since 2008.

Both teams are reaping the rewards of having globally experienced staff in their camp. Guyana, on the other hand, were eliminated in the very first round of qualifiers for the first time since 1994 and scored 0 goals in the process, with many fans calling it their worst performance at the tournament in history and describing it as a National footballing disaster.

What baffled many observers during Guyana’s Caribbean Cup campaign, was the fact that 15 of the 18 players chosen were making their International debuts and the key players in leading club side Alpha Utd were omitted from the squad, as well as any players plying their trade outside of Guyana. Whilst GFF President Christopher Matthias and manager Denzil Thompson cited the

decision as one in line with their vision for “ d e v e l o p m e n t ’’ o f t h e National side, no comment was made by Rodrigues, the man whose specific role is to assemble the team, on what criteria was used to build this very young and inexperienced side. Matthias further said that Rodrigues would comment on the situation on National Television, yet nothing has been heard from the Technical Director.

Mark Rodrigues is based in USA, and therefore surely not able to observe the domestic football taking place in Guyana that would allow him to discover and follow the most talented coaches and players in the country, as well as build relationships to grow the sport and develop his staff in Guyana to work towards his long-term vision. With Matthias declaring “foreign’’ players were a detriment to the development of Guyana’s National Team, it seems strange that he has hired a Director not even based in t h e c o u n t r y, a n d t h u s “ f o r e i g n ’’ himself according to Matthias’s definition.

Furthermore, Rodrigues has no experience of working with S e n i o r M e n ’s t e a m s , domestically or internationally, and this puts Guyana at a distinct disadvantage when compared to the calibre of Technical Directors at most International teams.

Rodrigues cannot be blamed for the taking up the position, yet he remarked in January during his first press conference that, “Our women had very good success leading up to 2010 i n t h e Wo r l d C u p , w e achieved history for this country, something that I’m very proud of for

Santokie Nagulendran Says: Guyana, we created a legacy…our men have another legacy with what they have done, we need to b u i l d o n t h a t a n d i t ’s something we have never really capitalized on.” With the Senior Women’s team not being entered for World Cup qualifiers this year and the administration discarding the legacy of the p r e v i o u s m e n ’s G o l d e n Jaguar team by excluding overseas-based players; it seems as if Rodrigues’s words are ringing hollow.

With the current GFF administration coming under criticism from many members of the public in Guyana for a lack of transparency, it remains to be seen how much say Rodrigues is actually allowed to have in his role, but nevertheless he must be held accountable for playing a part in the abject state of the National Team at the moment.

Failing to respond for comment when contacted numerous times, Rodrigues’s position can only be speculated on for now, but one thing is for sure, his role is a mystery that needs to be made transparent.

Editor’s note: Santokie Nagulendran is a United Kingdom based journalist, who has a deep interest in football and will be writing a weekly column for Kaieteur Sport.

Mohabir slams 152 n.o leads...

From page 72 Gangaram 2 for 28 and Vishal Mohabir 2 for 55.

At No 73, No 73 Young Warriors beat No 71B by 9 wickets. No 71B 97 in 19.5 overs with Lakeram Latchman 5 for 7, Sahif Jamesay 3 for 28.

No. 73 Young Warriors 98 for 1 in 14.4 overs with Lakeram Latchman 60 n.o.

At Goed Bananen Land, Betsy Ground Triple Star 263 for 7 in 40 overs with Kishan Sobhai 58, Wahmeshwar Sobhai 57, Devindra Ramoutar 27 n.o. Collis Greaves took 2 for 30 and Devanand Cyril 2 for 41. Goed

Bananen Land 148 in 28.5 overs with Imran Harrinandan 48, Lakeram Jugisteer3 for 18, Outram Imandin 2 for 19, Lawrence Bassant 2 for 27.

At Kendall’s Union, Courtland All Star beat Kendall’s Union A by 6 wickets. Kendall’s Union A 186 in 32 overs with Daniel Baker 68, Brian Baker 37.

Keon Sinclair took 4 for 26 and Delon Crandon 2 for 13.

