Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 5

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Guyana’s GDP growth rate appears fudged!

Amerindians must broaden their economic activities

DEAR EDITOR, The halfway point in the Ramotar’s administration term in office has now passed. Unfortunately we cannot find any public policy or strategy that has permanently and positively transformed the well-being of the people who make up the 40 percent at the bottom of the economic ladder.

During the 2011 Campaign, the PPP leaders outlined their philosophy and guiding principles in their Manifesto as “Freedom, Democracy and Rights”; as “Upliftment of All…”; as “Equal Opportunity and National Unity”; and as “Integrity and Accountability.” Words and more words but clearly without substance!

It was John Adams, the second President of the United States who said, “Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry, chicanery and division of society.” These empty words from the Ramotar regime continue to divide the society since they have delivered very little of their promises so far.

Is that 40 percent at the bottom more free, have more rights, feeling more uplifted

politically, socially and economically than they were two years ago? Do they feel that they have an equal opportunity to the patrimony of the nation? Do they feel that they live in a more united country today as compared to 2011? Certainly not!

Politicians with good rational judgment would seek balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and economic and social degradation. This economic imbalance is driven by the irrationality at how we arrive at the GDP figures in Guyana.

There is an accumulation of evidence that the GDP figures have been fudged since before 2011 and 2013 was no different. But they cannot fudge the GDP figures forever. The majority in that 40 percent at the bottom of the economic ladder will confirm that his or her life has not improved since 2011. In other words, the trickle down effect they promised in the 2011 PPP manifesto did not happen. In fact, it trickled up to their rich relatives and friends, thus making them richer and the poor poorer.

In support of our conclusion, one only has

to look at the macroeconomic numbers for 2013 and one can easily find indisputable evidence that the 5 percent growth rate was an act of economic illusion. In 2013, the overall balance of payments recorded a deficit (shortfall) of US$119.5 million compared to a surplus of US$32.9 million in 2012. The deterioration was primarily due to an expanded current account shortfall and a lower capital account surplus for 2013.

Today, the current account deficit (shortfall) has widened by 16 percent or US$58.6 million, worsening to US$425.3 million at the end of 2013. This bloated deficit was mainly on account of lower capital inflow of current transfers and higher service payments. Bottom line, lower capital inflows and higher outflows of cash from the economy have deeply influenced the overall deficit!

A real concern to us is that the regime is not telling the people the truth. The country’s exports have declined by some three percent to US$1,375.9 million.

Except for rice, exports from all the other main sectors (gold, sugar, bauxite, timber)

Continued on page 6

DEAR EDITOR, I believe that Mr. Sydney Allicock should be commended that, unlike so many letter writers and feature writers in the press, and despite his obvious disenchantment with the PPP/ C, the President and what he said at the opening of the Lethem rodeo, he has offered some concrete proposals on what need to be implemented in the Amerindian communities to achieve their progress in the various aspects of their development.

However, I would like to take issue with his rejection of the component in the Amerindian Development

Fund in the budget proposals which is geared to provide entrepreneurial training to young Amerindians, in keeping with similar programmes on the coastland.

This programme must have been formulated with the aim of equipping the young people in our interior locations to advance into the field of business so that they can make themselves and their families and communities somewhat independent.

I must say that Amerindians must now think seriously of broadening their economic activities from the self-sustenance nature of the past, which mostly centred

around their homestead agriculture, and think about moving into commerce on a broad scale.

This would enable their communities to become self-sufficient and more able to contribute to the revenues which finance the various governmental institutions in their communities, thus elevating them into a more respected position among our citizenry.

I do hope that Mr. Allicock will see the wisdom in this effort and use the broad outlook he has displayed to institute this programme.

Roy Paul

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur M@ilbox Guyana’s GDP growth... The truth about the Venezuela rice deal Kaieteur M@ilbox

From page 5 have contracted over the past two years.

During this period, the deficit on the services account expanded by 50 percent or US$102.5 million to reach US$307.1 million on account of higher payments for nonfactor services (outflow of cash out of the Guyanese economy). Remittances decreased by 30 percent or US$141.1 million to US$328.2 million when compared to 2012.

The capital account surplus also decreased by 25 percent to US$314.8 million in 2013 on account of lower foreign direct investment and local investment by the private sector.

Foreign direct investment actually declined by US$80 million or 27 percent in 2013 confirming the economic melt down in Guyana. Inflows from bilateral and multilateral agencies have decreased by 27 percent to US$221.4 million.

If one should read this scorecard, one will have to really search between the weeds for this 5 percent GDP growth. The Minister of Finance should clearly know

better. It is either the technicians are deliberately fudging the figures for political purposes or they are grossly incompetent at their basic arithmetic.

In light of all this evidence, we challenge the Minister to illustrate to the nation how he arrived at the 5 percent GDP growth rate. But what is worst that this act of economic illusion is the act by the majority political opposition at not curtails the squandermania adequately?

We found evidence of billions voted on by the majority opposition that will only serve to feed the greed machine in Freedom House.

Why are they constantly capitulating to the Minister of Finance?

The principle role of the opposition is to interrogate every action of the Government and hold them accountable to the public.

Hopefully in the process of safeguarding the people’s assets, the people will be convinced that they can better run the country. Can we say the majority opposition has taken its responsibility to the people well? Certainly not!

We recommend not a cent more for the Ramotar administration until and unless they put in greater internal controls in place to save the nation from the Freedom House greed machine.

We can start by renewing our long overdue Local Government system with Local Government Elections. Can the majority opposition pull this off?

We urge the opposition to stand up to the bullies and take the fight to the Ramotar administration. That is the only solution so that all the people can secure justice and equality all the times.

Sase Singh, Dr. Vincent Nauth, Derrick Arjune, Asha Balbachan, Dr. Devita Khan, Aubrey Reteymer, Chandra Deollal, Dr. Reginald Wakins, Rohit Misir, Dr. Terrence Simon, Donna Mathoo, Noel Moses, Vicki Rampersaud, Guilianna Jacobs, Dr. Asquith Rose, Ramesh Sookram, Harish Singh.

DEAR EDITOR, I read an article last Sunday concerning the rice industry which raised serious questions over its management.

I have waited a few days as I wanted to see the reaction of the relevant authorities.

However, there has been deafening silence.

The undersigned is an exemployee of a large rice mill and knows all the ‘insides” of this sad situation and given the fact that there has not been a massive reaction from the farmers, tells a story.

As a firm supporter in the past of the PPP, I will never forget that it was (Dr. Cheddi) Jagan who promised in the 1992 election that the first thing he would do is change the Constitution.

He did not live to do so.

Today, the party markets racialism successfully and fooling the Amerindians is still a normal thing.

Coming back to your statement of the middleman, I will explain to you why it is worse than you think.

The price of the paddy that Guyana is enjoying is US$520 per metric ton which is about US$175 over the world market price Firmly note that when this lucrative deal was not there the farmers were getting between $4500-$6500 per bag of paddy. They are now getting the fantastic price of $3500 per bag.

How awful is this

situation?

These are the charges GRDB is applying which is making the price of paddy drop: Wharfage: US$12 per MT - the highest in the world for bulk shipments.

Please note that Guyana had a bulk rice terminal at Water Street. However, it has been privatized and is now a stone depot. International.

The Rice Lab is being paid US$3 per metric ton - they received 750.000 tonnes x US$3 = US$2.25M ($450M).

This is a company which is owned/headed by a foreigner.

Then there is the commission of US$7 per metric ton which goes to GRDB. This adds up to US$5.25M ($1.050B).

Then there is one more commission of US$2 per MT which GRDB collects US$1.5M ($3M).

There is fumigation cost: US$3 per MT which translates to US$2.25M which makes it the most expensive fumigation on earth.

To knock is off is a questionable charge under the heading “Social Fund”.

This started off at US$20 per MT and is now US$9 per MT. One can estimate based on the rice shipped to Venezuela that the “Social Fund” collected around $2.4B ….the big question is what is happening with all that money and who is in charge of it ? Is it the same as the Lotto fund?

Finally your concern about the shipping which is charged at a tune of US$58-65 per metric tonne ton.

Anyone in shipping will let you know that a voyage of only maximum two days will in the top cost you between US$28--34 per metric ton which makes your estimates excellent. This is true as we saw a charter party to Portugal of US$62 per metric ton which is a 15 days voyage.

If you investigate this whole situation you will see that there are a few new players such as the brother of a sitting Member of Parliament and a popular businessman involved in the hotel business now in the rice industry.

A senior official of the rice producers’ association is also benefitting from the Venezuela deal with a quota.

There is more bad news for the farmers. While the new contract for Venezuela is 200,000 metric tons for the year, the big question is what will happen to the remaining 150.000 tons that will be produced and the 80,000 tons left over from last year.

The real traders are just watching it unfold and are anxiously waiting to see “the professionals” at GRDB solving it.

In the meantime, farmers are being fooled with the normal statement: It is the millers who set the price.

Pathetic!

The only conclusion is that the rice farmers are being massively ripped of by their own leaders. For me, it is over as I have self-sponsored and am leaving Guyana as I could not take it anymore.

An insider

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

China’s president warns against growing threats to national security

Xi Jinping BEIJING (Reuters) Chinese President Xi Jinping said yesterday that China faces increasing threats to national security and warned of the dangers of terrorism in a speech indicating that Beijing could impose tougher controls on its ethnic minorities.

Xi told a study session of the party’s decision-making Politburo “to resolutely stamp out the brazenness of the terrorists,” the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Xi’s comments come at a sensitive time for China, as authorities battle unrest in the Tibetan regions and in Xinjiang, home to Muslim Uighurs.

Unrest in Xinjiang has led to the deaths of more than 100 people in the past year, prompting a tougher stance against the Muslim Uighur minority.

The government blames the violence in Xinjiang on Islamist militants and separatists who want to

establish an independent state called East Turkestan in the far western region.

More than 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest Beijing’s rule, with many calling for the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Beijing says the selfimmolators are “terrorists”.

Most have died from their injuries.

“We have to be clearly aware that in the new situation, our country is facing increasing threats and challenges to our national security and increasing threats to our social stability,” Xi said.

The Chinese public must build a “wall of bronze and iron” to fight terrorism, and “make terrorists become like rats scurrying across a street, with everybody shouting ‘beat them’,” he said.

Xi called on officials to “properly resolve disputes affecting national unity and resolutely curb and combat

hostile forces from outside and inside the country from using the ethnic issue to engage in separatist, infiltration and sabotage activities”.

Xi did not refer to Tibetans or Uighurs, but his remarks reflect the rhetoric often used by party leaders when discussing ethnic unrest and underscore Beijing’s anxiety about minority issues.

Human rights groups have said that Beijing tramples on the religious and cultural rights of Tibetans and Uighurs and enforces its rule with brutality. China says ethnic minorities enjoy broad freedoms.

Beijing has called the Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who wants to establish an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for Tibet and denies advocating violence.

Security has been tightened in Xinjiang after a spate of deadly attacks, including an incident in the southwestern city of Kunming in March, in which at least 29 people were killed and 140 injured, blamed by Beijing on Uighur militants.

Last October, a vehicle ploughed into tourists on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders.

Authorities said it was a suicide attack by militants from Xinjiang.

Xi’s administration has intensified a crackdown on dissent. Beijing sparked an outcry from Western nations in January when police detained Ilham Tohti, a professor who has championed the rights of Uighurs.

Thai protest leader arrested on several charges BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police said yesterday that they have arrested a key antigovernment protest leader and charged him with offenses including insurrection, risking further political confrontations even though a court freed him on bail hours later.

Immigration police arrested Sakhontee Phattiyagul Friday night at Bangkok’s international airport upon his return from a trip to the U.S., said Department of Special Investigation DirectorGeneral Tharit Pengdit.

Sakhontee is a leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, which has been staging anti-government

demonstrations in Thailand’s capital since November. The group wants Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down and disrupted a general election held in February. It insists that an interim unelected government be appointed to implement measures against corruption and money politics.

Sakhontee was arrested on multiple charges, including insurrection, Tharit said. Thai media reported that a court on Saturday released him on 600,000 baht ($18,600) bail.

The protests have engendered an atmosphere of violence in Bangkok, where a pro-government activist was shot dead Wednesday by unidentified gunmen, and

grenades were fired at a newspaper headquarters and a court on Thursday night, also by unknown attackers.

There are fears the tempo of violence may increase as legal challenges to Yingluck’s position, initiated by her political foes, come close to fruition over the next month.

More than 20 people have been killed and over 700 hurt since November in the current round of political confrontations.

Police have been frustrated in their attempts to arrest protest leaders, thwarted by courts quickly granting bail to protest leaders and legal rulings calling the demonstrations allowable under the constitution, even though many have turned violent.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Octogenarian made to sleep with dog, sustain beatings ‘My daughter-in-law held me by my feet and dragged me down the stairs’ - elderly woman An 87-year-old woman who spent sleepless nights selling elastic in the city to ensure that her son had a comfortable life yesterday revealed how her only child repaid her.

Cybil Smith of Lot 278 West Ruimveldt, spoke about how her grandchildren threw water on her in the middle of the night while she was asleep and her son did nothing to help his mother.

“I does sleep on the floor and when they (grandchildren and daughterin-law) passing, they kicking me and then, they does throw water on me while I am sleeping and say that I am stink,” the elderly woman claimed.

The woman said that she wholeheartedly accepted her son’s family into her home and they threw her out.

“They put me to sleep next to the dog outside and when the rain falls, my whole skin does get wet. Rashes coming out on my skin because of the dog I am sleeping next to,” Smith said.

The woman added that

she was living in Alberttown but was forced to move when the house she was l i ving in, was given to someone else.

“I searched and I searched for a place until I met with a woman and she said she has a house here and that’s when me and my son moved in here.

“My son started to get children and he asked me if his children’s mother could move in and I said yes,” Smith recalled.

According to the woman, from that day, her life took a turn for the worse. She said she endured years of abuse at the hands of her son’s wife and his three children.

“They took a bucket and hit me in my head and burst it. The neighbours have to give me food.”

The woman said that her daughter-in-law held her by her feet and dragged her down the stairs.

“They don’t know what is grandmother. They curse and beat me. They put me out of my own house and I have a

Dem boys seh

Ya mouth can put you in trouble Dem got different ways fuh mek money. Some does mek counterfeit, some does cheat, some does thief like some of dem big boys in high office. Some does use dem hand fuh stitch while some does pick pocket. Y’all know dem too. Some does use dem foot, some does use dem face wid a ton of make-up just to parade and rob you.

Some people does mek money wid dem mouth. Some is radio announcers; some does blow saxophone and other instrument and thing. Some like Kwame does blow other stuff.

And some does taste and others does use dem waist like dem belly dancers.

Brazzy de looking fuh a man who does taste fuh wuk in he wine bar because de last one he had drink out de wine and disappear. Dem boys seh a retire drunking parliamentarian wid old clothes tun up at Brazzy bar and apply fuh de wuk.

Brazzy was there and wonder how fuh get rid of de man.

Dem give ee a glass of wine to taste.

De drunking MP try it and seh, “It’s a Muscat three years old, grown in the north section of the Rupununi, matured in steel containers. Low grade but acceptable.”

“That’s correct,” said Brazzy. “Another glass, please.”

“It’s a cabernet, eight years old, south section of Rupununi, oak barrels, matured at eight degrees. Requires three more years for finest results.”

“Absolutely correct. A third glass.” ‘’It’s a pinot blanc champagne, high grade and exclusive,’’ calmly said the drunkard.

Brazzy shock. He winked he secretary to suggest something. She left the room and came back in with a glass of pee. The drunk MP tried it.

“It’s a dougla, 26 years old, three months pregnant, and if I don’t get this job, I’ll name the father.”

Dem boys seh Donald should hire that man. He only have to smell the Marriott and will tell Guyana not only the name of the secret investor but also wheh he come from, age, size color, how much pickney he gat inside and outside his marriage, if he still married, plus where he thief every dollar from.

Talk half and careful wheh you putting ya mouth.

son but he does nothing.

“I want to leave, I can’t take it anymore. My own son has his mother sleeping next to a dog and in the rain although she has a house.”

Yesterday, when Kaieteur News visited Smith, she was seen sitting on a bench in front of her house with her clothes stuffed in two bags.

Neighbours related the daily horror in the elderly woman’s life.

“If we don’t give her food, she won’t eat. If you know what this old woman does go through. We tried to get her into the Palms but they full and we don’t know where to go to next,” one neighbour related.

Cybil Smith is pleading with the relevant authorities and the Minister of Human Services to assist in getting her into a home.

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Cybil Smith

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

CARICOM has to give green APNU concerns vindicated... light to release census results Canje River residents affected - Luncheon by contaminated water

Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, on Wednesday, at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing, indicated that the comprehensive results of the 2012 National Census would not be made available until CARICOM says so.

According to Dr. Luncheon, the publication of the Census is not a unique Government of Guyana resolve.

“The Census and its result are actually a joint Government of Guyana and CARICOM engagement, so the results in essence depend on the collective CARICOM and Government of Guyana agreeing and completing all of the outstanding work,” he said.

Dr. Luncheon explained that Census taking is a CARICOM responsibility because of the treaty

Dr. Roger Luncheon involved.

Therefore, CARICOM is intricately involved in the conduct of the Census. “So until they give the go ahead and the noobjection, the release of the formal comprehensive report will be delayed,” he emphasized.

In September 2012, the Bureau of Statistics launched the National Census. A total

of US$4M was dedicated towards the exercise, which is critical for future planning for the country. Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh in his National Budget 2014 speech informed the National Assembly that the preliminary report on the 2012 National Census will be available by the end of the first half of 2014.

And, work will subsequently continue this year on the processing and analysis of the data that would inform results in the main Report.

Dr. Singh added that completion of the preliminary report was somewhat hampered by the physical challenges of access to households and enterprises, particularly in mining areas within Regions One, Seven and Eight, for a final verification of data.

He explained that the National Census report is expected to address such topics as the changing age structure of the population; composition of the labour market and employment profiles; and the ethnic, gender, religious, marital, educational, and quality of life profiles of our population.

In addition, specific attention would be placed on issues relevant to females and children; elderly population; and the incidence of disabilities in the population, “to name just some of the anticipated analyses,” he said.

“The analysis would also include the projections on our population size through to year 2050 based on current observed trends.”

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which had last year protested the installation of a Drainage Pump in the Canje River by Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) is now feeling vindicated about the protest back then.

The pump, according to APNU, was to extract contaminated water from the massive GuySuCo cultivations in East Berbice into the Canje River. This, according to reports, began affecting the residents’ livelihood.

The protest came after it was learnt that a number of residents in the area have been affected by contaminated water being pumped into the Canje River by rice farmers in the area.

Recently rice farmers started to cultivate areas close to the Canje River at a new cultivation aback of Number 52 Village. The location is the Youth Farmers’ Cooperative headed by 80-year-old retired Magistrate Krisendat Persaud.

These farmers use a lot of chemicals and have been erratically discharging the contaminated water from their rice fields into the Canje River, according to reports.

This new practice has begun to seriously affect the lives of the residents in the area and a number of them have died while a large number has taken ill.

Reports are that five residents have since died from what the residents are claiming is the contamination caused by the chemical in the water. Many of the illnesses

were not diagnosed by the doctors.

When APNU protested the planned GUYSUCO project it did not know about the actions of the rice farmers.

The political party through its Region Six lead Councillor, Kerwin Crawford, dispatched a missive last December to the Chairman of the underperforming Guysuco registering the concern and demanding a withdrawal of the project.

According to APNU they were first told that the pump would have been an irrigation pump. It turned out that the pump will be a drainage pump.

The opposition party’s main bone of contention then is that the pump which will be installed at the cost of millions of dollars will drain contaminated water from the Guysuco cultivation into the Canje River areas thus affecting the lives of thousands of residents in the Canje, New Amsterdam and Corentyne and Berbice River areas.

The Canje River serves residents in East and West Canje, Canje River, New Amsterdam, Corentyne and Berbice River areas.

On Friday, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, accompanied by a team, visited the area and saw the damage done to the area and the catastrophe waiting to happen. But according to APNU no decision has been made.

Crawford, who was on the trip, said that he is not aware that any decision was made.

He said that his party is not taking the matter lightly. He said that his party may seek legal advice.

Crawford stated that the pump has not gone into action as yet, but the damage is being done by the rice farmers.

He said that the practice is not in line with EPA standards. He wondered if the projects have been approved.

He said that it is a known fact that the Canje River is used by hundreds of Guyanese for their daily livelihood.

It is also a known fact that both Guysuco and the rice farmers use a lot of deadly chemicals in their wide cultivation for various reasons.

These chemicals flow into their various water networks.

If they drain that water into the Canje River, the practice would only serve to disrupt the lives of those who rely on the river.

Crawford had warned that if something is not done he is convinced that the act would lead to a disaster and genocide.

Marine life would die and those who use the river will be affected immensely.

Regional Chairman David Armogan had stated firmly that farmers will not be allowed to disrupt the lives of the people in the area.

He however mentioned that despite several warnings they continue to plant in the area and a decision was pending. He warned that firm action will be taken against those bent on doing their own thing.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Caricom reparation movement incites action in the US A prominent American Congressman is taking cue from the active movements of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as they seek reparations from former slave owning European countries.

The Democrat John Conyers, will be reintroducing legislation in the United States Congress for moves to be made to study reparations for African Americans in that country.

According to a report from Chicago USA, the lawmaker recently told a gathering at the “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement” conference at the Chicago State University that, “It is the most important piece of legislation I have ever introduced, and I will reintroduce HR40 in the 113th Congress.” Conyers, who is also Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the actions of Caricom countries in demanding reparations from Europe over slavery will revitalize the movement in the United States.

JOHN CONYERS: Democrat John Conyers “I think it is going to be a springboard for reparations,” he said, as Caricom countries say they were prepared to go as far as the Hagueheadquartered World Court on the issue, the Chicago report stated.

The Congressman first introduced the measure, titled “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act,” in

1989 during the 101st Congress. The Bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where he is the ranking member.

The eight-page legislation, which was cointroduced by US Congressman Bobby Scott, said four million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865. The Bill claimed that the US government sanctioned slavery from 1789 through 1865, enabling it to flourish.

