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Deep water port on K NEWS the table, but no source of funding yet - Min. Patterson

Sunday Edition

AIETEUR

February 03, 2019

Online: www.kaieteurnews.com

Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

ExxonMobil’s exploration...

Guyana is paying for American Airlines p. 8

Price $140

Online readership yesterday 112,457

Come Clean!

he Cheddi Jagan International Airport Extension Project (CJIA) is the single largest ongoing project in the country. It was initiated by the PPPC Government with a price tag of US$150M. This project is being financed mainly by China, via a loan which has to be repaid by taxpayers. The project has been riddled with controversy. Concerns have been expressed about the project's grossly modified designs, delays and deliverables. It is more than two years behind schedule, despite some US$8M being spent on consultancy fees for the project's supervision. Instead of a single, large, modern two-and-a-half storey (with a mezzanine level) terminal building as shown in the designs and contract documents, we see one new small addition with slots of glass and the old terminal building gutted and retrofitted. The contract called for 70,000 square feet of glass roofs with skylights; instead, a zinc roof was installed. The contract called for 80,000 square feet of glass-curtained walls on the entire exterior of the new terminal building; instead, a tiny

fraction of glass was installed. The number of air bridges has been drastically scaled back from eight to four. The current scope of works does not include the construction of a new car park. Not to mention, the original plan involved a new cargo building and new fuel farm. Kaieteur News is willing to engage overseas consultants to perform a comprehensive analysis of the original contract documents and drawings and compare them to what is being delivered. The APNU+AFC government's public disclosures about this project fall woefully short of meeting the benchmark of transparency. The government needs to come clean. They ought to make public, the modified drawings and designs of the project; evidence that the necessary quality assurance checks were carried out on the works and materials, any concessions provided to the contractor and consultants; the actual funds disbursed and the details of what remains to be completed before the project is handed over. Guyanese should not be saddled with more debt without full assurances that there has been value for money.

presence here Lone UK bidder for Govt. consultancy works for ExxonMobil, other players - Never gave negative report on its clients

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Sunday February 03, 2019

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Exxon starts installations for Liza 1 T

he installation part for Liza 1 in the offshore area where oil production is likely to start this year is underway. The installation will pave the way for the arrival of the Liza Destiny, the floating production storage and offloading facilities, which is currently under construction and expected to arrive in the second half of the year. According to the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), the MPV Skandi Neptune, which specializes in subsea installations, has been

deployed to the area approximately 95 nautical miles from the Coast of Guyana. The ship will be working in a 97 square kilometers area until June 30. In a notice published yesterday in Kaieteur News, MARAD disclosed that on Friday, February 1, 2019, the Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) will commence installation activities for the Liza Phase 1 project within the Stabroek Block of the Guyana Maritime Zone. The survey area is approximately 95 nautical

miles from the Coast of Guyana, which covers an area of 97 square kilometers. On February 9 also, MARAD has also announced that Spanishowned Repsol will commence geo-technical surveys in the Kanuku Block. The duration will be until February 24, with the surveys being conducted by MV Regulus The survey area is about 66 nautical miles from the coast of Guyana and which would cover an area of 23 square kilometers. The installation of the subsea connections will be a

A replica of the Liza Destiny which is to be delivered later this year. momentous milestone for the development of Liza 1, the country's first fullfledged oil production system.

The Stabroek Block reportedly has more than five billion barrels of oil. A number of other offshore concessions are

also under exploration. The find, made in 2015, is said to be one of the biggest in the world, in recent times.

RAID project to foster additional growth in Mocha agriculture sector

inister of Finance, Wi n s t o n Jordan, last Friday said the economic prospects are good for farmers in Mocha, East Bank Demerara who are part of the Rural Agricultural Infrastructure Development (RAID) programme. The $318.6 M Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) project is aimed at fostering additional growth in the agriculture sector. Continuing a series of v is its to co mmu n ities financed by the RAID Programme, Minister Jordan visited the East Bank Demerara village of Mocha where he delivered plants to farmers and observe the progress made on the project. “I am very pleased with the progress made so far, and

Some of the plants donated to Mocha farmers I am very pleased to have met a number of the farmers and the villagers. We are going to see to what extent in this budget, we can assist them.”

Food for thought The Pain of Life

nce an unhappy young man came to an old master and told he had a very sad life and asked for a solution. The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. “How does it taste?” – the Master asked. “Terrible.” – spat the apprentice. The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake. The old man said, “Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, “How does it taste?” “Good!” – remarked the apprentice. “Do you taste the salt?” – asked the Master. “No.” – said the young man. The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the 'pain' depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.” (Source Unknown)

Minister Jordan said the government wants to see the project replicated. He encouraged farmers to get on board with companies such as Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), which has indicated its intention to expand it juice production. “I like some of the ideas that are coming out. They are

thinking forward about the preservation of fruit and establishing a processing plant, and those are good ideas we can work with. “Overall, I am enthused that the farmers themselves can see sustainable living out of agriculture,” he said. He reminded the farmers of Guyana's soon to be oil and gas sector and the need for everyone to up their game with products that will be provided. The Agriculture Sector Development Unit has distributed some 1,200coconut seedling and 2,402 citrus plants to over 24 farmers. A weekly delivery schedule is maintained and will conclude by the end of March. The ASDU the unit responsible has conducted a series of assessments and consultations with farmers and residents in Buxton and a number of persons indicated their readiness to return to farming in these

abandoned lands, provided that improvements are made to the existing D&I system. Communities such as Mocha, Buxton, Triumph and Ithaca have been

identified for urgent intervention as residents over the last 30 years have been experiencing extreme flooding of farmlands due to poor drainage systems.

GRA rakes in $198.7B for 2018

ommissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Godfrey Statia, revealed on Friday that the entity collected $198.7B at the end of 2018. The tax chief said that this is well over the $181B that was projected by his staff. He said, too, that it is $27B more than what was achieved in 2017. He said that arrears accounts for $15B of that sum. The Commissioner General said the said sum includes $7B from the amnesty that was granted last year.

GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia

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Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana. Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

A long awaited return to the glory days

fter a lengthy drought, the West Indies cricket team has come out a resounding winner a Test match. Again, making it two in succession, and this time in Antigua. It is well-deserved victory that must mean something special and memorable for young pace man Alzarri Joseph, who played with the death of his mother weighing heavily on his heart. A test series has just been decided in the West Indies cricketers for the first time, after a long lean season of defeats, some very humiliating in the quick easy demolitions and submissions. Coming out triumphant is now a done deal, and with the prospect of a rare whitewash to emphasize the capabilities and promise of this youthful group. The teams have been losers for too long. This is one to savour and against a quality team, not some of the second tier new arrivals, or minnows as they are disdainfully termed. For the first time in long dreary decades, this current crop of players gives hope, brings joy, and imbues with that familiar pride. It is a good feeling. Now that this team has won the series, it should be able to do several things with dignity. The players could justifiably hold their heads high. They tried and laboured and contested with heart and spirit; they have manifested class. And that is what this starving, cricket-loving region has longed for, and for many an eternity it seems. To dig in and fight and not crumble in the norm of the undignified and unsatisfactory that became so routine. As much as losing is never an acceptable option, this was and is what fans look for as seen in Barbados first, and currently at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium: that energy and willingness to go eyeball to eyeball in unrestrained combat, through sheer focus and unflagging determination. As the battle goes on, here is something to think about when examined critically and honestly, it could be argued that pound for pound, and almost player for player, the visiting English team is the more talented and the more seasoned. After all, they just whipped the top ranked Indian test team by a wide margin. It is against this backdrop, and a very confident English group, this young West Indies side searched for, discovered (rediscovered, perhaps), and exhibited a glittering reminder of the grandeur of Test cricket, and the sweet glorious game that the world expects from, and did fear of, the immortal Caribbean teams of old. Admittedly, it is an illustrious and difficult pantheon to follow. But now the dedication and discipline have been demonstrated, respect has been earned; the wariness of foes on the fields of fire are sure to follow. The key element has to be consistency; it comes from study, training, and application. Without a doubt, this is the blood and guts; the sinews and nerves of Test cricket; it has been missing in action for a long time in West Indies teams, and presumed dead by many of the tired and disenchanted. What has unfolded on this tour thus far has been heartening to watch, to read and to embrace. This goes, also, for those who had given up watching for years. Here is a salute to the heroes of that now memorable first test in Bridgetown. Here is to more of the same and a progression towards that much yearned for return to the upper ranks and hopefully ruling the roost, just like the glory teams of yesteryear. The world needs a vibrant, dominant West Indies cricket presence.

Sunday February 03, 2019

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

My open letter to President Granger DEAR PRESIDENT GRANGER, It is my profound hope that you recover soonest. I can only imagine the twin burden imposed upon you by your quest to restore your health fully, and the weight of your government being at the crossroads. My personal view is that the opposition demonstrated itself most insensitive and as lacking compassion when it used the occasion of your ill health to interrogate in parliament the competence of your government. But I am reminded that in politics, as in war, one strikes his opponent when his opponent is at his weakest. I am minded also that politics, especially in polarised societies as ours, is war. The sad thing about politics, and war, Mr. President, is that a few persons motivated by self-interest and ego

engage in acts which consequences are devastating for the masses of the people. Our politics, since our attainment of independence, has done nothing but injure more than it has healed our countrymen; it has carved oceans instead of built bridges between us; it has employed our massive resources to enrich a few while the masses of our countrymen (of all races) account for the seemingly permanent poor among us. These things you already know, of course. A Guyana that we can feel completely proud of and at home in continues to elude us. Mr. President, in May 2015, I travelled home to join thousands of Guyanese in exercising our democratic franchise. I had never before seen our countrymen so eager to vote. I saw youths who had

only recently qualified (for the first time might I emphasise) to be issued an identification card lined up from very early in the morning to vote; I saw young people who never before exhibited an interest in politics or voting mobilise folks to go to the polls; I saw persons who must be too old to remember their age lined up to vote; I saw folks afflicted by a variety of infirmities lined up to vote. The national chorus at that time was one of â€˜change,â€™ but not just any change Mr. President; but the change that the Coalition promised to deliver. More than anyone else, the masses of Guyanese, I suspect, reposed their confidence in you. You presented yourself as an upright man, a man who holds his own integrity as being among his highest ideals. The masses of Guyanese, I presume, have

not altered their belief that you are a man of high integrity- a man who has the potential to be a unifier. Integrity is a sacred virtue, a virtue, which has been too long removed from our politics. It refreshed us to find it in you. Integrity and the potential to unify the ethnic factions in our country, as sacred as they are, are just components of leadership and not the full essence of it. What has disappointed us the most, Mr. President, are some of the people you have surrounded yourself with. Some of the key people you have surrounded yourself with have amplified arrogance and dwarfed humility; pronounced insensitivity instead of consideration; and others have been evidently incompetent. They have not only hurt your administration. They have (Continued on page 6)

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur M@ilbox A referendum may best answer if M.Ps can have dual citizenship DEAR EDITOR, A referendum may be the best course to answer if MPs can have dual citizenship. The requirement of a dual citizen Guyanese MP to resign is good law, which is mainly due to his or her foreign power allegiance. I feel, however, that a referendum question ought to be posed to the voter on the 2019 elections ballot, as it would serve to ensure that specifically only persons with one citizenship, Guyana, can serve at “de gov’t yaad”, which seems to me to be what the spirit of our Constitution is. Recently, in Australia when their 10 MPs were disqualified due to their dual citizenship status conflicting with the constitutional law, a gigantic domino effect occurred whereby the Australian elections officials had to conduct a string of byelections after July 2017 to fill those 10 seats. In the Guyana scenario, by-elections are not necessary, since names could simply be extracted from the Party’s List as replacements, as what obtained in the case of Charandass Persaud replacement by Barbara Pilgrim. The Guyanese Chief Justice (Ag) ruling on 31 January 2019, during the infamous case brought by the Honourable A.G. Basil Williams, MP, is in sync with Sykes v Cleary (1992), an Australian case. In that case, an Australian candidate who had been declared elected in a by-election was deemed ineligible under Section 44(iv) of the Constitution, the High Court ruled that he hadn’t attempted to renounce under the law of his home country and therefore was still subject of a foreign power. Later, in 1999, in Sue v Hill, the Australian High Court found that a British citizen who had been declared elected to the Senate in 1998 was disqualified. The UK had been a “foreign power” in 1986 since the Australia Act 1986. If this could be persuasive authority of any substance in Guyana, the judiciary has, in effect, ruled that any current Minister of Government, sitting in Parliament, who holds British citizenship, is to be deemed a subject of a foreign power, and as such must vacate his seat, and is to be disqualified to serve therein, unless of course, a renunciation, in writing, is proffered by that Minister immediately, and I may add, Guyanese should expect that for such a renunciation to be valid and subsisting, it must be acknowledged by the other state, i.e., the foreign power in question, and dated within 6 months. GECOM should be advising prospective candidates in our upcoming elections, who hold a foreign nationality, that they will be disqualified from election to Parliament if they do not take all reasonable steps to renounce their other citizenship before nomination REPEAT before nomination. Our country is a small and growing one and we need to manage our resources in good fashion and above all, we need trust worthy citizens to be our sitting legislators. Yours truly, M. Shabeer Zafar Barrister & Solicitor

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The dossier envelops the working of a malevolent philosophy of lawlessness DEAR EDITOR, The Dossier is a testament to the death toll, of over four hundred citizens, men and women and children(not all who died are included) whose lives were cut short by a system of lawlessness and a callous disregard for human life and rights by above the law ‘friends’, of the leadership of the PPP after 1992. Friends who enveloped a sinister nouveau riche that were aware of legal immunity in the pursuit of illegal gain, in a state where no morals, principles, or procedures could be collaborated between any two Ministers because no conduct was established by enforcement where the basic character of the state was intact enough to demand explanations and redress on any issue bordering on the violations of civil rights and behavioural conduct, accepted as right against wrong by the most unlearned citizen. This was the PPP state that Jagdeo presided over and had existed before. I presented ACDA’s contribution to the Disciplined Forces COI in 2003, and contributed to the Dossier compiled and presented in 2009. Though the majority of persons executed and disappeared were AfroGuyanese, the document did

not fail to include all other Guyanese who were victims of factors that represented the criminalisation of the state. That also included the compromising of the Police Force, Judiciary, public procurement, the Tender Board, Housing and all institutions that presented services and employment were micro-managed by the PPP not as managers but as political overseers with impositions to determine the right to survive and exist, to empower those they claimed, and to marginalize who refused to confirm as pawns or exhibit any air of independence. Race became the first assessment marker. The mismanagement of the state was enforced by repression. First was used the PPP stacked policing groups who were responsible for several killings, and the ‘Black Clothes police’ who were above the law. It must be noted that a large percentage of these extrajudicial killings were committed before the 2002 jailbreak. From 2000 to 2015, Guyana was plagued by youth unemployment of 40 percent cited by the CDB. By 2003, the World Bank had declared that Guyana suffering a ‘crisis’ of governance. The drug trade, backtrack and

smuggling were firmly fixed. By 2005, protest letters, ‘marijuana infiltrating secondary schools’ by Mark Nigel James BSc., Dip Ed were common;by 2011, ‘Drugs have ravaged this 14 year old and other teens of No. 78 Village’ by Eric Khadaroo. Contractor Gazz Sheermohamed was gunned down because he reportedly would not make his business available for money laundering. ‘Chowmein’, a mechanic [not a drug dealer or criminal] of Bar Street Albouystown, was killed along with his client whose scooter he was fixing by gunmen in a car targeting a third person [the pillion rider on the scooter] who escaped. Two of the state gunmen came out and riddled the bodies, which were on fire from exposed gasoline (Feb 22, 2003.) Max Pereira, an architect and Malis Archer, his reputed wife, were gunned down in front of his home [Max was a leading influence in cycling; there wree reports that he was against drug dealers trying to use travelling cyclists as couriers (Oct 3,

2006]. Dorothy Williams was leaving a friend’s home when ‘State Phantom’ gunmen in pursuit of someone else wounded her. The police prevented anyone from offering her assistance. She bled to death (Nov 5, 2002.) Thus, the Dossier envelops the working of a malevolent philosophy of lawlessness and racial repression. The best location for the Berbice Bridge was not its present location, but the best suited areas were ignored and the ferry service that served New Amsterdam was terminated to punish that town, that is not a PPP enclave.Thus, the Oct. 17 letter in Kaieteur News by Raj Lakeram, “The PPP is killing Berbice to spite the Coalition Government”. The Dossier must be viewed as a template, but must never be presented as a conclusion onto itself. I commend Ruel Johnson’s letter, ‘There is no spin to be placed on reign of terror under Mr. Jagdeo’s regime’ (Stabroek January 25, 2019). I do hope this letter adds to the perspective. Barrington Braithwaite

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Guyana needs divine intervention DEAR EDITOR, Despite the ruling of Chief Justice Roxanne George upholding the no confidence motion passed in Parliament on December 21, it seems as if the David Granger administration is bent on prolonging elections as long as possible. There is no move by the Elections Commission to set up the machinery for the polling. However, the Coalition has shown a little sign of preparation by setting up a Campaign Committee last Friday. But it is unbelievable that they have not yet identified someone for the No. 2 position, the Prime Ministerial candidate. Even the PPP, which is advocating for the March 21 date be kept has not named a candidate for PM. and the Presidential nominee is under fire for the 19 criminal charges he is facing. He has been barred from entering Canada and it is not wise for Jagdeo to persist for the former Housing Minister to be at the helm. President David Granger ignored the names of the 18 candidates submitted by the Opposition leader in three lists, and appointed someone of his choice; 84 year old retired Guyanese born, but Grenadian judge James Patterson, who became ill shortly after and was unable to perform his duties.

Guyana seems to operate different from other Caricom and Commonwealth countries. There is little transparency both in government as well as the opposition PPP since there are allegations that Jagdeo manipulated the 35 Committee members for them to choose Irfaan Ali who is not as brilliant as Anil Nandlall or Dr. Frank Anthony, apart from the large number of criminal charges he is facing. There are reports that the voters list needs to be revised, but I cannot understand why the list would be outdated when Local Government elections were held recently. Guyanese have to change their attitude - they have to move away from racial politics, which is the root of the conflict. It is very unfortunate that it is so deep rooted. After so many decades, it still exists and there is no indication of a change. Not all the PPP and PNC members are racial, but most of them are and they favour persons of their ethnicity. Guyana needs a new breed of politicians - young ones with a completely different outlook- but with oil in the horizon this is not likely in the next two or three decades. Guyana needs divine intervention for a change Yours respectfully, Oscar Ramjeet

Touts pretending to be lawyers and JPs are invading Maraj building DEAR EDITOR, I am writing this letter out of great concern and frustration. Touts pretending to be lawyers and JPs are invading Maraj Building, a three storey building containing about eighty offices including ‘Legal Aid Clinic, at Charlotte and King Streets, Georgetown. The English dictionary says, ‘when one pretends to be what they are not,’ that person is classified as ‘a hypocrite’. These touts are like vultures, they prey on people entering the building. There is an individual who has precedents of documents stored in his computer. He employed three touts to solicit people intended to do paper work who will lure them into his store as he pretends as if he is the legal authority to prepare legal documents. A hairdresser is also doing the same, and they conveniently make a business stamp to authorize passport forms. There are about one dozen touts at the entrance on the building, and as you enter, there are more at the steps. These touts will convince you that they are the legal authority to prepare legal documents; many people fall prey to them and end up-getting documents that are not properly prepared. Many times, these touts end up in the hands of the police for fleecing people of their money and not delivering the services. If a client comes to a particular lawyer or JP, these touts with tell them that, ‘he or she is not in’, ‘he or she is out of the country, ‘he or she will charge too expensive’ and in some cases, ‘he or she is dead.’ We, the JPs and lawyers, who are legal tenants renting offices in the building, have to bear with all of this. Our clients are being harassed as they enter the Maraj building . These touts dressed in a manner that will make you will believe that they are indeed lawyers and/or JPs, and they are so desperate that they will do what it takes to get your money. They behave worse than the minibus touts. It must be noted that there are a few Region 3 JPs who operate in this building, which is situated in Region 4 (that is illegal), and these are the JPs who stamp and sign documents prepared by touts. Yours truly, Parmanand Sukhu J.P. Commissioner of Oaths.

My open letter to President... From page 4 brought into question your fortitude as a leader. I rather suspect that the political capital of some of those persons is nothing more than party loyalty through years of service. This cannot be the foremost criterion upon which we charge persons with the responsibility to repair our country and secure her progress. Mr. President, we are at the fork in the road, not at the end of it. Whether elections are in March 2019 or sometime in 2020, our countrymen need to understand that our main choice comes election day is to elect back into office the opposition which has lost its way since the passing of its founder, or your government which has been visited in its three years with misfortunes occasioned by some of the folks you reposed confidence in and a public relations machinery which has been unhelpful. These are our choices unless we are presented with an alternative that surpasses appealing. I will be brutally honest when I say that that I am more inclined to choose your government over the former; but I would much prefer to have as a choice a much better version of your government. No one can deny the missteps of your government; but, objectively, it has come nowhere close to the atrocities of the opposition (as government) after the demise of Dr. Jagan. Objectively, three-years is a short time to reverse in a persuasive way the devastating effects of the post-Jagan PPP government. Your administration, Mr. President, has done, I dare say, a horrible job at communicating this to our countrymen. It has equally done a poor job at bringing to our notice the accomplishments of your government to date. Do not interpret my constant critique of your government, and the sustained critique of other commentators, as my (our) wanting your government to fail. I wish no such fate on any government as it would be wishing devastation upon our countrymen. We simply want you to get it right. Ours cannot continue to be an election between the lesser of two evils. Until something better emerges, I would rather chance my country’s future to a government that is still finding its way, having regard to its infancy, than to one, which has mastered the art of acting contrary to the collective interests of our countrymen. I wish the collection of parties, which comprises your government a speedy growth. A necessary place to start is by shedding the weight of those who are too heavy for your progress. Humbly yours Ronald J. Daniels Concerned Guyanese

Sunday February 03, 2019

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The colonial’ mentality still exists in some

Two wrongs don’t make a Right

DEAR EDITOR, How often as a child have I lustily bellowed, “Born in the land of the sang sung, ‘The song of Guyana’s Children” before assembly, this being a staple of schooling in the 70s. I remark on this as I try to comprehend GHK Lall’s missive on the ‘possible’ motives of the Government of Canada with regards to the travel advisory issued to Irfaan Ali prior to his proposed visit there for fundraising and information dissemination activities. I have come to realize that there is a marked difference in brain wiring of Guyanese born pre and post Independence. · It has become obvious that a ‘colonial’ mentality of looking for approval from ‘massa’ exists strongly in the psyche of those born in a time when our dear land was under the yoke of oppression, GHK and his contemporaries no doubt set great store by the honorific tea with the Queen of England, a seal of approval greatly sought and cherished thereafter. My sociology Professor often spoke of his irrational desire to be knighted and lamented no longer being able to receive same knighthood because of our changed circumstance.

Lall casts around for explanations of Canadian action framed by his limitations, but oblivious to same. GHK Lall should stick to facts and seek same before venturing down the rabbit holes of his own warren. Canada has clear policy of deeming anyone with a criminal charge from entering the country, this was not a law made especially for Guyana’s Irfaan Ali as suggested by GHK Lall, a simple Google search would have thrown up a plethora of results to guide in forming an opinion on whether this was a set policy or a sinister plot to interfere in Guyana’s internal affairs. I believe the Chairman of Guyana’s Gold Board owes the nation of Canada an apology; eagerly awaiting same. Editor, if I have transgressed and committed the offence of ‘ageism’, I beg forgiveness as I was taught that if one wrote with an aim to edify, one must first educate oneself. I take my leave as I begun, by way of song “Onward, upward, may we ever go, Day by day in strength and beauty grow, Till at length, we each of us will show, What Guyana’s sons and daughters can be.” Respectfully Robin Singh

There should be no further procrastination by GECOM DEAR EDITOR, It is becoming increasingly clear that elections will be held sooner rather than later. Both of the major political parties are already in campaign mode. The ruling Coalition has finally come around to the realization that its days are numbered and that it cannot be business as usual. Whatever doubts it may have harboured regarding its political longevity has been put to rest by the clear and unambiguous ruling by the Chief Justice. The stance taken by the Judiciary on the validity of the No-Confidence vote is most refreshing from the standpoint of parliamentary democracy and our emerging national democratic ethos. And even though the ruling Coalition has opted to challenge the decision of the learned Chief Justice, it is clear from the actions of its leading activists and State functionaries that it is already preparing itself for early elections. President Granger should now engage the Opposition Leader without further delay on a date for elections and GECOM should be so

informed so that all preparatory work can be done to facilitate the set date. There should be no further procrastination on the part of GECOM, which has a constitutional mandate to hold elections whenever it is called. Talks advanced by some people regarding GECOM ‘readiness’ to conduct elections are at best frivolous and at worst, an attempt to stand in the way of the Constitution and the democratic aspirations of the Guyanese people as expressed through their elected representatives. I urge the authorities to honour the Constitution of Guyana. GECOM in particular should stop pussyfooting and put in place the required mechanisms to facilitate the elections when called. GECOM is constrained by the Constitution. It is a creature of the Constitution and not the other way around. It has a duty and an obligation to hold elections that are free and fair and free from fear. The entire world is now focusing on Guyana. The future of our country is at stake. Hydar Ally

DEAR EDITOR, I recently read a letter in the Guyana Chronicle by a young successful doctor who described the difficulties of his experience under the then PPP government and reflected on my recent experience under the APNU +AFC government and couldn’t help but draw similarities. Don’t get me wrong, I have also experienced a touch of “confusion” at a PPP event where upon seeing me, the head of the party said, “We really need to open our party to more Afro Guyanese”. Immediately senior members of the party came over to welcome me, but I was confused as to the need for the remark. There I was standing, the descendant of an Indentured Immigrant and the descendant of one of the party’s initial leaders, yet I was made to feel like an outsider. It was upsetting at the t i m e . However, this pales in comparison with the reception I have been given by the current government in my attempts to help provide my services to my ‘Dear Beautiful Guyana’. As a recent remigrant, I have spent the bet-

ter part of my career developing industry overseas and gaining experience in key industries such as beverage alcohol and bauxite based products that would be to the benefit of Guyana. Yet the reception from government agencies has been lukewarm at best. They have dismissed my qualifications, which I have garnered from some of the top institutions in the world coupled with experience from MNCs in the Fortune 200 list of companies. The nepotism and party bias appears to be evident in the decision making process within the government infrastructure. It is quite disappointing, especially considering that I fondly remember meeting the late President Burnham while in Primary School and remember him coming by our home not too long after I had placed within the top 10 at common entrance. His daughter was also part of the recruitment team for the business school I attended. Hence, I felt quite unbiased as it related to party a f f i l i a t i o n . So after reading the young doctor’s remarks and account

of his experience, I am left with the impression that the hate between the two major parties has left such a divide between races that it now becomes difficult for them to make unbiased fact based decisions for the benefit of the country. This leaves the 26% of us who are either from a mixed background, European, Chinese or Amerindian descent to fend for ourselves. I look forward to the eventual establishment of a new party focused on this neglected group of citizens. This will help put an end to racial partisan politics and ensure the fostering of dialogue and consensus building in Parliament. We as a nation must find ways to overcome this “do for do” mentality and ensure the remembrance of that old saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a R i g h t ” Best regards, Mr. Changlee

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Guyana is paying for American Airlines presence here

Last year November, US aviation giant, American Airlines, started flights between Guyana and the US, adding the important Miami to Timehri route. It was widely thought at the time that the coming of flights from one of the biggest airlines in the world would help to bring prices down. However, the presence of American Airlines has done everything but help to drive prices down. From all indications, the prices of American Airlines tickets are as astronomical as they can get. And the reason is American Airlines are targeting mainly employees and others related to the oil exploration operations currently ongoing in Guyana. Guyana as part of its oil profit-sharing arrangement with ExxonMobil for the Stabroek Block is responsible for all oil exploration expenses including those for travel and accommodation. The travel expenses include the cost of air tickets for the staff of the oil companies. American Airlines has perhaps the highest ticket prices for travel between Guyana and Miami. In some cases, the cost of a one-way ticket is as much as seven times higher than the cost of tickets to the same destination on other air carriers. For example, a business class round trip flight to Miami via Caribbean Airlines between February 6 and March 6 cost approximately US$800 on other airlines plying the same route. On American Airlines, the same ticket would cost US$6,059. Caribbean Airline Economy round trip ticket to the same destination on the same date is US$474. For American Airlines the cost is US$3,179. The ExxonMobil staff is flown home every 28 days on rotation. Reportedly, American Airlines, which uses an Airbus 319 aircraft with 130 seats, is the main carrier for the oil companies operating in Guyana. Local company Roraima Airways is handling the ground operations on behalf of AA. Last Monday, the price for a one-way economy class ticket from Guyana to Miami from Caribbean Airlines, was US$295. Whereas, the price for the same ticket from Suriname Airways on the same route was US$285. For American Airlines, it was more than double at US$731. Guyana was handed a pre2015 exploration bill of more than US$800M by ExxonMobil. Later this year, it will be handed another bill for post-oil cost. Those costs include hotel accommodation, air travels, and other miscellaneous expenses.