Courtland All Stars 188 for 4 in 26.2 overs with Dwayne Crandon 53, Leroy Bristol 49 and Keon Sinclair 25 N.O. Chris Yadram took 2 for 28.

At Cotton Tree: Cotton

Tree Die Hard 277 for 7 in 35 overs with Roshan Gaffoor 82, Romesh Boodhram 37, Patel Jairam 36, Abdul Subhan 37 n.o. Omesh arjune 2 for 38. No. 3 125 in 20 overs with Taje Singh 3 for 7, Akram Rahaman 3 for 30 and Azad Haroon 2 for 24.

At Chesney: Fyrish Road beat Sand Reef by 4 wickets.

Sand Reef 91 in 23.3 overs.

Hassan Hussain 4 for 23, Zamin Hamid 2 for 18 and William Das 2 for 19. Fyrish Road 92 for 6 in 22.3 overs with William Dass 31 n.o.

Zafraz Baksh took 2 for 10 and Tamesh Jagmohan 2 for 15.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Courts/Petra Organisation Pee Wee Football Competition

Page 71

GCA’s Hadi first division two-day cricket

Defending champs St. Pius, Marian Nanan (7-35), Sookdeo and Tucville among those advancing (94*) put GCC in command

Needing a win to revive their chances of qualifying for the next stage, defending champs St. Puis registered a 2-1 win over F.E. Pollard when the Courts/Petra Organization Pee Wee Football Competition continued yesterday, at the Thirst Park ground.

A Selwyn Jones strike in the 5th mnute of play started things for the champs when he fired in a thunderbolt following a neat buildup on the right flank. They doubled their advantage one minute later through Raymond Austin, whose searing run down the left wing saw him march into the box, before finishing with aplomb for a 2-0 lead. F.E. Pollard’s Quincy Williams managed to decrease the deficit by one after he was left unmarked in the penalty area following a fumble by the opposition goalkeeper and he nonchalantly poked home from close range in the 14th minute of play.

Tucville continued their merry run after squeezing past St. Stephen’s 1-0. Rayheem Marques 18th minute strike was enough to hand them victory and guarantee them a place in the next round.

In the first game of the day, Marian Academy booked their place in the next phase with a fighting 1-0 over North Georgetown, with Allister Phyll’s penalty kick in the 2nd minute following a handball, being the difference.

In other results, Smith Memorial and St. Ambrose played to a 1-1 draw. Stephon Elcock opened the scoring for St. Ambrose in the 2nd minute, before Omali Henry gained the equaliser for Smith Memorial in the 7th minute.

St. Margaret’s and South Ruimveldt played to a 0-0 draw, while St. Angela’s and J.E. Burnham played to a 1-1 stalemate. Oziah Vieira netted for St. Angela’s in the 14th, while Ronaldo Lawrence equalised in the 30th minute.St. Gabriel’s then defeated Thomas Moore 1-0 through an Isaiah Wray 20th

minute goal, while West Ruimveldt entered the next round after securing a walkover from Comenius.

Also earning walkover victories were Green Acres and East La Penitence from Redeemer Primary and

Success Academy respectively. Stella Maris also earned a walkover when Winfer Gardens failed to show and in the final game of the day Enterprise and Ketley played to a 0-0 stalemate.

Final Group Standings

TSC, GNIC, DCC register...

From page 72 defeated Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) by 60 runs. TSC batted first after winning the toss and rattled up 283-9 off their allotted 40 overs. Opener Ryan Hemraj stroked 124 (13x4,9x6), Charwayne McPherson scored 46 (5x4,1x6), Sunil Singh 37 (6x4) and Azeem Azeez 21 (3x4).

Devon Lord snared 3-53, Samuel McKenzie 2-14 and

Dellon Fernandes 2-44.

GCC replied with 223-9, innings closed in 37.1 overs.

Opener Martin Pestano-Belle slammed 101 (14x4,1x6) while Bernard Bailey cracked 52 (9x4). Joel Spooner grabbed 326. At Eve Leary, GNIC overcame the host by two wickets. Batting first, Police managed 197 all out in 39.3 overs.

