Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Kaieteur M@ilbox
Kaieteur M@ilbox
The quarrel between M. Maxwell and the Stabroek News
We cannot avoid a discussion of marginalisation in Guyana
DEAR EDITOR, In the light of the quarrel between the pen-name letter writer, M. Maxwell and the Stabroek News, I reproduce the New York Times’ policy on anonymity. Both independent dailies – Kaieteur News and Stabroek News – have a stated policy that if letterwriters want to remain anonymous, they must supply proof that they are real persons. But even if they do that, based on the New York Times’ guideline, a newspaper should not encourage the relentless appearance of a particular nameless person M. Maxwell (not his/her real name) took umbrage at what the Stabroek News did. The paper referred to M. Maxwell using the word, “correspondent” in relation to Maxwell’s disclosure to the paper that there was a document in the US national archives that showed Venezuela wanted to overthrow the Jagan Government in the sixties. This was a curious quarrel. From Maxwell’s perspective it was dangerous for the paper to refer to him using the word, “correspondent” because it puts him in the spotlight and this may cause others to pursue him/her and it may eventually lead to him/her being unmasked Maxwell was furious. He/ she wrote that he/she objects to the use of the word, “correspondent” and merely wants to remain as a letterwriter. The Stabroek News for its part is getting into bizarre territory. Why does it want to make people think that Maxwell is real? Why could it not have stated that the document from the US archives was sent to it? And just leave it at that. The fact that they printed Maxwell’s name leaves readers to think that there is a real person named M.
Maxwell. Why is the Stabroek News encouraging a fictitious name over such a long period of time? I hope the Stabroek management read the NY Times’ position reproduced in my letter here Why has the Stabroek encouraged M. Maxwell for so long (in fairness to Kaieteur, it hasn’t shown the same attitude to Maxwell). The Stabroek is not a Johnny Come Lately. It is a fine newspaper of sound quality that can do without the moral hypocrisy of M. Maxwell. The Stabroek can get a plethora of missives to fill its daily letter columns. It is mysterious why the paper is so enamoured with ‘Maxwell’ who has cast aspersions on every politician from every political party in Guyana while hiding under his/her mother’s bloomers. Respected media houses like KN and SN should not engage in such silly journalism. Here is part of a column from the NY Times “The paper announced a revamped policy for the use of confidential news sources in February 2004. One major change: Before a confidential source makes it into the paper, at least one editor has to know the source’s name. After an internal committee on credibility came up with more recommendations early this year, Bill Keller, the executive editor, further tightened the guidelines for the use of anonymous sources in June. The most notable change: Readers are to be told why The Times believes a source is entitled to anonymity — a switch from the previous practice of stating why the source asked for it.” (end of quote). Here is the Times’ official policy on anonymity. I would urge both KN and SN to follow it. Now that the Chronicle is being fumigated, I would urge that paper too to
read the Times’ guideline • “Readers want to know as much as possible about where information is obtained and why it should be trusted; therefore, the New York Times has a general policy that journalists should identify their sources by name and title. If that is not possible, journalists must explain why he or she considers the source to be authoritative, why the source is speaking to the newspaper, and why the source has demanded confidentiality. • The use of unidentified sources is reserved for situations in which the newspaper could not otherwise print information it considers reliable and newsworthy. • Generally, anonymity should not be offered to a source. Exceptions are made when journalists are reporting on highly sensitive stories or when the New York Times was the one who sought out a source who may face legal jeopardy or loss of livelihood for speaking with the press. • New York Times will not use anonymous sourcing when sources are readily available and journalists can find a source who is willing to be named. • The news organization does not promise sources that it will refrain from seeking comment from others on the subject of the story. • Any editor who learns a source’s identity is required to maintain exactly the same confidentiality as the reporter. • When agreeing to anonymity, the reporter’s duty is to obtain terms that conceal as little as possible of what the reader needs to gauge reliability.” (end of quote) Frederick Kissoon
DEAR EDITOR In his column, “What about a Black Guyanese Entrepreneurial Class?” Mr. Freddie Kissoon claims that while I identified an “African Security Dilemma” I did not proffer proposals for addressing it. In the last 25 years, Mr. Kissoon has studiously refused to acknowledge our various proposals for the African Security Dilemma and its corollaries: Federalism, Shared Governance, Alternating Presidencies between major races, Ethnic Impact Statement, and specifically to the issue of his column, Affirmative Action to assist African Economic participation. And imagine all of this was done in the pages of the Kaieteur News. I offer one such column from 2008, where I addressed some issues on African Economic Marginalization: One reason why the charges of “marginalisation” from the African Guyanese community were being contested was that by and large its articulation had been disjunctured from its roots of racism and African slavery. In the words of the scholar Cornell West, “there is the lingering effects of slavery and past discrimination in the continued attack on black humanity and racist stereotypes which are designed to destroy black self-image” and in the process keep Africans on the “margins’ of society. In Guyana, the promise of emancipation was also subverted. In economic terms, of course, most famously was the undercutting of the bargaining power of the freed slaves to sell their labour
when the sugar planters were authorised and facilitated by the state to import cheap labour from, in order, Madeira, West Indies/Africa, India and China.As to whether the exslaves could have actually extracted greater wages in an environment of plummeting sugar prices is another issue but the fact remains that the agency of the freed Africans to struggle directly against their oppressive conditions was weakened.They were marginalised. Laws were enacted to compel individuals who wanted to purchase land to do so in plots of at least one hundred acres.This was clearly intended to discourage Africans from purchasing land since it demanded a substantial capital investment that could only be met by persons pooling their resources together.In those instances where the challenge was met – and in several instances where even whole plantations were purchased – the viability of the endeavour was frequently challenged by the refusal of the authorities to integrate the drainage and irrigation system to that of the nascent village movement. Today, we all appreciate the imperative of a functioning D&I system for our survival. Steered into the resultant growing urban centre of Georgetown, the efforts of enterprising Africans and Coloureds to break into petty retailing by supplying vegetables and ground
provisions to the urban population, was nipped in the bud when the authorities favoured the newly arrived Portuguese, who quickly decamped the plantations for the retail trade. Africans who had “gone into the bush” to try their hand in gold mining remained as petty “pork knockers” since the onerous land rights question were not lifted until the 1890s when the Portuguese were in a position to take advantage of the newly discovered goldfields in the Essequibo. In all urban centres of the 19th century, an underclass developed with its distinctly picaresque orientation – this was true of Dickens’s London as with Rodway’s Georgetown. In Georgetown the lumpen element just happened to be African. In the countryside, refusing to be driven back to the sugar plantations (excepting for the well-paid artisans who never left), the Africans were driven into subsistence agriculture. The economic marginalisation of Africans that was the hallmark of slavery was therefore transferred into the ‘emancipation” era. As I have tried to explain so often, once a pattern of activity is transferred into habit by the workings of the institutions (both formal and informal) the individual becomes socialised into accepting it as ‘the way Continued on page 5
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur M@ilbox
Kaieteur M@ilbox
Rename the Ogle Airport after the late Forbes Burnham
We must vote sensibly and with confidence at LGE
DEAR PRESIDENT GRANGER, On Thursday August 06, 2014 our nation will be observing the thirteenth death anniversary of our late President and father of this great nation President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, who led his country for twenty-one years from 1964 until his death on August 6, 1985, at the age of 62, after undergoing a throat operation in a hospital in Georgetown. President Burnham served our nation with distinction, wisdom and good leadership. He made a huge contribution to the development of this country during his time of presidency – in all areas, namely physically, educationally, economically, culturally and politically, as a leader for all of his people, regardless of their ethnicity, culture, sex orientation and party affiliation, and that is why under his leadership our national motto was rightfully regarded as “One People, One Nation, One Density. In this light, I am kindly requesting that you rename Ogle International Airport that is located on the East Coast, after the late President Burnham in remembering his contribution to this great country, especially at this time of his death anniversary. Let us demonstrate to future generations that President Burnham mattered and was the great leader who fought for freedom during the anti-colonial struggle for our
country’s Independence on May 26, 1966 and eventual Republican Status within the Commonwealth of Nations and the establishment of CARICOM in 1977. Under the leadership of President Burnham, the coastal road network and major sea defences were constructed; the SoesdykeLinden highway; bridges on the Canje and Demerara Rivers, the international airport at Timehri and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority; the University of Guyana and Cyril Potter College of Education; National Insurance Scheme; the mul t i l a t e r a l schools; President College; hinterland schools for indigenous students. His government embarked on rural electrification, pure water supply for households and other infrastructural projects. President Burnham also established huge working people’s housing schemes, the Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force, Guyana National Service, the Amerindian lands rectification process, free education as an entitlement, and equal recognition of religious observances in this country. President Granger, As the nation prepares to observe the thirteenth death anniversary of President Burnham, I strongly believe that renaming Ogle International Airport after the late President
From page 4 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless” Exodus 22:22-24. Joshua’s funeral will be on Monday, August 3 ( August Monday) at Lyken’s Funeral Home. I don’t know the time. Interested citizens can contact Lyken for more informa-
everyone to come out to the funeral to show our support for him because it’s the least we can do. Editor, it would be much appreciated if you could you publish this letter before Monday, August 3 so people can read it and come out to Joshua’s funeral. Anthony Pantlitz
Disabled children are not... tion on the time. I’m asking
Burnham would be good thing to do in horning this outstanding Guyanese who have made so much development to this great country during his time of presidency – in all areas, namely physically, educationally, economically, culturally and politically. Only recently the Guyana International Convention Centre (GICC) was renamed af t e r G u y a n a ’s f i r s t President, the late Arthur Chung who severed this country from 1970 to 1980 and while the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan was honored when the Government renamed Timehri International Airport, to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. He was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later became Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964, prior to independence, subsequently serving as the third President of Guyana from 1992 to 1997. Come on President Granger, let us do it now for the late President Burnham just as we did for the late President Arthur Chung and Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Thank you Mr. President. May God continue to bless our great nation Rayvonne P. Bourne
DEAR EDITOR, I read with great delight and utmost happiness in your newspaper dated July 31, 2015 that Local Government Election will be held sooner rather than later (December was touted as the tentative month). This as many have said before is long overdue. Having read the article, I must congratulate the Honourable Minister of Communities - Mr. Ronald Bulkan for not just fighting for LGE while in opposition but for ensuring the early holding of LGE under his watch as the subject minister. This shows honesty and trustworthiness on the part of the minister and largely on the Granger - led government. What is even more delightful, is the fact that the real power will be in the hands of the local bodies which would be elected by the people for the people. The passage of the most recent Local Government bill in the national assembly shows that this Granger led administration is not about absolute or maximum power but rather to give the people power. In addition to the above, now that the people have been given the authority and power to elect local representatives of their choice to manage the affairs of their
community without central government’s interference, they must and I reiterate, they must chose competent and well educated persons who are driven by success through hard work and determined to champion development. Voters must screen the prospective candidates to ensure that they are more than capable to do the job and do it right. Two good traits to look for are their level of activism in the community and how much they have been fighting for good governance with honesty during the corrupt previous led regime the PPP. It would be most detrimental to one’s community if the same persons who were championing the PPP’s mandate during the general and regional election be elected to serve as the Local Government councillor in your community, worst should one of them become the Chairman of the NDC. I say this against the backdrop that we are seeing almost everyday corrupt and ambivalent practices coming to light that these notorious vagabonds had been engaged in ranging from transferring state vehicles to their ownership to buying river front land for next to nothing money and surely
not excluding the power to slap and strip who ever they think deserve it. Anyone who is still associated with the PPP and is contesting the LGE should not be given power. It will be a regret should we elect an associate of the PPP in the Local Government Election considering the fact that they know full well that the PPP has trampled on the rights of the people and robbed us of our tax dollars. Giving them power can only mean that they would do the same if elected. In conclusion, I say without any fear of contradiction, let us be cognizant of the fact that this is a more serious election that the one recently held. It is more serious because we would be electing people to be servants who would be controlling resources that would have a direct impact on our lives. We must elect the blood that supports change and not just change but change for the better. Vote for community leaders that are honest, reliable and willing to go beyond the call of duty to serve your interest. In other words, DON’T vote for no one who is aligned to the PPP. Remember a good leader is a great servant. Ganesh Mahipaul
From page 5 the world is’ and it becomes extremely difficult to alter – especially if the habits have been transferred across generations as it has been in Guyana. Witness Indians and the Police Force. Most Indians and other individuals including many Africans – and that’s another story – look at the present situation of Africans and assert, “Hey! My fore-parents came here with nothing on their backs and worked hard, saved as did my parents and so we’re doing better.Why can’t “marginalised” Africans do the same?” They ignore the possible “lingering effects” of the economic system and its echo in the psyches of individuals which may affect their ability to compete within the present system. In America, to deal with the analogous situation, they introduced a nuanced approach to the norm of “equality”, to which value we all genuflect but rarely actualize. Equal Treatment In 2002, I wrote in response to the then early charges of marginalisation
that were being floated: “In the implementation of this norm of equality – and to determine if violations are causing marginalisation – two concepts have been utilized.Firstly, there is the standard of “equal treatment”. Here, individuals equally situated are to be treated equally: the focus is on the individual and not the group. The decision-maker should be colour-blind. In a frequently used analogy, individuals would be to competitors in a footrace, with the winner being the one who runs the fastest. A meritocracy would be created.The footrace analogy, however, points to the problem with the “equal treatment” standard and suggests the second concept – equal opportunity. To extend the analogy, it was pointed out that while everyone might now theoretically be starting from the same point, the legs of some might have been broken simply because they belonged to a particular group. The results would thus be a foregone conclusion. It was then considered appropriate to sometimes consider the race of an individual to ensure
that decisions made did not continue to disadvantage a particular race.There were also two theories of discrimination to assist in the enforcement of equality – disparate treatment and disparate impact. The former is the most easily understood type of discrimination. The person in power simply treats some people more favourable than others because of their race, colour, sex, religion or national origin. Proof of discriminatory motive is critical, although it can in some situations be inferred from the mere fact of differences in treatment. Disparate Impact The latter, disparate impact, involves engagement practices that are facially neutral in their treatment of different groups but which in fact, fall more harshly on one group than another and cannot be justified by the necessities of the institution.In reference to charges of marginalisation by African Guyanese today, firstly, they cannot be just rejected out of hand. It should be obvious to even the most casual observer of the Guyanese scene, that
there are ethnic imbalances in every sphere of the nation’s life. The question would be: are the imbalances the operation of discriminatory practices? If they are, then we must move to remove such practices.If there are no present discriminatory practices but past ones have worked to create imbalances, then we have to make decisions as how to rectify matters. Should we adopt affirmative action programs? Should we set quotas or just broad goals? Are imbalances in the state sector to be treated in the same manner as those in the private sector? How much are those personal preferences due to past discriminatory practices? Whose responsibility is it to change personal preferences? The point is that we cannot avoid a discussion of marginalisation in Guyana, but it must be done in a structured manner and not merely be exploited to prod African Guyanese into taking up arms. It must be done to bring justice and equity to all groups in Guyana.” Ravi Dev
We cannot avoid a discussion of marginalisation...
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
New Afghan Taliban leader appeals for unity in first public message
MullahAkhtar Mohammad Mansour Reuters - The new Afghan Taliban leader appealed for unity in the insurgency in his first public message released yesterday amid reports his predecessor’s family members opposed his selection. The new head, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, was deputy for several years to the elusive one-eyed former leader Mullah Omar, who served as a unifying figure and a spiritual guide for the insurgency despite his absence.Last week the Taliban confirmed Omar had been dead for some time. The Afghan government said it was more than two years. Mansour’s selection could be a promising
development for peace talks, analysts say, if he can persuade other factions of the fractious insurgency to support him.“The enemy can’t defeat us if we shown unity,” he said in an audio recording that Taliban members provided to journalists.“I will utilise all my energies to follow our late Mullah Mohammad Omar and his mission,” he said. “We need to be patient and should try to go to those friends who are unhappy. We will have to convince them and take them on board.”On Friday, Taliban commanders who attended the meeting that chose Mansour as Omar’s successor
told Reuters that Omar’s son and brother had walked out of the gathering in protest. The open dissent within the movement’s core group underscores the challenge Mansour faces. He has to try to persuade wavering commanders to pursue peace talks with the Afghan government at the same time a new extremist group is stepping up its recruiting in the region - Islamic State. Two Afghan militant groups declared Omar was dead last month and swore allegiance to Islamic State. Mansour blamed divisions in the Taliban on “enemy propaganda” and swore to continue to fight for rule under sharia, the Islamic legal and moral code, and to follow the vision of Mullah Omar. He also cautioned against the killing of civilians. A United Nations report released at the end of last year said that for a second year, insurgents were responsible for about 75 percent of civilians killed.“In the name of jihad, the killing of innocent people is not Islamic. We need to win the hearts of people, then we can rule their hearts,” he said.Mansour confirmed that one of his deputies was Sirajuddin Haqqani, the son of renowned jihadi leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the fearsome Haqqani militant network blamed for some of Afghanistan’s deadliestsuicide attacks.Several Taliban leaders told Reuters last Friday that Jalaluddin also died a year and a half ago. But on Saturday, a Taliban spokesman denied this.
U.S., allies target Islamic State with 30 air strikes in Iraq, Syria -U.S Reuters - The United States and its allies launched 19 air strikes in Iraq and 11 in Syria on Friday in the coalition campaign against Islamic State militants, the U.S. military said yesterday.
The strikes in Iraq included six near Mosul, four near Ramadi and three near Sinjar, destroying staging areas, fighting positions, tactical units and other Islamic State targets, the Combined
Joint Task Force said in a statement.The strikes in Syria were concentrated in northern areas where Islamic State is fighting for a foothold, including near Hasaka,Aleppo, Kobani and Deir al-Zor, it said.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kurdish militia in Syria accuses Turkey of ‘provocative’ attacks
Members of the Kurdish Security Forces (Asayish) stand at their guard post in al-Ghazl area, east of Hasaka city, as they watch smoke rising in the background from what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on locations. Reuters/Rodi Said Reuters - Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State in Syria accused Turkey yesterday of targeting it at least four times in the past week, calling the attacks provocative and hostile.Turkey began a
campaign of air strikes on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq and Islamic State fighters in Syria last Friday, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called a “synchronised
fight against terror”.The campaign has raised suspicions among Kurds that Ankara’s real agenda is checking Kurdish territorial ambitions rather than fighting Islamic State.The president of
Iraq’s Kurdistan region yesterday condemned Turkey’s bombardment of Zargala, a village there which he said had killed civilians, and called for a return to the peace process between
Ankara and the PKK. Turkey’s foreign ministry said the allegations would be investigated in a joint inquiry with the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan.“It is known that there are no civilians in the Zargala terrorist camp but senior PKK members were present during the air strikes,” the ministry said in a statement.“Meanwhile it is a fact that the terrorist organisation unfortunately uses civilians as human shields,” it said.The Syrian Kurdish YPG said in a statement on its website that it came under cross-border fire on four occasions in the past week and described sightings of Turkish jets over northern Syria.The militia, which regularly coordinates with U.S.-led air forces bombing Islamic State, said it had nothing to do with conflict between the PKK and Turkey.“We consider recent movements of the Turkish military as provocative and hostile actions,” the statement said.“We ask our partners in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS to clarify their approach towards these actions of the
Turkish military.” Turkey made a turnaround last week by granting U.S.-led forces fighting Islamic State access to its air bases. Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Seal said they had seen reports of the attacks on the YPG. “We note that the Government of Turkey has clarified that its military action is directed solely at ISIL inside Syria, and, in response to PKK attacks in Turkey, against PKK encampments in Northern Iraq,” she said in a statement. Seal said the United States supports various groups fighting Islamic State “while also e n c o u r a g i n g t h e m to respect the multi-ethnic makeup of areas they have cleared from ISIL.” A senior Turkish official yesterday repeated Ankara’s previous stance that the recent military campaign does not target YPG but the military reserves the right to fire back within rules of engagement. “Turkey is not attacking the Kurdish people. It only has a problem with the PKK,” the official said.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
Granny’s gruesome killing captured on camera - clubbed, kicked and strangled
Dead: Carmen Ganesh Police are hunting for a young sadistic killer who clubbed, choked, kicked and stomped an old woman to death in her own home early yesterday morning. Carmen Ganesh, 77, who lived alone, was found dead in her home at Montrose, East Coast Demerara, by her son and daughter-in law, who went to check on her after she failed to respond to neighbours’ calls. From all indications her killer was only interested in the few pieces of jewellery she was wearing at the time and the little pension she had collected from the Post Office on Friday. A surveillance camera on the premises recorded the gruesome attack from start to finish. It is believed that the killer broke into a car in the yard some time Friday night. Footage from the camera showed a man, who appeared to be in his twenties, peering out of the vehicle around 05.40 hrs. It was shortly after this time that Mrs. Ganesh came out of her house to pick flowers and perform her religious rites in her front yard. While she was doing this, the intruder, who was wearing a pair of three-quarter camouflage pants, sneaked into the house through the back door and hid next to the refrigerator. When Mrs. Ganesh eventually entered her house, the intruder clubbed her on the head with a tyre wrench. When she collapsed, the intruder dragged her into a corner and wrapped a handtowel around her neck. After that, he began to kick and stomp the old woman until she lay motionless. With Ganesh’s corpse lying nearby, the killer then calmly opened her fridge and drank a can of orange juice. The footage shows the man ransacking the house after killing the elderly woman. Eventually, the killer exited Mrs. Ganesh’s back door, jumped the fence, crossed the road then boarded a bus that was
Shocked neighbours and relatives leave the home of murdered Carmen Ganesh.
heading in the direction of Georgetown. However, no relative or villager could positively identify him. “That man was brutal. He doesn’t seem to be from that area. He beat that woman in her head with a large spanner; if you see the size of that spanner. She had about four massive wounds to her head,” a source told this newspaper. Kaieteur News was told that Ganesh was living at the Lot 121 Montrose Public Road property for several years, taking care of it for some relatives who live overseas. She was last seen by her neighbour picking flowers early yesterday morning. Her son, who lived close-by, had also called out to her while he was leaving for work. “He asked her if she want bread and she tell he bring it when he coming back,” her daughter-in-law, Natasha, told this newspaper.
But it must have been a few minutes later that the elderly woman lost her life. According to Natasha, it was routine for the neighbour’s children to call out to Ganesh every morning when they awake, and yesterday was no different, except that the elderly woman did not respond to their calls. The neighbour became suspicious and contacted Ganesh’s daughter for her to come and check on her mother. The daughter made contact with her brother, who had earlier greeted his mother, and together they went to the house to see what was happening. When they arrived, their suspicions were immediately aroused when they observed that the gate was padlocked. They too called out for Ganesh and got no answer. The woman’s children proceeded to the back of the yard where they found her
backdoor ajar. By this time they sensed that something terrible had Continued on page 64
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Dem boys seh...
De Shaat scamp think he can getaway Mankind was put on de earth to multiply and mek children and multiply you money. Jagdeo and Brassington was to multiply de money in de treasury. Instead dem tek de money and multiply it in dem pocket. Yesterday was emancipation and people of all races and colour come out fuh celebrate. Right here dem boys get confuse watching so much different human beings. Dem know that Black and Buck mek Buffianda; coolie and black mek duglah; black and putagee mek santantone and white and black does mek mulatto. De confusion come when dem boys see black and chinee. Nobody ain’t know wha fuh call dem till de boss man seh that is simple. “Just call dem Bai Shan Lin because dem is de greatest fuh multiply.” Dem multiply one logging concession overnight to threequarter of Guyana. Dem multiply one of Bee Kay gold prospecting licence and get de other quarter of Guyana. Dem boys hear that Bai Shan Lin tek over Gita Sing by Day and Gita Thief by Night house. De woman cut and run after de Pee Pee Pee lose de elections. Dem boys hear a lot of people planning fuh cut and run. De Shaat scamp already planning fuh go and wuk in de Maldives. He get a job and dem boys got to move fast to get him. If he manage to get out before he get handcuff dem boys plan to go till wheh he deh wid a placard before de president of de country fuh extradite him back to Guyana. After all it ain’t fair fuh him to get away and lef he kavakamites dem in deep s**t. Dem boys will not sit back idle and stay quiet and allow him to spread his thiefing dutty disease anywhere else. But Soulja Bai seh that a lot of cutting got to come. He already cut Jagdeo and Donald security; he gardener, he cut de light bill and phone bill money and dem boys give him a high five fuh all of that. Dem boys plan to give him a special award when he put handcuff pun Jagdeo and Brassington, Babbie and de rest of dem hand. Talk half and watch how dem running.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Religious communities need to foster national unity - Amna Ally Minister of Social Cohesion, Amna Ally, called upon religious communities in Guyana, to play a leading role in the fostering of national unity and social cohesion. She made this comment to members of the Freedom Life Ministries yesterday as the church celebrated its seventh anniversary. The occasion was a thanksgiving service. Speaking to a packed congregation, Minister Ally said, “Under the new
administration the quality of life for all Guyanese is important. Guyana is for all Guyanese and the Ministry o f Social Cohesion will concern itself with measures that will bring and hold people together as a society …All races should feel a sense of belonging to his and her community and the country.” The Minister of Social Cohesion said that unity is needed to ensure that Guyana reaches its full potential. She told the church
that their message is not only the congregation in the building, but also the communities in which they are based. She called on them to use their influence to reach out to and interact with community members, with the aim of fostering national unity. “We want to promote useful and productive relationships within and among groups at the community level. It is not helpful for us as a people when groups in the
community disagree and cannot find common ground for working together. My ministry wants to build trust and where healing is needed, create an e n v i r o n m e n t f o r this to happen and move forward. It is time for a new beginning. We can do this if we hold hands (and) put our hearts together,” she said. Minister Ally said that the Church has always played a critical role in bringing people together, healing and cooperation. “As a church, you should bridge the gaps. Our adults and young people must mix. We cannot be aloof and expect to win the community. Sometimes the church needs to be sensitive to the needs o f t h e c o m m u n i t y. T h e elderly who need a little help; weed a little grass in their yard, assist in whatever way you can. All of these things help to foster social cohesion...We want to be able to create and sustain a
cohesive society. All members of society must be able and motivated to participate in social, economic and political activities,” she expressed. The Minister added, “We are ending division and disparities in Guyana and we are working towards this with your members and the church Board.” To this end, the Minister said that she is prepared to make the resources at her disposal, available to them so that the mission of national unity can be accomplished. Ally said that the church can play a role in this by consulting with the ministry on avenues and opportunities to foster cohesion. She said, “We can guide you in this regard. I am prepared to make the expertise and officials at my office available to you to work with your church to foster cohesion.” The first phase of programme work of the Ministry of Social Cohesion
Bandits hit Berbice bakery truck Despite the law enforcement authorities’ best efforts, bandits continue to strike. Intruders around 15:30 hrs on Friday held up the porter and driver salesman of a bakery truck before robbing them of a substantial sum of money. According to information, the Canter truck which belongs to Ali’s Bakery had stopped at Bush Lot,
Corentyne to make a delivery when the occupants were held up by two masked men armed with guns. The bandits after threatening the two men reportedly took away over $200,000 in cash and $500,000 in phone cards. They also carted off a cell phone which belonged to one of the men before escaping in a waiting car.
