Guyana chronicle e paper 12 22 2017

Gov't relaxes 2:00 AM curfew for holidays Page 9

Guyana-Brazil cement ties No. 105134

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017

Price: $80

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…eye US$50B China fund to build Linden-Lethem Road …sign pact to end drought in Rupununi

Pages 3,8,9&10

‘It wasn’t me’ Page 11

– Min Holder distances self from assault rumours

FCPF inks contract for REDD+ Readiness Process Page 13

Severance pay for sugar workers Reject threats to settle disputes in January

President David Granger and President Michel Temer greet each other before their meeting Thursday morning at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

… President tells leaders at MERCOSUR summit

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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Reject threats to settle disputes

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

… President tells leaders at MERCOSUR summit

PRESIDENT David Granger has urged his counterparts attending the 51st Summit of the Heads of State of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and Associate States that they should reject force and threats as a means of settling disputes.

He also urged that the summit should be used for members to reaffirm their commitment to the principles of respect for the inviolability of treaties and other international agreements, respect for the peaceful settlement of disputes and rejection of the use of threats and force as a means of settling disputes.

Referencing the 1999 Political Declaration of MERCOSUR, Bolivia and, Chile as a Zone of Peace, the Guyanese Head of State said, “Peace is essential for economic development and trade to take place. Peace is a dividend for enhanced competitiveness. Peace must be promoted in MERCOSUR, its associated states and throughout the continent.”

Noting that common markets flourish in conditions of peace and security and falter when there is instability and uncertainty, President Granger said that Guyana remains committed to the principles of mutual respect for each

President David Granger (extreme right, front row) poses with other leaders of MERCOSUR during their summit in Brazil on Thursday (Ministry of the Presidency photo) other’s territory, mutual non-aggression between states, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and mutual cooperation for peaceful coexistence among states.

“Guyana repeats its invocation for Mercosur to continue its vigilance to safeguard the sovereignty and security of its small states on this Continent and to eliminate the economic

inequalities and political controversies that separate them. This continent must be a zone of peace… Guyana, as a small state, with fewer than one million people seeks cordial relations with all states,” he said.

President Granger also told the Summit that Guyana look towards infrastructural cooperation with the countries on the South American continent to es-

tablish highways, railways and bridges from the south to the north to enable the movement of goods and people. “Guyana’s continental destiny is tied to integration of the continent.

Guyana has a role to play as the gateway for South America to the markets of the markets of the Caribbean, Central America and North America,” he said.

Given Guyana’s firm

global stance on environmental protection, the President used the opportunity to appeal to his South American counterparts in MERCOSUR to take more concerted actions to address global warming and climate change which can harm production and impair trade. He noted too, that climate change and other natural hazards are degrading the continent’s

productive assets.

The President, who is currently on an official State Visit to Brazil, is accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge, Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Raphael Trotman, Minister of Public Infrastructure, Mr. David Patterson and senior officers from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Guyana joins rejection of Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

GUYANA is one of 128 countries that supported a United Nations Resolution which calls on the United States to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Part of the resolution reads: “...any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the [UN] Security Council”.

The Resolution “calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem”.

The nine countries that voted against the resolution were: the United

States, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo while 35 nations (including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago) abstained.

Guyana’s Ambassador to the UN, Michael Ten-Pow in an interview with NCN News said that Guyana’s support of the resolution should not be seen as an anti-US stance.

In a telephone interview, Ambassador Ten-Pow explained that the resolution simply reaffirmed what has long been the position of the wider international community. Israel, Guatemala and Honduras were also among the states that voted against the resolution while Canada and Mexico abstained.

Ambassador Rudolph Michael Ten-Pow, Guyana’s Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations

The US through its President Donald Trump had threatened to cut financial aid to countries which voted against its decision to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Earlier this month, President Trump told reporters at the White House, “They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us.”

“Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he continued.

But notwithstanding this, Ambassador Ten-Pow stressed that Guyana’s position should not be seen as anti-US. Guyana believes that the solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine must be resolved peacefully and that the status of Jerusalem would be concluded based on negotiation.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

UN rejects Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding. Nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated, as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure. Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and

Iraq, are major recipients of U.S. military or economic aid, although the U.S. threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States recognised Jerusalem -- home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites -- as the capital of Israel, and would move its embassy there.

“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“We will remember it

when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations, and so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” she said.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump’s move. The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

Netanyahu described the resolution as preposterous.

“Jerusalem is our capital; always was, always will be.

But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theatre of the absurd,” he said a video on his Facebook page.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.

ABSTENTIONS Among the countries that abstained on Thursday were Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Nauru and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting no.

Australian U.N., Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the United States continue to play a leadership role in brokering peace, and abstained from the vote because, “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

It provided some $13 billion to countries in the

Middle East and North Africa; $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia; $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries, according to USAID. The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The resolution adopted on Thursday “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

French U.N. Ambassa-

dor, Francois Delattre said in a statement: “The resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.”

France voted for the resolution.

The U.N. action comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, and an abstention by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from long-time ally Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said: “It’s clear that many countries prioritised their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make.”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

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Cuba postpones historic handover from Castro to new president HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba’s parliament extended its legislative period by two months to April on Thursday, delaying the historic transition from Raul Castro to a new president, state-run media reported.

The national assembly, which meets twice a year, put the delay down to havoc wrought in September by Hurricane Irma, which tore across the island lifting roofs, uprooting trees and flooding low-lying coastal areas.

Some Cuba watchers believe it is more due to con-

Cuba’s President Raul Castro and his heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel

cerns about ensuring stability in the handover from the leaders of the 1959 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed dictator to a new generation.

Castro and his late older brother Fidel have led the country for nearly 60 years.

Their heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was born the year after the revolution, and has a much weaker public profile.

Cuba had already delayed municipal elections originally planned for October by a month due to Hurricane Irma, which Economy Minister Ri-

cardo Cabrisas said on Friday had caused damage worth the equivalent of $13.2 billion.

Traditionally, Cuba evaluates damages from natural disasters in dollars on the assumption that a peso is equal to the dollar. Many other official exchange rates exist in Cuba, valuing the peso at much less.

The political transition comes as Cuba faces a host of other challenges, from declining aid from its socialist ally, Venezuela to U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial reversal of the U.S.-Cuban detente and tightening of the

decades-old U.S. embargo.

Growth in tourism, transport and communications, agriculture and construction nonetheless drove a 1.6 per cent expansion this year, Cabrisas told parliament.

The number of tourists visiting the Caribbean’s largest island grew 19.7 per cent on the year to 4.3 million in the first 11 months of the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told parliament this week.

Cabrisas said the government forecast the economy to grow around 2 per cent next year.

“People are tired of the United States — people that live here, our great citizens that love this country — they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines urged the United States “to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.” as Washington had prepared to do so.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilize the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” said the

country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Ralph Gonsalves’ administration noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council stated that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,”

according to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines is, therefore, deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilizing and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem.

The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues,” it added.

US threatens to end aid to Caribbean --on vote at UN against Jerusalem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, CMC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to any country, including those in the Caribbean, that votes for a resolution at the United Nations condemning his recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump’s statement, delivered at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he exulted over the passage of a tax overhaul, followed a letter to UN General Assembly members from US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of countries that voted in favour of the measure.

“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said, adding: “Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot; we don’t care.”

But while Trump can hold up aid unilaterally as a form of leverage, cancelling it would require new legislation.

The bitter confrontation at the United Nations shows

the lingering repercussions of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem, which defied world opinion and upended decades of American policy.

While the decision has not unleashed the violence in the Arab capitals that some had feared, it has left the United States diplomatically isolated.

The UN General Assembly was scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would express “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to a draft text.

It would urge other countries not to move their embassies there from Tel Aviv, the Times said.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the United States would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, though State Department officials said a move was several years away, because of the logistics of constructing a new embassy complex.

“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the president and US take this vote personally,” said Haley in her letter.

“To be clear, we are not asking that other countries move their embassies to Jerusalem, though we think it would be appropriate,” she added. “We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended

and respect our decision about our own embassy.”

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Haley said of the vote in the General Assembly, “The US will be taking names.”

On Monday, the United States used a rare veto to block a resolution in the Security Council calling for the administration to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.

It said the vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, was 14 to 1, suggesting there could be a similarly wide margin against the United States in the 193-member General Assembly, of which all 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are members.

4

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

UN rejects Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding. Nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated, as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure. Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and

Iraq, are major recipients of U.S. military or economic aid, although the U.S. threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States recognised Jerusalem -- home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites -- as the capital of Israel, and would move its embassy there.

“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“We will remember it

when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations, and so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” she said.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump’s move. The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

Netanyahu described the resolution as preposterous.

“Jerusalem is our capital; always was, always will be.

But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theatre of the absurd,” he said a video on his Facebook page.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.

ABSTENTIONS Among the countries that abstained on Thursday were Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Nauru and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting no.

Australian U.N., Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the United States continue to play a leadership role in brokering peace, and abstained from the vote because, “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

It provided some $13 billion to countries in the

Middle East and North Africa; $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia; $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries, according to USAID. The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The resolution adopted on Thursday “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

French U.N. Ambassa-

dor, Francois Delattre said in a statement: “The resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.”

France voted for the resolution.

The U.N. action comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, and an abstention by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from long-time ally Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said: “It’s clear that many countries prioritised their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make.”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

5

Cuba postpones historic handover from Castro to new president HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba’s parliament extended its legislative period by two months to April on Thursday, delaying the historic transition from Raul Castro to a new president, state-run media reported.

The national assembly, which meets twice a year, put the delay down to havoc wrought in September by Hurricane Irma, which tore across the island lifting roofs, uprooting trees and flooding low-lying coastal areas.

Some Cuba watchers believe it is more due to con-

Cuba’s President Raul Castro and his heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel

cerns about ensuring stability in the handover from the leaders of the 1959 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed dictator to a new generation.

Castro and his late older brother Fidel have led the country for nearly 60 years.

Their heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was born the year after the revolution, and has a much weaker public profile.

Cuba had already delayed municipal elections originally planned for October by a month due to Hurricane Irma, which Economy Minister Ri-

cardo Cabrisas said on Friday had caused damage worth the equivalent of $13.2 billion.

Traditionally, Cuba evaluates damages from natural disasters in dollars on the assumption that a peso is equal to the dollar. Many other official exchange rates exist in Cuba, valuing the peso at much less.

The political transition comes as Cuba faces a host of other challenges, from declining aid from its socialist ally, Venezuela to U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial reversal of the U.S.-Cuban detente and tightening of the

decades-old U.S. embargo.

Growth in tourism, transport and communications, agriculture and construction nonetheless drove a 1.6 per cent expansion this year, Cabrisas told parliament.

The number of tourists visiting the Caribbean’s largest island grew 19.7 per cent on the year to 4.3 million in the first 11 months of the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told parliament this week.

Cabrisas said the government forecast the economy to grow around 2 per cent next year.

“People are tired of the United States — people that live here, our great citizens that love this country — they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines urged the United States “to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.” as Washington had prepared to do so.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilize the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” said the

country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Ralph Gonsalves’ administration noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council stated that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,”

according to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines is, therefore, deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilizing and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem.

The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues,” it added.

US threatens to end aid to Caribbean --on vote at UN against Jerusalem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, CMC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to any country, including those in the Caribbean, that votes for a resolution at the United Nations condemning his recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump’s statement, delivered at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he exulted over the passage of a tax overhaul, followed a letter to UN General Assembly members from US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of countries that voted in favour of the measure.

“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said, adding: “Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot; we don’t care.”

But while Trump can hold up aid unilaterally as a form of leverage, cancelling it would require new legislation.

The bitter confrontation at the United Nations shows the lingering repercussions

of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem, which defied world opinion and upended decades of American policy.

While the decision has not unleashed the violence in the Arab capitals that some had feared, it has left the United States diplomatically isolated.

The UN General Assembly was scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would express “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to a draft text.

It would urge other countries not to move their embassies there from Tel Aviv, the Times said.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the United States would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, though State Department officials said a move was several years away, because of the logistics of constructing a new embassy complex.

“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the president and US take this vote personally,” said Haley in her letter.

“To be clear, we are not asking that other countries move their embassies to Jerusalem, though we think it would be appropriate,” she added. “We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended

and respect our decision about our own embassy.”

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Haley said of the vote in the General Assembly, “The US will be taking names.”

On Monday, the United States used a rare veto to block a resolution in the Security Council calling for the administration to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.

It said the vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, was 14 to 1, suggesting there could be a similarly wide margin against the United States in the 193-member General Assembly, of which all 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are members.

4

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

UN rejects Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding. Nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated, as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure. Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and

Iraq, are major recipients of U.S. military or economic aid, although the U.S. threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States recognised Jerusalem -- home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites -- as the capital of Israel, and would move its embassy there.

“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“We will remember it

when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations, and so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” she said.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump’s move. The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

Netanyahu described the resolution as preposterous.

“Jerusalem is our capital; always was, always will be.

But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theatre of the absurd,” he said a video on his Facebook page.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.

ABSTENTIONS Among the countries that abstained on Thursday were Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Nauru and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting no.

Australian U.N., Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the United States continue to play a leadership role in brokering peace, and abstained from the vote because, “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

It provided some $13 billion to countries in the

Middle East and North Africa; $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia; $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries, according to USAID. The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The resolution adopted on Thursday “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

French U.N. Ambassa-

dor, Francois Delattre said in a statement: “The resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.”

France voted for the resolution.

The U.N. action comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, and an abstention by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from long-time ally Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said: “It’s clear that many countries prioritised their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make.”

Friday, December 22, 2017 - 5:00 hrs Saturday, December 23, 2017 - 5:30 hrs

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4

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

UN rejects Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding. Nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated, as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure. Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and

Iraq, are major recipients of U.S. military or economic aid, although the U.S. threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States recognised Jerusalem -- home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites -- as the capital of Israel, and would move its embassy there.

“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“We will remember it

when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations, and so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” she said.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump’s move. The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

Netanyahu described the resolution as preposterous.

“Jerusalem is our capital; always was, always will be.

But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theatre of the absurd,” he said a video on his Facebook page.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.

ABSTENTIONS Among the countries that abstained on Thursday were Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Nauru and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting no.

Australian U.N., Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the United States continue to play a leadership role in brokering peace, and abstained from the vote because, “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

It provided some $13 billion to countries in the

Middle East and North Africa; $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia; $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries, according to USAID. The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The resolution adopted on Thursday “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

French U.N. Ambassa-

dor, Francois Delattre said in a statement: “The resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.”

France voted for the resolution.

The U.N. action comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, and an abstention by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from long-time ally Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said: “It’s clear that many countries prioritised their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make.”

Friday, December 22, 2017 - 5:00 hrs Saturday, December 23, 2017 - 5:30 hrs

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GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

5

Cuba postpones historic handover from Castro to new president HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba’s parliament extended its legislative period by two months to April on Thursday, delaying the historic transition from Raul Castro to a new president, state-run media reported.

The national assembly, which meets twice a year, put the delay down to havoc wrought in September by Hurricane Irma, which tore across the island lifting roofs, uprooting trees and flooding low-lying coastal areas.

Some Cuba watchers believe it is more due to con-

Cuba’s President Raul Castro and his heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel

cerns about ensuring stability in the handover from the leaders of the 1959 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed dictator to a new generation.

Castro and his late older brother Fidel have led the country for nearly 60 years.

Their heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was born the year after the revolution, and has a much weaker public profile.

Cuba had already delayed municipal elections originally planned for October by a month due to Hurricane Irma, which Economy Minister Ri-

cardo Cabrisas said on Friday had caused damage worth the equivalent of $13.2 billion.

