Keeping you updated on current events... Friday May 14, 2021
ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER
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PRESIDENT URGES ALL TO BECOME A VESSEL OF PEACE AS MUSLIM BROTHERS AND SISTERS MARKS EID- UL-FITR
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COVID-19 IS NOT SPARING THE YOUNG —DR. ANTHONY
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MECHANIC COMMITTED TO HIGH COURT MURDER TRIAL OVER $700
Friday May 14, 2021
PRESIDENT URGES ALL TO BECOME A VESSEL OF PEACE AS MUSLIM BROTHERS AND SISTERS MARKS EID- UL-FITR
His Excellency Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, with his wife and son
Eid-ul-Fitr 2021 Message of His Excellency Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana Eid Mubarak, Eid Mubarak, Eid Mubarak! I extend greetings to all Guyanese, especially my fellow Muslim Brothers and Sisters on this joyous occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, on behalf of my family and the Government. Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of the Holy Month
of Ramadan, a period of prayers, fasting, and peace. Eid-ul-Fitr is a time for prayers, exchanging best wishes, and helping the needy. These acts of devotion, kindness, love, and concern help to contribute to a culture of understanding and peace. The Holy Quran says, “When you enter houses, offer greetings of peace upon each other, a greeting from Allah, blessed and good.”
Peace is a virtue ingrained in our hearts and a gift to be shared. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him) urged us all to live as brothers and sisters, respecting and honouring one another. Peace among men and women is built on respect for and understanding and tolerance towards each other. Peace within society is predicated on justice. And peace between states and peoples must be
underscored by respect for religious rights, freedom, and democracy. At this time, we note with extreme concern the violence which has erupted in the Middle East. Guyana urges restraint. It also uses this opportunity to restate its long-standing position urging respect for the right of the Palestinians to selfdetermination and to a homeland. Peace begins in our hearts, in how we treat
those dearest and nearest to us. It extends to our fellow human beings and to our society. Let us, therefore, become vessels of peace. On this holy festival of Eid-ul- Fitr, I urge that we all continue to strive for greater peace in the world – in our homes, communities, and institutions, and between states. So, to families out there, my fellow Guyanese brothers and sisters, let us
use the lessons of Ramadan to strengthen us, to make us more courageous, and to add to our resolve to come together as humanity; to love each other as brothers and sisters; to give more to the needy; to care more for each other; to care more about our neighbours and this will translate into better societies, better communities and indeed, a better country A joyous and blessed Eid- ul-Fitr to all! Eid Mubarak!
COVID-19 IS NOT SPARING THE YOUNG —DR. ANTHONY
While in the past, the elderly population was more at risk of dying from the deadly COVID-19 Virus, new information has shown that now even the younger population is falling ill to the virus and even dying more.
Those 65-year-olds were listed as persons who would be severely affected by the virus, essentially dying. That trend according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony has changed over time.
“What we have noticed over the past couple of weeks is a change in the mortality pattern because we are seeing a person who is between the ages of 50 and 40, we have seen quite a few cases in that age category, we have had a few cases in the 4030 category and we have had about three cases in the 20-year age group category,” Minister noted In Guyana’s approach, as it was advised by the World Health Organization(WHO) and by seeing a large number of persons dying who are 65 years and older, Guyana initially started its
mass vaccination program targeting those folks. As such, with over 65% of that population being vaccinated, the number of elderly persons being infected has reduced while those younger are now taking up spaces in the hospital with a severe form of the virus. Minister Anthony said that younger folks should be doing the right thing by accepting more responsibility by taking care of themselves because in this case younger folks are being hit also with the severe form of the virus “We have to be mindful
that this is no longer a situation where it’s just older people. We are seeing different ages, and this is a trend that has also been observed globally. It is something that we have to be mindful of and if younger people or more active people think that they will only get the milder form of the disease, well, now the new information that we have been getting should tell people to be more cautious and hopefully, we can avoid the hospitalization,” Minister Anthony added. Minister Anthony has insisted that people should be fully vaccinated, as it
remains the only way out of the pandemic and out of the hospital. “The other way to avoid hospitalization is to ensure that people come out and get their vaccines, get both doses of their vaccines so that they can be fully immunized and protected,” Minister Anthony maintained. With Region Four having the largest pocket of positive cases, the Government barely shifted the health guidelines even as people called for stiffer measures in the wake of more deaths and higher number of positive cases.