Conyers is looking forward to holding hearings in Washington about reparations for African Americans, adding that “If the Republican Congress blocks the hearings, I will hold them throughout the country.”

Present at the Conference was Caribbean point man, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, who told the conference that the

Granger welcomes stamp out corruption approach - but says integrity testing not the way

By Latoya Giles Opposition Leader, Brigadier (ag) David Granger, has thrown President Donald Ramotar’s notion of ‘Integrity tests’ for senior Government functionaries out the window.

Although the approach to stamping out corruption by the President is welcomed by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Granger opined that integrity testing is not the way to go.

President Donald Ramotar on Thursday last stated that ‘integrity tests’ would be compulsory for persons holding senior positions within the Guyana Police Force.

Granger was questioned following Ramotar’s announcement on whether the integrity tests should be done in the Force and in a wider context, for government officials. According to Granger, the President should push his focus towards establishing integrity legislation and not on testing.

Granger told Kaieteur News that Government needs to be more careful in the way they select persons for high office.

The Opposition Leader stressed that

Government should be more responsive to public calls and complaints about corruption or wrongdoings by public officials.

He recalled that in 2012 when a Parliamentary motion was passed against Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, Government did not take heed to the call.

Another example cited by Granger was that of former Government Minister Kellawan Lall who left the Cabinet after a series of allegations ranging from a shooting incident to drunk driving. The Government did not sever ties with Lall; instead he was appointed Ambassador to Brazil.

“The public has concerns on how the Government is going about with appointments and a system of testing would not solve the problem,” Granger noted.

“The Government will not test its Cabinet members, but when their incapacity is shown they should remove the person.”

“It’s not a matter of tests, the real thing is performance,” Granger told Kaieteur News.

He added that it would be dangerous to Continued on page 55

British Government paid the slaveholders 40 percent of the empire’s national expenditures, which was £20 million and now estimated at US$200 billion. Sir Hilary, a professor of economic history and author of Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, delivered the keynote address in the absence of St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the Caricom Chairman, who was unable to attend the event.

Sir Hilary gave his audience a history lesson about slavery in the Caribbean that observers say would never be taught in US classrooms or appear on movie screens.

He said British slave ships transported 3.3 million Africans to the plantations in the New World, where slaves were worked to death as a form of genocide.

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ambassador to the United Nations, I Rhonda King, who also addressed the conference, noted Gonsalves’ insistence that “we must continue to advocate for reparations in all international forums, that it must be a centerpiece of our region’s

foreign and domestic policies”.

The event was organised by the New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) in collaboration with the US Centre for Inner-City Studies and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.

The Caribbean has been moving vigorously towards its June approach to European nations.

Sir Beckles, who chairs the reparations task force, is charged with framing 10 demands. He had told media workers that plans are to set out areas of dialogue with former slave-trading nations which include the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

While finance is on the agenda to compensate African descendants of those who faced hundreds of years of slavery, Professor Beckles is adamant that the greatest concern is, “justice for the people who continue to suffer harm at so many levels of social life.”

The London law firm Leigh Day has already been secured by the Caribbean conglomerate and will be making the first official

approach to Europe come June. Although the hope is that the nations will be open to talks of reparations, Carciom is prepared to take the matter to the highest forum, the World Court.

International news agencies have stated that nations such as the UK have turned their heads against the idea, counteracting that it is more important to deal with modern day slavery rather than dwelling in the past. The UK has noted that while it accepts the jurisdiction of the World Court, it will only be in cases relating to disputes arising since 1974 and those that do not involve Commonwealth or former Commonwealth countries.

These restrictions the (UK) Foreign Office believes prevent claims dating back to the 17th century from Commonwealth countries making progress through the court.

Caricom’s lawyers maintain, however, that the 1974 limit does not apply since “the current consequences” of race discrimination, resulting from slave trade in the past, still exist today.

Sweden is the only country so far that has hinted their willingness to engage Caricom.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Wrongful detention and charge of female robbery suspect…

Chief Magistrate and Judy Latchman report to be sent to Judicial Commission An appeal to the Chancellor of the Judiciary by a private citizen is likely to foster an investigation into the matter involving Magistrate Judy Latchman who remanded a woman to prison last March even though members of the Prosecution informed her that the accused may have been wrongly charged.

Further, it was indicated that the charge was likely to be withdrawn.

Justice Carl Singh in a letter of receipt to social activist Frederick Kissoon dated April 16, explained that a report has been requested from both the Head of the Magistrates’ Court, Chief Magistrate Priya Beharry and Magistrate Latchman to be sent to the Judicial Service Commission “for consideration.”

Kissoon was very vocal after the woman, Taylor, was remanded by Magistrate Latchman, despite the prosecution expressing that she might no longer be a figure of concern.

On March 5, last, Taylor, 35, of 212 East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, was charged with two other persons for allegedly robbing her friend, Elizabeth Hendricks, at gunpoint of over $300,000 in valuables.

However during the court proceeding, Prosecutor Sergeant Vishnu Hunt informed the court that Taylor was not supposed to be charged for the armed robbery. The prosecutor had stated, “As it relates to the number two accused (Taylor) I’ve received instructions from Inspector Geness that the investigating rank was

supposed to delete her name and not have her charged.”

Hunt stated further that he would have to seek advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions since the woman had ended up before the court and answered to the charge.

Taylor was represented by defence lawyer Mark Waldron who stated that investigators were aware that his client had no ties with the other accused. He said that at the time of the incident, Taylor was visiting the victim who had been her friend for a number of years.

After being placed on remand, she later secured $80,000 bail at the High Court.

Kissoon had written to the Chancellor requesting an inquiry into the matter by his office. Kissoon stated, “I believe this is dangerous

Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Carl Singh

Magistrate Judy Latchman

Robbery accused Alana Taylor

contempt for the sacred principle that a judge is neutral. In this case, the Magistrate took on a prosecutorial role. This aberration is too harmful to go uninvestigated. I am kindly asking for an inquiry from your office.”

Also included in the letter was Kissoon’s take on what he believed was a “deplorable assault on judicial fairness.”

Kissoon reminded the Judge

of his address at the opening of the refurbishing Wales Magistrate’s Court when he urged members of the public to report legitimate cases of Magistrates’ misconduct.

Singh had told the gathering that he was very much accessible, before stressing however, that reports must be accurate.

Singh commended Kissoon for taking the initiative to act on what he

perceived to be a citizen being treated unjustly in court.

However, Taylor is likely to face the robbery charges since according to the police, the DPP has recommended that the woman be charged.

State Prosecutor, Inspector Joel Ricknauth told the Court at a second hearing that his superiors instructed that all parties who were brought before the courts, including Taylor, be prosecuted.

Georgetown substation upgrades responsible for increased power outages

- GPL The constant blackouts within the city and its environs are mainly due to ongoing works to the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) Georgetown substation.

Many commercial and domestic consumers within Georgetown have been experiencing blackouts for weeks. GPL’s US$42.8M Infrastructure Development Project is in its final stages and is scheduled to be completed by the end of June. The transmission and distribution department is installing the new transformers for 60 hertz.

According to GPL’s Public Relations Officer, Shevion Sears-Murray, in order to expand and upgrade the Georgetown substation, power outages are expected in several areas within the city.

These include Tucville, North and East La Penitence and their immediate environs.

The works being done on

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

the Georgetown substation necessitated a number of power outages to consumers in and around Georgetown, the utility company said.

It added that in some instances kite flying are also responsible for power outages and once reported will be dealt with by the power company.

The upgrades include the construction of seven new 69 and 13.8 Kilovolts (kV) Sub Stations, approximately 96 Kilometers (km) of 69 kV overhead Transmission Lines, the upgrade and expansion of three existing Sub stations and the construction of a Fiber Optic Network Linking all Sub Stations from Skeldon in the east, Edinburgh in the West and Garden of Eden in the

South to a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system at a New Control Centre at Sophia.

This upgrade will see an improved power supply in terms of frequency and voltage. It was noted that much of the equipment used by consumers are designed to use 60 hertz power. This conversion will therefore help to improve the company’s performance, in terms of distribution.

The last conversion at the Sophia substation took place during the 1970s, when the power was upgraded to 50 hertz.

These upgrades will result in improved quality of supply, system stability, improved voltage regulation, and reduced technical losses.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Our Caribbean: Dictatorship in a democracy?

By Oliver Mills (Reprinted from Caribbean News Now) We in the Caribbean have inherited the Westminster system of government, characterised by the rule of law, competitive party politics, the independence of the judiciary, fundamental rights and freedoms for citizens, and designated periods for elections. These are accepted at face value, with little sustained critique as to its relevance to the way we really do things, or whether this inherited system is really a drag on our progress because of numerous procedures, debates, the fragile nature of our political parties, and questionable allegiances to them.

And when we elect our leaders we soon find that, in some ways, democratic practice is either sidestepped, or regarded as an inconvenience. This results in some decisions not being made through consultations at the various levels, but are handed down after meetings with inner circles and interest groups in the form of directives. We therefore find that in a subtle way we have institutional dictatorship within the framework of a much heralded democracy.

An article in one Caribbean paper says of the maximum political leader of that country that he has been acting like an imperial leader, enjoys saying he is the leader, and letting everyone know that he makes the final decisions on matters of national significance. To me this is personal dictatorship.

It shows a self-possessed individual, who needs to remind himself of the position he holds, which he seems to interpret as conveying on him unusual power and authority over others, rather than being the servant of the people.

“Leader” suggests superiority to others, possessing special

The police have begun to sit on the crime hotspots.

They have a powerful presence in one of the depressed areas where many people did not feel safe.

Inside the community the people are quietly begging the police to stay.

Another community is reaching out to the police.

A group of young men is terrorizing the residents in what was once the largest squatting area in Guyana. The police have some names, but they just don’t seem to be able to arrest anyone.

The police will revert to something that they once did; a full-out search. The

knowledge and insights, and in a most frightful way, implies knowing what is right over and above anyone else. Such a disposition leads to an abuse of power, the creation of imaginary foes, and does not entertain different perspectives, which are often seen as time consuming, and not dealing with the issue.

Confusion therefore leads to directives being given, while those around the leader remain silent, fearing for their jobs. But it impacts negatively on the country later, and then the blame game begins.

A former Caribbean leader is noted for saying that he means what he says, and says what he means. This is the dictatorial mentality of the class prefect, and the traditional colonial administrator who lack the proper communication or persuasive skills, and therefore resort to arrogance and the power of position to scare others into conformity through fear. This makes some people compliant for fear of imagined consequences, but kindles in others a spirit of resistance, leading them to contest the statements and behaviour of such persons.

This disposition is unhealthy for any democracy.

The politically conscious of Caribbean society should therefore educate their people into a new and different kind of political culture that promotes dialogue, respect for persons, and their views.

Dissent must be seen as positive, thereby enriching the democratic process. This is the antidote to emerging dictatorial tendencies.

But strangely, some of us see these statements and behaviours as being those of a strong, no nonsense leader who means business. And we repose in such persons a certain aura and authority, which are then used to manipulate us, and perpetuate the reign of a Caribbean

oligarchy.

Our political institutions and practices in many ways seem to legitimise dictatorship, arrogance, and political puffery. This is the dictatorship of tradition, and it contaminates real democracy.

Recently, a journalist described a Caribbean leader as fearing no one, adding that he was essentially lord and master of his political domain.

Could there be such a thing as “lord and master” in a democracy? Is it not such thinking that creates a situation where dictatorship comfortably resides in a democratic setting, and is even expected to do so by some?

This idea of strength, mastery, firmness, and being in control is reflective of a mind-set with origins in the plantation system, and we have yet to eject these thoughts from our psyche. In Caribbean democracy, kindness, sensitivity to others, fairness, and an altruistic outlook tend to be seen as soft and lacking backbone. Leadership has to be a macho thing, encouraging adoration.

To view leadership as being something that is entrusted to others through the agreement of the body politic, and which can be retrieved by those who have commissioned those leaders to act in the public good, has yet to be really registered in Caribbean political life.

Failure of the electorate to realise the power it really has, provides the soil for dictatorship within a democracy.

A minister of government in a non-independent Caribbean territory was recently reported as stating indignantly that there will be taxes, come hell or high water.

Isn’t this representative of a dictatorial strand operating in the context of democratic institutions? Is this possible, when a democratic political

results would be astounding. ** There seems no end to the murders. There will be another in a section known for its business. Some men would descend on the

location with the view to commit robbery.

Things would go awry when one of the young men interested in seeing what his gun would do, would shoot one of the victims.

He would not get far, because there were many witnesses and some of them would actually know the shooter. ** There is going to be another horrible accident and like many of the others, this would result from alcohol consumption.

The road fatality figure would rise.

culture is supposed to eject such tendencies from political life, and from the practices of its institutions?

Why then, do we still have situations where democracy is upheld as an ideal, but is then undermined by dictatorial practices and behaviours? And those charged with upholding it, are sometimes the very ones who discard it.

It would appear, as some say, that real democracy has been hijacked by special interests, as a result compromising the public good.

The political directorate has become the lobbyists for these interests, advocate for them, and the people who commissioned these persons to act on their behalf, are side-lined until the next election.

Caribbean democracy seems to have little problem making the transition from democracy to dictatorship when it suits particular political operatives. There seems to be no conflict, or sense of unease involved. It is slavery and the plantation

system from which these values came.

Many Caribbean political operatives still feel that to get things done, some dictatorship must be involved. This means editing out dissent. Some even boast with respect to their way of doing things that “there is no democracy here.” They do not consider the possibility of engaging others, and so arrive at better, and more well considered solutions.

And this type of dictatorial culture slowly takes root. And it is buttressed by charismatic personalities with high

intellectual abilities who mesmerise the people. A patron-client relationship then develops, where scarce resources are exchanged for political support.

This is neither good, nor right, since a healthy and prosperous society is sustained by the values of democracy and entrepreneurship.

Dictatorship leads to benefits for the few, and eventually to a country attaining the status of a failed state.

(Oliver Mills is a former lecturer in education at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

The race to find Nikki’s killer

- how a 21-year-old unsolved case changed the face of crime reporting in Guyana

By Michael Jordan Some of the old-timers would dispute this, but the truth is, the veteran journalists of the typewriter and early computer era never covered the crime beat with the intensity that we do today.

If you doubt this, just check the archives.

A serial killer named Harrynauth Beharry murdered seven children in the late sixties and there was nary a photo of those children in the papers that existed at the time.

Both the Mirror and the Guyana Graphic had only blurred figures of the killer on his way to court when they finally caught him. Can you imagine something like that happening today?

But ‘Nikki’ changed all that 21 years ago. Most of us know her as Monica Reece.

I was a freelancer at the Chronicle back then on Good Friday, April 9, 1993, when police informed the media that someone had killed a 20-yearold female security guard named Monica Reece, and had thrown her body out of a pickup on Main Street.

None of those dailies seemed to think much of the incident. The Stabroek News carried a small press release on their back page. The Chronicle, I think, carried a similar story on its inside pages. But no one had bothered to interview the slain girl’s family or collect a picture of her.

To me, though, there was something sickening about this body-dumping story and I was somewhat surprised at the offhand way that it was being treated in the media.

I decided to try to find out more by setting out on a very long walk around Georgetown. First, I went to the Brickdam Police Station, where a detective told me that they had a description of the pickup from which Reece was thrown. I then went to Main Street where the guys who sell sculptures and other craft

Shirley Reece lays flowers at Monica’s grave hung out. One of the chaps claimed that he was around when the 4×4 vehicle passed.

Then he gave me what he said was a partial number of the vehicle from which Reece was dumped. I also learned that a cousin of Reece’s had written down the telephone number of a man who had called her on Good Friday.

I then walked to CID Headquarters, Eve Leary. A Homicide Division rank informed me that they had a suspect in custody and I spotted a dark-coloured pickup in the compound. I jotted the number down and returned to the Chronicle. I told Chief Photographer Mike Norville what I had. “Why you don’t try the Licence and Revenue Office?” he said.

I called, giving them the number of the vehicle in the CID compound. A male staffer readily gave me the name of the vehicle owner. I turned to Mike Norville, stunned.

“Is —–vehicle,” I said.

I can’t recall who told me that race driver Ray Rahaman was in Main Street on Good Friday night and had spotted the pickup. I called Mr. Rahaman, who readily confirmed this information.

According to Rahaman, he

hadn’t seen Reece’s body being thrown out of the vehicle, and had at first thought that she was a hitand-run victim. He attempted to pursue the pickup, which was heading north along the western carriageway of Main Street, but the driver managed to escape before he could catch up. Rahaman said that he was too far behind to identify the occupant or the vehicle.

I then walked to the East Street residence where Monica Reece’s mother lived.

Shirley Reece readily supplied me with what information she had. She also gave me a photograph of a fair-complexioned girl, with a hand on one hip as she smiled into the camera. It was the first picture that the public would see of Monica Reece.

We had all anticipated that the Reece case would have been solved within days. As writer Barrington Braithwaite cynically stated in a letter at the time: “How many 4x4 pickups were there in the country?” But the Reece case wasn’t solved, as I had anticipated, and the wealthy suspect was released. The publishing of my story, and a letter praising the Chronicle woke the Stabroek News up to the fact that the Monica Reece murder was a major story. They hurried to ‘catch up.’ From what I was told, an editorial meeting was held and a sort of team was put together to follow the case.

From then, it was a race between the two dailies to bring out the next ‘scoop’ about Monica Reece.

Headlines like: “Reece was dead before dumping…” and ‘Reece had sex shortly before death’ became the daily fare. The Stabroek News also interviewed one of the first young men to be detained. I also remember the first press conference on the case, when

Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis said emphatically: “WE WILL SOLVE THIS CRIME!” One of the more lurid headlines stated that Reece’s murder was linked to the discovery of a cocaine cache on a Guyana Airways Corporation plane. Another story in the Stabroek News suggested that a Main Street vagrant known as ‘Tourist’ had been murdered because he had seen too much on that fateful Good Friday night.

Back then, there was no internet, and newspaper vendors would pass and scream out the latest Monica Reece headline. Reporters began hanging out in ‘Tiger Bay’ after hearing that the driver of the pickup had escaped into that area. At the time, Sharief Khan was the Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief.

Whatever his faults may have been, Sharief was a highly competitive and encouraging editor. He was proud that only the Chronicle had a photo of Monica Reece. I recall him being furious when Reece’s mother eventually gave the Stabroek News a copy of the same photo. I remember going to work one day and discovering that I had been badly scooped by the Stabroek News. Monica Reece’s body had been exhumed, and samples of hair were taken from the corpse to be sent overseas. It reached a stage where I was even dreaming of Monica Reece, whom I had never seen.

The incessant reporting began to get at Commissioner Laurie Lewis, and some of his investigators said that the media were scaring off potential eyewitnesses. I recall my friend, the late Government pathologist, Dr. Leslie Mootoo, saying: ‘You are mucking up the case.’

Commissioner Lewis even called in some journalists

Monica Reece called ‘Nikki’ over stories that seemed to point to Reece’s killer. Once, I went on a talk show, produced by Paloma Mohamed, and spoke about the still-unsolved Reece affair.

The following day, I was invited to the office of a senior police official, who wanted to ascertain what information I had. I guess we were no longer depending on the police to find Reece’s killers.

I guess the editors of both dailies knew that their stock would rise if they cracked the case. Even some of my colleagues at the Chronicle attempted to ‘scoop’ me and try to solve the case for themselves. Two female reporters, including one on the sports beat, got wind that Reece may have once hung out in a squatting area in Georgetown. They tried to track down ‘Nikki’s’ friends.

They got nowhere.

But something disturbing was emerging about this whole affair. The names of at least four ‘high society’ individuals were repeatedly emerging as suspects. These individuals reportedly hung out together, and also owned pickups. One young man’s father was a senior government official.

It became clear that some media personnel had their ‘favourite’ suspect among the group, but became unhappy and defensive when fingers were pointed at other individuals in the group.

Race, class and politics seemed to play a part in this preference. I eventually learned that investigators identified a prime suspect

among those four individuals. One senior police officer actually told me that “Reece’s murder is a solved crime.”

Speaking disparagingly about ‘Nikki’, that official suggested that Reece died while threatening to expose her relationship with the individual, who was reportedly involved with another woman.

While Commissioner Lewis accused the media of poor coverage, some of his ranks were highly critical of the Commissioner, and even questioned his handling of the investigation.

One senior police official recalled that Commissioner Lewis would grill his team daily for fresh information about the investigation. Why, the source wondered, was the Commissioner so interested in this particular matter?

Even today, some of my colleagues come up to me and say: “Jordan, is who kill Monica Reece?’

After all these years, I honestly don’t know. All I know is that Nikki’s murder brought in a new era of crime journalism. I am proud to have been part of this.

If you have any information about any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location. We can be reached on telephone numbers 2258458, 225-8465, 225-8491 or 225-8473. You need not disclose your identity.

You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: mjdragon@hotmail.com

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 23

== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

Mr. Ramotar is the twin of Bharrat Jagdeo I have been immersed in political activism, human rights crusades and public intellectualism since a teenager.

From then to now I have no regrets, though I would have preferred not to have gone through all the bad things that have happened to me since my teen days right up to the present. I mean who enjoys being victimized and physical attacks on their person?

But I have been lucky and I mean damn lucky. I never had a public sector job which allowed any past president and the present one to give me orders.

Imagine if I were a police officer and had to endure the nonsense and hypocrisy of a President Jagdeo or President Ramotar speaking to me face to face. You have to feel profound sympathy for the people that Jagdeo commanded and that Ramotar now controls.

You just have to feel sorry

for police, soldiers, public servants and other categories of employees that the President has direct legal authority over. You just had to feel for these people under Mr. Jagdeo. How did they cope, when someone as poor in quality and substance as Jagdeo gave them orders?

Mr. Jagdeo returned from New York and met protest action by air traffic controllers.

To their face, Mr. Jagdeo told them that if they had picketed him at the airport when he came out, he would have dismissed them. Mr. Jagdeo once addressed a general meeting of the staff of the Environmental Protection Agency and spoke down to the seniors in front of their subordinates. It was a plain case of humiliation.

Mr. Jagdeo summoned engineer Joseph O’Lall and dressed him down in front of others. When PM Hinds rose to speak, he was told to sit.