Traditionally, Cuba evaluates damages from natural disasters in dollars on the assumption that a peso is equal to the dollar. Many other official exchange rates exist in Cuba, valuing the peso at much less.

The political transition comes as Cuba faces a host of other challenges, from declining aid from its socialist ally, Venezuela to U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial reversal of the U.S.-Cuban detente and tightening of the

decades-old U.S. embargo.

Growth in tourism, transport and communications, agriculture and construction nonetheless drove a 1.6 per cent expansion this year, Cabrisas told parliament.

The number of tourists visiting the Caribbean’s largest island grew 19.7 per cent on the year to 4.3 million in the first 11 months of the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told parliament this week.

Cabrisas said the government forecast the economy to grow around 2 per cent next year.

“People are tired of the United States — people that live here, our great citizens that love this country — they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines urged the United States “to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.” as Washington had prepared to do so.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilize the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” said the

country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Ralph Gonsalves’ administration noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council stated that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,”

according to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines is, therefore, deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilizing and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem.

The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues,” it added.

US threatens to end aid to Caribbean --on vote at UN against Jerusalem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, CMC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to any country, including those in the Caribbean, that votes for a resolution at the United Nations condemning his recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump’s statement, delivered at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he exulted over the passage of a tax overhaul, followed a letter to UN General Assembly members from US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of countries that voted in favour of the measure.

“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said, adding: “Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot; we don’t care.”

But while Trump can hold up aid unilaterally as a form of leverage, cancelling it would require new legislation.

The bitter confrontation at the United Nations shows

the lingering repercussions of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem, which defied world opinion and upended decades of American policy.

While the decision has not unleashed the violence in the Arab capitals that some had feared, it has left the United States diplomatically isolated.

The UN General Assembly was scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would express “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to a draft text.

It would urge other countries not to move their embassies there from Tel Aviv, the Times said.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the United States would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, though State Department officials said a move was several years away, because of the logistics of constructing a new embassy complex.

“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the president and US take this vote personally,” said Haley in her letter.

“To be clear, we are not asking that other countries move their embassies to Jerusalem, though we think it would be appropriate,” she added. “We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended

and respect our decision about our own embassy.”

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Haley said of the vote in the General Assembly, “The US will be taking names.”

On Monday, the United States used a rare veto to block a resolution in the Security Council calling for the administration to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.

It said the vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, was 14 to 1, suggesting there could be a similarly wide margin against the United States in the 193-member General Assembly, of which all 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are members.

4

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

UN rejects Trump’s Jerusalem declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding. Nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated, as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure. Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and

Iraq, are major recipients of U.S. military or economic aid, although the U.S. threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States recognised Jerusalem -- home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites -- as the capital of Israel, and would move its embassy there.

“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“We will remember it

when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations, and so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” she said.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump’s move. The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

Netanyahu described the resolution as preposterous.

“Jerusalem is our capital; always was, always will be.

But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theatre of the absurd,” he said a video on his Facebook page.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.

ABSTENTIONS Among the countries that abstained on Thursday were Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Nauru and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting no.

Australian U.N., Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the United States continue to play a leadership role in brokering peace, and abstained from the vote because, “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

It provided some $13 billion to countries in the

Middle East and North Africa; $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia; $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries, according to USAID. The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The resolution adopted on Thursday “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

French U.N. Ambassa-

dor, Francois Delattre said in a statement: “The resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.”

France voted for the resolution.

The U.N. action comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, and an abstention by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from long-time ally Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said: “It’s clear that many countries prioritised their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make.”

Friday, December 22, 2017 - 5:00 hrs Saturday, December 23, 2017 - 5:30 hrs

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GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

5

Cuba postpones historic handover from Castro to new president HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba’s parliament extended its legislative period by two months to April on Thursday, delaying the historic transition from Raul Castro to a new president, state-run media reported.

The national assembly, which meets twice a year, put the delay down to havoc wrought in September by Hurricane Irma, which tore across the island lifting roofs, uprooting trees and flooding low-lying coastal areas.

Some Cuba watchers believe it is more due to con-

Cuba’s President Raul Castro and his heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel

cerns about ensuring stability in the handover from the leaders of the 1959 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed dictator to a new generation.

Castro and his late older brother Fidel have led the country for nearly 60 years.

Their heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was born the year after the revolution, and has a much weaker public profile.

Cuba had already delayed municipal elections originally planned for October by a month due to Hurricane Irma, which Economy Minister Ri-

cardo Cabrisas said on Friday had caused damage worth the equivalent of $13.2 billion.

Traditionally, Cuba evaluates damages from natural disasters in dollars on the assumption that a peso is equal to the dollar. Many other official exchange rates exist in Cuba, valuing the peso at much less.

The political transition comes as Cuba faces a host of other challenges, from declining aid from its socialist ally, Venezuela to U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial reversal of the U.S.-Cuban detente and tightening of the

decades-old U.S. embargo.

Growth in tourism, transport and communications, agriculture and construction nonetheless drove a 1.6 per cent expansion this year, Cabrisas told parliament.

The number of tourists visiting the Caribbean’s largest island grew 19.7 per cent on the year to 4.3 million in the first 11 months of the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told parliament this week.

Cabrisas said the government forecast the economy to grow around 2 per cent next year.

“People are tired of the United States — people that live here, our great citizens that love this country — they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines urged the United States “to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.” as Washington had prepared to do so.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilize the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” said the

country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Ralph Gonsalves’ administration noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council stated that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,”

according to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines is, therefore, deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilizing and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem.

The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues,” it added.

US threatens to end aid to Caribbean --on vote at UN against Jerusalem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, CMC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to any country, including those in the Caribbean, that votes for a resolution at the United Nations condemning his recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump’s statement, delivered at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he exulted over the passage of a tax overhaul, followed a letter to UN General Assembly members from US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of countries that voted in favour of the measure.

“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said, adding: “Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot; we don’t care.”

But while Trump can hold up aid unilaterally as a form of leverage, cancelling it would require new legislation.

The bitter confrontation at the United Nations shows

the lingering repercussions of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem, which defied world opinion and upended decades of American policy.

While the decision has not unleashed the violence in the Arab capitals that some had feared, it has left the United States diplomatically isolated.

The UN General Assembly was scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would express “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to a draft text.

It would urge other countries not to move their embassies there from Tel Aviv, the Times said.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the United States would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, though State Department officials said a move was several years away, because of the logistics of constructing a new embassy complex.

“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the president and US take this vote personally,” said Haley in her letter.

“To be clear, we are not asking that other countries move their embassies to Jerusalem, though we think it would be appropriate,” she added. “We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended

and respect our decision about our own embassy.”

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Haley said of the vote in the General Assembly, “The US will be taking names.”

On Monday, the United States used a rare veto to block a resolution in the Security Council calling for the administration to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.

It said the vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, was 14 to 1, suggesting there could be a similarly wide margin against the United States in the 193-member General Assembly, of which all 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are members.

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

5

Cuba postpones historic handover from Castro to new president HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba’s parliament extended its legislative period by two months to April on Thursday, delaying the historic transition from Raul Castro to a new president, state-run media reported.

The national assembly, which meets twice a year, put the delay down to havoc wrought in September by Hurricane Irma, which tore across the island lifting roofs, uprooting trees and flooding low-lying coastal areas.

Some Cuba watchers believe it is more due to con-

Cuba’s President Raul Castro and his heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel

cerns about ensuring stability in the handover from the leaders of the 1959 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed dictator to a new generation.

Castro and his late older brother Fidel have led the country for nearly 60 years.

Their heir apparent, First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was born the year after the revolution, and has a much weaker public profile.

Cuba had already delayed municipal elections originally planned for October by a month due to Hurricane Irma, which Economy Minister Ri-

cardo Cabrisas said on Friday had caused damage worth the equivalent of $13.2 billion.

Traditionally, Cuba evaluates damages from natural disasters in dollars on the assumption that a peso is equal to the dollar. Many other official exchange rates exist in Cuba, valuing the peso at much less.

The political transition comes as Cuba faces a host of other challenges, from declining aid from its socialist ally, Venezuela to U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial reversal of the U.S.-Cuban detente and tightening of the

decades-old U.S. embargo.

Growth in tourism, transport and communications, agriculture and construction nonetheless drove a 1.6 per cent expansion this year, Cabrisas told parliament.

The number of tourists visiting the Caribbean’s largest island grew 19.7 per cent on the year to 4.3 million in the first 11 months of the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told parliament this week.

Cabrisas said the government forecast the economy to grow around 2 per cent next year.

“People are tired of the United States — people that live here, our great citizens that love this country — they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines urged the United States “to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.” as Washington had prepared to do so.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilize the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” said the

country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Ralph Gonsalves’ administration noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council stated that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,”

according to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines is, therefore, deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilizing and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem.

The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues,” it added.

US threatens to end aid to Caribbean --on vote at UN against Jerusalem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, CMC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to any country, including those in the Caribbean, that votes for a resolution at the United Nations condemning his recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump’s statement, delivered at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he exulted over the passage of a tax overhaul, followed a letter to UN General Assembly members from US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of countries that voted in favour of the measure.

“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said, adding: “Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot; we don’t care.”

But while Trump can hold up aid unilaterally as a form of leverage, cancelling it would require new legislation.

The bitter confrontation at the United Nations shows

the lingering repercussions of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem, which defied world opinion and upended decades of American policy.

While the decision has not unleashed the violence in the Arab capitals that some had feared, it has left the United States diplomatically isolated.

The UN General Assembly was scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would express “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to a draft text.

It would urge other countries not to move their embassies there from Tel Aviv, the Times said.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the United States would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, though State Department officials said a move was several years away, because of the logistics of constructing a new embassy complex.

“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the president and US take this vote personally,” said Haley in her letter.

“To be clear, we are not asking that other countries move their embassies to Jerusalem, though we think it would be appropriate,” she added. “We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended

and respect our decision about our own embassy.”

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Haley said of the vote in the General Assembly, “The US will be taking names.”

On Monday, the United States used a rare veto to block a resolution in the Security Council calling for the administration to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.

It said the vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, was 14 to 1, suggesting there could be a similarly wide margin against the United States in the 193-member General Assembly, of which all 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are members.

6

Editorial The Christmas message

THE Christmas holidays are upon us once again,a period generally seen as a time of merriment, but outside of its commercial value, gathering of loved ones and festivities, its religious value heralding the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God who came to earth in order to bring redemption to humankind, cannot be lost sight of.

His presence brought new expectations, new experiences, new beginnings, and new opportunities. Even though he was the son of a King, he dedicated his time amongst the people, empowering them through teachings and miracles; and while the option and temptation existed for Him to be a part of the privileged class, it was the common man and woman He sought out, and was committed to work with.

His teachings, grounded on the principle of equality and respect for each other, informs tenets such as ‘do unto others as you would like them to do unto you’; and the Ten Commandments, inseparable from His teachings, have grounded the quest for positive human relations among world organisations, governments and institutions’.

The said principles are the pillars upon which laws are built, in that peaceful co-existence, harmonious relationship, growth and development are hinged on all being held to the same standards and playing by the same rules. Christ was a fierce advocate for justice. His was an approach which, at the time, challenged the status quo. Justice, for

Him, was not built on the premise of reprisals (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth), but was tempered with forgiveness and second chances. This speaks to an acknowledgment that humankind, by nature, possesses shortcomings. With shortcomings come expectations that mistakes would be made. But generally, persons would appreciate compassion, forgiveness, and a chance to redeem themselves.

A look at our justice system bears testimony. When one is convicted before being sentenced, examinations and cross-examinations are done to determine what may have led to the alleged errant conduct. And in instances where convicted, the errant individual may enter a plea, seeking forgiveness and a chance to redeem his/her self by living a life consistent with the dominant values.

Poverty and hunger were other social ills that informed Christ’s solution-driven teachings. The famed story of him feeding a multitude with few fishes and loaves of bread is a notable example. Though the option existed to serve those fishes and loaves among a select few, the decision was taken to ensure that all were fed and none was with want. This is a principle that undergirds policies, laws, programmes and implementations to end poverty and hunger.

In a world where poverty and hunger are on the rise, as human beings, when we act towards each other with oneness, it bodes well in recognising that the success of

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

Broomes livens up South Ruimveldt

By Svetlana Marshall

one is hinged on the success of the other. And while no one should begrudge or covet his/her neighbour’s goods, the pursuit of one’s desire for upliftment is better achieved in an environment created with equal opportunity.

Spending on this occasion, though, in some instances, can be considered as bordering on extravagance.

In spirit, it is the yuletide season seen as an important act in demonstrating that we are all part and parcel of the moment and the principles that define it. Further, the desire for sumptuous consumption can be looked at through the lens that Christ’s birth promised hope, which includes an end to hunger and want. In that persons may indulge at this season, as against anytime during the year -- sharing with families and friends -- is reflective of the said belief.

Families, neighbours, friends or rivals who may have had differences, momentarily or prolonged, in this season set aside un-pleasantries and seek to greet and share with each other. This is a season wherein expressions of happiness and well-wishes are dispensed freely. The value of camaraderie that propels us at this time, irrespective of socio-economic, political or religious circumstances, fittingly marks the celebration of the yuletide season. May this value continue to guide us beyond this season.

MINISTER within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braved the heavy showers, and in some cases, flood waters on Thursday to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of children in South Ruimveldt Park, as she showered them with toys ahead of Christmas.

Accompanied by the members of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Women’s Arm – Constituency 14, owner of Fab Kids 592, Melissa Atwell; senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith; Samuel Medas and team, Minister Broomes could not ignore the stories told about an elderly woman, who despite being partially

blind, takes care of her four grandchildren, and as such made an impromptu visit.

Making her way through the partially flooded yard amid heavy showers in the vicinity of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Minister Broomes met with Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren in the comfort of their home.

While toys were presented to the children, it was the act of kindness shown to Thomas that brought tears to her eyes as she held the minister closely. Thomas was subsequently presented with a hamper comprising a wide variety of locally made products.

It was the first time Thomas and her family were greeted by any minister of Government. Overwhelmed with joy, the elderly woman

would only hug the minister and shake her head in disbelief.

Over at “Container City” aback of John Fernandes Limited, children from every nook and cranny flooded the lone street in the area upon hearing the news that Minister Broomes was in the area to “share out” toys.

Their faces lit up with excitement as they collected their toys; be it a toy truck, car, drum set, doll or stuffed toy. Some of the toddlers were even gifted with new clothing for the festive season, compliments of Fab Kids 592.

HAPPY “I feel happy I receiving this gift, I am so happy,” eight-year-old Justin Green told media operatives as he

Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braving the inclement weather to put smiles on the faces of Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren (Adrian Narine photos)

Change represents the inevitable in human experiences Dear Editor, REPORTS suggest that Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Raphael Trotman is considering reducing the powers now invested in him to control our patrimony.

What has triggered this, I’m not certain, but I believe it will put us on the highway of folly and clog the wheels of progress.

What is required now is a restatement of the undertaking given during the Election Campaign for

good governance. I believe we now have Leaders who are morally erect and that they in no way will be up for sale. We have made alterations to our Constitution since Independence, but to compromise the authority of a Minister without a public debate and good reasons, will be a backward step, perhaps, pandering to those with narrow partisan interests. Change represents the inevitable in human experiences. We come into the world weak and bawling, then daily we change men-

tally and physically, but daily we grow and therefore change.

Other aspects of change come about by people making adjustments, taking into account existing circumstances and their hopes and aspirations. Some of these man-made changes have had both happy and unhappy results. What is necessary is for the Coalition to enhance its public relations.

The techniques used earlier may not be viable today.

What we do not want is a dilution of democracy by

tying the hands of the Minister; most likely in the process slowing things down and delaying the making of decision in the public interest.

