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April 29, 2012

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Time now to negotiate for Supplementary Funds Pg 12

…Budget cuts meant to send strong message to Govt. - David Granger The Danger of speeding on turns

This vehicle was coming from Linden Town Day when it lost control on the turn at Supply, East Bank Demerara.

Pg 17

Illegal mining high on GGMC management retreat agenda Pg 10

Sale of 20% share …

Pg 39

Pg 11

Chinese buyer arrived at Dependable Prison US$30M price after inspecting Officer, Henry Adams, GT&T's books - Luncheon is a 'Special Person’

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Sunday April 29, 2012

Think Less Do More How many times have you found yourself procrastinating, when the job would only take you a few moments, minutes or hours to complete if you attended to it? Do you find yourself thinking a lot and as a result end up doing less? If so, then read on…

One of our greatest assets are our thoughts. How much do we use that asset throughout the day without even ‘thinking’ about it! Do we stop to count? Imagine, if each time we created a thought, we were spending dollars or dinars (you can decide the amount per thought) – we would certainly stop to think about what we were thinking, right!

Yes, imagine a time, or a world, in which we only think that, which we want to give life to. Imagine also, if everything we thought of came to life – it would be pretty embarrassing at times wouldn’t it?

Just because people can’t see your negative thoughts doesn’t mean you get away with the crime.

Negative thoughts drain the mind and body of energy.

Negativity is a hole that creates a leakage, draining the soul of its invaluable power. Power that took time to accumulate! We wonder why, by the end of the day we are so pooped! Could it be that we allow our minds too long a leash?

There is a story of two monks who were walking from one village to another. Their vow of chastity also meant they were not allowed to touch any woman. Along the way they saw a young woman afraid to cross the river alone. The elder monk picked her up gently and walked across with her.

After dropping her on the other side, the two monks continued their journey in silence. After about two hours the younger monk could no longer conceal his surprise and asked the older monk why he had broken the vow and touched a woman. To which the older monk replied.

“I picked her up two hours ago and dropped her there and then, but it seems you have been carrying her all this time!”

Waste thoughts are no less. Repetitive thinking also depletes the soul of energy. Ask yourself, why you would revisit a thought recurrently? Primarily because you are unsure, or take it a step further, maybe because you are insecure. It may not be a bad thing to re-check a thought once or twice for sake of clarity, but if you are constantly unclear, always confused, and riddled with self-doubt then you need to take a deeper look at yourself. Learn to decide, take risks and then flow (continued on page 51)

Kaieteur News

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There is some concern over engineering services for Amaila road An official close to the Amaila Falls Road Project is worried that SRKN’Gineering headed by Dr. R a v i N a r a i n e i s incapable of designing the remaining portion of the road leading to Amaila Falls.

The official alleged that SRKN’Gineering failed to identify the flaws in the road designs as the consultant providing ‘Supervisory Oversight’ of the Amaila Falls Road that was being constructed by Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall, of Synergy Holdings Inc. Synergy had won a US$15.4M contract.

According to Government’s Engineer, Walter Willis, the Ministry of Public Works is rejecting the contention that SRKN’Gineering did not identify that flaw. He said that the engineering company did and told Sithe Global, which in turn sought a second opinion from the Trinidadian company.

The Ministry of Public Works had nothing to do with

the road design which was found to be flawed by a Trinidadian Company, BBFL Caribbean Limited, and not SRKN Gineering.

Willis noted that Motilall was responsible for designing sections one to five of the road.

His failure to design section six has landed the parties in court. The contract was for a design and build operation. This meant that Motilall was to design and build the road.

A source pointed out that from sections one to four, the roadway already existed and all Motilall had to do was to widen the stretch with other modifications.

According to the source, if SRKN’Gineering with the responsibility for ‘Supervisory Oversight’ was knowledgeable of designing roads in rough terrains, the errors would have been identified even before any stone was turned on the road.

The official has alleged that it was Sithe Global’s

Guyanese medical student accused of killing Cuban A 27-year-old Guyanese studying in Cuba has been accused of killing a national there, while also severely injuring the Cuban’s wife.

Contacted yesterday, Public Service Minister Jennifer We s t f o r d confirmed that the government has received the initial reports and is awaiting an official report from the Cubans.

M i n i s t er Westford, whose Ministry overseas scholarship students, said she could not confirm details of what transpired.

“We are not certain about

whom, what or why,” she told Kaieteur News in an invited comment.

At press time, Minister Westford said Guyanese authorities were trying to ascertain the identity of the suspect.

This proved difficult because there are two students with the same name studying in Cuba.

Dr. Ravi Naraine officials, who were displeased with the road designs and progress of the work that resulted in BBFL coming to Guyana to inspect the site.

It was noted that BBFL made many recommendations on the flaws but the most alarming one was the steepness in the road. The

foreign company suggested that the road be built with about 6.5 percent steepness and not the 20 percent according to the designs on hand.

“If the road were to be built with 20 percent steepness only certain heavy duty machinery such as excavators would be able to traverse it. Other vehicles would slide during the rainy conditions which prevail almost year round,” the source pointed out.

Soliciting a comment from SRKN’Gineering was impossible since Willis declared that Dr. Naraine is not permitted to speak to the media.

SRKN’Gineering has been retained to provide oversight for the project. His $63M contract remains in force and has been extended to September.

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KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8491, 225-8458, 225-8465 Fax: 225-8473 or 226-8210

Editorial

The National Interest In the wake of the end of the 2012 budget process in parliament - which saw the Opposition make unprecedented and decisive cuts in the government’s proposed spending President Ramotar made an address to the nation.

In critiquing the Opposition’s actions that he deemed to be ‘motivated by a desire...to score cheap political points”, the President made two very important commitments to the citizens of this country, including specifically, the Opposition.

He promised that his government actions would be defined by the “national interest” and secondly, that he was committed to “dialogue”.

As we have emphasised before in this space, this newspaper can envisage no other lodestone to guide our ship of state than the “national interest”. While it may appear to be self evident, this stricture is more often ‘honoured in the breach than in the observance’, as politicians pander to the gallery to ‘score cheap political points.’

Whether they like it or not, the people of this country, last November, converted politics in the foreseeable future into a ‘three legged race’.

One leg of the opposition that controls parliament has been tied to one leg of the government that controls the executive. The race to develop this country, to which all the parties give at least lip service, will only be run successfully if the two participants cooperate.

The Opposition, unfortunately, has announced explicitly that it is adopting a partisan posture in its actions. Mr. David Granger, leader of APNU and of the Opposition in parliament, has declared, “We will continue to work for our supporters because we will use the leverage we have gained this evening to go back to the government and continue talks until we get what we want.”

This will not do: while on the surface it might appear ‘reasonable’ for political leaders to try to satisfy their constituents, the total is not always the sum of its parts. At any particular time, actions for the long term national interest might have to be taken against a particular community’s interest in the short term. The ‘national interest’, a true patriotic leader will have to explain to his ‘supporters’, by definition eventually redounds to the benefit of all communities and constituencies.

And in this spirit, the President’s second commitment is crucial: to have ‘dialogue’ with the people and Opposition.

We have noticed, on the other hand the opposition’s insistence on using the term ‘negotiation’ to describe their engagements with the government. There are crucial distinctions between ‘dialogue’ and ‘negotiations’ or even ‘discussions’.

As one facilitator of dialogues pointed out, “”Dialogue means we sit and talk with each other, especially those with whom we may think we have the greatest differences.

However, talking together all too often means debating, discussing with a view to convincing the other, arguing for our point of view, examining pro’s and con’s. In dialogue, the intention is not to advocate but to inquire; not to argue but to explore; not to convince but to discover.”

To have a dialogue however, one must be able to clearly articulate the principles that underlie ones actions: not being able to do so leads to the not unreasonable suspicions that one’s actions are ad hoc at best or opportunistic at worse.

Dialogue will not be possible in such circumstances.

From this standpoint we have been disappointed by the publicly accepted inability of the Opposition to arrive at a coherent, consistent position for their cuts on the budget. Without such agreement on a common platform, there is always the danger – which became the unfortunate reality on several instances – of the opposition parties ‘outbidding’ each other.

In such a scenario it is not even a ‘three legged race’ that our political leaders are trying to run, but a ‘four-legged’ one in which the two putatively ‘united’ opposition parties are pulling in opposite directions.

Guyana is even more guaranteed to lose in such a race for our development. We exhort the Opposition to rise to the challenge of the President and be prepared to dialogue for the national interest.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Send your letters to Kaieteur News 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown or email us kaieteurnews@yahoo.com

President Donald Ramotar’s address to the nation inflamed rather than calmed passions DEAR EDITOR, In a scene and tone that can only be called Jagdeoesque, his Excellency the President Donald Ramotar addressed the nation on Friday night and inflamed rather than calmed passions.

I continue to be amazed that this chief executive continues to use his bully pulpit to divide rather than bring the nation together. I am flabbergasted that the PPPC administration continues to operate as if they were given a clear mandate by the people at the last elections.

This was a perfect opportunity for Mr. Ramotar to address the nation and explain to the populace that what they had just witnessed was democracy in action. It was not a perfect process,

and that it was akin to watching Black-Pudding being made (the process was bloody and messy) but hopefully the end product would be palatable to the nation; that his party did not get everything they wanted but the peoples representatives had spoken.

The name calling and unwarranted veiled threats did not advance the cause of the minority PPPC government; in my opinion it further isolated that group from the mainstream electorate that voted for change. It was this same crass political prostitution that caused the PPPC their majority in the legislature; it was this same “all or nothing” attitude that the President now tries to pin on the

Parliamentary majority that caused the PPPC to lose the last election.

After almost 20 years of continuous abuse of the parliamentary system and the budgetary process, the people of Guyana was this year treated to a civics lesson in government and parliamentary procedure. We saw members debating and seeking clarity on budgetary allocations, we saw the rebuttals and then we saw the people’s representatives vote to spend our money in the best interest of all of the people.

That the President would see that as a negative process, just because Dr Singh’s budget was not rubber stamped by the majority, speaks to his and

the PPPC’s brand of democracy.

Where was the intransigence, where was the lack of patriotism, where was the destruction of workers right? History shows that it was the PPPC that was intransigent and foolhardy when upon gaining the Presidency, they did not engage in any meaningful power sharing outreach to the groups that gained the majority of the votes.

It was the intransigence of the PPPC government to continue to enable GINA and the NCN with taxpayer dollars in spite of the calls by the political opposition and international elections observers, that these organs of the state were horribly Continued on page 6

Sunday April 29, 2012

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Opposition’s collateral damage unacceptable

DEAR EDITOR, The move by the opposition to trim fat from the proposed budget and hold the government more accountable is laudable but it should not be at the expense of peoples’ bread and butter.

The latter is exactly what has happened in the final passage of the budget – many would be on the roti and soup line.

Dubbing it “collateral damage” does want to hear “we are sorry; your getting fired was not our intention; it is collateral damage”. They want to retain their job and hear they will get raises so they can enjoy a fair standard of living similar to that Ramjattan, Granger and other members of parliament are experiencing. The move by the opposition to put people out of work (collateral damage) is a disappointment from those who should have known better. This action must be condemned as unacceptable.

The adoption of the budget should have been guided by the principle of

inclusivity and national consensus and not just be controlled by the two opposition parties that control the majority in parliament. The opposition cannot simply leave out the PPP from the being at the table. In so acting, they have shown they are no different from the PPP that dominated parliament between 1992 and 2011.

President Donald Ramotar is a reasonable man.

He stated at the outset he would be willing to work with the opposition to make life better for all. Donald gave in to several opposition proposals and said he thought he had reached a consensus.

But the opposition appears unwilling to give in to key requests from Donald or back tracked.

The opposition should have given Donald a chance on this being his first budget and if he had failed to adhere to their concerns, they could have rebuked him by disallowing his next request.

Also, with their controlling

majority, the opposition could have held the government accountable for their expenditures monitoring how money is spent. Instead, the AFC and PNC (APNU) went all out to teach Donald a lesson who is really boss telling him to go down to his knees and beg. Such action does not advance the politics of our divided nation. It is politically immature.

What is happening in the opposition is a mutual fear between the AFC and PNC that each would make voter gains at the expense of the other. So they are playing politics with one another and the workers have become collateral victims as Ramjattan put it. PNC has nothing to worry about its support as it has consolidated its base. It is the AFC that has to worry as most of its supporters are defectors from the PPP. In the end, the PPP may take AFC votes if the AFC is pursued as a nuisance and a hindrance to progress and if the AFC is seen as not pursuing policies Continued on page 6

DEAR EDITOR, In my last Sunday column, I quoted a Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) senior staff as saying on a GRA television programme that property tax for 2010 formed three percent of total taxes.

Christopher Ram called me the next day and told me the actual figure from published data is 1.4 percent.

So these GRA people go in the media and deliberately deceive the public. Ram was reading from a document which that GRA person had to have access to How frightening it is that property tax is only 1.4 percent of all revenues collected. This is incredibly crazy. When you look at just ten billionaires in this country, the prodigious wealth and the personal assets they have (the family jewelry must equal that of the British throne and the late Elizabeth Taylor’s), then property tax cannot be 1.4 percent of total revenue for 1010. This is insanity of the worst kind.

Just to pay property tax on one luxurious vehicle would be more than a whopping sum. Why do I have to pay property tax as a salried employee (my wife included) and Guyana’s billionaires are not being asked by the GRA to do the same or the GRA is not sending them the forms

as Kurshid Sattaur did in my case.

Finally, and I will elaborate in one of my columns shortly, one of the most uncaring and cruel governments in the Third World, is protesting impending unemployment of some of its supporters in a propaganda unit named NCN. And guess who are with them?

Rohee and Irfan Ally? My question to Rohee -can you tell us how many properties you have and from whom

were they bought and why your American visa was suspended? For Ally, can you describe to the NCN workers the house you are building at Leonara with swimming pool and pool house?

Can you tell the NCN workers from whom the property was bought?

Maybe as a public figure in politics you could also relate to them how your income is shaped that allowed for such expenditure Frederick Kissoon

The property tax intake is lower than I thought

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Kaieteur M@ilbox This new-found solidarity with the workers is nothing but Gov’t. shedding crocodile tears DEAR EDITOR, One of the objectives of the recent Budget cuts was to remove the inequities in earning among the specially paid Government contract employees who earn close to and over $1,000,000 per month and those in the regular Public Service who earn under $100,000. Another objective of the cuts was to force much needed reforms at entities such as the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) in the interest of the people of Guyana.

The Alliance for Change (AFC)is concerned about all state employees and as it relates to NCN, we are satisfied, based on a letter by Mohamed “Fuzzy” Sattaur (March 19 2012), that NCN is financially robust, earning 90 percent of its income from advertising and therefore, there is no need to cut any jobs there.

In this context, we note the sudden concern and hysterics of the PPP over the cuts to NCN and the Government Information Agency (GINA), and more specifically the 38 jobs they say will be lost at GINA. This newfound solidarity with the working people of Guyana by the PPP is however, nothing but the shedding of crocodile tears since there was no concern for: 1. The 62 workers dismissed by RUSAL. 2. The 77 National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) dismissed in Linden.

3. When Government contractors doing work in Linden brought in their own

labourers instead of employing Lindeners.

4. The high cost of crossing the Berbice Bridge that affects persons from Region 5 from receiving employment in Region 6 and vice versa, nor for the increased costs to the ordinary workers in Region 5 in sending their children to school in New Amsterdam.

5. For the employees of CNS Channel 6 during its suspension by the Government.

6. When the Government summarily dismissed Freddie Kissoon (a contract worker, by the way) and hounded his wife out of her job, knowing fully well their only child is still at the University of Guyana.

7. Over the Government’s removal of the subvention to Critchlow Labour College that resulted in the loss of jobs and ordinary Guyanese being denied an opportunity to further their education.

8. For the three New Building Society (NBS) managers who were fired based on trumped up charges because they were only doing their jobs too well.

9. The staff of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) which was unlawfully “dissolved”

by the Government.

10. The four wrongfully imprisoned treason accused (including Mark Benschop) and their dependants, many of whom were young children.

11. The 14 unlawfully dismissed Supreme Court workers.

12. The many workers who remain unpaid by the Government for their services to CARIFESTA 2008.

13.

When the Government cut its ads from Stabroek News affecting employment there. Nor for when that cut was extended to the rest of the private media stymieing their ability to expand and provide more employment.

14. For the nine Enmore sugar workers who were summarily dismissed for theft without determining which of them may have actually been responsible.

15. Over the fact that the Government buys computers through “Barber Shop” type deals instead of buying those that are locally assembled, which would have created job opportunities for our young people.

16. The fact that because Continued on page 7

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Sunday April 29, 2012

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Is President Ramotar comfortable NCN holds the nation to ransom DEAR EDITOR, own.

Not once was the with the man’s mediocrity?

NCN on Thursday To see the CEO along with opposition’s position of DEAR EDITOR, The continuous clownish antics of the Home Affairs Minister leaves me wondering whether President Ramotar is comfortable with mediocrity in the manner of his predecessor.

I am referring to his claim that former police commissioner Winston Felix is in possession of a radio communications set belonging to the police force.

Having made that allegation the minister should be called upon to explain what actions if any he has taken to recover said equipment.

Since he seems to have knowledge of an irregularity then he would be equally guilty if official action has not been initiated to secure such an important piece of equipment.

In my unlearned opinion the first thing that should have been done by the minister after Felix’s retirement and while still on his professed learning curve was to ascertain from the succeeding commissioner the whereabouts of any radio allocated to Felix during his tenure as a senior police officer. I think that it is instructive that the minister did not direct the police to obtain a warrant to search the former commissioner’s home and to date has apparently not done so.

This is alarming in view of the proven propensity on the part of some government

ministers to embarrass others even if they are themselves embarrassed in the process.

If we examine Felix’s claim that he overheard a police transmission and place it alongside personal experience we might inform ourselves of many times that we have we heard police transmissions from patrol vehicles and even in police stations.

When criminals are a jump ahead of the police the usual suspects for the passing of information are the hard working police ranks.

No one seems to give any thought to the location of the communications sets and the information being transmitted when civilians are in the vicinity be it on the road or in a station making a report or giving a statement.

Mr. Rohee should be called upon to confirm that safeguards are in places which ensure the security of information passing through the police channels in vehicle and at stations. If he cannot give a guarantee then he should be asked to vacate the office and let Henry Greene become the new minister since he seems not to have had any crisis of confidence regarding that worthy.

President Ramotar needs to be reminded that sometimes loyalty like patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.

Sophie Padrachi

Opposition’s collateral damage...

From page 5 that would benefit its supporters or if it is seen as a partner of the PNC. And right now PNC and AFC are seen as one by angry workers.

People voted for the AFC expecting it to be different from the others. Instead, AFC is pursuing vengeful politics with former PPP stalwarts wanting to get back at the PPP leadership who ill-treated them.

While it is understandable that those former hard working PPP stalwarts (and they –

Khemraj, Moses, Sasenarine, Lionel, etc. - are brilliant minds) who are now with AFC want to avenge their past abuses, they should show political maturity and not take extreme measure to contribute to collateral damage.

They should show they are bigger than those in the PPP who sidelined them.

They should side (conditionally) with Donald and help to bring change within the PPP while being outside of it. Reconciliation is the only way forward. The AFC will not benefit politically from their actions in teaming up with the PNC to hurt workers. So far, every major budgetary action of the AFC far has backfired –

public service workers came out against them and the PNC (APNU). And now media workers have come out against them for eliminating funds for the state media. In their hate for and policies to get back at the PPP, they are perceived as not concerned about those who are hurt from their actions. The AFC has to be careful it is not labeled as a proverbial bully. It will suffer serious consequences.

The threatened workers are innocent victims of the power play in parliament.

Ramjattan has erred in saying collateral damage is to be expected. The party itself would eventually become a victim of the collateral damage of its own bombing campaign if does not show moderation in its behavior and if it does not support worthwhile proposals from Donald.

Vishnu Bisram

attempted to hold the nation to ransom by withdrawing services in Linden and mobilizing some of its loyal staff and sympathizers to make a passionate plea to the opposition not to cut the subvention of 81 million.

They went overboard it trying to whip up public support with all kinds of nonsensical reasons why NCN should continue to operate as if they are accountable to no one.

The Guyanese people are no fools, the orchestrated ploy of playing several clips of partisan support over and over, regularly interrupting the cricket to ensure that they had an audience does not reflect the views of the majority. This was a deliberate attempt to brainwash people of lesser intelligence and is a method often used by communist stations such as those in Cuba and North Korea.

In an effort to scare the nation and drive fear into people’s minds we were told how poor people were going to suffer and many jobs were going to be lost by an organization that recently boasted that it earned ninety percent of its revenue on its

the news editor Michael Gordon and Martin Goolsaran making this tearful plea to the opposition to retract their position was amusing. They reminded me of “the Three Stooges”.

Michelle Abraham Ali who was at the forefront of this brainwashing charade has lost all credibility as a broadcaster, I’m surprised at her.

Many of those broadcasters who sin their souls in a effort to show loyalty by promulgating the Government’s views and disregarding any others in a balanced way, might suffer the same fate as Clem David when he used to host a call in programme called “ action line” back during the Burnham era.

Any caller who dared to criticize the Government was treated with disdain, insulted and most times cut off. We see the same trend emerging at NCN. When the PNC government changed he was like a lost soul and it was left up to CN Sharma to try and restore some credibility to this obviously talented individual.

It never happened!

fairness or balance addressed in all of NCN’s ranting.

May I Remind NCN that the opposition gained fifty two percent of the votes at the last election and as a result their views must be heard on NCN as well as the government’s if they are to be truly a national station.

One only has to listen to a newscast on NCN and you see what I am talking about, you would believe it was produced directly from the Office of the President or Freedom House.

The CEO of NCN is an accountant by profession and does not have a broadcasting background and as such in not qualified to head a broadcasting entity.

It is perceived that he was brought back to restructure NCN in such a way that almost entirely the Government’s views and only the government’s views are reflected. Mr Sattaur like his fellow propagandist Prem Misir, are US citizens brought back to serve without morals.

If the goverment ever changes they will be among the first to “high tail it”out of Guyana.

Michael Anthony

President Donald Ramotar’s address...

From page 4 tilted towards the PPPC view point. It was the PPPC government that destroyed the public service unions and the collective bargaining agreements in Guyana, with the advent of contract employees; it was the PPPC Government that withheld the subvention for the Critchlow Labour College; it was the PPPC government that continues to administer over a country of 83,00 square miles with one government controlled radio station; it is the PPPC government that despite a court ruling continues to saddle the people of Linden with NCN propaganda; It was the PPPC

government that refused to issue radio license to both Kaieteur News and Stabroek News.

Mr. Editor, it would have been refreshing and educational if the President had explained why his party refused to grant an increase to workers in the public sector; why they refused to lower the toll on the Berbice river bridge to $1000.00; why they refused to lower the VAT to 14 percent; why they refused to suspend the exorbitant super-salaries to contract workers at the Office of the President and other government ministries.

The population would have been better served if we

were told why money could be found for the Marriott deal and no money for a pay increase to struggling clerks and servants in the government employ. The dire predictions of retarded development due to the current budget cuts must be viewed as political rhetoric and Mr. Ramotar pandering to what’s left of his base.

This, Editor, was a breath of fresh air and a shot in the arm for democracy in Guyana.

If the PPPC and the President think otherwise and move towards early elections then let me be the first to predict that the result they seek will not be forthcoming.

Mark Archer

Sunday April 29, 2012

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Guyana will never be the same old place where a group did whatever it pleased DEAR EDITOR, All Guyanese should be loud in their praise of the leadership of the combined opposition for its prudent and wise consideration and consequent action to slash 20B from the National Budget for 2012. If that action is an indication of things to come then Guyanese can look forward to a higher standard of living and a better country.

For years, the PPP/C got away with all sorts of things in our parliament because they controlled the Executive and Legislative branches of government. However, the elections of November 28, 2011, gave the leavers of legislative power to the opposition. Since then, things have changed; Guyana will never be the same old place where a group of people, in the name of a political party (PPP/C), can do whatever it very well pleased.

Those elections facilitated the form of a democratic country. Now, the opposition is seeking to give substance to it. This consists of transparency, accountability, justice, fairness, good governance,

financial rectitude, compliance with the laws, and public participation.

Had it not been for the alertness and watchful eyes of the opposition, the PPP/C Government would have gotten away, again, as it did over the last nineteen years, with a fanciful budget, with a nice sounding theme and big numbers, designed to mainly benefit PPP supporters and its cronies subtly tucked away in so- called state media operations, and the office of the President as advisors on everything, and a ridiculous bailout package for two of Guyana’s worst managed corporations- GPL and GUYSUCO among other ugly things.

It was very shocking to hear the weak attempts of some Ministers to make a case for the opposition not to cut certain items in the budget.

They were long on words but very short on analysis to justify the inclusion of certain sums in the budget. This was understandable because, in the past, the PPP/C did not have to come up with reasonable explanations for its actions, let alone justify

them, to anyone.

Unconscious of the political change, they appear to be in that same old mode. They need to snap out of it to move the country forward.

Further, government’s action to mobilize and organize public servants to protest the opposition, in front of parliament was, to say the least, very funny. Those who were asked to go and protest went with no real conviction that they were acting in their own best interest; many expressed the view, publicly, that they were acting in the interest of those who are receiving “fat cat” pay cheques, in the very ministries, where theytraditional public servantswork for pittance. Guyanese are never fooled.

As the saying goes- “he who feels it knows it”. While there were a few known PPP/ C servants, not necessarily public servants, shouting and carrying on, the majority of public servants on the protest line was just amused and took the time to catch up with old friends from other agencies.

However, the process of

the debate itself facilitated certain shocking revelations including the overcrowding of the Local Government Ministry with four Ministers (past and present), the inappropriate arrangement of NICIL, and the squandering of tax-payers hard earned money on NCN and GINA. Over the last few days, these two corporations occupied the enviable spotlight in the media for two reasons: First, the opposition cuts to their subsidies and government’s reaction to opposition action.

The opposition was right to cut subsidies at GINA and NCN. Tax-payers’ money should never be used to fuel government propaganda and support political party activists posing as journalists and reporters.

GINA operated as the mouthpiece for the PPP/C with access to substantial state resources. That could not be right and should not be accepted.

On the question of NCN, one would have thought that with the utterances from the opposition about their intention to cut support to that channel that its

This new-found solidarity with the workers...

From page 5 of super-salaries paid at the Office of the President (OP) to people like Gail Teixeira and Odinga Lumumba who earn over $900,000 and close to $700,000 per month respectively, the Consultant on Climate Change and Advisor on Land and Development who each receive around $1,000,000 per month, and the Advisor on Information Technology who receives $3,000,000 per month, there are less available Government jobs to ordinary Guyanese.

17.

When the Government contacted the places of employment of Dr Tarron Khemraj, Sasenarine Singh, Carl Greenidge and Dr Janette Bulkan in an effort to get them fired (the latter two actually lost their jobs as a result).

18. Over the general lack of job creation that forces our people to continue seeking their fortunes in foreign lands, where they are too often treated like second class citizens.

We can go on and on, but we believe our point is made, Editor. If the PPP however, since the death of Dr Jagan now intends to reawaken to the needs of the ordinary worker, we urge that they establish their own propaganda unit (independent of tax dollars)and absorb the GINA workers. After all, the PPP only up to November last

could have afforded several hundred $50,000 vinyl scrolls and around a hundred $300,000 billboards for their elections campaign. We are sure too, former President Jagdeo, with his monthly pension which is in excess of $3,200,000, and who these 38 workers would have served faithfully, would be most keen to chip in like a Champion.

Moreover, most Ministries have their own public relations departments.

Giving GINA money, therefore, would have been paying twice for the same service.

As it relates to NCN, a subvention can be voted on at a later time provided there is meaningful reform, which includes among other things, that it would reflect the views of not just the Government, but that of the opposition and wider society as well, that there is respect for the political association of all employees, and that its revenue only be used to pay its employees and not phantom letter writers/ bloggers (e.g. liveinguyana.blogspot.com) and party propagandists.

Finally, the AFC calls on

the PPP to immediately allow the existing television stations to extend their signals. This would create more employment throughout the country. An expanded media sector too, would be able to absorb any vindictively fired Government media personnel, since the PPP is not above scoring cheap political points.

Gerhard Ramsaroop, Michelle Ramsaroop, Aurélie Griffith, Leroy Nelson, Rajendra Bisessar, Ron White, John B. Singh, Winston Argyle and Egland Gomes

management would have changed their politically biased ways of favouring the PPP/C. That did not happen.

Even recent programmes on the budget debates, in parliament, were almost entirely on what the PPP/C Ministers said. Hardly any word on what members of the opposition said. And when NCN reported on the opposition it was almost always in a negative way.

Their approach is not only unfair but unprofessional. It gives professional journalism a bad name. It is clear that at NCN it is more about politics than it is about professional reporting and journalism.

Everyone knows that NCN will continue to spew political propaganda. No one is fooled by their antics about cutting jobs.

Maybe management will use this opportunity to get rid of those who have not shown loyalty to the political philosophy of the network but they will keep those who are supportive of the PPP/C. NCN has the money to do that and they will do that.

NCN has been on the receiving end of tax-payers’ dollars for about twenty years.

Why would it not have money to keep its present staff?

However, cuts in subsidies alone would not cause NCN to reform, reorganize and be more professional; the opposition must do more to initiate change in the undesirable state of affairs there.

This is a very serious point because the opposition must know that government used tax payers’ money to invest in NCN’s c o m m u n i c a t i o n infrastructure- transmitters, cameras and allied equipment, sound equipment, graphics, editing and design software,

and training of staff.

Moreover, the frequency spectrum, which NCN uses is a national asset owned by all the people of Guyana; not by the PPP/C. All Guyanese should share in the benefits of its use by that television channel regardless of their association or nonassociation with any or all political parties.

Therefore, it is not just about subsidies but about really calling NCN to account for their stewardship of those things paid for by the public purse.

