Keeping you updated on current events...
Wednesday May 19, 2021
ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER
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GNBS DESTROYS CIGARETTES IN LETHEM
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MAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE AFTER WIFE TOOK HER LIFE
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MECHANIC SHOOTS CARPENTER OVER A GAME OF POOLS
Wednesday May 19, 2021
GNBS DESTROYS CIGARETTES IN LETHEM
The Product Compliance Department of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) ordered the destruction of 290 cases (290,000 packs) of imported cigarettes in Lethem, Region Nine They were set on fire, on Thursday. The cigarettes, which were branded US Mild 1 and imported by a city business, were destroyed in an inferno at the Lethem dumpsite in the presence of the GNBS Inspector stationed in the Region. During routine
surveillance inspections, the GNBS detected the sale of cigarettes in the Lethem area. The product was subsequently examined for compliance with the Tobacco Regulations of 2018. The examination found the products to be not in compliance with labeling and marking requirements. As a result, the noncomplying product was seized by the GNBS and was prohibited from sale in Guyana. After a prolonged period of storage, a decision was taken by the distributor
in conjunction with the GNBS to destroy the item. In light of this seizure and destruction, the GNBS strongly urges importers and dealers of cigarettes to become familiar with the Tobacco Regulations to ensure imported cigarettes are fully in compliance at the time of importation. Meanwhile, Inspectors of the GNBS will remain vigilant to ensure there is not a prevalence of noncomplying cigarettes on sale in the city and other outlying areas
MAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE AFTER WIFE TOOK HER LIFE
A father suffering from the loss of his wife is now a patient at a local hospital after the ingestion of a poisonous substance. Also hospitalized is his toddler. The incident is said to have occurred on East Coast Demerara. The police in a statement said that they are now trying to investigate
the circumstances surrounding the hospitalization. Initial investigation has revealed that a man who recently lost his wife to suicide in February noted that he was burdened with the care of their offspring and that he could not cope. Both his condition
and that of the child are regarded as stable. They remain in a medical facility under observation. The public is reminded that the toll-free suicide helpline is currently available to persons who are in need of immediate counseling. That hotline number [592] 600-7896.
GPL, NAACIE AGREE TO FIVE PER CENT PAY HIKE ACROSS-THE-BOARD
As workers from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) protested for an increase in salary of 5 per cent and-9 per cent over the next three years, GPL and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) have reached an agreement to pay a five per cent increase to workers over the next 3 years. GPL’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer
(DCEO), Renford Homer, and NAACIE’s General Secretary, Dawchan Nagasar, both welcomed the agreement at the Ministry of Labour. This agreement was reached after the two sides ended negotiations after a year at the Ministry of Labour. The agreement is set to cater for 750 employees at home. This agreement is also to cover the full settlement of all claims for increases in remuneration for the year 2020. The two sides have also agreed to consider proposals of the labour agreement between 2021 and 2023. This 5% increase represents slight decreases
from what the Union had bargained for. It had asked for a 5% increase for 2020, 7% for 2021 and 9% for 2022. Instead, a new arrangement as it relates to a range of new additional fringe benefits, meals, travelling and out of town allowances will be injected in 2021. This increase comes after a year in which talks started under APNUAFC Government but due to the change in
government, GPL asked for the negotiations to pause, given managerial changes at the company. After several attempts, the negotiations resumed and several matters were agreed upon, except the
union’s proposal for an across-the-board increase as well as an appraisal increase under two clauses. However, the representative at that time said that they will take it up to management
who had to take it to the stakeholders. However, it was only when the matter was heard once again during the protest, that talks then started and a final decision made today.
Wednesday May 19, 2021
BULLYING AND DISCRIMINATING ARE HALLMARKS OF SOME PEOPLE
ADAM’s Notebook The world is full of examples of the strong and powerful taking advantage of the weak. Bullying is a classic example of the powerful subduing the weak. More often than not the bully or the perceived strong and powerful may pick on a person who, though possessing the ability to retaliate, would often shrug and try to move on. While this may work sometimes, for the greater part, bullies being less educated than the average person who would reason or who would let better judgment prevail continues the attack. The past week saw a continuation of the perceived strong and powerful using the seat of power to bring an ordinary person to his knees or at worse, demean him in the eyes of the wider society. This is the case of Brian Tiwarie, a self-made businessman, who climbed the ladder of entrepreneurship and expanded his operations. He set up a number of diverse companies.
