Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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Letters... Where your views make the news...Letters... Where your views make the news
Economic, political and social changes are inseparable DEAR EDITOR, Last week we identified failures and missed opportunities, as a preview to the challenges ahead. We now conclude with the specific experiences. President Granger recently said, “…2016 presents a new opportunity for Guyana to hasten economic development by diversifying the traditional sectors and venturing into more valueadded enterprises that will promote sustained economic growth…’. Diversification is absolutely necessary;
however, the latest proposal must be more credible than previous declarations, in order that the people might believe it. Diversification should not be an activity, lost in the general scheme of the programme for economic development. Because of where Guyana is today politically, socially and economically, and because so many ingredients are needed for diversification to succeed one may argue that, by itself, diversification may have to be the National Economic
Development Strategy. Diversification was at the heart of the plan to ‘Feed, Clothe and House the nation by 1976’. How else could such big dreams be achieved without diversification? Well, Sananta Textiles was part of the plan to ‘clothe’, but it was just sold to Bobby Ramroop ending the dream permanently. It was part of the PNC’s plan, some 20 years before the PPP came to power in 1992. Add 23 more years during which Guyanese got a National Development
Strategy 2000-2010, from the PPP. Under Chapter 2 National Objectives, paragraph 2.18 reads, ‘Fifth is the objective of diversifying the economy…The country cannot continue to depend on a narrow economic base, especially one that is so dependent on preferential agreements and tariffs...’ etc.etc. etc. That was 15 years ago. Then one thought that diversification should be in Budget Speeches. One was randomly selected. “Section B: Investments for
The pastor hits back at his critics DEAR EDITOR, I have absolutely no interest in being politically correct! I will not base m y v a l u e s o r my submissions on the calculated assumption that some person will not like me or – in light of the upcoming Local Government Elections – will not vote for me. I will be true to my conscience. I recently wrote on the ganja legalization issue and I am receiving some severe flack for it. One man even told me that I “used” to be his friend but because of my latest article, I am no longer his friend. The argument that many are proffering is that weed is a naturally grown herb, or that it has medicinal propensities, or that ganja is now legal in some countries and many states in the USA. I agree with all the afore- mentioned summations. What I would like to submit myself is that in all the countries and states that marijuana is legal, there are restrictions on the amount one can have and in some cases, there is the requirement that possession of the drug be accompanied by a medical
certificate. Spinach, broccoli and cabbage are all naturally grown herbs, yet there are no restrictions to the amount that one can carry around. Why? Because spinach, or broccoli, or cabbage are not hallucinogens, neither are they addicting, and they do not alter the normal functioning of the brain. Every study done on marijuana shows that the drug – as medicinally beneficial as it is – also contains harmful doses of chemicals that should not be imbibed by humans. So when the marijuana abolitionists come up against me, they must first admit that my arguments find residence in scientific facts. There are also studies which show that those who use pot on a regular basis are more inclined to violent behaviour and are less academically inclined than those who do not use it. These are facts which cause the limitation and restrictions which follow all of the relaxations of the marijuana laws in other countries and they are also the reasons why the federal government in the USA has
not slackened its prohibition of the substance. Additionally, the countries where marijuana is legalized or where the penal consequences are relaxed all have more medical personnel and better psychiatric facilities than ours. The countries that are moving ahead with allowing controlled amounts of ganja, all have contingencies in place to deal with the related medical fall-out. I am in touch with persons in the local mental health arena who have hard facts to show that there is a direct correlation between marijuana usage and some of the local mental health problems. Also, I work with the street people in Guyana and I interact with them on a daily basis and I see and hear their stories. Many of them say that before they got to cocaine, alcohol or weed was the precursor drug that paved their way into the world
of ‘harder’ drugs. So, Mr. Editor, your readers must understand that I am not saying that persons caught with marijuana for personal use should be severely incarcerated. Indeed, I am on the side of those who think that there needs to be a discussion on the legal penalties associated with marijuana and the Rastafarian community who use it as a religious sacrament. However, not until we have fully discussed all the pros and cons on this issue, and not until we staff our medical institutions with the relevant personnel, should Marijuana be legalized. We owe that much to our vulnerable little boy and girls. And if I have to lose a few more friends and even if I have to risk losing an opportunity to represent my constituency because I refuse to be politically correct, then so be it. Pastor Wendell P. Jeffrey
Transformation”, paragraph 4.10 of the 2008 Budget Speech declare that, “our Government places high priority on actively promoting accelerated diversification of the economy”. Note that at this stage, the idea is merely to promote diversification; it is not a big objective. Furthermore, one reflected on the PPP’s 2015 Manifesto because the 20002010 Strategy plus 5 years is 15 years. Well, one was not disappointed; it is there under the section “Our Vision”. It reads, ‘…A country with a sustainable, expanded, modern and diversified economy with new frontiers of economic growth, jobcreation programmes and t r a n s f o r m a t i v e infrastructure…’,bla, bla, bla. What happened since 2000? For 15 years diversification went nowhere but by 2020 Guyanese will see real action. In other words Mr. Editor, the story is that after 43 years the people still await implementation of a diversified economy, because it is still the same rice, sugar, timber, and mining. Mr. Editor, one imagines that diversification means change, and in the context of where
Guyana is today economic diversification will not succeed without accompanying political and social changes, plus a good dose of national inspiration. In the national economic context diversification will take time; especially because it needs a sustained supply of financial resources; educated, trained and an energised people; technological capabilities in the areas to be developed; governmental organization and capacity to execute and manage; and an enabling environment for public and private investment, which not only takes time to implement per se, but also takes time to bear fruit and pay off, and so on. Which of these Guyana ever had in abundant supply in the past 43 years, or have in ready supply today, let alone a combination of several of them? Add to these a country that is, by design, politically divided, and one in which the population is, from all appearances, not pulling in the same direction. The population does not strike an observer as an optimistic, exuberant, high spirited people who are inspired and Continued on page 23
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Kaieteur News
Monday January 18, 2016
Concessions granted under PPP must be renegotiated - Govt. Official
The A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) had promised that once it assumes office, it would release many of the concession agreements which were signed between the PPP regime and certain foreign investors. This campaign promise is yet to be fulfilled. Kaieteur News had asked the Minister with some responsibility for the Natural Resources Sector, Raphael Trotman when government will release these concession agreements, specifically those signed with Chinese logging company, Bai Shan Lin Forest Development Inc. Trotman said that the possibility does exist for this to happen but he would have to speak with the Finance Minister, Winston Jordan for guidance on that matter, since the subject of concessions falls under his portfolio. But when contacted, Jordan said that his office is not in possession of those agreements and the respective sectors would have those documents, given the manner in which such deals were done under the previous government. He said that in any case, while the Government promised to make those contracts public, they may be subject to confidentiality clauses. As a result of this, he noted that this would inhibit the move by Government to expose the agreements. Another Government official explained, “Based on some of the information we already have, some of the concession deals brokered with some foreign investors border on illegality. We will have to renegotiate some of these deals and ensure that
they fall in line with the law because as it is, it creates an unhealthy and an unlevel playing field for others who were not allowed such lavish concessions and tax breaks.” Also sharing his views on the matter yesterday was University Professor, Dr. David Hinds. He said that he agrees that there must be the renegotiation of the extravagant concession packages which were granted to certain companies under the PPP rule. “But in doing so, you have to have a bottom line. The first bottom line should be that concessions must fall within the ambit of the law; they must not violate Guyanese law in letter or spirit. Second, our negotiators must always ensure that there is a fair balance between the conditions under which we seek to attract capital investments and the protection of our workers. In other words we must never negotiate away from the adherence to best practices in labour relations. “We must ensure at all cost that Guyanese workers are utilized if those skills exist in Guyana and that they are paid living wages and assured work safety and adequate conditions. Third, in instances where investments are in areas of our natural resources our negotiators must ensure that the concessions are not so liberal that the country does not get adequate returns in the form of taxes etc. We must not in the haste to attract investments negotiate away ownership and control. One of the things, for example, we must insist on is re-investment of some of the profits in the country. There is no guarantee that one gets everything one asks for. But
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan
University Professor, Dr. David Hinds
Bai Shan Lin Director, Chu Hongbo
Minister Raphael Trotman
there must be clear bottom lines and we must always pose to ourselves the primary question—how in the first and last instance does this investment benefit Guyana and its working people?” The University Professor also stated that it is very important to know who will be negotiators. “We have to have at all times negotiators who are nationalists and not simply advocates of trickle-down economics. And we have to make sure that our negotiators are people of integrity who would not negotiate away our patrimony in exchange for their personal enrichment,” asserted Dr. Hinds. Chinese logging giant, BaiShanLin is one of the foreign companies which has benefited from millions of dollars worth in concessions under the PPP. But after 10 years, this company is yet to deliver on its promise of a wood processing facility in Guyana. And its Indian counterpart, Vaitarna Holding Private Incorporated (VHPI), after three years, is still to get the ball rolling on its promise of significant value added operations of a similar nature. Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas says that such behaviour from companies which have benefitted significantly from Guyana’s forest resources is absolutely “unacceptable”. He had said that he would be recommending to the David Granger-led administration for some of their concessions to be taken away. “Guyana cannot continue to be giving out hundreds of millions of dollars worth in
these tax breaks or concessions and we aren’t benefitting from value added operations. If companies make a commitment to do so then the ethical thing to do is to deliver what was promised. If not, their concessions should be taken away. They need to face sanctions of that nature or probably something stronger. Bai Shan Lin and Vaitarna have become logging giants in this country and by its own actions, it is clear that we should review all of their concessions. I would be advising the President of taking such actions. My position on this is clear; they need to cut off some of their benefits,” the economist said. “This is obviously not part of how one promotes the suitability of an economy and an industry and we cannot continue to go this route. Allowing this sort of behaviour to continue sends a dangerous message to other potential investors and local companies. What has the Guyana Forestry Commission done regarding such infractions? Is this not important? “We really need to change the landscape of the way business is done in the logging industry and eliminate this kind of slackness we allow these companies to get away with. This is not about whether you are foreign or not. At the end of the day it is what is right for the development of the country and quite frankly these two companies have just been taking and taking and not fulfilling their promises of considerable value added operations. It has been years now, so what can possibly be their excuse?
They need to face serious sanctions.” In 2014, BaiShanLin blamed the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for delaying its application for its wood processing factory. In one of its advertisements, the company stated that in 2008, it applied to the “Government of Guyana, through the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and other agencies, to lease lands to set up a factory to process logs and engage in value-added production, such as the making of furniture, craft and hardwood flooring.” It had said then that it was experiencing delays. Kaieteur News later reported that GO-Invest had had no such application. BaiShanLin had nothing to say when this was revealed. This caused many, including the then opposition, to challenge the previous government to make public the investment agreement it signed onto with the Chinese logging company. This was never done. In April, last, the company then blamed the “hostile” media reports during 2014 for dispiriting financiers. In a statement, the Chinese company had said that it is concerned about the apparent “misrepresentations and false reports” being carried by some sections of the media on its operations in Guyana. It identified this publication as the leader of the “hostile” campaign and even cited a KN article with the headline: ‘BaiShanLin delays US$70M wood processing factory for gold, housing, logging.’ But in its statement, it did not deny that it was approved ‘US$70M’ for certain activities. With regard to the wood processing plant in the Linden area that was to be constructed, BaiShanLin, one of the largest exporters of the country’s prime species of wood, had complained that it has indeed suffered major
setbacks in completing its wood processing facility that will create hundreds of jobs for Guyanese. It claimed that these “setbacks” directly relate to lack of adequate funding from its financiers, who, since last year “when these sustained attacks began,” became concerned about the “soundness of investing further in what appeared to be a hostile environment.” Amidst harsh criticisms of its operations during 2014 and earlier this year in several quarters, BaiShanLin insisted that it has consistently remained well within the law/regulations governing the forestry sector. It has been reported on extensively, by insiders and other well-informed critics, including Dr. Janette Bulkan, a forestry specialist, that BaiShanLin practices landlordism. The Timber Sales Agreement (TSAs) which governs logging does not allow that. In fact, the company has become the third largest holder of state forests in the country. A d d i t i o n a l l y, Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI) had said that given the conflicting reports on whether BaiShanLin and Vaitarna operations are in conformity with our laws, specifically the Guyana Forestry Commission Act and the Environmental Protection Act , their contracts should be made public. It had issued this call to the past administration, but this was also ignored. In view of the public outrage at the extent to which these two companies were said to be exploiting the forests resources, TIGI also called on the past administration to place a halt on their operations. But this was as the old adage goes; “throwing water on duck’s back.” Instead, the Donald Ramotar Government chose to defend the two companies.
