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SIX-MONTH-OLD AMONG CHILD ABUSE CASES - SAYS DIRECTOR

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STUDENTS Pg5 ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN DISSATISFIED Pump attendant shot WITH CXC and injured during Pg3 RESULTS gas station robbery.

Government has allocated monies to non-existing Pg4 budget agencies— Roysdale Forde

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COVID cases like a runaway train, deaths reach 71

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PPP is taxing the population to support its political base in the sugar industry–Ramjattan 1

Editorial

The finger pointing and the truth The past week was consumed with Budget 2020 and with the ensuing debate. The comments ranged from a plagiarised effort to something that is designed to improve the welfare of the people.

I did notice some effort to provide information designed to cloud the budget in a humanitarian cloak.

As I noted last week, there were supposed giveaways although no date has been fixed.

And if the $25,000 giveaway does come true then I suppose the claimants would have to provide proof of address.

Immediately squatters would be ruled out. They may provide the address of some relative with a home but the government would be shrewd enough not to pay money twice to the same household.

If the home is an apartment building that is going to be interesting.

Some people have divided their houses

into rooms. Every family renting a room would be considered a household. It would be interesting to see how the government addresses this situation. What is there to stop me from placing my daughter and her child in one room, my son and his children in another and have them collect the money?

That apart, I listened to Bharrat Jagdeo and his contention that the Opposition benches have people who have been sanctioned by the United States. If that was intended to be news then it failed.

I remember the PPP government benches having people who were sanctioned by the United States.

I remember Home Affairs Minister, the late Ronald Gajraj, having his visa revoked. He was sitting in Parliament when this happened.

As fate would have it, another Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, had his visa revoked even as he was serving as a

Parliamentarian.

A n o t h e r parliamentarian who sat in the National Assembly even though he was sanctioned was Dharamkumar Seeraj.

There may be others but I simply point out these facts.

Parliament was already dissolved when the now President Irfaan Ali was denied a visa to Canada. Jagdeo did not take these things into consideration.

Of course, he was clever to note that for the first time there were people who were sanctioned over the elections. The United States embassy has not released the names of anyone so unless the affected person makes an announcement only the people selling airline tickets would be aware.

There was another bit of interesting news. During the consideration of the estimates, the government members began asking questions of their

colleagues.

I remember being in the briefing room of the US State Department.

That is the place where the government spokesperson would face the press and answer any question on matters that made the headlines that day.

There was always a reporter from the Voice of America.

However, the reporter from Voice of America could not dare ask a question at that forum or at any press conference featuring a United States government official. One reporter did and was banned.

As a reporter from a Third World country I simply could not understand the muzzling of one’s own reporters. It makes sense today.

One cannot appear to serve lollipops to one’s leaders.

So there were government members questioning themselves about the budget. What questions would you expect them to ask?

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There was Kapil Mohabir whom the PPP appointed a consultant at the Climate Change Project Unit at a salary of $3 million per month. He was replaced by Dr Marlon Bristol who was paid $1.2 million per month.

Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon said that Minister Gail Teixeira started out to show that Dr Bristol was being paid a lot.

The information on Mohabir stopper her in her tracks. She then said that she did not name anyone and that Harmon did not have the right to name anyone.

Things become even more bizarre.

Robeson Benn gets up and questions whether the Coalition administration even added any megawatts to the national power system. Of course, he was challenged but then something strange happened.

For all the years I have been covering the National Assembly, when a

member seeks to rise on a point of order, the speaker would take his seat. Under this new Speaker of the National Assembly, this would no longer be the case if you are sitting on the Opposition benches.

He ruled that the person on the floor must yield if the person raising the point of order is to make his point. David Patterson, the Minister whom Robeson Benn declared was the Minister responsible for electricity at the time of the Coalition administration, never got the chance to answer Robeson Benn in the House.

For the records the answer to Benn’s query is easily available.

There were new power plants at Bartica, Canefield and Anna Regina.