Minister of Social Cohesion, Amna Ally is focused on reducing disparities, inequalities and social exclusion in Guyana. The second phase deals with programmes and projects that are designed to strengthen social relations, interactions and ties at the community and a national level and these will be undertaken. Ally explained to the congregation that the latter dimension is designed to embrace all aspects which are generally considered as the social capital of our society. “We want to see people work together, trusting each other and to contribute to the welfare of others,” she said. The Minister related that the quality of life for citizens is a major aim for the new government and it is with this in mind that the ministry is carrying out its mandate. “The Ministry of Social Cohesion wants to ensure that whatever we do, we respect each other. We must not see those differences as barriers, separating and dividing us,” Minister Ally told the Freedom Life Ministries.
Gov’t takes control of key parliamentary committees The new government has paved the way for it to take control of the key parliamentary committees. By way of motion, the six-party coalition, A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), government has changed the composition of the four sectoral oversight committees to reflect its parliamentary majority. The change came even as the Opposition, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) continued to boycott the National Assembly. While in Opposition separately as APNU and AFC, they used their combined majority to change Standing Order 86 (2) to provide for them to occupy four of the seven seats on the Natural Resources, Economic Services, Foreign Relations and Social Services sectoral committees. The remainder was being occupied by the government, People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C). They had argued that since Guyanese gave the opposition the majority in the National Assembly, they should control the committees. In the 10th Parliament, it was the
combined opposition that had the majority. As she rose to present the motion, Minister of Social Cohesion Minister, Amna Ally, pointed out that the Standing Order 86 (2) no longer represented the new government majority. She proposed seven-member committees where four spots are occupied by Government, and three from the Opposition to be nominated by the Committee of Selection. Further, Ms Ally proposed that both the Government and Opposition shall be elected to appoint one alternate member for each committee. The motion was supported by Minister of Government, Raphael Trotman. In brief remarks, he said that the motion comes at a time when the government with a clear majority must be recognised. Trotman, who was the Speaker of the 10th Parliament, said he was happy that the motion could have been passed without any rancour and corruption. The motion was passed without opposition.
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OLPF project to be phased out, 3,152 units still in stock By Jarryl Bryan As the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration prepares for the final batch of nearly 10,000 One Laptop Per Family units expected to arrive, there are still some 3,152 laptops remaining in the system. Even more the warranties on all of those laptops, which are the remnants of the Great Walls batch that came as gifts from China in 2013, have all expired. Kaieteur News understands that the warranty on the Great Walls laptops started from the time they arrived in 2013. The administration secured a nine-month extension that was subsequently granted. As of last March , the warranties expired. This finding comes
on the heels of intentions expressed by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Administration to convert the ‘One Laptop for Family’ (OLPF) project into ‘One laptop per teacher’ with the arrival of the computers. The OLPF project, which was first initiated in 2011, is just one of three sections of the past People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration efforts to modernize the country’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The other two were the Brazillinked Fibre Optic cable, running from Lethem to Georgetown and the installation and commissioning a wireless and terrestrial network system from Moleson Creek to Anna
Regina. Between 2010 and 2014, through the National budget, the then PPP/C government allocated some $20B (US$100M) for a number of projects under the guise of modernizing the country’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) Industry to a world recognized standard. The country’s longstanding poor internet connectivity speeds were cited as a principal reason. The expected 10,000 units is the third batch of laptops. The second batch of computers was manufactured by the Great Walls Computer Shenzhen Company Ltd. and was delivered in January 2013 following a bilateral agreement between the Government of Guyana and the People’s Republic of China. However, this batch developed a myriad of
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon in the OLPF Office problems mostly regarding the six celled batteries being used. Kaieteur News understands that the batteries were discharging rapidly, necessitating the use of power packs in order to even use the laptops.
Michael Correia Jnr. is President of Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana The Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) has elected Michael Correia, Jnr as President. Correia, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Trans Guyana Airways, had previously served as President of the board. According to information, the AOAG held its annual general meeting at Ogle Airport last Thursday to elect its executive. Anthony Mekdeci was elected first Vice President; Ronald Reece as second Vice President, Gerald David Gouveia, Jnr as Director; and Christopher (Kit) Nascimento as Chairman. Following the meeting, Captain Ronald Reece and
Charles Hutson were also appointed Chairman and Vice Chair of the Aeronautical Engineering School Art Williams & Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School (AW&HWAES), respectively. During the meeting, Chief Executive Officer, Malcolm G. Chan-a-Sue of AW&HWAES reported on the progress and future development of the subsidiary of the association. Chan-a-Sue, noted that the School, the only one of its kind providing the Aviation Maintenance Training needs of the Caribbean aviation industry, is now accredited and certified by the Civil Aviation Authorities of Jamaica,
Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname and the Caribbean Aviation Safety Oversight System of CARICOM, as well as Guyana. He reported that the School, which offers both Mechanical and Avionics disciplines, through its highly subsidised Ab-Initio Programme, has a current enrolment of 131 students, and is planning to enroll 150 students by the end of August. The Aeronautical School has, to date, graduated 153 students, including 125 Licensed Engineers, many of whom are employed today as engineers in major airlines such as LIAT, Caribbean, Delta, and American.
President of AOAG, Michael Correia Jnr
Government launched a review of the laptop programme early last month, with Minister of State Joseph Harmon touring the OLPF office in Forshaw Street. Harmon subsequently reported that a large number of unserviceable and defective computers were discovered in the building. However, Harmon had also been reported in the media as saying that as the bulk of the laptops represented a gift, there was not much the Government could do or say about the damaged items. Kaieteur News understands that everything from the first batch of computers, which came from Chinese appliance manufacturer, Haier in 2011, has already been distributed. The APNU+AFC administration also took steps to dismiss some 40 OLPF employees, following a recent visit to the project offices in Queenstown by the Minister of State. During the visit, he
had noticed ‘inconsistencies’ in agency operations, including staff members who were “busy doing nothing.” When the controversial project, the brainchild of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, was launched in 2011, it was with the intention that 90,000 persons would be the recipients of the laptops. The US$30M project had only distributed 27,000 Haier units by the end of 2012, with a further 27,145 Great Wall products distributed subsequently. With the final batch of computers expected to arrive shortly, this means that the project, when it is shut down after the ‘One laptop per teacher’ distribution exercise, will have distributed almost 65,000 laptops- 25,000 less than the amount conceptualized by the previous government. Below is a breakdown of how the laptops were distributed during the time of the program.
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High court interference into Magistrate Court proceeding is no need for alarm - CJ Responding to concerns over what appears to be a trend in the Courts, in which lawyers are increasingly approaching the High Court to challenge proceedings ongoing before the Magistrates’ Courts, Adjudicators and other legal experts have said that the practice is legally permissible and should not be seen in a negative light. Recently, the High Court actions taken, based on applications by attorneys representing prominent public figures, have resulted in interference into Magistrates’ Court proceedings. Some of the matters involve former President Bharat Jagdeo, Samuel Hinds Jr. and the proprietor of Sanjay’s Jewelry, Sanjay Persaud. There were also such moves by former Police Commissioner Henry Greene. Attorneys representing Jagdeo, Hinds and Persaud have moved to the High Court
to challenge the decisions of Magistrates in criminal proceedings against them in lower Courts. In Jagdeo’s case, Magistrate Charlyn Artiga was ordered by High Court Judge, William Ramlal, to show why a Rule Nisi of Prohibition should not be issued, directing her from taking any steps in the proceedings on the ground that she has no jurisdiction to inquire into the charge. Jagdeo’s lawyers had argued that the charge is fundamentally defective and legally invalid and that the continuation of the criminal proceedings is an abuse of the processes of the court. The High Court order had also blocked Magistrate Artiga from proceeding further with the case at the level of the Magistrates’ Court. Jagdeo had been placed before the Court on criminal charges for alleged
incitement of racial or ethnic hatred, contrary to Section 139 D (1) (a) of the Representation of the People’s Act, Chapter 1:03. The Magistrate had him on self bail and restricted him from travelling overseas, unless he asked the court’s permission. He subsequently moved to the High Court and had the travel restrictions overturned. Samuel Hinds Jr, the son of former Prime Minister, has also moved to the High Court in an attempt to stay the Magistrate‘s court proceeding against him. He had been found guilty of assaulting and threatening his 18-year-old, sister -in – law, Tenza Layne. Hinds underwent a Magistrates’ court trial and was found guilty of the offence but before he could be sentenced, the Judicial Service Commission, intervened and dismissed the magistrate. His case was put
down, pending the decision of another Magistrate. Hinds’ attorneys recently approached the Supreme Court requesting an order to stay any further prosecution / adjudication of the criminal charges filed against him. Similarly, a lawyer representing Sanjay Persaud, the owner of Sanjay’s Jewelry moved to the High Court to challenge Magistrate’s decision, in a causing death by dangerous driving case. Persaud was charged for driving a vehicle in a manner dangerous to the public and causing the death of Leon Hunte. Among the grounds cited by his attorney in the constitutional motion, is the magistrate’s refusal to grant sufficient time for him to lead a defence. The attorney essentially claimed that his client was subjected to an unfair trial in the Magistrates’ Court. However, some observers and litigants have raised questions about the legal basis of which these proceedings are allowed and whether it could have a negative effect on the system of justice. But, Chief Justice (Ag), Ian Chang, in an invited comment, has noted that there is no need for alarm. The Judge explained that law provides for such proceedings under the process of Judicial Review. Chang explained that Judicial Review allows for inferior tribunals such as Magistrates/the Magistrate Court, which have limited jurisdiction, to be subject to
Chief Justice (Ag) Ian Chang supervision by the Supreme Court. This, the Chief Justice, (CJ) says will ensure Magistrates do not act ultra vires or outside their authority when presiding over cases. Commenting further on the Judicial review, the CJ said that the procedure is wide and one which is not limited to challenging proceedings in Magistrates’ Court but the decisions at the level of the
Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP), commissions, public boards/ official and other statutory bodies. He said that while the process of Judicial Review will place a heavy burden on the High court, it is sometimes necessary to e n s u r e t h a t officers of inferior tribunals are procedurally fair and unbiased in their actions. The High court, on the other hand, the CJ says has unlimited jurisdiction. At the High Court a ruling is good until an appeal is set aside. According to Chang, within the justice system, there must be room for redress and remedies that allow litigants the right to challenge any proceeding with reasonable grounds. “Sometimes they get through. Sometimes they don’t,” he added. Other legal minds commenting on the matter noted that while defendants have the right to challenge a proceeding which they feel may be unfair to them ; in some cases a challenge to a magistrate proceeding, can be seen as a tactic of delay. One Judge explained that while such petitions may undermine the work of magistrates, the Supreme Court will only grant a request based on the circumstance of each petition. Every petition, the judge noted varies and may be granted based on the facts listed.
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Pradoville Two scandal‌
NICIL paid $100M-plus to remove transmission tower Details are emerging how state resources to the tune of tens of millions of dollars were abused during the last term of Bharrat Jagdeo to build a special seaside community on the Sparendaam foreshore, East Coast Demerara. The Pradoville Two transaction would have spanned a number of Government entities, including the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the National Communications Network (NCN) and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL). Prior to stepping down in November 2011, after he completed his constitutional two terms in office, Jagdeo and his administration in deciding to build a community for himself, ministers and friends, stumbled on a big problem. Sitting on the land was a huge transmitting tower belonging to the state-owned NCN. A decision was taken to move the tower to Dairy Road, La Parafaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara. NICIL reportedly paid over $100M to take down the
tower and build the new transmitting facility. It was a charge on NCN. Significant sums from the State were spent also on the construction of roads, drainage network and other works at Pradoville Two. The developed house lots, complete with infrastructure, were then sold below market value to Jagdeo, several ministers and Government officials and friends. There is no evidence that the house lots sale was advertised or what procedures were used in the allocations of the parcels of the ocean front properties. There are also no details of whether the recipients were owners of properties at the time. If they were, under regulations, they would have been barred from buying the lands under regulations of the Central Housing and Planning Authority. A forensic audit is now being carried out at NICIL and CH&PA. The transaction is now being examined by auditors who have been mandated by the new administration to carry out forensic work. Last week, Minister within
Minister Jaipaul Sharma the Ministry of Communities, Keith Scott, who is charged with housing, confirmed that the entire development project will be examined. Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, also said last week that forensic audit is being done on the Pradoville Two transactions. QUESTIONABLE With few lands available on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara for allocations, the Pradoville Two scheme has been galling house lot applicants. Continued on page 64
Remigrants paid ten times the price that former President Bharrat Jagdeo paid for house lots. Remigrants paid $1,111 per square foot to Jagdeo’s $114 per square foot.
DPP, Shalimar Ali-Hack
Ramesh Dookhoo
Bharrat Jagdeo
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ACIC hosts successful medical outreach
Some of the medications that were distributed.
A healthcare provider attending to an infant while others look on. The Anna Catherina Islamic Complex (ACIC) hosted a free medical outreach programme yesterday at the Complex, for residents of the West Coast Community. According to the organizer, Rajiv Singh, the
medical outreach attracted over 200 residents from the community who benefited from outpatient services provided by various organizations. These included free blood, sugar, glucose and urine testing, and free
medication. There was also a blood drive which received several units of blood that will be donated to the blood bank. Being the first outreach hosted for the year, Singh said that the initiative has significantly impacted the
lives of residents who cannot afford or access quality health care. He pointed out that the outreach will be an ongoing project which will allow residents to access free medical services. In addition, to the medical services residents and business persons were allowed to sample products from various companies such as Distribution Services Limited (DSL), Smart Aid 24Hour Pharmacy and Massey Distribution. R&T Imports provided free baby products that were distributed to the residents, while Meditron conducted the various tests.
There was a voluntary team of nine doctors drawn from various hospitals across the country. Working along with them were nurses and assistants. This medical outreach was organized by Mr. Rajiv Singh of Smart Aid Pharmacy; Public Relations Officer (PRO) of ACIC Reaz Hussain; and Mr. Hakeem Khan, President of the ACIC. It also received overwhelming support from Region Three, Health Officer, Shawn Gonsalves; Commander of Police ‘D’ Division, Stephen Mansell; and CEO of International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA), Lloyd Singh.
Organizer Singh said that the President of the ACIC, had made a promise to President David Granger that he would continue to serve the community. This promise was made after the president visited the ACIC for an award ceremony. Singh said that he and his team are currently in the process of planning other activities. He said that the next activity on the list is to host the International Qaseeda Competition. This is expected to attract a vast amount of overseas visitors. He said that they are also plans for rehabilitating several roads and signs in the community.
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BaiShanLin’s wood processing facility delayed due - GFC Commissioner to ‘financial difficulties’ By Kiana Wilburg After ten years, Chinese logging giant, BaiShanLin, is yet to honour its commitment to establish a wood processing facility in Guyana. It had given conflicting reasons in the past to justify the delay. However, Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), James Singh, recently revealed that the company indicated to him that the holdup is as a result of “financial difficulties.” “They told us that they have been experiencing some financial difficulties in the sense that they were unable to meet some benchmarks for certain lending agencies…We met with them and they had some concerns. They indicated to us that they met with some Government officials and are expected to submit a revised programme in relation to the facility for review.” He said, too, that a team from the China Development Bank also accompanied the Chinese company to the meeting. The Commissioner said that he told BaiShanLin to make the wood processing facility their priority. Singh said that the company promised that once the “financial difficulties” are over, it will also submit the revised programme on the facility to the Commission. Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, explained on Wednesday that after meeting with the company, it promised to get the wood processing facilities up and running within some months. Trotman noted that the Chinese logging company and its Indian counterpart, Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc. (VHPI) this time around, will not escape sanctions if they fail to get their promised value added facilities started. He said that the termination of their contracts could be one of the sanctions. He made these statements following questions by this newspaper at his post cabinet press briefing with the media which was held at the Ministry of the Presidency. Trotman who is also vested with some responsibility for the natural resources of the nation had explained that Government will be looking at the concessions that have been granted to certain if not all companies concessions in the forestry sector. The Minister of Governance was asked if the Granger administration intends to examine the concessions granted with a view to determining how much the nation has truly
GFC Commissioner, James Singh benefitted. Trotman said that this requires some sort of study or review. He added, “We have to look at jobs, taxes paid, concessions for duty free vehicles and equipment versus what has been given back in terms of value added operations. But, yes that review is ongoing.” He was then reminded of statements he made while in the opposition that the contracts between the logging companies and the past administration should be made public for scrutiny. Trotman was questioned whether Government will pursue this route. The Minister had said, “We have looked at these matters…and we are in fact reviewing all agreements and seeing where there has been compliance or violation and how we could tighten up.” Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas, had said that the behaviour of BaiShanLin and Vaitarna, the two logging companies that have benefitted significantly from Guyana’s forest resources is absolutely “unacceptable”. He said too that he will be recommending to the David Granger-led administration for some of their concessions to be taken away. “Guyana cannot continue to be giving out hundreds of millions of dollars worth in these tax breaks or concessions and we aren’t benefitting from value added operations. If companies
make a commitment to do so then the ethical thing to do is to deliver what was promised. If not, their concessions should be taken away. They need to face sanctions of that nature or probably something stronger. “BaiShanLin and Vaitarna have become logging giants in this country and by its own actions, it is clear that we should review all of their concessions. I would be advising the President of taking such actions. My position on this is clear; they need to cut off some of their benefits,” the Economist said. He continued, “This is obviously not part of how one promotes the suitability of an economy and an industry and we cannot continue to go this route. Allowing this sort of behaviour to continue, sends a dangerous message to other potential investors and local companies. What has the Guyana Forestry Commission done regarding such infractions? Is this not important? “We really need to change the landscape of the way business is done in the logging industry and eliminate this kind of slackness we allow these companies to get away with. This is not about whether you are foreign or not. At the end of the day it is what is right for the development of the country and quite frankly these two companies have just been taking and taking and not fulfilling their promises of considerable value added operations. It has been years now, so what can possibly be their excuse? They need to face serious sanctions.” In 2014, BaiShanLin blamed the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for delaying its application for its wood processing factory. In one of its ads, the company stated that in 2008, it applied to the “Government of Guyana through the Guyana Office for Investment (GOInvest) and other agencies to lease lands to set up a factory to process logs and engage in value-added production, such as the making of furniture, craft and hardwood flooring.”
It had said then that it was experiencing delays. Kaieteur News later reported that GO-Invest had no such application. BaiShanLin had nothing to say when this was revealed. This caused many, including the then opposition, APNU+AFC, to challenge the previous government to make public the investment agreement it signed on to with the Chinese logging company. This was never done. In April, the company then blamed the “hostile” media reports during 2014 for dispiriting financiers. In a statement, the Chinese company said that it is concerned about the apparent “misrepresentations and false reports” being carried by some sections of the media on its operations in Guyana. It identified Kaieteur News (KN) as the leader of the “hostile” campaign and even cited a KN article with the headline: ‘BaiShanLin delays US$70M wood processing factory for gold, housing, logging.’ But in its statement, it did not deny that it was
approved ‘US$70M’ for certain activities. With regard to the wood processing plant in the Linden area that was to be constructed, BaiShanLin, one of the largest exporters of the country’s prime species of wood, had complained that it has indeed suffered major setbacks in completing its wood processing facility that will create hundreds of jobs for Guyanese. It claimed that these “setbacks” directly related to lack of adequate funding from its financiers, who, since last year “when these sustained attacks began,” became concerned about the “soundness of investing further in what appeared to be a hostile environment.” Amidst hash criticisms of its operations during 2014 and earlier this year in several quarters, BaiShanLin insisted that it has consistently remained well within the law/ regulations governing the forestry sector. It has been reported on extensively, by insiders and other well-informed critics, including Dr. Janette Bulkan, a forestry specialist, that
BaiShanLin practices landlordism. The Timber Sales Agreement (TSA) which governs logging does not allow that. In fact, it has become the third largest holder of state forests in the country. A d d i t i o n a l l y, Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI) had said that given the conflicting reports on whether BaiShanLin and Vaitarna operations are in conformity with our laws, specifically the Guyana Forestry Commission Act and the Environmental Protection Act , their contracts should be made public. It had issued this call to the past administration but this was also ignored. In view of the public outrage at the extent to which these two companies were said to be exploiting the forests resources, TIGI also called on the past administration to place a halt on their operations. But this was as the old adage goes “throwing water on duck’s back.” Instead, the Donald Ramotar Government chose to defend the two companies.
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Senior GPL Berbice Manager sent home for fraud Mere days after Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, stated that a more detailed probe is to be undertaken into the operations of the troubled Guyana Power and Light entity, a senior operative in the Berbice operation has been sent home. He was said to be at the centre of a number of fraudulent activities Minister Patterson said that from what he envisaged a number of things are not right at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) outlet. A more detailed investigation is to be undertaken. This was on the same day that it was revealed that two senior officials of the GPL were fingered in the conversion of over $28M to their own use. Patterson had stated that the GPL will undergo a detailed review. He had said that he is aware of many issues which are affecting the entity. The operation of the
Loss Reduction Department and the Berbice operations will be looked at keenly, Minister Patterson stated after numerous reports surfaced. Last March, Loss Reduction Manager, Phyalyanjee Nandkumar, was sacked after investigations revealed fraud. Recommendations were also made for him to be charged and prosecuted. He was however reinstated within days following a visit to Freedom House. GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bharat Dindyal, had also confirmed that the contract of the official was terminated after complaints. A report found a number of ‘fraudulent’ practices that could also have implications on the power company’s Georgetown Department. However with the intervention of Freedom House that report was swept under the carpet and the man
Phyalyanjee Nandkumar reinstated. In one case, the investigators probed a complaint where the senior official asked for bribes amounting to $1.1M to install a 15KVA transformer at the business place of a customer. GPL records showed that
the cost of the transaction was a mere $292,513. That customer operates a business but was issued a residential account, which allowed him to benefit from lower tariffs. In the first instance, it was alleged that $200,000 was paid at the home of the customer (name given) and the balance of $900,000 at GPL’s Loss Reduction Office where the sacked official operated. GPL’s records, oddly enough, showed that the cost of the transaction was a mere $292,513. In statements made, the customer and his family also implicated operatives from the Sheriff Street Loss Reduction Main office. The Georgetown operatives had travelled to Berbice to investigate, but the matter seemed to have been covered up, according to the GPL’s internal documents seen by this newspaper. GPL operatives went so far to hook up the customers with a straight feed which
bypassed the meter and which resulted in the customer using free power for more than seven months. In another shocking case, investigators heard how one customer was discovered with a tampered meter. The sacked official reportedly instructed the customer to apply for a prepaid meter. This was all done in one day. It was alleged that the official received bribes from the customer, ensuring that he was not back-billed as would have been required in a tampering meter matter. Investigators found the concealed tampered report and other documents. In another case, it was reported that another customer was found with a tampered meter. Instead of making the necessary report, the official submitted documents stating that it was defective. It was replaced. However, the Georgetown office was alerted
to the fraud and after an investigation, the customer was back-billed for more than $1M. However, that amount was never paid and the customer continued to pay the normal monthly charges, and receive power. The account was flagged to be disconnected for consecutive months but ‘stand-down’ orders were issued. A number of other issues of blatant corruption were highlighted but no action was ever taken. The investigating team also received reports that the sacked official had been leading a team, taking monies from customers found tampering with their meters. He would normally threaten to report the tampering to the police. Kaieteur News understands that a three-man investigating team was sent to the Loss Reduction office, Berbice, to probe a number of irregularities.
Newly elected RDC councillors assured:
Central Govt. will not run roughshod over constitutional rights The newly elected councillors of the 10 Regional Democratic Councils (RDC) have been assured that the new administration will not make the mistake of its predecessor- of totally disregarding their constitutional authority in nation building. Instead, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, pledged that the administration will cooperate and collaborate with the RDCs to repair the damage which has been wrought over the last two decades. The Minister made the statements on Friday while engaging local representatives and private and public stakeholders at a leadership forum at the Arthur Chung International Convention Centre (ACICC,) Liliendaal. The event, which was held under the theme “Unveiling a Vision of Regional Empowerment,”
Regional Democratic Councillors at the Ministry of Communities leadership forum at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre was the customary and now traditional induction and orientation for the newly elected councillors. Bulkan pointed out that in
going forward it will not be business as usual. Instead regional representatives and Central Government will be working towards realising a specific goal. Reference was made to the aspiration set out by President David Granger of building “strong regions” that will lead to a “strong country.” “Guyana is too large to be either effectively or efficiently governed, or managed from the centre,” Minister Bulkan declared. He noted that as long as the local government organs’ authority is undermined, development cannot effectively happen at the community level. “For as long as we do not honour our constitutional provisions relating to decentralization and
devolution of power, we will not truly unlock our enormous potential; we will fail or people, particularly our young people.” The Minister said that RDCs were treated like “stepchildren”, “with their authority ignored, their roles understated,” under the former administration. He said that the councillors were viewed as a “collection of mannequins.” “This is not how it should be. This is not what the constitution provides for. The constitution is unambiguous with regard to the role of all local democratic organs.” He made it clear that Central Government will not seek to trample on the authority of the local organs. This does not mean that Central Government will not
Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan have an active role in the management and development of the regions. In moving forward, this role will be one of “cooperation not confrontation” in actions and efforts. “It must begin immediately in relation to all government initiatives and activities…the left hand must know what the right hand is doing,” he said. He also urged that the councils and councillors in spending tax dollars, seek to ensure that sustainable benefits accrued to the region, and that all monies are spent on initiatives that would have been arrived at following meaningful consultations, within the RDCs and with the residents. Regarding the day’s forum, Minister Bulkan explained that the intention is to use the event to stimulate
new thinking, to open the councillors’ minds to new possibilities and to exploring new frontiers. “As of today, each region has to begin to see itself differently. Each must begin to adapt to a mindset that sees you taking more ownership of your region,” he said. He urged the councillors to set targets in relation to attracting investments, creating new economic activities and jobs. In addition to being provided with an overview of the operations of an RDC, the councillors also benefitted from brief statements by other ministers. There were also presentations on ICT, potentials for tourism and agriculture, and the opportunities for generating renewable energies, as well as the challenges in making this a reality. There was a brief address by United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) Country Representative, Khadija Musa, who applauded the Ministry for its moves in the right directions; seeking to bring together the RDC councillors to have shared dialogue for sustainable development and passing the Local Government (Amendment) Bill which increases the power of the local government organs. Musa noted these are all critical steps in not only ensuring development but social cohesion. She pointed out that communities are now placed to drive their own development.
