Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 7

Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news

Norton never Religious leaders must threatened to quit PNCR break their silence DEAR EDITOR, On July 24, the Baltimore Sun carried a commentary, which stated, “Gender violence causes more death and disability among women aged 15 to 44 in the U.S. than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war. “Currently our military and universities are actively seeking solutions to prevent and respond to this violence within their respective institutions.” The reference was to the United States but the appeal is international and certainly relevant to Guyana. In fact, in Guyana, neither the military nor the university, is actually actively seeking solutions and thus this appeal must resonate with them as well. For us in The Caribbean Voice, this appeal is critical because suicide is related to gender in a huge way. Oftentimes, females are murdered by their partners, who then commit suicide. Also, females are routinely abused by their partners, and this often leads to an escalation of violence as well as suicide. The authors of the Baltimore Sun commentary, Jim Wallis (president and founder of Sojourners); Amy Gopp (director of member relations and pastoral care at Church World Service); and Rick Santos (president and CEO of IMA World Health) referenced a recently released report, Broken Silence: A Call for Churches to Speak Out, based on a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 U.S. Protestant pastors. The authors state, “According to the report, U.S. faith leaders seriously underestimate the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence experienced by people within their congregations. They also lack the tools to address it in constructive and helpful ways.

The good news is that more than eight in 10 said they would take appropriate action to reduce sexual and domestic violence if they had the training and resources to do so.” As in the US, there is no doubt that faith leaders in Guyana also “seriously underestimate the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence experienced by people within their congregations” and “lack the tools to address it in constructive and helpful ways”. We do certainly hope that the vast majority, if not all, however, “would take appropriate action to reduce sexual and domestic violence if they have the training and resources to do so”. So what can faith leaders do to reduce sexual and domestic violence? Here’s what Baltimore Sun says: First, they need to get a firmer grip on reality. Faith leaders need to fully understand that domestic and sexual violence occurs in all communities worldwide, including their own congregations. Ignoring this sin does not make it go away; it gives silent consent. Faith leaders need to build relationships with the resources in their local communities that protect and support victims and survivors. A faith leader’s vocation is to nurture faith and support a victim’s spiritual well being, but his or her physical or emotional well-being should be guided by professionals trained in domestic and sexual violence. Faith leaders need to seek out domestic and sexual violence training. Training is indeed critical because a little knowledge in this area can be more dangerous than no knowledge at all. Research has indicated that abused women who seek help from untrained clergy typically

find themselves in a worse situation than before. The top priority in sexual and domestic violence should be to ensure the immediate safety of victims or potential victims. Though this is common knowledge among those in the health community, it may be countercultural for U.S. (and Guyana) clergy — especially those who hold firmly to values that view family matters as private, place a high priority on family “stability,” strictly prohibit divorce, practise “male headship” and submission of women, or who see untrained counseling as part of their pastoral duty. In keeping with these commonly held values, a large majority (62 percent) of pastors in our survey say they have responded to sexual or domestic violence by providing couples with marriage counseling — which the health community widely acknowledges as a potentially dangerous or even lethal response for a victim (as it, no doubt, also is in Guyana). With a firm base of knowledge beneath them, faith leaders must speak out on sexual and domestic violence. Nearly two-thirds of pastors surveyed preach or speak once a year or less a about the issue. Ten percent never mention it at all. Sexual and domestic violence inflicts deep emotional, physical, and spiritual harm on those who endure it. Norkah Carter Devv-Ramdas Daniel Judy Deveaux Annan Boodram Bibi Ahamad Collis Nicholson Anna Addie Odyssey Donna Jennifer Ross Pandit Sharma Daneshwar Pandit Amintnarine Rabindradat Shoba Jagnanan

DEAR EDITOR, I note in the media that there is a lot of speculation that I will resign from the PNCR. At no stage did I tell anyone that I will resign from my party. I think Demerara Waves in its usual style conveyed that impression. What I recall saying is that I will think through the situation and together with my family and supporters decide the way forward. I am a long standing member of the PNC and PNCR and therefore will not be that casual about my relationship with our party. Unfortunately, some tend

to mix up disagreement with certain outdated modes of operation as disagreement with the PNCR. I will always oppose the lack of transparency and confront authoritarianism and therefore will be in disagreement with the little cabal that believes that the PNCR is their fiefdom to do what they like with. Please note as well that a principled criticism of my party does not connote being against my party. I have for years made the point that our party must put all mechanisms in place to ensure our internal elections can stand the

modern democratic test. My I also point out that it is immoral for one to not be responsive to the concerns of those who differ with them in their internal body politic but want their opponents in the national body politic to be responsive to their concerns. A good opposition must show by its practice what it intends to do when it is in government. I will continue to promote good governance and pressure those in the PNCR to send the right signals by their actions rather than mere lip service to democracy. Aubrey C. Norton

A holistic approach to the needs of Senior Citizens DEAR EDITOR, There was an article in the June 29 issue of Kaieteur News written by Mr. Leonard Gildarie. It was entitled: “Protection for our Senior Citizens”. This was a good attempt to address the general needs of senior citizens in Guyana and Brazil. He also inserted a photograph of a building in Brasilia to house senior citizens. Mr. Gildarie cleverly articulated the great need for senior citizens in Guyana to be given the requisite help to cushion their basic expenses since some elderly persons receive small pensions. I have written a number of letters over the years about the plight of some elderly persons and hence would like to reinforce what Mr. Gildarie has written. Our senior citizens number in the

thousands while in Brazil and many other countries there are millions of retirees including Guyanese who migrated. It is a paradox that these major societies do their best to provide for the old folk while we are somewhat unable to do so? Let Government sit down with the Private Sector, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders like religious institutions and try to discuss and come up with a package that would enable the most vulnerable pensioner to eke out a comfortable living. We are told that comparisons are not

often accurate but we should compare the standard of Guyanese elderly persons with that of senior citizens in the other Caricom territories. Finally, we can never be on par with the industrialised or First World countries. We cannot afford to provide condominiums to house our senior citizens. We ought to be able to erect simple apartments for those elderly persons who are reasonably healthy and active and who would like to use part of their pensions to pay a rent so that they may live a quiet life. Malcolm Maynard

Bright be the Road you are Walking, Light be the Load you are Carrying, Sweet be the Home you are Staying,Happy be the Day you are Foreseeing - Have a Pleasant Day

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Bandit shoots female bus Benschop Foundation passenger in stomach offers medical outreach

A lone gunman shot a female minibus passenger in the stomach and reportedly stripped her of jewellery during a brazen robbery in Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, at around 20.00 hrs last night. Bernadette Campbell, 40, of Lot 60 West Road,

Plaisance, was attacked by the gunman, who had posed as a passenger, shortly after the vehicle stopped on the Plaisance ‘Line Top.’ Dexter Carr, 20, who was sitting next to Campbell, sustained minor injuries when one of the bullets grazed his side.

Father, 40, on incest charge A father was yesterday placed on $150,000 bail after he was charged for engaging in sexual activity with his 15year-old daughter. The 40-year-old man who appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court is alleged to have behaved inappropriately with the teen following the break-up between himself and the girl’s mother. The court heard that the Kitty, Georgetown man had been involved in sexual activity with the girl when she was residing at his premises, between January and April. While the circumstances surrounding the man’s arrest are unknown, the court was told that the 15-year-old now resides with her grandmother. The case was prosecuted by Police Inspector Michael Grant. The accused was granted bail and is expected to appear in court again on August 8.

Campbell, who was rushed from the scene, was still receiving emergency surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) at press time. According to reports, Campbell and Carr were sitting in the front seat of the bus when the woman looked around and observed a male passenger behind her acting in a suspicious manner. The vehicle then headed to the Plaisance ‘Line Top’, where passengers began to disembark. Kaieteur News understands that the ‘suspicious looking’ passenger exited the vehicle and pointed a handgun at Campbell and Carr, and ordered them to disembark. He then discharged about three shots, hitting Campbell in the stomach and grazing Carr. The gunman reportedly then relieved the injured woman of her jewellery before fleeing. Kaieteur News was told that Carr travelled to UG Road, Turkeyen, when he contacted a friend and informed him that he had been shot. The friend then took Carr to the GPHC. Kaieteur News understands that Campbell’s father had to be treated at the GPHC after seeing his injured daughter.

A doctor examining a child

Squatters residing in the area aback of the Botanical Gardens turned up in their numbers yesterday in order to access free medical services provided by the Deskan Institute and Training Medical Mission. The Medical outreach was held in collaboration with the Benschop Foundation. Deskan Institute is a non-governmental organization which strives to assist organizations to strengthen their capacity, provide services and to enhance the work environment with the objective of expanding the delivery of health education and health promotion. Although the team has been travelling to Guyana to render their assistance for the past several years, yesterday was the first time they visited the residents in that small community. The team did mostly physical examinations on children and adults. They distributed medication they brought from their homeland, the United States of America. In some cases, patients were advised to visit the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to seek further attention. According to one of the doctors, Joan

Liverpool, her colleagues have observed a lot of persons suffering from High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, skin rashes and diabetes among other illnesses. She told Kaieteur News that in one instance a seven-year-old child appeared to be suffering from some form of heart complication. The parent of that child was advised to take her to the GPHC to do an EKG (electrocardiogram). “These patients are lacking medical care and education. We have seen patients with heart problems, uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure and so on. We come every year to help the Guyanese people and today (yesterday) we have come here to assist,” Dr. Liverpool said. Head of the Benschop Foundation, Mark Benschop said that Dr. Liverpool contacted him and asked in what way she could assist the entity. “Right away I told her about the people from the back of the Chinese Embassy and she agreed and I think we should have more persons coming on board to assist these people,” Benschop said.

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 9

Talking the talk, but skipping the walk At the just concluded Congress of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR and not PNC/R), the Leader of the party advanced a model of national unity that is reflective of our country’s National Motto: One People; One Nation; One Destiny. This, of course, is neither a new prescription nor a novel articulation of the need for national unity. Someone needs to tell Mr. Granger that this particular ‘One Nation’ boat has long set sail, but has never reached its destination. The politics of Guyana has demonstrated the futility of pursuing the model of One People, One Nation and One Destiny. We are hanging on to a cliché that may sound nice and reassuring, but which in practice, can no longer be either the means or the ideal to which we are striving. We should strive to become One Nation, a territorially indivisible country in which its members identity as belonging to a single unitary State. In the minds of most Guyanese we are, in this context, already One Nation. This is our starting point. Idealistically we should have One Destiny, a set of

common, general, broadbased goals which we strive to attain. These goals can be prosperity, freedom, internal justice and security for all. To this you can add a range of other broad goals. This is our destination. In between, we have to address how we will move from our starting point of One Nation, to embracing a common Destiny. Our motto tells us that we should make this journey as One People. But our political experience points to this idea of One People as an anachronism. At the level of competition for power there exists deep divisions within our society, divisions based on racial identity. If you cannot settle who will be in charge of the train, there will be problems in the journey. We hang on to this National Motto of One People, One Nation and One Destiny. But our politics tend to suggest that we are One Nation of Many Peoples seeking One Destiny. Unless we recognize that within our country are distinct and separate peoples, we will continue to delude ourselves into pursuing a model of national unity that will fail us.