K. Griffith led with 40; Rawl Enmore made 32, Jason

McAlmont 25 and Trevor Benn 22. Pacer Christian Husbands grabbed 5-42, Troy Thompson 2-37 and Orlando Kirton 2-42.

GNIC responded with 200-8 in 21 overs. Quincy OvidRichardson top scored with 73 not out (6x4,1x6) and Stephon Campbelle contributed 32.

Benn captured 3-23 and Vishal Jaigobin 2-30. At DCC, the host got the better of Malteenoes SC (MSC) by 48

By Sean Devers Left-arm spinner Raj Nanan snatched 7-35 from 13.4 overs, his fourth fivewicket haul in three games for the season, to destroy GYO at Bourda, while First-Class player Chanderpaul Hemraj’s 51 ensured hosts Everest batted all day against Police despite failures by both Shiv Chanderpaul (14) and his son Tagenarine (10) yesterday on the first day of the latest round of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Hadi’s first division two-day cricket tournament.

The 21-year-old Nanan befuddled the batsmen on a flat track as GYO slumped to 82, their third consecutive double digit total in the competition before National opener Robin Bacchus, who hit eight fours and a six in 57 and Jeetendra Sookdeo, who hammered eight fours and a six in an undefeated 94, shared in a 125-run opening stand to give the Bourda boys a lead of 115 runs going into today’s final day.

GCC were 197-2 in reply to the paltry 82 made by GYO, while Everest reached 219-8 against Police by the close yesterday.

At Bourda, GYO won the toss after early morning showers delayed the start by 105 minutes and by Lunch had reached 39-1 from nine overs. In glorious sunshine under a clear blue sky Nanan, who opened the bowling, trapped Gordon Best for a duck with just a run on the board. Tretlon Liverpool joined Abdool Raheem and got going by caressing Nanan for four elegant offside boundaries before lunch as Raheem was content to play the supporting role as Nanan bowled much too flat and fast for a two-innings match. After the interval, Raheem and Tretlon Liverpool carried the score to 53 before Nanan broke the 52run partnership by removing Liverpool for 29 decorated

Jeteendra Sookdeo

Raj Nanan

with five fours.

After Nanan got rid of Raheem for 18 at 57-3 and offspinner Gavin Singh sent back Raj Simboo for a duck at 61-4 no other batsman passed one except Skipper Surendra Herilall (18) who was just beginning to look settled before he lost his concentration and his wicket by skying Nanan ‘miles’ into the air for the bowler to take the catch off his own bowling.

GYO, the weakest team in the competition, were bowled out for 38 by DCC last weekend and yesterday in ideal batting conditions, the Woolford Avenue side capitulated from 53-1 to 82 all out; losing nine wickets for 31 runs as five batmen made ducks and another three managed just one.

Gavin Singh supported Nanan with 3-21 for GCC, while Skipper and National left-handed batsman Vishaul Singh, Wicketkeeping for only the second time at first division level, looked quite competent behind the stumps. When GCC began their reply in sultry conditions, Bacchus and fellow left-hander Sookdeo give their team a solid foundation taking them to Tea at 53 without loss.

After Tea Bacchus topedged an impetuous sweep at

Mark Hamilton and skied a catch to the keeper before Divesh Ramjattan, operating with an unusual action, deceived Elon Fernandes (3) and had him caught and bowled at 130-2.

Sookdeo remained to the close and had as his partner Vishaul Singh unbeaten on 42 with four boundaries.

At Camp Road, in another rain affected game which began 60 minutes late, Everest reached 49-2 by Lunch after the lively Darsen LaRose made the breakthrough by inducing Tagenarine Chanderpaul to chop one onto his stumps at 11-1. After the interval Everest lost four more wickets including left-handed Test player Shiv Chanderpaul, who was bowled off the inside by Jason Heyliger. Last round’s centurion Joseph Perry (24) and Rajendra Chandrika (20) also departed in sweltering heat as Everest slipped to 1676 by Tea. Troy Gonsalves (41) and Guyana player Zaheer Mohamed (11) fell soon after Tea before Raphael Singh (17*) and Chris Surat (16*) stayed together to the end of the day’s play as Heyliger has picked up three wickets so far.