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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Israel licks wounds as Iran sanctions Maldives puts conditions on jailed ex-leader for UK end, looks to future U.S. aid Reuters - Israel bristled yesterday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe’s nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defense aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday ruled Iran had abided by last July’s deal with world powers curbing its nuclear program, spelling a windfall in sanctions relief. A parallel Iranian-U.S. prisoner exchange, devised in secrecy, drove home the adversaries’ desire to reengage diplomatically. The developments put paid to years of intensive Israeli lobbying for more comprehensive curbs on Tehran - a campaign that strained relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Netanyahu sounded unrepentant yesterday - even as one Israeli official grudgingly commended Iran’s statecraft and a former senior adviser to the prime minister accused him of having pursued a dangerously failed strategy. “Were it not for our efforts to spearhead the
sanctions and foil Iran’s nuclear program, Iran would have already had nuclear weapons long ago,” Netanyahu told his cabinet. He called on world powers to impose “harsh, aggressive sanctions” for any nuclear violations by Iran actions which, his office said in an earlier statement, Israel would “continue monitoring and flagging up”. Speaking to reporters at the White House yesterday, Obama repeated U.S. assurances to the security of Israel and other regional allies. “We remain steadfast in opposing Iran’s destabilizing behavior ... including its threats against Israel and our Gulf partners, and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen,” Obama said. Ram Ben-Barak, directorgeneral of Israel’s Intelligence Ministry, predicted Iran would invest in economic recovery in the coming years while remaining able to restart its nuclear drive “overnight”. “The Iranians are celebrating, and rightly so. They managed to spin everyone around their little finger,” Ben-Barak told Israel’s Army Radio. “The Americans are satisfied because, in their
Benjamin Netanyahu thinking, diplomacy succeeded. But we are very, very worried and the Gulf countries are very, very worried and it is absolutely clear to everyone that this hiatus is utterly temporary,” Ben-Barak said. Israel argues that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran has been eclipsed, for the time being, by the threat of conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other guerrillas who now stand to get increased funding from Tehran. That, along with the sectarian strife rippling through the region, has prompted Israel to request a
boost in U.S. defense aid to as much as $5 billion annually when the current package worth an average of $3 billion expires next year. Netanyahu said those negotiations were in the final stages. “This is important as part of the fixed policy between us and the United States, our ally, and also important in order to fend off the regional threats, chief of which is the Iranian threat, of course,” he said. U.S. officials have said the Obama administration was unlikely to fully meet the Netanyahu government’s request for increased aid, though they affirmed Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security. Uzi Arad, a former Netanyahu national security adviser, said Israel’s naysaying on the Iran deal had eroded its leverage - especially with Obama, an outgoing Democratic president who saw the rightist premier as siding with his Republican rivals. “The question is, do we today have an understanding with the Americans as to what should be done if there is thisor-that (nuclear) violation? I’m not so sure,” Arad told Israel Radio.
travel – lawyers
Reuters - The Maldives yesterday backtracked on an unconditional agreement to allow jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed to travel to Britain for surgery, his lawyers said. On Saturday, the government granted permission for Nasheed to travel after pressure from the international community including human rights groups and his lawyer Amal Clooney, who lobbied for sanctions on Maldives leaders. However, the government has since demanded that a close relative remain behind in the Maldives’ capital Male “effectively as a hostage” until Nasheed’s return to jail, said Hassan Latheef, another of Nasheed’s lawyers. “The government reneged on the agreed deal at the last minute, demanding a close family member of Nasheed remain in Male, effectively as a hostage, until he returns from the UK,” Latheef told Reuters. “If Nasheed does anything that breach the terms of the government, the family member could then be criminally prosecuted. This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous.” President Abdullah Yameen agreed to grant Nasheed permission to leave the country on medical grounds after pressure from rights groups and the United Nations. Political colleagues say Nasheed is suffering from back pain. Eva Abdullah, Nasheed’s family spokesperson, told Reuters that Nasheed’s lawyers were never informed of any conditions through British, Indian, and Sri Lankan diplomats who helped secure the deal and Nasheed “will not barter somebody else’s freedom for his”. Home Minister Umar Naseer said the law required the nomination of a family member as a guarantor and added that Nasheed could depart to the airport the moment he authorises a family nominee. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. The United Nations, the United States and human rights groups have said Yameen’s government failed to follow due process and that the case was politically motivated.
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Kaieteur News
Monday January 18, 2016
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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WALK IN THE CORNER I hope that what I am thinking is not true. I hope that the brother and sister whose car Sergeant Pyle and his accomplice were chasing do not end up being scapegoats for his death, that of his wife and the driver of the canter also involved in the accident. We must not put anything past the authorities in Guyana. The surveillance that is believed to be taking place in Guyana shows that Guyana has reached the stage where some people feel they have a right to go after persons without any respect for those persons’ rights and freedoms. They feel that they have the power to do what they want and everyone must submit to their actions. That is not how a democratic country works and therefore Guyana will be on the road towards once again becoming an authoritarian state if such conduct is condoned.
It would be more than a miscarriage of justice if that driver of the car being pursued is cha. It would be a perversion of justice for the young people who were trying to escape an unlawful arrest (or a possible kidnapping) to be blamed for that accident. It would be a travesty of justice if this happens. All accidents have to be investigated but a traffic accident only investigates the traffic side of the matter that is the cause of the accidents. But not all accident investigations have to go to the Director of Public Prosecutions. In fact, accident files rarely go to the Office of the DPP since traffic cases involving careless or dangerous driving are prosecuted mainly by police prosecutors. What will go to the DPP is if there is a recommendation for causing death by dangerous driving It is perplexing that the file
on this matter is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecution. This can only mean that charges have been recommended against someone and since charges cannot be recommended against a dead person, then it cannot be Sergeant Pyle who is to be charged. In a case like this, the investigation into the traffic aspects cannot be divorced from a wider investigation into the chase. Anyone who feels that they are being pursued in possible kidnapping drama cannot be blamed for taking steps to protect themselves from the possible kidnapping or unlawful detention. In other words, the young driver of the car being pursued by Sergeant Pyle had every right to seek his own safety and it will be travesty of justice if he is now to be charged. A traffic investigation
Youths have greater role to play in tackling social issues - Minister Lawrence says at TIP walkathon
“You have a greater role in the solution of many social problems, and therefore you must continue to broaden your physical and social networks so that we can impact more lives.” So said Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence yesterday, as she urged youths participating in a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Walkathon to create more awareness of human trafficking. Minister Lawrence pointed out that while the event seeks to build awareness about preventing Trafficking in Persons, young people everywhere are grappling with their own problems. “Let’s extend our reach to them as well. We need to care more, talk to each other more and importantly, listen more.” She noted that the best place to start this campaign is in the school system, where there is direct access to the young population. Teachers also have a significant role to play, the Minister added. “They have been influential in delivering the academic curriculum. Students, you are extremely important to stopping human trafficking. Speak to your peers about the dangers and how they could say no. Look out for each other, to deter recruiters. I sit on the Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons and I can tell you of the high level
of commitment to persecute persons charged with the offence of TIP; and the commitment to rehabilitate and reintegrate victims into society.” It was explained that the Ministry is also working with non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to provide better services and facilities for TIP victims but much more work needs to be done. Minister Lawrence cited that among the challenges faced is removing the hinterland population from the periphery of national development. “As you are aware, it is there that TIP mostly occurs. We have to change this. We need to educate more of our people, especially your peers to be suspicious of
employment offers that seem too good to be true”. Minister Lawrence said she was heartened by the response from young Guyanese who supported the awareness drive aimed at stopping the crime of human trafficking. “There is power in numbers, the presence of the young people at today’s event sends a strong message. “We will not condone exploitation and trafficking of persons. We are free beings who should not be coerced into sexual arrangements and exploited for the material gains of others. There is no price attached to humans. Let’s burn the price tag,” the Minister stressed. “Together we can do this. Let’s spread the word, take action today. Stop human trafficking.”
cannot suffice in this matter. The traffic investigation deals with the cause of the accident. From all accounts, it was Sergeant Pyle whose reckless decision to initiate an illegal arrest led to a chain of events that culminated in the accident. The traffic matter therefore should not lead to any prosecution but the police have been known to do the most unusual things in this country. The public should wait and see what happens in this
case. It will be a litmus test of what can be expected in the days ahead. It is also all the more reason why there should be a commission of inquiry into this matter. The actions of Sergeant Pyle and company need to be brought under scrutiny because if the military is being used to spy on citizens, if the military is being used to try to effect arrests then it needs to be determined under whose authority these operations are being
undertaken and since when are military personnel being given powers of arrest. Unless we get to the bottom of these issues, it is hard to determine just why Sergeant Pyle was outside of that house on Cowan Street, staking out the members of a family who were not in Guyana at the time. In the meantime, all Guyanese should be careful!
Dem boys seh...
Soulja Bai tunning a scamp When Jagdeo, that scamp, get into office he decide that de people money was he own. He tek so much that he can’t spend. But he gun dead. Dem boys don’t know when and certainly dem don’t know how. Dem boys believe that a time gun come when he would be willing to hire other people to die for him. Dem boys read a Jewish proverb which seh “If de rich could hire other people to die for dem then de poor would mek a wonderful living. De way Soulja Bai and Rum Jattan running de country de poor would certainly advertise demself for hire fuh dead. Saddam invade Kuwait and right away de oil price jump to more than US$100 a barrel from under US$30 a barrel. At de time Guyanese was paying under $200 a gallon fuh gasoline. When it jump to US$100 a barrel dem start fuh sell fun $1000 a gallon. Now it gone back below US$30 a barrel and de people still paying de same $1000 a gallon.
Can this be fair? Dem boys hear that Soulja Bai and Rum Jattan collecting de extra money and nobody know wha dem doing wid it. Dem don’t even know wheh dem putting it. Yesterday, scampish Jagdeo tell Soulja Bai fuh cut down dem lavish spending because de country don’t have money. In de same breath he seh he gun pursue vigorously in court he extravagant pension package wha Soulja Bai and Rum Jattan dem tek way. Dem boys want to know wha king of human being this SOB is. This is a heartless and
mean man. All he care is about heself and de wealth he got in Miami and around de world. Dem boys seh it look like Soulja Bai and Rum Jattan, de two men who leading de parties in Govt following every move, every footstep that scamp Jagdeo mek. Dem boys seh both of dem can use dem conscience and drop de fuel price suh de poor people and de nation can benefit. And if dem don’t have conscience one of dem can use dem foot and de other one can use he hand fuh drop. Talk half and watch to see wha coming next.
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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SHOULD HANGING BE RESUMED?
A mother’s struggle for justice that came, but never felt “The last pain I may feel for the loss of my son may be on my death bed…I am happy that I will never see his killer’s face again.”