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Late-night alcohol consumption: The Emergency Room Perspective Alcohol consumption is becoming an increasing risk factor for deaths and morbidities worldwide. Consumption is on the increase in our busy world, especially in the nights, when persons are freer from their daily activities. The last World Health Organization (WHO) study found 16.2% of deaths and 13.2% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from injuries, globally, were estimated to be attributed to alcohol. It affects how our brain communicates with our eyes, hands, and feet, causing slowed reactions. The effect on visual focus, reaction time and judgment leads to injuries from causes like motor vehicle
accidents and falls. Persons exposed to alcohol may place themselves in dangerous situations, be more aggressive and less averse to risk taking, leading to both unintentional injuries such as drowning and burns, and to intentional injuries as either perpetrators or victims. This is even more compounded as time progresses in the night and our body is naturally preparing itself for rest. Our judgment and coordination becomes impaired and adding alcohol to it just makes things more complicated. Emergency departments (EDs) worldwide face the burden of alcohol-related deaths, morbidities and violence since it’s the first place where injured people come in contact with the treatment system. In countries like France
The police have been able to dent the spate of gun crimes, but each day some copycats emerge. And they are in the eastern part of the country, largely people who travel from the city. This has attracted the attention of the police, so when they routinely stop and search a vehicle they will not be too surprised to find three men, all with guns. ** Holidays are times of relaxation but it will be busy for some. On the eastern coast a group of men are going to target some homes that are empty. Unfortunately for them, neighbours sometimes look out. That and the quick response by the police will
nab one such group. The members will make the headlines. ** Road accidents and river accidents are never too far away. Another car crash is going to cause a family some heartache. At the same time, a motorcycle couple escaping from a crime scene will run into a car. Poetic justice, some will say.
By Dr. Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
and the U.S, well-established studies have found that 16.5% to 37.5% of all injuries seen by emergency-room staff are linked to alcohol drinking. Most of these occur in the nights and it takes away medical care from other patients ill or injured from natural causes. In Guyana it’s not different and Emergency rooms are faced with similar dilemmas. Although research has found alcohol to be associated with 60 distinct forms of injury or disease, I will dwell into a few situations that myself or colleagues have experienced in emergency rooms in Guyana. VIOLENCE Since we are always open for business, we are often one of the only places open at three in the morning to comfort the mind of a drunken man with nowhere to go. We take the abuse (often verbal but sometimes physical), fix our drunk friend up and try to keep him calm till he remembers where he lives and we can ensure he reaches home safely. Is it right that we should take abuse and threats from a drunken guy and his family at 4am because we chose to see the patient with a heart attack first instead of suturing the cut to his hand from a drunken fight? PREVENTABLE DEATHS I have seen too many lives lost in our EDs as result of poor judgment in the nights from persons intoxicated. Is it fair to that we should have to tell a mother crying over her child that her child died because of poor judgment by a drunk driver? Who can we blame for a young male who drank too much in the night, made an error while driving, and lost his life after hours of us
battling in the ED to give him a chance to remedy his mistake? Why should the breadwinner of his home lose his life because he stepped on someone’s foot who was too intoxicated? After 5 hours of fighting in the wee hours of the morning we just couldn’t push his heart to continue because the knife in his chest damaged too much of it. That heart fought as much as it could for his wife and kids, but in the end an intoxicated mind separated them. THE MORBIDITIES Is it fair that a police man should be dragged by a drunk driver who didn’t see him while he was doing road duties at 11pm? That drunk
driver will become sober again but that police will remain paralyzed and bed-ridden for the rest of his life. I can recall working for six hours straight to stitch all the wounds on a patient whose friend had too many drinks and decide to chop him all over his body at one o’clock in the morning. That guy surely lost a lot of blood, a few fingers and a friend, because of too much alcohol. What struck me was when a wife was set ablaze late in the night by her drunken husband. I looked at her and just knew that with a lot of hard work she would make it, her scars would make it hard to recognize her but the sad part was she maintained that
Dr. Zulfikar Bux it was an accident, knowing she will have to go back to live with him. I have asked a lot of questions and I am not sure that I have given a lot of answers. With alcohol-related deaths and injuries there are often more question than answers. Mine is how much alcohol is too much? What were nights really made for?
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Who terminated the exterminator? By Michael Jordan The gunmen wanted Mohamed Baksh dead and they didn’t seem to care where the job was done and who saw them do it. They didn’t care that he was sitting in an enclosed place; didn’t care that two women and an ex-cop from the feared ‘black- clothes’ squad were at Baksh’s side. It was Saturday, June 16, 2012; the time was 10 p.m., and Baksh, owner of Pest Control Plus, the ex-cop, and two women were sitting in a Thomas Street restaurant named Flava’s Grill, when a car stopped nearby. It is said that two men entered the restaurant, and one of them, with gun in hand, walked over to Baksh. And though the 43-year-old businessman was also carrying a handgun, he never got to touch it. The gunman fired. Baksh slumped to the ground, with two bullets in his head, while the shooter and his accomplice fled in the waiting car, described as a burgundycoloured Mitsubishi Lancer. Police reportedly pursued the car along Mandela Avenue but lost sight of it. Baksh died a few hours later. Police would later recover a 9mm shell at the scene, but
Mohamed Baksh
failed to find the gun from which it was fired. Baksh’s friends all claimed that they were unable to describe the killer, since they had all dived for cover when the shooting started. The police also got nothing from the staff at the Thomas Street restaurant. But investigators knew that someone had wanted the pest control expert dead for a long time. On August 7, 2008, Baksh had just exited his vehicle in the vicinity of Camp and Lamaha Streets, North Cummingsburg, when another man emerged from another vehicle and shot him. Bleeding from five gunshot wounds, Baksh managed to
seek refuge in his property, which was located nearby. From there, he called his wife. Baksh implicated a former business partner in the attempt on his life. This led police to Paul James, 41, of Barrack Street, Kingston, and Dexter Lynch, 36, of West La Penitence Housing Scheme. They were charged with attempted murder. In court, Baksh had stated that James was his business partner and that James owed him $31 million. That matter was still before the courts when Baksh was executed. Two days after Baksh’s death, police detained the same former business partner. But aside from the fact that
the businessman and Baksh had a financial dispute, police reportedly had nothing else to connect him to the murder. The former business partner denied any involvement in Baksh’s slaying and reportedly gave detectives an alibi for his movements at the time of the attack. Some of the man’s associates also reportedly told investigators that he was with them at the time Baksh was slain. Detectives impounded a burgundy car that fit the description that eyewitnesses gave of the gunmen’s getaway vehicle, but that turned out to be a false lead. The vehicle belonged to a police rank and was handed back to the owner. Investigators were given a 9mm warhead and a bullet fragment that were extracted from the slain man’s skull. They failed to match it to any firearm. But though Mohamed Baksh was dead, someone apparently still wanted to hurt his family. Just a few days after his death, someone doused the slain man’s Lot 322 Rohinital Street, Prashad Nagar office and storage bond with petrol and set the building ablaze. According to the slain businessman’s insurance agent, over $50M
worth of products was destroyed. “This clearly shows that this is a serious vendetta against this man. It is clear that his death and this fire are linked,” the agent said. Almost similar views were expressed by former Magistrate Fazil Azeez, who was a cousin of the slain businessman. Azeez said that they believed that whoever had wanted Baksh dead, would stop at nothing to wipe out his legacy. At the time, Azeez stated that the family had provided the police with all the necessary information about the case, and felt that investigators should have very strong leads. But he expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the matter was being investigated. While a suspect was released after giving an alibi, the former magistrate noted that a person giving an alibi does not mean that he was not involved in the crime. This just meant that another person may have been employed to do the killing. Azeez said that the venue where Baksh was shot was not a place he visited often. He believed that the killers must have known where he was going and followed him.
Also expressing dissatisfaction with the legal system, Azeez said that the Preliminary Inquiry into the attempt on Baksh’s life was postponed more than 40 times, despite pleas to have the case concluded. Baksh had been the foundation of his family and his murder had left his relatives in a state of fear. Because of these security concerns, relatives temporarily took the slain man’s nine-year-old son out of school. Baksh’s son is now 13 and his daughter is four, his pest control business has now closed, and there appear to be no new leads about his murder. “It will remain like that,” a close relative said a few weeks ago. “Nobody will pick it up.” If you have any information about any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 2258458, 22-58465, 22-58482 and 22-58491. 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
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==
The murder of Cecil and the ghost in the machine It was Mark Twain who once wrote that man is the only animal that inflicts pain for the pleasure of it. But it was the philosopher Arthur Koestler who best explained the theory that human kind or Homo sapiens is the cruelest, most selfish, and most violent animal that ever evolved. Koestler is one of my favourite philosophers and he has been on my reading list for each of the twenty-six years that I taught philosophy at UG. I would say I put more energy into explaining Koestler to my students than any other philosopher I taught, including Jean Paul Sartre and Sigmund Freud. If you ever meet a UG graduate who did philosophy with me and you ask them which philosopher Mr. Kissoon was hooked on in the classroom, he will immediately tell you, Arthur Koestler. I think Koestler had a colossal influence on my interpretation of the Human Condition and the nature of Homo sapiens. In his fantastic 1967 work, “The Ghost in the Machine” Koestler, in rather difficult language, explains the evolutionary mistake of Homo sapiens making the human an inherently flawed animal that would forever engage in extreme acts of violent cruelty. Combining evolutionary biology, neuroscience and philosophy in “The Ghost in the Machine” Koestler argues that as evolution continued and Homo sapiens emerged, line faults occurred, meaning then that Homo sapiens has inbuilt mechanism that did not evolve properly.
Man then is a biological error (the famous psychiatrist, Robert Jay Lifton in reviewing Koestler’s book used the term, “biological freak’) and the mistake cannot be corrected, simply because the brain has evolved into what it is inside of us. Koestler explains that in the evolution of the brain the stages were not sequential. Homo sapiens has three types of brains in the skull and there is no elegant coordination between the three. The three function autonomously. What happens then is that Homo sapiens lives different lives at the same time. Koestler describes the stages of the brain’s evolution beginning with its reptilian section. Then the part that came from lower mammals and the newest part that was human. In technical language, Koestler says the human part of the brain evolved with a greater speed and ended up superimposing itself on the older sections. The older two brains are referred to as emotional. The human part of the brain is the intellectual compartment. The human being is a biological freak because the brain cannot coordinate the older dimensions and its newer parts. From this understanding of Homo sapiens, Koestler went into an elaborate description of why the human being is more violent than all other animals and why the human being is a killing machine. Of course Koestler wrote his book in 1967 and since then his theories have been attacked, especially his
concept of three autonomous brains. Neurosurgeons and evolutionary biologists say that the newest brain is capable of more human functions than Koestler thought. For example, evolutionary biologists speak of an altruism gene. But as more discoveries are made about the brains and the genes, we are still to explain why Homo sapiens is the cruelest, least loving and most violent than any other animal species. The above has been a long diversion from the main topic of this column – the murder of one of the world’s
most iconic lions and Africa’s most beloved lion – Cecil. A middle class man from the United States went to Zimbabwe and lured Cecil away from his park where he roamed freely and played with visitors. He then killed Cecil, skinned and beheaded him. It took a member of the Homo sapiens species to have done that. This middle class man then boasted to the world of how he killed Cecil. What was shocking is that this man didn’t pursue a wild animal running madly in the jungle. He knew Cecil was a tamed lion who was in his a zoological park with a
tracking collar on him. He paid two park officials to help get Cecil away from the lion’s home. Cecil was bleeding for hours before the hunter shot him. It was a cruel death perpetrated by a biological freak that Arthur Koestler so graphically described in ‘the Ghost in the Machine” as long ago as 1967. The world’s eyes are on the United States. Zimbabwe wants the US to extradite this freak, this biological mistake we call human being. It would be interesting to see what reasons the US offers for not handing over this sadistic
Frederick Kissoon hunter. At the moment, the hunter has gone into hiding. The hunter has become the hunted. I hope he is found and jailed for life.
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Kaieteur News
FREEDOM AT LAST! In this year 2015, the word Emancipation developed new dimensions for us in Guyana. Denotatively, Emancipation signifies any of various efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights and equality for specifically disenfranchised groups. In the broadest terms, it entails prescribing and practicing the modalities that ensure equal status of individual citizens regardless of religion, political affiliation, property, or other “private” characteristics. Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and one of the most important features of democratic societies. Political freedom is also closely connected with the concepts of civil liberties and human rights - economic, social and cultural. Emancipation in its truest form requires the relationship between the governed and the ‘governor’ to be free from oppression or coercion. It requires the removal of disabling conditions and the creation of enabling circum-
stances in the society. In Guyana those disabling conditions include the lopsided privileges and agreements that had been ‘gifted’ to individuals and business concerns, local and expatriate, whose activities have been inimical to the development of this nation state. At the expense of repetition, the General and Regional elections of 2015 heralded in a new administration which has been saddled with the onerous task of undoing the self-serving programmes set in train by the previous government which were designed to enrich the functionaries and a few at the expense of the majority of Guyanese people. Their selfish activities discriminated even against their traditional supporters, activities that denied them jobs, since the party had failed to attract internal and expatriate investments in new, modern industries. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) denied every community basic developmental infrastructure, and they denied sugar workers their right to expect that the
industry at which they and their ancestors toiled for several generations is modernized and mechanized to assure its longevity. On a national scale, the PPP denied Guyanese people their right to work and to benefit from the resources of their country, specifically by giving away to their cohorts, friends and relatives, huge chunks of the nation’s airwaves which in any country is worth tens of millions of dollars. On a criminal scale, the PPP/C while in government unconscionably expended the people’s hard earned tax dollars on questionable ‘projects’, not least among which was the now useless US$32M terrestrial fibre optic cable that was being laid just beneath the unstable, vulnerable (to bad weather) top soils between Lethem and Georgetown. Reports state that over 40% of the cable was damaged in the laying process by contractors who were eminently unqualified to handle the delicate components associated with information communication technology.
To fix this travesty an estimated US$20M would be required. This sum does not include the cost of construction and maintenance of the repeater towers/stations along the cable’s route. The Coalition government is currently examining the project in its current state alongside viable alternatives to deliver internet connectivity to hinterland communities while simultaneously connecting law enforcement stations and outposts, hospitals and health centres, schools and other learning institutions with their respective Ministries. This is E-governance! Just prior to the 2015 elections, the incumbent PPP concocted and signed a ‘contract’ with a little-known construction contractor, ostensibly handing over to him, for an initial 25 years, sole ‘ownership’ of the fibre optic cable and the freedom to utilize the facilities as he pleased. Along with this came duty-free concessions for imported luxury vehicles among other things. In short, national assets worth billions of US dollars paid for with money from the nation’s purse was callously given away to a party supporter, but we did say ‘ostensibly’. The Guyanese saying, “There’s more in the mortar than the pestle” applies and questions, suppositions, inferences and ‘guesstimates’ abound. Recently, the coalition government began investigating new information that has the potential to unearth
Sunday August 02, 2015
much of the anti-national machinations behind this travesty. It calls to mind the infamous story behind the construction of the Marriottbranded hotel which was also funded from the national treasury and built almost entirely with imported Chinese labour, at a time when Guyana was recording high national unemployment rates. The illfated Skeldon sugar factory represents yet another exhibit in the PPP’s Hall of Shame. May 2015 most certainly delivered to Guyanese our Emancipation from political and economic tyranny that would have continued interminably had the majority of our people not stood up and declared “Enough!” We were all fed up of being trampled upon, taken for granted, our rights usurped and ignored, especially the rights of every single citizen, bar none, to safety and security. For many years the previous government refused to confront and put away criminals who have become more emboldened and behave as if they are entitled to invade people’s business and dwelling places with arms and take away their hard-earned assets and their lives. Recent events strongly suggest that the previous administration may have been ‘in bed’ with criminal elements who killed and maimed thousands of their own compatriots a decade ago. Others were allowed to develop a successful underground economy with criminally acquired financial gain. They have been utilizing one of Guyana’s key assets, its unfettered access to the Atlan-
tic Ocean, and have turned the country into a narco-state which has taken up residence on the watch list of a number of global anti- (drug) trafficking agencies. The history of the ‘New World’ (the West Indies, North and South America) since Columbus re-discovered it in 1492 is one of conquest, pillage, exploitation and forced migration of a people. For more than three centuries, millions of people were forcibly transported from their homes in Africa, across the perilous Atlantic Ocean (called the Middle Passage) to the West, where they were forced to labour on sugar, cotton and tobacco plantations. In 1833 British Humanitarian Thomas Buxton presented The Emancipation Bill in Parliament which was passed and put into effect on 1st August 1834. This became the first British Emancipation Proclamation and it signaled the beginning of the end of trafficking in African persons. No one had anticipated that 181 years later, Guyanese people would still be downtrodden and embroiled in a struggle against eerily similar pillage of natural and manufactured resources, against exploitation and discrimination, and in a fight for their lawful rights and freedoms. But we are thankfully at the end of that era. Guyana is poised for take-off again with new developmental programmes designed for the benefit of every single Guyanese across all of our 83,000 sq. miles, to which Venezuela is not entitled. This land is our land!
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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MY COLUMN
Emancipation in an emancipated Guyana Yesterday was Emancipation Day and the people, particularly the black people decided to mimic their African roots. Women in particular went out of their way to buy the prints that have become the symbol of Black Africa in this part of the world. Young girls and even the older folk, donned head wraps. All told it was a colourful affair reminiscent of my young days when black communities celebrated things African. In some communities there were the drums. I remembered the days when Emancipation Day meant travelling to Hopetown if one lived on the western side of the Berbice River. That was the home of the soiree. That community became transformed. Drums throbbed all through the night of the eve of Emancipation Day. There were long lines of cars and homes were filled with visiting relatives. I still remember the large open air cooking pots, the dancing and of course, the drums. As things go, the younger people introduced their own kind of partying so the event became a large ‘bubble session.’ But some people still went. Habits die hard.
So it was a pleasant surprise when Mellissa Roberts, nearly everyone knows her as Vanilla, called me to say that she was going to be at the centre of rekindling the Hopetown spirit. I missed out, but I know that something good came out of that community. I also remembered back in 1978, a Berbice community named Brighton—amazingly, many communities in East Berbice have English names—was the place to be. Like Hopetown, the village hosted a big soiree. I have not heard much about those things anymore. I did not hear about the gathering at Public Buildings nor did I get a chance to enjoy the assembly at Square of the Revolution. It must have been that people felt liberated after the May 11 elections and therefore did not see the need to have a ceremony that harkened back to yesteryear—they did not have to sing, ‘Take me back to the Mother Country’. But I often wondered how many really wanted to go to the Mother country. Many of us came from Senegal but a few came from Ghana. I am not certain that more than a
handful came from Nigeria. I was told that there are some of us whose ancestry can easily be identified by our facial structure. I am told that my ancestors probably came from Senegal. But then I wondered at the inter-breeding, one set of people breeding with another set. And of course in Guyana there is the preponderance of further inter-breeding. Most Guyanese have some Amerindian blood and the rest are descendants of all the other races. My sisters and brothers are of Portuguese ancestry, my children have Portuguese and Amerindian, although if you look you wouldn’t know it. My grandchildren are equally mixed up, one of them with a heavy dose of Chinese. So when this time comes around I smile when they opt to place themselves into one classification. That is bound to happen, because the society sees them as being of one ethnic group. And so it is that I smile when many of the people dressed as Africans reveal by their visages, other aspects of their ancestry. I was in North Korea when I saw a Korean girl obviously mixed with the tar brush. Try
telling her that she is black. But back in Guyana life is so simple. At one time we had the Douglah—the result of a union between a black and an East Indian; we had the Santantones, the Mulattoes, and the bouviandas. I don’t hear those terms anymore. And I never learnt what they called the mix between a black and a Chinese. In fact, I never heard a name for any other racial combination. And thinking of this, I realized that there must have been some focus on black people. For example in the United States there was even a nomenclature for people with different levels of white blood in their veins. There were quadroons (one-fourth white) and octoroons (oneeighth white). More recently, the census takers couldn’t be bothered about all the various combinations. They called people mixed. And the excuse was that these people did not want to classify themselves as black and they certainly couldn’t call themselves anything else. They couldn’t be Indian or Chinese or Portuguese. Of course, the Amerindians allow the bouviandas to be
Amerindians. Just goes to show the groups that are accommodating in Guyana. But there is some good in all this. We have all adopted the foods of every ethnic group and we have done so readily. My friend, the Argentine Ambassador once said to me that he never had cook-up and pepper pot. I told him that I would prepare those dishes for him. With raised eyebrows, he asked me whether I was being honest. I invited him over to my house and, with his wife, he feasted on these two Guyanese delicacies. Yesterday would have been his metem day, but I did not invite him and he did not come. There was one more thing that struck me yesterday. People were dressed as Africans but they could not tell me whether their garb was Nigerian or Senegalese or Ghanaian or a mix of all. I am told that different countries have their prints. I don’t know one from Adam or Moses. But who cares? Yesterday was a day of reflection. I remember flying over the West Demerara and looking at the conservancy. It was as straight as an arrow and ran for miles. My ancestors dug
Adam Harris that conservancy with their hands. It was the same on East Demerara. I shudder at the brutal work they put in. I couldn’t blame some of them for wanting to run away and some for being violent to their masters. I look at the villages and except for a few, there is precious little to show for the work of my ancestors. They brought rice to this corner of the world. A mere handful cultivates rice these days. Except for children, not much is left of their heritage.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Creating Youth Employment – Part II By Lance Hinds The development of significant, sustainable youth employment, using ICT, has to be done with the goal of creating short- to mediumterm jobs, in conjunction with the capacity building to develop the long-term employment needed for the growth of the sector as a significant contributor to the national economy. The first objective, therefore, is to introduce a localised version of crowdsourcing and microwork that does not require extensive training. Crowdsourcing is a process that involves outsourcing tasks or larger projects to a distributed group of people. This can occur both online and offline. Microwork, by the strictest definition, is a series of tasks that have been broken out of a larger business process or project that can be completed via the internet. There will be some modifications to the overall concept because of what I am proposing, but once properly conceived and defined, it can generate significant employment over the short- to medium-term. To be clear, when I state that there is no need
for extensive training, I am referring to data processing, programming, software/app development etc. Within this context, the other skills would be considered entry to medium level. In this vein, I am suggesting that the Government launch a programme I would like to call the Electronic Records Conversation Initiative or ERCI for short. This would be, at minimum, a fiveyear youth employment programme focusing specifically on the electronic conversation of the voluminous amount of files currently in use in all the Government Agencies. The primary justification for this project is that while a significant amount of work has been done in implementing financial and other specialized systems in many of the government agencies, poor records management continues to cause serious challenges in the majority of agencies within the public sector. These challenges range from technology obsolescence and poorly trained personnel, to inadequate policy formulation. The files are also in many instances stored in poor conditions leading to damage. In fact it has been argued
that the primary argument for conversion to electronic records is the need to simply protect records in the first instance. This has, on many occasions, negatively affected prompt services and employment practices, revamping of government functions and organizational structures, strengthening of financial management, and a national legal and regulatory framework. In the absence of a culture of effective records management, monitoring and evaluation, quality control and verification has been extremely difficult. It is imperative, therefore, for the government to adopt good record-keeping practices, since they will support effective and accountable government. Accessible, reliable records will show what decisions were made, actions taken, people involved and the rights and responsibilities that exist or should be applied. Adopting integrated electronic information systems with the appropriate policy and implementation framework will go a long way in effectively managing records in government. The first tasks under the ERCI, therefore, would be the electronic capture of the hard copy documents in existence.
This will require a series of tasks including scanning, data entry and the creation of metadata for electronic document management. Teams, primarily made up of young people, can be quickly trained to sort and scan files and related documents from agency registries, using the appropriate equipment. Data entry for the ledgers and registers used to record information can be done either on site or by trained youth groups in various geographic locations via an internet connection. The Government can explore the possibility of using the e-government communication network to save cost on internet access. There is a tremendous amount of work required to ‘tag’ electronic records with metadata, so as to ensure that they are adequately catalogued, classified and easily retrieved. This also can be done on site or remotely via an internet connection. There are other components to this kind of project. The activities described above, however, can be done by young people with a minimum amount of training. Internet access will allow for work to be performed remotely by youth residing outside of Georgetown.