There is the story of the moth and the flame. The moth saw the flame and thought that it looked beautiful. Sadly, it got too close and got burnt. Some people flirted with the flame but decided that it was too dangerous and moved on. But the flame can be unforgiving. There are many people who have found an unforgiving political situation. Most of them worked with a previous administration, some as far back as forty years. These people remained unforgiving and moved to destroy them. The cases of the public servants who were dismissed these past few months are just one example. The placing of other public servants before the courts, even though the charge may fall through is another. The bottom line is that these people charged would have to find money that could have been used in other areas to satisfy legal costs. Soon after acceding to the seat of government, there were people who turned their attention to
Tiwarie. They attacked his ownership of the property; they revoked contracts granted under the previous administration; they threatened to shut Tiwarie out of future contracts. This threat was mouthed by Minister Deodat Indar. He said that he was going to write to the Central Tender Board to have the body refuse to accept tenders submitted by BK International. Indar does not end there. He goes to the press with a statement that Tiwarie is removing sand from Number 63 Beach on the Corentyne. Banks DIH and Demerara Distillers Limited produce a brew that does strange things to some people. If one imbibes too much one could become disoriented. Many people have lost track of time. Some went home but could remember how they did. Indar went to Number 59 Village where he saw a pit resulting from reef sand extraction by BK International. He stood at the location and
MECHANIC SHOOTS CARPENTER OVER A GAME OF POOLS
A Carpenter is now hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his abdomen after he was shot in the Zeelugt area, yesterday, by a mechanic during an argument over a game of pools. The 43-year-old carpenter is said to be fighting for his life. Report so far suggests info@guyanapostonline.com
that the argument led to the withdrawing a handgun from his waist and shooting the carpenter to his abdomen. The mechanic later escaped from the scene in a white motor car. The Carpenter was picked up and rushed to Leonora Cottage
Hospital, where he was treated by the doctor on duty and admitted a patient. He was later transferred to Georgetown Public Hospital, where his condition is listed as serious. The suspect is still to be arrested.
announced that he was at Number 63 Village. This must have been the result of the brew produced by Banks DIH and DDL. Indar must have been disoriented not to know where he was. His outburst continued the attempt to bully Tiwarie. He actually said that he would have Tiwarie return the sand to the location, something that he has no power to do. Such was his intention that he got favourable news outlets to publish his utterings on the front page of their newspapers. Despite all the attempts to correct him, Indar simply refuses to change his position. In
fact, confronted with his mistake he opted to remain silent. And rest assured, there will be no apology to Tiwarie for the embarrassment. And no sooner had the Number 63 Village accusation ended than another surfaced. One of Indar’s followers published another statement designed to accuse Tiwarie of something of which he knows nothing. The accusation is that Tiwarie owns Village Voice, a nascent newspaper that is published online and in hard copy. The writer of the social media post states that Tiwarie is behind the paper and
that Adam Harris is one of the principals. Perhaps the brew that Indar drinks are shared among his followers . It clouds their vision and removes their short-term memory. The man behind Village Voice moved to the courts and secured a writ against the publishers of the newspaper. He named every operative and how much money they were paid. None of the names was Brian Tiwarie and none was Adam Harris. But that information seemed not to make its way into the heads of those who are bent on attacking Tiwarie and slandering him.
Man gets 15 years for the oral sex killing
34-year-old Eustace Abrams
After killing his drinking partner, after he refused to perform oral sex on him, 34-year-old Eustace Abrams was today slapped with a sentence to 15 years’ jail sentence. Those years were handed down by Justice
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Brassington Reynolds to Abrams, who was initially charged for murder but was found guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter. It was alleged that Abrams on June 15, 2017, at Jack and Vieira Backdam, North West District (NWD), unlawfully killed Orlando La Cruz. Reports suggest that on the day in question, La Cruz was shot after he refused to perform oral sex on Joseph Kerr. At the time of the incident, the three men were consuming alcohol.
An argument reportedly broke out between the three. Kerr allegedly collected a shotgun and placed it on the neck of La Cruz, and pulled the trigger. Kerr and Abrams made good their escape after the shooting. The injured was then taken to the Matthews Ridge Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The two men were later charged after being charged for murder. While Abrams was sentenced yesterday, Kerr remains on remand for the offence of murder.
Saturday May 15, 2021
THREE MORE DEATHS, 186 NEW COVID-19 CASES WITHIN 24H …34 fatalities in 12 days The Health Ministry on Thursday announced that the death toll for the novel coronavirus in Guyana up to Wednesday is 334. Among the latest fatalities are two males: a 64-year-old and a 55-year-old from Region Four (DemeraraMahaica), who both died on Wednesday while receiving care at a medical
facility. Another person died on Thursday. For May, 35 deaths have been reported. The deadliest month has been April 2021, with 66 reported deaths. On Thursday, 186 new cases were detected from 1364 tests. The updated Health Ministry dashboard showed the total confirmed cases moving up to 14,845. There are 12 patients
in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 111 in institutional isolation, 1696 in-home isolation, and eight in institutional quarantine. Active cases are now down to 1819 while 12,693 recoveries were recorded. Since the pandemic started, 133,695 individuals have been tested locally – with 7429 males and 7416 females returning positive results.