Recently, Reverend Calvin Haywood, in a powerful and relevant sermon, referred to parent-child relationship and by extension, the need for respect and obedience to those like parents, national and political leaders who mislead and that the leaders as well must respect and obey the Laws laid down, but in particular

Laws of God, as found in the Holy Scriptures.

We talk quite a bit about the Renaissance. The truth can be put quite simply, but even as Europe, including England advanced, Roman Laws exerted quite a bit of influence on the thinking of government during the 17th century.

The basis of sovereignty had been widened in order to include sanctions more severe than earlier man-imposed laws. At the end of the day, what matters must be of cleavage and

obedience to establish laws and principles of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity.

In the case of the matter, the Ten Commandments are crystal clear. What the Nation must therefore develop is a revival of our spiritual and moral values. For that matter, how we think with laws and powers, what matters is the integrity of our leaders and the confidence we have in them.

Regards Hamilton Green

Children of Rasville receiving their gifts from Minister Simona Broomes

Minister Simona Broomes distributing toys to the children of Container City

thanked Minister Broomes for the toy truck he was given.

The situation was no different when the minister and her team visited other areas of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, including Rasville and the ‘Shopping Plaza’.

At the ‘Shopping Plaza’, a stay-at-home mother of four, Abiola Telford, said the initiative was a timely one.

“This is very nice, you know some parents don’t have money right now to buy anything for their children, so yes, I am thankful that at least I know they will have toys this Christmas,” Telford told this newspaper.

In a brief interview with reporters, Minister Broomes said Thursday’s toys distribution marks the first of many for this festive season.

“Today is just about Broomes being Broomes. At school time, I do give school supplies, Easter kites, and of course at Christmas, I want all of our Guyanese children to have a wonderful Christmas. So starting from today, I am moving through,” Minister Broomes said.

She said it is always a pleasure to meet and mingle with children in their comfort zones.

She also used the opportunity to applaud the Constituency 14 representatives for working with residents, in particular children, in and out of season.

FANTASTIC JOB “I have some women here from the women’s arm of the party. They have been doing some fantastic job around the place. I really love what they are doing....

They have been working with people with housing problems, health problems, less fortunate people, and need support; these women are working with them on the ground,” Minister Broomes posited.

PNCR Constituency 14 representative, Brenda Williams, said the group has always celebrated with the residents of their constituency, whether it is at Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day. “These areas were selected because they have some very poor people, vulnerable people, and they come first, and whatever we have, we reach out to them first, in all of the areas,” Williams explained.

Her colleague, Simona George, added that the women’s group has been very active in the various communities.

7

Even this elderly woman got in on the excitement at Container City

Minister Simona Broomes being embraced

by Mariah Thomas

Senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith, assisting in the toy distribution

“We work with the children; they come for lessons, we give them a meal or snack, whatever we have and we visit the communities from time to time to keep in contact with them to see what is going on,” George explained.

George was pleased to have Minister Broomes onboard with the women’s group to meet the needs of the children.

Atwell told this newspaper that Thursday was the first time she partnered with Minister Broomes. For her, the exercise was a rewarding one. Last August, Atwell, a

young entrepreneur, facilitated a back-to-school drive in Albouystown.

“I went into Albouystown and the response was overwhelming. There were so many children, I didn’t have enough bags to give the children who were in need,” she recalled.

In addition to the toys, Minister Broomes handed out 15 food hampers to residents of the constituency, including the representatives from the women’s arm.

Minister Broomes will be visiting Berbice and a number of other regions before Christmas.

6

Editorial The Christmas message

THE Christmas holidays are upon us once again,a period generally seen as a time of merriment, but outside of its commercial value, gathering of loved ones and festivities, its religious value heralding the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God who came to earth in order to bring redemption to humankind, cannot be lost sight of.

His presence brought new expectations, new experiences, new beginnings, and new opportunities. Even though he was the son of a King, he dedicated his time amongst the people, empowering them through teachings and miracles; and while the option and temptation existed for Him to be a part of the privileged class, it was the common man and woman He sought out, and was committed to work with.

His teachings, grounded on the principle of equality and respect for each other, informs tenets such as ‘do unto others as you would like them to do unto you’; and the Ten Commandments, inseparable from His teachings, have grounded the quest for positive human relations among world organisations, governments and institutions’.

The said principles are the pillars upon which laws are built, in that peaceful co-existence, harmonious relationship, growth and development are hinged on all being held to the same standards and playing by the same rules. Christ was a fierce advocate for justice. His was an approach which, at the time, challenged the status quo. Justice, for

Him, was not built on the premise of reprisals (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth), but was tempered with forgiveness and second chances. This speaks to an acknowledgment that humankind, by nature, possesses shortcomings. With shortcomings come expectations that mistakes would be made. But generally, persons would appreciate compassion, forgiveness, and a chance to redeem themselves.

A look at our justice system bears testimony. When one is convicted before being sentenced, examinations and cross-examinations are done to determine what may have led to the alleged errant conduct. And in instances where convicted, the errant individual may enter a plea, seeking forgiveness and a chance to redeem his/her self by living a life consistent with the dominant values.

Poverty and hunger were other social ills that informed Christ’s solution-driven teachings. The famed story of him feeding a multitude with few fishes and loaves of bread is a notable example. Though the option existed to serve those fishes and loaves among a select few, the decision was taken to ensure that all were fed and none was with want. This is a principle that undergirds policies, laws, programmes and implementations to end poverty and hunger.

In a world where poverty and hunger are on the rise, as human beings, when we act towards each other with oneness, it bodes well in recognising that the success of

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

Broomes livens up South Ruimveldt

By Svetlana Marshall

one is hinged on the success of the other. And while no one should begrudge or covet his/her neighbour’s goods, the pursuit of one’s desire for upliftment is better achieved in an environment created with equal opportunity.

Spending on this occasion, though, in some instances, can be considered as bordering on extravagance.

In spirit, it is the yuletide season seen as an important act in demonstrating that we are all part and parcel of the moment and the principles that define it. Further, the desire for sumptuous consumption can be looked at through the lens that Christ’s birth promised hope, which includes an end to hunger and want. In that persons may indulge at this season, as against anytime during the year -- sharing with families and friends -- is reflective of the said belief.

Families, neighbours, friends or rivals who may have had differences, momentarily or prolonged, in this season set aside un-pleasantries and seek to greet and share with each other. This is a season wherein expressions of happiness and well-wishes are dispensed freely. The value of camaraderie that propels us at this time, irrespective of socio-economic, political or religious circumstances, fittingly marks the celebration of the yuletide season. May this value continue to guide us beyond this season.

MINISTER within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braved the heavy showers, and in some cases, flood waters on Thursday to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of children in South Ruimveldt Park, as she showered them with toys ahead of Christmas.

Accompanied by the members of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Women’s Arm – Constituency 14, owner of Fab Kids 592, Melissa Atwell; senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith; Samuel Medas and team, Minister Broomes could not ignore the stories told about an elderly woman, who despite being partially

blind, takes care of her four grandchildren, and as such made an impromptu visit.

Making her way through the partially flooded yard amid heavy showers in the vicinity of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Minister Broomes met with Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren in the comfort of their home.

While toys were presented to the children, it was the act of kindness shown to Thomas that brought tears to her eyes as she held the minister closely. Thomas was subsequently presented with a hamper comprising a wide variety of locally made products.

It was the first time Thomas and her family were greeted by any minister of Government. Overwhelmed with joy, the elderly woman

would only hug the minister and shake her head in disbelief.

Over at “Container City” aback of John Fernandes Limited, children from every nook and cranny flooded the lone street in the area upon hearing the news that Minister Broomes was in the area to “share out” toys.

Their faces lit up with excitement as they collected their toys; be it a toy truck, car, drum set, doll or stuffed toy. Some of the toddlers were even gifted with new clothing for the festive season, compliments of Fab Kids 592.

HAPPY “I feel happy I receiving this gift, I am so happy,” eight-year-old Justin Green told media operatives as he

Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braving the inclement weather to put smiles on the faces of Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren (Adrian Narine photos)

Change represents the inevitable in human experiences Dear Editor, REPORTS suggest that Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Raphael Trotman is considering reducing the powers now invested in him to control our patrimony.

What has triggered this, I’m not certain, but I believe it will put us on the highway of folly and clog the wheels of progress.

What is required now is a restatement of the undertaking given during the Election Campaign for

good governance. I believe we now have Leaders who are morally erect and that they in no way will be up for sale. We have made alterations to our Constitution since Independence, but to compromise the authority of a Minister without a public debate and good reasons, will be a backward step, perhaps, pandering to those with narrow partisan interests. Change represents the inevitable in human experiences. We come into the world weak and bawling, then daily we change men-

tally and physically, but daily we grow and therefore change.

Other aspects of change come about by people making adjustments, taking into account existing circumstances and their hopes and aspirations. Some of these man-made changes have had both happy and unhappy results. What is necessary is for the Coalition to enhance its public relations.

The techniques used earlier may not be viable today.

What we do not want is a dilution of democracy by

tying the hands of the Minister; most likely in the process slowing things down and delaying the making of decision in the public interest.

Recently, Reverend Calvin Haywood, in a powerful and relevant sermon, referred to parent-child relationship and by extension, the need for respect and obedience to those like parents, national and political leaders who mislead and that the leaders as well must respect and obey the Laws laid down, but in particular

Laws of God, as found in the Holy Scriptures.

We talk quite a bit about the Renaissance. The truth can be put quite simply, but even as Europe, including England advanced, Roman Laws exerted quite a bit of influence on the thinking of government during the 17th century.

The basis of sovereignty had been widened in order to include sanctions more severe than earlier man-imposed laws. At the end of the day, what matters must be of cleavage and

obedience to establish laws and principles of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity.

In the case of the matter, the Ten Commandments are crystal clear. What the Nation must therefore develop is a revival of our spiritual and moral values. For that matter, how we think with laws and powers, what matters is the integrity of our leaders and the confidence we have in them.

Regards Hamilton Green

Children of Rasville receiving their gifts from Minister Simona Broomes

Minister Simona Broomes distributing toys to the children of Container City

thanked Minister Broomes for the toy truck he was given.

The situation was no different when the minister and her team visited other areas of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, including Rasville and the ‘Shopping Plaza’.

At the ‘Shopping Plaza’, a stay-at-home mother of four, Abiola Telford, said the initiative was a timely one.

“This is very nice, you know some parents don’t have money right now to buy anything for their children, so yes, I am thankful that at least I know they will have toys this Christmas,” Telford told this newspaper.

In a brief interview with reporters, Minister Broomes said Thursday’s toys distribution marks the first of many for this festive season.

“Today is just about Broomes being Broomes. At school time, I do give school supplies, Easter kites, and of course at Christmas, I want all of our Guyanese children to have a wonderful Christmas. So starting from today, I am moving through,” Minister Broomes said.

She said it is always a pleasure to meet and mingle with children in their comfort zones.

She also used the opportunity to applaud the Constituency 14 representatives for working with residents, in particular children, in and out of season.

FANTASTIC JOB “I have some women here from the women’s arm of the party. They have been doing some fantastic job around the place. I really love what they are doing....

They have been working with people with housing problems, health problems, less fortunate people, and need support; these women are working with them on the ground,” Minister Broomes posited.

PNCR Constituency 14 representative, Brenda Williams, said the group has always celebrated with the residents of their constituency, whether it is at Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day. “These areas were selected because they have some very poor people, vulnerable people, and they come first, and whatever we have, we reach out to them first, in all of the areas,” Williams explained.

Her colleague, Simona George, added that the women’s group has been very active in the various communities.

7

Even this elderly woman got in on the excitement at Container City

Minister Simona Broomes being embraced

by Mariah Thomas

Senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith, assisting in the toy distribution

“We work with the children; they come for lessons, we give them a meal or snack, whatever we have and we visit the communities from time to time to keep in contact with them to see what is going on,” George explained.

George was pleased to have Minister Broomes onboard with the women’s group to meet the needs of the children.

Atwell told this newspaper that Thursday was the first time she partnered with Minister Broomes. For her, the exercise was a rewarding one. Last August, Atwell, a

young entrepreneur, facilitated a back-to-school drive in Albouystown.

“I went into Albouystown and the response was overwhelming. There were so many children, I didn’t have enough bags to give the children who were in need,” she recalled.

In addition to the toys, Minister Broomes handed out 15 food hampers to residents of the constituency, including the representatives from the women’s arm.

Minister Broomes will be visiting Berbice and a number of other regions before Christmas.

6

Editorial The Christmas message

THE Christmas holidays are upon us once again,a period generally seen as a time of merriment, but outside of its commercial value, gathering of loved ones and festivities, its religious value heralding the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God who came to earth in order to bring redemption to humankind, cannot be lost sight of.

His presence brought new expectations, new experiences, new beginnings, and new opportunities. Even though he was the son of a King, he dedicated his time amongst the people, empowering them through teachings and miracles; and while the option and temptation existed for Him to be a part of the privileged class, it was the common man and woman He sought out, and was committed to work with.

His teachings, grounded on the principle of equality and respect for each other, informs tenets such as ‘do unto others as you would like them to do unto you’; and the Ten Commandments, inseparable from His teachings, have grounded the quest for positive human relations among world organisations, governments and institutions’.

The said principles are the pillars upon which laws are built, in that peaceful co-existence, harmonious relationship, growth and development are hinged on all being held to the same standards and playing by the same rules. Christ was a fierce advocate for justice. His was an approach which, at the time, challenged the status quo. Justice, for

Him, was not built on the premise of reprisals (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth), but was tempered with forgiveness and second chances. This speaks to an acknowledgment that humankind, by nature, possesses shortcomings. With shortcomings come expectations that mistakes would be made. But generally, persons would appreciate compassion, forgiveness, and a chance to redeem themselves.

A look at our justice system bears testimony. When one is convicted before being sentenced, examinations and cross-examinations are done to determine what may have led to the alleged errant conduct. And in instances where convicted, the errant individual may enter a plea, seeking forgiveness and a chance to redeem his/her self by living a life consistent with the dominant values.

Poverty and hunger were other social ills that informed Christ’s solution-driven teachings. The famed story of him feeding a multitude with few fishes and loaves of bread is a notable example. Though the option existed to serve those fishes and loaves among a select few, the decision was taken to ensure that all were fed and none was with want. This is a principle that undergirds policies, laws, programmes and implementations to end poverty and hunger.

In a world where poverty and hunger are on the rise, as human beings, when we act towards each other with oneness, it bodes well in recognising that the success of

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

one is hinged on the success of the other. And while no one should begrudge or covet his/her neighbour’s goods, the pursuit of one’s desire for upliftment is better achieved in an environment created with equal opportunity.

Spending on this occasion, though, in some instances, can be considered as bordering on extravagance.

In spirit, it is the yuletide season seen as an important act in demonstrating that we are all part and parcel of the moment and the principles that define it. Further, the desire for sumptuous consumption can be looked at through the lens that Christ’s birth promised hope, which includes an end to hunger and want. In that persons may indulge at this season, as against anytime during the year -- sharing with families and friends -- is reflective of the said belief.

Families, neighbours, friends or rivals who may have had differences, momentarily or prolonged, in this season set aside un-pleasantries and seek to greet and share with each other. This is a season wherein expressions of happiness and well-wishes are dispensed freely. The value of camaraderie that propels us at this time, irrespective of socio-economic, political or religious circumstances, fittingly marks the celebration of the yuletide season. May this value continue to guide us beyond this season.

Change represents the inevitable in human experiences Dear Editor, REPORTS suggest that Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Raphael Trotman is considering reducing the powers now invested in him to control our patrimony.

What has triggered this, I’m not certain, but I believe it will put us on the highway of folly and clog the wheels of progress.