That meeting ended in O’Lall’s

dismissal from the Energy Authority. I knew O’Lall from my student days at UG and it was crazy to think that such an educated man could end up being shouted down by Jagdeo.

There is bound to be deep anguish and raging anger in educated men and women who served their county dedicatedly and find themselves in front of a country’s leader who lacked all the qualities of leadership and intellectual finesse. And they have to listen to his inanities, vapidities, banalities, stupidities.

When that happens you just have to feel sympathy for these people.

When I look back at Jagdeo’s hegemony, I thank my stars that life did not put me in the position of these public sector employees. Of course during Mr. Jagdeo’s reign, I was a public sector employee at UG. But let me end with Mr. Jagdeo at this point before readers accuse me of

showing off and silly chauvinism.

Not for a fleeting moment would President Jagdeo have entertained the thought of summoning UG lecturers to meet him and I was required to go.

Anyway, let’s go to President Donald Ramotar or as this newspaper’s satirical piece ‘Dem Boys Seh’ refers to him, ‘De Donald.’ ‘De Donald’ told the police force conference that an integrity test will be introduced. Read that to mean, lie detector test.

Ramotar is following in the hypocritical footsteps of his benefactor, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Put yourself in those officers’ place. It was the circus of Bharrat Jagdeo that they had to watch. Last week there was a reenactment, only this time, Jagdeo was replaced with Ramotar.

All kinds of public sector employees had to endure the polygraph under the Jagdeo presidency but Jagdeo was not brave, creative and

accountable to assign the test to himself and his Cabinet. He couldn’t do it because the consequences would have swept him from power. The cowardly tradition is being continued by Ramotar.

Employees of the Energy Authority were forced to take the polygraph recently and many were dismissed.

Ramotar should administer the test to himself, his Cabinet and the Jagdeoite school he inherited from his benefactor. The list includes the big boys at NICIL, Guysuco, NCN, his presidential advisors and Dr. Luncheon among others.

Here is a president that is sitting on an anti-corruption report on NCN and just would not act on it. I point readers to one of the most trenchant dismissals of Ramotar as president by the Stabroek News on this locked away report (see the paper ’s editorial on the issue).

This same man has the temerity to tell police officers

Frederick Kissoon that they must take an integrity test. A Freudian ghost stalks Donald Ramotar.

Look the word he chose to use, “integrity,” something the PPP leaders never had since the fifties.

I am a lucky man – Jagdeo and Ramotar were never my bosses and could never have been. Pity those that have to take their orders.

Page 24

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Book Review… A Poetic Plea to a Troubled Nation Book: Pearls Among Stones by Christena A V Williams Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby Christena Williams is an unapologetic nationalist, wounded by the discord and betrayal of her people. Her angst is well placed. The violence visited on innocence is the handiwork of man’s evil.

Then, too, is an economic deprivation that bears the seal of a system stacked against a segment of society. Williams’ “conscious art” tackles social issues, although there is enough dabbling in psychoanalytic introspection that makes for a broadly defined offering.

There is an unmistakable confidence in work. She utters words of unflappable warning to her detractors. But she steps back from arrogance, her humbling words in the prolegomena still resonating: “My writings were raw but they weren’t polished, and just when I thought I was well, I received a few rejections”.

But time has ripened her art.

Williams’ prodigious display of semantic engineering and contextual reframing are never more evident than in “I Drank Poetry.” She exhales, “Bartender, Pour me some more. Let me stumble through

the back door. Let the police smell the aroma of rhythm and blues....Charge me with intoxication, verbal sensation....I plead guilty, poetic confinement recommended. On the walls I write art, painting out the graffiti of the prisoner’s thoughts and colouring with poetic expressions...”

And in the mode of the pop anthem, “I Will Survive,” she trumpets the will to overcome a broken heart in “Heart Surgeon.” “When I come around, your heart pounds like a stereo, but I never settle for less. You didn’t know what was coming, I found someone, so I still got it, I am the heart surgeon.”

In “Rhymes Rebirth,” the lyrics of spit-fire rap emerge.

It is aggressive, uncompromising, unforgiving. Her identity as a cultural and artistic juggernaut, she flaunts, while penning, “In print my name is engraved, my path is paved, many are called, but only a few are chosen by God, against all the odds, connect my analogy. I am a poetical Genius.”

In “Survival,” Williams soars. “I was born in a world where my colour means segregation. I was born in a land where hardship lies, where power means corruption, where killing means survival. I was born in a home where one bed means five people, where one slice

of bread means five bellies...”

And in “New Mornings”, she meshes crisp verse and prose, with a touch of Bob Marley, for good measure.

“The wind roars and the sun whispers. In my bed I lay and dream, I dream of New Mornings....So here are my pleas…As I urge my fellow

brothers and sisters…country men and women of a resonate Jamaica to restore peace and love..And restore justice that I and all may wake up to New Mornings.”

But this is a rendition that is also loaded with more than hope. It is vividly biting, even tenebrous. Of our inhumanity, she wails, “I have heard the echoes and tears bellow, as the blood spills, leaving sheets and roads wet. I can hear the pounding of one’s mortal organ. The heart. And sometimes Silence stands still.”

And, Oh! The depravity of pedophilia is well captured in “Speak (For a Friend).”

And she shares lighter moments in “Laughter.” She writes, “A belly full of laughter is like whole grains, nutritious and healthy...give me laughter every time...laughter is like a marvellous smile showing off its beauty and delight…”

Overall, this is a compelling production where the artist forges sonnets, odes, acrostics and other classical poetic styles, preferring to lean on a prosaic and narrative style, accompanied with a pulsating rhythmic brio. She uses dactylic metre with resounding impact and her line and beat are for the most part airtight.

Williams can be introspective, even coy in

matters of the heart. But she can turn on a dime, assuming the role of a rebellious bard taking on the society’s power base.

She can be brutally raw, her words gnaw; at other times, they ooze with a sentient balm. But unique, she is not. Surely, there are others of the same genre that tug at readers. But not many have produced a compilation of poetic pieces that unfold - in stages - thematically and effortlessly, while banging on the walls of the reader’s conscience.

In her salvo, “Pearls Among Stones,” she conjures vestiges of the Davidic tradition. Fast forward to “Wake up World,” and her cries stir with the longing of a Martin Luther King Jr. Alas, readers can only fathom Williams’ breathtaking display before an audience.

Short of such, they will find the printed word equally mesmerising.

F e e d b a c k : glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby Pearls Among Stones by Christena A V Williams Publisher: Brian Wrixon Books, Canada (2013) ISBN 978-1-927682-12-8 Available Rating: Highly recommended

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 25

My column

The society is losing its menfolk, and fast One of the cries I hear almost every day is that there are no jobs for young people.

At the same time I am often besieged by applications for employment. And indeed it is true that many young school leavers simply cannot find jobs.

Most of the businesses are in the private sector and these people are more interested in the bottom line, so they hire the barest minimum of people. With the construction boom, people also gain employment. In fact, some contractors complain that they cannot find enough labourers. They also say that they have a hard time finding semi-skilled labour.

So there are jobs, but there are simply not enough people to accept them, because the school system does not actually prepare people for skilled labour. I chatted with some educationists and they all say that the education system is heavily academic. The result is that those children who are not academically inclined simply drop out.

Not so long ago, in a discussion with Ms Gail Teixeira, I learnt that when there was a recruiting programme for the Guyana

National Service, the applications were so many.

The service could only take about twenty per cent of the applicants.

This would suggest that there are people who want their children to be gainfully employed. Sadly, this government so scaled down National Service that young people who would have been gainfully occupied are now left to roam the streets.

On Thursday I was at the opening of the annual Police Officers’ Conference. Three things struck me. One of them was that there is a shortage of policemen. Young people are slow to seek employment with the police and there is a reason for this. There was a time when people simply distrusted the police because of the excesses they visited on some communities.

Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud was open when he discussed his police force. He said that he, in his years as a policeman, has seen excesses against the very people that the police have taken an oath to protect and serve.

The force is about thirtythree per cent short, so there are about one thousand jobs begging to be taken in the

Guyana Police Force alone.

But the young people are not going there. Perhaps there are parents who feel that their children would come under fire from the criminal elements.

But the reality is that once there is a strong police force, the fewer would be the number of criminals.

However, I cannot sell that idea to many parents.

As if the alternative between joining the police force is to turn to a life of crime, I keep seeing a preponderance of young people being apprehended.

Some of them have committed armed robberies and some of them are simply snatch-andgrab bandits.

This past weekend I received a call from an area named Plum Park about some young people who have formed themselves into gangs. It was reported that these young people accost their counterparts who are leaving for work in the early morning and are forcing them to run back home. This could only cause the ranks of the unemployed to swell.

The police have been trying to combat this new wave of crime, but they do not know the area, and there are people who simply protect the

young criminals, either because they are flesh and blood or because these people benefit from the proceeds. I am saddened by the presence of men at the street corners at all hours of the day. These are people who would need money and money is not had by liming.

The offshoot is logical.

A friend recently said to me that Guyana is a give and take society. The people who work their butts off to make ends meet are now being forced to give to people who want without having to taste their own sweat. The latter are the takers.

As fate would have it, this situation is not unique to Guyana. If it is as global as some would want to believe, then there must be a global solution. In Guyana there is a lot of talk about revamping the education system. But revamp it to what?

We have constructed technical institutes but the process of technical education must begin from early. There was a time when we had multilateral schools.

Each had a technical section and produced some of the best technicians, because the children simply followed the natural progression. Queen’s

College had a carpentry section.

These schools were converted to academic clinics and the technically-inclined student was simply pushed to cope in an area where he was least likely to succeed. The situation is worrying.

It is good to see that women are grabbing those job areas that the men seem to be shying away from. I noticed that a bunch of women have taken firm grip of the information technology section of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company.

There was a time when they would not have even been considered.

In Guyana Power and Light Inc., I recalled meeting a woman who was integral to the setting up of the power station at Vreed-en-Hoop. She

Adam Harris was an engineer and I was told that there are others similarly qualified.

We are now left to wonder at the reduction in the number of weddings, the increase in the number of single-parent mothers, and the growing number of boys who are good for nothing.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

The Bungling of the Bundling: In what I must describe as a critical yet sympathetic response to the Opposition’s non-approval of monies for the Institute of Applied Science and Technology in this year’s Budget, its Director, the good Dr. Suresh Singh, and a close friend, may have misapprehended why the Opposition did as it did.

The Opposition wanted to direct its drones to two Talibans. One was NCN and the other GINA. Not only are these two State agencies disgustingly pro-government, and destructive of the views of the Opposition, they are also decidedly corrupt! The Harry Permessar’s Report found this as a fact concerning NCN. The subventions granted to these two agencies totaled $221M. They appear under Agency 01 Office of the President and line-item 6321 called “Subsidies to Local Organizations.”

These allocations for NCN and GINA were bundled with others into this one sub-head totalling a sum of $847M; and, further still, bundled with other subheads, under one Head called Administrative Services -

A response to Dr. Suresh Narine of IAST Office of the President, which all totaled $1.336B. The more specific bundle in which IAST’s allocation of $122M appeared included allocations for Office of the First Lady- $10M; Presidential Guard Service- $254M; Integrity Commission-$17M, among several others.

On the very first day at the Committee of Supply stage, there was a three-hour delay of the start of proceedings.

The Opposition utilised a large proportion of this time, pleading with the Government team for a delinking or an uncoupling of the large bundles of line items, so that the Opposition’s proposed non-approvals of certain lineitems like GINA or NCN could be more clinical and will not offend or cause any severing of the good allocations like the one for IAST. But Ashni, Anil and Gail were loud in their No! Prime Minister Sam Hinds was distinctly more cautious and restrained as the implications certainly dawned on him. I was present at the meeting in the Speaker’s Chambers, and

the words and demeanour from this trio out of the quartet on Government side was one that was daring us to nonapprove. They were even insinuating that a General Elections will be called if we non-approve these line-items.

I rather suspect they felt we may not want to call their bluff.

I had personally warned the Government side at that meeting that this approach was pushing us too far and was forcing us to rubberstamp the entire Budget.

Their response was that the allocations were always structured this way and, moreover, in accordance with the ruling of C.J. Chang, it is the Executive’s prerogative to have it this way. They were not budging.

It may be timely here to remind Dr. Narine that in 2012 and 2013, the Opposition had pointedly targeted GINA and NCN. We had reduced or cut very clinically to $1.00 the subvention to each of these agencies by a Motion to Reduce, which is specifically

provided for under Standing Order 76. Hence, allocations to IAST, to the First Lady, to the Presidential Guard Service and so on were not in any way affected or severed in these two preceding years.

But our Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, rushed to the High Court and argued in what is now known infamously as the Budget-Cut case that Standing Order 76 is not worth the paper it is written on.

Unfortunately, acting C.J Chang was persuaded by that argument! Our Parliamentary Standing Orders were argued and held to be of no legal effect by these legal luminaries!

I have since appealed against this wholly flawed and absurd argument and ruling, the legal ramification of which is now dawning upon this Government.

So to use your graphic agricultural phrase, Dr. Narine, we never slash and burn in 2012 and 2013. However, in 2014 the Government prepared the ground, walked us to it, gave us the match and then dared us.

It is in this context and circumstances that a slash and burn occurred, if that is how you want to characterise it.

But most certainly it was wholly as a consequence of Government’s action, and not the Opposition’s.

The Government’s action threw us into this perilous position. Yes, I will concede there was collateral damage.

But the Government should

be indicted for this. It would be intellectually dishonest to conclude anything otherwise in this context.

Right up to the last minute, that is, just before the vote on this Head, Moses Nagamootoo for the AFC and Carl Greenidge for the APNU stood up and pleaded that Government delink NCN and GINA from IAST and other items in the bundle. Gail said “Absolutely Not”; Ashni, “No Way”; Anil; “Wha wrang wid alyou?” It still flashes across so vividly.

Little did they realise that by this folly they were bungling by their bundling!

I agree with you Doc, that……”it is unconscionable for functioning agencies with important mandates to be held at ransom”. But the Opposition was left with no other choice excepting if it wanted to make a mockery of itself in a grand show of impotence by being cowered and coerced into a rubberstamp mode. We behaved responsibly; the Government behaved hugely irresponsibly.

They continue to behave irresponsibly when they fail to bring a Financial Paper for a Supplementary Appropriation for allocations which have been collaterally damaged as your Institute here, Doc. I hope you will call them out to hustle up and do so. Rest assured that the Opposition will give its whole-hearted support for IAST’s current and capital allocation of $172M. We could even increase it if you supply us

Khemraj Ramjattan AFC Leader

with justification.

On a final note, I noticed that you lament the loss of a Phd. Chemist to Israel because of uncompetitive salaries.

Competitive salaries in this field of science and technology will be paid to your staff only when the PPP Government stops hatcheting and axing huge sums of revenues - (approximately $50B I have found) - through the scandalously unconstitutional methodology of not putting all public monies from various State agencies and companies into the Consolidated Fund.

So if you think we “slash and burn”, Doc, I want you to know that your friends in the Government “nuclear bombed” the Budget long before it arrived in the Assembly.

I hope you will one day pose publicly such a question to the Government, that is, why it excludes these streams of revenues from the Consolidated Fund?

Sunday April 27, 2014

SUNDAY SPECIAL MIDDLE MAN EARNS US$16M ON VENEZUELA RICE DEAL FARMERS LOSE OUT ON BETTER PADDY PRICe Guyana’s rice-for-oil deal with Venezuela has been hailed as a blessing for the country, but there is growing anger over the management of this billion-dollar trade initiative.

Farmers and millers are now critical of the high cost of shipping, especially since a middle man is said to be enjoying a “sweet heart” brokerage deal. He is enjoying the bulk of the proceeds from the rice deal.

According to figures seen by this newspaper, for the last crop, Guyana was paying to ship paddy/white rice a whopping US$56 per tonne to Venezuela. However, quotes from independent shippers estimated that Guyana could have received a deal for US$36 per tonne.

Farmers, crying for better prices, demanded to know how the Guyana Rice Development Board, headed

by General Manager, Jagnarine Singh, could have allowed a middle man to handle the brokerage service.

That middle man is a former rice miller who had a track record of owing farmers.

He is making US$20 for every tonne of rice shipped. In recent years, it is estimated that almost 800,000 tonnes were shipped.

“At US$20 more, this middle man earned US$16M that the Government could have paid to the rice farmers.

Rice farmers are asking if GRDB could not have gotten a better deal if it had done it themselves.

GRDB is the state entity responsible for handling the logistics. “Why the need for a middle man? Something stinks in this whole deal. This is almost like a kickback arrangement,” one rice farmer said. The cost of shipping would be a critical one for farmers who have been complaining of low prices from millers. The higher the cost for shipping to Venezuela, the less money farmers would get.

EDAHMAD LAND DEAL… INVESTIGATEALLSTATE ASSETS SOLD BY NICIL UNDER JAGDEO’S PRESIDENCY – AFC A Parliamentary Opposition party is urging Government to swiftly convene a Commission of Inquiry (COI) by natural resources experts to investigate the distribution of state lands, spectrum use and frequency access, and lease

Kaieteur News

of forestry/mineral concessions in Guyana under successive post-Jagan regimes.

This is according to Vice Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Moses Nagamootoo, who in a brief interview with this publication made the call and said that an investigation must firstly produce an inventory of state assets transferred to National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) along with the proceeds received from their sale.

When President Donald Ramotar came to office in 2011 he promised full disclosure on the deals but the document which was prepared by NICIL’s Executive Director, Winston Brassington, had been criticized by many experts as designed to disguise the transactions made by NICIL. According to Nagamootoo, “No one doubts that in the Bharrat Jagdeo terms, the patrimony of our state has been hived off to friends and cronies in an unparalleled frenzy of nepotism and favouritism.”

He said that NICIL cannot easily wash its hands of these deals and the Leonora scheme is just one questionable transaction.

The Leonora deal referenced by Nagamootoo, involves land purchased by Jagdeo’s close associate who has been indicted in the US over financial crimes. Edul Ahmad, the foreign-based businessman bought over 16 acres of prime land from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) through NICIL. MONDAY EDITION MPS’BEHAVIOUR LEAVES MUCH ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT – SPEAKER The National Budget 2014 has been passed in the National Assembly after two weeks of debates and consideration of the estimates. All was not smooth with the constant hecklings, tempers flaring, protest action and of course the Opposition adjusting the budget from $220B to $182B. With all this, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, was tasked with maintaining order, guiding the debates and chairing the Committee of Supply. There were instances where he was forced to refer to the Hansards, caution Parliamentarians, and adjourn the sittings of Parliament.

During a recent interview with this publication, Trotman said the behaviour of Parliamentarians during the debates was not the best but

certainly not the worst he has seen. He emphasized there is room for improvement all around. At the beginning of the debates, Trotman had requested Parliamentarians to be cognizant that the debates were being aired live.

“Our young people must see us doing our best for them and setting the best examples for them. The National Assembly is supposed to represent the best administrative minds in the country and I have no doubt that we do, but yet fail to display it on many occasions,” Trotman said.

Nonetheless, he feels the debates were good and robust. The debates allowed the populace the opportunity to see how their elected officials behave and conduct their business. In addition, the engagements could serve as a guide for making decisions on whom the future Government would be.

BUDGET CUTS…OPPOSITION DISAPPROVAL OF $37B BASED ON SUSPICION NOT EVIDENCE – RAMKARRAN The Budget cuts of 2014 appear to consist of more slash and burn tactics, based not on high principle, but on political expediency.

This is the analysis of Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, who was responding to the defence arguments being put forward by the Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan and A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Financial Spokesperson, Carl Greenidge.

Ramkarran made public his views when he published his analysis on his conversationtree.org outlet.

He cited as an example, the disapproval of the Amerindian Fund.

According to Ramkarran, the cut to that fund was based on suspicion, not evidence, that it was used for political purposes by the Government.

“I would have thought that when considering disapprovals, to use the word forced upon us by the Court decision, the Opposition would have considered a higher principle which has not been sufficiently articulated and given enough prominence in targeted discourse by Government spokespersons, even by Minister (Ashni) Singh.”

Ramkarran in his analytical piece noted that Guyana’s economy is on the move. “This has been set out in the Budget Speech and by various international bodies and persons, including the

Page 27

Rice under a previous contract being loaded on a ship for Venezuela

President of the Caribbean Development Bank on a recent visit to Guyana.” He said that a consistent growth rate of five percent, more or less, and low inflation figures need to be nurtured.

reportedly returned home around 19.00 hours on Sunday. Sunita Pires, the couple’s 12-year-old daughter, said that her father was in the bedroom when her mother arrived.

TUESDAY EDITION PORT KAITUMA LOGGER KILLS WIFE, SELF WITH HOMEMADE SHOTGUN

GOVT DRUGS PURCHASES TOPS $5B MARK THIS YEAR

A 62-year-old Port Kaituma logger shot his reputed wife dead with an improvised shotgun and then killed himself around 04.00 hrs Monday, just hours after his spouse had returned from her lover’s home.

Victor Pires, of Citrus Grove, Port Kaituma, shot 39year-old Pamela Martin, called ‘Petty’, twice in the chest during an argument, before turning the gun to his head. The couple’s 12-yearold daughter, Sunita Pires, found her mother slumped over in the couple’s bedroom, while Mr. Pires’ corpse, with a gaping bullet wound to the head, was found in the kitchen.

Kaieteur News was told that police retrieved a homemade firearm from the premises, as well as about six cartridges from the dead man’s pockets. The couple’s three daughters, aged 16, 12 and 10; their baby son, and a 15-yearold cousin, were in a bedroom when Pires committed the gruesome act. He made no attempt to harm them. Mr. Pires, a former soldier, also had three other children from a previous relationship.

Relatives of Mr. Pires said that he had been ailing for some time with prostate cancer. He was receiving treatment in Venezuela. Close friends said that he had repeatedly complained that his spouse was having an affair and was neglecting their children. Kaieteur News was told that the spouse, Pamela Martin, left home on Saturday morning to visit her lover. She

Guyana’s shopping budget for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies this year is expected to surpass the $5B mark even as the process to shortlist suppliers continues.