The comparative fare structure of American Airlines and Caribbean Airlines on the same day for a return ticket.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

Supenaam Stelling 70% complete - project wraps up March 2019 The rehabilitation of the Supenaam Stelling is expected to be completed by March 2019. This was the date given to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo during his visit to the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region on Friday.Project Engineering of the Sea Defence Department within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Colin Giddings, said the project is “about 70 per cent complete”.He said, “A lot of the work involved the steel sheet pile revetment which is about 50 per cent of the project.” To date, over $123M has been identified for the project, of which $89M will be provided by the ministry and the remaining $34M by the administration undertaken.The project is slated to have flood and erosion protection structures in critical sections and the implementation of infrastructural, architectural and landscaping enhancements through a contemporary spatial layout to improve the recreational experience.It will see the construction of modernised vending units, Arrival and Departure facilities for speedboat passengers. Giddings explained that the boarding facilities will cater for elderly persons and for those living with disabilities. The new stelling will have the capacity to moor a large number of boats. Prime Minister Nagamootoo addressing speedboat operators said the rehabilitation of the facilities will enhance the way they conduct business and encouraged them to cooperate with the authorities during the construction period.Premie Dass, a former Essequibian who is back for a visit, congratulated the Prime Minister for the progress the Coalition Government has been making. She told the Department of Public Information (DPI). “It’s amazing from when I left the country and came back; there has been a lot of infrastructural development.” Once completed, the project will be managed jointly by the RDC and Good Hope-Pomona NDC. (DPI)

Dem boys seh ...

Dem oil company eyes pass Soulja Bai When an airline seek to enter a market is because it want a piece of de pie. But it can only get dat if it can offer competition.American Airlines decide to enter de market. People jump up. Even dem who didn’t have foot jump. A onefoot man name Joe Joe jump and bruk de one good foot. Joe Joe tell everybody he can now travel more steady to see all ee buddy and sissy dem who live in Miami. He seh American Airlines gon beat Caribbean Airlines, Copa, Suriname Airways, and Fly Jamaica wid de price wha it gon offer.Now ee cussing. And he not de only one. De whole country, except who wukking wid de oil company, cussing American Airlines fuh de fare wha dem offering. De people want to know if dem got to pick fare if dem got to travel on dat plane. When dem odda airline selling tickets fuh US$500, American Airlines selling de same ticket fuh US$3000 and change. When dem boys look at de ticket price, dem realize dat American Airlines ain’t come here to help Guyana; dem come to help demself.Dem boys want show de nation how dem helping demself. Soulja Bai going to Cuba, ten minutes from Miami and he business class ticket is US$1,200. American Airline, one way is US$6,000 and change. Wha Soulja Bai and Guyana don’t know is de Guyanese people who can’t even pay dat fuh demself will end up paying dat US$6,000 fuh each oil worker travelling on dat plane. Every single cent will go in de cost fuh producing oil in Guyana.De people telling Guyanese dat American Airlines ain’t cater fuh dem poor ass Guyanese. All dem want is oil people and you pay de bill. Dem boys seh one way, 12 first class ticket at US$6,000 each is US$72,000. De 118 in de Economy class at US$3,000 each is US$354,000. A full plane gon mek US$426,000 one way.Caribbean Airlines on de odda hand got de same 12 Business Class seat at US$1,700 each is US$20,400. And de 118 seat times US$482 is US$56,800. A full plane will give US$77,200. Compare dat to de US$426,000 pon American Airlines. Every time de oil company people travel wid American Airlines, Guyana is saddled wid an additional debt of US$700,000 on every return flight. Dem boys certain Soulja Bai and ee team don’t have a clue about wha going on. Talk half and watch how dem oil company thiefing Guyana wealth in front we eye.

The ongoing works at the Supenaam Stelling.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Lone UK bidder for Govt. consultancy works for ExxonMobil, other players -Never gave negative report on its clients By Kiana Wilburg Considering Guyana’s limited capacity and experience in the oil and gas sector, the coalition government will be issuing several bids for the help of industry experts. The Ministry of Natural Resources for example, recently tendered a bid for consultancy services. Last week, a firm from the United Kingdom responded to the Ministry’s call. That company is Bayphase Oil and Gas Consultants. While the Ministry of Natural Resources did not specify what it needs consultants for, Bayphase tendered a bid to the tune of US$281,000. A simple perusal of the company’s website reveals however that it is a client of ExxonMobil, the US oil major that is leading the exploratory works in the prolific Stabroek Block. The UK firm which was established in 1986 is also a client of NEXEN, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). CNOOC holds 25 percent interest in the Stabroek Block. Bayphase also works for Exxon’s subcontractors which include Schlumberger and Technip FMC. (See link for full list of clients: http:// www.bayphase.com/clientslist2.php) Further to this, none of its reports are unflattering to its clients. (See link to view their published reports: http:// www.bayphasedata.com/ reports.php) Be that as it may, the company offers several services on a consultancy basis which include: resource auditing and

valuation, cost auditing and estimation, reservoir modeling and strategic study. With respect to Resource Auditing and Valuation, Bayphase said that this aspect covers resource assessments for all types of hydrocarbon properties including exploration development and production licences. It said that it has extensive experience in carrying out this work for conventional oil, non-associated gas, gas condensate, heavy oil, and shale gas resources. It said, too, that it has carried out this work in accordance with standards set by these bodies: The Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the London Stock Exchange, the Alternative Investment Market and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In the area of Cost Auditing and Estim a t i o n , Bayphase boasted of having over 30 years experience in developing independent cost estimates, verifying cost estimates and the development of software for cost estimating for oil and gas projects. It claimed to be a recognized leader in the assessment of all costs associated with oil and gas projects. It said that its experience in developing accurate cost estimates covers all phases of oil and gas extraction including: Exploration, Appraisal, Development, Production and Abandonment. Bayphase said it has also been called on to audit project expenditures of on behalf of stakeholders including: Partners in hydrocarbon development projects, Banks providing loans to Oil and Gas projects and Governments who wish to understand the revenue flow in such projects.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 03. 2019

Kaieteur News

Opposition leader urges GECOM to move forward with elections business

- says commission part of tactic to delay polls

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo Time is of the essence and that appears to be what Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, is saying to Guyana Elections Commission, (GECOM) in light of the ruling handed down by the High Court on the No Confidence Motion. Addressing a media conference at Freedom House on Friday, Jagdeo noted that given its mandate GECOM should move forward with the preparations for General and Regional Elections. “The Court has ruled and GECOM should be in place where it is preparing for the elections. “Time is going. They now have less than 90 days to prepare for the elections. However, it appears like GECOM, although it is an independent body, is part of a delaying the tactic by government to avoid the elections.” “It would be important to note that no stay was granted against the court decision. The Chief Justice refused to grant a conservatory order or any stay, which would have stopped the timeline from ticking.” Right now, there is a valid decision that says that the government has fallen and there must be elections within the ninety-day period. So I expect GECOM would act in accordance to that decision.” Raising similar concerns about the upcoming polls, PPP/C Commissioner and Co-

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

chair of GECOM Operations Committee, Sase Gunraj, issued a statement on the difficulty incurred moving forward with the preparations for the elections. Gunraj noted that while it is widely known that after a statutory meeting last Tuesday, it was decided that the Secretariat will provide to members of the Commission several work plans detailing the various options and the timelines regarding the holding of General and Regional Elections, the information has not been forthcoming. “It was agreed that the said work plans would have been presented by Friday so that it can be perused and digested for discussion by members of the Operations Committee at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow. “As at 10:30 AM yesterday, no such documents have been received. I have confirmed with at least one other member of the said Committee, who reported that he had not received same.” The GECOM commissioner noted, too, that no excuse, or attempt at an excuse, has been forthcoming for this refusal and or neglect to provide these work plans, which should have been ready or in any event, easily prepared, from the Secretariat. Gunraj believes that there is a deliberate ploy to delay the proceedings. “I have had cause to comment, both within GECOM meetings and publicly, about the obvious dilatory tactics that are being employed to prevent the commencement of preparations for holding of elections in the constitutionally mandated timeline. I view this as another such delay,” he added.

Sunday February 03. 2019

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Kaieteur News

Guyana’s state of confusion has oil companies like ExxonMobil licking their lips - Datadin By Abena RockcliffeCampbell Guyana needs to pull up its proverbial socks or risk being taken for an even worse ride by oil companies who want to take advantage. This is according to Attorney-atlaw, Sanjeev Datadin. Datadin, who spent a number of years plying his trade in Trinidad, said that he paid keen attention to how international oil companies operate. He said that considering what he learned, he thinks his country is setting itself up to fail. Datadin told this newspaper, “We have not advanced anywhere along the road. We have plenty talks, plenty discussions, plenty fancy things of what they did and will do. But, I have worked in this industry since 2004 and Guyana is nowhere close to the boat.” He said that several pieces of legislation are still needed for the oil industry, “We need

legislation for local content; legislation to protect the environment; and so many other things.” He said that the Petroleum Commission is still to be set up. “We now have a Department of Energy that nobody is quite sure what they are

we are going to put better practices in our PSA (Production Sharing Agreements) but the only countries that have done so effectively have done so with statutory underpinning, where the whole world knows what you can and cannot put in the

“We have not advanced anywhere along the road. We have plenty talks, plenty discussions, plenty fancy things of what they did and will do. But, I have worked in this industry since 2004 and Guyana is nowhere close to the boat.”- Sanjeev Datadin doing over there. I am telling you, these are all things that make international companies like Exxon lick their lips. “The more disorganized we are, the more they will be able to make it up as they go along, and the more we will be on the outside.” Datadin continued, “We have our directors saying that

agreement.” Datadin expressed worry that Guyana is still allowing room for one-on-one negotiation. He said, “We need to eliminate that completely so that no company can say, ‘Oh we want this special concession because some corrupt practice has taken place.”

“I am not accusing anyone of anything but if it is all laid in legislation then we will be sure that nothing corrupt occurs. History has taught us that with the one and one, the man who gets the most favourable deal is the one who offers the most corrupt transactions. I am not speaking about Guyana, I am saying worldwide.” Datadin said that Guyana needs “fix policy in every area.” “We made a deal with Exxon for an $18M signing

bonus. The average basket ballplayer, the Lebron Jameses get that or more. What is done is done, but we have to go forward respecting ourselves and put the laws and regulations in place. “The reason we did not know better and the reasons our negotiators got caught flat footed and out of their depths was because there was no legislative framework to say what could and could not be done. We need legislation and we need it quick,” said Datadin.

Attorney-at-law, Sanjeev Datadin

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 03, 2019

Local companies urged to capitalize on Regional Telecommunications opportunities Local companies have been urged to capitalize on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) opportunities of the Region at the recently concluded 35th Annual General Meeting, (AGM) of Caribbean Telecommunication’s Association (CANTO).

The meeting was held at the Guyana Marriott under the theme: ‘Transitioning to a Digital Region: Opportunities and Challenges’ to contribute towards improving the state of the Region. Minister of Public Telecommunication, Cathy Hughes, highlighted the strides of

Guyana in the telecommunications sector in the last few years, and urged companies to network for further advancement. “I do not need to convince this gathering that the industries that we so far have depended on as a Region for so many years no longer

have the scope or the functional capacity that we require to support our national and economic development requirements,” she said. “It is not lost on us that we must diversify. Diversify quickly and most import a n t l y, d i v e r s i f y i n t o those sectors and industries that will make the most use of our intellectual capacities.” This is the main reason, she noted, that the current administration, realising that the country was lagging in ICT in the Region, moved to make much-needed improvements in the last few years. It is against this backdrop that CANTO together with one of its founding mem-

bers – Guyana Telephone & Te l e g r a p h C o m p a n y (GTT) hosted the 35th AGM & Mini Expo at the Guyana Marriott Hotel Georgetown, last week. The event is a key driver of sweeping change in the telecommunications industry, globally. Given it mandate, CANTO has been at the forefront of this transformation, both as an industry witnessing large-scale change in its market environment and as a key driver of worldwide digitalization. As such, deliberations along the captioned theme included improving the state of the region and by extension the world through the harnessing of

the value added from digital transformation, both for business and society—while identifying the challenges to be overcome in order to deliver premium customer value in an equalized digitally transformed ecosystem. A pivotal aspect of this event was the Annual General Meeting, which allowed members to focus on the statutory obligations and chart t h e c o u r s e o f the Association for the 2019/20 financial year. The Mini Expo also showcased emerging technologies from global suppliers while the GSMA led workshop will center on ‘Unlocking Rural Mobile Coverage’.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

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Relief for 5 Guyanese seamen who lived six-years on boat (Trinidad Newsday) Six years of living on a Nigerian boat off Claxton Bay has ended for five Guyanese seamen. They are now back in their home country, the boat, an oil tanker, sold last week Thursday following a High Court judge ordering its arrest in February 2017. The MT Tumini owners in Nigeria abandoned it and the Guyanese crew in 2013. The men ate and slept on the vessel, with daily dives into the sea to bathe. A company operating in Panama purchased it last week for US$500,000. Justice Devindra Rampersad, presiding in the Hall of Justice, had ordered the MT Tumini sold within nine months or the court would have done so by private auction. The crew had sought the court’s intervention, claiming US$400,000 in wages. The boat is still docked off Trinidad Cement Limited’s jetty in Claxton Bay. The crew comprised Rakesh Jim (chief officer); Roy Fredericks (chief engineer); Lawrence Daniel (second engineer); Mohamed Gadwah (second officer); Neil Rampersaud (assistant engineer/oiler). Gerald Andrews was the

boat’s local agent. He said in an affidavit that via a mortagage agreement between Petroleum Brokers Ltd and Echo Bank, of Lagos, Nigeria, the latter b e c a m e M T Tu m i n i ’s owner. Jim said in his affidavit that MT Tumini was in dire need of repairs and since it was abandoned, the Guyanese crew remained on board because they were not paid their wages. Immigration officers visited them monthly to update their status when they vowed they were not leaving until they were paid. Using a dingy, they came to shore and bought groceries while residents helped them with drinking water. Under maritime law, the crew must be paid from proceeds of the sale of any vessel arrested by the court. Confirming with Newsday y e s t e r d a y, Andrews said that a company operating in Panama, bought the vessel and it will be leaving Claxton Bay soon. Maritime tracking of vessels along the west coast of TT revealed the MT Tumini is getting set to leave for Guyana. The crew has since departed the vessel.

Several GRA officials in line for overseas training to fight fake invoicing Several officials attached to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be off to India quite soon for training in detecting the under invoicing and over invoicing tricks used by companies. This was revealed by GRA’s Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia. He said that the officials will learn how to access the valuation database of various countries among other things.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 03, 2019

Staff of the Local Government Commission - issue likely to hamper yet to receive January salaries work of the committee As of January 31, 2019, the staff of the Local Government Commission (LGC) and its Commissioners have not been paid their salaries. Officials say that the issue is likely to hamper the operations of the duly constituted body. While Chairman of the Commission, Mortimer Mingo, commented on the matter, acknowledging that there may be difficulty as a result of the lack of payment, he declined to speak further on the issue.

However, former Local Government Minister and Commissioner, Norman Whittaker, has issued a statement detailing his concerns over the nonpayment. Whittaker accused officials attached to the Ministry of Communities of promoting an insidious parallel administration aimed at interfering with the work of the Commission by way of unauthorized interventions and directives.

“As at January 31, 2019, the staff of the Local Government Commission and its Commissioners have not been paid their salaries because the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communities has either unilaterally decided or has been directed not to sign the cheque to facilitate such payment.” According to Whittaker, the issue not only stymies the work of the LGC but also denies Commission staff the benefits to which they are en-

titled and which are provided for in the Commission Act and other subsidiary Legislation. “The Local Government Commission is rooted in the bowels of the Constitution of Guyana (Refer Article 78A of the Constitution); and is specifically provided for under the Local Government Commission Act No.18 of 2013. The LGC commissioner noted, too, that the law provides for the LGC to independently manage its affairs within the ambit of the Constitution and the Local Government Commission Act. “In this regard also, we are aware and do appreciate the requirement of accountability to the National Assembly. Sections 22, 23, 24 of the Local Government Commission Act 2013 allows the Commission to, inter alia, (a) employ nec-

essary staff and to determine their remuneration and “other terms and Conditions of employment (b) determine its “own annual budget” for submission to the Minister of Finance and approval of the National Assembly…” However, according to Whittaker, the Local Government Commission is being treated as a subvention agency and is required inter alia, to write to the Ministry for releases to meet approved expenditures. “It is our understanding that Constitutional Commissions like the Local Government Commission are required to function within their annual Budget approved in the National Assembly and subject to the same regulations as other Budget Agencies.” The Permanent Secretary’s refusal to sign the cheque to facilitate the

Former LGC Norman Whittaker payment of staff salaries of the Commission’s staff and its Commissioners for January 2019 must be a faux pas, which we place in the public purview with the expectation that it be corrected by the Minister and his Permanent Secretary,” he added.

Sunday February 03. 2019

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Kaieteur News

Former MP, Isahak Basir, dead at 87 An iconic member of Essequibo Coast and former Member of Parliament, Mr. Isahak Basir, passed away last Friday night at the age of 87. The death of Mr. Basir has left quite a number Essequibians in grief. Most of the mourners will continue to remember him for his remarkable accomplishments. On Friday, Mr. Basir appeared to be in good health. He was seen interacting with Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo during a meeting on the Essequibo Coast. Basir also used the opportunity to remind the Prime Minister that he had not received his parliamentary benefits from the government since his retirement. On the said night Mr. Basir complained of feeling unwell and was rushed to Public Hospital Suddie where he died

boat operator in his teenage years. “He then studied dentistry from the overseas Bennet College. By profession, he is a farmer who once farmed his father’s coconut estate in the Siriki Sands of the Upper Pomeroon River. “After marrying Sabra Karim, they moved to Boeraserie, West Coast Demerara where he worked at

Dead: Isahak Basir about 22:00 hrs. It is believed that Basir suffered a heart attack and died. Basir’s family when contacted, presented a biography, which read, “Born 1931 in Jacklow Pomeroon, he was a

Revenue collection to reach $224B for 2019 - GRA

Revenue collection for 2019 is expected to reach a whopping $224B. This is according to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The entity notes that this represents an overall increase of 23 percent. GRA also did projections for 2020 and 2021, which will mark Guyana’s first two years as an oil producer. The entity noted that in 2020, it projects to collect $247.14B and in 2021, $299.23B. The revenue authority said that the projections were done using the forecast GDP at Market Price for the years 20202021 from the Finance Ministry. (KIANA WILBURG)

the Uitvlugt Distillery in the early 1960s as an Assistant Distiller. After he moved back to Jacklow, he got involved with Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s Party, the People’s Progressive Party. He travelled to Russia and Europe for training and chaperoned young political students. He also represented his party in various meetings around the world. He was then

PPP Organizer for the County of Essequibo.” In 1975, Basir and his family moved to Hampton Court where he resided up to the time of his death. An attempt on his life was made at Adventure Stelling on June 26, 1976. He was shot five times; he survived. During the late 1970s, he joined Parliament as the agriculture shadow minister. In

1991, he was the first and only person to be expelled from parliament for removing the Ceremonial Mace and pelting a drinking glass as protest actions against the speaker. He was then moved to the position Chairman of Local Congress and Democratic Organs in 1992. He managed 1500 acres of rice lands in the Burma, East Coast Demerara for the Libyan Government.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 03, 2019

Code for Prosecutors says…

Work of prosecutors, investigators related On many occasions in the Magistrates’ Courts, Police Prosecutors would indicate that they could not disclose the status of a case file because of it being sent to investigators for completion. In some instances, a Magistrate would ask of the prosecutor to clarify the facts of a case. This request sometimes leaves prosecutors

dumbfounded. They would then turn to the investigating ranks for help. Sometimes, the investigating ranks would be of no help since they, themselves, are not familiar with the facts. Occasionally, this is the situation with some of the other investigators working on the Though the functions of the prosecutor, police and other investigators are separate and

distinct, and more so independent, they need to work in partnership to enforce the law. This notion is outlined in the Code for Prosecutors, which was launched last November by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), ShalimarAli-Hack. The Code for Prosecutors is a booklet containing a set of rules that encapsulates how prosecutors, including police

prosecutors, make decisions. It outlines the general principles to be adopted such as whether criminal charges should be instituted and what charges should be preferred. Also and where criminal proceedings have been instituted and whether they should be discontinued. According to the Code for Prosecutors, “The police and

other investigators are responsible for conducting enquires into alleged crimes and for deciding how to deploy their resources. This includes decisions to start or continue an investigation and the scope of the investigation. Prosecutor often advises the police and other investigators about possible lines of inquiry and evidential requirements and assist with pre-charge procedures.” On the other hand, the prosecutor decides if a prosecution should be pursued and, if so, on what terms. In more serious or complex cases, prosecutors decide whether a person should be charged with a criminal offence and, if so, what the offence should be. According to the booklet, in large-scale investigations, the prosecutor may be asked to advise on the overall investigation strategy, including decisions to refine or narrow the scope of the criminal conduct and the number of suspects under investigation. The booklet goes on the say that this is to assist the police and other investigators to complete the investigations within a reasonable period of time and to build the most effective prosecution case. But before making such decisions, prosecutors need to follow guidelines of the Threshold and Full Code tests, which are outlined in the Code for Prosecutors. The latter has two stages, the evidential and public interest stages. Nevertheless, it is outlined in the Code for Prosecutors that prosecutors review every case they receive from police and other investigators and that reviewing is a continuous process and prosecutors must take into account any change in circumstances that occurs as the case develops, including what becomes know of the defence case. “Wherever possible, they (the prosecutors) should talk to

the investigator when thinking about changing the charges or stopping the case. Prosecutors and investigators work closely together, but the final responsibility for the decision whether or not a case should go ahead rests with the DPP.” Furthermore, the Code for Prosecutors states that the prosecutor may also advise the investigator on the conduct of cases which includes, what criminal charges are warranted, whether there is sufficient evidence to support a charge, the admissibility (or otherwise) of evidence, the present state of the law, whether a case should be tried summarily or on indictment and the disclosure of evidence. “Accordingly, a decision to prosecute should only be taken after all the evidence and the relevant circumstances have been considered properly. This is done if the investigations are completed timely and legal advice sought before a charge is instituted,” the DPP had stated at the launching of the Code for Prosecutors. It is noted in the Code for Prosecutors that prosecutors should not start or continue a prosecution, which would be regarded by the courts as oppressive or unfair, and possibly an abuse of the court’s process. The Code for Prosecutors was drafted in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and sets out the tests that all prosecutors in Guyana will be expected to apply in determining whether criminal charges should be instituted. It is based on the Constitution of Guyana, the Legal Practitioners Act, as well as the 1999 Standard of the International Association of Prosecutors. A similar Code has already been implemented in the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia and Dominica.

Sunday February 03, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Deep water port on the table, but no source of funding yet - Minister Patterson By Abena RockcliffeCampbell

In December last year, Sri Lanka handed over the control of the southern sea port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion. Photo: AFP

ust a few days ago, Diálogo Chino reported that Guyana is quite likely to receive Chinese funding for a deep-water port and a portion of the Brazil/Guyana road. But Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson is saying that that is not the case. Diálogo Chino is an independent journalism p latf o r m d ed icated to promoting a better understanding the ChinaLatin America relationship and its sustainable development challenges. On January 28, Diálogo Chino reported, “In the coming months, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is set to deliver its report on a Guyana–Brazil transport link and a deepwater port project for the northern coast. Today, the Rupununi border town of Lethem is a 14-hour ride along dirt roads from the Guyanese capital, Georgetown. Red dirt is set to be placed by asphalt and Lethem converted into a major trading hub. China is expected to provide the required capital and carry out construction work.” At a July 2018 ceremony when Guyana signed on to China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), Minister of F o r e i g n A ff a i r s , C a r l Greenidge, said that Guyana's priority at this time would be infrastructure. He said that it “would include a system for designs

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson of roads and harbours and the like as well as access to funding for the construction for such facilities.” Back then, Government's Department of Information (DPI) reported that Greenidge “hinted that there exists a possibility that the Linden-Lethem highway, particularly the Kurupukari to Lethem phase, as well as the new proposed Demerara Harbour Bridge could be financed under this initiative.” Comments attributed to Greenidge in Diálogo Chino's most recent article suggest that he favours going the Chinese route. When Greenidge was contacted by this newspaper, he said that he was preoccupied listening to the live ruling of the Chief Justice on Thursday. He endeavoured to return the call “as soon as I get a minute.” The Minister never called back. Minister Patterson was contacted the same day. He too said that he was busy but accommodated a quick

A ship docks at the main port in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa (Reuters)

interview. Patterson was asked about reports that China will be funding the port and a portion of the road from Brazil. He said that the mind of the Government is still undecided at this point and that it is not leaning one way or the other about source of funding. Patterson said that the report being prepared by the IADB has nothing to do with China specifically. He said, “They are doing a report on locations of deep water port and this is purely for recommendations for possible sites. It is more about options on where it can be located and how much it would cost if we go option A, B or C. It has no has nothing to do with the Chinese.” The port and the road are said to be more of a benefit to China than they would be to

Guyana. But Patterson did not paint this picture. He said, “The deep water port is part of my developmental plan. I have a short, medium and long term developmental plan. The location of it is critical for you and then you know how much money it is and so forth, that is what is being done now.” Patterson said that if the port is affordable, Guyana may opt to self-fund. “If not, then we will have to look for funding. But that is why the study is there, to let you know how much it is to cost.” The worry is that Guyana may tie itself up with China and end up facing the consequences being endured by several other jurisdictions in Caribbean/ Latin America as well as those on the wider international stage.

From left: Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jianchun and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge. The same fate that befell countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Zambia is now looming in Kenya. That African country is at risk of losing its main port to China. Kenya will lose its lucrative Mombasa port to China should the country fail to repay huge loans advanced by Chinese

lenders. Implications of a takeover would be grave, including the thousands of port workers who would be forced to work under the Chinese lenders. Management changes would immediately follow the port seizure since the Chinese (continued on page 72)

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Sunday February 03, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Leah Jones

Sunday February 03, 2019

Meet the stunning Miss Leah Jones. This 23-year-old beauty is modeling one of the Guyana Carnival costumes designed by David Dewer for the Genesis 2019 band. Her favourite quote is, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkest that most frightens us…”

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 03, 2019

A feminist on a mission to help empower the vulnerable…

Bonita Montague is a 'Special Person' A By Sharmain Grainger

s a versatile woman who has long embraced the importance of female empowerment, Bonita Montague can easily be labelled more than a 'Special Person' for her many achievements over the years. From a young age, she was able to stand out athletically, and as she matured, she was able to command notable places in both the City Constabulary and the Guyana Police Force. In fact, it would be remiss of me to not mention that she is the first female in our dear land to have been inducted into the local Martial Arts Hall of Fame, which back in the day was unheard for a woman. She opted to venture into these arenas with the intention of giving credence to her belief that women do not have to limit themselves to customary feminine roles, since they too have the ability to succeed in any area, much like their male counterparts. However, since this publication would be hardpressed for space to elaborate on all of Bonita's o u t s t a n d i n g

Taking time out for her sons, Courtney and Marley

accomplishments, understandably a decision was taken to highlight a cause that she has been championing that has been helping to empower the vulnerable. This cause is one through which she has been seeking to open the eyes of those in our society to take a stance against many ills, especially domestic violence. This is in spite of the fact

Bonita's Non-Governmental Organisation [NGO] was not merely introduced as a showpiece or favourite pastime for a migrant, but rather, an avenue to give hope to those in need of assistance to overcome situations that can often be regarded as hopeless. The support offered ranges from counselling services to accommodation as the need arises.

“I am a survivor of domestic violence and that is critical, and that must be the story told…I have been there as a child and I have been there as an adult, and because I have had those experiences, I am the voice of those who do not have a voice at this point. So doing this for me, it is personal.” that she has been a migrant living in Queens, New York, United States of America for more than two decades now. While her main mission through an organisation – United Bridge Builders Mission, which she founded more than two decades ago is to target vulnerable women, it has also been lending support to children and men as well. Situated in the John Street, Campbellville area,

children, who have no one to turn to when confronted with daunting situations that threaten to hamper their very existence. “I have been able to fight even as a young child because of a supportive grandmother; however, many children do not have that support system, so it is imperative that we continue to advocate,” she passionately insisted.