Even where the Network is supported by advertisements they still need to be accountable because the corporations that advertise with that television network- NCN- are supported by the public. Perhaps, those businesses that advertise with the channel should stipulate that it must grant airtime, and coverage to events and actions of opposition parties.

No corporation or company should want to advertise with a communication channel (radio/television) that has been consistently unashamedly discriminating against the political opposition of a country because it is not good for the development of the country and certainly not good for business.

But there is a more fundamental issue- the right of every Guyanese to be kept informed on the actions of its representatives in parliament.

NCN needs to respect that right and begin to allot time to the opposition. This is not something the opposition should negotiate but demand now for the sake of the people who have elected them as their representatives.

Name withheld

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Report on intelligence agencies laid in Parliament…

Jamaica cannot do without CARICOM, says UWI vice chancellor Spying carried out under Panday Govt.

VICE Chancellor of the University of the West Indies Prof E Nigel Harris has dismissed suggestions that Jamaica or any other country in the region should pull out of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and pursue its development on its own.

“I think it is short-sighted, this idea that we can get in our separate corners, this notion that these small entities can be viable by themselves, is not a tenable idea,” Prof Harris said.

Prof Harris, who was addressing a meeting of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) in downtown Kingston last week, was responding to a concern from JCC director Anthony Gomes that more persons were expressing the view that Jamaica should pull out of CARICOM. Gomes had called on the university to lend its voice to the debate and state clearly whether or not a break from CARICOM should take place.

In response, Prof Harris pointed out that CARICOM

Pro E. Nigel Harris has only five million people, which is small compared to some of the large cities of the world. “...Atlanta, Georgia and its environs has about 45 million people. We would be lost in Shanghai (China),” the UWI vice chancellor said in illustrating the region’s relative size.

Shanghai has a population of about 16.6 million, making it the world 10th largest city.

Prof Harris called on private sector leaders to work along with UWI to make the connections in the region to realise the benefits of

CARICOM. “We need to work with the private sector which is better able to create the kind of linkages needed to drive our region forward,” he said.

The university vice chancellor said there were many benefits to membership in CARICOM, such as the ability to move capital across the region, education through the UWI and the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), and the work of organisations such as the Caribbean Public Health Agency which seeks to define and respond to the public health priorities of CARICOM. At the same time, Prof Harris, in responding to concerns that the UWI was becoming less of a regional institution, noted that while the same areas of study were being offered on different campuses or territories, courses can be delivered to students across the region by lecturers on any campus through technology. He noted that UWI continues to grow, and now has 47,000 students. Some 17,000 students enter UWI each year out of 30,000 applicants.

For example, Jamaica should tap into research from the St Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago to improve agriculture here. “If you as a nation only rely on your own campus, you are missing out on a lot”, he said.

(Jamaica Observer)

Illegal spying was carried out under former prime minister Basdeo Panday’s United National Congress government. This was revealed in the first annual report on the Interception of Communications Act 2010, which was laid in Parliament Friday by leader of government business, Housing and the Environment Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal.

The legislation was approved in Parliament months after the People’s Partnership assumed office in 2010. It followed PersadBissessar ’s revelation in Parliament that the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) had illegally tapped citizens’ telephones under the former

Patrick Manning government.

With the support of the Opposition People’s National Movement, led by Dr Keith Rowley, the legislation providing for phone-tapping under certain conditions was approved with unanimous support. One requirement of the law was that an annual report be laid in Parliament.

The 17-page report, which was prepared and presented

by National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy, said the “interception of communications is amongst the range of investigative techniques used by intelligence and lawenforcement agencies to protect the State from threats of subversion, espionage, sabotage and terrorists acts.”

The document said the intelligence and evidence gathered are powerful tools for safeguarding a state’s economic well-being, as well as detecting, solving and prosecuting serious crimes.

The report stated: “This electronic form of intelligence was conducted for almost a decade—by two successive governments—without legislative underpinning.”

The former prime minister said he was not aware of any phone-tapping carried out under his UNC administration. He said he left those matters for the security agencies. He said if it was in fact carried out it would have been done in the interest of national security.

(Trinidad Guardian)

Barbados to host FOROMIC conference Barbados will create history, this October, by being the first country in the English speaking Caribbean to host FOROMIC - the leading, annual microfinance and microenterprise development event in Latin America and the Caribbean. FOROMIC XV is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Barbados and the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group.

It is being organised by a committee of experienced individuals from both the public and private sectors,

including the Ministry of International Business and International Transport, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Barbados Conference Services Ltd. Barbados Tourism Authority, FundAccess, Barbados Investment and Development Corporation, Barbados

Community College, Invest Barbados and the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association are also among the agencies represented on the planning committee.

It is scheduled for the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, and some 1300 delegates from over 40 countries are expected to attend. (BGIS)

Chavez ally raises specter of opposition violence LOS TEQUES, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez’s big poll lead puts him in a strong position ahead of Venezuela’s presidential election, but it could also convince radical opponents violence is the only way to beat him, a senior campaign strategist said. Despite ongoing cancer treatment, Chavez is favoured to extend his 13-year rule at the October 7 vote, with most opinion polls giving him an advantage of at least 10 percentage points over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

The exercise of power by the majority in the National Assembly …and the implications for Guyanese and multilateral agencies Consideration of the annual budget for 2012 in the National Assembly was completed last Thursday evening but the job of grasping the implications has only just begun. Many members of the public are expecting results which are not possible at this stage, while others are treating completely unrelated events as consequences of the Assembly’s decisions.

The sources of this confusion are often the result of PPP propaganda spewed by the so-called national media in its determination to paint the opposition as a negative force and change the existing balance of political forces in the country. But the core issue must be understood: the Opposition sought to eliminate waste from the budget and find resources, which the Government claims it does not have, to increase pensions, social assistance, and wages and salaries for our over-burdened Public Servants, Policemen and members of the Disciplined Forces. We have found these resources.

The Opposition MPs may say many things during the budget debate or even during consideration of the Estimates which follows that debate. Those comments are part of the record but they will not lead to a change in the figures which make up the Budget unless they can be reflected in the numbers that form the tables we call the Estimates. The changes are subject to certain rules and the main rule that needs to be noted is that the Opposition cannot raise taxes, increase the proposed expenditures or remove items completely from the tables.

The activities of NICIL are not contained in the Estimates, for example, so there was no opportunity to deal with the arrangements for the Marriott Hotel or the GT&T shares the Government recently sold to a Chinese firm. These matters will have to be dealt with via another mechanism such as a motion or the Economic Services Committee.

The government is taking Court action to try and prevent the Opposition Parties having enough members in this latter type of body to vote against the Government. In similar vein, only Government Ministers can propose increases or

decreases in taxes such as the VAT; the Opposition even as a majority cannot make such proposals.

It is for this reason that the APNU in December and then in April called on the government to undertake consultations on the Budget.

Both calls failed to yield talks or meaningful proposals. The same applies to public service salaries.

The examination of the Estimates provides useful information for both MPs and the public. We were able to find out that the Minister of Finance had put aside resources that will permit payments of up to 14% of the wages bill or increases in combination with additional employment.

We also discovered that some Ministers employed Administrative Assistants and administrative and clerical staff that were paid as much as $300,000 per month whilst fully qualified and experienced engineers were being paid as little as $125,000.

The engineers themselves are being paid various salaries for the same job in different Ministries.

The difference depends on who recruits them and how much influence they exercised in the Office of the President (OP) Ministries or if they were recruited by the PSC (which is bound by transparent rules regarding qualifications and emoluments).

We also learnt that there are a variety of sinecures – jobs for the boys – in the Office of the President where former Ministers and friends of the Administration are being paid as much as $1.3mn and $3mn per month for work that is either not evident or political work for the PPP. We were unable to eliminate most of these because the rules of the Assembly require that written and advance notice be given for action. The discoveries were only made after asking a range of searching questions.

Whilst APNU was not able to get Government agreement to a 10% acrossthe-board rise in Public Service salaries, we were able to confirm that money for far more than 10% is available in the budget. It is for the unions and workers representatives to ensure that the Government does not hang on to these amounts until

December pretending to be negotiating and searching for funding for the increase.

We expect that having provided $5bn of the $6bn the Government requested for the GPL subvention, rates will not be increased in 2012.

The additional $1bn could be provided if the company provides to the National Assembly as promised, a plan showing how it will establish and maintain its viability in future.

The $4bn requested for Guysuco is also extended on condition that they also provide a plan. The majority in the National Assembly also called on the Government to appoint professional and non-political Boards of Directors that reflect the make-up of our community.

Although this could not be enforced via the Estimates, the APNU at least intends to hold the Government to this obligation.

In addition to this, the Opposition reduced the allocations the Government requested for some agencies and activities. The most prominent of these are GINA and NCN. The case of GINA is straightforward; state funds were never voted to fund PPP activities or for abuse of the Opposition. The funds come from taxpayers and the staff and management should respect this even though the Government does not. Their job is to deliver news about Government policies and national events not to sell PPP propaganda.

The workers of the agency have a responsibility to the taxpayers as well as to the Government and should not permit themselves to be used for party purposes.

Propaganda is to be funded by the PPP, the so-called

Freedom House.

If the PPP intends to continue using the agency for PPP propaganda they should find the money to pay the workers.

The claim that NCN workers will have to be put on the streets because of the reduction in the government subsidy is mischievous. The agency earns enough (over $300mn) from its other revenue sources to retain an acceptable work force. It is meant to be a commercial company and should not therefore receive subsidies especially when such monies are used to put private companies out of business or to pay unnecessarily high amounts for services, such as Test matches and one day cricket, which the private sector had been able to secure at lower prices in the past.

Employees of publiclyowned entities put their long term employment at risk when they bow to the improper demands of Ministers at a personal and professional level. They cannot expect to receive sympathetic consideration from the National Assembly if they continue to pander to Government demands to ignore internationally accepted and professional standards and undertake unacceptable practices such as ghost writing – letters attacking Opposition Parties and MPs. The APNU is unhappy that employees are being threatened with the loss of Continued on page 14

Page 9

Dem boys seh Is joke dem mekking wid Hen See Hen

Who got luck eat pork. That is an old Chinee saying from de days when rat and pork mix up. De lucky person use to eat de pork and who eat de rat was de one who didn’t got luck.

Some people lef Geena and Hen See Hen because dem couldn’t tek de direction fuh write only good things bout de government. Now dem laughing because de direction to dem who stay is not only to write but to picket pun de streets and to cry pun TV. Dem boys talk to one of de workers who been crying and he tell dem that he only crying till he get pay. He seh that is de only wuk place wheh de big ones does get pay before everybody else. Now dem talking how budget cut. This man claim that he ain’t getting pay. But nobody ain’t gone pun de road.

When dem shut down Sharma dem didn’t care bout who been pun de road. When dem tek back dem ads dem didn’t care bout who been pun de road. And none of dem offer sympathy.

Now dem want de same people fuh sympathise wid dem.

De other day two Minister travel in one car fuh show how things bad. But dem ain’t cut back pun de lights dem burning and pun de security dem got. Is only de Hen See Hen staff fooling people that dem got things bad. No Norway money ain’t come yet.

Uncle Donald done seh that fuh he one, one de Norway money gun stay right wheh it deh because fuh get it more hard that chewing brick. Is two years de government trying to get it and nutten happen. At one time he was wondering whether de Rat collect and was fooling de people but somebody write and tell he that nobody ain’t collect.

Dem boys seh that wha really causing problem is that nuff of dem can’t travel as dem please. If de budget didn’t cut dem would get money fuh airfare and other things. Travelling to overseas was like walking to de Gardens. But some of dem shoulda glad because de people waiting fuh dem in de States. De pumpkin jump suit done press. De Americans done seh that is not in their favour fuh tek way de visa because once de people who dem want in Guyana then it hard to get dem. That is why nuff of dem still got dem visa.

And talking bout visa, it look like only de Foreign Affairs lady and Uncle Donald got visa to de States. Rob Bert own expire and everybody know that Irfaat can’t go.

Talk half and wait cut half.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Man gets the “boot” from too fast minibus ride Failure to “shift yuh body weight” or “double up” may very well be reason enough for some commuters to either have to walk or take a taxi to reach their daily destinations.

This notion has been embraced by many who are either forced to or opt to use public transportation on a regular basis.

To compound the very evident overloading situation occurring in some of the country’s minibuses, is the harsh reality that remains, even after many road fatalities.

One commuter revealed to this publication that his decision to upbraid a driver for speeding saw him being forced to exit the vehicle miles before reaching his final destination.

This is the reality that obtains on the public thoroughfares of Guyana, a state of affairs to which there seems to be no end in sight – at least not if some bus drivers and conductors can help.

According to the man, the minibus he boarded Friday was expected to take him from the vicinity of Diamond, East Bank Demerara, to the capital city.

“Since I enter the bus they just started to overload...they just keep packing people up like sardine...In the case of children they had to double up since the conductor was informing them that “is a

favour I doing for y’all to even pick y’all up.”

Positioned in a seat just behind the driver, the man said that he observed the speedometer move from zero to hundred within a minute and was certainly not slowing as the journey progressed along the East Bank of Demerara.

Although there was an evident bottleneck since works are ongoing alongside the roadway, effectively ensuring that traffic remained at snail’s pace, the driver of the overloaded minibus opted to overtake several vehicles. Moving at a fast rate, the driver made a daring move to continue speeding directly into the path of a relatively fast oncoming traffic in the opposite lane.

“It was at this time I had realised I had had enough...I said driver slow this bus down! He had the audacity to tell me ‘like you gon pay me if I slow this bus down...if you got a problem with this bus step.”

Not realising that this was a signal for him to disembark the minibus, the man said that the next thing he noticed was the conductor opening the door and informing him ‘Big man yuh reach whey yuh going...’

“I decided it was best for me to come off because as far as I know it is better to be safe than sorry...I have a family to take care of and I know they would want to see me come back home.”

The man is calling for a heightened presence of police officers along the East Bank roadway to prevent potential road carnage.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Illegal mining high on GGMC management retreat agenda

Stakeholders and other participants during a critical retreat yesterday The issue of illegal mining and the need for greater monitoring were among some of the major issues being dealt with yesterday as the country’s mining regulator, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), held a management retreat.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the intention of the meeting, held at the Herdmanston Lodge, Queenstown, was to review GGMC’s strategic objectives and future plans for expanding the mining sector.

The retreat comes at a time when mining activities, amidst high prices, are expanding across the mining regions in Guyana with an equivalent increase in illegal mining.

The Ministry also stated that the challenge now has to do with greater monitoring, enforcement and even updating of the Mining Act and Regulations.

“Focus was also placed on increasing the capacity of the Commission through training and identifying constraints to address new challenges that are imminent within the expanding sector and to update the Strategic Plan of the GGMC which expired last year.”

Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, during his opening remarks at the retreat, urged for attention to be paid to greater accountability and safeguards to ensure value for money, noting that the various departments of the

GGMC including the Petroleum Division, will be restructured.

The management of the minerals of Guyana must be done in a sustainable manner and there must be the development systems in place.

Persaud added that Organisations and Government agencies like the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MoNRE), the GGMC, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) and the Guyana Women Miners’ Association (GWMA) must collaborate more frequently to ensure that

all issues of the various stakeholders are dealt with much more effectively.

He urged all stakeholders in the extractive industry to engage the offices of the GGMC and MoNRE to work for the greater good of the sector.

Meanwhile, the strategic work plan for the next five years will define how the GGMC develops and governs the sustainability of the country’s natural resources for the growth of Guyana.

The event also included special presentations from the GWMA and the GGDMA.

Farm arson/murder…

Relatives still awaiting justice one month later While it may seem as if investigators have reached a dead end in their investigation into the demise of former

national boxer, Godfrey Alexander, called ‘Hell Fire’ relatives are hopeful that justice will be served.

On March 22, last, firefighters pulled Alexander’s charred remains from his burnt out house, at Farm Village East Bank Essequibo.

Around 5:00 hours that

day firefighters were summoned to the area after two nearby houses were seen going up in flames. Both properties were owned by Alexander but one was unoccupied. Alexander occupied the upper flat of one while his two tenants occupied the bottom flat.

Yesterday, Selena Harris, the man’s daughter-in-law said that to date there has been no arrest and that they have been told that no information has been (Continued on page 13)

Sunday April 29, 2012

Sale of 20% share…

Government has defended the US$30M selling price of its 20 per cent stake in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).

A government spokesman said that last week the approved Chinese firm examined the books of the communication giant before arriving at its decision to buy.

That US$30M price tag had raised questions with accountant Christopher Ram even writing about the matter in his weekly columns in the Stabroek News.

Ram, speaking with Kaieteur News last week, said that Guyana may have lost almost $2B more on the price when it sold its 20% stake in GT&T to Datang. The shares, he believes, are worth US$40M, using standard accountant calculations.

But questioned on Thursday about how government arrived at that US$30M figure, Government spokesman, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said that the Hong Kong-based, China’s Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group conducted its due diligence before it arrived at the price.

“The Chinese firms came here and they looked over GT&T’s books… they worked with GT&T and they found a way-I am no financier- of costing the

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Chinese buyer arrived at US$30M price after inspecting GT&T’s books - Luncheon

Dr. Roger Luncheon

Christopher Ram

company.” “…You could actually say on that (US$30M) costing that there is an understanding that GT&T’s shares probably can be capitalized at US$150M right now. That is what it seems to be saying.”

Ram, in questioning the deal which was announced earlier this month during a Government press conference, said that while the value of a share in a private company is a subjective matter, the sales of shares in private companies take place regularly and the finance industry has what it calls standard tools for arriving at an indicative price range.

The final price then becomes a matter of negotiation based on the

specific facts and circumstances such as whether or not dividends are about to be paid and the net asset value. Guyana had up to recently been earning an average of $500M annually from its shares.

Questioned about whether the dividends were included in the sale price of US$30M, Dr. Luncheon, made it clear that the payments by GT&T were not something that Government had been happy about and it also was a major factor in the decision to sell the 20% stake. As a matter of fact, there is a court case over the dividends.

“Well number one, we have not been paid the dividends the way we were supposed to be paid… anyhow. So that is a potential loss of revenues. We are in court now about that matter.

Billions of dollars in dividend payments were not paid in the early 90’s but apart from that, we have sought to work with

St. Margaret’s student feared dead after seawall outing A seven year-old student of the St Margaret’s Primary School is feared dead after he disappeared when he jumped off the jetty at the Kingston Seawall.

According to reports, the lad, Devon Elija Gibson, was last seen alive around 3:30 hours yesterday.

This publication was told that the lad who lives in Queen Street, Tiger Bay, along with three other lads was accompanied to the seawall by an older man from the community.

Reports are that the other boys were swimming while Devon was seen jumping off of the jetty. However, the lad failed to resurface, and that prompted the man who took them to the location to start a search. Devon was not found. The matter was immediately reported to the police and the lad’s grandmother with whom he lives.

Up to late last evening, Gibson’s grandmother was accompanied back to the seawall by police ranks. The man who took the boys to the seawall was in custody assisting the police with investigations even as the three other boys were providing the police with statements.

GT&T to explain why we are now going to dispose of these shares and they have offered a number of options.

“Why don’t we buy them out? We say why don’t you buy us out? Or let’s find a third party to buy both of us out.”

Ram, last week, noted that that company will likely be the only land line telecommunications provider for the foreseeable future.

Along with the licence it enjoys, the quasimonopolistic strength as an important factor in any company investing.

GT&T is owned 80 per cent by the US Company, Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN).

The remaining 20 per cent was owned by the Government under a 1991 Agreement. These have been sold to China’s Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group which had been identified by Kaieteur News as the Hong Kongbased buyer, long before this was admitted by the Guyana

Government.

Datang has also been linked to the Peoples Liberation Army – the Chinese military.

It was one of the companies that had raised eyebrows in October 2011 when a US Pentagon report fingered it as being linked to the Chinese military and as a Chinese Government ‘espionage’ ministry.

Dr Luncheon, in announcing the government’s approval for the 20 per cent shares in early April, said that the money will be paid in two installments– US$25M upfront and the remaining US$5M to be paid over the course of two years.

Up until the sale, the government was receiving from GT&T, an annual dividend of US$2.5M, making it the most successful investment ever undertaken by any administration in this country. In March, two weeks before that announcement, President Donald Ramotar had said that no decision was

taken on the sale of the shares. Ramotar at that time did reiterate that whenever such a sale is made, it “would be in the best interest of the Guyanese people”.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GT&T, Yog Mahadeo, in the wake of the sale, had said that he was surprised at the manner in which the sale was handled.

Mahadeo stated that it was only after Dr Luncheon made the announcement and the media attempted to solicit comments from him, that he was made aware that the company’s shares were sold.

Initially, when the shares were placed on the market over two years ago, employees had offered to buy them but this was rejected by Government who wanted them to be purchased en bloc.

Government has been actively attempting to liberalise the telecoms markets to allow other players but the process has been stymied by delay in passing key legislations.

Page 12

The $192.88B Budget as was presented to the nation at the end of March, “if left unchanged, would have had catastrophic consequences for the entire nation for years to come.”

This was the position of the leader of the Parliamentary Opposition Brigadier (rtd) David Granger when he responded to a State of the Nation Address by Head of State Donald Ramotar who called the actions of the opposition when it recently gutted $21B out of the budget, “callous and heartless.”

Brigadier Granger, in firing back at the President, said that the Combined Opposition “acted correctly in making cuts to the budget.”

According to the Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition it is now up to the ruling administration to introduce the reasonable reforms that have been demanded.

He said that it is now time for the Government to return to the negotiating table and

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

…Budget cuts meant to send strong message to Govt. - David Granger

Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, David Granger to collaborate with the Opposition to introduce an agreed Supplementary Budget “which gives the Guyanese people the good life that they deserve.”

The Opposition Leader in his address to the nation said that the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/ C) can no longer pretend that

it speaks for the majority as it now constitutes a parliamentary minority.

“It can no longer claim that it alone has all the answers to the questions of national development…It can no longer expect that its proposed Budget–which it prepared without the involvement of the majority – could be approved by the National Assembly without being amended.”

He said that the Budget, “if it is to be of any value, must be a tool to assure the people – ordinary farmers, nurses, students, teachers, managers, workers in the public and private sectors – that their livelihood will be safeguarded…It must convince the people that they have a stake in the future of this country…It must encourage people to have confidence in the country and

it must provide the funds and resources to do so.”

Granger was adamant that the PPP/C actually resisted measures to alleviate poverty and reduce the cost-of-living – such as lowering the Valueadded Tax – as proposed by the APNU-AFC Opposition.

“The PPPC failed to understand the damage that has been done to the lives of young people who cannot find jobs largely because of the faulty education system.”

The Brigadier said that PPP/C failed to understand that citizens feel deprived and discriminated against by being denied their constitutional right to freedom of expression and freedom to communicate and to receive ideas and information. The Opposition Leader said that the Budget as presented by the Finance Minister, did not even try to encourage the people themselves – through measures to alleviate poverty, reduce the burdensome costof-living, increase jobs, improve education and enhance human safety – to support the plan.

“The Opposition decided, therefore, that it could not support the Budget in its proposed form and proposed certain reductions.”

He said that the combined opposition parties realised from the time of the presentation of the Budget that the PPPC administration had made a big mistake.

“It was clear that the

proposed Budget was badly out-of-touch with the reality of the actual needs of the people and the conditions in the country.”

He sought to explain that the aim of the reductions in financial allocations was never to obstruct the employment of state employees or to terminate programmes that concerned the education or well-being of citizens, either in the hinterland or on the coastland.

“It was always to make the PPP/C administration understand that it had no alternative but to take

collaboration especially after the events and eventualities of 28th November 2011.

Granger said that the combined opposition had an obligation to help to avoid the threat of damage likely to be caused by a flawed budget, hence the cuts.

“It did not seek special political favours from the administration but acted only in the public interest.”

Speaking to the ExtraParliamentary Budget talks that were held at Office of the President, Granger called it “an e x a s p e r a t i n g experience…The PPPC side refused to make significant changes.” He said that the Opposition made it clear that the people did not see a Budget that offered new options for escaping from

“It was always to make the PPP/C administration understand that it had no alternative but to take decisive action to bring executive lawlessness to an end.” decisive action to bring executive lawlessness to an end.” Granger said that the PPP/C had to accept that, in a parliamentary democracy, it had to respect the will of parliament.

“This meant behaving in a more accountable, efficient, transparent and financially prudent manner than it did since 1992…The APNU/AFC Opposition, in this regard, was always available to meet with the PPPC side to recommend amendments.”

He said that the Budget is complex and necessitated real consultation and

poverty.

“The people did not see new opportunities for pursuing higher education and new prospect for jobs…What they saw was a future in which they will be worse off, rather than better off, if Budget 2012 was allowed to remain unaltered.”

He said that Guyana expects that the PPP/C administration will grasp the opportunity provided by the reductions made to the Budget by the Opposition to better understand what the people want, “The public will cannot be ignored.”

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 13

The Sand Industry in Guyana...

Works on the East Bank Demerara four-lane highway extensions have heavily impacted the supply and price of sand in the country.

Truck drivers are already complaining of reduced trips and sandpit owners believe there may be some degree of price gouging.

Although the country’s construction industry is booming, at least one sandpit owner said it’s not profitable for him.

Yesterday, the sandpit owner, Gopaul (only name given) revealed that he uses seven blocks of land for the purpose of sand mining.

He claimed that being a part of the sand industry is no child’s play but instead, a business which can send you behind the bars if no attention is given.

The man, whose sandpit is located along the Soesdyke/Linden highway, said that he has been running the sandpit, mostly at a loss,

for almost three years. He added that the other businesses he operates assisted him a lot. Gopaul also mentioned that he can only name about four active sandpits.

When asked why is it he is continuing the sand business at a loss, he said that all the sandpits are owned by the government and when they issue a person with a mining permit, they can take it away if the land is not being used.

He emphasized that he has no intention of mining sand but the land that he has can be used for agricultural purposes when the sand is mined out, which in future, can make “mad money.” So in other words, his intention is to continue the sand business until the time is right for him to start his agricultural work.

RUNNINGA SANDPIT To run a sandpit, he explained that a plot of land

is first acquired by the owner.

It can be acquired directly from Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), or Agricultural leases converted for mining purposes.

A mining permit is then applied for at the GGMC. If the application satisfies all necessary conditions, a mining permit is issued.

However, the applicant must first submit an environment permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The permit is normally valid for 25 years and can be renewed.

If permission is granted, a-front-end-loader will be required to remove sand from the pit face and load into the trucks.

Gopaul claimed that the cost for a-front-end-loader is not less than $25M and he uses two to do his work.

The man explained that he has a staff of seven and on a

Relatives still awaiting...

(From page 10) forthcoming from the community. Harris said that she was informed by the police that since the incident they have tried relentlessly to get information from villagers but no information is good enough to work on.

Nevertheless the dead man’s relatives are hopeful that one day some information may lead investigators to Alexander’s killer. However, investigators having concluded their investigation on the cause of the fire had announced that it was the work of an arsonist.

The fire was first seen coming from one building and subsequently from Alexander’s home.

It was pointed out by investigators that the buildings were not close enough for the fire to spread and there was no sight that the fire caught onto the other building. Further, Alexander’s body was found in a fetal position with a large amount of cash. This publication was told that from all indication the man was trying to exit the burning building from a trap door which was in the flooring of the upper flat of the

building.

There were reports that Alexander was involved in selling unsuspecting persons plots of land and then reselling them to other interested persons. The man had also reported to his relatives before his death that he was being pressured by persons into selling the two plots on which the two houses stood.

The man had also reported that he had a few strange occurrences with persons from the Regional Democratic Council in his area.

Visitors touring the Soesdyke/ Linden highway sandpit

normal day he sells over 60 truckloads of sand. On a bad day, he sells none.

He claimed that he sells one truck load of sand for $2000 which is not “worth it.”

TRUCK DRIVERS Truck drivers are now complaining of not getting the amount of work as usual due to works on the four-lane highway extension.

One driver, Sahad Basir, said that on a normal day, he would make about four trips from the sandpits to Georgetown and get $16,000 per truck load of sand.

But now some truck drivers claimed that they would normally make one trip per day. Also, they said that they tried to leave home early in the morning to beat traffic but instead, the police would stop them and make them wait

for hours.

“They would stop us for minor problem, like overtaking, if one of the lights ain’t working,” a truck driver said.

He added that if they don’t offer the police money, they will be detained for hours.

“This is hard, it really hard because this is what we do for a living and now with the police on the road and the heavy traffic, it’s double stress.”

CUSTOMERS “This is not fair on us as customers, knowing its only $2,000 for a truck load of sand and here we gotta pay $14,000 to $16, 000,” said Asha Khan, a Grove, East Bank Demerara customer.

The woman emphasized that she is currently doing construction work on her

home and she recently purchased a load of sand for $15,000.

She is calling on the authorities to look into the matter where customers are required to pay double the cost for an item and in this case, she claimed that she paid seven times the actual cost.

“If the sand people sell the sand for $2000 why is it the truck drivers calling for so much money?”

MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCESAND THE ENVIRONMENT In an email from the Ministry, it was revealed that there are 27 active and 26 non-active sandpits in Guyana. It was also indicated that approximately 865 truckloads of sand are being collected per day.

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Sunday April 29, 2012

ImmigrationTALK

Resolving Problems at the U.S. Port of Entry

By Attorney Gail S. Seeram Since 9/11, there has been heightening security at the airports and U.S. ports of entry. Though many travelers feel safer at the airports and on airplanes, there are a few travelers that are harassed at the borders and delayed during their course of travel.

Some common complaints include watch list issues, repeatedly referred to secondary screening at the port of entry, an inability to print electronic boarding pass and unfair treatment by officers.

In response to traveler complaints, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented DHS TRIP or Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Program.

Through DHS TRIP, passengers complete an inquiry form that can be submitted online or by mail. Supporting documents must be mailed to DHS TRIP within 30 days of the on-line filing or with your paper inquiry form.

