Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Kaieteur M@ilbox
Kaieteur M@ilbox
This discourse on terms of coalition
This state of affairs at UG is detrimental to us and will not be tolerated in any form
DEAR EDITOR, Like most letters penned in this era, there are twisted opinions that attribute guilt and obliterate considerations of the ‘Other,’ as if he has no truths, or perhaps his humanity is so flawed that he could not retain his ancestral pains. The letter written by Sase Singh on David Hinds Jan. 31St 2015 is progressive and I believe from a sincere Guyanese, so was David’s response. Sase’s letter, through, I believe, through no guilt of his, repeats the mantra of the Mythology of past PNC rigged elections. This was not created by Sase, it’s a skilful piece of PPP propaganda implying that these acts were so unfair to the innocent PPP. Without any reference to the fact, that The PPP, under the Jagans, nurtured, shaped and commanded a vicious race war in this country for political power, using its provincial support, building on the racist beliefs that the PPP’S main Indo Guyanese constituency came to this country with, to construct a fixed division and political monitoring tool to control independent Indian thinkers along racial lines for the PPP’s political livelihood, which lay in the realm of anticolonialism, Ideologically , but in practical manifestation was contradictory to all that was postulated in ‘The West on Trial,’ As Sase rightly said, the Jumbies of that era are slowly beginning to fade
away. That dark era we must explore in a more sober atmosphere, as it has bred many myths and hyped distortions about what transpired. I have learnt a surprising paradoxical lot. The current predicament is, that this PPP; of 2007 to 2015, does not possess the national consciousness, sophistication or character to govern this country towards prosperity in the coming world. I would like to draw attention to two articles in last Sunday’s Stabroek 1st Feb.2015 “ A darker age beckons the world “ by Ian Mc Donald and Dr Clive Thomas’s “Guyana then and now: small, poor, open and trade dependent.” These articles outline information and deficiencies that should raise questions, that point to the human talent or lack of talent that in the absence of Cold War paternalistic support, could render any nation ascendancy or the abyss. Despite pitfalls, the Institutions created between Burnham and Hoyte have awakened in us a Guyanese self awareness. That the PNC had its flaws, errors and petty Dictators is known, that the political principles of Forbes Burnham brought us hardships cannot be disputed, but his economic policies were advanced, and have not been found wanting; in comparison to what, from this PPP? Sase, It’s not a question of race that resonates with
most of the Guyanese population outside of the PPP’s bottom house influence, but an embodiment of ‘Office’ for the National benefit. You ask most Afro Guyanese who’s the Caribbean politician of today that they most admire and they will tell you Trinidad’s Kamla Persad-Bissersar, because she commands accountability, she fires her Anil Nandlall’s and will never be caught travelling on a Money-Laundering private Jet; would not wholesale a forest while building no forest product industry locally; and I will add another woman, Thuli Madonsela, the South African prosecutor who was recently given the Integrity awarded for 2014, for her steadfast upholding of the principles of accountability in practice. Burnham set the precedent for the interface of foreign investment with capacity building of the local work force. Then, neither he nor Hoyte were feeding economic empires for themselves and family from manipulation of the national coffers and other questionable means. I stand with you Sase, that Guyana needs a reality check. I have known David Granger for over two decades, and I cannot account for enough people I trust for the ten fingers I have, and I say David Granger is a man I trust; his values and principles are not self-centred and he will embrace fully the other Continued on page 6
DEAR EDITOR, It is established that “As the University of Guyana goes so does the rest of Guyana” It is time to start the process of change to turn Guyana around for the betterment of all of us. To begin this process, it is absolute necessary to make the much needed and long overdue investments for current and future Guyanese students and society. There is an absolute need for all Guyanese to send a clear message to the political class who rule Guyana that this state of affairs at University of Guyana is detrimental to us and will not be tolerated in any form. University of Guyana Student Society (UGSS) president, Mr. J. Griffith, and UG staff and workers represented by Mr. Bruce Haynes and Dr. M. Ifill of University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and University of Guyana Senior Staff Association, UGSSA) respectively, need all the support from the public and civic society in order to start the metamorphosis. The political class who ruled Guyana did not and still does not care for the development of young Guyanese as can be seen from the abysmal state at the University of Guyana. The PPP-controlled UG Council and its APNU representatives seem deemed to demoralize the University and force it further in submission into a state that is already unimaginable. The state of affairs at
University of Guyana, Turkeyen, has gotten worse and worse over the years with no facilities that its dysfunctional state has become a normal way of operation. The older generation in the form of political class who rule UG and its representatives on the UG Council want Guyanese to continue to think and form a habitual cultural view that it is all about ethnicity and intended to justify its dominant control of UG by stifling and suffocating the younger Guyanese minds and the future of Guyana. To the students of UG, we have been down this road before and ethnicity has been used by the PPP-controlled UG Council and the dictatorial PPP to deny change to present and the next generation. This scorchedearth policy has effectively shut down this battle for
change. It is time we discard our parents and family’s (PPP and PNC) old but self-destructive politics. It has gotten us nowhere. It is stagnating and it is non-developmental, bordering on total economic and social destruction of Guyana. We are forced to flee this land of our ancestors. Let us demand a change both for ours and future generations. Demand changes that will result in full capabilities and facilities for UG from the political classes of the PPP and APNU. It is your inherited right as Guyanese to be properly educated and nothing to do with ethnicity as preached by the PPP for its own selfish ends. “As The University of Guyana goes so does the rest of Guyana.” The time is now for us to take a stand. Anand Daljeet
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Kaieteur News
Kaieteur M@ilbox
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur M@ilbox
An AFC/APNU coalition government will stop... From page 4 the treasury, dips into the foreign reserves, uses the country’s resources to fatten their overseas bank accounts, and takes the best ocean front lands for themselves, their relatives and friends. Guyanese do not want a government that gives them only a five percent increase in wages annually, thus forcing them to live from pay check to pay check; a government that is vindictive and has destroyed the lives of many innocent citizens who criticize their wrong doing. Finally, the people do not want a government that dictates to them, abandons the poor and the working class, governs in the interests of a few and is possessed with power and wealth. The people want a government that is caring and righteous and will solve their problems and not this ruthless PPP cabal. They want an AFC/APNU coalition government that will govern in the interests of all, restore the country’s dignity and reduce Jagdeo’s $3 million a month pension and unlimited per-
sonnel and vehicles. Such extravagance has become an overwhelming burden on the country. The masses who have been living this dreadful reality for the last decade or more have been carrying the financial burden of the nation on their backs while those who govern them; the privileged two per cent are safe in their cocoon of financial protection; hidden from the ghastly realities of crime and the decay of the society that the masses face on a daily basis. Ministers and other public officials in the minority PPP government and their entourage have the audacity to suggest they are being underpaid for their responsibility and the long hours they work. They are perpetually at war with one another for the country’s resources. They have no solidarity with the ordinary people and have not responded in a caring manner to their plight, as a sensible government would normally do to the suffering of its people. Guyanese must not allow the past to determine their future, so they must elect a government on May 11 that will reverse the extravagance, corruption, and the abuse of power that has characterized the Jagdeo/ Ramotar regime for the last fifteen years. The PPP regime has
shirked its obligations to the people and has become a pariah and the most corrupt party in Guyana today. The PPP cabal is a dying breed with no integrity or morals and who has destroyed the consciousness and the nobility of the nation. There is the general belief that the PPP is organizationally dysfunctional and has not established a clearly defined economic and human development framework that would serve to move the country forward. Some have theorized that the dysfunction remains because the PPP is leadercentric and is not committed to govern in the interest of all but a selected few. The Jadeoites in the PPP have embraced the personality of their founding leader only when it suits them at election, but they have not remained wedded to his philosophy, even posthumously as an election strategy, which is not to be corrupt or be above the law or use the state resources for their personal benefits. But the short-sighted opportunistic Jagdeoites have done the exact opposite. Today, the PPP is an insular party that is driven by money, power, vindictiveness and vulgarity. The PPP cabal’s overarching interest lies in their financial wealth. They have not done anything to improve the rundown hos-
pitals, substandard medical care, high infant mortality rate, illiteracy, low life expectancy, lack of basic human amenities, a backward education system, a collapsing UG and failing public schools, and constant floods—maladies that the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime has ignored for the past 15 years. Not to mention, Georgetown, the capital city is in rut, City Hall and other public buildings are in decay, the Botanical Garden is without animals, the archive and the public library are in ruin, a police force that is untrained, highly unprofessional and corrupt and a depressed public service. Say what you may about the combined opposition, the one thing that is solidly true of the AFC and APNU is that the leadership has always understood the socio-economic and cultural dynamics of the Guyanese electorate to such an extent that they remain active in the political consciousness. They have seen and have acknowledged the decay and have promised to remedy the situation. So, it is up to the people to convert their political consciousness into profitable and practical political outcomes and vote for an AFC/APNU coalition government on May 11. Dr. Asquith Rose, Chandra Deolall, Dr. Merle Spenser-Marks.
Your reporting was unfair to Mr. Jagnarine Singh DEAR EDITOR, I noticed in your coverage of the Vishnu Singh news story, your headline said, “Official’s son charged…,” and in the first paragraph, your paper said, “Vishnu Singh, the son of a highprofile member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).” You continued, “General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Jagnarine Singh, was present in the courtroom…” Your article also said, “After the matter was heard, the GRDB Manager left the court room and returned to post bail for his son.” Sir, I am not a member of the PPP; I do not know the accused or his father; I do not have business at the Rice Board, but I do think that the slant of your reporting is unfair to Mr. Jagnarine Singh. I am pretty sure that when the alleged incident happened that day, the father did not say to his son, “Go out and rape or bugger someone today.” For those of us who have
children, we know that children do the darnedest things, even if they come from the best of homes, and they embarrass their families. You cannot crucify or blame the father for what the son did. And parents would be there to pick up the pieces when children fail. Dumb things are done by children of parents from any party, race, or religion. We cannot demonize the parent just because he is a member of the PPP. We should not demonize the parent because he happens to have an important position in a state entity. The alleged act of the son has nothing to do with the GRDB; the parent was not in court for a GRDB matter or PPP matter. I consider the Kaieteur News (along with the pre1992 Mirror) to be the bastions of press freedom in Guyana. However, you have to be careful to not demonize people with such slanted reporting. Dr. Jerry Jailall
This discourse on... From page 5 patriots in the AFC. He will make the President to lead us out of this ‘Duck mire’. I can also assure you Sase, that David Hinds’ case is not meant to advocate racism, as he explained the grounds of his position. The fact is, there’s nothing from antiquity to the present in the philosophies of Africa that genetically adhere to a system of racism within Africans. Assess Afro
Guyanese from their resistance to Burnham, when that became necessary. In fact, I shall add to your Martin Luther King statement from a more ancient African source Terence Afer; [Afer-Latin for African] who died in 159 B.C. His statement is a natural propensity of most Afro Guyanese. He left us this profound definition-”I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me.” Barrington Braithwaite
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
Regulations automatically removing criminal record for ganja to be ready this week KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Regulations guaranteeing automatic removal of an offender’s criminal record for convictions relating to the smoking or possession of small quantities of ganja, are currently being drafted by the Ministry of Justice and should be ready this week. This is one of several key provisions being facilitated under the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) (Amendment) Act 2014, which came into effect in October last year. Providing details of this development, Portfolio Minister, Senator Mark Golding, informed that the Regulations are expected to be ready for him to sign by next week, after which they will be brought to Parliament to be approved. The Minister was addressing a Town Hall Meeting relating to this landmark legislation, held at the St Andrew High School for Girls in St Andrew on February 5. He explained that previously, under the law, automatic expungement of these records would be a discretionary matter for the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Board, and persons would not necessarily be entitled to it. “It is a discretionary remedy. But in the case of the small quantity of ganja or smoking, you do not have to wait for any rehabilitation period. You can immediately apply for expungement and you’re immediately entitled to it; there is no discretion, it’s a right that you
Mark Golding have,” Golding said. He noted that this new provision is already being implemented administratively by the Criminal Records Office where, if persons apply for their criminal record, and it is seen where there is a conviction for smoking or possession of a small amount of ganja, that record will be expunged before it is issued. “So, you don’t even have to go to the Board,” the Minister explained. Golding said this “really is a transformational amendment, because of the fact that the convictions for ganja had affected so many people,” pointing out that between 2012 and 2014, the Ministry received 2,881 applications for expungement, before this legislation was brought into effect. Of that number, 1,788 were approved, 147 were refused, and the others were either returned for one reason or another or deferred. Golding said that having a
criminal record “for what was in fact a very minor and common offence,” had serious disabling effects for persons, because it meant that they were unable to gain employment with the Government, and they could not apply for a visa successfully for certain countries. The Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act removes the additional rehabilitation period prescribed in the Act (1988) and adjusts the rehabilitation period stipulated in the Act. It further provides for expungement of the criminal records for other minor offences. The Town Hall meeting was staged by the Justice Ministry and covered topics including: overview of the amended legislation; automatic expungement for minor offences; qualification for expungement; and the application process for expungement.
Children being ‘forced into sex’ Barbados Nation -Many of the region’s children are engaging in sexual intercourse from as early as ten years old and, in half of the cases, it is forced upon them. And, said the author of a report on A Legal Gap Analysis Of Adolescent Sexual And Reproduction Health And Rights In The OECS, unless the laws across the region are changed, then
that vulnerable group will remain at risk. Law lecturer at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies and deputy dean of post graduate research, Westmin James, was speaking to the SATURDAY SUN after making a presentation to staff of the Ministry of International Business at Baobab Towers Friday. “The Caribbean has, after
Sub-Saharan Africa, the earliest ages of initiation into sexual intercourse and, of those statistics in relation to early childhood sexual intercourse, half of it is forced initiation,” James said, referring to his report which revealed that over 60 per cent of respondents to a survey reported that their age of sexual initiation was 12 years or under,” he said.
The family of Caribbean Airlines (CAL) director, Azad Niamat, who has been reported missing since January 29, is offering a reward as they continue the search for the retired pilot. While the relatives did not disclose the amount of money being offered for the information, they said they were it would
be paid to the informant if the information is accurate and leads to his recovery. Niamat, 69, is reported to have left his home in Chaguanas in central Trinidad on January 29, indicating that he was going to purchase part for a wireless router and has not been seen since. His burgundy coloured Toyota Prado has been found and appeared not to have
been tampered with. A relative told reporters that Niamat had pressed his GPS (Global Positioning System) in his van which sent a message to his daughter in Florida. But the father of two has not been found. Police are also assisting in the search. The family said they have not received any ransom demands.
Search continues for CAL director missing since late January
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Dem boys seh... Demolition work to commence on Stabroek Market Wharf tomorrow Guyana bruck up too bad
Stabroek Market wharf may finally be getting its much needed repair as demolition work is slated to commence on the age-old structure on Monday. Staffers of the Ministry of Public Works and the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) are expected to work together in repair efforts. City Hall’s Town Clerk (Ag) Carol Sooba told the media last Thursday that the Ministry of Public Works has allowed for the vessel Torani to aid in the demolition work. The vessel is currently moored alongside the Stabroek Wharf. Sooba said that the Council engineers determined that it would be dangerous for staffers to climb to remove the rotten building material and thus employed the Torani. She said that accessing the material might also pose difficult if it is to be transported through the market and the material would be loaded on to the boat for removal. In the meantime sections of the market have been cordoned off to facilitate the rehabilitation process. Several calls were made over the years for the rehabilitation of the wharf which continues to fall apart. Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker, had said that a revised plan of action to refurbish the market area was in the pipeline, but will take time to materialise. Heavy winds caused extensive damage to the already badly deteriorated vending area of the wharf. The incident created chaos among vendors and those who ventured into that section of the market to conduct business. A section of the wharf
The Torani moored (left) poses a hindrance to speed boats using the loading space.
had also collapsed, injuring a well known market handyman, on June 5, 2013. The handyman, Charles Ferdinand, had sustained a huge gash to the head and was hospitalized for over 48 hours. Vendors said that the poor situation was due to the lack of concern on the part of those responsible for the maintenance for the Stabroek Market wharf. The market operators noted that persons are putting their lives at risk on a daily basis, in an effort to ply their trade by using that section of the market. They had noted too that since there are no alternatives to the situation, numerous calls were made to the authorities to have the situation rectified. The roof of the dock continued to hang dangerously loose, beams were broken and bent and
vendors had expressed fear that at any moment, the entire section could come crashing down. Mayor Hamilton Green had noted that the maintenance of the marketplaces is the direct responsibility of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) but owing to its current financial state, it has been difficult for the Council to source revenue to renovate the structure. He said that the Council had made numerous attempts to raise funds to refurbish the area but the government had frustrated all its plans. Yesterday he was unaware of the rehabilitation plans when Kaieteur News made contact for an update of the work to commence. The Mayor said that the little he knew was what was being said informally. He explained that the Town Clerk and the
other government agencies were involved in the matter while the Mayor and Councilors are not privy to information. Boat operators are however plying their trade the best way they can. The mooring of the Torani at the wharf has displaced the boats taking commuters from the city to the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling. They told Kaieteur News that there is “confusion” since the vessel came into the area where the small boats usually awaited their turn to load. They said that the place where boats go to uplift the city passengers cannot accommodate the number of boats and they bump into each other getting in and out of the space. Some boats have to moor far from the loading area as a result of the Torani mooring at the wharf.
Things get real crucial in this country and every day it getting wuss. Dem boys hear how gunmen stick up a masquerade band pun Church Street. Now everybody know that masquerade does mek couple dollar which hardly amount to a day’s pay when dem done do all de hard wuk in de sun. So imagine how dem gunmen bad. One man seh that if he had gold teeth he would be afraid to smile. Another one seh that people shoulda tek a hint from de time Jagdeo start fuh drive wid he window wind up. Cheddi use to drive wid he window down because he like fresh air. Janet use to drive sheself but not Jagdeo. Dem boys seh that once people see de window wind up dem shoulda know that things meet de stage wheh is every man fuh heself. He was mekking sure that he don’t get rob because he know that money that woulda normally go to people gone to other people. So masquerade people getting rob. Old age pensioners did done get rob. De small piece dem collect full dem gunman eye and de next thing you know couple of dem get stick up. Some of dem even get kill in dem bed. When dem boys talk, de same Jagdeo seh that people always talking but dem don’t provide one bit of evidence. Well dem boys want he tell dem one project that he can say is a success. Dem also seh that everything he attempt he do in secret because he know that once de story come out people woulda object at de amount of money he was arranging fuh friends and family. Now de man seh that he ain’t want no wuk in Guyana. He know why and de next time dem boys gun talk why. Talk half and watch how Guyana bruck up.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
CJ’s ruling on National Assembly is erroneous By Kiana Wilburg Distinguished Guyanese scholar, Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, is of the firm conviction that Chief Justice (CJ) (Ag), Ian Chang’s ruling which held that the National Assembly is not a supreme organ of democratic power, is entirely erroneous. Chang’s ruling was in relation to a constitutional challenge of the legality of the Broadcasting Authority brought by Broadcaster Jacob Rambarran, the owner of Rambarran Broadcasting Systems Limited (RBS 13) In his October 24, 2014 ruling, the Chief Justice who dismissed the case said that it was “legally misconceived.” Chang also discarded Rambarran’s argument that the system for granting licences was unlawful because it is solely controlled by the executive and disregards the National Assembly, through which the people exercise their sovereignty. Ramsahoye believes that the CJ’s ruling is wholly wrong. The fact that its appeal which was registered since last October last year has not been heard up to this point is a national travesty. He explained that prior to
the 2011 elections when former President Bharrat Jagdeo was obliged to leave office, he distributed broadcasting licences to several people and caused an outcry because only persons close to him benefitted. At the time, Dr. Ramsahoye said that the licences were given under the old colonial telegraph legislation, which remained in force after Guyana achieved its independence status. He noted that when Jagdeo gave out licences immediately before leaving office, he assented to the Broadcasting Act 2011, but it did not come into force when he assented to it as President. The Broadcasting Act also favoured the government which was in office when it was passed, save for one person to be nominated by the opposition to the Broadcast Authority. The other six members of the Broadcasting Authority were appointed by the President. He said that such a lopsided allocation of representatives on the Broadcast Authority cannot possibly be relevant to a democracy. That very Act, Ramsahoye said, too, contained a provision that it would come into force upon
- Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, S.C the order of a Minister. There was no order at the time the 2011 General Election was held. The governing party, the PPP/C, lost the majority at that election and the new President and Ministers he appointed, did not have the confidence of a majority of a National Assembly, Dr. Ramsahoye asserted. Without that command, the former Attorney General (AG) opined that a lawful government could not be formed. He said that Ministers who did not command a majority of the Assembly had no ability to secure the passing of the budget which enables them to govern. “And that is the reason for the rule of constitutional law in democratic countries, that the government must have the confidence of a majority of the elected representatives and be subject to control of that majority in order to carry out a lawful government,” Sir Fenton added. He said that Rambarran and his company had a licence under the old law and challenged the right of the Minister to make an order bringing the Act into force when both the President and the Minister hadn’t the support of the majority of the
elected representatives in the National Assembly and could not lawfully hold office without it. Without that confidence, he emphasized, they all ought to have resigned if they could not secure that majority. He said that usually this is done by forming a coalition. Dr. Ramsahoye opined however that the false assumption has been made that under the Burnham Constitution which the PPP/ C embraced, no such coalition is possible. The former AG in an interview with Kaieteur News on the case, said that Rambarran and his company contended that Prime Minister Sam Hinds, had no lawful authority to bring the Broadcasting Act into force and it is not part of the laws of Guyana. He said that it purported to repeal the old colonial legislation but Rambarran contended that the old law was never repealed and remained in force because the Broadcasting ACT 2011 is n o t p a r t o f t h e l a w. Therefore the old law remains. In giving his legal opinion on the matter, Dr. Ramsahoye said that Rambarran further contended that many of the provisions of the Act contravened the freedom of expression of the Constitution
Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, S.C by exerting control over what was broadcast. It was also argued that since the spectrum which is used for broadcasting, belongs to the people, it had to be managed and controlled by an autonomous body which is proportionally representative of all the people who owned it. It was argued too, that the Act provided for partisan, political control of the spectrum which is owned by all the people and for that reason it is unlawful. “The problem arose in India and the relevant judgment of the Supreme Court which ruled that an independent autonomous body was necessary was cited and given to the High Court when the case was heard,” the Attorney-at-Law added. The acting CJ dismissed the constitutional motion brought by Rambarran and company and an appeal was lodged with Court of Appeal on November 16, last.