Today is the final day and the action is scheduled to commence at 09:30hrs.

runs. DCC were bowled out for 144 in 26.2 overs, batting first. Sherfene Rutherford scored 33, Dennis Squires 27 and Ronaldo Renee 21. Delon Darlymple claimed 4-48, Vishal Narayan 2-10 and Shaquille Moseley 2-18. MSC were skittled for 96 in 18.2 overs in reply. Moseley made 22; Ashmead Nedd picked up 4-11 while Squires and Antonell Atwell had two each. The competition continues today.

(Zaheer Mohamed)

Quincy Ovid Richardson

Christian Husbands

Hemraj’s 51 ensure Everest bat all day

Page 72

Kaieteur News

8th MCYS Ride for Life 5-Stage Cycle Road Race

Greaves leads overall with final stage on today …‘Fishy’ Williams nails two wins

Regional Chairman Mr. Parmanand Persaud (right) with the top three riders of Stage 4 after the Universal Pharmacy presentation.

By Franklin Wilson It was all the Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams solo show again yesterday in the Cinderella County of Essequibo when he coasted to back to back stage wins in the 8th Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport Rider for Life 5-stage cycle road race.

Following up on his win in stage 3 on Friday, the Unattached Williams turned in another blistering performance in sweltering heat to win the 62-mile showdown in Two Hours 36 Minutes 53 Seconds; he also won four of the six sprint prizes. Alanzo Ambrose and Orville Hinds claimed one each.

The riders were sent on their way from Supenaam at 07:30hrs by Mr. Parmanand Persaud - Region 2 Regional Chairman after presenting Williams with his yellow jersey for winning stage 3.

Cool conditions prevailed for the first 30 minutes or so but as the day matured, as the sun came out in all its glory, the riders too, started to warm

up to the task at hand, i.e, outfoxing each other as they aim for the ultimate prize of being crowned champion.

Up until the upward journey to Anna Regina, the lead changed from time to time with no cyclist being able to really get away from the main pack. However, like he did the day before Marlon Williams waited his time before making a move in the village of Henrietta on the upward journey and never looked back even though on a few occasions he seemed to be under pressure.

But his experience and resilience in situations the likes of these saw the Lindener staying the course to emerge triumphant.

Despite his win, he remains in the 4th position going into today’s 5th and final stage from Linden to the City.

There was another exciting rush to the line by the chasing pack led by Overall Leader Alanzo Greaves (Roraima Bikers Club) who piped Geron Williams (Champion Systems Stan’s

Notubes/Continental CC) in the sprint home. The duo along with Robin Persaud (Carlton Wheelers CC), Michael Anthony (Unattached) and Paul De Nobrega (Team Alanis) who placed fourth to sixth received a bunch time of 2:37:56. Greaves is still holding on to the overall advantage going into today’s 5th and final stage, closely followed by Geron Williams, Persaud and ‘Fishy’ Williams.

Pedal off time is 08:30hrs from Kara Kara, Linden to end on Carifesta Avenue, Georgetown. An exhilarating stage is anticipated.

Meanwhile, the top three riders from yesterday’s stage were presented with trophies

by Regional Chairman Persaud on behalf of Mr. Kampta Persaud, owner of Universal Pharmacy. The entity has been rewarding the top three riders from the inception of the race.

The top ten Overall Standings after the 4th Stage. [* File contains invalid data | In-line.JPG *]

GCA/NBS second division 40-over tourney

TSC, GNIC, DCC register victories Persaud, Belle slam centuries, Husbands grabs 5 Transport Sports Club (TSC), GNIC and Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) recorded victories when the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA)/New Building Society (NBS) second division 40-over tournament commenced yesterday.