FOCUS ON CHILDREN She pointed out too that, “Many times we see children and we say 'oh, she ain't got no manners or 'he, he bad' but we don't know what has happened in their lives to trigger this kind of behaviour. So when you have these children behaving in a certain way, many times they are calling for help, and they are hoping that someone will hear them to say 'I care' and sometimes that's all our children want,” said Bonita, a mother of two boys – Courtney and Marley. As she recalled her attendance at the Caribbean Youth Summit held last month at the G u y ana Marriott, Bonita stressed the need for funding to execute plans to help with the development of youths in the society. She disclosed that to

Celebrating the woman who her gave her life

Ms. Bonita Montague is a 'Special Person' achieve such goals, her organisation has been able to collaborate with strategic organisations, including the Ministry of Social Protection, through its Childcare and Protection Agency. “Ms. Ann Greene has been very supportive; however, we are looking forward to collaborating with other ministries like Education and so on, so that we can address issues such as anti-bullying, because when we believe in a proactive approach and preventative services, things can be better in our society. We can't only react after incidents occur and then we have to incur the cost of recovery, legal services and all of that.” “If we can get to the children before they strike or early in their pain, we can alleviate life-long scars, and that is what we are hoping to have happen…have the schools engage in the antibully programmes, where we can get into the schools using the STEAM programme. STEM is looking at the science, technology, engineering and maths, but STEAM is where the arts is infused. Children want to have fun, I too as an adult want to have fun, and if the arts is infused, we can achieve that by bringing on board popular artistes and others,” Bonita theorised. She embraces the view that if change starts at the level of the school, the children themselves can help to incorporate the support of other members of the society. “I want our youths to really be engaged in what is happening in the country socially and politically. When they are aware of what is happening, they understand where they can make a difference and how they can influence the system, and I believe our youths play a very keen

role,” Bonita underscored. LIFE UNFOLDS Born to parents Joy McKenzie, a former member of the Guyana Defence Force who spent most of her years in the secretarial field, and Hadock Martin Montague, a seaman, Bonita was the eldest of four children. She made her entry to this life at the Georgetown Public Hospital, and recalled having a rather nomadic lifestyle during her formative years. This was owing to the fact that her upbringing was shared between her parents and her maternal grandmother, Johanna Fernald McKenzie. “I was always with Granny…she took me wherever she went. She took me to Suriname and Holland; I was always moving around with her,” said Bonita of her grandmother, who she proudly disclosed turned 97 on January 29 last. Part of her upbringing saw Bonita attending schools in Georgetown, though sporadically. She attended the Central and New Comenius Primary Schools and Central High and Charlestown Secondary too. Later when she migrated to the United States, Bonita's schooling continued, only this time with a view on gainful employment. She pursued nursing education and dabbled in training, ranging from child care to care of the elderly, as she sought after a viable career to sustain herself. It was over the years, while residing in the United States, that she found her ultimate mission in life – to become a humanitarian and activist; roles she was empowered to assume through travels around the world which took her as far as Africa and India. Her vast (continued on page 59)

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

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Canada's restrictive immigration policies

he decision of the C a n a d i a n government to ask the PPPC's presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, not to proceed with his travel plans to Canada, is symptomatic of that country's restrictive immigration policies. It bursts the bubble of Canada opening its arms to welcome visitors. It is also not the first time that a former PPPC Minister became a victim of Canadian immigration policies. Last July, the Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada denied an application by a former PPPC Minister to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Canada's immigration policies encourage what is called self-sponsorship of skilled persons. This policy has allowed hundreds of Guyanese to migrate permanently each year to Canada, while depriving Guyana of much-needed skills. Yet, when some of these very skilled persons want to serve their country, they are denied the opportunity to reintegrate into Canada, unless they meet that country's strict residency requirements. This is what happened to a former PPPC Minister who returned to Canada after the PPPC lost power in 2015. She had acquired residency status in 2009 while still serving in the PPP government but, because of her duties as a Minister, was unable to spend the required 700-odd days, which the immigration authorities said she should have spent in Canada during the time she was working as a Minister in Guyana. Despite not working since her return to Canada, there was ample evidence that she had taken steps to reintegrate into Canada, including paying for a property there. She had an elderly mother and daughter

resident in Canada who were both in need of her. Yet, the court found that they would not suffer hardships were she to be removed from the country. This is the same Canada that likes to boast about its diversity. And which is proud to say that more than one-fifth of its population is foreign-born; and would have migrated from all around the world. Canada's Prime Minister says that diversity has been its strength. He has hailed Canada's refugee policy. But when Canada speaks about accepting refugees, it does so in terms of tens of thousands per year and not in terms of millions. E a c h y e a r, C a n a d a accepts more than 300,000 immigrants to its shores. But this openness to immigration is not done out of goodwill. Canada needs people to help develop its economy and therefore has had no other choice but to open its doors to immigrants. Canada has done a remarkable job of projecting a global image of openness to immigration. But as Tom Keller noted in his column in The Atlantic last July, Canada's immigration policies are far from liberal. It denies more than one-third of all visa applications and its visitor visa requirements are among the most restrictive in the world. It shows a strong bias towards attracting highly-educated and skilled persons. Canada's immigration laws are extremely strict, perhaps as they ought to be, in protecting its citizens. But they are also used as a layer of restriction. Canada's immigration laws allow for the possible denial of entry for persons

convicted or charged for criminal offences. It does not matter if someone has not been convicted. The mere fact that someone is charged with an offence means that person may be denied admission into Canada. You can be denied entry into Canada if you are charged with a criminal offence in another country, once that offence is

considered a serious criminal offence in Canada. The immigration officer is not required to make a judgment as to the validity of the charges or their likelihood of being successfully prosecuted. The immigration officer is not bound by the presumption of innocence. The mere fact that someone is facing multiple charges places the immigration officer in a position of

strength in terms of denying entry. The Canadian High Commission in Trinidad, which handles immigration matters in this neck of the woods, advised the PPPC's presidential candidate not to proceed with his travel plans. It knew that if, per chance, an immigration officer were to question Ali about whether he has ever been charged in Guyana and

he admitted that he is presently before the courts, then he could be denied entry. The immigration officer is not going to be moved by explanations that the charges are politically motivated or that the High Court has placed a stay on those charges. It is all part of Canada's restrictive immigration policies.

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Give Uruguay Meeting a chance to bring settlement to Venezuela crisis By Sir Ronald Sanders

he Heads of Government of the independent member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), who met by video conference on January 24 to consider the fastmoving events surrounding Venezuela, demonstrated an independent and principled stance. Absent from the meeting was any representative of the Bahamas and Haiti. It was clear that, collectively, the remaining 12 governments were not allowing themselves to be

urged to support any other position than one that they took themselves. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley, summed-up the position of CARICOM governments when he said, “We don't want to end up in the situation where there is conflict and it results in consequences for our region”. The moment was a shining light in Caribbean history. Small though Caribbean countries are, the participating government leaders showed strength and courage in upholding principled positions that

were entirely consistent with international law and the Charters of the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of American States (OAS), although the latter has been ignored by several hemispheric governments. The effectiveness of their position was clearly manifest when, four days later, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, met a representative group of CARICOM leaders, including Prime Ministers Mia Mottley, Timothy Harris and Keith Rowley (of Barbados, St Kitts-Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago)

and agreed to offer his good offices “to facilitate dialogue and negotiation” between the parties in Venezuela. The UN SecretaryGeneral's position is a far cry from that of the OAS Secretary-General, Luis Almagro, who, in a marked departure from the role of a Secretary-General, has promoted external intervention including military intervention in Venezuela. The position taken by the 12 CARICOM governments was vindicated on January 30 when the governments of Uruguay and Mexico declared that, “by virtue of

their neutral position” toward Venezuela, they are organising an international conference for February 7 in Uruguay “to lay the foundations for establishing a new mechanism for dialogue that, with the inclusion of all Venezuelan forces, will contribute to restoring stability and peace in the country”. It is good that Mexico and Uruguay have taken this initiative. They have since issued invitations to many countries and international organisations to participate. U n d o u b t e d l y, s e v e r a l CARICOM governments will participate in the meeting. It would be good if they did so in a unified way, responding to what is in the best interests of the region. CARICOM leaders on January 24 already laid down a few of the markers that should guide their contributions to the Uruguay meeting. These include: concern about the plight of the people of Venezuela and the increasing volatility of the situation which could lead to further violence, confrontation, breakdown of law and order and greater suffering for the people of the country; respect for sovereignty, adherence to the rule of law, and respect for human rights and democracy; and commitment to the tenets of Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter which calls for Members States to refrain from the threat or the use of force and Article 21 of the Charter of the Organization of American States which refers to territorial inviolability. The “neutrality”, about which the new Mexican government and the government of Uruguay refer, includes not taking sides in the political conflict between the government and opposition parties in Venezuela. I have advocated

Sir Ronald Sanders that position within the Permanent Council of the OAS, as recently as January 24, when I said publicly, “My delegation discourages each member state and every official of this body, at all levels, from taking sides in the internal political situation in Venezuela by any public statements, including tweets. In our v i e w, t a k i n g - s i d e s emboldens one side or the other to eschew dialogue and to intensify conflict. It simply prolongs and worsens the situation that now exists”. A search for a sustainable and peaceful settlement to the political impasse in Venezuela, from, which everything else has flowed, demands that those governments that decide to gather in Uruguay on February 7, do so with open minds; a willingness to listen to all participants, including every political party in Venezuela; no pre-conceived notions of which Venezuelan group they want to be in power; and with a firm understanding that peace and stability will only emerge and be sustainable from a settlement reached by the Ve n e z u e l a n p a r t i e s themselves – and it is such a settlement that they should want to facilitate, advance and help to implement. No one should assume that the Mexico-Uruguay proposed meeting will not attract hostility and efforts to undermine it. Such strong positions have already been taken by several governments, including declaring the Nicolás Maduro government to be illegitimate and recognising Juan Guaido as interim President, that it is difficult to see how they can stand (continued on page 57)

Sunday February 03, 2019

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Kaieteur News

---Hinds’ Sight by Dr. David Hinds---

Why I support President Granger as the Coalition’s Presidential Candidate There has been a lot of discussion about who should head the Coalition ticket at the upcoming election if the parties decide to run together again. Given the president’s recent health challenges, there were some doubts about his capacity to remain at the helm. However, from all indications, he is rearing and ready to go. Although there has not been any formal declaration, all the parties, except the WPA, have indicated that he is their choice. In the end, that decision lies with the PNC, the largest party in the coalition. There were murmurs that some of the leaders of that party had begun positioning themselves to take the top spot when it was not certain whether Mr. Granger would be available. The problem is that none of those leaders appeared to have the full backing of the party. It is also not clear whether the other parties in the Coalition would have automatically signed off on any of those contenders. The problem for the PNC is that the persons who appear to

have the credentials to succeed Granger in leading the Coalition and the country are outside of the party’s inner circle. So, Mr. Granger’s availability may have saved the party and the coalition some embarrassment. Unlike the PPP, the PNC does not have anyone who has the stature of kingmaker—the person who can deliver the position to a given candidate. Robert Corbin played that role when Granger assumed the leadership of the party and coalition, but he does not seem to be as active in the party’s inner workings as he used to be. It is also worth remembering that Granger was recruited from the fringe of the party to take up the leadership. The jury is still out on Mr. Granger’s success as a leader. I cannot speak very much on his leadership of the PNC, largely because since he assumed that position, most of his energy has been placed on leading APNU and the government. The truth is that when a party is in government, the top leaders who

hold government positions neglect the party, largely because it is very difficult to function in both capacities. The exceptions were the Burnham and Jagdeo governments, when the party and the government were institutionally merged in what became known as paramountcy of the party. I have a lot of issues with Mr. Granger as manager of the Coalition. His apparent decision to isolate the role of APNU and the non-government AFC to the very periphery of decision-making was a grave mistake. This, in addition to the decision to confine decision-making to the Cabinet and the Presidency, eventually brought down the government. A coalition is not a single-party entity, and a one-seat majority is a precarious mandate that calls for shrewd, tactical political management, which I think eluded Mr. Granger. However, if the coalition is facing the electorate in its current configuration, I will support him as the presidential candidate. I do so from two

The Baccoo Speaks Everybody is an expert at this time when the discussion turns to politics. But likewise there will be a lot of disinformation, even what some people call fake news these days. The report will be that a member of the opposition is arrested in a foreign country. Of course, this will be a talking point until someone realizes that the report is false. Needless to say fingers would be pointed at the opposing political party. ** The change in weather

such activity is safe. The result would be a fire that would test the skills of the neighbours until the fire service arrives.

often means a change in certain people’s behaviour. One person in a newly established housing location would be cooking in an area where no

** Robberies are never far away. A group of men on bicycles has been operating with some success. That is about to end. A licensed firearm holder would intervene during one such attempt with serious consequences for the crooks.

standpoints. First, despite his failings as a political manager, he has been a success as the face and conscience of the nation. He brought legitimacy back to the presidency—he was the first president since Desmond Hoyte and Dr. Jagan that engendered respect across the political divide. I honestly think that while most Indian Guyanese preferred the PPP in office, they do not disrespect Mr. Granger. It has a lot to do with the perception that he is a decent man who is not corrupt, and who is not going to be unfair to other ethnic groups. I don’t think a majority of the general population thinks that he is racist. He is not a man of scandals. He forces, even if grudgingly, the country to associate the term “morality” with political leadership. To my mind, these are priceless attributes in our toxic political environment. Of course, his management of the current impasse in the wake of the Chief Justice’s recent rulings would be pivotal in him maintaining this stature. The longer he allows this situation to drag on, the more he would be per-

ceived as just another powergrabber. So, when I look at the potential candidates, I think he is the only one that will both galvanize the base while not turning off independents, including non-PNC Indian Guyanese, Amerindians and African Guyanese. Some of the others appeal to independents, but do not turn on the base. Some turn on the base, but turn off independents. Granger, I think is the only one that would be allowed the space to do both. The second reason I support Granger is that it is tactically sound for the Coalition to show unity around the top of the ticket and to give the country a sense of continuity. To look for a new leader after less than one term would be suicidal. And as I hinted above, all the contenders, except one, have shown little capacity to lead a country such as Guyana. In other words, while some in the coalition, including this commentator, may have some difficulties with his style of leadership and with some of the decisions he made, those are not enough to deny him a second term.

Dr David Hinds As regards the Prime Minister slot, I still believe that that position should go to one of the smaller parties. Clearly the Cummingsburg Accord would be amended or a new one would be worked out with the AFC. My prediction is that the AFC would and should be given the PM slot, even if its share of the parliamentary and cabinet seats is decreased. Since Mr. Granger is African Guyanese, I feel strongly that the PM slot should go to an Indian Guyanese. It is both commonsense and ethnically correct. More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his w e b s i t e www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 03, 2019

A shot of rum stirred with a dose of death “The higher the dose, the better,’’ James told the hired killer. ”My targets are so easy. They sleep in the street, right on the pavement…” By Michael Jordan In June 1999, Hardeo Sewnanan was drinking in a Chinese restaurant in Berbice with a friend when he suddenly collapsed. He was taken to a hospital where he died shortly after. There appeared to be nothing strange about this death. If one wanted to put it decently, one would merely say that Sewnanan was a harddrinking man. But the real truth was that Sewnanan was a straight-out alcoholic, and the initial verdict was that he had died from an overdose of liquor. But the pathologist who performed the autopsy found something disturbing. Examining Sewnanan’s stomach, he came to the con-

The schemer: Richard James

The killer: Ronald Mallay clusion that the alcoholic had been poisoned. His drink had apparently been laced with ammonia. The man with whom Sewnanan had taken his last drink was the victim’s uncle, 53-year-old Ronald Mallay, a postal employee. But for some reason, foul play was not suspected. Perhaps the local police believed that the down-and-out victim had taken his own life. And most certainly the ‘suicide’ appeared to have nothing to do with the death of Alfred Gobin. Two years earlier, Gobin was shot dead in his Berbice home, apparently the victim of bandits. He was the father of Ronald Mallay’s girlfriend. And it seemed as if misfortune was following persons who were close to Mr. Mallay. On July 28, 1993, Mallay’s brother-in-law, 43year-old Vernon ‘Dilly’ Peters was walking to work near the Woodside Houses in New York when a group of men accosted him, while demanding his wallet and jewellery. One of the robbers then shot him in the head. Like many Guyanese, Ronald Mallay eventually migrated to the United States of America, along with a close friend and fellow Guyanese, insurance agent Richard James. The men took up residence in the Queens, New York area with its high population of West Indians. James was also one of

MetLife insurance company’s most successful agents, while also hosting a cable television show featuring Guyanese music and dance. But, like his friend Ronald Mallay, death seemed to always follow those who were close to Richard James. In 1998, 42-year-old Basdeo Somaipersaud, an alcoholic and Guyanese by birth, was found dead on a park bench in New York City. The first assumption was that Somaipersaud had cracked his head while under the influence. But then the autopsy revealed that the man had died from intoxication from alcohol and chlorpormazine, a sedative sometimes used to treat schizophrenia. A pathologist also observed that there were small punctures on the victim’s torso. Investigators suspected that someone injected Somaipersaud with lethal doses of the sedative while he was in a defenceless, drunken stupor, and then tried to cash in on the man’s life insurance policy. The person who had taken out an insurance policy on the unemployed man was none other than insurance agent Richard James. And James’ employers, MetLife, were also becoming suspicious of him. They discovered that 21 death claims had been filed from policies written by James within a few years. The rate of deaths was approximately 318 percent higher than expected, and a large number of his clients had died violently or under unusual circumstances. They discovered that $300,000 was collected from the death of Mallay’s nephew in Guyana, where he was killed with alcohol and ammonia. That policy had been written up by Mallay.In the case of Somaipersaud, the alcoholic who had died on a park bench, MetLife paid out US$84,000 in proceeds. MetLife suspected that most of the money was secretly funneled back to James, who had also prepared that policy. And Mallay had also pre-

pared a MetLife policy for his brother-in-law, Vernon Peters, who was gunned down on his way to work. In July 2000, MetLife fired James and notified the authorities, who put him under surveillance. In 2002, investigators caught James on audiotape trying to pay an informant US$25,000 to kill another victim with a mix of alcohol and drugs to collect insurance, court papers said. “The higher the dose, the better,’’ he allegedly told the informant. “My targets are so easy. They sleep in the street, right on the pavement.” Before the plot could be carried out, agents arrested James trying to flee to Guyana with a large amount of cash. Another informant also told investigators that in 1998, he turned down US$5,000 from Mallay to kill a “drunk’’ who hung out at Smokey Oval Park in the US. The investigators believed that James wrote out the false policies for the murder-for-profit scheme, which mainly targeted down-andout alcoholics. They believed that his friend, Robert Mallay, carried out some of the killings. In May 2007, the two men were tied in connection with the four murders, although investigators suspected that they had murdered several others in a multimillion-dollar scheme. The men’s attorneys attempted to prove that Sewnanan and Somaipersaud had died from natural causes, brought on by alcoholism. In the case of Sewnanan, who had collapsed and died in Guyana, the defence suggested that only the most ‘rudimentary’ and ‘primitive’ medical examinations had been conducted in Guyana. However, the Guyanese pathologist who had conducted the autopsy testified that the man had indeed been poisoned. Eventually, in July 2007, James and Mallay were found guilty of murder conspiracy and other charges by a federal jury in Brooklyn. The gruesome insurance murder scheme that was hatched in Guyana and the US was over. If you have any information on any other unusual case, please contact us at our lot 24 Saffon Street office. You can also contact us by phone on telephone numbers 225-8452, 225-8458, 2258465, 225-8491, or 2258473. You can also reach Michael Jordan by email on kamarangnight@gmail.com

Sunday February 03, 2019

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Kaieteur News

==THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN==

Warren is white; Harris is East Indian/ African; I would vote for Warren Elizabeth Warren is a white. Kamala Harris is half East Indian (mother from India) and African (father is Jamaican). Both are senators contesting the Democratic Party primaries for the American presidency. If I were to vote, what criteria should I use? I am East Indian genetically. My grandparents came from the same race and country Harris’ mother was born into. I am s h a m e l e s s l y , unapologetically a Caribbean human. I like being Caribbean. I love Caribbean people. I never thought of living elsewhere except the Caricom area. At the foreign universities, I attended I got along better with Jamaicans than any other CARICOM nationalities. Harris is half-Jamaican. Based on these anthropological facts, should I choose Warren over Harris? I definitely think my choice hovers over those two. I want a woman to be president of Guyana and the US. If Guyana chooses David Granger in the next election, because of health issues, the PM slot for APNU should be a woman. If

Granger steps down, we would have a female president. That is good for Guyanese history and world history, given how badly in the evolution of the world women have been treated. Why would I not want a “dougla” woman to be president of the US? But what about what constitutes the human? I am non-white. I am East Indian. I am from the Caribbean. But why should that reality be the compelling vortex in which I should swim for Harris? In each of us, there is a belief system, an ideological set of values, a cluster of philosophical instincts. We are not just ethnic organisms only.I come from a background of dirt poverty. Out of that, my ideological worldview has been shaped. I support people, organizations and governments that are committed to using society’s wealth for the following purposes; elimination of want of people who were born into poverty and want to come out of it; giving access to higher education to working class youths whose parents’ income does not al-

low them to access higher education because of expenditure and tuition fees; providing social services and health services to communities that do not have the resources to pay for these vital things; stopping the abuse of moneyed people in a country where because of wealth they have greater access to law, justice, power; putting laws in place to stop the domination of wealthy classes and to engineer policies that make people feel that they are all equal in the eyes of the law. On each of these levels, I see Elizabeth Warren’s politics and past performance as being closer to mine than Kamala Harris. I lean towards socialist economics, where the brutality, cruelty and sadism of runaway capitalism as we see in the US especially, are not allowed to roam rampantly. Warren is closer to socialist economics than Harris. For me, the race vote is unbelievable ignorance. I came back with my wife in 1984 and since that time, I have never voted for the large ethnic parties – the PPP and

the PNC. My past ballots went to WPA several times; once for TUF; twice for AFC – 2006 and 2011. I never would have contemplated voting for Ravi Dev’s ROAR. In 2015, I voted for AFC+APNU. That was natural because I had friends, very close friends whose multi-racial agenda I admired. Two of those friends are Nigel Hughes and Michael Carrington. I am still friends with both. I still admire their multi-cultural praxis. I have fallen out with Khemraj Ramjattan, the other friend in 2015. His post-2015 politics and mine are billions of miles apart. I supported Barack Obama

against the two Republicans he ran against in his first and second terms because there was absolutely no choice. He was billions of times better than them. But I do not think Obama was transformative enough and I don’t think he was committed to working people as he professed. He didn’t transform the US in ways that would have made the US a better country. If I have to choose between Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama for the American presidency, I honestly would be stumped as to my preference, but I know as a nonwhite human, Obama’s race would not be the essential

Frederick Kissoon reason for my decision to choose him. I like the politics of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. It is a soulless journey to a Faustian land of excruciating permanency to choose someone to shape your country, and in the process your personal life, because you and that person belong to the same race group. It is a suicidal travel. And I am not suicidal as yet.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

AN ERRONEOUS PREMISE “The Government of Guyana notes and respects the rulings of the Chief Justice (ag) Roxanne George handed down on January 31st, 2019. The ruling is not in favour of the Government’s position with regard to the vote on December 21st 2018, however, due process continues and the Government will file an appeal in the Court of Appeal. The government continues to believe that the full adjudication of this issue is in the national interest. Until the matter is concluded at the highest court, the status quo remains and the business of government continues as usual. The government reassures the Guyanese people that it will continue to act in accordance with the constitution of Guyana.” This statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency represents the position of the entire Coalition. While we respect the ruling handed

down by the Chief Justice, we will pursue the longstanding path of a three-stage legal process. On Thursday Minister Ramjattan said, “(The Government has) every right to access (every legal stage) up to the final court, namely the Caribbean Court of Justice before both parties can settle on this matter”. This was the first round. But before moving to the CCJ, the government will make its application in the Guyana Court of Appeal and we will be asking for “expeditiousness” in the hearing of this case. There is a narrative being promoted by the political opposition that the Government was defeated by the vote of no confidence in Parliament on 21st December, but in fact, this is an erroneous premise. Our understanding is that the process is hierarchical - the High Court is the first; the next step is the Appeals Court, then the CCJ makes the final decision. According to the Attorney General, we are following

precedence. He has filed against the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, asking the court to rule on several issues: (i) Whether the Speaker’s Ruling on the motion debated in the National Assembly on December 21 was carried by a vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly was unlawful, null and void being contrary to Article 106 (6) of the Constitution of Guyana and; (ii) Whether the requisite majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly ought to be 34 votes During her ruling, the acting Chief Justice explained that while there is need for an absolute majority vote in the National Assembly, the 33 votes in the 65-member Parliament would, in her opinion, constitute that majority. However, the Government disagrees with this position. We contend that an ‘absolute majority’ is required, since it has more strength than the

simple majority. Guyana’s Parliament consists of the odd number of 65 seats. Precedent cases have shown that when you have an odd number in the Parliament, to arrive at a majority, you must divide it in half, and add one. When you divide 65 by half you get a fraction and since there is no half human, you should round out the fraction to the next whole number. The former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Sir Dennis Byron, reiterated this position that in cases of absolute and simple majorities, the absolute majority “is stronger than the simple majority”. Therefore, the APNU+AFC government is confident that we have a strong case to move forward to Stage 2. Our position is supported by precedence, i.e. when citizen Cedric Richardson filed a case proposing a third term for former President Jagdeo. It went to the Court of Appeal then to the CCJ where the final decision supported APNU’s objection to the third term proposition. We succeeded in preventing Bharrat Jagdeo from returning to the presidency for a third term which he as President

had placed his signature on. So, to citizens of Guyana, your Government intends to take this matter all the way to the final court. As the Attorney General said, “Nothing is over until the CCJ makes the final determination”. Government wishes to have this matter resolved as early as possible. It is very important that the peace and stability that this Government brought back to Guyana after the chaos of the past two decades is maintained. It is important that the economy and society do not grind to a halt, which is why we have applied for a stay of the order, i.e. the constitutional requirement that the Cabinet must resign. Provided that the stay is granted, this Government will continue to guide this nation towards prosperity by:- Continuing the many infrastructural works including installing and maintaining public lighting - Looking after the welfare of our vulnerable citizens, especially children - Improving public security and ensuring that crime statistics continue to fall -Installing the necessary equipment and conducting citizen education for their own protection while online (cyber security)

- Continuing the numerous programmes that are improving our education systems which are already proving that our children are performing better in school - Fixing the healthcare systems and institutions throughout the country - Further improving the doing-business processes for the benefit of both local and foreign investors - Improving essential services, especially water, electricity and Internet connectivity - Encouraging citizens to start up small businesses to earn money for themselves - Protecting our nation from countries like Venezuela that prevented us in the past from developing our own natural resources such as oil, and are now attempting to bully us in order to steal our land and maritime territory - Protecting our young citizens from being trafficked to the hinterland and out of the country Guyana is a safer country today, thanks to this Government. We must continue to develop so that every single citizen can benefit from the revenue that will soon begin to come in from the sale of oil.