This, I believe, is the most fundamental criticism of David Granger’s speech to the just concluded Congress of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR and not PNC/R). His idea of national unity skirts the ethnic problematic. It is of course ironic that the Leader of the PNCR should be committing such a grave omission in proposing a model of national unity. His party has long come around to supporting the idea of shared governance. The PNCR is on record as stating that if it wins power it would share that power with the PPPC. And it is also on record as stating that one of the principal objectives of APNU as an opposition grouping was to convince the PPPC of the need for shared governance. The development of shared governance cannot be associated with coalition politics or alliances. It cannot be merely about parties coming together into coalitions. It has to fundamentally address the ethnic question in Guyana, and particularly, how to ensure ethnic security under a model of shared governance

that would provide comfort to all ethnic groups. National Unity without ethnic security is tenuous. In his presentation, Granger sought to present the PNCR as a party that has always pursued national unity by seeking political alliances. He referred to the fact that the PNC came to power in 1964 by forming a coalition government with The United Force. The PNC of course had the option of forming a government of national unity by joining with the PPP. Dr. Jagan was interested in such a merger, but Burnham closed this option by joining in an opportunistic coalition with The United Force. He was more interested in power than in a government of national unity. By 1968, Burnham had become disenchanted with coalition politics. In fact, in the run-up to those elections, Burnham made it clear that he was not interested in any coalition. He said, “For the next election, it is either going to be Burnham or Jagan. So help me God, I shall never again lead the People’s National Congress into a coalition Government!”

Dem boys seh...

Brazzy suit can mek bed sheet fuh Dharm Shala Brazzy, that fat crook, think that dem boys is li’l babies. He trying fuh put pacifier in dem mouth by filing not one, not two, but 13 lawsuit against dem. Dem boys get frighten when dem see so much. Dem never hear, much less see so much lawsuit in dem life. If that was 13 of Brazzy suit wha he does wear, dem boys would at least been happy, because dem woulda send dem to de Dharm Shala. Dem suit woulda mek nice bed sheet wid that size wha Brazzy got.

De time he tek fuh sue dem boys he shoulda been exercising fuh lose some weight and look li’l good. He got fuh exercise and de court action guh mek he exercise. He might run up and down de court step, but dem boys hope that he don’t run out de court and lef he lawsuit like how Jagdeo run and lef he own. If he don’t plan to run up and down de court step, dem boys got a simple exercise to mek him a fine crook. He got to begin by standing on a comfortable

surface, where he have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, he got to extend he arms straight out from he sides and hold them there as long as possible. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day he will find that he can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, he gun move up to 10-lb potato bags. Then he gun try 50-lb bags and eventually try to get to where he can lift a100-lb bag in each hand and hold he arms straight for more

than a full minute. (Dem boys at this level). When he feel confident at this level, then he got to put a potato in each bag. He accustom to putting thing in bag and this would be nothing strange to that fat crook. The most wasted of all days is one without laugh. Brazzy spend many wasted days because he wasn’t laughing when dem boys talk. He sue and he still not laughing. Talk half and help that fat crook fuh laugh.

So the PNCR today can pontificate all it wants about it being a party interested in national unity. Its record in political power will demonstrate that when it did have power it opted to hog that power and use it in a most brutal and barbaric manner. It may have talked the talk about national unity, but it has never walked the walk. After the 1994 local government elections, the PNCR reneged on an agreement it had with the PPPC for the sharing of power within the Georgetown City Council. And in 2006, in one Region, it again reneged on an agreement it had with the PPPC in terms of the election of Regional Chairpersons. It talks the talk, but it does not walk the walk. The PNCR did not gain the Presidency in the 2011 elections. But it did, with the AFC, collectively enjoy a oneseat majority. How has it used that majority?

It has used it to dominate the representation of opposition parties in almost all of the Committees in the National Assembly. Indeed it went as far as amending the number of persons in some committees to achieve this goal, so that even though the PPPC won the most seats in the National Assembly, it does not have the majority representation in the committees. The PNCR has also joined with the AFC in hogging the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The ruling party was not able to even gain the position of Deputy Speaker. This is how the PNCR operates. It talks the talk about sharing power but when presented with the opportunity to do so it hogs it.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN

Aubrey Norton and Ralph Ramkarran: A comparison Make no mistake; what happened with the voting system at the PNC’s congress on Sunday occurred at the last PPP congress at Port Mourant. What did not happen in Port Mourant was that the Sharma Solomons and Aubrey Nortons do not exist in the PPP, so there were no confrontations, claims, cries and denunciations. This columnist was told by someone strategically placed at the PPP congress that ten Chinese persons voted. In fact there were more votes cast than registered

delegates. The last PPP congress followed the pattern established by Cheddi Jagan hundreds of moons ago – the votes are fixed to obtain a certain outcome. When Cheddi wanted an African to get into the hierarchy to show that the PPP was multi-racial, he shuffled the votes as if it were a pack of cards. When the African slowtalker arrived into Cheddi’s arms in the eighties, Cheddi was ecstatic. By that time the PPP had no big African name with a respected job in its leadership. The problem for

Cheddi was that the slowtalker couldn’t pull enough votes to get him to the top of the pyramid. What Cheddi did at each congress was to manipulate the votes to get his African guy a seat in the executive. It was the identical thing he did against Balram Singh Rai to facilitate Brindley Benn. As with the slow-talking doctor, the object was to get a big African name in the leadership. For an account of Jagan’s deceitful role in that affair see, Baytoram Ramharack’s, “Against the Grain: Balram

Singh Rai and the politics of Guyana,” Chakra Publishing House, Trinidad, 2005. Today the PNC faces mounting embarrassment over the voting incidents at its congress, because of public castigations by Aubrey Norton, Sharma Solomon and Carl Greenidge. But you don’t hear such voices after the PPP’s congresses are over, because the PPP doesn’t have a Norton or a Solomon. Ralph Ramkarran is the largest proof of the difference in the nature of the PPP and the post-Burnham PNC. Ralph Ramkarran left the PPP after something unsavoury happened at an executive meeting. To date, the Guyanese people do not know what made Ramkarran so angry that he quit an organization he spent about forty-five years serving. There are all kinds of speculation, but Ramkarran’s lips have been sealed with the world’s strongest bonding chemical. Mr. Ramkarran has a weekly commentary that appears in the Sunday Stabroek. He writes about everything on Planet Earth, including the Luis Suárez bite, but not a word on what bit

him at that meeting. One person told me that the Canadian citizen in the PPP leadership told Mr. Ramkarran that he was behaving as if “goat bite he”, to which Mr. Ramkarran objected and walked out. Here is the difference with the PNC. Its leaders are less authoritarian and less prone to groupthink. Dr. Faith Harding spoke out publicly at what happened to her inside the PNC. There is no way an Aubrey Norton would have exited the PNC after being insulted at a meeting and not explain what occurred to the public. This is the essential difference between the PNC and PPP. The PPP is gloating over the Sunday afternoon showdown at Congress Place. It will not stop. It will now be a whipping boy for the PPP. The Chronicle and NCN will milk it until the 2016 elections. A certain columnist at Guyana Times will write about it non-stop. This columnist can’t be that stupid to think that we don’t know who he is. I know and I normally tell everybody I meet who he is. Call me and ask me if you don’t know and I will tell you.

Frederick Kissoon I will give you two clues. He is an Indian supremacist and a close friend of the fake pollster. The PPP countryside bottom-house meetings will paint the PNC with an evil brush. The country folks will be told that the PNC cannot hold clean elections even in its own home. What the Guyanese people need to understand is that the nation knows what happened at the PNC congress last Sunday, because brave leaders inside the PNC spoke out. They wanted the Guyanese people to see the faults of the PNC so that there can be a better PNC in the future. The PPP is no different from the PNC, but there have been no brave PPP leaders since Nagamootoo and Ramjattan left. The same voting deficiencies go on at PPP congresses, but the victims stay silent. Did you ever hear any GAWU union leader criticize the PPP?

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 11

GWI tenders for French Guianese electromechanical equipment fined for illegal entry Three bids were opened under the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) for the supply and delivery of electromechanical equipment. The bids were unveiled yesterday at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Main and Urquhart Street.

GWI also received bids for the construction of gravity filter substructure, Rose Hall, Berbice, Region Six.

Finally, within the sector, bids were tendered for the design and construction of an Anchor for a Sewer Main, Region Four.

The National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) under the Ministry of Agriculture retendered for the construction of a building at Kairuni, Region Four.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Judicature received bids for the procurement and installation of a surveillance Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

A lone bid was submitted under the Ministry of Public Works for the fourth road project (West Coast Demerara Improvement) road safety public relations and communications.

Under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there were two bids for the installation of an electrical and photovoltaic system at Tukeit Guesthouse and Warden’s/ Caretaker’s Building at Kaieteur National Park.

A French Guiana national, who claims he came to these shores to get married, was fined $30,000 on an illegal entry charge when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday. Marcieno Browne, 34, pleaded guilty before Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry and was ordered to pay the fine. The charge instituted against Browne detailed that on July 3, last, at Charity, Essequibo, he entered Guyana by sea and disembarked without the

consent of an Immigration Officer. Speaking through an interpreter, Brown said that he came here to get married. The accused explained that when he arrived in Guyana the Immigration Office at Charity was closed. He said that returning was no option since the vessel with which he came had departed. Browne said that he was left with no choice but to venture to Georgetown. When asked about any previous charges or convictions, he insisted that

GUILTY: Marcieno Browne he was never placed before any court of law. The Chief Magistrate then fined him. In default of payment, he would have to serve three months in prison.

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 13

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Wednesday July 30, 2014

FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754. Spares for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943 PVC Ceiling Panels (USA Standards), all-purpose joint compound, T h o m p s o n ’s c o n c r e t e water proofer – Tel: 6148564; 639-3675; 680-0862 New American made Wener, aluminum ladder: 17 feet$28,000; 24 feet- $38,000, 32 feet- $55,000 – Tel: 609-7257, 602-5794 View Sonic Projectors & computer monitor - Sizes: 17inches – 27inches (new) – Contact: 623-4919; 646-7768 1-Caterpillar 226B skidsteer loader, 1-Caterpillar mini excavator- Contact # 2604988 or 650-0402 German shepherd and Doberman mixed pups – Contact: 615-0513 Pit-bull & short fluffy puppies – Contact: 619-6086, 699-7077 Metal Scaffolding with planks – Contact: 332-5426; 603-0000; 628-8008 3 Stalls in La Penitence Market- Can be sold in Single’s, also 1 double door freezer & 2 glass coolers – Contact Ameer: 695-5815 Games for PS2, PS3, XBOX360, WII, consoles also available – Call: 6722566, 265-3231 Dell/HP computers with 17,” 19"& 20,” LCD screens from $55,000, laptops from $55,000. Contact Future Tech: 231-2206 Yamaha Rigdid, 7125 Watts generator - $299,000, roper (whirlpool) washer - $120,000, Roper dryer- $120,000. Contact: 664-0366; 231-5930 Maytag 2000 series glass door dryer - $195,000, GE stainless steel glass top electric stoves - $195,000 – Tel: 664-0366; 231-5930 1 Whirlpool fridge –ice maker & water dispenser - $199, 000, 1- 19" Flat Screen TV/PC/ Security monitor led - $42,000 – Tel: 664-0366; 231-5930 Dressed and mill cut lumber: Kabukalli, silverballi, greenheart, crab wood etc – Call: 688-6579 School and work uniforms @ Roxie’s Fashion, 301 Church Street ( 4 buildings before Bonny’s Supermarket)