Once the inquiry form and supporting documents are received, then DHS TRIP will process your request. Visit www.dhs.gov/trip for further information on filing an inquiry form. The following topics are also discussed on the DHS TRIP website: Redress Control Number: When you submit your DHS TRIP inquiry form, the DHS TRIP system automatically assigns you a Redress Control Number. You will be able to use this number to track the status of your inquiry. After your inquiry is completed, you will also be able to use the number when you make an airline reservation.

When you make an airline reservation, provide your redress number when requested by your travel arranger or airline representative, or when prompted by an interactive reservation system. This will enable your airline to determine quickly your identity and reduce the likelihood of mistaken identity during future trips.

Government Watch list(

The U.S. government does not reveal whether a particular person is on or not on a watch list. If the government revealed this information, terrorist organizations would be able to circumvent the watch list purpose by determining in advance which of their members were likely to be questioned or detained.

Many people erroneously believe that they are experiencing a screening delay because they are on a watch list. In fact, such delays are often caused merely by a name similarity to another person who is on the watch list. Ninety-nine percent of individuals who apply for redress are not on the terrorist watch list, but are misidentified as people who are.

DHS TRIP can help resolve inconveniences resulting from name similarities by providing a Redress Control Number that allows systems to prevent such misidentifications from recurring.

When Should You Use DHS TRIP?

DHS TRIP can help you work to resolve travel-related issues when - You were not able to print a boarding pass from an airline ticketing kiosk or from the Internet; - You were denied or delayed boarding; - A ticket agent “called someone” before handing you a boarding pass; - You were told your fingerprints were incorrect or of poor quality, your photo

did not match the travel document, your personal information was incomplete or inaccurate or you are on the “No Fly List”; - You want to amend a traveler record because of an overstay as a result of not submitting the required I-94 when exiting the United States or ensure your biometric record created in US-VISIT is removed from Department of Homeland Security systems; - You believe you were

Gail S. Seeram

unfairly detained during your travel experience or unfairly denied entry into the United States or the U.S. government’s record of your personal information is inaccurate.

The exercise of power by the majority...

From page 9 their jobs. The loss of the subsidy can be made up over time by more aggressive advertising drives and greater efficiency in operations.

The board of this company also needs to be made fully professional and non-political. This has been a demand of the majority in Parliament.

In the case of the State Planning Secretariat (SPS) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the decision by the majority in the National Assembly was based on the recommendation of the Auditor General. The Ministry has for years been advised to make organizational changes, so that these two agencies and their accounts are properly located.

SPS was scrapped many years ago and the staff should have been absorbed into the Ministry of Finance (MOF) at that time. The Minister said that they are in the process of doing this. The majority is seeking to ensure that he does not again forget. It is to be completed during this year and the agency is not to be used to fund emoluments of persons whose employment and salaries they wish to hide.

CANU is charged with customs and drug interdiction. It should not be classified as a local agency or NGO outside of the Ministry of Finance!!!! That classification is a device intended to enable the Government to have the managers of the entity politically appointed and not answerable to the Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) or the Police.

Here again we have the case of the PPP Government politicizing key agencies by populating them with inappropriate persons and similarly having them supervised at an operational level by Ministers and their political cronies as happens with Community Policing Groups. Such persons have no right giving instructions based on political expediency and extraneous considerations, to public officials dealing with the law and civil rights.

It should be emphasized that in neither the SPS nor CANU case should competent and qualified staff be sent home. The Auditor General did not take a decision to close the SPS. That was a decision of the PPP Government.

The AG’s recommendations require that institutional arrangements be made appropriate.

The APNU and AFC seek nothing else.

The position of the APNU regarding Amaila Falls was set out in the Shadow Spokesman’s Budget statement. He cited widespread concern about the absence of feasibility studies, the signing of contracts before finance has been obtained, arrangements for the financing of the project and most importantly the likely price at which electricity is to be delivered under the proposed regime.

No clear information is available on how SITHE Global is to come by de facto equity in the venture and why it is also to be the consultant/developer. What has the Government done about this apparent conflict of interest, for example? Contrary to the statement made by the President, neither the management contract for Sithe Global nor that for Atlantic Hotels Inc has been provided to members of the National Assembly. Both are

crucial if a full assessment of this and the other projects is to be made. The Government therefore need not pretend that all the dots are in place save for the irresponsibility of the majority in Parliament.

The process they have been pursuing is regarded as irresponsible in every well run state.

As for the claim that the interests of the Indigenous People (AI) have been undermined by the action in cutting the budget for the LCDS under which the Hydro has been placed: first the projects were grouped in this manner to silence the Opposition into supporting the project. They were expected to be too embarrassed to criticize projects directed to the AI community.

In fact, as Sidney Allicock pointed out in his statement in support of the motion, money was provided for land titles in the past and that exercise remains to be satisfactorily completed. Indeed, in many instances the AI communities were dissatisfied with the loss of control over significant segments of the lands apparently allocated to them.

This complaint points to the heart of the problem with the three projects, the refusal of the PPP government to properly consult with AI communities through the agreed mechanisms. They supplanted these with their own on grounds that the community process was taking too long. So the Minister supplanted the Toshao and met with some communities directly in an attempt to bully them.

This is one of the reasons why the Government has not won clearance for funds to be either approved or disbursed.

Furthermore, the unusual arrangement the Minister of Finance (MOF) put in place for this project needs to be noted. He has budgeted for the project as though it is entirely locally funded. Cutting the funds therefore will not affect implementation as long as the foreign funds arrive.

Why then is he making such a fuss? The reason is that the GOG is trying to bully the World Bank (IBRD), the UNDP and the IDB into releasing the funds although the GOG has not satisfied all the conditions for disbursement. They argue that if the National Assembly, which includes many AI leaders, passes the project how could these multilateral agencies insist on more consultation?

This is why the PPP MPs were in such frenzy during the debate on Mr. Greenidge’s motion. The term bullyism has been employed by the MOF in discussing the actions of the majority in the National Assembly. He should know. It applies to PPP behaviour towards AI and the MFIs. Most importantly, in view of this situation and of all the hype over the importance of the project as a transformative factor, it is surprising that the multilateral agencies working on behalf of the Norwegians, do not seem much interested in meaningful consultation with the non-state actors, let alone the majority in the National Assembly.

They like the GOG also need to wake up and smell the coffee!

This is after all a Minority government.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

We are pleased to feature this week Herstelling, East Bank Demerara girl Tiffany, 20. A model who has entered beauty pageants before, Tiffany holds a diploma in business studies and is currently pursuing her goal of becoming a marketing executive.

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MONOPOLY ECONOMICS Let us presume that you intend to buy a house and that you take a decision to go to the bank to secure a loan to purchase this house.

The bank inquires of you how you intend to repay the loan, and you answer that you intend to do so from your monthly salary.

What happens if the bank then tells you that they cannot give you the loan because the money that you are supposed to make in order to pay them back is not yet in your possession?

You will ask yourself just what nonsense is the bank saying, and you may try to explain to the bank that you will pay them in monthly installments as you get your monthly salary.

But the bank insists that since you have not yet received your salaries for each month, then you cannot have the loan. Does the position of the bank make sense? It surely does not.

Neither does the AFC’s explanation as to why it cut eighteen billion dollars from the budget because the money which was earned from Norway has not yet been received. What sort of ridiculous position is this?

Why did the AFC, using the same logic, not then tell the Minister of Finance that in relation to the country’s external debt servicing that they will not approve the scheduled debt servicing, since they do not know whether he will end up paying this debt service.

Why did they not tell the government that they cannot approve expenditures for the respective ministries because all the revenues for the country have not yet been collected? All the revenues that the government intends to collect this year have obviously not yet been collected. Yet, parliament has voted as to how it is going to spend its collectibles, has it not?

So if government has not yet collected all the revenues, but the opposition has voted as to how these revenues are to be spent for the rest of the year, what prevented the AFC from voting on the use of the eighteen billion dollars which is supposed to be coming from Norway for specified purposes?

Why not approve of it and end the matter?

Obviously the government cannot spend what it does not

have, and if the money comes later in the year, it will have to spend it according to what the parliament would have approved.

There is therefore no credible explanation that the AFC or APNU can adduce as to why they blocked the spending of the Norway Funds. The only plausible reason is that this was all part of their plan to show that they now have power and that they can use this power to sow confusion.

Even more ridiculous was the situation in which the government was questioned

by APNU as to why the funds from Norway were not represented as a foreign inflow.

Well, this question could have been answered by any first-year economic student.

It could not be treated as a foreign inflow because it represents revenue that Guyana has earned through the sale of environmental services.

It seems that there is a miscomprehension within the opposition camp that Norway is somehow doling out these eighteen billion dollars to the people of Guyana. This is far from true, and anyone who

understands what the deal with Norway is about is not likely to make the mistake of assuming that it is some loan, grant or aid that Guyana is receiving. It is not.

Guyana is selling its environmental services to Norway in exchange for reducing deforestation, while ensuring certain environmental safeguards are in place.

Guyana has earned this money already under a novel plan which is the first of its kind in the world, and details of which are widely available on the worldwide web for

everyone to read.

It is like Guyana selling something and receiving payment. But because it is being sold by the government, parliament has to decide how the money is to be spent. But parliament is saying that we are not going to approve the spending until the money gets here.

This could actually cause problems for Guyana, because if the World Bank, which is administering the release of the funds, does not see consent by our national parliament approving the use of the funds, it may not

release it if the agreement with Norway provides for parliamentary approval before funds are released.

So it seems as if the opposition was just playing a game. Except that when you are dealing with eighteen billion dollars, this is no time to play monopoly.

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Kaieteur News

Mohammed ‘Imran’ Inshan

Kidnap victim Paul Kirton (right) and one of his abductors watch as a police rank seaches the car that was used in the crime Sunday Special RAMSAMMY BLAMES EU FOR $4B BAILOUT OF GUYSUCO Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, sought to defend the $4B bailout for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) two Fridays ago and blamed the European Union, as well as the movement in exchange rates between the Euro and US dollar. The House, at the time, had resolved itself into the Committee of Supply for the third day to consider the estimates for the Agriculture Ministry.

The bailout for GuySuCo is represented in the budget estimates as a subsidy from the Agriculture Ministry. Dr Ramsammy told the House that the releases will be from the Finance Ministry and will be utilized to meet operational expenses.

The subject Minister said that there is no clear programme earmarked to be financed from the $4B and rather it will be but part of the

pool of resources to meet “operational expenses.” He told the House that GuySuCo had signaled that in terms of its budget it is likely to face a deficit this year, “and the Government has signaled its intention to support GuySuCo by meeting the projected deficit.”

death of a 29 year-old miner at Chinese Creek, Puruni.

According to reports, 29 year-old Travis De Souza of 13 Section ‘C’ Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, died at his mining camp early last week Saturday morning after being chopped about his body by four men who had invaded his camp.

Tuesday Edition KIDNAPPED VICTIM RESCUED, COPAMONG FOURARRESTED Excellent work by members of a police mobile patrol Monday evening resulted in the rescue of a Berbice man who was abducted Monday morning in the Ancient County and held in a house at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.

Paul Kirton, 28, must have been extremely elated to see the police after hours of being held against his will by four men and a woman.

Four of the abductors, including a policeman have been arrested, while the search is on for the other one who made good his escape shortly before the police confronted the gang. The woman professed innocence, telling investigators that she just happened to be the owner of the house where the abducted man was taken, unknown to her.

The entire incident stemmed from a drug deal that went sour. Kirton told investigators that he and a business partner had purchased some marijuana from two of the suspects and had paid them with raw gold.

It turned out that what he claimed was raw gold was in fact copper. This angered the marijuana suppliers who later contacted him and threatened to kill him if he did not come up with the real payment for the herb they had supplied.

But before Kirton could make a move, the drug dealers, including the policeman, swooped down on his Berbice hideout and grabbed him. He told police that he was handcuffed by the policeman and bundled into a car which headed to the city.

He claimed that throughout the journey to the city the men kept threatening to kill him and he had to “burst his brains” to find a way out of the situation.

HYDROCLAVE COSTS $207M

Sunday April 29, 2012

– KEITH BURROWES The Health Sector Development Unit (HSDU) is contending that there is no discrepancy in the cost of the Georgetown Public Hospital’s (GPHC’s) hydroclave system which was approved by the World Bank and the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.

Executive Director of the Unit, Keith Burrowes, in a statement, said that the figures are consistent with costs provided by the named supplier – Johs GramsHanssen A/S of Denmark.

The total amount which also included an additional G$15 million subsequently given to GPHC to complete the project (including a shed to accommodate the hydroclave system) totalled U S $ 1 , 0 2 3 , 8 3 6 (G$206,814,958), according to Burrowes. The cost of the facility has fluctuated over a period of weeks.

Wednesday Edition VENDORACCIDENTALLY SHOT IN LEG BY COP A Corriverton market vendor is now a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital awaiting crucial surgery to remove a bullet in his left leg after he was accidentally shot Tuesday by ranks in plain clothes attached to the Springlands Police Station.

When Kaieteur News visited the man in the Male Surgical Ward at the hospital, he was surrounded by family members including his wife and son, who are trying to come to grips with the fact that the sole breadwinner of the household might not be able to regain the use of his leg in the near future.

Mohammed ‘Imran’ Inshan, 32, was doing some construction work on the new home he was building for his family at Number 77 Housing Scheme when, at about 11:30am, a group of four policemen (dressed in civilian clothes) emerged from a police vehicle.

It had been previously observed that a man from the area was “behaving bad on the road” and the man, who reportedly attacked a family member of his, summoned the police. One of the police officers fired a shot at the man but hit Inshan instead.

Thursday Edition CHINESE VICE PREMIER WAVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPARKED CJIA EXPANSION – SAYS ROBESON BENN “We had to enter into an agreement because we had a very narrow window in September where a Chinese Vice Premier came to the Caribbean with several billion dollars to fund projects and it was the only opportunity we had then to fund this undertaking. “It was the only undertaking then and we had a particular line of documentation and information ready. We were able to take advantage and make use of that funding which would have gone elsewhere if we had not done what we had to do.”

Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, made these comments while explaining the expansion of the runway of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and the construction of a new terminal. His comments came as the airport was observing its 10th anniversary since it became a Corporation.

OPPOSITION GOUGES $2.2B FROM BUDGET A total of $2.2B was cut from the budget on Wednesday, following a breakdown of talks at the Office of the President between Opposition Parties and Head of State Donald Ramotar on the passage of the 2012 Budgetary Estimates the opposition made good on its threat to make sweeping cuts to allocations.

“They have chosen their path let them take the burden (Continued on page 37)

Monday Edition MINER CHOPPED TO DEATH IN PURUNI BACKDAM

DEAD: 29-year-old Travis De Souza Police have detained a man following the hacking to

Finance Minister (arrow indicates) addressing the House

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Ravi Dev Column

Delayed Gratification and Youths Over the past few weeks as I listened to the back and forthing on the budget, I remembered thinking while I used to be there, how easy it is to forget that in the end, the whole point about governmental interventions is to empower citizens to take charge of creating their own success.

To focus, even with the best of intentions, on the fact that just giving handouts is to further sap our selfreliance.

Last week we spoke of the gradual diffusion into other cultural groups of the Creole trait to be, in the words of former President Desmond Hoyte, “constantly preoccupied with the exigencies of the moment.”

He claimed this was, “one of the most pernicious consequences of slavery.”

He’d continued, “And so, lacking a social motive, he developed no interest in, or aptitude for, making long term arrangements. Moreover, the colonial polity which

For the next few days there will be many road accidents. The most horrific will occur at the rate of one a day because the roads are jammed with cars and because the police have not been as rigid as they should in granting licences.

In addition, the car importers are capitalising on the lax importation laws that allow them to import wrecked vehicles, some of which should never be on the roads. These fall apart after a few thumps. An inspection after an accident will reveal that they were sub-standard from the start.

succeeded the era of slavery did not provide the former slave and his descendants with significantly greater incentive or opportunity for cultivating these pursuits.

Thus, there persists in our society, even to this day, a reluctance to focus too intently on the future.”

This attitude is one of the major fetters of our development both in terms of our national and individual stunted growth. The question we posed was whether we have to accept this as our lot and suggested that the answer was “no!” We can do no worse than ask how the attitude of hedonistically living for the moment was inculcated in us.

It certainly wasn’t genetically imprinted! It was socially constructed, and therefore it can also be socially deconstructed and replaced with attitudes that foster the willingness to plan and work for the future.

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting we resort to

whips and the rack – but rather, the same institution the ex-slaves were herded through after slavery for their socialisation – the schools and other educational institutions.

While we might have rectified some (but certainly not all) of the debilitating premises of our post-slavery schooling that continued to hegemonise our minds into the last half a century, even Desmond Hoyte did not develop his insight into a programme to reverse the debilitating trait he discerned.

As such, our schools are almost exclusively concerned, especially at the younger ages, with developing children’s cognitive skills.

Now there is nothing wrong with this in and of itself: studies have shown consistently that there is an unequivocal and unambiguous correlation between cognitive ability and later success in life.

But we often find that even the willingness to

** The suppliers of electricity are going to be caught in a bind. They have decided to make a serious effort to curb the spate of commercial losses only to find that there are people in their ranks. As fast as they attack

an area where there is a lot of electricity theft there will be those among them who will with equal alacrity reinstall the illegal connections.

But there is going to be a break when an official actually hears an employee telephoning a community with a warning that a raid is underway. ** Another bottom-house abortion will end in a fatality.

Again, the police would be reluctant because of the futility in securing testimonies to gain a conviction.

develop cognitive skills, or in parents, to promote such skills in their children, are themselves dependent on the willingness to look beyond the present and into the future. And crucial to moving from the cramped and crabbed present into a liberating future of economic, academic and other measures of success, is the ability of children to control their impulses and delay gratification.

And if we think about it, it was this quality that enabled the immigrant groups that were brought into Guyana to move ahead of the Creoles.

Interestingly, when those same Creoles went to, say the US as immigrants - imbued with the attitude of controlling impulses and delaying gratification they outstripped the native descendants of slaves there.

It might not be all in the mind – but that has a lot to do with it.In most instances these successful individuals were able to bootstrap their way upwards through imitating the habits of other successful

individuals and groups. But we don’t have to allow the process to be based on “luck and chance”.

Studies have shown that when youths are placed in self-control situations in a structured manner and allowing them to experience the potentially negative consequences of impulsive behaviour, they will increase their ability to delay gratification. The same goes for teaching them the benefits of a future time perspective.

There are now programmes out there to impart future thinking.

While all children can benefit from this kind of training – and this is what I have been engaged with since I have left the political arena to work with youths – with our scarce resources, it may be best to identify and begin with youths that exhibit low self-control and are therefore suffer the greatest risk of ending up as ‘failures”.

As the authors of the study that prompted this refection suggest: “Because

Ravi Dev

children from disadvantaged backgrounds often score low on self-control ability, and may also be those for which parents may least be able to promote these skills, interventions as part of the formal education may therefore serve distributional purposes.

Instead of redistributing (economic) outcomes later in life, such early interventions allow children from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop better self-control skills. In this way, it is possible to redistribute along the whole spectrum of life outcomes, including outcome categories that are otherwise hard to redistribute, like health, occupational skills, and education.”

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

The hunt for the claw-hammer killer

By Michael Jordan It was pitch-black, cold and raining heavily when the men entered the track off the Soesdyke/Linden highway.

The rain-soaked group included armed police ranks, led by homicide boss, Michael Marks, and an informant who had promised to lead them to a dangerous fugitive who always seemed to be one step ahead of the lawmen.

They hoped that the rainfall would muffle the sound of their approach, and that this time around, they would get the man some US reporters had dubbed the claw-hammer killer.

They could just as well have called him the Halloween murderer.

The story began on October 30, 1990, in Saginaw County, in the state of Michigan. Bertha Aldridge, 18, and George Bowles, 23, were in the Perry Drug Store, where they worked, when a man with a claw-hammer attacked them. The hammerwielding attacker struck Aldridge and Bowles repeatedly in their heads.

Harold Epting, a 61-yearold employee, reportedly heard a woman’s screams and on investigating, saw his two mortally wounded colleagues on the floor. The man with the hammer then attacked Epting, but although injured, Epting managed to escape.

The intruder allegedly then removed US$40 from the cash register and fled the scene.

A post mortem would show that Bertha Aldridge had sustained 19 ‘bashing-in blows’ which punctured her skull. Her colleague, George

…he led cops on a chase from the US to the Soesdyke/Linden backlands

Steven King (centre) being escorted by detectives Bowles, was struck six times.

He also suffered a broken jaw and died of cardiac arrest caused by brain damage.

Epting and another eyewitness identified the killer as 30-year-old Steven King.

King, a Guyanese by birth, was also a former US paratrooper, who was employed as a cashier and stock worker at the same drug store where the killings had occurred.

But King was nowhere to be found. Police in the US received information which suggested that the suspect had fled to his homeland.

They contacted their counterparts in Guyana.

The local cops got word that Steven King was hiding out at relatives in Grove, East Bank Demerara.

The detectives staked out two houses in the community.

They learned that the fugitive had indeed been around, but, apparently tipped off, had fled. But just as the trail appeared to be getting cold, they learned from an informant that King was hiding out in the vast backlands off the Soesdyke/ Linden Highway.

According to the informant, some of the suspect’s relatives were supplying him with meals.

Police had another stroke of

luck when they arrested a male cousin of King’s. The man confessed that King had a hideout in a denselyforested area off the highway.

He finally agreed to take the hunting party there. However, he warned that the ex-soldier they were tracking had an uncanny ability to detect the slightest of sound in the jungle.

At nightfall, in almost total darkness, the informant led detective Michael Marks and his team down a meandering trail, in which an occasional snake was picked out by flashlight. Finally, they came upon a small clearing in which a cot had been set up.

A man was lying on the cot.

He appeared to be fast asleep.

While one man guarded the reluctant informant, four other ranks pounced upon the sleeping man, who awoke with a scream. The captive was Steven King. A search of the camp revealed several months’ supply of canned food.

During the ensuing months, King waged a battle in the High Court to avoid extradition. But in April 1992, handcuffed and flanked by armed policemen, Steven King was taken aboard a USbound flight to face trial for murder and robbery.

During the trial, 61-yearold survivor Harold Epting testified that King was the individual who had attacked him. Denying this, King said that he saw Epting between two men in ski-masks. He alleged that one of the men

struck Epting with a tyre iron, while the other, who had a claw-hammer, kicked the elderly man as he lay on the floor. The accused also claimed that the hammer was knocked from the man’s hand as he fled with his accomplice.

King claimed that Epting’s spectacles had fallen off, and that he handed the man his glasses and Epting then left the store.

According to the accused, he then went to the storeroom and saw the bodies of Aldridge and Bowles. King claimed that he didn’t go to the police because he knew that no one would believe him.

The accused also denied telling investigators ‘I killed two people in 20 seconds and I can kick your (expletive) too.’

According to King, what he had in fact said was: ‘How can you say that I killed two people in 20 seconds?’

King’s attorney also

suggested that the investigators had framed his client.

Testifying at his trial, King’s girlfriend described him as a hard worker who squirreled away his money.

She denied trying to assist in his escape.

On January 3, 1993, Steven King was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

If you have further information on this case or any other matter, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office or by telephone. We can be reached on telephone numbers 225-8465, 2258491, or 225-8458. You need not disclose your identity.

You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email a d d r e s s : mjdragon@hotmail.com.

PHOTO ERROR In last Sunday’s Murder and Mystery edition, we inadvertently identified a photo of Ms. Lavern Peters (who is very much alive) as that of murder victim Patricia James.

The photo was pulled from a group picture of the victim and her friends. We apologise to Ms. Peters for the mix-up.

SEEKING HELP TO LOCATE RELATIVES OF EIGHT CHILDREN KILLED BETWEEN 1969-1970 Michael Jordan is trying to contact relatives of eight children who were murdered between March 20, 1969 and June 1970, by Harrynauth Beharry, also known as Harry Rambarran, Charles Bissoon, Charles Pereira, Anant Persaud and Maka Anan.

Some of the victims are Basmattie, an eight-year-old schoolgirl from Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara. David Bacchus, 15, of Tucville, 11-year-old Mohamed Fazil Nasir, of Number 78 Village, Corentyne, Mohamed Faizal, of Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, Jagdeo Jagroop, Mohamed Nizam Ali; Paulton of Hogg Island, Essequibo; Orlando Guthrie, of Grove Village, East Bank Demerara.

Please contact him via his email address mjdragon@hotmail.com., or on telephone numbers 22-58458, 22-58465, or 22-58491. HeI can also be contacted on 6452447.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 23

== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

The first contract worker who got his termination letter To watch what was taking place in the historic year of 2012 in the month of April in Guyana was an act of brutal imagination gone wild on the moors of Wuthering Heights.

Was this theatre? Was it power preservation? Was it oligarchic insensitivity? Or was it early twentieth century European fascism enacted in a poor, post-colonial, banana republic where solipsism, incredulity and irony ran like larva in the streets of Georgetown after Nero’s psycho was transformed into a burning hypocrisy?

Speaker after speaker from the benches of Kafkaesque power pleaded to save the poor and ordinary. Exhorter after exhorter from their hotel suites in Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ asked to be saved.

Kings and Queens, drinking their pink champagne in Hotel California, implored that the doors to be opened to save a nation. The imagination trembled at the display of this crass, poisonous humanity that when stripped of its Halloween masks, showed the cruelty to which indecent humans can descend.

The 2012 budget debate

in a historic parliament will be remembered not so much for the bravery of a few gigantic souls from the opposition, but for the incredulous outpouring of life’s jaded fury of those whose minds have been destroyed by naked power, insane avarice and depraved egotism.

If anything flowed through the streets of Georgetown in the month of April 2012, it was the river of political psychosis in which a government that has destroyed a struggling country fought desperately to save their wealthy cocoons.

It was impossible to endure. Young men and women were hauled onto the roadways by these demonic beasts from Greek mythology and told to picket against those, patriotic gigantic souls that sought to save a country from the moneyed tentacles of these ancient Greek monsters. Coerced to denounce the AFC and APNU, the workers of NCN cannot be that stupid not to know their jailers from Freedom House were giving them the crumbs while the fat cats enjoy their multi-million-

dollar luxuries.

The Speaker of the House said to his Parliamentarians that he didn’t like that type of language. We in the media have our own lexicon.

Fat cat is a term that appears frequently in the dictionary of political competition. It refers to an employee that is paid a stupendous sum that he/she does not deserve.

As the economy of the US crashed two years ago, the fat cat allegation began to gain currency when the American people found out that their government was lending money to save bankrupt companies, but in the midst of the crises, the CEOs of these same troubled entities were collecting fat bonuses.

There are fat cats in Guyana and they are employed by the dinosaurs in Freedom House and the troglodytes in the PPP Government that had the temerity to tell ordinary citizens that their jobs were on the line, when the taking away of the fat cats’ pay can not only save NCN, but maybe Guyana itself.

Here is an example of the psychosis of power. From

$5M for advisory work in the Office of the President in 2011, that figure jumped to $142M in the 2012 poisoned chalice.

When a peep is made into the cup, a not so qualified relative of the residents of Hotel California gets $3M monthly as an advisor on information technology in the Office of the President. I have a nephew who would do that job for 90 percent less.

Do you know the first contract worker to lose his job before the psychosis of power was unleashed by the 2012 budget was me.

The official position of the Ministry of Labour and the University of Guyana was that I had a contract that could be legally terminated by the employer giving three

months’ salary in lieu of notice. I’m still waiting for the three months’ pay. And I am waiting to see if any of the picketers from NCN would mention the termination of the employment of this contract worker.

Could there be any nastier level of political bestiality when the intoxicators of power hauled off their employees to picket in the cruel, tropical sun to save one of the most despicable media houses in the world – the NCN? No one went over to the chief who was masquerading as a professional with his placard and asked him, “Sir, is there a difference between a private organization named the People’s Progressive Party and a nation named

Frederick Kissoon Guyana?”

The Freudian sycophancy in him would have forced him to say, “Sorry, there isn’t.” Under the PPP Government, the PPP is Guyana and Guyana is the PPP and NCN is the preacher of this uncivilized text.

How ironic, the solipsists now want to talk to the gigantic souls.

Page 24

By Enid Joaquin The Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited (LUSCSL) on Friday, last, hosted a symposium to highlight the origins, challenges and future of electricity generation and distribution in Linden, and more importantly, to discuss the very survival of LUSCSL, which is responsible for the distribution of electricity on the Wismar shore. The forum also sought to sensitize the public on energy consumption.

Among the panelists who made presentations were CEO of Linmine Horace James, Mr Steve Bovell, trade unionist Lincoln Lewis and Secretary of LUSCSL, Charles Sampson.

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Valerie Patterson, and a few board members were also present, as were staff of LUSCSL and important stakeholders, including Chairman of Region Ten, Sharma Solomon, and past chairman, Mortimer Mingo.

Steve Bovell, a former Senior Executive of GPL spoke at length on the history of power generation in Linden. He alluded to the amount of line loss at GPL which he said is about 40%.

“Linden on the other hand does not suffer that level of loss. There is no grid, so there is no physical interconnection, so talking about grid does not make sense. Linden can’t be in the national grid, as that was disconnected six years ago,” Bovell pointed out.

He opined that if consumption could be reduced to about 30%, that would allow for about $60 million a month in savings. He contended that whatever savings is accrued as a result of conservation, could be channeled towards

Kaieteur News

development and economic capacity.

Linmine CEO James, who highlighted several ways to conserve on electricity, advocated for a minimum 33% reduction in energy consumption.

Secretary Sampson, meanwhile, spoke of the history of the Coop, noting that the need for power in Wismar, is what ‘propelled’ the formation of the LUSCSL. Initially starting out with about 25 members, that number has grown to over 4000.

Sampson was also of the opinion that government is not doing enough to encourage conservation. He said that the administration should ban incandescent bulbs, and make energysaving bulbs available to citizens.

He added that it is important that “they put their money where their mouth is, and only then can we examine consumption patterns”.

LUSCSL Chairman Valerie Patterson and manager of the entity Esme Yangapatty reiterated that conservation must be looked at seriously.

