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Kaieteur News
Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana. Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210
EDITORIAL
Genuine dialogue Dialogue is both a kind of conversation and a way of relating. It is a communication process in which participants may say or hear something they never said or heard before, and from which they may emerge irrevocably changed. The approach emphasises listening, learning, and the development of shared understandings. Dialogue differs from other central modes of communication, including mediation, negotiation, discussion and debate. In discussion, for example, parties try to persuade each other of the accuracy of a particular point of view. The goal is to bat ideas back and forth, evaluate multiple perspectives, and select the best one. Parties try to justify and defend their assumptions and convince one another that theirs is the right opinion. In discussion, disputants have a tendency to become defensive and reactive. Dialogue, on the other hand, seeks to inform and learn rather than to persuade. It is a conversation “animated by a search for understanding rather than for agreements or solutions.” One is concerned not only about oneself and one’s own position, but also about the other party and the position that that party advances. Participants focus on their relationship and the joint process of making sense of each other, rather than winning or losing. Dialogue has no fixed goal or predetermined agenda. The emphasis is not on resolving disputes, but rather on improving the way in which people with significant differences relate to each other. The broad aim is to promote respectful inquiry, and to stimulate a new sort of conversation that allows important issues to surface freely. While opponents in deep-rooted conflict are unlikely to agree with each other’s views, they can come to understand each other’s perspectives. The following conditions help to ensure productive dialogue: People speak openly, and listen respectfully and attentively. Derogatory attributions, attacks and defensiveness have no role in dialogue. Participants do not make assumptions about the motives or character of others. Questions are sincere, and driven by curiosity. As they listen to one another and relate in new ways, participants learn new perspectives, reflect on their own views, and develop mutual understanding. In dialogue, when one person says something, another person’s response expresses a slightly different meaning. This difference in meaning allows parties to see something new, which is relevant both to their own views and those of the other party. The conversation moves back and forth, with the continual emergence of new meaning. Through inquiry and conversation, parties try to integrate multiple perspectives and unfold shared meaning. This involves uncovering and examining their assumptions and judgments. When people enter into conversations with others, they bring with them basic assumptions about the meaning of life, their country’s interest, how society works, and what is most valuable. Most of these basic assumptions come from society and are rooted in culture, race, religion, and economic background. As a result, people coming from different backgrounds have different basic assumptions and values, and these clashing views and perspectives often lead to conflict. Dialogue attempts to expose these assumptions and the thought processes that lie behind them. It calls on participants to pay attention to their thinking, feelings, assumptions, and patterns of communication. Their patterns of thought include feelings, desires, and ways of interpreting information. Individuals typically have a sense that their way of interpreting the world is the only way that it can be interpreted. They are not immediately aware of the degree to which their conception of reality is biased and influenced by their personal needs and fears. In dialogue, participants explore the presuppositions, beliefs, and feelings that shape their interactions; they discover how hidden values and intentions control people’s behaviour and contribute to communication successes and failures. However, this can happen only if people are able to listen to each other without prejudice and without trying to influence one another.
Saturday July 27, 2013
Letters... Where your views make the news
The criminal environment started with our racial battles of the fifties and sixties DEAR EDITOR, I read Ruel Johnson’s letter titled “The PPP created the criminal environment” (KN, July 19, 2013). Johnson states “The spiraling violent crime in this place has everything to do with the environment that the PPP has created or contributed to over the past two decades.” Johnson is absolutely correct that the PPP has created some evils, but it has also contributed to crime and evils long existent in our society. Beyond listing the negative effects of criminality under the PPP, we need to go deeper and explore the seminal events that magnified criminality in our society. In doing so, we will discover that the dramatic march to criminality in Guyana started with our racialpolitical warfare and the ethnic conflict it generated in the fifties and sixties. From 1954 when Burnham and Jagan began their tug of war for power and their constituencies lapped up their antagonizing racial rhetoric, we became an immoral nation, which made it easier for us to transform into a criminalized nation.
The ethnic mayhem of the fifties and sixties led to horrible governance and despotism which bred all manner of thuggery and the criminality that flows from that fundamental moral degradation. Then there was economic mismanagement and destitution, which criminalized many out of sheer survival and others out of entitlement, bullyism, self-aggrandizement and envy, greed and covetousness. Again, these attributes thrive in highly divided and unequal societies. In the failed PNC and PPP Guyana, the amoral and immoral environment inevitably led to criminality. The PNC and PPP destroyed the moral compass and the rule of law of Guyana and created the criminalized and venal monster we are today as a society. Both of these parties have created the depraved existence, criminalized environment and the destroyed rule of law society their successors will reap. That is how we became criminalized. Out of the ethnic fires of the fifties and sixties and its moral damage, it was
In this situation passing judgment will not help in any way DEAR EDITOR, We are saddened by the news reported in the two independent daily newspapers, SN & KN dated, July 26, 2013, about the decomposed body of a baby found in a septic tank. We mourn the baby’s death, but at the risk of provoking anger among those who are “pro-life” but pay no attention to the problems many mothers face keeping their children alive, we grieve that the mother had to face this ordeal. To us, it is clear that this woman needs help. This is a mother and from all indications a poor woman with eight children. Some of us who have two are finding it almost impossible to survive much less a woman with eight. We do not know the circumstances surrounding this woman and her family that led her to this, but we do know that it is not easy to provide for so many children. In this situation passing judgment will not help in any
way. The fact that she admitted to drinking something to try to terminate the pregnancy is a sign that she couldn’t afford to pay to have it done properly. Who would want to put their lives at risk except in a can’t-help situation? There are many other women out there who like her, are forced to have unsafe abortions. The Termination of Pregnancy Bill was passed about eighteen years ago in June 1995, but to date poor women still cannot access free and safe abortions. We call on the Minister of Health and all the relevant authorities responsible to urgently make this service available, especially to the poor women who need it the most. In addition, we call on the Minister of Human Services and her Ministry to ensure that this woman and her family get the help and the kind support they need. Nicola Marcus Wintress White Red Thread
inevitable that we would get the PNC and the PPP and all their thieving, corruption, immorality, wrongdoing, malfeasance and their myopia to ‘wutlissness.’ They were born out of a criminalized philosophy of racial destruction, ethnic hatred, group triumphalism and enclave neutralization and the despotism that accompanies that filthiness. From the bitterness of the sixties and its abominable crimes and conveniently justified criminality, we got the PNC and its unelected dictatorship and the PPP and its elected dictatorship. We have always been a society of criminality built upon criminality and moral transgression built upon moral violation. There is no break; our historical progression is just painful accumulation of immorality upon iniquity. Whether House of Israel’s savages or Roger Khan’s phantom philistines or the snuffing out of dissidents like Walter Rodney or Ronald Waddell or the stench of corruption from decrepit electricity barges to missing monies at NCN or the bribes demanded by the police force then and now, the more things change the more they remain the same. When political parties are built on immoral platforms, they will govern in immoral and criminal fashion and criminals will flourish and criminality will reign. The mostly Africans and Indians in our nation who support and vote for the
PNC and PPP have also created the very criminality they suffer from. They have built their own demise. They have, with the jubilant ethnic voting ink on their fingers every five years, created this broken rule of law they live under. They continue to vote for morally damaged political parties and ethically degenerate individuals that dominate them. They continue to remain silent when the race parties (PPP and PNC/APNU) get hijacked by the failed and corrupt. By their actions, they have also created the burgeoning banditry, the out of control thievery, the incessant corruption, the inveterate bullyism, the ingrained despotism, the kick-down-door rogues at their door, the victimization, the drug trade, the guns that are increasingly killing them and their families, the money laundering that prices everything out of their reach and so on. Our politics was born out of vileness and criminality and continues to spawn vileness and criminality. This inherent Guyanese immorality, illegality and criminality, is a product of our disastrous ethnopolitical choices and our broken economic existence. We indirectly vote for the criminals when we vote for political movements (PNC/APNU and PPP) that turn a blind eye to criminality and establish (Continued on page 6)
Beware of RARshare and its generous offer DEAR EDITOR, I feel it is necessary to warn my readers and wouldbe readers in Guyana that a prominent malware organization is infecting computers using my book, The Thomas Carroll Affair, as a lure. The organization, operating under “RARshare,” is offering my book for free. So is another illegal website “Mobilism.” (It put up at US$34 reward for anyone who would cooperate with them) What is important to know is that RARshare makes money by inserting harmful tracking software in personal computers. This is big business. It has gotten sophisticated enough that tracking software can be
implanted in pictures and designs downloaded. One of the recent tricks is to create a Youtube video which leads to a free book offer. If anyone takes the ‘free’ offer up, he or she will be flooded with damaging programmes. Some of these, for all intents and purposes, can take over your computer. I would feel terrible if anyone lost the functionality of his or her personal computer due to this scam. If anyone is interested in acquiring a copy of The Thomas Carroll Affair, please contact Austin’s bookstore in Georgetown, Guyana or go to Amazon US or Canada. David Casavis
Saturday July 27, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news
REAL LIFE IS FULL OF MOMENTS WHICH CAN’T STAND UP TO STRICT AND BORING MORALITY DEAR EDITOR, Freddie Kissoon’s column yesterday raised such resonances that I am impelled to a dangerous act: to express a view different from that of Freddie Kissoon. First I have to confess that a generation ago I bribed an official of the Ministry of Education to change my son’s primary school placement from a school in our neighbourhood to one at the other end of town. How I located that officer is another story, but the nature of the bribe is interesting. I gave him a copy of a book I had lately been concerned in publishing: Martin Carter’s Selected Poems. The man was an ex-teacher, of rural origin. He was predictably charmed by the collection, selected by the iconic poet himself as works he wished to be remembered by; with an Introduction by Ian McDonald; printed on the shaky second-hand press that the Stabroek News first used in Robb Street, at great mechanical risk that David de Caires could not but authorise; bound in a cover designed by Stanley Greaves,
carrying a portrait taken by Ed Rodway and Pat Pierre, and a two-line blurb written by Rupert Roopnaraine. How could any educated Guyanese resist an inducement like that, to reinforce the plea I laid on him? I told him that having gone to Sacred Heart Primary (from a Queenstown address) had had such a profound effect on my identity as a Guyanese that I wanted my boy to have the same influence on his growing up. He said that, though he’d never met either of us before, he was sure the boy would turn out a credit to the school. So the evil deed was done; official discretion was exercised, I don’t now care on what official justification. A year or two later I emerged into the street from Customs House (after an official encounter that’s another story in itself) and had a kind of epiphany as a Georgetown person, with some of the most vital influences in my life bound up with Main Street Avenue, where my son would be in an hour or two, buying tamarind
balls like I had so many years before him. Well, Sacred Heart gained the boy a place in Queen’s College. He got just enough CXCs (though at Nations, not at Queens, but that’s yet another story) to make it into UG, where he graduated before he was 21. He didn’t become a notable academic, but I know that school did help my son become a person that Guyana can be proud of — though he’s a Canadian
now: and isn’t that the story of our homeland. So how do I feel about that piece of bribery and corruption? Not guilty, then or now, and I am sure that official should not feel guilty. That’s perhaps the point of all these stories, that real life is full of moments which can’t stand up to strict and boring morality. Not that Freddie will resist attacking the messenger as usual, but ordinary people use whatever
advantages they have to make their way through their world. I think it’s called evolution. Sadly, the advantages became often reduced to crass economics, or unequal access. That’s part of the progress that drove me away from being a Georgetown person. But not to where I cannot see/You walking on the backroads/By the rivers of my memory/Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind. A
(garbled) sentimental quote from John Hartford. For I can’t resist jerking Freddie’s chain one more time: how much of his ranting has to be forgiven, when it comes from genuine sentiment? Gordon Forte
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Saturday July 27, 2013
Letters... Where your views make the news
The criminal environment started with our racial... From page 4 environments conducive to criminality, because in those environments criminals will flourish. Since the mid-fifties, our nation’s metamorphosis has not been geared towards goodness, fairness, equity, truth, justice and decency but towards evil, wrongdoing, injustice, unfairness, inequity and despotism. The PPP is simply carrying on the legacy of abomination. Like any progressive criminalized and corrupt entity, it has advanced beyond the dereliction of its predecessor. It has expanded inequality in staggering fashion. Drug trafficking today dwarfs the small trafficking that occurred under the PNC. Corruption is more rampant under the PPP because of the growth in the economy
since 1992, the massive revenue collections from GRA available for the taking and the public contracting/tendering/procurement system created under the PPP that has placed hundreds of billions into the pockets of a favoured few. Most of the personal wealth created in Guyana in the past 20 years has come from criminality, corruption and public contracting largesse and it went to only a few lucky ones. This complicit environment produces criminality and criminals. Those at the bottom who witness the unmitigated theft at the top are emboldened to buy a gun and kill for theirs. The easy target is the masses perpetually exposed and unprotected. If the PNC/APNU gets power tomorrow, it will simply do as the PPP did and
build on this dirty legacy of wrongdoing. Like the PPP, it knows nothing else but the politics that invite criminality and court immorality. This is how the PNC and PPP have ghettoized and dehumanized Guyana. Since 1950, we have been on this journey of sin, thuggery, indecency, depravity, wrongdoing, buccaneering and criminality. Since 1950, we have continued to vote for the con artist to rob us, the corrupt crook to steal from us and the killer to kick down our door and blast us into kingdom come. Instead of looking at ourselves in the mirror and at the mistakes we have made as a nation supporting political parties (PPP and PNC/APNU) that either make us criminal or place us at the mercies of goons, we instead resort to ethnic finger pointing and racial labelling of the criminality that invades us. When are we going to point at ourselves and the karmic consequences of our own actions in voting for these parties? Pointing fingers at another ethnic group will not ease the number of guns pointed at us in the here and now. Blaming other ethnicities for crime will not ease the flood of criminals emerging from every ethnic group in our society. It is time to blame ourselves for creating parties and governments that embolden criminals and directly harm us and our families. How many more have to fall into permanent slumber at the end of a gun before we wake up and do the right thing? M. Maxwell
Saturday July 27, 2013
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Media barred from asking questions on Amaila Falls project
Recording exposes Edghill’s deception Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill, has denied barring media from asking questions during Thursday’s ‘stakeholders’ forum of the Amaila Falls hydro project. But recordings revealed that Edghill actually said, “I
would not be taking questions from the media. The media has sufficient and enough opportunities to field all their questions. It would be improper for me to have three hundred-plus stakeholders at a forum and then I am taking questions from the media which they have opportunities -three, four, five times a week-to do.” Only one question was allowed and it came from Stabroek News before Edghill as Chairperson stepped in. Yesterday, in a statement from Minister Edghill, he denied barring the media from asking questions. “I merely advised the media to make use of the
several opportunities that are available to them on a weekly basis to ask their questions. This was purely to allow for fuller participation by all. To ascribe a motive is simply being mischievous. No one present listening to the tone and content of what was said could have concluded that the media was being barred. It was never an issue.” He said that Kaieteur News, in a “shameless attempt” to hide the positive results of the consultation held at the Guyana International Conference Center, has concocted a headline story titled “Media barred from asking questions.”