What is required now is a restatement of the undertaking given during the Election Campaign for

good governance. I believe we now have Leaders who are morally erect and that they in no way will be up for sale. We have made alterations to our Constitution since Independence, but to compromise the authority of a Minister without a public debate and good reasons, will be a backward step, perhaps, pandering to those with narrow partisan interests. Change represents the inevitable in human experiences. We come into the world weak and bawling, then daily we change men-

tally and physically, but daily we grow and therefore change.

Other aspects of change come about by people making adjustments, taking into account existing circumstances and their hopes and aspirations. Some of these man-made changes have had both happy and unhappy results. What is necessary is for the Coalition to enhance its public relations.

The techniques used earlier may not be viable today.

What we do not want is a dilution of democracy by

tying the hands of the Minister; most likely in the process slowing things down and delaying the making of decision in the public interest.

Recently, Reverend Calvin Haywood, in a powerful and relevant sermon, referred to parent-child relationship and by extension, the need for respect and obedience to those like parents, national and political leaders who mislead and that the leaders as well must respect and obey the Laws laid down, but in particular

Laws of God, as found in the Holy Scriptures.

We talk quite a bit about the Renaissance. The truth can be put quite simply, but even as Europe, including England advanced, Roman Laws exerted quite a bit of influence on the thinking of government during the 17th century.

The basis of sovereignty had been widened in order to include sanctions more severe than earlier man-imposed laws. At the end of the day, what matters must be of cleavage and

obedience to establish laws and principles of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity.

In the case of the matter, the Ten Commandments are crystal clear. What the Nation must therefore develop is a revival of our spiritual and moral values. For that matter, how we think with laws and powers, what matters is the integrity of our leaders and the confidence we have in them.

Regards Hamilton Green

6

Editorial The Christmas message

THE Christmas holidays are upon us once again,a period generally seen as a time of merriment, but outside of its commercial value, gathering of loved ones and festivities, its religious value heralding the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God who came to earth in order to bring redemption to humankind, cannot be lost sight of.

His presence brought new expectations, new experiences, new beginnings, and new opportunities. Even though he was the son of a King, he dedicated his time amongst the people, empowering them through teachings and miracles; and while the option and temptation existed for Him to be a part of the privileged class, it was the common man and woman He sought out, and was committed to work with.

His teachings, grounded on the principle of equality and respect for each other, informs tenets such as ‘do unto others as you would like them to do unto you’; and the Ten Commandments, inseparable from His teachings, have grounded the quest for positive human relations among world organisations, governments and institutions’.

The said principles are the pillars upon which laws are built, in that peaceful co-existence, harmonious relationship, growth and development are hinged on all being held to the same standards and playing by the same rules. Christ was a fierce advocate for justice. His was an approach which, at the time, challenged the status quo. Justice, for

Him, was not built on the premise of reprisals (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth), but was tempered with forgiveness and second chances. This speaks to an acknowledgment that humankind, by nature, possesses shortcomings. With shortcomings come expectations that mistakes would be made. But generally, persons would appreciate compassion, forgiveness, and a chance to redeem themselves.

A look at our justice system bears testimony. When one is convicted before being sentenced, examinations and cross-examinations are done to determine what may have led to the alleged errant conduct. And in instances where convicted, the errant individual may enter a plea, seeking forgiveness and a chance to redeem his/her self by living a life consistent with the dominant values.

Poverty and hunger were other social ills that informed Christ’s solution-driven teachings. The famed story of him feeding a multitude with few fishes and loaves of bread is a notable example. Though the option existed to serve those fishes and loaves among a select few, the decision was taken to ensure that all were fed and none was with want. This is a principle that undergirds policies, laws, programmes and implementations to end poverty and hunger.

In a world where poverty and hunger are on the rise, as human beings, when we act towards each other with oneness, it bodes well in recognising that the success of

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

Broomes livens up South Ruimveldt

By Svetlana Marshall

one is hinged on the success of the other. And while no one should begrudge or covet his/her neighbour’s goods, the pursuit of one’s desire for upliftment is better achieved in an environment created with equal opportunity.

Spending on this occasion, though, in some instances, can be considered as bordering on extravagance.

In spirit, it is the yuletide season seen as an important act in demonstrating that we are all part and parcel of the moment and the principles that define it. Further, the desire for sumptuous consumption can be looked at through the lens that Christ’s birth promised hope, which includes an end to hunger and want. In that persons may indulge at this season, as against anytime during the year -- sharing with families and friends -- is reflective of the said belief.

Families, neighbours, friends or rivals who may have had differences, momentarily or prolonged, in this season set aside un-pleasantries and seek to greet and share with each other. This is a season wherein expressions of happiness and well-wishes are dispensed freely. The value of camaraderie that propels us at this time, irrespective of socio-economic, political or religious circumstances, fittingly marks the celebration of the yuletide season. May this value continue to guide us beyond this season.

MINISTER within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braved the heavy showers, and in some cases, flood waters on Thursday to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of children in South Ruimveldt Park, as she showered them with toys ahead of Christmas.

Accompanied by the members of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Women’s Arm – Constituency 14, owner of Fab Kids 592, Melissa Atwell; senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith; Samuel Medas and team, Minister Broomes could not ignore the stories told about an elderly woman, who despite being partially

blind, takes care of her four grandchildren, and as such made an impromptu visit.

Making her way through the partially flooded yard amid heavy showers in the vicinity of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Minister Broomes met with Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren in the comfort of their home.

While toys were presented to the children, it was the act of kindness shown to Thomas that brought tears to her eyes as she held the minister closely. Thomas was subsequently presented with a hamper comprising a wide variety of locally made products.

It was the first time Thomas and her family were greeted by any minister of Government. Overwhelmed with joy, the elderly woman

would only hug the minister and shake her head in disbelief.

Over at “Container City” aback of John Fernandes Limited, children from every nook and cranny flooded the lone street in the area upon hearing the news that Minister Broomes was in the area to “share out” toys.

Their faces lit up with excitement as they collected their toys; be it a toy truck, car, drum set, doll or stuffed toy. Some of the toddlers were even gifted with new clothing for the festive season, compliments of Fab Kids 592.

HAPPY “I feel happy I receiving this gift, I am so happy,” eight-year-old Justin Green told media operatives as he

Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braving the inclement weather to put smiles on the faces of Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren (Adrian Narine photos)

Change represents the inevitable in human experiences Dear Editor, REPORTS suggest that Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Raphael Trotman is considering reducing the powers now invested in him to control our patrimony.

What has triggered this, I’m not certain, but I believe it will put us on the highway of folly and clog the wheels of progress.

What is required now is a restatement of the undertaking given during the Election Campaign for

good governance. I believe we now have Leaders who are morally erect and that they in no way will be up for sale. We have made alterations to our Constitution since Independence, but to compromise the authority of a Minister without a public debate and good reasons, will be a backward step, perhaps, pandering to those with narrow partisan interests. Change represents the inevitable in human experiences. We come into the world weak and bawling, then daily we change men-

tally and physically, but daily we grow and therefore change.

Other aspects of change come about by people making adjustments, taking into account existing circumstances and their hopes and aspirations. Some of these man-made changes have had both happy and unhappy results. What is necessary is for the Coalition to enhance its public relations.

The techniques used earlier may not be viable today.

What we do not want is a dilution of democracy by

tying the hands of the Minister; most likely in the process slowing things down and delaying the making of decision in the public interest.

Recently, Reverend Calvin Haywood, in a powerful and relevant sermon, referred to parent-child relationship and by extension, the need for respect and obedience to those like parents, national and political leaders who mislead and that the leaders as well must respect and obey the Laws laid down, but in particular

Laws of God, as found in the Holy Scriptures.

We talk quite a bit about the Renaissance. The truth can be put quite simply, but even as Europe, including England advanced, Roman Laws exerted quite a bit of influence on the thinking of government during the 17th century.

The basis of sovereignty had been widened in order to include sanctions more severe than earlier man-imposed laws. At the end of the day, what matters must be of cleavage and

obedience to establish laws and principles of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity.

In the case of the matter, the Ten Commandments are crystal clear. What the Nation must therefore develop is a revival of our spiritual and moral values. For that matter, how we think with laws and powers, what matters is the integrity of our leaders and the confidence we have in them.

Regards Hamilton Green

Children of Rasville receiving their gifts from Minister Simona Broomes

Minister Simona Broomes distributing toys to the children of Container City

thanked Minister Broomes for the toy truck he was given.

The situation was no different when the minister and her team visited other areas of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, including Rasville and the ‘Shopping Plaza’.

At the ‘Shopping Plaza’, a stay-at-home mother of four, Abiola Telford, said the initiative was a timely one.

“This is very nice, you know some parents don’t have money right now to buy anything for their children, so yes, I am thankful that at least I know they will have toys this Christmas,” Telford told this newspaper.

In a brief interview with reporters, Minister Broomes said Thursday’s toys distribution marks the first of many for this festive season.

“Today is just about Broomes being Broomes. At school time, I do give school supplies, Easter kites, and of course at Christmas, I want all of our Guyanese children to have a wonderful Christmas. So starting from today, I am moving through,” Minister Broomes said.

She said it is always a pleasure to meet and mingle with children in their comfort zones.

She also used the opportunity to applaud the Constituency 14 representatives for working with residents, in particular children, in and out of season.

FANTASTIC JOB “I have some women here from the women’s arm of the party. They have been doing some fantastic job around the place. I really love what they are doing....

They have been working with people with housing problems, health problems, less fortunate people, and need support; these women are working with them on the ground,” Minister Broomes posited.

PNCR Constituency 14 representative, Brenda Williams, said the group has always celebrated with the residents of their constituency, whether it is at Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day. “These areas were selected because they have some very poor people, vulnerable people, and they come first, and whatever we have, we reach out to them first, in all of the areas,” Williams explained.

Her colleague, Simona George, added that the women’s group has been very active in the various communities.

7

Even this elderly woman got in on the excitement at Container City

Minister Simona Broomes being embraced

by Mariah Thomas

Senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith, assisting in the toy distribution

“We work with the children; they come for lessons, we give them a meal or snack, whatever we have and we visit the communities from time to time to keep in contact with them to see what is going on,” George explained.

George was pleased to have Minister Broomes onboard with the women’s group to meet the needs of the children.

Atwell told this newspaper that Thursday was the first time she partnered with Minister Broomes. For her, the exercise was a rewarding one. Last August, Atwell, a

young entrepreneur, facilitated a back-to-school drive in Albouystown.

“I went into Albouystown and the response was overwhelming. There were so many children, I didn’t have enough bags to give the children who were in need,” she recalled.

In addition to the toys, Minister Broomes handed out 15 food hampers to residents of the constituency, including the representatives from the women’s arm.

Minister Broomes will be visiting Berbice and a number of other regions before Christmas.

GUYANA CHRONICLE, Friday December 22, 2017

Broomes livens up South Ruimveldt

By Svetlana Marshall

MINISTER within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braved the heavy showers, and in some cases, flood waters on Thursday to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of children in South Ruimveldt Park, as she showered them with toys ahead of Christmas.

Accompanied by the members of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Women’s Arm – Constituency 14, owner of Fab Kids 592, Melissa Atwell; senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith; Samuel Medas and team, Minister Broomes could not ignore the stories told about an elderly woman, who despite being partially

blind, takes care of her four grandchildren, and as such made an impromptu visit.

Making her way through the partially flooded yard amid heavy showers in the vicinity of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Minister Broomes met with Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren in the comfort of their home.

While toys were presented to the children, it was the act of kindness shown to Thomas that brought tears to her eyes as she held the minister closely. Thomas was subsequently presented with a hamper comprising a wide variety of locally made products.

It was the first time Thomas and her family were greeted by any minister of Government. Overwhelmed with joy, the elderly woman

would only hug the minister and shake her head in disbelief.

Over at “Container City” aback of John Fernandes Limited, children from every nook and cranny flooded the lone street in the area upon hearing the news that Minister Broomes was in the area to “share out” toys.

Their faces lit up with excitement as they collected their toys; be it a toy truck, car, drum set, doll or stuffed toy. Some of the toddlers were even gifted with new clothing for the festive season, compliments of Fab Kids 592.

HAPPY “I feel happy I receiving this gift, I am so happy,” eight-year-old Justin Green told media operatives as he

Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, braving the inclement weather to put smiles on the faces of Mariah Thomas and her grandchildren (Adrian Narine photos)

Children of Rasville receiving their gifts from Minister Simona Broomes

Minister Simona Broomes distributing toys to the children of Container City

thanked Minister Broomes for the toy truck he was given.

The situation was no different when the minister and her team visited other areas of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, including Rasville and the ‘Shopping Plaza’.

At the ‘Shopping Plaza’, a stay-at-home mother of four, Abiola Telford, said the initiative was a timely one.

“This is very nice, you know some parents don’t have money right now to buy anything for their children, so yes, I am thankful that at least I know they will have toys this Christmas,” Telford told this newspaper.

In a brief interview with reporters, Minister Broomes said Thursday’s toys distribution marks the first of many for this festive season.

“Today is just about Broomes being Broomes. At school time, I do give school supplies, Easter kites, and of course at Christmas, I want all of our Guyanese children to have a wonderful Christmas. So starting from today, I am moving through,” Minister Broomes said.

She said it is always a pleasure to meet and mingle with children in their comfort zones.

She also used the opportunity to applaud the Constituency 14 representatives for working with residents, in particular children, in and out of season.

FANTASTIC JOB “I have some women here from the women’s arm of the party. They have been doing some fantastic job around the place. I really love what they are doing....

They have been working with people with housing problems, health problems, less fortunate people, and need support; these women are working with them on the ground,” Minister Broomes posited.

PNCR Constituency 14 representative, Brenda Williams, said the group has always celebrated with the residents of their constituency, whether it is at Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day. “These areas were selected because they have some very poor people, vulnerable people, and they come first, and whatever we have, we reach out to them first, in all of the areas,” Williams explained.

Her colleague, Simona George, added that the women’s group has been very active in the various communities.

7

Even this elderly woman got in on the excitement at Container City

Minister Simona Broomes being embraced

by Mariah Thomas

Senior crime and security journalist, Leroy Smith, assisting in the toy distribution

“We work with the children; they come for lessons, we give them a meal or snack, whatever we have and we visit the communities from time to time to keep in contact with them to see what is going on,” George explained.

George was pleased to have Minister Broomes onboard with the women’s group to meet the needs of the children.

Atwell told this newspaper that Thursday was the first time she partnered with Minister Broomes. For her, the exercise was a rewarding one. Last August, Atwell, a

young entrepreneur, facilitated a back-to-school drive in Albouystown.

“I went into Albouystown and the response was overwhelming. There were so many children, I didn’t have enough bags to give the children who were in need,” she recalled.

In addition to the toys, Minister Broomes handed out 15 food hampers to residents of the constituency, including the representatives from the women’s arm.

Minister Broomes will be visiting Berbice and a number of other regions before Christmas.

8

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Guyana, Brazil eye US$50B China fund to build Linden-Lethem Road GUYANA and Brazil will be working closely with China to access a US$50B China Select Fund to help construct a road from Linden-Lethem, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said on Thursday.

Speaking after the Guyana Government signed two agreements with Brazil, one of which deals with the road link, the Ministry of the Presidency said President David Granger noted that for decades both sides envisaged a route through Guyana, which will provide better development prospects for investors to come from the Caribbean into Brazil and from Brazil into the Caribbean. “This is something that has been long discussed and in fact, in some parts of the Rupununi, roads were actually aligned but we never had funding to complete it. The infrastructure agreement we are entering will be focused on fulfilling that obligation to building a road between Lethem and Linden. Brazil has done its part; Brazil has built a bridge under the Presidency of Luiz DaSilva and the road literally comes right out to the bridge.

We need to do our part, so that is a very important agreement that was signed,” he

said.