To date, the Court of Appeal has taken no action to deal with the case which Sir Fenton deemed to be one of major constitutional importance and should have been heard immediately, “even if the court had to sit at night.” He emphasized that because the issue as to whether a government which does not have the confidence of the majority of the National Assembly, is not a lawful Government and must resign, is a major issue affecting the entire nation and must be heard expeditiously. He cited that in his judgment, the acting CJ held that the National Assembly is not a supreme organ of democratic power and ignored its importance in the formation of a lawful democratic government. Dr. Ramsahoye asserted firmly, that the National Assembly is at the core of representative and responsible government and is at the heart of democracy. Rambarran and his company are still fighting to have the appeal heard. The former AG stressed that in a matter where it is being said that the government should resign because it is unlawful, is serious and must be heard. He believes that issue should take precedence because it is not an ordinary issue between a citizen and the state. “All the Appeal Court has to do is view the papers which were before Chang and they are still stalling. There is no need for witnesses. Chang’s judgment is just wholly wrong.”
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Guyanese mason, female cook jailed for cocaine in Barbados Barbados (Barbados Today) -Both a Guyanese woman who brought a kilogram of cocaine into Barbados on Tuesday, and the man who received it will be residing at Dodds for the next two years. Lloydanna Uleta Morris, a 23-year-old assistant cook of 25 Norton Street, Lodge, Georgetown, admitted to possession, intent to supply, trafficking and importation of the substance, when she went before the Oistins Magistrates’ Court yesterday. Her accomplice, Dennis Allistair France, who went before the same court, pleaded guilty to charges of possession, intent to s u p p l y, t r a ff i c k i n g a n d committing acts preparatory for the purpose of trafficking the drug. The 37-year-old mason, also a Guyanese, was residing at Bynoe Road, Rendezvous, Christ Church. The two were ordered to serve the time after they could not pay the $60,000 fine imposed by Chief Magistrate Pamela Beckles. Acting Station Sergeant Rudolph Burnett told the court that Morris arrived in Barbados on February 3, on a flight from her homeland and was granted entry into Barbados. The next day, after receiving information, police executed a search warrant at the room where she was staying at a Christ Church hotel. While they found no drugs, the woman reportedly confessed to bringing in the cocaine days earlier.
She further confessed to handing it over to a man who came to her room to collect it. While police were still in her room, that same man turned up and Morris pointed him out to police. It was France, who also admitted that he took the cocaine home after he got it from Morris. Both were subsequently arrested. After carrying out a warrant at France’s home, police found a haversack with a girdle and four packages of cocaine inside. Breaking down in court yesterday, the woman said she acted as a drug mule because she is a single parent, unable to look after her child. The child has already been taken from her by a government agency in Guyana, and a member of staff there told her that if she gets sufficient funds she would be given back the child. H o w e v e r, Chief Magistrate Beckles told her that even if she had succeeded with the drugs, the agency would still have investigated how she came by a sudden injection of cash. In relation to France, he said he lived here since 2005 but was finding difficulty in getting work, especially since he was hiding from Immigration. Saying that he was “cashstrapped”, France asked for leniency. Both were convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other charges. At the end of their jail term, or if the fine is paid, both will be handed over to immigration officials.
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Rice had its best year in Berbice, says Armogan Rice has had its best year ever both in Berbice and on the national scene, according to Region Six Chairman, Mr. David Armogan. Armogan stated that the rice industry has grown immensely from just over 50,000 acres under cultivation in Berbice three years ago to over 62,732 acres today. The industry, which has faced numerous challenges in the past, he said, is “picking up”. The Chairman said, too, that persons are even converting their homesteads in Black Bush Polder into rice production, and this is causing the Region Six Administration a lot of problems, since the use of fertilizers and other chemicals in these residential areas, can be harmful to people residing there. Armogan also spoke about problems being experienced with the Kokerite Savannah in Black Bush Polder, a designated cattlerearing area, but which has now been transformed into rice farming by farmers there.
...over 4M bags of paddy in 2014
performance ever in the history of the rice industry in Berbice!” He said that 2015 will be much, much better for rice. “We are heading in for some very exciting times in the rice industry, once the price holds— the price is the major thing!” Newer markets must be created, he said, and the government has been moving to do such. “Once these markets are created and the prices are good, it means that
“The best performance ever in the history of the rice industry in Berbice!” - Armogan Cattle has to move further in. “So every acre of land available, people are just preparing it for rice cultivation— and that is because rice has to be payable.” During the first crop last year, 62,337 acres of rice were under cultivation, yielding 32.3 bags of paddy per acre. During the second crop, he said there were 62,732 acres under cultivation, with a yield of 36.5 bags of paddy per acre, producing 2,289,718 bags of paddy. Armogan described this as a “phenomenal performance…the best
our people can continue to produce.” The Ministry of Agriculture in a release last December stated that Guyana’s market for rice has expanded to several countries in Central America. Guyana is returning to pre2010 export of rice to Haiti. Brazil and Columbia are also growing destinations for the industry’s rice. Government also said that Guyana is continuing to engage several African countries which have expressed interest in rice. “Most of these countries are
in West Africa and the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa delayed progress on realizing these new markets,” the Ministry stated. Guyana’s rice industry is also poised for expansion into value-added products. While bulk rice continues to be the main export from the industry, 2014 evidenced the largest amount of packaged rice sold. Packaged rice export amounted to about 50,000 tons in 2014. In collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Commerce and IAST, rapid advances have been made in acquiring a rice cereal factory and we expect this to produce commercial quantity of rice cereal in 2015.” This year, Guyana is expecting its first major bioenergy plant which is
replacing about 70 per cent of fossil fuel utilization in the operation of a rice factory in Essequibo. Armogan said that the Administration continues to provide the facilities for farmers to cultivate rice too. “Rice cannot grow without irrigation and drainage systems,” he stated. Over the years, these systems have been improved. There are currently five pumps in operation in Black Bush Polder, Corentyne. The Region Six Administration spends over $4.5M in fuel per week to supply irrigation water to farmers. “That’s a lot of money!” Although there has been a drop in prices for rice, Armogan said that it has stabilized to a level where farmers are still comfortable.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
Ottawa bans A lasting legacy through the import of 16 lives and instruments of children drugs from India The Tina Insanally foundation…
By Nicholas Peters One of the greatest tragedies in the world is the loss of a child; it is an unimaginable sorrow that no parent should ever face. However this still happens to too many parents and is a difficult process for anyone to cope with. For Vic Insanally and his wife, Pat, this was the case when they tragically lost their 23-year-old daughter, Tina, five years ago. For the Insanally family, Tina’s death proved an incredible ordeal to overcome. It was especially difficult since the young woman was a talented and gifted musician, who impacted the lives of countless persons. In her 23 years of life, Tina managed to come into her own as an outstanding poet, pianist, vocalist and even humanitarian as she spent a lot her time volunteering with disadvantaged children. Tina had migrated to pursue studies at Brescia University College in Canada, but she still managed to dedicate time to less fortunate children whenever she visited home. Tina had a devout passion to children at the Red Cross Convalescence Home, St. Ann’s Girls and the St. John’s Bosco Boys Orphanages. Her voluntary service managed to combine mentorship and music through collaborative works with other musicians like Chad Arthur, Francis Bailey, Mark Lee and Jason Harper. Tina was also a profound writer, with her personal
writings revealing her unrelenting faith in God and her deep affection for her family, friends and human kind. It was from the legacy left behind by Tina that further compelled her family to start up the Tina Insanally Foundation (TIF), an organisation with the goal of benefitting the lives of less fortunate Guyanese children, through music. The Insanallys’ first move towards honouring their daughter’s memory was to transform the top flat of their Guyenterprise business into a music studio. Even though transforming what used to be an office space to a musicians’ room proved taxing, transforming the lives of young disadvantaged children was always the aim for the family. This led to the formation of a Steel Pan orchestra which initially comprised children from the St. John’s Bosco Boys Orphanage and the St. Ann’s Girls Orphanage. As time went by and more children grooved in to the beat of the steel pan, TIF was able to get 70 kids interested in learning the instruments. The initiative eventually expanded to the yard space of the Guyenterprise complex in order to accommodate the eager musicians. “The initiative has really grown since the beginning,” said Vic Insanally, who also mentioned that TIF’s mission has managed to incorporate more children’s homes like the Bless The Children Home in
the East Coast Demerara village of Industry. “We have even opened another training center for the children in disadvantaged communities at Lovely Lass along the West Coast Berbice.” From the beginning, Insanally has maintained that TIF is always working to serve disadvantaged children, so that they can eventually access other avenues that life offers. And, a commonly overlooked avenue happens to be music. He believes that if someone is not as skilled in one field then God blesses that person with exceptional talent in another. According to him, he witnesses this belief every time a child enters the orchestral group and proves their special skill. Due to the success of the musical initiative, TIF has begun introducing other instruments in their training programme. The organization has brought on Mark Lee for the guitar and Colgrain White for the keyboard. TIF is also looking to implement more wind based instruments like the clarinet and saxophone, with the help of a former police officer. By introducing these new instruments the organization is allowing for interested participants to stretch their metaphorical wings. Such was the case with an outstanding youth named Nicholas Husain, who can now play four instruments. Husain, in the words of
Vic Insanally, has proven to be one of the orchestral members that was robbed of certain benefits in one way and rewarded with an outstanding skill in another. While Husain has a very quiet demeanour, when he picks up drumsticks or strums a guitar, one can see the depths of expression that the young maestro channels into his music. When asked how the programme has affected his life he related that it has been a wholly positive experience. “He’s found himself in the music,” related Insanally, remarking that he has seen a drastic change in Husain’s character since he has started. Insanally also described the effect the orchestra has had on other children. Whenever there is a concert, Insanally said that a few of the children would even improvise a song or dance routine to the amusement of the audience. Annually, TIF hosts a Christmas concert at the Theatre Guild to showcase the talents of the orchestra, which has been ongoing for three years. The orchestra has since expanded to not only include steel pan performances but a mix of guitar and drums as well. And as the Mashramani festivities are underway the public may very well be lucky enough to see how far the children’s orchestra stretches; further ensuring that Tina’s goodwill and faith lives on in the musical soul.
- Unreliable lab records, data at issue C a n a d a (vancouversun.com) - The federal government has halted the importation of several drugs and drug ingredients from two Indian factories, as concern grows about Canadian health products sourced in the burgeoning South Asian pharmaceutical industry. Health Canada said another government had passed on worries about “data integrity” at the plants, and Canadian importers mostly generic pharmaceutical companies agreed to quarantine the products indefinitely. The 16 affected medicines range from blood-pressure pills to chemotherapy drugs, anti-psychotics and opioid painkillers. But one expert on pharmaceutical regulation is questioning why Health Canada has not blocked the sale of those medicines that had arrived on shelves earlier from the factories. “How can the product be too dangerous to import, but safe enough to go down a Canadian’s throat?” asked Amir Attaran, Canada research chair in law and population health at the University of Ottawa. “This makes no sense. ... What about the doses already sitting in warehouses, what about the doses already sitting on pharmacy shelves?” He said the integrity problems could range from relatively innocuous dataentry shortcomings to clearly fraudulent behaviour - such as fudging results on drugstability tests. Canada’s increasing use of Indian-made medications, coupled with India’s antiquated regulatory system, points to the need for more drastic action, such as barring
all imports if the country fails to modernize its rules, Attaran said. Health Canada said it has identified “no immediate risk” to Canadians’ health from the products, and urged patients not to change their medication without consulting their doctors. A spokesman said the data-integrity issues ranged from the spectrum of poor record keeping to intentional falsification, calling into question the reliability of lab data the facilities provided to regulators. Health Canada says it has engaged provinces and territories to share information on the situation. A newspaper in India reported that inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had earlier found problems at the plants - Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in Srikakulam and IPCA Laboratories in Pithampur. Health Canada quietly posted a notice about the voluntary quarantine of products from the factories two days before Christmas. The importers were 11 generic pharmaceutical companies, including giants Teva Canada and Sandoz Canada. Officials for either Dr. Reddy’s or IPCA could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for Dr. Reddy was quoted in India as saying the flagged products “pose no risk to the health and safety of the Canadian people,” and that the company is working to resolve the issue. An IPCA factory and two owned by Canada’s Apotex in India were subject to a similar ban announced in September. The government later allowed the drugs through, as long as they passed independent tests.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Witnessing a Seizure: ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ with Dr Zulfikar Bux
Witnessing someone having a seizure may not be as uncommon as you think. One in ten persons will have a seizure in their lifetime. Odds are we may become a witness to someone seizing at some point in our lives. Would you know what to do if you saw someone seizing? Seizures or better known by some as “fits” is an abnormal electrical discharge in our brain which causes our body to have atypical physical displays. There are different types of seizures which cause persons to have different
forms of physical displays during their seizure attack. Some may simply lose focus and have a constant gaze, while others may have aggressive uncontrolled body movements. Noticing any one of these episodes can easily overwhelm you and create panic. Doing some simple actions and avoiding unwarranted ones may help to save the life of someone who is seizing. STAY CALM Your first act when witnessing a seizure is to stay calm. This will enable you to
There will always be bad news for some people. How can one explain to a group that the accident that will kill their loved one was not entire due to the man. He would die in a smashup that was caused by a less than careful driver? The vehicle would actually be struck by another on the busy thoroughfare by another. This is happening so often that one wonders whether there are too many vehicles. ** The crime spree is just not ending. A group of young gunmen is going to target a small night spot because the general view is
think and act in a more rational manner. Although seizures seem to last a long time, they may only last from a few seconds to 90 seconds. Those that go beyond that will have to be controlled by medical professionals. PROTECT THE PERSON FROM INJURY Keep him/her from falling if you can, try to gently guide them to the floor. Try to move furniture or other objects that may injure the person during the seizure. POSITION THE PATIENT
that everything is there for the taking. However, on this occasion law-abiding citizens have guns too. One of the gunmen would be shot and his colleague arrested and beaten badly. ** A sad tale would emerge from the medical field. Another pregnant woman is going to die because the hospital would continue to be less than people-friendly. The woman did develop complications, but there was nothing that a caring nursing team could not cope with.So another household would be reduced to a bout of mourning.
If possible, try to lay the person on their side so that fluids can leak out of their mouth. Persons tend to produce lots of saliva or even vomit during seizures. This can choke them if they are positioned incorrectly. DO NOT PUT ANYTHINGINTHEMOUTH There is a common myth of putting objects in people’s mouth to prevent them from biting their tongue during a seizure. This is a dangerous practice and can even choke the patient causing more harm. Do not attempt to even stick your fingers in someone’s mouth while they are seizing. AVOID TRYING TO HOLD DOWN THE PERSON WHILETHEYARE SEIZING It’s important to understand that a seizing person does not have control of their actions and they are moving their body with tremendous force. Attempting to hold them down may cause injury to you or them. WHAT TO DO AFTER THE SEIZURE HAS ENDED After an episode of
seizure, the patient will usually be drowsy and may even be sleeping. They will need support during this time, since they are still at risk of having another seizure or choking. The following actions will be of benefit to the patient after their seizure: - Check the person for injuries - If you could not have turned the person to their side during the seizure, do so now - If the person is having trouble breathing, tilt their head upwards. If they still cannot breathe after this, then ensure their mouth is not blocked with saliva, vomit or broken teeth. A quick finger sweep in their mouth may help remove the blockage during this time. - Loosen tight clothing around the person’s neck and waist - Do not offer anything to eat or drink unless the person is fully awake - Seek medical attention if warranted. During a seizure, the patient does not have a choice over his/her actions.
Dr Zulfikar Bux Being a witness, you will have a choice over your actions, remaining calm and following the above plan may be your best bet. (Dr Zulfikar Bux is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Vanderbilt University and Medical Center and holds the position of Head of the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.)