Yangapatty said that LUSCSL had embarked on a conservation programme four years ago, but had not pursued that course as relentlessly as they should have. She promised that the programme will be reinstituted by way of educating consumers on the importance of conservation.

As regards the distribution licence, Yangapatty said, “We have to get our licence, LECI (Linden Electricity Company Incorporated) is only a couple of years old and they got theirs. We are over fifty years old, so we must get ours!”

LUSCSL has reportedly applied for their distribution licences at least five times,

Sunday April 29, 2012

The Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited celebrated its 50th year of existence in April 2010 and are yet to receive same.

Lincoln Lewis said that both Guyana Bauxite and Guyana Mine Workers Union want to see the preservation of LUSCSL. He suggested that the government’s intention to merge the electricity coop with LECI will deprive several staff of LUSCSL of their jobs. “ The union rejects any attempt to put workers on the breadline and commits to stand in solidarity with LUSCSL,” he declared.

Lewis pointed out that in the meantime, the government squanders money every month to rent a generator which is used by GPL. “Presently, the Guyana Power & Light Company Inc. (GPL) is asking the PUC to approve a 20 percent increase on electricity tariff throughout the country. As the government seeks to have consumers pay the 20 percent increase, it is has created the perfect storm to divide the nation, by painting the picture that Lindeners are selected for preferential treatment, while others are saddled with high rates.

The truth is the bauxite workers over the years have agreed, through Collective Bargaining between their unions and employers, to receive less wages/salaries in order that their deferred income can go towards investment, primarily in water and electricity.

It was the government who destroyed our sweat equity, took away, and continues to take away the people’s economic

independence, now they demand increase, fully aware that citizens are unable to pay.”

“The context within which Prime Minister Sam Hinds is using the 1976 electricity statement by then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, to justify a single supplier and electricity hike in Linden, is a total fabrication. The period he alludes to, the then bauxite company, GUYMINE, was producing excess electricity.

It was because of this excess supply, coupled with the national electricity expansion programme, the Burnham administration argued for the excess power being put into the national grid.

To this end, a sub-station was established off the Washer Pond, on Industrial Road, and power lines were run along the Linden/ Soesdyke highway feeding supplies into Georgetown and its environs. This is the backdrop to the issue, which Hinds is aware of, but chooses to be deceptive about.”

Lewis added that the Prime Minister’s reference of the government’s intent to “merge the supply area of Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Ltd. (LUSCSL) into Linden Electricity Company Inc (LECI),” is deserving of attention. He pointed out that the proposed merger poses a threat to the survival of LUSCSL. “The merger proposal not only seeks to destroy the ingenuity and economic self determination of a people but it will put these entrepreneurs and their loved ones on the

breadlines.

He said that he also found it disturbing that the “draconian” proposed increase had been decided upon without consultation with the people, which is a violation of their constitutional right to participate in national decision-making that impacts their wellbeing.

“It should be said that the government’s boast of subsiding electricity to Lindeners is an attempt to distort the truth behind their action. For their action is not one of benevolence or social welfare. The current electricity rate Lindeners pay is the result of the government’s decision to sell the bauxite operation, the non-renewable mineral resources, together with the workers’ sweat equity, for US$1. Sweat equity in trade union language speaks to a deferral of wages/payment for work done in return that such money be invested and benefits subsequently derived from said investment(s),” Lewis declared.

He further stated that Bauxite workers made upfront sacrifices by foregoing some of their earnings which was invested in areas of electricity and water. He added that apart from the destruction of their “sweat equity”, workers contributory pension and thrift plans were destroyed by the PPP government.

“This pension plan was worth in excess of $2.5 billion and was the single largest pool of money owned by Africans,” according to

Lewis. He pointed out that efforts by the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) to save this plan were ignored by the government.

Similarly, he said, government ignored requests to assist the industry with US $14m for retooling and bauxite workers securing ownership of the industry.

“Now LUSCL is targeted.

This company remains a symbol of hope and is among the last bastion of the collective economic will and power of a people,” Lewis said.

The members of the LUSCSL recently made a resolution that they will “resist resolutely, any action to nationalize, absorb or engage in any similar act which would remove ownership and control of the Linden Utility Services Cooperatives Society Limited from its membership.”

“We will also stoutly resist and reject in its entirety, any act by any agency or authority that seeks to remove the ability of the Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited to distribute power to our consumers at Wismar.”

This resolution was taken at a Special General Members Meeting on April 19th, 2012, at the Harmony Secondary School, Burnham Drive, Wismar.

The LUSCSL meeting was called a mere two days after Lindeners staged protests to proclaim their dissatisfaction over the proposed electricity hike for the town.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 25

My column

The budget cuts will not have the proclaimed impact

I have heard a lot about the budget cuts. I have also seen the spin put on the situation. I have seen the emotions on both sides of the table and most of all, I have seen the likely fallout from a serious challenge to the government about whatever the government feels very serious about.

Last week I got the distinct impression that the budget would have been passed without any major disruption, because President Donald Ramotar had met with A Partnership for National Unity and had reached an agreement of sorts. Then I learnt that the agreement was not what it should be.

What I do know is that there has been a flexing of muscles on both sides of the National Assembly. The government was saying that it was in the leadership seat and that it was going to lead at all costs; that it would not accept anything less.

The opposition then said that it had the power to make the government think twice and that it was going to use that power. The end result was some budget cuts, the first time in the history of the National Assembly in independent Guyana.

The cuts having been made, I now hear of possible job cuts. This I find rather unusual, because all my years covering the parliamentary beat, I have learnt that whenever there are budgetary shortfalls ,the government simply goes back to the National Assembly for supplementary votes.

Three entities hit by the cuts happen to be the National Communications Network (NCN), the Government Information Agency (GINA) and the entities attached to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). I have said that the cuts to the NCN are meaningless, and I am in a position to say so because I am in the communication business.

On Friday I learnt that

NCN was a private sector entity. This means that it must operate as a private entity in the same way the other private media entities operate.

It must go out and solicit advertisement, and produce programmes that would attract an audience.

I also know that it received millions if not billions of dollars in equipment from foreign agencies, not least among them the Chinese, when the other private entities had to dig into their pockets to buy whatever equipment they needed. I also know that Prime Minister Sam Hinds, when asked about the liberalisation of the radio, said that it could not be done, because NCN would not have been able to compete with private radio stations.

Reason would dictate that if an entity was incapable of competing ,despite the millions of dollars it gets from central government and with the multi-million-dollar donations from foreign agencies, then that entity needs to go to the wall.

To reinforce my contention, the administrators of NCN said that they gross in excess of $500 million a year - five times what any other private media entity grosses. If the other media entities can survive, why can’t NCN without a subvention that the company said was less than ten per cent of its revenue?

But I happened to see NCN workers protesting that they are being put on the bread line.

Then there is GINA. I can understand the reasoning that people should not give a knife to someone to cut the donor’s throat. For more than fifteen years I have heard the political opposition saying that GINA has never shown any inclination to open its doors to the political opposition. Why should the opposition fund an entity that cares nothing about it?

I worked with the Ministry of Information which did the same job GINA was supposed to do. That Ministry served the government, the political opposition, and the wider community alike. Those who were around then can attest to this. The Ministry of Information justified whatever money it got from the government.

And there is the LCDS programme. As I understand it, the money from the government was a loan, until there was the drawdown from the funds given to the country by Norway. Guyana has been asked to do certain things to access this money, but after two years it is still to access one cent. Certainly the government has not been doing what it should.

Last year there was a $13 billion allocation, on loan until the funds come. This year there was an $18 billion allocation. The opposition parties have simply said that the government should get the Norway money. This makes sense.

If the government is made to work for money due to it, then there would be some serious move to draw down the money. There would have been no $18 billion cut had the government gone after money due to it from the Norway fund.

The cut by the opposition has lit a fire under the government. The spinners are talking about the one laptop programme and the halt to this programme. I see it another way. There are some 40,000 laptops in the society. Surely the private sector would take pride in making this programme work.

When last I checked, after installing the necessary facilities, and after one year free service to every laptop owner, whoever provided the internet service stood to rake in $45 million every month.

Any private sector entity would make the investment.

And the government has said a lot about empowering the private sector.

Providing solar panels to the Amerindian communities is already underway. There is money in the system already for the continuation of this programme. I cannot understand all the talk about this programme being halted.

And in any case, once the government collects the US$70 million ($14 billion) that is already there and about to get bigger, these projects would be in heaven.

President Donald Ramotar said that the Amaila Falls project would be affected. I do not see how.

Contractors are already

working feverishly to complete the road and the foreign investors are about to complete the financial deal— although I must admit that this has taken longer than usual.

We saw the allocation of funds from the budget to ‘Fip’ Motilall, and we now see how we wasted money.

And the nation is aware of the fantastic sums being paid from the same public treasury to people who do precious little. One foreigner recruited, spoke of earning close to a million dollars a month for doing squat. But the sums to continue such spending were passed.

If only there could have been a redistribution of such funds then there would not have been all these crocodile tears.

Adam Harris Anyhow, I have got the impression that President Ramotar is prepared to return to the polls. If he wins a majority then there can be the continued splurge. If he loses, nothing more needs to be said. But for now I am convinced that the cuts will change nothing especially since there is always recourse to the supplementary funds.

Page 26

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

“Countries are not poor because they don’t have resources.

Countries are poor because they have corruption.”

NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK (NCN) The national spectrum is a national asset. It is not the property of any group, class political party or ideology.

Similarly the management of this national asset should be effected in a manner that is fair, transparent, equitable and accommodating of the diversity that is Guyana.

The dissemination of ideas and concepts on development ought to benefit from the cross fertilization of various views from across the political, social, economic and educational divide.

The manner in which NCN and its predecessor have discharged their duties as a national television station for the past twenty years can only be described as the most partisan, one-sided political propaganda outfit.

Despite the several and varied criticisms and recommendations over the two decades of its existence, GTV and NCN have

consistently ignored the pleas for balance and less bias in their reporting and coverage of national events as well as discussions on development.

In a word, the position adopted by NCN is and was at all times “It’s our view or no view at all.”

Well the chickens, as they always do, have come home to roost.

Over the last two weeks, Guyana radically changed the course of its history. Through gruelling debates, lots of cussing down, heckling and disrespectful taunts, Guyana’s tenth Parliament approved over twenty billion dollars in rigorous budget cuts!

But put aside the political rhetoric that the government has been shouting from every rooftop and every government-run or supported media outlet, and you realise that the People of Guyana continue to speak, and their message can be heard in the quiet corners of the street loudly and clearly.

How easily we forget that the People of Guyana voted for “change” last November 28th and change is what we are finally getting.

A change in the traditional ways of doing things, when the budget debates were just a routine procedure and a few would decide the fate of many.

The ayes always had it.

The government’s recently discovered “dictatorship of one” and their lamentations about their loss of power speak volumes about their previous practices in parliament and the issue of consultation and compromise.

The people through their representatives have spoken again with these recent readjustments and it’s good to remind us of the Guyanese reality.

A national station, funded by state MUST guarantee fair and equitable access for all segments of society as guaranteed in Article 146(1) of the Constitution of Guyana, but

NCN has as far back as the 2006 General and Regional elections, denied the AFC access to this national asset.

The AFC has over the years sent advertising to be placed on NCN, quite willing to pay all charges.

However, with the exception of a music video aired on NCN last elections, they have consistently refused to air these ads during the 2006 and 2011 elections.

In fact in 2006, the AFC attempted to pay in advance to have some commercial aired in Linden, only to have the cheque returned by NCN. Three days ago we were happy to learn that the NCN earned over $508 million in advertising revenues in 2011, guaranteeing more than enough funds to operate efficiently and to pay the staff of both GINA and NCN, without sending anyone home.

We were informed that 90% of NCN’s revenues were generated from advertising.

Only manageriallychallenged commercial entities would be unable to make adjustments for a 10% reduction in revenue without terminating staff members.

Have the wailing members of NCN asked to see the

balance sheet of the company, and examined its reserves and financial standing before falling for management’s argument about massive job losses?

Maybe they have been in the business of propaganda too long and might have inadvertently lost the power of critical analysis.

They certainly do not need taxpayers’ money.

After all, NCN is a NATIONAL asset. NOT a GOVERNMENT asset and must be made to serve in the best interest of all the people and not only do government propaganda, and must be reformed and made to serve in the best interest of all the Guyanese people, Isn’t it ironic that despite the apparent shock and haemorrhage claimed to have been suffered by NCN and their employees by the announcement of the budget cuts, not once did NCN find it possible, in their several panel discussions, roadside interviews, and vox pop, to interview any member of the opposition or invite them to share their view on the cuts or explain the reason for it.

The views of the fifty-two percent are not worthy of dissemination by NCN. In

popular parlance “They just don’t get it”.

ALLEGED CONSULTATION Over the last week several frantic meetings have been held – bilateral APNU and the Government and the good old tripartite arrangement . Hours talking and dashing up and down, but the egos on the government side rose high and on not one issue could “compromise” be found.

It must be noted that had the PPP acceded to the numerous requests of the combined opposition to meet months before the budget hearing, the controversy facing us all would never have materialised.

But the farce of it all is that with rampant corruption gracing our headlines every day for years, substandard road projects, collapsing wharves and more, it is clear that the government does not care.

President Ramotar shares that if VAT was reduced, only the rich would benefit, forgetting we would all have shoes, clothing and more for our children to wear to buy every day. Instead of granting relief to many with a reduction in VAT, the President (Continued on page 38)

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 27

Is the cooperative movement in Guyana dying?

By Dale Andrews After several years, the cooperative movement in Guyana has come under renewed focus, with new Labour Minister Dr. Nanda Kishore Gopaul pledging to revamp the sector with a view to returning it to its viable state.

Within the past few weeks, a few cooperative societies has been under the radar. The Guyana Defence Force Co-op Society is facing financial difficulties, and there have been challenges to

the organizational structure and running of the Paradise Multi-Purpose Coop Society (PMCS) just to name a few.

Add that to the collapse of a few others, with persons losing significant sums of money, the situation is not too rosy for the sector under which Guyana was supposed to develop.

In an effort to encourage debate, this newspaper sat down with Patrick Mentore, who can in some ways be considered an advocate for the movement, to gain a better perspective on cooperatives in Guyana.

Kaieteur News (KN): We have been following your comments and suggestions in our letter columns, particularly as they relate to the Paradise Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society of which you are a member. Tell us why this high level of interest or - if you may, this passionate advocacy for community improvement or development in the Paradise Housing Scheme?

Patrick Mentore (PM): It is interesting that you describe my efforts as passionate, but I have been a member of the PMCS since 1995; the Society was registered on April 25, 1995.

However during the past several months, I became acutely aware of the need for a community meeting place as evidenced by the large number of young children

- A two-part interview with Patrick Mentore, Community Advocate Paradise Housing Scheme playing on the roadways; the apparent aimlessness and – I dare say apathy of the youths; and the absence of programmes aimed at addressing the social and other needs of young and old alike.

This feeling was bolstered by an initiative aimed at community development and cooperation which was

sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Local Government and UNDP. I guess you can say that I am guilty of ignoring these manifestations of a community without direction, except to say that I assumed that all was well and that the well-being of the community was a priority. Sad to say on that count I have been proven wrong.

KN: You have in your letters pointed to mismanagement of the Society’s affairs. Would you care to elaborate?

PM: The PMCS emerged through the efforts of one Dazzell, and had as its registered address Lot 8 Paradise, East Coast Demerara. It is perhaps noteworthy that early allegations of fiscal impropriety and mismanagement led to the emergence of several factions which assumed arbitrary control over the area governed by the PMCS. In fact these several factions sometimes operated simultaneously, resulting in a “Wild West” situation which has not been totally eradicated to this day. I know of at least one instance where a member died of a heart attack after being confronted by another “owner” of the land and building (under construction) that he had already paid for from a loan secured from the

Dependant’s Pension Fund.

The strident calls for government intervention by a few of the more vocal members resulted in the Society attracting the attention of the Chief Cooperatives Development Officer (CCDO), Kareem Abdul Jabar under the Cooperatives Societies Regulations Section 56 (2)

during 2003. It is perhaps instructive that among the said few are those who now would accept change for nothing.

KN: Recently there have been claims of irregularities in the conduct of business of several cooperative and friendly societies. In this regard, what if anything has the CCDO-imposed PMCS management arrangement, albeit since 2003, achieved?

PM: In all fairness, persons have been able to secure their land titles; but not before being forced into paying off their indebtedness to the Society which is also the subject of some major disagreements, since it is claimed that an increase from $43,500 to $143,500 inclusive of member shares and contribution for infrastructure works, was arbitrary and not sanctioned by the general membership.

I am subject to correction, but I am unaware if minutes exist of the meeting where that position was proposed and resolved by way of voting. I have taken a very public position that not very many members can fork over the sum demanded before their land titles can be processed.

I am on record as suggesting that the Society which is more than one individual, including even the CCDO, should be prepared to assist its members to the point where they can secure loans

from financial institutions; these suggestions have largely fallen on deaf ears.

As a matter of fact at a Special General Meeting held on March 18, 2012, the Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul offered his personal assistance to members desirous of going the mortgage route. I am not sure if his offer has been disseminated to members or if it has been taken up. The main road has been resurfaced and patched since 2006 and secondary roads extending from First Street to Thirteenth Street can now accommodate light vehicular traffic. It should be said that a few streets were constructed through private contacts. Another feature has been the installation of street lights through the finances provided by residents, outside of the sum paid for shares and infrastructure, and funds from the Society’s accounts. One concern I have expressed is that we, the members, have no guarantee of value received for money since there has been no prior public information on projects where the expertise of residents with technical know-how could be tapped into.

KN: Surely this cannot be so difficult to ascertain since the Society would have been having regularly scheduled meetings to update the membership in addition to annual general meetings.

Isn’t that so?

PM: Again I am subject to correction, but I am not aware of an annual general meeting by the PMCS from 2004 to date. What I can most definitely say is that the CCDO called a meeting which was held on Sunday October 1, 2011, where he admitted that although he had intended to call a meeting at some point, my public comments made it imperative that a meeting be held.

However, an audited financial report was not presented as required by Section 58 of the CRS, neither was there information shared with regard to Section 59 of the CRS, which speaks of contributions to the Audit and Supervision Fund - there is no idea of the share capital value, except a reference to a bank balance of just over six million dollars. But, and I think that this is an important point, meetings in the past have been characterized by a degeneration into acrimony, with allegations and counter allegations which have only served to divide the people. I

believe that this divisiveness, with no discernible effort at reconciliation by the governing body, permitted many undesirable things to slip through the cracks unnoticed.

KN: So from your vantage point, it seems as if the affairs of the PMCS have not been conducted according to the strict requirements of the CRS. Could it be that under Section 56 (2), which you cited previously, the Society was not bound by those regulations?

PM: I hesitate to accept that the drafters of those regulations intended for any person or persons mandated to manage any cooperative society under Section 56(2) to perform without adherence to the basic principles of a cooperative society over a protracted period of in excess of eight years, and with no regard to the rules for that particular Society, in this case the PMCS. While we are on that aspect, at the meeting on March 18 this year, the Minister of Labour gave his commitment for a forensic audit of the PMCS by a reputable company. It would be interesting to see the terms of reference for that audit.

KN: What to your mind should the terms of reference for a comprehensive audit exercise examine? What would be among the elements

Chief Cooperative Development Officer Kareem Abdul Jabar

Labour Minister Dr. Nanda Kishore you would look at if you were to arrive at an opinion on the PMCS state of affairs?

PM: I have no pretensions to in-depth accounting or auditing knowledge, but I will try to answer your question if we are talking of determining the accountability and transparency of the way things were being done over the years.

In addition to financial records, including statements of affairs (income, expenditure, assets and liabilities) several documents would have to be presented including (i) the Society’s rules and all amendments; (ii) the Cooperative Societies Act and Regulations Chapter 88:01; (iii) minutes of all meetings of the Society; (iv) a verifiable register of members (their addresses, date of registration of membership, and status of land whether land is titled or occupied); (v) list of persons assigned to manage the affairs of the Society; (vi) minutes of all meetings of management; (vii) a register showing the location of all the Society’s properties; (viii) an inventory of all other assets of the Society and their location; (ix) transfers of house lots and shares as sanctioned by the Society; and (x) membership applications.

If it exists a copy of the Society’s business plan should be presented.

(To be continued next week)

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Awareness of the new Sexual Offences - State Counsel Act is an imperative Although it has served to redefine rape, the new Sexual Offences Act, which became a reality a few years ago, even to date, remains flawed. This observation has been made

by State Counsel attached to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Konyo Sandiford.

However, despite the evident flaws, Sandiford said that the Act does not only cater to both the male and female genders, but it is one that does not require a whole plethora of requirements to bring matters before the court.

Nonetheless, she pointed out that since it is laden with defects “by the time you get to raise these flaws in court you could have gone through our penal system, which is in fact not a very nice one...”

In light of this, Sandiford is of the view that not only those within the legal system, but members of the public as

well, should seek to acquaint themselves with the Act. “You must learn about the new Sexual Offences Act because your son, for instance, could get into trouble just by being around somebody who cries rape. So you should go the internet and read it,” the State Counsel advised.

Referred to as the Sexual Offences Act 2010, the legislation could see a young man being charged just for being in the company of a young woman under the age of 16 who later makes an allegation of rape.

“Because rape has been redefined.... as any sort of touching which can be characterised as sexual touching, could see action being taken,” Sandiford pointed out.

Where the complainant in proceedings for an offence under this Act is under 16 years of age, no evidence

shall be adduced that the complainant has engaged in any sexual activity, with the accused or with any other person, other than the sexual activity that forms the subject matter of the charge. This is unless the Court determines in accordance with the procedure set out, that the evidence is of criminal sexual activity involving the complainant, and there is evidence of a conviction of a third party for this criminal sexual activity; is to be used to show that inappropriate sexual knowledge was not learnt from the accused, or that the complainant had a motive to lie; and is of facts sufficiently similar to the facts in issue to have significant relevance.

According to Sandiford, the law allows for even a mere allegation made by the young lady to compel the police to investigate and “once the matter is investigated and the

file is sent to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, there is almost always an obligation to charge.”

This move, according to the Act, is to allow the court, among other reasons, to take into account the interest of society in preventing child sexual abuse and the overriding duty of the court to protect child witnesses from inappropriate and traumatic questioning.

Further still, the Act has outlined that “Where a health worker treats a child and finds evidence that the child has been sexually abused, notwithstanding any law relating to medical confidentiality, the health worker shall report the suspected abuse to the police and keep a record of having done so.”

Moreover, in the case where a complainant is over the age of 16, among the factors that the court must consider in determining whether evidence is admissible under Section 79 of the Act, the court shall take into account: the interests of justice, including the right of the accused to make a full answer and defence; society’s interest in encouraging the reporting of sexual assault offences; whether there is a reasonable prospect that the evidence

will assist in arriving at a just determination in the case; the need to remove from the factfinding process any discriminatory belief or bias; the risk that the evidence may unduly arouse sentiments of prejudice, sympathy or hostility in the jury; the potential prejudice to the complainant’s personal dignity and right of privacy; the right of the complainant and of every individual to personal security and to the full protection and benefit of the law; and any other factor that the Court considers relevant.

However, Sandiford noted that all matters that came before May 24, 2007, are still among those that efforts must be made to prove sexual penetration.

“For these cases, if a girl is too young to know what is the penis or the vagina, we have the task of trying to prove all of that occurred, but with the new Act, it has been made easier to deal with cases like these...”

This, as a result, has proven to be one of the main flaws of the new Sexual Offences Act since, according to some individuals, a friendly gesture could be misconstrued as rape as outlined by the Sexual Offences Act. Based on the Act, though, where an accused is

State Counsel Konyo Sandiford

convicted of the offence, in addition to passing sentence, the Court may order that the accused pay civil compensation to the complainant. In addition, orders for drug treatment, drug testing rehabilitation and protection and safety orders could be made.

Furthermore, where the offence for which the accused had been convicted suggests risk of HIV transmission to the complainant, a HIV testing order and disclosure of the results to the Court and complainant may be required.

An order for mental and psychological treatment could also come into play as well, according to the Act.

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Green Economy, Poverty Eradication, Environment confab to convene in Brazil Under the theme “Green Economy in the context of Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development and the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development,” the Thirty Ninth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which focuses on the Environment and Sustainable Development will convene in Brazil in June.

There will also be a focus on preparation of the region for participation in t h e United Nations 2012 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio+20).

According to officer in charge of the Human and Social Development directorate of CARCOM, Miss Myrna Bernard, this opening Ceremony sets the tone for the proceedings of this Meeting of the Council, and even as it does so, provides an opportunity for sensitization of the wider audience of stakeholders within the Community with regard to the relevant issues; in this particular instance, mechanisms and actions which promote sustainable development and focus on the eradication of poverty and social inclusion.

She said this Special Meeting of COTED has been

preceded by a very lively and productive meeting of officials convened on Tuesday and Wednesday last - a Meeting which examined in detail the ‘green economy’ concept and sought to clarify what, in real terms, the adoption of this conceptual paradigm might mean for the development of our region; what real promise it might hold, taking into account our unique priorities, and in particular, the special development challenges and concerns of small vulnerable developing states.

Bernard explained that the meeting benefited from the experiences of Barbados, as that Member State outlined both the advantages and potential pitfalls, which Member States in the region needed to take account of as they considered such transitions. The importance of policy coherence, between and among sectors was also emphasised.

“The meeting of officials paid specific attention to issues of poverty. It noted in particular that the Region’s ability to compete in the current global market and within the context of the much advocated green economy is dependent on parallel transformations in our social systems and in particular, our education and health

systems,” she noted.

“Youths are disproportionately represented among the unemployed and the poor and the meeting also highlighted the emerging situation of youth as perpetrators and as victims of crim e a n d violence.

Significant rethinking and refocusing of the education and all other aspects of our social development systems must feature significantly as we address the enabling environment required for transitioning to the Green Economy.”

She further disclosed that the outcomes of these discussions will be of significant value to this meeting, as it seeks to fulfill the mandate given to it by the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community: to prepare a CARICOM position for our participation in the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio+20, and as the COTED seeks to address the myriad of issues, including appropriate financing mechanisms, policies, regulations and governance frameworks for implementation and also to ensure that negotiations in other theatres are not jeopardised.

C’bean should rebuild economic resilience and flexibility - IMF Growth in the Caribbean continues to be firm despite a slowdown in the second half of 2011 due to tightened policies following the postcrisis rebound and the effect of global uncertainties, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s latest Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere states.

The Fund projects that the region will grow at 3.7 percent in 2012, and 4.1 percent in 2013, up modestly from forecasts published in

January.

While the economic challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean differ across countries, one theme is common: they should rebuild policy space and be watchful for downside risks.

Supportive external conditions facing some countries—abundant and cheap external financing, and favorable commodity prices—may persist for a while, but are likely to dissipate over time, “Conditions remain favorable. The double tailwinds of easy external financial and high commodity prices are likely to persist for a while but not forever,” said Nicolás Eyzaguirre, Director

of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department at the presentation of the report in Bogotá, Colombia.

“Now, the challenge for many countries is to take advantage of this environment to rebuild buffers, to enhance the resilience and flexibility that has served them so well the last few years,” he continued.

The regional outlook report indicates that nearterm risks are still tilted to the downside, and revolve most notably around possible renewed tensions in European markets and an oil price shock. But the report also notes different conditions with the region that imply differing policy challenges.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Interesting Creatures…

The Red-footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria) The Red-footed To r t o i s e ( C h e l o n o i d i s carbonaria) is a tortoise native to South America. It has also been introduced to many islands in the Caribbean. It draws its name from the red or orange scales visible on its limbs, as well as its head and tail. It is popular as a pet, though it is protected under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means that this species may not be exported from its home country without a permit.

The red-foot has a larger cousin, the yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulata), also known as the Brazilian giant tortoise.

Many older references use the genus name Geochelone in place of the newer term Chelonoidis for all four South American tortoises. It is locally known as the savannah tortoise, in Brazil as jabuti, and in V e n e z u e l a as morrocoy, among other names.

Red-foot Tortoises have red scales on the limbs, as well as red, yellow, and/or orange facial markings. Red-foots will normally reach between 10 and 14 inches (25.4 35.6 cm) in carapace length, although in rare cases may grow up to 16 inches (40 cm).

Red-foot males are larger than females in carapace length and weight, but are not wider or taller. Males can easily reach 20 pounds (nine kg) or more, while females weigh a bit less.

As with other tortoise species, male red-foots have a concave plastron. As redfoots mature, both sexes develop a unique mid-body constriction (some have referred to it as a “waist”) that, from a top view, gives the tortoises a decidedly hourglass appearance. This “hourglass” figure is much more developed in males than in females. Mature males also have longer and wider tails than females.

A red-foot tortoise generally lives 40–50 years.

This creature can be found throughout extreme southern Central America, and central and northern South America including the countries of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French

Red-footed tortoise G u y a n a , Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. They are also f o u n d on Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Lucia etc. and have been introduced to many other islands in the West Indies.

The red-foot occupies a number of habitats within this extensive range. It occurs in all types of forest habitat (rainforest, temperate forest, and dry thorn forest), and also dwells in savannah areas, including man-made grasslands resulting from ranching and slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Forest edges and savannahs seem to be the preferred habitat for this species, although there is some disagreement over this.

Red-foot tortoises are omnivores, though eat more plant-derived food than meat by far. In captivity, redfoots should be fed a mixture of high calcium greens, fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

In every country in its range, the biggest threat to the survival of red-footed tortoises is overhunting by man. Interestingly enough, tortoises are considered “fish” by the Catholic Church and during holy week, redfoots are consumed in huge numbers. Red-foots are collected and shipped to many different South American cities to be sold as a delicacy.

The fact that red-foots can tolerate long periods of time without food and water, otherwise an evolutionary advantage, makes this species both easy and profitable to transport.

Another threat facing redfoot populations is the omnipresent habitat loss and disturbance. Although it has been observed that redfooted tortoises can live on

land that has been converted to agriculture, their densities are much lower than they are in natural, unaltered habitat.