By Abena Rockcliffe She laboured tirelessly as a single parent to put Vibert Mohan through school. But on his first day off to work, his life was taken in cold blood. Ursula Mohan will never get the image of her son’s lifeless body lying on the street out of her head. Vibert’s life was taken by Rockcliffe Ross, a drug addict, who relieved him of his jewellery. Ross’s criminal spree came to an end when he was hanged on June 4, 1996. What measure of justice would be enough for such a heinous crime? That’s a question that still boggles Ursula. Some might say that justice has been served but Ursula still feels shortchanged. Ursula recalled yesterday how hard she fought to secure what she thought would have led to closure. But even the hanging of her son’s killer did not fill the space that was created when she lost her “baby boy.” Vibert was the last of five children. He was described as a bright lad with a promising future. Ursula became a widow 10 years before her son died. A woman who had never worked a day in her life was left with five children to take care of and while the others were older, Vibert was but a young lad. Ursula said she made the necessary sacrifices to ensure that Vibert got a good education. The sacrifice paid off when the now dead teen graduated with five CXC passes, but he never got to repay his mother and she was deprived the joy of seeing her son shine brighter. It was at around 7:30 am on September 18, 1989, when 16-year-old Vibert left his South Ruimveldt home and headed over into Perry Street,
Tucville, to take his niece to school. It was five days after his 16th birthday and Vibert was wearing a Seiko watch, a gold chain and a ring he got as gifts. After taking his niece to school, Vibert was supposed to head to work at Guyana Stores Limited, but his journey was cut short. Yesterday, Ursula recalled that when she got the message about her son’s demise, she collapsed. Regaining her consciousness, she visited the murder scene where she fainted again. Vibert’s body was still on the roadway. She observed that his watch and jewellery were missing. His hands were still clenched but the finger on which he had worn the ring was stretched out with a bite mark on it. Vibert had also sustained multiple stab wounds. Eyewitnesses at the scene recalled seeing another youth chase Vibert, stab him, and relieve the slain youth of his valuables before fleeing. Ross used to be an inmate of the New Opportunity Corps (NOC). Coming out of that facility, he began making frequent visits to the Georgetown Prisons for various offences. Ross had reportedly only recently left prison when he attacked and killed Vibert Mohan for his watch, chain, ring and $300. He was charged with murder and on April 23, 1992, he was found guilty and sentenced to die by judicial hanging. While Ursula fought for Ross to be hanged, Ross’ mother fought for his life to be spared. This was despite the fact that she told the court that on the very morning when Vibert was killed Ross had asked her for $20 and she told him to go look for a job. Ross’ mother hired an
Attorney to appeal his sentence, but he lost that appeal in 1994. He appealed for clemency to the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy. Meanwhile, as the years passed with her son’s killer still on death row, a frustrated Ursula Mohan turned to the press to appeal for justice. She had met him (Ross) for the first time at the
Ruimveldt Police Station. She saw him several more times as the case proceeded at snail’s pace through a Preliminary Hearing, then through two trials in the Supreme Court and finally, after a ‘guilty’ verdict, to the Appeal Court. F i n a l l y, o n M a y 3 0 , 1995, the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy rejected Rockliffe Ross’ appeal. His fate was sealed on May 30, 1996, when President Cheddi Jagan signed a death warrant stating that Rockliffe Ross be hanged. The hanging took place on June 4, 1996. Ursula said that she expected to feel way better after her son’s assailant has been hanged. But that was not the case. Asked, in light of similar killings now, if she feels that the death sentence should return, Ursula said, “I can’t really tell you to hang them. Maybe the public should decide.” She said that it is sad that two lives went down for the sake of jewellry. Nevertheless, Ursula said that she is comforted in knowing that she will never
have to see the face of her son’s killer again. According to her, it was torture to see him at every court appearance. Ursula said that she was terrified when her husband died but drew strength to live for her children. However, when her “baby” died, “I just did not know how to go on.” “I lived through the death of my mom, dad and husband, but the death of my son was hard to take.” Ursula said that it was downhill after that. “I started living at the hospital. Every two day was some other issue. I was never sickly before that.” As gruesome as it sounds, Ursula said that she might have had closure if she had been able to see the hanging. “Maybe if I de see I could
have tell you my feeling. But right now all I feel is hurt for my son. I wish that he could come back. I still cannot come to grips with his death.” She said that at the rate her son was going she thinks he would have made tremendous contributions to society. “You imagine what he would have been today he was a brilliant child. He did not get to enjoy his life; his life was cut so short.” With tears in her eyes, Ursula said that as long as she lives the pain would not go away, “the last pain I may feel for the loss of my son may be on my death bed.” Ursula reminisced that her son used to pick flowers from the yard for her birthday and he was always polite. “I use to live for him, now he is nowhere to be found.”
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Kaieteur News
Monday January 18, 2016
Gov’t slams paper for another 11-year-old gives birth, CPA investigates underage pregnancies “mischievous, untrue” article The Childcare & Protection Agency, (CPA) has launched investigations into cases whereby two pregnant girls (11 and 12 years old) were rescued by the Guyana Women Miner’s Association, (GWMA). The girls who are said to be from Region 1 were rescued by members of the GWMA some two weeks ago. According to information reaching this newspaper, the teens were taken to the Port Kaituma Hospital following their removal from communities in the Region. The girls were said to be anemic when they were brought to the hospital for medical care and examination. A source confirmed the teens (cousins) have since met with social workers in the region. Kaieteur News understands that the two girls were both impregnated by adults from their villages. According to the information, one of the men is related to both victims. The source said that since the cases are being treated as rape, the police are also playing a part in the investigation. In the case of the 12 year old, Kaieteur News understands that her father is responsible for her pregnancy. The girl’s father is also allegedly responsible for raping her mother, who died as a result of the incident. The woman reportedly bled to death last October after her husband had forcible
A mini health check is the first step to donating blood
The 11 year old mother and her baby at GPHC Maternity Unit, yesterday
sexual intercourse with her even as she was in the process of recovering from a C- section delivery. The suspect was never arrested. The 12 year old and her siblings were left under the supervision of her maternal grandmother after the incident but she is now five months pregnant. The pregnant girls were brought to the City, where they have been under the care and supervision of officials of the Ministry of Social Protection (CPA), and the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs. The 11 year old gave birth to a baby girl naturally about a week ago. The child (name given) told this publication that the father of her baby is a 24 yearold miner who works on a dredge in the Big Creek, Region One.
Questioned about her parents and academic background, the girl told this newspaper that she never attended school but when she became pregnant her mother told her that the man will have to buy things for the baby. She said however that she has not seen the father of the baby for “a while.” The young mother is uncertain of her next move or what the future holds for her and her baby. This newspaper has learnt however that in instances like these, young mothers are exposed to counseling and other reformative measures. The babies are sometimes left in the care of the State, placed for adoption or in some cases placed in the care of relatives, who assume responsibility and are capable of providing a safe haven for them. (Rehanna Ramsay)
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has responded strongly to an article in the Sunday, January 17th edition of the Guyana Times titled “Nagamootoo stripped of all line responsibilities”. Describing the article as “malicious, wicked and utterly false”, the OPM took the media outfit to task yesterday. Calling on the reading public to be aware of a campaign by the outfit to peddle “lies, falsehoods, mischief and untruths”, OPM Press Secretary Imran Khan disputed that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had in fact been “stripped of all line responsibility”. In a statement, Khan stated that the media outfit deliberately misrepresented what was said by President David Granger. In Granger‘s first address to the National Assembly on Thursday, January 14, he had announced that the Ministry of the Presidency had been reconfigured to combine the offices of the President, VicePresident and Prime Minister and Ministers of State, Citizenship and Social Cohesion. He had stated that this combination would enhance governance, in particular through the Office of the Prime Minister, as he manages the government’s business and legislative agenda in the National Assembly. The OPM stated that the Ramroop media group is operating “with an unmistakable agenda that is politically directed”. Nor did it spare Guyana Times’ affiliates, noting that “Citizen’s Report, the internet news website, and the Freedom House operated radio station also form part of this media cabal.” “It is now beyond doubt that the primary purpose of Guyana Times is to function purely as a PPP propaganda rag in conjunction with TVG, and other media appendages, such as the recently acquired I’News website, and other outfits owned and operated
- calls for intervention of Press Association
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
Owner of the Guyana Times, Bobby Ramroop
by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, who, it is well known, shares a close personal relationship with Opposition Leader (Bharrat) Jagdeo.” “OPM calls on all Guyanese to be aware of the campaign being executed by the Ramroop media group against the Coalition Government, particularly the Indo-Guyanese members and specifically Prime Minister and First Vice President, Moses Nagamootoo.” OPM noted that Minister of Natural Resource, Raphael Trotman, had previously held the Governance portfolio but has formally handed over all matters relating to Governance to the Prime Minister. The office noted that transfer of Governance staff to OPM has also been completed. “Further, His Excellency, President Granger, was clear and deliberate in his presentation to Parliament that Prime Minister Nagamootoo’s portfolio has been expanded and includes Leader of Government business in the National Assembly, Public Information, Constitutional Reform, Governance, coordinating functions with ministries involved with domestic (affairs) and Cabinet co-chair.” It also called on the
Guyana Press Association (GPA) to take note of “this clearly decipherable trend of abuse of media for the purposes of political attacks, spreading misinformation, falsehoods and exciting the populace.” It is not the first time that Guyana Times has found itself in hot water with Government for publishing inaccurate headlines and articles. During the final episode for 2015 of ‘the Public Interest’, Kaieteur News journalist Mondale Smith had asked the President whether a time would come when those who committed past atrocities would be truly held accountable. In response, Granger had said that evidence first must be established before criminal charges and prosecution could follow. He had also stated that persons could not be assumed guilty on the basis of newspaper articles. Following the airing, however, Guyana Times had printed an article with the headline “No evidence of corruption against PPP/C – President Granger.” This headline had been at odds with the actual content of the article published in the newspaper and Government wasted no time in calling for a retraction, which saw the outfit backing down and apologizing.
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
Page 21
FAHRENHEIT 451: BURNING QUESTIONS In 1953, eight years after I was born, the American science fiction and fantasy writer, Ray Bradbury, wrote Fahrenheit 451 about an America in which books are outlawed and “Firemen” are hired to burn them. The name comes from the auto-ignition temperature of paper (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which it would spontaneously ignite. One of my favourite quotes from Fahrenheit 451 is “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” Another quote (as a selfprofessed, well-read man) that I like is, “I don’t talk things sir, I talk the meaning of things.” But the biggie about the power of books is, “There must be something in books,
something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there.” However, Bradbury’s most powerful statement about his book was, “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” This is one crime I have never committed and will never ever be guilty of. Texan author, Tiffany Madison, has the best one-liner response to the killer phrase used each time a new technology emerges whether “Kindle” or “ebook” and causes the pronouncement that “The book is dead”. She said, “If the novel is dead, I’m a necrophiliac.” In the tiny sugar-cane village where I grew up, there were not many people with books or who could afford them. I learned to read early and my
“Aunt” Hairoun, a member of our extended family and community, taught me to read the comic strips in the Guardian newspaper. I graduated to books early and sometimes this got me into trouble. One day in the shop I saw a centipede and knowing from reactions of people over my few years of life that it could “bite” or sting, raised the alarm, “Look a centipede, look a centipede!” They did not react the way I expected. Nobody ran. Not one of them took up a broom, stick or cutlass. They looked at me quizzically. I pointed at the beast. Then realization dawned. “The boy mean a ‘santa-pee’,” Miss Julia said and pulled her daughter Nan away from the danger zone. Then everybody laughed. And I learnt an important
Cleaning of Sussex Street canal leads to leaning poles The Leaning poles on Sussex Street
lesson. Use the local pronunciation of an object. If people call the thing a “santapee” call it a “santapee”. If “croisee” is pronounced “kway-zay” this is what you say. You never say “a tool with a sharpedged, typically rectangular, metal blade and a long handle, used for digging or cutting earth, sand, turf, etc” when you mean a spade and you never use the word if, as in America, it may mean a negro, a black person, then a person of colour and later an “AfroAmerican” . Years afterwards, when after passing my “A” or Advanced Level exams I started teaching in a Secondary School, I spoke about “pineapples” in a Geography class and the kids were mystified. Eventually, after I explained, one of them told me that she knew it as “pine” but didn’t realise that it was a kind of apple. In situations like this you are never sure whether you are the one-eyed man in the country of the blind or the blind man in the country of the sighted. Even worse, you are not even close to certain who is really wearing the blinkers or whether, as some people do, blame your predicament, the inability to fit in, the daydreaming and night reading under the covers of darkness or the flashlight under the covers, on the blinking books that you read. My immediate family at that time were of East Indian descent but the village was and remains the most integrated community I have
ever met anywhere in the world. Later my family was enlarged into a multi-racial mix so that when an employee in one of the places I worked complained to the Union Leader (later Government Minister), Errol McLeod, that I had left the World Health Organisation and took a job in Trinidad to be part of “ethnic cleansing”, a phrase that has been adopted by Trinis to describe the activities of all newly-elected Governments, I had the perfect response. I asked him if he knew the roti-vendor near to one of the company’s offices, a young lady obviously of mixed descent, what we call in Trinidad a “dougla”. He did. I then told him, “Well she is only one of the many people in my family who are like that and the only ethnic cleansing I did is to help their mother wash and bathe them when they were little.” It is like the day one of my teachers (Teacher Ram who later became a principal) returned from “Training College”. Even though he was absent from school for a year, we used to see him by the Railway Station every morning. We always thought he was learning about trains so we were very surprised when he came back to the school and took over our class once more. In the old days he made us write “compositions” on “How I spent my Easter Holidays” but now we had to write “Essays” about how we
spent our Easter “Vacation”. We no longer had “recess” but our brief mid-morning break was “intermission”. This is something I dredged up from the recesses or my memory and realise that in those days even though “recess” gave way to “intermission” we never had or used “recession”. Now we are experiencing a “recession” in Trinidad but the Government reacted angrily when this was announced by the Governor the Central Bank and he was fired. The functionary who became the new Governor said that the former Governor ’s statement represented the position of the Bank and he supports that position. So now I am worried. Will we be able to manage this predicament properly or will the measures the Government takes be based on personalities and principals instead of principles? Will they call a spade a spade or redefine ethnic cleansing? Will it be a process or a procession? Will the Rapid Rail the Government is spending millions on be our new Training college? * Tony Deyal was last seen saying that because Trinidad is now enmeshed in a political Game of Thrones he should quote from George Martin, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.”