Kaieteur News

FOR SALE DRESSES: ONE WEDDING, 2 BRIDEMADES, 2 AFRICAN, SIZE 12 SILVER SHOE, SUITABLE FOR WEDDING – CONTACT: 264-2498/667-5907 One flock of goat – Contact: 696-8103 Fluffy, loving puppies – Tel:645-0240 or 685-0942 Nylon Seine 600lbs, 5 inch for $1.2M, cabin boat 44ft, $350,000, ice box, best offer – Call: 267-1563

FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Executive houses & apartments, Queenstown US$1,800, Bel-Air Springs US$2,500, Shamrock Gardens - US$1,800- Tel: 2238479/ 647-3768. www.spaceseek.gy Houses & apartments: One bedroom @ Kitty - $40,000, Bel-Air Park - US$2,500-Tel: 223-8479/ 647-3768. www.spaceseek.gy Houses & Apartments: Durban Backlands US$4,000, Ogle- US$1,200— Tel: 223-8479/ 647-3768. www.spaceseek.gy 1-2 Storey house with workshop space ( mechanic welding) in Bartica, also 1 land for sale - $11.5M neg. Contact:685-2707 Furnished and unfurnished apartment/house in healthy & safe environment – Call: 698-6496 Hair Salon and shop for rent in Mon-Repos – Tel:220-7315 or 626-0020 Fully furnished 1 & 2 bedroom apartments located in Georgetown, for long & short term rentalContact:692-6306, 610-6101 for more info. One bedroom apartment for decent working single or couple, available from the 1st of August - $20,000- Tel:2264770; 610-7334 FOR SALE/RENT Mining blocks for sale or lease in Potaro- Call: 6940745

Page 27

VACANCY 24 Hour East Coast Guyoil needs night pump attendants, salesgirl, office assistant & handyman- Call: 670-8893/684-2838 Exist for 2 barbers and two hairdressers, must have their own clients- Contact: 6278277 or 669-6110 Work from home earn $5,000$20,000 daily- Call: 233-6517, jobfairworldwide.com

LEARN TO DANCE Learn Latin/Oldies Dancing in 1 Day! @ National Park Tarmac, August 3rd, 1:305:30, $2,000 per person – Call: 612-6475; 629-8842

Vacancy exists for qualified Grade 9-12 teachers, in Diamond. Send resume to davidsukhdeo@gmail.com

PROPERTY FOR SALE

1 Handyman/woman, 1 Skillful carpenter, 4 able bodied labour, 1 welder – Contact: 265-3586

CAR RENTAL Dolly’s Car Rental - Call: 225-7126/ 226-3693 dollys autorental@yahoo.com/ www.dolly sautorental.com Progressive Auto Rental: Cars & SUV for rental- $4,000 & up per day- Call: 643-5122, 219-3900 ,Email:pro_ autorental @yahoo.com

MASSAGE The Gents Spa: Beautiful qualified masseuses, new attendants from Cuba & Trinidad, drinks available – Tel: 657- 5979

LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel: 644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997

House located @ Republic Gardens - $45M, Atlantic Gardens - $80M, Enterprise $75M. Tel: 223-8479/ 6473768. www.spaceseek.gy House located @ Foulis $75M, Oceanic Ville - $75MTel: 223-8479/ 647-3768. www.spaceseek.gy Houses located @ Nandy Park - $45M, Diamond- $31M & La Parfaite Harmonie $20M. Tel: 223-8479/ 6473768. www.spaceseek.gy 1-2 Storey House &1 Flat house both for $33 Million, prime location, 1-3 storey building with business - $80M – Call: 6864899 or 684-3718 Property @ GoodHope, E.C.D - Tel:621-1722 Section A, 274 Great Diamond, E.B.D, 56’X40’ building on 111’ by 60’ land. $21 Million – Tel: 233-2546, 233-5859 One 2 Storey house & land for sale 25X58 on the West Bank Demerara - $15MContact:622-1782; 658-5803 Kitty - $35M-$120, Durban Street - $34M, Nandy Park $22M - Contact Diana: 2272256 or 626-9382 Two storey concrete house (26X45 ft), 4 bedrooms, 3 washrooms, grilled with electronic security @ Granville Park, Beterverwagting - Tel: 6726169

EDUCATION:

GR TAXI: 225-7878; 2271982 or 219-5000

Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad. Call: 660-5257, 647-1773 Summer Special: Earn a certificate in cosmetology, wig designs or nails alone, limited spaces - Call Abby: 619-7603, 666-5241 Natural beauty salon & spa: Grove Market Street EBD Tele:265-4138,652-5800 specialized in everything for women.

1 – 2storey wooden & Concrete house with 5 bedrooms upper flat & lower flat 4 apartments located@ Shell Road, kitty - $34M – Tel:642-7898

Shalom Enterprise Driving School @ 2 Croal Street, Fee $16,000- Tel:227-3869/ 6447052. “Like” us on Facebook.

LAND FOR SALE Duke Street – 130 x 21 - $80M, Oceanic Ville – 55 x 95 - $35M -Tel: 223-8479/ 647-3768. TAXI SERVICES

SALON

Individual tutoring available for CXC P.O.A in comfort of your own home – Call today for affordable rates: 688-3538 IAE (Secondary Educational) 194 Camp Street, register for Forms 15, Lessons, CXC Adult Classes for repeaters & beginners – Tel:223-0604; 683-5742

SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.–CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620 Permanent & Visitors Vi s a Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call Sabita: 2256496, 662-6045 Repairs, sales & spares, air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & stoves. Ultra Cool, call: 225-9032,647-2943 We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer, dryer Call Omar: 2310655,683-8734 Repairs to refrigerators, gas stoves, washing machines, A/C units – Call Lindon: 6411086, 694-2202, 227-8907 For low cost: Repairs to fridge, freezer, A/C unit, microwaves, TV & washing machine – Call: 629-4946 or 225-4822 For the best in landscaping, the most reliable & trustworthy landscapers call us @ 219-0468 Design Team Neher. COOL TECH: Repairs Services & Installation of all types if homes appliances: Air Condition & Refrigeration units – Tel: 233-2008; 675-4959 TO LET 1 Bedroom with toilet & bath - $25,000 @ Vreed-En-Hoop, 2 Storey 3 bedroom, toilet & bath, fence grill - $55,000 – Tel: 685-7566 1 Bedroom @ Campbellville – $45,000, 3 bedrooms @ Campbellville $70,000, 2 semi furnished 2 bedroom @ Campbellville - $90,000 – Contact Diana: 227-2256 or 626-9382 TOURS SURINAME SUMMER TOUR: SHOPPING CASINO, DOLPHIN ETC. AUGUST 1ST-4TH, 7TH 13TH & 18TH -24TH – TEL: 639-2663; 644-0185; 6655171 OR 227-8290

VEHICLE FOR SALE Cheapest – New model, fully loaded Spacio, Allion, VVTI Manual & Automatic buses, one Vizio 42" High Definition Television – Tel: 616-7635 2006 Blue Nissan Titan. Fully Loaded GSS Series. Contact: 604-6108. AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms - Call: 680-3154 We buy & sell vehicles for cash. Also parts available & 30 seater buses; extra Cab pickups; 2006 Tacoma- Call: 680-3154 First Class Auto: 2006 Premio, 2006 Allion, 2004 Spacio, IST, Axela, Fielder, Rush – Call: 609-8188; 6383045 New Toyota Noah, 2 Televisions, reverse camera, rims, low mileage – Tel: 6292619, 663-2700. Owner leaving country, best offer accepted. Smart Choice Auto Sales: unregistered old & new model Spacio, 212, Voxy, BlueBird – Call: 652-3820/ 665-4529 1 AE91 PGG Series, good working condition, $325,000 negotiable – Tel:638-1345; 267-1514 2004 Toyota Spacio- Back & front camera, TV/DVD/ CD, unregistered - $2.2M – Tel: 617-2891 Premio – PPP Series - $2.2M and unregistered - $2.450M, negotiable, Spacio PRR - $1.8M –Tel:697-0294; 604-9591 Prado Land Cruiser, automatic, PHH series, $6.8M. Tel: 233-2546, 6885554 2010 Toyota Noah, 13,000Km, smart edition, PSS series, $6.8M – Tel: 233-2546, 6885554 Toyota RAV 4 PMM Series, mint condition. Tel: 602-6986 1600 CC Toyota Sprinter AE100- Contact:645-0240 or 629-3814 Toyota Will VS duty free $1.15M negotiable or duty paid $2.3M negotiable, Corolla AE100 Sprinter $725,000 neg. Contact:6563944 Toyota Glanza PLL series, lady Driven - $1M negotiable – Call: 670-7206 2 FORD 350 Diesel 2006 (4x4), 1 F150 2007 (4x4), 1 Chevy Van 2007, 1 1999 Tacoma, excellent condition – Tel: 610-5370 ACCOMMODATION Tourist Villa: Furnished Rooms & apartments- 1, 2 &3 bedroom apartments at affordable rates – Lot 95 Fifth Avenue, Subryanville – Tel: 227-2199; 227-2189; 227-2186 (Continued on page 28)

Page 28

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

We demand of our party what we demand of Govt. (From page 27)

WANTED Over edge and straight stitch operator to work at Garment Factory – Call: 2222541 Monday – Friday Salesgirl/boys and porters apply in person, to Avinash Water Street 8:30 to 4:30 Looking for two or three bedroom apartment anywhere in Georgetown – Call: 698-5103 One live in maid must know to cook – Tel: 669-6030 Husband & Wife to take care of farm land – Tel:623-2728 Any amount of scrap metal to buy – Tel:618-1967; 6232728; 698-4321 or 629-2912 We buy previously used green heart wood from demolished building in Central Georgetown area – Tel: 653-4797 Experienced cashiers, counter clerks, roti/puri cooks, kitchen assistant. Apply in person @ Hacks Halaal, 5 Commerce St. Two salesgirl - $18,000 per week, must know to prepare standard rated bills- Call: 223-9676 One handyman/gardener, age:30-50yrs old, preferably living on the E.C.D – Contact:648-3817 One Arc welder must know to do grill work and able to work with limited supervision – Tel: 613-3879 One experienced domestic maid to work in DiamondContact: 626-8003, 227-8529 One experienced salesgirl – Contact: 626-8003/ 2278529 One (1) driver for route 32 minibus – Tel:629-2302 Honest, willing & single live in domestic – Call: 646-1758 between 9am-4:00pm, attractive salary offered!! Hire cars, drivers @ Atlas Taxi Series, VHF Network- Tel: 6613043 Experienced Taxi drivers at Gem’s Taxi – Contact: 6679013 or 225-4526 Urgently needed two experienced cosmetologist @ Natural Beauty Salon located @ Grove EBD. Contact Ms. Kasharie on 652-5800 Live out domestic babysitter and live in babysitter – Call:225-0188, 225-6070 (Monday to Saturday ) (8:15am-4:15pm) Female Accounts Clerk to work on Distribution Vehicle, Apply Alabama Trading Ferry Stelling Stabroek.

“Congress is over, and we are now faced with the task of moving forward; of mending our rifts, correcting our weaknesses and building on our strengths to face the national challenges that go over and beyond the challenges we face internally.” That was the assertion of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR)’s Sharma Solomon in the aftermath of the contentious occurrences at the party’s 18th Biennial Congress that concluded on Sunday. During a press conference Monday, Solomon said that the PNCR, like any other political party, has had its share of glitches in previous elections, but never of such magnitude where the integrity of the entire process is questioned. The congress was characterized by division, confusion and the firing of a gunshot. However, Solomon said that what occurred is a thing of the past which Party members must now put into perspective, review and work diligently to prevent in the future. According to Solomon, Region 10 is committed to have all outstanding issues over the last two years addressed by putting in place acceptable modalities. He said that these include the electoral processes and

WANTED 1 Male to look after layer birds in the Interior – Tel: 6696030 Cashier, pump attendants, and watchman, apply in person at Shell Mc Doom Gas Station.