Specific assignments related to this activity can be coordinated by national and community youth groups as part of an overall capacitybuilding exercise. On the policy side, companies bidding for provision of services should also be evaluated based on the amount of youths they plan to hire and the communities with whom they plan to partner. The vision is a true private sector/ community collaboration. I believe this kind of project is attractive for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it has youth appeal because it is ICT and therefore perceived to be cutting edge. Secondly, although the project is performance and deliverabledriven, it does not have the traditional office structure that many young people find restrictive and unappealing. More importantly, it has the potential to create a high level of employment in a relatively short space of time. Its startup and running costs are far lower than the major infrastructure works that are normally used to jump start sections of an economy. Apart from job creation there are other economic benefits. Local ICT businesses will get revenue from the supply of computer hardware and
Lance Hinds peripheral devices. There will be need for some advanced services pertaining to the modification and implementation of electronic document management systems. These can be provided by local ICT consulting firms. Some of the youth who are specially trained can also participate in this component of the project. Last, but certainly not least, this is a transformational project that can radically change the government’s data management and related processes. It is also the starting point for the provision of e-government to our citizens. This is just a sketch of what is possible in terms of a potential project that can generate employment. It will be necessary to develop a wellthought-out project implementation framework that is realistic, practical and achievable. I hope, however, that this idea triggers the kind of out–of–the–box thinking that will be needed to help an economy that has many challenges over the short to medium term. Lance Hinds is the current President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the BrainStreet Group, an ICT consulting and information services company.
Sunday August 02, 2015
SUNDAY SPECIAL Sean Hinds denies conducting surveillance at PM’s home In the face of revelations from Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, that selfconfessed death squad member, Sean Hinds, stakedout his private home, Hinds is maintaining that he did no such thing. Hinds featured prominently in the news recently as a result of his revelations that he was part of the death squad that reigned during the early 2000’s. He also said that he had knowledge of numerous killings but did not actually confess to any. Hinds made these revelations when he feared that he was wanted by the police for the murder of political activist, Courtney Crum-Ewing. It appears now that the real reason the police wanted Hinds was to question him on this supposed surveillance. According to Nagamootoo, two weeks ago, on Tuesday, July 14, the security detail attached to his home noticed a strange car parked close by. Hinds was identified as the occupant of the car. As the security approached, the car sped away. A check of the car’s licence plate number revealed that the particular number belonged to a car with a different colour. Nagamootoo confirmed last Saturday that a report was filed at the Sparendaam Police Station over the incident. Crime Chief Wendell
Kaieteur News
Blanhum had confirmed that Sean Hinds was wanted by the police for investigations into a “serious offence”. Nagamootoo is convinced that the surveillance was for a possible hit. “We have information that some days ago Sean Hinds had been parked in a car in the vicinity of my residence and neighbours were alerted, the police were summoned and the vehicle drove away very fast,” he told reporters. The Prime Minister believes that based on the information provided, Hinds was allegedly on “some kind of recce.” Nagamootoo added, “If I was an asset or I was a target, I believe that Sean Hinds would have to come and explain,” MONDAYEDITION Opposition brought nothing but accusations to first set of budget talks – Govt. With mere weeks to go before the national budget is presented, Finance Minister Winston Jordan lashed out at the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic, saying that they brought nothing but accusations against the government during a recent meeting to discuss the 2015 financial estimates. Jordan told Kaieteur News during an interview that he found himself in a situation where he had to set the record straight on a number of allegations, particularly from PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee.
Some of these accusations had to do with the PetroCaribe Fund being empty and witchhunting by the Granger administration. The Finance Minister said that he addressed Rohee on each contention levelled against the government. Jordan admitted that although he previously expressed that he is pressed for time and that it is highly unlikely that the PPP would be consulted on the 2015 budget, he nevertheless extended the invitation to the party. The PPP then said that it decided to accept the invitation having regard to “the unfortunate state of affairs obtaining in the country since the APNU+AFC assumed office.” This sentiment was communicated to Jordan by Rohee. The Finance Minister said that when the delegation turned up at the Finance Ministry, he gave the floor to Rohee, “who started right away with accusations of how we are witch-hunting, how we are destroying the economy and how they left a good economy.” Jordan added, “All along I waited to hear what ideas they were bringing to the table. My letter to them clearly said an exchange of ideas on the 2015 budget. But I did not hear anything about that.” Captured handyman confesses to murdering store owner – killers clubbed, stabbed him as he entered yard Detectives Sunday listened to a chilling tale of
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Sean Hinds robbery and murder, as a handyman revealed how he and two others clubbed and stabbed businessman Abdool Farouk Ghanie to death in his Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara premises last April. The shocking murder of the 56-year-old owner of Hamson’s General Store came to light last Friday after Mr. Ghanie’s handyman, Floyd Anthony Rammit, was captured at an interior location to which he had fled. A senior police official said that under interrogation Sunday, Rammit provided details of the killing. With robbery as their motive, Rammit and two accomplices concealed themselves in Ghanie’s yard at Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara, while waiting for the businessman, who lived alone, to arrive. He eventually arrived in his Toyota Tundra, and when he entered the yard, one of the
An aerial view of the Pradoville 2 scheme, which was engineered by the administration of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
robbers clubbed the businessman behind the head with a piece of wood. The men then dragged Mr. Ghanie to the side of his yard. Rammit claimed that he then gave one of his accomplices a knife which he had used to cut up dog meat, and the accomplice stabbed his boss twice to the chest. Removing Ghanie’s licenced firearm and keys from the body, the killers then entered his home, ransacked the premises and filled a bag with valuables. They then headed to an area near Ghanie’s home where they split up the loot. Rammit said that he then fled to the interior. TUESDAYEDITION DPP, former PSC head among Pradoville 2 beneficiaries – Jagdeo gave himself two plots Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar AliHack, and former Head of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo were among several persons who benefitted from house lots in the upscale Pradoville Two scheme. The details of how that exclusive scheme at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, was created under the direction of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, had angered the country as the state resources were used to develop the area which was then sold way below market prices and under questionable circumstances to a chosen few. There was no immediate evidence that the parceled lands were opened up for other citizens to have a shot at acquiring. The area is known officially as Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting Two but dubbed Pradoville Two by citizens. According to details of the transactions seen by Kaieteur News, Jagdeo got
himself the biggest plots in the Goedverwagting Two section. As matter of fact, he paid $7.5M for one and $2.3M for another parcel. Former Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford; former Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud; Compton Bourne, former Head of the Caribbean Development Bank and UG Chancellor; Ghansham Singh and Kamini Parag-Singh and Florrie Loretta Ramnauth also received house lots. Singh is said to be the son of former Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul. They also paid just over $1.5M. Ali-Hack and her husband, Moeen ul Hack, a top figure in the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), paid $1,488,744 for a piece of land. The Certificates of Title were prepared in 2011. Dookhoo, a Banks DIH executive, was a former Chairman of PSC as well as the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI). He reportedly paid $1,502,500 for his plot with his title prepared in 2010. Also benefitting was Lisaveta Ramotar, daughter of former President Donald Ramotar. She paid $1,515,000. Former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee; former GWI’s boss, Shaik Baksh and former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, also received lots, paying just over $1.5M each. WEDNESDAYEDITION Presidential Advisor to recommend revocation of BaiShanLin, Vaitarna concessions After ten years, Chinese logging giant, BaiShanLin, which has enjoyed millions worth in tax concessions and incentives granted under the previous government, is yet to deliver on its promise of a wood processing facility in Continued on page 43
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Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs By Hon. Sydney Allicock M.P. Extreme poverty can only be eliminated through sustained, committed and dedicated efforts. It is known that the indigenous peoples’ population of the deep hinterland regions of Guyana are more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of the scourge of poverty, than any other group in Guyana. For example, the community of Baramita sits on gold, yet the residents live in deplorable poverty. The challenges are many and vary from community leadership, communications and transportation to health and education, reliable clean water supply, affordable electricity and agricultural support. The cure for these difficulties has got to be a pro-
Sydney Allicock M.P. cess designed to bring relief in a deliberate, measurable and sustainable manner. To this end, there will be a number of interventions specific to sustainable economic development. Such projects will espe-
cially target women and young people. Women are our village economists, while the young people are the next generation of leaders. There will be partnerships with several non-governmental and international organisations. These partnerships are intended to bring to villages benefits in the areas of sustainable utilisation and management of natural resources, conceptualisation and management of micro projects, skills training, sports, cultural and other social activities as well as infrastructural improvement. CULTURAL RECOGNITIONAND PRESERVATION We intend to continue to develop and record the indigenous languages of our nine
indigenous peoples. We will store for posterity the valuable historic, cultural records of the indigenous peoples of Guyana. We intend to showcase our talented people, both young and old, every day of the year. Our programmes are being crafted to develop, preserve and promote our rich heritage and to marry it with the rich cultural heritage of all Guyanese peoples. We see our work, as a Ministry, as pivotal to the realisation of the vision of our President in making Guyana “One Nation”. We see our role as a positive force to promote the uniting of the coast with the hinterland. Our Ministry remains firmly of the view that if inequalities are to be something of the past, then urgent immediate attention will have to be paid to national awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples, not only at home here in Guyana, but globally as well. There will have to be improved access by indigenous people to the opportunities, facilities and rewards nationally available. To this end, our Ministry intends to have a situational analysis completed. We wish to place in the public domain, a factual, impartial analysis of the state of affairs of our indigenous peoples. Thereafter, we shall embark upon a set of strategic objectives; the accomplishment of which, will chart the course for the elimination of inequalities as far as these affect either directly or indirectly, the indigenous people of Guyana. We see ourselves facilitating the movement of indigenous people away from being dependent on hand-outs, towards self-reliance and economic independence. We see appropriate education as pivotal to this long term process. The Bina Hill Institute at Annai in Region No.9 presents itself as an excellent project upon which to build. TOURISM POTENTIAL With eco-tourism on the rise, every indigenous com-
munity is a potential tourist destination. We must, therefore, prepare for this eventuality which feeds into the concept of the sustainable utilisation of our natural patrimony. We need tour guides, tour planners, caterers, interpreters, facility managers, logistics personnel, security and a whole list of skilled persons to enable the tourism-based sustainable economic ventures to bloom. We must have Bina Hilltype facilities in other regions. We have already identified Orealla in Region No.6 as one such possible site. This will complement the technical training centres, which will eventually be set up in each region. The indigenous peoples of Guyana welcome the President’s proposed establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs views this initiative as a very responsible approach to the management of the revenues earned from our national patrimony. We must determine where such resources are best invested. I say “invested” because, I believe that every cent of the state’s resources should be placed towards the development of our people as an investment in our country’s future. I believe that after a careful analysis of our needs, as a nation, it will be well established that education, health care, public transportation, infrastructure, social security, access to information and environmental protection are important areas to which such investments should be directed. This fund allows us, as a nation, to avoid the pitfalls of squandermania and focus on ensuring that our citizens get the best out of every dollar of the state’s resources. GREEN GUYANA For indigenous people the forest represents life. For us, it is our kitchen, our medicine cabinet, our home, our bank and our sanctuary. For centuries, our ancestors lived from and cared for our forests. It is, therefore, for us a source of tremendous delight that our President has recognised its value and by extension, our efforts over the generations. This is made clear in his vision for a Green Guyana. The challenges of climate change are enormous. The pressures of development or the price of development on countries such as ours could
be devastating. Our journey towards sustainable management and use of our natural resources, and focus on the use of energy obtained from water, wind and the sun, is indeed the way forward. Our eyes must remain trained on our protected areas. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs support in this regard, will be manifested in the programmes we will undertake in the months and years ahead. FOUR NEW TOWNS President Granger has announced that there shall be four new towns in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Bartica, Mahdia, Mabaruma and Lethem will become municipalities. These hinterland communities each have a significant indigenous peoples’ population. These communities historically have suffered from a lack of attention, services, physical infrastructure, agricultural and technical support. These communities will now have an opportunity to elect their own mayors and town councils and govern themselves. This will usher in a new culture of accountable government; by the people and for the people of the new towns, which will emerge. This is visionary leadership. This is empowerment in action. This is the new Guyana. Local governance in these areas will ensure that there will be better management, sustainable use and maintenance of public infrastructure, hinterland stellings, trails to indigenous communities, airstrips in these communities. Hinterland roads, rivers and air transport services will be improved. These interventions can only impact positively on the lives and livelihood of the indigenous peoples of Guyana’s coast and hinterland. I can see, in the not too distant future, positive impacts in the areas of social life, education, health care, agriculture, security and general economic development in our hinterland communities and, by extension, in the lives of our indigenous peoples. This marks the beginning of a good life for all Guyanese. Let us, therefore, move forward resolutely together, for in the words of Guyana’s first Executive President, “We have a Nation to build; a destiny to mould.”
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
Salma Hayek goes topless for magazine
Salma Hayek always thought her hands were pretty big. But then she decided to pose topless for Allure magazine. In the gorgeous black and white pic published in the mag, the 48-year-old actress clutches her bosom with her hands. “I thought my hands were bigger,” Hayek told me while promoting her new animated movie Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. “They’re big, but not big enough to cover my breasts. They did cover enough but in my head they
were covering more.’ Hayek says there’s a freedom that goes along with stripping down for the cameras. “It’s important to be free…and at my age it’s exciting to still be able to take a photograph like that,” she said. In the magazine, the Mexican beauty revealed the worst beauty advice she’s ever received. “‘You should start Botox.’ When I was young, they tried to sell me on the idea: ‘If you do it now, then you won’t get the wrinkles,’” Hayek, who says she’s never undergone any anti-aging surgery, said. “And thank God I didn’t do that.” She also said that a lot of her confidence comes from her French billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault. “I wish I knew [when I was younger] that I was going to fall crazy in love with the perfect man,” she said. “I was so worried, and I dated some people I shouldn’t have dated. You get desperate, and you start seeing wonderful things in, like, the wrong guys.” Hayek added: “I also found some pretty good guys. But I wish I could say to myself, ‘Hey, chill out. You’re going to get a great husband that’s going to adore you.’ I would have saved myself a lot of personal drama.”
Snoop Dogg collared for carrying too much cash Rapper Snoop Dogg has had his second brush with the law in a week, this time for trying to board a plane with almost half a million dollars in cash. Snoop was stopped by customs at Italy’s Lamezia Terme Airport in Calabria carrying $422,000 (£270,000), well over the legal limit. Travellers are allowed to carry up to •10,000 (roughly £7,000) in undeclared cash across European Union borders. It is thought the 43-year-old was on his way to the UK. The rapper, who played in Calabria on Friday night, is scheduled to perform at the Kendal Calling Festival in the Lake District on Sunday. Italian Police have confirmed that half of the cash was seized under Italian anti-money laundering codes. The money is usually returned, minus a fine set by magistrates.
Last weekend Snoop was questioned and tested in Sweden on suspicion of drug use. Authorities said test results will not be available for some time.
Robert Pattinson FKA Twigs engagement on the line: reunion with Kristen Stewart? Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs’ engagement has been met with a few rumors, particularly involving Rob’s former “Twilight” sweetheart Kristen Stewart. The two have always been linked despite having broken up years ago. Now that the Venice Film Fest is coming up, rumors are starting to circulate that an awkward run-in between the two could potentially happen. “Although Kristen Stewart, 25, and Robert Pattinson, 29, both moved on since they broke up in 2013, that doesn’t mean they won’t ever see each other again,” Hollywood Life noted.
“They do work in the same industry after all! Both actors are set to attend the Venice International Film Festival and the possibility of a mini Twilight reunion is high.” Whether there will be a sort of reunion between the two, KStew’s camp claimed that it won’t be a problem given the actress has already moved on. “Rob going with Tahliah (FKA Twigs) would not have stopped her at all. She’s made peace with the past and has moved on,” a source told the publication after Kristen was absent at the Met Ball.
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Sunday August 02, 2015
From page 31 Guyana. And its Indian counterpart, Vaitarna Holding Private Incorporated (VHPI), after three years, is still to get the ball rolling on its promise of considerable value added operations of a similar nature. Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas says that such behaviour from companies which have benefitted significantly from Guyana’s forest resources is absolutely “unacceptable”. He will be recommending to the David Granger-led administration for some of their concessions to be taken away. “Guyana cannot continue to be giving out hundreds of millions of dollars worth in these tax breaks or concessions and we aren’t benefitting from value added operations. If companies make a commitment to do so then the ethical thing to do is to deliver what was promised. If not, their concessions should be taken away. They need to face sanctions of that nature or probably something stronger. Bai Shan Lin and Vaitarna have become logging giants in this country and by its own actions, it is clear that we should review all of their concessions. I would be advising the President of taking such actions. My position on this is clear; they need to cut off some of their benefits,” the economist said, “This is obviously not part of how one promotes the suitability of an economy and an industry and we cannot continue to go this route. Allowing this sort of behaviour to continue sends a dangerous message to other potential investors and local companies. What has the Guyana Forestry Commission
Kaieteur News
done regarding such infractions? Is this not important? ‘Pradoville 2’ deal to be reexamined – Minister Scott The new Government is set to examine details of how a large plot of prime seaside property was secured by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, later developed, and then parceled off for almost next to nothing to a few friends and Government officials. On Tuesday, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Keith Scott, who is charged with housing, said he had taken note of a lead story in Tuesday’s edition of Kaieteur News, which revealed details of the beneficiaries of the exclusive community known to Guyana as ‘Pradoville Two’. “Obviously we are concerned about the details of the transactions involving this piece of property. Was it in keeping with the established regulations? Was it advertised? How much was paid? We have to look at all this.” According to Scott, he intends to meet with the staffers of Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) “shortly” to discuss the issue. THURSDAY EDITION Trotman tells BaiShanLin, Vaitarna… Start value added operations or else… Major logging companies, BaiShanLin Forest Development Inc and Vaitarna Holdings Private
Incorporated (VHPI), have been running the same, old, unfulfilled promise of creating considerable value added operations to Guyanese. But Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, explained that after meeting with both companies, they have promised to get their wood processing facilities up and running within months. Trotman noted however, that the companies this time around will not escape sanctions, for should they fail to make good on their promise then their contracts will be reviewed. He made these statements following questions by this newspaper at his postcabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday. Trotman, who is also vested with some responsibility for the natural resources of the nation, explained that Government will be looking at the concessions that have been granted to certain, if not all companies in the forestry sector. Govt. approves lowering of Berbice Bridge tolls Vehicle tolls on the Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI) are to be reduced. The announcements are to be made by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, during his budget speech next month. Speaking during the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, said that the matter was a critical promise made by the coalition Government while it was in Opposition and on the
campaign trail for the May 11 General and Regional Elections. On Tuesday, the matter of the tolls came up for discussions with Minister Jordan briefing the Cabinet on several options. It was agreed that the tolls will be lowered. Among a number of measures to help the bridge company recover from the financial fallouts will be a subsidy from Government. Initial figures have been agreed on and negotiations will now start with the stakeholders on the way forward. FRIDAYEDITION Another ex-Minister hits the court steps Former Minister of Health under the PPP administration, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran on Thursday appeared before Magistrate Charlyn Artiga at the Whim Magistrate’s Court to answer a charge of use of insulting language. The court heard that on Monday 20th April, 2015, whilst outside the Whim Magistrate’ Court, Ramsaran used insulting language towards Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer. Ramsaran pleaded not guilty. The Virtual Complainant, Sherlina Nageer, was not present in court when her name was called. Stand-in prosecutor Sergeant Welch had no objection for bail when the matter was put to him. Ramsaran was then released on his own recognizance (self-bail). He is scheduled to return to the Whim Magistrate’s
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Court on September 21. August 10th is Budget Day Guyanese will on August 10 learn how much the new government plans to spend to carry out the country’s business for the rest of this year. Minister of Finance Winston Jordan revealed plans to table the proposed Fiscal Budget of 2015 on that day, as government Members of Parliament (MPs) convened for the fifth sitting of the National Assembly on Thursday. The announcement came even as the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), which was engaged in budget talks with the government just last week, continues to boycott the National Assembly. This year’s budget should have been introduced and passed in the House by April 2015, but the process was delayed by a series of events. SATURDAY EDITION Butcher buries cattle farmer in shallow grave A Berbice butcher has confessed to strangling and burying an elderly cattle and rice farmer in a shallow grave in the backyard of his Corriverton, Corentyne home. The decomposing corpse of Henry “Beminal” Lalman, 78, of No. 36 and 55 Villages, Corentyne, was found on Thursday afternoon in the yard of one of his customers, who operates a butcher shop and restaurant. Although the body was decomposing, Pathologist Dr. Vivekanand Bridgmohan
established that the victim had been strangled, after observing that the hyoid bone was broken. A grandson, Rajendra Persaud, said that his grandfather was missing since Monday, July 27 and the family had made a report at the Number 51 police station. The victim fathered 11 children and lived at both No. 36 and 55 Villages. According to Persaud, his grandfather journeyed to No. 55 Village, and then headed to Corriverton and Skeldon to meet with some customers to collect money owed to him. He understands that his grandfather, who also lends money, was supposed to have collected $220,000 for three cows he sold to the butcher who is now in custody. But Lalman failed to return and a missing person report was made at the Number 51. Police Station, while a search was launched for the elderly man. According to Persaud, relatives visited the suspect, who confirmed that Lalman had visited him. But the butcher also claimed that Lalman had collected his money and left for another premises at Crabwood Creek. The family members subsequently visited the other premises, but were told that Lalman had visited there first before heading to the butcher’s residence. The relatives then again questioned the butcher, who stuck to his story. In desperation, the missing man’s relatives posted advertisements in the newspapers and on television. They even offered a reward. Police got a breakthrough around 16:00 hrs on Thursday when they received information that Lalman was seen visiting the butcher’s premises, but was not seen leaving. The police, acting on this information, searched the suspect’s yard and eventually found the missing man’s body buried in a shallow grave under a tree. The accused, known as ‘Hamid, and who is said to be an alcoholic, reportedly told detectives that he panicked after he was unable to pay Lalman for the meat he had bought. Fearing that the cattle farmer would have informed his father, who was overseas at the time, ‘Hamid’ strangled Lalman and buried the victim in his backyard. He then covered the grave with a length of zinc. Most of victim’s family members reside in New York and the police are continuing their investigations into the matter.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Samuel Hinds Jr. seeks High Court order to stay criminal proceedings against him Samuel Hinds Jr, the son of former Prime Minister, Sam Hinds, has moved to the High Court in an attempt to stay the Magistrate‘s court proceeding against him. He was found guilty of assaulting and threatening his 18-year-old, sister-in-law, Tenza Layne. Reports are that on February 27, 2014 Hinds, who had accused Layne, of stealing one of his cellular phones, used a gun, thrashed and threatened to kill her at his Lot 83 Duke Street, Kingston residence. Following the incident, an unlawful wounding charge was instituted against him. After a trial, Hinds was found guilty of the offence before former Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmonds. However, before the Magistrate could have sentenced Hinds, the Judicial Service Commission intervened and dismissed her citing absenteeism among their reasons for doing so. Magistrate Annette Singh
Samuel Hinds Jr. was subsequently assigned to the case. Singh had expressed readiness to go ahead with the sentence. According to Singh, Hinds had already been found guilty in relation to the wounding charge and to restart the trial will be to overturn or appeal the guilty verdict. This, the Magistrate had said, is something she has no jurisdiction to do.
Singh had sought directions from the High Court and was awaiting instructions on how to proceed with the matter. However, in court documents seen by this newspaper on Wednesday, Hinds’ Attorneys Peter Hugh and Latchmie Rahamat, noted their request for an order from the Supreme Court to stay any further prosecution/ adjudication of the criminal charges filed against Hinds on March 3, 2014. The constitutional motion which was filed earlier last month, is also seeking a declaration by the court that the applicant’s (Hinds) right to due process and protection of the law guaranteed as a fundamental right under the Constitution of Guyana has been and continues to be contravened by the Judicial arm of the State. According to the document, the undue and unreasonable delay by the State to complete the matter is through no fault of Hinds
Shot bandit died from shock, hemorrhage
The gunman who was shot dead following a shootout with law enforcement officers on Wednesday died from shock and haemorrhage due to gunshot injuries. The shooting occurred in the vicinity of the No. 63 Beach Meanwhile residents are commending the police for acting swiftly after they confronted three bandits and shot one of them dead. Delroy Cort called ‘Gray’, male Negro, 23, of Lot 14 Manchester Village, Corentyne, Berbice, was shot after a confrontation with the police. Law enforcement officers had responded to a robbery under arms report that occurred in the vicinity of No. 61 Village and No. 63 Village beaches. According to information, around 13:35 hrs a party of policemen was on patrol duty in the No. 63 Beach Area, Corentyne, Berbice, when they received information of a robbery. The ranks were informed by Sid Angel 27, a clothes and chicken vendor of No. 53 Village, Corentyne, that she and Frank Johnson, 38, a taxi driver and rice famer of Lot 58 Community Zone, Mibicuri South, Black Bush Polder, were robbed by two identifiable males armed with long guns. The bandits robbed
Delroy Cort called ‘Gray’ them of three cellular phones one pair of earrings and $60,000. The patrol requested back up which quickly arrived from the No. 51 Police Station and headed for the No.63 Beach. Upon arrival, the police were greeted by gunfire. The cops took cover and returned fire hitting one of the bandits to the head. That man was subsequently identified by the two victims as one of the bandits who had robbed them earlier. A 12 gauge shotgun along
with two live rounds and two empty casings were found next to the body of the bandit. The man’s body was taken to the Skeldon Public Hospital Mortuary. The man’s relatives expressed total surprise at the man’s behavior. He was never known to be involved in such activities. His sister, Kim Cort, stated that around 18:00 hrs, they were at home when they received several calls informing them of what happened. She said that the family subsequently travelled to the area, where she recognized the body. He had a bullet wound in his head. He was a porkknocker and had been home since April. He is unmarried and has no children. He leaves to mourn three siblings and his parents. The post mortem examination was conducted by Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan at the Skeldon Hospital and revealed that he died from shock and haemorrhage due to gunshot injuries. Investigations are continuing as the police hunt the other bandit.
Corruption benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. Say no to it.
and has operated to the detriment of his case , given that some of his witnesses are no longer willing/ available to him. The Attorneys argue that in those circumstances the proceeding will be unfair, unjust, unreasonable and in breach of the principles of a fair hearing. The lawyers further argue that the evidence led by Magistrate ChandanEdmonds does not support the commission of any offence by Hinds and that the Magistrate’s decision was arbitrary, null, void and in breach of their client’s fundamental right. Additionally, the lawyers are seeking a declaration by
the court that their client’s fundamental right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time guaranteed under Article 144 (1) of the Constitution is likely to be further infringed if the criminal charges are not stayed. Their request is that the Court makes an order to stay any further prosecution of the unlawful wounding and threatening behavior charge filed against Hinds. Hugh and Rahamat have noted too, that their client’s fundamental rights will likely be further infringed if the charges are determined before Magistrate Annette Singh proceeds with the sentencing. The Attorneys
have said that a retrial would violate the Constitution which stipulates a person should not be tried twice for the same offence after he was already tried and convicted. Article 144 (5) of the Constitution states that “No person who shows that he has been tried by a competent court for a criminal offence and either convicted or acquitted shall again be tried for that offence or for any other criminal offence of which he could have been convicted at the trial for that offence save upon the order of a superior court in the course of the appeal proceedings relating to the convictions or acquittal.”