Greenidge, for his part explained that in July of this year, he and Minister of Public Infrastructure, Mr. David Patterson met with their respective counterparts

with another partner, probably one of the multilaterals, we will close that financial package for that design…

Guyana has been speaking about it for ages; the funding of the road clearly is a

be completed,” the Minister disclosed.

He also informed that the two countries will be working closely with the People’s Republic of China to access the $50B China Select Fund to

Roraima, but in terms of volume, a larger volume of movement will be involved so as to get Brazil’s products, agriculture or otherwise, into the international markets by the route that turns out to be a

President David Granger and his counterpart of Brazil, President Michel Temer and their respective delegations held talks on a range of issues Thursday morning to discuss moving the project forward. At that forum, it was agreed that both countries will provide financial resources for the engineering and design of the road. “The engineer and design probably would cost somewhere in the region of $5M to $10M, between the two countries and

challenge to both countries.

Guyana is very small, so this is a big burden in terms of the financing costs. In order to conclude financing of such a project, you have to have all the technical aspects completed. The engineering design is one of the last aspects of the technical side to

complete the road. Minister Greenidge explained that this road link is a critical piece of infrastructure that holds great potential in terms of integrating the two countries and improving trade. “The region of Roraima will not only provide Guyana with markets into Brazil and into

lot cheaper than the route that they currently use, so it is a value to both sides,” he said.

Guyana and Brazil have enjoyed cordial relations since the establishment of formal diplomatic ties in 1968. This country has received Brazil’s support on the ongoing Guyana-Venezuela

border controversy. In fact, the President described Brazil as “a guarantor of Guyana’s territorial integrity”. “Brazil has borders with every country on the continent of South America except two and Brazil has stated over and over again that it has no interest in redrawing borders…

Brazil has stated over and over again its principle that borders which have been established under international law should not be disturbed and that is all we ask for,” the Head-of-State said.

Brazil and Guyana have a lot of shared interests and noted personal ties, which go beyond institutional relations.

At present, Brazil is working to rectify existing laws and addressing other domestic procedures to advance the air services agreement to facilitate easy transportation of passengers and cargo.

Earlier in the day, President Granger, along with his delegation which includes Minister Carl Greenidge, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; and Minister of Public Infrastructure, Mr. David Patterson; met with President Michel Temer of Brazil at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia.

Severance pay for sugar workers in January THE thousands of sugar workers who received severance letters from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will start receiving their severance packages in January, Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder disclosed on Thursday.

Holder told the media that while he could not state when specifically the payout would be made, the month has been identified. He explained that by virtue of a Cabinet decision made on Tuesday, the sugar workers can expect their monies next month.

Asked whether Government budgeted for the severance payout, the minister said, “I am advised that money has been made available…you can verify with the Ministry of Finance. Certainly, money is there in the budget to make payments.”

Additionally, Holder said GuySuCo needs approximately $4.6B to payout severance packages to the affected workers. “…the Ministry has an allocation for GuySuCo of $6.3B but other funds are supposed to be available through other avenues involving subsidies from the Ministry of Finance,” Holder told reporters gathered at the Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), one of the

unions representing sugar workers across the country, on Thursday said GUYSUCO has no monies to pay the redundant sugar workers, and called on the company to retain the workers in “suitable employment” until such time the workers can receive their severance packages. “The GAWU was dismayed and surprised to learn during an engagement with the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) yesterday, (December 20, 2017) that the sugar company has absolutely no monies to pay the some 4,000 sugar workers whose jobs have been deemed redundant at Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Demerara Estates.”

The union said that the affected workers after December 29, will no longer be employed with the sugar company and as such they are expected to receive their payments at that time to sustain themselves and their families. “The Corporation’s admission is in complete contrast to what Government officials have been saying over the past days. We drew to GUYSUCO’s attention for instance, that Minister of State, Joseph Harmon pointed out that a significant chunk of the State support flowing from the 2018 Budget was intended to offset the severance payments to the redundant workers.

The Corporation, however, clarified this

was not the case and the $6.3B allocation was intended solely and wholly to support the operations of the three estates that would remain under GUYSUCO’s control,” the Union stated.

Additionally, GAWU said it queried the $2.5B loan the Corporation recently obtained and was informed by GuySuCo that the sum was intended to sustain its operations until the 2018 first crop commences. However, the Union noted that GuySuCo’s explanation differed from that of GuySuCo’s Chairman, Professor Clive Thomas. Thomas, in the December 7 edition of the Guyana Chronicle, was reported as saying that the company has been able to negotiate for an advance on a temporary loan from a local bank to the tune of $2.5B. The loan, he said, would not only assist in paying the workers their severance, but aid in covering the company’s expenses for the remainder of the year. In that article, Professor Thomas said workers are to receive their severance by December 31. GAWU said it was informed that the earliest the workers would be paid could be towards the end of February, 2018.

“In our engagement, the company advised our Union that sometime earlier in the year the Corporation had advised the Govern-

ment on the need for support to finance the payments and, at that time, a preliminary figure was submitted. And, then a few days ago, an updated figure to meet the payment was submitted to the Administration,” the statement added.

The recently submitted figure, GUYSUCO informed, was still not final as the Corporation’s audit department was examining the data. The audit process would be completed sometime in January, 2018 and, thereafter the final sum required from the Government would be submitted.

“At that time, it follows, the Government would have to consider the request and, in all likelihood, approach the National Assembly for a supplementary allocation in order to meet the expenditure. That aspect will take a few weeks at least, and it seems that the earliest the workers would be paid could very well be towards the end of February, 2018,” the Union said, noting that the reality is “most upsetting.”

“Our Union, in view of the Corporation’s depressing information, has requested that GuySuCo retains the workers in suitable employment until it is in a position to honour the workers severance payments.”

9

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Brazil ready to play key role in Guyana’s petroleum sector

THE Brazilian Petroleum Corporation (Petrobras) has expressed a keen interest in entering Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas sector.

President David Granger explained that this is by no means a new offer, since they were engaged with Guyana in the 80s and in the early 2000s, but indicated that Guyana welcomes investments from its neighbour in that sector. “Brazil has a well-established petroleum industry, they have experience, they have expertise and Brazil is an important strategic partner, an economic partner and we extended an invitation to them, we extended an invitation to the entire world to examine the prospects of petroleum exploration and production in Guyana, and Brazil certainly is one of those and will be welcomed,” he said.

President Granger made these remarks following a bilateral meeting with Brazil’s Head-of-State, President Michel Temer in Brasilia, where he is on an official State visit.

President Temer indicated during that meeting that Brazil has been following the development of the oil and gas sector with great interest and is prepared to explore the possibility of cooperating with Guyana in that regard.

President Granger explained that Guyana’s close proximity to Brazil can be a major advantage when it comes to cooperation in the petroleum sector; noting that Guyana is looking at reciprocal, multilateral agreements such as that which exists between the Brazilian Army and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). “It is a level of cooperation that we want to foster and petroleum is just one of the areas we could invest in. We have invested in gold and diamonds; why not invest in bauxite or Petroleum?” he asked.

Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Raphael Trotman, who, along with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge and Minister of Public Infrastructure, Mr. David Patterson, are currently with the President in Brazil, said that Guyana had given an open invitation to Brazil and moreso, Petrobras and the fact that they have responded favourably is a great sense of reassurance and comfort to Guyana, since Brazil has always been a good friend and supporter.

“I believe now there’s a sense of confidence in assuring that they

Gov't relaxes 2:00 AM curfew for holidays GOVERNMENT has relaxed the 2:AM curfew for the closure of bars and night clubs for the Christmas holidays, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Thursday.

“Consequent upon an inundation of requests from businesses, Guyanese back home for the holidays, the general public and even senior public officials seeking to fully enjoy the Christmas Season, the Ministry of Public Security wishes to announce that, in conjunction with the Guyana Police Force, it will seek to relax the enforcement of the 2:00am business deadline for bars, night clubs and other places of entertainment,” the ministry’s notice stated.

It added:” It is a time for celebration and knowing the Guyanese spirit the ministry is persuaded and sees the need for this relaxation. The period during which the deadline will not be in effect is from December 22, 2017 to January 12, 2018.”

However, the ministry said as of January 13, 2018, the aforementioned stipulated closing time will be back on stream. “It must be pointed out, however, that all other laws especially those prohibiting drinking and driving and noise nuisance will be thoroughly enforced through more vehicular patrols and policemen outside partying spots. Party goers are advised to get a designated driver and ensure noise levels at partying spots are not excessive. Everything in moderation is what is called for.”

“The Ministry takes this opportunity to wish the citizens of Guyana Happy Holidays and to urge that everyone be particularly safety-conscious during this busy season, especially on the roadways.”

Sanctions recommended for cops fingered in school teacher’s murder

President David Granger and his Brazilian counterpart, President Michel Temer (MoTP) can step forward and work with a Government that is willing to embrace them… There’s enough there for Guyana, there’s enough there to share with allies and friends and with Brazil being one of the world’s leading producers and now one of the world’s leading countries and a good friend of Guyana, it’s best friend in this hemisphere, it would be a great plus for the people of Guyana, so we look forward to working with Brazil,” Minister Trotman said. As it relates to the possibility of Brazil conducting exploratory work in Guyana, Minister Trotman informed that they are interested in helping to develop the Guyana basin offshore.

There is, he said, an invitation for them to invest in this country as well as to provide much needed technical support and guidance, based on their experience and expertise. “Our next step would be to have their technical people either travel to Georgetown, where it’s more likely to be the best place for us to talk, meet with the technical people of the GGMC

[Guyana Geology and Mines Commission], the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Presidency,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, Minister Greenidge explained that as a result of the threat posed by Venezuela’s unjust claims on Guyana’s territory, many exploration companies were not interested in investing. However, he indicated with a major company working in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), that situation is changing.

“Brazil, of course, is our immediate neighbour and with its capacity in oil, and its capacity at Petrobras, is one of the major [player] in terms of deep sea drilling and we have no doubt that they can do the job,” he said.

Petrobras, which was established in 1953, specialises in exploration and production, refining, marketing, transportation, petrochemicals, oil product distribution, natural gas, electricity, chemical-gas and biofuels. (Ministry of the Presidency)

DEPARTMENTAL charges are to be instituted against the two police constables who were placed under close arrest during the murder investigation of Kescia Branche, police said on Thursday.

In a statement the police said the legal advice obtained outlined that the lawmen be charged under the Police (Discipline) Act Chapter 17:01 with: neglect of duty; consuming intoxicating liquor while on duty; improperly enters licensed premises and act in a manner likely to bring discredit on the reputation of the Force.

Earlier this month 47-year-old taxi driver Matthew Munroe was charged with the murder of Branche. It is alleged that he, on November 7, 2017 at Georgetown, murdered Branche. His Kescia Branche attorney had told the court that his client resides at Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, and that besides being a taxi driver, is also a part-time public relations consultant. According to the lawyer, on the night of Branche’s alleged attack/ murder his client was out of the country, and has phone records to prove these claims. Police Prosecutor, Inspector David Mansfield told the court that there are several issues that need to be clarified by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and on that note he requested that the matter be adjourned for a month. The Chief Magistrate agreed and remanded Munroe until January 9, 2018.

Branche, a mother of one, who resided in Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, was last seen on November 4, when she left for a night out with her friends. However, her unconscious body was found in the vicinity of Princes Street and Louisa Row the following day. Her left leg was broken and there was evidence that she’d sustained multiple head injuries. The Richard Ishmael Secondary School teacher died at the Georgetown Public Hospital two days after being found battered in the City. A post-mortem indicated that she died as a result of brain haemorrhage.

During police investigations three suspects-two of who were police ranks were being questioned regarding the death of Branche.

The two policemen were placed under open arrest and were working out of the Tactical Services Unit (TSU).

10

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Guyana, Brazil sign pact to reduce drought in Rupununi

President David Granger inspecting the Guard of Honour before he met with Brazil’s President, His Excellency Michel Temer

President David Granger introducing his delegation to President Michel Temer, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson. Also in photo are Guyana’s Ambassador to Brazil, George Talbot, and Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Audrey Waddell

President David Granger is greeted by Brazil’s President, His Excellency Michel Temer

GUYANA and Brazil on Thursday signed two agreements – one of which will help reduce the effects of drought in the Rupununi.

This agreement focuses on the Implementation of the Project -“Technologies to Reduce the Effects of the Drought in Region Nine of Guyana”. According to a Ministry of the Presidency statement, President David Granger and a Cabinet delegation signed the two agreements with the Federative Republic of Brazil. The President is on a visit to Guyana’s neighbour and he is accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.

According to the release the agreement signed is a Complementary Agreement to the Basic Agreement on Technical Cooperation

be signed by the two countries to facilitate actions by Brazil in support of the project.

“The project will commence before the end of this year, with the target (being) the end of the current rainy season to begin works,” Ambassador Talbot had told the Department of Public Information. He said then that during the works on the Brazilian side, counterparts on the Guyana side will be trained in drilling of the wells, operational procedures and well maintenance. “The element of capacity training is very important on this project which makes more than just a single intervention of drilling and leaving and building of capacity so that in the future Guyanese will be able to perform the works.”

President Granger disclosed on Thursday that the Brazilian Army will be working close-

between the Government of the Republic of Guyana and the Federative Republic of Brazil. The other agreement which was inked is the Complementary Agreement to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Federative Republic of Brazil, which creates the “Guyana-Brazil Joint Commission to Develop Infrastructure Projects.”

Meanwhile, regarding the agreement to fight drought, earlier this year Ambassador Talbot had told the media that the Brazilian authorities were in the process of preparing the framework under which Brazil would build a number of wells. The ambassador had said back in May that the Complementary Agreement to the Technical Cooperation Agreement that Guyana has with Brazil will be ready to

ly with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to develop its Engineering Corps. This collaboration will see the drilling of artesian wells in Indigenous communities in villages such as Para Bara, Achiwib, Karaudarnau, Aishalton, Awarewanau, Shea and Mururanau.

“As we know Rupununi is susceptible to droughts and floods so we want to remove that uncertainty and have a system under which the communities, there are over 50 villages in the Rupununi that could be supplied with fresh water continuously during the year and Brazilian terrain across the border is similar in many respects.

So there is not only going to be a supply of physical infrastructure but there’s also going to be a transfer of technology,” President Granger said.

‘It wasn’t me’

11

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

– Min Holder distances self from assault rumours

MINISTER of Agriculture Noel Holder on Thursday refuted allegations that the wife of a male employee of his Ministry was sexually assaulted by a government Minister stationed there (his ministry) Monday. The matter was brought to the fore by a letter writer, Arnold Sanasie.

But Minister Holder speaking at a press conference called to address the issue, made it clear that no report of such nature was made nor brought to his attention. The letter writer said the alleged victim was assaulted by the Minister “whose office is in Kingston”. The woman according to the Sanasie visited the Ministry to conduct business.

“On arriving at the Ministry of Agriculture, she was directed to an office. On entering the office, she was assaulted by the Minister. In putting up a fight and resisting his advances, there was a commotion. The commotion in the office caused other staff members to rush to the office. Had the staff members not rushed to the office, Editor, the woman would have been raped,” the letter writer stated.

However, Minister Holder made it clear that it did not happen at his Ministry and he was not involved. “As far as the incident that is reported, I cannot see it involving this ministry. I have had no reports from either the administration of the min-

istry or the security that any incident of this nature occurred within this compound”, he explained.

Additionally, the Agriculture Minister made it clear that no other minister visited his Regent Street office Monday as stated by the letter writer.

“As far as I am aware no other minister came to this ministry to see me on Monday and I am certainly aware that there is no office in this ministry that any other minister occupies”, he stated.

However, Sanasie in his missive claimed that the “terrified woman rushed out of the office. Another staff member recognised her as the wife of a Ministry of Agriculture staff member and advised her to leave. The Minister

Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder was abusive to the staff members also.”