Tortoises living on agricultural lands are much easier to locate, so higher hunting rates may account for this difference.

Exportation for the pet trade also has a negative effect on red-footed tortoises, although it is much less of a threat to their survival than either hunting or habitat loss.

The natural history of the redfoot tortoise provides insight into two areas, the susceptibility of this species to overhunting and habitat loss, and captive husbandry and reproduction.

Conservation efforts include the establishment and protection of wildlife reserves and national parks, where redfooted tortoises and other animals are protected from hunting. Due to a protection law through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) it is currently illegal to transport a red-footed tortoise from its home country without proper certification and permits, although some facilities have obtained permits for breeding purposes.

In the wild, the red-foot tortoise lays clutches of five to 15 eggs between July and September. They are generally buried in a nest in the ground in typical tortoise style.

However, some authors report that locals in Panama have observed eggs laid in leaf-litter on the forest floor.

Eggs are oblong (about 2" x 1.5") and have brittle shells.

The hatchlings are round and flat, and are about 1.5" in diameter.

(Source: Wikipedia – The Free Online Encyclopedia)

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Trinidad and the CCJ - Still loitering

By Sir Ronald Sanders Just in case it has escaped careful attention, the Trinidad and Tobago government does not intend to abolish appeals to the British Privy Council for civil and constitutional matters.

Careful reading of the statement, made by Prime Minister Kamla PersadBissessar in Parliament on April 25th, clearly shows that the government’s intention is to introduce legislation to abolish appeals to the Privy Council only “in all criminal matters”. The prime minister was clear that only criminal matters “would be ceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice” (CCJ).

What the Trinidad and Tobago government is doing, therefore, is accommodating a half-way house. It is by no means embracing the CCJ fully as the final Court of Appeal for all matters as Barbados, Belize and Guyana have done. And, this decision has been taken despite the fact that in her statement, the prime minister said: “It is almost axiomatic that the Caribbean Community should have its own final Court of Appeal in all matters (my emphasis); that the West Indies at the highest level of jurisprudence should be West Indian. A century old tradition of erudition and excellence in the legal profession of the region leaves no room for hesitancy in our Caribbean region”.

Yet, hesitancy there is.

And the hesitancy – called “caution and gradualism” by the prime minister – seems to be a concern that foreign investors might shy away

from Trinidad and Tobago if they could not appeal to the British Privy Council. The prime minister specifically said the Privy Council “has an international reputation as being one of the finest commercial and civil law courts in the world. It inspires confidence in foreign investors”.

The further justification made by the prime minister for retaining the Privy Council in civil and constitutional matters is that it “is conducive to an investor-friendly climate at a time when the international economic order is changing and Trinidad and Tobago is attempting to woo foreign investment from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries”. But, none of these countries appeal to the Privy Council. Indeed, in the cases of India and South Africa – both Commonwealth countries like Trinidad and Tobago – they both abolished appeals to British Privy Council in all matters in 1950. On the evidence of investment in, and growth of, the economies of India and South Africa, leaving the Privy Council has not adversely affected foreign investment in them.

For the taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago, utilizing the CCJ both as a Court of Original Jurisdiction in respect of the Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, and as a final appellate court for criminal matters, is better use of their money than is now the case where Trinidad and Tobago draws on the court only for matters related to the

CARICOM treaty.

And, while this is a welcome advance on the previous position of the Trinidad and Tobago government not to move jurisdiction of any matters from the Privy Council, the half-way approach does not dispense with many difficulties and raises new ones.

There is little doubt that, had the Trinidad and Tobago government decided to embrace the CCJ fully, every other government in the Caribbean Community – including Jamaica – would have acted similarly.

But, there has always been a concern in other countries that Trinidad and Tobago fought for the CCJ’s headquarters on the understanding that it would become a full member of the Court but it has not done so.

This issue remains unresolved by the government’s decision to retain appeals to the Privy Council for civil and constitutional matters.

Other countries might also take the view that they too are entitled to retain the Privy Council for civil and constitutional matters in order to “woo foreign investment”.

Even if they don’t take such a view, and they do proceed to abolish all appeals to the Privy Council in favour of the CCJ, the anomaly will still exist of the Court being headquartered in a country which is not a full member.

Prime Minister PersadBissessar also indicated that even while the government’s intended legislation would give jurisdiction to the CCJ on criminal matters, the Court

would be on probation. She said: “We will continue to monitor the developments taking place in both the JCPC (Privy Council) and CCJ including the quality of their decisions in deciding the future course of our judicial system”. However, she had already pronounced on the quality of the Privy Council when in the same statement she said: “It inspires confidence in foreign investors”. Hence, it appears that it is the CCJ whose decisions will be monitored for “quality”.

Despite all this, it took some political courage for Prime Minister PersadBissessar to cede final appellate jurisdiction on any matters to the CCJ. It is wellknown that, prior to the general elections which brought her to office, there was considerable hostility to the CCJ amongst the membership of her party —

the United National Congress. For such courage she should be applauded and encouraged. It may well be that in going no further she has judged what the political traffic could bear among her own supporters.

Still, the decision amounts to continuing to loiter on the doorsteps of the colonial past almost fifty years after Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago secured their independence from Britain.

One spokesman for the Privy Council, Lord Phillips, indicated in 2009 that “in an ideal world, Commonwealth countries — including those in the Caribbean — would stop using the Privy Council and set up their own final courts of appeal instead”.

That was typical British understatement for saying it is time to go.

So, while the movement of the Trinidad and Tobago government should be

Sir Ronald Sanders welcomed as an advance, the Caribbean and the process of regionalization might not be sufficiently well-served by it.

Full membership of the CCJ by all CARICOM states would better reflect the region’s maturity and confidence in itself.

(The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat) Responses and previous commentaries at: www.sirronaldsanders.com

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From page 20 that goes with it,” were the words of A Partnership for National Unity’s point man on finances and former Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge even as he shrugged off appeals by the Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to reconsider a proposal for cuts specific to the ICT program at the Office of the President. Subsidies for the National Communications Network (NCN) and Government Information Agency (GINA) and certain types of contract employees also felt the brunt of the cuts.

Friday Edition BUDGETAPPROVED, $21B SLASHED The Combined Opposition on Thursday for the first time in Guyana’s history, managed to dramatically gouge a significant portion of the monies allocated for spending in various sectors.

Following two days of cuts

by Alliance for Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the 2012 Budget was slashed by $21B with the entire $18.5B allocation for the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) projects gutted and reduced to $1.

This followed the previous day’s cuts to the tune of some $2.2B which targeted the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) subsidy as well as GINA, NCN and GECOM, among others.

The first victims of Thursday’s cuts as proposed in the motion by APNU’s Carl Greenidge were the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, Ethnic Relations Commission and the State Planning Secretariat.

Greenidge, as he proposed his cuts to the House, told the members that the Auditor General in his observations over the years has recommended that CANU be listed as a Budget Agency as against an entity receiving subvention from the Ministry of Finance.

To this end, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh sought to explain that as per the recommendation of the Auditor General, CANU will now fall under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the money listed as a subvention was merely to facilitate the transition process. “You can’t move all because you have four months of activity prior to the budget which had to be funded by interim release,” Dr Singh asserted as he sought to explain the rationale behind CANU still receiving some $20M as a subvention from the Finance Ministry.

This, however, did not find favour with either AFC or APNU who both, at this point in time, urged the Chairman of the Committee of Supply, House Speaker Raphael Trotman to put the motion to a vote.

CONTRACTOR KILLED IN HORRIFIC CRASH A contractor from La Parfaite Harmonie was Thursday killed on the spot after he crashed into the rear of a truck on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, in proximity to the Botanical Gardens. Dead is Dookhie Yudashram called ‘Andy’ of Lot 335 16th Street, La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara.

According to an eyewitness, Yudashram, a father of two, was riding a Jialing motorcycle bearing registration, CG 1314, when he slammed into the back of a truck that was awaiting the green light on Vlissengen Road.

An eyewitness related that the motorcyclist was heading north along Vlissengen Road at a very fast rate when he slammed into the back of the truck.

The impact caused the rider to be flung onto a motor car which was stationary at the time. Kaieteur News was told that the driver of the truck was not aware that the man had collided with his vehicle but was notified after persons, who were in the line, waiting on the light, signaled him. At the scene, the dead man’s smashed helmet, brain matter and parts of the motorcycle littered the road.

His head had a gaping wound which caused his brain to spill and his blood to flow onto the roadway. Passersby gathered at the scene to view the lifeless body.

Saturday Edition RAMOTAR FIRES BACK ON BUDGET CUTS Heartless, irresponsible and poisonous were among Head of State Donald Ramotar’s choice words as he reacted on Friday evening to a whopping $21B which was slashed from the 2012 Budget.

Ramotar, in an address to the nation, which was broadcast live on NCN said bluntly, “I want to assure all Guyana that the steps and decisions my Government takes in the coming period will be guided by the national interest and commitment to the well-being of the people of this country…I am confident that we will overcome the present setback.”

Some saw this statement as a hint that general elections are not too far off.

Firing back at the Opposition and speaking directly to the cuts, Ramotar said that the $192.8B budget presented by the administration was carefully crafted to lift the quality of life in Guyana and that these cuts appear to be motivated to undermine progress in the country.

“The implications of the cuts are wide ranging,” Ramotar stressed, adding that in the first instance the cuts could result in many people losing their jobs.

“This (the cut) will place new burdens on these persons, many of whom are the breadwinners of their families… In this regard the cuts are heartless.” He said, too, that the cuts threaten the financing of the many transformative projects which were intended to boost economic growth.

“Through these poisonous acts, the Opposition seems determined to slow down and eventually halt the impressive growth taking place under the PPP/ Civic Government. Using the dictatorship of one, which they have in Parliament, they want to stymie further progress, obviously in the hope that if they can stop the development of our country they would advance their political mission which is to take power, even if it is at the expense of ordinary Guyanese well-being.

DEATH THREAT TO

CHRIS RAM SENT FROM ‘HACKED’ PPP E-MAIL ADDRESS—FREEDOM HOUSE The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has denied any involvement in the death threats against key opposition members. A statement out of Freedom House told of a report of a death threat issued against “anti-government activist” Christopher Ram who apparently “received death threats via a mail he received from an e-mail address linked to the PPP/C.” In the e-mail Ram was

threatened that should the writer lose his job as a result of the budget cuts he (Ram) would be burnt in his home.

The threats even extended to Ram’s family as well.

The statement said that the party “sought advice from IT experts after it received a copy of the e-mail in question from members of the media and has been advised that this is a clear case of email Address Spoofing.”

According to the release, the e-mail could have been manipulated in a number of ways to change the “from” field and to disguise the routing to make it seem as if the e-mail had come from another address. “… Someone is “spoofing” the PPP/C Gmail address and from the looks of it, several other addresses of known individuals as well.” A report was subsequently made to Google and the violation is currently being investigated. The statement went on to claim that the PPP/ C has been “… receiving abusive messages apparently originating from Ena Ram’s (Wife of Christopher Ram) email address for which we have documented evidence.”

However the release went on to suggest the possibility that Mrs. Ram’s address was likewise “spoofed”. To further complicate matters, it was also stated in the release that “similar threats” were issued against the lives of PPP/C officials.

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“Countries are not poor because they don’t have...

From page 26 proposed a Development Community Fund that will benefit only a few once again.

Don’t make the mistake of applauding the increase in old age pensions to $10,000, as you will recall when the good doctor first announced the pension increase, it was a mere $ 600 more. The pensioners got more not based on the government’s budget proposals, but rather because the opposition stood its ground!!

So let us look at the facts surrounding the adjustments.

GPL RECEIVES $ 5 BILLION After decades of continued line losses, estimated bills, overcharging consumers, running up a debt of $29 billion, failing to improve the operations of the company and still blackouts along the way, the Government wants to use more of taxpayers’ money to bail out GPL. Six billion was requested and five billion was given, GPL needs to improve its efficiency before they receive more money.

This is a bit like saying to a junkie, “the best way to cure your addition is to give you more narcotics”. Let us not forget that the therapy could have been worse. The entire subsidy could have been removed.

LCDS The Norwegian government is clear on its position with regard to funding to be received under the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

These are grants to be disbursed through specific projects and therefore a careful mechanism for administering these funds is very necessary.

This is the role the World Bank will play as a lead implementation agency.

Therefore, these funds cannot be considered as revenue, but rather must come as a conditional appropriation.

The Government has not received yet the funds for these projects, so the opposition cannot cut what is not there. .

CANU RECEIVES $ 71 MILLION The AFC has publicly and repeatedly disapproved of the undisputed role the current government of Guyana played in the Roger Khan affair and has a zero tolerance policy for the high level of drug trafficking and the low interdiction levels plaguing Guyana.

Our support on this is clear and unequivocal. We forget that $71 million was approved for CANU under the Ministry of Home Affairs - a trivial matter that escaped our good friends at NCN. Regretfully, the

government is yet to fully comply with recommendations made by the Auditor General and remove CANU from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Unless of course the good doctor at finance is of the view that CANU should be a revenue collection agency. When the change is effected, the government can request the remaining $20 million as a supplementary provision.

GECOM Like so many things, there has been more talk and less action on several fronts. This year, the Government budgeted more funds to GECOM than last year, which was an election year. This view is reality-challenged.

If these funds are for local government elections, then reforms recommended and stipulated must be carried out as a precondition to the holding of local government elections.

This includes the passing of five pieces of legislation and the implementation of the administrative arrangements, which will take time.

It is not fiscally prudent to throw good money behind bad money. When the government implements local government reforms then an application for supplementary provision can be made.

HIS EXCELLENCY’S POSITION On Friday night we learnt of His Excellency’s position on the past week in parliament. Were it not for the Presidential podium, one can be forgiven for thinking the nation was listening to the PPP/C Candidate rather than the President of all Guyana.

The language deployed in the prepared presidential statement read by His Excellency came close to a declaration of hostilities rather than a leader of a diverse country.

Our citizens would like to believe that upon ascension to the high office of President of this Republic, the responsibility to treat all citizens with dignity and respect would be par for the course.

Friday night’s address to the nation was not one of His Excellency’s best. It was short on hope and long on vitriol.

The country would prefer vision, reconciliation and tempered responsibility.

One hopes that anyone privileged to lead this dear country of ours would be blessed with creativity, flexibility, vision and a generous dose of inspiration.

It’s a new day in Guyanese politics so let’s tone down the vitriol and increase the vision and prosperity.

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Dependable Prison Officer, Henry Adams, is a ‘Special Person’

By Leon Suseran The deep love and dedication to the job in Guyana’s prison system many years ago have earned a place in the hearts of many with whom he would have interacted. Beginning his career at the tender age of 18 in village politics as Overseer, young Henry Adams aspired to serve his country on a higher level, in a system that not many people have the courage to face or stand.

Working in the prison system - being amongst sometimes high profile criminals and ‘dangerous’ individuals - can pose a threat to one’s safety at times, but this week’s ‘Special Person’ persevered and duly moved through the ranks from an ordinary prison officer to Chief Prison Officer, when he ended his 27-year career.

Henry Adams was born on March 3, 1943 at El Dorado Village, West Coast Berbice, to cattle farmers, Esther Adams and William Hudson.

He had eleven other siblings and attended Belladrum Government School and Victoria High School in New Amsterdam a bit later.

After school, he returned home to West Berbice and at the age of eighteen, became involved in village politics for a few months.

“I was sitting at home one day when I saw the village Chairman and two members who came and asked me to be the Overseer.”

During that period, he applied to become a prison officer attached to the Guyana Police Force.

Adams later migrated to Linden in 1965 to live with aunts and uncles, and one year later, he received his acceptance letter to the prison service. His desire to join the

entity was fueled by the fact that all of his friends started to leave the village and “being alone home, I did not feel too good; I wanted to go out and ensure that I did something, so I sat the exam, took medicals, and was called in 1966 to join the prison service”.

His first appointment was at the Camp Street Prison in

at the Mazaruni facility.

“There were two prisons there: Mazaruni and Sibley Hall, a first offenders prison.”

In 1972, Adams returned to Georgetown where he became engaged in a course while being stationed at the Georgetown Hospital as an assistant to the Dispensary.

Five years later, in 1977, he was transferred to New

“I was loved in the prison. Even now in the streets, people who would have passed through the system call me fondly. Because they know I had one philosophy— if you’re right, you’re right; if you’re wrong, you’re wrong. There was no middle ground.”

Georgetown where he was employed as a Probation Prison Officer, a post which he held for the customary three years, after which he was transferred to Mazaruni in 1969.

He recalled a lot of experiences at the Georgetown Prisons, particularly one day in 1969 when he witnessed the hanging of a well- known prisoner, for a murder committed at Moleson Creek, Corentyne.

“I was there until they removed him and took him to the gallows that morning to be hanged...it was a terrible thing. He (the condemned prisoner) wrote a letter, confessing...admitting that he was wrong. He had one son, so he wrote telling his child to be honest and live an upright life, because of his dishonesty that made him end up in prison. He didn’t want that to happen to his son.”

“I did feel a bit sad. He was a human being, but a part of it… you’ve got to detach yourself from. You can’t be too emotional as a Prison Officer.”

Adams spent three years

Amsterdam Prisons where he remained until he retired medically unfit after a vehicular accident in 1993, at age 50, as a Chief Prison Officer, a rank equivalent to Inspector. ”While on our way to play cricket on the East Coast of Demerara, the Land Rover I was in turned turtle in a canal and I injured my back. Not being able to stand up for too long— and prison officers do have to endure standing a lot, I came off the job.”

Our ‘Special Person’ briefly mentioned that he met his lifelong partner, Blanche, an officer herself in the Guyana Police Force, in Georgetown, while playing a dominoes competition at the Prison Club. They have, to date, been happily married for 36 years.

He then shared more career memories.

“Working in the prison system was very adventurous. I worked under several Directors of Prisons, including Messrs Kendall, Davis, France, Henry and Kilkenny. I was particularly impressed by Mr Davis— now deceased. He was a

gentleman; a very honest, forgiving, down-to-earth and dignified man.”

And then there were the inmates.

“While working one Christmas - on a 2:00pm 10:00pm shift - I was asked by my superior to accompany a prisoner, who had cut himself across the abdomen with a razor blade, to the hospital.

He reflected on the prisoner’s motive, that of escaping.

“He busted his belly, three or four places, and I took him to the hospital— I never knew that man and I grew up together. He appeared to be acting suspiciously, so in the vehicle, I emphasised that I had a revolver, and that any time he attempted to run, I would shoot him. I was a nononsense officer and did not mix work with personal feelings.”

Adams recounted that he gave specific instructions to the officer who would have relieved him at around midnight, to handcuff the prisoner to the bed and keep a close watch on him “because I knew his motives”.

But later the next day he learnt that the prisoner had escaped from the hospital.

The man was later recaptured.

“I was strict, honest, and never used to hit inmates, because there were rules and regulations governing prison, so you really don’t have to hit anybody”. He related that a prisoner, who, for example, would be released in a week’s time, would feel more hurt if he was charged for disobedience, thus having to spend an extra week in jail.

Adams did admit getting angry with inmates at times but insisted that “I would send them to solitary confinement. That was my modus operandi. I don’t

Adams (fourth from left) with senior and retired Prison Officers, including Director of Prisons Dale Erskine (fourth from right), at a function in Berbice in 2011.

Henry Adams believe in beating, because I certainly wouldn’t like if anybody beat me.”

“I was loved in the prison.

Even now in the streets, people who would have passed through the system call me fondly. Because they know I had one philosophy— if you’re right, you’re right; if you’re wrong, you’re wrong.

There was no middle ground.”

He recalled that while in New Amsterdam, he reached out to prisoners “who did not really have a say in the prison amongst the other prisoners”.

“Bullying was dominant and a few prisoners who were being bullied by others, could not access water to take a shower. Five persons had to bathe with one big can (of water), but if you’re a weak officer— the old and the lame wouldn’t get to bathe. So I used to leave my dispensary sometimes, go there and call all the old people and sent them to the bath, because if I did not do that, the bullies would bathe five times a day, because they could, and leave the others.”

“The experience you gain [working] in prison is difficult to gain any other way, honestly. Now I can reflect that were a lot of persons who

were there innocently, and a lot of persons who committed offences were outside.”

“To be frank, the police have to do better investigative work. They need to be sincere and honest in their jobs, because in today’s society, those who have money do almost anything. When you are poor and don’t know anybody, you lag behind.

Sadly, that is the society in which we live. It’s very, very sad”.

When times got tough on the job, Adams recalled himself turning to his fellow officers for help and advice.

He talked about the then Deputy Director of Prisons, Mr Mentis.

“I could go to him and, anything, sit and reason; also Mr Vyphuis. We had a good rapport, and sometimes we would go in the office and sit and chat…ventilate our feelings. I enjoyed working there, and if I had to live my life again, I would work in the prison service”.

Comparing the system in his time to present-day with respect to break-outs, he related “It was a very rare thing during my time; unlike now...it didn’t happen as often.”

Touching on capital punishment, Mr. Adams opined that it still has a place in society today.

“It should not be abolished. If a man in a fight loses his composure, that’s one story— but if you deliberately set out to kill a man, you must pay for your deed. I don’t think they should abolish it…that is my humble opinion. The amount of murders you have today you never used to have that years ago. During Mr. (former President) Hoyte’s time, they kicked down your doors and the government started to hang people and it eased down a lot.”

There was, however, a note of caution.

“Hangings should be retained but it has to be ensured that the accused are guilty— because they say it is better for ten guilty men to go free than to convict one (Continued on page 40)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

FDA approves Vivus’s fast- Does soy help cool acting Viagra rival Stendra hot flashes after all?

NEW YORK (Reuters) Men with erectile dysfunction may not have to plan for sex as far in advance anymore after Vivus Inc won U.S. approval for avanafil, its faster acting rival to Viagra.

Avanafil, which will be sold under the brand name Stendra, is the first new drug in the category in a decade.

The drug — which will compete with Pfizer Inc’s Viagra, Eli Lilly’s Cialis and Levitra, sold by GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer — gives Vivus, which has struggled to bring a weight loss drug to market, a potentially lucrative commercial product.

The Vivus drug will have some attractive marketing claims as it goes up against established rivals sold by companies with serious marketing muscle.

“This is potentially the fastest acting of the four,” said Dr Wayne Hellstrom, professor of urology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. While it is recommended that patients take the new pill 30 minutes prior to sexual activity, in clinical trials it has been shown to work in as fast as 15 minutes.

Viagra typically takes about an hour to start working.

Stendra belongs to the same PDE5 inhibitor class as its rivals and also works by increasing blood flow to the penis. But researchers found it to be more selective than the older drugs, meaning it could have fewer unintended effects.

“Higher selectivity should translate into fewer side effects,” said Hellstrom.

“It’s going to add more excitement” to the field.

ED afflicts as many as 30 million men in the U.S., Vivus

said. The Vivus drug is currently awaiting a European approval decision.

Cowen and Co analyst Simos Simeonidis, in a research note, forecast annual Stendra sales of about $300 million. Viagra had sales of about $2 billion in 2011.

Vivus shares were up about 3 percent following the expected approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Investors are far more focused on the prospects for Vivus’s obesity pill Qnexa, for which the FDA is expected to rule by mid July.

Doctors should prescribe the lowest dose of Stendra that provides benefit, the FDA said. It has been approved at doses of 50 milligrams, 100 mg and 200 mg.

“This approval expands the available treatment options to men experiencing erectile dysfunction, and enables patients, in consultation with their doctor, to choose the most appropriate treatment for their

Dependable Prison Officer...

From page 39 Frinnocent man, so you have to be very careful, and the law has to take its course; the police and judiciary have to do their work diligently and be honest with everybody.”

Adams stated that things have changed a lot since his time, and seem to be moving in a better direction.

“When I went to the service, it was strictly custodial; now they have changed to remedy that...it is custodial as well as remedial. More inmates are writing exams and learning trades in prison. So it is far better now than years gone by...benefitting the prisoners more, so now they can work.”

“And then we have a young, vibrant man as Director of Prisons, Mr. [Dale] Erskine— a gentleman, he’s trying his utmost...It’s not easy, but he has got his finger firmly on the pulse.”

And his advice to young officers: “Work and work sincerely, thoughtfully, and I reiterate, be honest; don’t covet prisoners’ things— and don’t encourage them to steal things to give you. Do the right thing and your reward will be great”.

needs,” Victoria Kusiak, deputy director of the Office of Drug Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

The most common side effects reported in clinical studies included headache, flushing of the face and other areas, nasal congestion, common cold-like symptoms and back pain.

(Reuters Health) - Despite a good amount of evidence to the contrary, a new research review suggests that soy supplements can indeed help women find relief from menopausal hot flashes.

So far, studies have come to conflicting findings on whether soy extracts are effective against the sudden bouts of feverish feeling experienced by many women transitioning to menopause.

Soy contains isoflavones, compounds that are thought to have weak estrogen-like effects in some body tissue.

That hints that soy or soy extracts could help cool hot flashes. But whether that’s actually the case has been unclear.

Last year, for example, a clinical trial of 248 women found no evidence that a soy isoflavone supplement worked better than placebo pills in easing menopausal symptoms.

For the new study, researchers combined the results of 17 previously published clinical trials on the question. Overall, they

found, women who used soy isoflavone extracts had a 21 percent greater reduction in hot flashes compared with women given a placebo.

And when they did have hot flashes, they tended to be less severe.

The extent of the effects did vary among the different studies. But nearly all showed a “pattern” of soy isoflavones working better than a placebo, according to senior researcher Mark Messina, of Loma Linda University in California. “I feel completely comfortable with recommending (soy isoflavones) to women who want to try them,” said Messina, who also directs the Soy Nutrition Institute and regularly consults with companies that make soy products.

If you get no relief after about four weeks, Messina said, then it may be time to move on.

The findings, reported in the journal Menopause, add to a generally conflicting body of research on what works for hot flashes.

The one consistently supported treatment is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and right now, it’s the only treatment specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for hot flashes.

But HRT is also linked to increased risks of blood clots, heart attack, stroke and breast cancer. So experts say hormones should be limited to more-severe cases of hot flashes, and that women use them at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible.Those safety concerns have meant that many women and doctors are looking for alternative hot flash relief.

Besides soy, alternatives to HRT include certain antidepressants and blood pressure medications, and the anti-seizure drug gabapentin.

But the evidence on those drugs is also mixed, and none is approved for hot flashes — though doctors can prescribe them for that reason anyway.

If hot flashes are not severe, experts say simple steps can be enough to minimize them — like avoiding hot and spicy foods, turning down the thermostat, or trying relaxation techniques, such as yoga or meditation.

Slightly-overactive thyroid tied to heart problems NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new report suggests higher-than-normal thyroid activity is linked to a greater risk of heart disease, including irregular heartbeats.

People with so-called subclinical hyperthyroidism have a slightly-overactive thyroid — a gland at the front of the neck responsible for regulating metabolism by releasing certain hormones.

Those people often don’t have the typical signs of fullon hyperthyroidism, such as increased appetite, restlessness and fatigue — so the condition may frequently go undiagnosed.

Because many patients just outside the normal range are older and their thyroid function and hormones can naturally fluctuate, doctors have wondered whether or not it’s helpful to treat them with thyroid drugs.

“There’s been a discussion by many of us about what we should do with subclinical hyperthyroidism, because the risks were unclear,” said Dr. Nicolas Rodondi from the University of Bern, Switzerland, who worked on the report.

Slightly-overactive or underactive thyroids are much more common than overt thyroid disease,

researchers said.

Full hypoand hyperthyroidism have been clearly tied to the body’s inability to regulate its normal functions, and can be treated with medication or surgery.

Rodondi’s study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, suggests subclinical hyperthyroidism may in fact carry extra risks of its own.

In an analysis of previous trials including over 50,000 older adults, people whose hormone tests showed slight hyperthyroidism were 29

percent more likely to die of heart disease over the next nine years than those with normal thyroid function.

S u b c l i n i c a l hyperthyroidism was also tied to a higher risk of irregular heartbeat — but not to stroke or cancer, Rodondi and his colleagues reported.

Rodondi’s group defined “normal” thyroid function as blood levels of thyrotropin, also known as thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), between 0.45 and 4.49 milliinternational units per liter.

The normal range for TSH itself remains a topic of

debate, however, with some experts favoring a narrower definition of 0.3 to 3.0 mIU/L. That would potentially give some 20 percent of Americans “abnormal” TSH levels.

WHO TO TEST? Rodondi pointed out that the new research can’t prove slightly-off thyroid function leads to heart disease or other health problems.

To make that claim, he said, would require a “gold standard” controlled trial, in which people just outside the normal thyroid range are randomly assigned to be treated or not and followed for the incidence of new disease diagnoses.

Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, who studies disease detection and overdiagnosis at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, New Hampshire, said he thinks it’s time for that type of trial. But he called for a study that starts even earlier, when symptom-free people are split into groups of those who do or don’t undergo screening for thyroid problems.

“I think that’s the real question: should doctors be looking for thyroid abnormalities in patients who feel fine?” Welch, who wasn’t involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.

Sunday April 29, 2012

How to Choose the Right Facial for Oily Skin Facial is the best thing you can do to pamper your skin.

There is nothing as relaxing as getting a professional facial once in a month. Facial is a rejuvenating skincare procedure that entails an assortment of treatments such as cleansing, massaging, exfoliating, steaming, applying mask and moisturizing.

Facial treatments basically differ based on the ingredients used for making the mask and the components used for massaging. You need to choose the right facial that suits your skin type, because different facials respond differently to different skin types.

People with oily skin need to choose that facial that will balance oil levels of the face. Oily skin will look shiny even after washing because of secretion of excess oil from sebaceous glands. Choose the one that include appropriate face mask which reduces oil levels.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT FACIAL FOR OILY SKIN Since oily skin already has greasiness and excess oil production, stay away from oily and creamy contents.

Choose a mild cleanser for removing dirt from face. Go for gentle exfoliation since aggressive scrubbing will lead to more pimples as it will stimulate glands. You can even skip the massaging process.