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
The man who loved CSI By Michael Jordan I have a strange request for you this week. I want those of you, who love crime dramas, particularly the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) television series, to tell me if you recall any episode, perhaps going back five years, in which someone committed a murder in a house, and dumped the body in a creek, or river, or canal, to fake a drowning. This strange request may give a young man named Tristan Isaacs a clue about the still unsolved murder of his mother, which happened right here, and around that time… Boys will be boys, so the shiny red bicycle in the canal near the ‘D’ Field, Sophia access road caught the child’s eyes. The sight of that bike drew him closer to the water. It was then that he spotted the other object, and screamed, and ran. It was Sunday, March 13,
2011, and the sight of the running, screaming boy caught the attention of residents passing along the ‘D’ Field, Sophia roadway. What the boy told them sent them hurrying to the canal, and there they saw what had scared the child. It was the decomposing corpse of a woman, lying faceup and dressed in a green tshirt and blue denim skirt. Some of the onlookers speculated that a vehicle may have struck the woman while she was cycling through Sophia, and that the panicstricken driver fled the scene. But others also observed that the bicycle was undamaged. Their queries turned to consternation when they realised that the victim was one of their own. She was 52year-old Neibert IsaacsBacon, a Special Constable who lived at ‘D’ Field. She worked the three to eleven p.m. shift at a location near the Sophia Exhibition site and rode the red bicycle to and from work. Mrs. Bacon was reportedly last seen alive on Friday, March 11, 2011, two days prior to the discovery. She had a 19-year-old son, and it was he who confirmed the victim’s identity after viewing her remains at the Lyken Funeral Parlour. And he was certain of one thing: No hit-and-run driver had killed his mother. Someone with a motive had
DEAD: Neibert Isaacs-Bacon murdered her. Tristan Isaacs says that his mother could not have been riding her bicycle at the time of her death, because it had suffered a puncture and she was unable to have it patched immediately. He also didn’t believe that his ever vigilant mother was attacked while traversing the area. Tristan Isaacs believes that someone killed his mother in her home while she slept, then dumped her in the canal, in the hope of making it appear that she had drowned. He thinks that the killer had also hoped that the caimans and other reptiles inhabiting the canal would
have devoured the corpse. He was even more convinced of the killer’s identity when a post mortem revealed someone had clubbed her to death. She had sustained blows to the head. Tristan Isaacs says that after identifying his mother’s body, he accompanied other relatives to his mother ’s home. According to Isaacs, he observed that someone had placed a heavy plank against the back door from the inside of the house. He believed that the killer blocked the back door with the plank to thwart her escape. The slain woman’s relatives also realised that a small black handbag, which his mother literally always carried, was missing. That handbag contained all of his mother’s valuable documents, including her birth certificate. Her phone was also gone. Something else was missing; or rather, someone. That person was Mrs. Bacon’s husband, Everol ‘Evo’ Bacon. He just couldn’t be found. The two had been married for five years, but were on the verge of divorce, and in the midst of a long and acrimonious court battle over their ‘D’ Field, Sophia property. Mrs. Bacon had reportedly also claimed in court that she was forced to flee her home after her spouse threatened her with a meat cleaver, over her attempts to
gain sole possession of the property. While some reports suggest that the husband moved to a relative’s home, located close to the couple’s house, Tristan Isaacs says that the two continued to live together, up to the time of his mother’s murder. According to him, his mother, “a no-nonsense and determined person,” repeatedly ignored pleas to find other accommodation until the case ended. But some two days after Mrs. Bacon’s body was found, Mr. Bacon reappeared. He turned up at the Turkeyen Police Station in the company of an attorney. According to reports, Mr. Bacon claimed that he was in Essequibo at the time of the murder. Police detained him for 72 hours, found nothing to link him to his wife’s death and released him. Tristan Isaacs’ mother would have celebrated her fifty-sixth birthday on January 27th, 2015. That anniversary passed with the victim’s son having not a shred of optimism that her killer will ever be caught. “I have no hope at all. The police dropped it (the case) and it doesn’t look as if they
will pick it up again. The last thing they told me is that ‘the investigation is still pending.’” According to him, some of his mother ’s closest neighbours have hinted of hearing screams coming from the victim’s home on the night she was slain. Others reportedly also saw suspicious activity by a male resident, but are fearful of retaliation and will not confide in the police. Tristan Isaacs believes that the killer is someone known to him; someone with an almost obsessive fondness for television crime dramas; someone who may have been watching CSI, and watching his mother, and planning…and waiting to turn fiction into reality. If you have any information about other unusual cases, please contact Kaieteur News at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location. We can be reached on telephone numbers 225-8465, 2258491 or 225-8473. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: mjdragon@ hotmail.com
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==
I got married in elephant bells My wedding anniversary and the rebirth of flares coincide. On this day, thirtysix years ago, I got married in elephant bells at the central post office. I wore black pin-stripe flare trousers. There was no wedding, but a very small family reception held at my motherin-law’s house in Wortmanville. At the reception, I wore green corduroy flares. Again, the style was elephant bottoms. In those days none of my trousers were straights. I always wore flares, commonly known around the world as bell bottoms. When the flares were immoderately large, they were called elephant bells. Flares are back. I wonder if they will endure. In some of the top fashion houses around the world, since the new year began, flares are on the catwalk. It would be emotionally
satisfying to see flares light up the world again. It will remind people of my age of the great seventies. The great seventies was the age of West Indian cricket hegemony, Bob Marley, Eddie Grant, Burt Bacharach, Walter Rodney, the soaring melody of Hotel California by the Eagles (what a phenomenal song) and my life at the University of Guyana where ‘Pumpkin’ provided late night entertainment You can criticize Forbes Burnham how much you like (and this columnist will never stop berating Forbes Burnham), you can demonize Forbes Burnham how much you like (it would be wrong to keep doing so), you can spend the rest of your life wishing Guyana didn’t have Forbes Burnham, but in the age of bell bottoms and Clive Lloyd and Michael Holding and Rastafari in Jamaica, Forbes Burnham gave Guyana the
University of Guyana It was a top class university that provided a top class education competitive anywhere in the world. The scholarship in every department was breath-taking – Mary Noel Menezes and Wi n s t o n M c G o w a n i n history; Clive Thomas and Maurice Odle in economics; Harold Lutchman and Perry Mars in comparative politics; Rudy James in law. Over in the sciences, UG had a full quota of top brains In the sciences there was this eccentric Hungarian professor, George Lederer (deceased) who farted all the time. He would walk on the corridors and be farting and everyone would hear him doing so. Also eccentric was the late-night bus driver. I never knew his name, but we called him ‘Pumpkin.’ At UG, the university-run cafeteria closed at 11p.m. That was the
last call for hot soups. The last state-run bus left the campus at 11.30p.m. Some say Pumpkin was crazy, but he was just a grumpy old man. We teased Pumpkin every night and as they say in common parlance, ‘like an old car, he took cranking.’ Pumpkin kept a piece of wood by his seat and would threaten students with it once he felt they were taking their “eyes pass him.” A few times he stopped the bus on Sheriff Street and called out to those he thought he could do physical battle with, but we just ignored him. One of the funniest moments I have of my bell bottoms life and of the seventies occurred at UG. The Social Science students held an interior retreat and Ronnie White was caught with a female student. Ronnie White currently lives abroad in New York. I
normally inquire about him from my UG contemporaries who are still in Guyana; they tell me he does visit Guyana. I do like Ronnie, and I think he knows that. I was from the Arts Faculty and broadcast to the entire campus what Ronnie did. Ronnie saw me in the library and from the way he was coming towards me I knew he wanted to beat me up. He chased me all over the library on every level, but couldn’t catch me. My flares made running easier. I guess Ronnie couldn’t manoeuvre properly in his straight-legged denim but scrawny me, was much faster The era of flares is associated with the sixties and seventies. I think those two decades were some of the greatest moments in the history of human civilization. The seventies was about respect for each other, respect for elders, love for each other,
Frederick Kissoon the yearning for freedom and liberation, the quest to save the world, the desire to remove racial inequality, the lust to be as free as the wind. I’m glad I was a product of the seventies. I’m glad I listened to Bob Marley, Eddie Grant, Burt Bacharach and John Lennon. I’m glad I read the icons of the seventies Jean Paul Sartre, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Rodney. I’m glad I wore flowers in my hair and elephant bells. Most of all, I am glad the seventies gave me Janet Kissoon. I’m still married to her.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
The PPP is destabilising the country and disuniting the people President Donald Ramotar grasped the opportunity to alarm the nation about a nonexistent situation, thereby creating unnecessary tension and suspicion as the people prepare for general and regional elections in May. Ramotar, who also performs the functions of Minister of Defence and Chairman of the Guyana Defence Board, addressed the Guyana Defence Force annual Officers’ Conference on Thursday 5th February. He issued a warning that: “Forces
of fear and fragmentation must not be allowed to fester in our society. Any attempt to create a feeling of insecurity and fear among citizens within any segment of our population based on rumours, subjective gutter politics or worse, must be frowned upon and actions taken by security forces to arrest any such tendency by the application of the full weight of the law and the constitution.” Ramotar must be aware that it is his own party – the People’s Progressive Party – which has been creating insecurity and fear and indulging in gutter politics. It was the PPP that issued the vile press statements: “ G r a n g e r
readytomaketheDemeraraRiverrun redwithbloodifheiselectedpresident,” on 25th November 2014 and “The military-dominated o p p o s i t i o n – a clear and potential danger for Guyana,” on 2nd January 2015, among others. The opposite is true. It is under the PPP that the worst bloodbaths in Guyana’s post-Independence history have occurred. It is under Clement Rohee, as the PPP Minister of Home Affairs, that persons of all ethnic groups have become victims of armed robbery, arson, banditry, domestic violence, executions, murders, piracy, rapes, and fatal road accidents which are now everyday occurrences. Rohee, meanwhile, is
fuelling fear. He acquired the useless $37M water cannon to be employed against demonstrators. He reequipped the Guyana Police Force with riot gear; the unit has been conducting provocative, public anti-riot training exercises since August 2014. Rohee also established a SWAT unit. He seems to be more concerned with non-existent riots than with fighting everyday crimes which cost innocent lives. The PPP is deliberately destabilising the country, undermining public confidence and destroying national unity in order to create a solid voting bloc to gain a majority in the forthcoming general and regional elections. President Ramotar has single-handedly and singlemindedly pursued policies which are clearly intended to promote the PPPC’s partisan political programme at the expense of advancing national unity. The PPP’s main thrust is evident. The PPP has shown its preference for the ‘winnertakes-all’ style of governance by rejecting every attempt by APNU to build consensus in the National Assembly. President Ramotar bluntly refused to assent to bills passed by the majority. He has chosen, absurdly, to falsely blame the Opposition for gridlock and to characterise the National Assembly as “a wound on the body politic of our nation…that is festering and reopening every time a
sensible, moral and costed development project is stalled...” This absurdity is designed to fool the population by blaming the Opposition for the government’s fraudulent and flawed transactions. It is the PPP itself which caused the closure of the Fibre Optic Cable Project, the Specialty Surgical Hospital Project and other failed infrastructure enterprises. The PPP, despite its campaign and manifesto promises, steadfastly refuses to carry out necessary infrastructure works in regions which are under nominal opposition control. The PPP never had any intention of c o m p l e t i n g t h e LindenKwakwani, Bartica-Potaro and Linden-Lethem highways and the East Bank Berbice roadway, because they are located in regions controlled and populated by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change supporters. The PPP refuses to make Bartica, Mabaruma, Mahdia and Lethem – the administrative centres of the four huge hinterland regions – into townships, because of fears that the new municipalities will fall under APNU control. The PPP has rejected APNU resolutions in the National Assembly to investigate high crimes and abuses. These include the deaths of indigenous children in the North-West, trafficking in persons, especially
indigenous girls, and fatal maritime and riverine accidents. The PPP never showed any interest in investigating the deaths of persons who do not seem to be their own supporters. The PPP, also, seems unconcerned with the problems affecting indigenous children living in dormitories in hinterland regions and the lack of local democracy in municipalities and neighbourhoods. The PPP refused to implement Resolutions of the National Assembly for the recognition of the 175th anniversary of Guyana’s ‘first village’ and to observe Chinese and Portuguese immigration ‘days’ through the creation of a National Heritage Commission. The PPP controls the state-owned media – GINA, NCN and GNNL – with an iron fist, steadfastly refusing to allow opposition access to them. The PPP hopes that its tactics of fostering fear of APNU while showering favours on PPP supporters will win sufficient support to gain a majority in the next general and regional elections. APNU, on the other hand, has a vision of a single nation guided by common values and united by a shared commitment to all Guyanese in all Regions. APNU rejects the PPP’s strategy to divide our country and pledges to promote inclusionary democracy that will guarantee “a good life for all Guyanese.”
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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MY COLUMN
Be careful what you say People always say that one should be careful about what one says. Sometimes in a fit of anger we simply utter the first words that come to our mouths. Indeed, many a fight has broken out because of words spoken in anger. Sometimes we wish that we did not utter the hurtful words but like the spent arrow, those words cannot be recalled. There was Mayor Hamilton Green who, at a meeting, described his Town Clerk as El Jefe— a Spanish term meaning “the Chief”. But tempers were raging and the Town Clerk, a buxom woman, took offence. She heard the mayor call her a heifer. Indeed any woman of size would be angry to be called a heifer and the Town Clerk, Beulah Williams, was one who would become angry. The quarrel raged, fuelled by the media. It was some time later that the mayor got to say his bit. He explained what he really said, and that should have been the end of the matter, except for the fact that the Town Clerk insisted that heifer was what she heard. As an editor, I myself have had my share of
controversies. I remember telling a young man to rectify some bit of drivel that he had written. The young man was angry and I suppose had I not been the editor, I would have been at the receiving end of something worse than a surly look. I saw the young man go to his colleagues and I saw them glancing me and laughing. I felt a bit apprehensive, because in my book I had done nothing wrong. But sometimes there are people who would prolong the agony. Later, I learnt that the young man went to his colleagues and reported that I had said something about his rectum and that I perhaps was gay. The man associated rectify with his rectum. On many occasions we also hear people say that a man was suffering from some prostrate disorder. A woman read that a man lay prostrate on the road and she simply said, “That prostrate is something men have to worry about. Nuff men does dead from it.” Don’t say procrastinate to some people these days. I
heard a colleague of mine tell a young reporter that she is a procrastinator. The young woman replied that she was no cross, that my colleague should go home and see where the cross is. The truth is that people do not read these days. They would sit glued to the television and soak up everything that is broadcast. In the olden days when someone heard a word, that person would seek out a dictionary. These days I doubt that many young people know to use a dictionary. That is why progenitor led to a woman complaining to her supervisor that a colleague insulted her. In her book, the word pro meant forward and genitor meant something about her genitals. The laughter had barely died down when a fight broke out as someone said to a fellow worker that he was pudgy. Indeed the fellow was, but as they say, a little learning could be a dangerous thing. The fellow concluded that pudgy was short for pugilistic. How do you tell a mother that her son would be sent to
a penal settlement? Many would conclude that the settle has something to do with penis, and would imagine their sons getting into all sorts of problems with other men. In the vernacular, there is the word “sotie”, a reference to a male genital organ. So when a man walked into a restaurant and booked a table only to order his meat sautéed, the couple nearby looked at each other, got up and left muttering that they did not know such things went on in the restaurant. The woman wanted to know which chef would place his “sotie” on people’s food. Back when I was a schoolboy, I was introduced to a lovely little book named ‘The Rivals’, written by Richard Sheridan. This play, according to Wikipedia, was staged back in 1775, and it featured a Mrs. Malaprop who gave meaning to the term ‘Malapropism’. She would have done well in
today’s Guyana. For her, her contiguous neighbour was contagious. Of course the neighbour might very well have been, but then again the neighbour might not have been. Thanks to her or perhaps no thanks, I enjoy some of the comments by people around me. How else can I laugh when I say that cows are domesticated and the person would reply, “Of course they are. No one ever said that a cow can talk. Indeed, it is dumb.” Degenerate has nothing to do with a generator and I still remember my friend Chandra Narine Sharma announcing that should he be elected to high office he would electrocute the entire Guyana. Of course he meant electrify. But then again, perhaps he meant what he said, because these days with all the criminals around, the country needs electrocuting.
Adam Harris There is the story about a father who took his daughter to the hospital after she sustained a head injury. The doctor simply remarked that she got a nasty crack. He got a punch from the father. Or the man whose wife was involved in an accident and needed a CT scan. A few years ago, we all said CAT scan, but that has changed because of the man. He said that his wife did not need such a scan when in fact the injury was to her upper body.
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By Dominic Gaskin With elections now imminent and the prospect of change looming, it may be asking a lot for the public to turn its attention to the year 2030 and try to imagine what this country will be like in fifteen years’ time. Seasoned politicians the world over understand that voters tend to base their choices on their own short-term interests, as opposed to long-term proposals, and political campaigns are therefore focused on the more immediate concerns of the population. The year 2030 will come around whether we like it or not, and the majority of persons on Guyana’s current list of electors will be alive and still in Guyana when it does. What this country will have become by then will be determined by the choices we make on May 11th of this year when we go to the polls to select the next Government of Guyana. In the year 2030, our state-
Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
In the year 2030… owned schools, whether nursery, primary or secondary, can be delivering education that is consistent throughout Guyana and which meets the highest global standards of the day. In the year 2030, our law enforcement officials can be adequately equipped, properly trained and capable of maintaining order on our roads and in our communities. In the year 2030, our law enforcement officials can have the capacity to protect citizens across the country from attacks by armed bandits and pirates. In the year 2030, a growing and globally-competitive manufacturing sector can be offering jobs and training to thousands of young persons every year. In the year 2030, Guyana can be an attractive venue for investors. In the year 2030, our
physical infrastructure can be well developed and properly maintained. In the year 2030… As one reads each line the picture taking shape becomes increasingly attractive; yet these achievements have eluded us for many decades and our current path is not pointing in any of these directions. As stated earlier in this article, voters tend to base their choices on their own short-term interests. However, here in Guyana even the shortterm interests of the voter are not urgent enough to override the ultimate concern which surfaces whenever the issue of who will govern Guyana is raised. The fear of political dominance is the single most powerful factor affecting voting among Guyana’s two major ethnic groups, and is responsible for the strong
support traditionally given to the PPP and PNC by Indo- and Afro-Guyanese respectively. This has created a political reality that cannot be denied or dismissed as mere perception. This reality is what requires changing if Guyana in 2030 is to be anything more than a grossly exaggerated model of the mess it is today. We cannot get different results until we make different choices and we cannot expect the other side to make different choices unless we ourselves start making them. A Government that is predominately supported by one major ethnicity will automatically cause discomfort and insecurity within other ethnicities, unless there are constitutional safeguards in place to avoid political domination, interference and other abuses by the Executive. The long-term programmes that need to be developed and placed on the road to 2030 require a level of political buy-in that cannot be achieved if it is felt that a proAfrican or a pro-Indian agenda is being pursued. Perception is everything. The PPP-C Government has been in power long enough to have made a significant impact on the development of Guyana. Guyana 2015 represents the sum of what they have achieved in twenty-two years. Those who are satisfied with what prevails and want to see even more of the same have every reason to vote for the PPP-C come May 11th. However, those who know better and want more for themselves and their families will need to deal with the earlier mentioned political reality and confront their own
fears and insecurities in deciding how to vote. Time and space do not allow us to chronicle all the infractions, transgressions and excesses of the PPP-C Government over the years, but there have been more than enough serious cases of each, and it is clearly time for a new Government to be elected to avoid us descending to new, and even more dangerous, levels of lawlessness and hopelessness. The AFC has proposed a broad-based Pro-Democracy Alliance to remove the PPP-C from office at the next elections, and replace them with an inclusive multi-party Government that will oversee a period of constitutional, economic, social and political reforms aimed at giving Guyanese a greater say in how this country operates and a fairer share of the wealth it holds and generates. The country’s future is at stake and action is required by the widest possible cross-section of Guyanese to put a stop to the PPP-C’s blundering and plundering. 2030 could see us much worse off than we ever were. Migration of graduates is being balanced with the arrival of convicted deportees from the USA, with no sign of any long-term policies or programmes in place for addressing either problem. Suicides are reaching alarming proportions and drunk drivers are slaughtering citizens on our roads. No effective solutions are being advanced. Our interior has become the new Wild West, except without the Sheriff. Back in town, hit-men are routinely and brazenly pumping bullets into their victims, while the ruling elite live like kings and queens at the public’s
Dominic Gaskin expense. We are facing a choice between fifteen years of increasing misery for most Guyanese, or fifteen years of progress, with improved opportunities and living conditions. We owe it to the next generation to choose the latter and to make it work. The year 2030 must see bright and enthusiastic young adults leaving our education system with options for advancement right here at home. We must not be scared to break traditional voting patterns in order to give change a chance. The AFC cannot stop ethnic voting in Guyana, however, we will be doing our best to present voters with policies, concepts and options for this country’s short-, medium- and long-term development that will directly improve the wellbeing of the people of Guyana. In doing so, we hope to offer something other than fear as a basis on which to chose the next Government. The AFC plans to be around in the year 2030 and will hopefully have served in Government a few times by then. For now, we will be campaigning for the votes of all Guyanese in all ten regions of Guyana come May 11th.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
submitted a statement as well as a medical document to police. She reportedly also took photographs which showed bite marks that were allegedly inflicted during the assault. This newspaper understands that the 24-yearold suspect has denied that he raped the teen and that the sex was consensual. Kaieteur News was also told that the man and his father visited the Cove and John Police Station. According to police sources, the teen’s alleged assailant was briefly detained, but it is unclear whether he will be charged. MONDAYEDITION GGMC CONTINUES TO OVERSTEP ITS BOUNDARIES – MOSES NAGAMOOTOO
Christopher and Michelle reunited after 22 years
SUNDAY SPECIAL HOUSING MINISTRY SILENT ON REASON FOR GGMC $3B LOAN …SPECULATION RIFE THAT IT’S FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGN The recently signed $3B Loan Agreement between the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) seems to be a mere smokescreen. Reliable sources have confirmed to Kaieteur News that this money is part of a deal at this point, to help fund government’s election campaign which is expected to step up pace in the coming weeks. Negotiations are even expected to benefit some GGMC Board members and employees. One official said that this is the first time the Commission has entered into a loan agreement with any state agency and it is “abnormal” for such to occur. This publication was also informed that this move, especially leading up to the May 11 election has sparked some amount of controversy among staffers at the Commission. GGMC employees for several weeks had been picketing the Commission demanding the approval for the negotiated increases in salaries and wages. Only last week, an agreement was met and strikes were called off. GUYSUCO REJECTS 3-YEAR EUROPEAN CONTRACT, LOSES $14B - SELLING MORE CANE LANDS TO RAISE CASH Union officials have
accused the Board of Directors and management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) of causing the industry to lose over $14B because of its rejection to enter a three-year contract with its European customer, Tate and Lyle. At the end of 2012, GuySuCo, as the prices for sugar went over US$700 per tonne, was offered a contract. However, according to union officials, the Corporation rejected the offer with the hope that the price would even increase more. Unfortunately, the prices started sliding. In 2013, GuySuCo reportedly was offered another contract, this time for US$500 per tonne. This again was rejected. “Because of that rejection in 2012 and that one in 2013, we estimate that almost $14B was lost to GuySuCo. The Board of Directors and management inexplicably took a decision not to go with the contract,” a senior union official said. That $14B, according to the union official, would have gone a long way in helping GuySuCo with its financial problems. GIRL, 14, ACCUSES PROMINENT OFFICIAL’S SON OF RAPE A 14-year-old schoolgirl has told police that the son of a prominent official sexually assaulted her after luring her into his car under the pretext of taking her home. The incident allegedly occurred two Tuesdays ago at a desolate spot on the East Coast of Demerara. Kaieteur News understands that the teen has
The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) recently revealed how much of its funds it transferred to the national purse. It said that in 2006, it transferred $800M while in 2010, $2B was provided. The Commission also declared that in 2011, another $2B was transferred whilst in 2012, $2B was also transferred. This gives a total of $6.8B which has been transferred to the Consolidated Funds by the Commission within a six-year period. The political opposition has been calling on the Commission and even the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh for some time, to not only ensure all GGMC funds are placed into the Consolidated Funds, but to also declare how much has been transferred and when, if any. Asked if he is the least bit satisfied with this exposure, Vice Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Moses Nagamootoo, responded in the negative. Nagamootoo said that GGMC should not be operating in such a manner and emphasised that its recent move regarding the Loan Agreement is only for Banks. “Why are they holding on to monies and then transferring what they want? They are holding on to monies because they have intentions of giving loans? GGMC is not a Bank,” he emphasized. He said too that the Commission has been overstepping its boundaries in holding onto monies and lending what it deems necessary to government agencies. DYING US CITIZEN AND GUYANESE SISTER REUNITED AFTER 22 YEARS
