Keeping you updated on current events... ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER
Saturday June 25, 2021
GUYANA REFUSES FLOOD RELIEF FROM TRINIDAD
GOVERNMENT APPEALS FOR CUMMINGS STREET MAN PUNCHES PEOPLE TO BE VACCINATED, NOTES MOTHER, THEN KILLS YOUNGER VACCINE HESITANCY BROTHER
Saturday June 26, 2021
GUYANA REFUSES FLOOD RELIEF FROM TRINIDAD
Guyana has refused a large consignment of food items offered by Trinidad and Tobago to help with flood relief efforts. Instead, through
Foreign Minister Hugh Todd, Guyana has said that pumps are said to be needed to meet the urgent demand for enhanced drainage capacity.
This is according to the Guardian Media out of Trinidad and Tobago. The newspaper proclaimed that Guyana has chosen not the accept
food as part of the flood relief assistance but instead asked that pumps be shipped for the need of draining the excess water off the land.
When the made contact to work out the logistics for delivery, T&T was told the items were unnecessary, instead what is needed
is are water pumps. The report further noted that this was clarified in a letter signed by Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Hilton Todd dated June 18, 2021. The letter gave new directive to the twin-island republic. It stated that there is need for pumps to remove excess water, but nothing else on the consignment list that they provided to Caricom. Over the past few months Guyana has been grappling with the flood situation all across the country with water reaching as high as seven feet in some areas.
GOVERNMENT APPEALS FOR PEOPLE TO BE VACCINATED, NOTES VACCINE HESITANCY
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh
The pace to have herd immunity against the COVID-19 Virus has slowed down as persons remain hesitant to take the COVID-19 Vaccines according to the Minister Health, Dr. Frank Anthony. In the fight against the deadly COVID-19 Virus herd immunity is required. The Government is pushing
to have some 80% of the Adult population vaccinated. Over 229,846 persons have taken the first dose of the vaccine. That accounts for 47.2% of our adult population. While 103,029, have taken their second dose, which represents 21.2% of the adult population. On such a note, it is required for an
individual to take both does as a means of being fully vaccinated from the virus. However, according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Anthony there has been a decline in the number of people being vaccinated leaving a worrying sign. “Over the last couple of days we have seen more people coming in
for the second dose, and fewer people coming for the first dose. So, that Is something we have to encourage people to come and get their first dose. They have the first dose available for everyone,” Dr. Anthony noted. Over the past week, several persons, including members of Government, have
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complained about statements being made in the public that might have caused some level of hesitancy. This, according to the Ministry of Health, in the past has been seen as irresponsible and should have not occurred knowing the nature of persons who are not vaccinated. They might become really ill with the virus, which might possibly lead to death. Despite this, Dr. Anthony noted that he along with several agencies will look at having an assessment done to rectify the situation immediately. “That’s what we are trying to figure out because in almost all the regions we have seen a decline in first dose vaccination. Initially we thought because of the floods people were not coming forward but in some of those areas the flood has eased up and we have not seen
people coming out. “So, we will do some assessment. We have been talking to the RHO in those Regions they have been reporting that people are more hesitant. We would have to see what is driving that hesitancy and work on maybe demystifying some of the things that people have in their minds,” Dr. Anthony added. Guyana has so far recorded over 19,000 positive COVID-19 Cases, since March 2020, and over 450 deaths. According to the ministry the way out of the pandemic is for persons to be fully vaccinated since it has proven that no person who has been fully vaccinated has been hospitalized. The Government has also indicated that it will provide enough vaccines for all despite the delay in second dose at the moment.
Saturday June 26, 2021
Cummings Street man punches mother, then kills younger brother
A mother is mourning the death of her son who met his demise by being stabbed to death by his older brother in the Cummings Street area. The altercation stemmed from the abuse meted out by the suspect to his Mother.
In what was described as a “little misunderstanding”, 27-year-old, Quincy Reynolds reportedly stabbed his 24-year-old brother, Paul Chase. According to reports, just after 7:30am today in Cummings Street,
Reynolds stabbed Chase. The mother, Sonia Chase, giving an account of what may have transpired, said that Reynolds was confronted by his mother about “something”. He became annoyed and punched his mother.
“It all started with Quincy. As I said he is an aggressor, you know. I confronted him about something that I didn’t see him do but I know that he is the only person that is at the location. So, I asked him about it and he denied and said that it was not him. “So I left it at that but then he started talking, talking and I said we are going to put an end to things,” Ms. Chase said. Ms Chase said by then things got ugly as she went to make a phone call to the father and that led to her getting a punch to the eyes. Things escalated from then on. “I picked up my phone and called the father who said to call the Police. So, with that I went into the bedroom to put on my
clothes. So, when David (her husband) said to call the police because the phone was on speaker, Quincy got a knife. “So when I turn around Quincy run up to me, one punch and I turn the same time and it connected to my eyes,” Ms Chase further explained She added that by the she showed him what he had done and continued to put on her clothing to get to the station. “While putting on my clothing I heard that there was a lady outside who said, ”No, no, no… You’ll stop, you’ll stop. I came outside and see Paul started to bleed and the woman started to shout, “Murder, murder …Somebody help. Murder, murder. And, that was it Paul
got injured by the hands of Quincy Reynolds,” Ms Chase reported. Ms. Chase is now left to mourn the death of her son at the hands of her older son. This, she said, does not sit well with her since she always would talk to them and also tell them to live in love. Ms Chase said she remains in shock. “I’m not feeling very well, very good about it because it’s not like I don’t talk to them. I say you guys are brothers; you must live in love, try to live as one, you came out from one womb. As the matter continues to be investigated, the Police have so far arrested the accused.