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Standards In Focus As the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) commences this new initiative to share weekly insights in this column “Standards In Focus” on the various aspects of Standardisation, Consumerism, and activities and services offered to its stakeholders, it is best to begin by establishing in the minds of readers an understanding of what are standards bodies and the activities in which they are engaged. Wikipedia defines Standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) as “any organization whose primary activities are developing,
Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
UNDERSTANDING THE WORKINGS OF STANDARDS BODIES LIKE THE GNBS coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are intended to address the needs of some relatively wide base of affected adopters”. Put simply, standards bodies produce standards to satisfy the needs of stakeholders. In almost every country of the world standards bodies can be found. They are usually categorised as private or public, national or international. All CARICOM member states have their established national standards bodies, for example, the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS), the Jamaica Bureau of Standards (JBS) and the St.
Lucia Bureau of Standards. Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the International Organisation for Legal Metrology (OIML) are all international standards bodies which exist. Like the GNBS, which is the National Standards Body in Guyana, standards bodies are established to develop, promote or where necessary implement standards to regulate the quality of goods and services. Most National Standards Bodies are geared to develop technical standards to improve production and trade, ensure safety and protect consumers against health hazards and
fraud in all aspects of life. The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (not to be confused with the Bureau of Statistics) was established under the Standards Act No. 11 of 1984 and its vision is to improve the quality of goods and services in Guyana by partnering with Government, Consumers and Industry, through the process of standardisation. In an effort to fulfil its mandate, the Bureau provides a number of essential services which are geared to foster the development of key sectors of our economy, such as agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, health, tourism and the construction sector. These services include Standards development, Technical Assistance to companies, Training Services, Auditing Services, Product Certification, Laboratory Certification, Testing Services, Legal Metrology Services, and the monitoring of some imported and locally manufactured products.
More specifically, the GNBS develops national standards based on the needs of stakeholders, promotes and implements standards to improve the products, services, processes and practices of industry, and provides testing, verification and calibration services in areas such as mass, length, volume, temperature and pressure to maintain the accuracy and traceability to international measurement standards. To ensure the delivery of quality and reliable services to its stakeholders, the staff complement of the GNBS comprises mainly of Technical Officers, Inspectors and Laboratory Technician who are trained to provide the various services falling under their purview. Further, over the years, the GNBS has managed to decentralize the provision of some services from its Head office in Sophia by establishing sub –offices in some Administrative Regions
of Guyana. This has allowed its stakeholders residing in outlying areas to readily access the services they need from the organisation. As the discipline of standardisation continues to expand to meet the needs of the individuals, companies, industries and sectors of the national and the global economy, the scope of work for standards bodies would have to be widened to meet those needs. For the GNBS, it will continue to engage in the process of continual improvement and collaborate with other standards institutions worldwide to train its staff and build capacity to offer the kinds of services needed in Guyana within the ambit of Standardisation. For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 2190062, 219-0065 or 219-0069 or visit its website www.gnbsgy.org
Peacemaker stabbed in Port Kaituma
The injured Simeon Joseph
Missing seaman’s body found with bullet wounds to head The West Coast Demerara police are investigating what appears to be an execution-style murder on a seaman whose decomposed body was found near a trench at Ruby, East Bank Essequibo. The body of Davonan Sookram, 37, was found with two gunshot wounds on his head on Friday, three days after he was reported missing. According to the police, on Tuesday last, Zuleema Sookram, a teacher of Seven Philadelphia, East Bank Essequibo went to the police and told them that her husband, Davonan, had left their home on Tuesday to go to Parika and did not return. A search was launched and around midday on Friday, Sookram’s body was found at the side of the Ruby Access Road near a trench. It was in an advanced stage of decomposition. The police said that a hole was seen in his forehead and another at the back of his head. A man has been arrested and is in police custody assisting with the investigations.
Being a peacemaker can sometimes end with you either in trouble or harmed. Over the years there have been a number of persons who were injured and in some cases killed when intervening in an active conflict, to bring peace. Port Kaituma resident, Simeon Joseph, is now a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation after being air dashed to the city with a stab wound just below his heart. Joseph told Kaieteur News that last Sunday night, he was at a Brazilian club when a fight broke out between two men. He was trying to make peace when the enraged girlfriend of one of the men didn’t agree with him doing such, and stabbed him with a knife. After spending more than a week at a Port Kaituma health facility, it was discovered that Joseph was bleeding internally; it was then that he was referred to GPHC for better medical care. “The doctor hold me up for a week in Port Kaituma because he believed that everything was everything (that I was ok), but I was bleeding inside,” said Joseph as he lay in his hospital bed. The woman has since been arrested according to the injured man.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Wife fails in bid to steal home from husband of 65 years When 87-year-old Mr Abdul Latiff was locked out of his matrimonial home in Bel Air Park by his wife of almost 65 years, he did not take it lightly. He sought legal advice and retained counsel to secure his rights to his property. After two years of legal ramblings and many lies mingled with tears, the court awarded Mr Latiff his share in the property together with costs. Mr Latiff was a Berbician farmer who sustained serious
injuries to his leg in a farming accident in 1980. When New Amsterdam hospital wanted to amputate the leg, Mr Latiff discharged himself and went overseas for medical attention in an effort to ‘die with both his legs in place.” On regaining health Mr Latiff worked in the US and remitted funds to support his family back in the Corentyne. During periods of unrest in Guyana the wife was afraid for her life and encouraged Mr Latiff to sell out their
Berbice matrimonial property, cattle and farm equipment and move to Georgetown. In addition to the funds garnered from the sale of matrimonial property in Berbice, Mr Latiff sent foreign currency to help pay for the Bel Air Park house. The wife concluded the purchase and sale agreement while Mr Latiff was out of the jurisdiction. She proceeded to apply for a deed of title (Transport), registering the property in her name only. “There was a lot of trust” and
TEEN STABS NANDY PARK WELDER
Yet another family is frustrated, one month after their seriously injured relative seems not to be getting any justice. The family of Nandy Park, welder, Mohamed Ali, who was stabbed six times about his body, has expressed frustration at the rate at which the police are moving to bring closure to their investigations and to apprehend the teen that had inflicted the wounds which Ali is lucky to have survived. Ali, of Lot 164 Eastfield Drive, Nandy Park, is paralyzed on the right side of his face and suffers from a punctured lung. According to Ali’s father, Hasrae Ali, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Ruimveldt Police Station has not been showing any effort in capturing the 17-yearold assailant. The father said that the matter was reported to the police but the injured man’s relatives said that ranks investigating the case have claimed that they have been unable to locate Mohamed’s attacker. When contacted, police ranks from the station said that they are trying their best to locate the suspect. They explained that a search warrant has been issued at the teen’s residence. On June 16, Ali, was initially seen at the East Bank of Demerara Regional Hospital. He was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) Accident and Emergency Unit with a diagnosis to rule out a Hemopneumo thorax. The patient was subsequently admitted for Pneumothorax Secondary to multiple stab wounds. The disagreement reportedly started when the teen accused Mohamed of making uncomplimentary remarks about his conduct during his visits to Mohamed’s home. According to Hasrae, his son, Mohamed, had chased the youth from his yard, but when
Police still to apprehend assailant Mohamed Ali while hospitalized.
he turned away, the teen stabbed him six times in the back and neck. The injured welder was admitted to the Male Surgical Ward at the GPHC. Mohamed’s father alleged that the attack has left his son with a ruptured lung and the right side of the face is paralyzed. They are also appealing with police to step up their efforts to locate the suspect.
Mr Latiff never bothered to change the registration of title documents when he returned to Guyana four years after the purchase. Thirty years later, that trust was breached when the wife expressed that she has disposed of the property by giving it to one of their 11 children to the exclusion of all others, including the owner, Mr Latiff. In an attempt to justify her actions the wife fabricated stories, concocted lies and swore that Mr Latiff ‘abandoned’ her when he went to the US leaving her to ‘cut rice with grass knife’ to make a living and support herself. The wife claimed she saved money from her rice cutting jobs and with some monetary gifts from her now
deceased mother, she was able to buy the Georgetown property on her own, without any contribution from Mr Latiff. The wife, with the help of her attorney, carefully calculated the years of ‘abandonment’ to coincide with the house purchase so that it ‘fit the law’ and meet the requirement to make her claim for 100 p3er cent ownership of the property. But her scheming backfired when she contradicted herself in her sworn affidavit and her examination-in-chief on the witness stand. Mr Latiff was able to provide documentary evidence that he sponsored his wife as a landed resident in the US during the period she claimed he ‘abandoned’ her. He also provided a
mountain of photographs showing them together celebrating special family occassions, their 50th wedding anniversary and Mr Latiff’s own 80th birthday party. Most importantly, eight of their nine surviving children provided affidavits in support of their father which discredited ther mother’s claims. Justice Dianne Insanally ruled in favour of Mr Latiff on July 29, last. It was victory for a very vulnerable man whom otherwise would have been a potential victim of fraud by his own wife. Mr Abdul Latiff is now residing at his ancestral home in Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, Berbice while he awaits the sale of his Bel Air Park home and the division of funds.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Mining Advocate receives death threats Days after issuing a call for the full disclosure of the agreement inked between Canadian mining company Guyana Gold Fields and the previous People’s Progressive party/Civic (PPP/ C) administration, Mining advocate, Sherwyn Downer, is reported to have received death threats. According to the report, which Downer gave to police at the Bartica Police Station last Wednesday, he had just left his mother’s home on Tuesday evening at approximately 21:20hrs and was making his way on the road when a man, whom he did not recognize but who was dressed in a ‘camouflage’ outfit approached him. According to Downer, the man’s next words left him frozen in shock. “Downer, the
people ain’t want you dead, and they want you stop representing these workers.” With his piece said, the unidentified man then walked away, Downer related. Downer has since sought legal advice from Attorney-atLaw Onassis Granville. Although the incident has left him shaken up, Downer is undeterred in his quest to provide a voice for miners. “My agenda is patriotic and no amount of intimidation will stop me from championing the cause of the mining workers who have no voice and the high level of injustice that is meted out towards them on a daily basis,” he said recently. Downer expressed surprise and disappointment that this was the response his efforts would bring, since his advocacy was only part of the
solution to a troubled industry and its workforce. Downer also called for workers to stand together as one and speak out against any and all forms of injustice. “They are not alone in their fight and their struggle for better working conditions and a decent take home salary. Mining workers salvations could very well be on its way.” Downer, who formerly held the position of Press and Public Relations Officer of the Bartica Interim Management Committee, has been featured stating that his new focus was evoked by what he believes is the lack of respect for the rights of miners – despite their work being known to contribute significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. He has described as barbaric, the attempts or lack
- report made to police thereof, to ensure the safety of miners, a state of affairs he is convinced has been allowed to persist unabated for too long. Downer has consistently called for strict adherence to mining, labour, safety and health law, in addition to closer attention being paid to Miners by the Ministries of Labour and
Mining organisations. The mining advocate has consistently expressed the view that too many avoidable deaths are being recorded in the mining industry. He has been featured prominently issuing calls for defaulting mining operations to have their licenses revoked. Most recently, Downer
had called for the disclosure of the agreement that Guyana Goldfields has with the Government of Guyana, as well as more scrutiny on the company, citing complaints by its workforce. The Canadian company, which has been operating in Guyana since 1996, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the then PPP/C administration in 2011 for their Aurora Gold Project to get off the ground.
Wrongfully accused former NBS...
Ombudsman Justice Winston Moore
CLEARED: Kent Vincent
CLEARED: Kissoon Baldeo
DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack
Former Minister Nanda Gopaul
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo
(From page 18) that police wrongfully charged the former CEO and two of his managers for a massive $69M fraud at the NBS in 2006. Arjoon claimed that he was framed after he refused to illegally endorse the lending of $2B, in 2006. Arjoon’s decision to only lend $350M in keeping with the country’s financial laws apparently angered former President Bharrat Jagdeo who allegedly threatened to deal with the CEO. The Ombudsman’s report also questioned the role that Director of Public Prosecution, Shalimar Ali-Hack, and her husband, Sheik-ul-Hack, played in the investigations. The report also questioned the police over missing key exhibits and failure to follow-up of obvious questions. The report also called for the case to be re-opened. Also charged were Operations Manager, Kent Vincent and co-worker, Kissoon Baldeo. The high profile case was widely reported in the media not only because of the amount involved, but because of the fact that NBS is the biggest mortgage lender in Guyana.
For seven years, Arjoon and Vincent had said, the stain of the charges remained, despite the court case being dropped after the main witness- the holder of the account – had stopped coming to court. The case had devastated the men. In January last year, Arjoon seized an opportunity, writing to the newly sworn in Ombudsman, Justice Moore, to examine the case. The Ombudsman’s office has the authority to examine wrongdoings in public office. The report said that the men suffered a grave injustice and should be compensated for losing seven years of their lives. Vincent is now the Chief Executive Officer of Food For The Poor, one of the biggest non-governmental organizations in the country. He has sued NBS for $500M. Arjoon had said that he has forgiven his accusers. He said that his dismissal left him with a huge mortgage payment every month. For months, he could not even speak because of the shock. The Arjoon family was literally ostracized by persons that they once knew.
“I told reporters that I am innocent and the truth will come out. Although internal and external investigations at NBS and the trial at the Magistrates’ Courts cleared us, it is solidified seven and a half years later by this report from Guyana’s Ombudsman.” His photos too had been splashed more than anyone in the local newspapers. He said last year: “The persons who conspired to get us charged took away seven and half years and continuing of our lives and that of our families. We have suffered immensely. Their actions can be considered evil and criminal…” He had asked then for Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack; Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh and former NBS Chairman, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, and others involved in his “frame-up” to be “relieved of their positions, investigated and be dealt with according to law”. “I will never forgive or forget their evil faces. Through their evil actions, the lives of a few men and their families were taken away and their reputations hurt. Justice has to be served.”
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 61
Thousands flock National Park for Emancipation 2015 celebrations By Nicholas Peters The National Park was the scene of vibrant colours, rhythms, cultural enlightenment and delicious cuisines, as Guyana celebrated the 177th anniversary of the Emancipation Day. Despite the sweltering heat, citizens from all across Guyana’s vast landscape came out to the National Park ready to take part in the festivities that surrounded African and Afro-Guyanese culture, in honour of the slaves and their ancestors. While there was an evident threat of downpour, this did not deter the crowd that arrived at the National Park in their African-themed fashion. Women beautified the park pavilion with brightly coloured head-wraps likened to an exotic flower garden, while the men traversed the area in fascinatingly patterned dashikis. Even families decided to indulge in the cultural fashions available in the lead to yesterday, as toddlers matched their parents who also matched their grandparents in outfits. There was fashion which spanned generations of Guyanese proud to display their heritage. Some outfit patterns included designs which incorporated shades of
agriculture and flora coloured in green, yellow, orange and black; while others took more abstract approaches adopting eye-catching combinations of blue, red, purple and white. But the fashions were as limitless as the imagination of those present as many attendees clearly put a lot of thought into their outfits from the stylishly attired headwear to the hand crafted balata footwear. It was obvious that yesterday’s festivities were not only meant to entertain but to educate the public on the role Africa and its descendants have had on the entire world. A lot of emphasis was placed on setting up stalls which possessed information on African history, nations, culture and people, from organisers of the event, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA). Persons were seen enthralled in the lessons of African history when they read the informative displays, as well as the pamphlets distributed, and discussed about, by volunteers. In addition to the educational stalls, persons also had the option of appreciating the numerous folk dances, songs, poems, stories, skits and music that make up the milieu of AfroGuyanese culture, on the
National Park Tarmac. Such performances sought to highlight the pathos and travesty which slavery brought to Guyana. One of the skits entitled “I am not for sale” even went so far as to remind the audience that while slavery had been abolished for centuries, millions around the world still fall victim to human trafficking, often deemed the “modern slavery”. The displays managed to show off the vast span of Afroculture and its dynamic nature which comes from its sorrowful past and triumphant spirit. The tarmac also had performances from Miss Guyana World’s Lisa Punch, the Buxton Fusion Drummers, ACDA’s Association of Young Africans, the Guyana Soiree Band and the National School of Dance among others. A large march parade was also organised, incorporating many of Guyana’s famous freed-slaves villages such as Buxton, Good Intent, Plaisance, Mocha and Vergenoegen. Even members of the Committed Nigerians for Guyana made an appearance. However, even thought the park had a variety of activities for the enjoyment of family and friends, the clear crowd pleaser was located along the pavilion on the
By Shenice Blackman First Lady, Sandra Granger, announced the launch of a programme which aims to bring complete revival to the residents of the BuxtonFriendship area. She explained that the projects she wanted to introduce were identified by the people of Buxton. After consultations over the past two months, she was happy to be part of the project that will empower the youth population, and ensure that much-needed attention is paid to senior citizens, who have made sterling contributions to national development in their working years. Mrs. Granger stated that Emancipation Day holds special meaning for the people of Buxton. The village has a rich history; it was among the first lands purchased by freed slaves. Buxtonians, according to Mrs. Granger, are a proud people and rightly so, as they have braved many struggles to realize great achievements. She added that Buxton is
home to many Guyanese scholars who have achieved excellence in Guyana and further afield. The First Lady said that as Guyana celebrates this significant milestone of 177 years since the end of slavery, citizens should be reminded that freedom was not offered on a platter. It was the result of the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors. “This day that we celebrate arose out of hardship and cooperation.
Nothing has been easy in the development of this country,” she said. Meanwhile, Professor David Hinds, a Buxtonian and well-known political activist, said that it is important to remember the bondage of slavery that our ancestors were subjected to. Hinds emphasised that more focus should be placed on the fact that the slaves fought back against an oppressive system and emerged triumphant.
Freedom didn’t come easy… First Lady
park’s eastern side. There, many of the stallholders provided a wide range of cuisine and crafts for patrons to indulge in. From Nigerian food, to local Creole dishes and inventive wines to handcrafted fineries, the pavilion definitely attracted crowds from young to old. Along the cuisine walk way, the park was filled with the savoury aromas of blackpudding, foo-foo, met-em-gee accompanied by the classic cook-up rice and fried fish. Those who chose to sweeten their day indulged in the various delicacies such as conkie, pone and mittai which they washed down with uniquely blended mauby or
ginger-beer to beat the heat. Emancipation was an obvious achievement for the freedom movement in Guyana. It also signalled a new time of free trade and economic development for Guyana. According to one historian, who was handing out pamphlets on the 1823 Demerara Rebellion, emancipation introduced a new market through freedslaves. As he explained the significance of achieving emancipation, he shared that the freed slaved were innovators of the Guyanese economy as they moved from a state of servitude to liberation. This transition, he
said, had remarkable implications for free trade in Guyana. And the repercussions of this turn in free-trade can still be seen to have implications in today’s modern time, and many entrepreneurial small businesses were on display at the celebrations. Such businesses ranged from crafts to bottle beverages to clothing and self-published works. Although slavery was abolished those 177 years ago, the spirit of perseverance and free-trade was still evident yesterday as entrepreneurs and patrons alike honoured their ancestors by embarking in the simple libations of an emancipated life.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
A pickled boiled egg, a washdown and Ramjattan’s stupid curfew By Ralph Seeram The text came on my Messenger, “We taking a “washdown” at PK, accompanied by a photograph of my friends having some “drinks”. The name stumped me for a few seconds. What PK Bar? Where is that in New Amsterdam? Then it dawned on me, and I am saying to myself, “What? That Bar is still around?” PK Bar is a cultural icon in New Amsterdam, in fact, in Berbice. Back in the day it was a must visit bar where you “tek a washdown in the wee hours of the morning.” Why am I calling it a bar, it’s more of a rum shop, and has been around for over 50yrs, yes you read right it’s been in that same location for that length of time. So what makes PK bar so special? Well for a start it was the first rum shop that introduced, pickled boiled eggs, as “cutters”. Its pickled boiled eggs were a hit, no one thought of the idea then, naturally a few bars started imitating PK, but never could measure to the taste of PK pickled boiled eggs. I actually thought PK bar had the monopoly on the idea of pickled eggs, until I moved to Florida where I had a convenience store, and customers kept asking me for
pickled boiled eggs. Turns out it’s a Southern thing in the U S, popular among “red necks”. PK was also famous for Fried Shark, in New Amsterdam- delicious fried shark seasoned with local herbs to bring out the flavour of the fish. The honor of introducing fried shark in New Amsterdam, indeed all of Berbice, belongs to France Bar, which was situated at the corner of King Street and Republic Road (Backdam Road). France bar is no more, but today just opposite that spot is a popular “watering hole” in NA, Data’s bar, noted more for its girls than cutters. Of course you readers might ask what makes this icon so special. Well, it brings to mind the recent ill advised 2 am curfew by this new Government - a most stupid move by this APNU/AFC coalition and Ramjattan. Let me emphasize again, it is a STUPID decision made without any serious thought, survey or input of the public and bar and club owners. It is a story for another day, but I hope Mr. Ramjattan is happy for the people who are losing their jobs because of his nonsensical actions. But back to PK. During my “drinking” days in New Amsterdam, after some “bar hopping” you naturally
needed a “nite cap” or a “washdown”. And who can you find open at 2 in the morning? PK course. What better place than to have some hot fried shark at that hour in the morning. PK is a bit more nostalgic for me. More than the bar, it did help that he had a bevy of beautiful daughters, though never in the bar. You made the trip to “catch an eye” or “catch the eye” of one of the daughters. One of the girls, the eldest, I think her name was Shurkalene, I may have the spelling wrong, was a former classmate of mine. I had a serious crush on her, only to find out that my brother had the same feeling. Naturally there was more than one motivation for me and quite a few of the guys to go drink at PK - those beautiful daughters. Way back, oh maybe more than 20-odd years ago, I was at Caribana festival in Canada (which incidentally is this weekend), at a dance with Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires playing, when this very attractive young lady came up to me and started a conversation, I prolonged the conversation trying to figure out where I knew her and finally asking where I knew her from. Big mistake, “You don’t know me?” She asked with a beautiful smile, “You play like
you don’t know me.” Embarrassed I said I could not recall, “I am Prince Mongal daughter from PK bar”. Yes it was those beautiful girls that had lots of us guys going to drink there. I can tell you this, in the Diaspora, if you see a Guyanese you don’t recognize, and they quick to tell you “how you turn bigshot”; this time poor you wracking you brain to figure out who they are. I never knew what the K stood for. I know the owner was Prince Mongal, a very pleasant gentleman very well known in New Amsterdam. He himself was popularly known as PK, so naturally the bar became known as PK, instead of the official name DIXIE bar. If you want ambiance you don’t go to PK but then again PK bar had its own ambiance, its own rum shop ambiance. There was no class or race distinction, (and I am told it’s still so today). And ordinary folk will be “hitting glass” with professionals, be they doctors, lawyers or other “big shots”. They will be on the same table with the “little shots”. The spot holds some other nostalgic memories as some very good friends lived above the bar. One Eddie Greenidge was an electronic/ electrical self taught genius, Eddie has passed on but not
without imparting his skills to his son. The son, I am told, has a leading Air Conditioning & Refrigerating Service which still carries the name Greenidge. This 2 am curfew business will throw quite a few food stands out of business too. PK was the liquor washdown, but if you need some real food then there are the little food stands that cater for the “foreday “ morning crowd, Be it fish and bread, cook up, black pudding and souse and so forth. You could find them on Main Street, New Amsterdam. This I am told is still in practice in both NA and Georgetown today. Guess Ramjattan in his wisdom did not take those pool souls into consideration in making his stupid decision. Jerry Bacchus I feel your pain, PK was the Jerries All Night in New Amsterdam. So, on my visit to Guyana
some time later this year, one of my first stops will have to be PK rum shop. Don’t know if the pickled boiled egg and fried shark is still a staple there. If not they will have to make some for me, I hope the recipe was handed down. I want to experience that nostalgic feelings, and imagine those beautiful daughters peering in the bar to get glimpses of the guys, and most of all hear some good old Guyanese rum shop gaff. I want to know how the government is doing, I want to know who sleeping with whom, who getting “blow”, who gone “foreign” and so forth, and I want the latest gossip. There is no better place than to go to a rum shop, and I am sure PK bar can give me some answers. Ralph Seeram can be reached at ralph365@hotmail.com and Facebook.
Payment delays hamper infrastructural... (From page 3) sector has seen a boom in gated communities, with investors such as BaiShanLin receiving huge tracts of land to develop. Despite this, there have been complaints from home owners that Guyana’s laws do not adequately address gated communities and the responsibilities that Neighbourhood Democratic Committees (NDC) s have towards them. BaiShanLin, through its subsidiary company, Sunset Lakes, has been developing some 100 acres of land behind the Providence stadium but work has seemingly come to a standstill. In addition, homeowners at Windsor estates have also raised several issues with the company, including shoddy work and missed deadlines, and the company is actually involved in a court action with homeowners. These gated communities, which seek to provide fenced, residential areas for primarily professionals are first facilitated through infrastructural works including construction of streets, drains being dug, bridges and culverts built and water mains laid. After this, lots are marked out and allocated.
Sunday August 02, 2015
SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. – CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Guyana Passport application. Graphics design,Advertisement. Tel: 6267040; 265-4535.