At Muslim Youth Organisation ground, TSC (Continued on page 71)

Martin Pestano Belle

Ryan Hemraj

Sunday October 19, 2014

USA-based boxers to highlight card in GBA National Open Championships Just over a month after topping their counterparts from the Guyana Defence Force, boxers of the Republican Boxing Gym are getting ready to replicate the feat when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) stages the National Open Championships, three nights of fistic fury, from Friday October 24 to Sunday October 26, at the M&CC Municipal Centre, California Square, East Ruimveldt.

The recent move to this venue from the indoor facilities of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and the National Gymnasium was met with uncertainty but GBA officials persisted. The move seems to have brought back the crowds as residents of East Ruimveldt and adjoining communities came out in support of the

pugilists.

Heartened by the response, GBA officials have decided to spice up the impending tournament and following a visit to the world famous Gleason’s Gym, Front Street, Brooklyn NY, GBA President, Steve Ninvalle has secured the services of two Guyanese living in that country, to participate in the tournament.

The two boxers, middleweight, Christopher Colbert and heavyweight, Quincy ‘Biggy’ Small, are already in training and are scheduled to arrive in Guyana within the next two days. Mr. Ninvalle explained that he sought the services of the two USA based boxer to test the skill, endurance and determination of the local boxers. It is not yet known

who the local fighters are that will oppose the two USA based pugilists but fans are assured that the organizers will select the best of the locals to match gloves with the foreigners.

Otherwise, fans could look forward to the many slugfests as the best boxers from all of the top gyms will be on show. Those gyms are, harpy Eagles (HEBG), Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF), Young Achievers (YABG) Ricola Boxing Gym (RBG), Caryll Boxing Gym (CBG) Pocket Rocket Boxing Gym (PRBG) and the Rosehall Town Jammers (RHJ).

The first gong will be sounded at 20:00hrs sharp each night and adults will be required to pay $400 to enter, while children pay half that amount.

BCB/2014 New Building Society Limited second division 40-over cricket in Berbice

Mohabir slams 152 n.o leads Young and Restless to 318 for 5 - Latchman takes 5 for 7 and scores 60 n.o.

Vishal Mohabir Opening batsman Vishal Mohabir slammed the highest individual score of the 2014 New Building Society Limited Second Division 40-over Cricket Competition when he scored 152 n.o for Young and Restless in their match against Canefield. His knock which included 21 fours and 4 sixes spearheaded his team to a massive 318 for 5 in 35 overs, the highest score by a team in the competition so far, eclipsing the 316 for 6 in 35 overs made by Cotton Tree Die Hard against D’Edward Warriors. Canefield could only muster 166 in 30.2 overs in reply with Dinesh Balgobin topscoring with 52.

Off spinner Lakeram Latchman took 5 for 7 from 5.5 overs for No 73 Warriors to

Wahmeshwar Sobhai

Roshan Gaffoor bowl out No 71B for 97. He then opened the batting and hit 60 n.o (10 fours and 1 six) to see his team romp home by 9 wickets. Krishan and

Lakeram Latchman Wahmeshwar Sobhai scored 58 and 57 each in Betsy Ground Triple Star’s 115 runs victory over Goed Bananen Land. Other batsmen registering half centuries were Daniel Baker of Kendall’s Union A, Dwayne Crandon of Courtland All Stars and Roshan Gafoor of Cotton Tree Die Hard.

Summarized scores: At Goed Bananen Land: Young and Restless beat Canefield by 152 runs. Young and Restless 318 for 5 in 35 overs with Vishal Mohabir 152 n.o, Hansraj Ishmael 40, Sasenarine Sukhdeo 38, Tilak Singh 3 for 55. Canefield 166 all out in 30.2 overs. With Dinesh Balgobin 52. Dinesh Gopaul 2 for 23, Keishar (Continued on page 70)

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 73

Boxing Tales from the crypt; boxers with a strange sense of humour B y M i c h a e l Benjamin There are always i nteresting anecdotes making their rounds in boxing that lends a lighter side to the fistic sport. One of the popular ones is of the boxer who went out upon the bell to be met with several crunching punches that caused his lips to balloon to a size. He returned to his corner, anticipating sound advice from his coach only to be told that, “You’re doing well my son, that joker cannot even touch you!” The pugilist returned to the fray, received another dose of the same treatment and returned to his corner to a similar analysis by his coach. The hapless boxer barely made it to his corner at the end of the fourth round only for his coach to pronounce, “You’re moving smoothly champ; he can hardly touch you; keep it that way.” Unable to contain himself any longer, the boxer, battered face and all, turned to his coach and blurted, “Well coach, if duh man ain’t knocking me ah want yo keep a eye pon de referee because somebody out there beating the hell out of me!”