Sunday February 03, 2019

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My column

These are interesting times

n this age of technol ogy, we increasingly use the computer. We store so many things on the computer that at times we are lost when we cannot access our information. I got up yesterday morning to hear that I have been texting people from my Facebook account. I prefer to use the phone. Try as I might, I still cannot access the old account. The information is that someone changed the e-mail address, which I now have. Perhaps I should try to change the password, but that is proving to be difficult. I would inform every friend that I have on Facebook that I am no longer using that account. Any information that appears to be coming to me is from that account over, which I have no control. Suffice it to say that I am somewhat discomfited. People use the Messenger account to call me. That is no longer possible. I will have to work out something else. But life goes on and there is a lot to life at this time. For example, over the past few days there has been a lot of attention on the ruling by the Chief Justice. Of course, all eyes were turned to that ruling. The political opposition secured a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018. Immediately the call was for elections to be held within three months in keeping with the

Constitution. There is no movement in that direction, much to the anger of the political opposition. The reality is that when President Jimmy Carter came to clean up the elections process in Guyana way back in 1990, he succeeded in getting the commission to be less partisan. He also got the Desmond Hoyte Government to agree to the independence of the Guyana Elections Commission. That is the case today. The Elections Commission has control of the elections. It has the responsibility to prepare the conditions for elections, and at this time, it has said that it is just not ready. Of course, one commissioner reminded that the government had released money for house-to-house registration, but none for the holding of elections. And what is even more revealing is that the opposition had agreed that there was need for house-to-house registration. Given the situation now, the opposition wants the commission to forego the house-to-house registration. At the same time, the government is pursuing all the legal options to challenge the vote in parliament, thus further stalling the elections process. One can understand the frustration of the political opposition. It is certain that it will win at the polls. It has al-

ready begun the campaign having selected the Presidential candidate. And here I must look at how we are in Guyana. The Presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, is the subject of a court action. If convicted, his hopes could be torpedoed. He is also at the centre of allegations of academic fraud. This matter is unresolved and while Ali is trying to tough it out, there are reporters who are still trying to get to what is the true situation. Ali has tried to explain the situation; even releasing what he says is confirmation from a university in England. Also of interest is the dominant presence of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo. Usually, the person leading the slate is expected to spearhead the campaign. Not in this case. And Jagdeo says that he does not intend to take a back seat. He is going to be the point man in selecting the Ministers should his party win the elections. It was the same when Donald Ramotar was introduced to the nation as the Presidential candidate. Jagdeo spearheaded the campaign. And as can be expected, the loss was blamed on him. But there is more to all this. While the people appear to be quiet, there is a lot of communication between them. I see the chats largely by a few people who seem to be repre-

senting the views of the majority. It is a pity that Guyana has no pollster. It would have been interesting to see what the polls say, not that I place much store by polls. In Guyana, there is the tendency for people to say what they think people want to hear. Barring all the talk about the elections, there has been a lot of attention to what is going on at the Special Organised Crime Unit. The deputy resigned amidst some confusion. Some claimed that it had to do with her account-

ing qualifications. What sparked the talk is the effect her resignation would have on some of the matters before the courts. She did testify, but now that she has resigned even before the matters are completed, some are of the view that the defence would seek to recall her for whatever reason. That would be a problem. But even more eye-catching is the sacking of the special advisor provided by the British Government. The advisor set about establishing his own investigative service. This is unusual and certainly

Adam Harris a conflict of interest. The British had no hesitation in sacking him. All told, these are interesting times, and they promise to get even more interesting.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

This election will be a referendum on leadership

uyanese began a new day on Satur day January 19, to

the predictable yet reassuring news that President David Granger would definitely lead

(APNU+AFC) A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change coalition, into the

next General and Regional Elections. That announcement laid

to rest any uncertainty about the President’s intentions or ability. The reactions of Guyanese to that expected news from the Coalition, judging by their comments on social media was positive, and there was a collective sigh of relief, as everyone went about their usual Saturday morning activities. Later in the day, everything changed. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) issued a statement revealing its own candidate for the Presidency of Guyana. A stunned PPP membership and many other Guyanese took to social media to express their disappointment at the selection. The PPP’s statement said that, “The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) today concluded the process of electing its presidential candidate . . . the Central Committee elected Mohammed Irfaan Ali as the party’s presidential candidate for the next National and Regional Elections. Five candidates expressed an intention to contest for this post. These were Anil Nandlall, Dr Frank Anthony, Dr Vindhya Persaud, Irfaan Ali and Gail Teixeira. “Immediately prior to the elections Dr. Frank Anthony, Dr. Vindhya Persaud and Gail Teixeira withdrew from the contest leaving Nandlall and Ali as the two remaining contestants. Ali received 24 votes and Nandlall received 11 votes from the 35 Member Central Committee, thereby making Ali the official Presidential Candidate.” It is no secret that the PPP’s selected-candidate is currently before the court facing charges for his role in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the state of some $174 million. The charges allege that between 2010 and 2015, while Ali was Minister of Housing and Water in the PPP regime, he conspired to defraud the Government of Guyana when he acted recklessly in presenting the value of 19 plots of state land situated at “Pradoville,” and sold the said lands at grossly undervalued prices to high-ranking officials of the PPP and their friends. The public is also aware that Ali is under a cloud of suspicion relating to authenticity of his academic qualifications. Several anomalies and discrepancies regarding Ali’s claimed qualifications were reported by investigative journalists in a number of articles. Ali has yet to explain those irregularities. We doubt that he ever will. In January 2012, when the PPP government was in office, the regime was being accused of corruption by countless

local and international bodies. Transparency International (TI) – arguably the world’s premier and most reputable anti-corruption body – had expressed deep concern about the PPP’s rampant corruption. Further, TI reported that Guyana had scored an abysmal 28 out of 100 points on its Corruption Perception Index in 2012. Citizens will recall that around that year, at the height of the corruption, media outlets began to question the source of sudden acquisition of great wealth of a number of government officials. Many constructed palatial mansions and were in no way concerned about how they, as public servants, would explain their rapid financial elevation. These clouds and suspicions of corruption continue to swirl around many of them. In Guyana, we have an educated electorate; voters know corruption when they see it. And by now, they would have a clear idea of who has ‘achieved the unachievable’. On another note, with the aforementioned serious court matters to attend to, one wonders why Ali believes that it is business as usual. The recent travel restrictions placed on the PPP Presidential candidate were predictable. In fact, in any other jurisdiction, a political party would have thought twice before offering up such an individual as their standard bearer, but not the PPP. Such is the contempt for the Guyanese electorate. In contrast, the APNU+AFC coalition’s declared presidential candidate, President David Granger has never been touched by any such accusations, suspicions, or scandals. His impressive academic credentials and his personal finances, military achievements, and business accomplishments, are all verifiable and have never been questioned, not even by his political opponents. This election will be a referendum on leadership. David Granger, a man of integrity, honesty; a statesman and leader who has earned the nations trust versus a cavalier PPP candidate facing multiple criminal charges. David Granger made it clear, from his first day in office, that he was going to be President for all Guyana: “We are here to witness not the swearing in of the party leader but the President of all the people. I shall be a good President for all the people.” He has kept that promise. He deserves to continue his good works.

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Nail fungal infection: You may not be aware that you have it By Dr Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Nail fungal infections are very common in our part of the world. Research shows that it can affect up to 25 percent of some populations. In Guyana, we are at risk of getting nail fungal infections because of our humid climate. Many patients present with damaged nails and smelly feet. Those that are diabetic can have severe infections that can lead to them losing their feet. Today, we will look at nail fungal infections so that you may be able to treat it early and prevent it from becoming complicated. WHATARE SYMPTOMS OF A NAIL FUNGUS? The following are changes to your nail that can indicate that you have a nail fungus: · Discolored (usually white or yellow) · Brittle · Crumbly, or have rough, jagged edges · Thick

· Separated from the nail bed · Curled up or down, or are distorted in shape The infection can cause pain if it is severe. Some people with fungal nail infections have athlete’s foot. This is a similar condition that affects the skin around the toes. If left untreated, nail fungus can cause you to have repeat toe and foot infections; some can be dangerous. It can also cause you to lose nails very often. WHAT CAUSES A NAIL FUNGAL INFECTION? The infection is usually caused by exposure to a fungus. The fungus grows in wet, dark conditions. The fungus grows when your feet are in warm, sweaty environment (socks, work boots). It enters your nail through a crack in the nail. Nail fungus infections happen at any age. They are more common in adults older than 60 years of age. They are common in people who have diabetes or circulation problems.

They also are common in people with a weakened immune system. Men are more likely than women to get fungal nail infections. CAN A NAIL FUNGAL INFECTION BE PREVENTED OR AVOIDED? Avoid situations that expose you to a fungus. This includes walking barefoot in locker rooms and having wet hands or feet often. This might be a problem for people who work in restaurants or house cleaning. People in a family can get nail fungal infections at the same time. This happens when their immune systems aren’t able to fight off the infection. Or it could be the infection is spread when using the same towels. IS THERETREATMENT FOR NAIL FUNGUS? Prescription medicines can treat a fungal nail infection. Oral antifungal medicines help a new nail grow. This will replace the infected nail. You may need to take antifungal medicine for six to 12 weeks and sometimes longer.

Some oral medicines are not safe for people who have liver or heart problems. Tell your doctor if you have one of these conditions. Your doctor will decide which medicine is right for you. Topical medicines such as creams and ointments, usually do not cure fungal nail infections but can help to alleviate it along with the tablets. In severe cases, a doctor might remove the nail completely. It can take several months to a year for the infection to go away. WHAT STEPS CAN YOU TAKE IFYOU HAVEANAIL FUNGAL INFECTION? If you have a nail fungal

infection, some things can help: · Keep your nails cut short and file down any thick areas. · Don’t use the same nail trimmer and file on healthy nails and infected nails. If you have your nails professionally manicured, bring your own nail file and trimmer from home. · Wear waterproof gloves for wet work. Wear 100% cotton gloves for dry work. · Wear socks made of wicking material. This pulls moisture away from the skin. Change your socks when they are damp from sweat or if your feet get wet. Put on clean, dry socks every day.

Dr Zulfikar Bux Put over-the-counter antifungal foot powder inside your socks to keep your feet dry. · Wear shoes with good support and a wide toe area. Don’t wear pointed shoes that press your toes together. · Avoid walking barefoot in public areas, such as locker rooms

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SUNDAY GPHC Cancer Deaths blamed on misadministration of medication Though Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) hasn’t revealed the results of its investigation, news reaching this publication reveals that the hospital has already concluded that nothing was wrong with the medication, but with the way it was administered. Kaieteur News understands that the medications used are called Vincristine and Methotrexate. The latter is administered orally. Vincristine is a chemotherapy medication used to treat various cancer, including acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, neuroblastoma, and small cell lung cancer. The medication is intravenous; it is meant to be given by injection only into a vein. However, GPHC administered the medication through the patients’ spines, causing complications that resulted in their deaths. The symptoms of the misadministration, including paralysis, were evident in all three victims. Sources indicate that the doctor who administered the drug is a Medical resident at the hospital, and was acting under the direction of her supervisors. A second post mortem examination is scheduled to be conducted on the body of the third victim, Sharezer Mendonca. The hospital had mixed up the body of Mendonca with that of Delecia Willow, on Friday, sending the body on a hearse to the family in Bartica. On the same day, the hospital, upon realizing the mistake, intercepted the hearse on West Coast Demerara and had the driver travel back to Georgetown. When the body got back, the family saw stitches on it, which indicated that a post mortem examination was already conducted because of the mix-up, despite the fact that the family, through its lawyers, requested that the post mortem be postponed until Monday.That post mortem will go as planned, on Monday at 8:00 hrs, in the presence of an independent pathologist from Trinidad. It will be conducted by Dr. Nehaul Singh, who also conducted the first examination of the child’s body. Fallout from no-confidence vote… Parliament’s life likely to be extended–Commissioner Robeson Benn With a continuing stalemate between Government

and the Opposition on a date for elections, it appears that the life of the Parliament will be extended. This past week, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), met to assess the readiness of the entity to hold elections within 90 days. That period is mandated after a no-confidence vote on December 21 toppled the oneseat majority government. The validity of the vote by Government parliamentarian, Charrandass Persaud, is being challenged in court with the ground-breaking ruling expected this week. That no-confidence vote, under the Constitution, should have set in wheels the mechanics for the holding of early elections, within 90 days. The police are investigating Persaud who flew out to Canada, under the protection of the Canadian High Commission, hours after the vote. He is being accused of bribetaking and attempting to purchase a large amount of gold. Last week, after being ill and out of office for six weeks, GECOM’s chairman, Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson, returned to head a meeting with commissioners. The commission was briefed on Thursday but the meeting ended abruptly with no dates for a continuation. Under the Constitution, there should be resignation of the Parliament, consequent to the no-confidence vote. On Friday, two representatives, Government’s Chief Whip, Amna Ally, and the Opposition’s

Gail Teixeira, met with the commission to be briefed.However, they now have to go back to their respective parties and inform them that no progress has been made.Rather, it is all up to the parties to make the decisions. According to PPP commissioner, Robeson Benn, Saturday, the meeting with the Chief Whips on Friday lasted about 90 minutes at the Kingston headquarters. In addition to the Chief Whips, the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and his deputy were present. Top Cop escapes unhurt after vehicle crashes into water truck Police Commissioner Leslie James force-issued vehicle crashed into a water truck Saturday afternoon at Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara. The commissioner was en route from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to Georgetown, after returning from a trip overseas. The police commissioner was with his personal assistant and driver when the Land Cruiser collided with GWW 9079, a water van attached to “Horizon Spring” water company, and driven by Romel Lallchan. The circumstances which led to the accident were unclear. But what was clear from claims by first responders, is both vehicle were heading to Georgetown when the commissioner ’s vehicle crashed into the back of the water van on the highway

mere feet from Second Street, Covent Garden. The impact sent the water vehicle ploughing into the rear of another truck that was parked at the side of the road at the time. Lallchan and a porter were immediately pinned in the water van. The commissioner’s vehicle went on to hit another truck parked on the side of the road. The front wheel of the police vehicle broke off; and the vehicle ended up facing the opposite direction. Public spirited citizens immediately rendered assistance. One witness claimed that a man in a black suit came out of the blue and white Land Cruiser seemingly shaken. The commissioner’s assistant who was in the front seat at the time was said to have sustained injuries.The Guyana Fire Service with the assistance of villagers had to pry the front of the water van open to free the driver and porter who were pinned in the vehicle.The two men were immediately taken to the Diamond Regional Hospital where one was treated for multiple injuries while another was being treated for a broken leg. MONDAY Energy Dept. has no justification for doing oneon-one negotiations for oil deals…Evidence shows it does not work for Guyana – Dr. Mangal The Energy Department’s

intention to have one-on-one negotiations for contracts in the oil and gas sector spells a very bad sign for Guyana, says Oil and Gas Consultant, Dr. Jan Mangal. The former Petroleum Advisor to the Government said the data exists to prove that these negotiations are highly prone to corruption. In fact, Dr. Mangal opined that there is evidence that Guyana and its negotiators are unable to bargain in the country’s interest. He highlighted that the terms in all of the contracts for offshore blocks already awarded are unfavourable to the country. Dr. Mangal said that if the Department looks at the previous awards, it would see that one-on-one negotiations do not work for Guyana. He said, “So why would they want to continue doing something that does not work in the favour of Guyana? Is it because of self-interest? The Government and the Department need to learn from the data and learn from the mistakes made, and do things differently now. So they should pursue transparent, open auctions.” The Oil and Gas Consultant said that the Department of Energy has no justification to be proposing one-on-one negotiations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and more recently, the UK-based anticorruption body, Chatham House, have advised Guyana’s authorities to eliminate opportunities for one-onone negotiations on the fis-

cal elements of petroleum contracts. Both recommended that the Government put fiscal elements for the sector into standardized laws and regulations. In fact, Chatham House recently said, “Governments should move as many fiscal elements as possible into standardized laws and regulations that apply across licences. Although this can reduce flexibility, it simplifies administrative functions and minimizes the number of fiscal matters that need to be negotiated with each company…” Jagdeo again calls out Dr. Hinds for debate on PPP’s treatment of Afro-Guyanese He has been accused of marginalizing Afro-Guyanese and sponsoring a “death squad”, which “killed over 400 black people.” It was even said that under his rule, Guyanese of African ancestry were “stifled.” But former President Bharrat Jagdeo is saying that this is not true. In fact, he is calling for a “fact based” debate with African leaders on his record regarding the treatment of AfroGuyanese. Jagdeo said this at a recent press conference. The former President, who now operates as PPP’s General Secretary, said that A Partnership for National Unity, which has as its main party, the People’s National Congress—knows that it cannot now return to young (Continued on page 32)

Sunday February 03, 2019

From page 32 people—”after three years of neglect—and tell them how much the partnership cares. Jagdeo said, “They cannot talk about corruption, they cannot promise jobs so they are coming with racial rhetoric.” Jagdeo made reference to an article in the State media stating that during his tenure, “some 400 Afro-Guyanese were killed in an alleged statesponsored death squad and a number of black communities marginalized.” ”So this death squad killed the policemen, the people who were massacred in Lusignan, etc. was state sponsored? If you look at the logic of the Chronicle, we sponsored ‘Fine Man’ and the others to kill the people in Lusignan, kill the people in Bartica, kill them in Agricola, Lindo Creek etc because those people’s name are on the list, even policemen.” He said too that almost 70 people on the list are IndoGuyanese. Jagdeo noted that later on in that very article, AfroGuyanese Activist and Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), David Hinds said given Jagdeo’s record, “I am very skeptical.” When Dr. Hinds was quoted, he was responding to previous utterances made by Jagdeo about inclusion of blacks. School of the Nations principal, Dr. Brian O’Toole, shot twice – police reportedly hunting expelled student Hours after a major school meeting Sunday to discuss security issues stemming from an alleged threat by a student last week to “shoot up”, the Principal of the School of the Nations, Dr . Brian O’Toole was shot at his city’s home.

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The private school owner reportedly met someone around 9pm at his Bel Air Promenade home and three shots were heard after. A car shortly pulled off. Unconfirmed reports said that Dr. O’Toole was shot by the expelled student who was waiting on him to return home. The principal reportedly was at dinner at the Marriott with his family. Dr. O’Toole was shot at thrice after the student reportedly confronted him. What is known is that the principal was taken to a city hospital. He was shot twice in his arms. He was said to be stable. Sunday, the New Market Street private school which also offers MBA classes, announced it has beefed up security in wake of the threats by the student who posted it on social media. The security assurance was made to scores of parents who turned up for a meeting with the school’s administration. The police were said to be investigating the threats. TUESDAY Get clear definitions of eligible costs, conduct regular audits to maximize oil revenue –IMF In order for the government to maximize its revenue, it must have clear definitions of eligible costs in Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs), and of any other specific tax rules. It must also have “regular” control and audit of costs being incurred by the oil operator. This is according to the International Monetary Fund, one of the institutions helping Guyana prepare for its oil sector. The Fund has advised the government that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance have to define how to effi-

Attorney-at-Law, Sanjeev Datadin

Facing extradition: Marcus Bisram ciently cooperate on the aforementioned issue. The financial organization said, too, that this includes the sharing of data of a fiscal nature, which are regularly submitted by the oil operator to the sector ministry, such as, but not limited to, the statements of costs and cost recovery. Other organizations such as Oxfam America have also called on the government to urgently modify in the PSAs, those costs which oil companies are allowed to deduct. The transparency body emphasized that there are certain costs which present a greater risk to Government revenue, and their eligibility may merit review. In this regard, it sought to warn Guyana’s authorities that the payment of interest on a loan that an oil company takes from a related party is one such cost. The company explained, “Oil and gas projects require significant capital outlays over their life, including the costs of drilling the well and constructing infrastructure to pump and refine the oil. Often, a related party will provide an oil operator with a loan for its project. But the interest rate on that loan is often highly unreasonable…” Oxfam then cited a case involving Chevron Australia highlighting how companies may use such loan arrangements as a means of shifting profits offshore. Oxfam noted that in 2017, the Federal Court of Australia upheld a US$340 million tax adjustment levied on Chevron Australia by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). This decision came about after the

ATO discovered that a Chevron affiliate in the U.S. state of Delaware set an unreasonable interest rate for a loan to Chevron’s Australian arm. By 2050 China may dominate Guyana’s oil sector – CSIS Evan Ellis has predicted that within 30 years, China will be a force to reckon with in Guyana’s Oil and Gas sector. This, he said, is likely to be the same in other jurisdictions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ellis is a senior associate (non-resident) with the Americas Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He is a research professor of Latin American studies. Last year November, he published a paper titled “The Future of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Context of the Rise of China.” The paper examines China’s “strategy” in Latin America and the Caribbean. It points out what the superpower has already achieved and what it is likely to achieve within 30 years based on its current trajectory. While examining the implications of China’s “greatly expanded position” as banker, employer, and military and political partner in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ellis considered some of the possible dynamics by sector. He looked at agriculture, fishing, mining, construction and logistics, manufacturing and retail, finance and banking, electricity infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure and petroleum.

Principal of the School of the Nations, Dr. Brian O’Toole Guyana was mentioned in the professor’s examination of China’s interest in Petroleum as well as construction and logistics. Ellis said that even as the United States increases natural gas exports to Asia through the People’s Republic of China (PRC)-dominated Panama and (new) Nicaraguan canals, PRC-based “petroleum companies are likely to have significantly expanded their positions throughout the region, with major production operations in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Guyana (offshore), as well as Ecuador, Uruguay (offshore), Bolivia (gas), and Peru.” US court allows Bisram’s appeal In an ongoing saga, a New York court has allowed an extradition appeal by US-based Guyanese, Marcus Bisram. According to court documents of January 24, the US Court of Appeals ordered that the extradition be stayed during the appeal. The Clerk of Court was directed to place the appeal on the expedited calendar. Bisram is in the custody of US authorities, after being arrested on July 2017 based on a request of the Guyana government. He is being accused of ordering a hit on a Berbice carpenter, Faiyaz Narinedatt, a guest at a party he hosting back in late 2016. Narinedatt was alleged to have been beaten by several men, at the behest of Bisram. He was pushed into the trunk of a car, taken to the

Berbice public road, dumped and run over to make it appear as if it was a hit-and-run. Bisram was a close friend to Berbice police, contributing significantly to community policing. After the incident, police had said, Bisram flew to New York and was not arrested until months later, in July 2017 at a New York beach front property. The Guyana government had asked the US authorities for his extradition. He was ordered to be sent back last year but he immediately appealed. Bisram migrated to the US years ago, and struck it rich there, travelling back and forth and becoming involved in charity. His case is being closely watched as it may be the first time in years that someone with US citizenship would be extradited back to Guyana to face charges…in this case it is murder. Five other persons were charged for the murder of Narinedatt and have been sent to the High Court for trial before a jury. WEDNESDAY Foreign oil companies not allowed to buy properties in T&T …but Guyana has no similar law or policy — Attorney-at -Law Sanjeev Datadin Oil and Gas are finite resources. With this in mind, many countries try to make the best out of their oil industries, locking down economic benefits, from every angle, for (Continued on page 34)

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Kaieteur News

From page 33 their people. Attorney-at-law, Sanjeev Datadin thinks that Guyana is lacking in this regard. During a recent interview with this newspaper, Datadin recalled that he spent quite some time in Trinidad plying his trade. He said that while over there, he learnt that the island restricts oil companies from owning buildings, setting the stage for the Trinidadian Private Sector to invest in world-class offices for rental to oil companies. This resulted in billions of dollars in investments in buildings in Port of Spain, creating sustainable jobs, taxes and spin-offs to the local economy. Much to his dissatisfaction, Datadin noted, “We are allowing foreign companies to come into Guyana and do as they please. We do this while not giving any advantage whatsoever to local companies.” Datadin pointed out that Trinidad is not unique to that rule; he said that things are quite similar in other jurisdictions such as Antigua. Antigua is not an oil-producing country, but Datadin said that it protects its real estate industry, similar to Trinidad, when it comes to business relations with foreign companies. ”But here we want to say anyone can walk in and buy it all. And then there is no rental industry.” He said that Guyana has tossed the opportunity to build and industry that could have been very lucrative. “We do not build any of that and that is how local content is supposed to work.” Datadin stressed his view that Guyanese are being placed at a disadvantage not only around the world, but in their own country.

He said, “We want to have a special relationship with Trinidad, which Trinidad is so conveniently pursuing, and we seem to be willing to do that. These are not things that should happen. I am not saying we should pick and choose. I am saying what we need to do is put a framework in place. We need to put the necessary legislation and regulation in place.” Guyana Goldfields significantly scales down operations – but holds on to claim with hope of recovery The Guyana Goldfields is continuously scaling down its operations across interior locations in Guyana. However, this newspaper understands that while it is steadily aborting locations, the company is holding on to claims. Since August last year, Guyana Goldfields laid off more than 80 workers at its Aurora Gold Mine operations in western Guyana, after the company decided to focus on existing gold-bearing properties instead of searching for new deposits. Country Manager Violet Smith was quoted in sections of online media saying that the decision was aimed at cutting the company’s operational costs. Six months later, Guyana Goldfields is not looking to return to the location anytime soon. This has been confirmed by officials from both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). Sources say that the company is “taking a hit,” but is not looking to give up the claims, since it is “hoping to make a recovery soon.” Kaieteur News understands that the government has no grounds to take back the claims at this point, but notes

“other companies are interested.” The move to lay off workers last year came one month after Goldfields’ founder and Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Sheridan’s services was terminated. He has since been appointed an ordinary director. Sheridan was responsible for exploration. Goldfields said that it moved away from there after Sheridan left because the locations—Wynamu and Sulphur Rose—had shown “small signs of gold.” Tuesday, one source said, “it is strange though, because companies usually relinquish areas that do not seem to have much gold.” The source continued, “but I guess the company is really banking on making a comeback and will return then.” Rusal workers demand meeting with Govt. after US lifts sanctions Hours after US authorities announced that they had lifted sanctions on Russianowned bauxite company, Rusal, workers in Guyana are stepping up the pressure for Government to meet on working conditions. “We have many issues we want raised. Our working conditions, pay and the fact that the company is continuing its merry ways while workers are suffering must be addressed,” a spokesman of the workers said Tuesday. Consecutive governments in Guyana have been treating the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), Rusal’s subsidiary, with kid gloves despite complaints of workers and unions. In fact, the company was criticized for not turning up at meetings with labour officials. BCGI has operations at

Kurukubali, Upper Berbice River, with several hundred workers. Almost a decade ago, under the People’s Progressive Party government, BCGI fired more than 50 workers, including supervisors for participating in strike action. More recently, the company has been refusing to recognize the workers’ union. Among other things, workers want a government delegation to monitor workers’ safety, toilet and transportation facilities at the Berbice mine site. BCGI was in deep problems last year after US Department of Treasury slapped sanctions on three companies controlled by Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. The delisted companies were Russian power company EuroSibEnergo (ESE); aluminum producer UC Rusal; and Rusal’s parent company, En+ Group. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed the sanctions in April 2018. At that time, OFAC said Deripaska had been investigated for money laundering and accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering. THURSDAY IMF, Revenue Watch warn…Govt. must demand guarantees from parent companies in oil sector-it’s necessary to ensure Guyana is fully compensated in any eventuality Governments of oil producing nations should always examine the assets of subsidiary companies signing onto

A number of SOCU’s cases are under question because a top official resigned after she did not produce her qualifications.

Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska (Reuters photo) an oil deal with them. It could mean the difference between having full coverage from the company for accidents and a country having to deal with the expense on its own. Considering this, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and transparency body, Revenue Watch, have urged in numerous literature, that the choice of parties to any agreement should be treated with extreme caution. In this regard, the Revenue Watch for example has often warned of the ticks of oil companies when it comes to signing agreements. The transparency body said, “Oil company partners in any deal with a host government will usually create a subsidiary to serve as party to the agreement. But this type of subsidiary will have limited or no assets of its own and it will not be able to rely on the financial resources of the parent company to stand behind its commitments, especially in regard to damages resulting from environmental pollution.” Revenue Watch and the IMF have said, therefore, that it is expected of host governments to “require a guarantee from the ultimate parent company of the subsidiary so that the host government has a reliable contractual counterparty with the resources to cover all potential liabilities.” Guyana’s oil deal for the Stabroek Block is signed between the Government and ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL). The Government did not express any concern in this regard. It has however, made some effort to ensure Guyana has some form of protection in place in the event that there

are environmental casualties by oil operators. Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge, is one person who has recommended that the respective regulatory bodies for the looming oil sector have tankers contribute funds towards oil spill readiness and even have contracts with the Civil Defense Commission (CDC) on disaster risk management. SOCU Deputy resigns after Magistrate requests her qualifications A British specialist investigator who is second in command of the police’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), has resigned after questions over her qualifications. Her resignation would raise deep worry over the advancement of several multibillion-dollar cases being investigated and before the courts, including ones with the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the Guyana Bank For Trade and Industry (GBTI). According to lawyers attached to the cases, Special Superintendent of Police, Sheronie James, tendered her resignation last week with her date effective February 1. From indications, James, who is here to assist SOCU, on a loan from the United Kingdom, was in court being questioned about her credentials to give expert testimony. She reportedly declined. She reportedly did not tender the qualifications to her seniors at SOCU and to the Ministry of Public Security, when asked to present it. The matter reportedly came to a head and she tendered her resignation, stating (Continued on page 35)

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From page 34 that her qualifications were a matter of national security. In fact, it was in July last year that the issue of her qualifications was first raised. SOCU had called James to testify in the contempt trial of several high ranking officials from GBTI. The case involves Chairman, Robin Stoby S.C; and Directors, Edward A. Beharry, Suresh Beharry, Richard Isava, Carlton James and Basil Mahadeo, along with Chief Executive Officer (ag) Shaleeza Shaw and Kathryn Eytle-McLean. They all denied the charge, which alleged that on September 7, 2017 at Georgetown, they failed to comply with production order granted by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, for them to produce certain documents to head of the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), Sydney James. FRIDAY Chief Justice in groundbreaking rulings… No-confidence vote stands; 33 is majority Guyana’s National Assembly consists of 65 elected members. A majority of those members is 33, declared Chief Justice (CJ) Roxane George Thursday as she decreed the no-confidence motion passed in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018, is valid. The highly anticipated judgment which was delivered at noon drew crowds of spectators, lawyers, and media personnel to the halls of the Supreme Court of Judicature. Despite declaring that expelled Alliance For Change (AFC) Parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud, who voted in favour of the no-confidence motion against the Coalition Government, is not qualified for elections as a member of the National Assembly on the basis of dual citizenship by virtue of his allegiance to Canada, a foreign power, the CJ ruled that his dual citizenship does not invalidate the no-confidence motion. The judge was responding to declarations sought by private citizen, Compton Reid, who had asked the court to set aside the no-confidence motion on the ground that Persaud holds dual citizenship—being that he is a citizen of both Guyana and Canada. Detailing the reasons for her findings, Chief Justice George said that there was evidence before the court to support that Persaud was born in Berbice and is the holder of a Guyana Passport. She said that there is also evi-

dence that Persaud is the holder of a Canadian passport, which he used to travel from time to time. According to the CJ, there is further evidence to show that Persaud identifies himself as a Guyanese/Canadian. The judge reasoned that Persaud became a citizen of Canada when he took the oath of allegiance, “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance To Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second Queen of Canada Her Heirs and Successors and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.” She declared Persaud is not qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly, in accordance to Article 155 of the Constitution, by virtue of his own act and acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience and adherence to a foreign power to wit, the Sovereign State of Canada. ‘Business as usual’ as Govt. moves to appeal Government last evening said it is preparing to appeal the rulings of Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George Thursday. And it will be business as usual until those appeals.