Thursday May 13, 2021
HOSTILE RECEPTION FOR HOUSING MINISTER AT ILLEGAL CONCRETE PLANT
Concrete Plant
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, was on Tuesday met with aggression and asked to remove himself from a property adjacent to South Ruimveldt Gardens in Georgetown. That property is where an illegal concrete facility is
being set up on a portion of land. Guyanese, Andrew Mekdeci, has facilitated the concrete project on lands leased from Michael Vieira of Houston Estates. The minister accompanied by the
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Sherwyn Greaves, and other officials from the ministry had gone to the site to serve a Contravention Order after two previous failed
attempts to stop the unauthorized operation. The company which is setting up the plant – Superior Concrete Inc – had at least two of its three Directors who are all foreigners – Ian Jones, Richard Shamlin, and Maxwell
Snow – present when the Housing Ministry officials arrived. The government minister, who was accompanied by his public relations team and members of the media, was asked by Richard Shamlin, who became aggressive upon the ministry’s entry, to leave the premises. “This is private property. I’m happy to meet with you guys but we are not going to have a meeting if you don’t ask the media to leave. “It’s time to leave now… no, no, no this is private property,” Shamlin could be heard saying to Minister Croal. While the Contravention Notice was received by Shamlin, he gave neither the minister nor the officials any opportunity to speak. Shamlin jumped into his
car and drove off. Croal explained that the CH&PA intervened after it received several complaints from residents about the construction of the concrete plant. He said an initial investigation found that no application was made for approval and neither was any approval granted by the agency. Croal said when the first Order was served, the recipient discarded it. Although the Order instructed that operations cease until proof of approval can be provided, works continued at the site. A second Order was served three days later on May 8, 2021, but had to be posted at the location because no one was on site to receive it. Shamlin received the third order on Tuesday
Bicycle bandit robs Blind Institute coordinator
P r o g r a m m e Coordinator of The Guyana Council of Organisations for
Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD), Ganesh Singh, was yesterday robbed a mere 10 feet from his office door. He is calling on authorities to beef up security in the area that has seen frequent robbery. In a statement on the incident, Singh said that yesterday about 11:45 AM, he was stepping out of the taxi in the compound of the Guyana
Society for the Blind. Approximately 10 feet from the door of the building, he was robbed by a young bicycle bandit. He was in St Phillip’s Green, Durban, and High Streets. The bicycle bandit reportedly approached Singh and asked if he needed assistance to get into the building. Singh said that he replied in the negative, that he was
heading out. He said that while entering the car the bandit held on to him and demanded his valuables while stating that he will kill him he does not. Singh later handed his gold bracelet and the bandit made good his escape. Singh added that the security situation in the St Phillip’s Green where the Guyana Society for the Blind is located is
getting worse. Security was always a problem in the area for blind persons. However, over the past few months, things have got worse, as bandits are more brazen. He added that sadly this is not the first incident of a blind person getting robbed in the area. “And I know it will not be the last unless the relevant authorities do something drastic and
concrete to improve the security situation in the area.” Blind persons visit the organization for training and services and should be protected, he said. Singh has requested that the Guyana Police Force have more patrols in the area and whenever calls are made to the emergency numbers for help a team should be dispatched with urgency.