There is something about the fistic sport that causes its participants to rationalize, sometimes along insane lines, in explaining situations in the square jungle. I remember, years ago, when the crowds trooped to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and witnessed classic slugfests that formed the topic of discussions long after the final bell had sounded.

During a particular bout,

both boxers stood centre ring, engaged in wicked exchanges when one of them abruptly stopped punching and walked back to his corner. Puzzled, the referee followed him and enquired if h e h a d q u i t . Wi t h a bewildered look on his face, the boxer swore that he had heard the bell. It turned out that he had merely heard his ears bell resonating after he had received a wicked three punch combination.

There are so many anecdotes making their rounds in this fistic sport that one wonders how it could ever be considered a boring vocation.

Boxers are often referred to as braggarts; always promising all kinds of evil to their opponents. I guess it’s the only activity where someone could ‘murder his/her opponent (with blows)’ and not have to answer to the law.

I remember the tale of the young pugilist who was regarded as the worst wife beater. Every night one could hear moans and groans, interspersed with wicked clouts, emanating from his apartment.

One night, after one such session, the boxer emerged from his home but surprisingly, he was the one with bruises all over his body and face. Puzzled, his buddy asked him if he was the one on the receiving end of the blows.

“Who, me?” he queried incredulously, “I had she begging pon she knees. “Oh yeah!” his buddy scoffed, “and what was she saying?” “ We l l s h e w a s begging me to come from

under the bed,” the boxer sheepishly replied.

Yes, boxing is indeed a sport for those with huge hearts but sometimes some pugilists turn out to be big babies with equally big gaps in their faces that they use to spew rhetoric.

I’ve heard boxers at press conferences outlining what they had in store for their opponents; words that would attract the attention of the courts were it not for the special immunity these pugilists enjoyed.

Notwithstanding, there are some boxers that are totally confused and are not even aware of who their respective opponents are.

A classic case occurred during a press conference when the two boxers comprising the main bout were quizzed of their plans and intentions. One, an ardent Christian replied, “Well, to tell you the truth, I

will enter the ring wrapped in God’s armour and he will see me through.” The other pugilist, of Rastafarian faith, thumped his chest and bellowed, “Jah is I and I strength and protector; he will set I and I free from the enemy; victory is mine; Jah Rastafari.”

All this time, the promoter, with a concerned look on his face was heard wondering aloud if he had signed the wrong pugilists; they were both abdicating their responsibilities to two

unseen forces, maybe just in case something went wrong.

Then there was the boxer that signed his contract but on fight night decided that he was not satisfied with his purse. He complained to all and sundry but no one took him seriously.

When his turn came to enter the ring, he was nowhere to be found. It was later discovered that after being issued with his gloves for the bout, the boxer simply placed the equipment on the table in the dressing room, left the venue and was last seen in a bus heading for the Stabroek Market.

Officials surmised that he had lost his nerve or worse yet, his head. Less than one month later, prophesy was eerily fulfilled after that boxer was murdered in Berbice—his assailant had chopped off his head after they had a confrontation.

Boxers are always on the caustic end of wisecracks when it comes to speechifying but while some pugilists use unconventional jargon to dispel such claims one could not help but be tickled by the response of a certain pugilist to his interviewer just after winning his fight. He was

asked, “So now that you’ve won this bout, where do you go from here?”

Taking a deep breath and oozing self-confidence, my pugilistic friend replied, “I am heading home for a bath, a big meal and a welldeserved rest.”