- PNCR’s Solomon other pressing internal matters that gave rise to the chaos, long before Congress was convened. He said that Region 10 is prepared to work to ensure that the democratic structure which “our party can proudly boast of is strengthened. As it is, we consider the fact of our members’ willingness to speak out on issues, though not fully attained, a positive for our Party.” Solomon said that the PNCR remains the vanguard Party where members are prepared to challenge their leaders and hold them accountable. He added that this is a work in progress that must continue. “Those who have taken this progressive step before, and those like Ms. Clarissa Riehl, Carl Greenidge and the countless others, must not be

deterred by the critics and antics of those who seek to interpret our reality to suit their purpose and intent.” Solomon told the media that the PNCR leaders must become accustomed to such challenges to their authority and decisions made, particularly when they are different to the well established party rules and constitution. Solomon promised that Region 10 will continue “where and when necessary to strengthen the Party’s democracy, not to destroy our party, but to build its ability to deal with dissent, challenges and changes.” He said that the Party, though shaken by the recent chaos, must grow from these experiences. He said that Region 10 shall continue to set the tone for change, not

By Zena Henry To complement the growth of the upper East Bank of Demerara (EBD) communities and the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the government has allocated some $25M for the construction of a new fire station. Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle told Kaieteur News yesterday that the service is looking forward to the new station as it would significantly aid in delivering service to the upper Demerara region. He said that the project will be done in two phases and the facility is likely to be completed by next year. The first phase entails the

location and land preparation and later, the construction of the facility, which will service regions just outside of Diamond; Friendship and areas in the lower Soesdyke/ Linden Highway. The Fire Chief noted that the establishment of the fire station is also necessary for the improvement of the international airport, since it will serve the surrounding areas. While it was noted that fire occurrences are not as prevalent, the fire chief did recognize that the station is a move in forward thinking since the communities in those EBD locations are growing with housing schemes, settlements and business development.

Sharma Solomon only in the party, but in other parties “where members fear to challenge, have no electoral processes, and have leaders foisted on them.” Solomon stated that Region 10 is proud of the structure put in place by Founder Leader Forbes Burnham to ensure maximum participation and involvement

of our members He added that “we are proud of the systems that are enshrined in our Constitution for handling of grievances,” but cautioned that some persons have violated these and may be encouraged to continue such violations. “We must hold them accountable, for this is what we are allowed to do when working in accordance with the constitution and party rules. Region 10 recommits to doing exactly that.” He said that the PNCR has the means to show how good governance is intended to be. “The people of Region 10 demand this of the PPP/C government. We demand it of our party! We demand it for all Guyana. It is what we deserve. It is the progressive, democratic way forward. It must represent the New Guyana, where leaders are held accountable at all levels.”

$25M fire station to complement growth of upper EBD

Fire Chief Marlon Gentle Additionally, Gentle mentioned, the fire service through the government is moving to secure two

aviation crash tenders for full coverage of the Ogle International Airport located on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). CJIA at Timehri is also slated to get one aircraft crash tender to complement the existing fleet. Kaieteur News understands that currently there are not adequate crash tenders required for the two major airports. The new station outside of Diamond will be equipped with one fire tender and some 21 fire fighters; seven to complement each of the three shift systems. Last year, a $20M fire station was opened in Diamond - one of the country’s largest housing schemes.

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 29

Page 30

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 31

Page 32

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Ministry places enhanced hinterland education on front burner By Sharmain Grainger Hearing from community members has long been the strategy adopted by the Ministry of Education ahead of implementing necessary changes in the sector. This notion was particularly amplified yesterday by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, as she addressed a gathering of stakeholders at the Bartica Secondary School in Region Seven. The intent of yesterday’s meeting was to solicit the support of the stakeholders to help plot the way forward for the introduction of a Hinterland Education Improving Programme (HEIP). The project is therefore designed to cater to schools in the hinterland regions of One, Seven, Eight and Nine. HEIP will be implemented over a five-year period and will incorporate a number of aspects including: improvement of the quality of teacher education, alignment of the teaching-learning resources to improve students’ outcomes, improving of physical facilities, fostering of community alliances and the strengthening of management and supervision. Minister Manickchand who engaged the stakeholders (who travelled from various communities within the Region) in a very interactive session, was accompanied by senior officers from her Ministry. A number of senior regional officials also attended the forum. Chairing the session yesterday was Assistant Chief Education Officer (Secondary), Ms Doodmattie Singh, who noted that over the years the Education Ministry has been working tirelessly to improve education in the hinterland areas. In so doing, she pointed out, a number of schools were built in communities where there were none, thereby allowing for equity in the delivery of education at the various levels. But it was Minister Manickchand, ahead of soliciting comments from the gath-

ering, who traced the development of the sector over the past few years ranging from improved facilities to an increase in trained teachers. The evident development, she outlined, has thus allowed for better performances at every level of education, which according to the Minister, is realized primarily through consistent investment. “We have moved from a dilapidated state to where your children have hope,” said the Minister as she disclosed that Region Seven has been recorded as the most improved performing Region for the past two years, with improved performances at the National Grade Six Assessment for the past five years. This the Minister linked to the fact that “We have given them the resources - classrooms, exercise and text books, improved facilities and trained teachers...” However, she acknowledged that “we know however

that there are gaps and we want to fix those.” And addressing the gaps, the Minister said, can only be done through consultations with stakeholders. “All the research in the world says to us that the only way the world can improve individual circumstances, transform communities, and develop countries is if we invest in and make sure our people are educated....There are no short cuts” hence the need for consultations to decide how best efforts can be made to ensure that “our children throughout the country get a sound, solid education”. Speaking directly to the development of education in the hinterland, the Minister alluded to the fact that 20 years ago there were only 131 schools across levels in the hinterland. However, deliberate efforts to improve this state of affairs have allowed for the establishment of 250 such schools, the Minister

said. And according to her, approximately 59 of these institutions are in Region Seven alone. But in order to improve on the gains made, stakeholders yesterday highlighted, among other issues, the need for the Education Ministry to mandate trained teachers to serve the Region at least two years after completing their studies. This was highlighted, reportedly because of the fact that trained teachers, after qualifying themselves at the Cyril Potter College of Education and the University of Guyana, are not opting to return to teach in the Region. It was also recommended that parents, particularly in the Bartica community, seek to be more

involved in the educational process of their children. In fact it was speculated that the economic status of the community, which is driven by mining activities, has left some persons disinterested in the importance of a sound education. A variety of suggestions were carefully noted by the Minister and her team, and assurance was given that action will be taken to help address the shortcomings highlighted. During yesterday’s forum, Minister Manickchand also continued her national discussion on the Governmentassured $10,000 cash grant which is intended to aid the schooling needs of each child

registered at a public school. The parents in attendance yesterday agreed to uplift their cash grant through the Western Union service in the community and some were keen on finding out exactly when the financial support will become payable. According to the Minister, since her officials will be required to enter into a database all of the names of children registered at the various public schools, which is expected to be a lengthy process, it is anticipated that the grant will be payable by midOctober. Minister Manickchand and her team are expected to continue consultations in Kamarang, on Sunday.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Your social life is abuzz right now, which is feeding you valuable positive energy from other people. This is a great day to be around as many people as you possibly can be -- friends and strangers alike. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): You're not an island -you've got plenty of connections that are important to you. It's a good time for you to reach out to folks you may not have seen in some time and try to reconnect. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): You don't usually waste time coolly calculating your odds of success -- you just go ahead and try things out! Today, though, you do need to think things through if you want to make any progress. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Now is the best time for you to make plans -- for tomorrow, next week or the next ten years. You can grasp thoughts and ideas that can fit together well; then stick to the program. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): A budgetary issue is stuck in your mind today -- so make sure that you're giving it your full attention. It may be a good time to rethink your spending or to consider options for additional income. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22): Things are really starting to click today -- so make sure that you're keeping up with events. In fact, you may be able to get a step ahead of things if you marshal your forces with care.

********************* LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22):Your conscience is bugging you -- but not over anything major. It's likely just something small that you keep forgetting to do. Make it a higher priority and you should be able to relax quickly. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21):Details are all-important now, so dive into that spreadsheet or ask all the right questions to make sure that you've got the answers down pat. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21):Things are tough -you need to deal with an authority figure who may be making demands you can't quite keep up with. Try to just smile and nod and make sure that you're not picking fights. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Today is all about details -- and your great energy helps you to sift through them all and figure out what needs to happen next. It's a good time to piece together intelligent plans. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): Work and business are tougher arenas for you than usual, but that's not to say that you should shy away or back down from them. ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): This is not the time for heavy thought -you're better off taking action instead. You can piece together everything that went down some other time, and things should make more sense then.

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 33

Page 34

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Chamber: The buck Barbados opposition leader calls for must stop with leaders Caribbean parliamentary reform LifeSport controversy Trinidad Express - The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Monday expressed concern and alarm at the many discrepancies identified in the LifeSport audit. The Chamber noted in a press release that this included poor control and management of the programme by the Ministry of Sport, instances of fraudulent activity by suppliers and even possible breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act. The Chamber said it has attentively followed the reported allegations of misconduct within and mismanagement of the LifeSport programme over the last few weeks. “Following the receipt of the report of the Central Audit Committee on the Comprehensive Audit of the Payment System of the LifeSport programme last Friday, we must, at the onset, commend the Honourable Prime Minister, for her action to immediately announce the

end of the programme and instruct the Attorney General to forward the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Commissioner of Police (Acting) for investigation,” the Chamber added. Based on the serious findings, the Chamber has called for all responsible to make every resource available to allow for a thorough in v e s t i g a t i o n to be conducted in a timely manner and that any and all persons found responsible for any misconduct will be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows. “The Chamber believes that transparency and accountability are imperative where the management and disbursement of public funds are concerned. Good leadership and governance dictates that those charged with this responsibility be vigilant in the execution of their duties, and accountable to the public where there are any allegations of misconduct. The buck must

Anand Ramlogan stop with our nation’s leaders—in both the public and private sector,” the Chamber added. “Additionally, the Chamber agrees wholeheartedly with the Prime Minister that this report underscores the urgent need for Procurement Laws to become fully operationalised. The Chamber, as part of the Private Sector Civil Society Group (PSCSG), has made this same call to the Prime Minister in its recently published advertisement of July 25.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - CMC – Opposition leader Mia Mottley has called for parliamentary reform throughout the region, as members of the Caribbean, Americas and the Atlantic region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association opened their 39th regional conference here Monday. Mottley told the gathering there is need for change, as the same topics are being discussed at successive conferences. “It begs the question how did we get here? How do those who have responsibility for the passage of laws, for the governance of the country… find themselves in a situation where the same things are said year after year after year,” she said. Mottley said unless parliamentarians recognize the need for urgent reform “particularly in the Caribbean Commonwealth departments, and treat it as a regional project, we will meet five years hence, ten years hence, and be saying the same thing yet again.” She added that while parliamentarians create the forum for debate and shared perspectives, the majority of the population does not understand or think about what laws are passed until months after when the laws impact them. “And therefore those of us who sit in parliament sometimes believe that silence is consent until the impact hits the population as we have seen recently here,” she said, referring to recent protests against the newly implemented controversial Municipal Solid Waste Tax.