If you insist to have a massage, go for oil-free and water based creams. Clay-based facial masks are the best for oily skin as it will absorb excess oil from the skin very effectively.

Honey-based face packs are also good for oily skin. After washing off the face pack, if you feel that your skin is too dry apply light moisturizer to retain the natural moisture.

Since oily skin tends to have more pimple breakouts after facial, it is better to opt for homemade facial masks containing natural ingredients. The best natural ingredient for oily skin is fruits.

FRUIT BASED FACIALS FOR OILY SKIN Fruit face packs and fruit based facials are the best for oily skin. There are a range of fruit facial kits available over the counter. If you want to be economical, you can easily do facial at home using fruits.

After cleansing your face with e cleanser and removing all makeup and dirt, massage your face with a fruit-based light cream. Olive oil is a good option for massaging oily skin as the oil is light and non- comedogenic. It will not clog pores and therefore will prevent acne breakouts. Focus on all the strategic points of your face while massaging.

After doing this, you can do fruit massage to tone your skin flawlessly. You may use orange, sweet lime, tomato or raw potato for a good massage. You can either mash the fruits (will be a little messy), or slice the fruits and rub all over the face. Remove whiteheads and blackheads with a tweezer and do facial steam. Apply a good fruit-based face pack on your skin after rubbing your face with ice cube.

Fruit face packs can be easily made at home. Fruit face packs are the best for oily skin as the acids in fruits will neutralize excess oil in the skin. It will also retain the ideal pH balance of skin.

SOLUTION FOR LAST WEEK’S SEARCH & FIND

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Born Loser

ROMANCE An older couple were lying in bed one night. The husband was falling asleep but the wife was in a romantic mood and wanted to talk. She said, “You used to hold my hand when we were courting. “ Wearily he reached across, held her hand for a second and tried to get back to sleep.

A few moments later she said, “Then you used to kiss me.”

Mildly irritated, he reached across, gave her a peck on the cheek and settled down to sleep.

Thirty seconds later she said, “Then you used to bite my neck.”

Angrily, he threw back the bed clothes and got out of bed.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To get my teeth!” ****************** RUSSIANS A Brit, a Frenchman and a Russian are viewing a painting of Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden.

“Look at their reserve, their calm,” muses the Brit. “They must be British.”

“Nonsense,” the Frenchman disagrees. “They’re naked, and so beautiful. Clearly, they are French.”

“No clothes, no shelter,” the Russian points out, “they have only an apple to eat, and they’re being told this is paradise. Clearly, they are Russian.” ****************** PHONE NETWORK DISCOVERY German scientists dug 50 metres underground and discovered small pieces of copper. After studying these pieces for a long time, Germany announced that the ancient Germans 25,000 years ago had a nationwide telephone network.

Naturally, the British government was not that easily impressed. They ordered their own scientists to dig even deeper. 100 metres down, they found small pieces of glass, and they soon announced that the ancient Brits 35,000 years ago already had a nationwide fibre net.

Israeli scientists were outraged. They dug 50, 100 and 200 metres underground, but found absolutely nothing......They concluded that the ancient Hebrews 55,000 years ago had cellular telephones. ****************** MADE IN JAPAN There was a Japanese man who went to America for sightseeing. On the last day, he hailed a cab and told the driver to drive to the airport. During the journey, a Honda drove past the taxi. Thereupon, the man leaned out of the window excitedly and yelled, “Honda, very fast! Made in Japan!”

After a while, a Toyota sped past the taxi. Again, the Japanese man leaned out of the window and yelled, “Toyota, very fast! Made in Japan!”

And then a Mitsubishi sped past the taxi. For the third time, the Japanese leaned out of the window and yelled, “Mitsubishi, very fast! Made in Japan!”

The driver was a little angry, but he kept quiet. And this went on for quite a number of cars. Finally, the taxi came to the airport. The fare was US$300.

The Japanese exclaimed, “Wah... so expensive!”

There upon, the driver yelled back, “Meter, very fast!

Made in Japan!”

Garfield

Non Sequitur

Peanuts

Shoe

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Country profile:

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

OVERVIEW Equatorial Guinea is a small country off West Africa which has recently struck oil and which is now being cited as a textbook case of the resource curse - or the paradox of plenty.

Since the mid 1990s the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Sahara’s biggest oil producers and in 2004 was said to have the world’s fastest-growing economy.

However, few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of the UN human development index. The UN says that less than half the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20 percent of children die before reaching five.

The country has exasperated a variety of rights organisations who have described the two postindependence leaders as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa.

Francisco Macias Nguema’s reign of terror - from independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979 - prompted

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo a third of the population to flee. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the Bubi ethnic minority, he ordered the death of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economy’s collapse.

His successor - Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo took over in a coup and has shown little tolerance for opposition during the three decades of his rule. While the country is nominally a multiparty democracy, elections have generally been considered a sham.According to Human Rights Watch, the ‘’dictatorship under President

Obiang has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country’s people’’.

The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 12 of its list of most corrupt states. Resisting calls for more transparency, President Obiang has for long held that oil revenues are a state secret.

In 2008 the country became a candidate of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues - but failed to qualify by an April 2010 deadline.

A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiang’s family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess.

Observers say the US finds it hard to criticise a country which is seen as an ally in a volatile, oil-rich region. In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed President Obiang as a “good

friend” despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record by her own department. More recently President Barack Obama posed for an official photograph with President Obiang at a New York reception.

The advocacy group Global Witness has been lobbying the United States to act against the President Obiang’s son Teodor, a government minister. It says there is credible evidence that he spent millions buying a Malibu mansion and private jet using corruptly acquired funds - grounds for denying him a visa.

Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow President Obiang.

FACTS Full name: The Republic of Equatorial Guinea Population: 720,000 (UN, 2011) Capital: Malabo Area: 28,051 sq km

(10,830 sq miles) Major languages: Spanish, French Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 50 years (men), 53 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) franc = 100 centimes Main exports: Petroleum, timber, cocoa GNI per capita: US $14,540 (World Bank, 2010) Internet domain: .gq International dialling code: +240 LEADERS President: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Mr Obiang Nguema is Africa’s longest serving leader and has been in power for three decades.

In 1979 he seized power from President Francisco Macias Nguema, who was the leader at independence and whose rule prompted a mass exodus and thousands of deaths. The former leader was tried and executed.

The new president relaxed some of the restrictions of his predecessor - such as a ban on the Catholic Church - but kept the absolute control he inherited.

Officials said Mr Obiang won more than 97% of the vote in presidential elections in December 2002. Opposition candidates had withdrawn from the poll, citing fraud and irregularities. Officials reported similar results following the November 2009 presidential elections.

A French judge announced in May 2009 that he would launch a landmark investigation into whether President Obiang and two other African leaders plundered state coffers to buy luxury homes and cars in France. It became known as the case of “ill-gotten gains”.

A complaint filed by Transparency International France, accused the leaders, who denied any wrongdoing, of acquiring millions of dollars of real estate in Paris and on the French Riviera and buying luxury cars with embezzled public money.

However, a French appeal court threw out the case

saying the activists couldn’t act against foreign heads of state. A subsequent ruling, in November 2010, authorised an investigation into the charges.

Wealthy son The president’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, has been resisting attempts by the US administration to seize some $71 million worth of his assets, denying charges that they were obtained with allegedly corrupt funds taken from his country.

US authorities in 2011 filed to seize a $30 million Malibu, California, oceanfront home, a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet, a Ferrari worth more than $500,000 and dozens of pieces of pop singer Michael Jackson memorabilia worth almost $2 million.

They argued that Obiang obtained the items with money corruptly taken from his impoverished country through a variety of alleged schemes, including requiring companies to pay so-called taxes and fees to him as well as to make donations to his pet projects and then took those funds for his own use.

Proposed changes to the constitution were put to a referendum in November 2011, and according to the government, accepted by voters. Critics allege that while the changes are presented as democratic reforms they will actually entrench the president’s position.

MEDIA Equatorial Guinea’s media outlets are closely controlled by the government. There are few private publications.

The nation ranked 158th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

The organisation has included President Obiang in its list of “Predators of Press Freedom”. It says the information ministry, which serves as the media regulator, is staffed by ruling party members.

Radio France Internationale and Gabonbased Africa No. 1 are available on FM in Malabo.

There were 12,000 internet users by June 2009 (Internetworldstats).

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Georgetown celebrates its 200th anniversary

By Rabindra Rooplall Today the capital city of Georgetown will be marking a bicentennial. The city's 200th anniversary was in 1981 so today actually represents two centuries since Georgetown acquired its name.

The city began as a small town in the 18th century, when it was called the city of Stabroek. It was renamed Georgetown on April 29, 1812 in honour of England's King George III. History revealed that it was the French who developed this town and made it their capital city when they captured the colony in 1782.

On 5 May, 1812 an ordinance was passed to the effect that the town formerly called Stabroek, with districts extending from La Penitence to the bridges in Kingston and entering upon the road to the military camps, shall be called Georgetown.

The ordinance provided that the various districts of Georgetown shall be known by their own names. The supervision of Georgetown was to be done by a committee chosen by the Governor and Court of P o l i c y. E s t i m a t e s o f expenditure were to be prepared.

Georgetown is the seat of the central Government of Guyana. All executive departments are located in t h e c i t y. P a r l i a m e n t Building, Guyana's Legislative Building, is also found in Georgetown and so

is the Court of Appeal.

The State House (the official residence of the Head of State), as well as the offices and residence of the Head of Government, are both located in the city.

Georgetown is the capital city as well as the main economic base of Guyana.

According to City Mayor, Hamilton Green, who can be considered the longest serving Mayor in the World, in 1752 the earliest European colonizers wisely identified an Island about 27 Kilometers or 17 miles up the Demerara River near to our International Airport; (Formally Atkinson Air Field) as a suitable place from where to administer the affairs of the 'settlement' colony.

He explained that the Island Capital was named Borsselen after the stallholder's representative on the Dutch West Indian Company, Mr. R.J. Van Borsselen Van Der Hooge, now officially recorded as Borslem Island.

Green further said that by 1759, Borsselen Island was becoming unsuitable as the Capital, since new plantations were continually growing up and being extended north towards the mouth of the river. During the European struggle for control of the area, a new site was not suggested.

However, in 1777, the Commander recommended that the new Capital site should be at Plantation Coverden, East Bank Demerara.

A plan was obtained for

- Contention surrounds date of anniversary

A panoramic view of Georgetown this exercise. The cost was then estimated at 200,000 Guilders, but this was considered exorbitant, and therefore never implemented.

On January 31, 1782, the French who were at that time allies of the Dutch attacked and demolished the British Fort St. George. Green said that on February 22, 1782, a proclamation was made stating that it was necessary to establish a Capital.

Nevertheless, he underscored that the birth of Georgetown occurred shortly after the 1803 Treaty of Amiens, which awarded the colonies of Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo to Britain from the Dutch.

Dutch and English were the primary language then, as English culture and laws

slowly took over.

The separate three former Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were finally united into one entity called British Guiana in 1831 and were governed from Georgetown.

Underscoring that there was the contention that Georgetown was also called the cathedral city when St Georges Cathedral was erected, the Mayor said he disputed that Georgetown was named after King George III since he was considered illucid (he suffered from Propheria or Porphyria) and at one stage the Parliament accepted a report that the King had taken leave of his senses on a number of occasions.

“After Parliament determined that he should no

longer function as King, his eldest son, the Prince of Wales was elected Prince Regent from February 1811, and carried out the duties of sovereign during the last decade of his father's life….the rest is history” Green explained.

Georgetown laid out in a north-south, east-west grid, interlaced with canals protected by kokers, or sluices, was built by the Dutch and later the British that provide drainage to a city that lies 3 feet (0.91 m) below high-tide level. A long s eaw all h elp s p r ev en t flooding. The city has numerous boulevards and contains many wooden colonial buildings and markets.

The town has expanded dramatically through the

years, and Greater Georgetown contains some of the most expensive and luxurious metropolitan neighbourhoods such as Bel Air Park, Bel Air Gardens, Lamaha Gardens and Bel Air Springs. These are well known ultimately as places for the rich and powerful.

Most residents here are high ranking executives or government officials. These c l o s e d g a t e d neighbourhoods of the city are mostly concentrated in the northeastern part of Greater Georgetown and the Atlantic. The history of early Georgetown also witnessed the abolition act of Slavery in 1833 which eventually brought an end of the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade in Africans and the (continued on page 51)

Page 50

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Alcoholic mother leaves baby .... abused husband and family behind finds peace in home

By Leon Suseran Significant changes have taken place for little Lalita Yu d h a r a m s i n c e t h i s newspaper last reported on the situation involving her alcoholic mother and her father's struggle to care for her [Lalita] while facing daily abuse from his wife.

Seeram Yudharam, 33, a cane harvester attached to the Rose Hall Estate, and of Lot 8 Lonsdale Village, East Bank Berbice, a few weeks ago, decided to speak out about the daily harassment he endured in his home.

However, he was more concerned about the daily traumas being experienced by his three children, and more particularly his 14month-old baby, who was not being cared for properly since the mother was an alcoholic and would wander the streets looking for alcohol, with the child in her possession.

The couple shared a tumultuous relationship and he, Seeram, was left alone on most occasions to fend for himself and the family and

most importantly, care for his 14- month- old daughter who recently had a cleft- palate surgery performed. The child is due very soon for a followup surgery in Georgetown.

The relevant authorities from the Ministry of Social Services began to deal more seriously with the matter.

The Probation and Welfare Services in New Amsterdam summoned the couple to its offices and attempted to resolve the issue.

In the end, they deemed the mother unfit to care for the baby and the child and other two children were left in their father's care.

Kaieteur News recently caught up with Yudharam at his home. He had just come from work and was washing some clothes in their one- flat home.

His common- law wife of eight years, Kumarie 'Finey' Samlall, left the home and the children just a few days after the ruling by the Probation services.

Life is much easier for Yudharam. He explained that after the decision was made by the Probation department,

the police came and ensured that she left the house.

But a few days earlier, he had to endure his last bout of abuse and torment, since she was on a drinking spree.

“But I didn't bother with her and the following day, I took a car from Lonsdale and paid the car man and he took her in town [Georgetown] and her brother went there and took her to Essequibo”.

It was hardly any goodbye, he related, as the woman did not reach out to her children nor did she say a word of goodbye to them.

“She didn't tell the kids nothing; like she grieve and go away.

She ain't kiss them or do anything with the baby....she just walked out straight and go out to the car, she never watched back or raise her hand to the kids”.

He said that when she reached Essequibo, “she just ring me phone and tell me she reach and cut off the phone”.

Her last whereabouts suggest that she is staying at her mother in Essequibo.

“Since she gone at she

mommy, me deh at more ease now; me ain't got no problem. When I come from work, I just cook for my kids them and look after them and do my work for the kids them and suh”.

A baby- sitter now cares for little Lalita from 5:30 in the morning to 6:30 pm in the evening. The woman, who hails from the neighbouring Sisters' Village, went to the Probation department, agreed to the job and signed some documents.

Yudharam pays $4,000 per week to the baby sitter, an amount set by the probation services.

“Morning time when I left to go to work, my neighbour's son does take my baby and take her to the babysitter and leave her there”. His other children, Natesha and Terrence attend the Sisters' Primary and Nursery School respectively.

As Mother's Day approaches, the Yudharam kids will be without their mother for the first time in many years.

However, as is the case in many instances, their father is the one performing the role of the mother in the home and they might as well honour him this Mother's Day, by saying “Happy Mother's Day, dad”.

Yudharam and two of his children

Yudharam washing clothes

Page 52

From the Diaspora...

By Ralph Seeram The PNC has demonstrated once again that it cannot handle power; it has shown that it cannot be trusted with power and has made it abundantly clear that it is prepared to put narrow political interest above that of the welfare of the Guyanese people.

Let’s forget about this APNU nonsense. This is the PNC back to its old political self, now guided by old PNC

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Will the PPP call new elections? stalwart Carl Greenidge whose tenure as Finance Minister was a complete failure. I am sure that the reasonable voice of David Granger is being pushed aside within the PNC. Granger should know that Greenidge is positioning himself to lead the PNC. The dramatic reversal of the PNC position on the 2012 Budget is ample proof why former President Bharrat Jagdeo never trusted the PNC. One must remember that

it reneged on the agreement on the local government elections with him. President Donald tried to reverse some of Jagdeo’s policies by being a more open Government, and making the opposition inclusive in their discussions, but the PNC has proven the old adage true “a leopard cannot change its spots” So where does the PPP go from here. The answer lies in the last paragraph of President Ramotar’s statement to the nation on Friday, and I quote “I want to assure all Guyana that the steps and decisions my Government takes in the coming period will be guided by the national interest and commitment to the well-being to the people of this country.

I am confident that we will overcome the present setback”. I read the paragraph one, twice and a third time to decipher the meaning of the key words in the paragraph, “steps and decisions my Government takes in the coming period” seemed to suggest to me that a decision has already been made.

He ended by saying “I am confident that we will overcome this setback”. How will be PPP Government overcome the setback? By controlling Parliament once again. The PPP is confident that it can regain parliamentary majority in a new election.

At the PPP press conference at Freedom House Minister of Housing and Water speaking on new elections reminded the press that the President discussed the issue early in budget discussions and “he has the ability and the power resides

in him to call that election.

The President made it clear that is an option he reserves” After stating that the opposition is INTRANSIENT the President gave another clue that he might call new elections, when he states, “I have inestimable faith in the people of this country and their ability to overcome the challenges presented by the developments of the past few days” One will ask how the people can overcome the challenges. The only way the Guyanese people can be involved is with new elections which the President is confident that the PPP will win. That is the only way the people can “overcome the challenge” Last week after praising David Granger for the cooperation in passing some estimates in the budget I also mentioned that the PPP has

nothing to lose in a new election. The PPP will almost certainly win the Presidency again. However it stands to gain the one seat majority. The Opposition has nothing to gain in a new election, but it stands to lose its new found power, power which it has demonstrated it cannot handle in a constructive manner but rather with vindictiveness and recklessness. How else can you describe their actions, when they cut nearly a third of capital expenditures in the 2012 Budget?

This was an absolute abuse of the majority of one seat in the House. How else would you describe it when the PNC and the AFC cut the entire GUY$18.5B from the LCDS projects? Reducing CANU to $1; State Planning Secretariat to $1; The ERC $1 also cutting the subsidies to GINA, GECOM (to prevent

funding for a snap election) NCN and most troubling, the subsidy to Guyana Power & Light Inc. In their abuse of power and vindictiveness did the opposition consider the plight of the thousands of workers and their families that will be directly affected by their selfish actions? Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo have demonstrated how far they will carry old grudges, putting their hatred for their old party above interest of the Guyanese people.

Yes in my view, elections are coming and the Guyanese people will be given another opportunity to demonstrate who they can entrust with power, who can make judicious use of power in their interest. They will be given an opportunity to rectify their error in the last elections.

Nrityageet 33 celebrates 174 years since the first East Indians arrival This year, the Nadira and Indranie S h a h D a n c e Troupe is celebrating 174 years since the first East Indians arrived aboard the Hesperus and the Whitby and stepped onto the shores of Guyana.

This is their 33rd annual celebrations and will include dramatic dance presentations of different dance styles – Kathak, Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Chutney, Modern and Popular.

It will also include Indian traditional story telling presentations such as the

Ramlila and other traditional concepts set to dance and drums played by Teacher Ragoo and several cultural and dance groups of young performers drawn from mandirs, secondary schools, National School of Dance and several dance groups.

NRITYAGEET 33 will be held at the National Cultural Centre on Friday, May 4, at 8 pm. Over 40 dancers will take to the stage in spectacular costumes and sets bringing to life memories of combined performances with music, dance, and drama linking back to our great grandparents and theirs before them.

Dances will be dramatically presented linking the past to the present with medleys of old time favourite songs.

The audience will be treated to newly choreographed kathak dances, a number of fusion dances, folk filmi, chutney and Baratnatyam presented by a young South African medical student currently pursuing her studies in Guyana.

Nrityageet 33 is a presentation of eager young

dancers, choreographers, and teachers who are working feverishly to give the best performance of their lives.

Founding members, Nadira Shah Berry and Suzanne Shah Nilsson, arrived this week and are sharing their choreographies and adding their expertise in their different dance styles.

Produced and performed by the Nadira and Indranie Shah Dance Troupe, Nrityageet has been presenting annual performances of the highest standard for over 33 years.

The dance troupe received the National Award, the Medal of Service, for “Sustained and Outstanding Contribution to the Cultural Mosaic of Guyana.”

Nrityageet has been repeatedly awarded “Best Dance Production”, “Best Costumes” and “Best Set” by the Guyana Theatre Arts Awards and the Madame Iffel Award of Barbados.

Ticket prices range from $200, $500, $1000, $2000 to $3000 and are on sale at the National Cultural Centre, N. &S. Mattai on Water Street, and from any of the dance troupe members.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 53

Armed bandits beat, rob Hogstye lumber dealer Three armed bandits posing as customers inflicted several injuries upon and then robbed a Corentyne lumber dealer and businessman of over $3M worth in money and jewelry, among other items, in a daring daylight robbery on Friday.

Subhas Singh of S. Singh Lumber Yard & Hollow Blocks of Hogstye Village, Corentyne, sustained a swollen mouth and has aches and pains about his body after he was brutally beaten and gun- butted by the men.

According to the man’s daughter, 21- year- old Rachel, around 14:00 hrs, she noticed the three men enter the yard and started to enquire about greenheart wood. She said to them that there was none in stock at the moment and asked them to check New Amsterdam.

She, her father and her sister, seven- year- old Esther were at home at the time. Her mother was at work elsewhere.

“When I saw them coming in the yard, I turned down the stove [she was cooking at the time], and went downstairs to see what they wanted. When I came down, they said they wanted greenheart, but I told them we only had kabakalli— that’s the normal wood that everybody was buying.

Greenheart is too expensive so that is why we didn’t have that.

“They said they wanted to know the transportation costs to Springlands, Corriverton— that they came from Springlands”.

During this time she called her father, who was upstairs, to talk to them about the transportation fee. Rachel began to get suspicious at this point having heard one of the men, whom she said was on his cell phone ever since his arrival, directing expletives towards the person on the other end of the line.

“I was surprised because customers did not normally do that but I did not say anything, so I left my father

with them and went back upstairs. I barely heard people running up the step, and when I turned back, I couldn’t do anything— they had already been in front the door and they ran in the house and told us not to make any noise”.

The men then had them lie on the floor and they began to tie them up one by one.

“Then they tied up the driver for the Canter (Steve) downstairs and put him to lie down”.

She related that the men took her father, all tied up, around the house to the various rooms and asked him where the money and gold were. “And they were hitting he, and he begging, begging them for let them not hurt he daughters and when he begging them, them keep hitting him”.

The men had a .9mm gun and another type of gun and were unmasked. One of them emptied one of the guns and showed her the bullets that they were real and not fake.

They ransacked all of the rooms, she said. He then carried them “straight to the money and gave them the money”.

“They tumbled all the cupboards, rooms and ransacked the whole house looking for money”, she said.

Afterwards, the men took her sister’s Laptop computer valued $185,000, a digital camera, two cell phones, “some stuff that we did not expect bandits to take”, like her mother’s hat, which was left behind. “They took some jewelry as well as artificial jewelry”.

They also took her father’s ID Card, passport and cash book, jewellery valued over $700,000. They also took $350,000 in cash that belonged to his wife. She is doing her own business.

Mr. Singh, whose mouth was still swollen from the beatings, stated that he handed the men $800,000 that was in a bag (from sales last week and this week). “Me hand them that because me ain’t want them beat me and

The driver, Steve, (left) and a traumatised Subhas Singh

The Singh’s residence where the robbery took place

terrorise me family— me two young daughters— so me give them that, and after they were not satisfied with that, they started to put lashes on me— tie me hand with a strip, and they ransacked all the rooms. They put the gun on me and the driver”, he said.

He added that the men, in their quest for more cash, even destroyed the jacuzzi in one of the bedrooms.

“One of them had a phone and somebody telling them what to do and where to search and what happened was that when they were not finding anything, they started to put lash— all me mouth burst up— and all me back and head and they gun butted me. When they knocked me I fell down— I weak, I can’t get up back and two of them knocked me and kicked me— they stomped my forehead— one kick in me belly and one kick on my back and gun butted me about three or four times and couple well cuffs on my mouth”.

Interestingly, Rachel recalled, one of the bandits, ever since he entered their yard, was on his cell phone, as if he was taking directions and getting information as to

where to look in the house and what to look for. She believes the entire act was a set- up. “Somebody was telling he what to do and where to go and what to ask

for”, she posited.

The entire ordeal, she said, lasted more than 30 minutes and even though there are two gas stations (one of which is located

directly opposite their business), several homes, the Black Bush Polder entrance road and Felix Austin Police Training College, nobody saw (Continued on page 55)

Page 54

Kaieteur News

WANTED

CAR RENTAL

One cook, must know to cook Roti & Puri. Call 6477432

Progressive auto rental, cars from $3,500 per day. Call: 6435122, 656-0087, www.progressiveautorental.com

One live in domestic.

Contact:658-9495 / 627-2550 Girls to work in bar, age 18 to 25, tel: 256 – 4096 1 shop assistant to work on Sundays only call:226-2320 or 193 charlotte Street G/ Town One maid, one cook.

Contact: 223-5273-4 1 male/female shop assistant to work in the interior # 688-0197 One experience TM driver to work in interior. Call:6420176,670-1052

Premio, 110 Corolla. Call: 6797139 Al’s car & pickup rental. Call: 698-7807 First Choice Car Rental cars $5,000-7,000 per day 6680306, 225-6337 TO RENT One Bobcat Skid Loader for rent. Please contact: 610-3575 FOR SALE OR RENT Double butcher stall @ LaPenitence Market. Contact: 665-9498, rent or sell for Sunday

Office clerk; CXC English/ Mathematics. Call: 225-4492, 225-6070 One male to work in interior $60,000. Call: 686-2201 Live-in domestic must know to cook and 1 waitress, salary 50,000 monthly.

Call:610-5043 Persons/family to live & take care of farm @ E.C.D, attractive salary offered.

Contact: 690-1943, 691-8021 1-shift supervisor to work in Kitty Area. Call: 226-7054 Two male shop assistants to work in Georgetown & the interior, serious enquiries only. Call: 225-2940, 225-0305 Urgently: chainsaw operator to work in the interior. Call: 626-0006, 231-3159 Live-in domestic; excellent remuneration. Call: 613-3091 1 Tutor to teach Form 1, apply Bissan’s Trading, 94 King Street. Call: 227-7306 Taxi drivers & carpenters.

Call: 698-7807, 225-3234 1 handy boy to work in the interior #688-0197 Security guards, accommodation available.

Call:676-6700 Experienced worker for land dredge contact 618-8800 Van/car driver, person to sell ice cream cones tel:613-3091 Experience men to burn charcoal & chainsaw operator. Call: 653-6236 Labourers to work on wood concession accommodation provided $4,000 per day.

Call: 653-6236 One female to wash clothes.

Call: 621-7862

WANTED Chain Saw operator; good salary, tel: 676-4262, 231-5691 Labourers to work on sawmill at Coverden E.B.D. Call; 6259475, 609-8727 Excavator operator to work at Mahdia, must have 3 years experience. 1 cook. Contact: 216-6348, 661-5991, 674-0245 Manager’s Assistant general duties including Custom and Bond, Security Guards, accommodation available.

Call: 676-6700 Full time gardener/ handyman reference needed. Call: 226-0240, 2253557 Urgently needed live-in waitress to work in bar, reasonable salary offer. Call: 259-0574 1 live- in- care giver to take care of elderly woman. Must be single age 50-55 #253-3049 Waitresses @ Diamond gate liquor restaurant and bar, lot 18 Belmont Mahaicatel # 2285013, 622-5599 Experience sewing machine operators. Call: 220-4337 To buy 1-22 RB Dragline. Call: 616-0617, 663-3285 Scrap metal. Call: 616-0617, 663-3285 1 general domestic to work in Georgetown, MonSat.Call:614-7267 One live in domestic no cooking, washing call:6397700

SERVICES Permanent &Visitors Visa Applications Professional Immigration Consultant Room E-4 Maraj Building 225-6496/662-6045.

We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer. Omar:231-0655,6838734 Repairs, sales & spares, air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & Stoves.

Ultra Cool: 225-9032, 647-2943 House plan drafting for only $10,000. Building estimate for only $10,000. Call 6949843 US & Canada Visa application services. Call: 643-6630, Family Discounts Available.

Prudential décor & catering weddings, parties, celebrations, commissioning etc 642-4827 ask for Ms Joylyn “We can help” Looking for a job? Office, Domestic & need assistance, contact Angela: 694-0096 Now open KDRS Pharmacy at Mon Repos Mall 220-8675 nutritionist available every Saturday We refill HP cartridges for $1,800. Call:650-7699 We fix (repair) and install all types of toilet sets Tel# 6791391 Service done to any kind of satellite dish program FTA boxes easy Jupiter tel: 6837167,609-7363 ONLINE SHOPPING NO COMMISSION, WEEKLY S H I P M E N T S , AFFORDABLE RATES, FREE PRIVATE MAILBOX. T E L : 2 3 1 - 5 7 8 9 .

FREIGHTLINKEXPRESS@ GMAIL.COM WE FILL OUT PASSPORT & VISA FORMS:USA,UK & CANADA TEL: 231-5789

CAKE & PASTRIES Courses in cake decoration, pastry making & cookery, tel: 670-0798. Wedding dresses for sale & rental.

1-lb character cakes $5,000, pastries at whole sale prices.

Call: 223-9497 FOR SALE 1 eight ft offset fiber satellite dish can work with internet/ dish network Tel# 683-7167, 609-7363 Printing machine AB Dick 360-375, cutter paper special: linen, laid, 3 hole paper ($700 per ream), cardboard $5 Call: 233-2725

Sunday April 29, 2012

FOR SALE Going cheap; U.K used truck engines, Perkins 4 & 6 cylinders. Tel: 661- 3043

FOR SALE 1 Xerox copy centre model C123, 1 Mercury outboard engine 55HP. Call: 617-4087

Household furniture etc. beds, sofa, wardrobes. Call: 254-0694 / 682-3011

Dell computers complete with 19” LCD from $69,000.