Another boxer, clearly bent on receiving the large purse, decided to do just enough to earn it and after receiving a tame one two combination, threw himself to the canvass while the ‘third man’ tolled away the count. When the referee reached nine, the boxer peeped out from swollen eyes and muttered, “You could count from nine to ninety nine, I ain’t getting up.”

Notwithstanding, amidst all the fun poked at our pugilistic friends, they still find time for a delightful sense of humour but while some have demonstrated adeptness for this trait, some have been known to have no sense and a lot of humour as in the case of one pugilist who was diagnosed with an ailing heart condition.

His opponent had complained to reporters, “dis man bragging an boasting but his heart is just not in the fight.

Page 74

Kaieteur News

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kashif and Shanghai Organisation delivers computers to MHS and CWSS

MHS teacher and coach, Morris Cummings accepts the computer on behalf of his school from K&S representative Aubrey Major Jr, while players and other students look on.

The Kashif and Shanghai Organisation on Thursday handed over computers to the Mackenzie High School and Champions of its Inter-school football Championship Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (CWSS), popularly known as ‘Multi’. Donated by Caribbean Cargo Shipping

Company, the computers were given by the Washington DC based entity to be handed to the top two football playing schools from Linden.

While Mackenzie High School lost to St George’s High in the quarterfinals, ‘Multi’, said to be Guyana’s top football

playing secondary school went on to defeat Ash Education of Berbice 4 – 2 on penalty kicks.

Both schools expressed their delight of receiving the computers and said that they look forward to playing in the tournament once again.

East Georgetown Champion of Champions athletics meet concludes Youth is the time of athleticism; when the human body performs unbelievable feats. This fact could not have been more forcefully emphasized than Friday afternoon when children from 11 primary and secondary schools convened at the Police Sports Club Ground and competed for honours in the East Georgetown Champion of Champions athletics meet.

Friday’s activities marked the culmination of three days of competitive action starting on Friday October 10 when the cycling events were staged at the National Park. St Winifred Primary carted off the honours after amassing 297 points followed by Queenstown Secondary with 280 points. Tutorial High

School completed the podium spots with 247 points while St Joseph’s High School and Mercy Wings Secondary School brought up the rear with 209 and 88 points respectively.

Three days later, on Monday 13 October, the athletes convened at the Colgrain Swimming Pool to compete in the Primary and Secondary School Swimming Championships.

Mae’s Primary, Nehemiah Primary and Stella Maris Primary Schools sealed off the podium spots in the Primary Schools category with 74, 22 and 20 points respectively.

M a e ’s S e c o n d a r y returned to take the honours in the Secondary Schools category after scoring 251

points. St Joseph High School scored 158 points while North Georgetown closed off the prestigious podium spots with 133 points.

Children from the Primary Schools then battled for top spots at the Guyana Teachers’ Union Ground, Wo o l f o r d Av e n u e , o n October 14 and then on October 16 at the GNS Sports Complex. The Sophia Primary School amassed 255 points while Stella Maris scored 227 points; the final podium place went to Redeemer Primary with 200 points.

One day later, on October 15, students from the secondary schools competed in some events at the GTU ground before returning yesterday afternoon to

Tia (left) and Tamara Henry enjoy a Kodak moment after the completion of their events contest for honours on the final day of the competition.

Up to press time those results were still being tallied but there were several commendable performances worthy of mention.

Quacy Sampson of the Mercy Wings ran a sterling race in the Boys U-20, 100 meters and clocked a commendable 10:78secs.

Then there were the Henry sisters, Tia and Tamara from Tutorial High School. Both competed in the U-14 category and the former athlete came in first in the 100m, 800m and 400m. She also placed 2nd in the 1500m while Tamara won the 400m, and 1500 meters race while she anchored the medley relay event.

Steven Isaacs is originally from Patarinau, South Rupununi but now attends St Joseph High

Steven Isaacs School. He competes in the U-16 category and excelled in several events; he won the 50m free stroke and back stroke events while placing 3rd in the 5000m race. Isaacs also rode in second in the 5000km cycle race and returned to ride in 3rd in the 1000km race.