Ruling on the court challenge to the December 21st no-confidence vote which was carried 33-32, the CJ said that it was unconstitutional for a Member of Parliament to sit in the National Assembly and hold two passports. MP Charrandass Persaud was also a Canadian citizen when he voted. However, it was emphasised that the vote was not invalidated. The CJ also ruled that 33 was a majority, a major point of contention. According to the Government last evening, it has noted and respects the rulings of the Chief Justice (ag). ”The ruling is not in favour of the Government’s position with regard to the vote on December 21st 2018. However, due process continues and the Government will file an appeal in the Court of Appeal. The Government continues to believe that the full adjudication of this issue is in the national interest.” The statement said that until the matter is concluded at the highest Court of Appeal, the status quo remains and the business of government continues as usual. ”The government reassures the Guyanese people that it will continue to act in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana.”

Britain fires SOCU advisor for pursuing parallel job His contract with the British Government—guiding his stint in Guyana—stipulated that he was only supposed to work for that government as an advisor to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU). But, last year, Dr. Sam Sittlington went ahead and registered a local branch of a fraud-detecting company he owns in the United Kingdom—The Fraud Company (Guyana). Dr. Sittlington’s contract would have come to a natural end in March 2020. However, it was terminated Thursday after news broke about his pursuit of private gains here. The British High Commission issued a very short statement Thursday confirming the termination. The statement read, “In light of the information about Dr. Sam Sittlington’s private business interests, his contract in Guyana has been terminated with immediate effect.” The Fraud Company (Guyana) Inc. was incorporated under the Companies Act of Guyana on September 25, 2018. Sittlington, is listed as the Director while Orisa Branche is the Secretary. The company is authorized to is-

sue one million shares at $1 each. Sittlington was hired by the British government for a Guyana assignment in 2016, in an advisory and training capacity at SOCU. This newspaper received a package containing copies of The Fraud Company (Guyana)’s registration and a note from an unidentified source. The note stated, “It is highly unethical for a consultant who is being paid by a foreign government to advise and train a sensitive department such as SOCU to establish a company, which will undertake similar work.” The concerned citizen continued, “The consultant is privy to highly confidential information on numerous persons as SOCU has embarked on fishing expeditions on most of the cases under investigation.” It was further stated that, “information gleaned from SOCU could be used inappropriately. The suggestion was that Sittlington could use the information he gathers

through SOCU to advance his private business. SATURDAY GRA tamper-proof system gets bureaucratic resistance - GRA Head The efforts of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to implement the fool-proof Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) system are being resisted by Government institutions, companies and even GRA officials. This was revealed by Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, during his first press conference for the year, Friday. At GRA’s Camp Street Office, Statia noted that the push back from the reported stakeholders is one of the main reasons why the system will not be fully implemented by its deadline, originally set for the end of the first quarter. Statia said this will have to be adjusted to the end of the second quarter. Explaining the troubling (Continued on page 36)

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From page 35 circumstances, Statia said, “ We h a v e b e e n g e t t i n g pushback from our own staff… There is also pushback from companies because we know that as long as the ASYCUDA system is in place, and you have to file cargo manifests electronically and in an advanced way, then there is less room for corruption.” The Commissioner General added, “We have gotten pushback from our Customs Brokers. So notwithstanding how we have been moving forward, if persons refuse to abide by the system you would normally get that lag in implementation…” Statia said, too, that Government institutions are part of the problem. In this regard, he noted that these institutions are not equipped to clear the goods themselves and are in the habit of importing

Sunday February 03, 2019

“just in time cargo.” He added, “We can’t tell the Minister of Health, or the army or the police that we are not clearing their goods (because they are not making moves to abide by the ASYCUDA System). So they are partly responsible for the backlog that we have. They have to share some of the blame.” The tax chief said that his office wrote to Government agencies about two months now explaining that they must adjust to the new way of doing things. “But no one has moved in this direction,” the Commissioner General said. Statia also complained about losing Customs Brokers who are trained in operating the ASYCUDA system, to ExxonMobil. He said, “What we have also seen is that when brokers are being trained in ASYCUDA, they leave the

company and go and work at Exxon and that is also one of the reasons why there is a backlog…” When the ASYCUDA system is in place, Statia said that he will be grading not only the companies which are compliant but also those Customs Brokers who are not compliant with the system. “…So you will be able to know who are ‘A’ brokers and ‘B’ brokers and that kind of thing,” Statia added. He said, too, that GRA has upgraded the codes that will be used in the ASYCUDA system. The tax chief said that the last time there were upgrades, it was in 2007. He said that the latest codes, being the 2017 codes, are now in place. Statia said, “That will bring us in line with worldwide standards. So you will get consistent treatment in tariffs…”

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Sunday February 03, 2019

COUNTRYMAN

- Stories about life in m and out of Guyana, fro ve a Guyanese perspecti

Youth may not be wasted on the young T By Dennis Nichols

he title of this week's piece references a famous quote attributed to Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw, “Youth is wasted on the young”. Many have pondered and despaired over nature's cruel joke in postponing key

revelations of human understanding until the greying years when our faculties lack the vigour to fully utilize them. In other words, the wisdom acquired through experience and hindsight is the stuff at which our young people scoff. Some call it the generation gap, and few know how to fill it.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany have confirmed what many of us older heads know – that teenagers are reckless, don't listen to advice, and don't even want to know about the risks involved in whatever they're doing, preferring to operate 'under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty:

what some might call ignorance'. Maybe true, but they're our children and we love them. We just have to help them not waste their potentially halcyon days. It's probably not so bad though when you consider what mischief-makers and risk-takers youths can be – the normal teenage stuff. Research also showed that

although (most) adolescents are healthy, strong, and capable of just about anything, rates of death and disease rise alarmingly as soon as hormones start to kick in. I know! It's hard to imagine in hindsight how I, for example, so innately mild-mannered, could have done the outrageous things I did in my teens and early twenties. In this 'darker side of adolescence', it adds, youths are more likely than younger children or adults to engage in risky and impulsive behaviour including unprotected sex and experimenting with drugs, both of which have become enormously worrying trends here in Guyana, especially among schoolchildren. Obviously, these can be compounded, and easily so, by other issues that negatively affect their emotional and mental wellbeing. Real psychological hurt may ensue. So we have children who experiment and take risks. Then there are teenagers who, as it were, go beyond the pale, and move from adventurous and impulsive to dangerous and sometimes deadly. These are mainly the ones trying to cope with the emotionally-challenging transitions of puberty and adolescence as they stumble towards adulthood, and are thwarted by frustration and failure, at least in perception. Actual psychological disorders can further cloud that perception. Over the last two weeks, Guyanese were stunned by the purported actions of two young people - secondary school students, both of whom may have been hurting, in different ways. I wish to make a point here: It is easy to empathize with, and have compassion for, a teenage schoolgirl who commits suicide, regardless of what triggered the action. It may be harder, yet equally necessary, to express similar sentiments for a schoolchild (especially male) who threatens harm to fellow students and school officials, and possibly even initiates a physical attack. Children who harm others, and themselves, are often children who are hurting. (Hurt people hurt people) The pain may be emotional, physical, or

Dennis Nichols psychological. The 'others' can be siblings, friends, and authority figures such as parents and teachers. From insult and intimidation to self-harm and suicide, the inflicted trauma can range from mild to crushing for those involved. When children are hurting, they occasionally express in writing what they feel they cannot say out loud -sometimes in their own form of 'coded' language which can be easily overlooked. Both of these young people allegedly wrote about what they intended to do, and maybe did. But writing may not be a forceful enough cry for the attention or help they need. The hurt and confusion that was felt, remains. So they act. They may lash out, become bullying and aggressive; directing their inner pain outwardly. Or they may become withdrawn and uncommunicative, while seething with silent anger. Yet others show no signs of disruption in their lives, thereby 'fooling' the most perceptive of observers. Evidently, there are dozens of other cues as to the emotional and mental state of a child who needs help, but those I mentioned are among the commonest and most misunderstood. During my teaching career I came across several children, mostly adolescents, who displayed signs of emotional and mental instability and inner hurt. I presume most teachers do. To the best of my ability, I tried to help them. My main 'weapons' were to befriend them, talk with them, (and sometimes discreetly with their parents,) empathize with their issues, and help them to see the funny side of things. Laughter was a vital element. Sometimes it (continued on page 57)

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Power from the people is for the people, not for a few

he right to vote is constitutionally protected. The journey to achieve this commenced in 1926 when Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, and other regional trade unionists, convened the first Caribbean Labour Conference in Georgetown, Guyana. At that forum, issues such as prison reform, universal health care and education, regional integration, one man one vote, minimum wage, fundamental rights and freedoms, housing and internal self-government were tabled as important in the workers' pursuit for selfdetermination. At the time, there was no mass-based political party, here and in the Caribbean, and the Labour Movement single-handedly waged this struggle. Twenty-four years later, the trade union found a political ally in the People's Progressive Party (PPP), Guyana's first mass-based party, which incorporated elements of Labour Agenda in its platform. The trade union's advocacy on the stated issues reflects a continuity of the struggles waged by our forebears. Trade unionists value the protecting and advancing of a formidable legacy bequeathed by those whose shoulders we stand on. Securing the universal right to vote (1953) was never meant to be a one-off act, but the fortifying of workers/citizens' place at the decision-making table in furtherance of their civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights. Somewhere on the journey the Movement relinquished its militancy to the local political leadership, because it was felt those leaders would have carried the workers' charge. The split in the political movement in the 1950s brought with it divisions within the Movement. These manifested on ideological (capitalism vs socialism) differences and even impacted on race. While ideology may no longer be a factor, race and political allegiances have proven to adversely impact the workers' collective wellbeing, creating the space/opportunity for forces to prey on these

manufactured divisions to seek and retain elected office. As time progressed where politicians found these useful 'marketing tools,' commitment to the workers' cause began to wane, because the premise of identity and association was not primarily driven by accountability to workers' permanent interest. Workers (past present and potential) of Guyana have more in common with what unites us as against what divides us. The historical recognition that informed solidarity in struggles and pursuing a developmental agenda has not changed. There is commonality to be treated with respect and dignity, to participate in and benefit from the nation's resources, and have the guarantee of the nation's security and protection of its laws. These are values all can identify with pursue and expect as we move about our daily business, yet they remain elusive for far too many. Every five years, or intermittently, this nation holds General and Regional Elections (GRE). Politicians would come to the electorate with a 'shopping list', (i.e. Manifesto) of promised goodies, which later lends impression that from the outset there was no intent to honour. Society has had more than its fair share of promises, and citizens more than their fair share of nonfulfillment of the promises. We have a duty and responsibility as Guyanese to move in a deliberative manner to change the culture of promise to creating the culture of fulfillment. And a most effective way to test this is not after an election but before. With politicians once again on the hustling, making promises of what they will do if elected or reelected, they are asking for our votes. Workers are tired of the promises. They are labouring hard, paying their dues as taxpayers, and want deliverables as proof that their vote is meant for their benefit. For instance, the Opposition and Government over the years repeatedly made claims to being champion of the workers' rights and cause. Labour

would like to see both sides honour such claim by uniting as a force to address the violating of the Constitution and Laws of Guyana and transgressing of workers' rights, evident in the pervasive exploitative conduct of the foreign management at the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BGCI). Workers, in the state and

non-state agencies, demand respect for Collective Bargaining where trade unions exist, including the establishment of the long promised Industrial Court. In the last GRE, young people (who compromise more than 60 percent of the population), those eligible to vote, were encouraged to “Vote Like a Boss,” because in doing so opportunities

would have been presented to play meaningful role in the management and decision-making processes of the state on matters that impact their wellbeing. The Constitution in its Preamble, “Acknowledge the aspirations of our young people who, in their own words, have declared that the future of Guyana belongs to its young people, who aspire

to live in a safe society, which respects their dignity, protects their rights, recognises their potential, listens to their voices, provides opportunities...” While the young were asked to assert their presence at the polls and responded positively, there exists a strong sense of alienation and non-involvement in (continued on page 60)

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

g .. n i t s. s re ure e t t In rea C

Missulena

issulena is a genus of spiders in the mygalomorph family Actinopodidae sometimes called mouse spiders. There are about 17 known species in this genus, all but one of which are indigenous to Australia. One species, M. tussulena, is found in Chile. The name derives from an old belief, now known to be false, that the spiders dig deep burrows similar to those of mice. There is evidence that the bite of a mouse spider is potentially as serious as that of an Australasian funnelw e b s p i d e r ; h o w e v e r, recorded envemonings by this spider are rare. Funnelweb anti-venom has been found to be an effective treatment for serious bites. Another spider, Scotophaeus blackwalli, shares the nickname "mouse spider", but does not belong to the genus Missulena and is not considered dangerous. Mouse spiders are medium-to-large specimens, which range in length from one cm to three cm. Their carapace is glossy, and they have high, broad heads, with eyes spread out across the front of the head. They have short spinnerets, located in the rear of the abdomen. Mouse spiders exhibit sexual dimorphism, with female spiders being all black; and male spiders having species-

specific colouration. The male eastern mouse spider (M. bradleyi) has a bluish patch, and the male redheaded mouse spider (M. occatoria) is brownish or blue-black in colour, with bright red-tinged jaws. Mouse spiders prey mainly on insects, though they may consume other small animals as opportunity presents. The primary predators of the mouse spider include wasps, bandicoots, centipedes and scorpions. The mouse spiders range throughout Australia, with different species being found in different states there. One species is found in Chile, and the nearest related genera of Missulena also occur in South America. This is because they are in place of the Gondwanan fauna. Similar to trapdoor spiders, the mouse spider lives in burrows covered with trapdoors, which can extend to nearly 30 cm (one foot) in depth. Female mouse spiders generally remain in their burrows; the males will wander in search of mates. The bites of several species of mouse spider in Australia have been found to produce serious symptoms. Most mouse spider bites documented in the medical literature did not require use of anti-venom or involve serious symptoms. The venom of the

Eastern mouse spider (M. bradleyi) was found to have toxins similar to the robustoxin found in funnelweb venom; and funnel-web anti-venom has been found to be effective in treating severe mouse spider bites. Unlike the funnel-web, however, the mouse spider is far less aggressive towards humans, and may often give "dry" bites. [Source: Wikipedia]

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Book: A Proud Product of Guyana's Bitter-Sweet Sugar Author: Nowrang Persaud Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

he Nowrang Persaud story is an inspirational, providential journey that deserves more than passing attention. It is in Guyana's cane piece, defined by the forces of colonialism and political resistance, that a young man is born. The progeny of indentured servants brought from India after the manumission of slaves, Persaud's upbringing is marked by laborious work and scant resources. In such parlous settings he emerges, psychologically measured, academically and professionally successful and, moreover, humble. He was raised in Blairmont estate, a kind of incubator that condemned

Sunday February 03, 2019

A memoir worth reading

A Proud Product of Guyana's Bitter-Sweet Sugar

many to an existence of perpetual servitude. Persaud recounts that 89 percent of the household were Indian [and] that the whole population was organized as a labour force. And in common with other sugar estates, living conditions were dangerously unhealthy, unkempt and atrocious. “In the logie I found myself scratching my skin a n d m y o l d e r s i s t e r, Chitrekha, combing me continually to get rid of the lice; the corners of my mouth were invariably 'cut' and exposed the white signs of malnutrition called wapa.” His parents' arduous work didn't go unnoticed, especially that of his mother. “Weekends,” he pens, were used “to cut and fetch wood for our side cooking or cultivating a one-acre rice field at Cotton Tree Village.” Persaud doesn't follow a chronological script, and early into his narrative, he recalls traveling to reconnect to his paternal grandparents. It is resoundingly instructive

as he relates the power of history and culture. “The high point of my visit was my meeting with the widowed Bhowjie (elder sister-in-Law) of my Aja. She was blind, but as I bowed down to touch her feet, in keeping with our traditional respectful meeting with elders, she caressed my face...and exclaimed: “Gowrie Sankar Ja Naitah” which I interpreted to mean the descendant of Gowrie Sankar, my grandfather.” No doubt, one of the indelible moments in Persaud's illustrious life. It is here that he veers into philosophy. Could fate be ever questioned? What is the destiny of the soul? He never directly responds, but his life trajectory offers some clues to these searching questions. Of note, is Persaud's involvement in pan-Hindu movements, a response to the anachronistic and provincial character of the established priestly class. As if by osmosis, he finds new meaning, his passion for justice and humanity emerging. He writes, “[they] were not polarizing initiatives nor in any way intended to divide the Hindu

community. They were conscious efforts to educate Hindus in their Dharma, to democratize and liberalize the practice of the religion with the growing education and natural curiosity of the new generation of Guyanese...” Expectedly, growing up had its challenges. Enrollment in high school was hard fought. But Persaud persevered. He assumed additional responsibilities, including performing “the occasional “jhandi” as a substitute for the regular Estate Pandit when he was 'over-booked.' “The 'dakshna' and 'arti' money were like winning the lotto,” he writes. His educational success and subsequent assignment as a teacher were communally lauded. He was respected as educator, an accomplishment that was rare among the common folk. But Persaud intended to soar beyond the strictures of plantation life. He eyed a legal career in the United Kingdom. Guyana, it seemed, was suffocating this ambitious young man. But unable to secure a loan to further his studies, he embraced the Herculean route, fastidiously saving from additional revenue streams. He notes, “Saving money was a near impossibility, but I neverthe-less augmented my basic and extracurricular earnings

by gushing and gardening.” He subsequently details the circumstances surrounding his application for cadetship and his unlikely acceptance. He was determined, his words speaking volumes: “Oh, how sweet can be the uses of adversity!” His cadetship in personnel management from Booker's Sugar Estates Limited was in his words, “the catalyst for a life-long career in Human Resource Management.” Upon completion of his studies in the UK, he was appointed the Officer-inCharge of HR at Rose Hall Estates. 'Bitter-Sweet Sugar' takes on a tenebrous tone

w h e n l i n g e r i n g disenfranchisement, combative, partisan politics, industrial strife and racial tension boiled over with deadly consequences. In the haze of disinformation and distrust, plantations were set ablaze and the innocent were sacrificed in an apoplexy of mindless hatred. Persaud's timeline is detailed and graphic. A young nation is split at the seams as the poor, ever blind to their real adversary, turn on each other. “During this time, racial conflict became a phenomenon that the most aggressive could not have anticipated.” He elaborates, (continued on page 48)

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THE

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STORY WITHIN THE

A brave CJ and the shooting of Dr. O'Toole By Leonard Gildarie

he last few weeks, following that s h o c k i n g December 21st noconfidence vote by Member of Parliament, Charrandass Persaud, the political landscape has changed in Guyana. T he threats and an evening attack on the principal of School of the Nations have raised a deeply worrying issue that will have to be nipped in the bud, unless we want the horrors of a number of US school shootings be visited on us. With regards to that vote, there are lots of positives coming, and of course, some that are not good. I am a stickler for systemsâ€Śthat work. We have to ensure that our courts work, and without fear and f a v o u r, d e l i v e r t h e i r judgments. It is the foundation of every powerful country. We have to ensure that our regulators are equipped and empowered to not only monitor, but enforce the laws. In the last three years, we have had several organizations being activated, with new commissioners and heads appointed. We have a new Commissioner of Police. We have a Local Government Commission in place and the Procurement Commission up and running. We have new life in the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). I can't recall when last so many police ranks have been charged and placed before the courts. GTT has come in the firing line of the PUC. The Local Government Commission is headed by Mortimer Mingo, a known supporter of the Coalition Government. Yet, when it came to considering the future of former Town Clerk, Royston King, he and a few commissioners, in the absence of the Opposition representatives, made the hard decision recently to send King home. A DEFINING MOMENT This Government, to its credit, has appointed the Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George, to that position. We have seen major decisions

made in the courts in the last 24 months that are not necessarily in favour of the government. The rulings of the CJ on Thursday must be hailed as a defining moment in the history of this country. F or hours, Justice George delivered concise rulings in which she insisted on the sensitivity of the matters before her on the noconfidence motion. E lements of the Government, much to their credit, have urged that the decision of the judge be respected. That spells maturity. The Government has also announced its intentions to appeal the rulings, all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice. There is nothing wrong in seeking recourseâ€Śthe Court of Appeal and CCJ are there for that. On the other hand, there is preparation underway by both the Coalition Government and the Opposition for early elections. There are differing views of that 90-day timeline for holding elections as a consequence of the noconfidence vote. The People's Progressive Party has started its meetings. On Friday, the Coalition launched its campaign team and public meetings have reportedly started. This year will not be an easy one for Guyana. We will be witnessing and experiencing probably the most critical of elections in our history. It will be defining, because we will be choosing the managers of our oil industry for the next five years. The stakes are high. Anything can happen. On the political side, PPP's presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, was advised not to travel to Canada to conduct campaign work, as he must explain to the authorities in that country the 19 charges before him in the courts. In a nutshell, we can stand tall and give kudos to our constitutional bodies and courts who were not afraid to render rulings and decisions that may be contrary to what the powers that be wanted. We have an obligation to ourselves and this country to demand that our leaders deliver. We have to ask them to

Leonard Gildarie provide the good life we deserve. O ur gold, diamond, bauxite, timber, fish and lands all belong to us. When we sell them or lease the lands, we are expected to collect a fair share. We can expect nothing less. When we fail to collect, then we are working against the country. S o w h i l e t h e contemplations will be for us to vote in traditional manner, for the parties our grandmothers, grandfathers and mothers and fathers voted for, it will be timely to remind ourselves that the power of the vote in the polling booths lies with us. We have to insist that our politicians, as our representatives, deliver. Let them know that failure on their mandates to deliver is not an option. A MAJOR PROBLEM BREWING There is also a major problem brewing that has spilled over and has parents deeply worried. Someone has threatened to shoot up the School of the Nations, located on New Market Street. I did comment on this last week. Shockingly, last Sunday night, following an emergency meeting at the school with parents, the principal, Dr. Brian O'Toole was attacked at his Bel Air Promenade home and shot twice. He was hospitalized. S ince then, further threats saw police searching two top schools, Queen's College and The Bishops High. For the entire week, School of the Nations had its gates closed. P arents have been calling. A number of them are seeking other schools. There is technology now that can trace things. We have people here with the expertise. There is a digital footprint for every post on social media and for every email sent. We will not tolerate such cowardly behaviour in this country. There will be punishment. It is unthinkable that a student or two can hold a school at ransom. It will be unforgivable if we don't put a stop to this.

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Relief for 5 Guyanese seamen (Trinidad Newsday) Six years of living on a Nigerian boat off Claxton Bay has ended for five Guyanese seamen. They are now back in their home country, the boat, an oil

t a n k e r, s o l d l a s t w e e k Thursday following a High Court judge ordering its arrest in February 2017. The MT Tumini owners in Nigeria abandoned it and the Guyanese crew in 2013.

The men ate and slept on the vessel, with daily dives into the sea to bathe. A company operating in Panama purchased it last week for US$500,000 Justice Devindra

Rampersad, presiding in the Hall of Justice, had ordered the MT Tumini sold within nine months or the court would have done so by private auction. The crew had sought the

court’s intervention, claiming US$400,000 in wages. The boat is still docked off Trinidad Cement Limited’s jetty in Claxton Bay. The crew were Rakesh Jim (chief officer); Foy Fredericks (chief engineer); Lawrence Daniel (second engineer); Mohamed Gadwah (second officer); Neil Rampersaud (assistant engineer/oiler). Gerald Andrews was the boat’s local agent. He said in an affidavit that via a mortagage agreement between Petroleum Brokers Ltd and Echo Bank, of Lagos, Nigeria, the latter became MT Tumini’s owner. Jim said in his affidavit that MT Tumini was in dire need of repairs and since it was abandoned, the Guyanese crew remained on board because they

were not paid their wages. Immigration officers visited them monthly to update their status when they vowed they were not leaving until they were paid. Using a dingy, they came to shore and bought groceries while residents helped them with drinking water. Under maritime law, the crew must be paid from proceeds of the sale of any vessel arrested by the court. Confirming with N e w s d a y o n F r i d a y, Andrews said that a company operating in Panama, bought the vessel and it will be leaving Claxton Bay soon. Maritime tracking of vessels along the west coast of TT, revealed the MT Tumini is getting set to leave for Guyana. The crew have since departed the vessel.

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A Proud Product of... From page 42 describing the severity of the climate: “[Around] West Coast Demerara and environs, the Africans and Indians who respectively were minorities in one another's communities (the Casbah was one), agreed to exchange residences in order to escape any further lethal discrimination, it was voluntary and a logical effort of self-preservation, unorchestrated by leadership.” Persaud had the unenviable task of facilitating this movement. But there were also celebratory times, for example, the raising of a jhandi (red flag) in front of his new quarter as a member of the senior staff at Blairmont, was not only a personal milestone, but a signature cultural moment embraced by every Hindu on the plantation. And profoundly moving is Persaud's recount of performing the Hindu tradition of touching the feet of a revered elder, only this time, it was one closest to him: “...I would 'bump' into my mother (who was still employed as a Weeder in the Estate and would [perform this tradition] every time we met as was my custom.” It is this boundless devotion to family, one of many displays of ingenuous piety that speaks to the reader. Persaud chronicles

other noteworthy experiences, some revolving around the sometimes charged political dynamics of the workplace. He highlights his tenure at UNICEF that took him to several continents, and his return to Guyana as Director of Human Resources of Guysuco. Witty, loyal and diplomatically sound, he soars professionally. Ta l e s o f h u m a n t r i umphs abound, but there is something special, almost mystical about Persaud's journey. Providence, some call it; a kind of unseen rudder that steers an unassuming young man through the choppiest of waters. But for all its magic, there is no trace of hubris or feigned humility. His is a story that is richly authentic and almost innocently delivered. And therein lies the exceptionalism that defines Nowrang Persaud. Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby A Proud Product of Guyana's Bitter-Sweet Sugar by Nowrang Persaud Copyright 2018 Nowrang Persaud ISBN: 978-1-64348-1821 Publisher: BookVenturing Publishing LLC Available at Amazon Ratings: Highly recommended

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17 to compete in semi-final leg of Carib Soca Monarch on February 9

On February 9, 17 talented local artistes will be competing in the semi-final leg of the Carib Soca Monarch scheduled to be held in Linden. Three will be eliminated at that round. On February 16, the 14 finalists will head to the National Park and will be joined by reigning mon-

arch Brandon Harding to compete for the coveted title. The 2019 monarch will walk away with $1.5M, a trophy and bragging rights for the rest of the year. Below is a chart showing the order in which each artiste is set to perform.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Guyana Carnival open for registration It’s definitely that time of the year again, the wait is over! Guyana Carnival is now open for registration with just a deposit of $150 USD. According to organizers, Hits and Jams, online enrolling as well as in house registration will be available. To register online visit www.guyanacarnival592.com where you select the “Bands” option to view all costumes and select your choice. This automatically leads to the creation of your own account. You can also visit their office located at 206 Lance Gibbs Street, Queenstown where you can have a glimpse of the costumes offered, then make your deposit. The deadline for registration ends on March 15, 2019. Revellers will enjoy the benefits of an all inclusive, international standard road experience. Registered patrons will receive a costume, goodie bag, lunch, free premium drinks and security all day while masquerading through

“ Liza, The Queen” Costume the streets to some of the most versatile and renowned Deejays. Guyana Carnival is slated for May 17th -27th, 2019 where there will be a combi-

nation of boat rides, breakfast parties, cooler fetes, j’ouverts, day tours and a grand Independence Day costume parade set for May 26th.

Superbowl Sunday set for Palm Court Earning their spot in the biggest game of the year... The New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams will battle for the ultimate NFL prize in Super Bowl Llll this Sunday. And where’s the best place to watch this exciting game?? Palm Court of course!!! Watch the game live and loud on the entity’s big screen and enjoy beer and wings specials! Adding to the excitement, everyone will get free shots with every touchdown!! Game time is set at 7:30 pm . Admission is FREE. There will be live DJ entertainment by the talented and groovy Mix Master Tony!!