Dell Dual Core Laptops Window 7 $70,000. Future Tech. Call:231-2206, 644-6760

1 Bedford model M 4x4 $3.5, 1 Bedford Model TM 6X6 $7.5, 2 Kubota diesel engines negotiable. Call: 688-4270 Used: QSC Amps MX2000 & MX3000, Roland sampler SP404, Rcf speaker: 12" & 18", celestion speaker: 15".

Contact: 644-3390 Titan parts, engine DIFF etc.

Call:648-2075 New Blackberry Torches (Slider) $80,000. Call: 6801722 Moulders, multirip saws, resaws, cross cut saw and genset Tel 616-5595 Rodney

Any amount live chicken, plucked chicken, liver, giblets & foot. For more info contact: 621-4304, 220-1043 Used & brand-new fridge, TV, microwaves, AC, vacuum.

Call: 678-4899 Spares for washer, microwaves, fridges, stovetimers, gear boxes, pumps etc. Contact:225-9032, 6472943 Toyota Starlet 2 E Turbo engine with gearbox and ECU: Call: 624-7155.

NARS lipgloss, eyeshadow & Clinique lipgloss. Tel: 6698374.

Gold detectors (Water proof) with headset, batteries changer & batteries. Call: 609-7625

Bread tapes. Call: 231-8819

2 mixed breed pups age2months. Call: 651-0589, 6883717 price negotiable

90 KVA Generator, portable 110/220, 1 phase & 3 phase.

Call: 642-1141. 1200 hrs.

15ft fiber glass boat $170,000.

Call: 260-0301, 685-1233

Games for PS2-$900, PSP$900, PS3-$2600, Xbox 360$2600, Xbox 1-$2000, WII$1600.Call: 672-2566, 2653231

Pool table cloth, ball, pocket, Q-Stick, rubber, coin Shute, chalk, tips, coin. Call:6699927, 668-7805 Compaq laptops -$85,000.

Call: 675-1168 2x2x1.5MM, Hollow section.

Call: 2200-6100, 680-5900 Wireless internet Modems 3.5G $18,000. Call: 609-7625 Peking ducks, call: 266-2711 / 609-4594 1 Allion trunk and left back light for $45,000 each call:683-2138 or 690-1463 HP laptops-500GB HRD, UFB Rom 15inch. 3i Torch Blackberry-16GB Memory card call:669-3772, 648-1602 Dell Dual Core computer + LCD monitor, 2GB RAM $59,000. Call: 225-3709, 6410537, 691-2077 One PS3 160gb $100,000 1 washer, 1 dryer $85,000 each contact #650-7719 15ft Fiber glass boat $170,000 call: 260-0301,685-1233 Generator diesel, silent 27KVA 400 Gallon tank; key start like new $1.8 Million.

Call: 621-4000, 690-6000 Generac 15000KVA or 15KVA 110-220 key start gas, $850,000each. Call: 621-4000, 690-6000 1 washing machine, 1 dryer, PS 3 160GB 100,000.

Contact:650-7719 Quality upholstery materials tel # 220-3356/643-3627

1 Tundra, 1 Perkins engine & Welder 400 amps. Call: 6605462, 611-5114 1 330 Bedford Turbo engine, 3000 PSI pressure washer, power horse 2’’ water pump, 1 ½ Ton forklift Nissan.

Contact: 617-7691 15-15-15 fertilizer. Call: 2662711, 609-4594 2 Leyland Daf double Axle.

Call:678-1317 Household articles TV’S Freezer, microwaves, hot water tank, computer, fax, etc.

Call: 233-5251, 662-2595 Pine lumber at unbeatable prices. Call: 226-7054 Coconut oil, any amount, call: 650- 4421 Slightly damage zinc sheet.

Call: 226-7054 2 used large fridge $55,000, new digital camera $25,000 each, 1 double door electric wall oven $100,000. Call: 6121486 New Apple IPod nano, 4GB $50,000 Neg # 674-8875 New universal Laptop chargers # 674-8875 330 Bedford truck & Parts, 580C Hymac and 753 Bobcat.

Call: 616-0617, 663-3285 Clean garden earth and builders waste, also Bobcat Rental excavating clearing and leveling. Call: 616-0617, 663-3285

VEHICLES FOR SALE 99 Honda Civic Leather interior. Call:648-2075 Just arrived: Allion and Premio, tel: 624-2000, 6221610 UNREGISTERED ALLION, PREMIO, SPACIO, RUNX, ALEX, 2 TON CANTER, AVENSIS, VEROSSA, 212.

CALL:677-7666/ 610-7666 1 Toyota Ipsum very good condition call 225-8673,6007448 Verossa PNN. Call:665-3067, 228-2609 MARK II GX 100, excellent condition, rims, music, H.I.D, alarm, owner migrating 1.1M. Call: 6985046, 696-2721 Toyota Raum, roof Rack body kit, mags, CD, spoiler black. Call: 686-0323, 2690432 Unregistered Black Spacio, Silver Premio; reverse camera, Cerisor. Call: 6970294, 220-9514 One Tundra 2003 V6 contact: 660-7313 1 RZ Mini bus series BKK. Call: 667-9629 Galant $1.1M low miles, excellent condition. Call: 647-9520 3 Ton enclosed Canter unregistered. Call: 617-2891 3 Ton 4 wheel drive Canter unregistered. Call:6172891 2004 Mazda RX 8, body kit, fully loaded, black unregistered. Call: 6172891 1-RZ Mini bus unregistered.

Call: 617-2891 Unregistered Premio & Allion with TV, mags, back Cam. Call: 609-8188, 602-6307 1 TK 330 Lorry with B Dump. Call: 228-5220, 6169505 One EP 71 Starlet, 1 AE 91 Sprinter, 1 Mitsubishi RVR and Pajero-JR, 1 Nissan Pathfinder PMM, 1 Honda FIT 2004. Call: 644-5096, 6971453 Mazda 3- fully loaded, rims, immaculate condition PNN series. Call: 650-0979 1 – 2001 Toyota Kluger, Diplomatic, all four, PLL series, mid-size SUV, clean.

Price $5.4M neg. Contact: 642-3786, 660-0824.

2005 H2 Hummer, 38,500 mileage fully loaded, chrome kit etc. Call: 639-3100, 6195400 Tundra -$3.2M, GX-100$3.5. Steve:699-5499 (Continued on page 56)

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

The Abigail Column We love each other, but we fight all the time DEARABIGAIL, I’ve never done this before so here it goes.

I’ve been dating my current boyfriend for about 8 months, and we do love each other very much. However, I believe we both want very different things from our relationship, and we fight on a regular basis.

We fight about everything from spending time with friends to how we feel we are being treated and so forth. We have a lot of trouble identifying with each other and being considerate

of each other’s needs. Should I move on and accept that we are incompatible, or should we try a new approach?

Confused Dear Confused, You’re not the only one struggling to sort through whether it makes sense to stay in a relationship.

Have you talked with your boyfriend about the situation? It’d be helpful to know whether you’re on the same page about whether you want to keep the relationship going, whether you see that there are problems, and whether you’re both willing to try to

make changes in your behaviour to work things out.

If you’re both dedicated to making changes, you might start by practicing your listening skills. Take turns listening to each other describe what’s important to you in a relationship and a partner and what you value about the relationship you have. Rather than focusing on your own feelings, take time to probe and understand what the other person thinks and feels. If you can figure out what you both want from your relationship, it may be time to move on to talking about how you want your relationship to change.

Page 55

Dead motorcyclist...

Wife denies husband was “drunk” The wife of the La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, contractor, who was killed in Thursday’s night horrific crash on Vlissengen Road, is claiming that her husband was not under the influence of alcohol.

The highly upset woman, Debbie claimed that her now dead husband, Yudashram Dookhie had called her five minutes before the accident to inquire what she wanted because he had collected his salary. She claimed that her husband had talked to her sober-headed.

The woman said that she told her husband that she did not want anything. She added that she had called back in less than five minutes but his phone rang out so she thought he was on his way

home, since she said, Dookhie never answers his phone when he is riding.

“After the phone ring out, I get back a call from the number asking ‘Who is you to his person?’ She said when she told the male she was Dookhie’s wife, the male who identified himself as Constable Willy told her “’The man dead’ and he hang up on me without saying anything else,” Mrs. Dookhie lamented. She added that when she visited the police station to collect her husband’s belongings, she did not receive his salary, which was almost $150,000.

She even went on to accuse the police officer of not giving her a proper statement.

She claimed when she asked the police officer to

Yudashram Dookhie give her a little detail about the accident, “he said ‘I can’t tell you everything fine fine.’”

“I don’t even know who was driving the truck,” she said.

Armed bandits beat, rob...

Sunday April 29, 2012 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): You clean your house on a regular basis, but are you as diligent about cleaning out emotional clutter? A great way to break away from some recent stress and anxiety is physical exercise. ****************** TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Your intuitive powers might be a bit unpredictable right now, but don't lose hope!

An unusual development later in the day will keep you on track. ******************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Avoid getting too heavy with your friends or family members today -- keeping things light will help you stay popular and will keep the day's vibe easy and pleasant. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): After waking up very energized today, you will take a look at your short list of daily tasks and feel almost disappointed that you don't have more to do. ******************** LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): An important piece of new information will come to light today, and this revelation will cause you to start reassessing a few of your strategies and plans. ********************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): Giving and receiving help will take up most of your day today -- start things off on the right foot as soon as you can this morning. Make a relative or a roommate a healthy breakfast. ********************** LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): This is a great day to help other people out, especially if they're

working on improving or beautifying something. Your input will help shape things in a very positive way -- and, of course, many hands make for light work! ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21): Your primary ambitions no longer involve your career or your school life -- your personal life is moving to the fore.

Don't be surprised if your wanderlust starts kicking into high gear today -- someone else's tales of an overseas adventure are making your feet very itchy. ********************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): The waters ahead look a bit choppy -- and if you want to get through them safely, you'll have to dive in deep. Sometimes, jumping ship and going it alone yields much better results than hanging on and merely hoping for the best. ********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Your day could be effortless and enjoyable -- if you stop putting off a certain task. But if you keep on avoiding this thing, it will not be an easy day at all. *********************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18): Coasting through life is not your style -- you relish a challenge, and you might be offered a very appealing one today. You are learning that an easy-to-attain goal is much less fulfilling than a hard-won victory. ********************** PISCES (Feb. 19 - March 20): Does it seem as though someone in your life is running hot one minute and cold the next?

(From page 53) or did anything to assist.

The men finally left after they had probably heard another customer calling downstairs. “I just heard the place was quiet and they gone. They ran down the stairs and ran out the house.”

A black 192 Model Car with tinted windows (Hire car) drove up and collected the

DTV CHANNEL 8 09:25hrs. Sign On 09:30hrs. Turning Point 10:00hrs. Kickin’ It 11:00hrs. Lab Rats 12:35hrs. Movie: Little Women 14:35hrs. Movie: The Princess Stallion 16:05hrs. Movie: Pokemon Heroes 17:30hrs. Mr. Young 18:00hrs. Faith in Action 18:30hrs. Know Your Bible 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Once Upon a Time (New Episode) 21:00hrs.

Desperate Housewives (New Episode) 22:00hrs. Movie: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark 23:00hrs. Sign Off

men and drove off in the direction of New Amsterdam.

Police arrived as usual a few minutes later, untied the family and took statements.

The Singhs were robbed last in 2008 when armed bandits, at 02:00 hrs, beat down their front door with a sledge hammer and attacked them.

Kaieteur News also

understands that just three hours before the Singhs were attacked and robbed, armed bandits beat and robbed a #55 Village (a few villages away) shopkeeper.

The woman sustained head injuries and has since been admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital. The Singhs believe the two robberies are connected.

Page 56

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

A response to Kaieteur News letter of April 18 (From page 54)

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From page 61 Commander Vyphuis. Two police prosecutors witnessed the weapons and the entire scene. But, the funny thing about money and it’s power, it insulates you from prosecution, jail, or investigation in this country.

The police seemed intimidated that Sunday afternoon to even confront the thugs. It shows the level of corruption within the police force.

When I spoke on behalf of the AFC campaign, I was critical of the corruption in this country and its impact on this society as a whole. On a weekly basis, there is a story in the newspapers of wanton corruption, bribery, theft and the like, but I’m yet to see a single prosecution. This scenario is the same with the horseracing community, ie, it is now infested with people who do not care about the sport nor the safety of the animals. The expenditure of money to buy races, jockeys, officials and plain disrespect has gone to extreme proportion for the “Sport of Kings.

My family acquired the little we have by hard and honest work, not by illegal or dishonest means. Why doesn’t the concerned fan write about Jr Jet’s behavior the week before at Port Mourant Racetrack with his threats of violence against jockey Yap Drepaul in the presence of the stewards and officials? What about his disrespect at Justice Kennard’s track with loud music? And why is it that a 22 year old kid walks around with a weapon? Why don’t you write about the sizeable sum paid because of a gun incident on a woman in a minibus? Is he a licensed gun holder?

Gone are the humble days…, hello to Prado and guns…?

This entire fiasco has to do with gambling. This problem is a plague that has been going on since the famous Peaceful and Zenyatta debacle at Port Mourant that resulted in a deadheat. Everyone present saw Peaceful, from the Colin Elcock stables, winning the

close contest, but because of the amount of gambling, the race was neutralized.

In race no.1 that Sunday, another Trinidadian jockey was blocking a charging second place horse owned by Attorney at Law, Poonai. A complaint was lodged with the race officials by Colin Elcock. Why don’t you write that Jr Jet and the entire clique are gambling in the races, so it is imperative that they win at all cost or their pay out will be huge. Is this what we are to expect for the Guyana Cup that is run by Jumbo Jet? My father and members of our community built Ryan Crawford Memorial track for the love of the sport not for money. I am not affiliated with my father’s track in any way shape or form. I attend and pay the same money as regular fans. If I had my way, I would turn the racetrack into an athletic sports facility and health centre for the people of my community. None of Senior Counsel Crawford sons care about horseracing.

If I need to see proper horseraces, I’d put on a suit and sit in the US, Canada (with the family of deceased David Sarjudas at Woodbine) or any other Caribbean island minus the gun flaring gangsters.

Ryan Crawford Editor’s note: Kaieteur Sport would like to offer an apology to Mr Crawford for any embarrassment and other mental duress he may have suffered by the publication of the letter referred to. We however allow persons the opportunity to air their views about particular events. At times those views may offend.

Based on my investigation Mr Crawford hit the crux of the problem affecting horseracing locally...gambling. In the absence of proper legislation by government the sport is made to suffer. We hope this can be corrected soonest and the sport can be enjoyed without incident.

While, the views in the previous letter were not ours, we would offer a retraction of the article and again our apologies to Mr Crawford.

Buddy’s Gym supports...

From page 60 compete in the finals at the NCC. A Fitness Fair will also form part of the package at the Regional competitions where sponsors of the event will have the opportunity to showcase their products and services to the patrons and fans. Those athletes selected at the Regional level will be rewarded with supplement packages compliments of Fitness Express to ensure that they are in tip top shape for

the finals. Personalized advice will also be given to those athletes.

Other sponsors on board so far Malta Supreme (Banks DIH), Mohamed’s Enterprise, The City Mall, Hand in Hand Insurance Group of Companies, Windjammer International Hotel, Mohamed’s General Store (Robb Street), Color’s Boutique (Robb Street) and Fazia’s Collection (America & Longden Streets).

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 57

“Successes, failures and selections for West Indies!”

Colin E. H. Croft Last week, before West Indies squad to tour England was published, I was asked by present employer, British Sky Sports Television, to select a squad whom I thought would start England’s Summer of Cricket.

I did not do badly, missing only three names from that 15 named.

Most picked themselves!

Darren Sammy, given circumstances and his own production, was always going to be continued as captain.

Problems might come when all players now at Indian Premier League (IPL), including Chris Gayle, become available, for, due to rather fortunate scheduling, New Zealand, who will tour next.

Kirk Edwards is West Indies best batsman after Shiv Chanderpaul. He has already shown in his short but mature cricketing life that he has tools to think the game through, putting premiums on batsmanship and wicket.

That he has been made vice-

captain tells much that he has become so very valuable!

I did select Adrian Barath too, but he is extremely fortunate. Of West Indies players against Australia, he was the most overwhelming, abject, disappointing failure of all. 41, 42, 22, 2, 7, 5, 29, 0; two ODI’s and three Tests – eight innings; aggregate only 148 – is dire poverty indeed, especially for an opener!

Worst, he averaged only 10.83 runs in three Tests!

Barath should also always remember Sir Everton Weekes’s adage: “If you do not want to be caught, then do not hit the ball in the air!”

Barath is only re-selected because other openers have been even more dismal. Ottis Gibson must utter ultimatums to Barath too, reminding him that looking stupid, standing at the crease, after being caught at square-leg, does not count!

Someone must get hold of Barath and teach him how to bat properly. No-one can hit the ball that often in the air and expect to be successful.

Hadi’s World Inc./City Mall Softball finals set for May 5 The Hadi’s World Inc./ City Mall Softball nationwide Male/Female Finals are set for next Saturday May 5th, starting at 12:00pm at the Ministry of Education ground (formerly Softball ground) on Carifesta Avenue.

The tournament started on January 22nd, and is organised and managed by the Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association (GFSCA). The quarterfinals in the Male/Female Open category, and Male Open semifinals will be played on Tuesday May 1st.

Quarter/Semifinals Fixtures for Tuesday May 1st.

Education ground: Pitch 1: 9:00am-Trophy Stall A vs Die Hard. 11:00am-Regal vs Celebrity Times. 1:00pmWinners to play. 3:00pmWellwoman vs Rising Stars.

Pitch 2: 9:00am-Memorex vs Trophy Stall B. 11:00amWolf Warriors vs Affiance Storm. 1:00pm-Winners to play. 3:00pm-Trophy Stall Angels vs Fazal Kayume Angels. 4:00pm-4R Lioness vs Enterprise Stars.

The GFSCA would like to announce that anyone missing a set of keys on Sunday April 22nd can contact Wayne Jones on 6501790 to identify same.

ALL SYSTEMS IN...

From page 61 Warrior and Flying Object competing for the $90,000 and trophy over 1000M. The L class event will see Royal Princess, Valley Whisper, No Body Knows, Shivannie, Mr Briggs, Two Punch, Red Gold and Hard Runnings will be running hard over the 1000M for the $80,000 winners’ money and trophy.

The race for group one horses for a winning money of $60,000 and trophy will be a 1000M affair with Star Boy, Black Master, Little Trickster, Sweet 16, Sea Bird, Big Drive, Grey Boy, Red Boy and Dance Fever.

Apart from Banks DIH among the other sponsors are Mohammed Shariff of the

Shariff racing stable, Buddy Shivraj, Jumbo Jet Auto Sales, GT&T, Rommel Jagroop, Trophy Stall Bourda market Inshan Bacchus, Lenny Singh, Chatterpaul Deo, Phagoo’s General Store and Businessmen Shano and Mohammed Khan.

The individual performers including top jockey, stable and trainer will be presented with trophies compliments of The Trophy Stall, Bourda Market.

Interested persons can make enquiries with President R. Jagit (tel 232-0231), Secretary Arjune Singh on 688-4764 and Treasurer Lakeram .B. Sukhdeo on Number 232-0558. Race time is 12:00 hrs. (Samuel Whyte)

Case in point, try Ian Botham, former England all-rounder.

He did the same, normally, and averaged 18 in Tests played against West Indies! Barath is quite fortunate that West Indies cricket reserves are so poor. In 1970’s and 1980’s, he would be gone!

Darren Bravo was a great disappointment too. Overall standards make him a standout, but he too failed badly against Australia. 4, 16, 0, 25, 3, 12, 51, 32, 38, 8*, 10, 45; five ODI’s, one T-20, three Tests – twelve innings; aggregate 244 – might satisfy insular idiots, but this is very putrid for any team’s premier batsman. Well might he suggest that he must make learning from Chanderpaul priority, maybe reality!

I have seen more international cricket than most, since 1965. There is no doubt that Darren Bravo has tremendous talent, even if I have never at all equated him to Brian Lara, but Darren seems to lapse into opaque trances while at the crease, seeming to lose focus and concentration when they matter most!

As I have said often, many of our young cricketers do not really need coaches.

They have natural tools to succeed.

They need psychologists, perhaps, even psychiatrists. Those “mind engineers” have been known to have corrected fetishes and other illnesses, so enhancing cricketing ability would be a breeze!

My only suggestion on Chanderpaul is that I am extremely proud to have been his fore-runner, in Test cricket, from Unity-Lancaster village. More particularly, his father and uncle - “Cow-Fly” and “Bun” to all who know them, and who both played for Guyana - should be so

proud that their off-spring could get to 10,000+ Test runs, and still simply be “the best” that West Indies has.

What an honour that is for “Tiger!

Narsingh Deonarine was a revelation. Give credit to Gibson for lighting a fire under Deonarine’s back-side. Like Hillary “Larry” Gomes, Collis King or Clive Lloyd, Deonarine now knows his limitations, and, like those successful ones named, played well within them.

Knowing one’s game well is half of the battle!

Deonarine measured up okay and deserves continuity, even as Marlon Samuels also returns. I had not selected Samuels, as I had Chris Gayle instead, on the misunderstanding that only Gayle and not Samuels too, would have been available for some of the Test series in England.

I was quite disappointed that Fidel Edwards was not at his best against the Aussies.

None of their batsmen, except wicket-keeper Matt Wade, made a century, only in Test No. 3, when Edwards was out, injured. The recent Australians were more swag, and late bravado, than substance. It would have been tremendously heartwarming to see Edwards and Kemar Roach operation at full throttle against them!

I did not select Assad Fudadin in my 15 to England, but had Devendra Bishoo instead. I can understand and appreciate that message Clyde Butts and selectors have sent to Bishoo – “Go back to West Indies “A”, regain your spinning ability and confidence!”

Meanwhile, Fudadin has done all-around well enough recently for Guyana. His uncle, Alvin Kallicharran, would certainly be keeping a

keen eye on him too!

Like Fudadin, Shannon Gabriel was a surprise to me.

I thought that West Indies selectors would wait to give him a Test outing later this year against Bangladesh, but nothing is wrong with this selection at all. He gets a grand 24th birthday gift – 28 April, 1988 – and West Indies fast bowling needs help badly!

Michael Holding (2 First Class), Colin Croft (3 First Class), Joel Garner (2 First Class), were very inexperienced when each playing first ever Test. Gabriel, who brings Ian Bishop to mind, already has 28 First Class games. He must note that quartet has 794 Test wickets between them! What an objective!

With Barath, Darren Bravo, Fudadin, Gabriel and Kemar Roach, Kieran Powell is also in the “futures brigade.” His elegance reminds of England’s David Gower. He could have worse examples than DG to follow; many masterful innings against West Indies’s best, in several battles, none better than 154 no, against Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, at Sabina Park, Jamaica; 1981!

Kemar Roach was “Colossus of the Caribbean” against Australia in three Tests. Many have already liked him to “Macco” Marshall, but Roach needs real help, ASAP! It would really be massively pleasing if Edwards, Gabriel and Roach are fit and firing fully, come Test No. 1, Lords, May 17 next. Just short of his 24th birthday too, Roach bowled

Colin E. H. Croft magnificently - 19 wickets at a parsimonious 19.73 v Australia!

Denesh Ramdin was unfortunate to have injuries just as he was coming back to batting form, before West Indies v Australia. His batting has helped him with this selection too, as Carton Baugh, while ’keeping relatively well, was absolutely atrocious batting against Australia.

Ravi Rampaul played only Test No. 3. The jury is still out on form and especially fitness. He will have to shape up for England, for he never left the ground at all in his delivery strides in that Test.

For someone who was supposedly ill, allowing him to miss most of Australia’s tour, Rampaul looked as fat as a fowl!

“Spindly” Shane Shillingford was excellent.

That 10 wickets haul, 1st since “Tooth Pick” Lance Gibbs’, 1966, Old Trafford, was the result of good bowling and perseveration.

England will be interesting for West Indies.

Who knows, they may even win the Test series! Enjoy!

Page 58

Kaieteur News

Primary Schools Windball Cricket C/ships...

No.36, Auchlyne, Joanna, all record victories

Students and teachers pose for a photo op shortly before the start of play in the Upper Corentyne/Black Bush Polder Zone.

No.36, Auchlyne and Joanna were among the winners when action the Upper Corentyne/Black Bush Polder Zone of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport (MCYS), National Sports Commission (NSC), Ministry of Education (MoE), GT&T & Al Sport & Tour Promotions (ASTP) 15th Annual Regional End of School Year Windball Cricket Championships.

In results of matches played at the Bush Lot Farm

ground: GirlsNo.36 Primary defeated Wellington Park by 9 wickets.

Wellington Park making a return after a four-year absence batted first and reached 23-1 off the allotted overs with no batter contributing significantly.

No. 36, also making a comeback after a prolonged absence replied with 24-1.

Trishana Prince hit a topscore of 10.

Auchlyne then beat Kildonan by 7 wickets.

Kildonan 31-1, Abehola D’Aguiar hit 17.

Auchlyne in their turn at the crease reached 35-3 with Shamarna Cort stroking 10.

Rocheal Dipnarine took 2-4.

BoysAuchlyne made it two wins in a row after registering a comfortable 10 wickets win over Wellington Park.

Wellington Park made 346. Alex Quintine 15. &

Stretch D Dollar cycle race postponed Berbicians will have to wait a little bit longer to see the country’s top cyclists in action. The annual Stretch D Dollar cycling event which is organised by the Flying Ace Cycling Club of Berbice and slated for Tuesday May 1, Labour Day, has been postponed to a date to be announced.

According to coordinator

Randolph Roberts the event will now be staged later in the year.

The 50 miles event was slated to be held on the West Coast of Berbice and was open to cyclist throughout the country.

Prizes were to be awarded to the first 10 cyclists to cross the finishing line, fist four cyclists from the Flying Aces

Club, the first four beginners, first three females. The riders will also compete for 8 prime prizes.

The Stretch D Dollar event is sponsored by Manager of the Stretch D Dollar supermarkets Rudolph Blair who is also a member of the Club and was a former national school cycling champion. Blair, now a businessman, has businesses in both East and West Berbice.

Persons requiring further information can contact Coach Roberts on telephone 628-1951.

Surendra Budhoo grabbed 3wkts, while Shane Campbell picked up 2wkts.

Auchlyne replied with 350, S Budhoo 14, Aaron Mangal 11.

No.36 beat Eversham 2 runs.

No. 36 Primary 70-4, Dancel Gajadhur 21, Akash Saywack 18 Eversham 68-6, Shaquelle Veloza 10. D. Gajadhar 4wkts, A. Saywack 2wkts.

Joanna then scored an 8 wickets win over Alness in a rain-affected game.

Alness made 17-4 off 3 overs.

Joanna reply with 20-2 off 2.3 overs, Chris Anthony 10.

Rain had the final say in the Lower Corentyne Zone, at the Albion Sports Complex ground.

Play in the countrywide competition continues on Wednesday, May 2nd, at the National Park Tarmac with Georgetown boys in action, Thursday, May 3rd at Welfare Centre ground with schools in the Canje & New Amsterdam zones.

This tournament is organised by Sport Officer attached to the National Sports Commission Allister Munroe.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Four entities on board with GABA & Bristo Promotion for Amateur Boxing Competition The amateur boxing card scheduled for Linden tomorrow has received a late shot in the arm after several sponsors came forward in the homestretch.

President of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association Steve Ninvalle said yesterday that Banks DIH Limited has come on board to make the 12-bout card a success.

Ninvalle also disclosed that Toucan Industries, Guywill Shipping, Jevon and Denise of Massive in Linden, Kashif and Shanghai Organization and Guymine.com, have joined the list of sponsors.

The inaugural opened air boxing card, which will ignite the Bus Park when the boxers collide when the anticipated excited bouts commence under officials order, will see spectators who missed the Friday Night fights at the Cliff Anderson Sport Hall last Friday will receive another chance to witness Guyana’s talent.

The card will be held under floodlights in collaboration with the Linden

Town Week celebrations.

President of GABA, who announced the great venture last Friday at the Princess Hotel and revealed that this competition will be part of their decentralizing boxing plans, expressed his gratitude to the sponsors for supporting the amateur boxing card.

Other sponsors on board are: Princess International Hotel, Digicel, Allison Butter Grant, Tricina Sobers (Women across the borders), Mark Arthur, Sybils Bakery, Kevin Smith (Golden Grove Boxing Gym), DeltaAirline and Lion Love Promotion.

Boxers a part of the venture: Kenny Bristol, Lennox Blackmore, Dillon Carew, Steve Frank, Raul Frank, Brian Mutter and Elton ‘the Coolie Bully’ Dharry.

Several of Guyana’s top boxers are scheduled to appear on the card including bantamweight Olympic hopeful ‘Magic’ Imran Khan.

According to Ninvalle, the first fight will commence at 6 pm. The card is organized by GABA and Briso Promotions.

RHTY&SC cricket teams donate to several organisations The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) during its Gala 22nd Annual Awards ceremony on Sunday April 22 made several donations to NGO’s, Sports organisations and the National Mental Hospital.

The donations were made by the cricket teams of the club under their Personal Development Programme which seeks to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

Cricket gear was given to the Tain Block Four Cricket Club, $200,000 worth of trousers to the Mental Hospital while the Berbice Volleyball Association received a set of volleyballs to assist its youth development programme.

The teams also assisted the second year Science class of Cyril Potter College of Education with volleyball trophies and prizes for an upcoming event; the Port Mourant Secondary School received a set of basketballs and uniforms while the Berbice Cricket Board received $100,000 worth of white balls, trophies and tee shirts for its Independence Day 20/20 tournament.