Last year, Guyana spent $4.69B. This time around, according to the estimates recently approved in the National Assembly, it is the intention to expend in excess of $5.14B, or $442M more than 2013. The drugs bills would represent half of the total Ministry’s budget of $10B. The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is set to spend $1.86B or $40M more than in 2013.

WEDNESDAY EDITION PORKKNOCKER STABBED TO DEATH, REPUTED WIFE ON THE RUN The murder of a 32-yearold man at Baramita has once again exposed the lack of law and order in the small North West District community.

Junior Brandt, a porkknocker, was discovered dead Tuesday morning with several stab wounds about his body. Police in a press statement said that Brandt was allegedly involved in an argument with his reputed wife, during which he was fatally stabbed. The woman fled the scene.

AFC REPEATS CALL FOR END TO DRUG PURCHASES MONOPOLY With more than $5B in the 2014 Budget for the purchase of drugs and medical

supplies, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has reiterated its call for the urgent establishment of the Public Procurement Commission and a review of the Drug Purchasing Policy. AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan says that this is urgently needed to stop any attempt at price gouging by any pharmaceutical supplier.

Ramjattan told this publication Tuesday that both the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity have submitted the names for the persons to be nominated to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). It is the PAC that is tasked with sorting through the names and making a recommendation to the President for the establishment of the Committee.

Ramjattan said that there is the urgent need for this to be done in order to level the playing field when it comes to the supply of drugs.

According to Ramjattan, the AFC believes that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board is compromised, given that all of the members are appointed by the Ministry of Finance and are subject to directives from that Ministry.

He pointed to documented instances where one supplier, the New GPC, supplied drugs at a cost several times over what other suppliers could have supplied at. He said that with a level playing field in place this would mean that Guyana could be able to purchase even more of the same quality of drugs rather than paying exorbitant prices.

Ramjattan said that the Ministry of Health must also revise its drug purchasing policy which panders to a monopoly created by a policy called sole sourcing. This policy has led to the creation of a monopoly when it comes to supplying government (Continued on page 37)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

The PPPC’s budget 2014 does not elevate the performance of the judicial services sector “Judiciaries serve and hold the Executive Branch accountable. They help the contract and the corporate system to work in a fair and impartial manner, providing a necessary element of predictability for investors.

Judicial reforms should be, and are, a key component of poverty reduction and growth strategies, in an increasing number of countries around the world” This quote was taken from the essay –Judiciaries, Growth and Poverty Reduction: Linkages and Lessons Learned– by Vinay Bhargava, former Director of International Affairs at the World Bank, 2005.

The National Budget 2014 allocates $111,655,000 to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, $1,410,018,000 to the Supreme Court of Judicature and $ 288,401,000 to the Ministry of Legal Affairs. Totaled, these amount to $1,810,074,000 or 0.8% of the Budget.

Paltry sums are spent on

infrastructure and equipment.

A total of $11,300,000 is allotted to the Ministry of Legal Affairs for the rehabilitation of a driveway, purchase of vehicles, furniture and equipment. The Supreme Court will be allocated $216,270,000 to be spent on the construction of a Land Court, rehabilitation of courtrooms and payment of retention, purchase of a vehicle, completion and construction of Magistrates’ Courts and purchases of furniture and equipment.

Courts with sewage seeping through the floors, courts that aren’t sound proof, courts with no robing rooms and inadequate seating will continue to be the norm.

The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions is allocated $5,000,000 for the purchase of furniture and equipment.

These allocations, in totality, have the collective effect of strangulating the sector and pegging back small gains achieved by the Justice

Improvement Programme (referred to as the Modernization of the Justice Administration System Project or referred to as a component of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy). This saw US$25M pumped into the sector continuously since 2006.

The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration, if it were progressive, would have had another phase of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy in place for 2014, to commence as soon as the 2013 phase would have concluded.

The improvement of the delivery of Justice to the Guyanese people must be a priority for any caring administration.

The Justice Improvement Programme must be an annual diet for the sector. With its absence the logical conclusion is that the budgetary design for the Judicial Sector for 2014 is palpably flawed in principle and in effect. It is clear

therefore, that the PPPC administration has little interest in curing the ills plaguing the sector. There is a deafening silence on the following: - Enhancing the quality of judicial decisions; - Optimisation of the use of human material and financial resources; - Protecting the young and vulnerable; - Reducing the time it takes for victims to be compensated; - Curbing repetition of criminality by offenders; - Introducing IT and eprotocols throughout the sector; - Introducing the Judicial Research Assistants Programme; - Providing incentives for performance in the sector, and - Focused financial investment and management, expansion and improving the quota of Attorneys and capacity-building within the Legal Aid Programme.

These are the things that A Partnership for National Unity would have spent additional dollars on to ensure that the system is robust and accessible.

LEGALAID We cannot speak of access to justice without mentioning legal aid. Legal Aid will receive a paltry $44,087,000 in 2014. The Guyana Legal Aid Clinic was forced to reduce its complement of attorneys by two in 2013.

The Clinic is the agency that was engineered to cater for the poor; but how can they cater for the poor when it is underfunded. Every year the Clinic gets less than it asks for.

The Clinic, in 2013, had a clientele of 376 persons of whom 205 were women and 171 were men in Region No. 2; 262 persons were advised and afforded representation in civil matters, similarly 60 received same in criminal matters. The Clinic, in Region No. 4, had a clientele of 1,985 persons of whom 1,325 were women and 660 men in 2013; 1,009 were advised and afforded representation in civil matters; similarly 82 received same in criminal matters.

The Clinic had a clientele of 65 persons of whom 41 were women and 24 were men in Region No. 5; 21 persons were advised and afforded representation in civil matters, similarly 2 received same in criminal matters.

The Clinic had a clientele of 216 persons of whom 148 were women and 68 were men in Region No. 6; 62 persons were advised and afforded representation in civil matters similarly 9 received same in criminal matters.

The Clinic, between 1994 and 2014, saw a clientele of 27,909 persons of whom 19,599 were women and 8,310 were men. This shows that women benefit most from this service.

The cases covered by the Clinic include Adoption, Custody and Access of minors, Division of Property, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Personal Injury to name a few.

It’s our women that these services attract.

An APNU administration would ensure larger subventions and a deeper partnership to ensure that the Legal Aid clinics country-wide keep their doors open to the

poor and vulnerable.

A strong and effective justice system demands that judges are provided with adequate legal s u p p o r t s t a ff . Wi t h t h e proliferation of new legislation and of modern litigation and the attention of the public to their rights and obligation, judges critically need the help of well qualified persons to assist in the delivery of services.

In the same way that Senior Counsel in private chambers or the Director of Public Prosecutions utilize services of Junior Counsel, in like manner Judges Research Assistants are critical to the work of the Judges and Magistrates.

We cannot speak of an increase in the complement of Judges to reduce backlog without equipping them with the support staff they need to churn out decisions in a timely manner.

Budget 2014’s vision for the Justice Sector is primitive.

It is crustacean. Laced with ad hoc policies and goals, it deceives the naked eye, but on closer inspection it is found wanting.

This sector is too important to be toyed with and that’s exactly what this budget does. It emasculates its human resources and impregnates with shortcomings physical mechanisms that are in themselves primitive.

A good budget for the judicial services sector must be measured by one thing only and that is, does it substantially elevate the performance of the Judiciary?

In 2014 the answer is no!

Sunday April 27, 2014

From page 27 with its drugs. Last year, Guyana spent $4.69B. THURSDAY EDITION AMENDED 2014 ‘BUDGET’ MISSING Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon, in updating the media on the 2014 National Budget process has said that the Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly is yet to reach President Donald Ramotar’s desk. The Appropriation Bill which is a legislative motion that authorizes Government to spend money “had not arrived at the Office of the President as of the Cabinet meeting (on Tuesday). He could not say if it was with the Attorney General either.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall has said that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, has designed a mechanism so that the Appropriation Bill will not be going to the Attorney General’s Chambers but from the Clerk of the National Assembly directly to the Office of the President.

AG, GREENIDGE CLASH OVER “SNAIL’S PACE” OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is still to complete its report on the Auditor General’s report for the years 2010 and 2011. With the 2013 report expected to be released in a matter of months, the “snail’s pace” of the committee is now a matter of concern for Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, who strongly contends that the PAC should have been up-todate. The reasons for the “unsatisfactory pace” have caused the Auditor General (AG) and PAC Chairman, Carl Greenidge, to be on opposing sides of the debate.

Christopher Ram, according to the website of Chartered Accountant, (www.chrisram.net), explains that the PAC is responsible for examining the accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by the National Assembly to meet public expenditure and such other accounts laid before it.

The Committee also examines the Auditor General’s report.

The Auditor General is the public watchdog for Government accountability.

The Audit Office serves the public’s interest by checking that Government organizations spend the money collected from taxpayers carefully and without waste. The Auditor General in a telephone interview on Tuesday last

Kaieteur News

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said, “It is of concern that the reports are taking so long to go through and that shouldn’t be. They are still examining the 2010 and 2011 reports. It is 2014 and when that is finished there is still the 2012 report to go through.”

When Greenidge was contacted Wednesday to explain why the PAC is moving at a “snail’s pace” he said, “The PAC is examining the 2010 and 2011 reports together. The only agency that is left to be examined is the Ministry of Finance.

FRIDAY EDITION INTEGRITY TESTS WILL BE COMPULSORY FOR SENIOR POSITIONS ...AS RAMOTAR SIGNALS FIGHTAGAINST CORRUPTION IN AND OUT OF POLICE FORCE With the Guyana Police Force trying feverishly to restore the public image of that institution, President Donald Ramotar said that there will be integrity tests for certain officers who will be filling several appointments within the Force.

The Head of State made the disclosure Thursday at the commencement of the annual Police Officers’ Conference which began at Eve Leary. The conference, which comes at a time when the Force is receiving criticism on several fronts, was held under the theme “Continuing Modernization with Special Focus on Developing Public Trust and Capacity Building through Partnerships”. According to the president, strong measures should be taken to fight corruption in and outside of the Force. He stressed that the leaders should be examples to the younger ranks. He said that this would help change the quality of the institution.

Ramotar emphasised that for appointments in the future to some senior positions in the Force, and into some new organizations which are being created, there must and will be some form of integrity testing. This is happening in several areas already, he noted. He said that the Force has to ensure that ranks are free from any form of criminality.

Bharrat Ramcharan, of Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, was reportedly shot in the back after he threw a bag of money over the gate of the John Smith Street, Campbellville premises to prevent the bandits from making off with the cash. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital. According to some eyewitness, Ramcharan was standing with his hands raised when he was shot. The gunmen fled north up John Smith Street after the attack.

The slain man’s son, Raymond Ramcharan, said that his father had been employed at Patsan Trading Services since 1995. Kaieteur News understands that he had been robbed at gunpoint on at least two other occasions.

“It’s not the first time that he was robbed, but he would always throw the money at them (the robbers) and they would leave,” a source said.

Kaieteur News was told that Ramcharan, who had collected an undisclosed sum of money from customers, had just stepped out of his vehicle when two unmasked men on a CG motorcycle approached him. One of them had a handgun.

SALESMAN GUNNED DOWN, ROBBED BY BANDITS ON BIKE

SATURDAY EDITION SALESMAN GUNNED DOWN…SUSPECTS NABBED WITH GUN IN CITY HOTEL

Bandits on a CG motorcycle Thursday gunned down a 57-year-old driver/ salesman outside his workplace, Patsan Trading Services, at around 14.40 hrs, before escaping with a bag of money.

Police believe that they have captured the bandits who escaped with a bag of cash last Thursday after killing Patsan Trading Services salesman, Bharrat Ramcharan, outside his John Smith Street, Campbellville

workplace. In a statement released Friday, police said that they have detained two men in connection with the robbery/murder and have also recovered an unlicenced .38 revolver with four rounds.

Kaieteur News understands that the suspects were arrested Friday in a city hotel. According to a source, one of the alleged bandits was still dressed in the clothing he had worn during Thursday’s robbery.

Reports are that the men were identified from images that were recorded on security cameras at Patsan Trading Enterprise.

The 57-year-old

Ramcharan, of Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, was reportedly shot in the back around 14.40 hrs after he threw a bag of money over the gate of his workplace to prevent the bandits from making off with the cash.

The slain man’s son, Raymond Ramcharan, said that his father was employed at Patsan Trading Services since around 1995.

Kaieteur News understands that he had been robbed at gunpoint on at least two other occasions.

However, a source said that on those occasions, Ramcharan had handed the money over to the robbers.

Kaieteur News was told that Ramcharan, who had collected an undisclosed sum of money from customers, had just stepped out of his vehicle when two unmasked men on a CG motorcycle approached him. One of the men had a handgun. A source said that on seeing the bandits, Ramcharan immediately threw the money-bag over the fence, then stood with hands upraised.

The gunmen reportedly ran into the compound and snatched up the money-bag.

They then ran out of the compound and shot Ramcharan before speeding off on their motorcycle.

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Sunday April 27, 2014

Sunday April 27, 2014

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Fungal Nail Infection India’s ‘Bollywood Oscars’ Fungal infections of the nails are very common and account for up to 50% of nail abnormalities. A fungal nail infection occurs from the overgrowth of fungi in, under, or on the nail. Pathogens that cause nail fungus infection usually enter the skin through tiny cuts or small separations between the nail and nail bed.

The fungi grow when the nail provides a suitably warm and moist environment. Both fingernails and toenails are susceptible to the infection however the condition most commonly occurs in toenails.

A fungal infection of the nail may affect part of the nail, the entire nail, or several nails.

Nail fungus infections are more common in men than women and in the elderly than the young.

Visible fungal nail infection signs include: scaling under the nail (subungual hyperkeratosis), white or yellow streak on the nail (lateral onychomycosis), crumbling corner or tip of the nail (distal onychomycosis), flaking white areas on the nail’s surface (may include pits in the nail), yellow spots at the bottom of the nail (proximal onychomycosis), loss of the nail, a distorted nail, an odor coming from the infected nail, pain in the toes or fingertips and a brittle or thickened nail. A patient may also experience onycholysis (detachment of the nail from the nail bed). When these signs and symptoms are observe it is necessary for you to seek medical intervention because uncontrolled infection can lead to amputation of digits especially in diabetic patients.

There can also be a resurgence of the infection, a permanent loss of the affected nail, discoloration of the infected nail, the spread of infection to other areas of the body and possibly the bloodstream and the development of bacterial skin infection (cellulitis).

Below are a list of conditions that increases your risk of developing fungal infections of the nails o Diabetes

o Disease that affects the blood vessels – poor circulation o Elderly person - The elderly are at the highest risk for getting fungal infections of the nails because they have poorer circulation and their nails grow more slowly and thicken as they age. o Wearing artificial nails o Not getting manicures or pedicures from trustworthy salons o Walking barefoot in damp public places (swimming pools, gyms and shower rooms) o Nail injury or skin injuries around the nails o Heavy perspiration moist fingers or toes for an extended time o Weakened immune system e.g. HIV o Humid or moist work environment o Wearing socks and shoes that prevent ventilation or tight footwear with crowding of toes - When your feet are inside shoes, it can create a dark and moist environment for fungi to thrive. o Exercise that causes repeated minor trauma to the hyponychium (where the fingertip attaches to the nail) o Family members with fungal nail infections - if you have family members who often get these types of fungal infections, you are more likely to get them as well if precaution is not taken.

Proper foot hygiene is the key to prevent f u n g a l infection of the nails.

Making a few simple lifestyle changes can help prevent a fungal infection of the nails. The following are tips to prevent fungal infections of nails. · Keeping your nails short, dry, and clean · Wearing socks that breathe, usually synthetic · Using antifungal sprays or powders regularly · Dry your feet well after showering especially between the toes · Wearing rubber gloves to avoid overexposure to water

· Refraining from picking or biting nails · Wearing shoes or sandals in public places and pools · Ensuring that your manicure or pedicure salon properly sterilizes tools - If you get a manicure or pedicure at a nail salon, be sure to ask how and how often the staff disinfects their tools. Tools, such as emery boards and nail clippers, can spread fungal infections from person to person if they are not sanitized. · Avoid the use artificial nails · Washing hands after touching infected nails · Avoiding sharing shoes and socks · Frequent visit to your health care provider to screen for fungal infections of the nails.

A simple fungal infection of the nails can become uncontrolled and can cause a significant burden on your health. Patient education plays an important in the diagnosis and management of their medical illness. Please look forward for a continuation of the discussion on common health issues in the next publication Please feel free to send an email to kumarsukhraj@yahoo.com or call 6228032 for further enquiry and discussion on the topic.

References · Fungal Nail Infections. (n.d.). British Medical Journal. Retrieved May 12, 2012, from http:// bestpractice.bmj.com/bestpractice/pdf/patientsummaries/532246.pdf · Fungal Nail Infections. (n.d.). NewZealand Dermatological Society Incorporated.Retrieved May 12, 2012, from http:// dermnetnz.org/fungal/ onychomycosis.html · How to Avoid a Nail Infection. (n.d.). American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. Retrieved May 11, 2012, from http:// www.asds.net/ Howtoavoidanailinfection.aspx

BMI linked to breast cancer risk after menopause Overall body size, rather than shape, is a better indicator of breast cancer risk after menopause, according to a recent study.

The analysis of U.S. women contradicts past research suggesting that having an apple shape with a large midriff measurement, regardless of weight or body

mass index (BMI), might signal greater breast cancer risk.

“When we looked at both BMI and waist size, we found that BMI explained the relationship (with breast cancer risk), and that the waist circumference had little effect,” said Mia Gaudet, an American Cancer Society

epidemiologist who led the new study.

BMI, a measure of weight relative to height, is used to gauge obesity. Having a BMI in the obese range (30 or greater) has also been linked to breast cancer risk up to twice that of women in the normal weight range (BMIs of 25 or less, in this study).

in Florida for U.S. debut

Celebrities and dignitaries from India and the United States descended on Florida this week for the “Bollywood Oscars,” an awards event making its first-ever U.S. stop with the aim of creating deeper ties between the two countries.

The International Indian Film Academy’s awards show set for Saturday has been compared to the Super Bowl in terms of its security needs, traffic management and planning.

But its expected worldwide viewership of 800 million far surpasses the championship American f o o t b a l l g a m e ’s 111 . 5 million viewers on average in 2014.

T h e f i l m a c a d e m y ’s choice of Tampa, home to F l o r i d a ’s t h i r d - l a rg e s t South Asian community, to host its first U.S.-based awards show in the event’s 15-year history came as a happy surprise to some fans.

“I jumped out of my seat,” said Rubia Qureshi, 22, a local

resident who grew up watching Bollywood films, known for their distinctive and elaborate song-anddance performances. “I’m the biggest fan.” Qureshi and her mother, who is of Pakistani heritage, joined hundreds of others eager to snap photos of movie stars as they arrived at the Tampa airport and walked the industry’s signature green carpet. Fans were so excited at the arrival of actress Deepika Padukone on Wednesday that they knocked over a security barrier. Other celebrities taking part in the event include American actors John Travolta and Kevin Spacey as well as India’s Anil Kapoor, best known to U.S. audiences for his 2008 role in “Slumdog Millionaire,” and Shah Rukh Khan, an actor who has more than 7.4 million followers on Twitter.

STAR SIGHTINGS The star sightings have created a buzz, but perhaps

more exciting to local officials is the potential economic impact of hosting the awards as well as the prospect of building stronger business, cultural and tourism ties with India.

This week’s event is expected to bring 30,000 visitors and $11 million in revenue, organizers said. It also will lay the groundwork for longerterm opportunities with busine s s o w n e r s w h o a t t e n d , s a i d Ta m p a cardiologist Kiran Patel, t h e e v e n t ’s b i g g e s t private b a c k e r.

“Ultimately this is not a four-day event,” said Ta m p a M a yor Bob Buckhorn. “This is a multidecade relationship.”

The $2 billion Indian film industry has a wide global reach and produces more movies each year than Hollywood, though the U.S. film industry generates five times more revenue, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Page 40

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 53

Is Caribbean style discipline cruelty to children?

By Ralph Seeram The video went viral of the mother inflicting some serious lashes with a belt on her daughter. It went on and on for over eight minutes. It became a subject for National discussion in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.

It has provoked conflicting arguments in the public, outrage as well as support on Social Media, mainly Facebook, and nostalgia for some of us including this writer on “cut ass” we received as kids.

By now most of you probably know what I am speaking about, the Trinidadian mother inflicting a merciless beating on her daughter for posting semi nude pictures of herself on Facebook. Now this is nothing new among adults on Facebook, but it’s a different matter when it comes from a 12-year-old child.

So what is the appropriate punishment or discipline?

Where does discipline end and cruelty begin?

This has been a major issue for parents from the Caribbean.

What is considered discipline in some quarters in the Caribbean, is deemed child abuse in North America. Parents were jailed and even had their children taken from them.

In the video which the mother recorded to post on the Internet to “shame” her daughter, she is seen unleashing the beating with the buckle on the child, watching in the camera and giving her reasons for the “shaming”. At one point the mother seemed to be

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

enjoying her action.

I watched the video, and I think she definitely crossed the line from discipline to cruelty. If the beating was for a minute or so this video would not have gone viral; it is the length and severity of the beating.

For more than eight minutes she inflicted the lashes as the child cowered and begged. This was a woman who had lost control of herself and was venting her pent up frustration with the daughter in that severe beating.

After the video went viral, the elder daughter along with the offending child in question made video and posted it on the Internet to explain the mothers action.

The 12-year-old was a problem child, “hardears” and “own way”, not listening to her mother. According to her sister, the mother had to intervene in this manner, ‘before she come home with a belly’ (pregnancy).

She emphasized that her mother was a very loving mother. I don’t think anyone would question the mother’s love for her daughter, who

was implementing “tough love” the way she was taught, and therein laid the problem.

Most of us receive some “licks” from our parents in our youth. I received my share in school and at home. We were taught that way and the cycle continued with some of us, as can be seen from the many that praised the mother’s action.

The mother in interviews with the media in Trinidad said that she is prepared to go to jail, and would do it all over again. It shows you how this form of corporal punished or child abuse is ingrained in us.

She still doesn’t get it; that it was not the form of the discipline, but the length of the severe beating.