Are the police doing enough to...
Just before 13.00 hours yesterday the residents of Costello Housing Scheme went into panic mode as they heard thuds on their rooftops. When they looked outside they saw live electrical wires dangling near their homes. It turned out that an excavator operator was digging the Sussex Street
canal and this operation had caused some utility poles to lean. This publication understands that upon seeing the posts leaning and wires landing on the roof tops, the driver of the dragline abandoned his work and ran away. The residents say they are
happy that the canal is getting some much needed attention but are calling for more care to be taken to prevent damage to their homes and possible injury. Several residents also complained of their telephones going dead as a result of the lines being destroyed.
Living in daily dread of... (From page 14) addition to routine eye pressure testing, it is advisable that the optic nerve be examined by an ophthalmologist for proper diagnosis. Research also indicates that half of patients with glaucoma do not have high eye
pressure when first examined as eye pressure is not always the same. Methods of treatment. Over the past years, patients have been exposed to two common methods of treating glaucoma here in Guyana. One is by medication (eye
drops) or by surgery. But there is also laser treatment which provides open-angle glaucoma patients with a third option for treatment. However laser treatment for glaucoma is not recommended for all patients, reports indicate.
(From page 15) Commissioner said that this year, not only will ranks know the names of those wanted but they will know exactly what he/she looks like. Kaieteur News understands that this will be done via the setting up of a database. Knowing the names of criminals is not enough, but
having an idea of what the person looks like will help a lot. Recalling an incident in May 2014 when four prisoners escaped from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court by ripping the grill work and mesh that covered the window at the back of the building, the police had no idea who they were looking for.
Two reporters from this media house had to send a photograph of the escapees to the police via social media. This newspaper was told that there are currently 105 to 120 persons on the wanted list. These include persons who are wanted for robberies under arms, rape and murders among other crimes.
It takes a village to raise a child... (From page 19) harsh in passing down judgments on those persons between 18 and 30 years old. For the past 23 years we had a government which neglected African youths because they felt they were of no interest to their power base.” As a result of this mindset, Kissoon asserted that unemployment rates increased over the last 20 years. And to add insult to injury, the columnist said that the former regime
found the time to invest over US$50M in an unnecessary hotel when that money could have been spent on programmes to invest in youth and curb the high unemployment rates through meaningful programmes. He, like Dr. Hinds, is also of the opinion that the National Service initiative should be reintroduced into the society in some shape or form. “Burnham had a fantastic approach about the National
Service but he was wrong in some of the ways it was implemented in saying that it was compulsory for various things. But it was good because it made them gainfully employed and showed them amazing aspects of their country.” All three subjects agreed that while the solutions are also numerous, it requires urgent attention, and the efforts of many.
Page 22
Kaieteur News
PROPERTY FOR SALE Property for sale, Grove $20M / Rent: $50,000 per month. Tel: 625-5461. Brand new 2 storey concrete building in 5th Avenue, Diamond, E.B.D, all modern amenities –Call: 662-9335; 612-3244 SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. – CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Guyana Passport application. Graphics design, Advertisement. Tel: 6267040; 265-4535. Building Construction, house plans & estimates, floor sanding, lacquering & painting, boat for Santa Mission –Call: 650-4362 We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer, dryer-Call: 231-0655; 683-8734. Omar Repairs at low cost: Fridges, air- conditioners, washing machines, TVs, microwaves, freezers- Call:629-4946 or 225-4822 Building or renovating for quality construction services from foundation to fine finished. Call Carlos: 592-6829935; 592-223-2695 Repairs & spare, fridge, freezer, A/C, washers, stoves – Contact Nick: 683-1312, 627-3206 Repairs at affordable prices: fridge, air conditioner, washing machines, dryers, TV, microwaves & freezerCall: 610-5846 or 661-8158 Mahadeo Construction for all construction, carpentry, masonry, pluming, painting etc. Free estimates and plan Contact # 669-7376
WANTED Damage batteries in any quantity, best price offeredCall: 696-5728, 656-2783, 6225941, 648-9395, 223-1111 1 Experienced male to look after layer birds in the Interior. Call: 678-0565 1 Experienced cook for a family in the Interior. Call:6780565 One tutor to teach student ‘A’ Level Physics & Pure Maths. Call: 222-2475 or 6216006 Security to work in the Interior, must have past military/police experienced, ages 40-50. Call: 226-9768; 615-6172 Security to work in Georgetown- Call: 227-1717 Female domestic to work in Trinidad, must be educated & know to cook. Between 25-35 years. Call/ text 1868-6831528 1 Farm worker to live in and take care of farm. Call: 2653586 (8am-4pm) Attractive live in waitressCall: 327-0252/674-4665 Job work to wash a residential property & trim trees in G-Town. Call: Neville Osman 624-1737 /613-7803 (9:00am - 4:00pm.) One experienced domestic to work at resident –Call: 6970157 Taxi drivers and contract car (dispatcher) salary paid for drivers. Call: 231-0316
Certified child care provider, 1 Domestic worker to work 2 job needed school/home- days a week in Campbellvilleage 35-50 yrs. Call: 658-2866 Call: 223-3969; 667-2885 INNOVATIVE MARKETING Part time driver for & PUBLISHING INC –TEL: afternoons, age 40-50, Must 600-4212: We create A/ be responsible, courteous, works, logos, business cards, reliable- Call: 648-1821 posters, etc, placements of Live in couple: husband – ads included. driving/mechanic, wifedomestic, retired contractor TAXI SERVICES supervisor, skilled in trowel GR TAXI SERVICE. CALL: tex masonry- Call: 227-1830 219-5000; 227-1982 & 225Farm on Lower Soesdyke 7878 (24HRS) Highway, Seeking large quantities of cow mold. Urgent! Call 219-0468
DRESSMAKING Turn your flair for fashion into an exciting career or hobby. Classes starting January –Call: 626-2629; 676-6312
LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel:644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997
3 Bedrooms concrete house 22feetX48feet, land 50X90feet @ Vision Garden, Versailes, W.B.D – $11M negotiable. Call: 609-1367; 658-5803 Church and 2 storey building Lot 180 Charlotte Street Bourda-Call: 227-6817; 6247341 House for sale with 3 bedrooms upper & bottom flat, @ Lot 153 Green Acres, Stadium Road- Call: 681-7366 2 Storey 45x35 concrete property, lower flat incomplete. Land 65x120 @ Diamond N/S 5th Avenue, E.B.D- Call: 664-5052 2-Storey building for sale at Herstelling E.B.D –Call: 2271309; 665-6298 Property @ 650 Section ‘A’ Block Great Diamond East Bank Demerara. Call: 2254792; 609-1114 2 Storey wooden houselot 20ftx38ft in Kitty, transported land, price $15M negotiableCall Monday 18 th January onwards 8:00am-6pm: 6666934 2 Bedrooms house in Georgetown, not far from Ashmin’s Supermarket $35,000,000. Call: 645-6498 One roadside, 2 storey building @ V/Hoop, ground excellent for restaurant or other business –Call: 6540779
Monday January 18, 2016
SALON - Make-up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals and Black Opal - Cosmetology Courses - Nail Technician Course Call: 647-1773/660-5257 Earn a Certificate in cosmetology, nails, wig designs & hair cutting etc. Classes commencing February! Register Now! Call: 666-5241; 619-7603
ACCOMMODATION Harmony Inn Apartments: accommodation, internet, hot & cold water, 24hrs tea/ coffee, $5,000-$10,000 –Call: 668-0306; 218-1400; 694-7817
Cook/baker and truck driver for the Interior location, applicants must be experienced. Call: 618-2020 Urgent: Cleaner & kitchen helper (dayshift) required at Aagman Indian Restaurant. Apply at aagmanrestaurant@gmail.com or call: 219-0158 Driver/Salesman- Five CXC and license for a lorry. Telephone 624-0092 email info@fernandesgy.com
LAND FOR SALE Parfaite Harmonie -$ 1.6M, 1.8M, $1.5M, 1.3M, Tuschen 11 street -$3M with foundation, Phase 2 – $1.4M, Uitvlugt $3M, Terms available – Call: 604-6724 We are buying lands –Call: 639-8474 or 604-4945 K&R Realty 22 Acres@ Silver Hill, 5 minutes from Highway, land cleared and planted, good for mix farming. Call: 689-0003 House lot for sale, located at 246 Mon Repos, E.C.D. Foundation and columns completed-Call: 233-2486 House lot 50X100, for sale in Gated Community, Land of Canaan -$4M negotiable-Call: 694-7817; 668-0306 50X100 houselot at Uitvlugt, De Groot Housing Scheme W.C.D, price $3M negotiableCall: 698-8617 Residential: Ramsville Court, Cove and John 50’X100’ corner, quiet neighbourhood. Call: 2267585 Transported Corner Lot Garnette & Republic Streets Newtown Kitty 58.4X30.8, ideal for business – Call: 6450616 (no agents)
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Providence Scheme (115ftx81ft) located on a Cul de Sac close to Bai Shan Lin $8.2M negotiable. Call: 6014163; 223-0719
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Labourers & Porters, apply in person to Alabama Trading, Georgetown Ferry Stelling.
2 Bedrooms fully furnished apartment in Queenstown, free light and water, AC$160,000. Call:645-6498
Security officers wanted by security company-Contact: 672-1920, between 8:00am5:00pm
3 Bedrooms furnished house in Farm E.B.D - $160,000 monthly. Call: 645-6498
Network technician to install outdoor internet wireless antennas. Email CV to jobs@awngy.com 1 HR Personnel: 3-4 years experienced in Human Resource & Project Management, age 26-35yrsCall: 668-7104
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Computerize Accounting: 4 courses: QuickBooks, POS, Peachtree, Excel 2016- Call Micrographics Vreed-enHoop-Call: 264-3057 Continued on page 23
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
Page 23
Letters... Where your views make the news
Former AFC official predicts its death DEAR EDITOR, Since joining the coalition, there are signs that the AFC has been losing support especially among the youths in Regions Five and Six as well as in other Regions of the country. This was evident in the 2015 election when the AFC lost a significant number of votes to the PPP compared to 2011. The AFC had never had a solid support base like the PNC and the PPP. Its membership is comprised mostly of disgruntled members from the two major parties, so if the trend of losing support continues, it will only be a matter of time before the party becomes defunct. There are several other reasons for the AFC loss of support. One- it is due largely to the fact that it has not fulfilled its promise to the youths and most of its supporters by offering them jobs. Two- most of its Ministers have become arrogant and aloof and have distanced themselves from the members. Three; most of its members in Region Five and Six were former PPP members who have now returned to the PPP. The same is true for the AFC New York/New Jersey Chapter (NY/NJ) where most of its members have drifted back to the PPP and the PNC. The only functioning AFC Chapter in the United States is the Queens AFC Chapter which has only fourteen members. The loss of support for the AFC has been a major problem for its leaders who are totally confused as what to do. However, the current problems facing the AFC have stemmed from the bitter public squabble after the election in its stronghold
constituency of Region Six on the Corentyne when its leading candidate was told by the AFC leader that there is no job for him and the boys. This was the ultimate test of the sincerity of the promises made by the leaders of the party to its members during the election campaign. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Many of the AFC supporters have bought into the narrative which says that the AFC leadership is weak and indecisive and does not act on behalf of them when they should. Many AFC members are fed-up with the selfish behavior of some of its leaders and have abandoned the party because they seem to believe that it, along with APNU will lose the next election. In other words the people are quietly evaluating the performance of the lackluster leadership of the AFC in government. In Guyana as in many
other countries with twoparty dominated systems, third parties have found it very difficult to survive more than three or four election cycles which is approximately twelve to sixteen years. This has been the lifespan of the United Force (UF) which formed the first coalition government in Guyana with the PNC in 1964.At the time, the UF was viewed as a viable third party but it lost that status during the 1970s. The same can be said of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) which is now a shell of itself than when it was under the tutelage of the late Dr. Walter Rodney and so was ROAR. The AFC has endured three election cycles and is now heading to the sunset. Can it survive a fourth election cycle, only time will tell? If the AFC continues to lose support as it is now, the coalition will be in serious trouble in the next election, whenever it is held.