Canefield got a 5.5 megawatt power plant; Anna Regina got a 5.4 megawatt station and Bartica –a 3.3 megawatt station.

Six-month-old among child abuse cases—says Director

Director Ann Greene,

Ann Greene, Director of the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA), said during her speech on Wednesday September 23, that for the period of January to August, 2020, the CPA has responded to 529 cases of child sexual abuse.

The Director said that there was a drop in reports of child abuse between March and July 2020 but this was attributed to

school being out.

While children are going to school there is more opportunity for persons to spot signs of abuse. She also said that sexual abuse is a hidden crime with victims being threatened, and coerced not to tell.

Studies suggest that only about 12 to 30 percent of child sexual cases are reported so the number of cases in Guyana may actually be even higher.

The Director believes that due to the nature of abuse many of the victims are either not aware of what is done to them or do not have a voice to speak about it.

She spoke of a report of “a six-month-old baby girl who had to be admitted to hospital with signs of sexual penetration.”

Region Nine was reported as having the highest rate of abuse with 4.6 per 1000 children; followed

by Region One with 3.8 and then Region Seven with 2.7.

Director Greene also noted the issue of persons turning a blind eye to cases of child sexual abuse, with some parents having knowledge of the abuse or are being abused themselves.

There are provisions in the Sexual Offences Act to have parents

who are knowingly complicit in acts of sexual abuse of their children, charged as accessories to the crime.

The Director also called for changes to the investigative process of child abuse cases. There have been steps made with Child Advocacy Centres to make it easier for the victims to tell their stories and to provide after care and court support services.

The Director expressed her concerns about the 72 hours that are allocated to hold perpetrators. She said she understands that that time is provided to bring charges and more time could be requested from the

Court to hold the alleged perpetrators.

But this is hardly ever done in child sexual abuse cases. The alleged

in the Police Force, which would be staffed with specially trained police officers, social services officers -including

perpetrators are let out of custody after 72 hours and walk away from the cases and in some cases even leave the country.

Because of these difficulties and the situations that they create, there are still over 800 cases that remain at the investigation level.

The Director also made an appeal for a Special Victims Unit

child protection officers- and public health officers.

They would facilitate speedy investigations to bring sexual perpetrators of children to justice and work at preventing child abuse She closed with a plea for the public to report any instances of child abuse to the hotline number 2270979.

Students across the Caribbean dissatisfied with CXC results One day after the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) released the results for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, there have been calls from several CARICOM

states for a review of the results.

Teachers, parents and students have voiced their concerns about the accuracy of the results on social media. Several petitions have been created by students calling for reviews of the results. Business students in Guyana

created a petition, not only calling for a review, but also demanding a “Remarking and reevaluating of CSEC Grades” or reevaluating of the marks.

Their petition has a target of 200 signatures.

CXC responded to

questions surrounding the results of the July 2020 Examinations by posting a statement on their social media directing candidates to their website for more information on the Query and Review process for the exams.

Students would have to pay to have their grades reviewed

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but would be refunded the cost if it results in an increase in their overall grade.

The deadline for submission of Queries and Review requests is Friday, October 23, 2020.

Guyana’s top high school, Queens College, is hoping for some action to be

taken to address the issues of the results.

The school’s ParentTeacher Association (PTA) hosted a media conference this morning to raise the concerns of its students and teachers.

The President of the QC PTA said the school will not be accepting the results.

PPP is taxing the population to support its political base in the sugar industry–Ramjattan

Former Public Security Minister and Member of Parliament, K h e m r a j Ramjattan, has said that the PPP government is using the sugar industry as a tool to reward its supporters.

“This is what happened under this budget allocation of $3B

for GuySuCo. It was a capital expenditure and the government did not see fit under what is called the Capital Project Profiles to indicate where this $3B will go.”

He said that this money is intended to cover a three-month period to the end of the year. He said that there is no transparency over where the $3 billion would go. The Minister would only say that his party intends to create employment for sugar workers, according to

Ramjattan.