“This is a total misrepresentation and a twisting of the facts to achieve a pre-determined agenda best known to the Kaieteur News.” Edghill said that he directed to media to use the other forums, taking into consideration the fact that there were over 300 persons there. “I therefore reject Kaieteur News’s fabrication in its entirety. I will advise journalists to “report the news and not make the news.” What did the stakeholders understand by his comment, “I would not be taking questions from the media. The media has sufficient and enough opportunities to field
all their questions”? It must be that Edghill was surprised that his decision to bar the media was highlighted and he became embarrassed, said one media owner. The result is that he resorted to a blatant untruth and deception. The government had sought to postpone parliament to hold the forum to seek support for the controversial Amaila falls project. Some stakeholders left the forum with unanswered questions. One of them, Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram, has since written to President Donald Ramotar.
Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill
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ECONOMIC TERRORISM When one thinks about terrorism, the most common image that springs to mind is a small band of individuals conspiring to commit atrocities that affect large numbers of persons, and which result in significant human toll, material damage or both. Terrorism is associated with acts that leave large numbers injured or dead and extreme collateral damage But this imagery of terrorism is not a complete one because terrorist actions need not involve the use of violence. In fact when one considers the concept of economic terrorism it may include the use of violence against economic targets within a country, but it can equally refer to non- violent actions aimed to affect the economic prospects or future of a country. It can have immediate effect or the effect can be long- term and even delayed. Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, the concept of economic terrorism has returned with a new freshness. Critics of the neoliberal economic order have accused large financial interests of committing economic terrorism against millions of persons, most of who have lost their homes, their jobs and who suffered grave financial losses as a
result of the ensuring meltdown. Some have gone further and argued that there is a direct correlation between the increase in suicides and the financial crises that exist in those countries. The critics contend that the financial imprudence that led to the sub-prime crisis constituted economic terrorism because the crisis affected large numbers of persons, resulting in massive material losses and it continues to affect the economic future of the countries concerned. Since the financial crisis of 2008, a wide range of actions, including strike action and demands for a forty-hour work week have attracted the label of economic terrorism. But the concept of economic terrorism is not a new one. It has been around for at least a century and was in fact a favorite label of the communists when describing actions aimed at destabilizing or undermining working class interests. In fact, it was Karl Mark himself who used the concept to refer to actions by the bourgeoisie class directed against the working men and women. When Americansupported mercenaries planted mines in the harbours of Nicaragua so as to
discourage trade with that country, the act was deemed as a form of economic terrorism. But economic terrorism needs not be violent at all, or needs not involve only external enemies. Economic terrorism can be non- violent such as those actions which are aimed at destabilizing an economy or have long- term effects on the economic future of a country. Cuba itself has been subjected to many actions by imperialism aimed at crippling its economic development. That country has suffered from an economic embargo instituted by the United States, and which forms part of American law. This embargo imposes sanctions on companies and individuals who do business or visit Cuba. The embargo has been in place for over fifty years and has been credited with crippling the economic prospects of that socialist nation. So adverse has been the effects that Cuba has gone beyond describing it as economic terrorism. It has labeled the embargo as constituting economic genocide against the people of Cuba. Just this month, the European Union instituted a ban on EU institutions, prohibiting them from
Dem boys seh...
Brazzy and Ash Knee missing Fuh a long time dem boys ain’t see Brazzy. GPL had two meeting with de people at Parliament. Normally, Brazzy would deh in de thick of things. All dem question he would be de one to answer but something look like it gone wrang. Brazzy probably get a hammering. When de two meeting call in Parliament Brazzy missing. De Speaker ask fuh he and nobody couldn’t answer. But dem boys know that he missing since Donald hold de forum at de Convention Centre. This was de man who join wid Ash Knee to give Fip de Amaila road contract and tell people how Fip gun done de road in labba time. Is de immigration people who report that dem see Brazzy in disguise sneaking out of de airport. He had on a yellow wig and a flair skirt. He even change he name but people know de voice. He was heading to
Washington. De word is that he gon to tell de IDB that dem got to pretend that things bad wid de Amaila project because de opposition ketch on. De IDB people, however, seh that dem don’t get involve in people business. Ash Knee gone too. Dem boys was looking fuh he at de Amaila forum because he was de talk man in parliament. He know bout negative progress and economic sabotage and distressing situation. He gone somewhere too. Dem boys seh that he gone to China. Imagine Brazzy and Ash Knee talking bout Amaila and airport but dem ain’t talking bout de Marriott. Dem boys still want hear who is de private people that put money in de hotel. Talk half and keep looking out fuh Brazzy
undertaking business with organizations and groupings located in the occupied territories, that is, areas which do not constitute part of the State of Israel as per the United Nations Agreement of 1949. While the ban does not restrict countries dealing with Israel bilaterally, it does restrict official EU relations with the occupied territories. This is a most interesting development considering that the two-state solution is predicated on 1969 borders. Israel has reacted harshly to this ban, describing it as
economic terrorism against the thousands of Israelis who live in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. These varied usages of the terms ‘economic terrorism’ has reduced its potency. No longer is economic terrorism seen as being ‘restricted to violent and destructive acts against economic targets; no longer are terrorist acts the exclusive preserve of non-state actors or external forces. Instead a wide range of actions are now classified as
economic terrorism so long as these impact on large numbers of persons resulting either in human and/or material damage or seriously impact on the future economic prospects of a nation. So is there economic terrorism outside your window?
‘Mastermind’ faces another charge of cocaine possession Andre Gustav, 24, of Vryheid’s Lust who is currently remanded on a separate charge of possession of narcotic was yesterday remanded after a similar charge was read to him yesterday by Chief Magistrate Priya Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ court. The previous charge alleged that Gustav is the architect of the plan which involved an American social worker who tried to traffic 4.130 kilograms of cocaine.
Chief Magistrate Beharry read the charge which stated that on June 4, at Secret Ville Apartments, North Ruimveldt, he purported to traffic 2.615 kilograms of cocaine through Joel Manget. The defendant pleaded not guilty. According to court documents, the defendant gave the cocaine to a Canadian citizen, Manget, who was an outgoing passenger at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport but was intercepted with the said cocaine by officers from
the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU). Manget has pleaded guilty to the charge of possession of narcotics and is currently serving time at the Camp Street Prison. During investigations, advice was sought from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) who recommended that charges be laid against Gustav. Gustavo was refused bail and remanded to prison and his matter was transferred to another court for report and fixture.
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CHI to offer quality care with “no discrimination” - Medical Director
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$40M Bookland to host Book Fair and Fun Day
- Outreach venture is introduced to reach more The implanting of pacemakers into cardiac patients who so require the device is a common feature at the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI), a fact that many may not be aware of. A pacemaker is a medical device which is placed in the chest or abdomen of a patient to control abnormal heart rhythm. It is designed to use electrical impulses delivered by electrodes that contract the heart muscles to regulate the beating of the heart. Its primary purpose is to maintain an adequate heart rate either because a patient’s natural pacemaker is not fast enough or there is a block in the heart’s electrical conduction system. According to Medical Director of CHI, Dr Mahendra Carpen, pacemakers today, unlike those that were in existence decades ago, generally have a battery life of about eight years. He said that there is usually no discrimination as to who is allowed to be outfitted with the device. “We don’t discriminate based on age of patients and basically there is no single criteria, however, reality is that some patients, if you don’t expect a great quality of life improvement from planting the device, there is no point in really adding that expense without the benefits associated with it,” asserted Dr Carpen. Since taking up the dual
CHI Medical Director, Dr Mahendra Carpen appointment of Medical Director at CHI and Consultant Cardiologist to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) eight months ago, Dr Carpen has implanted several pacemaker devices, even one in an 88-year-old patient. Although he studied and worked abroad for a number of years, Dr Carpen accepted an invitation from Chief Executive Officer of CHI, Dr Gary Stephens, to take up the Medical Director appointment. And according to him while working overseas, he undertook pacemaker implants in patients even older than he has seen here thus far. In fact he remembers “implanting a pacemaker in a 97-year-old patient in the morning and then a 103-year old in the afternoon....both of whom did very well.”
This, he alluded to, in order to emphasise the feasibility of pacemaker implants even as he noted that while attending to such aged cardiac patients does not characterise a “usual day” it all depends on the condition of the patient. “The 90 odd year old patient still drives herself and she wants to still do her own supermarket shopping, she lives alone and is very independent; so if we can do that for patients elsewhere, I don’t see why our patients here are less deserving...Who am I to say no you can’t have it?” The youngest patient that Dr Carpen has seen since his appointment here was a 27year-old male. That patient, he said, suffered a massive heart attack but it was not established what caused the cardiac crisis since the patient was neither inflicted with diabetes or high blood pressure, conditions that are known to fuel heart disease. “There was nothing we could have pinpointed...the patient wasn’t even smoking or doing anything like that...Who knows what caused it? Maybe genetics...” speculated Dr Carpen. Aside from the implanting of pacemakers, addressing cardiac cases currently sees CHI offering a range of services including regular clinic, screening, ecocardiogram, Continued on page 26
Immigration INFO...Immigration News For Our Community Attorney Gail S. Seeram Through this “Question & Answer” column, our goal is to answer your immigration questions. We appreciate your comments and questions. If you have a question that you would like answered in this column, please email: Gail@GailLaw.com. Question #1: I am trying to find out if my children could file for their stepmother to come to the United States. One of the children did file for their father and stepmother to come to the states, however, the US Embassy informed her by letter that since her father’s wife was not her biological mother, that the stepmother could not come to the U.S.? Answer #1: The children can only file for stepmother if the marriage between their biological father and stepmother took place before children were age 18. Question #2: I would also like to know if my
husband, who is a green card holder, should sponsor me and our three children (all under age 21), how long would it take and what is the procedure regarding that? Answer #2: According to the August 2013 visa bulletin, there is no backlog for permanent resident (green card holder) sponsoring a wife and children under age 21. So, if a petition has been filed, a visa is available and you should have been notified by the Embassy or National Visa Center. If you are now filing a petition, then processing time for the visa is approximately one year. Question #3: I am 25 yrs old and I live in Guyana. I have my boyfriend of 3yrs in the USA we would like to get married but in the USA. What is the procedure and how long will it take? Answer #3: To marry in the U.S., you would have to get visitor visa. Otherwise, he can marry you in Guyana and file papers in U.S. If the sponsorship petitions are
processed while you are in Guyana then it’s about a nine to 12 months processing time. If you marry in the U.S. and file for green card in the U.S. then it’s a three to six months processing time. In both cases, since your marriage will be less than two years at the time of visa approval, then you will have a conditional green card – only valid for two years. At the end of the two years, you will have to file to remove the conditions and if approved, will receive full 10 year green card. Question #4: My father is a U.S. citizen and in 2010 he filed for me and my sister (we are 28 and 30 years old). How long should that take for the first set of papers to come through Answer #4: If you are both unmarried then visas being issued for petition filed in September 2006 (so a fouryear wait) or if married, then visas being issued for petition filed in December 2002 (so an eight-year wait).
The brand new garden outside of Bookland The Guyana Reading and Research Centre (Bookland) is gearing up to celebrate the opening of its gardens and Fun Park with an inaugural fundraiser on August 1. According to the Founder and Director of Bookland, Rupert Hopkinson, the centre has a beautiful garden environment with a gazebos, walkways and lawns to compliment its library and book store. Hopkinson further explained that Bookland which was formerly known as the Guyana Reading and Research Centre was an investment of more than $40M to become an income
stream to support the organization mission “Getting a book in every household”. Bookland is built one foot higher than the avenue to avoid flooding and is located on a 38,000 square-foot facility about 500 meters away from the National Park, Thomas Lands. The director disclosed to this publication that in keeping with the mission of Bookland, every valid ticket holder to the fun d a y, u n t i l 15:00hrs will receive a free book and everyone will receive a full refund on ticket to the event
once he purchases books beyond the ticket cost. Hopkinson added that his hope is for Bookland to become an “organization for organizations”, granting membership to individuals and clubs so that they can make gainful use of the facility all year-round. Hopkinson said that it is ready and available to partner with similar organizations in their efforts to raise funds to support their efforts. The Guyana Reading and Research Centre was established in January 1997, primarily to offer library services to students pursuing post Secondary education.