It was an emotional moment Sunday for Christopher and Michelle Robinson, the siblings who haven’t seen each other for more than two decades. Michelle, a mother of two, cleared US immigration at the JFK International Airport around 10:30 hrs and was immediately rushed to her brother, who is in the terminal stage of a rare and deadly form of renal cancer. A month ago, doctors had given Christopher, a 25-yearold father of one, 10 days to live, given the severity of his illness but he managed to pull through and pleaded with the US Embassy in Georgetown to grant his sister a visa, after they had initially denied her one. Christopher wanted to say goodbye to his sister in person and not over the phone. On Sunday, when 28-yearold Michelle was presented in front of her dying brother, who is in a Brooklyn Hospital, he was speechless. The room was filled with teary eyes as everyone watched the siblings as they stared at each other and cried for some time while hugging. TUESDAYEDITION HIGH COURTASKED TO REVERSE PRESIDENTIAL TWO-TERM LIMIT A motion has been filed to interpret the current two-term limit that Guyana’s Constitution allows for the Presidency. The Constitutional challenge was filed Monday by Attorneysat-Law Emily Dodson and Shawn Allicock,on behalf of one Cedric Richardson. Confirming the court case, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, on Monday evening
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said that he was named one of the respondents. He said that the application by Richardson was seeking an interpretation of the provisions in the Constitution. In 2000, the Guyana Constitution Reform Commission recommended a maximum of two terms in office for a President. The laws of Guyana were changed in 2001, and assented by former President Bharrat Jagdeo himself, making it clear that “A person elected as President after the year 2000 is eligible for reelection only once.” After serving two consecutive terms, and stepping down amidst pressure in 2011 following general elections, there have been calls by persons believed aligned to Jagdeo for a third term, a possibility that has been shot down by legal analysts and the Opposition who insisted that the laws are very clear…after two terms you are out. With his five-year term shortened by two years, President Donald Ramotar has already been named by the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as its Presidential Candidate at the upcoming elections on May 11. COLIN MACK ACQUITTED OF RAPE, ASSAULT AND ABDUCTION CHARGES Surrounded by supportive family members, popular businessman and party promoter, Colin Mack walked out the High Court a free man Monday after he was acquitted of allegations of rape, assault and forcible abduction of a female. Mack was facing a trial before Justice Navindra Singh and a mixed 12-member Jury
Moses Nagamootoo at the High Court in Georgetown. He had been accused of having sexual intercourse with a 19-year-old female without her consent on April 12, 2009. WEDNESDAYEDITION WOMAN, THREE CHILDREN DROWN AFTER DEATH RITUAL Going to the Atlantic Ocean to place items used in Hindu religious ceremonies is nothing unusual; but on Monday afternoon unimaginable tragedy struck for a family of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo. Fifty three-year-old Radhika Persaud had earlier in the day taken part in a ceremony in honour of her mother who died a year ago. In the afternoon, the items used in the service were to be washed out to sea and Persaud decided to take the items. She took along her 14year-old son Rovin, and her niece’s two children nineyear-old Annatina Persaud and 12-year-old Billy Narine. They were all found dead Continued on page 47
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The importance of Malaria Treatment and misconceptions to guard against (From the desk of the Vector Control Director, Dr Reyaud Rahman) Malaria in Guyana is a serious disease which is often only taken seriously when an individual becomes sick. One cannot imagine the agony, pain and utter discomfort unless this disease is contracted. Persons at locations far in the hinterland regions are accustomed to selfmedication. It is sometimes impractical for someone to travel out of a particular site for hours or days through tough and dangerous terrain to get a malaria smear and treatment when they can acquire the drugs at a shop or camp site and use same. Even though this is the practical way of thinking, it is not the correct way to deal with this problem. For this reason we will attempt to make testing easier and much more accessible to the affected population. There are three types of malaria in Guyana, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae. The most severe and deadly type of malaria remains P. falciparum and 90 per cent of persons who do not access or use treatment will die from this type of malaria. P. vivax has very bad symptoms but will not kill you and P. malariae is a bit milder and does not threaten your life. For this reason, it is very important to know which type of malaria you have contracted in order to be effectively treated for that particular type. There are different treatments and durations for the varied species of malaria. Added to this, if you continue to use
treatment and do so when not required, you will give the malaria parasites a chance to build resistance to the medication that is being used to kill them. If resistance is built up against malaria parasites you will not be cured of malaria and you will become sicker and even die. Each of the types of malaria has to be treated by different drugs in order to target the particular parasites. MALARIA MYTHS/ MISCONCEPTIONS Some people believe if you contract malaria once you will not get it again; this is an absolute misconception, because you can get malaria many times over if you are bitten by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. It is believed by some, too, that once you get malaria enough you will build up immunity to the disease and will therefore not contract it. But this is not entirely true. Perhaps someone living in a malaria endemic zone could develop a relative immunity, but this, however, does not mean they don’t get malaria; they do however get milder symptoms than someone with no exposure to malaria previously. This relative immunity breaks down once the individual is not exposed to malaria parasites after a few years. It is also believed in some quarters that ultrasonic devices will keep mosquitoes at bay, this has been found to be totally untrue and rather can be viewed as a tactic by companies to sell their devices. In fact, these devices have little to no effect on any mosquitoes. Also, one very common misconception is, if people
Dr. Reyaud Rahman stay in a malaria endemic location for a very short time they cannot get malaria, this is entirely not true, because it only takes one bite from an infected female mosquito to infect someone. It does not matter how long you are in an endemic location or a location where malaria is transmitted. Once individuals take the necessary precautions like sleeping under a mosquito net (either a long lasting insecticidal net or treated net), use repellents, keep their surroundings clean and tidy free of any mosquitobreeding sites, they could guard themselves against the disease. However, if they feel sick they should immediately access the services of a health centre or health post in order for a diagnosis to be made and treatment to be given. It is advisable that such persons use treatment prescribed to them by a health care worker. Once guided by a health worker, the individual is not expected to be at high risk of developing severe malariarelated complications. With treatment, an infected person’s system will fight off bad symptoms, break the disease transmission, and further ensure that the parasites do not build resistance to the malaria medication. For this reason, persons are asked to drink tablets that are prescribed for the particular malaria type and drink all the tablets as prescribed, for the amount of days prescribed.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
Manickchand concerned over GTU’s continued “grandstanding” - insists Union is deliberately misrepresenting facts Education Minister Priya Manickchand
Former GTU President Colin Bynoe While both sides have boasted of amicable working relations over the years, 2015 broke with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) adopting what some have deemed “blame game” tactics. This development has been in relation to the issues duty free concessions and the debunching payout for teachers within the public education system. Press conferences have been held by either side to state their respective cases, and neither has relented on
its views. The GTU is insisting that the Ministry has neglected to grant in excess of 100 eligible teachers their duty free concessions and has failed to payout debunching monies, which is, in essence, teachers being paid on a higher scale based on their years of service. While both sides have agreed that it was only last year that measures were fully put in place for the debunching payment, the argument being put forward by the Union is that the teachers who have not
received their duty concessions were eligible since 2009. But Minister of Education Priya Manickchand is convinced that the Union is merely on an attentionseeking mission. “The GTU, in my view, is grandstanding and that may well be good for them as far as grandstanding goes, but it is certainly not helping or serving their membership, and in my view that is truly sad.” Manickchand at a press conference last month had opined that the Union’s action is akin to one attempting to”stay relevant or becoming relevant...” However, the Union subsequently hit back by revealing to this publication that it not only has proof to backup its claims that the Ministry is solely to be blamed for the non-payment of the debunching monies and the non-granting of the duty free concessions, but it was prepared to make same public. Manickchand, in speaking specifically to the issue of duty free concessions, has insisted that while this was the public claim of the Union, “I still await the names of the teachers who they say were entitled to the concession in accordance with the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (between Government and the GTU). We would take great pleasure in serving those teachers if indeed they were entitled in 2009”.The Minister is adamant (Continued on page 44)
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Manickchand concerned over GTU’s continued... From page 30 that based on her Ministry’s records, there is no backlog as it relates to the granting of duty concessions. The Union is from all indications unwilling to deal
directly with the Minister and has revealed that it has simply been following the recommended protocol - that is, sending all relevant documents directly to the office of the Ministry’s
Human Resource Officer, and not the Minister. Nevertheless, the Minister in an unprecedented move has appealed for dialogue with the Union’s executive to address the
foregoing issues. This publication has been privy to a string of electronic communications between the Education Minister and the Union that were transmitted following publication of a
number of articles in this newspaper highlighting several of the Union’s concerns. The Minister in her correspondence spoke of the earlier alluded to “working
relations” between the two bodies (Ministry and Union) and questioned why some of the issues raised for the first time in the press were not brought to her attention. In fact, at a press conference the Minister noted that while she has never dissuaded the Union from talking with the media, one of her requests has always been to bring the concerns to her attention, at least simultaneously. “I reflect on the years gone by and am deeply appreciative of the collaborative and consultative nature of our relationship that we have developed and nurtured. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that our sustained, sensible engagements have enured to the benefit of the entire education system, and specifically, to your membership,” the Minister’s missive continued. As such, she has expressed disappointment over the Unions move to highlight issues relating to a space concern at the Brickdam Secondary School, and called the concerns published, relating to the debunching and duty free concession issues, as “inaccuracies and misrepresentations.” Manickchand has therefore maintained that not only have the disclosures been fraught with inaccuracies, but the Union has failed to note that some of these very inaccuracies were clarified since the tenure of the former GTU President, Colin Bynoe. This however did not stop Bynoe, during a recent interview with this publication from accusing the Ministry of being “dishonest and respectful” as it relates to the debunching payment. The Minister in her writings to the Union has however chronicled the course of implementing the debunching feature, which she claimed saw the close involvement of representatives on both the Union and Ministry sides. She therefore questioned how the Union could blame the Ministry solely for delaying the payment of the debunching monies when, according to her, the Union has been well aware of the entire process. “I cannot allow myself to believe that there was a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the true nature of our (MoE/GTU) partnership and/or our joint efforts, because that would certainly cause us to reconsider the way we engage and that would be sad, as there is still much that we need to do, and indeed can do, for our teachers and children,” the Minister said to the Union.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Blueberries may help control blood pressure Eating blueberries every day might improve borderline high blood pressure in middleaged women, according to a small U.S. study. Women who ate freezedried blueberries for two months had lowered blood pressure and increased levels of a chemical that relaxes blood vessel walls. “This tells us that blueberries may improve the health of blood vessels in addition to reducing blood pressure,” said Sarah Johnson, a nutrition and exercise researcher at Florida State University in Tallahassee who led the study. Johnson and her coauthors do not suggest that blueberries should replace hypertension medications. But they say the berries might help offset a tendency toward rising blood pressure and stiffening blood vessels after menopause that raises women’s heart disease risk. Past research has suggested that blueberries may help lower blood pressure, the authors write in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Some studies have also indicated that the flavonoids and other healthy plant compounds in blueberries may help to boost nitric oxide, a chemical that affects the cells that line blood vessel walls. The 48 women in the study were all past menopause, with an average age of 55 and borderline high blood pressure. For eight weeks, half the
women consumed 22 grams (about 1.5 tablespoons) of freeze-dried blueberry powder every day (equivalent to a cup of fresh blueberries) and the other half consumed an identicallooking powder that didn’t contain blueberry. At the beginning of the study, then four and eight weeks later, researchers measured their blood pressure and the stiffness of their arteries. According to the American Heart Association, a blood pressure reading of less than 120 mm Hg for the top number and less than 80 mm Hg for the bottom number is considered healthy. All the women in the study were either close enough to the top of the healthy range to be considered “prehypertensive” or already in the low end of the hypertension range. At the start, the average blood pressure in both groups of women was 138/79 mm Hg. After four weeks, it hadn’t changed in either
group. After eight weeks, however, women who had been eating blueberry powder had an average blood pressure of 131/75 mm Hg, representing a drop of 5 to 6 percent. The readings of women eating the fake powder had not changed. The researchers also found that blood nitric oxide levels rose by 68 percent among women eating the real blueberry powder. The rise in nitric oxide, which would relax and widen blood vessel walls, could have contributed to their lower blood pressure, according to Johnson. She said the blood pressure decrease in the blueberry group is significant when compared to blood pressure medications and other types of interventions, but that it also depends on the individual. “People respond differently to medications and in some people medications are even less effective than this,” she said. “Some medications may work better but may also have negative side effects.”
Top U.S. doctor says medical marijuana may help some conditions The United States’ top doctor said that medical marijuana can help some patients in comments on Wednesday that may boost pressure on the Justice Department to redesignate the drug under federal law. In an interview on “CBS This Morning,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said the medical effectiveness of marijuana had to be shown scientifically and much more information about it was coming. “We have some preliminary data showing that for certain medical conditions and symptoms, marijuana can be helpful,” said Murthy,
who became surgeon general in December. “I think we have to use that data to drive policymaking, and I’m very interested to see where that data takes us.” The Justice Department designates marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, a category for drugs that have no accepted medical value and have a high potential for abuse. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, according to the Drug Policy Alliance advocacy group. Florida also allows a narrow use of medical
marijuana. Two states, Washington and Colorado, have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, another advocacy group, said in a statement that Murthy’s remarks mean that President Barack Obama should direct Attorney General Eric Holder to begin changing how the department categorizes marijuana. “Dr. Murthy’s comments add to a growing consensus in the medical community that marijuana can help people suffering from painful conditions,” Angell said.
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Sunday February 08, 2015
50 years on, new book from Jamaica celebrates 70th birthday ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author of late reggae great Bob Marley Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee will publish her second novel more than 50 years after the release of her classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” her publisher said on Tuesday. “Go Set a Watchman,” which is set in the 1950s and features lead characters from “To Kill a Mockingbird” some 20 years older, is scheduled to be published on July 14 by publisher Harper. The book was actually written in the 1950s, before “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and Lee, 88, thought it had been lost. “It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman and I thought it a pretty decent effort,” Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. “My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer so I did as I was told.” In “Go Set a Watchman,” Scout returns from New York to visit her father, Atticus, in the fictional town of Maycomb, where she struggles with personal and political issues and tries to understand her father’s view toward society as well as her own conflicted feelings about her hometown.
Lee thought the text of the book had been lost and was surprised when her attorney, Tonja Carter, unearthed it. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the story of race and growing up in Alabama in the 1930s, was based loosely on Lee’s own experiences. It was published in 1960 just as the U.S. civil rights movement was gaining momentum and became required reading in many American schools. The book, which has sold an estimated 30 million copies, has resonated with readers across cultural lines. “It’s important for the issues that it raised about gender and race differences,” said
Thadious Davis, a University of Pennsylvania professor of English who specializes in African-American and Southern literature. American novelist biographer Charles Shields said that “To Kill a Mockingbird” found success in part because “it poses the fundamental question of how do I get along with people who are different from me?” Shields said he first came across references to “Go Set a Watchman” while reading early correspondence between Lee and her literary agent while researching his acclaimed biography about Lee.
Jamaicans celebrate the 70th anniversary of the birth of late reggae legend Bob Marley on Friday with a jamming session at his former home and a free concert as the Caribbean island continues to wrestle over his place in its pantheon of heroes. Marley, who was born in Nine Miles, northwest Jamaica, died on May 11, 1981, in a Florida hospital from cancer age 36. A “mini-jam session” is scheduled at Marley’s former home at Hope Road, north of Kingston, as well as discussions on reggae, a popular genre that began in Jamaica in the 1960s with strong influences from calypso and jazz and lyrics of social protest. A free concert on the Kingston waterfront on Saturday is expected to draw crowds, and local reggae artists, including one of Marley’s sons, Ky-Mani, are set to perform. Police have announced traffic detours and street closures in anticipation of the throngs. “I was not around when Bob was alive ... but people are still excited about his music,” said Marcia Facey, 32, a fashion designer who lives in Kingston.
Julian Marley, son of the late reggae icon Bob Marley, performs at a concert celebrating his father’s 69th birthday at the National Stadium in Kingston, February 7, 2014. Jamaica has debated for years adding Marley to its Order of National Hero, its highest honor. Jamaica’s current seven heroes are dominated by political figures. No new heroes have been added since the 1980s and a committee has been examining nominations for the last three years, with Marley and former Prime Minister Michael Manley among a list of 10 names mentioned. “It is high time that the
government makes him our eighth national hero,” said Errol Campbell, 57, a mechanic, also of Kingston. “Bob was a reggae genius who has done more for Jamaica than most others by popularizing our music,” he added. Some committee members are believed to oppose Marley because he smoked marijuana and sometimes disrespected authority as part of his Rastafarian faith which rejects materialism.
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From page 27 at around 21:00h, some five hours after they went to take the offerings to sea. After the ceremony during the day, it was about 16:00h when Radhika opted to take the offerings to sea, her niece, Subrina, the mother of Annatina and Billy, said. She placed the items in a blue bucket and headed off to the oceanfront, just about five minutes walk from the Lot 13 Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo house in which she lived with her son. ONE BLUDGEONED TO DEATH, TWO IN HOSPITALFOLLOWING MAHAICA LAND DISPUTE A 25-year-old Chartered Accountant was brutally killed during a bitter dispute over a piece of land in the Mahaica Creek area Tuesday afternoon. Suresh Nandkishore called ‘Ravo’ was reportedly beaten to death by members of the neighbouring Dharamdat family, with whom his family has a longstanding dispute over a few acres of rice land at a place called Handsome Tree His father Bhopaul Nandkishore and his older brother Parmanand, both sustained injuries while at least two members of the opposing family, Sukhdeo Dharamdat and his son, received treatment for injuries they sustained during the melee. Several villagers were alerted to the tragedy and they converged on the scene only to find the young man lying motionless on the ground with his head covered with blood, while his father, who has an injured foot, lay a few feet away.
Kaieteur News
MOTHER, LOVER GO ON TRIAL FOR NEESA GOPAUL’S MURDER The High Court trial of Bibi Shareema Gopaul and Jarvis Barry Small commenced Tuesday before Justice Navindra Singh and a mixed twelve-member jury. Gopaul and Small are indicted for the murder of 16-year-old Queen’s College student Neesa Gopaul. The teen’s body was found at Madewini along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway tucked inside a suitcase that was partially submerged in a creek. A rope was wrapped around the body and on its other end dumbbells were attached, apparently in an effort to keep the body under water. A family on an outing made the discovery when they became aware of an offensive smell. Inside the suitcase, a passport (Number 0730108) bearing the name Neesa Lalita Gopaul, along with a bank card, was found. Following investigations, the teen’s mother Bibi and her then lover, Small were arrested and charged for the murder. Small is being represented by a team of lawyers including Glenn Hanoman, Bernard De Santos SC, Lyndon Amsterdam and Zanna Frank, while Gopaul is being represented by Attorney-atLaw, George Thomas. State Prosecutors, Diana Kaulesar and Stacy Gooding called four witnesses to the stand on day one. 26 DEPORTEES ARRIVE FROM US Heavily-armed members of the Police Force’s Tactical Services Unit on Tuesday
afternoon accompanied to the city, some 26 persons deported from the United States. The individuals, many of whom served time in US jail for serious criminal offences, narco-trafficking and robbery, arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on board a specially chartered World Atlantic MD-83 aircraft, and were transferred to a 30seater bus under tight security. US Border security personnel handed over the deportees to local law enforcement before they were escorted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in Georgetown, for processing prior to being released. THURSDAYEDITION JAGDEO: NOT INTERESTED IN THIRD TERM OR ANY JOBS IN GUYANA It is final. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo says he will not take up any jobs in Guyana anytime soon. A court case filed this week raised the spectre of Jagdeo making a bid to once again become President, despite laws which bar the former Head of State from seeking a third term. Jagdeo ended his two consecutive terms in office in 2011, handing the reins of a minority Government to President Donald Ramotar, following General and Regional Elections in 2011. Since then, there were attempts to explore the possibilities of him returning. His supporters used flyers and even billboards. Jagdeo had denied he was interested. On Wednesday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, made it
clear that Jagdeo remains committed to not pursuing any further appointment to elected constitutional office or posts in Guyana. OFFICIAL’S SON CHARGED FOR RAPE OF GIRL, 14 Vishnu Singh, the son of a high-profile member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was hauled before the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court Wednesday to face the charge of rape of a child under 16 years old. He left the courtroom two hours later having posted bail in the sum of $400,000. General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Jagnarine Singh, was present in the courtroom so that when bail was fixed, he was on hand to post the stipulated sum and to support his son, Vishnu Singh. The matter was held in camera. Neither the 14-year-old victim nor any of her relatives was in court. Singh was not required to plead when the charge was read to him by Magistrate Zamela Ali. Prosecutor John Singh informed the Magistrate that the 23-year-old, who manages a trucking business, allegedly met the complainant on January 27, last, on Agriculture Road. At the time, she was still attired in her uniform. It is alleged that the assailant was driving his mother’s car and had lured the young woman into the vehicle under the pretext that they were going to discuss the things she needed for a beauty pageant she was interested in. FRIDAYEDITION E’BO TEEN BURIED UNDER TONS OF PADDY
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A teenager died Thursday morning, around 7 o’clock, at his Caricom Rice Mills Limited worksite at Anna Regina, after a storage tank burst and tons of paddy buried him. Seventeen-year-old Threeion Gittens, of Richmond Housing Scheme, was later retrieved through the efforts of several of the private entity’s employees. Vishan Singh, another employee, sustained injuries to his right foot. He was hospitalised as a result. Relating what had transpired, an employee said that he and three other men were asked by the supervisor in charge to clean the tank. The man and his colleagues related that the tank apparently had a hole and paddy was seeping through. The men said that they heard a strange sound, and within moments, the tank burst, releasing the paddy. The employee said he and the other employee just managed to run to safety, but Gittens didn’t make it in time. The teenager was eventually rushed to the Suddie Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead. RAMOTAR PUTS GDF ON ALERT FOR POSSIBLE ELECTIONS VIOLENCE The Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Donald Ramotar, on Thursday laid out his expectations of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in 2015. In no uncertain terms, the President made it clear that the major concern of the force, this year, should be to keep things under lawful control during the elections season. The President said this as he addressed over 100 officers during GDF’s annual officer’s conference. Just before specifying what he expects, Ramotar told the gathering that the role of GDF has been broadening over the years. The Commander-In-Chief then went on to remind the gathering that General and Regional Elections have been set to be held on May, 11. He said that elections, “by its
nature, is very competitive and may be divisive.” The President reminded that Guyana has a multi-ethnic society and ethnic insecurity can therefore be aroused during the campaign, and that this can lead to unrest. In this regard, Ramotar pointed out that the joint services’ early voting is intended to provide them with the full opportunity to discharge their responsibility fully and professionally. SATURDAY EDITION MAGISTRATE OVERSTEPS HIS BOUNDS – GRANTS BAIL FOR MURDERACCUSED; DECISION OVERTURNED Magistrate Allan Wilson exceeded his authority and granted bail to a murder accused in the Matthew’s Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. However, no sooner had he set bail at $750,000 than Prosecutor Inspector St e p h e n Te l f o r d successfully sought the intervention of Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry and the Director of Public Prosecutions. They both ordered that Wilson’s decision be ignored since a Magistrate has no authority to grant bail to a murder accused. A bailor was reportedly armed with the hefty sum to bail Chandrawattie. Instances of murder accused being released on bail are rare and are only allowed at a Judge’s discretion. Neville Chandrawattie also called Sunil, made headlines in November 2013 after he was named the “mastermind” who skillfully orchestrated a $93M gold heist in Port Kaituma from the El Dorado Gold Trading Company where he worked for years. After 13 months as a remand prisoner on a murder charge, Chandrawattie, a 30year-old man accused of shooting his co-worker to death during a robbery committed on his employer, appeared in the Magistrate’s court on Wednesday.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 61
PNC and AFC lengthy courtship, no wedding for sure By Ralph Seeram This engagement has been going on for a while now and many are hoping for a wedding soon. This matrimony is believed in some quarters to be the only way the PPP can be defeated and all Guyana’s problems will be solved. Yes APNU/PNC and AFC have been playing “lovey dovey” for the past month or so but cannot come to a marriage agreement. Well don’t soak the fruits for the wedding cake, and don’t’ book the hall for the reception as yet. They have to decide who is going to be bridegroom and who’s going to be best man. They’ve got to decide who gets the Presidency. The problem is the prenuptial agreement that AFC is demanding. Normally in pre-nuptials the party that has more assets prior to the marriage tries not only to protect its existing asset from the future spouse but also sets in place, provisions to protect them in event there is a divorce. Generally the future spouse with the least assets is not in a position to make many demands.