“We have had an industry that has cost us so many billions (of dollars). I have constantly indicated that when we took Government we had to from the very first month, bail out GuySuCo

to the tune of about $11B. “In the following year, another $9B and another $14B during these years. At the end of the third year we had spent $36B bailing out sugar.”

Ramjattan said

that the derelict nature of the equipment and the misspending of 81 million Euros between 2006 and 2011 signaled a most unprofitable industry.

“The industry has become what Cathy Hughes

has called a black hole. More money is going to be pumped into it.

“We know largely that the sugar base is a PPP base. That is not good when you are going to take money from

Member of Parliament, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, is accusing the government of breaching the Constitution.

On Wednesday he said that his party was being asked to vote on line items in the Budget. He said that some of the Ministries for which his party has been asked to vote are nonexistent.

“At the time we were dealing with the Ministry of Parliamentary

and Governance.

The Official Gazette does not have any indication that the Ministry was gazetted in accordance with the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. “The Act requires that in respect of budget agencies for them to receive funding after approval by the National Assembly the Minister of Finance issue an order in respect of new ministries

and new budget agencies which did not heretofore exist.

“The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance is one such Ministry.”

Forde said that there are others.

One of them is the Ministry of Public Works and another is the Ministry of Labour. He said that the National Assembly should not be in a position to pass, lawfully, any money for those

agencies.

“Nevertheless, in the National Assembly the PPP using their majority, voted for the allocation of funds, in this instance for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance.”

“This is just another manifestation of them actually doing that. So what we have h a p p e n i n g before us now, and they intend to continue, is that this is in

respect of budget agencies that don’t exist in law.

“What we will have in terms of parliamentary oversight over them is very uncertain.”

Mr. Forde said that the government cannot even

verify that these Ministries exist.

He said that the Minister in this case, Gail Teixeira, said that duties and responsibilities of Ministers were published on September 11.

“The hypocrisy

Member of Parliament, Hon. Khemraj Ramjattan

Guyana Sugar Industry

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Government has allocated monies to nonexisting budget agencies—Roysdale Forde

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continued on pg5

Pump attendant shot and injured during gas station robbery.

One man was shot and injured by two bandits who invaded the M. Alli Gas Station, located at Main and King Street, New Amsterdam Berbice.

The injured man is currently hospitalized.

The gas station is owned by Feroze Alli, of Lot 19, Main and Pope Street, New Amsterdam.

Injured is Shazam Melville, 30, of Lot 114 Experiment, Bath Settlement, West Coast, Berbice. The

incident is said to have occurred around 10:00 hrs on Tuesday.

The man was shot by two men on motorcycle, one wearing a full face helmet while the other was wearing a helmet and mask.

One was armed with a handgun.

According to information the victim had finished working the night shift and was waiting on his employer to pick him up when the two suspects rode into

the filling station.

The pillion rider dismounted the motorcycle and approached the victim and held on to the bag Melville had in his possession.

The victim refused to release the bag resulting in a tussle

considers a hell hole.

“When we went into government in 2015, the prison was overpopulated by almost three times what it was supposed to have.

“The Patterson Commission after the first fire indicated the Victorian age

structure that we had; wooden prisons.

They were supposed to be concrete and steel. That is what we are making now in Mazaruni.

He said that his government was under pressure all the time.

The courts kept sending prisoners to the facilities

without having them properly gazetted.

“That stopped the allocation and approval by the National Assembly in relation to those ministries, about seven of them, and that had to be

gazetted.

“It was gazetted on August 22, 2015. So all we are asking is to ensure that the similar objections that were made back then and the validity of those objections be implemented and

during. It was then that the suspect shot Melville in his upper back forcing him to release the bag.

The bandit collected the bag and quickly rejoined his accomplice on the motorcycle and they sped away.

The scene was visited by Divisional Commander Senior Superintendent Linden Isles and a party of policemen who scoured the scene for evidence.

The injured Shazam Melville was taken to the New Amsterdam

Public Hospital where he was admitted.

The police have since uplifted CCTV footages which are being analyzed.