I can’t imagine being so cruel to my daughter. In fact believe it or not, I never laid a hand on my daughter who is now an adult.

Some argue, mainly in North America, that whipping in your youth creates emotional scars in adulthood, I don’t subscribe to that view.

I think it is a load of nonsense made up by Western psychologists. I do agree that there are alternative forms of

punishments. To drive fear in the child does not really resolve the issues, and that is what we were taught, fear; not to identify the problem, not to see if it’s a pattern of behaviour, and the reasons behind it. No just “licks”.

My old headmaster, Mr. Charles gave me six wild cane lashes on my behind across the desk (anybody remember those days) for possessing a pen knife. He asked no question. Why I had a knife, the dangers of carrying a penknife etc. Six lashes. Next day in the classroom I had a knife in my pocket. Even the educated ones did not know better.

Those of us in the Diaspora, especially in the U S, know that whipping your

child is considered child abuse and you can go to jail.

In fact here in Florida, if the child appears in school with any marks that suggest an injury, the teacher is required by law to report it to the police. If the teacher does not, he can be charged also.

So you look to alternative forms to discipline your kids here, some of it can be ridiculous. Let’s take my four and a half years grandson for instance. Guess what is his punishment for disobedience? Loss of privilege of his iPhone and Kindle, no computer. I am serious, but it works.

I can understand the mother’s motivation behind the discipline, the frustration

with a disobedient child, and being a single parent does not help.

She executed discipline the way she was taught, as a last resort. I get that, the question for those in the Caribbean is where does “tuff love” end and cruelty begins.

At what point you cross the line? In fact can we define that line; is it fixed or flexible. It’s going to be never ending debate.

One thing I know for sure in North America is the child loses computer or T.V privileges for being disobedient; in the Caribbean is “licks in yuh tail”.

Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: ralph365@hotmail.com

Page 54

Kaieteur News

PROPERTY FOR SALE Property for sale.Call:627-5416 One three storey business property @ Middle St. Georgetown – Tel:619-7134, 225-6481 price negotiable.

FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754.

Spare for washing machine, microwaves,fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943 Houses located Ogle, Diamond, Herstelling, BelAir, Lamaha Gardens, ETC, Contact: 223-8479/684-4748, www.spaceseek.gy Almost brand new items to be sold: Refrigerator and microwave – Contact:671-2066 1,500 Acres of Land located in Berbice. Includes Machinery, Property and Multiples Vehicles, etc, Contact: 223-8479/684-4748, www.spaceseek.gy One 6125 John Deere tractor for sale. For more information contact: 670-3328 Pure breed German Shepherd puppies - $75,000 each – Tel:682-2148, 655-8674 Male pit bull puppies Contact:225-6137 or 661-7204 Pork - $380, Pork Chops - $650, leg pork - $480lb, salted pork $450 (8 Lbs pails) @ Geroge & Hadfield Sts. Red Honda 250 Twister motorcycle – Contact:6713533; 681-2217 Two 212 Carina, 2 AE100 Wagon – Tel:660-0018, 6411040 Honda Welder, 270 Amps, 2002 Tundra – Call:611-5114, 220-4495 Clean garden earth, also Bobcat & Excavator rentals – Tel:626-7127 Mixed bred German Shepherd and Rottweiler pups, fully vaccinated and de-wormed – Contact: 6291471, 220-2277, 220-8904 A BLACK XBOX 360 WITH 6 CONTROLLERS AND 10 AUTHENTHIC MICROSOFT DISC, EG BLACK OPS 2 – TEL: 6017152, 223-9987 Pure bred German Shepherd pups, fully vaccinated & dewormed – Contact: 629-1471, 220-2277, 220-8904 Sets of (3, 2, 1) seats pillow back cushion suite in excellent condition. Owner leaving country – Call:6971243 PORK WHOLE SALE, WHOLE, HALF & QUARTER CARCASS. NO HEAD! NO TROTTERS! – CALL:266-2711, 609-4594

FOR SALE Toyota Forklift - Excellent condition, 4,000lbs capacity, 117" Lift, Solid Wheels, Automatic Transmission, 4 Cylinder LPG Motor. Call: 604-6108.

Wed bred Yankee stallion, sea rockette yearling, going reasonable – Tel:601-0993 Games PS2 - $900, PSP $900, X-Box 360 - $2600 & PS3 - $2600 & Original Games Call: 672-2566 New Blackberry 9370 with memory card – Call:675-2239 Short foot puppies and dogs for sale – Call:276-4052 or 6872921 Pure bred German Shepherd puppies with long hair fully de-wormed & vaccinated, good blood line breeding – Tel:696-4659 Pure breed Rottweiler pups, fully vaccinated & dewormed – Call:627-1360 1–48 Feet Boat with 900lb ice box, price negotiable – Tel:609-0783 Day-beds, office desk, vases, divider, wardrobe, table, radio set, photo frames, etc – Tel:226-2284 2 x M132 Laverda Combine, 3 x Pressure Pump 4x3 for gold field, 3 x 50 H/P 3 Phase Motor – call:627-0447 1-2640 MF Tractor 4wd with 1 – Rome Plough 20 dish, 1CAT Standby 3306,194KVA 3 Phase 60 Cylinder – Tel:6934596 Clean garden earth & builders waste. Our service also includes Bobcat rental, excavating, clearing & leveling - Call:616-0617, 6633285 Cheap earth delivered to spot on E.C.D and E.B.D - Call:6279977, 698-0182 Mercury 99.99% pure element lab grade. This is USA Quality, not Chinese. $1M per flask – Call:592-649-5376 One 3 bedrooms flat concrete house at La Grange – Tel:6134131 15 road tyres & crash bar for Hilux Surf/Pickup- $100,000.

Counter top fridge $15,000, 2E engine & transmissionCall:222-4158/ 641-7526 Mechanical, electrical, heavy duty compressor, wind chargers, racing carburetors, 1,2,3 HP-1P electrical motorsCall:222-4158/ 641-7526 1-CAT 320 excavator, 1-22 RB long boom dragline, 1helmet & hammer, 1-120G motor grader -D4H CAT bulldozer- Good conditionCall:660-4021/275-0578

2 Business properties on Whim Public Road Corentyne – Call: 619-7134, 225-6481. Price Negotiable One property for sale at Covent Garden Island, E.B.D – Call:265-3586 Double lot with house at Lot 254 East Bank Demerara, one block away from Public Road – Call: 621-1766 Furnished house for sale – price: $25M firm– Call:6691028 Dazzell Housing Scheme, Paradise, E.C.D, last street (22nd Street) – Tel:650-0716, 619-5357 One back lot for sale @ Lot 239 2nd Street, East Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown – Tel:691-4009; 679-3895 Vacant corner lot 58 ½” x 30" @ Garnette & Republic Streets, Newtown, Kitty ideal for business – Tel:6450616 Satya Cinema, Good Faith, Mahaicony – Call:641-8472 C A M P B E L LV I L L E MODERN CONCRETE 2STOREY COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL OPEN CONCEPT LOWER OFFICES & MULTIPLE PARKING - $42M. RLT-PRO : 650-1234 Property at Lot 35 Plantation Walk, Vreed-En-Hoop - 3 buildings next to G.T.M – Contact:667-9978 Property at Oronoque Street near Regent Street. Also double stall in Bourda market facing Regent street- Call:2201324/ 643-0000 House and land at Lot 30 Ketley Street -48ftX27ft, back house- $4M neg. – Call:602-8771

FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Two Bedrooms lower flat apartment, one month’s security - $40,000 per month @ Paradise Factory Rd, E.C.D – Contact:625-9939; 672-2677 Executive Four Bedroom House located in Bel-Air Park- USD $2500-Contact: 223-8479/6844748, www.spaceseek.gy Executive Houses & Apartments Located in Queenstown, Prashad Nagar, Kitty, Lamaha Springs, etc, Contact: 223-8479/ 684-4748, www.spaceseek.gy Office Spaces located in secure compound on New Market Street. Contact: 223-8479/6844748, www.spaceseek.gy One upper flat @ 6th Street Cummings Lodge ECD – Call:622-3580 House @ Lot ‘M’ First Street, Grove Housing Scheme, E.B.D – 3 bedrooms & bottom flat, big yard space – Tel:265-3055, 647-2296 House at Lot 109 Block ‘AA’ Eccles. Fully Furnished with A/C, 4 rooms, yard space.

Good Price. Call:671-7687; 622-2531 New 4 bedrooms house, huge yard space & parking.

Members of the Diplomatic community welcomed Call:222-4158/ 641-7526 A shop to rent at Wortmanville. Price $50,000 only serious persons interested call:667-1268

FOR SALE CAR RENTAL Two stalls suitable for Dolly’s Car Rental - Call: cellphones, electronics, 225-7126/ 226-3693 dollys pharmacy etc @ Bourda autorental@yahoo.com/ Market (facing Regent www.dolly sautorental.com street)- Call:220-1324/ 6430000 Progressive Auto Rental - cars1 Toyota RAV 4, 2001 Model, Call: 643-5122 or 225-8711, Email:pro_autorental@yahoo.com PLL 9804 – Tel:686-5083 Loving, fluffy puppies – Wings Car Rental - Call:643-1131 Call:645-0240, 685-0942 Aidan’s Car Rental, Canter & Pickup- Call: 645-7981/ 6987807

MASSAGE The Gents Spa: Be pampered by beautiful masseuses.

New masseuses Amanda and Crystal – Tel:657-5979 Neisha’s Massage Service – Tel:674-8147

Sunday April 27, 2014

SALON

VEHICLE FOR SALE

Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad.

Call: 660-5257, 647-1773

First Class Auto: Premio, Allion, Spacio, Raum, 212, Allex, Runx, IST, Fielder, Bluebird, Axela – Tel:6098188, 638-3045 One 8,000 Ford Tractor, one 450 Ford Towing Truck & size 16 & 17 tyres - Contact Floyd: 694-5599

TO LET Two bedroom apartment to rent with toilet & bath located in Eccles – Call:2332252, 694-4563, 662-3837 Now Open! Harmony Inn, Georgetown Branch - $6,000 & $7,000 – Contact:6680306, 694-7817, 602-8769 Two bedrooms concrete bottom flat located at Middle Rd, La Penitence - $45,000 per month – Contact: 6669534, preferably working couple.

Furnished two bedrooms apartment in Linden for short term local & overseas guest – Call:614-4415, 4444704 Available from May 1st: 1bedroom apartment - $28,000 & 2-bedroom apartment $35,000. Christian family – parking & telephone conveniences – Call:6238759, 218-3463 Space for office or canteen in Albertown – Call:225-6458 or 614-8022 Furnished and unfurnished two bedrooms apartment in Eccles, for short or long term – Tel:643-1131 Two bedrooms top flat furnished, for rent at Diamond, E.B.D. – Tel:2160644, 668-8403

LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel:644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997 Shalom Driving School @ 2 Croal street. Fee $16,000Call:227-3869

DRESSMAKING EDUCATIONAL Practical Electronic Course beginning May 6th 2014 – Call Abdul Electronics – 2266551 or 225-0391

Jean is offering courses in dressmaking, curtains, floral & cake decoration. Lot 153 Barr St Kitty – Call:670-2653, 618-1706

One RX-8 Mazda fully air conditioned, stick gear, wheel lights, fog lamps, power windows - Tel: 653-2477 2004 Toyota Tundra GNN Series - $1.6M. Owner leaving country - Phone: 647-5919 AT170 Corona – Phone:2340475 or 628-2796 To y o t a R a u m , S p a c i o , AT212, AT192, NZE ,LTouring wagon,Fun Cargo, IST, Nissan E24 Caravan – Tel:644-5096; 697-1453 One Toyota AT192, good condition – Price $850,000 negotiable – Tel: 616-1671 2008 Blue Bird - $3M, 2005 Spacio - $2.1M, 2006 Premio - $2.3M. ALL VEHICLES FULLY LOADED & UNREGISTEREDCall:642-7295 Two Model M Bedford 4x4 Trucks – owner leaving country – Call:693-2237 AT192 Carina, HC series, Yellow – Price:$750,000.00 – Tel:676-8233 We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30-seater buses; extra-cab pickups; 2006 TacomaCall:680-3154 Pre-order: AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN RZ & Pit-bull, 7seater Super Customs. Cash/ terms- Call:680-3154 1 -1RZ, 15-seater, automatic mini-bus, BNN 3760 - $1.5M Negotiable. Good condition, never used for public transportation – Tel:628-0310 ; 672-5429 Unregistered Toyota Raum - Year 2004 , black interior, HID lights, power door, TV navigation – Tel:617-5536 Smart Choice Auto Sales: Unregistered: Premio, Spacio, Allion, Allex, IST, 212, Fielder, Voxy– Call:6523820; 665-4529 One new model yellow cab 212, in excellent condition – Call:691-5086 Toyota extra cab pick-up (22 R engine) manual, (EFI) 4×4, (GPP series) - Price $2.4MContact Rocky 621-5902/2251400 1 AT 192 Carina (Private).

Automatic, fully powered, mags, AC - Price$1.1M Contact Rocky:225-1400 (Continued on page 55)

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 55

Quick police action averts robbery, one in custody Swift action by ranks at the Number 51 Village Police Station thwarted a robbery and led to the arrest of a 20year-old man, who along with an accomplice tried to gain entry into a couple’s home by pretending to be police officers.

Cortez Fraser of New Amsterdam, Berbice is currently in police custody.

According to a police source, at around 21:30 hrs on Friday, Fraser and an accomplice entered the couple’s yard at Number 50 Village and demanded that they open the door to their home.

“They called out for the couple and say they are police officers. When the man put on his light, one of them asked him, ‘how you gon put on your lights on police officers.’”

Suspecting that something was definitely

amiss, the man did not open his door. Instead, he called the police station.

“The ranks were on patrol when they got the call and they immediately went to the area and managed to arrest one of them and the other one escaped,” a police source related.

Kaieteur News understands that Fraser related that he and his partner planned the robbery.

“They said they staked out the place. They waited until the neighbours went to bed and then they went in, armed with a cutlass.”

Kaieteur News was told that Fraser has provided ranks with information on other robberies planned by him and accomplices. “We just have to wait and see. He doesn’t want to get into trouble alone so he is screaming out on others,” a source told this newspaper.

Granger welcomes....

From page 11 use polygraph tests for a single event. According to the President, strong measures should be taken to fight corruption in and outside of the Force. He stressed that the leaders should be examples to the younger ranks, adding that this would help change the quality of the institution.

Ramotar emphasised that for future appointments to senior positions in the Force, and into some new organizations which are being created, there must and will be some form of integrity testing.

This is happening in several areas already, he noted. He said that the Force has to ensure that ranks are free from any form of criminality.

In June 2009, four ranks from the police Narcotics Branch were transferred with immediate effect after they failed polygraph tests. They were at the time stationed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri. The tests were conducted in February of that year and the results were made known to the ranks. The Narcotics Branch is the second local drug enforcement agency to undergo the test, following a similar exercise for ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).

In October 2010, four ranks from CANU were dismissed for failing to turn up for lie detector tests. They had objected to the tests being conducted. The controversial tests came under fire from several persons within the trade unions, who stated that using it as a basis to determine workers’ integrity was not legal. The U.S federal law governing lie-detector tests stipulates that an employee cannot be fired for failing or refusing to take the test. According to the Global Polygraph Network, employers are permitted to request that employees submit to a polygraph exam under some specific conditions as provided for by U.S. federal law.

Last year, another exercise was conducted where staffers of the Police’s Narcotics Branch and Guyana Energy Agency were among those tested. Several of the staffers attached to the GEA were fired. Some have taken the agency to task and have filed court proceedings.

VEHICLE FOR SALE 1 Alex PNN Series with Rims, HID lights, A.C, Alarm, CD player Pioneer – Tel:617-4317, 646-1921 1 Runx, PPP series with rims, DVD, CD, A.C, flair kit alarms - Tel:617-4317, 646-1921 1 Unregistered 2004 Toyota Raum with A.C, Rim, DVD player, TV, flair kit - Tel:6174317, 646-1921 Solid Def and 2 ton dump truck; never registered. At Annandale Public RoadCall:643-0000 1 AT 212 Carina (Private).

Automatic, fully powered with AC, alarm - Price:1.2M Contact Rocky: 621-5902 1 Suzuki R1 wagon (Jeep).

Automatic, Fully Powered with AC; hardly used – Price:$1.2M Contact Rocky: 621-5902/ 225-1400

CAKES & PASTRIES Courses in cake decoration, pastry making & cookery; also edible images and Wedding dresses for sale.

Call: 670-0798

WANTED Experienced diesel mechanic to work in the interior – Call:226-9768, 626-6909 Mechanical Coconut Greater- Contact: 267-2355 or 622-2290 Urgently needed live-in waitresses to work in bar, offering an attractive salary – Call:689-8859 Live-out domestic babysitter and live-in babysitter – Call:225-0188, 223-7500 (Monday to Saturday ) (8:15am-4:15pm) Attractive live-in waitresscall:228-5129/604-8277 Do you need an experienced Bahir or excavator operator to work in the interior?

Contact:667-3983, 626-9393, 602-1594 200 truckloads of sand.

Contact 627-0799 One maid. $14,000 per week working form 8:00 hours to 16:00 hours. Contact 2267766 Two computer literate secretaries. Call 622-7933 Four sand truck drivers.

Contact 627-0799

NOTICE

(From page 54)

Tulsie’s Tailoring @ 40 Charles St. Tailor will be retiring April 30th 2014.

Please Uplift your garments ! Thank You!– Tel:227-8826 WANTED

VACANCY 24 Hour East Coast Guy-oil needs night pump attendants, salesgirl & office assistant - Call: 670-8893/ 695-9880/ 684-2838 Federal Management Security Services: Armed, Baton Officers, bus drivers.

Located @ 120 Peter Rose Street, Queenstown - Tel:2260633, 226-0652, 226-0637 Maid, receptionist, handyman, live-in security @ Lot 12 Henry Street - Call:2259211, 223-6284 Operators- training will be provided, driver/expeditor, security guards. Apply :Guyana Fisheries Wharf Limited Houston, E.B.D- Tel # 227-8176/7 Graphic Artist, CorelDraw & Adobe PhotoShop CS2, Apply to: Executive Office Service. 82 Albert St. & Regent Road, Bourda, Georgetown Accounts clerk & Salesgirl: Apply in person with handwritten application at Alabama Trading, Ferry Stelling, Stabroek.

Vacancy for porters: Apply in person at Alabama Trading, Ferry Stelling Stabroek.

One machinist & one welder – Call:234-0780 or 613-1588 Experienced hairdressers at Magic Touch Salon- Call:2256492 Office clerk senior/junior.

CXC: English, Mathematics & computer knowledge an asset- Call:225-0188/223-7500 For experienced Salesgirls at Courtney’s Boutique Stall ‘B’ Bourda Market LAND FOR SALE Blankenburg, Public Road W.C.D (38ftX150ft), (39ftX150ft) $16M each - Call: 658-0132 La Parafaite Harmonie $1M & $2M, Herstelling $3M,Grove - $1.2M, 2St o r e y, 5-bedroom building @ Diamond, E.B.D - $48M – Call:6757292, 218-5591 Lot 12 Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, Market Street – Tel:220-7330 138FT x 1750FT - 5.5 acres at Canal No.2 - Price $15MCall:227-7734

One Legal Clerk – Call: 617-3851, 269-0504 Experienced cashier apply with application & Passport size photo to survival shopping complex – Tel:2275286/9 Handy boys to work, live in accommodation and meals free – Tel:228-5655, 628-1756 Live-in couple, husband: driving duties, wife: domestic.

Good rates & accommodation – Tel: 227-1830 Girls to work at bar, preferably out of Town – Tel:223-4778, 653-0222 Large quantities of Purple Heart, greenheart and other woods needed. Also Nibi furniture. 218-5591 or 6757292 We buy all low income lands especially in La Parfaite Harmonie 218-5591 or 675-7292 Experienced sales girl and sales boy – Tel:609-1535,227-8529 Attractive live in waitressCall:327-0252/674-4665 Live in domestic and live in waitresses, 18-25yrs, boarding and lodging free $50,000 monthly – Tel: 6103974 Work from home; earn $5,000$20,000 daily, jobfairworldwide.com or 6221957 (computer skills required).

One professional cosmetologist to work in Eccles - Tel: 639-7672, 658-4429 Kitchen Assistants: Come into Dian’s Deli, opposite Kitty Market.

Urgently needed: One cosmetologist at Nalini’s Beauty Salon, Vreed-EnHoop Junction – Contact:6253899, 604-2900 Part-time salesman to sell locally manufactured Windows & Doors of High Quality - Telephone #6005253 Part-time worker for store.

Experienced interior designer, one florist & stock clerk – Contact:691-1527 One mechanic to work in the interior.

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Page 56

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

T&T SEXUALLY CHARGED

Dr. Rodger Samuel Trinidad Express Minister, in response to 12year-old who posted indecent photos of herself on Facebook, says environment needs to change Trinidad Minister of National Diversity and Social Integration Dr Rodger Samuel Friday made a call for society to “desexualise”. (According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary this means to “strip of sexual character”).

Samuel, who is also a Full Gospel pastor, was asked to share his sentiments on the national debate over Point Fortin mother Helen Bartlett

who posted a video on Facebook showing her beating her 12-year-old daughter for posting indecent photos on Facebook.

“It’s difficult to comment on that. I am concerned about abuse,” he said.

Samuel, who was at the time conducting a tour of renovations at the Red House, St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, also responded to questions about claims by pupils of St Michael’s School for Boys, Diego Martin, about abuse.

The institution is being investigated over claims of abuse from three boys, aged 11 to 13, who said they were beaten and verbally abused by staff members of the school. The school is also being investigated over the recent death of 14-year-old Brandon Hargreaves who was said to have been playfighting when he suffered a fatal fall.

Samuel went on to say both children and adults were daily bombarded with a “sexually charged society”.

He said: “We can ‘desexualise’ the society. If

there is such a word as ‘desexualise’. We should look at changing the environment.

It is a serious task. And if the State does not have the answers, then we need to turn to the church, Islam, the pundit or imam or else we will continue to have problems.

The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” Samuel also said it was a biblical injunction to discipline children.