Mia Mottley The former attorney general called for more engagement of the public, stating that “the interest in the business of legislatures has declined substantially”. “And it’s largely because we live in a world that is driven by the ease of access to information particularly through technology, and which is no longer governed by broadcasting but indeed by narrowcasting. “It means that the role and structure of our parliaments cannot be rooted in 18th or 19th century existence and we do not have to wait for the mother of our parliaments to make those defining changes, we must do it in respect of what is relevant to our own society in terms of our values and culture and the behavior of our population,” Mottley said. She argued that the use of social media cannot be restricted simply to broadcasting speeches that were made in parliament. “How do we take the views of the population, not

Atlantic disturbance likely to become a tropical depression Wednesday BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Tropical disturbance Invest 93L continues to show signs of organization although this has been delayed slightly by the impact of high wind shear. Invest 93L is unlikely to become a tropical depression before today. As of 8 am EDT the system was located at 9.6N 39.1, moving westward with winds of 35 MPH. The system is predicted to continue moving west or west-northwest at 10-15 MPH for the next three to four days arriving near the northeast Lesser Antilles by Friday evening. Dr Jeff Masters, on the Weather Underground Blog, said there is a “10% chance that 93L will be a hurricane on Saturday when it makes its closest approach to the Lesser Antilles Islands. If 93L hits the Northern Lesser Antilles as a wet Tropical Storm Bertha (not a hurricane), the storm could be more boon than bane for the islands. The Northeast Caribbean suffered its driest June in recorded history last month, according to NOAA, and many of the islands have significant drought problems”.

only in terms of what is ready or put out virtually, but on specific topics inform debate in the same way that extensive committee hearings ought to be taking place and capturing those views.” Mottley added there are a number of other areas that need attention in the region’s parliaments, including campaign finance reform and the balance of power. “How do we equally ensure that we remove from our structure, a parliament that affectively is constrained by the executive because the size of our parliament has in fact led to the cabinet and the front bench being the dominant force, such that the parliament cannot be an effective check on the balance of power. “How can we treat to the issue of campaign finance reform and the lack of confidence that our populations have in what we say and what we do,” she said. She noted such “difficult and vexatious issues” cannot be treated only at the national level, but necessitate a regionwide approach. “What is required is a mechanism that allows us to treat the reform of our parliamentary system in the Commonwealth Caribbean in particular, as a regional project with a defined outcome, recognizing that even for those of us who belong to CARICOM, we have a conflict of systems, for the Caribbean Community is premised on the development of consensus on the way forward but the national parliaments depend on an adversarial Westminster structure,” Mottley noted. Meanwhile acting Prime Minister Richard Sealy told participants this year’s talks are even more relevant given the economic challenges facing the region. “This annual conference of the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, is important not only because it gives delegates a chance to review the pressing new economic needs of the member states and the new opportunities that are being presented, but also because it allows us to review the persistent political and social challenges that have to be resolved if we are going to pull ourselves out of this devastating recession,” he said. The conference ends on Saturday.

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 35

OECS needs large PM: T&T to set up Embassy in Japan, InvestTT office injection of cash – Skerrit Trinidad Express Trinidad and Tobago will establish an InvestTT office in Tokyo to accommodate trade and investment flows. This was announced by Prime Minister Kamla PersadBissessar Monday following the Japan/Caricom Summit at the Hilton hotel in St Ann’s. Persad-Bissessar said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had expressed an interest in having a Trinidad and Tobago embassy in Tokyo. “We will give due consideration to that. But in the interim, (and possibly in addition to) we have agreed immediately that InvestTT will establish a presence in Japan to establish an embassy in Tokyo,” the Prime Minister said. She added that Trade Minister (Vasant Bharath) would expedite this measure. She said “immediate consideration” was being given to the issue of a Trinidad and Tobago embassy in Japan “as we believe it may facilitate increased tourism, trade and investment opportunities, not only for Trinidad and Tobago, but also for fellow Caricom member states”. The Prime Minister noted there was collaboration in the private sector between the Mitsubishi Consortium and Massy Holdings for a TT$5.4 billion petrochemical plant. “The project is the largest gas-based initiative planned within the last five years and is seen as an anchor project for the South West Peninsula of Trinidad and Tobago. It will generate employment opportunities with a peak construction work force of approximately 3,000 and permanent employment of approximately 30 persons,” she noted. Persad-Bissessar also said that as a result of the Caricom and Japan summit, she wanted to assure Prime Minister Abe that “we are ready and open for business”. She took note of the resilience and fortitude of the people of Japan, who faced the severe 2008 global financial crisis and the 2011 great East Japan earthquake. “What was inspiring was to see the people and Government of Japan face these tremendous adversities frontally, paving the way for what is today a revitalised economy,” Persad-Bissessar said. She noted that Japanese goods accounted for 3.3 per cent of the total value of Trinidad and Tobago imports in 2013. The imports

GARLAND FOR MRS ABE: Standard five pupil Kareena Roopchand, left, garlands Akie Abe, the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, upon her arrival at Springvale Hindu Primary School Monday for an official visit. Photos: DEXTER PHILIP comprised mainly automobiles, diesel-powered trucks and buses, automobile parts and tuna. Persad-Bissessar said Japan was this country’s seventh-largest export partner in 2013. Exports were estimated at TT$1.28 billion in goods. LNG, followed by cocoa beans, bitumen and asphalt comprised the majority of Trinidad and Tobago exports to Japan. The balance of trade between both countries in 2013 was in Trinidad and Tobago’s favour. Chairman of Caricom Gaston Browne said Caricom members welcomed Japan’s recognition of the vulnerabilities of small-island development and low-lying coastal states, “in particular the challenge of accessing concessionary financing for those of us characterised as middle-income countries”. “The case, therefore, would need to be made to the international community by developing partners such as Japan for new alternative sources of development financing to be made available to Caricom states and other middle-income countries with similar vulnerabilities,” Browne said, adding that Japan’s support through using its influence in institutions where these determinations are made was stressed at the summit. “Caricom would welcome Japan’s assistance in advocating on behalf of the region in fora such as the United Nations, G20, so there could be a better understanding of the problems these countries

face,” he said. Browne said the key to the development of Caricom countries is long-term financing from nontraditional sources including investors in the Middle East and Asia. He said Caricom countries expressed an interest in entering into discussions with private Japanese financiers on development financing for the region and also for establishing public/private sector partnership. Browne said Caricom expressed the hope that with appropriate measures such as aid for trade and assistance in developing the technology sector, Caricom could move towards addressing the sizeable trade imbalance with Japan. Tourism, energy and renewable energy and the implementation of a preventive approach to national disaster and reducing risks were also discussed, he said. Caricom SecretaryGeneral, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, in remarks at the summit, said for Caricom, the effects of natural disasters and climate change were an issue of survival. “There are signs that in at least one member state sea level rise has begun to take a destructive effect,” he said. “We also welcome foreign direct investment as a means of stimulating growth in our economies. It that regard, it is my hope that the private sector members of the Japanese delegation would recognise the attractiveness of our region for investment, thus adding another element to our relationship,” he said.

Jamaica Gleaner Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) must mobilise large sums of money if it is to address the challenges confronting its nine member countries. “And that is where we call on our development partners to appreciate the challenges with which we are confronted,” Skerrit told the opening ceremony of the 59th meeting of the OECS Authority on Saturday. “The challenge which we have, with the issue of debt, the issues of our banking system, our financial system, strengthening those institutions, we are going to need an injection of serious hard financial resources to address these challenges,” he said. Skerrit, who is also chairman of the sub-regional grouping, said OECS leaders, came to that conclusion during a meeting of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Monetary Council on Friday. “As time goes by, with the global [financial] crisis not abating, it is placing greater

Roosevelt Skerrit stress on our resources,” he said, adding that none of the OECS countries has the fiscal space in which to manoeuvre. “What we are doing as governments, whether it is in St Vincent or St Lucia or Grenada or Antigua can almost be described as marginal,” Skerrit said. “Because of the enormity of the challenge, unavailability of resources, it is amazing that these countries continue to provide almost adequately to our citizens,” said Skerrit, who is also Dominica’s minister of

finance. “Our citizens must appreciate those things because when demands are made on our governments, our governments must also find resources, and I know nobody in the OECS wants to pay any form of taxation, and therefore, we have to be measured with our request of our citizens. “Prime Minister [Ralph Gonsalves] here in St Vincent is building an international airport using extraordinary means and strategies - an international airport during the most difficult financial crisis in our lifetime. And I think these are the sort of things that we need to appreciate as citizens of our countries,” Skerrit said. The OECS group includes the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. Skerrit said youth unemployment, availability of potable water, and tertiary health-care had also been identified as important areas for attention within the subregional grouping. - CMC

Page 36

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Israel intensifies Gaza assault, Egyptians revise truce plan (Reuters) - Israel knocked out Gaza’s only power plant and pounded dozens of other high-profile targets yesterday, while Egyptian mediators prepared a revised proposal for halting its war with Islamist guerrillas in the enclave. Israel’s Channel Two TV said progress was being made on such a deal in Cairo, where a Palestinian delegation was expected later yesterday, although the station retracted an earlier report that a truce had already been provisionally agreed. Health officials said at least 85 Palestinians died in some of the heaviest bombardments from air, sea and land since Israel’s offensive began on July 8 in response to rocket salvoes fired by Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists and their guerrilla allies. Local hospital officials put the total number of Palestinian dead in the conflict at 1,200, most of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. UNRWA, the main U.N. relief agency in Gaza, said it was at “breaking point” with more than 200,000 Palestinians having taken shelter in its schools and buildings following calls by Israel for civilians to evacuate whole neighborhoods before military operations. The Israeli assault intensified after the deaths of 10 soldiers in Palestinian cross-border attacks on Monday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of a long conflict ahead. The army said it needed about a week to complete its main mission of destroying cross-border infiltration tunnels and there has been strong Israeli public support for holding course.