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Daily chocolate intake linked to lower risk of diabetes, heart disease Study co-author Prof. Saverio Stranges - visiting academic of the University of Warwick Medical School, United Kingdom, and scientific director of the Department of Population Health at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) - and colleagues publish their findings in the British Journal of Nutrition. Chocolate is often perceived as a treat that should only be enjoyed from time to time. Given its high fat and sugar content, this is no surprise; overconsumption can lead to health problems, such as tooth decay and obesity. However, studies are increasingly suggesting regular, moderate chocolate consumption may yield significant health benefits, particularly when it comes to dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has the highest cocoa content, which means it has the highest levels of antioxidants - specifically, flavonoids - which are molecules that can prevent some forms of cell damage. For their study, Prof. Stranges and colleagues analyzed the chocolate consumption of 1,153 people aged 1869 who were part of the Observation of Cardiovascular Risk in Luxembourg (ORISCAV-LUX) study. Data on chocolate intake were gathered from participants’ completion of a food frequency questionnaire. The team set out to investigate whether chocolate intake is associated with insulin resistance - where the body’s cells do not effectively respond to insulin, raising the risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. They also assessed how chocolate consumption af-

fected liver enzyme levels, which is a measure of liver function.Reduced insulin resistance with daily chocolate consumption The researchers found that 81.8 percent of the study participants consumed chocolate, with an average consumption of 24.8 grams daily. Compared with participants who did not eat chocolate every day, those who did were found to have reduced insulin resistance and improved liver enzyme levels. The effect was stronger the higher the chocolate consumption, the team reports. The findings remained after accounting for participants’ age, sex, education, lifestyle, and dietary factors that could affect the results. Dietary factors included intake of tea and coffee rich in the antioxidants polyphenols, which the researchers say have the potential to spur chocolate’s benefits for cardiometabolic risk. Cardiometabolic risk refers to a person’s likelihood of developing diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. Participants who ate chocolate were more physically active, younger, and more highly educated than those who did not eat chocolate, according to the authors. Prof. Stranges and colleagues say their findings suggest that chocolate consumption may reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic disorders by improving liver enzyme levels and protecting against insulin resistance. “Given the growing body of evidence, including our own study, cocoa-based products may represent an

Happiness genes located for the first time In the journal Nature, the international team describes how it analyzed genomic data from hundreds of thousands of people to find genetic variants associated with our feelings of well-being,depression and neuroticism. One of the researchers, Alexis Frazier-Wood, assistant professor of pediatrics and nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, says:“We report that we found three genetic variants associated with subjective well-being - how happy a person thinks or feels about his or her life. We also found two genes harboring variants associated with depressive symptoms and 11 genes where variation was associated with neuroticism.”The team also found that the gene variants are mainly expressed incentral nervous system and adrenal or pancreas tissues.For the study, the team carried out a meta-analysis - that is, they brought together genomic data from many other studies - and used advanced statistical tools to analyze the pooled data as if it came from one huge study of 298,000 people.Previous studies have suggested that individual differences in happiness and well-being might be linked to genetic differences between people. There is increasing interest in the topic as growing evidence suggests well-being is a factor in both mental and physical health. However, the researchers warn that genes are not the whole story when it comes to determining how people think and feel about their lives. They explain that the environment, and how it interacts with genes, is just as important.But, studying the genes could help us start to understand why some people might be biologically predisposed to develop these symptoms, they note.

additional dietary recommendation to improve cardiometabolic health; however, observational results need to be supported by robust trial evidence. Potential applications of

this knowledge include recommendations by healthcare professionals to encourage individuals to consume a wide range of phytochemical-rich foods, which can include dark chocolate in moderate

amounts.”However, Prof. Stranges notes that it is important to distinguish the difference between chocolate that contains natural cocoa and processed chocolate; the latter is much higher in

calories.“Therefore, physical activity, diet and other lifestyle factors must be carefully balanced to avoid detrimental weight gain over time,” he adds. http:// www.medicalnewstoday.com.

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THE THREE FUNDAMENTALS OF A DRY LIPS CURE Keep your lips healthy in three simple steps: 1. Exfoliate Gently rub your lips with a homemade mixture of olive or coconut oil and sugar and wipe clean with a face washer or a splash of warm water. Exfoliating helps to remove the dead flaky, top layer of skin on your lips to reveal the fresh, young skin underneath. 2. Wear lip balm regularly Apply and reapply a good quality lip balm, often: 3. Apply a dry lips treatment overnight

NATURAL REMEDIES FOR DRY LIPS

Treating dry lips can also be done using a few common ingredients from home. For a quick natural fix, experiment with one of these three simple and natural dry lips remedies: 1. Coconut oil Spread pure coconut oil over your lips for instant hydration. Coconut oil helps to boost the overall health of your skin including the skin on your lips. It contains mediumchain fatty acids (MCFAs), making it easier for your skin to absorb. Coconut oil also helps your body absorb more vitamin E, which works to prevent the production of cell-damaging free radicals. 2. Aloe vera Apply the gel from a fresh aloe vera leaf to your lips to soothe sore or tender lips. Aloe vera has natural anti-inflammatory properties that help to soothe your skin and relieve stinging sensations. 3. Rose water and honey Mix honey and rose water and apply to your lips for about 15 minutes before washing off. Honey and rose water help prevent cracking and provide deep moisturisation.

SOLUTION TO LAST WEEKâ€™S WORD SEARCH

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BUILD ME UP

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The Judge Monkey

Once upon a time, two cats were passing through a street. Suddenly they spotted a loaf of bread lying beneath a tree. Both pounced upon it and caught the loaf at the same time. “It is mine. I saw it first,” claimed one cat. While the other said, “I pounced upon it first and so it belongs to me.” After having fought for a while, one cat said, “Let us divide it into two and take one piece each.” “Indeed, a good idea,” said the other cat. “But how do we divide it n o w ? ” A monkey sitting on the branch of the tree had watched all that happened between the two cats. “That loaf of bread looks good. I could do with it myself,” he thought. Slowly he came down from the tree and walked up to the confused c a t s . ”Yes, my dear friends! Can I help you?” asked the monkey. The cats told the monkey what the problem was and said, “Why do not you be the judge between us?” When the monkey nodded, the cats said, “Please divide this loaf for us.” The clever monkey smilingly broke the bread into two pieces. But one piece was a little bigger that the other. “OH no! I will take a little bite of this bigger piece to make both equal,” said the monkey, slyly. He took a bite from the bigger piece. But, he had taken a big bite. “Uh oh! Now it has

FUN WITH POETRY

become smaller than the other piece. I will just have to take a little bite from this piece now,” said the clever m o n k e y . The Judge Monkey took another bite. The two cats sat in front of the monkey, seeing the loaf of bread they had found getting smaller and smaller. When the whole loaf was eaten by the monkey, the monkey said, “I am sorry. I was really difficult to divide that loaf. I must be going now.” And the monkey jumped onto the tree and was gone. “If only we had not quarreled among ourselves, we would have remained united and we need not have to go to the monkey and to become hungry now,” said the two

The crow watched the hawk thinking, “Hunh! If the hawk can do that, I too can. What does he think? One day, I will show the hawk that I can do the same thing.” A few days later, as the hawk was circling in the air, the crow decided to do the same. Suddenly a baby rabbit came out of the bushes. The hawk saw it and the crow too saw t h e r a b b i t . Before the crow could move, the hawk swooped down, caught hold of the rabbit in his strong sharp talons and flew away. “Swoosh!” was all the crow heard, as the hawk disappeared in the sky with his prey. “Hmmph! That is no great skill,” thought the crow, angrily. Next moment he spotted a

cats. Foolish Imitation Long ago, a hawk lived on the top of a hill. At the foot of the hill there was a banyan tree on which a crow used to perch every day. The crow was very foolish. He would imitate everyone. The hawk atop the hill would fly down every day in search of food. The crow watched the hawk circling in the air for long hours and swooping down when he saw his prey. The hawk gifted with eyes that could see long distances would spot his prey from the hill top and then fly down to pounce upon the prey.

big fat mouse coming out of a hole. Without wasting time, the crow swooped down. Like the hawk he tried to catch the mouse in his c l a w s . But the mouse saw the crow and moved away, the crow crashed against the hill. “Eeeaaa!” cried the crow in pain. Just then the hawk came flying down. “I hope, now you know it is not easy to hunt and it is not easy to imitate, either,” said the hawk and flew away. Thereafter, the crow never imitated any one in its life. It lived happily with the Godgiven abilities.

Good morning, God

Good morning , God, and thank you For the glory of the sun, And thank you for the health I have, To get my duties done. I shall devote the hours Of this golden day to You, By honouring Your holy name In everything I do. I shall pursue my daily tasks Without complaint or fear, And spend my every effort To be friendly and sincere. Once more, good morning, God, And please depend on me, Because I want to honour you

by Uncle Roy

Sunday February 03, 2019

Junior page Handprint Valentine cards

Here are the supplies you'll need: –Purple cardstock (we used two colors) –Pink cardstock –Black sharpie

Steps to Make your Handprint Valentine 1. Fold your paper over before tracing. Then you need to trace your handprint so that the pinky finger is close to the folded part of your paper. Then finish drawing the bottom of your handprint and cut it out. 2. When you cut out your handprint, it should look close to this. 3. Cut out 3 hearts that are equally sized. You can easily make a heart by folding over a piece of paper and drawing half of the heart.4. Now glue your hearts together and then glue the whole piece into the inside of your handprint card. 5. Add some embellishment inside the card – you can add heart stickers, rhinestones or simply cut out smaller hearts and glue those in! 6. Now write your messages inside!

Counting caterpillars Each caterpillar has a number pattern on it. Can you fill in the blanks?

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Develop a Sense of Security for yourself and loved ones You will need to think of the rules which can be adopted in your own home to make everyone feel more secure in any environment in which you live and participate. These are some clear steps which may be taken to foster this all-important feeling:1. Set clear rules and provide a structure for the way in which the home functions. When people are brought up in an environment where they are well aware of the limits and behave under these terms they feel better about themselves. Stress is also reduced when their rights and responsibilities are made clear. We must always remember that people are more likely to follow rules when they have a say in making them. 2. Enforce rules fairly and consistently. When there is no bias or wrong judgement in enforcing the rules, then there is order. 3. Preserve self-respect and build personal responsibility. The manner in which rules are enforced also affects peopleâ€™s sense of security. They should be treated as responsible persons, and they will react in like manner.

Correction must be effected in such a way that people are not put to shame, and be respected just the same. 4. Act in ways that foster trust in those in authority. Try to maintain a sense of trust in your parents, teachers, and others on whom you depend. This feeling enables you to behave without fear or anxiety. Rely on them to act in a consistent manner, and to base their actions on what is right and fair. 5. Persons must accept social responsibility in playing their part in organising a productive andorderly community.It would be useful if you would take some time to think of the ways in which you couldcontribute to the welfare of those in your community, by yourself, and together with parents, teachers and community leaders. 6. Try to get rid of the fears which you may be secretly harbouring, and which tend to keep you from acting socially responsible.Some of these fears would be real, but many times people develop fears of things which may not exist, or which may be exaggerated. You will need to search your mind and examine these fears and make efforts to get rid of them. The things that frighten us may exist at school, athome, with other people, involving places and tasks, and even some events in which you have to play a part.The way to deal with all fears is to consciously examine them with a view of dealing withthem either by yourself, if you feel confident to do so, or by invoking the help of qualified persons to help in this process.

Crossword~Cross-Wise There are no clue numbers in the grid so use yourpowers of deduction to solve the puzzle and placethe right words in the correct positions.

1. One of the two horizontal 7-letter words is part of a bird's wing and the other is stomach. 2. One of the two vertical 7-letter words is iberty and the other is concoction. 3. One of the 5-letter words is pass out and the other is desert plants. 4. The 4-letter words are group of three;light fog; reverberation; compass direction. 5. The two 3-letter words on the left arekind of fairy and young bear. 6. The two 3-letter words on the right areconsume and frozen water.

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Friends by Uncle Roy The best people I know besides my family Are the friends that make me feel so good; They are the children who help me out, And keep me as happy as I could. My friends and I love to be together, Whether at school, work or play; I feel that these special people Are what make my life okay. My father is glad I have such nice friends; He often lets me bring them along, But he says that I should be careful That they do not make me do wrong. When we try to keep each other happy, And help one another to always do right, Then I know we would always be friends, And never have to quarrel or fight.

People always perform better when they feel secure and safe in their environment

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

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Youth may not be wasted... From page 38 seemed to work. At other times I failed. Here are two simple examples. Annie (not her real name) was an 11 year-old who never smiled, or engaged in childish banter with her peers. I sensed a problem, and tried a few tricks I had learnt to 'pull her out'. One worked. I told her I had the power to make anyone laugh and that she was no exception. I said I could already see a smile creeping down from the top of her head. “Now it's by your forehead, now by your nose; now it's at your mouth …” I was rewarded with a shy, disarming smile. In the space of a few weeks she had told me of some domestic disruption at home, with her caught between her parents' arguments. She said she was ridiculed about her looks and her big feet. She was good at English but horrible at Math, and I helped her with the latter. She became more outgoing, and I felt good about the progress she was making. Then one day a child came to tell me that she had locked herself in the school toilet. A teacher had spoken to her roughly, and in the locked room, she repeatedly stuck her arm with a sharpened pencil. She was taken bleeding to the guidance counsellor. In another instance a 13 year-old girl wrote as part of a composition that she was thinking of committing suicide, and that no one knew she had been raped by a family member. She said she

wished she was 'as smart as Mr. Nichols' daughter'. She was intelligent, feisty, and aggressive, and was repeatedly threatened with expulsion. Once I had to lock a classroom door to keep her away from a child she wanted to fight, while she kept pummeling the door. We talked and eventually she calmed down. She is a woman now, still feisty, and we still talk, on Facebook. What I have written so far may appear simplistic and inconclusive relative to the caption, but let it suffice for now as input from a layperson. It's possible, I think, to look at a problem too deeply; too professionally, and miss some of the more common symptoms and remedies. Teenagers are teenagers, and adults are adults. There are gaps in between, and like I said earlier, some of us don't know how to fill them. Children and teenagers are by nature, immature. They grow up in a world largely made by and for adults. And as the poet Khalil Gibran pointedly observed, they are 'not your children' but 'the sons and daughters of life longing for itself'. Listen to them, laugh with them, and teach them with the key understanding that yes, they have independent minds; but also dependent problems. They might not admit it but they do depend on us to help them navigate those hormone years. Then we ourselves may find that youth is not necessarily wasted on the young.

Give Uruguay Meeting a ... From page 24 back and allow a neutral process to take place. The pressures under which “neutral” governments will come was evident when, on the same day that Mexico announced joining with Uruguay to convene the Uruguay meeting of neutral states, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, on a state visit, invited Mexico's new President López Obrador to join an 'international contact group' formed by European Union (EU) countries to discuss the organisation of free elections in Venezuela. Obrador declined the invitation, but Spain has already joined leaders of other EU countries in stating that they would recognise Guaidó as Ve n e z u e l a ' s i n t e r i m president on 4 February, if Maduro does not agree to new elections before then. Unless all those who have made strong statements or threatened or imposed

measures, including sanctions, decide to step back from the brink and give the Uruguay meeting a chance to achieve a means to restore peace and stability in Venezuela, the gathering will be blighted before it starts. It is unlikely that there will be any such stepping back. Nonetheless, the Uruguay meeting must proceed. For, accepting that dialogue no longer proffers solutions to a crisis is a most dangerous development; the alternative is deeply troubling. (The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own) Responses and previous c o m m e n t a r i e s : www.sirronaldsanders.com

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Bonita Montague is a... From page 22 knowledge could have seen her easily taking her expertise to any part of the world, but Bonita knew that it was her homeland that needed her the most. Even as she managed a lucrative business, BONEL Enterprises Inc., which provides cleaning services to most embassies in the United States, Bonita was unleashing her humanitarian and activism plans which have been reaching many across Guyana. In fact she disclosed that while it was a passion to address the scourge of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] that saw the introduction of United Bridge Builders, it was the disturbing cases of violence - particularly those perpetrated against women and the daunting cases of suicide - that reinforced the need for her input. In the Diaspora, she was able to garner support for her efforts from many senators and elected officials. But according to Bonita, her efforts were redoubled when she visited Guyana last year for a fundraising gala at the

Marriott Hotel and got the disparaging news of the brutal demise of two women at the hands of men with whom they shared intimate relationships. IGNITING A STORM Bonita was at the time making reference to the cases of Reona Payne, who met her demise after her reputed husband, a GDF officer at the time, allegedly shot her more than a dozen times, and Rosemary Rudder, who was strangled by her ex-lover. I AM NOT HEARING ENOUGH “I thought something was very wrong at that point… and before the week was out, we had other murders. Within two weeks, every weekend I was attending a funeral of a female murder victim, and I thought, 'no, I am not hearing enough on the national scene'; 'I am not seeing enough being done',” said Bonita, of the far too many cases of domestic violence and suicide too. “I was seeing murders, suicides, and I thought something more needed to be done. We lacked seeing

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enough publications and sensitisation and awareness slogans, and I reached out to find out what was happening; what was being done,” she recalled. Her attempts to ascertain what was being done at the national level was met with some resistance, but Bonita was nevertheless determined to champion the cause of helping to raise awareness to the fact that it wasn't acceptable for women, or even children and men for that matter, to be subjected to violence at any level. CREATING A BUZZ She moreover started a countrywide movement, which took the form of mass awareness marches that started in Region Four then continued in Region Three and Six. “We ignited a storm and created a buzz that caused not only the elected officials to engage in more discussions, but to publicly make announcements and denounce domestic violence which was a small start, but has been very encouraging,” Bonita shared. “That encouraged us to continue,” she disclosed,

pointing out that even with a skeleton volunteer staff, efforts have been engaged to reach not only vulnerable women, but many battered children and men too. “Although you hear me as a fierce advocate for women, I am very happy to have my men around, and I love men; so I don't want men to be deterred thinking this feminist rejects men. With open arms, I welcome them for services, because we believe in order to address domestic violence, we have got to address men's issues and we have got to address coping issues. We want men to be more outspoken, we want them to talk to their peers and seek help, because to have healthy families we need to have healthy men…” Bonita made a point of adding too that “without them this organisation cannot do what it is able to do, so we cannot omit looking out for our men who need our services.” She qualified her disclosure by noting that “I am a mother of only boys, so I must be able to serve men too.” As she stressed the importance of the inclusion of men, Bonita added, “I am

On a mission to be a voice to end violence

With her grandmother who she considers her hero

hoping that we can really do more; I am happy for the team members, the volunteers who have been helping us thus far, but we are hoping that other persons are encouraged by what we do and come on

board too; everyone is important and critical to the development of society.” But even as she appealed for more support for the organisation, Bonita noted, “my only hope is we find people who don't look at a dollar value and an immediate exchange, but rather, look at the impact they can make in the lives of vulnerable persons through their dedicated efforts”. It was at this juncture, she reflected on the words of former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, “it is not how much money you make, it's the difference you make in people's lives.” “I too am hoping that people would recognise that work like this is not about the money…a lot of what we do is funded out of pocket,” said Bonita, who is today being recognised by this publication as our 'Special Person' for her tireless effort aimed at helping to give hope to the vulnerable in our society.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Questions and Answers: Things you need to know By Attorney Gail S. Seeram

hrough this â€œQuestion & Answerâ€?, our goal is to answer your immigration questions. We appreciate your comments and questions. If you have a question that you would like answered in this column, p l e a s e e m a i l : Gail@GailLaw.com. Question #1: Can my daughter who is age 16 and

a U.S. citizen file for me? No. A U.S. citizen can file or petition for his/her parent, however the U.S. citizen child must be age 21 or older. This type of petition, where a U.S. citizen files for a parent, is considered an immediate relative petition and a visa is available immediately (meaning there is no backlog). Question #2: During my interview for U.S. citizenship, I lied to the

officer and was denied because of the lie. When can I re-file for U.S. citizenship? Lying to an immigration officer is a serious offense. I do not recommend anyone to lie to a federal officer. You were denied because the officer found you to lack good moral character. One of the requirements for U.S. citizenship is that you must possess good moral character. My advice is to wait five (5) years from

the interview date before reapplying for U.S. citizenship. Question #3: C a n I marry while the immigrant petition filed by my parent is pending? It depends on whether the petitioner is a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen. If the petitioner (person who filed the petition) is a permanent resident then you cannot marry, because marriage would void the petition. A permanent

resident can only file for an unmarried child. If the petitioner (person who filed the petition) is a U.S. citizen then you can marry. Once you marry then the petitioner can change the preference category of the petition from first preference to third preference. Note, the wait time for the visa may increase once you are married, but then you and your spouse will be able to emigrate to the U.S. Question #4: I have a holiday or tourist visa for the U.S. but I have a permanent resident petition pending that was filed by my family. Can I still travel on my holiday visa? Yes, you can travel; h o w e v e r, i f t h e U . S . immigration officer at the port of entry determines you have immigrant intents because they discover the pending immigrant petition,

Gail S. Seeram then you can be denied entry into the U.S. or your holiday visa can be revoked. Also, when your holiday visa is up for renewal, the U.S. Embassy may deny renewal once they see you have a pending immigrant petition. Attorney Gail Seeram, LL.M., J.D., BBA Call | text | WhatsApp 407-292-7730 E m a i l : Gail@GailLaw.com L i v e c h a t : www.GailLaw.com Download FREE App: Gail Law

Power from the people... From page 39 affairs of governance, which has contributed to a high level of mistrust in the political process. This has to be corrected as a matter of urgency, and there are many ways to do so beyond inviting young people to participate in symposiums and developing White Papers, which only gather dust thereafter. There is need to establish permanent structures to guarantee involvement and where persons do not have to feel that they have to grovel to play a role in theirs and the nation's destiny. Then there is the issue of ensuring gender equality. There is constitutional requirement to have at least one-third of women on the List of Candidates. In spite of this, women have to continue to relentlessly battle to ensure their presence at the decisionmaking table. When the article was ensconced, the intent was to have seen a reflection in presence not only in name. To ensure the honouring of this may require amendment to The Representation of People Act, to make their presence in being seated mandatory. The judiciary is also important to inclusionary democracy. When it is allowed to function as an independent and co-equal branch of government it plays a meaningful role in bringing about the desire for good governance, the development

of society, and the maturity of its people. As the custodian of the Rule of Law, knowing there exists genuine recourse for the handling of grievances lends confidence that justice can be pursued and will be served. The importance of confirming the appointments of Chancellor and Chief Justice to provide such needed assurance and stability cannot be overemphasised. Society must continue to demand that Government and Opposition work together to make this possible. Power from the people is for the self-determination of the people, not for a few. Voices and involvement in the political process do not start and stop at the ballot box. The power exercised through the vote, though electing representatives, is never meant to be bequeathed to a few to do as they please, but that of ensuring it is being used in the people's interest. This principle applies to every sphere of governance. Workers demand their right to a seat at the negotiation table. The young must be allowed a role in theirs and the nation's development. A stable and independent judiciary is crucial to development. Women are deserving of a seat at the table to influence decisions that will impact their and the family's welfare. These demands and expectations for inclusionary democracy are not unreasonable.

Sunday February 03, 2019

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Crabwood Creek poultry farmer stabbed to death by intruder

n an apparent attempt to rob a family at Crabwood Creek, Upper Corentyne, Berbice, a poultry and rice farmer was stabbed to death during the course of the ordeal. He was found by his wife, Nalini Lalbachan, grasping at his stab wounds and leaning on the kitchen counter in the bottom flat of their home Friday night. The dead businessman has been identified as Deoprakash Lalbachan, called "William", of Lot 22 Grant 1651 Crabwood Creek, Berbice. He was a father of two. Still in disbelief, the wife of the now dead man told reporters yesterday morning that she was in the upper flat of the two-storied concrete home while her husband was in the bottom flat watching television. She stated that her mother sleeps in an enclosed section also in the bottom flat but around 22:30 hrs, there was a disturbing call from her husband downstairs. "I heard him shouting, 'Nalini come, come here, dem want to kill me, dem ah bore me, come, run.' He called me three times", she said. At that point, Nalini who has been married to

Killed: Deoprakash Lalbachan Lalbachan for 37 years, said to herself that maybe he was having a bad dream and was calling out to her in his dream. But she said she still decided to retreat to the lower flat. When she reached downstairs, she could not believe her eyes. Her husband was drenched in blood and was clutching at wounds he had to his stomach. The woman said when she asked her husband what happened, he told her, "Dem come fuh kill me". A chilling reply; but her main concern was to get her husband to the nearest hospital to save him. A

window situated in the kitchen where Lalbachan was found bleeding, had been smashed in. The killer is believed to have gained entry through t h e k i t c h e n w i n d o w. Lalbachan was immediately taken to the Skeldon Public Hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival. Police sources told Kaieteur News that four parcels containing chicken from a freezer located outside the house were found left in the backyard of the Lalbachan's home. There were also footprint tracks in the said backyard. According to the source, "We believe he fled the scene through the back door, into the other yard because there were tracks in the backyard. He jumped the fence but there is evidence to show that there may have been a struggle during the ordeal." The police said Lalbachan had five stab wounds about his body and the murder weapon (a kitchen knife with blood stains) was recovered at the crime scene. No one has since been arrested but police are investigating. The farmer was described as a hard working, quiet and kindhearted individual.

The Crabwood Creek home where the poultry farmer was killed

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Committee in proactive mode to help reduce maternal deaths

r. Neville Gobin is driven by a m o r a l compulsion to help reduce maternal deaths in Guyana. Having spent most of his 4 5 y e a r s a s a n Obstetrician/Gynaecologist in the private sector, Dr. Gobin has lost none of his passion and thirst for helping pregnant women throughout his long and stellar career. Despite his longevity in the field, he still believes firmly that he “can [still] make a positive contribution in achieving the goals of reduction of maternal mortality to as close as possible to zero,” he disclosed in a taped interview Friday in the boardroom of his Woodlands Hospital, Carmichael Street, Georgetown building. Maternal mortality is still a bane in Guyana's health

system and Dr. Gobin is heading the government's Maternal Mortality Review [MMR] committee to help reduce the national figure, which has fallen between 15 -18 or less deaths per year, but still above the national target. Maternal deaths are linked to three problems: performance of medical personnel, system failure of medical institutions, and non-compliance of patients or put differently, the fault of the care providers, fault of the health care system and fault of the patient. The MMR committee was launched in 2007 to investigate maternal deaths, that is, deaths during pregnancy or up to 42 days after delivery; probe 'near misses' mothers who were critical but made it through; still births [children who

were born dead] and to develop strategies to help with protocols to reduce maternal deaths. Their mandate also includes reviewing cases: examining charts, community interviews and hospital audits before making recommendations to the Chief Medical Officer [CMO] for the necessary action based on their findings from the probes. The MMR committee comprises Dr. Gobin as the C h a i r m a n ; C M O D r. Shamdeo Persaud; Dr. Lucio Pedro, Consultant; Dr. Sheik Amir, Surgeon; Dr. Ertenisa Hamilton, Director, Primary Health Care, Ministry of Public Health; Dr. Oneka Scott, Maternal and Child Health Officer; Dr. Umadai Rattan, Women's Health Coordinator; Dr. Malika Mootoo, Paediatrician; Ms.

Debra Henry, Public Health Nurse; and Linda Johnson, Chief Nursing Officer of the Public Health Ministry. The MMR Committee has already begun being proactive and not waiting for a death in child's birth and conduct investigations. It has been visiting “all medical institutions that conduct delivery of babies in Guyana,” Dr. Gobin said. He said the visits are to identify problems and to provide training and guidance for medical staff across the sector in a bid to bridge the gap between standards of care in the hinterland and the coast. The objective of the visits is “not to wait for mishaps but to try and get in before… we are in preventive mode,” Dr. Gobin noted. In addition to investigating maternal deaths and near misses, he said the MMR committee (continued on page 72)

Sunday February 03, 2019 MMR Chairman, Dr. Neville Gobin and his wife Shoba.