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WANTED Live In Live Out Babysitter Domestic - Call: 225-6070 Wallaba Round Posts MakersCall: 683-2575/218-3399 Office Clerk: CXC English/ Mathematics- Call:225-0188/ 225-6070 Urgently wanted one large yard space to do mechanic work- Call:639-3134 One live-in domestic. Call 617-1679 Two Experience carpenter/ masonry: One Welder Fabricator-Contact the Office @ 265-3586 Experienced machinist, at least 3 years experience apprentice: E&N Beck Welding & machinery, lot 3 Princess & Ketley St. Charlestown- Call:225-6272/ 225-5273 Salesgirl: requirements Computer Literate, English & Mathematics, & Porter: Apply @ Best Buy Food Supplies, Dennis & Middleton Street Campbellville. One general domestic 30-40 years & one waitressCall:233-5450/650-3680 Working female to share apartment- Call:694-0689 One general domestic between the ages of 35-45 years old: Preferably on the East Coast- Call:663-4866 Urgently needed land to buy in Parfaite HarmonieCall:675-7292 Experienced Roti/Puri cooks, Pastry Makers, Curry Cooks, Cleaners & Handy boy. Apply@ Hack’s Halaal, 5 Commerce St. Experienced Drivers & Contract Cars needed for taxi service. Call 699-1522 Attractive live in waitress. Call 327-0252/674-4665
WANTED 2 Cooks needed to work in Trinidad- Call:621-9828 or 698-8367 1 Family to work on Farm in Trinidad- Call:621-9828 or 698-8367 Live in Maid/ Domestic, must know to cook: Age 25-40 years- Call:671-9715 Canter drivers $25,000: Porters $15,000: Must be from the W.C.D- Call:684-8231 Maid & Internet WorkerCall:231-8421/223-9725 Cook and workers for Land Dredge: Serious enquires only call:694-2310 Accounts Clerk: Send Application, 2 References and Police Clearance to P.O Box # 10207 Bond Supervisor (over 35yrs) & Data Entry Clerk (over 25yrs) @ Survival Shopping Complex 173 Sheriff St. Call:227-5286-90 General domestic, must be able to cook: Age 25-45 yearsCall:226-1877/641-3687 Four experienced Welder/ Fabricator- Call:676-7226/ 613-7006 One female/ male to sell Ice Cream Cones. Call 613-3091 City Taxi Service: Contract Cars Needed- Call:6601100 Porters for a Warehouse and Handyman @ Building Material Depot- Call:2318529 Dispatchers and one cleanerCall:644-2819 (Between the hours of 8:00am-4:00pm) 1 Gas Asselstine welder: No Equipment needed: Living accommodation free call:628-1756/228-5655 1 Apprentice Mechanic for Bedford lorries: Living accommodation providedCall:228-5655/628-1756
One general worker (House Keeping) Shift system and one handyboy at Land of Canaan, E.B.D- Call:266-5243-5
Night & day Jet men and cook needed- Call:684-6356 (11:00am to 1:00pm and 4:00pm to 6:00pm)
1 live in domestic from the interior- Call:644-8290
One experienced shop assistant to work in InteriorCall: 666-6836
Wanted to work in New Salon: Barbers, Hairdressers, Nail Technicians & Tattoo Artist- Contact:644-5362
One Handy Boy to work around yard in InteriorCall:666-6836
Bartenders, waitress at least 2 years experience and food handlers certificate: Security with reference & police clearance- Call:616-2902
DRESSMAKING Classes in Designing and Sewing. Call Sharmela (Canadian-Trained) @ 6410784/626-2629
Saturday July 27, 2013
FOR SALE
FOR SALE
LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY M E R C U R Y (QUICK SILVER) 9 9 . 9 9 9 9 5 % PURITY - $15,000 PER POUND CALL:604-6108
Eddie’s Auto Parts: Just arrive Japanese used partsCall:227-2835
2007 R1 MotorcycleCall:623-4045/689-4864 500 Ton Cargo Ship with Contract- call: 687-6174 Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943 Pure Bred Rottweiler pupsCall:650-8496 Empty Fuel Drums. Contact Nicky @ 226-7948/697-9610 or 646-6000 S & N Mining Inc. Large Quantity Of Virgin Mining Mercury: Best In Guyana: $14,500LB, Wholesale Negotiable- Contact Carol: 649-8505 Male & Female English Mastiff dogs: $300,000 for both- Call:678-2814/699-2322 Uni-float Pontoon 56’×21’, 27 Pieces. Interested persons please contact 667-2934 40 HP Yamaha Engine, Good Working Condition. Tel 2253557 1 Pontoon, dimension 200×50×12, 1-500 Ton cargo vessel haul both as is where is- Call:623-4045/689-4864 1- 215 BLC Excavator, 1 German double steel wheel roller, 1 low bed (hauler & trailer)- call:681-2995/6471615 853 Bobcat & Massey Ferguson Tractor: Reasonably Priced, No time wasters. Call 442-4325/667-5292 1-2007 Honda Rincon 680cc 4×4 in excellent condition. 11- Lengths of 6"×50’ canvas fire hose- Call:654-6167 WE HAVE ANY SIZE AND AMOUNT OF PALMS: #1 PLANT SHOP, 70 SHERIFF ST. CALL:227-8094 1 Cummins diesel nt-285HP & 1 Rolls Royce Perkins 330HP- Call:654-6167 Makita Jackhammer (brand new)- call:653-1822 1- 20HP Mercury outboard engine. Call: 651-4699 or 686-0895
Zack’s Lumber Yard Georgetown: Millcut form board $115 per BM, Softwood & H/wood $180 per BM- Call:687-5361/674-0013 One 3 Tons Bedford dump truck, 3 and 4" water pumpCall:270-4485 Guyana Brakes & Clutch Company, 27 Coldingen, E.C.D Elegant & beautiful wedding dresses available, call now to get that special dress: Fantastic prices!! Tele:6631397/643-4725 32" Coby LED TV $90,000: 4 piece DVR security cameras $45,000: Playstation3 games from $2000- Call: 600-3038 Ducklings- Call:617-9300 150KW Genset, 12" Moulder, 7 Head Moulder, Resaw & Crosscut Saw. Call 616-5595 1 Honda Fit with Rims, Spoiler, Kit, PMM 4223 series: Immaculate condition $1,600,000 Neg. Sofa SetCall:618-5140 1 Apple desktop computer, 1 Epson printer, 1 Whirpool Dryer & 1 baby swing. Call 662-6045
One used Caterpillar forklift & two 3500 watt Hundai generator- Call:613-6795/2655921 SONY PLAYSTATION3 (with 3 games) also game disc for PS2, PS3, X-Box360Call:609-8132/672-8569 (Max) 2 Perkins 6 cylinders engines: Offers in the region of $650,000 each consideredCall Stephen 666-3080
Harmonie Inn: Apartments fully furnished, airconditioned apartments: $5000 per night- Call:6680306/602-8769/694-7817
Soman & Sons Driving School , First Federation Building Call 225-4858, 6445166,622-2872,615-0964
1 Hilux Surf: Excellent condition: Price $1.5 millionCall:697-1849 1 Nissan Frontier 4×4 fully loaded, GPP series: Immaculate conditionContact:697-1849/227-4856
Fully furnished Vacation home with all amenities- Call during working hours- 227-1218
1 Leyland DAF 60 single axle & dump- Call:613-6615/ 216-1315
120ft×42ft Space suitable for manufacturing or warehousing- Call:270-4485 Guyana Brakes & Clutch Company, 27 Coldingen, E.C.D
2 Ford F150: Price $4.5M & $3.5M- Call: 643-5249 / 2654979
Diamond $35,000-$40,000; Kitty $65,000; Bel-Air US$750; Brickdam US$5000. Call Diana @ 227-2256/6269382 Furnished executive one or two bedrooms suite in Diamond. Ideal for foreigners. Call 609-2466
1 Toyota Raum 2000 model, late PPP series $1.850MCall:626-9590 1 Toyota Land-cruiser Prado PMM series- call:225-0188/ 225-6070 1-55 Leyland DAF for sale: Excellent working condition: Price negotiable- Call:6568346 1-F150 (Ford) in Excellent Condition, 1-AA 60 Carina. Tel 690-6520/642-0110 One Mitsubishi Canter, GRR-5201- 15ft tray. Call 2540247/613-2150
EDUCATIONAL Get trained as a live-in Caregiver to live and work in Canada, under Canadian curriculum- Call:227-4881/ 416-674-7973 CXC Maths, English, Business and Science, January/ June 2014- Call Imperial College at 227-7627/ 683-5742
Stanley’s Auto Sales: New models Raum $2,150,000; Spacio $2,350,000; Premio $2.6M: Unregistered: Call Now @ 264-2644 or 641-6516 Mitsubishi Galant $1.1MCall:645-3605 1 Toyota Harrier $3M: Excellent conditionCall:231-7831 205 Mercedes Benz C180 compressor: PPP series: Navy Blue- Call:613-5955 1 Toyota AT170, AT192, AT212, Ceres, Vitz, EP 71 Starlet, Hilux Pickup Solid DEF. Call 644-5096/697-1453 New Raum, Premio, Fielder, Alex and Vitz: Never registered- call:269-0432/ 686-0323
MASSAGE American Style massage services- Call:678-7499
Raum 04, Nav $2.4M; Fielder Nav, SP $2.5M; Spacio 03 $2.4M. Call 609-8989/6165595
The Gent’s Spa: Let beautiful sophisticated masseuse pamper you: New masseuse available- Call:657-5979
1 Toyota Corolla: PHH 8906, $650,000. Call 602-0354/6786896
VEHICLE FOR SALE LEARN TO DRIVE
Axio Special- 2007, TV/DVD & Reverse Camera $2.950MCall:617-2891
New 2 bedrooms Cottage at 11th street Paradise: $40,000 per month- Call:614-1723
Potted Plants, antiques and brass-Call:673-5882 Mix breed pups, Rottweiler and German Shepherd: Both male and female- Call:222-0410
VEHICLE FOR SALE
Sale! Axio: TV, DVD $3.1M Neg: Pre-order Premio $2.5M Neg- Call: 655-3400 One black Titan (2005) 4 wheel drive, fully loaded: $4.2M negotiable- Call:6782814/699-2322
Timber Harvester Sawmill just arrived from U.S.A with setter, sharpener and extended frame- Call:2612553/625-4393
10.7 Cubic feet Ultrachef Freezer- Call:227-5421
Pure Rottweiler Pups. Call 220-6879
Pelican Inn Hotel Restaurant & Bar: Selfcontained rooms with A/C, 49 Hadfield Street, Werken-Rust, Georgetown. Call 592-231-6322
Order Now!! Any parts for Timberjack/ Clarke Ranger Skidder, Rubber track for mini excavator etc. Call:6136795
1 Ransom, price negotiableCall:265-7306
Dell laptops & desktops complete computers from $55,000 Futuretech call: 231-2206
TO LET Fully furnished short term apartments @ Eccles call: 689-6668
PREMIO 03 $2.7 NEG, PREMIO 02 $2.6 NEG, AXIO 08 $2.950 NEG: 40 CROAL ST G/TOWN- CALL:6223823/231-7284
1 Toyota Vios (black) PMM series; owner leaving. Call 681-7792/694-4550 Toyota Altezza, PNN, tiptronic. Call 622-0108 (Continued on page 23)
Saturday July 27, 2013
Lusignan Massacre trial... Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh testified yesterday that due to the severity of the injuries sustained by the 11 persons who were killed at Lusignan East Coast Demerara, on January 26, 2008, death would have been instantaneous. Dr. Singh was the person who conducted the post mortem examination on the 11 bodies. Mark Royden Williams, called ‘Smallie’ and James Anthony Hyles, known as ‘Sally’ are facing murder charges. The two are being represented by attorneys Roger Yearwood and Nigel Hughes respectively. According to Dr. Singh none of the bodies had gunshot residue, which could mean that the perpetrators were at least five feet away. The doctor stated that all of the bodies had multiple gunshot injuries. Both lawyers declined cross
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Pathologist, relatives take the stand examination. Parmanand Sidwah was the next witness called. Sidwah testified that he was present at the Georgetown Public Hospital to identify the bodies of Clarence Thomas, Vanessa Thomas and Ron Thomas. He said that after the post mortem was completed the bodies were handed over to him. Kassim Khan, another witness, said that he identified the body of his nephew, Shazim Mohamed. The body was later handed over to him. Rajkumar Harrilall, said that he had identified the bodies of his wife Mohandai Goordat, and his two sons Seegopaul and Seegobin Harrilall on January 31, 2008 at the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary. After Harrilall’s testimony, Senior Prosecutor Judith Gildhaire- Mursalin closed her
case. The two defendants through their lawyers are expected to lead their defence on Monday. Roger Yearwood is expected to bring two witnesses and Nigel Hughes will bring one. The matter will continue on Monday morning.