Kaieteur News
WANTED Girls to work at Ressort in Bar – between 18-25yrs- Tel:6136613 One experienced domestic, must know to cook Indian dishes, must have pleasant personality & be trustworthy –Call: 656-6388 Land to buy at Herstelling, Parfaite Harmonie & Diamond –Tel: 604-6724
Balloon decorating for birthdays, weddings, anniversary etc, make your event extra special! Tel Maya: 642-6664
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Professional painting services available for private and contract work- Tel: 6044036 Eagle’s fridge re-gas $8,000 & washing machine repairs. Phone: 697-2969, 646-0966 Repairs & spare, fridge, freezer, A/C, washers, stoves - Contact Nick: 6831312, 627-3206 K. Lakeram, building contractor: carpentry, masonry, drawings of plans, general maintenance – Call:216-0671, 622-0267, 6928 4 6 4 / klakeram.construction@gmail. com Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building visadocumentsgy@yahoo.comCall: 225-6496, 662-6045 Mahadeo Construction for all construction, carpentry, masonry, pluming, painting etc. Free estimates and plan Contact # 669-7376 H. Ramphal, Fabricating and welding – fence, grill, gate, steel Trestle, etc – Contact: 661-2652 Hydraulic Specialist: Hydraulic Hose, Lubricants & Filters for all types of machine- 5 Bagotstown Public Road –Tel: 233-6001/ 613-7168 ACCOMODATION Specials on room! Free breakfast, Wi-Fi luxuriously & comfortably @ Signature Inn, 82 Laluni Street, Georgetown –Tel: 226-2145; 227-5037
1 Male to look after layer birds in the interior –Call: 6798765 One serious bus driver –Call: 641-3552, 698-3579, 684-0588 Experienced wash bay staff, living in G/Town, Attractive Salary –Tel: 646-8748 Salesclerk, highly motivated, energetic with secondary education, must possess sales skill, key food, Mc Doom Village. Labourers: Preferably living on E.B.D apply at Friendship Slipway & Co. Ltd, 7 Friendship E.B.D –Tel: 2662217; 266-0311 Urgently! One cook to work from 4am, one cleaner – Contact: 219-0627; 644-3749 Cook/Chef to work in Mahadia to work RH Hotel – Tel: 687- 0067 Sales Representative wanted to work on Commission in New Amsterdam Berbice – Contact: 609-3650 Yard Boy/Man to work in yard at Meadow Bank, preferably someone close to location –Call: 225-6046; 2260011 EXPERIENCED ARMED SECURITY GUARD. NEED POLICE CLEARANCE, REFFERENCE AND APPLICATION. AGE 30-45 –TEL:231-8344 Live in or live out babysitter/ domestic –Call 219-5354 (Monday- Friday) (8:154:15PM) FOR SALE/RENT American pools table- Call: 277-0578
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VEHICLE FOR SALE
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Make Up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals, Black Opal and Sacha cosmetics. Call: 647-1773/660-5257
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Blow Out Sale!!! Unregistered Toyota IST $2,050,000- Bodykit, TV, Spoiler, Fogs, Alloy Wheels, Crystal Lights & Alarm – Call: 643-6565, 226-9931 1965 Holden Special Antique Car. Everything Factory Original, Low Mileage, Hardly Used. Call:226-9931, 643-6565 Unregistered Corolla Fielder 2003, body kit, fog, rear spoiler, dark interior, roof rack Call: 617-5536
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2008 PREMIO -$3.3M, 2004 SPACIO- $2.1M, FULLY LOADED TV, BACK & FRONT CAMERA, MAG RIMS & UNREGISTERED – CALL: 642-7295 VACANCY International Employment: waiters, waitresses, cooks, housekeepers, bellboys, storekeepers, receptionists, Contact Recruitment Agency: 231-6296, 6509880 www.plzrecruitme.com Work from home, earn $5,000$20,000 daily Call MondayFriday 9am-5pm #233-6517, 6 3 8 - 0 5 9 5 www.jobfairworldwide.com Receptionist: apply in person with application at 27 Norton & Creen Street Newburg – Call: 225-5509 Employment for labourers, MovieTowne Site Turkeyen, age 20-45 males, attractive salary. Interviews done on Saturday only. 1 Computer Legal Clerk- Call: 226-4283; 258-0213 Cosmetologist, must be certified in facial massages, waxing, manicure & pedicure- Call: 672-1239 Maids, cooks, Bartenders, Receptionist- apply in person 10am-4pm, 16E Durban ST, Werk-En-Rust –Tel: 227-0501 Male Supervisor to work in housekeeping Dept. Tel: 2250198 or 233 South Road Lacytown. Accounts clerk contact rtilak@adamantiumholdings. com Supervisor to work at hotel in charity rtilak@adamantiumholdings. com
SALE! NEW MODEL ALLION, BELTA, FEILDER, BLUE BIRD, TACOMA, LOWEST PRICES GUARANTEED – FINANCINGAVAILABLE – CALL: 639-7101/ 621-4190 AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms- Call:680-3154 1-RZ Minibus BTT, Hardly worked; fully loaded, rims, USB Deck, A/C, excellent condition - $2.1M negotiable –Phone: 617-9143/ 660-8160 We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30 seater buses; Extra Cab pickups; 2006 TacomaCall:680-3154 2013 Mercedes C250 turbo AMG coupe, retractable glass top, mileage 15K, alcantara leather interior, brush aluminum acc- Call: 650-5136 Toyota AT212, AT192, IST, EP-71 Starlet, Hilux pick up & 4 Runner, Canter, Honda 600 RR –Tel:644-5096; 697-1453 1 Toyota Pickup GRR 9565 & 1 ATV motor bike- Call: 660-0422 2008 FIELDER -$2.5M, 2008 RACTIS -$2.44M, CARINA 212 -$1.9M, NEVER REGISTERED & FULLY LOADED VEHICLES –TEL: 617-2891
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1 Ford F350 Pickup, extended cab, 4X4 Diesel, excellent condition, fully loaded, 6" lift kit, 1 Chevy Van –Call: 6105370
Toyota Fortuner, 2012, 16,000 KMS, Automatic $16.5M –Tel: 688-5554; 6000979 Toyota RAV 4, late PMM series, fully powered, first owner -$2.5M-Contact: 6216363 (anytime) 1-Toyota 4WD extra cab, pickup LH drive –price $1.3M negotiable –Tel: 668-8431
36" Toshiba Smart TV$85,000, 32" Flat screen TV $44,000, Microwave $24,000, Washer/Dryer -Call: 227-5080; 642-1510 Instock subject to being unsold; 1,000 - 10,000 watts; Complete Solar Units- Mr. Beepat – 600 - 5253 One Mitsubishi Canter; Good condition; 2.5 ton, has dumper; $1.9M negotiableTel: 612-1848 Samsung S4 original Phone in excellent condition, unlocked, no issues – asking $55,000-Tel: 2260011/ 666-4634 5 Toyota Coaster, 1 Mitsubishi 30 seater, 1-320C bucket, must be sold- Call: 648-0121; 628-1832
FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Vreed- En-Hoop Junction: Storage Bond, office, lessons place, games shop, other –Call: 680-9905 One two bedrooms apartment for rent, 13 Lyng Sussex Street Charlestown – Tel: 225-1418 40x10 Space located on Public Road for bond, business, and office purposes –Call: 6130448, 672-8625
1 Mitsubishi Canter, 14 Ft Tray, price negotiable –Tel: 619-6267
Chevrolet 2006 Silverado 1500 4WD pickup automatic – unregistered -$5.5M – Contact: 687-6884 TOURS Trip to Suriname for 5 days (21st -25th August) $34,000 per person, transportation & accommodation inclusive; food exclusive –Contact: 660-0312
Tractor Massey Ferguson, from Canada – MF165 -$1.8M, MF265-$2.2M, MF135 $1.2M, Ranger Pick Up Truck -$1.5M –Call: 682-5230; 6289596
FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754. One pair mature German shepherd dogs, excellent for guarding and breedingContact: 654-6355 Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, motors, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943
EDUCATION Private customs brokers certificate training course 3rd Aug 2015 (3weeks) limited jobs guarantee, register now & save –Call: 694-8322; 223-1506 Lessons: Maths, English, Accounts, Physics, Social Studies and office Administration, Location: Campbellville –Contact: 6106087 Simpli Royal School of Beauty – Pamela Dillon: 6654565; 225-2303. Hair, Skin, Nail Technology, easy payments.
Dell desktop & laptop computers from $55,000. Free games & educational software- call FutureTech: 231-2206 Moving sale – all household items on sale –Call: 656-7133 Pit-bull pups, excellent lineage -Call or whatsapp: 676-9101 One AT170 Carina PFF Series in working order – Price $300,000 negotiable – Tel: 667-7337 1 Generic Electric Start -7000 EXL, 1 Stainless Steel plucking machine –Contact Harry: 661-2652 or 679-0567 Universal Sports- Tel:2275080; 642-1510. Original Brands: 50% off – running spikes shoes, 30% offSneakers (ladies & Gents) Used XBOX 360, PS Vita, PS3 I-pad & I-pods, XBOX one & games –Tel:621-7497; 6038643; 649-3277 Rims , Mannequins –Simone: 227-0501
LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel:644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997 Continued on page 64
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NICIL paid $100M-plus to remove... From page 63
TO LET Bagotstown Public Road -2 Storied commercial Property (next to Ray’s Auto) -3,500 sq.ft –Tel: 233-2546, 233-5859
Property for sale, Grove $20M. Tel: 625-5461.
Newly built 2 bedrooms apartment: bath, toilet, kitchen, sitting area on High Road Greenwich Park, Parka –Tel: 649-6202/664-3508
2 Storey 45x35 concrete property, lower flat incomplete. Land 65x120 @ Diamond N/S 5th Avenue, E.B.D- Call: 629-4017
For foreigners fully furnished two bedrooms apartment in South. Hot & cold, cable, washing machine & internetTel: 689-5877
Transported Property @ Grove/Diamond, 3 bedrooms, 1 self-contained, concrete fence, grilled store room & Shed, (45X26) – Call: 660-1353, 216-4338
One Spacious 3 bedroom house in Grove, fully grilled, telephone, 2 vehicle parking space etc, price $70,000Contact: 697-6591 or 266-0580
PROPERTY FOR SALE
Property for sale by owner, in Tuschen New H/Scheme E.B.E Call: 613-9108 between 4pm-8pm (Mon-Sat) & Sunday 6am-8PM 2-Two storey concrete & timber properties on single plot @ Newtown Kitty Sale by owner $75M (GYD) – Call: 643-7061/ 673-8721
LAND FOR SALE 1500 acres transported land 4½ miles from Bartica Rock, Quarry, Forestry, Agriculture. Contact Mark: 603-1266; 6259788 Friendship house lot for saleCall: 692-8513, 223-0733 Land @ Parfaite Harmonie & Tuschen -$1.5M each,1-2 storey property @ Crane – Call: 604-6724 Luxury Gated CommunityMall, Pool, intelligent security system, well, solar. Selling @ 6USD per Sq.ft – Call: 609-0783 Parfaite Harmonie - $1M & $1.4M, new Herstelling (110ftX60ft) -$3M –Tel: 6117223; 604-2207
2 Storey concrete property for sale at 2nd Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme, E.B.D- Tel: 674-9266 or 686-9248 1 Newly built 2 storey house, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms at Diamond Scheme, Golden Grove –Price $13M negotiable –Tel: 692-8814 Stabroek! Brickdam & Winter Place, Corner lot (North Western) with building - $75M, Diamond$2.5M, GME Realty –Tel: 231-2199, 618-7483 Prime commercial / professional property located in Robb Street, Bourda, 2 buildings, sold as package -$100M negotiable – Tel: 226-2409; 682-1602
Land @ Anna Catherina W.C.D - $6M – 3,200.00sq.ft – Contact Ramesh: 688-8195 Professional Realty: we buy/ sell/rent/value your real estate –Call:694-3875; 6490535; 654-6198 Transported house land Richmond Essequibo, large lot, next to Nursery School, full up high, fruit Tree-$5MTel:682-5230; 628-9596 Eccles Waterfront and Bel Air Gardens Ocean View land for sale- Contact:954-769-0576, 1belair@mail.com
FOR THE BEST ADVERTISING RATES – CALL US ON: 225-8452 OR 226-8210
CAR RENTAL PROGRESSIVEAUTORENTAL: CARS & SUV FOR RENTAL$4,000 & UPPER DAY- CALL: 643-5122, 219-3900, EMAIL: PRO_AUTO RENTAL @YAHOO.COM DOLLY’SCARRENTAL-CALL: 225-7126/226-3693 DOLLYSAUTORENTAL@ YA H O O . C O M / W W W. DOLLYSAUTORENTAL.COM Aidan’s Car & 4WD Vigo pick up, cheapest rate, low security- Call: 698-7807 Wing’s Car & 4WD Vigo pick up- Call: 690-6494
From page 13 Reportedly, there are almost 10,000 applications pending on file, leaving the new Government scrambling to find lands for housing. Jagdeo himself, according to details of allocations, received two parcels equivalent to two acres. On it, he built an imposing mansion, complete with pool and overlooking the seawall and the Atlantic Ocean. He paid a total of $9.8M. He had owned a property along the Ogle Airport Road in the community that was known as ‘Pradoville One’. However, he sold that property to Trinidadian advertising executive, Ernie Ross. There is no confirmation whether the former President paid the Capital Gains tax on the profits he made on sale of the mansion or whether the 10-year timeframe had passed in which he could have sold the property. In effect, Jagdeo paid three times less than what ordinary citizens in the Diamond and Grove Housing
Schemes, East Bank Demerara, would have been required to fork out. Jagdeo’s payment for the Pradoville Two parcels translated to $5M per acre which works out at $114 per square foot; the ordinary man pays $317 per square foot for his plot. The sale of the Pradoville Two house lots for such a low price would contrast starkly with what remigrants had to pay under the Government’s scheme for returning to Guyana. Remigrants paid more than ten times the price Jagdeo paid for the same size house lot. They paid $1,111 per square foot. The ordinary house lots for remigrants and citizens are not ocean-front, but are located on the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara, in what were abandoned cane fields. Pradoville Two is located in an area known officially as Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting Two. DPP Other beneficiaries included Director of Public
Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, and former Head of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo. The DPP has sweeping powers and holds an independent office. Former Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford; former Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud; Compton Bourne, former Head of the Caribbean Development Bank and UG Chancellor; Ghansham Singh and Kamini Parag-Singh and Florrie Loretta Ramnauth also received house lots. Singh is said to be the son of former Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul. They also paid just over $1.5M. Ali-Hack and her husband, Moeen ul Hack, a top figure in the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), paid $1,488,744 for a piece of land. The Certificates of Title were prepared in 2011. Dookhoo, a Banks DIH executive, was a former Chairman of PSC as well as the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI).
He reportedly paid $1,502,500 for his plot with his title prepared in 2010. Also benefitting was Lisaveta Ramotar, daughter of former President Donald Ramotar. She paid $1,515,000. Former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee; former GWI boss, Shaik Baksh and former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, also received lots, paying just over $1.5M each. So too did former Army Chief, Rear Admiral Gary Best and sacked Chief Executive Officer of the embattled Guyana Sugar Corporation, Dr. Rajendra Singh. Also named in the list were Andrew Bishop, a Presidential Advisor in the former administration and former Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission. Safraaz Khan and George Hallaq, said to be the country’s former Middle East envoy, and a company called Future Developers International Guyana Inc., were also among the other names on the list.
Granny’s gruesome killing captured... From page 9 happened to their mother. This was soon confirmed when they ventured into the bottom flat of the house and found the elderly woman sprawled on the floor of the kitchen with blood oozing from a wound in her head and a piece of cloth tightly tied around her neck. She appeared to be already dead. “Like they hit she with a lug spanner in she head and then strangle she with a hand towel,” Natasha related to this newspaper. Strangely though, the house was not ransacked and according to Natasha, the killer appeared to be in a hurry.
“Nothing lost other than the ring she had on her finger, a pair of earrings and some money she had in a drawer,” Natasha said. Investigators are reviewing footage from the surveillance cameras that surround the house, and according to a source they were able to obtain a clear image of the killer. So far for the year, according to figures compiled by this newspaper, 19 women have been murdered, the youngest being 14 years old. Additionally, Carmen Ganesh is the latest in a long list of home alone elderly woman killed in Guyana over the past few years. Between 2009 and 2015,
10 elderly women who lived alone have been murdered; some of them were sexually assaulted. Some of these cases remain unsolved, although police believe that they know the identity of some of the killers. The list compiled by this newspaper began with Kharpattie Shivnauth, called Ma, who was found dead in her house at Independence Street, La Grange, WBD in August 2009. On Christmas Eve 2009, 78-year-old Rajkumarie Mahadeo was found dead outside her Lusignan, East Coast Demerara yard. Then in February 2011, 64-year-old Prampattie
Ramsundar called ‘Aunty Daro’ was discovered dead in the bottom flat of her house at Second Street, Enmore, East Coast Demerara. A month later, in March of 2011, two schoolgirls found the body of 74-year-old Khirul Najidam, called Babloo Saddick, in a store room located in the lower flat of her 1215 Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt Park residence. Again in 2011, in May, the partly nude body of 68-yearold Sukhdai Ramkilaum, called ‘Mama Rose’ and ‘Rosaline,’ was found in a pool of blood in the bedroom of her Lot 80 Vryheid’s Lust North residence. Her throat had been slit and her home was ransacked.22 On March 29, 2014, police were called to the Amelia’s Ward, Linden home of 76year-old Yvonne Adams. They found her in a passageway with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck and hands. A few days later on March 26, the murder of 75-year-old Joyce Lewis, who was found strangled in her Lot 3630 Christiani Street, North Ruimveldt home, sent shockwaves through the community. In February this year 67year-old Ramdai Mohabir called “Aunty Elsie”, was discovered in bed at her Lot 665 Topoo, Albion home by relatives. Also in February this year Suroogpattie Ramlakan, 73, called Auntie Carmen, of Richmond Village, Essequibo was found dead in her home.
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Cayman Islands governor keeps legal review report secret GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (CNS) — A report by a UK prosecutor who came to the Cayman Islands earlier this year to review the local criminal justice system will not be made public anytime soon. The governor’s office has refused to release the document by Claire Wetton, which examined the way criminal caseloads are being handled by the crown and the court system. Cayman News Service (CNS) filed a freedom of information request in June for the project summary of Wetton’s findings but the information manager said the report was “a working document” and the office would consider its release in six months. “This will allow for free and frank discussion to take place between the relevant agencies, as is provided for in the FOI law,” the information manager at the governor’s office stated. CNS has requested an internal review of the decision because of the wide public interest in the workings at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and the massive caseloads going through the criminal courts. Wetton, who is a criminal justice adviser from the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, came to Cayman for 12 weeks in January. Her remit was to help local officials improve the management of trial cases, review Criminal Procedure Code rules, disclosure and witness care and the prosecution of domestic violence cases, as well as child witnesses and gang related crime. The UK prosecutor was also understood to have
delivered training to RCIPS officers and assistance to the ODPP Summary Court Team and to the court to deal with the weaknesses in the criminal justice system. The refusal of the governor’s office to release Wetton’s early findings and advice comes against the backdrop of the collapse of a high profile gang-related murder case this week. Prosecutors continue to face considerable criticism over a number of issues, from the decisions regarding whether to or not to prosecute and why ill-prepared lawyers are facing massive caseloads. Governor Helen Kilpatrick had described her visit as an important project. “Identifying and improving upon procedures which can assist in the smooth and efficient running of the court system is crucial to reducing criminality in the Cayman Islands. I have asked Claire to meet with me on a regular basis to update me personally on the project as it goes forward,” she stated. However, the governor appears not to be prepared to update the rest of the territory. The refusal of the FOI request by the UK’s representative here, however, comes as no surprise. The governor’s office continues to be engaged in the longest and most costly legal battle with the Information Commissioner’s Office over the release of a report regarding a complaint about the infamous internal police probe, Operation Tempura. The governor’s office has been directed to release the report numerous times by both the current commissioner, Jan Liebaers,
Helen Kilpatrick and his predecessor, Jennifer Dilbert. But like Duncan Taylor, the previous governor, before her, Kilpatrick appears to be fighting tooth and nail not to release the document, which is understood to be embarrassing for the authorities. During the most recent development in the ongoing courtroom saga, which stretches back over two years, an undefined and vague investigation into Martin Bridger, the head of the discredited probe, resulted in the commissioner being told by the courts to consider this new police enquiry. This was after the governor’s office threw in the new enquiry at the eleventh hour as another reason not to disclose the controversial report. Liebaers was asked to talk with the commissioner and reconsider his previous ruling and provide yet another decision, which is still in the works. Republished with permission of Cayman News Service
St. Kitts tightens eligibility requirements for economic citizenship to keep criminals out BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Government is tightening eligibility requirements for the twin-island federation’s 30year-old economic citizenship programme to block foreigners who have been involved in criminal activity from benefiting. Parliament last week strengthened security and due diligence under the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme by passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2015. Among other measures, the Act excludes people who have been engaged in negative activities, such as terrorism and money laundering, from getting citizenship. It also provides
for authorities to refuse citizenship in the interest of defence, public safety or public order. Premier of Nevis and Senior Minister Vance Amory said the move was a step towards “reversing a bad situation”, referring to the concerns the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have expressed about the CBI. “That situation came as a result of a poor understanding of what the programme means to us, how it functions, and how it should be operated,” he said. “We just need to look at these and get away from . . . not facing the reality of what existed and [what] now has to be done.” Amory, who promoted St.
Kitts and Nevis’ CBI in Dubai, London and Singapore earlier this year, said the programme had benefited the country significantly. He said while government would continue to promote it, it was important that to attract people who would hold Kittitian citizenship in high esteem once they obtained it, and those who “have an interest in physically being part of the country”. The amendments were passed a day before 120 CBI stakeholders shared their ideas at a national consultation yesterday – the first such forum to engage relevant individuals and agencies on the economic citizenship programme.
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Merkel to run for 4th term Three members of bin Laden family killed in UK jet crash in 2017 - Der Spiegel Reuters - Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has governed Germany since 2005, has decided to run for a fourth term and has started planning her 2017 re-election campaign, Der Spiegel news magazine said yesterday in an unsourced report. Peter Tauber, secretary general of Merkel’s Christian Democrat (CDU) party and effectively its campaign manager, declined to comment directly when asked by Reuters about the report. “It’s the summer silly season - haven’t you noticed?” Tauber replied on Twitter when asked about the report. Merkel, who turned 61 on July 17, has not made any public comments about whether she would run for a fourth term, although she did hint in a speech in Cologne last year she would stand again. She is on holiday hiking in the Alps. Merkel, who has guided Europe’s biggest economy through the 2008 financial crisis and euro zone turmoil, regularly ranks as one of Germany’s most popular
Angela Merkel
leaders, which is unusual for a sitting chancellor. There are no term limits in Germany and the last CDU chancellor, Helmut Kohl, served for 16 years before losing his bid for a fifth term in 1998 to Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democrats (SPD). Neither were as popular among voters as Merkel. In a country that cherishes stability, Merkel is only the eighth post-war chancellor. She has no obvious rivals in the CDU. “Merkel has evidently decided to run again in 2017,” Der Spiegel wrote. If confirmed, the news will cheer
her conservative party, which depends on her popularity to hold the chancellery after suffering a string of state election defeats. Der Spiegel said she held a strategy meeting recently with Tauber and party manager Klaus Schueler to discuss the campaign. “The campaign operations should be based in CDU party headquarters,” the magazine said. “As a result of that meeting, the first staff workers are being recruited.” Merkel is so popular in Germany that one SPD leader, Schleswig-Holstein state premier Torsten Albig, said recently the SPD should not bother putting up a candidate to run against her in 2017. “She’s doing an excellent job,” Albig told NDR TV. There was speculation two years ago that Merkel would step down in the middle of her current term but that was denied by her spokesman Steffen Seibert, who said Merkel would decide about a fourth term nearer to the election due in late 2017.
Greece may seek up to 24 billion euros in first new aid tranche – paper Reuters - Greece may seek 24 billion euros (16 billion British pounds) in a first tranche of bailout aid from international lenders in August to prop up its banks and repay debts falling due at the ECB, a pro-government Greek newspaper said in its early Sunday editions. Athens is now in talks with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund to secure up to 86 billion euros ($94.48 billion) in bailout aid. It will be its third bailout since 2010.
Avgi newspaper, which is close to the leftist Syriza government, said Greek authorities expected to conclude talks with lenders by mid-August. The first tranche of 24.36 billion would be used to channel 10 billion euros as an initial recapitalisation to Greek banks, 7.16 billion euros to repay an emergency bridge loan, 3.2 billion euros towards Greek bonds held by the European Central Bank and other payments, Avgi said.
It has been estimated that Greek banks may require up to 25 billion euros to be recapitalised, a shortfall exacerbated by an outflow of deposits when a stalemate with lenders threatened Athens’ place in the euro zone.The flood of money leaving the country culminated in authorities imposing capital controls on June 29 to prevent a financial meltdown.
Police say the pilot and all three passengers on a private jet are dead after the plane crashed during an attempt to land at Blackbushe airport. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)
LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - Three members of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s family were killed when a private jet crashed in southern England on Friday, British police said yesterday. The Embraer Phenom 300 jet with four people on board was flying from Milan’s Malpensa airport to Blackbushe airport in southern England when it crashed at a nearby car auction site. All died in the crash. It was not immediately clear how the victims were related to the late al Qaeda leader, whose family is one of the most prominent business dynasties in Saudi Arabia. “We do believe three of the deceased to be the mother, sister and brother-inlaw of the owner of the aircraft, all of whom are from the bin Laden family, but formal post-mortem examinations are ongoing,” Hampshire Police said in a statement. Media reports said the
victims included bin Laden’s half-sister along with her husband and mother. Saudiowned al-Arabiya television named those killed as Sana’ Mohamed bin Laden, her husband Zuhair Hashem and Sana’s mother, Raja’ Hashem. The plane’s Jordanian pilot was the other person on board, al-Arabiya said. British police said the three passengers were travelling to Britain for a vacation. The Saudi Ambassador to Britain on Friday offered condolences to the bin Laden family on the embassy’s Twitter account. He said the embassy was working with British authorities to investigate the incident and organise the speedy transfer
of the bodies for burial in the kingdom. Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it was looking into the cause of the crash. Osama bin Laden, the accused mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the United States, was killed by U.S. special forces in a raid on his hideout in Pakistan in 2011.