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Kaieteur News

Investment in Youth Government has invested more than $43M towards building the capacity of indigenous youth from Three Friends, Old England/Siberia and Coomacka Mines in Region Ten and Silver Hill and Kairuni in Region Four. This investment was made possible through the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Flagship Youth Programme, the Hinterland Employment Youth Service HEYS, during the second phase of the programme, which commenced in August 2017 and concluded last July. The programme saw 21 young people from all of the communities except Silver Hill with 15 youth, fully capitalizing on this investment as they venture into lucrative business ventures. During a Ministerial Outreach to the respective communities on Wednesday, Minister within the Ministry Valerie Garrido-Lowe, youth spoke passionately about the positive impact the HEYS programme is having on their lives. Nola Lamazone, a participant from Three Friends in expressing profound grati-

tude to the Government for this programme, said her business continues to expand to a point where she is now able to provide employment opportunities. “I started out as the eldest on the HEYS participant list and when we had to sit in the classroom for six months, I said I have to make some money on the participants. “So I started making egg ball, plantain chips, tamarind balls, and drinks even though that was not my ambition. My ambition was to sell clothes so I saved more and I switched out and started selling clothes. “To date, I bought some chickens which would produce eggs for my egg ball business. I also bought a freezer and support the HEYS participants who sell chicken. And you would find that you would want to do so much so you find a job on the side, so I have a part time employee who would work with me”, Lamazone said. Rowel Douglas from Siberia/Old England said, “I must thank the Government for bringing this programme in Old England/Siberia because

Participants of the programme it has done a lot for me. I started off with fifty chickens and now I can buy 200 chickens and I’m bringing it in stages. “I cannot provide for myself because when I’m finished plucking, it’s all sold out and I don’t even have none for myself.” Triana Khan of Siberia/ old England said, “Thank you for giving us a second chance, my business was only drinks, but I developed my business whereby I do an event every Friday night (karaoke every Friday night) where I gain an extra something, and my business is developing more. I have learnt communication skills, how to deal with negativity and positivity, how

to deal with competition; how to speak boldly and I want to say thank you once again.” “I want to thank the Government on behalf of not just Siberia/Old England community with the HEYS Programme, but throughout Guyana. “It would have benefitted many young people who would have had a second chance. I didn’t just do chicken, I had a variety of businesses when I was doing the chicken, I was doing chips, for the Christmas I pro-

vide some preserved fruits, I’m also starting a new business –brush cutting and spraying of yards, beside that I would like to go into lettuce and celery planting. “This is one of the projects that they would have teach us to be self-sufficient,” Maurica Rudder of Siberia/ Old England acknowledged. Candacy Wolfe, of Silver Hill, is also expressing gratitude. She stated, “I have extended from a small grocery shop and I have a small fast food outlet where I sell chicken and chips. I had a refrig-

erator and I could have afforded to buy another one and also a bigger engine so that I could have pushed both refrigerators and I want to get into ice cream business so we are thankful to the Government that I can build myself in so many ways.” Arrienna Hosea noted, “I am grateful and thankful for HEYS. The business that we have is a partnership (siblings Annia Hosea). We started small and we have grown from the time we achieved all the things HEYS give to us. (Continued on page 71)

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Kaieteur News

Victim given ‘royal run around’ following North Road accident - hit-and-run owner claims vehicle stolen A family now have to resort to using public transportation following a hit and run accident last December. However, what is more depressing to them is the fact that one month later police investigators have failed to provide any help although the perpetrator for the accident was found. According to the victim, Shevindra Goptar, the accident occurred around 21:36pm on December 30, 2018. The owner and three co-workers were proceeding west along North Road, Georgetown. Upon approaching the intersection of North Road and Alexander Street, a speeding car collided with them. This caused the vehicle, which at the time was driven by Goptar to slam into a small post and come to an abrupt stop. The other vehicle, a Toyota Allex, bearing the number plate PLL 6520 had paused for a second alongside the victim’s vehicle, which allowed Shevindra to peek into the car.

“I was able to make out a little appearance of the individual who appeared to be of Indian decent with a high cut hairstyle. Before I was able to make out more details, the car quickly drove off,” stated Goptar. Luckily, no one sustained any serious injuries. Contact was made with the Alberttown Police Station to report the matter. Three police officers and a Criminal Investigation Department officer showed up at the scene. Shevindra related, “The officers came, looked at the scene and told me that I was responsible for moving my vehicle. They then left without taking any measurements or such as it relates to an accident.” The vehicle was moved within two hours and Goptar proceeded to the police station where a statement was taken. He was told that from the vehicle number provided, it would take about two weeks to locate the owner. However, by aid of social media, the victim was able to get

the information the next day. It was discovered that the car belongs to a Rookminee Ramgulam from Enmore, East Coast Demerara. “With the aid from the police ranks from Enmore, we went to her residence to escort her to the police station for questioning. She tried to resist but later she came,” Goptar stated. “When questioned about the vehicle, she claimed it was stolen on the said night of the incident around 21:30hrs. Then she said that her surveillance cameras are not working or she would have shown us what happen.” According to the victim, police ranks told them that there have not been any reports of a stolen vehicle from Rookminee or family. Both parties then headed to the Enmore Station where the husband of Rookminee, Mr Raymond Bacchus showed up. However things then took a foully turn. “They started to send us away back to the Alberttown

The damaged vehicle Police Station; however, the police there told us that there is no need for us to return as the police ranks at Enmore can assist us since we found the perpetrator.” Shevindra mentioned “From there, wherever we turned, persons just kept sending us here, sending us there and no one is helping. Every time we turn up at a station or to someone in charge,

Bacchus them keep showing up before anyone could say that they would be called in.” Kaieteur News was told that the Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of Police has ordered a full investigation into the matter. Goptar said, “After that measurements and video footage of the accident were acquired. More statements were also taken and this was

since January 7, last.” “Since then, we haven’t heard from the police and our efforts to try to get information were rudely turned down by a clerk from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) office, where we were told the matter was sent to.” He further stated. Chief Traffic Officer Linden Isles said that investigations for the matter are currently ongoing. “There was a report about a stolen vehicle. However, officers at ‘C’ Division are doing the necessary checks to ensure the time of the report matches for the incident. This is a complicated matter and we are hoping to have more information from the investigations in the new week,” Officer Isles stated. “We would just like justice as it’s clear people are lying their way through and it hurts more because they are working their way through the police force. I have given the Force the opportunity to help despite being told they would push me around but it proves true,” Goptar stated.

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Sunday February 03. 2019

STANDARDS IN FOCUS GNBS – OFFERING BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES TO LOCAL COMPANIES The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), through its Business Support Services Department has the capacity to work with local businesses, regardless of their size, to increase their competitiveness through the use of standards. By facilitating the implementation of national and international standards through training and consultancy, a number of local companies are already reaping the benefits emanating from services offered by the GNBS to them. As part of the implementation process, highly trained Technical Officers of the Bureau conduct awareness sessions for key personnel of organisations on the respective management system standards, which their companies desire to implement. Training is provided through specialized courses for which an annual schedule is prepared at the onset of the year and disseminated. Usually, at the earliest, personnel from companies all across Guyana indicate their interest in participating in these courses. The GNBS also has the experience and expertise to offer training on a specific standards to staff members of an entire company or organisation based on requests. In both cases, the cost for training is affordable. Subsequently, for companies that indicate a desire to implement the requirements of a standard, a gap analysis of their organisation processes is conducted to determine to what extent these requirements are met. At the end of the gap analysis, a detailed report is provided to the management of the company, who will ultimately assess whether they have the capacity to move forward to the next level or not. In moving forward, a Technical Officer is assigned to work with the company to develop and streamline documents and operational procedures for conformance to the requirements of the standard. Usually, this process can take one to six months based on the commitment of the company to the entire process. The more committed the company to reaching the goal of readiness for certification to the specific standard, usually the shorter the time of implementation. During implementation, identified workers are also trained to become internal auditors of the developing system and the tools necessary to monitor and maintain the system are made available after the GNBS completes its support services. Through business support services

offered by the Bureau, businesses are able to implement a range of internationally recognized systems in their operations, which are based on specific standards. These systems include a Quality Management System, which assists companies to continually meet the need of their customers, a Food Safety Management System, which ensures safe foods are produced “from the farm to the fork”, and an Environmental Management System, which helps businesses to demonstrate care for their environment. Laboratories, whether medical or non-medical and Conformity Assessment Bodies such as Regulators and other Inspection Agencies are also beneficiaries of business support services provided by the Bureau. The Bureau provides support services to laboratories to implement the National Standard: GYS 170 - General requirements for the operation of a laboratory. In addition, laboratories desirous of international recognition can also be assisted to implement the ISO/IEC 17025 standards – General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories and ISO 15189 Medical laboratories – Requirements for quality and competence. Meanwhile, Conformity and Inspections Bodies can opt for support to implement the ISO/IEC 17065 - Conformity Assessment – Requirements for bodies certifying products and ISO/IEC 17020 – Conformity Assessment – Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection. Utilizing the business support services of the Bureau will allow companies that are manufacturers, exporters and service providers to become leaders in the business arena, since the implementation of standards will improve their efficiency and effectiveness once they get onboard. Conformance to international standards allows access of local products and services to international markets; which means more customers, more revenue and ownership of an international brand. Therefore, the GNBS encourages entrepreneurs and CEOs of local businesses to contact its business support services department and start the conversation that ultimately increase their business success and standing locally and abroad. For further information, contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 592-219-0065 or 592-219-0064 or visit the G N B S website:www.gnbsgy.org

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Kaieteur News

VACANCY General Domestic, must know to cook & salesperson, Apply Keyfoood McDoom EBD FOR RENT

SERVICES

FOR SALE

PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION, W E D D I N G S , ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620

1-620 leyland daf engine and gear box $950,000. Front spring, back spring and back def. Contact 650-0402/6031402

Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Graphics design, advertisement, Wedding arch rentals. Tel: 626-7040; 265-4535. ICONIC MARKETING & PRINTING –TEL: 6006887: We create A/works, logos, business cards, posters, etc, placements of ads included.

Prime Business Spot, opposite Gafoors in Parika. Contact# 650-0402/603-1402

Fully furnished (2) Bedroom Apt, Providence, Diamond #672-1906/682-6238 Paula Junior

Finest of Arts in Guyana www.paintingsron.com

Unfurnished (2) Bedroom Apt, Smyth St, GeorgetownTop Flat Diamond 3rd Avenue- Top & bottom flat, Durban Backlands Studio Apt #623-1562 June

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Installations, Repairs and parts for AC, Fridge, Washing machine, Stove etc call Nick 627-3206, 630-1600

Allion, primo, spacio, allex, noah, RZ pitbull bus, mazda axela, bluebird, 192 fielder wagon. 650-7501

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1 Toyota back Tundra, GLL series brand new paint job. Price $2M (neg) Tel#693-0388

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1 Mitsubishi long base canter, 4 MS engine 16 feet tray GSS series. Price $2M (neg) Tel#693-0388 LAND FOR SALE Parfaite Harmonie (Transferable $2.5M) $2M $1.4M Tuschen Phase II $1.5M Providence, Herstelling. Call: 666-2326 (1) Fence land in Parfaite Harmonie, Uitvlugt $2M Zeelugt $1.4M. Tel#642-1252

TAXI SERVICE GR TAXI SERVICE. CALL: 219-5000; 227-1982 & 225-7878 (24HRS) ACCOMMODATION Air condition room $3000 per day fully furnished apts $5000 & $6000 per day. 223-0994/678-5827 HEALTH HERBAL REMEDIES: Diabetes, Hypertension, Infertility, Menstrual disorders, Enlarged prostate, Kidney,Gall stones & Arthritis etc. Call Sparman #676-5924

Schnoord $4M Dairy $3.5M & $2.2M Parfaite $1.6M Farm $3.5M & $3M www.paintingsron.com #6481635/651-1969

WANTED 1 Shop assistant to work in the interior. Experience would be an asset. #669-3162

Relief guard 2 days a week. Handyman. Must have a bicycle and cellphone. 227Mini excavator $8,800 per 5536/ 223-0504 hour, also Bobcat service Wanted experience hire car available. Tel#623-0290 taxi drivers at Ramada 1 well-appointed furnished 2 Princess Hotel (Providence) bedroom apartment in Bel Air Tel: 616-5419, 265-7074 Park, with parking. Tel# 2254106/225-4708 between office 1 sales girl, 1 truck driver. Call: hours 8:00-4:30 Mon-Fri 223-9677

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REPAIRS AT LOW COST: FRIDGES, AIR CONDITIONERS, WASHING MACHINE, FREEZER, SALE OF AC’S. TEL#629-4946,225-4822

PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION, W E D D I N G S , ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620

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Lodge apartments (Vlissengen/Durban) unfurnished (1) bedroom $50,000, (2) bedroom $60,000. Furnished studio (for visitors) US$600 p/m 6779638/668-7687

Female cleaner Office & Home, age 25 to 50. Call: 2332745

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Sunday February 03. 2019

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CONSUMER CONCERNS

CARE AND RESPECT FOR ANIMALS By PAT DIAL The treatment and welfare of animals whether domesticated, in captivity or in the wild has always been a concern of the consumer community since such treatment has important social reverberations. Accordingly, this column may return to this subject again. Last week, there was a media report of an East Asian woman who ran a restaurant at Diamond, one of the villages on the East Bank Demerara, who mercilessly beat a dog to death. The dog was beaten in her yard and its ribs and jaw were broken and its skin was lacerated. She then threw the dog while still alive onto the road, probably with the intention that oncoming traffic would crush its body. A concerned resident witnessed the brutality and spoke to the woman who denied that the dog was hers. Another resident tried to feed the dog but it could not eat since the injuries to its mouth were too severe. These residents reported the incident to the police who visited the scene and laid charges against the woman under those sections of the Laws of Guyana, which afforded protection to animals. In the meantime, the Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) was contacted but they had to put the animal to sleep since it could not be revived. When the GSPCA personnel visited the premises of the restaurant, they found several cats in a large cage as well as a number of dogs, which they rescued. This incident illustrates two tendencies in Guyanese society. Firstly, the ill treatment and cruelty to animals still persist but there are also large numbers of Guyanese who eschew violence and cruelty to animals and treat them in a humane and civilized way. For most of the 19th century, most Guyanese were insensitive to violence and cruelty done to both man and animals since the residue of the harshness of plantation slavery had not completely faded away. In the post-Emancipation society, transportation was done by animaldrawn vehicles and this per-

sisted for the next century. The drivers of these vehicles, especially the horse and donkey carts, would savagely and sadistically beat their animals with ropes. Domestic animals such as cats and dogs were also never treated with care and no veterinary services were available. The colonial administrators came from Britain where animals were protected and had rights. These administrators as well as the more educated Guyanese decided to integrate animal protection into the Laws of Guyana and a branch of the British Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was established in 1902. An inspector was appointed who brought charges mostly against horse and donkey cart drivers. This proved an effective deterrent. By the 1940's, Guyanese society had become fairly sensitized to the kindly and humane treatment of animals and this was evidenced by vet doctors beginning to practise in both New Amsterdam and Georgetown, the drugstores stocking animal medications and even a few groceries selling imported cat and dog food after World War II. In all of this, the SPCA, later the GSPCA, played a great role in rescuing animals, finding homes for them and providing veterinary services without charge. They also, within their limitations, did educational work concerning the care of animals. Above, we had referred to social reverberations emanating from the way in which a country treats animals. The cruel and unnecessary beatings of children by parents and primary school teachers as well as domestic violence could be traced to the insensitivity to suffering in the perpetrators. Had these perpetrators kept pets, their sense of humaneness would have been developed and they would have been less prone to hurt human beings. Treating animals humanely and respecting their rights would result in human beings treating each other with care and respect. When one begins to treat animals well and with respect one gradually begins to realize the interdependency of life. Such would give greater

meaning to Ecology and Biodiversity where we begin to realize that if we are responsible for the destruction of any form of life on the Planet, we would ultimately be diminishing the quality of our own lives. We will also consciously or unconsciously begin to realize the philosophic truth that

all life is one. This makes us realize that we have an affinity to everyone else and this could help us to extinguish social barriers, which human beings falsely erect between themselves and others. The implications of kindly and respectful treatment to all animals are therefore far reaching and as knowledge ex-

pands more people would come to realize that kindly treatment of animals is in their ultimate interest. The Education System, especially at the primary level, could usefully introduce a programme of how to keep pets, which would help to make school life more interesting. This would help to culti-

vate an understanding of kindness and respect for animals among growing children. The GSPCA is a voluntary organization and there is always room for volunteers to help in its many activities. It would be a rewarding experience for young people as well as older and even retired people to join the GSPCA.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Another wife killer seeks to overturn 83-year sentence Another wife killer has moved to the Court of Appeal to have his conviction and 83-year jail sentence overturned. This time it is Paul Anthony Lo-Hing who was found guilty by a jury in December 2014 of the murder of his reputed wife,

Shoala Gilgeous, on August 6, 2012 at E Field, Sophia, G r e a t e r, Georgetown. High Court Judge Navindra Singh, before whom Lo-Hing was tried in 2014, imposed the custodial sentence following a

trial at the High Court in Georgetown. Based on the evidence adduced at trial, Lo-Hing and Gilgeous lived in Sophia where they shared a turbulent oneyear relationship. The woman was eventually killed. She was found dead in her home by relatives who ventured into her home in search of her. Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh determined the cause of death to be asphyxiation due to manual strangulation, compounded by blunt trauma. While leading his defence, Lo-Hing again denied killing the woman. He had told the jury that both of them were at home when Gilgeous told him that she was going out. According to him, she left and never returned. Based in investiga-

MURDERED: Shoala Gilgeous

CONVICTED KILLER: Paul Lo-Hing

tions, Lo-Hing was arrested and charged for the killing. He, however, maintained that he was innocent of the crime. At the Court of Appeal, Lo-Hing,

through his Attorney-atlaw, is asking that his conviction and sentence be set aside and/or reversed. Among other things, the convict is contending

that the sentence is excessive and that the verdict of the jury c a n n o t s t a n d based on the evidence presented at trial. In arriving at a sentence for Lo-Hing , Justice Singh started at a base of 60 years. The Judge added 10 years to the sentence for the cruel manner in which the woman met her demise, 10 years for evidence of an intention to kill and six years because the case was a domestic violence related matter. Three years was taken off the sentence for the time, which the accused spent in prison pending trial, bringing the sentence to 83 years. Lo-Hing is expected to serve 50 years in jail before he is eligible for parole. His appeal comes up for hearing on February 20.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

Investment in Youth.... From page 63 We see where we develop. I also buy another shop and around June, I will open that shop, and I know because of HEYS that is where I am. I don’t really have words to say how grateful I am.” Like Three Friends, Siberia/Old England, received approximately $9.5M dollars through the HEYS programme, monies that would have contributed significantly to the community’s economy. Over

the last two years, 3,795 young people in 222 villages and communities across the Hinterland benefited from training in life skills, vocational interests and entrepreneurial skills.In 2019, youth with existing businesses would receive a further financial boost.This is a defining moment in the lives of the nations’ indigenous youth, the staunch commitment made by the David Granger led coalition Government to the indigenous peoples.Minister

Garrido-Lowe, who has responsibility for women, children and youth was visibly moved to tears on hearing the testimonies of the youth and the positive effect the HEYS programme continues to have on their lives. Villages visited during the outreach, also received their HEYS resource kits, which will further boost their business ventures. The kits were handed over by Minister Valerie GarridoLowe.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Deep water port on the table, but no source of funding ... From page 19 would naturally want to secure their interests. Further, revenues from the port would be directly sent to China for the servicing of an estimated Sh500 billion lent for the construction of the two sections of the SGR. In December 2017, the Sri Lankan government lost its Hambantota port to China for a lease period of 99 years after failing to show commitment in the payment of billions of dollars in loans. The transfer gave China control of the territory just a few hundred miles off the shores of rival India. It is a strategic foothold along a critical commercial and military waterway. Last September, Zambia lost Kenneth Kaunda International Airport to China over debt repayment. African countries and oth-

ers like Pakistan and Sri Lanka are not the only ones being “targeted” by China. Latin America is also in the proverbial hit list. China's heightened interest in Latin America is flaunted through its extravagant but stained Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese interests in Latin American commercial ports combine military and economic aspects that align with the goals of its Belt and Road Initiative. This was recently highlighted by Dialogo, a military magazine. Dialogo stated that Latin America seems to be an easy target for China as the region is hungry for infrastructural development and most countries do not have the money to invest. Dialogo said, “…China is slowly taking over the

region's strategic trade and defense points. The tactic is clear, and China uses it in other parts of the world: money for ports in exchange for power.” The magazine highlighted Panamá, a country with two of the most important ports in the region—Colón and Balboa. The Dialogo stated, “The Chinese company— Landbridge Group—is building the Panamá Colón Container Port, a terminal for neoPanama ships, with an investment of more than US$1 billion. In addition, China's Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. is building a port station for cruises in the Amador area.” The magazine pointed out that closer to Guyana, in Brazil, state-owned Chinese company Merchants Port controls the Paranaguá Port, the second largest in the country sur-

Chinese merchant vessel Cosco Shipping Panama crosses the new locks in Agua Clara during the inauguration of the Panama Canal expansion in Colón, June 26, 2016. (Photo: Johan Ordoñez/AFP) passed only by the Santos Port.To gain control of the terminal, the Asian company

bought Brazilian company Terminal de Contêineres Paranaguá, which managed the port, for $935 million in 2017. In 2017, the Chinese company, China Construction, showed interest in developing and funding infrastructure in Mexico's most important port, Manzanillo. Further, Dialogo reported that in Peru, the Chinese com-

pany—Cosco Shipping—will develop Chancay Port with an investment of about US$2 billion. The governments of Colombia and China signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016, enabling the Asian nation to develop a series of projects near Buenaventura Port. China promised an investment of US$16 million in the area.

Committee in proactive mode... From page 62 will also focus on intra-partum management of patients, that is, pregnant women who are experiencing symptoms of labour; neo-natal deaths and injuries; promoting family planning services; abortion [which the physician said is a dangerous practice and expensive] as a family planning mechanism. Dr. Gobin is confident the MMR Committee can reduce maternal mortality to near-zero by strengthening and improving the competence of medical staff nationwide by sharpening their ability to spot and manage complications early in pregnancies. His confidence is also boosted by the “very keen” interest shown by Public Health Minister, Mrs. Volda Lawrence, who is pushing for improved women's health across the 10 Regions of the country. Her sense of concern is reflected by her relentless push to improve health care for women across the sector and ensuring there is “more scope” for the MMR body to improve the standard of care and reduce maternal mortality throughout the country. The committee is “fired up” by Lawrence's perennial support of their mandate, Dr. Gobin said. So far, the committee has visited the staff of Suddie Hospital, Pomeroon/Supenaam [Region Two] in December 2018 and early last month. The back-to-back visits to Suddie Hospital are based on “a series of mishaps” between September and December last year which resulted in the deaths of three pregnant mothers, Dr. Gobin disclosed.He said the team has also visited Hospitals in Barima/Waini [Region One] and in Kamarang, Region Seven [Cuyuni/Mazaruni] where they continue to focus on the direct causes of maternal mortality. As part of the public health sector blueprint for reducing maternal deaths, the Public Health Ministry has been conducting training stints targeting more Community Health Workers [CHWs]; Midwives, Medex; Traditional Births Attendants [TBAs] and fathers. Dr. Rattan is buoyed by the interest shown by fathers in the programme.“More men are attending the ante-natal clinics throughout the country,” Dr. Rattan shared. Training for these groupings has already been completed in six regions and the remaining four will begin shortly, Dr. Gobin said.Based on current statistics and programmes implemented by the Ministry's Maternal and Child Health Department, Dr. Gobin is forecasting “marked reduction” in maternal deaths in Guyana in the next five years, based on heightened family planning awareness and training of health-care workers managing women suffering with maternal haemorrhage The global twin body, PAHO/WHO, is backing this aspect of the initiative, Dr. Gobin said.

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Cleansing Exercise…

GRA culls 100,000 accounts from database By Kiana Wilburg As part of an ongoing sanitization exercise, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has removed the names of 100,000 accounts from its database. This was recently revealed by GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia. At a press conference held on Friday, Statia explained that GRA’s database was bloated with the names of persons who were dead, retired, migrated for other just ended up in the database because they needed a TIN number to collect their pension. He said however that a cleansing exercise was initiated in February 2018 and several accounts were removed from the list. The Commissioner General said that the exercise is ongoing. It was last year that Kaieteur News broke the story that GRA’s database was bloated with the names of dead people. In explaining how this state of affairs came to be, Statia said, “When they were doing data conversion in the first place, they brought the old database into the new one without cleaning the system of those who died, migrated or people who just don’t exist, etc. “And we have been finding these things. There are a lot of things which need to be straightened out in this regard. The records also need to be cleansed so there is a smooth transition when it is to be married with the lists of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the passport office.” The Chartered Accountant explained that the culprit behind the database being congested with unnecessary accounts is the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) system. He noted that the system is riddled with errors since it was not implemented from the inception with all the accompanying modules. This state of affairs existed for more than 10 years. ACCURACYAFFECTED The system at GRA even affects the accuracy of the annual reporting that is done by Auditor General, Deodat Sharma. For example, the Auditor General’s office reported that for 2015, there were 1,509 taxpayers who failed to file returns registered with the Guyana Revenue Authority. The Auditor General’s office had recommended that the authority put systems in place to ensure that taxpayers comply fully with the requirements of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act concerning the fil-

ing of returns.When GRA officials appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer burning questions on the matter, it was revealed that the number of taxpayers who failed to file returns is 766 and not 1,509. It was explained to the Committee that the recorded 1,509 included persons that were de-registered and those pending de-registration from GRA. Based on steps taken to have the defaulting taxpayers file their returns promptly and comply with the requirements of the VAT Act, it was said that a letter of demand is usually sent to the various persons asking for the submission of the returns. GRA’s Commissioner General also informed the PAC that he could not agree that the 1,509, which was reported at the time of the 2015 figure was correct to begin with. His reason for taking this position is that the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System used by GRA is riddled with errors. He said that if reports are taken from the system, a lot of errors would be recorded. As such, the GRA boss said that there needed to be some reconciliation with what has been transpiring in the TRIPS system and what is being done manually. Statia was asked if the reconciliation could not have been done at the time of the audit. He said that it should have been addressed. Statia said that there were a number of issues which needed to be addressed prior to the report being done, that were not dealt with. He said that he was aghast when he realized that a number of issues were not addressed. Statia became the head of GRA in July 2016. He said that if corrective actions were taken, these errors would not have found their way into the Auditor General’s report. He said that the TRIPS system will continue to be riddled with errors until it is fixed. Further, the tax chief said that when he took office as Commissioner-General, he immediately summoned the Crown Agents responsible for the TRIPS system. He said that what was found was that the Crown Agents were looking at TRIPS in an all-encompassing way. According to Statia, the GRA prefers the system to be implemented by module. Statia said that if this was done, VAT, Customs and certain parts of internal revenue would have been working well. However, he said that the agents were instead working to ‘turn-up’ all the systems simultaneously.

He said that instructions were then given to cease and to be provided with a timeline of the modules being ‘turned-up’. He said that when this was done, the GRA prioritized which module should be implemented first. It was found that the internal revenue modules made more sense to implement first. Hence, attention was placed on the internal revenues, which enable the GRA to do operations such as E-filing and adequately look at assessments of returns. He said that in the case of VAT, there are fewer than 4000 persons of whom close to 1000 should have been deregistered. Statia said that it was decided that the manual system would have worked

best in conjunction with what TRIPS had to offer. As a result, TRIPS is now moving to a place where it should be, Statia said. TAX REFORM REPORT The Commissioner General also noted that the National Tax Reform Report also supports the need for the records of GRA to be merged with the National Insurance Scheme and other agencies. The report notes that based on the comparison of data, there are significantly more employees contributing to NIS than paying tax to GRA. The report said that part of this difference is attributed to the fact that many of the NIS employees may have temporary employment or low income employment

GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia

which is subject to NIS but not PAYE deductions. As at December 31, 2014, the NIS reported 116,467 active employees while the corresponding number of employees who filed income tax returns was 66,497.

The Tax Reform Report states that the administration for the collection of NIS contributions should be handed over to the GRA. It also recognizes the merit of any consolidation exercise between the two agencies.

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Sunday February 03, 2019

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Goodwill exchange Rugby 7s tourney

Guyana Under-19 and Senior men dominate

Guyana’s Patrick King’s (with the ball) pace proved formidable for the French yesterday.

Guyana’s Colette Hope (hidden) ‘suplexes’ a Frenchwoman during the Guyanese first round loss at Police Ground yesterday.

Sunday February 03, 2019 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) It should be easier than usual to concentrate on the practical aspects of finances, Aries. A keener mind combines with enhanced intuition to give you a special edge when it comes to making decisions TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Have you been thinking about attending a seminar of some kind, Taurus, perhaps business related? You and a partner might go together. GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Have you been working hard to attain optimal health? If so, you may suddenly notice that your efforts are finally bearing fruit. You should feel especially fit and strong, though maybe a little lightheaded. CANCER(June21–July22) A long-term love relationship may finally reach the point of total commitment, Cancer. Intense feelings and words of love could suddenly come from your partner LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) A meeting, perhaps related to finances, might take place at your home, Leo. For the most part, the meeting will go well and you will accomplish what you want. Communication flows freely and agreements are easily reached. VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) If you're into writing, Virgo, this is the perfect day to sit down and churn out the words, even if it's only a letter to a friend. Your imagination is especially vivid, your expression clear and understandable, and your vocabulary skills especially acute.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Do you have some paperwork regarding money that you've been putting off, Libra? If so, this is a good day to get it out of the way once and for all. SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Have you wanted to catch up on your reading, Scorpio? If so, this is definitely a good time to stay home, make yourself some tea, and curl up with a good book. If it's a novel, you will enjoy it thoroughly. SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) Intuition and imagination combine with good common sense to enable you to accomplish just about anything today. If you're into the arts, ideas could come to you in profusion. CAPRI(Dec.22–Jan.19) Conversations with friends take on a more serious note, Capricorn. Spiritual matters and beliefs could come up, as could the more pressing mundane details of life. AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18) In case you're surrounded by a lot of people today, you can look forward to a very harmonious day. Your sensitivity is higher than usual, so you will be better able to understand others and be understood as well. PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Learning comes easily to you, Pisces, as your mind is especially sharp and retentive. Your intuition is usually high, but today it's especially acute, as is your concentration.