(From page 22) VACANCY Experienced Female bartenders & cleanersCall:225-8572 Pump Attendant @ Shell Service Station Providence, E.B.D: Must be able to work shift-Tel:265-7305 Email: shellramsburg@gmail.com One Upholster & two JoinersCall:219-1342/610-7005
FOR SALE/RENT American Pool TableCall:277-0578
24 Hour East Coast Guyoil needs night pump attendants, salesgirl & office assistant- Call:688-9611/6842838 Refrigeration, A/C Technician. Call 231-0655/ 683-8734 Male & Female Sales manager & drivers @ #7 Bakery, W.C.B. Call 3302399/623-5920
SALON Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad. Call: 660-5257, 647-1773 Now Offering Nail Course $10,000- Call:604-3002
Drivers for (Corentyne) & 1 Accountant (Rosignal), RA Soda Factory. Call 330-2399/ 623-5920 Clerical Office Clerk: Minimum subjects 3 CSES: Apply @ Avinash Water street- Call:227-7828/226-3361 One Canter driver: Apply @ Avinash Water streetCall:226-3361/227-7828
Natural beauty salon & spa: Grove Market Street EBD tele:265-4138,652-5800 specialized in everything for women & children
SERVICES Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call:225-6496,6626045,223-8115 Repairs, sales & spares air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & stoves. Ultra Cool. Call: 225-9032, 647-2943 House Plans, estimates and construction- Contact T.Boodhoo 625-9883 / 675-9296 We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer, dryer. Call:2310655, 683-8734 Omar HOUSE PLAN DRAFTING FOR ONLY $10,000CALL:694-9843/227-2766 General Desktop & Laptop Repairs: Installation & Configuration of Security Cameras: Linking Security Cameras to the internet- Tel: 699-3615 We Refill HP cartridges for $1800 call: 650-7699 Repairs to Fridge, Freezer, AC, Washers, Stoves: Call 683-1312,627-3206 (Nick) Wayne’s Delivery & Taxi Service- Call: 672-8137 ONLINE SHOPPING ZERO COMMISSION, WEEKLY SHIPMENTS,AFFORDABLE RATES, FREE PRIVATE MAILBOX.CALL: 2315789, 225-9030
CAR RENTAL
Versailles 5 Bedroom House with modern facilities and beautiful landscape- Call: 592-684-9203 / 592-624-8704 Charlestown corner property with business potential $40M- Call:6735882 1-Going Business Property at Bloomfield Public Road, Berbice. Tel 690-6520/642-0110 2 Storey concrete house at Charlotte St. next to Office of the President: Asking $32M- Call:614-0335/6260017 One three-bedroom house and land located at Better Success, Essequibo Coast. Call 268-2481 West Bank $18.5M; Diamond $40M; Campbellville $30M; Bel-Air $55M. Call Diana @ 2272256/626-9382 100ft×45ft 2-storey building located at Bourda Market area. Call 626-7765
WE FILL OUT VISA FORMS:USA, UK & CANADA & CREDIT CARD SERVICES CALL: 231-5789
Progressive Auto Rental - cars from $4000 per day. Call 643-5122, 225-8711; email www. progressive autorental. com
LAND FOR SALE At Blankenburg W.C.D: 50ft×350ft- Tel: 265-6019, 696-3505, 261-6501, 718-7571106, 718-629-5141
Premio, Vitz call: 689-6668 Untouchable Car Rental: Low Rate , Low Deposit call:231-8653,621-6827
FOR RENT
Aidan’s Car Rental & PickupCall: 645-7981/ 698-7807
One bedroom apartment @ ‘B’ Field Sophia. Call 661-3801 Two Bedrooms house to rent @ Haslington- Call:663-9816/ 642-0466 Complete two bedrooms House- Call:265-4867
TOURS
1 Bedroom house, street Charlestown: Very clean & grilled $30,000- call:226-2856/ 604-1788
Suriname Tours: August 1st4th, Shopping Dolphins Butterfly Gardens, Book early. Call 639-2663/644-0185/ 665-5171/227-8290
BUSINESS PROPERTY, suitable for supermarket, hardware store, restaurant etc. W.C.D public roadCall:609-8132/672-8569
Suriname Carifesta Summer Tour: August 15th-20th & August 22nd-27th; Casino & Site seeing; Book early. Call 639-2663/644-0185/665-5171/ 227-8290
PROPERTY FOR SALE House and Land @ D’Edward, W.C.B.- Call: 689-2973/698-3703
Business Spot at 14 Peter’s Hall E.B.D- Tel: 233-5110/ 668-0309 Rooms to rent in Prashad Nagar. Contact: 227-2993
3 Acres land @ Parika Main Dam, Farm Land- Contact: 617-4837/650-0402 House lot for sale: Friendship EBD & drafting of house plans call:223-0733, 223-0730 2- Acres cultivated, 2-1 Acres cultivated, 7 Acres cultivated, citrus, house, fish pond, storage at Parika. Call 226-7968
CAKES & PASTRIES Courses in cake decoration, pastry making & cookery, Call: 670-0798. Also Wedding dresses for sale
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Guyana-born US state trooper dies from 2011 rescue attempt injuries MIDDLETOWN, US (www.midhudsonnews.com) – A State Trooper assigned to Troop Fin headquartered in the Town of Wallkill died Wednesday of complications from an on-duty injury he sustained in 2011. Troop F Commander, Maj. Patrick Regan, said Trooper Winston Martindale, Jr., 40, assigned to the New Hampton barracks, died of complications from injuries he sustained when he fell on a piece of equipment at the scene of a crash involving
Dead: Winston Martindale two small airplanes in the Town of Wawayanda. Regan described the trooper as having performed “exemplary” service. He had been off the job since his injury, but expected to return to duty. “Through the past two years, everyone assumed
that he would eventually be back and he would recover. The finality of the fact that he did not, even though one might think it was expected, was shocking,” he said. Despite the serious injury, Martindale struggled with the heavy wreckage to assist the victims of the crash and stayed at the scene for six hours. Both pilots died. Martindale had undergone surgery for his continued medical condition and died Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He, who was born in Guyana and was raised in Brooklyn, was a seven-year veteran of the State Police and a member of the US Army Reserves, having served in Operation Enduring Freedom. He is survived by his wife, Michelle, 19-year-old son, Kyle, 15-year-old daughter, Moriah, his parents, a sister and brother. Funeral services are tentatively planned for next Tuesday.
Saturday July 27, 2013
Guyanese store owners, 21 others charged in US food stamp fraud New York (dailygazette) A State Street business owner and his son were accused Wednesday of running a food stamp fraud racket that bilked the programme out of an estimated $500,000 over three years. Vishnunarine Singh and his son, Elvin, were among 23 people arrested in a sweep that included 21 food stamp recipients, all connected to Cheese Bakery and Grocery at 1007 State St. Cheese Bakery and Grocery, is named for Vishnunarine Singh, and nicknamed Cheese. The elder Singh, of Ozone Park, Queens, faces felony counts of second-degree grand larceny, misuse of food stamps and first-degree falsifying business records. Elvin Singh, of Schenectady, faces three felony counts of first-degree falsifying business records and three misdemeanor counts of misuse of food stamps. Both men were to be held overnight and appear in City Court this morning. Schenectady County District Attorney, Robert Carney, on Wednesday described as staggering, the volume of fraudulent business being done by the small store. “We hope that we can make an example of them so that we can deter this conduct,” Carney said. “There are people who need food, need these benefits. When this kind of fraud occurs, it damages the entire programme. It hurts the ability to help the truly needy.” So many recipients were involved, prosecutors said, those arrests were limited to people with three or more fraudulent transactions of more than $100 each. The rest of the recipients implicated have been referred for programme sanctions that could include the loss of their food stamp privileges,
Vishnunarine Singh
Elvin Singh
officials said. More arrests are possible. Authorities said that the scam involved food stamp recipients presenting their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, with the owner or his son debiting it for an amount, usually $100 or more, then giving the recipient half the amount in cash and the store keeping the other half. Little or no goods would actually be purchased in the transactions, authorities said. Despite the arrests, the business remained open late Wednesday afternoon. Employees declined comment, however, referring questions to the owner. The arrests were the result of a six-month investigation by the Schenectady Police Department, Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office, Schenectady County Department of Social Services and United States Department of Agriculture. The programme allegedly defrauded was the USDA’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Programme. City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen noted the purpose of the programme is to help the needy purchase food. “Instead,” Kilcullen said, “cash was obtained and potentially used for purposes
entirely contrary to the purpose of the programme. The cost of the abuse is staggering.” Assistant Schenectady County District Attorney Katie McCutcheon estimated that in recent months the store rang up between $50,000 and $75,000 each month in food stamp transactions. By comparison, other stores of similar size in the area usually do between $5,000 and $8,000 per month in such sales. Food stamp records, as well as information from community sources, helped alert investigators to the scam, McCutcheon said. “It was a high, high volume of transactions, well exceeding anything we would expect for the area,” McCutcheon said. Also assisting in the operation was the Schenectady County Probation Department and Child Protective Services and the state Division of Parole, Department of Taxation and Finance, Department of Financial Services and Office of Temporary Disability Assistance. Authorities specifically cited work done by social services investigator Keith Feldman and city police Detectives Jeffrey Pardi and Paul Steele.
From page 21 electrocardiograms (ECG) and the implanting of defibrillators. But even as CHI works in collaboration with the GPHC to offer cardiac care, Dr Carpen is adamant that any attempt to decentralise and
offer such services at a regional level, efforts must first be made to take into account the critical component of personnel. “I don’t think that we are adequately trained as yet and we don’t have the volume of people to decentralise
cardiology as yet.” In light of this state of affairs, Dr Carpen and his CHI team made the bold move to take cardiac care to Berbice, an area from which a great volume of the heart cases seen at CHI originate. Dr Carpen also hails from the Ancient County. Venued at the Anamayah Memorial Hospital, clinic is held at least once per month and according to Dr Carpen close to 25 patients are seen with a five-hour period. The first such clinic was held earlier this year and the Medical Director disclosed too that similar plans are being streamlined for Linden, Bartica and the Essequibo Coast.
CHI to offer quality care with “no...
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Former PNC Chairman to be appointed as GPL Director By Rehana Ahamad Prime Minister Samuel Hinds yesterday said that some changes will be made to the Board of Directors governing the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). One of those changes includes the appointment of Bishwaiswar “Cammie” Ramsaroop, former Chairman of the People’s National Congress (PNC), as a new member of the Board. Hinds, speaking at a joint meeting between Parliamentary Sectoral Committees on Economic Services and Natural Resources, at which the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal and Chairman, Winston Brassington were no-shows to give presentations and answer questions posed by
Bishwaiswar “Cammie” Ramsaroop members of the respective Committees. The Prime Minister said that the government has arranged to have Ramsaroop join the GPL Board of Directors, as a confidence-
building method. The GPL Board of Directors currently consists of seven persons appointed by the Government. The Opposition party had raised concerns about the GPL Board of Directors being heavily politicized in favour of the People’s Progressive Party government. Meanwhile, subsequent to the announcement of Ramsaroop’s appointment, the Alliance For Change (AFC), at a press conference, expressed that it was pleased that an opposition member was now on the Board. Party leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, told media operatives that he would have preferred if members of both opposition parties were represented on the GPL Board of Directors. Ramjattan said that the AFC had recommended persons at the request of the Government, but they did not get a response. Ramjattan also expressed hope that “Mr.Cammie” Ramsaroop, a longtime politician, would be up to the task of scrutinizing GPL from inside. At the same forum, prior to the announcement of Ramsaroop’s appointment, Desmond Trotman, a member of the Economics Services
Committee asked whether information on how the members of the GPL Board of Directors have been appointed, would be made public. Trotman believes that a member of the board should not serve for more than five years, so as to allow a constant turnover of personnel which would encourage a flow of fresh ideas into the entity. “Do you believe that the absence of fresh ideas may actually have impacted negatively on the operations of GPL?” he asked. Hinds disagreed, stating that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been almost consistently and
continuously alongside the government and others in looking at GPL, and that one of the attached consultants had once told him that the problems may be due to similarly frequent changes in the past. “You may remember that at the end of the 80’s coming into the 90’s we had a period there with almost like a different dozen arrangements,” the Prime Minister posited. Prime Minister Hinds was asked whether the board was biased in not having women as members. He noted that even though it has always been a “male board”, it is something that is so, subconsciously.
Also at the meeting to give presentations were the Board of Management of GPL, headed by Aeshwar Deonarine; the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), and the Hinterland Electrification Unit (HEU). The forum sought to have the committees examine issues from a feasibility and viability standpoint, while scrutinizing the management of, and use of, t h e c o u n t r y ’s n a t u r a l resources. Majority of the officials did not get to complete their presentations. It ended, and will continue with Mr. Deonarine finishing off on his presentation, on July 31.
E.C.D four-lane extension project…
Contractors given 12 months to complete project - All contractors given commencement letters since March Works are underway on the several villages of the East Coast Demerara Public road beginning from Montrose to De Endragt, East Coast Demerara. However, Dipcon Engineering Services and Courtney Benn Contracting Service only started this week. Contractors were given their letters to commence works since March last. Compustruct started works last month end. A tour on the East Coast revealed that on the Southern section of Triumph, East Coast Demerara the slippage caused a tomb to collapse in a nearby cemetery. This can cause more damage to the existing public road if not contained. Even with slow progress in the move to transform the East Coast Demerara Public Road into four lanes, contractors have 12 months to complete works on various lots and sections of the road that they were awarded through tendering process. If not completed within the stipulated timeframe, the Public Works Ministry can institute penalties and liquidated damages based on the amount of work completed within the timeframe. Works for Lots One and Two were awarded to Dipcon Engineering Services which covers road-widening from Montrose to Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara to the tune of $671M. The construction firm was also awarded a $328M contract to construct Lot Five (Triumph to Mon Repos). The Engineer ’s estimate was $231.1 million. Lot Three was awarded to Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited for the road widening project from La
The damaged Triumph Public road Bonne Intention to Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara to the tune of $349M. The Engineer’s Estimate was $264.2 million. Meanwhile, Lot Four, from Beterverwagting to Triumph, was awarded to Compustruct at a value of $322M. It was advertised at an estimated cost of $241 million. And, Lot Six, which extends from Mon Repos to De Endragt was awarded to Talbot to the tune of $345M. The estimate was $$246.4 million. However, the Triumph, East Coast Demerara Public road which is in a deplorable condition with a continuous crack running along the centre of the road with the shoulders slipping into the
drains have been a major concern for drivers. According to Traffic/ Road Safety Engineer of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications, Nigel Erskine, works have begun on the construction of retaining concrete drains in 40 feet lengths which aid in stabilizing the shoulders of the roadway, while bag filled materials are being placed to also aid with retaining the structure. He explained that works on Lot four will be more technical since there is only a four feet difference from the carriageway, unlike other sections in other lots. There are also areas being filled with and compacted with sand.