He said: “We should not spare the rod and spoil the child. Train up the child in the way it should go and when it is old it will not depart from it.

If we are saying parents should not be allowed to discipline their children we have to be careful we are not stepping into grounds that we should not. Discipline in the house is for the parents.”

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, on learning of the Facebook beating, had responded Wednesday by saying her Government would look at legislation that can offer protection to children in their homes. There was a storm of criticism in response to this and on Thursday Persad-

IMF says tepid economic growth for Caribbean countries WASHINGTON - CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says economic activity in the Caribbean is expected to stay in low gear in 2014. It said growth remains tepid in most of the Caribbean.

It said that while the recovery in the United States and other advanced economies is expected to bolster export growth, lower world commodity prices and rising global funding costs are likely to weigh on activity across the region.

The IMF in its Regional Economic Outlook for the

Western Hemisphere” is projecting regional growth of 2.5 per cent in 2014, down from 2.75 per cent in 2013.

The Washington-based financial institution said that weak investment and subdued demand for the region’s exports held back activity in 2013, as did increasingly binding supply bottlenecks in a number of economies. For 2015, the IMF projects a modest pickup, to 3 per cent.

“The tourism-dependent economies are expected to grow on average by 1.4 per cent in 2014 and the

commodity exporters by 3.2 per cent.

“Reducing high public debt levels remains a key challenge in much of the Caribbean along with further efforts to address longstanding competitiveness problems, notably in the tourism-dependent economies,” the IMF said.

The IMF said that construction activity in the Caribbean seems to have bottomed out, but tourist arrivals and spending have continued to underperform in most countries.

SUMMIT-Regional leaders to meet in Mexico BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are heading to Mexico next week for the Third CARICOM-Mexico summit that begins on Tuesday Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto will open the VI Summit of Heads of State and/or Governments of the Association of Caribbean States, slated for Wednesday, at the Convention Centre in Mérida.

Alexis Rosado, Chief Executive Officer in the Belize Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

told Amandala that the event will be attended by representatives from Caribbean and Central American countries, as well as representatives from Columbia and Venezuela.

The summit will feature a presentation of the new initiatives for the benefit of the Caribbean, offered by the Government of Mexico. There will also be a dialogue on the said initiatives.

The leaders will also evaluate the Plan of Action of Pétion Ville, which includes the establishment of a

sustainable tourism zone for the Greater Caribbean and a program for uniting the Caribbean by air and sea.

The summit to be hosted by Mexico will be preceded by two meetings: The Preparatory Meeting of the 7th Extraordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Association of Caribbean States to be held at Hotel Fiesta Americana, Mérida tomorrow; and the 7th Extraordinary Meeting to be held at Fiesta Americana Hotel, Mérida, on Tuesday.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

AG: Victory for Petrotrin ...wins $1.8b case against World GTL

Anand Ramlogan Trinidad Express - The Government and Petrotrin have scored a “historic” and “amazing legal victory” over energy company World GTL which had brought a $1.8 billion claim against the Stateowned oil company.

That arbitration had two legs—one based in Toronto, the other in London—and the risk exposure to Petrotrin was so great that it ran to over $1.8 billion, the Attorney General Anand Ramlogan stated. “It could have crippled and bankrupt our national oil company...with dire implications for our economy...had the claim against Petrotrin succeeded, since it would have entailed payment of damages of US$228 million plus interest and costs,” the Attorney General noted.

But he said WGTL’s claim was dismissed and legal costs amounting to approximately $24.3 million were awarded in Petrotrin’s favour.

Ramlogan stated, however, that he would now have to do an international means and assets search to see if he could recover one

red cent for WGTL, which went into receivership in 2011.

In making the announcement in the House of Representatives Friday, Ramlogan stated: “Today I am pleased to announce that on 24th April, 2014, Petrotrin won a very significant victory in arbitration proceedings brought before the London Court of International Arbitration by World GTL Inc. and World GTL St Lucia Ltd”.

“The victory represents yet another legal milestone achievement for the leadership and Government of the People’s Partnershi which inherited a series of complex legal disputes spawned by the mismanagement of the PNM. Coming on the heels of the recent victory in the settlement of the OPV arbitration, this judgment against highlights the Government’s committement to unravelling the messy avalanche of complicated legal disputes which the actions of the previous administration prompted,” Ramlogan stated.

Petrotrin was represented

by British Queen’s Counsel Alan Newman, together with New York attorneys Louis Kimmelman and Erin Thomas.

Ramlogan said the failed joint venture gas-to-liquids venture had been an unmitigated disaster for Petrotrin.

He said the project was initially funded by US$125 million project loan from Credit Suisse, cash equity contributions of US$10 million from Petrotrin and the issuance of US$30 million nonvoting preference shares. And

he said it was agreed that all cost overruns would be borne in proportion of the sharing of the parties- which was 49 per cent/51 per cent.

“Incredibly, inexplicably and disastrously, that never happened.”

“To date Petrotrin funded every red cent of those cost overruns because WGTL did not appear to have any money,” he said. Petrotrin funded cost overruns to the tune of US$190.4 million. “In the end, the actual construction cost to date of this unfinished plant is US$400 million compared with an initial project cost in 2007 of US$160 million,” he said.

The project began when the Malcolm Jones-led board of Petrotrin entered into an agreement to jointly develop a gas to liquids (GTL) project with World GTL in September 2005. WGTL filed a claim against Petrotrin in December 2011 wherein it sought damages for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, based on statements and representations made by the former Petrotrin Jones-led board.

Ramlogan said had there been even elementary due diligence on the part of the board and in particular by Malcolm Jones, the then executive chairman, WGTL’s lack of funds and lack of licence for the catalyst would have been discovered, the project against would never have been signed in the first place and the loan repayment as well as the 33 cost overrun contributions paid by Petrotrin to Credit Suisse would not have occurred.

Nicolas Maduro spending hours in lines.

Maduro did not put a specific number on what the government would repay or how soon.

Venezuela — which sits

atop the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves — has Latin America’s highest inflation rate — 57 percent.

Maduro’s heavily state-led government inherited from late leader Hugo Chavez a decadeold system of hard currency controls.

L a s t y e a r, M a d u r o ’s government fell behind in its delivery to importers of the currency they need to buy — mostly abroad — basic products, 25 percent of which are currently in short supply.

Meanwhile Venezuela in recent months has c l a s h e d with several international airlines, including Air Canada, over billions of dollars the carriers say they were owed by Caracas and not paid.

Venezuela’s Maduro promises importers overdue hard currency

Caracas (AFP) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro promised to pay back billions of dollars in government debt to disgruntled importers, after widespread shortages of basic goods helped fuel months of deadly antigovernment protests. “ We a r e g o i n g t o immediately pay back 30 percent of (the total hard currency owed to importers) as a way to move forward on these commitments,” Maduro told a gathering of business leaders.

Importers say they are owed $13 billion, and that the government’s slow repayment is a key factor in shortages of items as basic as toilet paper that leave many Venezuelans

Page 57

Page 58

Anti Money Laundering Bill The political opposition remains unmoved on its conditions for the passage of the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing the Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, following a meeting with the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) Chairperson Allyson Maynard-Gibson who was accompanied by Executive Director of CFATF, Calvin Wilson and Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin La Roque.

Maynard-Gibson and Wilson met with A Partnership For National Unity’s Basil Williams, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, Joseph Harmon, Ronald Bulkhan, Carl Greenidge, Ernest Elliot, Winston Felix, the Alliance for Change’s Leader Khemraj Ramjattan, Cathy Hughes and David Patterson.

The meeting took place at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.

Following the meeting, the CFATF Chairperson,

Kaieteur News

APNU, AFC not budging until conditions met

Maynard-Gibson, who is also the Attorney General of the Bahamas, was reluctant to speak to media operatives. On the other hand, the APNU representatives did brief media operatives.

Williams told the members of the media at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition yesterday evening that the meeting was “full and frank.”

He noted that the CFATF delegation used the opportunity to convey to the political opposition the importance that CFATF and the CARICOM region attach to the passage of the relevant legislation in order for Guyana not to be blacklisted.

“They felt it was the highest importance that Guyana averted being blacklisted.”

CFAT F will undertake its next review of Guyana on May 29, when, if the legislation is not in place Guyana will be

…visiting CFATF officials leave empty handed

CFATF Chairperson Allyson Maynard-Gibson (centre) in talks with CARICOM Secretary General, Irwin La Roque (left) and APNU’s Carl Greenidge

Auditor General fails to use powers effectively - Constantly brings his autonomy into question-PAC Chairman

Carl Greenidge, PAC Chairman

In spite of legislative changes made some years ago to the Constitution to improve financial management of accounts, and to make the Auditor General’s (AG) office an independent entity, members of the political opposition are of the view that no significant change has been made by the AG’s Office since then.

At a press conference, the details of which are published on the website of the Ministry of Finance, it was said that the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, had said that internal audits can increase efficiency and competitiveness of entities.

According to the website, the Minister of Finance had said that the Constitution was strengthened and systems implemented to cater for the oversight of the Auditor General’s office by the

Sunday April 27, 2014

establishment of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which also oversaw the operations of Government Departments, and fiscal and procurement policies.

But the head of this very Committee, Carl Greenidge, said that when one questions how effective these legislative changes were made, “It can be concluded that nothing of consequence was done.”

The PAC Chairman said that what was done in 2012 was that the Auditor General’s office was moved from being a budgetary agency. He said that there are aspects of the audit department that continue to remain of much concern to members of the Public Accounts Committee.

The Parliamentarian said that in spite of the changes to make the entity more autonomous, the failure of the Auditor General to effectively use his power puts the “independence” of his office up for much questioning.

The Shadow Minister of Finance said that it is an issue that has not been resolved to this date.

He said, “There have been no significant improvements or changes with regard to the Auditor General’s Office.

Questions of recruitment still remain unanswered and these are matters that are of concern to the Public Accounts

Committee.”

He continued, “The Departments of the Auditor General’s Office do not do enough and the Agency which is headed by Mr. Deodat Sharma does not exercise effectively the power it has.

“As an auditor you can, when you find a problem with the accounts of an agency, report them for not reporting on time and cite them for breaking the law.”

“You cannot leave it for the Public Accounts Committee to deal with when in fact it is in the power of the department to deal with the problem.

“The Committee does not need to be in half of the things that come before us from the Auditor General’s department.

They don’t do enough on that front. There are lots of infringements but rather than using its power they just see it as a matter to be reported.

“The legislative changes that were referred to by the Minister of Finance in 2012 have been limited to the removal to the list of budgetary agencies and that alone has to do with how it gets its money and not how efficiently the department works.”

Calls to the AG to comment on the effective use of the power of his office proved futile.

referred to the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) and would face international blacklisting.

According to Williams the group was informed by both opposition parties in the House of their conditions upon which passage of the Bill will be had.

According to Williams, the ball is in the government’s court on whether it would yield to the demands of the political opposition.

He noted that the CFATF team did indicate that it would be willing to provide whatever technical support is required for Guyana to pass the legislation.The conditions of APNU remain the same, namely the assent of the President to a number of pieces of legislations it has already approved, the commencement order and the AFC maintains its call for the

establishment of the Public Procurement Commission.

Greenidge who also addressed the media following the meeting said that the local delegation which included AFC and APNU was very candid with the CFATF officials that it was not a case that the debacle has been confronted with simple technical issues.

“We explained to them the context in which the negotiations have been taking place,” said Greenidge.

He was adamant that the local delegations made it clear to the CFATF team that it was not a case that the opposition was failing to approve the Bill but rather it has to meet the requirements of the majority.

Greenidge said that APNU acknowledges that CARICOM would be adversely affected should Guyana be blacklisted

internationally and as such they must recognize that they must do something to facilitate a movement from the precipice.

Dr Roopnaraine in his address to the media operatives present at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, reported that the CFATF Chairperson was very careful to point out that they would be available to the select committee and the nation at large in relation to assistances of a technical nature.

“She continued to maintain for the duration of the meeting that their intervention or help could not go beyond the technical,” according to Dr Roopnarine.

He was adamant that in the Guyana context, “we are confronted with more than technical problems.”

According to Dr Roopnaraine the technical issues that prevented the passage of the Bills were a matter that could be solved relatively easily.

“In essence we have a political crisis and it requires a political solution,” said Dr Roopnaraine.

Harmon reiterated that the meeting contained a very frank exchange and added that it was important that the CARICOM Secretary General was present.

He too echoed the call that it seems that a political solution will have to he pursued in relation to resolving the current impasse and that it was just not a technical matter.

Bulkan in giving his take on the meeting said that APNU during the meeting was staunch in getting over the point that whenever the legislation is passed it must prove to be effective.

Opposition party disappointed no date set for general election ST. JOHN’S, Antigua CMC – Leader of the main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP), Gaston Browne says Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has set “a new precedent of failed leadership in the Caribbean” after failing to name a date for the general election before the dissolution of Parliament.

“This is the first time in recorded history that a prime minister would have failed in his duty to dissolve the Parliament and to set the date for election.

So I think Prime Minister Spencer has set a new precedent of failed leadership in the Caribbean,” Browne

told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

In a nationwide radio and television broadcast earlier this week, Prime Minister Spencer said he would allow Parliament to be automatically be dissolved yesterday and described as “unfortunate” the length of time taken by the OECS Supreme Court to deliver a judgement in two matters that could have had a bearing on the upcoming general elections.

Spencer said also that should the court rule in favour of the government in the appeal matters filed by Browne “the Court’s extra

ordinary and inexplicable delay will prevent any implementation of the proposed boundaries alterations approved by Parliament for this up--coming elections.

He said this is because Section 65(4) of the Constitution provides: “If any draft Order laid before the House under this section is approved by resolution of the House, the Prime Minister shall submit it to the Governor General, who shall make an Order in terms of the draft; and that Order shall come into force upon the next dissolution of Parliament after it is made”.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Obama reminds North Korea of U.S. ‘military might’

U.S. President Barack Obama waves after delivering a speech at U.S. military base Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. REUTERS/Lee Jin-man/Pool

SEOUL (Reuters) President Barack Obama said yesterday the United States did not use its military might to “impose things” on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North.

The North warned last month it would not rule out a “new form” of atomic test after the U.N. Security Council condemned Pyongyang’s launch of a mid-range ballistic missile into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.

Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye presented a united front against North Korea at a joint news conference following their summit on Friday,

warning that they would respond firmly to any “provocations” by Pyongyang which routinely threatens the United States and South Korea with destruction.

“We don’t use our military might to impose these things on others, but we will not hesitate to use our military might to defend our allies and our way of life,” Obama told cheering U.S. forces at the Yongsan garrison on a sunny spring morning.

“So like all nations on Earth, North Korea and its people have a choice. They can choose to continue down a lonely road of isolation, or they can choose to join the rest of the world and seek a

future of greater opportunity, and greater security, and greater respect - a future that already exists for the citizens on the southern end of the Korean peninsula.”

North Korea is already subject to U.N. sanctions over its previous three atomic tests.

Recent satellite data shows continued work at the nuclear test site in North Korea, although experts analyzing the data say that preparations do not appear to have progressed far enough for an imminent test.

Adding to tensions surrounding Obama’s visit to South Korea, the North announced on Friday it had detained a 24-year-old American this month who demanded asylum after arriving in the country on a tourist visa.

Obama is using his weeklong Asia tour to try to ease doubts among U.S. allies about his promise to “rebalance” military, diplomatic and economic resources toward the fastgrowing Asia-Pacific region.

He has sought to strike a balance between showing the United States will be a counterweight to China without alienating Beijing, which worries that Washington wants to contain its growth and influence.

Obama and Park also urged China, North Korea’s main ally, to uses its influence to help rein in its unpredictable neighbor.

Page 59

Ukraine blames Moscow for ‘human shield’ detentions in east

People take photos with pro-Russian protesters in front of the seized office of the SBU state security service in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine offered yesterday to release eight captive international observers in a prisoner exchange, as Western governments prepared new sanctions against Moscow.

The pro-Western government in Kiev blamed Russia for what it called the kidnapping on Friday of the monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The separatists said they suspected the observers of

spying; Ukraine said they were being used as human shields.

Since Ukrainians toppled their pro-Russian president in February, Russia has annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and massed tens of thousands of troops on the country’s eastern border.

NATO has responded by sending reinforcements to eastern Europe, in the gravest East-West crisis since the Cold War. Earlier yesterday the Group of Seven major economies announced they had agreed to impose more

sanctions on Russia, which they believe is bent on destabilizing its former Soviet neighbor and possibly grabbing more territory.

Diplomats said the United States and the European Union were expected to unveil new punitive action against Russian individuals from today. Russia denies orchestrating a campaign by pro-Moscow militants who have seized control of public buildings across eastern Ukraine. It accuses the Kiev government of whipping up tensions by sending troops to root out the separatists.

Page 60

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

“West Indies regional cricket is quite ordinary!”

Last weekend, I was a part of a commentary team for the on-line/television coverage of West Indies Cricket Board’s 4-day semi-final for the Sir Everton Weekes/George Headley Trophy. Despite technical challenges, we managed to complete assignments well.

That I abandoned plans to fly two magnificent “Singing Engine” (“Mad Bull” in Trinidad & Tobago) kites that I had made, to be at cricket over Easter weekend, tells how serious this game was to me, as this is the very next level down from Test cricket.

The real stress was with the cricket played. I found myself often thinking that this could not be the best that we can produce in regional cricket. It was. Nothing about it, except its name, was first

class!

That game was an embarrassment to the levels of cricket expected from 1st Class cricketers in this region!

Trinidad & Tobago contained three senior, present West Indies players – Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons and wicket-keeper/ captain Denesh Ramdin - and two recent former Windies players – faster bowlers Shannon Gabriel and Rayad Emrit.

All looked underwhelmed with this experience.

Windward Islands contained recent Windies reserve wicket-keeper/ batsman Johnson Charles, former Test opener Devon Smith and former Windies fast bowler Nelon Pascal.

Neither team managed to get even 250 in any of four

innings on a perfectly well prepared, placid pitch at Queen’s Park Oval, T&T getting 140-8 declared and 105; Windwards 248 and 231.

The game ended on Day 3, with T&T losing by, in terms of total runs scored – 724 – a mammoth 234 runs.

One could only wonder how long the game would have lasted had Windwards’ main bowler, off-spinner Shane Shillingford, been able to play. On Day 1, he scratched, after feeling unwell.

So, there must be kudos for Windward Islands getting to the final this weekend, against Jamaica, who beat Barbados in their semi-final.

At least, Windward Islands still have hopes of being 4-day Caribbean regional champions for the

Sunday April 27, 2014 ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 19): Is it time to take a more drastic approach to solving a problem, Aries? If you've made several attempts to resolve your trouble to no avail, it might be something to consider. *************************** TAURUS (APR 20 MAY 20): Tap into your creativity to unblock your emotions today, Taurus. This can be a more powerful tool than you realize. *************************** GEMINI (MAY 21 JUN 20): You may need to deal with disapproval today, Gemini. This will likely come from someone you see as a superior or authority figure, perhaps a parent or teacher. *************************** CANCER (JUN 21 JUL 22): Taking time alone is essential for everyone, C a n c e r, b u t r e c o g n i z e when you're isolating yourself to the point where it's unhealthy. *************************** LEO (JUL 23 - AUG 22): Watch out for the greeneyed monster today, Leo. It can rear up before you even say the word "jealousy" if you're not on your guard. ************************ VIRGO (AUG 23 - SEP 22): You may feel insecure about your appearance today, Virgo. This can be a vicious cycle, and the end result is almost always negative.

LIBRA (SEP 23 - OCT 22): Jealousy might rear its head today, Libra. The key to coping with it is to understand why you feel insecure. If you're jealous of a partner, why is this? *************************** SCORPIO (OCT 23 NOV 21): Arts and crafts may hold your interest today, Scorpio. Even if you lean more toward sports, an artistic streak likely runs pretty strong in you. *************************** SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 - DEC 21): Getting along with others may prove challenging today, Sagittarius. The planetary aspects can have you isolating yourself. *************************** CAPRICORN (DEC 22 JAN 19):Don't be surprised if you're a little weepy today, Capricorn. The day's planetary influences could enhance your sensitivity to everything, including your feelings. *************************** AQUARIUS (JAN 20 - FEB 18): Obsessive thinking may be something you need to look at today, Aquarius. Common areas for such behaviors are in the pursuit of money, power, success, and romance. *************************** PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20):Don't act impulsively today, Pisces. It can be easy to confuse this with spontaneity, but one has more thought in it than the other.

Colin E. H. Croft says:

T&T players Lendl Simmons, left, captain Denesh Ramdin, Darren Bravo and Rayad Emrit. (Trinidad Guardian) very first time, if referred records are correct. They play at home this weekend in St. Lucia.

Kudos too to left-handed medium-dobbler Kenroy Peters, who accounted for seven T&T 2nd innings wickets for only 36 runs; career best; as T&T disintegrated to 105 all out.

At Day 1’s lunch-time, I had lunch with President of Queen’s Park Cricket Club, former WI wicket-keeper Deryck Murray, former WI opener Brian Davis, Dr. Nigel Camacho, founding member of “Trini Posse” and an integral part of WIRPA – West Indies Retired Players Association – and Colin

Murray, who had played cricket and soccer for T&T. All four, even then, were absolutely amazed at the poverty of the cricket.

Only two batsmen, from victorious Windward Islands – Devon Smith and Rommel Currency – made fifties; 63 in 2nd innings; 68 in 1st innings; respectively. Otherwise, the batting was absolutely shambolic.

T&T’s best batting effort in the game came from opener Evan Lewis, who made 47 n.o. in their 1st innings.

Parts of the game were even farcical, with T&T’s captain, Ramdin, deciding to declare his team’s 1st innings complete at 140-8, 105 behind

Windwards’ 248, to try to stop Windwards getting an extra bowling point. Amazingly, this was done mid-way on Day 2.

I know that it was Easter, but did Ramdin expect an unbelievable miracle to unfold on Days 3 and 4?

It is no wonder that President of Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board, Asim Basarat, has ordered an inquiry to that debacle last weekend.

I also know that former West Indies and T&T player, Suruj Ragoonath, now TTCB’s CEO, must be livid and speechless too, with the way-below-par performance of his representatives.