In a bid to boost Palestinian morale and demoralize Israel, Hamas TV aired footage it said showed its fighters using a tunnel to reach an army watchtower on Monday. They are seen surprising an Israeli sentry, at which point they open fire and storm the watchtower compound to surround a fallen soldier. Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’s armed wing, said in a voiceover message in the broadcast that Palestinians would continue confronting Israel until its blockade on Gaza - which is supported by neighboring Egypt - was lifted. “The occupying entity will not enjoy security unless our people live in freedom and dignity,” Deif said. “There will be no ceasefire before the (Israeli) aggression is stopped and the blockade is lifted. We will not accept interim solutions.” Israel has balked at freeing up Gaza’s borders under any de-escalation deal unless Hamas’s disarmament is also guaranteed. Egypt said it was revising an unconditional truce

proposal that Israel had originally accepted but Hamas rejected, and that the new offer would be presented to a Palestinian delegation expected in Cairo later on Tuesday. An Israeli official said Israel might send its own envoy to Cairo in the evening too. “We are hearing that Israel has approved a ceasefire but Hamas has not,” an Egyptian official told Reuters, an account that the Netanyahu government neither confirmed nor denied. The U.S.-backed administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, saying it was also speaking for Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, voiced support on Tuesday for a 24-72 hour ceasefire. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri disputed that statement but confirmed there were “intensive, ongoing contacts” on a truce. Outside pressure has been building on Netanyahu to rein in his forces, while few Israelis want the operation to end now. A Tel Aviv University poll published yesterday found

95 percent of Israel’s Jewish majority felt the offensive was justified. Only 4 percent believed too much force had been used. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and the U.N. Security Council have called for an immediate ceasefire to allow relief to reach Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians, followed by negotiations on a more durable end to hostilities. Efforts led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week failed to achieve a breakthrough, and the explosion of violence appeared to dash

international hopes of turning a brief lull for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival into a longerterm ceasefire. Hamas preaches the Jewish state’s destruction but has in the past been open to long-term ceasefires. As it is shunned by the United States and Israel as a terrorist group, Kerry’s mediation has been facilitated by Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Abbas. Thick black smoke rose from blazing fuel tanks at the power station that supplies up to two-thirds of Gaza’s energy needs. Officials said the plant could be out of action for a year. Electricity was cut to the city of Gaza and many other parts of the Hamasdominated territory after what officials said was Israeli tank shelling of the tanks containing about 3 million liters of diesel fuel. “The power plant is finished,” said its director, Mohammed al-Sharif. An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment and said she was checking the report. Gaza City municipality said damage to the station could halt many of the area’s water pumps, and it urged

residents to ration water consumption. South Gaza gets some power from neighboring Egypt. Power lines from Israel have been damaged during the war. Palestinians launched 54 rockets towards southern and central Israel, including the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem area, the military said, adding that five were shot down by Iron Dome interceptors while the rest fell wide, causing no damage. The Israeli military said soldiers killed five gunmen who opened fire after emerging from a tunnel inside the Gaza Strip and that 110 targets were struck in the enclave on Tuesday. They included four weapons caches, which the military said were hidden in mosques, and a rocket launcher near another mosque. Residents said 20 houses were destroyed and two mosques hit. Hospitals said tank shells and air strikes killed 12 people in north Gaza, including an UNRWA doctor and his brother. UNRWA said it found a rocket cache in one of its central Gaza schools on Tuesday, the third such incident.

Adolescent stowaway found dead on U.S. military plane

The U.S. military has found the body of an adolescent male trapped in a compartment above the landing gear of a C-130 aircraft following a trip to Africa, the Pentagon said yesterday. The Pentagon said the body was found at Ramstein Air Base in Germany during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection on Sunday. The plane traveled from Germany to Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia and Sicily before landing in Ramstein on a trip that lasted just over a week. “At this point, it is unknown where or when the deceased entered the landing gear wheel well,” Kirby said, describing the apparent stow-away as “an adolescent black male, possibly of African origin.” As concerns swell over an outbreak of the

deadly Ebola disease in several African countries, the military also confirmed that the body was tested for communicable diseases. Those tests came up negative. “The cause of death, as well as the other circumstances surrounding this incident, remains under investigation,” Kirby said, adding the body had been taken to a German facility for an autopsy. Kirby acknowledged that airfield security would be examined during the investigation but stressed U.S. military C-130s often land in remote locations around the world. “The aircraft is a rugged aircraft designed to operate in austere locations. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that security at some of these fields is not going to be at the same level,” Kirby said.

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 37

U.S. Senate bill proposes sweeping Sierra Leone’s top Ebola curbs on NSA surveillance doctor dies from virus Reuters) - Senator Patrick Leahy introduced legislation yesterday to ban the U.S. government’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records and Internet data and narrow how much information it can seek in any particular search. The bill, which has White House backing, goes further than a version passed in May by the U.S. House of Representatives in reducing bulk collection and may be more acceptable to critics who have dismissed other versions as too weak. Revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden prompted President Barack Obama to ask Congress in January to rein in the bulk collection and storage of records of millions of U.S. domestic telephone calls. Many American technology companies also have been clamoring for changes after seeing their international business suffer as foreign governments worry they might collect data and hand it over to U.S. spy agencies. “If enacted, this bill would represent the most significant reform of government surveillance authorities since Congress passed the USA Patriot Act 13 years ago,” said Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on

Senator Patrick Leahy greets President Obama the Senate floor. Congress leaves for a five-week break on Friday, and it was unclear if lawmakers would take on the legislation before November elections. Leahy proposed greater limits on the terms that analysts use to search databases held by phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc or AT&T Inc. The bill, called the USA Freedom Act, would prohibit the government from collecting all information from a particular service provider or a broad geographic area, such as a city or area code, according to a release from Leahy’s office. It would expand government and company

Acting Agri Minister: ‘Drought serious but not catastrophic’ Jamaica Gleaner - The agriculture ministry says there is no need for panic about a possible food shortage because of the islandwide drought. At a press conference at the Agriculture ministry yesterday morning, acting agriculture minister Derrick Kellier said while the situation is serious, it is not catastrophic. Kellier says while 1,600 hectares of crops and pastures valued at more than $900 million has been lost to drought or fire, the total area of arable land under production is approximately 200,000 hectares. And he says the ministry will be putting in place a number of measures to ease the effects of the drought. Kellier says $30 million is to be allocated to RADA to increase production in areas with sufficient access to

Derrick Kellier water. He says members of parliament have been invited to formulate programmes to save crops and livestock that are being stressed by drought conditions by, for example, trucking water to farmers. A further $3 million has been transferred to RADA to assist farmers affected by losses due to fires.

reporting to the public and reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews NSA intelligence activities. Both House and Senate measures would keep information out of NSA computers, but the Senate bill would impose stricter limits on how much data the spy agency could seek. Leahy’s measure “is an improvement on the Housepassed version at every step,” said Harley Geiger, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. Many other civil liberties groups and privacy advocates endorsed the legislation while calling for additional reforms. “This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have miles left to go,” said Laura W. Murphy, Washington legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union. Leahy acknowledged there was more work to be done, saying “I’d like to get most of what we need, then work on the rest.” The Senate bill would end the bulk collection authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which was enacted during the George W. Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It instead would authorize searches for telephone call records “two hops” from a search term, with a hop indicating connections between people suspected of links to foreign terrorism. The NSA has had legal authority to collect and hold for five years metadata for all telephone calls inside the United States. Telephone metadata documents the numbers involved, when the calls were made and how long they lasted, but not their content.

Reuters) - The doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record died from the virus on yesterday, the country’s chief medical officer said. The death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients, follows those of dozens of local health workers and the infection of two American medics in neighboring Liberia, highlighting the dangers faced by staff trying to halt the disease’s spread across West Africa. Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation. The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it. The 39-year-old Khan,

Dr. Sheik Umar Khan hailed as a “national hero” by the Health Ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone. He died less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and shortly before President Ernest Bai Koroma arrived to visit his treatment center in the northeastern town of Kailahun. “It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral hemorrhagic fevers,” said the chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo. FOOTBALL BAN Weak health systems are

struggling to contain the disease despite international help ranging from doctors to safety equipment. Guinea, where the outbreak originated, has seen new cases in the capital Conakry and in the eastern mining town of Siguiri, where a new isolation ward has opened. In both areas, the infection spread through contact with visitors from Sierra Leone, according to Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, who leads Guinea’s efforts to stop the outbreak. In neighboring Liberia, the national soccer authority suspended matches nationwide, a spokesman said. While the WHO has stopped short of recommending travel restrictions, the Togolese airline Asky has suspended flights to and from Sierra Leone and Liberia as concern over the spread of the virus has increased since the first death was reported last week in Nigeria’s coastal city of Lagos, home to 21 million people.

Page 38

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

EU and U.S. announce new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States yesterday announced further sanctions against Russia, targeting its energy, banking and defense sectors in the strongest international action yet over Moscow’s support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. The measures mark the start of a new phase in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War, which worsened dramatically after the downing of Malaysian flight MH17 over rebel-held territory on July 17 by what Western countries say was a Russian-supplied missile. “If Russia continues on this current path, the costs on Russia will continue to grow,” President Barack Obama said in Washington. “Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the sanctions that we’ve already imposed

have made a weak Russian economy even weaker,” he said. In Brussels, diplomats said ambassadors from the 28-member European bloc agreed to restrictions on trade of equipment for the oil and defense sectors, and “dual use” technology with both defense and civilian purposes. Russia’s state run banks would be barred from raising funds in European capital markets. The measures would be reviewed in three months. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been reluctant to step up sanctions before the crash because of her country’s trade links with Russia, said the latest EU measures were “unavoidable”. Previously Europe had imposed sanctions only on individuals and organizations accused of direct involvement

in threatening Ukraine, and had shied away from wider “sectoral sanctions” designed to damage its biggest energy supplier. The new measures were coordinated with Washington in the hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back down from a months-long campaign to seize territory and disrupt Ukraine, whose pro-Moscow leader was toppled in February. But Putin has shown no sign of backing down. Indeed, despite the international condemnation following the downing of the airliner, Western countries say the Kremlin has stepped up support for separatists by sending them more heavy weaponry. Moscow denies it is arming the rebels, protestations that are ridiculed in the West.

President Barack Obama On the ground yesterday, intense fighting between government troops and proRussian rebels killed dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels over the past 24 hours, as Kiev pressed on with an offensive to defeat the Moscow-backed revolt.

CHINA PUTS FORMER SECURITY CHIEF UNDER INVESTIGATION Beijing (AFP) - China’s ruling Communist Party has put former security chief Zhou Yongkang — one of its most powerful men — under investigation, it said yesterday, the most senior official to fall for decades. Zhou, who retired from China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) in 2012, is being probed for “serious disciplinary violation”, the ruling party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), its internal watchdog, said in a statement. The official announcement of the probe, which has been speculated about for months, breaks a long-held principle that top officials are untouchable. Zhou is the most senior member of the Communist Party to be investigated since the infamous Gang of Four — a faction that included the widow of founding leader Mao Zedong — were put on trial in 1980. Zhou was seen as a patron of fallen political star Bo Xilai, who he is said to have backed for a slot on the PSC, but whose career imploded after the death of a British businessman, for which Bo’s wife was convicted of murder. The decision to investigate Zhou was made in accordance with the ruling party’s constitution, and the “discipline inspection authority’s case investigation regulation”, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported. The decision will have been preceded by

extensive negotiations within the factionalised ruling party, but is still likely to send shockwaves through the political establishment. Analysts said that the move shows party chief Xi Jinping has now amassed enough power to break even longstanding taboos in his much-publicised anticorruption sweep. “There is an unwritten rule that they will not go after former members of the Politburo Standing Committee,” said Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “The party elders like Jiang Zemin and Li Peng and so forth were opposed to incriminating Zhou Yongkang,” he said, referring to China’s former president and premier. “It shows that Xi Jinping is powerful enough or resourceful enough to convince the party elders,” he added. Xi has vowed to crack down on endemic graft among top party members, or “tigers”, as well as lowranking members, or “flies”, but critics say he is unlikely to succeed without more fundamental reforms such as greater press freedoms and independent courts.Joseph Cheng, professor of political science at City University of Hong Kong, said the move demonstrates Xi “understands that striking hard at corrupt leaders will make him a very popular leader, will help him consolidate his base of

Zhou Yongkang power”. News of the probe came as Communist Party authorities announced that their next major political meeting — known as the Fourth Plenum — will be held in October and focus on “key issues concerning the rule of law”. Zhou Yongkang’s son, Zhou Bin, has also reportedly been arrested in Yichang in central China for suspected “illegal business operations”, respected financial magazine Caijing said. Calls by AFP to the Yichang municipal procuratorate went unanswered, and state-run media had not reported on the younger Zhou as of late yesterday. For months, allies of Zhou in his powerbases in the southwestern province of Sichuan and China’s stateowned oil giant CNPC have been targeted one by one by the CCDI, with more than a

dozen being picked off. Earlier this month, three associates of Zhou — Ji Wenlin, Zhou’s former secretary; Yu Gang, an ex-vice director of the office of the Central Politics and Law Commission (CPLC); and Tan Hong, formerly of the public security ministry — were stripped of their Communist Party membership. Yet China’s state-run media steadfastly refrained from mentioning Zhou by name until yesterday, and the Communist Party’s vast censorship apparatus swiftly swept away any use of his name on the country’s popular social networking sites. State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) mentioned the Zhou probe only as the fourth item during its evening news broadcast, with an anchor taking less than a minute to read a brief version of the Xinhua report. Even after authorities made the announcement yesterday, searches for “Zhou Yongkang” on Sina Weibo — a Chinese Twitter equivalent — initially returned a message saying that results were not displayed “according to relevant laws, regulations and policies”.The site later unblocked his name, and social media users quickly weighed in on the announcement: an hour after the news was first reported, “Zhou Yongkang” was the most-discussed topic on Sina Weibo, with 1.2 million postings.