VACCINATE OR SUFFOCATE – THE STARK CHOICE
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 at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own) Sections of the population in many of the 14 independent CARICOM countries are in grave danger of undermining their own health and economic interests by their refusal to be inoculated against the coronavirus, COVID-19. At the time of writing (May 13), 159.5 million persons have been infected with the virus worldwide. Of this number, almost 3.4 million have died. Shockingly, the countries of the Americas from Canada to Argentina, including the Caribbean, account for almost half of the global infections and deaths – 64.1 million infections and 1.5 million deaths. While this persistent rate of infections and deaths continues, the entire Hemisphere, except info@guyanapostonline.com
for the wealthiest nations, will continue to experience a health and economic crisis. All who yearn for a return to the pre-COVID period of unrestricted activity will not only endure an exceedingly long waiting period, but they will also experience increased numbers of infections and deaths. The latter will overburden already fatigued medical capabilities and strain morgue and burial facilities. Figures from Caribbean countries are worrying, despite the efforts of governments and their medical authorities, to prevent infections and deaths. The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) records community spread in eight of the 14 independent CARICOM countries – Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent, and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Cluster cases are registered in two countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas. The other three countries – Dominica, Grenada and St Kitts-Nevis – report sporadic cases. While it is not a magic
bullet that will eliminate the coronavirus, the antiCOVID vaccine is the best solution for the people of CARICOM countries to save themselves, their families, and their friends, and to place themselves in a position to recover from their present health and economic crises. Those who refuse to be vaccinated or propagandize against it, are endangering themselves and all who live in their countries. Indeed, they could be described as choosing to commit suicide and to take along with themselves many other people. This not only lacks good judgment in personal terms, but it is also a clear and present danger to their entire societies. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, all nations cried out for vaccines. The wealthier nations invested billions of dollars in the big pharmaceutical companies to develop and test vaccines. Four types were quickly developed and approved after extensive testing by AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. On May 7, the World Health Organization also approved the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China. Fear has been expressed about taking any of these vaccines based on the relatively rapid rate in which they were developed in comparison with vaccine development
in the past. This trepidation should take account of the fact that unlike as in the past, science and technology have vastly improved, allowing for reliable results to be obtained faster. Further, at no previous time in human history has such large sums of money been devoted to the research and development of a vaccine. Regarding those who take the simple view that they reject vaccines as unnecessary and harmful, Caribbean history reveals that what made Caribbean people survive and lead productive lives, were vaccines against mumps, measles, chickenpox, Hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, and tetanus (lockjaw). These vaccines were administered and accepted routinely because they saved lives. What those vaccines have done in the past, and still do, antiCOVID-19 vaccines can do today. But, vaccination rates in CARICOM countries are too low. The antivaccination propaganda seems to have overtaken government information and education machinery – something governments must reverse swiftly, including by better use of social media platforms and by direct communication with influencers in communities. Thus far in the vaccination success table, Antigua and Barbuda (31.74%), Barbados
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(26.9%), Dominica (26.2%), St Kitts-Nevis (24.3%), Guyana at 19.16%, and Grenada (11.1%) are the six leaders; all others are below 10% and four of them Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines are at less than 5%. Where countries such as Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados have some vaccines, but people are falling prey to propaganda, endangering their own and other lives, as well as the recovery of their countries, they weaken considerably the argument that CARICOM governments have been advancing in the international community that we need access to more vaccines. Ten wealthy countries have secured 75 percent of the 1.36 billion doses already administered to vaccinate 8.6 per cent of the world’s population. Other countries are struggling. There is a strong moral argument for equitable distribution. But, if Caribbean countries have vaccines that are not being taken up and which must be discarded because they have expired, the argument about being deprived of vaccines by rich countries will quickly be discounted. A few politicians in some countries, such as Antigua and Barbuda, while publicly supporting vaccines, have joined the anti-vaccination propaganda behind the
scenes with what appears to be an intent to promote circumstances to blame the governments for a lack of progress. In Antigua and Barbuda, for instance, the political focus has been placed on its Prime Minister Gaston Browne who was gifted with the Moderna vaccine which he took to try to allay fears. Now, even with other safe and reliable vaccines available, some politicians are putting politics ahead of patriotism by promoting the idea that the only acceptable vaccine is Moderna. From my own discussions with Moderna and Pfizer, I know that no new supplies will be available until January 2022 at the earliest. None of this antivaccination propaganda is helping the Caribbean. The region needs to reach herd immunity soon if economies are not to decline and wither, affecting everyone. The fate or the future of the region is now in the hands of the region’s people themselves – rejecting vaccinations is a sure way of widening the path to misfortune. The words of Dr. Carissa Etienne, the Director of PAHO, should be the clarion call – “The best vaccine is the vaccine that is available”. The alternative is a prolonged period of misery, including an increase in infections and deaths. None of this is exaggerated.
SPORTS
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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