In this proposed marriage between APNU/PNC and AFC the party with fewer assets, AFC, is demanding the most valuable asset before any marriage. The AFC which got about 10 per cent of the votes in the last election is demanding the most valuable asset, in the upcoming election. It wants the Presidency. Of course we all know in Guyana the President holds the power. So will this marriage take place soon? Will APNU give up such a valuable asset to a weaker spouse who is bringing nothing much but promises to the table? Well don’t hold your breath folks; there is not going to be any wedding. This proposed wedding was a non starter from the beginning. APNU is not going to agree to give the Presidency to a weaker partner like AFC. In Guyanese parlance the AFC is “brazen” to make such a demand. Let’s face it. APNU leader, David Granger, is not going to agree to this; it would be the death of his political life. PNC members are not going to agree to this either. The
Police find gun at Rose Hall Town Corentyne The police responded promptly around 16:30 hrs on Friday to a report of simple larceny at Reef Section Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, Berbice. Upon arriving in the area the cops noticed two known characters lurking around. Upon seeing the police the men decided to make a run only to be chased by the cops who nabbed one of them A check of his person revealed a .38 revolver on his person. He was taken into custody. The cops are hunting the second suspect.
PNC or APNU is not going to let itself be humiliated by a partner who is really bringing nothing to the table. Who is the driving force behind this marriage? Moses Nagamootoo, who it appears, is willing to “sleep” with anyone to achieve his ambition of being President of Guyana. In the corporate world it’s called “sleeping your way up the ladder”. It doesn’t matter whom you sleep with, once you get to the top. So there is Nagamootoo trying to satisfy his ambition at all costs. The theory is with Nagamootoo running as President he will pull the East Indians vote and along with APNU Afro Guyanese vote to win the Presidency if not Parliament. Now this is the same Nagamootoo who after failing to win the PPP nomination for Presidency, within months jumped into bed with the AFC, demanded a senior position within that party. True he drew some PPP supporters in the last elections and probably cost the PPP to lose their 50% majority. But we have to realize that was a very narrow victory.As I said earlier, the
premise is that Moses Nagamootoo will draw the Indian votes to an APNU/ AFC partnership over the top to defeat the PPP. That’s a fantasy folks. Why? It is one thing for the PPP supporters to vote for AFC, it is a completely different for them to vote for the PNC. The same Nagamootoo who fought the dictatorship of the PNC, “bad mouthing” the PNC for the last 40years or so really expects the PPP mainly Indians in Berbice will now go and vote for PNC. What a fantasy, Nagamootoo’s ambition has clouded reality. The reality is this; disenchanted PPP supporters may stay away from the voting booth like the last elections or some may swing to AFC like the last election,
but believe me they sure as hell are not going to vote for PNC/APNU. If anything this would have the opposite effect; it would encourage them to come back to the fold of the PPP to make sure the PNC does not get into power again. In other words it will have the opposite effect of what an APNU/AFC merger would expect. I believe nothing would be more pleasing to the PPP than to see the APNU/ AFC marriage take place. It is a sure way of guaranteeing the PPP’s return to power. It will galvanize PPP supporters from the sidelines to the voting booth. Moses Nagamootoo will bring no dowry to the marriage besides his ambition. Granger
and APNU know that. Nagamootoo will lose PPP votes in a merger, contrary to what he is peddling. The proposal from AFC to APNU is tempting, a chance to defeat the PPP, but the prenuptial agreement is a little tough. David Granger is not going to play Best man to Moses Nagamootoo, he wants to be the Bridegroom, he want the “gyal” also, he wants the Presidency, I don’t think he would want to “tie bundle” with anyone who “sleeps around” to satisfy their ambition, but you know the old saying “politics make strange bedfellows”. Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: ralph365@hotmail.com or Facebook.
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Kaieteur News
VACANCY Admin Assistant, within the vicinity of E.B.D & W.B.D. Must be well spoken & have 5 CXC subjects including: Maths & English. Email: snow198390@hotmail.com Exist for one experienced driver apply @ Humphrey’s Bakery & Farm Products Ltd, 38 Ketley & Sussex Street Charlestown – Tel:225-7864; 227-8607 Vacancy for drivers/ salesman for office clerk/ porter @ Vegetarian Gardens – Contact: 227-7714 One Skillful joiner to work in workshop – Contact: 2191342 or 610-7005 Factory staff, GTI / GITC Male/ Female graduates preferred. Canter drivers, marketing assistant, Drivers Licence required. Tel. 676 -6700 Exist for cooks, pastry chefs, handy men for more information call -691-6348/ 227-8542 Exist for one live in fitter machinist with experienced in resurfacing head, reboring engine block & welding - Call: 603-4637 Plant shop sales clerk: literate, hardworking, team player 18-28yrs, work and sales experienced, Georgetown - Call: 648-1821 Landscape Maintenance Vacancy, hardworking, pleasant, team player 17-28yrs - Call: 648-1821/621-2453 One watchman to work @ Coverden, E.B.D, apply to Alabama Trading with recent testimonial & picture. One computer clerk phone: 226-4283; 258-0213 Experienced counter Staff, Kitchen assistants, pastry makers & cooks, apply with written application @ Bettencourt’s Dinner: 22ZZ Durban Street. 1- Live in maid; must be from country area & know to cook Indian dishes – Tel:662-1124; 611-0200 Office clerk; CXC English/ Mathematics, Live in/live out babysitter/domestic, labourTel: 219-5354 MASSAGE Money Back guarantee; cleaner, clearer younger looking skin in two weeks, also flatter stomach – Call: 684-9409; 699-4211
WANTED Young attractive & experienced counter girl for restaurant – Call:223-7385 or e m a i l : cuetip_22@yahoo.com One male shop attendant, age 18-25yrs, Sale! One stall @ Stabroek Market – Tel:2257794; 679-1151 Bus Driver for route 40, must be over 40yrs old- Call: 693-2237 Experienced sale girls Call: 264-3355,668-3985, 683-7936 Live in home aid/domestic, needed in Republic Park $13,000 weekly, must be over 45yrs old – Call: 675-0767; 667-2535 1 Live in maid to work in Georgetown - Tel:691-6260 1 Cook to work in the interior Tel: 691-6260 Salesgirls and boys to work in shop on E.C.D, Text info to: 617-7823 Taxi drivers – Tel:667-9013; 225-5075 Experienced dispatcher @ West Side Taxi - Call: 6000688; 600-0699 Auto Electrician to work in Georgetown – Tel: 218-5105 Live in care taker for premises at Vreed-En-Hoop, West Coast Demerara – Contact: 254-1801 Urgently need two low income house lots to buy in Parfaite Harmonie - Tel:6757292; 652-2018 1 Handy boy to work in the interior - Tel: 691-6260 FORK LIFT OPERATOR WITH EXPERIENCED FOR AFOODCOMPANY. PROPER DOCUMENTATION AND POLICE CLEARANCECALL: 603-0758 Gardener/Handyman; suitable accommodation for live in couple, peaceful environment, apply Sally, 51 Main Street Georgetown. Clerical Staff for copy centre, no experienced necessary, must be computer literate, Jarrods 51 Main Street. CLEANING LADY FOR E.B.D- MUST KNOW TO COOK, CLEAN & IRON. HONEST& RESPONSIBLE, HOURS 6:00AM-3:00PM – CALL: 603-0758 Hairdresser & nail technician to work in Alberttown – Call: 684-9409 Miners with excavators to work on 10 Blocks in North West District, option for joint venture – Tel: 691-2077; 684-6661
SALON Make Up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals, Black Opal and Sacha cosmetics. Call: 647-1773/660-5257 Certificate in: Cosmetology, nails, wig designs, early child care/ care for elderly classes commence February – Call: 666-5241/ 619-760
Sunday February 08, 2015
FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754. Lincoln 500 AMP diesel welders with Perkins 4 cylinder 3engine - Tel#650-0402 Mill Cut Lumber Kabukalli, Silverballi, Etc – Call: 6539752; 688-6579
Guyana Passport & Visa Forms Application, USA, Canada and England. Tel: 626-7040; 265-4535.
Cat 320 CL 2005 only 3800HRs sold as is, cash offer only, must go – Contact Azim: 660-3235 Yamaha motor’s for sale 6HP & 8 HP - Contact: 6547876 Boutique closeout sale: Clothing, shoes, handbags, fragrance jewelry and more. Whole Sale & Retail! – Tel: 626-0757 Yamaha outboard engines, various sizes, tundra wheels, boat trailer – Tel: 220-1981, 698-7047
Repairs & spare, fridge, freezer, A/C, washers, stoves. Contact Nick: 683-1312, 627-3206
Brand New, Power fist, 6,500 watts gasoline generator (on wheels) 110/240 volts AC/DC – Contact: 617-2205; 681-1032
Repairs to refrigerators, gas stoves, washing machines, AC Units- Call Lindon on 641-1086; 694-2202
Bedford M 4X4, Tohatshu 18HP, long foot, outboard engine, 1 Perkins engine 4 Cylinder – Call: 693-2237
Repairs to plasma, LED, LCD television etc – Call: Abdul Electronics: 225-0391
Dell/HP computers with 19’’ LCDs $55,000, Laptops $49,000, free educational software & games, Future Tech 231-2206
SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.–CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620
HOUSE PLAN DRAFTING AND ESTIMATES FOR ONLY $15,000- CALL:6949843/227-2766 Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maria Building Call Sabita: 225-6496, 662-6045 Eagle’s fridge re-gas - $8,000 & washing machine repairs. Phone: 697-2969, 646-0966 For all construction, carpentry, masonry, pluming, swimming pools, painting etc. Free estimates and plan Contact # 669-7376 REPAIRS AT LOW COST: FRIDGES, AIRCONDITIONERS, WASHING MACHINES, TVS, MICROWAVES, FREEZERS- CALL:6294946 OR 225-4822 Khemraj & Son Landscaping & Plant nursery: landscaping, cutting big trees & removing, grafted oranges & limes plants for sale – Call: 627-5969 BrianMoe@642-3543; Computer Technician; FB:Brian.Moe.165; Home and office visits at your comfort!! WANTED Live in waitress must have secondary education; salary - $60,000 monthly - Tel:6103974
New Arrivals: New Shipment of Magnet wires (copper) & installation fish paper for sale – Contact: 603-5649 New shipment of pit bull parts: Wind Screen, bumpers, fog lights, back/front bearings - Tel: 628-0909 One Precision built 16" Bore Tractor, Driven Pump - Tel: 227-1830 One Bedford 7 Ton HAIB Lorry Long Bed, & One DAEWOO Excavator (Bobcat) - Contact: 603-4637 One Toyota Vigo, manual transmission, ideal for the interior – Call: 600-5759 One ten pieces music set – Contact Rajin : 617-0022; 6188488; 615-0282; 276-1672 One male & female European champion adult Rottweiler for sale - Call: 665-9140 or 639-1431 Lights: Premio, Allion, Fielder & Carina and One Toyota IST never registered - $1.9M - Tel: 628-0909 1 Refrigeration unit, 1 slush machine, 1 Madza Engine, complete gearbox, computer complete – Contact Hanif: 641-2597 75 KVA Deutz generator 2200hrs in good condition $1.9M - Contact: 683-2575
FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Five bedrooms house, 107 Lamaha Gardens & Large Parking; AC Rooms Hot & Cold, Purified Water System Call: 661-8908, 335-3590 GT TOOL RENTALS: COMPACTOR; CHIPPING HAMMER RANSOM & FLOOR SANDER, , JACK HAMMER, CONCRETE SAW & MORE - CALL: 675-0767, 639-8101 Prime business place to rent on Sheriff Street, only for offices – Contact: 627-6740 Executive Residence – centrally and beautifully located in Bel-Air Springs, Georgetown for immediate occupancy. Ph 226-6229, 2265903 0ne bedroom apartment $45,000 monthly, Diamond Location – Tel:602-7135; 6617253 Sharon’s Building, limited mall space from $65,000 $275,000- Call: 225-4413/6140949 Salon Station to rent – Tel: 667-7889 Bottom flat; prime business location, Hadfield Street, Store/boutique/etc – Contact Simone – 626-5317; 227-0501 Fully furnished & unfurnished apartment with TV, AirCondition, hot & cold, cable in South. Call: 689-5877 Business Space 52FtX25Ft with Air Condition, fully grilled @ East Street, North Cummingsburg – Tel: 2266592/643-8833 Business place for rent in Cornelia Ida, Public Road, West Coast Demerara – Call:602-5332 Lodge apartments (Vlissengen/Durban) unfurnished - $50,000-$60,000 monthly; furnished (for visitors) $500USD monthly – Tel: 677-9638 Three bedrooms; 1 self contained house with A/C, parking, full furnished, young professional Scheme Eccles Call Sonia: 666-4882 One bedroom apartment in Grove E.B.D – Call: 687-7376 1 Top flat 3 bedroom house located in South Ruimveldt Gardens – Tel: 662-2589 Self contained rooms in Prashad Nagar weekly & monthly rates – Call: 227-2993. Prime Banquet Hall & Catering Service for weddings/parties/ graduation etc @ Cotton Club, 44 Public Road Kitty – Tel:231-1908/12; 693-3946
FOR RENT Commercial space on the East Bank, Public Road – Call: 233-6987/233-5517 Three bedroom house to rent at South Vryheid’s Lust Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara – Call: 226-8015 or 627-7092
PROPERTY FOR SALE New Road, Vreed-En-Hoop, Land 7080 SqFt, Building 762SqFt. $40M negotiable, owner migrating – Tel:2269788 Corner Property, Grove Public Road - $29M Neg. Call: 613-5645 Houses & house lots for sale in 1 of Guyana’s top luxury gated communities, located @ Eccles E.B.D Tel: 227-2913; 683-3033 Property with concrete bungalow, modern amenities and features in gated community at Hutsonville E.B.D -G$16M negotiable – Call: 697-4131 One 6 bedroom house & land in Mon Repos E.C.D (Martyrsville) with two inside toilets & bath - $13M Negotiable – Tel: 629-5300 (1) One house & land for sale at New Providence – Tel: 6979031 Lot 6 Adventure, Essequibo, land 352ftX70ft with wooden building $14M negotiableContact Anwar Essequibo 771-4395, 694-4457, Georgetown Trudy: 225-4712 House for sale @ 15th Street Diamond New Scheme, East Bank Demerara 56X26-Call: 265-7238; 683-8668 Albouystown: Corner Spot Business and residence, 3 bedrooms upstairs, parking $9.5M negotiable – Contact: 227-0583 (Land 70’x50' & House 57’x30'), Modern Amenities & Features @Residential Granville Park , Beterverwagting , E.C.D G$27M negotiable. Contact: 592-220-3411, 592-639-2062 Haslington, E.C.D: Building ‘A’, concrete/ timber modern 2 storeys, 7 bedrooms, grilled & fenced. Building ‘B’, 3 apartments, fenced- Call:2553437; 698-3678 Paradise, E.C.D: Concrete modern 2 storeys, 4 bedrooms- 2 masters. Concrete fenced large lotCall:255-3437; 698-3678 FOR SALE/FOR RENT American Pool Table - Tel: 277-0578 (Continued on page 63)
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Former Lucky Dollar Manager faces 18 embezzlement charges ...placed on $1.8M bail A woman who formerly worked as a Manager of the Lucky Dollar store at Corriverton was on Friday slapped with 18 charges of embezzlement. Joanella Mongal, 33, a business woman of Lot 8 Scotsburgh, Corentyne, is accused of stealing the money between January 6, 2014 and February 28, 2014. It was reported that during the time she failed to deposit the cash which was collected during the day to the Republic Bank night deposit facility at Corriverton even though it was recorded as being banked. It was recorded that the woman had asked the clerks at the bank to stop recording the amount deposited in the column put aside for deposit since 2013-05-15. Mongal, a mother of one and formerly from New Amsterdam, appeared on Friday before Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus in the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court and was granted bail in the sum of $100,000 on each charge, a total of $1.8M. The largest amount embezzled at a single time was $2,230,125. The total amount of money the woman failed to pay over to the bank amounted to $8, 830,407. The matter was reported and the police were called in. Prosecutor Sergeant
VEHICLE FOR SALE One Toyota Avensis 2008 model, price negotiable – Contact: 227-7002 One Toyota Avensis 2008 model, price negotiable – Contact:227-7002 One Toyota Corolla Fielder, one year old, remote start alarm - $1.6M negotiable – Tel: 664-3488 Blow Out Sale!!! Unregistered, fully loaded Toyota IST - $2,150,000, New Model Raum - $2,250,000 & Mazda Axela - $2,300,000Call: 643-6565, 226-9931 Toyota Ipsum 7 seats automatic, sun roofs, spoiler, roof rack, A/C, excellent condition - $1.375M – Call:612-2258 Toyota Hiace super custom mini bus in private, automatic, sunroof, custom seats, etc – excellent condition - $1.3M Tel: 612-2258
LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel: 644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997
ACCOMMODATION Inner Retreat Hotel Restaurant & Bar, Retreat Road Parika. Indoor / Outdoor bar in Picturesque setting – Phone: 260-4504; 685-6934
Joanella Mongal Phillip Sheriff did not object to bail but asked that it be substantial. Attorney at Law Ramesh Rajkumar in his bail application stated that the woman has a fixed place of abode. She has been employed with the store for over 11 years and never had a problem. He stated that even after stock taking was done nothing was discovered. The matter has been fixed for continuation on February 12, at the Springlands Magistrate’s court.
Saturdays & Sundays after lunch @ Inner Retreat Hotel Parik: Bar-B-Cue & games: pools, darts, table tennis etc – Phone: 260-4504.
FOR SALE One new aluminum 12ft Boat- Call: 603-9599 5 Gal Water Bottle (New)$1400 – Call:684-8231 One complete Cabin cruise boat – Tel: 684-3786 5 Turkey cocks and 2 laying hens – Tel: 693-3979 Used furniture two sewing machines, massage table, cake pans & utensils, craft materials & books, etc – Call: 664-3454 One 48 Yamaha foreign used outboard engine from USA Contact: 267-2504
EDUCATIONAL CXC Day & Evening classes/lessons Forms 1-5, Phonics Classes – Tel:2233086; 619-7911; 690-5008 LAND FOR SALE Canaan semi-gated 42x80 $3.6M, 54x90 $4.3M, Charity Housing Scheme $2.8M, Kuru Kuru residential 100x200 $2.6M Call: 623-4790,2225116.