He noted too that after rushing to her car and

driving away, the woman was followed by the Minister which resulted in him (the Minister) crashing into the woman’s vehicle on Shiv Chanderpaul drive. “It is God’s grace that the woman was not alone when all of this occurred,” the letter writer stated.

Asked why he decided to speak out on the matter, given that the Ministry’s surveillance footage indicates no such activities occurring within the premises, Holder said, “Things of this nature can sully a person’s reputation. I have had a good reputation all of my life for 72 years and I don’t want it sullied now. I am also aware that things of this nature could go viral, and very often once it gets

into the public arena it’s very difficult to remove this stain and attempt to put a smear on your character.”

Meanwhile, Director of Public Information, Imran Khan said the letter writer is unknown but said, “We have made contact with an Arnold Sanassie; I can’t say how many Arnold Sanassie’s there are in Guyana but there is an Arnold Sanassie who we have made contact with and who has denied any knowledge of this letter and we also have information that the name Arnold Sanassie has been used a few years ago by who we understand to be some political elements to create mischief.”

12

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Businessman donates 300 pairs of shoes to ministry THE Hardware Depot donated over 300 pairs of canvas footwear to the Ministry of Social Protection on Thursday.

Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, commended the owner of the business, Bonny Singh for his donation to the ministry and by extension, children who will benefit from them.

Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, receives the donation from businessman, Bonny Singh

A pair of the donated shoes

Ally said the ministry continues to receive support from the business community which is

geared towards assisting President David Granger to fulfill his vision of the good life for all Guyanese.

Massy Insurance set to pay out US$250M in claims to storm-hit customers MASSY United Insurance says it will pay out in excess of US$250 million to hundreds of customers affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which hit the Caribbean earlier this year.

To date, the company has received in excess of a thousand claims from clients with damage. As at mid-December, 2017, 80% of these have been paid with the goal to have the remainder settled by the end of this month, Massy said in a release.

The company, which operates in 18 territories throughout the region, saw customers in nine of its markets, namely Antigua, Anguilla, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, British Virgin Islands, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas, Dominica and Montserrat experiencing significant losses as a result of Irma and Maria.

In the aftermath of Irma, Massy United Insurance dispatched a team of representatives to the worst hit islands of St. Kitts, Antigua and the Turks & Caicos, but they soon had to batten down and prepare for the onslaught of Maria. Within a week of Hurricane Maria’s destruction, the company deployed another team of representatives to Dominica to assist with the recovery efforts in that country. As a true force for good, the Massy United team also provided food, water and other essential items, including tarpaulins to cover damaged roofs.

In expressing his company’s commitment to serving its customers, CEO of Massy United Insurance, Randy Graham, explained “we were able to support these hurricane victims some of whom are Massy United agents - due to the efforts of our staff. We also provided

relief supplies to victims, through collections and donations by other markets in which our company operates.” Massy United was also involved in the relief efforts that were coordinated by the wider Massy Group.

“We had claims officers and adjusters on the ground almost immediately after the hurricanes struck to assess damages and soon after began to settle claims in those territories.

In Dominica, for example, even though there was no light or running water, we opened our office so people could seek clarification on their claims,” Mr. Graham said.

“Speedy settlements are at the centre of the company’s customer centric approach and commitment to be a positive force in the region. Also, it shows Massy United’s role to lead the way in the insurance industry, especially in the area of responsiveness to natural disasters.

“We remain committed to serving our valued policyholders and helping them to rebuild and restore after any disaster. As a trusted partner, Massy will always be there for our customers and will serve them in a timely, efficient, and effective manner,” Mr. Graham said.

Over the 40 years since Massy United Insurance was set up, multi-millions of US dollars have been paid out in claims, in response to destruction caused by major hurricanes and other acts of God. This is why across the Caribbean, our customers trust us to protect the things that are most important to them. They know they can rely on us to be there when it matters.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

FCPF inks contract for REDD+ Readiness Process

IN implementing the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Project, the Natural Resources Ministry has inked a contract with a local consultancy firm to develop a Grievance and Redress Mechanism (GRM) for the REDD+ readiness process.

This is the first consultancy awarded under FCPF, which is readying Guyana to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The GRM is the national coordinating structure and procedures to receive; process and investigate issues affecting stakeholders/communities under the REDD+ implementation process.

The contract has been awarded to The Consultancy Group (TCG) and will be completed within six months. It was signed on Tuesday, December 19, at the Ministry of Natural

Resources, Brickdam, by Permanent Secretary Joslyn McKenzie and TCG’s Managing Director Timothy McIntosh.

FCPF Project Coordinator Clayton Hall, Project Assistant Michelle Astwood and Procurement Specialist Suzanne Munro witnessed the signing.

GRM is one of the most important pillars of the REDD+ readiness process.

The mechanism is based on engagement and dialogue among stakeholders in a transparent environment.

FCPF is a global partnership of governments, businesses, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and Forest-Dependent communities focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (ac-

Robber carts away television set of Chronicle cook

THE home of Lisa Dowding, a Guyana Chronicle canteen staffer was burglarised early Thursday morning when a thin-boned man broke into her one-flat house and carted off her 40-inch flat screen television.

The canteen employee lives at Lots 25-30 Tuschen New Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo.

The cook told this publication that she was asleep when she was awakened by a noise in her house and before she could investigate it, she saw a man peeping at her while she was still in bed. Afraid, she called out to her sleeping children.

By then, the man grabbed the television set he had unplugged and ran through the back door which he left open and fled in a waiting vehicle.

The incident occurred around 03:00hrs on Thursday morning and after the burglar had escaped, she summoned the police who showed up and found her ampflier on the back steps of her house.

According to Dowding, the robber gained entry into her house by removing several louvre panes from the side window.

He ransacked the house before carrying away the television set she took out on terms from Courts Guyana.

Police are investigating the incident.

tivities commonly referred to as REDD+).

In Guyana, FCPF is being executed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under a US$3.8 million technical cooperation agreement.

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PS Joslyn McKenzie (right) presents the contract to TCG’s Timothy McIntosh in the presence of FCPF Project Coordinator Clayton Hall and Project Assistant Michelle Astwood

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Firearm licences for Indigenous communities early next year MINISTER of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs Sydney Allicock has assured residents of Chinoweng and Wax Creek that they can look forward to having their firearm licences by at least the first quarter of 2018.

During a visit to Chinoweng Village in Upper Mazaruni over the weekend, where he also met with the residents of Wax Creek, Minister Allicock sought to appease the villagers who again raised the issue with him.

During the Ministry of Public Security’s (MPS) firearm amnesty programme back in 2015, residents from several indigenous villages had handed over their unlicensed firearms with the hope that they would be considered for licences.

But according to Minister Allicock, “things have not worked the way we thought they would have.”

He explained that the Community Development Officers (CDOs) were required to take the list of all persons who had returned their firearms.

He said that the plan was considered workable since, according to him, it would have been easier to identify “which firearm belongs to whom”. However, he said that plan fell through.

“We later found out that some of these applications were at Imbaimadai and some were at Kamarang and there was confusion. It was only recently that we found them, there was some mixup. We took steps and even had discussions with the President who thought ev-

Indigenous Peoples' Affairs Minister, Sydney Allicock erything was put in place,” he explained to the residents.

Minister Allicock said the process is still ongoing and promised that residents can begin to see changes by early next year.

“We are working towards giving you the licences; give us three months, the first quarter in next year because it is a lot of applications. We are treating this as special.

Give us the first quarter of next year…. We were looking at those who handed in their firearms, and we know that firearms are not serviceable. Those will not be given back, you will have to get new ones,” he told the residents.

He also encouraged residents to have their monies ready to purchase their firearms as soon as they are granted their licences.

“You must have the money ready to purchase.

You need to start getting your money, those who gave theirs,” he said. (DPI)

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Commander Budhram distributes hampers to hinterland ranks COMMANDER of ‘F’ Division, Senior Superintendent Ravindradat Budhram in the spirit of the Christmas season recently presented hampers to ranks stationed at the Kato, Monkey Mountain and Orinduik police stations.

Budhram said the distri-

lock up their homes when they leave it or go to bed; switch on lights if they plan to be out late; and avoid signalling expensive purchases by leaving boxes outside.

He added that neighbours should keep an eye out for each other’s property and report suspicious people or ve-

Commander Ravindradat Budhram presents a hamper to a policeman at Kato Police Station in the presence of his colleagues bution of hampers and other items is an annual activity to ensure that ranks of the division experience the cheer and joy of the season while away from their families.

“It is also a time the commander takes personally to engage his ranks and address concerns raised by the ranks,” Budram said.

The commander noted that although it is a season for giving, there are some out there that are preying on society.

Commander Budhram said householders should

hicles in their areas to police.

The commander encourages residents to avoid leaving gifts, cash and jewellery where they can be seen and make sure alarm systems, if fitted, are in operation.

Those travelling abroad for the festive season, he said should advise neighbours of their absence, have friends check their properties and make sure their mailbox is emptied.

“In addition, Christmas shoppers should avoid carrying large sums in cash and be careful when using ATMs,” he said.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

From us to you this Christmas

ALL year round, our local musical artists work endlessly to promote their music in hopes of creating an authentic Guyanese sound.

We followed Gavin Mendonca as he represented Guyana in Colombia at the CirculArt Festival, the largest music industry summit for Latin American, South American and other Spanish speaking countries in the world. Gavin is also working to drop his highly anticipated Christmas EP ‘Hung up on your Cross’ this season. Jackie Jaxx took a break during the year to focus on herself but is now back and better than ever with a new sound that speaks clearer about who she is as a musician. Meanwhile, other artists like Ruqayyah and Vanilla have worked tirelessly to produce new music and stay true to their passion.

Now, these artists have come together to extend holiday wishes to persons who, despite our struggling local music industry, have continued to offer unwavering support. Here are Christmas wishes from some of our favourite artists who we have covered during the year:

close friends and family and that we all have food on your tables and gratitude in our hearts. I plan to spend time with those closest to me and

by God’s’ grace, ring in the New Year together in health and strength.

In 2018, I plan to release my first mixtape successfully, perform and tour Guyana and several other countries. I’ll also start swimming and piano lessons in January since I’ve been meaning to do it for a while now. Overall, I hope to take my music career to the next level and set a firm foundation for myself. I will also launch to build my first small business in retail and hopefully make a name for myself as a competent business-woman.

All the best for the season!

Local artists give sneak peak of music to come

GAVIN MENDONCA Merry Christmas Guyana! Cheers to an awesome 2017, and to a 2018 filled with lots of laughter, joy, positive vibes and some brand new Creole Rock! \m/ FEED THE FLAMES A very Merry Heavy Metal Christmas to you and to yours! Keep the fire of the Season burning bright as we head into a brand New Year. Keep chasing your dreams and let the fire inside light the path to accomplishing all of your dreams!

RUQAYYAH BOYER I love the holidays and hope to spend Christmas with my grandad and friends back home in Linden since they’re the only family I have left in Guyana. If I had to request a present I’m not sure what that would be as I think I’m pretty content with what I have currently so I’ll be the giver instead this season.

While I started releasing music since 2016, 2018 is the

official launch of ‘Ruqayyah’ (The Artist). I am both nervous and excited all at once because this has been a long time in the pipeline. One thing I do look forward to getting across as I focus more on music, concepts and collaborations for 2018 is the separation between Ruqayyah Boyer, the former beauty queen, current TV/radio hostess and entrepreneur and ‘ RUQAYYAH’ the artist which will see quite a contrast in my overall persona and attitude than what most are probably accustomed to. It’s going to be an interesting and busy year and I do anticipate finally getting the opportunity to step into my truth as an artist while sharing bits and pieces of my past, present and future self, that I’m sure might surprise quite a few. I want to wish all of Guyana a Merry Christmas and Prosperous 2018!

VANILLA First off, Season and Greens (Season’s Greetings) to all of Guyana and a productive New Year! My Christmas wish never really changes because every year all I want for Christmas is to spend that special time with my family. All year round we are so busy that we hardly get to see each other so I look forward

JACKIE JAXX I wish every Guyanese can spend the holidays with their

to this time of the year when we all make a special effort to get together. This year we’ll be celebrating it in Hopetown, West Coast Berbice and Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara. What makes this Christmas even more special is that through the Give Another Chance Foundation and Digicel, I’ll be able to spread additional Christmas cheer to 100 children in those communities.

2018 is a year I’m looking forward to because there’s so much happening at the end of 2017. Apart from releasing new music and videos, I’m looking forward to my Television programme “Vology” which airs from January 6 at 15:30hrs on NCN. The show centres on Film, Nutrition and Music with particular focus on Guyanese and Caribbean content.

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OPM donates to Miss World’s “Sweet Vigor Campaign” Christina Mohan, Principal Assistant Secretary General (PASG) donated $200,000 on behalf of the Office of the Prime Minister to Miss World Guyana 2017 Vena Mookram for the “Sweet Vigor Campaign.”

Mookram’s “Sweet Vigor Campaign” focuses on bringing awareness to diabetes prevention, through diet and exercise. Her

main objective for this campaign is to educate the general public about how to prevent and treat diabetes through healthy eating and being physically active.

Miss World Guyana 2017 thanked the Office of the Prime Minister and noted that this donation will assist greatly in the education of youths about diabetes and also will encourage early testing.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Last minute holiday deals from your favourite local stores!

THIS holiday season, there is no shortage of activities to keep you entertained. But amidst all the excitement, there are still presents to buy and outfits to find! So here’s where you can find the best deals at the last minute!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

PIECES AND THINGS This local boutique has teamed up with Club 704 to offer you the best deal: buy two tickets to any event at that venue between now and December 29 and get a free Pieces and Things Outfit. There’s no better deal than that! The boutique is also well stocked with awesome outfits for the season, so be sure to check them out because they will be open every day (including Sunday) from now until December 31 to ensure that you have every chance to shop!

KOKO NATURAL HAIR STORE For that naturalista in your life, get them something that they are sure to love from Holiday Outfits at Pieces & Things

of 12 gift bundles. Makeup is the new “in” thing, so there should not be any question as to what to get that fashionista in your life.

The store will also be open on Sundays up to 15:30hrs up until December 31.

Curly Hair Care gift bundles at Koko

Koko Natural Hair Store. It’s hard to find natural haircare bundles even online, but Koko is doing you a solid by offering Curly Hair Care Baskets for Christmas from some of your Gift Certificates favourite brands: Cantu, at Little Makeup As I Am, Curlific and Shea Bag Moisture. The store has also extended their opening time to 18:00hrs up until tomorrow, so don’t miss these great deals!

LITTLE MAKEUP BAG This store is relatively new but has not wasted any time in joining the list of places giving the best deals.

Don’t know what brands your loved ones like? Get them a Little Makeup Bag Gift Certificate! The store also has a 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway promotion, customers who spend more than $3,000 will get a chance to win one

NA-MAR SHOWROOM Of course, we couldn’t leave out the guys! It can sometimes be difficult to shop for men, but Na-Mar Showroom is making that a bit easier for you this year. This establishment allows you to visit their site and shop online then they deliver the items to you/or you can arrange to pick up which is when you make your payment. How much simpler could you get it this Christmas time?

Visit namarshowroomgy.com before it’s too late!

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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Commemorating the birth of ‘The Christ’ I have to begin this column by thanking the female who called my home offering information on the village origins of the Poole brothers, mentioned in my column last Friday, though the lady did not leave her name or contact number, her contribution is well appreciated.