Taxi driver suspected of rape
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A taxi driver has now found himself in trouble after he was suspected of raping a teenage girl. According to police reports, the incident occurred just after 11 PM last night in the Region Seven area. Just around that time the victim who later reported the matter said that the driver failed to
take her to her desired destination and instead drove some distance away from where the act was committed. Subsequently, a report was made to the police and the victim was medically examined. Despite the suspect being known, he has not yet been detained
REGIONAL NEWS
HEADS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) MEETING VIRTUALLY IN SPECIAL SESSION ON TUESDAY 11 MAY UNANIMOUSLY AGREED TO APPOINT DR. CARLA NATALIE BARNETT AS THE 8TH CARICOM SECRETARY-GENERAL. Dr Barnett, a national of Belize, is the first woman and the first Belizean to be selected for the post. She will replace Ambassador Irwin LaRocque who is completing his second term. She will assume office on 15 August 2021. Heads of Government in congratulating
Dr. Barnett on her selection, recognised the historic moment for the Community. A former Deputy Secretary General of CARICOM, Dr. Barnett was formerly vice president of the Belize Senate and has served in various ministerial capacities in her country’s government. She has
also served as Financial Secretary of Belize and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Belize, as well as Vice-President (Operations) of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Dr. Barnett attained her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona
Campus in Jamaica. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Economics Dr. Carla Natalie Barnett to become first female CARICOM SecretaryGeneralfrom the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the UWI.
Eritrean troops disguised as Ethiopian military are blocking critical aid in Tigray
Axum, Ethiopia — Eritrean troops are operating with total impunity in Ethiopia’s war-torn northern Tigray region, killing, raping and blocking humanitarian aid to starving populations more than a month after the country’s Nobel Peace Prize winning leader pledged to the international community that they would leave. A CNN team traveling through Tigray’s central zone witnessed Eritrean soldiers, some disguising themselves in old Ethiopian military uniforms, manning checkpoints, obstructing and occupying critical aid routes, roaming the halls of one of the region’s few operating hospitals and threatening medical staff. Despite pressure from the Biden administration, there is no sign that Eritrean forces plan to exit the
border region anytime soon. On April 21, a CNN team reporting in Tigray with the permission of Ethiopian authorities traveled from the regional capital Mekelle to the besieged city of Axum, two weeks after it had been sealed off by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers. An aid convoy also made the sevenhour journey. Ethiopia’s government has severely restricted access to the media until recently, and a state-enforced communications blackout concealed events in the region, making it challenging to gauge the extent of the crisis or verify survivors’ accounts. But CNN’s interviews with humanitarian workers, doctors, soldiers and displaced people in Axum and across central Tigray -- where up to 800,000
displaced people are sheltering -- indicate the situation is even worse than was feared. Eritrean troops aren’t just working hand in glove with the Ethiopian government, assisting in a merciless campaign against the Tigrayan people, in some pockets they’re fully in control and waging a reign of terror. The testimonies, shared at great personal risk, present a horrifying picture of the situation in Tigray, where a clash between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in November has deteriorated into a protracted conflict that, by many accounts, bears the hallmarks of genocide and has the potential to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region. Ethiopian security officials working
with Tigray’s interim administration told CNN that the Ethiopian government has no control over Eritrean soldiers operating in Ethiopia, and that Eritrean forces had blocked roads into central Tigray for over two weeks and in the northwestern part of the region for nearly one month. As the war and its impact on civilians deepens, world leaders have voiced their concern about the role of Eritrean forces in exacerbating what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to spokesperson Ned Price, has described as a “growing humanitarian disaster.” In a phone call with Abiy on April 26, Blinken pressed Ethiopia and Eritrea to make good on commitments to withdraw Eritrean troops “in full, and in a verifiable manner.” CNN’s efforts to reach Axum were thwarted by both Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers multiple times over several days. On one of the first attempts, the CNN team encountered what it later learned was the aftermath of a grenade attack, where a group of local residents were flagging down cars, warning passersby not
