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Wednesday June 30, 2021

MORE CHARGES FOR LOWENFIELD, MYERS AND MINGO

DIGICEL GUYANA COMES ON BOARD WITH A DONATION FOR MORIAH

RASTAS MEET AG TO DEMAND REMOVAL OF THE JAIL SENTENCE FOR GANJA

Wednesday June, 30 2021

MORE CHARGES FOR LOWENFIELD, MYERS AND MINGO

District #4 Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, were all slapped with two new charges.

These charges accuse them of falsifying the total vote count.

The Trio appeared before Senior Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs Marcus and was not required to enter a plea to the charges.

Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; his Deputy, Roxanne Myers, and District #4 According to the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo charge, it is alleged that Already facing Regional and General Officer (CEO), Keith three between March 2 GECOM Lowenfield; his Deputy, and August 2, conspired numerous charges Election, relating to March 2020 officials Chief Elections Roxanne Myers, and with each other, along

with PNC Member Volda Lawrence, Carol Joseph, and others, to defraud the state by falsifying the total number of votes in the General and Regional Elections.

An attorney representing the defendants, Nigel Hughes, in an application for bail indicated that the three persons so far have stuck with the process of coming to court, even without a summons and as such should be released on their own

recognizant.

However, despite such a plea three were placed on $100,000 bail each and ordered to return to court on September 14 for the continuation of the matter.

Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers, were sent on leave by the GECOM, to facilitate talks on whether they should not be dismissed based on their conduct at the last elections. They are facing several charges of conspiracy, fraud, etc

DIGICEL GUYANA COMES ON BOARD WITH A DONATION FOR MORIAH From Georgetown to Howard

Moriah received a partial scholarship of US$19,000 to Howard through the Howard University

As the fundraising initiative winds down, Moriah Hamilton and her team would like to thank Digicel Guyana for adding to the support for her journey to Howard University in the USA, to read for an undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Digicel has donated one million dollars towards the fundraising effort.

Ms. Vidya Sanichara, Communications Manager, said Digicel Guyana is committed

to supporting youth in academia and sports wished Moriah much success and hoped that the contribution would go a long way.

At the small handing over ceremony, Moriah expressed her gratitude to Digicel and all persons coming on board to help her ‘pitch her future’.

Moriah received a partial scholarship of US$19,000 to Howard through the Howard University Achiever’s Scholarship and with her mentors launched a

fundraising appeal that saw many individuals and companies coming on board.

Moriah was raised in a single-parent home and it was often a struggle, but Moriah’s mother, Carol Hamilton, instilled in her children the value of a good education.

Moriah was able to secure a place at Queens College for CAPE after clinching several Grade one passes at her CSEC examinations.

RASTAS MEET AG TO DEMAND REMOVAL OF THE JAIL SENTENCE FOR GANJA

The use of Marijuana continues to remain a criminal offence. The Rastafarian Community is calling on the Government to act quickly to remove

this punitive legislation.

As the days go by the community remains oppressed by jail time and with less free will to practise its religion, the

Rastas say.

The Rastafarian community explained that while Government’s emphasis is on the sentencing structure

for persons found with marijuana, there continues to be an alienation of their rights to practice their religion, freely.

On Monday, a group of protesters from the community gathered to protest at the office of the Attorney General. The group called for quick action in addressing the needs of the community.

The move comes on a day when the Special Select Parliamentary Committee will meet to first elect a Chair to discuss the Marijuana bill.

As the committee sits, Government and Opposition Members will listen and put all recommendations from the main stakeholders in a Bill that would be presented to the National Assembly.

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Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, met with the protesting Rastas on Monday. He told them that their needs will be met through a committee but it will take time.

“Everything takes time you know we are operating in a COVID-19 Pandemic.

As a result, the wheels of Government have slowed down; the parliament is not functioning in a manner that we will like it to function because half of the staff are not vaccinated.

“You have that issue to deal with. We know that the Speaker has contracted the virus about three times. So, please take that into account and appreciate that efforts are being made to address your issue,” Minster Nandlall said.

Despite the assurance,

some members of the Rastafarian Community noted that they also do not have a lot of time since they are constantly being harassed for expressing themselves religiously.

They say that they are being incarcerated for a plant.

The chair of the committee is Minister Nandlall.

The other members are Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira; Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand; Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn; and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson.

Opposition members Khemraj Ramjattan, Annette Ferguson, Amanza Walton-Desir, and Sherod Duncan are also on the Committee.