Shells hit the center of Donetsk, a city with a pre-war population of nearly a million people where residents fear they will be trapped on a battlefield between advancing Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels who have vowed to make a stand. Ukrainian forces have been pushing rebel units back toward their two main urban strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk and have sought to encircle them in several places. The government says its forces have retaken several villages in the rolling countryside near where the airliner crashed, killing all 298 passengers, most of them Dutch. “DEATH ROW” In Donetsk, the body of a dead man lay in rubble behind a badly damaged 10-storey residential building close to the city center, hit by shelling. Rebels at the scene placed body parts on a nylon sheet and carried it on a stretcher to a green van. “There, that’s their ‘separatists’. That’s their ‘rebel commander’,” said a distressed woman in her 60s, gesturing toward the body. “They are killing neighbors. They are killing people, ordinary people.” Another middle-aged woman, who gave her name as Katarina, charged out of the building next door carrying two bags. “No more! I cannot live in this death row any more!” she said. “I am leaving! I don’t know where!” Donetsk officials said two people were killed in the shelling of the city. Municipal officials said up to 17 people, including children, were killed in fighting on Monday evening in the town of Horlivka, a rebel stronghold north of Donetsk that saw fierce battles between the rival forces in the last few days. In the city of Luhansk, officials said five civilians were killed when shelling hit a retirement home. “The enemy is throwing everything it has into the battle to complete encirclement of the DNR,” Igor Strelkov, a Muscovite rebel commander, told journalists in Donetsk on Monday evening, referring to the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”. A rebel source in Donetsk said reinforcements including military equipment and fighters had arrived across the border from Russia. Reuters was not able to confirm that independently. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Security Council, Andriy Lysenko, blamed

Russia for shelling a Ukrainian border crossing point and military positions from across the border to help the rebels. Moscow has also accused Ukraine of firing across the frontier. Washington says the airliner was almost certainly shot down accidentally by rebels using a Russian missile. BANKING, TECHNOLOGY,ARMS Leaders of the United States and major European powers agreed in a teleconference on Monday to impose sanctions on Russia’s banking, technology and arms sectors. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on more Russian banks, targeting VTB, the Bank of Moscow, and the Russian Agriculture Bank, as well as the United Shipbuilding Corp. Winning support from the EU for sanctions was the trickier task, because the European bloc does more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States does and its 28 member states must agree unanimously on any measures. To mitigate the impact on Europe’s own economy, the new sanctions will not affect previous contracts, which means France will be allowed to go ahead with delivery of a naval helicopter carrier it has already sold to Russia. Russia’s oil industry has been targeted but its natural gas, which powers European industry and lights its cities, has been spared. Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of natural gas and second biggest exporter of oil. Still, some European countries and companies will face real pain. British energy giant BP, the biggest foreign investor in Russia with a near 20 percent stake in Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft, complained its business could be hurt. London’s financial services hub could face disproportionate harm from measures against Russian banks. German manufacturing firms could lose customers. European banks and other creditors that are owed money by Russians may face a greater risk that clients will have trouble refinancing or repaying their loans. “These sanctions are harder than anything we have ever had before,” said James Nixey of British think tank Chatham House. “It will hurt a little bit but it’s a down payment on the future security of Europe. It’s a question of Western credibility.”

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Best of the Best Martial Arts Karate Westminster Karate Club takes gold in Team Kata The Westminster Karate Club of Diamond East Bank Demerara took the gold medal in the Traditional Team event when the Best of the Best Martial Arts School’s First Annual Karate Championship was held on Sunday last at the National Gymnasium. Shilow Sydney who represented the same Club copped gold in the individual 7-10 age group traditional Kata event. The club has been invited to participate in a six-event Martial Arts tournament, August 22-23 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH). Each person would have to pay $1,200 to enter each event. The club is planning to enter all of the events and as such is seeking financial contributions from the Business Community and the public. Interested persons can contact Master Lloyd Ramnarine on 698 6727 and 673 0823; Assistant Sensie Steven Persaud on 226 1536 or Calvin Ramnarine on 685 9973.

Master Lloyd Ramnarine (left) and his successful Karate team from the Westminster Karate Club with their medals. The club wishes to thank Mike’s Pharmacy - Peter’s Hall, Andy Dental School Back Street Peter’s Hall, July’s Jewellery and Pawn Shop and

all those who contributed towards their participation in the last event. Master Ramnarine informed that anyone

between the ages of four years-old to 35 years-old interested in Karate, can contact any club member to register with the Club.

Nigerian 16-yr-old gold medalist weightlifter fails doping test

Chika Amalaha

A 16-year-old Nigerian girl who won weightlifting gold faces being stripped of her title after providing the first in-competition positive drugs test of the Commonwealth Games. Sir Craig Reedie,

president of the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA), expressed his shock that an athlete as young as Chika Amalaha should test positive for banned substances. The teenager became the

Ansa McAl supports as... From page 40 “We are not prepared to encourage external forces to deal with our problems and are examining ways to an amicable (internal) resolution,” said Mr Kennard. Meanwhile, the other races on the Emancipation meeting card are the J3 Maiden over 5 furlongs, J1 & Lower over a similar distance, D3 & Lower, G1 & Lower and the I & Lower, all over a distance of 6 furlongs. Horse owners are also reminded that all rules applicable to races under the auspices of the Guyana Horse Racing Authority (GHRA), are applicable. Entries closed yesterday and no late entry will be accommodated.

youngest female winner of a Commonwealth weightlifting title when she scooped gold in the 53kg class last Friday, but will be disqualified if her ‘B’ sample results match those of her ‘A’ sample, which showed traces of a banned diuretic and masking agent. Reedie said: ‘I am very disappointed that somebody as young as that appears to have committed an offence at a multi-sport event like the Commonwealth Games.’ If Amalaha is stripped of her gold medal, it is understood WADA will investigate how such a young athlete was given access to illegal substances. Her positive test also

prompted questions about weightlifting’s legitimacy as a Commonwealth sport. The event has a history of drug-related incidents, while Nigeria was barred from the 2002 Games in Manchester after four athletes tested positive in 2001. But Mike Hooper, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), said: ‘I think weightlifting is a fantastic sport and a strong Commonwealth and Olympic sport. ‘I think the issue here is about showing we have a robust anti-doping programme in place.’ (Mailonline)

Page 39

La Toya Herbert is first Guyanese female to attain Taekwondo Coaching Diploma Guyana’s first, First Dan World Taekwondo Federation Kukkiwon Black Belt holder La Toya Herbert recently returned from Mexico after participating in a High Performance training course for Coaches to aid the development of Taekwondo in Guyana. According to the Guyana Taekwondo Association (GTA), the course was sponsored by the Mexican Olympic Committee under the auspices of the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO) and was held in Toluca, Mexico from July 7 - 13 with the aim of upgrading coaches to be able to train and maintain their high performance athletes at world standards throughout the year. While in Mexico, Ms. Herbert studied a course that consisted of lots of theoretical and physical implications for the development of athletes and in her own words, Ms. Herbert said, “The course was very useful and interesting.” Ms. Herbert has played a very active role in the GTA for over 12 years; following her dedication and hard work she is now reaping the benefits of her labour. A final year student at the University of

Guyana majoring in International Relations, Ms. Herbert has excelled in the Poomse (forms) aspect of Taekwondo and is also an excellent administrator. Although unable to attend taekwondo classes regularly due to her commitments at University, she still finds time to get her administrative duties done and assist with the teaching of ‘kiddies taekwondo’ class whenever she has the time. Ms. Herbert has also vowed to aid in the development of taekwondo in Guyana in whatever way she can. She has expressed deep gratitude and appreciation for all the support she has been receiving from all the coaches and members of the GTA who helped her to reach this far in the sport. Additionally, she has extended gratitude to all the members of the GOA, PASO and the Mexican Olympic Committee, who made it possible for her to be a part of the recent training opportunity. Meanwhile, executives of the GTA have also expressed their joy and satisfaction in having their student successfully complete this taekwondo training course.

Page 40

Kaieteur News

Guyana in sight of first title in seven years; T&T out to spoil their party By Sean Devers Guyana, the competition’s most successful team, hunt their 13th Regional Under-19 three-day cricket title and first in seven years when they face 2010 champions Trinidad & Tobago at the World famous Bourda, Georgetown from 10:00hrs in the third and final round of the truncated 2014 tournament from today. While Guyana has not won Championship honours since Steven Jacobs lifted back-to-back trophies on home soil in 2006 and again repeated the next year in St Kitts, the hosts are sitting at the top of the points table on 26.3 points, 1.3 more than second placed Leeward Islands who face Barbados (12 points) at Enmore.

T&T are surprisingly in the cellar position and the only team with no chance of winning the crown this year. In the other match slated to begin today the Windward Islands (21.9) face-off with double defending Champions Jamaica (20.8) at the National Stadium. This is the 14th time Guyana is hosting the competition since 1970 and the first time since 2011. The hosts have won the title on home soil six times (1970, 1976, 1985, 1992, 1997 & 2006) and hold the record of six consecutive titles from 1992, but the final round begins with the Guyanese needing to win with bonus points to be assured of the title. They will hope that the

ACDA stages Emancipation Dominoes tourney Domino players will engage in keen competition when the African Cultural and Developmental Association (ACDA) Sports Committee hosts a Dominoes competition in observance of Emancipation Day activities at the Guyana Veteran Legion Hall, Carifesta Avenue starting this morning. Several teams will vie for honours and lucrative medals and trophies including the Post Office Girls domino team, ACDA domino team and a rest team among others. Consequently, the finals will be staged at the National Park on Friday August 1 starting at 12 noon. The teams will contest for trophies, medals and cash donated by corporate Guyana and would be given to the winners, runners-up and third place team. The organizer is Johnny Barnwell.