T&T must have started the game as favorites, but even if they were to lose, they lost looking absolutely loose, disoriented and disenchanted with the entire proceedings, as if the whole game was one large joke.

One has to wonder exactly where the players’ heads were during this shortened game!

All this, mind you, as the last real preamble cricket regionally to the next international tour to the Caribbean, by New Zealand, starting on June 08 next.

Some of our international cricketers will have to start all over again, as we are already in serious trouble!

Dwayne Bravo is injured.

No-one knows when he will play again, but at least, he is out for one month. Chris Gayle is still nursing an injured leg, so it could be touch and go as to if he will play in what would be his 100th Test, if he plays in the 1st Test v NZ at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. Marlon Samuels is again injured too, with no definitive time for his return. Sunil Narine might be mesmerizing in T-20’s but in especially Tests, he is still questionable, while our fast bowling is in true dire straight.

One recent hope, Kemar Roach, miraculously survived a bad automobile accident recently, while Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor are on the older side of 30. Anyway, I did manage to fly the kites later last week and was thoroughly pleased with them too. They flew like airplanes; smooth, well balanced and singing as loudly, as throatily, as Luciano Pavarotti! Enjoy!

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 61

Distressed associations outfoxed by Matthias - Congress to reconvene in 45 days President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Christopher Matthias managed to outfox his adversaries and will carry on as the man at the helm of Guyana’s football after surviving a no-confidence motion during the entity’s Ordinary Congress yesterday, at the Regency Suites Hotel.

Also, of note was that an agreement was reached for the GFF and the displeased associations to meet within 45 days to reconvene the Congress with the aim of reaching common ground on the contentious issues.

Six associations staged a walkout, before returning after failing to win a majority following a vote to determine whether the issue of the noconfidence should be entertained after the vote ended in a 9-9 stalemate.

The six distressed

GCA/Brain Street U-15 tourney

By Zaheer Mohamed Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) and Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) A recorded victories, while Gandhi Youth Organisation (GYO) and DCC B played to a draw when the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA)/Brian Street U-15 limited overs tournament continued yesterday.

At MSC ground, the home team overcame Bel Air Rubis by one wicket. The visitors batted first and scored 102 all out in 32 overs. Nand Sanicharan led with 30, while Alex Chunilall made 10. Sase Norville grabbed 3-35, Enus Braithwaite 2-10, Avin Gangadin 2-21 and Andrew Persaud 2-24. MSC replied

associations were the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), National Women’s Football Association (NWFA), Guyana Football Coaches Association (GFCA), Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC), East Coast Football Association (ECFA) and East Demerara Football Association (EDFA).

The conclusion to reconvene at a later date was endorsed by the CONCACAF team of observers which included Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal, FIFA Developmental Officer Howard McIntosh and CONCACAF Legal Advisor Bruce Blake.

Meanwhile, just before the start of the Congress, GFA General Secretary Odinga Lumumba sought to have the no-confidence motion be given priority on

Delegates seen in attendance at the GFF Ordinary Congress yesterday. the meeting’s agenda and his call initiated some degree of confusion.

The noconfidence motion was filed on behalf of the EBFA and supported by the ECFA, but

it was subsequently deemed unconstitutional with the one month notice and the reasons for its filing absent from the application.

Because of the

adjournment, the Audit Report for the period January 1998-December 2012 was not discussed, while the two VicePresidents Ivan Persaud and Vanessa Dickenson were

advised to resume attending meeting of the GFF. McIntosh in brief comments with the media said he was disappointed with the situation.

11 and Sagar Hathiramani 231.

Meanwhile, DCC A defeated DCC B by 165 runs in their matchup on Friday at DCC. The A team managed 205-4 in 35 overs, taking first strike. Nedd slammed 98 (8x4), Bookie made 25 and Darian Dickson 20. Qumar Torrington

took 2-31. DCC B were skittled for 40 in 28.1 overs in their turn at the crease.

Garrick Persaud (13) was the only batsman that reached double figures as Hathiramani bagged 5-14 and Jospice Jones 2-4. The competition continues tomorrow.

MSC, DCC A victorious, GYO and DCC B draw

Sase Norville with 104-9 in 50 overs.

Reynaldo McGarrell scored 21, Tuen Hicks and Persaud chipped in with 13 not out and 11 respectively.

At GYO, the home team and DCC B played to a draw.

Bhaskar Yadram and Navindra Persaud (15) laid the

foundation for the huge GYO total with an opening stand of 141. Yadram was dismissed for 97 (14x4,4x6), while Pradesh Balkishun scored 57 (9x4) and Ronald Basdeo 21 as GYO posted 313-6 off their reduced quota of 52 overs, batting first. Dewan Skeete snared 2-26 and David Marshall 2-43. DCC B were restricted to 122-7 off their allocation of 42 overs in reply.

Shane Grant made 22 and Anthony Roopnarine 14.

Brandon Matthew captured 214 while Yadram returned to capture 2-25.

At Muslim Youth Organisation, DCC A got the better of Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) by 62 runs. DCC A rattled up 207 before they were bowled out in 40.1 overs.

Ronald Brandis top scored with 38 while Ashmead Nedd (33) and Alphius Bookie (30)

Bhaskar Yadram (right) and Pradesh Balkishun

supported well. Stephon Wilson was the pick of the bowlers with 3-33, Khemraj Hardyal claimed 2-30 and Lester Cupidore 2-38.

GCC were all out for 145 in 53.5 overs in reply. Wilson stroked 35, Joshua Raghobar 25, Avinash Boodram 18 and Hardyal 13. Nedd grabbed 4-

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Sunday April 27, 2014

FIFA probe into Qatar World NBA Roundup: Bulls trim series deficit Cup vote may be over by June

A man is silhouetted as he makes his way past the main entrance of FIFA headquarters, the Home of FIFA, in Zurich October 20, 2010. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - FIFA may conclude its investigation into the voting procedure that resulted in the 2022 World Cup being awarded to Qatar before this year’s finals starts in June, secretary general Jerome Valcke said on Friday.

“An investigation is being run by (New York lawyer) Michael Garcia and the commission is interviewing all those involved in the case and it will soon be delivered to the (FIFA) ethics committee that is going to decide if any measures should be taken,” Valcke told reporters.

“That will be soon, maybe

we will have a decision before the 2014 World Cup,” he said after a four-day trip to Brazil.

FIFA’s investigation was launched last year into alleged corruption surrounding the voting procedure for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.

The choice of Qatar was controversial given that the small Arab nation has little footballing culture and summer temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius).

Garcia, a former New York attorney, was empowered by FIFA’s Congress to “leave no

stone unturned” in his quest to discover if there was any wrongdoing in the voting process. As FIFA’s first independent ethics investigator and prosecutor, he was also empowered to investigate the votes-forcash scandal that led to longserving FIFA officials Jack Warner and Mohammed Bin Hammam leaving the organization.

FIFA’s executive committee meets in Sao Paulo in June in the days before the start of the 2014 World Cup, which will be held in 12 cities across Brazil. Garcia’s report could be ready by then, according to Valcke.

The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Mike Dunleavy scored 35 points, one shy of his career-high, Jimmy Butler hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining, and the Chicago Bulls hung on Friday night for a 100-97 win over the Washington Wizards, trimming the deficit to 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first round series.

Dunleavy went 12 for 19 from the field, including a career-high eight 3-pointers on 10 attempts, for the Bulls, who are attempting to become only the fourth NBA team to win a seven-game series after losing the first two at home.

Game 4 is today in Washington.

Bradley Beal scored 13 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Wizards.

NETS 102, RAPTORS 98 NEW YORK — Joe Johnson scored 29 points, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett brought a charge to their first playoff game in Brooklyn, and the Nets earned a 2-1 lead in their first-round series.

Johnson made the clinching free throws with 3.1 seconds left after the Nets blew almost all of a 15-point, fourth-quarter lead. Deron Williams added 22 points and eight assists for the sixthseeded Nets, who host Game 4 on Sunday night.

Pierce had 18 points, and he and Garnett provided the game’s signature plays late in the second quarter, a reminder that the Nets brought the veterans here as much for their bravado as their basketball.

DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points for the Raptors, who

Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) is pulled away by forward Taj Gibson (22) after an altercation with Washington Wizards forward Nene (42), from Brazil, in the second half of Game 3 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series on Friday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) have lost 13 straight road playoff games. Patrick Patterson added 17 points but missed two free throws with a chance to tie for Toronto, whose last postseason victory was May 6, 2001, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Philadelphia.

ROCKETS 121, TRAIL BLAZERS 116, OT PORTLAND, Ore. — Troy Daniels hit a 3-pointer with 11.9 seconds left and Houston narrowed Portland’s first-round playoff advantage to 2-1.

James Harden broke out of a slump with a career playoff-best 37 points and Dwight Howard added 24

points and 14 rebounds for the Rockets.

LaMarcus Aldridge had more than 40 points in each of Portland’s victories in the first two games in Houston.

But Omer Asik did a good job of shutting him down in Game 3, holding the A l l - St a r forward to 23 points. The Blazers were led by Damian Lillard with 30 points.Portland trailed by as many as 11 points in the final quarter but Nicolas Batum hit a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left to tie the game at 110. Harden missed a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

Game 4 is scheduled for today at the Moda Center.

Atkinson shatters 200m breaststroke Jamaica national record in Arizona Jamaica Observer - The reigning queen of Jamaican swimming, Alia Atkinson, was at her irrepressible best on Thursday at the start of the USA Grand Prix in Mesa, Arizona.

Atkinson demolished a high quality field to win the women’s 200-metre breaststroke A final in 2:25.52 minutes. That time destroys her old mark of 2:28.77 set August 1, 2012 in the heats of the London Olympic Games. That time skyrockets her to 13th in the world and sixth in the Commonwealth region.

Left in her wake were Americans Micah Lawrence, 2013 World Championships 200-metre bronze medallist (2:26.60) and sixth place finisher at the 2013 World Championships Breeja Larson.

Atkinson led from the gun

to wall. At the 100-metre mark she already had an advantage of more than a half a second, an advantage which she extended in the second half.

Less than an hour later she was back in the water and yet again in record-breaking form. This time she topped the field in the B final of the women’s 100-metre butterfly.

She took the win in 1:00.87 minutes. That time beat her time of 1:01.16 set this March at the Speedo champion meet in Plantation Florida. Her quick turnaround time speaks to her great conditioning.

Atkinson would have been buoyed by her recent three-year signing with the world famous Speedo brand according to the Speedo website.

Sean Hastings, Vice President of Product and Marketing at Speedo International said:

“Since her success in 2012, Alia has gone from strength to strength and we’re very pleased to be able to work with and support such exciting new talent. Alia is also incredibly passionate about swimming and swim safety awareness, which is at the heart of Speedo’s values.” Alia had the following thoughts on the historic partnership: “I have been swimming since the age of four, so I’m incredibly excited to become part of Team Speedo who has been with me from the start of my swimming journey.

Speedo also does fantastic work in raising awareness of swimming and swim safety around the world, which is something I strongly support. I’m very proud to be working with Speedo in my journey towards the 2016 Games in Rio.”

Alia Atkinson, of Jamaica, competes in the 200-metre breaststroke during the Arena Grand Prix swim meet on Thursday in Mesa, Arizona. (PHOTO: AP)

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Preparations begin for Kennard Memorial Turf Club one day horserace meet Preparations have commenced for the Kennard Memorial Turf Club one day horserace meet slated for Sunday 18th May 2014 at the club’s Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne, Berbice racetrack. Six races are on the day’s card which has close to $4M in trophies and cash incentives up for grabs.

Entries have started to pour in with some 40 horses already entered for what is expected to be a day of action packed racing.

The feature event is for animals classified D1and lower over one mile with the winner set to race away with a first prize of $500,000.

Already an impressive lineup is in the making.

The G1 event will see the winner running away with $300,000 and trophy over 6 Furlongs.

There is a race for three and four years old Guyana and West Indies Bred maiden animals which also has a winning purse of $300,000 and trophy up for the taking.

The race for the ‘I’ class animals carries a winning purse of $250,000 and trophy over 7 Furlongs.

There are two J class races on the day’s card. The J1 race is a 6 Furlongs event and has a pole position taking of $200,000 and trophy.

There other event is for J3 and lower animals which will see them racing for a winning purse of $150,000 and trophy

over 6 furlongs.

Entries are expected to be closed on Sunday May 11th.

The outstanding jockeys, trainer and stable will all received trophies and other accolades compliments of Ramesh Sunich of Trophy Stall, Bourda Market and the organisers.

For clarifications persons can make contact with Justice Cecil Kennard on telephone numbers 2261399, 225-4818 or 623-7609, club Secretary Niketa Ross on 662-4668, Roopnarine ‘Shine’ Matadial, 325-3192, Ivan Dipnarine 331-0316, Isabella Barton (693-7812) or Dennis DeRoop 3253301(609-9143).

(Samuel Whyte)

RCB shot out for 70 in big defeat ESPNcricinfo - Two days ago, when Royal Challengers Bangalore blew a winning position to lose to Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs, Virat Kohli had said his side had lost the game more than the opposition winning it.

Royal Challengers repeated the performance against Rajasthan Royals, minus the winning-position part.

Within the first 14 deliveries of the match, they lost four wickets, including those of AB de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh. Just past the halfway stage of their innings, they lost their last realistic hope - Kohli. From 46 for 7, it was somewhat of an achievement to move past the lowest IPL total of 58, but there was no getting back in the game.

Royal Challengers posted 70, the third-worst score in the IPL, and Royals completed the formalities for the loss of four wickets.

After Kohli was asked to bat, he said he would have done that anyway had he won the toss. What was to follow, however, wouldn’t have figured even in his worst nightmare. This was a pitch with something for the bowlers. There was some seam and bounce, and also a bit of swing. But considering the kind of shots Royal Challengers played, they would have been in trouble on almost any surface.

A couple of dots in the opening over were enough for Yogesh Takawale to charge out and heave at Stuart Binny, only to edge a gentle outswinger to the keeper.

Kohli walked in and took a wicket off his first ball. His call for a single following a push to off was so late Parthiv Patel, not the best of runners, had little chance of making it across.

Pravin Tambe finished with 4 for 20. (BCCI)

Yuvraj Singh had a nervy seven-ball stay. He was beaten a couple of times by Tim Southee, and almost yorked himself. Then Kane Richardson trotted in and sent down a 129.6 kph outswinger.

And Yuvraj promptly followed it and tickled it to second slip.

At 5 for 3, Royal Challengers had their best pair in the middle to combat the crisis. Instead, AB de Villiers played on first ball, attempting a half-hearted back-foot punch without having the width. Kohli needed someone to just last for a few overs. But that was asking for too much.

Three quiet overs later, Sachin Rana played on to Shane Watson in the same manner as de Villiers. Albie Morkel is used to coming in at the death to try and hit his big sixes, but even the Powerplay was not over yet this time. His second ball against spin, Morkel went for

a big six, and holed out off a googly from Pravin Tambe.

Kohli must have surely been fuming inside, but the very next ball, he calmly swatted Tambe for four through extra cover. First ball of the next over, he stepped out and lifted Southee over mid-on. That was about as close as Royal Challengers were coming to a fightback.

In Tambe’s next over, Kohli received a half-tracker and pulled it straight to midwicket.

Mitchell Starc and Ravi Rampaul helped their side move past 58, before Tambe wrapped up the innings to end with 4 for 20, his best IPL figures. The RCB pair bowled their hearts out, but by the time Starc reduced Royals to 36 for 3, they were already more than half way to their target.

Scores: Rajasthan Royals 71 for 4 (Starc 2-29) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 70 (Tambe 4-20, Richardson 218) by six wickets.

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Donald Sterling reportedly caught on tape making racist remarks to girlfriend Bleacher Reports - Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was allegedly caught on tape making racist comments to girlfriend V. Stiviano, some of which were about NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.

TMZ reports it obtained audio from a conversation between Sterling and Stiviano in which he confronts her about associating with black people in public. He was particularity outspoken about her posting Instagram photos with black friends.

“You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games.”

He went on to single out Johnson, who played his entire career for the rival Los Angeles Lakers and has gone on to become part of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ownership group: “Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”

TMZ caught up with Johnson to get his reaction, and aside from calling it a “shame,” he noted Sterling has a team with African American players currently trying to win him an NBA title: “It’s a shame that Donald Sterling feels that way about African-Americans. He has a team full of amazing AfricanAmerican basketball players that are working to bring a championship to Clippers fans. The Clippers also have a strong minority fan base.”

Johnson continued on Twitter Saturday: Earvin Magic Johnson —’ @MagicJohnson # TMZ reported this morning that Clippers owner Donald Sterling doesn’t want me or other AfricanAmericans to come to Clippers games. # And I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner. I feel sorry for my friends Coach Doc Rivers and Chris Paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about African Americans.

# LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA. The entire audio of the conversation between the Clippers owner and his girlfriend, who TMZ notes is black and Mexican, lasts over nine minutes. Reporters also reached out to Sterling and his representatives without receiving a response. The NBA released a statement, per Michael Bass, on the alleged comments, courtesy of Sam Amick of USA Today: Sam Amick —’ @sam_amick: # Bass: “We are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by TMZ. # “The remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time we have no further information.”

Vincent Bonsignore of The Los Angeles Daily News reports that the players held a meeting regarding the alleged c o m m e n t s . Vi n c e n t B o n s i g n o r e @ D a i l y N e w s Vi n n y : According to a source close to the situation, #Clippers players held a meeting late last night regarding Donald Sterling story. Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick reports Chris Bosh and James Jones’ thoughts on the issue: Ethan J. Skolnick —’ @EthanJSkolnick: Chris Bosh & James Jones both waiting 2 hear more. But if Sterling said what has been reported, they say league must take action.

Chris Bosh on Sterling: “I

From page 64 Okagbare from Nigeria, Americans Alexandria Anderson and English G a r d n e r, a l o n g w i t h Schillonie Calvert and Sherri-Ann Brooks.

American Justin Gatlin has promised only victory in Jamaica and he will start

fav o u r i t e t o b e a t a n improved-looking Nesta Carter, Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, American Walter Dix, who is just r e t u r n i n g f r o m i n j u r y, Daniel Bailey and German Martin Keller.

Curtis Mitchell, the 200m bronze medallist

Donald Sterling and his girlfriend V. Stiviano. (Getty Images) think the league will step in for sure. Because we are trying to grow the game globally. It’s not just L.A.” Sterling has had a history of race-related troubles. In 2009, he settled a housing discrimination lawsuit for $2.725 million in which he allegedly discriminated against minorities and families with children in buildings he owned. He was also sued by former Clippers GM Elgin Baylor, who filed a wrongful termination suit (which a jury ultimately rejected), claiming he was fired “on the basis of age and race,” per J.A. Adande of ESPN. Assuming the audio is completely authentic, Johnson is exactly on point when he calls it a shame. While it would be unacceptable for anybody to make such racist comments, hearing it from a person in a position of such power, who has several AfricanAmericans working for him, is unfortunate. By now, Sterling should understand that even perceived private conversations often go public. Whether this situation will cause any problems with his players or other members of the NBA circle is unclear, but the main reaction, as Johnson illustrated, is likely disappointment. It will be interesting to see whether Sterling releases any type of statement about the audio that was released and the comments he’s reportedly made. Aside from that, the remarks are just racist and ugly. (Tim Daniels, Featured Columnist)

Fraser-Pryce, Felix 200m... from the Moscow World Championships, will make his JII debut in the 200m. He has a personal best of 19.97 seconds and will line up against fellow American Isaiah Yo u n g , Jamaicans R a s h e e d D y e r, J a s o n Young and Julian Forte.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 27, 2014

GFA first division league Despite losing to Guyana in 1983, Windward Islands had Fruta Conquerors, Northern Rangers draw 0-0, Pele crush Beacon 6-0 a good Regional season Following up on his last article looking at the Windward Islands Regional cricket performances when they separated from the Combined Islands, Statistician Charwayne Walker highlights the scores from that period where Guyana defeated the Windward Islands in one of the matches played at Windsor Park, Dominica which resulted in Guyana winning by 108 runs. The Windwards also recorded notable wins too.

Guyana first innings 162 all out - Andrew Lyght 57, Tyrone Etwaroo 37, Skipper Clive Lloyd 28. Bowling for Windward Islands, Winston Davis took 6 for 54 from 18 overs, Norbert Phillip 2 for 33 from 8.4 overs.

Windward Islands first innings 258 all out - Lockhart Sebastien 88, Lance John 56, Skipper Norbert Phillip 30.

Bowling for Guyana, Clyde Butts grabbed 5 for 81 from 47.1 overs, Roger Harper 2 for 62 from 35 overs, Derek Kallicharran 2 for 60 from 22 overs.

Guyana second innings 334 all out - Faoud Bacchus 143, Tyrone Etwaroo 46, Milton Pydanna 34. Bowling for Windwards Islands, Winston Davis 4 for 78, Norbert Phillip 4 for 77.

Windward Islands second innings 130 all out Cecil Elwin 30, Wilfred Slack 20. Bowling for Guyana, Roger Harper took 5 for 33 from 24.1 overs, Leslaine Lambert 2 for 20 and Clyde Butts 2 for 30.

Against Barbados at Arnos Vale, St Vincent, the Windward Islands won by 4 wickets. Barbados first innings 243 all out - Telson Payne 107 not out, Desmond Haynes 27, George Reifer 26.

Bowling for Windward Islands, Norbert Phillip 3 for 49 from 17 overs, Winston

Davis 2 for 67 from 17 overs, Neil Williams 3 for 53 from 18 overs, Stanley Hinds 2 for 27 from 15 overs.

Windward Islands first innings 307 all out - Lance John 110, Shane Julien 41, Stanley Hinds 24. Bowling for Barbados Wayne Daniel took 4 for 73, Neil Phillips 3 for 53.

Barbados second innings 196 all out - Carlisle Best 37, Malcolm Marshall 36, Neil Phillips 25. Bowling for Windward Islands, Neil Williams 4 for 38, Norbert Phillip 3 for 39, Winston Davis 2 for 49.

Windward Islands second innings 134 for 6 Ignatius Caddette 39, Lockhart Sebastian 29, Lance John 21. Bowling for Barbados, Malcolm Marshall took 3for 58, Neil Phillips 2 for 35.