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Debate: Step up to plate Prison officers face suspension or be fired, says PM following jail break
Kamla Persad-Bissessar Trinidad Express - Prime even Jesus Christ was Minister Kamla Persad- betrayed by his disciples. “How do you determine if Bissessar has said that she will sack any person whom a human being who shows a she appoints should they not potential and a promise today step up to the plate and keep will continue with than in the future,” said Persadup good standards. She also directly Bissessar. She said her response lies answered that she does not smoke marijuana. She was in taking action. “I do not think that any responding to questions from panellists political analyst person can say 100 per cent Derek Ramsamooj, economist that any one individual is Dr Morgan Job and former going to stay the course PNM councillor Isha Wells forever...human nature does during a leadership exchange not work like that in my hosted by the Caribbean respectful view,” she said. News Media Group (CNMG) Persad-Bissessar noted that the former People’s National last week. (PNM) Wells asked Persad- Movement Bissessar whether she Government took no action allegations of smoked marijuana to which when she replied, “The answer is no, impropriety were made definitely no.” Wells also against its members. “My modus operandi in noted that during the People’s Partnership administration leadership in that regard is Persad-Bissessar fired a that if you do not step up to number of people from the plate, if you do not keep Government and asked what up the standards you will was her plan to prevent such have to go,” she said. Persad-Bissessar was recurrences. The Prime Minister pointed out that also questioned by Wells on
whether there was corruption in her Government. “I would not say there is corruption in the Government, but there is corruption in the system of governance in Trinidad and Tobago,” responded Persad-Bissessar. She said her Government has attempted to deal with corruption and this was achieved with the milestone of the procurement legislation which the PNM had fought against. Persad-Bissessar said her Government remains committed to the implementation and proclamation of the procurement legislation. Job pointed out to the Prime Minister that in countries like India and Africa there was corruption and in other nations such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway there was less. He asked what was being learned from this and whether it is that fair skinned people are less corrupt than dark skinned people. Persad-Bissessar asked the panel if they ever saw the TV series “The Vikings” as she noted that the same very fair-skinned people invaded the shores and went into the churches of England and stole. She said it was development and education that brought about change and so too, in this country it is education that will make a difference. “If you do not have that, then you will have corrupt officials who seek to gain more than they need,” she said.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - CMC – At least seven prison officers are likely to be suspended following last weekend jail break by three prisoners that left one policeman dead. One of the escapees surrendered to police after the two others were shot and killed in different circumstances, police said. The decision to suspend the seven prison officers, including an executive member of the Prison Officers Association (POA) followed a meeting Friday between the Ministry of Justice and the prison administration. “It is always a sad day in the prison service when these things (suspensions) happen, but the reality was that on Friday something terrible happened and when something like that happens there will be consequences,” said Commissioner of Prisons
Sterling Stewart. “The Prison Officers Association went on record to say that we always needed to support this initiative (investigation) because the prison service exists for the public and therefore the public’s interests must be served. “It is likely that rogue prison officers were involved in the prison break and they should be brought to justice and face the full brunt of the law,” Stewart added. POA president Ceron Richards confirmed the pending suspension and last week told the Trinidad Express newspaper that “it is hard to believe that they (rogue prison officers) were not involved. “Those inmates shoot their way from inside the prison to outside, almost killing a number of officers and killing a police officer in the process.
Sterling Stewart “These officers who are allegedly involved must be dealt with the full brunt of the law. This matter must not be swept under the carpet because that will be a slap in the face to all citizens in this country,” he said.
GG optimistic, says Jamaicans can become agents of change The Gleaner - Governor General Sir Patrick Allen says one of the lessons of Emancipation is that Jamaicans can be become agents of change if they are willing to act. As a result, Sir Patrick says the onus is on every citizen to realise that they are neither hopeless nor helpless in the face of individual or societal hardships. In his annual
Emancipation message, the Governor General says with unity, Jamaica can be freed of the modern-say issues that seek to mentally and social enslave its people. He says the shackles of selfishness, corruption and mediocrity that have held the nation back must be shattered along with what he describes as the bondage of an antiinformer culture that allows Jamaica to be easy prey for
criminals. Sir Patrick says Jamaica land we love calls on every citizen to be Heroes who will stand for the principles and values which will enable us to achieve our peace and prosperity. He says his hope is for Jamaicans to exude the confidence and resilience that will allow for the building of a prosperous, progressive and peaceful nation.
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Govt. to introduce new visa requirements in Antigua amidst smuggling scandal ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) – The Antigua and Barbuda Government will introduce new visa system in the wake of the allegations of a smuggling ring involving Cuban and Syrian nationals. Acting Chief Immigration Officer Annette Mark said the Immigration Department will launch the system but gave no date when it would happen. “Persons will have to apply for a visa to come to Antigua and to facilitate this process, the Immigration Department will be launching the e-visa system on our website very shortly. Persons can get online, apply for their visas and the process can move much smoother and faster,” Mark said. He said as of July 20, the department has stopped issuing visa waivers.
Annette Mark Earlier last week, the main Opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) staged a demonstration outside the Office of Prime Minister Gaston Browne calling for the removal of Attorney General Stedroy
“Cutie” Benjamin over his handling of the alleged smuggling ring. Benjamin had offered to step down as immigration minister while an independent probe is being carried out, but the UPP said it wanted him removed entirely claiming that he still had the potential to influence the outcome of any probe.Media reports said that United States Homeland Security personnel are here assisting the local authorities to probe the claims.Fourteen Syrians, who were detained late last month remain in custody and are suspected to be victims of smuggling ring.They have since been declared persona non-grata and are awaiting an appearance before a panel, which will determine whether they should be granted refugee status.
Leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon try to forge closer effort against Boko Haram
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari(L) walks on a red carpet with Cameroon’s President Paul Biya(R) as he arrives on an official visit to Cameroon in Yaounde y last Wednesday. REUTERS/Bayo Omoboriowo YAOUNDE (Reuters) The presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon tried to overcome differences in their efforts to crush the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in two days of talks but they failed to announce a breakthrough on issues such as the right of cross-border pursuit. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, making his first trip to Cameroon since winning power in March, and Cameroonian leader Paul Biya voiced support for a planned multinational task force to fight Boko Haram but they provided no specifics on when it would become operational. When the talks wrapped up last week, the made vague pledges to improve intelligence-sharing on Boko Haram and security
cooperation along their long border. The two men met after Boko Haram, which has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, launched a wave of attacks over the past two months in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger that have killed hundreds of people. The onslaught followed a military campaign by the regional powers that swept Boko Haram out of the towns of northeast Nigeria earlier this year. The planned 8,700-strong task force of troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin were started operations Friday, but has been dogged by lack of funding and political will. In a step toward activating the force, Nigeria announced the appointment of Major General Iliya Abbah
as its commander but major military operations appear unlikely before the end of the rainy season in September. While the meeting appeared to soothe tensions between the two neighbours, analysts said the outcome was disappointingly vague about specifics for military cooperation. “We must remember that it’s not the first time that the two countries have promised to share intelligence,” said Raoul Sumo Tayo, a Cameroonian political analyst. A summit on Boko Haram in May 2014 in Paris produced a similar pledge. In the past, Abuja has accused Yaounde of dragging its feet over tackling Boko Haram, which analysts say established rear bases on the Cameroonian side of the Mandara mountains.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Triple Olympic champion swaps chicken nuggets for... From page 75 just going out or just not training, or just eating a million hot wings. It’s hard sometimes, because you crave it, because you’re used to doing a certain thing. “It’s hard to just walk away and not slip up sometimes. So it happens, but I try to not make it happen on the regular. I try to just contain myself as much as possible.” As well as resisting deepfried chicken temptations, Bolt has also become more conscious of his body clock and whether that is helping or hindering his athletic performance. “Oh, I think it’s just not sleeping [is my biggest weakness.] I’m so used to staying up at night, especially playing video games or just watching movies. “I think that’s one of my hardest things to overcome, trying to go to bed early. Even when I want to sleep, I tend to try to fight the sleep and not go to bed.” It would appear Bolt’s new healthy diet and early
bedtimes are starting to pay off, as he recorded his fastest time of the season — 9.87 seconds — at the Anniversary Games to take the gold medal in the 100m on the same track he tasted Olympic glory on at London 2012. The British capital has been the backdrop to some of the greatest moments in Bolt’s career and it will set the scene for his curtain call. The date of Bolt’s retirement has been set for after the 2017 World Championships for some time and, by the sound of it, the world’s fastest man will unlikely be tempted to postpone. “Yes, that’ll be it for me. I think there’s nothing else for me to either accomplish after those next two seasons. So why stay in the game?” Despite his impending retirement and inability to resist unhealthy food, Bolt is confident his waistline won’t be expanding in the future. “Hell no [I won’t get fat],” he said, chuckling at the thought. “That’s one thing I’m determined not to have. I have a
bet with a couple of people. “I have a bet with Ricky Sims (Bolt’s agent,) I have a bet with my coach (Glen Mills.) I have a bet with a few people because everybody says I’m really lazy, so in like two years after I retire I’m going to have a big gut. “I have to take up something, I don’t know what I’ll have to take up. But for sure I’ll be doing something. Just not running.” Bolt’s last hurrah at the Olympics will come at Rio 2016 and, with just under a year to go, it is very much on his mind. “I think the closer it [Rio] gets, I think about it way more,” the six-time Olympic gold medallist said. “Initially, it wasn’t that much, I didn’t think about it. But now it’s really been on my mind. I think it’s because it really means so much to me, I really want to go to Rio and do so well. “I’ve even talked to my friends already. I said: ‘Listen to me, you guys got to keep me focused next season, make sure I stay on top of things.’
Sunday August 02, 2015 ARIES (MAR. 21APRIL 20) Make residential changes that will lift your spirits. You must not let fellow workers take advantage of your fine talents. TAURUS (APR. 21MAY 21) Someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, and if you're gullible, it may cost you. GEMINI (MAY 22JUNE 21) Someone may try to damage your reputation. Your lover may be annoyed if you have been flirtatious or not attentive to their needs. You may find it difficult to communicate. CANCER (JUNE 22JULY 22) The danger of minor accidents will increase with the turmoil. Your partner may make you feel jealous and unloved. LEO (JULY 23-AUG 22) Your relationship is undergoing some changes. Things are looking up. You will meet new romantic partners if you get involved in seminars or travel. VIRGO (AUG. 23 SEPT. 23) Communication will be the source of your knowledge and you must be sure to spend time with those who have more experience.
LIBRA (SEPT. 24 -OCT. 23) It's time to reevaluate your motives. You will learn a great deal from the foreigners you meet. SCORPIO (OCT. 24 NOV. 22) You can make moves, but they won't be settling. Invite friends or relatives into your home. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 23 -DEC. 21) Don't cause a scene, but when you get home let your partner know how you feel and why. Romance will come through involvement with fundraising organizations. CAPRICORN (DEC 22.JAN. 20) Stabilize your own position by locking up your savings. You can't do everything on your own. Property investments should payoff. AQUARIUS (JAN. 21 FEB. 19) You can meet a new romantic partner or secure the love connection you already have by going out and entertaining yourself. PISCES (FEB. 20-MAR. 20) You like to stay busy and now is your chance to do just that. Although it does look promising, be careful not to overextend yourself or you will lose in the long run.
So I’ve already tried to start putting things in place. “But I really think about it a lot. I just tell my friends because I know sometimes I’ll just be up and I was like: ‘Yo, let’s go hang out.’ “I tell them: ‘Listen to me, say no sometimes. Say no, let’s not hang out today.’ Above all, though, it’s the prospect of not letting down his coach Glen Mills that keeps Bolt on the straight and narrow. “My coach most of all. He really stays on top of things, and he knows me very well,” he said. “I think just looking at me he can tell when I have done something wrong. I feel sometimes he’s bluffing, but when you’re guilty, it plays on your conscience. “But he knows well because I show up at training sometimes and he goes: ‘You went out last night, didn’t you?’ And I go: ‘No.’ “But I can tell he knows what’s going on.” The Jamaican is known for his on-track showmanship and love and enjoyment for what he does. However, from now until Rio, we’ll be seeing an altogether more serious Bolt. “It’s going to be all work next season. I think there’s going to be zero fun next season for me,” he said with a serious tone. “That season is very important to do the Olympics back-to-back. For me, that’s the biggest thing in my career. So I know what it will take and I know what I have to do. “So next season, strictly work.” Bolt’s “Double-Triple” — gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in Beijing and London — is an historic
FIFA rules in favour of St Vincent... From page 77 was questioning the eligibility of Gavin and whether he was in possession of a St Vincent and the Grenadines passport during the qualification games. However, in a letter to the GFF, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee ruled that “after careful examination of all the requested information and documentation, it was considered that no further intervention was necessary in such context”. The GFF said that it is currently seeking legal advice on whether to appeal the ruling to the FIFA Appeals Committee. St Vincent and the Grenadines advanced on away goals after a 2-2 draw in Arnos Vale followed by a 4-4 tie in Georgetown.
feat in itself, but the Jamaican is supremely confident of recording an unprecedented “Triple-Triple.” Just how sure is he of writing a new page in the history books? “A hundred percent. As long as I’m fit, I have no doubt. “I know my capability, I know what it takes and that’s the key thing. “That’s what I always explain to people.” Before he does bid his farewell to athletics, Bolt is equally confident he will set his own bar even higher and continue to break records. “Yes, without a doubt [I can break them.] I think — and I’ve said it every year — if I just could get a season where
I just go through with no problems, then I know that I’ll be breaking world records easy. “So for me, I think next season I’ll go to my doctor more, get more check-ups, be aware just of everything around me and my surroundings and just things that I need to do to stay in shape. “I think I’ll be much more aware of these things because I need to be at the best when I go to Rio, at my absolute best. “I don’t want what happened this season to happen next season, people doubting me that if I’m going to do great, if Usain’s going to win. “I don’t want that at any point in the season, so I’m going to make sure I stay on top of my game.”
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
“WEST INDIES COULD WIN ICC WORLD T-20 IN INDIA IN 2016!” Colin E. H. Croft West Indies could win ICC’s next World T-20 tournament, to be held in India in March and April 2016, but that win would depend on many computations and selections. I had also predicted, boasted even, during R. Allen Stanford’s 2008 T-20
tournament, that WI not only should, but would win World T-20 2012, as even by 2008, it was patently obvious that the T-20 format was best suited for our players and offered better possibilities for further WI success. So, WI’s last international tournament win in 2012 at WT20 in Sri Lanka did not surprise me. Oh, I have proof
of that prediction too! Also, by 2008, despite stalwarts Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan, WI cricket had descended into being an international joke, with batsmen being selected to play Tests for WI without even one first-class century, while others seemed incapable of thinking through
Fraser-Pryce hints at possible sprint double world titles defence
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce winning the 100m at the Paris Diamond League meet on Saturday, July 4, 2015 in a fast 10.74 seconds. (PHOTO: AP) (Athletics Weekly) Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce hasn’t ruled out defending both her 100m and 200m world titles next month in Beijing. The two-time Olympic 100m gold medallist, who won her first Olympic title in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium in 2008, had said that the 100m and 4x100m relay events were her focus for the IAAF World Championships which takes place from August 22-30. However, speaking ahead of the Stockholm Diamond League meeting, the 28-yearold explained that also contesting the 200m is “still possible”. “I was down to do the 100 and relay, but the 200 is still possible,” the Jamaican sprint star said at a pre-event press conference on Wednesday. “My coach (Steven Francis) did say earlier that I was not running the 200, but last week I was in practice and he said I should do a 100, a 200 and a 250. “I said, ‘Why am I going
all that way? I’m not running 200 at the World Champs?’ And he said, ‘Who says you’re not running?’ So I said, ‘You did!’ And he said, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’m not sure.’ “The thing is, I’ve already earned a spot in the 200 as champion, so I wouldn’t be taking it away from anybody else.” Fraser-Pryce ran a worldleading 100m time of 10.74 in Paris earlier this month, with the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm her first race since then. “I didn’t come out of the blocks very well in Paris but my transition from 30 to 70 metres was the best part of my race,” she said. “I’ve been training hard since and running some longer distances over 200m, which I don’t like. “I’m looking forward to getting my racing started again tomorrow.” Also speaking at the press conference in Stockholm was Orlando
Ortega, who leads this year’s 110m hurdles rankings with his 12.94 from Paris. The 24-year-old will not be among the athletes joining Fraser-Pryce in Beijing as he is currently transferring his allegiance from Cuba to Spain. “I knew from the beginning it would be impossible to compete in Beijing,” he said. “But I know I can compete at the Rio 2016 Games and I am going to try for the World Indoors. “For now, though, my world championship is the Diamond Race; that would be my gold medal for the year.” Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that Olympic 200m champion Allyson Felix is set to run the 400m rather than the 200m in Beijing, the news agency stating that her coach Bob Kersee had told Reuters of the decision on Wednesday. Teams announced for the IAAF World Championships so far include Great Britain, Canada, Italy and Germany.
any game that lasted even one day. But WI had surprisingly, miraculously won ICC 50overs Champions Trophy 2004 in England, under admittedly astute Brian Lara captaincy, beating England in that close final, WI’s first international success since winning ICC Cricket World Cup’s 1975 and 1979. Wow! That 2004 success, experience, explosiveness and cohesiveness of our better players, especially batsmen, coupled with Stanford’s tournaments endeavors, showed that WI cricket was moving inexorably towards additional victories in the shortest form of the game, and were, overall, much better prepared physically, if not fully mentally, for assaults on the world’s T-20 teams. India-2016 is nine months away, but proper planning and selections are main keys for WI to win there, since WI’s One-Day International and Test rankings are nearly on the floor. Trinidad & Tobago’s Red Steel recent win in Caribbean Premier League 2015, beating similarly talented Barbados Trident, tells only one story; that a WI team consisting of several players from that final game, plus some from other teams, could bring WI further World T-20 success. So, as suggested by West Indies Cricket Board, let us accentuate the positive, if it exists. Preferable would be to state stark truths and reality, not foolish, outlandish fantasies! Ha! Ha! FYI, WI has the following world rankings and ratings points per International Cricket Council: TESTS - No. 8 with 81 points, ahead of only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. No. 1 South Africa has 130 points, while No. 7 Sri Lanka has 92 points. That gap between Sri Lanka and WI will not be closed any time soon, especially since WI will play Australia later this year, regardless of what happens to the Aussies in the present Ashes Test series. Expect a big Aussie backlash then too! ODI’s - No. 9 with 88 points, ahead of only Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. No. 1 Australia has 129 points, while No. 8 Pakistan has 90 points. Extremely surprisingly, Bangladesh is at No. 7 with a comfortable 96 points. What a bizarre thing! This is a very disappointing, extremely
drastic, even dramatic situation. As previously noted by Vinood Mamchan in T&T Guardian and Tony Cozier in T&T Express, and probably known by all by now, perhaps except WICB, with its non-reactions and negligible pronouncements, only the top eight-ranked internal cricket teams will contest Champion Trophy 2017 in England. So, if you are over 35 years old, perhaps younger, but are still actually somewhat interested in WI’s Test and ODI rankings, having not yet been fully usurped by Indian Premier League T-20 and especially wonderfully entertaining, superiorly colorful Caribbean Premier League T-20, you might be crying real, pure, red despondent blood when you read those rankings above. You might even ask: ‘How the hell did we get here?’ Answering that could take months, but can anyone be surprised at WI’s Test and ODI ratings and WICB’s nonreactions to same? Nah! WI’s short-comings have been almost universally obvious for a decade at least. Only those, like pseudoemperors with no clothes on, hiding in insecure façades of self-importance and vindictiveness, seem devoid of that naked truth of our predicament. Some who try to inform and enlighten are usually ostracized and victimized. Beware God-Father Parts II and III, as retribution is cyclic! T-20-I’s: This is where WI
Colin E. H. Croft are rated highest; No. 4 with 117 points; behind World T20 defending champions, from Bangladesh-2014, No. 1 Sri Lanka with 130 points; No. 2 Australia with 122 points and No. 3 India with 118 points. It is possible for WI to be No. 1 here again! Victorious T&T Red Steel has no Champions League competition to look forward to anymore, so Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Suleiman Benn, Kieron Pollard, Jason Holder, Kevon Cooper, Samuel Badree, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse and Imran Khan; from last CPL final; plus Sunil Narine and Chris Gayle, if he recovers from his medical issues, could be nuclei for India-2016. Some of those named still have on-going issues with WI cricket’s administrations and might not even be available, but realistically, ICC WT-20 India-2016 could be the last opportunity for some of this present generation of WI cricketers to win any further world championships for some time in the future. Hopefully, they recognize that and operate accordingly. Enjoy! E-mail address = c.e.h.croft@gmail.com
Jeffreys’ confirmation... From page 74 Motor racing Championship, at Bushy Park. The Jeffrey’s, always a draw card, especially Kristian, who is the current Caribbean champion and joint leader in the 2015 Championship, will have to contend with the likes of Rupie Shewjattan, Vishok Persaud among others to gain the selectors nod for the showdown against the rest of the Region. Kristian, who drives a Mitsubishi Evolution VIII has been in sparkling form for the past two years, winning against the best in the Caribbean and even became the youngest champion of the Series last year and he should be favoured to upstage his more experienced father Kevin. However, Kevin has been known to produce some
daredevil drives and counting him out might be a bit premature and reckless. Kevin drives a Mitsubishi Evolution VII, but is known to have done some amount of modification to the machine to increase its speed and reliability to compete against the best in the Caribbean. Kristian though has been campaigning in Canada and word is that he has gained a lot of experience and knowledge about racing cars and reading circuits and that combined will definitely make him more formidable than before. Whatever the outcome, fans will be in for a treat come August 9 so be early and occupy an advantageous spot to witness the rivalry unfolds. Admission is $1000 for adults and children under 12 $500.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
Michael Clarke’s Test career could be over... From page 70 Siddle. Starc is bleeding runs and has only taken five wickets in the past two Tests. If you give him a white ball he seems to knock everyone over but he’s not doing a consistent job in Test cricket at the moment. Siddle, who has been playing county cricket for Lancashire this season, has lost a bit of the zip he used to have and Australia coach Darren Lehmann is not his biggest fan, but he can bring the control that Clarke so badly needs. He took a hat-trick against England in 2010 and kept getting Kevin Pietersen out during the last Ashes in Australia. Clarke’s biggest challenge in the remainder of the series is uniting the Australia dressing room. There was apparently some disquiet over wicketkeeper Brad Haddin being left out for Peter Nevill despite Haddin insisting he was ready to play. And although Nevill has done more than enough to deserve his spot, sometimes these things can unsettle a team. I still believe Australia can win the Ashes if they play their best cricket in the last two Tests. The absence of James Anderson from the England attack at Trent Bridge will give Clarke’s men a huge lift. Anderson took 10 wickets in England’s Ashes victory in Nottingham in 2013 and has a
Jim Maxwell magnificent record at the ground. His loss is a huge blow for England and an absence that Australia will be looking to exploit to the full. Whatever happens at Trent Bridge and The Oval, the Australia selectors will continue the process of rejuvenating this ageing side. With opener Chris Rogers bowing out after this series, they will be looking at batsmen such as Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns, who are currently touring India with the A side. Clarke’s future is yet to be determined, but it is far from inconceivable that Steve Smith will be leading the side into their next series in Bangladesh.