Leewards do not beat Barbados and Jamaica/ Windward’s game ends in a draw. Although Guyana, under the captaincy of Keith Aaron and including players like Rupert Gomes, the late William Jeffery, Robin Kendall and Robert ‘Pacer’ Adonis, won the first ever Regional youth tournament in 1968 in Barbados, that was an Under21 series, while the next year when Trinidad and Tobago emerged victorious the teams were Under-20s. It was not until 1970 that an Under-19 series was organized in Guyana and T&T took the title. This year the Trinis have had a poor run, although Amir Jangoo is one of only three batsmen to score a hundred in the 2014 series. The lads from Carnival country have had very little to celebrate after suffering an upset loss to the Windwards in the first round and after they drew with Barbados in their next, the three-match format, strangely approved by the WICB despite their claims of wanting to lift the standard of First-Class and Test cricket in the West Indies, gives T&T very little chance of bouncing back. Guyana, who drew with the Leewards at Providence before limping to a four-wicket win against the Windwards at Everest, have the home advantage of playing at a venue where the West Indies recorded their first ever Test win in 1930 and which hosted 32 Tests and the luxury of not having to play Jamaica, winners of the last two threeday tournaments, in addition to claiming the 2013 limited over title. The Guyanese have a powerful batting line up on paper. They are the only team with both openers having first class experience and Taignarine Chanderpaul and Shemron Hetmyer have both played for the West Indies

Under-19 side. The pair is expected to give Guyana a solid foundation today. Chanderpaul scored a hundred in last year’s tournament while Hetmyer’s maiden under-19 three-day ton was scored in the last match. Askay Homraj is the only other Guyanese with a hundred at this level, which he registered in the 2013 competition while Brian Sattuar, who could lose the Captaincy for the 50-over tournament along with Hetmyer, will need to do a lot of work on their shot selection and Sattaur on his fitness. However, they can both hit the ball a ‘mile’ and if they get going on what should be flat Bourda track the Trinidadians could spend a lot of their time chasing leather. Kemo Paul is a genuine allrounder while Balchand Baldeo, Sharaz Ramcharran and Kemol Savory are all capable of big scores at this level. Paul and Keno Morris should share the new ball while Steven Sankar, the only Guyanese with a five wicket haul this year, Ramcharran and Baldeo should do the bulk of the bowling for the home side. This is T&T’s Skipper Jeremy Solozano, also a West Indies youth team left-hander with First-Class experience, last chance in the three-day format to show why he is regarded by many as the tournament’s most complete batman. He will expect support from Jangoo, wicket-keeper Brian Christmas, Camillo Carimbocas and Tevin Jadoo with the bat while Anderson Phillip and Samuel Roopnarine, Justin Joseph, Akil Seetal and Jadoo could have a hard day at the office if the Guyana batsmen get stuck on what should be a lightning fast outfield.

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Ansa McAl supports as KMTC stages Emancipation Horse Race Meet

Justice Kennard (right) receives the cheque from Ms. Darshanie Yussuf. Turfites are currently getting ready for what is gearing up to be a day of exciting races when the Kennard Memorial Turf Club (KMTC) stages the Emancipation Meeting at their Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne Berbice facility on Sunday and from all appearance, the event will produce the usual fireworks associated with such events. Seven exciting races are scheduled for the day and the feature attraction will pit the skills of the nation’s best thoroughbreds going head to head in the ‘A & Lower’ race over a distance of one mile. The winning jockey will ride off with one million dollars and the second place winner pocketing half that amount. The 3rd and 4th place finishers will receive $250,000 and $125, 000 respectively. Yesterday morning, Ansa McAl agreed to sponsor this event and President of the KMTC, Cecil Kennard, visited the Betterverwagting headquarters of the donating

company where Public Relations Officer, (Ansa McAl), DarshanieYussuf formalized the deal after handing over the sponsorship cheque. She reaffirmed the support of her company to the development of sports in general and more particularly, horseracing even as she wished the organizers well. Mr. Kennard gratefully accepted the support package while expressing deep gratitude to his benefactors. “Sponsorship is very important to the success of these events and I must express gratitude to Ansa McAl for their generosity,” said Mr Kennard. Mr. Kennard also admitted that there were some problems within the horse racing fraternity that needed to be addressed. He said that administrators are attempting to have these issues resolved internally rather than to ‘wash its dirty linen’ in the public sphere. Continued on page 39

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 43

CWSS not taking anything for granted By Rawle Welch This year’s final of the 4th Annual Digicel Schools Football Competition dubbed ‘Extension or Redemption’ seems to have all the accessories to pack fans into the National Stadium on Sunday. The two finalists, defending champions Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) and two-time beaten finalist Waramadong Secondary School (WSS) have once again set up a dream encounter that will determine who takes home a whopping $1million first prize that will go towards a project of their respective institutions choice. Arguably the two best teams in the competition for the past two years, many believe that this year’s final will produce or even surpassed the previous encounters in every regard with the defending champions determined to win the championship trophy outright, while Waramadong beaten by the same team on all three occasions the competition has been played

will no doubt be aiming to loosen the iron-fisted grip that CWSS seems to have on them. Kaieteur Sport paid a visit to a training session organised by CWSS at the Wisburg ground in Linden and spoke to Head Coach Anthony Stephens, who was seen working on a few tactical errors which according to him were exposed during their semi-final match against Bush Lot Secondary School last week. Stephens, who has been at the helm of the team since the tournament’s birth told this newspaper that among the flaws detected was the pedestrian manner in which the players transitioned from offence to defence and vice versa, while the passing was poor as well often times allowing the opposition to make interceptions and thereby creating a lot of pressure on the defence. Stephens said in order for them to continue their dominance over Waramadong they have to do a better job at both ends of the pitch. Asked to compare their wins on the two previous occasions they faced Waramadong, Stephens said he would like them to perform the way they did in the first final when they won 5-2 rather than the last one when they relaxed and lost momentum and had to dig deep to eventually prevail.

Defending champions Christianburg / Wismar Secondary School seen during a training session yesterday at the Wisburg ground. “We need to focus for the full duration of the game and I am confident that we can and as long as we do that everything will be fine.” He added that in last year’s final, the players tried desperately to do things individually and that was the wrong approach since football is a team game and the strategy must be a collective one. He believed there will be a much better team effort and this is despite the players possessing good individual skills. Quizzed on how important

Quincy, Cattle King double winners at Budhan Horserace meet Quincy and Cattle King were the top horses when the Budhan’s Memorial Turf Club held a grand PreEmancipation One day meet at the club’s track at No. 66 Village, Corentyne, Berbice. Quincy won the J3 and Lower and J2 and lower races, while Cattle King victories came in the L1 and K class races. Full results of the day’s race meet were: The feature J1 and lower event with a first prize of $160,000 over 1 mile was won by Lady Secret with Speed Vision and Red Jet coming in second and third. Quincy rode away with the J2 and lower 1200M race from Royal Stallion and Key for the Killer to first take home the $120,000 first prize. J3 and lower 1200M race for a winning prize of $100,000 was won by Quincy from Smarty Light and Speed Vision. The K and lower 1200M event for the winning $100,000 first prize was taken by Cattle King from Sun Set. Cattle King retuned to

take the L1 and lower 1200M race and the $80,000 first prize from Cash D Cheque. The L2 and lower 1000M event was taken by Sudden Star from Collie Boy and Miss

Janet. The win was worth $40,000. Over 40 animals took part in the day’s event. The main sponsor on board was Banks DIH Limited. (Samuel Whyte)

it is for them to win, Stephens said,” some of the players will be appearing in the competition for the final time and they are quite cognizant of this and they will no doubt display a lot of hunger and passion to win it outright.” Asked for his opinion on how the players will react to playing in the final for the third

consecutive time and playing at the National Stadium before what is anticipated to be a large crowd, Stephens said he does not believe that the expected large turnout will affect his team and the notion of nervousness affecting them will not occur since they are used to playing in many finals and playing in front of

plenty fans. He ended by saying that, “God is in the midst of our quest to win a third title in the competition. From the beginning of this tournament we have had our morning devotions and in quite a few instances he has pulled us through and we think he will be with us come Sunday.”

Page 44

Kaieteur News

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Franklin wins but Guyanese Van-Rossum fails to medal at athletes had a miserable day PanAm Olympic Festival Guyana’s Christopher Franklin beat Craig Gascoyne of Jersey 4-1 in Men’s Table Tennis action for Guyana yesterday at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland while most of his other countrymen and women had a tough day. Charlotte Carey of Wales recorded a 4-0 win over Natalie Cummings of Guyana in the Women’s singles. The Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles events commence today with the Women’s Doubles tomorrow. Guyana and the Caribbean’s top rifleman, Lennox Braithwaite continued his consistency on the ranges but his best was not good enough as he ended 15th in the fullbore rifle Queen’s Prize individual event at the Commonwealth Games. It was always going to be a huge challenge for the Guyanese pair of Braithwaite, National Captain Mahendra Persaud and Coach Ransford Goodluck coming up against the best shots in the world but the locals did themselves, country and Caribbean proud. Braithwaite ended 15th overall with Persaud finishing 23rd, Englishman David Luckman claimed his second gold medal by winning the individual event. The 38-yearold, competing at his first Commonwealth Games, took

Braithwaite ends 15th in fullbore rifle Queen’s Prize individual event the pairs title on Saturday last with team-mate Parag Patel. Braithwaite finished as the top Caribbean shooter, Jamaican David Rickman placed 21st and with Persaud were the best Caribbean shooters on show. And Luckman doubled his tally in the gruelling three-day longrange discipline with a Games record score of 401-42, beating Canada’s Jim Paton into second place with Patel taking bronze for England. In one of the more bizarre sights of these Games, and in accordance with the tradition of the annual event which dates back to 1860, winner Luckman was carried to the medal ceremony by his opponents in a Sedan chair. The Bristol shooter said: ‘That was as special as it gets. I’ve been looking to do this for a very, very long time.’ Luckman’s victory meant Patel had to hand over his Commonwealth title from Delhi four years ago. Meanwhile, Lauren Price of Wales beat Theresa London of Guyana by a 3-0 margin when the female boxers got into action yesterday. Price was able to comfortably emerge as the winner after out hustling

London. The 400m runners fared no better as both failed to qualify from the semifinal stage. Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago won the semi in 45.37 (Q) with Latoy Williams of Bahamas second in 45.44 (Q), both qualifying to the final. Third was Isaac Makwala (Both in 45.57) with Guyanese Winston George (46.38) fourth. Grenadian Kirani James won (45.14) his heat in the best time, while Wayde van Niekerk (SA) 45.41 was second, the pair qualifying to the final. Trinidad’s Renny Quow (45.47) is also a tentative qualifier for the race. Guyana’s Stephan James (46.35) ended in seventh place. In Squash, Guyana’s Alexander Arjoon and Sunil Seth beat Moreaina Wei/ Shubert Maketu (PNG) 114,11-9 in the first round of the Doubles, but then went down to England’s Adrian Grant/ Nick Matthew 11-5, 11-5 to bow out of the competition. Australia’s Cameron Pilley/Kasey Brown scored an 11-1, 11-4 win over Guyana’s Alexander Arjoon/ Nicolette Fernandes in the Mixed Doubles.

From left: Orlando Van-Rossum, New Coach - La Toya Herbert and Senior Coach - Ramjeet Ramphal Orlando Van-Rossum was failed to reach the medal round at the Pan American Olympic Festival held in Puebla, Mexico, July 19-21 due to injuries; over 30 other countries competed at the Festival. Even though Van-Rossum was unable to medal, being at a disadvantage due to him being about the lowest weight in his category, he remains high in spirit and is looking forward to his next

international competition. He lost the fight by a 6 - 2 margin. Van-Rosssum started the fight strong but was unable to move onto the medal round. The determined athlete has vowed to continue working hard in preparation for future engagements. Van-Rossum is extending thanks to his coaches, instructors and fellow teammates at the Guyana Taekwondo Association, the staff at the Guyana Olympic

Association for affording him the opportunity to represent his country on the international stage. Meanwhile, the public is reminded that Taekwondo classes are held at the Guyana Teacher’s Union Hall, Woolford Avenue every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 17:00hrs to 18:30hrs. Further information can be obtained from Roy Bacchus on (592) 644 4402.