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Saturday July 27, 2013
Egyptians stage rival rallies as Mursi charges fuel tension CAIRO (Reuters) Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets in rival mass rallies yesterday, hours after the state news agency said ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was being investigated for charges including murder. In Cairo, huge crowds heeded a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to give him a popular mandate to confront violence unleashed by his July 3 overthrow of Mursi, many of them clutching pictures of the general in full ceremonial uniform. Supporters of the deposed Islamist leader staged mass counterdemonstrations to demand his reinstatement, shrugging off fears of an imminent crackdown. The army’s move against Egypt’s first democratically elected president has caused deep alarm in the West. The country of 84 million people forms a bridge between the
Middle East and North Africa and receives $1.5 billion a year in mainly military aid from the United States. Highlighting the potential for bloodshed, hospital officials said four people were killed in clashes in Egypt’s second city Alexandria - three stabbed and one shot in the head. More than 50 were wounded. A Reuters reporter said hundreds of people fought a pitched battle in the city, with birdshot fired and men on rooftops hurling stones down at the crowds below. Seven protesters were also reported hurt in the Nile delta city of Damietta. The capital was largely peaceful, but numbers were expected to peak in the evening, when clashes have broken out before. Close to 200 people have died in violence in the three weeks since the army deposed the president. The army has made clear it sees yesterday as a turning
Anti-Mursi protesters chant slogans during a mass protest to support the army in Tahrir square in Cairo, yesterday. (Reuters) point in its confrontation with Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged from decades in the shadows to win
successive elections after Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising against veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. It lasted a year in government, during which the economy floundered and Mursi’s popularity slumped. “The Brothers stole our revolution,” said Salah Saleh, a horse trainer at a central Cairo rally, voicing widespread criticism that Mursi refused to share out power after taking office, and then failed to tackle Egypt’s many woes. “They came and sat on the throne and controlled everything.” Many thousands of men, women and children joined Brotherhood supporters at their round-the-clock vigil in
northeast Cairo, which is close to army installations but far from Tahrir Square, focal point for the pro-army rally. “It is either victory over the coup or martyrdom,” said senior Brotherhood politician Mohamed El-Beltagy told the pro-Mursi rally. “Our blood and our souls for Islam!” the crowds chanted. The military had warned it would “turn its guns” on those who used violence. The Brotherhood, which has manned a month-long tent vigil in Cairo, warned of civil war. It accuses the army and hired thugs of stoking trouble to justify a move against the Islamists. In Cairo, helicopters repeatedly buzzed low over
the pro-Mursi vigil before wheeling around Tahrir Square, and scattering Egyptian flags over the packed supporters. “The Muslim Brotherhood has deviated from the path of real Islam,” said Gamal Khalil, a 47-yearold taxi driver as his wife and two daughters waved flags at passing cars on a bridge over the Nile. “The army is the only honest institution in the country,” he said. “They’re keeping my whole family safe.” The probe against Mursi centers on charges he conspired with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to flee jail during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, killing some prisoners and officers, kidnapping soldiers and torching buildings. Mursi has previously said locals helped him escape from prison during the upheavals, and the Muslim Brotherhood denounced the series of accusations leveled against him. Hamas challenged investigators to find “one piece of evidence” that it had meddled in Egyptian affairs. “At the end of the day, we know all of these charges are nothing more than the fantasy of a few army generals and a military dictatorship,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said. “We are continuing our protests on the streets.” State news agency Mena said Mursi had been ordered detained for 15 days pending the probe. Convulsed by political Continued on page 31
Russia’s Putin ‘determined’ Snowden case will not hurt U.S. ties
MOSCOW (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined not to allow a spat over Edward Snowden to hurt ties with the United States, his spokesman said yesterday. However, the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin was not involved in talks over the fate of the 30-year-old former U.S. spy agency contractor, who is wanted by the United States on espionage charges and has been stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month. Russia has refused to hand over Snowden, who leaked details of secret U.S. electronic surveillance programs to British and U.S.
Vladimir Putin media, to the United States, and is considering a temporary asylum request. Peskov said Putin had
expressed “strong determination” not to let ties with Washington suffer over the dispute, “no matter how the situation develops”. But he reiterated Moscow’s stance that Russia “did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody”. He added that Russia’s FSB federal security service FSB and its U.S. counterpart, the FBI were in talks on the matter. “Snowden has not filed any requests that would need to be considered by the head of state. The president is not taking part in discussing the problem with U.S. colleagues,” Peskov told journalists.
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Ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn Turkey warns Syrian Kurds against ‘dangerous’ moves to be tried for pimping PARIS (Reuters) - Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be tried in France on pimping charges, prosecutors said yesterday, after a long inquiry into sex parties attended by the man whose presidential hopes were dashed by a separate 2011 U.S. sex scandal. Investigating judges in the case determined that Strauss-Kahn, 64, should be judged by a criminal court over allegations he was complicit in a pimping operation involving prostitutes at the Carlton hotel in the northern city of Lille. The decision was a surprise after a public prosecutor recommended in June that the inquiry be dropped without trial and it will thrust Strauss-Kahn’s private life back into the spotlight just as he was putting the U.S. scandal behind him. His lawyers said there were no legal grounds to try him and he was being targeted because of his notoriety after a New York hotel maid’s charge, later dropped, that he sexually
Dominique Strauss-Kahn assaulted her in his suite in May 2011 when he was International Monetary Fund chief.“No offence has been found to exist. So there can be no conviction in this affair,” Frederique Baulieu, one of his lawyers, told BFM TV. “We should be focused on the law, not morality. Sadly, in this affair, investigating magistrates have been led astray by morality.” Under French law, pimping is a broad crime that
encompasses aiding or encouraging prostitution. Because the parties allegedly involved several prostitutes, Strauss-Kahn will stand trial in Lille on the more serious charge of “aggravated pimping”, which carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison and a 1.5 million euros ($2 million) fine. The former French finance minister has acknowledged attending sex parties in various cities but maintains he was unaware the women taking part were paid sex workers. He has said he is being hounded unfairly over his lifestyle in a country where frequenting prostitutes is not illegal. “We’re not in the realm of the law, we’re in ideology. We’re sending someone to court for nothing,” Henri Leclerc, another of his lawyers, told Reuters. Strauss-Kahn went from being a pillar of the global economic elite to a disgraced rape suspect paraded before TV cameras, unshaven and in handcuffs, in a matter of hours after New York police pulled him off an airplane and briefly held him in jail.
Israel blocks EU projects in West Bank JERUSALEM (Reuters) Israel has blocked the European Union from aiding tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, in retaliation for an EU ban on financial assistance to Israeli organizations in the occupied territories. The EU imposed its restrictions last week, citing its frustration over the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in territory captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East War. The new guidelines render Israeli entities operating there ineligible for EU grants, prizes or loans, beginning next year. An Israeli official said yesterday the Jewish state was
compelled to respond to the EU’s decision “to sanction or boycott the settlements”. “From our standpoint we cannot just ignore this or treat spitting in our face as though it is rain,” the official said. Settler leaders say the aid they receive from Europe is minimal. But many in Israel worry about knock-on effects the EU steps may have on individuals or companies based in Israel that might be involved in business in the settlements, deemed illegal by the international community. The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had decided to suspend contacts with the EU in the West
Bank. Yaalon, a former army chief and a hardliner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has “frozen projects, canceled meetings, curtailed coordination and permits for Europe’s operations” for Palestinians living in what is known as Area C, a West Bank area fully administered by Israel, he said. In Brussels, Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said: “The EU is concerned by reports in the Israeli media that the Israeli Minister of Defense has announced a number of restrictions affecting EU activities supporting the Palestinian people.
Egyptians stage rival rallies... From page 30 and economic turmoil, Egypt is deeply polarized, struggling to make the transition from the autocratic rule of the discredited Mubarak to free and open democracy. Signaling its displeasure at recent events, Washington said this week it had delayed delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Cairo and called on the Egyptian army to exercise “maximum restraint and caution” during yesterday’s rallies. One security source said
the military wanted to calm the situation after realizing that Sisi’s call to rally was not well received abroad. A military statement on Facebook said the protests did not represent a threat to the Brotherhood. State television screened images yesterday of the celebrations that erupted the night Sisi announced Mursi had been deposed. The narrator declared it “the day of liberation from the Brotherhood occupation”. “Egypt against terrorism,” declared a slogan on the screen.
Army chief Sisi delivered his call for rallies on Wednesday in full military uniform and dark sunglasses. He was appointed by Mursi in a bid by the president to rein in Egypt’s powerful military, but Sisi turned against him. He has appointed an interim government tasked with preparing for new parliamentary elections in about six months to be followed by a new p r e s i d e n t i a l ballot. The Brotherhood says it will not join the process.
ANKARA (Reuters) Turkey urged Syrian Kurds yesterday not to establish a break-away entity in northern Syria by force, with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warning against any “wrong and dangerous” moves that could hurt Turkish security. The warning was issued at a meeting in Istanbul between Turkish intelligence officials and Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose militias have been fighting for greater autonomy for Kurdish parts of northern Syria. Muslim said last week that Kurdish groups aimed to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions in Syria until the civil war ended. That would alarm Ankara, which is wary of deepening sectarian violence on its border. Turkey is trying to hold together a delicate peace process with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants on its own soil and is worried that moves towards Kurdish autonomy in Syria could embolden them and jeopardize that process.
“Necessary warnings will be made to them that these steps they’re taking are wrong and dangerous,” Erdogan told reporters, as members of his National Intelligence Agency met Muslim. Separately, a Turkish farmer was killed and his two sons were wounded yesterday when a mortar shell from fighting between Kurds and Islamist rebels in Syria hit their field near the border, officials at the local state hospital told Reuters. The incident in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar underscores fears that Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, is dragging in neighboring states. Last week Turkish troops returned fire and shot at PYD fighters after stray bullets from Syria killed a man and a 15-year-old boy in Ceylanpinar. Turkey wants to extract assurances from the PYD that it will not threaten Turkey’s security or seek an autonomous region in Syria through violence, and that it will maintain a stance of firm
opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “We have three main expectations from Kurds in Syria. Firstly not to cooperate with the regime. When that happens, tensions between the Kurds and Arabs rise,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Radikal newspaper. “Two is not to establish a de-facto entity ... based on ethnic and sectarian lines without consulting with other groups,” he was quoted as saying. “If such an entity is established, then all the groups would attempt to do the same thing and a war would be unavoidable.” His third expectation was that Kurds did not engage in activities that would “endanger Turkey’s border security”. Muslim’s meeting with the Turkish intelligence agency comes after a surge in violence on the Syrian side of the border. The PYD captured the Syrian border town of Ras alAin last week after days of clashes with Islamist rebel fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front.
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Government workers Foreign minister says Caribbean remains top priority for Canada agree to pay cut HAMILTON, Bermuda Government workers have agreed to take a 4.6 per cent cut, Premier Craig Cannonier said yesterday. All public sector workers will take one unpaid day off a month for the next two years, expected to save up to $42 million over two years. And they have also accepted a pay freeze until 2015 as well as an early retirement incentive plan aimed at employees aged between 60 and 64 – which could save up to $10 million over two years. The pay freeze – in existence since 2011 – will be extended for a further two years. Trades unions also accepted that – although Government has committed to no redundancies until at least March 2015 – they may happen in the future, although Government has agreed to consultations before any lay-offs are made. Government will also speak to private sector service providers to ask them to take account of the
Premier Craig Cannonier sacrifices made by Government workers. Mr Cannonier said the historic agreement – the first time all trades unions and associations have negotiated at the same time – would shave millions off the cost of Government. He added: “This government will consistently look for ways to manage the public purse in a fiscally responsible manner and will continue to move the country in the right direction.” And Mr Cannonier said: “From a Government
persepective, we went into the negotiations with the intention of not making redundancies and layoffs. “I am encouraged that jobs have not been cut and that no position has been made redundant. Neither have the members taken a cut in pay.” He added: “In the midst of our current economic climate, the stakeholders came together for the greater good and reached an amicable solution. “This is an example of the shared sacrifice I referred to when Ministers took a pay cut earlier this year.” The early retirement scheme will offer six months’ pay as an incentive and successful applicants would leave work no later than the end of September this year. The deal was brokered by the Bermuda Trades Union Congress (BTUC), headed by president Allan Wi l k i n s o n , which represented six bodies, including the Bermuda Public Services Union and the BIU.
OTTAWA, Canada – Canada’s Conservative government is defending its commitment to Latin America and the Caribbean after eyebrows were raised during last week’s cabinet shuffle, prompting talks that the government’s vaunted “Americas Strategy” has run its course, according to reports here. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said that he met Latin American and Caribbean ambassadors immediately after the shuffle to reassure them the region remains a top priority for the current administration, according to the Vancouver Sun. A year after launching the “Americas Strategy” in 2008, aimed at reviving and expanding Canada’s presence in the region, Prime Minister Stephen Harper created a dedicated minister of state to the Americas. The position was first held by Peter Kent and then by Diane Ablonczy. But, in a cabinet shuffle, the minister of state for the Americas position was quietly retired when Ablonczy was replaced by Lynne Yelich, who was named minister of state for foreign affairs, meaning that
she covers the whole world. Baird said having a minister of state for the Americas limited his own ability to focus on the region, adding “this is going to allow me to spend a lot more time on these files”. The Canadian foreign minister said he will undertake a seven-country trip to the region next week. “So I think we’ll be speaking loudly with our actions that the Americas not only will remain a priority, but even be stepping up our priority list,” he said. But the Sun questioned
whether Baird will be able to dedicate as much time and attention to the region as he optimistically predicts, given that he has the rest of the world to worry about as well. “I think the Conservative government considers its agenda in the Americas is basically complete,” said Carleton University professor Jean Daudelin. “The core of their agenda was the trade file, and we?ve signed agreements with basically all the countries that are basically interested.” University of Ottawa senior fellow Carlo Dade told the SUN that the government did “alright” with its Americas strategy by cementing ties with a number of key partners in the region, but a lack of resources and strategic thinking limited what could actually be accomplished. Dade said the door to do more for the Caribbean has “essentially closed,” adding that the Canadian government is now turning to other parts of the world, such as Southeast Asia. “We shouldn’t have just done well, we should have done fantastic. So where do we go from here. There’s not much more that can be done,” he added.
WASHINGTON – St. Kitts-Nevis (CMC) will receive US$6.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the Washington-based financial institution said it had completed an economic performance of the twin island federation under a 36 month Stand by Agreement (SBA). The IMF said that the total funds now disbursed to the island is US$71.5 million and that it had also approved waivers of applicability for the end-June 2013 performance criteria, waiver of nonobservance of the continuous performance criterion on the ceiling of external arrears accumulated on debt contracted or guaranteed by the central government, and re-phased disbursements under the SBA. In 2011, the IMF approved the US$79.35 million SBA for St. Kitts-Nevis and according to the Fund’s managing director, Min Zhu, the local authorities “have continued the successful implementation of their Fundsupported programme, in particular making progress
toward achieving fiscal objectives and debt restructuring. “Following a four-year contraction in economic activity, signs of an economic recovery are emerging. Sustained commitment to prudent macroeconomic policies and reforms will be necessary to address remaining risks and vulnerabilities and to support stronger and inclusive growth.” The IMF official said the 2013 budget is aligned with the authorities’ dual objectives of redeploying resources towards growthenhancing outlays and continuing fiscal consolidation through significant budgetary primary surpluses. He said to boost revenue, while steps are being taken to improve revenue administration, action will also be needed to broaden the tax base, in particular to streamline tax exemptions. “Moreover, the fiscal performance of the Nevis Island Administration could usefully be bolstered and would benefit from improved
communication between the twin-island federation “The restructuring of public debt has continued, notably with establishing the legal framework for incremental debt/land swaps. To help buttress banks’ income, it is necessary to proceed with launching the land asset management company, according to best practices, and with land sales. “Continued collaboration with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank will be needed to monitor and address financial sector developments and implement reforms,” Zhu said, adding that accelerating the pace of structural reforms is important to secure lasting gains in fiscal sustainability, neutralize pressures on current outlays, and promote stronger and inclusive growth. “Priority should be given to pension and civil service reform and to streamline the social safety net. Implementing programs to upgrade education and training skills of job seekers to enhance their employment prospects will also be important,” he added.