A number of persons have been questioned so far as investigations are ongoing.

PPP is taxing the population......

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taxpayers and just dump it there for purposes of indicating to your supporters that you are going to support them He also addressed the prison situation.

He said that the PPP cannot promote the notion that it inherited what it

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despite the overcrowding.

“The problems with prison, just like the problem with sugar, is a long-standing problem.

This kind of false propaganda that is being made much of by the PPP that the prison system…

“They were

there prior to 2015 (when the coalition assumed office) for 23 years. They didn’t build any prison.

They built a wall in Lusignan (behind) which we then housed a number of the prisoners after that first fire (2017).

He said that

whatever the PPP says about the prison is nothing but mischief. It is fake news, he said.

He said that things are going to be challenging at this time. There is COVID that is providing a huge problem for the authorities.

Government has allocated monies.....

of this entire situation is that in 2015, on August 24, the PPP, Anil Nandlall, raised the very issues in relation to the then government creating a number of ministries, a number of budget agencies,

given effect in this instance.”

He insists that these are not properly created entities.

“As far as they do not properly fall under the Financial Management Accountability

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Act I do not know what would be the authority of the Auditor General to properly review and launch an investigation and analysis of spending.

“He would be circumscribed by the law

as to what constitutes a b u d g e t a g e n c y, ” Forde said.

S o f a r, t h r e e M i n i s t r i e s would be o r b i t i n g outside the ambit of the Auditor General.

Letters

Nailing the lies being peddled

By Sir Ronald Sanders

Dear Editor, Governmental infrastructure “decayed” over the past five years due to incompetence, nepotism – Nandlall Headlines like these are upsetting!

How can one be so barefaced to make these wild and baseless utterances?

From the time this illegal and dead regime came to office every day is something negative about the coalition government. They have not outlined a plan to the citizens how they intend or will be rolling out the promises.

Days into office Guyanese were inundated with “treasury empty”, but yet the following were done: $600M given to GuySuCo to pay employment costs and other administrative costs.

In excess of $20b was approved for constitutional agencies at the first sitting of the 12th Parliament.

Therefore, the big question to ask is, if the treasury is empty, where the above sums came from? At least not from the PPP.

Commenting on the above statement

by Mr. Nandlall.

Everyone who has eyes to see is aware of what the Coalition did over the last five years.

One should not fall prey to this.

When we took office in 2015, the Moruca main bridge was made from lumber and was in a bad state.

The people are now enjoying a solid concrete bridge made possible by the coalition.

Residents in East Berbice, Region Six suffered for years under the PPP when they pleaded by way of protestations and other actions to have their roads done. They failed those people. It was the coalition that spent in excess of $1b to construct the road, install lights, and construct bridges and culverts.

Region Four, Sophia area.

Residents protested and requested for their roads to be done. They too were denied. The then Minister of MoPWs, Mr. Robeson Benn insulted residents and with an outburst to them, “Let PNC fix it”.

Well, indeed the roads were fixed

with the inclusion of culverts, bridges, and installation of lights by the Coalition.

Mocha, EBD was given a solid structural concrete bridge.

Lights were installed for the very first time on the main access road.

Lights installed for the first time on the #19 Road, Region Six. I don’t know whether the illegal regime visited Region 10, Kwakwani and Ituni, and Region Nine lately. Well my reminder to them is that they failed to maintain those corridors.

It was the Coalition that invested heavily with the use of local funds to ensure reasonable mobility to those areas. Rather than taking 15hrs to Region Nine, you can now do so in 12hrs.

Traveling to Kwakwani is now less than two hours from Linden and I can say the same for Ituni.

Prior to the coalition coming to office, Guyanese were experiencing major electrical woes. Much was spent to maintain the gen-sets at GPL. Region Two

got a new power plant in Anna Regina. A sum of $800M was spent to ensure the supply of reliable and efficient electricity to residents of Anna Regina to Charity.

Another major sum was spent to construct a new power plant in Bartica, Region Seven.