Man killed at Apaiqua GRA gears to introduce new vehicle series
The police are currently probing the murder of a man at Apaiqua Landing, Middle Mazaruni, after he was shot dead by a man he had chopped. The Victim has been identified as a 30-year-old, a miner of Hymakabra, Moruca Village, N.W.D. The incident occurred on Tuesday, some time around 5:03 hours. Reports are that on
the day in question, Blake was asleep in an abandoned building on Apaiqua Landing when he was awakened by the suspect who was armed with a handgun. The suspect ordered him to put on his clothes. Blake armed himself with a cutlass and dealt the suspect a chop to his shoulder. The suspect retaliated by firing a shot in the victim’s direction.
The bullet struck him in the upper left chest. The suspect subsequently fled the scene. Blake was later escorted by publicspirited citizens to the Isseneru Health Post where he succumbed to his injury. The body is at the Bartica Hospital, where a post mortem examination is expected to be conducted.
With the current “ZZ” series coming to an end, the Guyana Revenue Authority’s License Revenue Office (GRA) will soon be commencing registration of motor vehicles in the “PAB” series. The current “ZZ” series, which commenced on August 28, 2020, has less than 200 motor vehicle registration numbers
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remaining. The GRA is reminding the general public that the registration for new motor vehicles is currently being facilitated at the GRA’s Smyth Street location. Relocation to this branch followed efforts by the Authority to reduce the influx of taxpayers at its Camp Street Headquarters. Payment of the
registration fee, physical examination of motor vehicles, and updates/ amendments to motor vehicle registrations, are also being facilitated at this location. Taxpayers are encouraged to visit the GRA’s website www. gra.gov.gy or contact its Tax Advisory Services Section on 227-6060 ext 1201 to 1204 for more information
Saturday June 26, 2021
Joint endeavour or collective surrender: resisting global tax
By Sir Ronald Sanders
(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are his own) The proposal by the U.S. government to establish a global minimum corporate tax is not a remote matter from the lives of people in the Caribbean. It is a real issue with deep implications for Caribbean economies, and, indeed, for the capacity of Caribbean countries to continue to participate meaningfully in the global trading and financial system. Neither Caribbean governments nor Caribbean people should ignore it. Their info@guyanapostonline.com
livelihoods depend on it. Further, the countries of the region should already have launched an initiative to respond to the U.S. government’s proposal, collectively. When the idea was mooted by Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, on April 5, every experience I had as a representative of Antigua and Barbuda, dating back to 1998 when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched its assault on low-tax jurisdictions, told me that developing countries would be steamrollered into acquiescing to it. Consequently, I organized a meeting between officials of the U.S. Treasury Department and a few Caribbean Ambassadorial colleagues on May 7, to better understand the scope of the initiative
and the pace at which it would move. It was clear from that meeting, at which the Caribbean Ambassadors present made their concerns and fears clear, that a minimum global corporation tax would be a juggernaut that would not easily be stopped. It would have been foolhardy to believe that, even in its transition period, the Biden finance team had not canvassed the minimum tax with officials of the OECD and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was no coincidence that, shortly after Secretary Yellen made the announcement of a minimum global corporation tax of 21 per cent, IMF officials were endorsing the idea. It took no more than two months for the G7 countries – the U.S, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan, plus the
European Union (EU) – to adopt a minimum tax for corporations of 15 percent. They did so on June 7, proclaiming it “a landmark deal”. The G7 agreed figure is six percent less than the U.S. had proposed, but no one should believe that the matter has ended. It is only the beginning of a new phase in the onslaught that the OECD officially started in 1998 to end what its members called ‘harmful tax competition’. There is no guarantee that the minimum global corporation tax will remain at 15 percent, or, that intrusion into setting tax rates will not extend into other areas. The OECD members then – and now – regard low tax jurisdictions as competitors in attracting corporations and, therefore, their ability to tax them. Having heavily taxed their populations from the cradle to the grave and beyond (no hyperbole) and faced with little possibility of taxing them further without voters heaving governments out of office, these governments focused on low-tax jurisdictions, demonized them in the media and elsewhere. The OECD governments claimed they were operating on a playing field which was not level for them. Blacklists and threats of sanctions quickly followed, causing a procession of governments of developing countries to concede their sovereignty over tax matters. This ‘level playing field’ effort is now an attempt to force corporations to stay in rich nations by securing a minimum global rate of tax that would give them no great advantage in shifting to lower tax jurisdictions. The
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next step is to get the agreement of the G20 countries when they meet in October. These countries are the G7 and the European Union with 12 others, including China, India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. If Caribbean countries, and other small developing states, are to try to put a brake on the steamroller, getting their case before the large, developed countries in the G20 is crucial. For, if the G20 endorses the plan, smaller countries will again be cast aside – the hapless victims of the world’s powerful states, as they are with Climate Change and getting vaccines to fight COVID-19. That is why vital alliances need to be struck now, starting within the Caribbean, extending to embrace countries in Asia and the Pacific, and then with other nations that are far from happy about being coerced into losing revenues and business to satisfy the tax hunger of a few. For instance, Switzerland is reported to be planning to give subsidies to companies, headquartered there, to offset the 15 per cent tax. Ireland – an EU nation – has an advantageous corporate rate of 12.5 per cent that has helped to grow its economy and improve its people’s lives. It wants no increase. These two countries and others could be important allies. The fact that Caribbean countries – and other developing countries – oppose the imposition of a global corporate tax rate, should not be mistaken as hostility toward the U.S. or any other country that favours higher taxes. But setting tax rates is a