Region 9 REO wrongly blames Kaieteur News DEAR EDITOR, Please refer to your article in edition of Sunday, January 17, captioned “Rupununi continues to benefit from partnership between IAST and Ministry.” I wish to bring to your attention the fact that the Deputy REO is Mrs. Mildred Akpan and not Maylene Stephens as was reported. Additionally, the chairperson for the Parisharra Organic Food Processors (POFP) is Erline McDonald and not Arline McDonald. Thanks for your efforts in correcting these misrepresentations for the benefit of your readership. Carl Parker Regional Executive Officer, Region 9 EDITOR’S NOTE: Kaieteur News got its information from the release that came from the Ministry of the Presidency. We suggest Mr. Parker looks back at that statement which contained the original mistakes he is complaining about. Mr. Parker got the caption of our story wrong. It is “Region Nine” not “Rupununi” that is in the title of the story
Economic, political and social... From page 5 ready to go. Someone recently wrote (KN/5/1/15) that “Guyanese don’t show nationalist feelings like other nations”. In other words, Guyanese are not exuberant about their country, its standing in the world and its prospects. However, an inspired population is precisely what will be needed in order to achieve change that economic diversification implies, and which everyone dreams about, not people who flee the country in droves. So what are the sources of national inspiration? It is difficult to say, however, hazarding a guess inspiration could be triggered by a united political front(not necessarily a single government), with APNUAFC and the PPP on the same
stage, smiling and backslapping, passionately delivering their respective speeches about their shared vision and long term commitment to a National Economic Diversification Strategy. However, the population must be presented with several things, four of which may be; a mature, ready to
implement, diversification strategy; realistic horizons when results are likely; an understanding of where resources will come from; and political consensus that guarantees continuity. Without some of these ingredients the people might be skeptical that it is just more talk, and who can blame them. Ivor Carryl
In fact, the AFC will become a liability to APNU which together will not win enough votes to defeat the PPP. Lest we forget, with all the crime and corrupt practices of the PPP, the APNU/AFC coalition won the election in 2015 by the skin of their teeth—by a mere 4,506 votes. The AFC has made decisions that were unpopular and it will only endure as a party if it remains faithful to its members and to the principles upon which it was founded. Asquith Rose
From page 22
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Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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Powers aim to draw Taliban More than 100 people quarantined after Sierra Leone Ebola death into Afghan peace talks Reuters - Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States hold talks today aimed at laying the ground for a negotiated end to almost 15 years of war between U.S.supported government forces and Taliban insurgents now firmly on the offensive. Taliban forces have stepped up their campaign in the last year to topple the Kabul government, which has struggled since most foreign troops left at the end of 2014. High-profile suicide attacks and Taliban territorial gains in Helmand province have underlined how far Afghanistan remains from peace. Representatives from the four countries will meet in Kabul to revive a peace process that collapsed last summer. The ultimate goal of the diplomatic manoeuvring is to get representatives of the Afghan government and
the Taliban into direct negotiations on the country’s future. A previous round of talks took place in Islamabad a week ago. The Taliban, which now controls or contests more territory than at any time since it was ousted by a U.S.-led intervention in 2001, will not attend the talks. A rocket which landed near the Italian embassy in Kabul yesterday brought a reminder of what is at stake. It was not known if the embassy had been specifically targeted. A police official had no immediate word on any casualties or damage, though local media said two security guards had been injured. “The talks are strategically important for everyone involved, but are unlikely to go anywhere right now,” said S. Chandrasekharan, director
of the South Asia Analysis Group. “The Taliban are making gains and the army is on the defensive. Until there is a stalemate, the talks are unlikely to succeed.” Afghan’s chief negotiator said last week Monday’s talks would focus on creating a peace plan to persuade the Taliban to give up violence. Although the Afghan army and the Taliban are intensifying fighting on the battlefield, a political settlement is seen as the most likely solution to the conflict. A statement on a Taliban website on Saturday did not rule out joining talks but rejected U.S. involvement, saying the country was to blame for a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans. “On the other hand, they take the first row among peace negotiators,” the statement said, with a turn of irony.
Pakistan PM looks to play peacemaker with Saudi Arabia, Iran visits Reuters - Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will travel to Saudi Arabia and Iran today, in a bid to bridge the growing divide between the two countries after the Sunni kingdom’s execution of a Shi’ite cleric sparked a bitter row. Sharif will fly to Saudi Arabia today before visiting Iran’s capital Tehran tomorrow, Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement yesterday. Army chief General Raheel Sharif will also accompany the prime minister during the visit, government sources told Reuters. Islamabad has sought to avoid taking sides in the escalating dispute between Saudi Arabia and its main regional rival Iran, as it wrestles with its own sectarian tensions at home and works to bolster economic ties with both countries. “Pakistan is deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tensions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the foreign office said in a statement. “The Prime Minister has called for resolution of
Nawaz Sharif differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity, particularly during these challenging times.” Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric earlier this month was followed by Iranian demonstrators ransacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting several of Riyadh’s Sunni allies to break
off diplomatic ties with Iran. Sunni majority Pakistan maintains deep links with the establishment in Riyadh, which provided Sharif with political asylum in the 2000s after he was ousted in a military coup. Sharif ’s trip to Saudi Arabia follows the visit of both the Saudi foreign minister and deputy crown prince to Islamabad last week, underlining the closeness of the relationship between the two states. But with a large Shi’ite minority, Pakistan has a lot to lose from rising sectarian tensions. Last year Pakistan declined a Saudi call to join a Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen to fight Iranian-allied insurgents. Islamabad also wants to finish a major gas pipeline to Iran on its western border.
A man walks past a banner about Ebola in Freetown, Sierra Leone. REUTERS/BAZ RATNER Reuters - More than 100 people have been quarantined in Sierra Leone after coming in contact with a woman who died of Ebola last week, highlighting the potential for the disease to spread, just as the deadliest outbreak on record appeared to be over. The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared that “all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa” after Liberia joined Sierra Leone and Guinea in going six weeks with no reported new cases of Ebola. At the same time, it warned of possible flare-ups as survivors can carry the virus for months. Just after the WHO announcement on Thursday, tests revealed that Mariatu Jalloh, a 22-year-old student, died of Ebola on Jan. 12. Her death has concerned health experts because authorities failed to follow basic protocols, according to a
health report seen by Reuters last week. The report stated that she lived in a house with 22 people while she was unwell. Five people were involved in washing her corpse, a practice that is considered one of the chief modes of Ebola transmission. The Ministry of Health and the Office of National Security said in a joint statement that 109 people have so far been quarantined, 28 of whom were high-risk cases. “An active case investigation continues in the four districts where the young woman was known to have traveled,” the statement said. The source of the transmission remains unclear, though in late December the woman traveled near to the border with Guinea, one of the country’s last Ebola hot spots before it was declared Ebolafree on Nov. 7. The case is a blow for Sierra Leone which, alongside
Guinea and Liberia, has borne the brunt of a two-year epidemic that killed more than 11,300 people. It has also caused anger. In apparent frustration at the latest case, the homes of some high risk patients were attacked this weekend in Magburaka, the city about 200 km (120 miles) east of Freetown where Jalloh died, and in one case a hut was burned down, according to a local leader. Paramount Chief Masakma III told Reuters that a barricade around two quarantined homes was dismantled. “We do not know who is behind this, but we are shocked that anyone would do this in view of what Ebola has done to our country,” the chief said. The unrest comes after demonstrators last week accused the health department of negligence at a local hospital that saw Jalloh as an outpatient before she died.
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Monday January 18, 2016
Egypt’s parliament endorses Iran moves from pariah controversial anti-terrorism law state to regional power
Reuters - Egypt’s parliament yesterday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and shields its enforcers from legal ramifications. The law is one of roughly 400 that were issued by executive decree during the more than three years in which Egypt was governed without a parliament after its democratically elected chamber was dissolved in mid-2012. It details sentences for various terrorism-related crimes ranging from five years to the death penalty, and shields the military and police from legal penalties for what it calls proportionate use of force. The law also fines journalists for contradicting the authorities’ version of any militant attack. The original draft was amended last year following a domestic and international outcry after it initially stipulated imprisonment for such an offence. The newly elected legislature is constitutionally
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi obliged to review the executive decrees within 15 days of its first session, which was on Jan. 10, and either approve or reject them. The anti-terrorism law passed by an overwhelming 457 votes to 24 without a single amendment to the original decree issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last year, parliamentary sources said. Egypt’s new parliament, which has 568 elected members plus another 28 appointed directly by the president, is dominated by the
“Support Egypt” coalition, an alliance of over 400 MPs loyal to Sisi. Human rights groups accuse Sisi, who as military chief deposed a freely elected Islamist president in 2013, of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Opposition legislator Mohamed Salah Khalifa, a leader of the Islamist Nour Party, which holds just 12 seats after controlling about a quarter of the previous parliament, said the law employed ambiguous wording. “I fear that it will be used broadly when it is applied,” he said. “The (anti-terrorism) law was imposed during exceptional circumstances when the country was exposed to danger but, after these dangers subside, there should be a balance between protecting the state and its institutions and preserving human rights.” Parliament also approved a 2014 decree on the protection of critical government facilities.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran’s release from sanctions testifies to its new relationship with the United States as it moves from pariah state to regional power, a status that could come at the cost of Saudi Arabia, Washington’s chief Arab ally. Enemies and allies alike must adjust to Iran becoming an uninhibited power broker in the Middle East after its nuclear deal with world powers and Saturday’s lifting of sanctions that bring it to the top table of international politics. The swift release last week of U.S. Navy sailors after they drifted into Iranian waters marked the new era in relations following decades of hostility with the West. After the 1979 revolution that brought Shi’ite Muslim clerics to power, Iran would typically use hostages to extract concessions from its western adversaries. Early on, it held 52 hostages taken from the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days. That incident ranked alongside Iranian-backed suicide bombings against Western embassies and troops in
Hassan Rouhani Lebanon, the hijacking of planes and the kidnapping of Western hostages in the country. All this left deep scars and incited hostility towards Iran as an outlaw, in the region and the world. Yet last week’s naval incident contrasted to 2007 when Iran captured British sailors in similar circumstances, but accused of them of spying and held them for two weeks. The hiccup over the American sailors was easily contained by the new rapprochement and
“summarizes the emergence of a new relationship between Washington and Tehran”, said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. Washington remains far from enamored of the mullahs ruling in Tehran, and is formally committed to Iran’s arch-rival, Saudi Arabia. But Iran’s attractions are both political and economic: a country that is “a potential regional superpower, and an emerging market with huge potential along similar lines to Turkey”, said Gerges. “There is a new relationship based on a new understanding of Iran’s pivotal role in the region – that Iran is here to stay,” he said. So, for Washington, Iran would no longer be a spoiler state, but one that could play a positive role in stabilizing the region and “help put out the fires”. Saudi Arabia, however, remains implacably at loggerheads with Iran. Its rigid Wahhabi Sunni Muslim clerical leaders treat Shi’ites as heretics, not far short of how Islamic State jihadis regard Shi’ites as idolaters to be exterminated.