There were many other exciting races in cycling, running and swimming but Kaieteur Sport was unable to obtain these results before press time as officials were still engaged in the tallying process. We will attempt to have these results in a subsequent publication.

Sunday October 19, 2014

Kaieteur News

Bayley overlooked again

Williams gets kind draw for WTA Finals defence SINGAPORE (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams was handed the best possible draw for her WTA Finals title defense with the 33-year-old American grouped with two injury doubts and avoiding the in-form players.

Williams was pooled in the Red Group yesterday for the WTA’s season ending event alongside Romanian Simona Halep, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic who have managed only one

Police’s Kevin Bayley eases across the finish-line at the Inter-Services Annual Athletics Championships (ISAAC) last week against an impressive field. The AAG continues to overlook Bayley for national selection.

By Edison Jefford The Sports Department of the Guyana Police Force is demanding that the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) consider Kevin Bayley for national selection following what has certainly been a prolific year for the 23 year old middle distance athlete.

Bayley has emerged this year as the nation’s top 800m runner, putting together top performances against top athletes. However, the AAG continues to overlook the athlete despite his ascendancy. The Police Sports Department has taken note of this trend.

“Bayley’s outstanding performances for the year running unbeaten, should have served as an eye to the selectors of the Athletics Association of Guyana, yet he continues to be overlooked for the overseas engagements,” Police said in a statement sent to Kaieteur Sport.

Bayley has had good

success this year, but really raised eyebrows when he thrashed star-studded fields at the Boyce and Jefford Classic in August and Joint Services last week. In August, Bayley beat Trinidad and Tobago’s, Mark London in the 800m to win the international event, which also featured athletes from Grenada among Guyana’s finest athletes.

London is on scholarship in the United States, and is an international representative for Trinidad at meets across the world; last week, Bayley relegated Cleveland Forde, Ornesto Thomas, Trevor Scotland among others with a blitz 1:54.7, the fastest time this year.

“At the age of 23, the question to be asked here is what more does this prolific athlete has to do to win the hearts of the selectors,” the Police Sports Department questioned, adding that Bayley should have been considered for the Central

American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, slated for November 14-30 in Mexico.

With the exception of Winston George, the Police are contending that their athletes continue to be sidelined when it comes to national selection. “If a comparison is to be made with selection of previous teams, the logical conclusion will be that Police athletes apart from George are always being bypassed,” it said.

The AAG has named George to compete at CAC along with United Statesbased, Stephan James, Adam Harris and Jeremy Bascom; Harris and Bascom continues to represent Guyana despite not showing any interest in competing in Guyana. The two sprinters are phantom athletes to the track and field community in Guyana, but continue to get the nod of the AAG that hosted a low-keyed National Senior Championships a few weeks ago.

Page 75

career victory among them against the 18-times grand slam singles champion.

The more competitive looking White Group features Russian Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, P o l a n d ’s A g n i e s z k a Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Williams is gunning for her fifth season ending championships win and third straight, having taken the last two titles in Istanbul.

Her participation in this

y e a r ’s e v e n t , w h i c h switches to Singapore for the first of five editions, was in doubt after she was forced to pull out of the Beijing tournament earlier this month because of a knee problem.

Bouchard is also a fitness doubt after pulling out of a tournament in Austria 10 days ago because of a leg problem, while Ivanovic, who has a 1-7 win-loss record against Williams, also withdrew from Linz with a hip injury.

t r o p S 8th MCYS Ride for Life 5-Stage Cycle Road Race

‘Fishy’ Williams nails double stage wins; Greaves leads overall with final stage on today P.72

All Alone! Marlon Williams approaches the finish line at Suddie, Essequibo yesterday.

Overall leader Alanzo Greaves (left) battles Geron Williams and other to the line yesterday.

Courts/Petra Organisation Pee Wee Football Competition

Defending champs St. Pius, Marian and Tucville among those advancing

P.71

Action in the clash between Enterprise (orange bibs) and Ketley which ended in a 0-0 stalemate yesterday, at Thirst Park.

Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Limited, 24 Saffon St.Charlestown, Georgetown.Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/ 226-8210