right of nations not an international prerogative of the powerful. All nations understand that in the U.S., President Biden has an ambitious plan to build-out needed infrastructure to keep the U.S. globally competitive, to create jobs and to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries, especially, small developing ones have the same problems, but without the resources or the clout to establish a global rule that would suit them. They have to continue to compete on unlevel playing fields in almost every area of economic and commercial activity. Low taxes help Caribbean countries and others to attract investment they desperately need, because their exploitation and under development, for centuries, have made it difficult for domestic investment alone to drive their needed economic growth and social improvement. No time should be wasted by Caribbean governments to assemble a strong team to advance their joint cause. There is not much time until the G20 meets in October, and much work needs to be done to give its developing member countries a convincing case to champion. Giving-in again should not be an option, but no one country can stand up alone. This is a joint endeavour, or it is surrender – one by one.
Saturday June 26, 2021
WHEN THE NEWS IS FABRICATED
ADAM’s Notebook I have been a media practitioner for nearly five decades. By media practitioner I mean someone working in the news media as a person gathering and disseminating news and information. In all my years, from the time I stepped from the teaching profession to the time I became a reporter, it was drilled into me that one thing reporters do is give the public fair and accurate information. A man named Richard Linton (R.L.) Younge who was the first person to teach me the basics said that when you get caught out in a falsehood people begin to look at you differently. Many people have been caught napping either because of laziness and quoting the first person they met or copying something produced elsewhere and rewriting it to make the story look original. I have often told the story about the reporter
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from the Guyana Graphic who was assigned the job of covering an internationallyacclaimed soprano who was due to appear at City Hall. At the time City Hall was a city landmark to be proud of. It was a far cry from the collapsing building that stands along Avenue of the Republic begging to be either demolished or totally rehabilitated. It was a Sunday and the reporter because of the rain chose to join some friends at the Public Service Union hall for a drink. The liquor must have been bewitching because the reporter decided to ignore the assignment. He averaged when the City Hall concert would be over then raced back to the Graphic. He had no story but he had great imagination. He wrote how the soprano trilled and thrilled. It was a wonderful story. There were no photographs. The Argosy printed its story the same night so
that readers had a choice of stories the next day. There was the Argosy with a notice that due to the inclement weather the concert at City Hall was canceled. I never believed that such an incident would ever happen again in this day of multiple media outlets, not least among them social media. So there it was that when I checked the newspapers I saw Guyana Times story about Joseph Harmon recanting his challenge to the Sputnik V vaccine. I was shocked. Unless it was an exclusive interview, Harmon would issue a statement through his public relations team. He would then host a press conference if the statement does make the impact he wants it to. So there was Joseph Harmon, the opposition leader who was criticized for trying to cause people to resist the vaccine for the COVID-19 despite the government’s efforts to have as many people be vaccinated, saying
that he now supported the actions of the government to secure Sputnik V vaccines. The story had Harmon praising the Ministry of Health and basically apologizing for his attack on the Sputnik procurement just last Friday. There were the phone calls to me who as an old reporter should know everything according to those who called. I did not know whether Harmon made such a comment to Guyana Times. I eventually called him after I saw a poster on social media talking about fake news. That could have been something orchestrated but then Harmon issued a statement which not only accused the newspaper of mischief but also announced legal action
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against the publication. I know that the ruling People’s Progressive Party has an active dirty tricks group. I have seen letters fashioned out of Office of the President and taken on flash drives to the various newspapers. So someone must have written the interesting article on Harmon and forwarded it to Guyana Times, the control of which lies within the ambit of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. Had I been the editor of that paper I would have been embarrassed to publish a palpable untruth. I would have been more embarrassed to see the reaction to my article. Needless to say, until Harmon came out, people began to speculate that by year-end Harmon
would be a Minister in the PPP Government. Some contended that he had been bought. But Guyana Times is not the only one to rush to the press with untruths. A social media post by a young man who worked in the news media very briefly, reported that Chief Elections Officer of Guyana Elections Commission, Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Roxanne Myers; and Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo had been sacked by the Guyana Elections Commission. GECOM rushed to get the truth out. It reported that Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo had been sent on annual leave, one of them for 135 days.
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