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
Nevis premier supports new thrust for expansion of citizenship programme CHARLESTOWN, Nevis (NIA) — Premier of Nevis and minister of finance in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), Vance Amory, believes if Nevis and St Kitts succeed in expanding the focus of the citizen by investment programme (CBI), it would bring a new dimension and a source of funding to the governments in areas critical to the social, economic and human development of the people of the federation. Amory made the comment last week before a scheduled meeting with potential international players who he said were interested in investing in the CBI programme in St Kitts and Nevis. According to the premier, though the traditional areas of real estate development and investment real estate or
contributions to the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund (SIDF) are important, new avenues of investment are also available in government infrastructure, health and education development. Amory explained, if they were successful in attracting investors in those areas, the CBI would be a cut above competing investment programmes in the region. “I believe that if we were to change the focus or expand the focus of the investment programme to include investment directly by those who have an interest in health development, in education and so on, we could make a big difference and differentiate our programme from the other programmes in the region, which in a way, have followed
the St Kitts and Nevis model of providing real estate development, development of hotels and so on,” he said. However, the premier noted that in spite of the expansion thrust of the CBI programme, the importance of tourism to the federation would not be overlooked. He said the tourism industry remains a critical one to the economy and will remain that way into the future; therefore, the expansion is necessary. “We have to continue to expand the product, expand the properties so that we can increase the rooms which will allow us to better market St Kitts and Nevis and to allow the airlines to know that we have increased rooms year and year so that we can have increased airlift,” he said. (Caribbean News)
Three zika virus cases confirmed in Barbados BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS) — Barbados has recorded its first three cases of the zika virus. According to an official from the ministry of health, of eight samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for testing, three were positive and five negative for the virus. The zika infection is a mild, febrile viral illness transmitted by the bite of a zika viruscarrying Aedes aegyti mosquito, which is the same mosquito that causes dengue fever and chikungunya. The main symptoms are fever, conjunctivitis, temporary arthritis, mainly in the small joints of the hands and feet, and a rash that often starts on the face and spreads throughout the body. In general, symptoms are mild and last between two and seven days. There is no vaccine or preventive drugs. Treatment is directed at alleviating symptoms. The public is advised that the best way to prevent infection is to minimise exposure to mosquito bites by taking preventive measures
to reduce mosquito breeding. These measures include identifying and removing possible mosquito breeding sites, such as collections of stagnant water from around homes and workplaces. Other important ways to avoid infection include wearing clothing with long sleeves and long legs, especially in the morning and late afternoon; using mosquito repellents with 30 percent DEET concentration; and sleeping under an insecticide-treated bed net, especially during the day. The ministry official pointed out that persons might be unaware that they have the virus, as they might not develop any symptoms. Therefore, everyone, including pregnant women and women of child-bearing age, is advised to avoid exposure to mosquito bites.Preliminary analysis of research carried out by Brazilian authorities has revealed that the greatest risks of microcephaly (small heads) and malformations appear to be associated with infection during the first three months of pregnancy.
PIAO PLEADS GUILTY IN UN BRIBERY SCAM
Daily Observer - A former finance director at a New York foundation became the first individual to plead guilty in a United Nations (UN) bribery scam. Heidi Hong Piao, also known as Heidi Park, agreed to cooperate with authorities and admitted to having agreed, along with others, to funnel illegal payments to former president of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Dr John Ashe. On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to five counts, including bribery and money laundering. Piao told a Manhattan federal court that “the monetary payments were made with the intent of influencing John Ashe,
including in his official capacity”. This could mean bad news for Ashe, who had only been charged with tax fraud. Prosecutors believe the plea is a major break in the case and have since said they were examining the issue and would likely bring further charges against the former UNGA president. Ashe, 61, is also a former UN ambassador for Antigua & Barbuda. He allegedly accepted $1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen to support their interests within the UN and the twin island state. According to prosecutors’ complaint, Ashe shared the bribe money
received from the Chinese businessmen with a former prime minister of Antigua & Barbuda. Those bribes included over $800,000 from three businessmen and $500,000 in bribes through intermediaries from Ng Lap Seng, a billionaire developer from the Chinese territory of Macau. Ashe also under-reported his income by more than $1.2 million, prosecutors said. Others indicted in the conspiracy were identified as Jeff Yin, Shiwei Yan, and Francis Lorenzo. They each face counts of bribery conspiracy and bribery. The scam, which became public last year, took members of the UN by surprise.
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Monday January 18, 2016
Govt. threatening to stop Higher business costs mean VAT will bite deeper Trinidad Guardian - will then be passed on further referendum on CCJ Consumers can expect to pay to the consumer. Daily Observer - The Government is threatening to stop the referendum on the Caribbean Court Justice if it becomes too politicised. The Electoral Commission is preparing for the vote which will determine whether the CCJ replaces the Privy Council as the nation’s final court of appeal. But ahead of the referendum the government is warning against politicizing the issue Delivering the throne speech last week, GovernorGeneral, Sir Rodney Williams warned that any attempt to politicize a vote will not be tolerated. “If it appears that any political party seeks to turn the referendum into a measure of political support, then government announcing the referendum will have to await another day,” Sir Rodney said. His statement comes as plans are announced for a public education campaign to sensitize residents on the Trinidad-based court. Last year, both the ruling ABLP and the opposition UPP agreed to consultations which would pave the way for CCJ to become the country’s final appellate court. To replace Privy Council
Sir Rodney Williams with the CCJ, would however require a constitutional change, which would have to be approved by voters in a referendum. According to the Governor-General, persons eligible to participate in the referendum will be drawn from the list of voters in each constituency on the ABEC registers. The referendum is expected to be conducted later this year. In 2015, Dominica followed Barbados, Guyana and Belize and became the fourth CARICOM state to accept the CCJ as its final court of appeal.
much more than $50 extra for their groceries because higher business costs will lead to higher prices when VAT is applied. Finance Minister Colm Imbert, in presenting the Finance Bill 2016 in Parliament last week, stated that consumers would pay $50 more on their monthly grocery bill when the new VAT measures are introduced. Economist Dr Vaalmikki Arjoon, Saturday, dismissed the claims by Imbert, saying we needed to look at the bigger picture. “Apart from the reintroduction of VAT on these items (zero rated), the cost of living is going up due to higher transportation costs, taxes and utilities. Retailers, supermarket owners and their suppliers are affected by this as well. Since the suppliers will be faced with higher costs, they can pass this on to the supermarket owners in the form of higher prices, which
Dr. Fenton Ferguson The Gleaner - There are indications that some 3,000 Jamaicans could gain employment in the United
A.J. Nicholson
Colm Imbert
the zero-rated list and the overheads and mark-ups applied by businesses will push prices up. Lower income earners will be hit the hardest. Meanwhile, economist Robert Mayers said, “It was a stupid and foolish statement to make” that consumers will only spend $50 more, because everyone’s basket would be different. “So to put a figure of $50 is foolishness.”
Last August, at the launch of the People’s National Movement manifesto, Imbert and party leader Dr Keith Rowley announced that they would reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) from 15 to 12.5 per cent. Now in office, the PNM has delivered on its promise to slash VAT. The reintroduction of VAT on zerorated items by the PNM, however, has been a bone of contention.
The Gleaner - Jamaica’s foreign minister, A.J. Nicholson, has been bestowed with one of Brazil most prestigious honours. Nicholson was last week honoured with the National Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil in recognition of his contribution to the deepening of relationships between both countries since 2013. Informing the Senate of the development last Friday,
Senator Navel Clarke said Nicholson was most deserving of the award. “There is this metaphor that a king has no honour in his own country. That could very well be said of a minister of government considering the cut and thrust of the political and parliamentary system that we are exposed to,” Clarke said. He said that Nicholson, who is the leader of
The workers received letters of termination stating that the ministry has now been subsumed as a unit department of the Office of the Prime Minister, and their services were no longer required. The layoffs came two days after Rowley told members of the media in Tobago that officials of the ministry should not fear, as the safety of their jobs would be priority and officers would be filtered into the Tobago House of Assembly. However, Rowley Saturday sought to clarify his statements, saying assurances were made to public servants of the former ministry and not to contract workers.
“Dr Rowley confirmed that he gave assurances of no job losses to the public servants on the establishment. No such assurances were given to persons employed on short term contract with the former ministry. The Prime Minister also noted that a committee was set up to oversee the transition of some services and programmes from the Ministry of Tobago Development to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and the Tobago Affairs Division of the Office of the Prime Minister,” a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said. “The Prime Minister has repeatedly stated that his administration will not
Government Business in the Senate, is held in high esteem by the international community. Opposition Senator Robert Montague said, too, that the honour was well deserved, adding that “when a Jamaica does well and is embraced, we are all proud”. Nicholson said that the honour was not for himself but for all Jamaicans.
PM: No assurances were given to those under short term contracts Trinidad Express - Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says no assurances were given to people employed under short term contracts with the previous Ministry of Tobago Development. On Friday, 21 contract workers attached to the previous ministry were fired with immediate effect.
Fraud Squad to probe Legal Affairs Trinidad Express - The Fraud Squad is probing alleged malpractices which took place at the Ministry of Legal Affairs during the period 2010 to 2015. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi disclosed he had referred the Audit report into the Legal Affairs Ministry to the Fraud Squad on Friday night. Speaking in the debate on the Finance
Dr. Vaalmikki Arjoon
A.J. NICHOLSON GETS TOP BRAZILIAN HONOUR
3,000 Jamaicans could gain employment in US States Overseas Hospitality Programme this year. This represents a near 50 per cent increase in the number of Jamaicans who were employed under the programme last year. Labour Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson made the announcement last week when he hosted five US recruiters in Montego Bay. According to Ferguson, the increased employment forecasted for this year is a clear sign that the hospitality sector is on the rebound. The recruiters were in Jamaica seeking to identify some 260 persons to work in the hospitality sector in the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Michigan.
“The VAT changes will affect all members of society, as it represents higher prices and household costs. Some basic amenities will be more expensive and this will soon be accompanied by higher utility costs. Naturally, those in the lower income groups will be most affected.” The re-introduction of the property tax and the Business and Green Fund levies, Arjoon said, also meant that consumers would have to spend more money to cover their living expenses. “So when the average consumer expects to pay 12.5 per cent he may in fact be charged more by certain retailers, owing to their higher business costs.” Arjoon and food importers Saturday warned that although VAT was cut by 2.5 per cent across the board, consumers will now have to dip deeper into their pockets since 99 categories of food items have been removed from
Bill, at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, Al-Rawi waved the twoinch-thick document, stating it confirmed there were ghost employees on the ministry’s payroll who were paid without ever having shown up one single day to work. He said hundreds of millions were spent this way, at the behest of the Government, in 2010 to 2015.
Dr. Keith Rowley support anything that undermines the THA or creates any duplication of functions in Tobago,” it added.
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
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Tennis match fixing: Evidence of suspected match fixing revealed BBC Sport - Secret files exposing evidence of widespread suspected match fixing at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, can be revealed by the BBC and BuzzFeed News. Over the last decade 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the tennis integrity unit over suspicions they have thrown matches. All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing. The Tennis Integrity Unit - set up to police the sport said it had a zero-tolerance approach to betting-related corruption. The cache of documents passed to the BBC and Buzzfeed News include the
findings of an investigation set up in 2007 by the organising body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Its job was to look into suspicious betting activity after a game involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. The two players were cleared of violating any rules but the investigation developed into a much wider enquiry looking into a web of gamblers linked to top-level players. The documents we have obtained show the enquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on games investigators thought to be fixed. Three of these games were at Wimbledon. In a confidential report for
the tennis authorities in 2008, the enquiry team said 28 players involved in these games should be investigated but the findings were never followed up. Tennis introduced a new anticorruption code in 2009 but after taking legal advice were told previous corruption offences could not be pursued. “As a result no new investigations into any of the players who were mentioned in the 2008 report were opened,” a TIU spokesman said. In subsequent years there were repeated alerts sent to the TIU about a third of these players. None of them was disciplined by the TIU. A group of whistle blowers inside tennis, who wanted to remain anonymous, recently passed
the documents on to the BBC and Buzzfeed News. We contacted Mark Phillips, one of the betting investigators in the 2007 enquiry, who told the BBC they discovered there was repeated suspicious betting activity about a clear group. “There was a core of about 10 players who we believed were the most common perpetrators that were at the root of the problem.” He has never spoken publicly before about the material he gathered, which he said was as powerful as any he had seen in over 20 years as a betting investigator. “The evidence was really strong. There appeared to be a really good chance to nip it in the bud and get a strong deterrent out there to root out the main bad apples.” The BBC and Buzzfeed
SMITH SLAMS NEGATIVE SOUTH AFRICA AFTER SERIES LOSS
were also passed on the names of other current players the TIU have repeatedly been warned about by betting organisations, sports integrity units and professional gamblers. Many of these players have been on the radar of the tennis authorities for involvement in suspicious matches going back to 2003. The BBC and Buzzfeed News have decided not to name the players because without access to their phone, bank and computer records it is not possible to determine whether they may have been personally taking part in match fixing. However tennis’s integrity unit does have the power to demand all this evidence from any professional tennis player. “There is an element of actually keeping things under wraps,” said Benn Gunn, a former police chief constable who conducted a major review of betting in tennis that led to the creation of the Tennis Integrity Unit. It’s the first time he has publicly spoken about his
concerns. “If they were really serious about dealing with this then they really need to create an integrity unit with teeth,” he said. The European Sports Security Association, which monitors betting for leading bookmakers, flagged up more than 50 suspicious matches to the TIU in 2015. The organisation declared that tennis attracts more suspicious gambling activity than other sport. Nigel Willerton, director of the TIU, said while it welcomed the support of the betting industry, “it is not the role of betting companies to make judgements about corrupt activity”. He added: “All credible information received by the TIU is analysed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former lawenforcement investigators.” The problem of suspicious betting and match fixing is not going away. Eight of the players repeatedly flagged to the TIU over the past decade are due to play in the Australian Open which starts on Monday 18 January.