Let’s asked the big Attorney General, prior to August 2, 2020, were Guyanese in these areas or regions complaining? My simple answer to this is No! Because the Coalition fixed it!

Stellings were constructed.

When last did this illegal regime visit Bartica? The coalition inherited a delapidated structure from the PPPC post in May 2015.

Today, the Management of TnHD along with residents of Bartica are happy for what the Coalition did

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and the change of the aesthetics. The other started by the coalition is the Leguan Stelling currently being reconstructed.

The waterfront development at Supenaam.

Has the illegal regime visited that area?

There are comforts the traveling public can now enjoy.

The installation of solar grids on public buildings, schools and health centers just to name a few.

I like many Guyanese could attest to the many achievements under the Coalition government over the last five years.

When you see such headlines like the one above by Anil, one must ask questions, whether, or if these people are for real and on which planet are they surviving?

They have no issues or complaints to make since they inherited a roadmap from the Coalition. Rather than building on

what they found, it’s all about seeking to destroy, undo and spread propaganda, which they are noted for.

I can only identify and attribute these irresponsible utterances by Anil to the PPPC, since what I have outlined above are just a few of the achievements by the Coalition.

I wish to remind and also to encourage Mr. Nandlall and colleagues to take time to do a proper assessment of their ministries before opening their mouths.

My advice to them is to stop peddling misinformation to our people.

Guyanese are smart and with the improvement of technology, they cannot and should not be made fools.

It is time we call them out! They are the ones who are incompetent and confused.

Annette Ferguson, MP

Govt to spend $95M on vehicles

The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has put aside $95 million in the 2020 budget to buy new vehicles for the President, Prime Minister, Vice President and other top officials of the government.

Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira, said that the vehicles returned to the government were in poor condition.

“When former Ministers submitted their vehicles we found cracked windshields, the seats were damaged and stained and ripped up – we don’t know who did that – and when some of the Ministers got into the vehicle

and drove down the road they discovered different size tires on the vehicle and radios damaged… so this money is to do some repairs and purchase new vehicles.”

Former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, asked Teixeira to provide more details related to the spending of these

funds to purchase the vehicles.

Teixeira said the vehicles would be used to serve top government officials including the President, but could not give more details about their procurement.

“I’m not aware of the type or the cost. Because of the urgency to get the

budget and get the money we had to rush and put in allocation because there was a problem and we had to attend to the safety and security of the President, Vice President, and Prime Minister so this allocation is here for that purpose because we had five weeks to bring the budget.”

The allocated

funds are supposed to be spent between October and December 2020. The three-month period for procurement and purchase of vehicles was also o concern to Patterson.

Patterson also pointed out that the details of the vehicle purchase should be made available in order to go out to

public tender.

Teixeira said that in 2021 the government will make all details related to the purchase available.

She assured that a procurement process would occur before the allocation was put to a vote and passed with a majority from the government side.

Email or text your letters to us we would be happy to published them adameharris@yahoo.com lendellnurse6995@gmail.com 7

COVID cases like a runaway train, deaths reach 71 The Ministry of Health recorded 98 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday September 23. Of these 57 cases were from Region One, three from Region Three, nine from Region Four and 29 were from Region Eight. The total number of recorded cases in Guyana is now at 2,535.

The death toll has risen to 71 with the deaths of a 70-yearold woman from Region Four and a 66-year-old woman from Region One. September has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths with 32 deaths being recorded over the last 23 days.

Minister of

Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, had attributed the increase in positive cases to the increased number of tests being done but has not explained the rapid increase in the death toll.

Minister Anthony also said that plans were in place to purchase the drug Remdesivir to treat critically ill

COVID-19 patients.

He will be using sums allocated in the 2020 Budget.

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug which affects the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) that the virus uses to replicate itself.

As of September 23, a total of 12,637 persons have been tested for the virus and 1,464 have

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recovered.

The number of active cases in the country is now at 1,000.

Minister Anthony also announced the opening of the ‘Dr. Collin Boyle Virology Lab’ at the Eureka Medical Laboratory (EML) located at Thomas Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown.