The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) and the French Guiana Rugby federation continued their partnership which was created in 2017 when developmental squads were sent to the South American nation to engage in a Goodwill Rugby Sevens Series, with the second series between the two countries which scrummed off at the Police Progressive Youth Club (PPYC) ground at Eve Leary. It was also the first instance that Guyana played host to their French counterparts. The Goodwill exchange series, as it was dubbed by President of the GRFU, Peter Green, allowed for three matches each amongst the Under-17, Under-19 and Senior male development teams and a development Women’s team. Guyana got off the ground running during the first round of play winning each category except the female division. A try each from Alex C r a w f o r d a n d Ty r e s s e Prescod spearhead the youngsters to a 14-12 victory in the Under-17 before losing the second round 36-7. In the Under-19 category, two tries from Lionel Holder along with one each from D’Arcy Durant and James Osborne helped the youngsters to a 24-10 triumph in round one before asserting their dominance in round two for a 26-12 win. The Senior Men were superb. Patrick King scored two tries in their initial 14-0 win over the Frenchmen before returning in round two for an

identical drubbing of the colony. The Guyanese women didn’t fare so well, losing both of their first two matches to French Guiana. Up to press time, the

Goodwill Exchange Rugby Sevens Series was still being competed, under lights at the Eve Leary venue. The results from the last round will be published in a subsequent article. (Calvin Chapman)

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Sunday February 03, 2019

GTA annual awards ceremony

Downes, Campbelle, Resaul and Fraser cop top awards The awards ceremony for top performers of the Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) in 2018 was held on Friday evening at the Georgetown Club on Camp Street. At the event which was attending by

President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K.A. Juma-Yassin, Anthony Downes won his seventh senior Male player of the year award, while Cristy Campbell won for females.

On the juniors’ front, Heimraj Resaul was the top male for the third time, while Kalyca Fraser copped the top award for the first time. During her address, the eloquent Campbell expressed

gratitude to everyone that helped made her year successful, “Foremost, I thank God for a healthy and successful 2018 for all of the players. To our sponsors, the entire tennis fraternity is grate-

Kalyca Fraser. ful for your continued support and timely interventions. Mom, there aren’t words to express how appreciative I am for not only your presence tonight, but throughout every aspect of my life. To my coach Dexter and all players not confined to my club, I can assure you that I try to incorporate every bit of advice not only to tennis but generally to be a better person. Thanks also to my trainer Paul, Asad, Linden and Dr. Van West Charles for pushing me above and beyond my comfort zone daily. In conclusion, it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge my friend Nigel for introducing me to this glorious sport of tennis.” Downes who was a bit under the weather spoke briefly, “Thanks to the GTA for support, my family and all who help me along the way.” “Thanks to my coach, parents, friends and sponsors for believing in me along with my

mother especially who’s up and down with me daily to ensure I’m at school and training. I couldn’t ask for a better tennis year and a more supportive team. I look forward to a better 2019 season and I’m confident I’ll continue to do great things,” Junior Champion, Heimraj, shared during his address.Meanwhile, in her first address as champion, Fraser expressed her gratitude for the overwhelming support and her delight in receiving the award. During his address, GOA boss Juman-Yassin, stressed the importance of adhering to anti-doping protocol. He revealed that local federations/ associations have been slack in staying up to date with the exception of the Badminton association. He explained that each athlete should complete the doping test once every three months. (Calvin Chapman)

KMTC Phagwah meet set for March 17 The Kennard Memorial Turf Club (KMTC) Phagwah race meet is now set for March 17 at Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne, Berbice. The meet had been originally set for March 24 but clashed with the Triple Crown first leg of the Jumbo Jet Thoroughbred Committee, but the KTMC decided to shift back their date to March 17. Six races are carded for the day with the feature event being the G1 and lower for a distance of seven furs; the winner will take home $320,000, runner up $160,000, third place $80,000 and fourth place $40,000. Other races listed are LNon Earner which will be contested over a distance of seven furs and will see the

winner pocketing $130,000, runner up $65,000, third and fourth place will earn $33,000 and $17,000 respectively. Three years old Guyana Bred for seven furs and carries a top prize of $250,000, J and K for a winning purse of $200,000, L-Non winner W/A with the winner taking away $150,000 and L Open for a top purse of $180,000. The races will be run under the rules of the Guyana Horse Racing Authority and no late entries will be accepted. Entries can be done through Ivan Dipnarine 3310316, Justice Kennard 6237609 or 225-4818, Fazal Habibulla 657-7010, Dennis DeRoop 640-6396 or Campton Sancho on 691-1174.

Sunday February 03, 2019

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GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial National 2017/2018 Playoffs – Cluster 1

Santos beat BV Triumph United and Corriverton Lynx to book spot in Finals By Franklin Wilson What was a historical day for Guyana’s football yesterday in more ways than one, Georgetown Football Association GFF/ Pele Alumni/ Frank Watson Memorial 2017/ 2018 champs, Santos FC, booked their place in the National Finals after getting past Berbice’s Corriverton Lynx and East Demerara’s BV Triumph yesterday. It was the first of four days of the National Playoffs inclusive of the finals where the winners of the respective Intra Associations League have an opportunity to show case their skills against each other for the right to be called national champions. Santos FC have already put their hands up, signaling their intentions of being crowned inaugural winners

when they defeated Corriverton Lynx 3-0 in yesterday’s final match after thumping BV Triumph United in the opening match of the competition, 2-0. Corriverton Lynx won their opening match against BV Triumph United 3-1 to end with a win and a loss, while BVTU ended without a win. A historic day it was, as it was the first official competition of the federation to be played at a football exclusive venue and one would have experienced its worth given the fact that it rained almost the entire day yesterday but the allweather surface was the perfect counter as the future stars of Guyana displayed their skills, unhindered. Santos nailed the first of-

ficial goal at the venue in the 7th minute against BV Triumph United when a long range shot off the boot of Kevin Mullin sailed over the outstretched hands of BV’s goalie, Raheim McGregor to set the platform for the rest of the day for the GT winners. BV never really threatened Santos’ hold on proceedings even though both sides looked a bit off owing to the length of time the respective Intra Association competitions were concluded. Miguel Scott sealed the deal for Santos with a well composed finish in the 6-yard box on 34 minutes which more or less wrapped up victory in the 70-minute match. The second half did not produce any goals, Santos

Windies clinch Wisden Trophy... From page 78 booming drive at Holder and was bowled for 14 and Joseph, who produced an inspired spell of two for 12 from seven overs, got the first of his wickets when he brought one back to have captain Joe Root caught behind off the inside edge for seven, after the Windies resorted to DRS. The grieving Joseph, displaying extraordinary emotional control, then put an exclamation mark on the session when he removed Denly’s offstump after the right-hander shouldered arms.

Obviously still reeling from the 381-run crushing in the first Test in Bridgetown last weekend, England failed to muster a recovery after the break, as their last six wickets perished for 57 runs. Stokes, dropped before he had scored by Campbell at third slip off Joseph, departed in the fourth over after tea, bowled for 11 missing a drive at Roach and Moeen followed for four in Roach’s next over, also bowled playing around a full length delivery. Tottering on 96 for six, England’s decline continued when Ben Foakes was lbw to

Roach for 13 on review and three balls later in the next over, Jos Buttler fell lbw to Holder, after top-scoring with 24 off 48 balls with five fours. The end drew even nearer when a fired-up Roach got a full length ball to pitch and straighten and hit Broad plumb in front without scoring and Joseph fittingly ended the innings when he dived forward from mid-on to hold a smart catch, after Holder forced Anderson (0) into an awkward defensive stroke. The final Test bowls off in St Lucia next Saturday.

winning, 2-0. The second match of the day saw BV taking on Berbice’s Corriverton Lynx which marched to a solid 3-1 win over their East Demerara peers on account of goal from Michael Cumberbatch in the 7th minute, Alfred Dominic in the 45th minute and Fenny Adrian in the 60th. BV Triumph United at least were able to score one of their own on the Astro Turf when Roydon Chapman netted in the 35th minute to momentarily give them hope which was fully wiped out when Corriverton hit in two unanswered goals in the second half. The win for Berbice set up the perfect final match against

Santos but they turned out to be no match for the latter side which won the match 3-0, all the goals coming in the first half. Raymond Bandhu scored the fastest goal of the competition to date when he blasted the nets in the first minute of the match; his goal scoring effort was duplicated by Shemar Fraser in the 18th minute. Stoll netted his second goal in as many matches when he tucked in the third and final goal for Santos in the 20th minute sealing the fate of the young Berbicians whilst sealing their place in the National Finals which would be contested at the same venue on Saturday Feb-

ruary 16, next. Tabatinga of the Rupununi Football Association have already booked their place in the finals, the two will await the respective winners of clusters 2 and 3. Cluster 2 would be played today at the Providence facility featuring the winners of East Bank FA (Timehri Panthers), West Demerara FA (Eagles FC) and Upper Demerara FA, Milerock FC. Clusters 3 would be contested on Saturday at the Anna Regina Community Centre Ground when the host association’s winner, Dartmouth Determinators, Bartica FA (Rising Stars) and Atkinson Brothers of Region #1 collide.

Ambitious goals set and... From page 79 The GFF Scouting Staff is present and would be at all matches to select the best players that would be drafted in to the national programme if they are not already part of the Academy Training Centers in each Members

Association. TD Greenwood in remarks before Forde also congratulated the teams whilst encouraging the players to, express themselves, enjoy themselves and ensure they care the facility. (Franklin Wilson)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 03, 2019

Windies clinch Wisden Trophy after humbling sorry England NORTH SOUND, Antigua, CMC – A newly invigorated West Indies reclaimed the coveted Wisden Trophy for the first time in a decade after they produced yet another imperious display to thrash a bewildered England by 10 wickets inside three days of the intriguing second Test here yesterday. On another day of high drama at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground when 14 wickets tumbled, West Indies were dismissed in their first innings for 306, about 25 minutes before lunch, but then routed England spectacularly for a dismal 132 in their second innings at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. England were destroyed by Man-of-the-Match seamer

Kemar Roach who snatched all four of his wickets early in the final session to claim four for 52 and match figures of eight for 82, while captain Jason Holder was equally destructive in picking up four for 43. Set just 14 runs to win, left-hander John Campbell (11 not out) smashed the 13th ball of the innings from veteran seamer Jimmy Anderson over the mid-wicket ropes, as West Indies emphatically notched their first series victory over a higher-ranked team in seven years. “[My emotions] are difficult to describe now …,” an overjoyed Holder said afterwards. “I think we’re hungry, we’re hungry for success.

This group has been together for the last year-and-a-half to two years and we’ve been doing some exceptional things. “Credit to the boys for sticking to the task. I think it is something we really wanted and obviously the way we ended last year was a bit daunting as well and everybody wanted to turn things around.” Resuming the day on 272 for six, the hosts lost their last four wickets for 34 runs but importantly secured a 119-run first innings lead to put England under increased pressure. Left-hander Darren Bravo, in only his second Test following a 27-month break, converted his overnight 33 into

exactly 50 – his 17th Test halfcentury. The knock was a marathon one, spanning 216 balls and a shade over six hours and included two fours and a six, marking the slowest-ever half-century by a Windies batsman in Tests. He was last out, stumped off off-spinner Moeen Ali (362), attempting to farm the strike as West Indies sought to add to their lead. England’s bowlers stayed disciplined on the unpredictable surface and were rewarded as Anderson (2-73) claimed two of the wickets to fall while new ball partner Stuart Broad finished with three for 53 and Ben Stokes, two for 58. Holder added three to his

overnight 19 and extended his seventh wicket stand with Bravo to 45 before edging Anderson behind, 35 minutes into the morning, and Roach fell for six nearing the hour mark when he attempted an ambitious drive at Anderson and edged high to Stokes at second slip. Sadness surrounded Alzarri Joseph’s arrival following the news of the early morning death of his mother but the 22-year-old bravely survived 20 balls before perishing to the first ball of a new Stokes spell, edging a defensive prod to be taken low at third slip by Rory Burns going to his right. Openers Joe Denly (17) and Burns (16) then survived four tricky overs before lunch

to carry England to the break on nine without loss, and extended their opening stand to 35 afterwards, with Roach and Shannon Gabriel proving ineffective. The tide changed, however, once Holder and Joseph formed an alliance, and they wrecked England’s top order with two wickets apiece, leaving the visitors in disarray on 75 for four at tea. Holder struck with the first ball of his spell, having the left-handed Burns caught by Campbell at third slip, 40 minutes after the interval, and the dismissal opened the floodgates as England lost four wickets for 24 runs in quick time. Jonny Bairstow missed a (Continued on page 77)

Sunday February 03, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition

Champs Showstoppers march into quarter-finals -ESPN, West Side Ballers, Up Top Bosses also advance The reigning champions Showstoppers set up a mouthwatering quarter-final engagement against West Side Ballers when action in this year’s West Demerara / East Bank Zone of the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition resumes on Wednesday, at the Pouderoyen Market Tarmac. The three-time reigning title holders ended the round robin campaign unbeaten and in the process have looked in ominous form in their quest to successfully defend their crown. Playing in the final game of the night on Friday, Showstoppers easily disposed of Boom Bang 3-0 with leading marksmen Marvin Josiah, who netted a Guinness Goal (any goal that is scored in the final five minutes of play counts as two) and Stephon Jupiter, being the players on target.

However, their opponent, West Side Ballers, the only other team to win the competition which featured since the inaugural year, are no pushovers and could be harbouring ambitions to register an upset. Ballers looked impressive as well during their 4-0 demolition of Phoenix ballers in their final group game with Kevin Frank and Morgan Denny firing in Guinness Goals.Another team that has tongues wagging is ESPN and many believe that after some consistent showing since their first match in the tournament this season and this year could be their year. They drew 1-1 in regulation time against Genna, but survived 2-1 in a penalty shootout to confirm a date with Ballers Empire. Up Top Bosses are a dark horse to go all the way and

the pundits have touted them to progress further into the competition. They won by walkover from Up-Like-7 and will face the stubborn Jetty in the last eight. Bagotstown Warriors and Brothers United complete the line up for Wednesday’s quarterfinals after securing walkovers from Agricola and Dream Team, respectively. Meanwhile, the teams that failed to turn up for their respective matches will face disciplinary action from the Organisers. It was reported that they may be banned from entering future tournaments due to their action. Quarterfinal matchups: Showstoppers vs. West Side Ballers Jetty vs. Up-Top-Bosses ESPN vs. Ballers Empire Bagotstown Warriors vs. Brothers United

Rain ruins play in first round female Inter-county tourney

See final group stage standings below Point Standings Group-A Team GP W Showstoppers [Q] 3 3 Up-Top Bosses [q] 3 2 Boom Bang 3 1 Up-Like-7 3 0 Group-B Team GP W ESPN [Q] 3 3 Brothers United [q] 3 2 Genna 3 1 Dream Team 3 0 Group-C Team GP W Jetty [Q] 3 3 West Side Ballers [q] 3 2 Rising Stars 3 1 Phoenix Ballers 3 0 Group-D Team GP W Bagotstown [Q] 3 3 Ballers Empire [q] 3 2 Young Ballers 3 1 Agricola 3 0 Legend [Q]-Group Winner [q]-Group Ruuner-Up

L 0 1 2 3

GF 7 3 0 0

GA 0 1 6 3

GD +7 +2 -6 -3

Pts. 9 6 3 0

L 0 1 2 3

GF 6 1 4 0

GA 1 2 2 6

GD +5 -1 +2 -6

Pts. 9 6 3 0

L 0 1 2 3

GF 3 7 3 1

GA 3 2 1 8

GD 0 +5 +2 -7

Pts. 9 6 3 0

L 0 1 2 3

GF 0 1 2 1

GA 0 0 1 3

GD 0 +1 +1 -2

Pts. 9 6 3 0

GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial National 2017/2018 Playoffs

Ambitious goals set and will be pursued - President Forde

Despite the efforts of the groundstaff, play was still not possible at Lusignan. No play was possible in the first round of the Guyana Cricket Board senior female inter county 50-over tournament yesterday. Essequibo were scheduled to play the five-time defending champions, Berbice at Lusignan, while Demerara were set to play the Select Under-19 team at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground. Consistent rain kept the covers on the pitches at both venues for the entire day, and both games were abandoned at 14:30hrs. The management of the four teams expressed disappointment at the loss of play but are looking forward to some cricket in the second round today. Berbice will play the Select Under-19 at GCC, while Demerara will oppose Essequibo at Lusignan. Teams; Demerara: Akaze Thompson, Heema Singh, Joanna Vansertima, Lashana Toussaint, Keisha Fraser, Kaysia Schultz, Haseena Mohamed, Latoya Smith, Tamica Wilson, Odassa Oneil, Sangeeta Sawh, Tillya Madnamoodoo, Aryan Kassan, and Shazana Majeed. This team is led by Coach Bharat Mangru and Managed by Abina Parker.

Berbice: Tremayne Smartt, Melanie Henry, Erva Giddings, Sheneta Grimmond, Abigail Kishun, Marian Samaroo, Plaffiana Millington, Kimmone Thomas, Subrina Munroe, Dian Prahalad, Rushanna Lynch, Sherica Campbelle, Aleema Arokium, and Ashmini Munisar. This team is led by Coach Winston Smith and Manager Sylvina Autar. Essequibo: Althea Newark, Estelle Lewis, Kumarie Persaud, Roxanne Hendricks, Divine Ross, Morika McPherson, Petra Hoppie, Aniliza D’Aguiar, Oneissia Stoby, Maria Anthony, Lisa Charles, Navika Narine, Laveena Ragubier, and Tramaine Charles. This team is managed by Verna D’Aguiar while Mr. Forbes Daniel serves as the team Coach. Select Under-19: Mandy Mangru, Sarah Amin, Chirta Mohabir , Casey Charles, Cherry Ann Fraser, Roshin Budhu, Shabika Gajnabi, Amadevi Matadin, Lafona Gilgeous, Africa Gentle, Ariana Buckan, Shemika Edwards, Shanaya Fraser, Reneka Liverpool, and Navina Ramnauth. The team is led by Manager Stimbiso Williams and Coach Latchamn Yadram.

GFF President Wayne Forde officially kicks the ball off to signal the start of action in the Pele Alumni National Playoffs. The historic GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial 2017/2018 National Playoffs was officially kicked off by Federation President Wayne Forde yesterday at Guyana’s first exclusive football facility, located at Providence, East Bank Demerara. Forde performed the ceremonial kick off by passing the ball to GFF Technical Director Ian Greenwood in the presence of the three contesting teams, Santos, Corriverton Lynx and BV Triumph United, Referees, Federation staff including the Academy Coaches, all sharing in the historic moment. Forde, in feature remarks stated that the day was an

important chapter in the nation’s history as it saw the coming into competitive existence of an exclusive facility that will see the game being played unhindered even in the rainy season as was the case yesterday. He emphasized that Guyana now has one of the most fundamental assets that is needed to lift the standard and level of the game, citing the fact that the GFF has set a number of ambitious goals and would be pursuing same. Promising that Guyana would be one of the leading nations at the Caribbean Football Union level in the near future, Forde opined that all stakeholders would have to

buy in to the dream that would be unfolded before everyone’s eyes in time to come. He posited that the first step in that journey began yesterday. Congratulating all the teams for winning their respective leagues thus earning a place in the finals, the federation boss said that there will be no losers in the competition but there must be a champion. Sincere gratitude was expressed to the Pele Alumni which has invested and partnered with the GFF to bring off a multi-year competition aimed at building the next generation of footballers. (Continued on page 77)

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Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

CWI Regional First-Class Championships

Red Force win by 93 runs with over a day to spare - Jaguars, despite successive losses, still maintain lead By Sean Devers in Trinidad In association with Lifetime Real Estate, Cascadia Hotel and Star Party Rental Put it down to coincidence or call him a lucky charm, but since Esuan Crandon was replaced by Dr Shivnarine Chanderpaul, due to his elevation to the Windies Coaching staff, Jaguars’ 15-match winning streak was broken with consecutive defeats, while the Windies have won both Tests against England. Resuming yesterday on 264-5 at the Queen’s Park Oval, Red Force scored only 53 runs leaving the Jaguars to get 276 to win but seven wickets in the final session condemned the four times defending Championsto 182 and a 93-run defeat; their first against the Red Force in this tournament and fifth in the 46match history of Regional First-Class Franchise cricket. It was also the first time Guyana has lost consecutive games in over a decade. Four wicket hauls from pacer pair Kemo Paul and Raymond Reifer had conspired to dismiss T&T’s Red Force for 317 midway in the first session of the sixth round of the CWI Regional First-Class Champions. Jason Mohammed top scored with 83 from 204 balls with nine four and added 89 for the sixth wicket with Imran Khan who made 46 from 103 balls with four boundaries. Khan was one of three batsmen to fall in the 40s, while Pacer Oden Smith hit a

Kemo Paul took 4-84 including the wicket of Bryan Charles yesterday to take 7 wickets in the match. cameo 23-ball 27 decorated with four fours and a six. Paul had 4-84 for match figures of 7-110, while Reifer finished with 4-64 for a match haul of 6-84. The day began promisingly for the Trinis, with 32year-old Mohammed 21 away from an eighth First-Class century and Imran Khan, once an opening batsman, on 40 at the crease in glorious sunshine. The handful of fans that turned up at the Oval at a time when Carnival activities are in full swing across the 1,841 square mile Island of Trinidad, must have been inspired by the fact that the Jaguars bowlers had toiled all day on Friday on a track on which 20

wickets tumbled on the first day but only five fell on day two as Red Force fought back. However, it took the Jaguars a little over an hour to dislodge the remaining five wickets yesterday and limited their victory target to under 300, when it seemed at the close of day two with the Red Force on 264-5 and their lead 222, the hosts were in a good position to give the Jaguars a target in excess of 300 in a season in which they have lost three of their previous four games. But the pendulum had swung back in Red Force’s favour as wickets tumbled in the last session which saw the Jaguars collapsing despite a pugnacious 58-ball 50

Odean Smith went after Reifer in his cameo 27 yesterday.

Jason Mohammed cuts Kemo Paul who had him LBW for 83. with seven fours and a six from Romario Shepherd; his third fifty at this level. Only Chanderpaul Hemraj (30) of the other batsmen reached 30 as Imran Khan had 3-45, while Bryan Charles, Anderson Phillips and Oden Smith had two each. By Lunch the Jaguars had reached 29 without loss in 46 minutes with Hemraj who spanked Ravi Rampaul for a couple of boundaries, not out on 20 and Tagenarine Chanderpaul on nine. After the Interval, Red Force made the breakthrough when Hemraj edged to the Keeper off Smith at 44-1. Chanderpaul and Leon Johnson were kept in shackles and struggled to get the ball way as Rampaul bowled an impeccable off-stump line as the 50 came up in 20 overs. With the score on 61, Chanderpaul, who again failed to find the gaps and faced 86 dot balls in his 94ball 19, was relieved of his misery when he was LBW to the impressive Rampaul. Vishaul Singh (0) turned Byran Charles off his pads and was stupendously taken at silly mid-on; left handed by Jeremy Solozano a run later to leave the Jaguars on 62-3. Johnson, in ultra-defensive mode, was joined by Reifer, the fifth consecutive left-hander in the batting order, and by Tea the Jaguars were 79-3, still needing 197 to win their fifth game for the season with the Captain on 21 from 84 balls and Reifer on five from 26 balls. After the break the Jaguars lost Johnson without addition to the Tea time score when he fell to Charles off the

second ball of the last session. Reifer (5) edged Phillip to the Keeper at 81-5 and Anthony Bramble (3) missed a sweep and was LBW to Khan at 89-6 before Paul and Romario Shepherd joined forces and tried to revive the position. But Paul (19) just after hitting Khan onto the Media Stand and with the partnership on 32, tried to repeat the shot and skied Khan to midon as the Jaguars suck to 1217. It was soon 136-8 when Smith had Pestano (2) LBW but Berbician Shepherd kept attacking but soon lost Veerasammy Permaul (9) when he edged Phillip to the Keeper at 160-9. Gudakesh Motie (15) hit three consecutive boundaries and added 22 with Shepherd who was last out when he missed a sweep off of Khan and was LBW. Earlier, Mohammed got

going with a boundary off the 20-year-old Paul who soon trapped Mohammed LBW at 270-6 and while Khan cut Reifer for four, the Bajan leftarm pacer had the last laugh when Khan edged to Johnson at slip when four short of his 12th fifty at 2857. Charles (5) was beaten for pace to a Paul short ball and lobbed a catch to cover at 303-8 before Smith threw caution to the wind in a cameo 27. He first hit Paul like a bullet to the ropes at cover before launching into Reifer and smashing him down the ground for four and lofted him for a one-bounce boundary over mid-wicket before depositing him over head for six next ball. But he was bowled by Paul after hitting four fours and a six at 315-9 before Reifer had Anderson Phillip (2) LBW to polish off the innings.

Flying Ace Cycle Club 2019 season rides off today The Flying Ace Cycle Club (FACC), which is touted as one of the most active cycling entities in Guyana, will begin its 2019 cycle season today with a 40 miles cycle road race on the West Coast of Berbice. The event, which is for riders of the FACC only, is being sponsored by Neshaun Rigby Sr. Rigby is the father of BMX riders Neshaun jr and Nehaum Rigby and the race is being staged in observation of Neshaun Jr

13th birthday. The event will see the riders pedaling off from 10:00hrs at the Lovely Lass Middle Dam before proceed to Abary and turning back to finish at its place of origin.There will be prizes for the first five finishers, the first two veterans. There will also be prizes for the top 1214 finishers and the top 1214 and 9-12 BMX riders. There are also eight prime point prizes up for grabs.The coordinator is Randolph Roberts.

Sunday February 03, 2019

Kaieteur News

Banks DIH Faraz Harry hands over the cheque to Cyclist Balram Narine as Banks DIH Regional Manager Reginald Matthews at left, Sales Manager Nandram Basdeo at right and Coach Randolph Roberts share the moment.

Banks DIH Limited Berbice Branch rewards Flying Ace Cycle Club outstanding riders Banks DIH Limited Berbice Branch continues to show it’s through cooperative spirit by rewarding cyclist from the Flying Ace Cycle Club (FACC) for their outstanding performance throughout the year. The company through its Rainforest Waters brand presented the winners of the club’s “Track Attack” Cycle race held earlier with incentives. A simple presentation ceremony was held at Banks DIH Limited Berbice Branch office at Main and New Street New Amsterdam. Among those present were Banks DIH Limited Berbice Regional Manager Mr. Regional Matthews and FACC founder and coach Randolph Roberts. Banks BIH acting Berbice sales Manager Nandram Basdeo, in speaking to those in

attendance, spoke about Banks DIH’s commitment to developing Guyana’s most valuable resource. He said the Human Resource is most valuable in any country. Mr. Basdeo also spoke about the company’s long association with the FACC. He pledged the company’s continue support on behalf of the CEO and Executives. Sales Supervisor Fawaaz Harry in presenting the cheque to Champion rider Balram Narine spoke about the importance of supporting various sports disciplines. He also took the opportunity to share words of encouragement to those in attendance. Roberts took the opportunity to express his heartfelt appreciation to Banks DIH and urged other businesses to come on board and support sport and youth development in the Ancient County.

Annual Easter Term Schools Windball starts tomorrow

ational Sports Commission in association with The Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham Foundation and AL Sport & Tour Promotions 28th A n n u a l E a s t e r Te r m Schools Windball Cricket Champions Trophy will get on the way tomorrow, Monday February 4, at the National Gymnasium. Opening ceremony starts at 10:00am and will see

Director of Sport C. A. J o n e s , V. A l e x a n d e r ( L F S B F ) , N S C Commissioner R. Belgrave along with other officials involved in that ceremony. S c h o o l s f r o m Georgetown will be in action tomorrow, while on Tuesday the East Bank Demerara Schools and on Wednesday schools from Region #3 will be in action. Mr. Alister Munroe is the Organiser of the Programme.

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t r o Sp GTA annual awards ceremony

Windies clinch Wisden Trophy Downes, Campbelle, Resaul and Fraser after humbling sorry England cop top awards Anthony Downes.

Man-of-the-match Kemar Roach got into his stride after a slow start to take eight wickets in the match. (Windies cricket/Flickr)

Historical! Santos’ Kevin Mullin scores the first goal at the GFF Training Facility, Providence beating Corriverton Lynx’ Goalie, Raheim McGgegor yesterday. (Franklin Wilson photo)

Cristy Campbell.

GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial National 2017/2018 Playoffs – Cluster 1

Kevin Mullin

Santos beat BV Triumph United and Corriverton Lynx to book spot in Finals Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd., 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown. Tel: 225-8458, 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/226-8210.