Wednesday June, 30 2021

Number of COVID-19 hospitalisations is increasing —Health Minister precautionary measures.

Adults are also advised to protect themselves and their loved ones from contracting Covid through vaccination.

To date, some 231,766

persons have got their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This represents 47.6 percent of the adult population while 106,344 persons or 21.8 percent of the population are fully

immunized.

Persons 18 years and older are encouraged to visit any one of the COVID-19 vaccination sites to receive their jabs.

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony has said that contrary to a news report which suggests that scores of persons are hospitalised daily with COVID-19, those figures are monthly statistics and represent the number of in-patients at hospitals countrywide.

“For the entire month of January, an average of 18 persons were hospitalised, in February 23 persons, March 38 persons, April 66, May, 87 and June, 87,” he told DPI in an invited comment.

Since August 2, 2020, the Government has taken every step to

ensure the population is protected against the deadly disease. The medical sector’s capacity to treat COVID-19 has been boosted with the procurement of vital equipment and vaccines.

The public is encouraged to do its part and to obey the gazetted

STABROEK MARKER KILLER APPEARS IN COURT

A fatal accident on the Fort Wellington Public Road, West Coast Berbice, this morning claimed the lives of three people and left several others critical.

A taxi in which they were all traveling slammed into a pole after the driver reportedly lost control of the car in the pouring rain.

Motorcar #HC 6077 driven by Carlos Edwards Jr, 23, of Lot 39 Stanleytown, New Amsterdam, Berbice, and his passengers Hookumchand Parmanand, 61, of # 36 Village Corentyne,

and one so far unidentifiable female have been counted among the dead.

Those critical are also identified L a k e r a m Mangal, 57, of lot 696 Angoy’s Avenue New Amsterdam B e r b i c e ; Joyclyn Cole, 27, and Carolyn Edwards, six months old, both of Lot 39 Stanleytown New Amsterdam Berbice.

The incident took place around 4:30 am today.

Inquiries disclosed that motorcar #HC 6077 was proceeding west along the southern side of Fort Wellington Public Road at a fast rate.

While negotiating a left bend in the road – during the rains– he suddenly lost control of the vehicle and collided into GECOM’s concrete and mesh fence before ploughing into a GTT lamp pole. Finally,

the vehicle turned turtle into a drain.

As a result of the collision, the driver and passengers received injuries to their bodies.

They were then conveyed to Fort Wellington Public Hospital, where they were examined by a doctor on duty who pronounced the driver Carlos Edwards Jr, Hookumchand Parmanand, and the unidentifiable female passenger; dead on arrival.

The other passengers were treated and later transferred to N/A Public Hospital for further medical attention.

Lakeram Mangal is being treated for lacerations to his head, and his condition is regarded as critical but stable. Joyclyn Cole’s condition is regarded as stable while Carolyn Edwards’s condition is regarded as critical but stable.

Further investigations in progress.

TWO WOMEN NABBED ON GANJA POSTAGE CHARGE

Two women are now facing trafficking charges after they were both allegedly caught trying to smuggle narcotics through the Guyana Post Officer in a package destined for the Mazaruni Prison and were both granted bail.

In a statement by the Custom Anti-Narcotic Unit, the agency noted that a CANU Officer conducted a search of a box at the Guyana Post Office, containing head ties, a jersey, soaps and two bottles of lotion.

He discovered cannabis and suspected crystal methamphetamine concealed within false walls of the lotion bottles on the 23rd June.

During the search, 6.3 grams of Cannabis, and 5.4

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grams of suspected Crystal Methamphetamine were found.

The alleged shipper 37-year-old, Andrea De Florimonte, a housewife of Victoria Street, Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, was arrested with the box.

The suspect was told of the offence, arrested, cautioned and escorted to

CANU Headquarters.

The woman was later grilled with questions and it was further revealed that De Florimonte allegedly collected the lotion with the narcotics from a 46-year-old, Patrinea Bristol, a vendor of 752 Avocado Drive, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown.

Ms Bristol was later arrested and brought to CANU HQ .

Bristol and De Florimote were then charged and placed before Magistrate Leron Daily on Friday. They pleaded not guilty to the charge, and were placed on $60,000 bail each, The matter was adjourned to 27th August 2021.

Tuesday June 29, 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.

Tuesday June 29, 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

info@guyanapostonline.com info@guyanapostonline.com

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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