Over the years many of us have debated, argued and wrestled with the thought of how much truth lies in the gospel that was written 70 years after the historical event of the existence of Jesus. We, as young men growing up in the 70s, were enveloped by great music, much of it POP with religious overtones and innuendoes and direct engagements to mystical conversations, that echoed across continents, with cries of change and causes rampant across our human world, and also in Guyana. The literature referred to as the Gospel of the New Testament is the more likely foundation of all that is Christianity, and is a lesser pageant, better understood, than the question and the ideas of science and our local communists that denounced the existence of God advocating a scientific interpretation. I was given a book in the seventies from a friend a couple years older than I was named ‘Dialectical and Historical Materialism by Joseph Stalin’ that took me a few years to fully grasp the references of European philosophers and their writings, though the ideas were clear and decisive as to where loyalties should be, similar to religion, but without God. His elder brother was with the PYO and I later came to the realisation that though religion was abhorred and quietly mocked, with the local communists there was the opportunistic allowance to play games with religious groups encouraging false delegates and beliefs that suited their agendas politically- a feature still in place.

But as a teenager was not quite acceptable to my youthful idealism. I put the booklet down upon later reading about Stalin who was far more malevolent than the Biblical Herod.

Nevertheless, the mystery that is God defies all the scientific theories about our origins. ‘Our’ translates to life itself. We dabble, and have proven aspects of physical evolution among life forms but remain stunned and cannot with authority, rather than theories, answer the classic question of which came first the Chicken or the Egg. On the other side, with time, I have learnt that there is strong circumstantial evidence that prayer fused with sincerity delivers results. This is evident across all religious cultures and confirms to the said narrative of Jesus, that informed us that “the Kingdom of Heaven is within us” attributing our link and ability to some inner-outer force we don’t quite understand.

The New Testament and the Narratives of Jesus the ‘Christ’ is a textbook on life.

I view the gospels on its usefulness on life skills, and it is profound. Clearly, its ori-

manger includes the wise men that in the narratives were nowhere there. That the ancient imageries are all incorporated into the space and dictates of The Christ, contributing their vitality leaves little to question about.

The fact is that there are other such stories of great births among other nations. The power of Christmas differs in that it revolves around the crucial element that is failing us, it embraces the celebration of Children. This is the one time of the year that the subconscious message shouts at us to grant them the best day and season of the year. Perhaps we also commemorate the memory of the children slain by Herod. Should we read the symbolic language right, the Masquerade, Santa Claus, toys, special food, chocolates, the symbolic Christmas tree with wrapped gifts to give, nature’s tree of life with its secret tokens, even with the clean blinds from last year all arouse that special feeling of family, fun and the force of good within our collective human being, invoking the perspective that there is hope for redemption and salvation, from overpowering hopelessness and the Herods and like kind of our age and time. gins from numerous similarities are linked to the higher fount of knowledge known to man, that of the Kemetic Mystery systems. The Kemetic Book of the Dead [that deals with judgement after life] says “O blind soul, arm yourself with the torch of the Mysteries and in terrestrial night you will discover your luminous reflection, your heavenly soul. Follow this divine guide, letting him be your Genius, for he holds the key to your past and future lives.”

Was this ancient text a reference guide that the Elamite-Persian Magi Astrologically followed in their search for The Christ child? Whether the narratives of Jesus were written or transcribed by ancient scholars and adulterated by Kings over the centuries, there are significant ideas and deep truths infused in those text for the human that if you take the time to explore with other readings, it will develop a more enlightened churchgoer and believer and save a mass of persons in need of guidance and sincere ministry from exploitation.

The essence of Christmas revolves around supernatural occurrences, as does every religious belief system on earth.

Christmas is embellished with and has absorbed many local identities. Our local masquerade finds its root in African [solstice] harvest festivals, where the pageantry of spirits celebrate the earth through which the Gods reward mankind for our diligence. Santa Claus can be traced to Germany as a devil that punished bad children; and so is a derivation of Odin. The romance of the birth in the

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017 TOMORROW Ramada Princess Hotel presents a Christmas Jazz Show at Club Next, featuring all local jazz musicians as well as world-renowned flutist Ruth Osman along with Compton Cody, Trevor Rogers, James Jacobs, Herbert Marshall, Phil “Bumpy” Dino and Michael George!

Tickets: $5,000 (complimentary wine and cheese) Club RainArena (Lusignan) presents the ultimate Christmas party! Bring your designated driver and they drink non-alcoholic beverages free, compliments of Ansa Mcal. Proceeds from the event go to buying gifts and making a pepper pot dish for the kids at Enmore Orphanage. Come party this Christmas for a good cause!! Enjoy Heineken specials all night!

Admission: Just $1,000!

Presenting for the first time! El Clasico Ball & Breakfast at The Boardroom 313!

Enjoy the ultimate showdown as we serve you breakfast and the coldest beers in town! Event begins 08:00hrs.

SUNDAY There’s a “Pizza Hut Trap House Ball Park Rave” at The Other Place! Come out, eat pizza and trap with them on Christmas eve! Every early bird ticket comes with a free ticket!

Ticket: $1,000

IF you’re not completely busy with those last minute Christmas shopping and other plans, there’s quite a few events you can pop in on this weekend, and even on Christmas day, if staying home just isn’t your thing.

If you’re one who likes to start your weekend early you’re in luck ‘cause a lot of the hyped up parties actually start tonight. Whether you’re feeling naughty or nice this Christmas, dress the part and head down to Palm Court where Pulse Entertainment is set to throw the bash of the weekend.

Over at 704, as they continue their December calendar of events, Ms. Equal Rights herself, Ishawna touches down tonight to shell down the place. Take a trip just a little up the coast to Giftland and get a two for one deal with parties at District Ultra Lounge and at the Boardroom 313.

If you party all the way to Saturday morning at the Boardroom you could stay for breakfast and catch the El Classico football match at 8am on Saturday.

There’s going to be some jazz going down at Ramada Princess Hotel on Saturday. Over to Sunday, rave is going to a whole new level at The Other Place, and it involves pizza.

CHRISTMAS DAY You spent all day being nice, so at night, it’s time to be bad! Come out and party at Club Privilege at “Bad Santa” with international DJs Jerry West x PSTAR Perry alongside Guyana’s Selector Charlie, Selector Diamond, and DJ Gully Ras and all the naughty elves and sexy Santa helpers! Dress code: Naughty. Bottle specials all night. Giveaways of phones and TV sets.

TODAY Pulse Entertainment presents it’s annual Christmas Party “Naughty or Nice” at Palm Court! Let Santa know if you were naughty or nice this year. Take pictures with him and get jolly shots from the Pulse Girls. Music By DJ Ryan and DJ Energy. The GTT Pulse Mash Band 2018 costumes will be on display so come get discounts on costumes, packaged deals and more! Tickets: $2,000 ($3,000 at the door).

Join Team MMR this holiday season at District Ultra Lounge at the Giftland Strip for their “CSI: Chutney, Soca, Indian Party”. Listen to music by Selector Andy and DJ Golden Chyld while enjoying drinks specials. Ladies free before 21:00hrs! Admission: $2,000 Ishawna performs live in Club 704 tonight at “Equal Rights”! two pairs of Christian Louboutins up for grabs! Music by DJ Gully Ras, Selector Diamond and DJ Tallest The Strip Hookah Lounge and The Boardroom 313 presents “A 1st KLASE X-MAS”!

Happening today at 18:00hrs. Music by DJ Ana. Bottle specials: buy one of Magic Moments vodka and get another absolutely free.

Alkaline fans roast Vybz Kartel after BET birthday shout-out Alkaline fans are in a frenzy and even roasting Vybz Kartel and his fans after Alkaline received a shout-out from BET. The Vendetta boss celebrated his 24th birthday on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, and received a lot of wishes from his fans and celebrity peers including some of his close dancehall friends like Mavado, DJ Frass, and more. Perhaps his biggest shout-out came from BET who tweeted out a photo of the dancehall star with a happy birthday message that reads, “Big up to #Alkaline on his earth strong! #HBD.” Some of Vybz Kartel’s Gazanation fans didn’t believe that the shout-out was authentic when Vendetta fans started sharing it on social media. Some folks even suggested that it was photoshopped, but it was indeed real. The back and forth between fans of the two dancehall rivals becamehilarious.

“Vybz kartel can’t even get a shout out from sting BET and the red carpet #vendetta straight,” one fan wrote while another added, “The Gaza fool them a try say a fake but now them silent when them find out its real. A bunch of badmind individuals just like the cage boss.”

Alkaline and Vybz Kartel are two

of the leading artists in dancehall this year with dozens of hits between the two of them that only serves to further fuel their rivalry.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

El Clasico: Is this Gareth Bale's last chance to save his Real Madrid career?

REAL Madrid face a mustwin Clasico tomorrow and Gareth Bale is hoping to use the game as an opportunity to cement his long-term future at the club.

La Liga's reigning champions are fourth in the table heading into the game, 11 points behind table-topping Barcelona - albeit with a game

in hand - having dropped points in six of their 15 league games.

Bale had been absent for the majority of the campaign with a series of injuries, and those continual physical problems have led to speculation the club are willing to sell him.

Now he is back, and eager to earn another chance to show

he deserves a place in Zinedine Zidane's starting line-up.

But it's by no means certain he'll be given that chance.

Though Real made history by claiming five trophies for the first time (La Liga, the Champions League, the UEFA and Spanish Super Cups and the FIFA Club World Cup), injury problems

Sons of champions go after... clashed in the National Open Championships a few weeks ago and Allicock managed to secure the win.

However, it was not easy-going as he was forced to call on all his reserves to stem the flow of a rampaging Gibson. The former boxer was adjudged the winner but Gibson swore that he was ‘done-in’ and vowed to take matters into his own hands in a return encounter.

The Boxing Night clash provides that opportunity

and fans should come prepared for a mouth-watering encounter.

When the first gong sounds, junior boxer Shamar Morrison of the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) will match gloves with Emanuel Pompey one bout before Shaquincy Wright of the Vergenoogen Boxing Gym (VBG) versus K. Yayah of the Pocket Rocket Boxing Gym (PRBG). Exciting flyweight pugilist Julius Kesney of the Rose Hall Jammers (RHJ) will tackle Kelvin Moore (VBG) in an elite flyweight contest.

Junior boxers, Travis Inverary (FYF) and Jaden Graham of the Young Achievers (YA) will next grace the ring

forced Bale into a peripheral role, and Spain international Isco has flourished as his replacement.

Thigh and calf injuries have restricted Bale to just five league appearances so far this season, while his total number of injuries since moving to Madrid has risen to 24.

From page 31

in a fight that is much talked about. Both boxers have earned the right to be touted as top boxers and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Guyana Defence Force representative Colin Lewis has made quite a name for himself and has recently returned from St Lucia with a gold medal in the Caribbean Development Tournament.

He will be sizzling hot and ready to square off with Marlon Darryl (FYF) in a junior welterweight elite matchup.

Two GDF representatives, Aubrey Headley and John Mars, will oppose each other in a contest for bragging rights as well as

championship honours while Alex Murray (FYF) will attempt to keep the (Andrew) Murray legacy alive when he squares off with Akeem Crandon of the Pocket Rocket Boxing Gym. The card will be graced with two female bouts which will see Alicia Rodney, from the newly inaugurated Savannah Boxing Gym (SBG) clash with Abiola Jackman (FYF).

Aleema Arokium (RHJ) takes on Army representative Joan Williams in a female elite flyweight battle.

Fans are urged to come out in their numbers to witness the action which promises fireworks from ‘gong to gong’.

CRICKET QUIZ CORNER COMPLIMENTS OF THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & the City Mall (Tel: 225-9230) & CUMMINGS ELECTRICAL COMPANY LTD-83 Garnett Street, Campbellville, Georgetown (Tel: 225-6158) Answers to yesterday’s quiz:

(1) Kraig Braithwaite-91 (Wellington) (2) Tom Blundel-107* (Wellington); Ross Taylor-107* (Hamilton)

Today’s Quiz:

(1) What were the best bowling figures in an innings by a WI in the recent Test series against NZ? (2) Who were the best bowling figures by a NZ player? ?

Answers in tomorrow’s issue 11:40 hrs Posh Trish

American Racing Tips Aqueduct Race 1 Silberado Race 2 Steve’s Image Race 3 Dawn The Destroyer Race 4 Lillard Hall Race 5 Point Hope Race 6 Powerstroke Race 7 Daddy’s Home Race 8 Local Hero Race 9 Forward Motion English Racing Tips Southwell 08:25 hrs Street Poet 09:00 hrs Stringbark Creek 09:35 hrs Tilly Trotter

10:45 hrs Star Ascending 11:20 hrs Topamichi Ayr 08:30 hrs Craiganboy 09:05 hrs Lochnell 09:40 hrs Uncle Alastair 10:15 hrs Progress Drive 10:50 hrs Charmant 11:25 hrs Derriana Spirit Ascot 08:45 hrs Robin Waters 09:20 hrs Divine Spear 09:55 hrs Claimantakinforgan 11:05 hrs Eaton Hill

South Africa Racing Tips Greyville 11:15 hrs Beaufort 11:50 hrs Marshall That 12:25 hrs Prince Ponti 13:00 hrs Fonteyn 13:35 hrs Strategic Move 14:05 hrs Dance Off 15:35 hrs Star Of Caesour 15:05 hrs Hammie’s Game Irish Racing Tips Dundalk 13:30 hrs Noble Kingsway 13:00 hrs Theobald 13:30 hrs Koybig 14:00 hrs Port Lions 14:30 hrs Geological 15:00 hrs Zaofu 15:30 hrs Mandarin Monarch 16:00 hrs Jessamie

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Birmingham to host 2022 Commonwealth Games (REUTERS) - BIRMINGHAM has been chosen as the host venue for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, organisers announced yesterday with the Midlands city being the only bidder.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Louise Martin announces the winning bid for the 2022 games in Birmingham, Britain December 21, 2017.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president

Louise Martin announced the decision at a press conference in the city.

SPONSORED “We warmly congratulate Birmingham and England on today’s announcement – it is a defining moment for this truly Commonwealth city,” she said.

“With its rich history, cultural diversity, youthful dynamism and ambitious spirit, Birmingham embod-

ies all that we cherish about the Commonwealth.”

Durban, South Africa was originally awarded the Games in 2015 before being stripped of the event in March because it failed to meet promises contained in its bid.

Birmingham was chosen as Britain’s candidate city in September, beating a rival bid from Liverpool and receiving UK government backing.

The city’s bid was

Guerrero to fight ban (REUTERS) - Peru captain Paolo Guerrero says he is innocent and will fight to clear his name after FIFA reduced his doping ban to six months, allowing him to play at next year’s World Cup. Guerrero, 33, who plays for Flamengo in Brazil, had been suspended by FIFA on December 8 for a year after testing positive for cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine after Peru’s 0-0 draw away to Argentina in October.

World soccer’s governing body reduced the ban to six months on Wednesday, but Guerrero is still not happy.

“Obviously I am not relieved, it’s important to me to keep (fighting) to prove my innocence,” he told Reuters TV yesterday in Rio de Janeiro.

“I am not calm now because they reduced the ban; I am going to continue fighting to prove my innocence. It really is an injustice that they punished me as I have shown

I am innocent all along, I proved it, and we will keep proving it until they absolve me.”

“They cut the legs from under me,” Guerrero added.

“I did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Guerrero claimed the positive test was due to contamination and vowed to be back in action in 2018.

The former Bayern Munich and Hamburg SV forward, who has scored 42 goals for Flamengo since moving to Brazil in 2015, gives the Peru attack a much-needed physical presence and has a galvanising effect on their less experienced players.

The 0-0 draw with Argentina was a crucial result for Peru, who qualified for the Russia World Cup for the first time since 1982.

The South American side have been drawn in a group with France, Denmark and AusPeru captain Paolo Guerrero tralia.

judged to be not fully compliant with all the criteria in October, leading the CGF to extending the deadline for other bidders, but no other cities came forward.