Two new machines were purchased by EML – the QuantStudio 5 and the Kingfisher Flex – which allow for testing and analyzing of up to 1,000 samples per day with a guaranteed turnaround time of 48 hours for results.

In-house PCR COVID-19 testing

will be offered at EML’s Thomas Street branch from September 24, with plans in place to expand to other branches in the future.

O t h e r s e rv i c e s t o b e o ffe re d b y E M L include housec a l l s e rv i c e s i n G e o rg e t o w n and o t h e r p a rt s o f t h e c o a s t a l a re a s , a s w e l l a s h o u s e -c a l l s e rv i c e s fo r p l a c e s of e mp l o y me n t a n d h o me s .

T h e M i n i s t ry o f Heath continues to e n c o u ra g e p e rs o n s t o fo l l o w t h e re c o mme n d e d guidelines to p ro t e c t t h e ms e l v e s a n d p re v e n t t h e s p re a d of the v i ru s .

HOROSCOPE

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Today is the Fall Equinox, which means the Sun is opposite your sign. For the next four weeks, your focus will be on partnerships and close friendships. This is your best chance of the year to learn more about yourself through your intimate oneto-one encounters with others.

The Sun is in your sign for the next four weeks giving you a chance to recharge your batteries for the rest of the year.

It will attract important people and favourable circumstances to you. It will also encourage you to express yourself and tell it like it is! Enjoy!

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

For the next four weeks, you will want to manage your life efficiently. You will work hard for yourself and others. You will strive to make every action count because you want to get the most bang for your buck. (Why not improve your health as well?)

Your birthday is approaching, which means your personal year is coming to an end. Use the next four weeks to think about what you want for your new year ahead. Define some goals because they help to clarify future decision-making.

They give you a sense of purpose and help to keep you on track.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

The next four weeks are fabulous for you because the Sun is in your fellow Air Sign! Plus, it will travel through the most fun part of your chart! Accept invitations to party. Enjoy sports, social time and fun activities with kids. Yippee!

Your popularity is strong in the next four weeks. Everyone wants you on their team Enjoy schmoozing with others because if you socialize extensively, it will benefit you. (Also examine your friends because they are a reflection of who you are.)

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Your attention now shifts to home, family and your private life in the next four weeks. Many of you will be involved with a parent more than usual. Grab every opportunity to relax and cocoon at home among familiar surroundings.

“Alone, at last.”

For the next four weeks, the Sun is at the top of your chart, which is the only time all year this happens. When this occurs, it (symbolically) shines a spotlight on you that is flattering! Bosses, parents, teachers and VIPs are impressed! Expect to be asked to take on increased responsibilities.

The next four weeks are fast-paced and busy! Short trips, errands, appointments, plus increased reading, writing and studying will accelerate the tempo of your days. This is a good time to express your opinions and enlighten others about what matters to you. “Now hear this…”

You want to do something different in the next four weeks. You want to get outta Dodge for a change of scenery! You want stimulation and adventure! At the very least, learn something new. Sign up for a course. Talk to someone who knows big words.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

You will be more passionate and intense in the next four weeks in part because you will deal with financial issues and something to do with shared property.

You might also deal with shared responsibilities. Meanwhile, your sex drive is hot!

Finances and money issues are your focus for the next four weeks. Think about our earnings and assets, and also your possessions. For example, do you own your stuff or does it own you? Obviously, what you own should make your life easier. Does it?

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Fry Bread

Amerindian Recipe

INGREDIENTS • vegetable oil (for frying) • 2 1⁄2 cups flour • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon baking powder • 1⁄4 teaspoon sugar • 1 teaspoon oil • 1 cup warm milk DIRECTIONS • Heat oil in skillet until hot, but not smoking, over med-high heat.

• In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients to make dough.

• Shape into round disks.

• Fry shaped dough in hot oil until brown and crispy.

• Serve hot.

Traditionally you would eat this with stew.

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SPOT The difference They are 5 differences

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