John Baird
IMF disburses new funds to St. Kitts-Nevis
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Cuba’s Raul Castro promises succession has started HAVANA (Reuters) Cuban President Raul Castro assured his people yesterday that a transfer of power to younger generations had begun, in a televised address marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution. Castro spoke in the city of Santiago in eastern Cuba, where on July 26, 1953, the young Castro and a group of rebels, led by his brother Fidel, attacked the Moncada military barracks in a failed assault that sparked the movement that eventually toppled the U.S.-backed government of dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. At the time of the attack, Raul Castro was 22 and Fidel Castro 27. Raul, now 82, who took over as president from his brother in 2008, spoke in front of the Moncada to 11,000 spectators, while a frail Fidel, who turns 87 next month, remained out of sight in Havana. Castro left the traditional criticism of U.S. policy to a host of foreign dignitaries who spoke before him, focusing instead on the history of the revolution and its succession, in what he termed as a “tranquil and serene” passing of the revolutionary torch, as well as Santiago’s efforts to recover from Hurricane Sandy, which slammed the island’s second city of 500,000 people in October. Eleven people died in the storm, which damaged 50 percent of the housing in the city. “Today more than 70 percent of Cubans were born after the triumph of the revolution,” said Castro, dressed in military uniform and protected from a broiling sun by a floppy straw hat and sunglasses.
Raul Castro “There is a slow and orderly transfer of the leadership of the revolution to the new generations,” he said, stating the changes were “based on the demonstrated preparation and capacity to maintain high the flags of the revolution and socialism.” Castro has criticized his own generation for not preparing a succession, called for term limits and has made development of new leaders a priority since taking over for his brother, who ruled the country for nearly 50 years. In February, 53-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel was named first vice president and in line to succeed Raul Castro, now in a second five-year-term as president. Diaz-Canel, a member of the Party Politburo who worked his way up through the ranks over 30 years, was rarely seen on the national stage until this year. He did not take the podium at the event. Castro and 83-yearold Jose Ramon Machado Ventura remain the first and second secretaries respectively of the allpowerful Communist Party. Who will succeed them at the next Party Congress in 2016 is still not known. Some Cubans were
encouraged by Castro’s comments. Yuleisy Carmenates, 30, a public health worker in Santiago, said that Castro offered “nothing new” in his speech, but “at the same time his words were encouraging for Santiago which needs as much encouragement as possible.” Castro said that only about 52 percent of the housing damaged by the storm has been repaired. “I expected something different, but after so many speeches by others it was difficult to say much more,” said Ramon Estrada, who sells odds and ends from his Havana porch. Castro was preceded by the heads of state of Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Nicaragua and four small Caribbean island countries, as well as the foreign minister of Ecuador, all of whom praised Cubans and their leaders for maintaining the country’s independence in the face of U.S. sanctions. “The people of Cuba are responsible that today Latin America has stood up,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, opening the televised event in Santiago that he called a prelude to a regional summit in January in Havana. “The Cuban Revolution is the mother of the antiimperialist revolutions of the region and world,” Bolivian President Evo Morales, next up at the podium, said. The assault on the Moncada barracks proved a dismal failure, leaving at least 60 of the rebels dead and most of the rest, including the Castro brothers, in prison. But after their release, the Castros went into exile in Mexico, before returning by boat in 1956 to launch a rebellion from Santiago’s mountains.
Opposition supporters protest against Government KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent - CMC - Thousands of opposition supporters marched in Kingstown yesterday to protest against the administration of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Supporters of the Arnhim Eustace led opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) originally called the march to register dissatisfaction with the re-arrest of NDP Senator, Vynnette Frederick on July 11. The charges against Frederick, a lawyer, relate to
false declarations, swearing falsely and fabricating evidence. The charges were laid hours after a magistrate threw out six perjury charges against her. All charges stem from the contents of affidavits that Frederick submitted as part of a private criminal complaint against Gonsalves following the December 2010 general election. Yesterday, Eustace, in an address to supporters gathered outside the
Financial Complex repeated his call for a General Election to be held before yearend – two years ahead of the constitutional deadline.. He said the protest was widened to focus on “a lot of the problems that we face here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines”. The demonstration came in the aftermath of protest rallies in the north-eastern town of Georgetown, and Layou, a town on the southwest of St. Vincent last Saturday and Tuesday.
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Jamaica sugar operation drags Chinese company further in the red Jamaica Observer - HUA Lien International, an associate of Pan-Caribbean Sugar Company, has said that operations in Jamaica’s sugar industry may lead to a significant increase in losses for the period ending June 30, 2013. The Chinese company made the disclosure in a profit warning document to shareholders and potential investors. It blamed foreign exchange losses from US dollar-denominated debts, and the decrease in fair value of biological assets due to extreme weather-related conditions, for losses at the group’s new operations in Jamaica. “The board believes that the main reasons attributable to the expected substantial operating loss of Jamaica sugar industry projects are the foreign exchange loss from the US dollardenominated debts as a result of the depreciation in the value of the Jamaican dollar,” the document said, adding that “The decrease in fair value of biological assets as
a result of the drought conditions and hurricane being experienced has negatively affected the growth, and so the expected sugar cane yields of the Jamaica Sugar Industry Projects.” However, the notification to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange highlighted that the company is in the process of finalising interim results for the period and that the announcement is based only on a preliminary assessment made by the board. Hua Lien International is a subsidiary of PanCaribbean’s parent, Complant International. Pan-Caribbean bought three Government of Jamaica owned sugar assets — Frome, Monymusk and Bernard Lodge — and committed to reviving the industrial and agricultural production plant and facilities by mid-August 2014. Complant and Hua Lien last year agreed to inject US$38 million and US$89 million, respectively, into a joint venture to purchase Pan -Caribbean Sugar. Some of the
funds went towards the repayment of short-term loans and working capital. Meanwhile, the local sugar company on Wednesday said it made financial investments to the tune of US$160 million, which was expended in rolling stock, including tractors, trucks, graders, harvesters and factory equipment. But the company said it has incurred losses of equipment valued at $28.3 million due to security breaches. “There have been a plethora of security breaches within PanCaribbean Sugar Company which have resulted in the company incurring significant losses, and to date it has not been able to hold anyone accountable for such breaches,” the sugar company said in a press release. Consequently, 132 guards were sent on leave and the sugar company contracted a private security firm. In response to the move, workers of the sugar estate have been on strike.
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Govt. does not want scrutiny Suspects held in Auto of Amaila - Ramjattan Sales robbery
The decision to not entertain questions from the media during Thursday’s stakeholders’ meeting on the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project should never have happened, according to Opposition party, Alliance For Change (AFC). During the party’s weekly press conference yesterday at Sidewalk Café, Middle Street, AFC ‘s Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, said that it is clear that Government does not want “scrutiny”. The project, which Government says will cost US$840M to build, has been mired in controversy and delays, especially with its costs. Recently, the Opposition voted down two key Bills, and the administration warned that it is in jeopardy. “They do not want scrutiny. That is the whole point of this project,” Ramjattan said. The Member of Parliament, whose party controls seven seats, pointed to arguments by two leading financial analysts, Christopher Ram and Ramon Gaskin, who earlier this week said that the project does not guarantee less blackouts or lower tariffs. As a matter of fact, it will end up costing Guyana over US$2B during the 20 years it will be managed by the developer, Sithe Global. “It is just madness. And the rule of the thumb is when you have Government not wanting to be scrutinized, they got corruption behind this.” According to the MP, he
AFC’s Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan has received information that Pakistan is planning to build facility of just over 140 megawatts that will cost US$400M. Ramjattan was suspicious that there may be some “senior officials” who will make big money from the project as it is. Both Ram and Gaskin wants the project to be pulled back, reviewed and retendered. “This thing could very well be a rip-off.” The politician pointed out that when Government does not want to prudently wait on a critical study from the I n t e r - American Development Bank (IDB) and is pressuring the National Assembly to pass legislations in favour of the project… then the “inference is corruption”. Another AFC’s MP, Cathy Hughes, also expressed surprise that media houses were not allowed to field questions. “The role of the media…is
to supply information to the people.” She said that to host a stakeholder forum geared to sell the hydro project to the people of Guyana and not allow them to raise issues, is quite baffling. “…I would have thought it important for the media to understand.” She made comparisons to the US, where the President’s office at the White Office would be hosting one-on-one sessions to clear the air on the projects and issues. “Whether newspapers, internet, TV, radio… really, this is a disservice to one of our primary stakeholders who provide Guyana with important information.” On Thursday, Junior Minister of Finance, Juan Edghill, who was chairing the forum at the Guyana International Conference Center, Liliendaal, declined to have the media answer questions. In his defense yesterday, he said that he merely advised the media to make use of the “several opportunities that are available to them on a weekly basis to ask their questions”. His exact words were, “I would not be taking questions from the media. The media has sufficient and enough opportunities to field all their questions. It would be improper for me to have three hundredplus stakeholders at a forum and then I am taking questions from the media which they have opportunities -three, four, five times a week-to do.”
A .38 Taurus revolver was on Thursday found along with four rounds at a La Parfaite Harmonie home on Thursday during a search by ranks of the Guyana Police Force. According to the police, in addition to the unlicensed firearm, two men were also arrested for questioning in relation to the recent armed robbery committed on Full Works Auto Sales last week. Up to press time both men were still in police custody. According to the proprietor Mohammed Ali, of the Fullworks Auto Parts located at lot 58 Public Road, Good Hope, around 14:20 hours, two men came into the shop. “Two man come in the shop and asked about a car front so when me explain to them the cost and was going to show them what me have, one a dem pull out a gun and said give we de money,” Ali said. The still visibly shaken
man added that at the time of the robbery there were three customers at the counter. They were also robbed of their valuables that included gold chains, cash and mobile phones. The men then turned the gun on the cashier and demanded her to take them to the cash register. According to Ali, the men ordered the customers and staff to lie face down on the ground. They then gun butted one of the customers to the nose before escaping in a motor car which was parked a few meters away from the premises. A differently able staff was also gun butted to the back of his head while on the ground. Both injured men were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for medical treatment. The shaken cashier, who declined to be identified, said that while in the small booth, the gunman began to shout
at her to open the register. She added that when the money was placed in a bag she was then dragged out and placed on the ground to lie with the others. Ali said that the money stolen represented the day’s sale. Ali told the media that this was not the first time that his business has been robbed. He added that earlier this year bandits broke and entered his Georgetown branch and stole a substantial amount of money.
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Dhawan, Karthik set up Miller, Tsotsobe keep series alive comfortable win A fortunate century by opener Shikhar Dhawan and some incisive bowling from left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat guided India to a 58run victory over Zimbabwe in the second one-day international on Friday. Dhawan was gifted three lives on his way to 116 as India posted an imposing 294 for eight, but there was nothing lucky about Unadkat’s bowling as he stamped out a promising start by Zimbabwe and finished with figures of 4 for 41. Although Zimbabwe won the toss and gained the right to bowl first in helpful conditions, they produced a ramshackle performance in the field and gave away soft wickets during their reply. The hosts dismissed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the opening 10 overs, but Dhawan led a charmed life as he was caught off a Kyle Jarvis no-ball, dropped by
wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor when he was on just 14 and then put down again when he was on 70. Dhawan made the most of the opportunities, putting on a 159-run stand with Dinesh Karthik to guide India out of trouble after they had slumped to 65 for four. The left-hander went to his third one-day century in 115 balls, while Karthik scored a sturdy 69 before he was run out in a mix-up with his batting partner. Dhawan departed in the following over when he played a Prosper Utseya delivery onto his stumps, but India finished strongly as R Vinay Kumar and Shami Ahmed took 23 runs from the final over, which was bowled by left-arm spinner Sean Williams. Zimbabwe made a confident start to their reply on an improving pitch, led mainly by Vusi Sibanda’s halfcentury. However Unadkat’s
controlled bowling turned the innings around as his first two overs went for just six runs, and his third brought the wicket of Zimbabwe opener Sikandar Raza. After Zimbabwe had advanced to 109 for one, Unadkat returned have Sibanda caught at midwicket for 55, and then run out Taylor for a duck. Zimbabwe’s innings faded rapidly thereafter, with spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra accounting for Sean Williams and Malcolm Waller respectively. Elton Chigumbura hit 46 and Prosper Utseya scored an unbeaten 52, but Zimbabwe never looked like getting close to the Indian total on their way to a final total of 236 for nine. India lead the five-match series 2-0 with the third game to be played in Harare on Sunday. India 294 for 8 (Dhawan 116, Karthik 69) beat Zimbabwe 236 for 9 (Sibanda 55, Utseya 52*, Unadkat 4-41) by 58 runs.
Saturday July 27, 2013 ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 19): You feel you are capable of anything today; don’t be tempted to overstep the mark and bite off more than you can chew. ******************************** TAURUS (APR 20 - MAY 20): Encourage a loved one who has no confidence, to have more respect and faith in their innate talents. ******************************** GEMINI (MAY 21 - JUN 20): You can expect to make pleasing headway if you are seeking promotion or an increase in pay. Although emotions are high you will get the best results if you keep all discussions and arguments strictly practical. ******************************** CANCER (JUN 21 - JUL 22): You won’t be happy if forced to spend too long in one place especially if it means being stuck inside all day. What you really need at the moment is a change of scene, preferably with a steady steam of new faces. ******************************** LEO (JUL 23 - AUG 22): If responsibilities are heavy and life is getting you down, focus your attention on things that stimulate your mind. ******************************** VIRGO (AUG 23 - SEP 22): Your thoughts are all over the place and this makes it difficult for you to concentrate. Pull yourself together if you don’t want to drift aimlessly through the day.