Birmingham bid organisers have said that 95 percent of the competition venues are already in place with Alexander Stadium, an established athletics venue, set for an increase in capacity and facilities upgrade.

The only new venue proposed in Birmingham’s bid is the Sandwell Aquat-

ics Centre, which will host Swimming, Para Swimming and Diving.

The city centre Victoria Square will also be used for 3x3 Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball.

At an estimated £750M, the Commonwealth Games will be the most expensive sports event staged in Britain since the London 2012 Olympics.

“The UK has a brilliant track record for putting on the biggest sport events in the world and it is great

news that Birmingham has been selected to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games,” Sports Minister Tracey Crouch said.

“I am sure that we will put on an event that will make the country proud, leave a strong sporting legacy and strengthen relationships with our friends across the Commonwealth.”

The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be held on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia from April 4.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Duckett out, Foakes, Crane in for England Lion’s Caribbean trip (CMC) - Ben Duckett has been omitted from the England Lions’ tour of the Caribbean next year, but Ben Foakes and Mason Crane, currently part of the Ashes squad, have been included in a strong touring party announced this week.

The 23-year-old Duckett, a part of the current Ashes tour, was already suspended for an incident in a Perth bar a couple of weeks ago when he poured a drink over teammate Jimmy Anderson.

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed Duckett had been overlooked because of the incident.

Foakes, however, a righthander who averages 41 in first class cricket and leg-spinner Crane, who has played two Twenty20 Internationals, are in the four-day squad but have been overlooked for the one-

Fast bowler Sam Curran

day matches.

Both the red and white ball squads will be led by Keaton Jennings.

“We have included two members of the Ashes tour

squad, Ben Foakes and Mason Crane, for the four-day matches, with the possibility of either or both of them leaving the Lions tour early, if they are selected in the England

squad for the two Tests in New Zealand in March and April,” said national selector James Whitaker.

“We will be naming that squad in the new year, and the

same goes for the squads for the North-South Series which will be played in Barbados at the end of the Lions tour – and is likely to include the players who have been selected for the one-day series against West Indies A. Meanwhile, the highly-regarded pair of Jamie Porter and Sam Curran have been named in both squads, while fast bowler Roby Roland-Jones, who played two Tests against West Indies last summer, has been included in the red ball squad only.

Porter and Roland-Jones will be making comebacks from injury.

“Jamie Porter and Toby Roland-Jones are all available again after injuries – Jamie and Toby after working exceptionally hard on the ECB’s Pace Programme over the last couple of months,” Whitaker said.

“Sam Curran missed out on the Lions training camp in Australia but he has also been training hard, under the supervision of Surrey’s strength and conditioning coaches, before going out to play T20 cricket in New Zealand.’

England Lions face West Indies in three four-day ‘Tests’ and three one-dayers from February to March 11 next year.

SQUAD – Keaton Jennings (captain), Joe Clarke, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jamie Porter, Paul Coughlin, Saqib Mahmood, Nick Gubbins, Alex Davies, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Ben Foakes, Toby Roland-Jones, Jack Leach, Mason Crane, Josh Tongue, Sam Northeast, Liam Dawson, Dom Bess, Tom Helm, George Garton, Matt Parkinson.

Bravo snares five as Renegades trounce Hurricanes (CMC) – DISCARDED West Indies all-rounder

Dwayne Bravo grabbed his second five-wicket

haul in Twenty20s and became the first bowler

to reach 400 wickets, as his Melbourne Renegades trounced Hobart Hurricanes by seven wickets in the Australian Big Bash yesterday.

Playing at the Bellerive Oval in the third game of the tournament, Hurricanes rallied to 164 for eight off their 20 overs after being sent in, with D’Arcy Short and Ben McDermott both top-scoring with 34.

Medium pacer Bravo was outstanding, taking five for 28 from his four overs to lead the Renegades’ attack.

More importantly, he was responsible for breaking the two partnerships which threatened for Hobart. When openers Short and Alex Doolan (26) put on 53 from 36 deliveries, Bravo removed Doolan to a catch at short third man.

Bravo also struck in the 14th over to claim McDermott, holing out

Discarded West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo

to mid-off, after the batsman had added 52 for the third wicket with captain George Bailey (25).

The 34-year-old Trinidadian then restricted Hobart at the death, picking up three wickets in the final over – including the scalp of England-based Barbadian all-rounder, Jofra Archer for one.

In reply, Cameron White smashed an unbeat-

en 79 from 59 deliveries and Marcus Harris, 50 from 34 balls, as Renegades romped home with nine balls to spare.

The pair put on 113 for the second wicket before the enterprising seamer Archer, who ended with excellent figures of two for 17 from his four overs, had Harris caught at deep square leg.

29

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

2017 GCB/Jaguars One-Day 50-Overs League enters final preliminary round THE GCB/Jaguars OneDay 50-Overs League will enter its final preliminary round on Saturday December 23, 2017 with matches at four venues across the country.

On Saturday, December 23 2017, Essequibo, champions of the 2017 GCB/Jaguars 3-Day League, and who are currently leading the points table of the 2017 GCB/ Jaguars One-Day 50-Overs League, will do battle with current fifth-placed Upper Corentyne, at the Albion Community Centre groun.

Meanwhile joint thirdplace teams, Georgetown and West Demerara, will compete at the Tuschen ground, for an opportunity to reach the

Playoff. The Playoff is set for the December 28, 2017 and will involve the second-

and third-place teams to be declared at the end of the seventh and final preliminary

round.

Current seventh-place Upper Demerara/East Bank

will compete with the present sixth-placed West Berbice at the Everest ground, while

defending Jaguars One-Day 50-overs League Champions and current second-place Lower Corentyne will oppose cellar-placed East Coast Demerara at the Young Warriors ground. All matches will commence at 09:00hrs. The current point standings are as follow Note: Win 6, Tie 3, No Result 3 and Loss 0.

2 Super Bonus points (batting) – team to score 300 or more and win that match.

1 Super Bonus point (batting) – team to scores 300 or more and lose that match.

2 Super Bonus points (bowling) – team to dismisses the opposition for less than 150 and win that match.

Conditions cost us first ODI - Law Taylor named

(CMC) – HEAD coach Stuart Law believes conditions here Wednesday played a key role in his side’s five-wicket loss to New Zealand in the opening OneDay International of the three-match series.

Sent in, the Caribbean side mustered just 248 for nine off their 50 overs at Cobham Oval, which the hosts easily chased down with 24 balls remaining.

Law said the pitch had not been as easy for the Windies to navigate batting first, following early morning rain in the area.

“We would have liked to have bowled first as well,” the Australian told reporters.

“Whether or not the wicket got damp through the covers … there was certainly tackiness to the surface when the game started. I looked at halftime and it was bone dry.”

He continued: “You would have liked an even

Opener Evin Lewis goes on the attack during his score of 76 in the first ODI on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy CWI Media)

contest, not taking anything away from New Zealand at all.

“We saw our opening batters – they’re pretty good strikers of a cricket ball – they were having trouble locating it, which means

the wicket was doing something. We didn’t see that this afternoon (when New Zealand batted).”

Sent in, the Windies had an unusually slow start with top-scorer Evin Lewis and veteran left-hander Chris Gayle adding 40 from 61 balls for the first wicket.

The left-handed Lewis stroked an attractive 76 with seven fours and a six but was not at his fluent best, requiring 100 balls for his knock.

His dismissal in the 36th over saw the Windies slump to 201 for eight before Rovman Powell, who struck the ball cleanly for 59 off 50 balls, rallied the innings late on.

Law said while the lefthander had not been able to explode, the innings had been a crucial one for the side.

“He was circumspect with the deliveries he attacked,” Law pointed out.

“He’s a wonderful striker of a cricket ball. Today

he wasn’t able to be as free as he would’ve liked, but he showed some class. He showed the ability to get through some really tough times, to build an innings, and then unfortunately given out lbw when he was set, ready to continue that partnership with Rovman Powell.

“Those two can score very quickly once they get going and 15-20 an over is not out of the question with those two.”

After watching West Indies muff difficult chances to break the rollicking 108run opening stand between top-scorer George Worker (57) and Colin Munro (49), Law said it was imperative for his side to capitalise on those opportunities.

“We do tend to miss out on the half-chances and look, a half-chance is a difficult one, but we’ve got to start taking those if we’ve got to compete and beat teams like New Zealand – teams that are above us.”

West Indies take on the Black Caps in the second ODI in Christchurch tomorrow.

captain for women’s Team-of-the-Year (CMC) – West Indies Women captain Stafanie Taylor has been named captain of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 Team-ofthe-Year.

The 26-year-old was one of three West Indies players in the squad with the flamboyant Deandra Dottin and teenaged opener Hayley Matthews also making the XI. Jamaican Taylor is one of the premier cricketer in the women’s game. She has scored just over 4 000 runs in 108 One-Day Internationals where she averages 43.

She averages 37 from her 80 T20Is that have yielded 2 474 runs.

In the period under consideration, Taylor scored 266 runs at an average of 53, and currently tops the ICC T20 batting rankings.

Dottin, meanwhile, has stood out once again with her powerful middle-order hitting, with a brilliant hundred against Sri Lanka Women last October.

She is now the only woman with two T20 hun-

West Indies Women captain Stafanie Taylor

dreds following her exploits during the 2010 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Fellow Barbadian Matthews, still on 19-year-old, has emerged as the leading women’s bowler and all-rounder over the past year and sits on top both rankings.

She scored 163 runs during the period under consideration while taking 10 wickets with her steady offspin.

All three Windies players are currently plying their trade in Australia’s Women’s Big Bash.

No West Indies player made the ICC ODI Teamof-the-Year.

30

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

‘You are role models’ – Cameron tells cricketers Guyana continues to be the success story for a renewed West Indies trust PRESIDENT of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Dave Cameron believes that cricketers around the region have been looked upon as role models, and as such CWI looks forward for their support in changing the image of the Caribbean region.

Cameron made the comment on Wednesday evening during his feature address at the Guyana Cricket Board annual awards ceremony held at the Umana Yana.

“You, the cricketers, do not represent Guyana alone, but just remember you represent the people of the West Indies, and as a Guyanese you are a West Indian … if you are a Jamaican you are a West Indian,” Cameron said.

He added, “I want you to understand that as players, you are ambassadors for the region, so when you go out to play I want you to understand that you represent us as ambassadors for this wonderful region we are all a part of.”

Cameron has been able to move West Indies cricket from a position of indebtedness to one of profitability but he has come under attack from some quarters after his hardline measures in order to achieve his goal. He has cracked the whip in terms of accountability and this has been one of the factors, added to prudent financial management, which have landed the board in a position of profitability.

Cameron intends to work

The Guyana Jaguars are recognised for their dominance in the regional four-day championships. They are three-time defending champions.

with the players to take West Indies cricket right back up the ladder. During his last term he had to deal with the issue of the players coming back from an aborted tour of India and player relations with the board was not at its best.

However, the successful Jamaican businessman said with the new strategic plan, it is the intention of CWI to have the players at the forefront.

“Our trust in our new strategic plan going forward is having our cricketers lead

Sheldon Charles is awarded for Most Runs, Wickets and Most Valuable Player in the Regional Under-15 Tournament.

Keemo Paul receives his award for being the Most Promising Male Cricketer-of-the-Year.

Cricket Journalist-of-the-Year Rajiv Bisnauth, speaks on behalf of the awardees.

us, and if you lead us then we will follow and support,” Cameron stated.

Further Cameron pointed out that Guyana continues to be the success story for a renewed West Indies trust.

He made special mention of directors Anand Sanasie and Anand Kalladeen, for their leadership not only in Guyana’s cricket but their

invaluable contribution to Cricket West Indies (CWI).

Finally, the CWI boss reminded the gathering that while West Indies have a far distance to be world champions in Test cricket, he is confident of the possibility once more.

Meanwhile, Minister of Social Cohesion, with responsibility for Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr George Norton in his remarks pointed out that the achievements by each awardee play a significant role in the Ministry’s vision and mission of social cohesion.

Dr Norton related that while the ministry is playing its part in providing the balls for secondary school cricket, suitable playing conditions of grounds countrywide should be a front-burner issue.

He congratulated both

the awardees and the GCB for ensuring that the rich tradition of the sport is upheld.

Further, prior to those two speeches ,acting GCB president Fizul Bacchus highlighted some of the major achievements.

Meanwhile, Cricket Journalist-of-the-Year Rajiv Bisnauth, who spoke on behalf of the awardees, thanked the GCB and its administrative team who considered it necessary to acknowledge the continued efforts, as the awardees all strive to ensure Guyana’s cricket remains at the highpoint not only locally, but also regionally.

He called on the awardees to use their self-motivation, not only to reach out for personal goals, but also to let them assist in building on our rich tradition of the game, and since the Guyana Crick-

et Board is on a journey to “greatness", it can only succeed through the combined support of our individual contribution.

Shimron Hetmyer was named male Cricketer-ofthe-Year while Shemaine Campbelle won the female version of the award.

Other awardees are as follow: Shabeka Gajnabi (Most Promising Female Cricketer-of-the-Year), Keemo Paul (Most Promising Male Cricketer-of-the-Year), Bhaskar Yadram (Junior Cricketer-of-the-Year), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Senior Regional Cricketer-of-the-Year), Sheldon Charles (Most Runs, Wickets and Most Valuable Player in the Regional Under-15 Tournament), Sachin Singh (Most Runs in the Regional Under-17 Tournament), Kevlon Anderson (Most wickets and Most Valuable Player in the Regional Under-17 Tournament), Raymond Perez (Most Runs and Most Valuable Player in the Regional Under-19 Tournament), Ashmead Nedd Most Wickets in the Regional Under-19 Tournament).

Special Service Awards went to: Bharrat Sookdeo Tuschen Sports Club, Rayon Griffith, Esaun Crandon, Rajiv Bisnauth, Grantley Culbard and Daniel Richmond (posthumously).

Special Recognition Awards went to: Shimron Hetmyer, Raymon Reifer, Joshua Persaud, Bhaskar Yadram, Ronaldo Alimohamed, Ashmead Nedd and Raymond Perez.

Corporate awards were given to Hand-in-Hand Group of Companies, Scotiabank, Dave West Indian Exports, Sterling Products Limited and Demerara Mutual Group of Companies. The Club-of-the-Year award was won by the Albion Sports Club.

The recipients of team awards were: Guyana Jaguars, Guyana Male Under-19 team and the National Female Under-19 team.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, December 22, 2017

Sons of champions go after honours in Boxing Day slugfest TWENTY-TWO of Guyana’s top amateur boxers will grace the ring when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) stages one night of sizzling action, dubbed ‘Sons of Champions’ at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue, on Boxing Day (December 26).

Eleven bouts are carded for the night and those pugilists on show would have had a parent who enjoyed some degree of success in the sport, thus instilling the desire in their sons’ genes.

The tournament was conceptualised by president of the GBA, Steve Ninvalle, and head of Briso Promotions, Seon Bristol. It aims to highlight the inherited qualities of contemporary

amateur boxers.

Fans will anxiously anticipate the Desmond Amsterdam/Dennis Thomas middleweight shindig. Both have held victory over each other yet they both claim to be the better.

Thomas, a rangy boxer, loves to fight on the outside while Amsterdam, squatty and muscular, prefers to battle it out at close range. Such contrasting styles will pave the way for an imminent slugfest which could very well determine, once and for all, who is the better boxer.

This is a must-see affair.

Another eagerly anticipated contest is the bantamweight elite battle between Keevin Allicock and Clairmont Gibson. The two Turn to page 26 ►

31

‘You are role models’

– Cameron tells cricketers Page 30

GCB Executive Drubahadur, Minister of Sport Dr George Norton, CWI president Dave Cameron and Director Anand Kalladeen

Guyana continues to be the success story for a renewed West Indies trust

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017