to go any further. But before we reached the scene, a large army truck drove up and parked sideways, blocking the road. Our cameraman got out of the car and started filming only to be confronted by Ethiopian soldiers, who threatened the team with detention, demanding that we hand over the camera and delete the footage. But we refused and were able to conceal the footage until we were eventually released. On another occasion, CNN was turned back by an Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) Command operating out of a former USAID distribution center in the outskirts of the city of Adigrat, where several trucks laden with sacks of desperately needed food sat languishing in the hot sun. The aid, bound for communities in Tigray’s starved central zone, had been stopped from going any further despite daily phone calls from humanitarian workers pleading for access. Even after being granted entry to Axum by the Ethiopian military, CNN’s path was obstructed by Eritrean troops controlling a checkpoint on a desolate mountain top overlooking
Adigrat. The forces were wearing a mixture of their official lightcolored Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) fatigues and a woodland camouflage with a green beret, which military experts verified as tallying with old Ethiopian army uniforms. It is one of the first visual confirmations of reports -- relayed in recent weeks by the UN’s top humanitarian official Mark Lowcock and US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield -that Eritrean soldiers are disguising their identities by reuniforming as Ethiopian military, in what Thomas-Greenfield described as a move to “remain in Tigray indefinitely.” CNN was informed by aid agencies that they had also been turned back by Eritrean soldiers manning the same checkpoint. Ethiopian military sources in the region confirmed to CNN that Eritrean soldiers were in control of key checkpoints along the route to Axum. The military sources said they had requested multiple times for the Eritreans to allow cars and convoys through, but had been refused.
SPORTS
Thursday May 13, 2021
BJ WATLING: NEW ZEALAND WICKETKEEPER TO RETIRE AFTER ENGLAND TOUR
New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling will retire from all cricket after the Kiwis’ tour of England in June. Watling, 35, will
play in the World Test Championship final against India at the Ageas Bowl, and then against England at Lord’s from 2 June and Edgbaston
from 10 June before retiring. He has played 106 times for the Black Caps across all three formats, scoring 4,384 runs and
taking 282 catches. “It’s the right time,” said Watling, who made his New Zealand debut in 2009. “It’s been a huge
honour to represent New Zealand and in particular wear the Test baggy. Test cricket really is the pinnacle of the game, and I’ve loved every minute of being out there in the whites with the boys. “Sitting in the changing rooms having a beer with the team after five days’ toil is what I’ll miss the most.” South Africa-born Watling moved to New Zealand aged 10 and made 73 appearances in Test cricket with a batting average of 38.11, his highest score of 205 coming against England at Mount Maunganui in November 2019. He also appeared in 28 one-day internationals, averaging 24.91,
and five Twenty20 internationals - as well as featuring in two County Championship matches for Durham in 2019. He was also involved in New Zealand’s record sixth and seventh-wicket Test partnerships, sharing an unbroken stand of 365 with captain Kane Williamson for the sixth wicket against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 2015, before adding 261 with Mitchell Santner for the seventh wicket on the way to that double century against England at the Bay Oval. In his entire firstclass career, he scored 10,017 runs and took 442 catches.
Champions League final: Portugal set to host final rather than Wembley
Portugal is set to host the Champions League final after Uefa failed to receive the guarantees of info@guyanapostonline.com
exemptions it wants if it is to move the game to Wembley. Uefa, UK government officials and the Football Association met on Monday to discuss moving the game between Chelsea and Manchester City from
Istanbul. be allowed to attend on U e f a 29 May. h a s Porto’s Estadio do Dragao is expected to be named as the venue on Thursday decided because Uefa would it will prefer not to stage the be moved match in Lisbon, which after Turkey was put on hosted last year’s final. England’s red travel list European football’s meaning fans cannot governing body travel. Portugal is on the believes holding the green list so fans would match in Portugal will
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make it easier to gain access for sponsors and broadcasters, who would need to be compensated if they were unable to attend the game. However, Uefa is still not in a position to confirm the switch, which would see Istanbul given the 2023 final, having originally been due to host last year before the move to
Lisbon. The match could still be played at Wembley but it would require a major shift from the UK government, which has so far failed to reach an agreement with Uefa. Travellers from England to green-list countries must follows rules before departure but do not have to quarantine on their return.
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