LIBRA (SEP 23 - OCT 22): You may feel utilising a hobby or talent in your work stops you from enjoying it as much as you used to. At the same time, you can’t say no to the chance to make a little extra cash. ******************************** SCORPIO (OCT 23 NOV 21): Instead of being nice to others by taking on extra responsibilities, be kind to yourself and say no! ******************************** SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 - DEC 21): If recently you have had to put private plans on hold, you feel it is now time to make your aims the priority. Other people could be making changes without warning and they expect you to fall in with their demands. ******************************** CAPRICORN (DEC 22 JAN 19): Your practical outlook does you credit today as you will spot problems and nip them in the bud immediately. ******************************** AQUARIUS (JAN 20 FEB 18): Professional transactions could depend on your willingness to carry out a job to your best ability. You will be eager to further your ambitions but what people demand and expect of you might not be what you want to do. ******************************** PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20): An expected visitor or business associate who was supposed to call by and see you might let you down.
David Miller and Lonwabo Tsotsobe played key roles as South Africa stunned hosts Sri Lanka by 56 runs in the third one-dayer in Pallekele on Friday to stay afloat in the five-match series. Miller plundered a robust 85 not out off 72 balls to steer South Africa to 223-7 after unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis had reduced the tourists to 154-7 in the 42nd over. Tsotsobe then ripped through Sri Lanka’s top order with three wickets in the space of six runs before finishing with 4-22 as the hosts were bundled out for 167 in the day-night game. The victory ended South Africa’s 11match losing streak in oneday cricket on Sri Lankan soil and gave AB de Villiers’ tourists a badly-needed win in the current series. With Sri Lanka 2-1 ahead, South Africa must also win the fourth match at the same venue on Sunday to take the series into the decider in
Colombo next Wednesday. Thisara Perera lit up the gloomy evening for the hosts by smashing five sixes and a boundary in the 33rd over sent down by left-arm spinner Robin Peterson. With the second ball declared a wide, the 35 runs taken in the over fell just one run short of the world record of six sixes hit by South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs off Dutch bowler Daan van Bunge during the 2007 World Cup. Perera’s run sequence in the over was six, a wide, six, six, six, four and a six, but his sensational hitting came too late for the hosts to deliver an unlikely win. Left-handed Perera made 65 off 49 balls with five sixes and as many boundaries, before he was caught in the deep off
Farhaan Behardien, who finished with three for 19. Sri Lanka paid the penalty for a shoddy batting display in which six batsmen failed to reach double figures and only two others entered their 20s. Earlier, Miller hit five sixes and four boundaries to boost the total from 100-5 after South Africa had won the toss and elected to take first strike. Skipper AB de Villiers led the recovery with 47, before left-handed Miller pushed the scoring with his fifth one-day half-century, the first by a South African in the series. Miller put on 69 for the eighth wicket with Ryan McLaren, who remained unbeaten on 14. South Africa 223 for 7 (Miller 85*, Mendis 3-35) beat Sri Lanka 167 (Thisara 65, Tsotsobe 422) by 56 runs.
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Kaieteur News
Saturday July 27, 2013
T&T, B/dos junior teams - BAJANS ARRIVE to tour Guyana ON JULY 29
….as fastest man on the planet sprints to victory at Anniversary Games
Bolt rules Britannia again
who is under a doping cloud, but it was still relatively sluggish by his stratospheric standards. Not that that bothered the capacity 60,000 crowd in east London as they relived London 2012 one year on for the first of the three-day Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games. The Jamaican was back at the venue where he became a self-proclaimed ‘legend’ by defending his 100, 200 and 4x100m titles and lapped up the acclaim. Bolt said: ‘The crowd here is unbelievable. They’re wonderful. It’s good to be back here. I’ve got a lot of love for this stadium and this crowd. ‘I’m feeling good. It was nice to get the win and I’m confident going in to Moscow.’ Bolt’s fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter was third in 9.99, with Dwain Chambers fifth in 10.10 in the race run in balmy conditions. The feel-good factor of last summer was in full evidence around the Olympic Park beforehand as fans kitted out in London 2012 gear assembled in the sun. Fans had queued up at the gates from the afternoon in the forlorn hope of getting tickets, with the stadium long since sold out for the event. There was certainly a party atmosphere inside the
stadium, with every British athlete greeted with the cheer they could not get enough of last year. Ever the showman, Bolt performed a lap of honour for his adoring fans at the end, even throwing his spikes into the crowd. After all, this was the world’s fastest man’s first appearance on these shores outside of the Olympics since 2009, with Chancellor George Osborne granting a one-off tax exemption for overseas athletes taking part. This was also a chance to put the focus firmly on the athletics following the doping scandal which has rocked the sport, with Asafa Powell as well as Gay testing positive. Bolt was grilled on the topic at Thursday’s press conference, and forced to defend his own recordbreaking achievements, but one day on and Bolt’s legs did all the talking. He said yesterday that he was ‘made to inspire people’ as he explained why fans should believe he was 100 per cent clean and it was hard to argue with him. The 26-yearold received the usual hero’s welcome when he arrived at the start of the evening, posing, dancing and saluting the crowd as he completed a circuit of the stadium on the rocket, complete with Jamaican flag. (Mail Online)
Headquarters steamroll ‘A’ Division on final day
Eastman/ Austin...
Rocket man Usain Bolt recovered from an awful start to light up the Olympic Stadium once again on Friday night as he won the 100 metres in 9.85 seconds. The Jamaican returned to the scene of his triple London 2012 triumph, but was made to sweat before blasting through to take the victory. The 26-year-old entered the arena atop a missile for his customary lap of honour before the action, but this run hardly fired out a major statement of intent ahead of next month’s World Championships. It was still his fastest time of the year, though, and in the end he was a comfortable winner, with Mike Rodgers second in 9.98secs. Great Britain’s newest sprint star James Dasaolu was unable to test himself against the world’s fastest man. Dasaolu, who ran 9.91s in Birmingham earlier this month, had to withdraw as a precaution after feeling a tight hip flexor in the warm-up. Flashbulbs galore and a roar to rival those heard at the Olympics greeted Bolt when he was introduced to the crowd ahead of the race. His time was an improvement on his previous best this year of 9.94 and lifted him up to second in the rankings behind Tyson Gay,
From page 41 Carifta U-17 1500m gold medalist, Cassie George comfortably extinguished her opponents while Cleveland ‘Fish’ Thomas took the male race.
Stephan James ran away with the Men’s Invitational 100m in a time of 10.9s while Neisa Allen took the female version in 12.5 seconds.
From page 39 performance and will win this one.” Mr. DeSouza said that the organisers have carefully put together the card and fans could be assured of action packed encounters. Earlier, DeSouza’s colleague, Eon Jardine, had promised that fans could look forward to an exciting card since all of the boxers have already begun training. Tickets will go on sale soon and a ringside seat is $1500 while stands are $1000.
Bouyed by the national Ladies team qualification for the Pan Am Challenge Cup slated for later this year, the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) in collaboration with Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) have invited junior players from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados to participate in a twofold tournament from July 31-August 4. According to Secretary of the Board, Tricia Fiedtkou, who met with Kaieteur Sport yesterday, the tournaments which will be known as the GT&T Caribbean Kids Hockey Festival will be played outdoors and indoors, at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground and the National Gymnasium respectively. Fiedtkou, who along with Vice-President Ivor Thompson attended the meeting disclosed that the tournament will cater for players between the ages of 13-19 years and has been organised as part of the GHB’s development plan to get more players involved and exposed at the same time. Barbados arrives on July 29 and is using the tour for its own developmental purpose as well as offering the kids the opportunity to see Guyana. They will be sending 23 players between the ages of 13-16 years since according to Fiedtkou, like Guyana, the country is now
attempting to implement a vibrant junior system, adding that the teams will also use the opportunity to experience outdoor hockey, at the same time. Trinidad and Tobago on the other hand is among the leading nations in the sport within the Caribbean with a strong system at perhaps every level and is expected to provide a stern test for the other two territories. It was reported that they will be sending 16 players mixed with both males and females comprised of players from schools and clubs. The GHB Secretary informed that the Festival could very well be the first of its kind in the Region at this level and they are hoping that it becomes an annual event. The outdoor segment of the Festival will be held on Wednesday and Thursday from 09:00hrs 16:00 hrs, while the indoor activities will be staged between 13:00 hrs - 21:00 hrs. Fiedtkou also announced that the visitors will be taken on tours of famous sites and buildings within Georgetown as part of experiencing the culture of the country. Hockey has been making a strong resurgence locally and many of the country’s top players at both the junior and senior levels have travelled to Trinidad and Tobago and performed creditably in their competitions.
A real gun ‘James Corbett’ claims Ashes of shooting to restore Aussie pride SHARPSHOOTER: James Corbett victorious in the Queen’s Prize. Photo: Getty Images
You probably haven’t heard of James Corbett. But he may be the only Australian sportsman who managed to stick it to the Poms this past weekend - and he did so right in the Lions’ den. Forget the cricket. Never mind the cycling. Ignore the soccer, the rugby and the golf. Australia is now in possession of ‘’the most coveted prize in the shooting world’’ after Corbett quite literally shot through the gloom on Saturday to win the Queen’s Prize. The 54-year-old from Benalla, in northeast Victoria, is only the fifth Australian to claim the Queen’s Prize in its 153-year history, and the first since 1981. His victory over more than 1300 other competitors in the weeklong tournament also provides a limited antidote for Australia’s sporting fans suffering the gloating taunts of Britons amid their newfound athletic prowess. It was a tightly fought affair in Bisley, a village in south-east England and the home of Britain’s National Rifle Association. Corbett took out the competition on a ‘’V-bull’’ countout system after four shooters finished the final round on 297 points out of a possible 300. Corbett scored six more V-bulls (a bullseye within the bullseye) than secondplaced Welshman Ed Jeens. National Rifle Association of Australia chairman John
Fitzgerald said the prize was extremely difficult to win and Corbett had to beat many of the world’s best marksmen to claim it. ‘’When we compete against England, it’s like the Ashes in cricket, it’s on that sort of level,’’ he said. ‘’As far as we’re concerned, he’ll return to a hero’s welcome from us.’’ A five-time Australian representative at the Commonwealth Games and two-time silver medallist, Corbett also has more than 20 Victorian and national Queens titles to his name. As Queen’s Prize victor on Saturday, he was ‘’chaired’’ from the shooting mound to the presentation pavilion in keeping with a long-standing tradition. He also claimed the winner’s prize of £250 ($415) and an autograph from Her Majesty - a reward unchanged since the beginning of the competition in 1860. For Australians desperate for good sporting news, Corbett wasn’t the only one to win on the big stage in recent days. Carmen Marton, from Melbourne, won the women’s 62 kilogram division in the taekwondo world championships in Mexico on Sunday night, and 16-year-old Mackenzie Little from Sydney won gold in javelin at the world youth championships in Ukraine earlier this month. ‘’I am honestly still in shock,’’ Marton said. ‘’Dreams really do come true if you work hard enough.’’ (The Sunday Morning Herald)
Saturday July 27, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Eastman/Austin exude confidence as boxers ink contracts 29th Edition of Fight Night
D
espite his exploits in the international boxing arena, former European Middleweight Champion, Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman is still the most underrated boxer locally. Nevertheless, he has sprung quite a few surprises, holding his own against Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis, Simeon ‘Candyman’ Hardy and ‘Dangerous’ Denny Dalton among some of the best in the local arena. Apparently, some of the ambitious youngsters refuse to be impressed and continue to issue challenges while regarding him as a stepping stone to international accomplishments. The latest fighter to ‘eyepass’ the former European champion and issued a challenge is Mark Austin. Sporting the
sobriquet, ‘The People’s Choice,’ Austin is scheduled to clash with Eastman in the main supporting bout of the 29th Edition of Guyana Fight Night under the auspices of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), August 3 next. The main bout of the card also pits the skill of Barbadian, Shurwyne ‘The Mauler’ Marshall against Clive Atwell in an 8 rounds Lightweight contest while Jnr/Lightweight pugilist, Anson Green, will be anxious to resume his winning ways after suffering a lopsided point’s decision loss to Laured Stewart in his last outing. He opposes Berbician, Richard Williamson over 4 rounds while Eversley Brown will also be anxious to redeem himself following
Assassin takes Joseph’s Dominoes title Assassin marked 89 games to win the Faye Joseph 44th Birth Anniversary Dominoes competition when the final was contested on Wednesday evening last at Gaulin Place South Ruimveldt. TNT chalked 62 games to take the runner up spot while B 6 who drew the bye to the final finished third with 48 games. Oswald Brathwaite and Leroy Young scored 17 games each while Rafeek Khan made 15 for the winners. TNT’s leading markers were Trevor Smith and Shawn Morgan with 17 games apiece while Jane Chase top scored for B 6 with 16. Earlier, Assassin rattled up 72 games to win the semi final. They were largely indebted to Leroy Young and Oswald Brathwaite with 17 and 16 games respectively. TNT finished second with 71 ahead of Providence with 64 games. Trevor Smith made 16 and Leroy Edwards 15 for TNT while Dereck Beaton scored 17 for Providence.