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= = = Letter to Sports Editor = = =
The State of Guyana’s Sport Stadiums: PROVIDENCE, BOURDA & LENORA Dear Sports Editor, During Guyana leg of this year’s Caribbean Premier League at the post match press conference of the Amazon Warriors vs St Lucia Zouks encounter, Zouks captain Kevin Pietersen was asked what his opinion about the pitch. England’s all-time leading run scorer responded by saying if he really stated what he thought about it, he would get into trouble with CPL authorities and gave a diplomatic answer - it was a “poor wicket”. For the Warriors, unleashing the two best spinners in the Caribbean; Sunil Narine and Devendra Bishoo - supported by Veerasammy Permaul at the back end of the CPL on the spin friendly wickets of Guyana, should have made them unbeatable at home and propelled them to the first title, after being runners up in the previous two editions. Poor team batting prevented this, but Pietersen’s point resonates because such surfaces don’t benefit West Indies long term development. Providence officially has a worse pitch than the Bourda ground, which alongside the Antigua Recreation Ground were renowned as being the flattest tracks in the Caribbean since West Indies played their first home series
Petama Enterprise/Motor Trend Auto Sales, Spares & Repairs Softball starts August 9 Petama Enterprise of 16 Delph Street, Campbellville and Motor Trend Auto Sales, Spares & Repairs of Old Public Road, Enmore are the newest sponsors of the next Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association organised Softball Tournament. This Tournament was scheduled to start June 28, 2015, but due to the weather it will now start on Sunday August 9th. Like all GFSCA Tournament it will be played in 3 Categories, Male/Female Open and Male Masters. For the Male Masters, players qualified must be born 1970 or before. However, all Master Teams can include a maximum of 3 players born 1971 and 1972 in their squad of 16 members. Essequibo Zones will be handled by Khalid Baksh , Tel #: 618-1905 and Berbice and
Demerara Zones will be handled by GFSCA Chief Organiser Wayne Jones, Tel#: 650-1790 and 685-6908. Prizes for the Male Open and Male Masters are Winners $100,000 + Trophy, Runner-Up $25,000 + Trophy. For Females, Winner receive $50,000 + Trophy and Runner-Up $20,000 + Trophy. Player of the Series in all categories will receive a Trophy + $10,000. Player of the Match in Final will receive a Trophy + $5,000. The finals of this Softball Competition will be played on Sunday October 11th, 2015. Balls to be used by Males are the white GFSCA/Trophy Stall balls. Female will use the yellow Floodlight Balls. The Petama Enterprise/ Motor Trend Softball Competition serves as the perfect build-up for the fifth GFSCA International Softball
Tournament, “Guyana Softball Cup 5” which will be held on October 30th, 31st& 1st November. Entrance fees for The Petama Enterprise / Motor Trend Tournament is $15,000 for the Male Categories, while Females are free. Petama Enterprise are distributors for KYB Shocks, NPW Water Pump, Toyo Bearing, FIC Clutch & Break Product. Petama Enterprise Managing Director Petamber Maharaj and Motor Trend Managing Director Jailall Deodass are very enthusiastic about sponsoring this Tournament. This GFSCA managed competition is also cosponsored by Trophy Stall, Ariel Enterprise, Mike’s Pharmacy, Romeo Oil Seal, Rohan Auto Spares, Ramchand Auto Spares and Powerline Battery Acid.
in 1930. It plays worse than some tired sub-continent surfaces, which is a strong indictment on the quality of grounds men in Guyana. Due to Guyana’s Cricket administrative controversies that the WICB has done a poor job of handling since 2011, scheduled Providence tests during the 2012 & 2014 Australia and New Zealand tours were moved. Frankly that was a blessing in disguise since fans would have wasted their money to watch a test on such an insipid wicket and players would have complained like Pietersen. The only time Providence ever played well was during the 2010 Twenty20 world cup matches when ICC pitch preparation expert Andy Atkinson helped prepare the pitch. Atkinson came back to Guyana to repeat the job for the hosting of the Regional Super50 in 2011. Atkinson noted to me then that he was very concerned that Providence is used so often as multipurpose stadium for other sports and events, when it was built solely for cricket. Sports like Football and Rugby which dictates player have to run on the pitch don’t help and as a equal cricket and football fan and sports journalist of both disciplines, I cringe every time the Golden Jaguars play at Providence. During 2014 World Cup qualifiers, this haunted the football team as FIFA banned usage of the mound stand. Therefore during the big home games versus Costa Rica and El Salvador, the crowd atmosphere which was
created for the famous win against Trinidad in 2011 could not be replicated. One of biggest faux pas of the sports ministry under the PPP government was their lack of general sports vision and many in the sporting fraternity have noted Providence should have never been built for cricket only, but rather as a multipurpose athletics & football stadium similar to the Hasely Crawford Stadium and Independence Park in Trinidad & Jamaica respectively. That old idea of refurbishing Bourda by merging it with GFC ground should have been done to preserve the venues legacy and keep the tradition of the premier international cricket venue being in the Capital city. One passes by Bourda now and its state is shameful. I have seen the Kensington Oval in Barbados before they built over their stadium and they had more complicated factors to deal with than Bourda when reconstructing that venue. The Barbados government built apartments for people who had their homes close to Oval and on match days at Kensington police blocks off the road ways leading up to the Oval and shuttle bus systems to go to the venue are enacted. This could have easily been replicated at a hypothetical upgraded Bourda, with bus drivers told that Regent and North Roads cannot be used on game days. In a nutshell now, the Providence pitch is not good for producing quality cricket and is not suited for hosting
high level international football fixtures because the standing in the mound stand is not allowed in FIFA stadium stipulations. Recently the former government in keeping form with their poor sports judgment - opened the Lenora track and field Stadium which is still not complete, with a shockingly bad parking setup and humorously embarrassing main stand that is also unsuited for high level football. In Trinidad & Tobago the famous Brian Lara Stadium that was built for the 2007 World Cup - currently sits abandoned and uncompleted because the current UNC government accused the former PNM government of wasting money to build it. The current coalition government under the tutelage of Ministers responsible for Sport in Rupert Roopnarine and Nicolette Henry and Sports Director Christopher Jones should do the same with Lenora because it was a waste of tax payer dollars. Everyone in the sporting fraternity has long been aware that the facility was built in Lenora simply because it’s a PPP voting constituency. A June 15th Kaieteur article highlighted that Director of Sport Christopher Jones was beginning an outreach to develop sports facilities around the country. Bourda ground redevelopment and a new multi-purpose stadium for football and athletics etc built in a strategically smart area should be highest on his agenda. Colin Benjamin.
WHERE IS LATOYA SMITH? DEAR SPORTS EDITOR, The Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association has taken note of the decision of the Guyana Selectors to leave out Latoya Smith from its Fourteen players to represent this country at the WICB Regional Tournament next month in Trinidad and Tobago. With June Ogle opting out due to personal reasons, one thought that this would have been the ideal opportunity for her to come through. It is a most surprising move, considering that this player has been improving steadily over the last couple years. The Guyana team returned from Dominica last year where she only played one game and with nothing to do until the two Inter County games when Demerara played recently. It would be interesting to know how the Selectors came to this decision because there were no trial games. With Smith being in and out of the Guyana
team from the age of fifteen and working so hard in the off seasons with coaches Orin Bailey and others due to no organised cricket tournament by the Demerara Cricket Board or the Guyana Cricket Board, one would have thought that at her present age of twenty years old, only a replacement for Ogle should have been sought. This association, her parents and supporters would be happy to know the reason she was treated this way, so that we can plan for the future. The criteria used for selecting this team would also be an asset to other teams if you published same in the media so we can learn selection strategies. Please remember that Smith is the only player dropped from the squad that returned from Dominica after playing one game. Joan Vansertima suffered the same fate last year. We impatiently await a response. GFSCA Organizer Wayne Jones.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
Digicel Nationwide Schools Football Competition...
D-DAY HAS ARRIVED, WHO WILL IT BE? By Rawle Welch After nearly two months of grueling competition, DDay has arrived to declare a champion in this year’s Digicel Nationwide Schools Football Tournament which will conclude today, at the National Stadium, Providence. Defending three-time champion Christianburg / Wismar will lock horns with new aspirants Chase’s Academic Foundation for the title, while last year’s beaten finalist Waramadong will tackle Annai for third place. It is anticipated that fans will be flocking the Stadium to get a glimpse of some of Guyana’s future football stars as they battle for supremacy in what has been rightfully declared the biggest junior football showpiece locally. The feature game which starts at 18:00 hrs is anticipated to be an enthralling encounter against two teams that mirror each other in almost every aspect of the game. However, the reigning champs no doubt will go into the game with a decisive edge, having played before large crowds ever since the tournament commenced and
because they matchup similarly in height, size and skill, the advantage of feeling at home in front of a large crowd in what is expected to be a hostile atmosphere could prove vital. Chase’s Academic Foundation has never been this far in the competition and combine that with the reality of playing at the large venue could make any player of the team feel overawed by the occasion. On the other hand, the Lindeners have made it to the final on every single occasion since the tournament’s birth and are accustomed to playing in front of a large crowd so their level of nervousness if any could dissipate much quicker that their opponents. Having said all of that, the real battle is on the field and this is where the match gets even with both teams possessing players of exceptional skills and ability. Christianburg / Wismar will have in their line-up players the likes of Dequan Hercules, who seems to be a rare mid-field talent, while Kendolph Lewis has looked unstoppable going forward. He is indeed a special player who can distribute the ball,
but also has the ability to leave defenders in his wake with his sudden turn of speed. Then there is Omar Brewley, who began the tournament a bit tentative, but has blossomed in confidence and is a joy to watch doing his magic, weaving past defenders at will. Antwaine Gill and Jovon Bobb are also gifted scorers and attention would have to be focused on them also, while the lanky Amaniki Buntin is a tower of strength in the set pieces where he uses his superior height to perfection. What more could be said of their Captain Tevin Crawford, whose heroics to date has been nothing short of thrilling to watch, especially in penalty situations. However, Chase’s Academic Foundation is no pushover either and players the quality of Kelsey Benjamin whose dribbling skills and speed could terrify any backline will no doubt attract careful attention. Then there is Ryan Hackett, who has been a high performer at every level he has played in his short career and he seems to be finding his touch again and will have to be marked closely to negate his effect.
Job Caesar, who has the distinction of scoring the first ever goal in the competition’s history is another gifted player with immense talent and while his role of recent is to distribute the ball to Benjamin and Hackett, Christianburg / Wismar must watch out for his sudden explosive forays which are often deadly. Andre Trotz is another player of quality and he too is capable of a match winning performance so the die is cast and fans can anticipate a close contest. The third place playoff is a virtual final as well, with fans favourite Waramadong
going up against new kids on the block, Annai, in a battle that could determine the best team from the hinterland regions. Waramadong still wears that sobriquet, but the performance of Annai this year could change all of that. During a recent press briefing both teams expressed confidence on finishing third, but with only the winner earning that position then the battle is well and truly on. Azual Medina, Ashton Ward, Delmar George will be the players to watch for Waramadong who’re aiming to end on a high after another disappointing loss to nemesis
Christianburg / Wismar. Annai’s charge for victory will be spearheaded by Garville Daniels, who has been the main architect of wins, while his brother Sherral usually work in tandem with him. The fight for bragging rights is truly on and fans are being urged to be early to witness what is considered to be two finals in one. The winning team will take way $1million, 2nd place$600,000, 3rd place- $400,00 and 4th place- $350,000, all to go towards school projects. Kickoff is 16:00 hrs and lots of giveaways will be given to patrons, especially those coming early.
Felix to run 400m and relays at worlds
Jeffreys’ confirmation add excitement to August 9 Race Meet Allyson Felix of the U.S. celebrates victory in the 200 metres women event at the IAAF Diamond League Athletissima athletics meeting at the Pontaise Stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 9, 2015. (REUTERS/Pierre Albouy)
Kristian and Kevin Jeffrey
If there is any motor racing fan who is experiencing any doubt about whether the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club August 9 ‘National Race of Champions’ Meet will be exciting then the mere confirmation of the father
and son duo of Kevin and Kristian Jeffrey should erase those uncertainties. Both Kevin and Kristian have confirmed their participation according to a release from the Club and fans could be assured that they’ve
consented to race hard against each other and any other competition taking to the starting grid as they battle for a place on the national team to travel to Barbados for the third leg of the Caribbean (Continued on page 72)
(Reuters) - Olympic 200 meters gold medalist Allyson Felix has chosen to run the 400 meters at next month’s world championships, her coach told Reuters on Wednesday. “We wanted to do both (the 200m and 400m) but the schedule will not allow it, so it’s the 400,” Bob Kersee said in a telephone interview from Oregon. “It’s more of a challenge for us,” Kersee added when asked why the longer race. Had the 29-year-old American attempted both races, as she did at the 2011 worlds, she would have had to run the semi-finals of the 200m an hour before the 400m final on Aug. 27. The 200m final is the next day. Felix will also compete in both the 4x100 and 4x400 meters relays in Beijing, Kersee said. The year’s fastest at 200
meters, Felix could have run either the 200m or 400m or both in the world championships. She had a bye into the 200m as the 2014 Diamond League winner and won the 400m at June’s U.S. world championships trials. “Excited to step it up and challenge myself next month,” Felix said on her Instagram account along with a picture of her training and the words “Getting some 400 work in to get ready for worlds.” Felix currently ranks as the year’s fourth fastest at 400m, but the two faster Americans on the list, Francena McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross failed to make the U.S. team. Injured at the 2013 worlds, Felix had placed second in the 400m and third in the 200m at the 2011 world championships. She also ran on winning U.S. 4x100m and
4x400m relay teams. Asked if Felix would consider doing both sprints at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Kersee said: “Yes. “That would be the crowning point of her career.” But like Beijing, the challenge would be difficult, and most likely would require a schedule change. Felix would be required to run the first round of the 200m 75 minutes before the 400m final under the current schedule. Kersee would like a more favorable opportunity. The precedent is there, he said, noting both American Michael Johnson and France’s Marie-Jose Perec won 200-400m doubles at the 1996 Olympics. Not to change Rio’s timetable, “would be to deny an athlete realistically capable of winning four gold medals,” Kersee said.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Brad Haddin decision Darren Triple Olympic champion swaps Lehmann’s ‘hardest’ Usain Bolt:
chicken nuggets for vegetables
Brad Haddin (Getty Images)
Usian Bolt strikes his famous pose. (Usain Bolt Instagram) (CNN) He sprinted his way to fame at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning three gold medals and setting a trio of world records and all powered by a diet of fast food. Usain Bolt’s love of junk food especially chicken nuggets - has been well documented, but now at the age of 28, the Jamaican is ready to change the way he refuels. “Food wise, I have to eat a lot more vegetables,” he explained to CNN’s Amanda Davies, almost sounding like a boy being told by his mother to finish his greens. “I have to cut junk food out. I think that’s one of the biggest things for me, because I get a lot of urges at late nights, just to eat junk food. For me, that personally is one of the biggest sacrifices.”
And it really is a sacrifice given Bolt estimates in his autobiography “Faster than Lightning,” that he had devoured 1,000 McDonald’s chicken nuggets during his 10 days in Beijing - a whopping 5000 calories and 300 grams of fat a day, all because he found Chinese food “odd.” Vegetables may be a new addition on the Bolt menu, but don’t expect him to be cooking them. “I can’t cook, that’s the one thing I can’t do, though I can make scrambled eggs,” he confessed ahead of the Anniversary Games in London. But if you ever feel guilty about breaking a diet, you shouldn’t, as even the world’s greatest athletes are still prone to the odd slip-up. “Sometimes you do think about (Continued on page 71)
BBC Sport - Australia coach Darren Lehmann says not recalling wicketkeeper Brad Haddin for the third Ashes Test was the “hardest decision” he has made in his career. The 37-year-old missed the Lord’s win for personal reasons and the tourists stuck with replacement Peter Nevill for the eight-wicket defeat at Edgbaston. Haddin’s omission was criticised, with some suggesting it went against the side’s unwritten “family first” policy. “Those decisions do not come lightly to any of us,” said Lehmann. “It comes down to performance. The cold hard fact is that Brad has played the last 12 Test matches and made 250 runs and being bowled 15 or 16 times out of 21. “Brad has been a fantastic cricketer for Australia for a long period of time and that would be the hardest decision I have had to make as a coach or a player. “We certainly care a lot about Brad and his family but we had to make a decision on what was the best XI for this particular game.” Nevill has scored 106 runs and taken 10 catches behind the stumps since coming into the side at Lord’s and Lehmann also praised
Haddin for his response to being left out. “Pete did a very good job at Lord’s and it was very difficult to change that side. He also did a really good job in this game,” said Lehman. “I can’t speak highly enough of how he (Haddin) has been with Pete. He has taken over the wicketkeeping coaching role as well as doing his own stuff. “He is a brilliant bloke and one of the best people I have coached.” Lehmann was also questioned about the position of captain Michael Clarke, who has struggled this series, scoring 94 runs at an average of 18.8. The head coach was adamant any decision to drop Clarke a place down the batting order to number five would be made by the captain himself. “Michael Clarke gets as long as he needs, he is captain. “I can’t complain about the work ethic of any of the players, especially Michael. As far as we are concerned it is about all the players playing well in the next Test match. We will not panic. “The captain has always done the batting order and worked out what is best for the team. For the last two years, four has been his spot because we had younger guys in or people batting in different positions.
Rafael Nadal beats Andreas Seppi to reach Hamburg Open final Rafael Nadal (EPA)
Coach Glen Mills watches as Usain Bolt trains. (Usain Bolt instagram)
Rafael Nadal is into the final of the Hamburg Open following a comfortable 6-1 6-2 win over Italian Andreas Seppi. The world number 10, who is chasing a record 47th clay title, broke his opponent seven times to seal victory in an hour and 18 minutes. The Spaniard will now face another Italian, Fabio Fognini, in the final.
Fognini and his partner Simone Bolelli withdrew from their men’s doubles semi-final on Saturday, gifting a final spot to Jamie Murray and John Peers. In the final, Brit Murray and his Australian partner, who were beaten in the doubles final at Wimbledon last month, will face Colombian duo Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday August 02, 2015
All roads lead to Bush Lot United TC for Emancipation horserace meet today REMATCH OF SPIT FIRE AND JACK IN MY STYLE SET TO IGNITE THE ARENA By Samuel Whyte All roads lead to Bush Lot United Turf Club (BLUTC) today for what promises to be an action packed Emancipation horserace meet. Thousands are expected to throng the venue at Sea View Park, Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice for the restart of the 2015 horseracing season. The event which was put back by a week due to the inclement weather is expected to see a grand day of racing with a number of questions expected to be answered. Eight races are slated for the day with a prize package of over $5.5M up for the taking. Over 65 horses have entered. The Feature ‘C’ and lower 1600M event for a first prize of $1M compliments of Banks DIH Limited is expected to a scorcher. The event is expected to see the rematch between Spit Fire of the Shariff Stable and Jack in My Style of the Jumbo Jet Stable. Who will win is anybody guess. Fans will remember when the two animals last met in April the event ended in controversy.
Horses get a feel of the track during practice last week and will be rearing to go today.
Spit Fire was initially awarded the victory, but the decision was changed and the two horses were given a dead heat. The horses will come forward today. However they are not expected to have it lightly since horses with the caliber of Diplomatic Cat and Princess She is Not are also in the race and with Unsettled, Bridal Stone Corner and the newly
imported Guyana Time, among those running, the event is expected to be a scorcher from a total package of $2M and the Banks DIH Limited trophy. Selecting a winner in the three year old West Indies Bred event is also an arduous task with the likes of Strom Bird, Country Girl, Keep On Swinging, It’s My Choice, Gold D Cova and Settling Star all lining up to take
home the $350,000 and trophy over 1200M. Captain Crook, Mansoon, Fresh Again, Work Force, Plum Plum, Good Will Boy, Unsettled and Red and Lovely will renew battle in the E1 and lower 1500M event for a first prize of $350,000 and trophy.
The G2 and lower event has a competitive and large field including Rosetta, Dream Come through, Precise Gold, Shantal, Honest Penny, Sent From Above, Cat Messiah, Today Is My Lucky day, Campador, Princess Page and Bird man will be looking to fly away with the $300,000 and trophy over 1300M. The two year old animals will be making their entry into the racing circle with the likes of Firing Line, Jumbo Gift, Maid of the Cat and Wichy Poo entered for the 1000M race for Guyana and West Indies bred and born animals for a winning money of $300,000 and trophy. The I and lower and three year old Guyana Bred horses over 1300M for a winning take of $200,000 and trophy which will see the likes of Amazon Warrior, Mary Ann, Secret Escape, Little, Royal Cash and Cat Messiah competing. The J and lower event has Famous Pride, The Gump, Flying Object, Regina, Secret Escape, Party
Time and Little will be competing for a first prize of $180,000 over 1300M. The final event will be for animals classified K and lower over 1300 M for winning a winning pocket of $140,000 and trophy respectively. Among the entries are Ranch Boy, Amigo, Blue Lightning, Secretariat, Regina, Liquid Lion, Chronic, Silent Warrior, and Plane. A number of sponsors are on board led by Beverage Giants Banks DIH, among the others are Inshan Bacchus Hard Running Trucking Service, Jumbo Jet Auto Sales and Racing Stables, Hand In Hand Insurance, Q Trex International Shipping, Paghoo General Store, Choke Gas Station, Tony Auto Sales, Lakeram ‘Buddy’ Sookdeo and Sandra Indian Fashion of Bush Lot. The event will be conducted under the rules of the Guyana Horse racing Authority. Race time is 12:00 hrs.
Training accident Michael Clarke’s Test career leaves Austrian could be over - Jim Maxwell pole vaulter paralysed
Michael Clarke (Reuters)
B
BC Sport - Australia face a huge challenge to keep hold of the Ashes after their batting was exposed by some quality bowling from James Anderson and Steve Finn in England’s eight-wicket victory at Edgbaston. I am not sure what is going through the heads of some of Australia’s
batsmen at the moment. Their shot selection and decision-making has been really poor. It’s hard to put a finger on why that has occurred, but when the captain is in such appalling form it can’t help. There will have to be changes for Trent Bridge and I would expect Adam Voges to be dropped for Shaun Marsh after scoring only 73 runs in his five innings this series. As for captain Michael Clarke, goodness knows how the 34-year-old is going to get his touch back. If you look at his numbers over the past two years, he has scored two hundreds in 28 innings but has not gone past 50 on any other occasion. The more desperate he is to succeed, the more he seems to fail. His confidence has gone and unless he gets it back in the next two Test matches I would think his Test career is over. It might be a good idea to move him down to number five to get him away from the moving ball, but they will be wary of how it looks for the captain to be taking a step back at this stage in the series. Australia’s problems do not end there. They should also make a change in the bowling department by dropping Mitchell Starc for Peter (Continued on page 73)
Kira Grunberg has been left paralysed after an accident during training. (Photo: Facebook)
V
IENNA, Austria (AFP) Austria’s top pole vaulter Kira G r u e n b e rg h a s b e e n l e f t paralysed after sustaining a serious training injury, her manager said Friday. The 21-year-old had landed on her head and neck in the pole vault box during a routine training jump in the western city of Innsbruck on Thursday morning, Thomas Herzog said. Gruenberg’s parents had both been present at the time of the accident. Surgeons at Innsbruck’s University Clinic operated on the athlete for several hours before announcing their devastating diagnosis: Gruenberg’s cervical vertebrae of the spine had been fractured.
“After we had diagnosed paraplegia before the operation, the patient received emergency surgery in order to stabilise her spine and avoid further damage,” the clinic said in a statement. Gruenberg remains in intensive care and doctors will conduct further tests in the coming weeks to assess her progress, it added. “The path awaiting Kira will be a long and difficult one,” Gruenberg’s manager said. The athlete, who was being trained by her father, had hoped to compete in the World Championships in Beijing in August. Last year, Gruenberg set an Austrian women’s record of 4.45 metres at the European Championships in Zurich.
Sunday August 02, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 77
Guyana Karate College places 2nd at IKD World Cup tourney held in Canada The hard work, dedication and long hours of training put in by the members of team Guyana Karate College (GKC) under the watchful eye of Sensei Jeffrey Wong has led to success, enabling them to claim 2nd place at the recently held International Karate D a i g a k u Wo r l d C u p tournament held in Toronto, Canada at the Ryerson University from 15th-19th July 2015. Some of the countries that participated were Canada, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, USA, Philippines, Jamaica, Antigua, Puerto Rico and Guyana. Trinidad won the World Cup with 46 gold medals and Barbados coming in 3rd with 36 gold medals. Altogether 33 members from the GKC attended this event and were named the best supporting group at this event capturing38 gold medals total. On day one the Guyana Karate College gained 12 golds in Team Bunkai. With
Some of the team members along with Sensei Jeffrey Wong (with trophy) and Master Frank Woon-A-Tai (left). day two came 9 more golds in team Enbu and day three, 9 golds in team Kata and 5 golds in individual Katas. The final day, 3 golds were attained in individual Kumite. Some of the teams gold medalists were Rebecca Ramlal, Rachael Ramlal & Hannah Farinha (10-13), Alyssa Singh, Alyssa
Ramotar (6-9),Jonathan Ramlal, William Grant & Aiden Singh(6-9), Aliya Wong, Alyssa Persaud &Tashanna Wong(14-16), O t t o H a r r i s , Ya n i c k Rameshwar & Romeo Defreitas (14-16), Aubrey Bettencourt, Kenrick Cheeks and Roland Fanfair (40-49). Individual Gold
medalists in Kata were Alyssa Ramotar & Aiden Singh (6-7), William Grant (8-9), Aliyah Wong (12-13) & YanickRameshwar (1415). In Kumite, gold went to Aiden Singh (6-7), William Grant (8-9) and Aliya Wong (12-13). Also attaining silver and Bronze medals in team and Individual events were
Alyssa Ramotar, Jonathan Ramlal, William Grant, Jonathan Robinson, Aiden Singh, Ronaldo Persaud, Jayden Hurry, Bruce Yong, Rebecca & Rachael Ramlal, Hannah Farinha, Emily Bettencoourt, Danielle Khan, Aaliyah Seeram, Aliya Wong, Alyssa Persaud, Ta s h a n n a Wo n g , J o h n Mcgrath, Tyler Orderson ,
Antone Herrod, Otto Harris, Romeo Defreitas, Yanick Rameshwar,Aubrey Bettencourt, Kenrick Cheeks and Roland Fanfair. Altogether the performance of Team GKC at the 2nd World Cup held by the International Karate Daigaku was a tremendous success. GKC achieved a total medal count of 84 of gold, silver and bronze. The Guyana Karate College would like to thank all the sponsors who made this win possible namely: G T & T, D i g i c e l U Mobile(cellular) Inc., Gafoors, Demerara Harbour Bridge, Giftland Officemax, Guyana National Bureau of Standards, Republic Bank, C&V Shipping, Pritipaul Singh, MACORP, Guyana Forestry Commission, Engineering and Construction Inc., Hand-inHand Mutual Fire Ins. Co. Ltd., Camex Ltd, Bosai Minerals Group, RK Security, Apex Insurance, Citizens Bank, National Hardware, MP Insurance and the Bettencourt’s.
Builders Lumber Yard, R&D Engineering Services continue to build Boyce/Jefford Classic
B
uilders Lumber Yard and R&D Engineering Services Inc. continued to build Boyce and Jefford Track and Field Classic yesterday when both companies donated to the upcoming meet scheduled for August 15-16 at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground, Linden. Chief Executive Officer of Builders Lumber Yard, Mahammad Salim expressed his appreciation for the event and love for sports, hence his continued support. Salim said that he will continue to support the meet based on its continued growth over the years. R&D Engineering Services Inc. continued to have its name attached to the Boyce & Jefford Track and Field Classic VI
when it handed over its sponsorship cheque Friday, as organisers prepare to host the sixth edition of Guyana’s most rewarding competition. R&D Engineering was one of the first companies to support the event when it was birthed back in 2010 and signalled its intention of maintaining support. The meet will doll out in excess of $2M to clubs and athletes and another $250,000 to patrons. Chief Executive Officer of R&D Engineering Services, Reginald Roach said that he will continue to support the event. The Local Organising Committee for the meet expressed gratitude to both of the companies for their donations toward the success of the event.
FIFA rules in favour of St Vincent in WC protest GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Football world’s governing body, FIFA, has turned down a protest by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) alleging that St Vincent and the Grenadines used an
ineligible player during a World Cup Qualification game in June. The GFF had requested FIFA to investigate and rule on the status of the player James Gavin of St Vincent and the Grenadines and the
status and outcome of the game played in the preliminary competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia on June 14 between both teams at the Guyana National Stadium. The GFF (Continued on page 71)
Administration Supervisor at R&D Engineering Services Inc. Suraiya Sahid (left) hand over the sponsorship cheque to Edison Jefford yesterday.
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Jeffreys’ confirmation add excitement to August 9 Race Meet Kristian Jeffrey
Kevin Jeffrey
D-Day has arrived,who will it be? The three trophies along with impressive cash incentives for the schools that will be on offer tonight for the outstanding finishers of the Digicel Schools Football Championship at the Providence Stadium.
Unite. Develop. Excel.
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