Williamson-Guptill record stand helps NZ to level series
England’s Stuart Broad (L) gestures to the fans as he celebrates the dismissal of South Africa’s Stiaan van Zyl who was caught out by Ben Stokes during the third cricket test match in Johannesburg, South Africa, January 16, 2016. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko) JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) JOHANNESBURG – Poor management and a negative mind-set contributed to South Africa’s home series defeat by England and loss of the number one test ranking, former Proteas captain Graeme Smith said. Smith’s brash leadership over a decade led the side to the top of the International Cricket Council’s test rankings, but since he retired in early 2014 he has watched from the sidelines as the team’s performances worsen. Their latest seven-wicket loss to England at the Wanderers on Saturday, that included being bowled out for
a paltry 83 in their second innings, gifted the series to the tourists and saw India installed as the new number one test team. Smith believes the management team, led by head coach Russell Domingo, need to look at their role in the decline of the side. “The players have to take responsibility for their performances, there’s no doubt about that, but the management do too,” Smith told SuperSport. “They haven’t quite come into the equation of late. At the end the day the performances of the test team for the last year haven’t been good enough, so you have to
ask questions of everybody. “How is management getting the best out of them, how are they preparing them, are they directed in the right way, do they need to be firmer, do they need to be softer? I don’t know. “These are all questions that need to come out of the environment. When you are not performing well, people are going to ask questions and you’ve got to live with it.” Smith, arguably the Proteas greatest ever captain, said there was a lack of strong leadership in the current squad, which has also lost senior players Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in recent
years. “Some of the decisionmaking around the space looks a bit worrisome for me. The team seems a bit flat. Some of the messages coming out in the press conferences don’t seem positive and it’s coming from senior players. “You’re are in a big series and there is a lot of negativity among your senior players. It looks like someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and say, ‘listen guys, let’s wake up and let’s pull our finger out and let’s go and play some test cricket’.” The fourth and final test, now a dead rubber, starts in Pretoria on Friday.
(Reuters) Skipper Kane Williamson and fellow opener Martin Guptill forged the highest partnership in Twenty20 Internationals to secure New Zealand a series-levelling 10wicket victory against Pakistan in the second match in Hamilton on Sunday. The 171-run stand between the pair, who shared the manof-the-match award, bettered the previous record of 170 between South African openers Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman against England in a 2009 match at Centurion. Opting to bat first, Pakistan posted 168 for seven in 20 overs with Umar Akmal (56 not out) and Shoaib Malik (39) scoring the bulk of the runs in the second match of the threegame series. Akmal needed 22 balls for his fifty and hit four sixes as Pakistan settled for a score their bowlers eventually could not defend. The tourists struggled to come to terms with the contrasting batting styles of New Zealand’s opening pair who milked the Pakistan attack with consummate ease. Williamson hit 11 boundaries to remain unbeaten on 72 as his team sealed victory with 14 balls to spare. Guptill faced 10 more balls for his 87 not out, hitting four sixes and nine boundaries, the last of which sealed victory and created a new partnership record. Wellington hosts the decider on Friday. Scores: New Zealand 171 for 0 (Guptill 87*, Williamson 72*) beat Pakistan 168 for 7 (Akmal 56*, McClenaghan 223) by ten wickets.
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Kaieteur News
Monday January 18, 2016
DEFIANT US FRAUDSTER ALLEN STANFORD VOWS TO CLEAR NAME - PART 2 BBC News – (continued from Tuesday) “I was pretrial, I was presumed innocent… I was denied bail and my treatment, I would call it barbaric. It was something you’d think you’d receive if you were in North Korea or Iran or Russia or somewhere, but not the US. “My memory began to go on me... I was having residual bleeding on my temporal lobe which they refused to do an MRI on and refused to give me proper neurological care on. “It’s really beyond comprehension when you’re in a penitentiary - there’s four levels of custody: camp, low, medium - and I’m in the maximum security setting and I’ll just use some penitentiary language here; a penitentiary is violent... and it is a violent existence, and it will test everything you are made of. “I have been able to weather this storm from hell probably better than most people could have, and you don’t really know what you’re made of until these things unfortunately come your way. I certainly never thought I’d spend now nearly seven years of my life in a US penitentiary and be subjected to things that are really horrific but mentally I’m back, I think, close to where I was before all this started. Physically I’m doing very well, thank God, and I’m fighting every single day. I am not going to lose this, this was a wrongful prosecution and I am going to win. “There’s a points system in prison in the US. It goes from 1 to 46, 46 being the most violent and most lengthy of criminal history, 1 being the least. I am a 1. I’ve been told I am the lowest points-system inmate in the whole prison. I would normally qualify for a camp or a ‘low’ prison, but they’ve stuck me here... The purpose for that - there’s no question - is to make it more difficult to continue to fight. This is not conspiratorial, conjecture or whining - I’m certainly not whining about a damn thing. “I have seen people stabbed I have seen people beaten senseless. I have seen guards attacked, inmates
The winning team shared $20M in prize money for Stanford’s 2009 cricket tournament. (Getty images) attacked, I’ve seen some pretty bad things happen. I’ve been in the middle of a riot, 100 guys right in the middle of a big riot, then they bring in the real guns and shoot with real bullets, I’ve pretty much seen it all. “I read a Bible verse every morning... without that belief I could not let this anger go, I could not let this hate that boils up in me from time to time go. So it comes and then I just let it go because ultimately you hurt yourself, it will eat you alive and I have seen it do that to a number of guys in here… I miss my freedom. Like anybody in a penitentiary, you cannot even begin to tell someone what it’s like to lose your freedom until you have lost your freedom. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The winning team shared $20m in prize money for Stanford’s 2009 cricket tournament “It is hard to believe every single, waking, moment, that I am inside this penitentiary, and now going on almost seven years of this hell it is still hard to realise. But as they do say, you either become stronger or weaker. In my case, I think I’ve shown I’ve become a stronger person and I’ve been supported by my family, and a handful of friends. “The darkest moment was probably when I was... coming off this addiction that the government got me on... the government turns me into a damn drug addict. While I was getting off these
psychotropics, my mother moved up to to visit me... and I was having trouble remembering that both my younger brothers had died tragically years ago, and that was a very difficult time for her emotionally.” After serving three of his 110 years behind bars, Stanford filed an appeal on his own behalf, without an attorney. In October 2015, a court rejected 10 arguments, including that he was not competent to stand trial, that the SEC did not have jurisdiction over his offshore business, that the government did not prove its case, that the sentence was too long, and that the trial judge was biased toward prosecutors. “We find no evidence that the district court was partial to the government in derogation of Stanford’s right to a fair trial under the Constitution,” the circuit judge wrote. Stanford was
found to have manipulated financial reports to show fake profits, bribed an Antiguan official, impeded SEC scrutiny and orchestrated a fraudulent financial empire. He denies any wrongdoing and has lodged a further appeal. “I was not fit to go to trial, I did not have the preparatory time. All four of my attorneys... unfortunately were spineless. They did they best they could. They didn’t even bring up issues that should have been addressed. They didn’t understand what they were really doing. It was an enormously complex case, the government had three and a half years, they used Stanford money, receiverships, assets, civil investigatory powers to get and do things illegally to get me and prosecute me. ‘NEVER ANY ISSUES’ “There was no misrepresentation of any annual report. When 2009 rolled around and the financial
crisis was at its worst, when the SEC came in, we were under the regulatory lookand-see of 14 countries and 70 different regulatory and other bodies that examine your business, including our insurance underwriters who have to do risk audits of the way you manage your assets. We never had any issues other than the normal ‘you can do better here and there’ - nothing of any significance, never had any issues ever. “The whole thing about bribes was manipulated by the SEC… The SEC did not have the regulatory authority nor the jurisdiction to do what they were wanting us to do, but to bend over backwards we invited them to come and see for themselves. The Antiguan authorities then agreed they would send with them their regulators, their internal auditors to go look at the books with them should they choose to do that - both times they said no. “I work non-stop, I’m working seven days a week on my case, that’s all I do. I just work on my case. I don’t think about dying in prison, my thought is on winning, I plan to win. Image copyright courtesy Sky Sports Image caption The tycoon’s behaviour with the wives of the England cricket team caused uproar in the British media “What happened to my six children was wrong, terribly wrong… They got put out on the street, they got the silver spoon taken out of their mouth, their billionaire father who was providing for them that got yanked out from underneath them, they did not whine, they did not cry,
The tycoon’s behaviour with the wives of the England cricket team caused uproar in the British media, (courtesy Sky Sports)
they did not complain, they sucked it up and showed me they had the grit and determination to carry on. And it’s just been an aweinspiring thing for me to watch my children all six of them - how they have been able to show me what they’re made of. “I am sad for what they have had to go through but I don’t feel guilty for what they have had to go through. I didn’t cause that. What I have a guilt for is that before any of this happened I didn’t spend the time I should have spent with my children, instead I spent it in my business… But in terms of what’s happened, I have nobody to be apologetic to, I have nothing to apologise for, I have done nothing wrong. “I owned six jets, I had a Global Express, two Gulf Streams and three Hawker jets. All of those were corporate aircraft, all used for business purposes. Without that I couldn’t have done what I did, which was travel constantly, and I worked my rear end off. So to that end I needed the aeroplanes. I was one of the wealthiest men on the planet and anybody in my position would have his own aeroplane. You’re going to have planes because we had business in 140 countries and offices in 14 countries. The opulent lifestyle is really a funny thing to me. What is opulent? I had a 112ft sports yacht. Is that a big boat? Of course it is, if you have a 14ft boat as a dream boat. But if you are Larry Ellison and you’ve got four 300ft boats maybe it’s no more than a tender. It’s all relevant. I lived very modestly in terms of how I could have lived. My lifestyle in terms of my profile was probably much bigger than how I actually lived personally. “Let’s not talk about if, let’s talk about when I’m released. “I will go back to being who I was, but more in tune to what I do with my family and my children... I want to be back in the Caribbean, that’s my favourite place in the world and I love the people in the West Indies, they’re my second family. I love Antigua, I miss it greatly. “I know it’s going to happen, so it’s not a dream, it’s reality and it’s right around the corner so yes, I think about it very, very often and I have a smile on my face, and I know it’s going to happen. And I feel very confident it’s going to happen very, very soon.”
Monday January 18, 2016
Kaieteur News
Shelly taken aback by ‘Iconic’ recognition Jamaica Observer – After consistently dominating the track since 2008, there is no award that Shelly-Ann FraserPryce could win that would surprise her. She seems to have won them all. But the diminutive sprinter, the best of her era and arguably the greatest of all time, was totally surprised after being given the Sagicor Iconic Award at the RJR National Sportsman and Sportswoman Awards ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Friday night. “I didn’t know I was getting an Iconic Award. I saw the image on the screen and I thought it was just for the Sportswoman of the Year nominees going over again,” explained Fraser-Pryce. “Then I heard. I was like ‘OK’. It was really wonderful to have received the award; who would have dreamt that I would be here? I am overwhelmed with emotion. I am not a crier, but overwhelmed to get this award,” said Fraser-Pryce. “Winning an award is a signal that you did something right and I am excited about that, honoured, blessed and grateful,” she added.