Assassin received $175,000 and a trophy while TNT collected $70,000 and a trophy and B 6 $35,000. Claire Benjamin of Cody Girls took home $5,000 for being the first female player to share a love in the preliminary stage. Speaking at the presentation ceremony Public Relations Officer of the Georgetown Dominoes Association (GDA) Basil Bradshaw thanked the teams for participating and Joseph for sponsoring the tournament. Joseph, who is also the President of the GDA congratulated the winners. Meanwhile, Mark Wiltshire and Joey Cadogan will host a 21-team tournament which commences today at Transport Sports Club starting from 14:30 hrs. Entrance fee is $10,000 and the winning team will receive $120,000 and a trophy, the runner up $50,000 and the third place $30,000. One re-entry is allowed; the competition will conclude on Monday evening at Dynasty Sports Bar.
a loss to Romeo Norville in his last fight; he opposes Laured Stewart in a 4 rounds Jnr/Middleweight affair. The latter boxer will face Anson Green in a 4 rounds lightweight shindig and would want to bolster his debut success. Most of the boxers convened at Avenue of the Republic offices of Abdool and Abdools Insurance
Brokers and affixed their respective signatures on their contracts, under the direction of GBBC official, Clairmont DeSouza. A t w e l l w a s uncharacteristically garrulous and promised his fans that he will continue his winning ways. He said that he was unable to peruse Marshal’s records but is aware that the Barbadian had
surrendered decisions to Iwan Azore and Leon ‘Hurry Up’ Moore in earlier fights. “That is of no consequence to me because I am on a mission to eliminate any stumbling blocks in my way and will just go out there and work my plan,” a confident Atwell declared. Eastman and Austin also exchanged light banter with the latter pugilist earning the
most points in this ‘first round.’ “The kid is an up and coming fighter with a lot of potential but he will have to come with his ‘A’ Game plan if he wants to get past me,” warned Eastman. For his part Austin simply said, “Eastman is a very good fighter but come fight night I will turn in my best (Continued on page 38)
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Kaieteur News
Saturday July 27, 2013
Weary West Indies National Female cricketers encampment today bank on T20 form commence - final round inter-county match washed out
I
n what has been a disappointing home season for West Indies, with the twin failures in the tri-series and a 3-1 defeat in the one-day series to Pakistan, the hosts have a chance to salvage pride in a format that hasn’t let them down in recent months - Twenty20. Since winning the World T20 in Sri Lanka last year, West Indies have not dropped a single game, and with history on their side, nothing less than a 2-0 triumph will be enough to bring some cheer to their fans as the islands prepare for a brace of T20s in the form of the Caribbean Premier League, which gets underway two days after the two back-to-back games against Pakistan. Save for series victories against unfancied Zimbabwe at home, West Indies have been a letdown against better opposition, starting from the Champions Trophy. The expectations were raised after winning a world title last year and winning six consecutive Tests (albeit against the weaker sides). Fatigue was one of the factors attributed to their slump, with several key batsmen like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo taking active part in the IPL and other leagues, without much rest between series. It has shown in the performances in at least two of the three players and there is very little time to turn the
T
Darren Sammy
Mohammed Hafeez
corner. It was a forgettable season for another reason: the decision to sacrifice Tests for more one-dayers for monetary reasons and accommodating the CPL is unpalatable for the cricket purist. It appears that T20s are the flavour of the season, starting Saturday. Not too long ago, Pakistan had endured a similar slump, bowing out of the Champions Trophy w i t h o u t a w i n . Commonsense prevailed when the selectors chose not to make the captain the scapegoat and instead recalled impact players like Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal, who made vital contributions in the onedayers. The batsmen had a lot to answer for after the debacle in England and in testing batting conditions in the West Indies; there was an improvement, at least in the last three games. Misbah-ulHaq, much ridiculed for his
conservative approach to batting which sometimes drastically slows down the innings, was the pivot around which the batting revolved. His one-day numbers in 2013 speak for themselves, but he is not around for the T20s. Can Pakistan be just as effective without him? West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Johnson Charles (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Lendl Simmons, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Darren Sammy (Captain), 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Tino Best, 11 Shannon Gabriel/Samuel Badree. Pakistan (probable) 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez (Captain), 4 Umar Akmal (wk), 5 Haris Sohail/ Hammad Azam, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Sohail Tanvir, 8 Saeed Ajmal, 9 Junaid Khan, 1 0 Wa h a b R i a z , 1 1 Mohammad Irfan. (ESPN cricinfo)
h e S e n i o r N a t i o n a l selection panel of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) yesterday shortlisted a 22member Squad to participate in a Training Camp before selecting a 14-member Squad that will compete in this year’s Senior Regional Wo m e n ’s C r i c k e t Tournament in Grenada from August 5. Demerara who beat an Essequibo Combined side in the opening round in the only match played in the threeday tournament, won the competition by virtue of that victory. After final round of the senior female 50-over InterCounty competition between defending Champions Berbice and host Demerara was washed out at the Everest ground yesterday the following players were
Shemaine Campbelle selected and are asked to report to the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence at LBI from 10:00 hours today for the commencement of the camp. Those selected in the squad are: June Ogle, Melanie Henry, Shemaine Campbelle, Katana Mentore, Trishanie Cort, Kavita
the LCPL T20 Tournament.” The tournament begins on 30 July and ends on 24 August. Twentyfour matches will be played across six franchise countries – Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago – and will feature top Caribbean and international players. “Scotiabank has long been synonymous with the development of cricket in the Caribbean,” says
Yadram, Tremayne Smartt, Joann Vansertima, Haseena Mohamed, Mandy Mangru, Jacquelyn Singh, Tessa Park, Leana Harris, Erva Giddings, Latoya Smith, Akaze Thompson, Phaffiana Millington, Latoia Toney, Natasha Gangoo, Heema Singh, Kumari Persaud, and Lashauna Tussaint.
Call to shorten Sobers tourney Bridgetown, Barbados A proposal is being made to shorten the length of the Garfield Sobers International Schools Cricket Tournament. The coach of new champions Powergen Penal Sports Club, Surujdath Mahabir, told WEEKENDSPORT that he felt it was necessary for the competition to be reduced. Mahabir said that having spent almost three weeks here, it had proved to be a very costly tour for his team.
“I believe that one of the main reasons why the competition has seen a drop off from international teams is because of the high cost which is associated with the tour,” Mahabir said during an interview at Dover Beach Hotel yesterday. “It is also one of the primary reasons why more teams from Trinidad and around the Caribbean don’t make the trip to Barbados, because finding funding during these times can be
Scotiabank Sponsors the LCPL T20 Cricket Tournament Bridgetown, Barbados – Scotiabank is extending its relationship with cricket by becoming an Official Partner for the first season of the 2013 Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL). The sponsorship is part of the Bank’s commitment to supporting cricket across the region. “We are excited about becoming the official bank of the LCPL and contributing to the growth of a sport that celebrates Caribbean heritage,” said Heather Goldson, Scotiabank’s Marketing Director for the English Caribbean. “Scotiabank has had a presence in the Caribbean for more than 125 years and with Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket we have been committed to youth cricket for 14 years. This year, we are taking the game to the next level by sponsoring
June Ogle
Jamie Stewart, Commercial Director and Consultant to the Limacol CPLT20. “The LCPL aims to spark a renewal and renaissance of cricket in the region, and in that sense Scotiabank is the obvious partner. We hope to work together to build out LCPL community initiatives and we thank Scotiabank for supporting this landmark venture.” In July, Scotiabank, through its Bright Future program, signed a historic five-year contract with the West Indies Cricket Board extending its exclusive sponsorship of the Kiddy Cricket programme. Scotiabank and the WICB are working together to provide more than 150,000 youth in 15 territories with education and training to improve their cricket skills. This year, the investment is
Heather Goldson providing 20 new positions for coaches to assist students and Physical Education teachers.
extremely difficult.” The tournament, which is now in its 27th year, has seen a steady decline in the number of participating international teams in recent years. This year saw just one team from England compete in the annual tournament, a far cry from previous years in which up to six teams from England, and one from as far as South Africa participated. Mahabir, who is also the head coach of Powergen’s Youth and Development Programme, said one of the ways in which the length of the tournament could be reduced is by playing fewer games. He insisted that the seven games which his team played during the preliminary rounds were more than needed. “For a team to play seven matches on an overseas tour is a lot of games. “I think it would be better served if those matches were reduced to around five or so, and then maybe the semifinals and the finals.” In addition, he suggested that the tournament coordinators should reserve at least one ground on weekends which could be used to host matches. He also acknowledged that there were too many rest days, saying that they could be put to better use.This year’s tournament ran from July 8 to 24. (Barbados Nation)
Saturday July 27, 2013
Kaieteur News
Page 41
Punches will fly as Pepsi/Gatorade U-16 Boxing tourney gets underway this morning
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unches are expected to fly and residents of the Albouystown community and its environs are in for a treat when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) in collaboration with the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) stages the 3rd edition of the Pepsi/Gatorade Under-16 Boxing tournament at the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Boxing Gym (ALBG) today and tomorrow starting at 10:00hrs. As usual, the young boxers will provide unbridled entertainment when they square off and once again the beverage giants have acquiesced to exclusive sponsorship. Yesterday morning DDL Brand Executive, Larry Wills, journeyed to the Main Street office of President of GBA, Steve Ninvalle, where a cheque to offset the requisite expenses exchanged hands. Boxing coach and Tournament
Mr. Ninvalle (C) has every reason to smile shortly after receiving the sponsorship package from Mr. Wills (R) in the presence of Mr. Poole.
Director, Terrence Poole was also present at the ceremony. Mr. Ninvalle expressed gratitude to his benefactor s a y i n g t h a t D D L’s involvement has once again provided the impetus for his executives to continue with
their programme. He noted that DDL has been a vital part of the developmental plan even as he beseeched continuity of such support. The GBA boss further assured Mr. Wills that his executives are cognizant of
the need for optimum safety measures and have put the necessary modalities in place. C o n s e q u e n t l y, M r. Ninvalle reiterated the intention of his executive to expand the sport to the other
regions. He said that plans are in train to host boxing cards in Essequibo and Linden in October and December, respectively. He said that the aim of this initiative is to reignite the passion for the sport in those territories. “Already we have distributed gears to clubs in those regions so a boxing card there will further heighten the interest level,” posited Ninvalle. Mr. Wills said that his company was delighted to once again extend support to the GBA. He said that this was due, in large part, to the organizational skill of the GBA and the concomitant benefits accrued by the young pugilists. He said that the tournament would be conducted under the famous Gatorade and Pepsi brands, both satisfying products. The brand Executive further intimated that Gatorade is the appropriate health drink because it replenishes e n e rg y a n d w o u l d b e
advantageous for the boxers during competition. “I wish you all the best and do have a safe and enjoyable tournament,” urged Mr. Wills. Mr. Poole also extended gratitude to officials of the beverage company. He said that the benefits of their chivalry are apparent in the general improvement of the boxers. Mr. Poole further said that three boxers, Stephon Green, Joel Williamson and Travis Fraser are all products of the DDL initiative and have earned selection to the South American Games, scheduled for Peru in September. He said that these three boxers have graduated from the DDL/Pepsi initiative which is ample proof of the benefits derived. More than 40 boxers from the various worlds associations will participate in the tournament and Wencel Thomas will be the Coach while Eustace Cuffy will be the Manager.
Headquarters steamroll ‘A’ Division on final day - defend GPF Athletics title with gutsy performance By Edison Jefford Headquarters was forced to dig deep yesterday after an initial thumping from ‘A’ Division to get back in the lead and move on to eventually retaining its Guyana Police Force (GPF) Track and Field Championships overall title at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary. The defending champions, Headquarters, who trailed ‘A’ Division after the first two days of the competition on Tuesday and Wednesday, overhauled a 21-point lead heading into the final day to win with 509 points opposed to ‘A’ Division’s 471 points. Country Division finished third in the competition with 198 points while ‘B’ Division ended with 142 points. Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell announced a $250,000 reward for Headquarters with the runner-up, ‘A’ Division getting $175,000 and Country Division $100,000; Brumell also doled out $50,000 each for Jonella
Jonas, Alita Moore and Natasha Alder, whom shared the Champion Female Athlete award after outstanding performances. Nadine Rodrigues was adjudged Runner-Up Champion Female and Kevin Bayley the Champion Male with Julio Sinclair as Runner-Up. Bayley was also announced as a candidate for $50,000 at Presentation Ceremony while Police Coach, Lyndon Wilson, attached to Headquarters, was also awarded $50,000 for leading his team to the comeback triumph. Shawn Semple, who arguably had the performance of the day when he collected the relay baton in a distant third position in the 4x400m race and ran a blistering final leg to hand ‘A’ Division the win, also received a pledge of $50,000 from the Commissioner. Meanwhile, Commander of ‘A’ Division, Derick Josiah told Kaieteur Sport that he will also give his team $100,000 for a sterling performance that challenged the dominance of Headquarters for two
Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell poses with joint Champion Female Athletes, from left, Jonella Jonas, Alita Moore and Natasha Alder last night at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary. consecutive days before giving way on the final day. In the competition, Moore easily won the Women’s 100m, clocking 12.2 seconds on the damp and heavy track. Rodrigues was second in 12.7s while Leota Bobb picked up third in 13.2s that steadied Headquarters ship with a clean sweep. Moore then returned to
capture the Women’s 200m in 26.3 to claim a sprint double. Rodrigues finished second to continue the ascendancy of Headquarters while ‘A’ Division’s, Shanna Thornhill was third. Jonas ran away with the Women’s 1500m in 5:44.6, capturing a distance triple after winning the 800m and 3000m races earlier in the week. Shion Boyer finished
second while Tisha Grimes was third in the race. Semple clocked 10.9 seconds to win the Men’s 100m for ‘A’ Division while Keith Roberts took second in 11.2s; Derwin Eastman (11.4s) was third in the event. Bayley left teammate, Nathaniel Giddings in his wake in the final 150m of the Men’s 1500m to pick up the
win in a time of 4:18.9s. Giddings (4:21.2s) and ‘A’ Division’s Tyson Johnson (4:25.3) was second and third respectively. Roberts, after losing the 100m returned to capture the Men’s 200m in 23.0 seconds after Semple false started in the event and was ejected. Eastman was second in 23.7s while Timothy Morison (24.0) picked up third. Alder, a field event ace, contributed heavily to the points standing for Headquarters after winning the Women’s Shot Putt with a throw of 10.23m while Joan King–Brown was second with 8.75m and Latoya Rodney (8.45m) third. Sinclair took the Men’s Shot Putt, out-throwing teammate, Ronald Payne with a throw of 13.04m with Payne (11.69m), both for ‘A’ Division. Cordell English (10.72m) was third. In the Youth Club events, Kevin Abbensetts won the male 100m in a time of 11.6s while Tiffany Carto (13.0s) won the female version. In the 1500m Invitational race, (Continued on page 38)
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Headquarters steamroll ‘A’ Division on final day Headquarters celebrate defending their GPF Athletic Championship title last night at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary, with Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell and other Police top brass following the competition.
- DEFEND GPF ATHLETICS TITLE WITH GUTSY PERFORMANCE Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Limited, 24 Saffon St.Charlestown, Georgetown.Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/ 226-8210