VEHICLE FOR SALE 1 AE 100 Sprinter automatic, fully powered, EFI, A/C, mags, CD, PHH 61- Price $550,000 – Call: 667-2377; 6640853 1 Pitbull minibus, stick gear, BPP series, mag rims- $2.2M neg. Call: 673-7652 Nissan Titan 4X4; fully loaded; good condition; price negotiable – Call: 6201026 1 Toyota Landcruiser Prado PMM Series Call: 219-5354 Monday- Friday 8:154:15Pm & Saturday 8:151:15PM Toyota Hilux 4X4, 2 doors, manual, long base, solid DEF, excellent condition – Tel:603-3384 1 Honda 600 CCRR, Toyota AT 212, AT 192, Allion, Raum, EP71 Starlet, Alteeza, 1 Nissan Titan – Tel: 6445096; 697-1453 We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30 seater buses; Extra Cab pickups; 2006 Tacoma- Call: 680-3154 AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms- Call:680-3154 Toyota Prado, Price$5M Neg. Call: 643-2403 Toyota SV 40 Camary, AC, Alarm Etc - $700,000 negotiable – Tel: 621-6503 Toyota Raum, Price $950,000, good condition – Contact: 264-2954; 642-1305 Toyota Wagon (PLL 5002), pensioner owned, hardly driven, asking $2M (can reduce to $1.9M) – Tel: 6966415 New arrivals – unregistered Bluebird Sylphy, 2007 Fielder, Premio (mags,tv), lowest prices around, showroom specs Call: 6926159,626-7478 One 1992 Toyota Camry, gold colour, in good condition – Contact: 6581328 One Toyota Premio Reg#PPP & 212 Carina Reg#PSS, owner leaving country. Tel:618-2576 or 678-0109 Unregister vehicle: Toyota Sienta- $1,895,000, Honda Civic-$1,895,000, 318i BMW -$3,000,000- Contact : 6500402 One Toyota 212 PTT 2107 $1.275 – Contact: 662-9078
PEN PAL Indian Male from England is seeking female age 27yrs & older, with good personalityCall: 686-5994 (No Texting)
Page 63
Mazda Axela, PTT Series, TV, CD, Viper 2 way paging alarm – Tel:669-7298 1 Toyota Corolla PFF 9681, E-EE90 automatic $300,000, 1 town ace small bus PFF 6536, stick gear $460,000 Call: 6467339
(From page 62)
CAKES & PASTRIES Valentine Cakes for sale 223-9497
TO LET House for rent @ Grove Housing Scheme with 3 bedrooms -$70,000 – Tel:6424429; 639-8056
CAR RENTAL PROGRESSIVE AUTO RENTAL:CARS&SUV FOR RENTAL- $4,000 & UP PER DAY- CALL: 643-5122, 2193900, EMAIL: PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM
Apartment in Eccles to rent $30,000 – Tel: 629-1805 Spacious 2 bedroom apartment @ Diamond, Section A fully grilled, separate gate, drive way & parking $55,000 negotiable- Call: 616-1598 One semi furnished one bedroom apartment @ C/Ville – Call: 650-0716; 619-5357 Three bedrooms concrete top flat in Cane View Ave, South Ruimveldt Gardens $90,000 - Call: 218-1949 One apartment for rent at Mon Repos E.C.D, First Street – Tel: 220-7330 1 Spacious 3 bedrooms upstairs including inside toilet and bath at Mon Repos E.C.D, Price $50,000 Monthly Tel: 629-5300 New business place @ Durban Street between Creen & Bishop for shop nail artistry office - $40,000 – Call: 2260673; 685-4694 Four Storey building located on Robb Street next to Bourda Market. Tel:623-7731, 629-0636 Prime Space for business on Robb Street between Camp & Alexander Streets – Call: 6977802 between 9am-2pm
CAR RENTAL DOLLY’S CAR RENTAL CALL: 225-7126/ 2263693 DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM/ WWW.DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL.COM Aidan’s Car & Pickup rental, cheap rate, low security – Tel: 698-7807; 690-6494 TOURS Suriname Tour return 20-23 February, Shopping, Siteseeing, dolphins, book early Tel: 644-0185; 639-2663; 6555171
LAND FOR SALE House Lots in 1 of Guyana’s top luxury gated communities @ Eccles, 60X100 - $7.5M. (Special prices) - Call: 2272913; 683-3033 Eccles: Commercial lots for sale at Eccles – Tel:227-2913. Cell: 683-3033 1. Parika, Peter Street; 2. Blankenburg, behind gas station lot size: 75’X76' (3 parcels)= Contact 650-0402 Located in Republic Gardens, Peters Hall, E.B.D. Interest person – Contact: 231-5359 or 672-7189 Parfaite Harmonie - $1.4M, $1.5M, $4M, Eccles-$4M, Tuschen - $2.2M. All legal fees paid – Contact: 6757292; 652-2018 Riverside land @ Upper Demerara River, Reasonable price –Call: 678-1575; 2238590 Grove E.B.D Caneville 4th Field, 1St Street, Concrete $3M 20X40 land 40X100, Parfaite W.B.D Land 45X80 $1.1M-Call:231-2199;618-7483 51 Acres titled farm land @ The Belle, Upper Dem, River Front - $100M Negotiable, serious enquiries only! Tel: 669-8152 36 Acres Land off linden highway, water - 2 sources, time to acres 15 Min from highway, partially cleared – price negotiable – Call: 6276363 Measuring 90’X165’ facing Atlantic Ocean, approximately half mile from Sheriff Street on High Way – Contact Shiv: 600-6681 Guyana first 5 Star gated community, now opens, reserve your lot(s) & house – Call: 609-0783 or seroj_26@yahoo.com 2369.664 Sq/ft of land @ Victoria village, E.C.D- Call: 255-3437; 698-3678
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Community voices... (From page 57) that the school once had five teachers but over the years they left, leaving Ruffeno to control the school population. Despite numerous reports being made to the relevant authorities since the problem began, nothing has been done and the students continue to suffer. Robinson, a trained teacher himself, admitted, “There is no way I could have managed such a job.” He went on to say that the teacher is left to play role of Head teacher and all other administrative posts for the school.” It is against that backdrop that the parents, he reported, have become frustrated with the stories their children have shared over the past years. He said “We didn’t do anything today; Sir did busy,” has become commonplace report among the children. “If the teacher sick then there is no school; if there is a Head teacher meeting again no school because he is the only one doing everything. For a while, the school was closed every Friday because he (Sir Ruffeno) was on an upgrading programme so that he can enter Teachers’ College,” Robinson told this publication. He said the protestors are demanding that the Ministry of Education (MOE) deploy at least two other trained teachers to the institution. Further, they are also call-
ing for the removal of the Regional Education Officer (REDO), Rabindra Singh, who they claim “has no time for Education since he is involved in a lot of political work.” Continuing, the educator said that Region Eight currently has two District Education Officers; one functioning in the North Pakaraimas District covering 21 schools and another in the Mahdia District, overlooking nine. Robinson said that there is no Regional Welfare Officer so when matters of that nature arise, there is no one to report to. To make matters worse, the teacher told this publication that displeasure also stems from the fact that there is no Probation Officer in the Region. According to Robinson, persons have been appointed in the past but due to the want of proper accommodation, they have abandoned the post. In this light, requests were made to the Ministry of Education to have the building upgraded which includes repainting and more furniture. He described the area where the persons are normally kept as extremely unwelcoming. Robinson emphasised that all the matters continuously reported to the REDO have borne no fruit. The educator said the protests will continue until their demands are met. (Sunita Samaroo)
Sunday February 08, 2015
“We Ready Fuh de Road”- Maxi Williams... From page 59 explained that his designs are all influenced by the rich culture of our six ethnic groups, and the continents from which they came. His Band is made up of 10 sections which are inspired by the Chinese, African, Egyptian, Indigenous Tribes, Apache Indians, Portuguese, Italians, Romans, Arabians and Indians cultures. These are all fresh concepts, since in some cases, they branch away from the traditional wear of these people, and morph into products of Williams’ imagination. The Maxi King Costume is a three dimensional piece, which stands 15ft tall. It sports a Totem pole, which signifies the rich history of the first people of Guyana. The Totem pole also comprises of an elephant, which is a reminder of both our African and Indian lineages. The wings of an eagle are depicted on both sides of the King, they span 13ft long, and they showcase his power and ambition, while the headdress he wears is a representation of his
royalty and wealth in gold, diamond and land. The accompanying four dimensional “Maxi Queen” piece, stands 7ft tall, 15ft wide, and is said to be a reminder of our colonial past. The design directly behind and above her head, forms a representation of the Aztec bloodline of our first people. The surrounding piece is a unique depiction of the mining industry, which has contributed greatly to the wealth of our nation. Williams intends to have 10 male and 10 female individual costumes in his band, as opposed to the customary one male and one female. The Female individual costume is an elaborate design, depicting a Chinese Princess, adorned with the celebration robe which is worn at grand events and a golden dragon which is her spiritual protector. The male individual costume represents a fearless gladiator in Roman Times. The colours of this costume represent the strength, wealth and valour he
possesses. Williams’ costumes were all handmade, and skillfully put together by mixing Chinese fabrics, leaves from bouquets of flowers and fashioning them with broken pieces of costume jewellery, which were used to create a sequenced effect. Yesterday’s launch was backed up by a Fund Raising Bar-B-Q and Lime as Williams explained that the estimated cost to produce his band would be approximately10 million dollars. The cost to join the band is $5,000 which price covers costume, food and drinks. All are invited to come on board. Guided by his personal motto, “Living your purpose, making a difference”, Maxi Williams said that this is his contribution to the Guyanese society. The proud Guyanese explained that “Everybody has a calling and a gift from God, I was lucky enough to find mine. I was born with the natural ability to design, even when I didn’t know and God filled me and allowed me to function.” Williams explained the
importance of securing sponsorship for his band, and said that he cannot see himself growing as an artist without sponsorship; “You are not just supporting me, but our culture that is going to attract people from all over the world.” It is evident that he pours his soul and spirit into his gorgeous designs. They are the image of beauty, culture, style and creativity. “My mission is to put Guyana on the map. I want to make Guyana’s Mashramani as big as Trinidad’s Carnival”. Person interested in joining this mash camp can register at Maxi Williams Designs, located at 56 Brickdam (Next to GT&T Blackberry building), between reasonable working hours beginning from 8am daily, up until 12am midnight. There will be a Seawall Lime, where interested person can register to be a part of the band. A DJ will be there with the playlist which will be used on the road Mash day. The Lime begins at 5pm tonight, in the vicinity of the Police Training College Ground.
“Straight from the sea to your plate” (From page 16) businesswoman said Global Seafood Distributors is registered with the relevant agencies and has had the necessary safety measures implemented with operations such as processing, drying, packaging and storing taking place under one roof. With a Business Admin-
istration degree under her belt with many political and nonpolitical capacities previously held, the industrious ButtersGrant acknowledges that she is the only female who is heading such an organization since other agencies involved in processing plants and fisheries business are headed by males.
However, she noted that deals with the administrative and procurement aspects of the business, while her husband handles the operations of the plant. Acknowledging that she had tried her hand in other businesses but did not feel that she was operating at her peak, she said there are many niche industries within Guyana for women who are willing to take steps to explore and develop their passion. Underscoring that new and innovative steps are being made to enhance the business and to have newer products to satisfy the needs of their customers, both local and overseas, the entrepre-
neur said products such as “Cheesy Trout made from Mozzarella cheese, garlic trout, spicy and hot Soca Banga Mary amongst many other new options for people diverse in their eating” is available. “Guyana’s seafood is wild caught and should be sold as organic because our seafood are coming from waters that are not polluted with much industrial waste, chemical plants and toxins within the ocean. Our fish is better than any that is farm raised in any part of the world,” ButtersGrant emphasized. “I usually tell people overseas that our fish is organic and should be sold organic.”
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Hassar curry poisoning…Trouble follows the Dharamdat family- residents It seems as though trouble follows the Dharamdat family, according to residents of Handsome Tree, Mahaica Creek. Three years ago, five family members from the Dharamdat household were battling for their lives at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) after eating a hassar curry meal which was allegedly laced with poison. Those hospitalized were Nandranie Sukdeo, her son, Chaitram Dharamdat, her husband Sukdeo Dharamdat and her two daughters, Hemwanttie and Muneshwari. Initially, police were questioning the Dharamdat’s neighbours after receiving a statement that the family had an ongoing dispute with a few residents from Handsome Tree. However, after conducting a thorough investigation, police found that it was a family member of the Dharamdat household who tried to “clean up” the family and not neighbours. At that time, a 14-year-old girl confessed to lacing a pot of
hassar curry with a potentially deadly dose of monocrotophos so that she can be with her “boyfriend.” The teen was sent to the Juvenile Centre in Sophia but later returned home after her family refused to testify against her. On Friday last, 51-year-old Sukdeo Dharamdat and his two sons, 22-year-old Eshwardat and Chaitram, 20, were taken before Magistrate ZamillaAli-Seepaul, at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court. They were charged with the murder of 25-year-old Suresh Nandkishore, called ‘Ravo,’ at Handsome Tree, Mahaica Creek on February 03 last. They were remanded to prison until February 17. According to reports, the now dead man, his father Bhopaul Nandkishore, 52, and brother Parmanand were in the process of erecting a fence on a plot of land when a heated argument erupted between them and the other family, and led to a fight. It was reported that the older Dharamdat, with whom the
Nandkishores have a land dispute, came as they were working and appeared to have no objection. But the 51-year-old reportedly returned with his two sons, one of whom was armed with a cutlass. The men reportedly picked up two of the posts that were meant for the fence and began lashing the Nandkishores about their bodies. The now dead man reportedly tried to walk away, but was cornered and dealt several lashes to his head, blows that cracked open his skull. The father and his older son, both sustained injuries while it was reported that at least two members of the opposing family, Sukhdeo Dharamdat included, received treatment for injuries they sustained during the melee.
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Gunmen snatch millions in gold, diamonds from gated community It’s gated, has round the clock security and surveillance cameras, but a gang of robbers somehow managed to escape unseen with a safe containing millions of dollars in gold, diamonds and rare watches from the community of Windsor Estate, East Bank Demerara. Police said that the heist occurred around 22.00 hrs on Friday at the home of a prominent business family that is involved in the mining and fishing industries. The safe reportedly contained some 53 ounces of raw gold, said to value some $11M, three large diamonds and several custom-made watches. Kaieteur News understands that a baby-sitter was the lone occupant at the time. Police appear to be
skeptical about her version of events and were questioning the employee up to late yesterday evening at the Ruimveldt Police Station. According to reports, the maid alleged that she was having a bath when five men, including one who was masked, entered the premises through a window at the back of the premises. She alleged that while some of the men held her at gunpoint, others ransacked the house, and eventually located a safe in one of the bedrooms. The ‘robbers’ reportedly remained in the house for some 20 minutes before fleeing. Police sources said that the maid claimed that the ‘robbers’ made no attempt to restrain her. It was she who reportedly alerted security
personnel about the ‘heist.’ However, Kaieteur News understands that security personnel manning the gates told police that the security cameras were not working at the time of the ‘heist.’ It is also unclear how the ‘robbers’ entered and left the gated community without being observed by the security personnel. The new community is located near to Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara. Visitors to the community have to identify themselves to security personnel and have to be further cleared before being granted entry. One sign at the entrance states: “Warning, 24 hrs armed security, while another reads: “This area is 24 hrs camera surveillance.”
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Sunday February 08, 2015
$50 billion for new power plant The Gleaner - It is to cost the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) more than $50 billion to construct the 190 megawatt power plant at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine. Dan Theoc, the chief financial officer of the JPS, said Friday that the utility company would be putting up 30 per cent of the amount and the remainder would come from the market. “I am very excited to go raise that money for a project that is going to cost somewhere north of $50 billion, and so that does create a lot of work,” Theoc said. He said that given the amount of money being targeted, the JPS would have to look overseas to get money to finance the project. Along with Kelly Tomblin, the entity’s president and CEO, Theoc said it was important that the JPS be able to attract funding from the market. Tomblin Friday revealed the JPS’ worst-kept secret: that it intends to appeal the rate determination of the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which has ordered a two per cent cut in rates. “It is not what we want to do; we wanted to avoid an
appeal,” Tomblin said at a press conference in New Kingston. She said that the appeal was very important as there are some 44 areas in which the OUR did not rule favourably for the JPS, and that the current determination would be an impediment to the utility company attaining worldclass status. “We are not appealing for a specific rate increase. We are appealing sound regulatory principles,” Tobmlin said.
Theoc, meanwhile, said the JPS had been developing the power plant project for about 14 months. He said the company would spend the next nine months or so seeking to secure the financing for the project and fine-tuning areas such as the selection of suppliers for equipment and gas. He said the company expects to break ground for the power plant by the end of the year. Construction is expected to last 26 months.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, last week announced the establishment of a joint team, at the request of the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), to examine further the issue of constitutional legislative reform with regard to internal self-government for Tobago. The prime minister wrote to THA chief secretary, Orville London, reaffirming her government’s commitment to internal self-government for Tobago, and expressing her agreement to the establishment of a joint team
to look at this important issue. Persad-Bissessar has mandated Senator Ganga Singh, minister of environment and water resources, Lincoln Douglas, minister of arts and multiculturalism, Senator Devant Maharaj, minister of food production, and Dr Delmon Baker, minister of Tobago development to work with the THA in this regard. The prime minister also informed London that he can expect a carefully deliberated response from the attorney general regarding the issue of reported incursions into areas devolved to the THA by the central government.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Dan Theoc
Internal self-government for Tobago to be evaluated
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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Dochfour residents halt works on delayed Hope Canal over blocked road The $3.6B project to build a canal on East Coast Demerara to reduce flooding has run into another hurdle. This time, residents of Dochfour, a village that is east of the canal, have stopped contractors from continuing works. They are calling on authorities to meet with them to iron out several issues, including roads, water and safety. According to Roy Kingston, a resident of the area, there have been ongoing complaints but authorities have not been responding in a timely manner. Dochfour and Hope were two communities that were closely knit until the canal project was launched in 2010. The canal has now separated the two communities with a little earthen walkway soon to be removed by excavators. Following the 2005 floods which devastated the East Coast and was blamed for back waters coming down from the East Demerara Wa t e r Conservancy, Government had initiated the Hope/ Dochfour canal project which they say will reduce the need to use the Mahaica Creek and other outlets in case in the event of heavy rains. The conservancy holds
billions of gallons of water and is only separated from the many villages by a dam. The project is more than two years behind schedule, unable to meet at least six deadlines. According to Kingston, workers digging the dam blocked the road leading to a number of homes without any notice to residents. In recent days, residents stopped the workers from continuing. Several Government officials, including Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and Lionel Wordsworth, Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), have visited but there is little headway on the issues. According to angry residents of Dochfour, in addition to the blocked road, which runs parallel to the canal dam, there are also fears over their safety because of the height of the dam which is almost level to their first floor. In January, opposition Members of Parliament, Joseph Harmon and Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine were in the area to listen to the complaints but there has been no word from them. According to Kingston, there is a pattern of “noncommunication” from
authorities on issues. “They are proposing to build a new road but it runs through a number of house lots.” Residents say that they are willing to talk compensation but there is no one to talk to. “We are now awaiting someone.” In December, Government said that they are working on a new access road. The $3.6B, fourcomponent project comprises a canal, a high-level sluice outfall structure, a conservancy head regulator and a public bridge. The latter was completed and commissioned last February. Using long-boom excavators, Government had turned to its engineers for the canal but had contracted out the bridge and the sluices to a private construction firm. To justify the project, Government had argued that East Demerara area alone, in the MMA section, there is an estimated 30,000 hectares earning US$1,000 per hectare, which translates to around US$30M. If half those crops are lost when the flood waters are released on the land, that would account for US$15M in lost revenue – the cost of the project.
Residents of Dochfour want Government to pay attention to several issues.
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Sunday February 08, 2015
Alabama set to become 37th state to allow gay marriage
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Joe Babin and Clay Jones have their rings. After they get their marriage license in downtown Birmingham, a friend will officiate at their ceremony, which can be held outside thanks to mild southern winters. Everything, Babin, said is falling into place for their wedding on Monday, the first day gay marriage will be legal in Alabama. “We knew we wanted to do it that day because it’s such a huge day for gay rights. It’s such a huge thing for Alabama to finally not be last in something that is progressive,” said Babin.
Alabama on Monday will become the 37th state where gays can legally wed unless the U.S. Supreme Court orders a last-minute stay of a federal judge’s decision overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage. The ruling brings gay marriage to the Deep South and to a state considered one of the Bible Belt’s most socially conservative. While gay marriage is legal in much of the nation, over half of the 14 states still enforcing bans on gay marriage were located in the South, a swath of resistance stretching from roughly Texas to Kentucky. Couples are expected to
seek marriage licenses at courthouses across Alabama on Monday morning when the ruling by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade overturning Alabama’s ban goes into effect. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put aside the judge’s order since justices are expected to decide the issue of gay marriage on a nationwide basis later this year. As of Saturday, the high court had not ruled on the request. Alabama voters in 2006 approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage by a 4-to-1 margin.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Brian Williams said he is temporarily stepping away from the “NBC Nightly News” amid questions about his memories of war coverage in Iraq, calling it “painfully apparent” that he has become a distracting news story. In a memo Saturday to NBC News staff that was released by the network, the anchorman said that as managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” he is taking himself off the broadcast for several days. Weekend anchor Lester Holt will fill in, Williams said. NBC News refused to comment Saturday on when or whether Williams would return and who would decide his future. Williams, however, said he would be back. “In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions,” Williams said in his memo.
“Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us,” he wrote. NBC News President Deborah Turness said Friday that an internal investigation had been launched after questions arose over Williams’ false on-air statements that he was in a helicopter hit by a rocketpropelled grenade while in Iraq in 2003. Williams apologized for those statements on Wednesday. There was no indication by Williams, who has anchored “NBC Nightly News” since 2004, that such a decision was forthcoming during his newscast Friday. He signed off as he usually does, saying he hoped people would be back to see him Monday. Since Williams’ apology, questions also have been raised about his claim that he saw a body or bodies in the Hurricane Katrina floodwaters that hit New Orleans in 2005.
His remarks in a 2006 interview drew suspicion because there was relatively little flooding in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the area where Williams was staying. A person at NBC confirmed that Williams stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, which is in an area where a news photographer and a law enforcement official said they saw bodies. Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University, called Williams’ move a good idea for him and NBC News. “It gives him a chance to catch his breath and, on a human level, it must be excruciating to get on the air and report the news and not say anything about this,” Levinson said. NBC News, he said, “wants to be in the business of reporting on the news, and not have people thinking, ‘is he telling the truth?’” Rick Hanley, director of the graduate journalism program at Quinnipiac University, also lauded Williams’ leave.