Versus the Leeward Islands, Warner Park, St. Kitts, Windward Islands won by 1 wicket.

Windward Islands first innings 256 all out - Shane Julien 68, Lockhart Sebastien 44, Ignatius Cadette 35, Neil Williams 32, Norbert Phillip 25.

Bowling for Leeward Islands, Andy Roberts took 5 for 52, Eldine (Soca) Baptiste 3 for 56.

Leeward Islands first innings 234 all out - Shirlon Williams 52, Victor Eddy 36, Anthony Merrick 24.

Bowling for Windwards, Winston Davis took 5 for 60, Thomas Kentish 3 for 32, Neil Williams 2 for 32.

Windward Islands second innings 182 all out Norbert Phillip 49, Stanley Hinds 20. Bowling for Leeward Islands, Andy Roberts took 8 for 62.

Leeward Islands second innings 203 all out - Luther Kelly 41, Richie Richardson 39, Victor Eddy 35, Shirlon Williams 34. Bowling for Windward Islands, Winston Davis took 4 for 57, Neil Williams 3 for 40, Thomas

Kentish 2 for 53.

Against Trinidad & Tobago at Queens Park Oval, Windward Islands won by 2 wickets. Trinidad & Tobago first innings 353 all out, Augustine Logie 138, Richard Gabriel 37, Theo Cuffy 36.

Bowling for Windward Islands, Winston Davis 3 for 98, Stanley Hinds 2 for 56, Norbert Phillip 2 for 79, Thomas Kentish 2 for 80.

Windward Islands first innings 223 all out - Stanley Hinds 49 not out, Norbert Phillip 45, Albert Texiera 39.

Bowling for Trinidad, Rangy Nanan 3 for 64, Ganesh Mahabir 3 for 90. Trinidad second innings 237 for 6 declared - Augustine Logie 79, Philip Simmons 75. Bowling for Windwards, Thomas Kentish 3 for 71, Winston Davis 2 for 57.

Windward Islands second innings 371 for 8 Lockhart Sebastien 122, Shane Julien 123, Lance John 42, Wilfred Slack 27. Bowling for Trinidad Kelvin Williams took 5 for 98, 3 for Rangy Nanan 142.

Facing Jamaica at Sabina Park, the match ended in a draw. Windward Islands first innings 441all out - Shane Julien 88, Lance John 80, Lockhart Sebastien 73, Wilfred Slack 66, Ne i l Wi l l i a m s 5 1 n o t o u t .

Bowling for Jamaica, Clement Thompson took 5 for 114 from 41 overs.

Jamaica first innings 440 all out Jeffrey Dujon 102, Colin Fletcher 99, Mark Neita 75. Bowling for Wi n d w a r d s Islands, Winston Davis took 5 for 98 from 48.5 overs, Thomas Kentish 2 for 67 from 38 overs.

Windward Islands second innings 211 for 6 Lockhart Sebastien 77, Shane Julien 50, Albert Texiera 48 not out. Bowling for Jamaica, Colin Gordon took 3 for 106 from 22 overs.

Founder and Director of the Academy.

The deal establishes an amicable working relationship between both parties to ensure the further development and promotion of Cricket – a game that has come to mean so much to Grenadians and by extension the Caribbean.

Digicel’s commitment to the development of young people and Junior’s passion

to give back to the game is both high-lighted by this timely partnership.

Apart from the sponsorship of the Academy, Digicel will be partnering with Junior Murray on a number of endeavors, including his annual fun-day in January 2015 and his Celebrity Cricket Match in February 2015.

The Junior Murray Cricket Academy targets young cricket enthusiasts between the ages of 5-15 with its main location (at present) the Grenada National Stadium.

Digicel sponsors Junior Murray Academy SpiceIslander - St George’s, Grenada - The Junior Murray Cricket Academy has added another sponsor to the list of corporate entities backing the initiative of the Former West Indies Wicketkeeper/ Batsman.

On Thursday April 24th a one-year deal was signed by Mr. Kirk Seetahal the Marketing Manager of Digicel and Junior Murray, the

Fruta Conquerors drew with Northern Rangers 0-0 in the first game, while Pele hammered Beacons 6-0 in the second encounter when the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) first division league continued at the Conquerors ground with double header.

Omallo Williams open the scoring for Pele in the 15th minute as Pele enjoyed a 1-0 lead at half time.

Williams stretched the advantage in the 60th minute

before Deon Alfred netted Pele’s third in the 65th. Leon Frederick found the back of the net in 68th while Alfred scored his second in 73rd.

Jamal Cozier completed the scoring when he slotted home in 78th. Meanwhile, BK Western Tigers overcame Black Pearl 8-1 when the U-17 league continued on Friday at the said venue. Shane Morris gave Tigers an early lead in the 2nd minute before Malachi Adonis doubled the

advantage in the 10th. Dornel Jackson scored an own goal in the 16th minute to hand Tigers a 3-0 lead. Andel Smith slotted home in the 19th while Dakshawn Matthews netted in the 30th and 37th. Adonis scored his second in the 38th to give Tigers a 7-1 lead at the interval.

Vickram Chandranand pulled one back for Black Pearl in the 56th minute before Matthews completed his hat trick in the 85th minute.

Fraser-Pryce, Felix 200m clash to highlight JII meet Jamaica Observer - THE 11th staging of the Jamaica International Invitational (JII) track and field meet will be glittering with a plethora of Olympic and World Championships stars, which will be highlighted by the clash between Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Allison Felix over 200 metres.

That eagerly anticipated clash did not materialise at the 2013 World Championships after Felix, three times World Championships 200m champion, pulled up injured when Fraser-Pryce was in full flight and well on her way to victory.

Now fans will get a chance to witness it live at the National Stadium on Saturday, May 3.

Don Quarrie, the meet director and athlete liaison, said he expects a lot of worldleading times and both FraserPryce and Felix had no problem being pitted against each other this early in the season.

“When I first explained to them that you guys may have to run together, they said they don’t mind,” said Quarrie.

“Allison was here last year and was not very happy with her performance in the 100m and we will see a very outstanding race between the two,” Quarrie noted.

That race will also have Americans Kimberlyn Duncan and Tiffany Townsend, along with Jamaican Samantha HenryRobinson.

The JII that was established in 2004, has a budget of US$1.35m and based on the quality that will be on display this year, Quarrie believes it could be the best ever.

“I think this year we are fortunate to have one of the best line-ups in many of the events. We have a lot of medal winners from both the

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

Olympics and the World Championships outdoors and indoors. We have a lot of top 10 ranked athletes competing and I am sure that the performances will produce some world best times,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We are looking forward to such competitiveness that we want our youngsters to look at it in a fashion of one day, I want to compete at the Jamaica Invitational. That’s what it’s all about. We are not just putting on a show just because it covers excitement for spectators. It covers tourism, it covers motivation and overall, it covers development in Jamaica.”

Apart from Fraser-Pryce and Felix, there will be Olympic champions Sanya Richards-Ross of the USA, Christine Ohuruogu of Great Britain, Francene McCorory, McLeshawn Merrit, Lequelin Santos of Dominican Republic, Justin Gatlin, Walter Dix, Antonio McKay, Blessing Okagbare from Nigeria, Americans Alexandria Anderson, English Gardner, Brianna Rollins and Curtis Mitchell to take on the might of Jamaica.

The women’s pole vault event has been added to the meet that is expected to start at 5:40 pm and last four hours in a tight, efficient and exciting schedule.

But in terms of quality,

Quarrie, the 1976 Olympic 200m champion, believes the women’s 400m is the race that has everything.

“This race has the Olympic champion in 2012; the world champion in 2013; the World Indoor champion in 2014; two finalists from the Olympics and two finalists from the World Championships.

“In other words, it will be very difficult to decide where you going to put some of these people as far as the lanes are concerned,” he added.

That race will have Olympic champions Sanya Richards-Ross of the US and Ohuruogu. McCorory, the newly crowned World Indoor champion over 400m, will make her debut in Kingston.

McCorory is an Olympic gold medallist in the 4x400m and the American indoor record holder in the 400m.

Jamaica will be represented by the emerging Stephanie McPherson, veteran Novlene WilliamsMills, Rosemarie Whyte, and Kaliese Spencer.

“This field is going to be a stellar field. I just can’t wait to see the race,” said Quarrie.

The women’s 100m will be contested by Jamaica’s Olympic silver medallist Kerron Stewart and she will take on the powerful Blessing

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

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Man Utd ease to win under Giggs Kings XI Punjab keep winning

Wayne Rooney exults after scoring one of his double. (Reuters) BBC Sport - Manchester United manager Ryan Giggs enjoyed a winning start to his Old Trafford reign as goals from Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata saw off Norwich.

Giggs, in temporary charge after the sacking of David Moyes, watched Rooney score a penalty and curling effort either side of half-time. Substitute Mata added a third and headed in from six yards to keep United in the hunt for a Europa League spot.

Piyush Chawla picked up 3 for 19. (BCCI)

Ryan Giggs

Defeat leaves Norwich one point above the Premier League relegation zone.

The Canaries arrived in Manchester at the end of a week in which United underwent a second managerial change in 10 months, with Giggs - the club’s most decorated player - asked to take charge by United’s vice chairman Ed Woodward.

The 40-year-old promised a return to the traditional Manchester United style of play ahead of kick off, with “passion, speed, tempo, bravery and imagination,” to the fore.

A rapturous welcome greeted him as he emerged from the tunnel and with 962 appearances for the club, Giggs wrote United is “the rock his life had been built upon” in his programme notes.

A ‘good luck’ card from United mascot ‘Fred the Red’ was also on offer for the Welshman and after a tepid opening half an hour, his side cruised to just an eighth home win of the campaign.

United have now claimed 47 of their 60 points against sides in the bottom half this season and despite Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy smartly saving from Danny Welbeck and Antonio

Valencia, Neil Adams’ side could not kill the feel-good factor at Old Trafford.

Norwich’s fifth successive defeat, an unwanted stat they last achieved when relegated in 2005, looked a formality when Rooney took centre stage twice in seven minutes.

The England striker United’s talisman without the injured Robin van Persie - sent Ruddy the wrong way from the spot after Steven Whittaker had clumsily tangled with Welbeck.

Then, when the teams re-emerged from the interval, his 17th league goal of the season arrived as he fired in off the post from 25 yards despite slipping when shooting right footed.

Welbeck - one of six changes made by Giggs from the 2-0 defeat at Everton - drilled a smart half volley forcing Ruddy to again save, but Mata replaced him from the bench to end the contest. The record signing - made by Moyes - volleyed in Phil

Jones’s cross six yards out, seconds after Rooney had been denied a hat-trick by another Ruddy save.

Playing in a central role, the Spaniard again found himself in the box to touch home Valencia’s cross-shot for his fifth United goal after good work down the left by Patrice Evra.

Norwich, for all their early bravery at the back, had capitulated, but went close to a consolation when substitute Johan Elmander fired wide and Martin Olsson’s deflected effort crashed against the crossbar.

Th e C a n a r i e s f a c e Arsenal and Chelsea in their run-in and will be in the bottom three on Sunday afternoon if there is a winner in the midday kickoff between Sunderland and Cardiff.

United, who should have added a fifth when Javier Hernandez missed a one-on-one opportunity in injury time, sit six points behind sixth-placed Tottenham.

ESPNcricinfo - Glenn Maxwell and David Miller failed for the first time this season, but that didn’t prevent Kings XI Punjab from extending their winning streak to four this year, and seven overall. Sandeep Sharma had the new ball curling around, Akshar Patel showed why he is the most economical left-arm spinner in the tournament, and Rishi Dhawan also kept it tight before the spearhead Mitchell Johnson finished off the job.

It wasn’t a vintage game of Twenty20 cricket, as none of the batsmen could time the ball on a surface on which the heavyweight batting line-up of Royal Challengers Bangalore had been shot out for 70 in the afternoon.

On a green track with plenty of cracks in it, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir had hoped it would be easier to bat under lights, but his decision to bowl first backfired as the ball jagged around after sunset. Set a seemingly straightforward target of 133, Knight Riders lost wickets regularly and, though Suryakumar Yadav briefly threatened to take the game close, wound up well short.

The pillars of the Knight Riders squad when the teams were revamped in 2011, Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan, continued to have miserable seasons. Gambhir pushed himself down to No. 3 after three zeroes in a row, but nearly had a golden duck again, only for Sandeep to put down a difficult, diving return catch. There was further relief for Gambhir as he got a single to fine leg to score his first run of the tournament, but minutes later he handed a catch to short extra cover.

If Gambhir’s IPL troubles have been confined to this season, Yusuf has struggled to recapture the heights of the first cycle of the tournament. Once again he looked woefully out of touch, lbw for 3 after being bringing his bat down late on a Rishi Dhawan delivery. He rarely bowls these days and isn’t the quickest in the field either, all of which combine to put his place under serious scrutiny.

Knight Riders openers couldn’t get any momentum against Sandeep and Johnson, with both dismissed for single-digit scores.

Chris Lynn couldn’t recreate the form that yielded a quickfire 45 in his first game of the season earlier this week, and Knight Riders’ chances were nearly extinguished once Robin Uthappa was run out by a precise throw from

Sunil Narine ran through the lower order. (BCCI) George Bailey at cover in the 13th over.

Knight Riders were 62 for 6, looking for a miracle. It didn’t arrive.

They wouldn’t have expected to be in that position after the performance of their bowlers. Knight Riders’ decision to bring in Piyush Chawla for Vinay Kumar, who bowled them to a last-over win two days earlier, paid off as Chawla bamboozled Virender Sehwag with a googly, and benefited from the long boundaries in Abu Dhabi by getting big guns Miller and Bailey caught in the deep.

Chawla’s intervention came after some hostile new-ball bowling from Morne Morkel, who tormented the Indians in the top order with his 145-plus kmph deliveries, and got the prized scalp of Maxwell with a legstump yorker. Kings XI collapsed from 101 for 4 to 132 for 9 against the wiles of Chawla and Sunil Narine, who took three in an over. It didn’t matter, though, as Knight Riders’ batting woes continued.

Scores: Kings XI Punjab 132 for 9 (Sehwag 37, Chawla 3-19, Narine 3-24) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 109 (Suryakumar 34, Sandeep 3-21) by 23 runs.

Page 66

Kaieteur News

GCA’s Carib Beer t20 cricket

Chanderpaul hits unbeaten 64 for GYO, veteran Clyde Butts confuse batsmen

Sunday April 27, 2014

Non Pareil tennis tourney concludes

Off-spinner Clyde Butts confused National left-hander Chanderpaul Hemraj before he skied one into the air to be caught.

The winners from the Non Pareil tennis tournament display their prizes. From left are Tandy Primo, Denise Barrington, Charles Adams, Kizzy Richmond, Vimal Ramnarain and Imran Alli (back row).In the front row are Isaiah Farley and Adesh Khayyam.

By Sean Devers The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Carib Beer T20 first division cricket competition continued yesterday with three matches at two venues and GNIC, TSC and Police were in winner’s row despite a well crafted unbeaten 64 from West Indies under-19 O p e n e r Ta g e n a r i n e Chanderpaul for Everest against GNIC in the feature game.

The 17-year-old First Class left-hander stroked five fours and a six as he carried his bat right through the Everest 20 overs to register the days’ only fifty but his undefeated knock failed to give the home team victory as they fell 15 short of GNIC’s 136-7.

The 56-year-old Clyde Butts stifled Everest batsmen with excellent flight and subtle variations and bowled slower than any of the division one spin pretenders.

The present Chairman of West Indies selection panel, played seven Tests for the Regional side in the 1980s and total confused the young batsmen as he tossed the ball tantalizingly to the leaden footed batsmen as he finished with 2-16 from fours overs despite three scoring shots off his bowling

being two under-edged sweeps and a boundary that went right through the boundary rider.

His two wickets included First-Class batsman Chanderpaul Hemraj (14), while he bemused the young Chanderpaul with his lack of pace on the ball as the opener used the pace of the other bowlers to his advantage.

Butts got good support from his son Collis Butts, who had 2-21, on a good track for batting in sweltering heat.

Chanderpaul lofted leftarm spinner Leroy Bristol for an effortless six and stroked him for four in Bristol’s next over after being dropped at cover off the previous delivery. The teenage son of prolific Test batsman Shiv Chanderpaul then whipped pacer Roy Simon for back-to back fours but in the end his effort was too little too late as he got no support from the other end as Everest could only reach 121-7.

GNIC were led to their total thanks to a late rally from Dexter Solomon who hit two fours and a six before falling in the final over for 40. He was supported by Ronole Bourne (19) and Ejaz Mohamed (15) after National opener Assad Fudadin was bowled for a duck in the first over by Troy

Gonsalves who took 3-14.

In the first game at Everest, Police reached 1437 and restricted GYO to 1226 when their 20 overs expired. Ricardo Adams led the fight with a blazing 26ball 41 decorated with five sixes. Jermaine Reynolds (31) and Rawle Browne (21) chipped in as Anthony Ifill, who got rid of the openers, captured 2-14 and Wazeer Mohamed took 2-26.

GYO lost their way after Abdol Raheem (23) and Chris Deonarine (30), who put together 53 for the first wicket, were separated as only former West Indies under-19 left-hander Kwame Crosse (17) of the other batsmen reached 15.

Troy Benn (2-17) was most successful Police bowler.

In the other game which was played at the GDF ground, the Soldiers reached 120-9 before TSC responded with 122-5 to win by five wickets with seven balls to spare.

Randy Lindore (23) and Steven Harris (20) added 40 for the sixth wicket, while Terry Frazer made 19 for the Army as Azim Azeez took 28. TSC were spearheaded to victory by 26 from Ryan Hemraj, 21 from Sunil Singh and 17 from Charwayne McPherson. Harris took 217 for GDF.

Non Pareil Tennis Club second annual tournament concluded recently at the Racquet Centre, Woolford Avenue. Members competed in doubles and male and female singles.

The club seeks to

promote the sport and develop well rounded individuals and players to represent Guyana. Speaking at the closing ceremony, president of the club Tandy Primo congratulated the winners and said their

victories was a result of their hard preparation. The Executive of the club thanked Coach Leyland Leacock for his hard work and dedication and Trophy Stall, Bourda Market for their support.

Sri Lanka name Marvan Atapattu as interim coach Marvan Atapattu (Getty Images)

BBC Sport - Sri Lanka have named their former captain Marvan Atapattu as interim head coach following the resignation of Paul Farbrace earlier this week.

The 43-year-old will take charge of the tour of England and Scotland, which starts

next month, and the home series against South Africa in July.

Former Test spinner and current fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage will join Atapattu’s staff as assistant coach.

Farbrace quit Sri Lanka to become new England

coach Peter Moores’ deputy.

Batsman and occasional leg-spinner Atapattu played 90 Tests for Sri Lanka between 1990 and 2007, scoring 5,502 runs at an average of 39.02.

He played in 268 one-day internationals, averaging 37.57.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 67

Major League Baseball Coach to conduct final days of baseball camp in Georgetown

Youngsters participate in some of the recent Baseball camps that were held around the country.

The Guyana Baseball League in association with E-Networks Inc., Sterling P roducts Limited, Fly Jamaica Airways and Nobel House Sea Foods has conducted successful Easter baseball camps in New Amsterdam Berbice, Cornelia Ida and Tuschen West Demerara, where over 200 children have participated thus far, with lessons and games for all ages.

The development of

the game in Guyana has caught the attention of the baseball world and Mr. Elias Sosa a former major League Pitcher with a distinguished career, who is now Latin America Coordinator for Major League Baseball, will visit and conduct coaching sessions for camp participants at the Georgetown Cricket Club, Georgetown on the 2nd ,3rd and 4th May. MLBI works to develop baseball in Latin

America; they send coaches to work with Baseball Federations. They also conduct seminars for coaches covering topics including physical development, baseball instruction, player motivation, character development, teamwork and sports medicine.

Their programme includes classroom instruction followed by practical application on the field.

Le Belle Hotel and Bar dominoes to start on Wednesday La Belle Hotel and bar dominoes tournament is set to commence on Wednesday at their venue in Norton Street. The competition will continue on Friday and Saturday and conclude on Sunday at the said location.

It will be played on a two in one out 6-game basis.

Entrance fee is $4,000, however the first 18 teams that enter before 19:30hrs on Wednesday will not be charged. Only one re-entry will be permitted.

The winning team will take home a trophy and $80,000, the runner up $40,000 and third place $20,000. The player that shares the first love will collect $3,000 and the most valuable player in the finals will pocket a cell phone and $3,000. Prizes are subject to change.

For more information teams can contact secretary

Secretary of La Belle Hotel and Bar Seizana Elliot (left) presents the cheque to Mark Wiltshire. of the Georgetown Dominoes Association Mark Wiltshire on 665-5855.

Meanwhile, on Friday last at La Belle Hotel and bar, secretary of the entity Seizana Elliot presented the

sponsorship cheque to Wiltshire. She said that they are pleased to be associated with dominoes and wished the teams well while Wiltshire thanked her for the support.

Attendees can register by calling 657-STAR or o n F a c e b o o k : https://www.facebook.com /ENetworksbaseballstar and at the ground on camp mornings.

All equipment will be provided by the GBL and participants are asked to dress appropriately for

sporting activity and in the interest of preserving the environment to bring reusable water bottles. Camp begins at 9:00AM and ends at 4:30PM. There are no fees.

GBL programmes are designed to engage the imagination of the youth of today. Our energetic staff implements a unique camp

atmosphere, which allows for safety, fun, and skills development. All GBL camps will focus on helping the kids learn the rules of the game while working on sportsmanship.

All of the E-Networks Baseball Star contenders will be attending the camps.

t r o Sp

Distressed associations outfoxed by Matthias - Congress to reconvene in 45 days P.61

Alfred King of the Referees’ body is interviewed by the media following the aborted GFF Congress yesterday.

GCA’s Carib Beer t20 cricket

Chanderpaul hits unbeaten 64 for GYO, veteran Clyde Butts confuse batsmen P.66

Tagenarine Chanderpaul sweeps as wicketkeeper Dexter Solomon and fellow First-Class batsman Chanderpaul Hemraj watch on.

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