Club Secretary/CEO, Hilbert Foster, at the presentation praised the

teams for their continued efforts to assist others to fulfill their true potential and also for their determination to always strive for excellence.

He expressed the hope that the donations which have a total value of $500,000 would be used for its intended purpose and would assist to unearth new sporting talent.

The RHTY&SC, Foster stated was determined to not only remain the best but also to assist other NGO’s and clubs to improve themselves to better serve the younger generation of Guyana.

The donations were done by the members of the Rose Hall Town Farfan and Mendes Under-15, Bakewell Under-17 and Second Division, Pepsi Under-19, Metro Females and Gizmos and Gadgets First Division teams.

The club also honoured several journalists during the presentations for their contribution towards the development of the club.

They included Samuel Whyte of Kaieteur News, Avinash Ramzan of TVG, Gregory Rambarran of DTV-8, Calvin Roberts of Guyana Chronicle and Sheran Ramnauth of LRTVS CH10. Several other Journalists would also be honoured shortly in Georgetown.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 59

Mandessa Moses surrenders lopsided decision...

From back page seemed to find new energy and pounded away at Moses who by now looked beaten and unable to find the right punches to counteract the wily Venezuelan.

With her confidence high, Lozano continued to pound away at a hapless Moses who just could not find the right combinations to keep the slimly built Venezuelan at bay.

It seemed also, that the Venezuelan was getting stronger as the round progressed.

She lashed out with several telling punches and steered Moses in one of the neutral corners where she unleashed several telling blows forcing the Guyanese pugilist to seek refuge in a clinch.

The Venezuelan toiled away and it seemed as though she was getting stronger with each passing round. The final round was almost reminiscent of the first when Lozano rocked Moses with a right cross that sent her on the retreat.

The Guyanese could find no answer for that mode of attack and when the final bell rung, was covering up from a Lozano assault. Lozano’s trainer excitedly scaled the ropes and hoisted his fighter on his shoulder, parading her around the ring. It was a premature gesture but in the end the judges concurred. Unlike her biblical namesake Moses, who had parted the Red Sea,

Moses failed to weather the raging storm and lost out unanimously. Colin Aaron had it 59-54, while Lionel B Sullivan and Trevor Arno had it 59-55 and 59-56 all in favour of the Venezuelan.

King needed to be patient if he was to prevail over Lewis. He demonstrated remarkable patience while employing a counteractive two fisted attack. Lewis loaded up, swinging several haymakers in the hope of surprising King.

The Forgotten Youth Foundation product was, however, up to his opponent’s game and kept a safe distance while scoring valuable points in the interim to eventually prevail.

Skeete’s demise was orchestrated by a vicious body punch and a left hook merely minutes into the bout.

He fell with a resounding crash but managed to beat the mandatory eight count. He returned to the fray but was met by several crunching blows and an especially vicious left hook followed by a body dig deposited him to port canvas where the referee counted him out. He remained where he had fallen for the better part of five minutes while the medical practitioners subjected him to a cursory check.

Bajan, Ricardo Blackman’s stay in the ring never suggested permanence

Chintamani re-elected Chairman of LCC Virendra Chintamani was re-elected as President of the Leguan Cricket Committee at their Annual General Meeting which was held recently on the Essequibo River Island.

Jainarine Nandram has been retained as the Vice Chairman, while the Secretary is Harvey Gobin. Royan Jacobs will serve as the Treasurer and Mustapha Zaman the Assistant Secretary Treasurer.

Chintamani thanked the clubs for electing him once again and said he will work feverishly with his committee to develop cricket on the island with assistance from the clubs and other resource personnel.

He also stated that a number of players from the island made it to the Essequibo team and urged the clubs to reach for greater heights.

MOHAMED RETAINED AS GSSC CHAIRMAN Mustak Mohamed has been retained as Chairman of the Good Success Sports Club when the body held its bi-annual general meeting and elections recently at the club’s head quarter at Good Success on the Island of Wakenaam.

Other persons elected to serve for the two year period are Shorab Alli-vice chairman, Jaidat Persaud - Secretary, Teniram Ramnarine Treasurer, Fidel Birbal Assistant Secretary

Treasurer and Nazeer Mohamed as the Public Relations Officer.

Chandreka Ragnauth was elected as the club captain, while the Committee Members are Lakeram Cobeer, Shafdar Alli, Gupti Jotis, Ganesh Ram Narine and Jaggernauth Manbodh.

Meanwhile, Mustak Mohamed said that he is elated that the members have once again placed their trust in him and promised to work towards the continuous improvement of the club.

and less than 30 seconds after the commencement of the bout a tame straight right landed on his nose and sent him to the canvass. He gamely rose but though obviously hurt, the dreadlocked pugilist somehow managed to make it to the end of the round.

The gesture proved to be more courage than common sense and Marques unleashed several salvoes early in the second round to send his Barbadian adversary drifting backwards. A vicious combination shortly after the bell forced another mandatory eight count and upon resumption a crunching left hook that dumped the Bajan to the canvass, this time for good. The time was 2:05secs of the second stanza.

The night’s activity started on a winning note for Anson Green who opened his professional account with a decisive point decision over fellow debutant, David Tho-

mas.

Activities will resume on Friday May 25 next when another interesting card would be staged. Meanwhile, those boxers shortlisted for participation in the WBC 50th anniversary are urged to intensify training activities.

The championship that will see fighters from the various confederations battling for prestigious titles and lucrative purses among other internationally rated competition.

Last Friday night’s fights will be shown at a later date.

Activities are organized by the Guyana Boxing Board of Control in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) and the National Communication Network (NCN). Sponsors of the event include Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited and ANSA McAl.

20 athletes including 3 awarded for 2011...

From page 62 Natasha Alder: Senior Female Athlete of the Year and Overall Winner Winston George: Senior Male Athlete of the Year and Overall Winner Juanita Hooper: Most improved Senior Female Field event athlete; Most outstanding Secondary Student of the Year Kevin Tucker: Most Outstanding Territory Student of the Year Roseamon Solomon: Most Outstanding Primary Student of the Year Julio Sinclair: Most Improved Senior Male Field event athlete of the Year Tiffany Carto: Most Outstanding Junior Female athlete of the Year Tevin Garraway: Most Outstanding Junior Male athlete of the Year Marcia Isaacs: Most Improved Junior Female Field

event athlete of the Year Clarence Greene: Most Improved Junior Male Field event athlete; Most Discipline Male athlete of the Year Tracy Moses: Coaches Award for Most Dedicated Female Athlete of the Year Calvin Thomas: Coaches Award for Most Dedicated Male Athlete of the Year Alexis Williams: Most Discipline Female Athlete of the Year Alita Moore: Most Improved Junior Female athlete of the Year Janelle Jonas: Most Improved Senior Female Athlete of the Year Leota Bobb: Female Sport Personality of the Year David Haywood: Male Sport Personality of the Year Special Awards were given to the Parris Gym and Ms. Paula Alexander (Physiotherapist).

CFU ‘double standard’ has Alpha fuming From back page tournament allowed for the advancement of the top two clubs in the group playoff to the next round. If it was known that Alpha’s group had four teams and the rules had to be changed, why the teams involved weren’t notified of this before the group matches were played was the question being asked?

Lumumba also disclosed that teams from Antigua & Barbuda and Puerto Rico were not involved in their home Leagues, questioning how they could have qualified to be a part of the CFU tourney and also advance ahead of Alpha.

The Alpha Boss said they will challenge this new ruling and have written to the Guyana Football Federation, who in turn has forwarded

questions to the CFU on the matter and are awaiting their response. He also stated that they will take the matter to

FIFA and also alert Caribbean Governments of what is going on through CARICOM. He stated that if by Tues-

day they are not reinstated they will be forced to take other steps on the matter, which smacks of conspiracy.

GFF weekend fixtures Super League, Female Inter Ass., Under-16 & 19 tourney’s

Date Sun 29:04:12 “ “ “ “ “ “ Tue 01:05:12 “ “ “ “ “ “

Time 14:00 16:00 14:00 14:00 15:30 18:00 20:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00

Venue Blairmont “ Bartica NOC Uitvlugt “ GFC “ Uitvlugt “ “ GFC “ “ “

Competition U-19 Super League U19 “ Super League “ U16 Female Super League U19 U-16 Super League “

Teams Berbice vs Upper Demerara Rosignol United vs Seawall Bartica vs Georgetown Essequibo vs East Coast West Demerara vs East Bank Victoria Kings vs Buxton Alpha United vs Pele West Demerara vs Essequibo West Demerara vs Bartica Den Amstel vs Amelia’s Ward East Bank vs Bartica East Bank vs Berbice Buxton United vs Seawall Pele vs Western Tigers

Page 60

HRC Body Building Show 2012...

With the 2012 edition of the Hugh Ross Classic Body Building and Fitness Show mere weeks away from the start of the Regional competitions, Buddy’s Gym is the latest corporate entity to flex muscles with the Hugh Ross Classic Committee to ensure another successful year.

At the Gym’s Sheriff Street location, Marketing Manager Troy Edmondson handed over the entity’s contribution and a letter of commitment to HRC’s Marketing Officer Dexter Garnett.

Edmondson in making the presentation noted that Buddy’s Gym is in the business of producing quality bodies and promoting healthy lifestyles which are similar aims of the HRC thus there was no hesitation in them committing again this year.

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

Buddy’s Gym supports for 2nd year Hugh Ross Classic, 2012.

Garnett in response, expressed appreciation to Edmondson as well as the Management and Staff of Buddy’s Gym for the confidence they have placed in the event and the committee.

He promised that the usual high standards will be

maintained and even upped this time around.

“This is why we have agreed to do the Regional Shows around Guyana which would allow athletes from Berbice, West Demerara, Linden and Georgetown the opportunity to show what they have and be selected to be part of the grand finale in

July at the National Cultural Centre.”

Competition will be in five categories, Bantamweight, Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight and Ms. Body Fitness.

The top two athletes from each category will be selected from the Regional shows to (Continued on page 56)

RHTY&SC Teacher and Student of the Term Programme Buddy’s Gym Marketing Manager Troy Edmondson hands over the letter of commitment to HRC’s Dexter Garnett.

“Buddy’s Gym is very pleased to be associated with the Hugh Ross Classics and we encourage athletes in the sport around Guyana to participate. We are also pleased that the body will this year be also focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles

which is very important to our society.”

Apart from making a monetary contribution to the event, Buddy’s Gym will also be handing out four one-year membership packages to four of the first place finishers including the overall Mr.

The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) on Sunday last paid tribute to two of its outstanding members, Isabella Smartt and Bernadette King who died recently.

Smart and King were Executive members of the Club served as role models and mentors to the cricketers under the club’s Mentors Programme.

RHTY&SC hosted the Port Mourant Secondary School Teacher and Student Programme in memory of Bernadette King and a similar programme at the Belvedere Primary School in memory of Isabella Smartt.

Club Secretary/CEO, Hilbert Foster, at the presentation ceremony hailed the contribution of Smartt and King who both died at the age of 66 after serving for a combined 30 years.

The pair, Foster recalled, were hardworking and dedicated and their contributions over the years contributed to the club becoming

the best in Guyana. The promotion of education and sports among youths were programmes close to the duo and as such it was decided to honour them via the educational programmes.

The administration of the two schools were mandated to select the Teacher and Student of the Term based on performance in the classroom, personal discipline, attendance, role model status and involvement in sports.

Meliesa Williams received the Teacher of the Term Award and Anita Jagweshar the Student of the Term Award at the PMSS while Devindra Ramdihal carried home the Belvedere Primary School Teacher of the Year and David Arjune the Student Award.

Each of the awardees received a wide array of gifts and was urged by Foster to always strive for excellence whilst maintaining the high standards they have set themselves.

BFA receives $300,000 assistance from RHTY&SC & Food for the Poor Football in the Ancient County of Berbice on Wednesday last received a timely boost when the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) in conjunction with Food for the Poor handed over a collection of items to the Berbice Football Association (BFA).

The donation valued at $300,000 included a water pitcher, trophies, football uniform tops, hand sanitizers, 60 pairs of dress pants, educational kits and seventeen dinner jackets.

Club Secretary/CEO, Hilbert Foster in handing over the items to President of BFA Keith O’Jeer at the club’s Area ‘H’ Ground hailed the association for its outstanding work to uplift the standard of Berbice football.

Describing sports as a positive avenue for youths,

RHTY&SC Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster hands over some of the items to BFA President Keith O’Jeer in the presence of Secretary, Joseph Simmons. he urged the BFA to expand its activities to include off the field activities including educational and social programmes that would assist the young footballers to develop as rounded

RTTC tournament....

From page 61 also has as one of its members, female national 10 and under champion Salinas Jackman, who will also be in action today, competing against the opposite sex in the Under-13 and ‘A’ Class categories respectively.

Two other players in the vastly improving Denzil Jones

and Edward ‘Bo’ Favorite will also be in action today, while Godfrey Munroe, Christopher Franklyn, Edinho Lewis and Idi Lewis, all national players in their own right, will be participating in two exhibition matches during the course of the day.

Today’s action serves off at 1000hrs sharp, while drinks and refreshments will be on sale.

individuals.

Foster pledged the RHTY&SC continued assistance to the development of Berbice football and to assist the BFA to host a raffle to raise funds for the game.

O’Jeer and Secretary, Joseph Simon both praised the club and Food for the Poor for the assistance and stated that it would be used for youth developmental programmes which target the Under-13 to 17 levels.

President O’Jeer described the RHTY&SC as a unique organisation which is a tireless advocate for youth and sports organisations.

Sunday April 29, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 61

Memorex/Leslie Amsterdam Mem. U17 cricket...

RTTC tournament serves off today Baldeo’s 100 & Motie’s 11-wicket It has been over one year since former national and Caribbean table tennis champion Sydney Christophe held an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Level I coaching course for coaches in Guyana.

Among those who attended the course were Linden Johnson and Melissa Dow- Richardson, both of who have since completed a mandatory 30 hours of theoretical and practical training with six hours supervised, while being asked to proficiently demonstrate the ability to execute and implement the elements/topics dealt with before being certified.

From that course, DowRichardson ventured into the South Georgetown District, into a village called Rasville and formed the Rasville Table Tennis Club (RTTC), a spin off from the Rasville Youth Organization (RYO) on April 29, 2011, thanks to the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) who donated a table to enable her to teach the participants.

Today, the RTTC is celebrating its first anniversary and what better way to do so than host an inhouse tournament which will be competed in seven categories, from Under-13 to ‘A’ Class, inclusive of a Beginners category as well.

“When I started the RTTC, with the lone table we received from the GTTA, my aim was to produce a national champion within the first year.

Fortunately for me, I was able to do so within eight (8) months, when nine (9) year old Tyriq Saunders defied the odds to place second to Jeremy Singh at the last GTTA national championships.

Not pleased with that performance, Saunders went one rung better when he defeated Singh one week later in a special championship that was arranged by president of the GTTA, much to the pleasure of his club mates, mom, sister and myself as I knew he had it within him,” Dow-Richardson reflected.

The 34 year-old DowRichardson, who was a force to be reckoned with during her playing days, has over 50 odd members in the club, whose goal is to use Sports, Education and the Environment (S.E.E.) as additional advancement tools towards building stronger communities and societies at the National, Regional and International level.

Such a goal was achieved in February of this year, when

haul propel Albion to final

Salinas Jackman

Tariq Saunders Saunders played unbeaten in the annual GTTA Mashramani tournament which also gives him a spot on the Junior Cadet team to represent Guyana at the PreCadet Championships in Jamaica later this year.Meanwhile, for today’s championship, trophies which will be awarded to the top three finishers of each category and the sponsors are West Indian Sports Complex, Trophy Stall (Bourda Market and City Mall), Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club and Director of Sport Neil Kumar.

Early last month, national player Idi Lewis, who landed a Joola contract for the Malteenoes Sports Club’s table tennis team, donated 100 Joola balls and two racquets to the RTTC, with the aim of assisting further in the development of the sport, a gesture Dow-Richardson was pleased with.

“When Lewis paid us a visit that night, no one, not even I had an idea what he intended to do. Next thing I knew he asked about balls and how we make out and after hearing that the members who are so committed to learning buy balls, he surprised us with the donation” said DowRichardson.

She added that Lewis will be making another presentation during today’s anniversary championships, this time in the form of uniforms to the club which (Continued on page 60)

Albion Community Centre became the first team to reach the final of the 2011 Memorex/Leslie Amsterdam Memorial Under-17 cricket competition in Berbice after defeating No.70 Young Star by an innings and 79 runs in their semi-final encounter.

Playing at the No.70 Ground, No.70 Young Star lost the toss and was invited to take first strike and was set back almost immediately after the Albion opening pacers, Kevendra Persaud and Berbice Under-15 player David Latchaya each picked up two wickets to reduce them to 16 for 4. Akash Persaud (22) and Thameshwar (29) did well to hold up any further slide by putting on 50 for the 5th wicket but thereafter, Guyana Under-19 left arm spinner Gudakesh with the help of Latchaya cleaned up the last six wickets for 21 runs. Motie ended with 5 for 22, Latchaya 4 for 28 and Persaud 2 for 21.

Balchan Baldeo

Gudakesh Motie

When Albion replied, Balchan Baldeo and Shiwnarine Shrikissoon put on 43 for the first wicket before off spinner Mohamed Deochand picked up 2 quick wickets including Shrikissoon for 12, to leave them at 45 for 2. However, Baldeo was joined by Latchaya and the two proceeded to put on 74 for the next wicket before Latchaya became Deochand’s third victim

going for 37 at 119 for 3.

Meanwhile, Baldeo who slammed 99 in the quarter-final against Blairmont Community Centre helped to push the score along until he fell for an even 100 (7x4 1x6) with the score at 175 for 6.

Albion eventually declared at 186 for 5. Bowling for Young Star, off spinner Thameshwar Kumar took 3 for 24 while Deochand ended with 3 for 67.

Facing a first innings deficit of 99 runs, Young Star began their second innings with Motie and Guyana Under-15 all rounder Sharaz Mohamed bowling off spin, opening the bowling. This they found to be a difficult proposition as Motie picked up 3 wickets in his 2nd over to leave them 5-3.

Ramcharran took the other wicket before Motie snapped up another three consecutive wickets that left Young Star reeling at 12-7.

They did not get a chance to recover as the torment continued as Ramcharran struck a double blow and Motie took the other and No.70 Young Star was bowled out for 20; the lowest score in the competition.

Motie ended with 7 for 12 from 6 overs for match figures of 11 for 34 and a total of 39 wickets in the competition so far. Sharaz Ramcharran took 3 for 4 from 5.4 overs.

ALL SYSTEMS IN PLACE FOR BUSH LOT UNITED HORSERACE MEET TODAY All systems are in place as all roads leads to the Bush Lot United Turf Club at Bush Lot West Coast Berbice today as a bumper crowd is expected to throng to the venue for the club’s grand One day Horserace meet.

With the venue undergoing a complete rehabilitation to the Grand Stand, the track being relayed, new sanitary facilities been built with running water and more stables and a scale house and paddock being put in place, the venue is definitely ready for the big day.

The day’s activity has been adjusted again to include eight races with the G and H class horses having separate races to compete in with the prize monies been increased significantly to over $3M. Over 60 animals have been entered for the club’s opening meet for 2012.

The feature E and F and Lower event has so far attracted a top notch field with the likes of Work Force, Damascus Dream, Swing Easy, Marathon Man, the Bailiff, Stormy Lass, Miss Regina, Top of the Line, Dream Girl, Gabriel’s Gold and The Girl Them Sugar all in contention for the $450,000 and trophy compliments of The Banks DIH Limited over 1600M. The G class 1200M event with Miss Regina, Gabriel’s

Gold, Damascus Dream, Captain Crook, Peace and Love, Sabrina’s Joy and the Gap and Weekend Surprise running for the $200,000 top money and trophy.

H class 1200M race with a first prize of $150,000 and trophy will have Sea Breeze, the Gump, Dream Girl, Royal Salute, Prospectors Pride and I want revenge among other

over 1200M. The three Year old event for animals Bred and Born in Guyana and The West Indies over 1400M for a $150, 000 first prize will see Miss Karina, I Want Revenge, It Feels like Gold, Happy Choice, Rock Sonia, Bancy Breeze, Rosetta and R.J Express among others.

The I and lower 1200M

event for a winning purse of$100,000 and trophy will see the likes of O SO Sharp, Pixie Fire, Baby Flyer, Flying Object and Romeo competing.

The J and K class event has animals such as O So Sharp, Mr Kool, Tripple A, Know Body Knows, Lil Axe, She is Royal, Cat Thief, Gangster, MC Gyver, Custom (Continued on page 57)

>>>Letter to the Sports Editor<<<

A response to Kaieteur News letter of April 18 DEAR SPORTS EDITOR, I wrote a detailed response to the letter dated April 18th, 2012 by a “concerned horse race fan.”

After giving my response to several people to read, I was told not to publish it. I must say that with every fiber of my being, I would like to publish it. However, I will withhold that response. Now, instead, I offer a watered down version.

The article in the Kaieteur News dated April 18th, 2012 by the “concerned horseracing fan” who isn’t man or woman enough to put their name, but I have my suspicion who you are. What your article failed to report is the guns that were drawn by associates of one entity. If

the concerned citizen is in possession of evidence that I assaulted anyone, then take me to court and charge me. If the concerned fan is so sure of the facts, why are you writing in anonymity?

All that you have written is a lie. I am therefore asking Kaieteur News to retract your story that I assaulted anyone.

If this story isn’t retracted, I will be suing for defamation.

There were witnesses that can testify on my behalf that I never threw a bottle nor assaulted anyone to cause blood to their forehead. There is a videotape of the entire fiasco that will exonerate me from the claims of the “concerned horse racing fan.” If I did assault this jockey as you claimed, why

haven’t police charged me as yet? Or took a statement from me? This is the same jockey, who after winning a race at Number 6 Racetrack for Jumbo Jet, grabbed his crotch and shook it to the capacity crowd.

On the 25th day of September, 2010, the darkest day in my life, my mother was buried. In my time of grief, the wife and daughter of Jumbo Jet attended the funeral.

Based on that and that alone, I am giving you a free pass this once out of respect for my mother. If, however, the letter is not retracted, legal proceedings will follow.

There should have been an investigation by the relevant authorities who were present. The entire crowd saw the guns and the people involved. The Ministers of Education and Sport were present, including (Continued on page 56)

Page 62

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 29, 2012

GT&T 10/10 – Semi dye to be cast today The final four semifinalists (2 male 2 female) will be decided today when the final matches in the quarterfinal round of the 3rd GT&T/Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport/Guyana Softball League 10/10 cricket competition are contested at the Everest Cricket Club, Ground, Camp Road.

The battles thus far have been keen and competitive

with over 30-million dollars in cash and other incentives at stake when the finals are contested next month at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

Feature play is set to bring together Lower Corentyne’s Karibee Boyz and Georgetown’s Regal X1. Speed Boat Sports Club of West Bank Demerara will oppose Lower East Coast’s Rockaway Auto Sales while in the two female matches, Trophy Stall Angeles (East Bank) will lock horns with Rising Stars of West Coast Demerara and Georgetown’s Mike’s

- Final four quarterfinal games at Everest Wellwoman comes up against Essequibo’s Falcon Girls.

Regal XI boasts a powerful squad that has shown that they are capable of limiting teams when bowling while exploding at the batting crease. Patrick Rooplall, the inform player of the team has been dominating all the bowling attacks he has faced so far and his continued form will certainly be depended upon.

Their skipper Troy Kippins stated that they have

depth in both the batting and bowling departments and they are aiming for a convincing win.

Karibee Boyz, also a have a solid outfit and will be looking to contain their opposition in the batting department while also coming into own when they are batting, either chasing or setting up a sizable total.

Imran Khan and Sharmendra Hardyal are both capable of doing just that and will be looking to continue the

Police Progressive Youth Club Annual Award Ceremony...

20 athletes including 3 awarded for 2011 outstanding performances

Police Progressive Youth Club athletes with their awards from the Annual Award Ceremony at the Police Sports Club, last Friday evening

By Juanita Hooper Under the theme ‘Bridging the gap between sports and education for a brighter future’, thirty athletes from the Police Progressive Youth Club were rewarded for their outstanding athletic and scholastic performances through the year 2011 last Friday evening at the Police Sports Club, Eve Leary.

President of Club, Pauline Massay, who took up the position last March (2011), in her report at the ceremony stated that club started the year on a high and maintained that high throughout the reporting fiscal year.

Listing the events the club participated in, Massay reported that club won 286 medals from the 17 events which included the Inter Services Athletic Championship, which were held from the start of the athletic season to the conclusion, “The club participated in every event

held in the year 2011 from the Athletics Association of Guyana National Cross Country to the South American 10km within the period members won some 286 medals from the 17 events held which included the Inter Services Athletics Championship.”

The President revealed that several of the athletes represented Guyana at the International Level at various meets such as the NACAC Cross Country (Trinidad and Tobago), Inter Guiana Games (Suriname), Commonwealth Youth Games (Isles of Mann England) and the ALBA Games in Venezuela in which Winston George, AAG Senior Male Athlete of Year, was rewarded as the ‘Man of the Year ’ qualified for the Olympics in the 400m in a time of 45.86 seconds.

Crowning the club’s performance for the year, Natasha Alder was named as the AAG Female Athlete of

the year for the second consecutive time with Neisa Alleyne, the runner-up Female Athlete and Lyndon Wilson coach of PPYC, the Coach of the year for a second consecutive time.

She further added that the club is the winner of the National under-23 Championship and the President & Jeffords Classic, two of the major events of the Athletic Association of Guyana.

Massay, who disclosed that the Club holds Mathematics and English classes for both Primary and Secondary students of club of Wednesday and Fridays, expressed heartfelt gratitude to individuals that contributed towards the success of the club during the 2011-2012 period. “Of course our achievements were supported by the Guyana Police Force, the AAG via Colin Boyce, Coaches Lyndon Wilson (1st Vice

President of the Club) and Mark Scott, Secretary Leota Bobb and the general factotum, the business community.

Deputy Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Steve Ninvalle, in his feature address challenged the AAG to initiate an athletic archive of previous Guyanese athletes to aid in the development of Track and Field, “This will only be for the better development of the athletes and also the wider development of the sport.”

President of the AAG, Colin Boyce, in his brief remarks stressed on the athletes being disciplined as it’s the key in becoming a better athlete.

Boyce also referred to George as one of the most discipline athletes the club has produce since it existence.

The awardees are as follow: (Continued on page 59)

work started in the Super-16 when they took care of Falcons Sports Club by 8 wickets.

The bowling will be led by Kalynadas Khaimlall. This match is anticipated to be a humdinger as both teams are capable of winning; a tactical battle is in the making with only the fittest surviving.

Karibee Boyz leader is Imran Khan: “We are backing ourselves as we have match winners in our team and we understand what is required to win.”

Speed Boat Sports Club have dominated the West Bank Zone and taken care of all the opposition in their path in this their second year. They have believed in themselves and have created waves throughout this tournament.

They tamed the Platinum Jaguars of Lethem, dispatching them for one of the lowest totals {18} before knocking off the total in 1.2 overs last weekend in their Super-16 encounter. They will go into the quarters feeling that they are on their way to the finals but will have to guard against over confidence. The will be led by the flamboyant duo of Shazim Hussain and Greg Singh, both playing major roles in the team advancing this far.

Seed Boat Sports Club Captain Safraz Esau commented: “We have trained hard and will be looking past this match to the finals as we feel we have it to go all the way.”

Rockaway Auto Sales ‘A’ XI, one of the more balanced teams this year has depth and a number of match winners in their line-up and will be aiming that contributions will come from all that will propel them to victory.

Jagdesh Deosarran and Skipper Kumar Bishundial will aim to maintain form and leadership with bat and ball.

Bishundial has really been on top of his game, having already taken a hat-trick when they beat D’ Edward Sports Club at the Super-16 stage by 8 wickets.

Both teams will be coming out all guns blazing but sensible batting and economical bowling will be required to book a semi final place.

Trophy Stall Angels representing the East Bank Zone have lots of talented players and displays depth in both the bowling and batting departments which have seen them through to this stage, never relay being tested.

June Ogle-Thomas has been a shrewd and respected leader of the team who has

been a great motivator that gets her charges to go beyond their natural ability to win games. Kavita Yadram is another player with lots of ability and a proven match winner who has all the shots in the book. She also bowls quick leg breaks which have a telling effect on opposing teams.

They showed how ruthless they are when they tore into Capoey Rising Stars in the Super-16 round demolishing them by 125 runs after piling up 130-3.

Rising Stars XI is the underdog in this match-up but they have proven that they also possess talent that has won them matches. They are hyped up for this encounter and will depend on all the players to contribute.

Much will depend on 15year-old Rashana Harper who has proven to be a match winner with her energetic and quality leadership despite her tender age. Harper, a quality and smooth No. 3 batter has guided the team throughout their innings and is also a tidy bowler and fielder.

Adela Graham is another talented batter who opens and can upset the opposition with bold and powerful strokes that can set the platform for a fantastic score. The bowling will be on the shoulders of Tasleema Bacchus one of the fastest bowlers in the tournament.

Their Captain Waheeda Rahaman in an invited comment stated that, “We are out to prove ourselves and nothing will give us more joy than getting past Trophy Stall Angels.”

Mike’s Wellwoman XI has all the experience and ability that any team can hope for, this combination has brought them victory after victory and they will be seeking to continue that trend in this match as they search for a semi final spot.

Boasting a number of national players, their batting is very strong featuring the likes of Onica Wallerson and Buxtonian Zola Telford.

Skipper Abenia Parker is not underestimating any team and said that they are endowed with talented players to do the job of toppling opponents.

Falcon Girls, the pride of Leguan has a way of playing which makes the crowd stands to enjoy. They are very sure of everything they do and their strategy of attacking the opposition in the field have brought them to this stage. Their leading player is Estell Lewis, an accomplished batter.

Captain Alissa Azad: “We are playing good cricket and will up our game for this phase of the tournament.”