Brian Williams taking himself off air temporarily
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
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CLIVE ATWELL/EDMOND DECLOU accelerates for ‘Caribbean Collision’ crash By Michael Benjamin His fans are heatedly debating his ability to rebound after back to back losses to World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight champion Johnny Gonzalez and Australian, Kye Mackenzie, in Australia but Clive ‘The Punisher’ Atwell is brimming with confidence and assures his fans that he is ready to reclaim his place as a top puncher in the fistic sport when he faces 2014 Contender champion, Sakima Mullings for the World Boxing Council Caribbean Boxing Federation (WBCCABOFE) jnr/ welterweight title, on a card dubbed ‘Caribbean Collision’ at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Saturday February 21. Middleweight WBC CABOFE champion, Edmond DeClou is also on the
comeback trail after being forced to take ‘sick leave’ compliments of a wicked left hook from local super/ middleweight Dereck Richmond that shattered his jaw and side-lined him and forced him to restrict his diet to just beverages; he has since informed Richmond that his ‘soup drinking days are now a thing of the past.’ Atwell and Mullings were brought together by fate after Mullings’ original opponent, Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis, incurred an injury while preparing for the fight and Atwell was drafted in. The Guyanese world rated pugilist arrived in Guyana approximately one week ago and opened camp at the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Boxing Gym and his first official interaction with the public occurred on Friday afternoon when he appeared at a press conference at the
Avenue of the Republic office of Insurance Brokers, Abdool and Abdools. “I’m back and you could expect the 110% I always bring to my fights,” a confident Atwell assured his fans. Reminded of Mullins’ dominance over several Guyanese boxers, Atwell scoffed and declared that he will not be joining that group. “I know that he has defeated many of my countrymen but I am one of the best fighters Mullins has ever faced in his (entire) career,” he declared. “The reality is that this is not a bout between Atwell and Mullings but one between Guyana and Jamaica,” Atwell reminded. He said that he has recovered from his defeats and is good and ready to return to his winning ways. Another fight that has caught the imagination of the pundits is the Dereck
Sunday February 08, 2015 ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 19): This is likely to be a day geared to fulfilling the needs of family. Lesser persons would resent the obligation, but not you, Aries. ************************* TAURUS (APR 20 MAY 20): Guilt can be a powerful motivator, Taurus, but it isn’t a pure one. Today you could feel obligated to help a family member with something you’d prefer to take no part in. ************************* GEMINI (MAY 21 - JUN 20): Today you could feel overwhelmed with obligations and commitments to others. ************************* CANCER (JUN 21 - JUL 22): Those who know the real you find your lack of confidence frustrating, Cancer. Your talents are startling to mere mortals, yet you rarely take credit for all your abilities. ************************* LEO (JUL 23 - AUG 22): You may be in a quiet, reflective mood today, Leo. You could receive a communication from an old friend that sets you remembering the good old days of your youth. ************************* VIRGO (AUG 23 - SEP 22): Today, Virgo, forget socializing, working, and answering the phone. Stay home and cuddle in a blanket by the fire.
LIBRA (SEP 23 - OCT 22): Don’t be surprised if neighbors come to your door asking for a favor – and not just to borrow a cup of sugar! ************************* SCORPIO (OCT 23 NOV 21): You’re likely to wake up today with a compulsion to clean or organize something, Scorpio. This may be rather unlike you. If we didn’t know better we’d say that you were feeling a parental urge, and your nesting instinct is kicking in. ************************* SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 - DEC 21): Today should be a “no holds barred” day as you strategize your next career move, Sagittarius. If you were in the army, you’d be a fivestar general by now - your tactical sense is that good. ************************* CAPRICORN (DEC 22 JAN 19): Today might be largely devoted to household tasks, Capricorn. ************************* AQUARIUS (JAN 20 FEB 18): This is going to be a rather busy day for you, Aquarius, and you’re likely to love every minute of it. ************************* PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20): You’ve been working hard lately and deserve the professional acclaim that comes your way, Pisces. As a result of your efforts, it’s likely you’ve received or will soon receive a bonus, raise, or promotion of some kind.
Richmond/Edmond DeClou clash. This is their second meeting and Richmond would feel he has the psychological advantage after dealing DeClou a wicked left hook that sent him to the hospital nursing a broken jaw. The injury has side-lined DeClou and this fight will signal his return to combat. In the meantime, Richmond had engaged in several bouts, gaining valuable experience. He has also won the local super/ middleweight title after stopping James Walcott and also participated in the ‘Contender’ series in Jamaica last year. DeClou is not impressed and said that his loss to Richmond stemmed from complacency, a mistake he does not intend to repeat. “I had underestimated Richmond and paid for my complacency; that will not happen again,” assured DeClou. “This fight will be Dereck’s worst nightmare!” These two fights are but a fraction of the entertainment in store and ought to attract the largest crowd at the CASH after a lull in activities. There are several other interesting face offs that promises much including the Quincy Gomes/ Keeve Allicock lightweight 4 rounder, the Mark Austin/ Dexter Gonsalves jnr/ welterweight non-title 8 rounds affair and the bout between Barbados based Guyanese, Charwyn Eswick and debutant, Travis Fraser over 4 rounds in the jnr/ middleweight division. From all indications, the boxers are primed up for combat and fans will be best advised to purchase their tickets early because this card is a ‘don’t you dare miss it’ affair. Admission is $3000 for a
Blatter... From page 72 Ghana won it 3-0. “Good news is no news, bad news is news,” Blatter told reporters yesterday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF). “We only talk about the bad. Football — which is such a good thing — let it live, leave it in peace, it’s well organised, let them do it. “I don’t see the negative side of African football that the media presents,” Blatter added. “It’s normal, we criticise what’s good, never what’s bad. The unhappy role of the media is to assume and to forecast.
Sakima Mullings
ringside seat and half that amount for the stand. Several corporate entities have rendered financial and other support towards the success of the card including Giftland Office Max, Guyana Tourism Board, GTM, Guyoil, Digicel and Courts (Guyana) Ltd
among others. The coming weeks will see a hive of activity in the gym and Kaieteur Sport will be at those institutions to keep the readers updated of the progress of the various pugilists. Action time is 20:00hrs.
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Sunday February 08, 2015
“Let’s get it on for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015!” Says Colin E. H. Croft I am as pumped that International Cricket Council’s premier, blue-ribbon event, World Cup 2015 - 50-overs version - is about to begin as if I were myself playing too! Four tumultuous years have passed since India won in 2011, with many upheavals, suspicions, question marks and other situations besmirching our beloved game. But, in the unforgettable words of world-renowned boxing referee, District Court Judge Mills Lane, of Georgia, USA, who refereed several massive ring battles, including “The Bite Fight”, featuring ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and Evander ‘Real Deal’ Holyfield; “Let’s get it on!” If you are a West Indies supporter, you could have either of two quite polarized thoughts about our representatives’ chances of ‘getting far’, even winning CWC 2015. You could either believe that a major miracle will
happen, that our cricketing ambassadors will pull off something very special, or you could expect that they will fall at very early hurdles! It is not going to be easy for WI. Their group, “Pool B”, also contains 2015’s favorites in South Africa, India and Pakistan, giant-killers Ireland and Zimbabwe, and confident, never-say-die United Arab Emirates. This could be that proverbial ‘Group of Death’. I count myself not only very fortunate to have played for WI, but out-of-this-world to realize that I am one of only very few of our seven or so million people who has actually won the cricket World Cup, and did as well as, if not better than most, in helping WI win CWC No. 2 in 1979. WI has produced many cricketing legends, but the majority of them never did that. Indeed, only twenty WI cricketers have ever won World Cups, as WI won the first two stanzas; 1975 and 1979. In 1975, WI’s squad was:
Ajmal and Gazi cleared... From page 67 supported their views during that time. “It’s also encouraging that a number of bowlers have been able to rectify their actions in that period of time and come back to this tournament in a condition
where they’re able to bowl without restriction. [Sachithra Senanayake] from Sri Lanka and [New Zealand’s] Kane Williamson have gone through the mediation process and had their actions tested and found to be legal.
Clive Lloyd - captain, Keith Boyce, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, Vanburn Holder, Bernard Julien, Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Deryck Murray, (Sir) Vivian Richards and (Sir) Andy Roberts. Boyce and Fredericks are already at ‘that massive oval somewhere else’, but the remainder of this original twelve, whose exploits could never be duplicated, as no other team can ever again win the first cricket World Cup, should always be held in our highest cricket esteem! When WI won CWC No. 1; 1975; I was studying navigation in Trinidad & Tobago, and could clearly remember that no-one worried about any books at all that final day. In CWC 1975, Kallicharran had tamed dangerous Australian fast-man Dennis Lillee with murderous cuts and hooks; 78 in only 83 deliveries; as WI beat Australia in one preliminary game. Thus, “Kalli” and the rest of WI were tuned for that first ever CWC final, especially after Murray and Roberts had put WI there, eking out a very close, unlikely knock-out stage win against excellent Pakistan, that last WI pair adding 64 undefeated, winning runs! 1975’s final was captain Lloyd’s day, as WI amassed 291 in 60 overs!
“Super Cat” mauled the Australians even worse than Kallicharran had done, getting 102 in just 85 deliveries, including twelve fours and two sixes, after Fredericks had trod on his stumps while hooking Lillee for six into St. John’s Road, outside Lords Cricket Ground. Then Richards ran out three Australians, and that was that! WI won that 1975 final by 17 runs! By 1979, CWC No. 2, Colin Croft (yours truly), Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Collis King, Malcolm Marshall, Desmond Haynes, “Larry” Gomes, and Faoud Bacchus had been added to Lloyd, Greenidge, Richards, Kallicharran, Murray and Roberts, to defend 1975’s victory. So, that tally of WI
3rd Annual Nestle Milo Under-20 Schools Football Competition
East Ruimveldt produces steely performance to earn full points By Rawle Welch East Ruimveldt produced a steely performance to earn full points against a combative Bishop’s High as the 3 rd Annual Nestle Milo Under-20 Schools Football Competition continued yesterday with four matches, at the Ministry of Education ground, Carifesta Avenue. Playing in the second fixture of the day, East Ruimveldt fell behind after six minutes when Tyrese Souvenir took full advantage of a miscommunication between two opposing defenders to split them and slot past the goalkeeper. However, the one-goal deficit seemed to ignite the East Georgetown-based team as they initiated several ominous raids, but stout defending by Bishop’s High erased their chances until one minute before the half when
- Four more matches on today Tyrone Carrington was left unmarked inside the penalty area following a goalmouth scrimmage and he poked in from close range. Shortly after, the whistle sounded to signal halftime, leaving the teams all to play for in the second period. On the resumption, East Ruimveldt increased the tempo, creating several chances, but poor finishing kept the contest even. Ten minutes after the resumption, East Ruimveldt’s Romel Legall produced a fine piece of artistry when he weaved past two defenders and the advancing goalkeeper, before squeezing his shot from a tight angle into the far corner to give his team a 2-1 lead. Carrington completed his brace five minutes later after
racing on to a long pass from the back, trapped it neatly, before firing past the keeper. Just when it looked as though East Ruimveldt were coasting to victory, Imran Khan added a bit of interest to the proceedings when he rifled past the East Ruimveldt custodian in the 59th as they trailed 2-3. East Ruimveldt, however, managed to stave off a few dangerous raids to preserve their advantage until the final whistle sounded. In the day’s other results: David Rose-0 vs St. Joseph High-4 Phillip Marignan-17th Mario King-39th Lemar Williams-41st and 46th Carmel Secondary vs New Campbellville Disqualification for both sides for fielding players not
from the school St. George’s-5 vs St. Mary’s-1 St. George’s scorers Joshua Williams-4th Adolph George-28th Travis Cottom-30th Jameel Wilson-32nd Orin Moore-47th St. Mary’s scorer Rafael Bollers-11th Meanwhile, the competition resumes today with four more matches, starting at 11:00 hrs. In the day’s opener, Cummings Lodge battle Central High and that will be followed by Ascension versus Brickdam, before Chase Academy engage St. Stanislaus. In the final encounter, South Ruimveldt square off against St. John’s College. A total of 32 schools are participating in the competition which runs until March.
cricketers who have won an ICC cricket World Cup, to date, is only 20, of whom seventeen are still alive; Marshall having also already gone to that great beyond. As in everything else, some are kicking better than some! 1979’s tournament was relatively easy for us. Perhaps the only really difficult games were semi-final against, again, Pakistan, and that 2nd CWC final at Lords. Beating India and New Zealand, having a no-result against Sri Lanka for rain, put us squarely into the sights of always mercurial Pakistanis. They nearly beat us. Maybe they should have! Batting first in front of 30,000 in bright English sunshine, WI made 293-6, a good but gettable total for a Pakistan team filled with stars. Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas added 176 for the 2nd wicket before I managed to
clean them both up, and Javed Miandad too as a bonus, getting 3-29 from 11 overs, allowing WI to win by 43 runs. After that, even with WI at one time 99-4 in 1979’s final, (Sir) Viv’s majestic century, and “Big Bird” Garner’s five wickets kayoed England. WI won 1979’s final by a mammoth 92 runs! Those memories are wonderful. Now for more reality! 2015’s WI have a much more difficult task to simply qualify for quarter finals. If they can do that, then, as Lloyd used to tell us too, ‘anything can happen’, as each game is then a pure knock-out, and can be won if a team plays well. How Jason Holder and his guys evolve in the next six weeks could even surprise us all. Enjoy! E-mail: c.e.h.croft@ gmail.com
GCA/Hadi’s World City Mall Inc first division two-day
Griffith slams 50, Moseley grabs 5 A fine half century by Trevon Griffith and a fivewicket haul by Shaquille Moseley highlighted the opening day of Hadi’s World City Mall Inc first division two day match between the host Malteenoes SC (MSC) and Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) when the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) competition resumed yesterday. DCC batted first after winning the toss and were bowled out for 185. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Griffith timed the ball well hitting five sixes and two fours in a top score of 72. Antonell Atwell chipped in 36 as Moseley, bowling with good control grabbed 5-29, while Dellon Darlymple snared 3-30. The host closed on 122-7 with Kellon Carmichael
Shaquille Moseley unbeaten on 33. They lost two early wickets before Orin Forde and Joseph Cupidore featured in a third wicket stand of 73 to steady the innings. Forde made 38 and Cupidore 32. Paul Wintz has so far taken 3-48 and Keano Harry 2-16. The game concludes today.
Champion of Champions softball set for February 28 The Champion of Champions softball competition is scheduled to be played on February 28 at Demerara Cricket Club. Action will get underway at 09:00hrs and entrance fee is $60,000. The tournament will be played in the open and over-40 categories with the winner in the open taking home $300,000 and the runner up $100,000. The first place
team in the over-40 will pocket $150,000 and the runner up $60,000. The first eight teams in the open segment will be accepted preferably three each from Berbice and Demerara and two from Essequibo. The first four teams in the over-40 will be accepted. Entries close on February 14 and interested teams can contact Samuel Kingston on 614-9535.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 71
Fixtures and fitness crucial for Jaguars By Santokie Nagulendran Much has already been written about Guyana’s 2-2 draw against Barbados last week, so it’s now time to look forward and analyse what needs to be done for the Golden Jaguars to develop on the International stage, and the answer is: organised domestic fixtures need to take place. Guyana’s ‘GFF Super League’ which is supposed to take place every year from October to April has not been held this season due to the turmoil that took place within the GFF administration last year. There have consequently been no consistent fixtures for top domestic sides in Guyana such as GDF, Buxton United or Western Tigers to play against each other since April 2014. (I have omitted Alpha United from the list as they are the only club in Guyana to have had some sort of ‘regular’ competition over the past few months as a result of taking part in the CONCACAF Champions League). To put it into perspective, if the English Premier League was suspended for over nine months and English players had no regular football arranged, the National Team there would be in a terrible state and undoubtedly beaten by most teams in Europe. The fact that Guyana fielded a team featuring a substantial amount of players who have actually gone nine months without regular football and still managed to gain a 2-2 draw with Barbados is both a credit to the desire of the players and the coaching of Jamaal Shabazz and his staff. Regional competitions such as the GFA Banks Beer Cup and WDFA Knockout Cup were held in December, but these tournaments do not provide enough opportunity for players to develop, as they are divided by regions and so the top teams in Guyana rarely play each other in these tournaments. With no stability in terms of footballing fixtures, it is no wonder that players chosen for the National Team lacked match fitness: they have had limited opportunities to play 90 minutes at an intense level. Alpha United breezed through the early rounds of the Banks competition by scoring 33 goals in their first two games: uneven games like this do not develop or challenge players at the top level; they merely provide a 90 minute training session for the squad.
Santokie Nagulendran
Guyana’s new-look squad lacked match fitness against Barbados. Often when a top player in Europe such as Messi or Neymar is out injured for a few weeks, their first game back is often described by commentators as one where ‘they try to regain match sharpness’ and the player is usually introduced for only part of the game. Therefore you can only imagine how much of a challenge it was for the Guyanese players, many of whom have not played regular football for the best part of nine months, to suddenly take part in an highintensity International game against Barbados for 90 minutes. Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz referenced this in a post-match interview, stating: “our fitness was just not able to keep the level of intensity and after 32 minutes we were
just dragging in the first half. But all in all we saw some quality play from these boys, and as we get fitter, we will see the resurgence of Guyana.” Shabazz went on to emphasise the need for a functioning league in Guyana: “Without fitness, without playing week-in and week-out, you will never have the legs to compete at a higher level.” Whilst a general level of fitness can be maintained through training sessions and gym workouts, to be match-fit and ready to pay high intensity games both physically and mentally is something that can only be developed on the pitch by playing constant competitive games and this is where the Guyanese team was lacking. Another problem which will hinder Guyana as they initially play International
football is the lack of team experience: yes Guyana played three games in 2014 Caribbean Cup qualifiers as a National Team last year, but of the squad chosen last year, only Eusi Phillips was a member of the squad for the recent Barbados game. The vast majority of the squad against Barbados were either making their International debut, or in the case of players such as Trayon Bobb, Christopher Nurse and Vurlon Mills, playing their first International game since 2012. The team therefore needs time to gel and gain experience of playing together as a unit: the Barbados team last week was young in age, but had vast experience of playing together as a team, their understanding of playing together gave them a
substantial advantage on the field. So where does the team go from here? The next FIFA International Window to play friendly matches is 23rd-31st March, and would allow the team to utilise more overseasbased players who have been playing football on a regular basis. The addition of two or three such players could transform the team if used in the right way. Jamaal Shabazz claimed before the game that the Barbados showdown would reveal the truth of where Guyana’s football is at, and overall, it showed that despite the weaknesses in the team currently, there are numerous positives to take. Fitness and gaining match experience are factors that can be worked on by arranging more competitive games, what’s important is that the talent is
there. A team where most of the players have not played regular football for nearly a year managed to take a twogoal lead over Barbados, a strong side in the CFU region and that fact alone provides hope for the future development of the side. The Mayor ’s Cup is currently under-way in Guyana, and Alpha United will be taking part in the CFU Championship in March, so there will be some football taking place domestically in which the players can use to sharpen their match practice, but a league is still very much needed to introduce consistency into Guyanese football. With the right planning and preparation heading into the World Cup qualifier against St Vincent and the Grenadines in June, Guyana can be confident of gaining a positive result and progressing to the next round. The foundation is there, Guyana has some of the most talented players in the region, yet it is the organisation and preparation over the next few months that will determine how far the team will go.
Ajmal and Gazi cleared to bowl again ESPNcricinfo - Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi can resume bowling in international cricket, after the ICC cleared their bowling actions following remedial work and retests. Ajmal had withdrawn from the World Cup in December to avoid taking “a risk with his career” and he can now be included in Pakistan’s squad only if a player gets injured. Pakistan had recently replaced the injured Junaid Khan with Rahat Ali only two days ago. At the retests, it was revealed that the amount of elbow extensions in both the offspinners’ bowling actions for all their deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC regulations for the review of bowlers reported with
suspected illegal bowling actions. However, the umpires are still at liberty to report Ajmal or Gazi in the future if they believe they are displaying a suspect action and not reproducing the legal actions from the retests. Umpires have been provided with images and video footage of the bowlers’ significantly remodeled legal bowling actions. Their retests were held at the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai on January 24. Ajmal was suspended from bowling in September after his action was deemed to be illegal for all deliveries. Before he was banned, tests revealed his elbow extension was going up to 42 degrees on average, leading to his suspension. He underwent extensive remedial work on his action with former Pakistan
spinner Saqlain Mushtaq. Ajmal went through three unofficial Tests that showed his offspinner and faster ball were within the legitimate 15degree limit, though his doosra was still beyond the limit. Gazi was reported for a suspect action in Bangladesh’s second ODI against West Indies in August last year and was suspended from bowling in October after he was tested in Cardiff. He had been working towards a remedy with Bangladesh spin coach Ruwan Kalpage, under whose supervision he had bowled in the nets during the Zimbabwe series. Gazi had not been included in Bangladesh’s 15-man squad for the World Cup. ‘SYSTEM WORKING REASONABLY WELL’ ALLARDICE
Saeed Ajmal The ICC’s drive against chucking has gone some way towards rectifying a problem that had “started to get out of control”, according to the ICC’s cricket operations manager Geoff Allardice. “I think it’s been widely acknowledged that it was a
problem in the game that it started to get out of control,” Allardice said in Adelaide. “Particularly the umpires have taken a strong stance in reporting bowlers [with suspect actions], and I think the results of the testing have (Continued on page 66)
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
WICB First-Class cricket Franchise...
PERMAUL’S ALL-ROUND BRILLIANCE KEEPS JAGUARS ON TOP AGAINST JAMAICA By Sean Devers in Jamaica In Association with Western Union, John Fernandes Ltd & Payless Varity store Led by a fine all-round performance by 25-year-old left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, Guyana Jaguars put themselves in a good position to claw their way to only their second victory against Jamaica in the last decade at the half way stage of their fifth round West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) FourDay First-Class Cricket Franchise match against Jamaica here at Sabina Park in the largest Englishspeaking City in the Caribbean. By the Close of day two yesterday, the Jaguars, batting a second time, enjoying a lead of 137, were 54-4 with an overall lead of 191 with six wickets standing. Shiv Chanderpaul was not out on six. Shemroy Hetymer was caught behind off Jason Dawes for a duck while makeshift opener Vishaul Singh was also caught behind off Marquino Mindley for 14 as the Jaguars lost both openers to leave the score on 19-2.