Sagicor Group President and CEO Richard Byles presents Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with the Sagicor Iconic Award. The Sagicor Iconic award is presented to a person or entity, who has, in the opinion of the RJR Foundation Board, performed consistently at the global level for a sustained period of time. The recipient may come from any area of sport. The award carries with it a cash component of $200,000, which is presented on behalf of the recipient to a charity of his or her choice.
The award is not intended to be given posthumously as it aims to inspire individuals to greater levels of performance and successes. Usain Bolt was the first recipient in 2011 and was followed by his coach Glen Mills in 2012. Netball administrator Molly Rhone was given the iconic award in 2013 and the legendary sprinter Donald Quarrie received it in 2014.
Williams-Mills revels in prestigious Chairman’s Award Jamaica Observer – World Championships gold medallist and cancer survivor Novlene Williams-Mills was the recipient of the Chairman’s Award at the RJR Sports Foundation National Sportsman and Sportswoman Awards on Friday night at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel. Williams-Mills, 33, in 2013 revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer before the 2012 Olympics. But, despite the diagnosis, she still ran the race and was able to help Jamaica win a bronze medal. Shortly after the Olympics, she had a mastectomy and in January 2013 had another operation, and is now the face of the cancer fight as her story of survival has become the inspiration for many. “I feel very blessed for them to even consider me for that award, because I know it’s a very prestigious award,” Williams-Mills told the Jamaica Observer. “There are so many other athletes that they could have really considered, but for them to even think of me to say, ‘she deserves it,’ is really great,” she emphasised. Williams-Mills, who struggled with a thyroid
Novlene Williams-Mills collects the Chairman’s Award from RJR Sports Foundation Chairman Gary Allen at the RJR Awards. infection during the World Championships of 2015, still managed to produce a breathtaking 49.14 seconds relay split, the second-fastest in the final, which propelled Jamaica to victory over the Americans as she reeled in Francena McCorory for a fantastic win. “It makes me feel great just for people to even walk up to me and be like, ‘thanks for what you are doing; you are an inspiration to me,’” said Williams-Mills. She continued: “When I
started this journey, even to share my story, I would have never known, even in a million years, the response that I [would] have got from people around the world. I know there are so many other people who struggle with different types of cancer.” Williams-Mills has proved that, despite the adversities, she is still doing what she loves best. “I have been through this and I have gone back to do what I like to do, then it’s great,” said Williams-Mills.
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Maxwell dazzles in Melbourne, Australia clinch series MELBOURNE (Reuters) Glenn Maxwell struck a scintillating 96 in a tricky chase to help Australia beat India by three wickets in the third one-dayer on Sunday and take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Maxwell revived Australia’s chase for a 296run victory target with a spectacular knock and by the time he was dismissed after an 83-ball blitz, scores were tied at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. “It was nice to get a few out of the middle,” the 27year-old said at the presentation ceremony. “I broke my number one bat which was a bit annoying. I have to call Kookaburra and try and get another one from them.” Virat Kohli had earlier struck a run-a-ball 117 to power India to a competitive 295 for six but the total was not enough in the end. Put into bat, India suffered an early setback as the law of average caught up with opener Rohit Sharma who, after centuries in the last two matches, fell for six in the fifth over. However, Shikhar Dhawan (68), now a Melbourne resident, batted himself back into form, raising 119 runs with Kohli before exposing his leg-stump which was pegged back by a John Hastings delivery. At the other end, Kohli became the fastest to score 7,000-runs in one-dayers, taking five less than the 166 innings South African AB de Villiers needed to reach the mark. The Indian test skipper found an able ally in Ajinkya Rahane (50), who notched up his second successive fifty, as the duo added 109 runs. Hastings, who finished with a career-best 4-58, ended Kohli’s sparkling knock of 117 that included two sixes and seven boundaries. Dropped on 20, Aaron Finch (21) could not make the most of the reprieve but Shaun Marsh (62) and skipper Steven Smith (41) added 64 runs to steady the Australia reply. At 215-6, the hosts looked in trouble before Maxwell bailed them out with some uninhibited strokemaking. Needing 65 runs off the last 10 overs, Maxwell hit Umesh Yadav for a six and a four in the 43rd over that produced 15 runs and proved the turning point in the thrilling contest. Maxwell missed his second ODI ton but belted three sixes and eight boundaries in his stellar knock to claim the man-of-the-match
Australia’s Glenn Maxwell bats against India during their One Day cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, January 17, 2016. (Reuters/Hamish Blair)
India’s Virat Kohli celebrates his century against Australia during their One Day cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, January 17, 2016. (Reuters/Hamish Blair) award as the hosts romped home with seven balls to spare. “I thought 295 was a very good score,” India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, not hiding his disappointment with his team’s fielding. “We did not field well, we conceded three boundaries that we should have easily stopped and those were the
best fielders in the side. “In tight games like this, that’s one thing we have to avoid,” Dhoni rued. The teams now move to Canberra for the fourth onedayer on Wednesday. Scores: Australia 7 for 296 (Maxwell 96, S Marsh 62) beat India 6 for 295 (Kohli 117, S Dhawan 68, Rahane 50, Hastings 4-58) by 3 wickets.
Bacchus masterful 153... From page 33 But Rutherford got going with a boundary over point and a one-handed six over extra cover off Suknanan, while Squires clobbered Richardson for consecutive boundaries before dumping Suknanan, whom the batsmen seemed to target, for six. Rutherford (16 from 6 balls) seemed unlucky to be given caught behind off Richardson 27-4 before the 50 was posted in 5.3 overs, while Squires, who smashed three sixes and three fours in an explosive 36, was caught off of Suknanan and Christian (25 with 3 sixes and three fours) was LBW to Richardson before the declaration was made leaving GNIC to get 120 to win from a minimum of 15 overs. They eventually reached 22-1 when bad light stopped play with DCC getting first innings points in the rain affected contest.
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Kaieteur News
Cardinals edge Packers in OT thriller
Monday January 18, 2016
Fudadin maiden unbeaten ton secures win for Jaguars ‘Final four’ set for T&T this week
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald (11) scores a touchdown against Green Bay Packers during overtime in a NFC Divisional round playoff game at University of Phoenix Stadium. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports) (Reuters) Larry Fitzgerald’s remarkable 75yard catch and run set up his game-winning touchdown as the Arizona Cardinals survived a wild finish with a 26-20 overtime triumph over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday. Carson Palmer, who connected with Fitzgerald on a five-yard pass for the winning score, earned the first playoff win of his 12-year National Football League career and sent the secondseeded Cardinals into next week’s NFC championship. But Arizona first had to withstand a 41-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass by Aaron Rodgers as time expired on regulation that sent the game into overtime. The coin toss prior to overtime was initially flubbed by the official, who watched it fall to the ground without turning over and had to flip it a second time, but once play started the Cardinals struck on the opening drive. “We’re a resilient team and we believe,” said Fitzgerald, who finished the
game with eight catches for 176 yards. “We found a way to win. We’re glad to get this one behind us. We have to keep on fighting next week.” The Cardinals, who had not won a playoff game since the 2009 season, will play the winner of Sunday’s game between the top-seeded Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks for a trip to the Super Bowl. The Packers defeated Washington 35-18 last week to reach the divisional round of the playoffs and fought until the end despite a critical loss with an injury to leading receiver Randall Cobb in the opening quarter on Saturday. That left Green Bay and Rodgers with little-used wide receivers but he still managed to produce 261 yards and two scores. Rodgers’ miracle throw at the end of the fourth quarter was reminiscent of his Week 13 Hail Mary winning pass against the Detroit Lions. The Green Bay QB scrambled and flung a bomb that found the leaping arms
of receiver Jeff Janis. “Most teams would’ve probably played prevent (defense on the last drive). I said ‘hell no, blitz him,’” said Cardinals coach Bruce Arians. “And he made a great throw. I loved the way our guys responded.” Palmer recorded 349 yards passing for three touchdowns to offset two interceptions. He was the benefactor of an improbable bounce late in the fourth quarter of a back and forth affair. Palmer put the Cardinals ahead 17-13 on a pass that looked to be an interception when it was deflected by Green Bay’s Randall Damarious and ricocheted into the hands of Michael Floyd. The Cardinals added a field goal prior to Green Bay’s last drive of regulation. “It’s tough. We’ve lost a few of these over the years where you don’t touch the ball in overtime,” Rodgers said. “It comes down to a coin flip sometimes. There were bizarre plays made by both teams.”
A magnificent maiden unbeaten 103 from 30-yearold left-hander Assad Fudadin and 4-22 from leftarm spinner Veerasammy Permaul spearheaded Guyana Jaguars to a five-wicket win over CCC Marooners in their final preliminary round match at Warner Park in St Kitts yesterday. Guyana and the Windwards are both through to the semis from the St Kitts zone. The first semi-final is scheduled for Wednesday, while the second semi-final will be played the next day. The final is set for Saturday and the ‘final four’ will all be played at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad. Fudadin, playing in his 45th game at this level batted from start to finish as the Jaguars with excellent back up from Leon Johnson (56) and Royston Crandon (29), reached 255-5 in 49.3 overs in response to the 254-7 off 50 overs made by the students. Earlier, the 26-year-old Permaul moved to the top of the wicket-takers list with 15 scalps and got support from off-spinner Steven Jacobs who took 1-37 from 10 frugal overs. Rovman Powell with an undefeated 63 and 22-year-old Barbadian Anthony Alleyne (57) scored half-centuries and got support from Jamaican Chadwick Walton (36) and Akeem Dewar (26) to give CCC what at one point, seemed to be a winning total. But the usually solid but
Veerasammy Permaul subdued Fudadin, has played three Tests, changed gear towards the end and lofted two sixes to gallop into the nineties to eventually bring the asking rate to a run-ball with one over to go. It took Fudadin, now the leading run-scorer in this year tournament with 250 runs, and Jacobs who chipped in with an important 15 not out, just three balls in the last over to formalize the hard fought win. When the Jaguars, without Shiv Chanderpaul in their line-up, began their reply they quickly lost 22-year-old debutant Kevin Boodie (6) caught at cover trying to force pacer Christopher Powell in the fifth over with the Jaguars on 12-1. Skipper Leon Johnson and Fudadin steadied the chase with a well compiled 90run partnership before Johnson got to his eight 50-
over fifty and first for the tournament before the 28year-old left-hander once again fell when well set for a big score. Johnson was well taken in the deep looking to clear the boundary off rookie off-spinner Vikash Mohan in the 24th over at 102-2. Crandon and Fudadin further consolidated the position with another useful partnership before Crandon retired hurt with Fudadin on 99. Fudadin reached his century when he worked a ball to short mid-wicket for a single. His hundred came from 132 balls and was decorated with nine fours and three sixes and he joined Andrew McCarthy and Evin Lewis as the centurions in the preliminary rounds which ended yesterday. Meanwhile in other Scores: Leewards beat Windwards by five runs Leewards 238/9 from 49.overs: Ambris 74, Mayers 30* Fletcher 42: Cruickshank 2/42. Windwards 243/6: Hughes 8. S Peters 32, O. Peters 78 Wickets: Jamaica beat Americas by four runs: Jamaica 257/9 in 50 overs Americas 253/8. T&T beat Barbados by 3 wicketsBarbados 227/7 47.overs: Dowrich 27* Nurse 6* T&T 226: Darren Bravo 82, Ramdin 57, Nurse 10-0-372 Holder 8-0-35-4.
Panthers hold off Seahawks to... From page 35 putting it back together.” Wilson, his opposite number, threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns to offset two interceptions as Seattle shut out the Panthers after halftime. Jonathan Stewart, who scored two touchdowns in the first half to help Carolina take control, became the first 100yard rusher (with 106) allowed by the Seahawks in 27 games on his return from a foot injury.
The other Panthers touchdowns came from linebacker Luke Kuechly, with a 14-yard interception return, and tight end Greg Olsen, on a 19-yard pass from Newton. With one win standing between the Panthers and their first Super Bowl appearance since the 2003 NFL season, head coach Ron Rivera was not about to lose sleep over his team’s inability to add to their lead in the second half. “We won the football
game, and that’s the bottom line,” said Rivera. “I’m very proud of what we did in the first half. If we could have just skipped right on over at halftime and just kept playing, I think we might have been in much better shape.” “But kudos to (the Seahawks) because of what happened. That’s why they are a championship caliber football team because they have that kind of ability (to come back).”
Assad Fudaddin scored a century to lead Guyana Jaguars.