It was soon 21-3 when Raymond Reifer (0) provided Carlton Baugh with his third catch behind the stumps as Mindley got his second wicket and on the stroke of stumps, Leon Johnson, who was dropped on 20 off Marquino Mindley, edged a catch to Baugh off David Bernard after making 33 from 85 minutes with six fours as the Jamaicans fought back. Earlier, the Jaguars pushed their overnight score of 298-8 to 314 all out with Permaul who is fast developing into a genuine allrounder, hammering 11 fours and two sixes from 166 minutes at the crease in an entertaining unbeaten 84. Dawes (3-28), Odean Browne (3-70) and Damion Jacobs (2-64) did the damage for Jamaica, who were bowled out for 177 as Permaul returned to bag 4-22 from nine overs to carry his tally to 36 scalps in the competition. He got good support from his Albion spin twin Devendra Bishoo (2-30) and West Berbice fast bowler Keon Joseph (2-44). Jermaine Blackwood and Horace Miller both fell six runs short of fifties while Baugh made an unbeaten 29 before running out of
partners. When play began in overcast conditions, the Jaguars resumed on 298-8 and added 16 runs with Permaul taking his overnight 75 to 84 with two boundaries off the first two balls he faced from Dawes who soon scattered Ronsford Beaton stumps for five at 313-9. Joseph was trapped LBW for a duck to Mindley leaving Permaul stranded 14 short of his maiden century. Jamaicans reached 55-2 by Lunch after Joseph, who operated with good control induced Nkrumah Bonner (1) to offer a catch to Johnson at first slip with just one on the board. Left-hander John Campbell (15) was now looking threatening when he edged one from left-arm seamer, Bajan Rifer to the Keeper for 15 on the stroke of Lunch. At the Interval Blackwood, the last Jamaican batsman to play Test cricket, was unbeaten on 28. After the interval Jamaica, whose only loss to Guyana at this level in the last decade was in 2006 when they lost by 51 runs at Chedwin Park, progressed to 72-3 before Blackwood, who played some enterprising shots on the lightening fast outfield edged
Blatter slams media negativity after Nations Cup violence
Riot police shield Ghana’s John Boye (21) and team mates from objects thrown by Equatorial Guinea fans at the end of the first half of the 2015 African Cup of Nations semi-final soccer match in Malabo last Thursday. REUTERS-Amr Abdallah Dalsh MALABO, (Reuters) – FIFA President Sepp Blatter and CAF chief Issa Hayatou accused western media yesterday of dramatising the crowd violence which marred
the African Nations Cup semi-final between Ghana and Equatorial Guinea. Projectiles were hurled at players and supporters, a police helicopter was called to
disperse fans in the stadium and conflict continued outside the ground after the match which was delayed for over half an hour before (Continued on page 69)
Barnwell to the Keeper after stroking four fours and lofting two sixes in 44. Skipper Tamar Lambert was tested by some short balls from Reifer and Barnwell one half of a lively four-prong pace attack which operated for 34 overs on a nice firm track with excellent control before spin was introduced. This was the first time in several years that the spinners had to wait so long to get their hands on the ball. But Lambert, who hit a cameo 21-ball 14, pulled a tiring Barnwell for two fours, before a scorching cover drive to a wide half volley raced like a bullet to the boundary in the most expensive over of the Jamaica innings to the delight of a fair size and very vocal crowd. The Guyana one-day Captain was replaced by Joseph as the sun returned in all its glory and he got one to climb on the burly Lambert who tried to cut a ball that got
‘big’ on him and was taken at second slip by Johnson to leave the hosts on 102-4 and when spin was eventually introduced Jamaica lost two more wickets in the space of two runs just before Tea. Miller, who attacked the bowlers, was trapped LBW to Permaul after reaching the boundary seven times in his 111-minute 44, while Bernard (7) was taken by wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble to leave Jamaica on 141-6 at Tea still 24 to avoid the follow-on. After Tea, Dawes fell to Permaul as Jamaica lost three wickets for eight runs. However, the experienced Baugh launched a murderous attack on Bishoo hitting the leg-spinner for a four and a six before he hammered Bishoo for two more fours in his next over to bring up the 150 as the former West Indies Wicketkeeper took a liking to Bishoo, who has 40 wickets from 11 Test matches.
However, Permaul continued to torment the batsmen from the other end by quickly removing Jacobs and Browne for ducks as Jamaica slumped to 163-9. Baugh counter-attacked and clobbered four fours and a six in 37-ball unbeaten 29 but ran out of partners when Mindely was removed by Bishoo. Guyana is hunting their 7th Regional title and first since 1998 when they shared the title with the Leewards. The last time Guyana won a championship at this level it was at this very ground in the 2002 Busta International Shield when, led by a classy innings from Carl Hooper, they took first innings points from the home team in the final. Today, the Jaguars will aim to press home their advantage by building a huge second innings total and give themselves enough time on the last day tomorrow to bowl out the Jamaicans a second time.
India captain Dhoni sees open World Cup, pressure on hosts (Reuters) - The cricket World Cup could be won by any one of the “balanced” six or seven teams in the fray, according to India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. South Africa and Australia are seen as the favourites for the Feb. 14March 29 tournament, while co-hosts New Zealand also loom as most people’s third pick given a strong run of form at home against fellow contenders Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “I feel this World Cup, most of the teams, they are quite balanced, and most of the teams are looking good,” Dhoni said in a pre-World Cup media conference on Saturday. “When I say most, it’s in excess of six or seven teams that I’m talking about. So I feel it will be a very special World Cup for all the teams. “It’s a matter of which team is more consistent during the World Cup, what kind of momentum they take with them into the knockout stages and all of that will be crucial.” Dhoni was unconcerned about his own side’s lack of positive results heading into the World Cup after they lost their test series to Australia then all three of their one-day matches in a triangular tournament that
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
also included England.The wicketkeeper, however, said they had been written off previously only to come right when they needed to. “When we went and played the Champions Trophy (in 2013) we were in a similar situation like this and the guys stepped up, that’s what I feel is important,” he added. “What we have seen is how you rise to an occasion like this and how you take the confidence forward to something that’s more important.” The last World Cup had created enormous pressure on the host nation and Dhoni said that would have some impact on Australia and New Zealand, though the expectations would probably not be the
same as his side experienced in 2011. “It is slightly tough. It’s not something that a lot of home teams have won,” said Dhoni. “The expectation of the people, it’s very high. “I think the same will apply to the Australians and the New Zealand side, but at the same time, their culture is slightly different, so what’s a kind of expectation level that we’ll have to wait and watch.” Dhoni’s wife gave birth to their first child on Friday and while he was delighted by the arrival of his daughter he was totally focussed on the World Cup. “Mum and daughter both are good,” he said. “But (the) World Cup is a very important campaign, and everything can wait as of now.”
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 73
GFF NC Chairman satisfied with GJs showing in B’dos - NEW TD CHARTING THE WAY FORWARD Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz giving final instructions to the Golden Jaguars moments before they took on Barbados on February 1, 2015.
Clinton Urling
By Franklin Wilson Chairman of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normalization Committee (NC), Mr. Clinton Urling has expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the Golden Jaguars in their friendly international against the Barbados Tridents on February 1st in the land of the Flying Fish. The game, which the Barbadians used to expose
their Under-23 team ahead of World Cup qualifying next month, ended 2-2 the home team erasing a 2-0 deficit to earn a draw. Speaking with Kaieteur Sport, Urling said that the team performed creditably considering the circumstances. “We received the request to participate in the match from Barbados in December 2014, so we did not have much time to put together, and prepare, the squad for
the encounter. However, we agreed to the match because it presented an opportunity for the NC to assess the status of the Senior Men’s National Team. Moreover, it provided the clarity for us to put together the pieces of the puzzle moving forward t o w a r d s Wo r l d C u p Qualifiers beginning in June for Guyana.” On the issue of preparations and possible friendly matches for the senior team, the NC head informed that the newly a p p o i n t e d Te c h n i c a l Director Mr. Claude Bolton who has inked a four-year contract with the GFF is tasked with the responsibility of mapping that out. “The Technical Director is putting the finishing touches on the football calendar for 2015 and that will include matches and
tournaments geared at keeping the national team engaged. We have met with the players and the Federation is now looking at several to devise a programme where we can continuously assess their fitness levels and ensure that they maintain a high level year round.” The GFF had appointed Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz only for the Barbados friendly and Urling stated that Shabazz and his Technical Staff performed exceptionally noting that he {Shabazz}has been a consummate professional throughout the entire process with the players and the federation. “In fact, in our closeddoor players’ meeting, they all unanimously had high praises for him and his team and said that it was their best
experience with a national team management.” However, in relation to moving forward with the charismatic Shabazz in a similar capacity, Urling pointed out that it will all come down to the existing realities of the GFF in terms of its finances and what it can offer. “In other territories, like Trinidad for example, government or corporate sponsors pay the Head Coach and TDs. However, in our context, there is no such support and the federation is left to absorb all costs. A busy year awaits the GFF and NC, apart from the World Cup qualifiers for Russia 2018, the federation has pulled out the stops to register Guyana for the Olympic qualifiers which are expected to start in the final quarter of 2015.
FORMER GFF TREASURER AUBREY HENRY LAID TO REST Former Treasurer of the Guyana Football Federation, Aubrey William Henry was laid to rest yesterday following a Thanksgiving Service for his life which was held at the Tucville Assemblies of God Church. Henry, who also served as Treasurer of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control, Past President of the
Georgetown Junior Chamber and a past stalwart of the Jaycees, died last week in the USA following a brief period of illness. The tributes were many and focused on the sterling contributions the late Henry made to the many organizations he was associated with during his lifetime. Among the common qualities highlighted
by the many persons who paid tribute to Henry was that he was a stickler for discipline and one who was always willing to offer words of advice to his colleagues. Pastor Kemuel Rock was the celebrant. The remains of the late Aubrey William Henry was interred at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church burial ground, Providence, EBD.
Kennard Turf Club Phagwah meet... From page 75 Open category horses battling for a $400,000 purse over 5 furlongs, G1 and lower covering 7 furlongs for a $300,000 purse, the J1 and lower 5 furlong event will see the winner taking away $180,000, while the K1 and lower and K and lower handicap horses will also run for 5 furlongs with $120,000 in prize money in both events for the winner. The meet will be run under the rules of the
Guyana Horse Racing Authority and contact can be made with Roopnarine Matadial (Shine) on 325-3192, Ivan Dipnarine 3310316, Justice Cecil Kennard 623-7609, 2254818 or 226-1399, Isabella Beaton 6937812, Dennis DeRoop 609-9143 and Compton Sancho 690-0569 for registration and any details. Entries for the meet close on Sunday March 1 and no late entries will be accepted.
Family Members and those of the sports fraternity bearing the remains of Aubrey Henry from the Church following the Thanksgiving Service yesterday.
“Soon we will begin the process of putting together and training that squad. Only two players from the Barbados game would qualify for the U23 team, so we have an opportunity to identify and work with the next generation of Senior National Team players. No concrete decision has been made in terms of the Coach for the squad. Those discussions are currently ongoing.” Urling noted that there is a lot of work to be done to return the sport to a firm holistic footing. The NC has already appointed a TD and a Director of Finance and is in the process of recruiting a Director of Sponsorship, Communications, and Marketing and a General Secretary as they seek to strengthen the GFF on and off the field of play.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday February 08, 2015
GABF launches National Basketball Championships - ROAD TO MECCA II BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY With an impassioned plea for national support, Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) launched its National Basketball Championships called ‘Road to Mecca II’ yesterday at the New Palm Court on Main Street. Following the success of Road to Mecca I last year, the GABF said that it is anticipating an even bigger tournament this year when the second edition of the country’s biggest competition bounce off next Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. “We are looking forward to an exciting and exhilarating tournament this year,” Vice-President of the GABF, Michael Singh, who is in charge of Operations, said after calling on players and clubs to support the event across the country. According to Singh, if each player and club rallies their fans, friends and families to support the National Championships, the competition will succeed
again. He called on all supporters of the game to come out and back the local players and teams. “We are asking players and clubs to bring out their families to support them. If a team is booted from the tournament it should not be the end of any particular support. If your team isn’t playing, it does not mean you cannot come out and support the game,” he said. Singh is hoping for a reenergising of the base of the sport. “The sport is big enough and has lots of players and teams to full the Sports Hall each night,” he believes, adding that the federation is working very hard on behalf of players, who must do their part to help. The National Club Championships will be held at the Mecca of local basketball, the Sports Hall on six nights with the preliminary rounds set for next Sunday and continuing on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 of February, featuring 16 of the country’s
GABF President, Nigel Hinds (3rd right) and Vice-President, Michael Singh (2nd left) hold the National Championship Trophy after yesterday’s launch; also in photo from left are National Coach, Darcel Harris, Coordinator, Edison Jefford and Georgetown subsidiary President, Andrew Hercules. top clubs. The Super Eight round will commence what is being called Guyana’s Basketball Championships Weekend on February 27 with the semifinal set for the following day on February 28 and Finals on March 1 all at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Teams will be competing for $1M in total cash and prizes. “We are positive that Mecca II will be a huge success and as Mike (Singh) said, we want teams to rally their friends and families to give them and by extension
us, the support we need,” GABF President, Nigel Hinds indicated. “Sometimes it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see our best players on show and see some of the fantastic plays we had last year,” Hinds continued, adding that the bigger picture is G u y a n a ’s h o s t i n g o f Bermuda, March 10-14 as part of its preparation for the Caribbean Basketball Championships in Tortola, British Virgin Islands in June. The best players from ‘The Road to Mecca II’ will
represent Guyana at both of the international engagements, but according to National Coach, Darcel Harris a preliminary list will surface this week. Harris said that the National Championships will be a good test of players and their fitness levels before Bermuda arrives in Guyana next month. Singh informed that the preliminary rounds will attract an entrance fee of $500 with $1000 being the entrance fee from the Super Eight round. Comedian,
Chow Pow will be the nightly host with all the effects of entertainment, including sound system, DJs, and VIP Lounge in place. The VIP tickets will cost $3000 inclusive of food and drinks. In addition, three couples will win dinners at exclusive diners in Georgetown while there will be lots of giveaways each night to get patrons involved. The federation said that all is geared toward ensuring that Guyana is ready to host Bermuda next month.
MCYS/EBFA PEE WEE LEAGUE
Craig Primary needle Herstelling; Diamond and Agricola draw
Agricola Red Triangle in attack mode against Diamond United yesterday at the Grove ground.
C
raig Primary School moved into second place behind Grove Hi Tech in the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport sponsored East Bank Football Association Pee Wee Under-11 League yesterday following a 1-0 win over Herstelling Raiders when play continued at the
Grove Playfield, East Bank Demerara. The other game produced a 0-0 stalemate between Diamond United FC and Agricola Red Triangle. The Craig Primary / Herstelling feature clash was just as hotly contested as the first game with the teams not afraid of going forward as well as defending in
numbers, underscoring the high levels of energy at this level. Both sides came close on occasions to scoring but couldn’t as the ball either went wide or over the cross bar. The players and coaches of the teams were perhaps settling their minds towards a draw but that was not to be.
In the penultimate minute of the half hour game, Craig, from another forceful run were rewarded with a corner. The ensuing shot found the head of Malcolm Seepaul who headed the ball into the back of the nets to secure full points for Craig Primary. The points garnered from
this win added with the one they received for the draw 22 with Diamond the week before, takes Craig to 4 points, two behind Grove High Tech, each team playing two games apiece. The opening match between Agricola Red Triangle and Diamond United was an even affair
with neither team scoring. The point gained by Agricola was their first of the league having lost their opening game to Grove by the lone goal of that clash. Diamond moves to 2 points from three matches including two draws. Action will continue this Saturday at the same venue.
Sunday February 08, 2015
Kaieteur News
Page 75
Four competent teams; two juicy matches as Mayor’s Cup continues
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atches were held on the East Coast Demerara before moving on to the Monnedderlust Football Ground on the West Coast Berbice and then back to the Georgetown Football Club Ground in Georgetown. There were many upsets of the big name teams, characterized by major disappointments of their supporters but in the end those fans that witnessed the matches in the Mayor’s Cup Football Championship left the venue satisfied by the quality of play. The action picks up pace this evening when Pele take on Cougars in the preliminary match to Conquerors against New Amsterdam United. On paper, both Pele and its adversary present a juicy proposition. The former players will start as the favourite with such names as Captain, Shemroy Arthur, who will be patrolling the defence cordon with the
Kamal duo, Josh and Shiek providing capable support. Then there is striker, Deon Alfred and the dependable, Omalo Williams who will present a clear and present danger in the midfield ranks. The ‘Cougars’ will place a heavy responsibility on their defender, Sherwin Parris with added faith in Clevoy Joseph (midfield) and striker, Alvin Reynolds. Those fans that are tempted to predict a winner based on past records and current status will do well to remember that Santos FC and Victoria Kings and Camptown are now reduced to mere spectators at the expense of three lowly rated teams. Conquerors will take to the field under the captaincy of Delon Williams and along with his namesake, Odel, in the midfield will present problems for New Amsterdam United. Jermaine Junor, also in the midfield position and defender, Lennox Charles, will also present a foreboding proposition for
Delon Williams
Josh Kamal
Deon Alfred
theteamfromtheAncientCounty. The latter players are not expected to be frightened merely from a player’s list and fans could look forward to counteracting aggression from strikers, Adrian Adams and Jason Drakes coupled with staunch support of their midfielder, Rondell Hazel, while Javaro Santos, known for his acrobatic theatrics, will resume duty between the uprights.
Meanwhile, the luck of the lads from Agricola finally ran out when the action resumed on Friday evening. They were ousted from the tournament 2-0 by a rampaging Western Tigers unit. Deron Benjamin took matters into his own hands and sent in both of his team’s successes in the 14th and 84th minutes. One match later Rhythm Squad sent Golden Grove
packing 3-1 compliments of goals by Sceyon Hope (6), Amos Ramsay (50) and Kevin Agard (70+ 2). Emmit Leacock narrowed the score for his team with a 14th
Shemroy Arthur minute strike. The action continues tomorrow evening at the same venue with Pouderoyen taking on the Police in one match before Den Amstel oppose Pele.
Kennard Turf Club Phagwah meet fixed for March 8
T
he Kennard Memorial Turf Club will stage its Phagwah meet on Sunday March 8 at its Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne Berbice racetrack. Six events are scheduled for the day’s programme with the A1 and Lower 7 furlong race with a winner’s take of $700,000 the feature event. Other races will see D3 Maiden and E&F (Continued on page 73)
= NSC 11-RACE MASHRAMANI MEET =
Stephano Husbands registers first win of the season in feature 35-lap showdown
O
ne of Guyana’s bright young prospects, Team Coco’s Stephano Husbands, just graduating from the junior ranks, recorded his first win yesterday in the feature 35lap school boys and invitational contest of the National Sports Commission (NSC) sponsored 11-race Meet at the National Park. In pedaling to victory, Husbands clocked One Hour 18 Minutes 32.02 Seconds, leaving in his wake the likes of Paul DeNobrega (Team Alanis), Orville Hinds (Team Evolution), Mark Harris (Roraima Bikers Club), Walter Grant-Stuart and Paul Choo Wee Nam who ended in that order. Following are the results from the other races yesterday. Sherwin Sampson was once again dominant and unstoppable in the BMX Boys 9-12 and 12-14. In eth 9-12, Jonathon Jagdeo was second with Jeremiah Harrison, third while in the 12-14 contest,
The respective winners and other top performersfrom yesterday’s Meet pose with race officials following the presentation. Sampson was followed to the line by Adealia Hodge and Jagdeo. Alexander Leung topped the field in the BMX 6-9 event crossing the line ahead of Christopher Goring and
Esau Jaisingh. In the 12-14 Boys and Girls race, Daniel Perreira took the win from Davenand Kapilnauth and female Marica Dick of Berbice. Romello Crawford
sprinted to victory in the juvenile 10-lap showdown, winning from Jamal John and Christopher Griffith, while in the mountain bike 5lap clash; Seon Budhan crossed the line ahead of
Clyde Jacobs and Toshua Cummings. In the veterans races, the dominant Junior Niles had to settle for second best this time around as he lost to Jaikarran Sookhai in the
Under-50 contest, Ralph Williams was third. In the Over-50 segment Linden Blackman was the winner with Wilfred Thom taking a similar accolade for the Over-60’s.
t r o Sp
Permaul’s all-round brilliance keeps Jaguars on top against Jamaica
Leon Johnson about to toss the ball skywards after catching Tamar Lambert off Chris Barnwell who celebrates.
Veerasammy Permaul (WICB media)
3rd Annual Nestle Milo Under-20 Schools Football Competition
East Ruimveldt produces steely performance to earn full points - FOUR MORE MATCHES ON TODAY
Part of the action in the match between Davis Rose and St. Joseph’s High yesterday.
Players from both Bishop’s High and East Ruimveldt fight for possession of the ball in their clash yesterday at the Ministry of Education ground.
GABF LAUNCHES NATIONAL BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS - ROAD TO MECCA II BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Limited, 24 Saffon St.Charlestown, Georgetown.Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/ 226-8210