Kaieteur News

Kaieteur News

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

EDITORIAL

THE WOES OF CITY HALL After several weeks of protests by the residents of Georgetown against the installation of parking meters in the city, the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, has suspended the project for three months. The aim is to pave the way for the contract to be renegotiated and to address the public’s concerns about the parking rates, lack of transparency and accountability. It was a firm decision by the government to remove control of the project from Smart City Solutions (SCS). In suspending the project, the Minister stated that the Mayor and City Councilors are in default of their function with respect to the Georgetown Metered By laws. Meanwhile, civic society, led by the Movement Against Parking Meters, has called for the contract to be revoked because there was no public tender, no public consultation and a lack of transparency. No proper feasibility study was done to determine the socio-economic impact that the parking meters would have on the people, especially on businesses. City officials and SCS also clashed with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure which outlawed the erection and operation of parking meters on several streets, including Water Street, that it claims are not the City’s streets. City Hall officials claimed that the money obtained from parking meters would help the city meet some of its financial obligations such as the repair of bridges, roads, garbage collection and the cleaning of drains and canals. However, the decision by the Georgetown City Council to reject the suspension of the parking meter project as directed by Minister Bulkan is clearly an act of defiance against the government. The defiance has also embarrassed the government due to the fact that it was spearheaded by the APNU-PNC-aligned City Councilors led by the General Secretary of the PNC and the Mayor. In rejecting the government’s decision, the APNUPNC Councilors claimed that they needed more time to study the legal ramifications of the suspension. They have not only voiced their displeasure over what they believe was an unwelcomed intrusion by the central government into the internal affairs of the council, they have also condemned the dictatorial actions of the government. It seems that the government was under intense public pressure to suspend the parking meter project due to the constant protests by the residents of Georgetown. But had the government acted earlier and addressed the issue, it could have avoided the embarrassment and saved its image. The fact that City officials refused to heed the g o v e r n m e n t ’s o r d e r s h o u l d b e c o n s i d e r e d contemptuous. The laws of the central government must be respected and should always trump city laws. And City officials ought to know that the buck stops with the government. The City seemed to be operating as a state within a state. The decision by the City Council to defy the suspension of the parking meter project for a week angered the government. As a direct result, the government outlawed the parking meter project. In addition, the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan was instructed by the Cabinet to have the police protect the residents of the city and their vehicles from being unduly hindered or restrained in any way whatsoever by the Georgetown City Council and SCS. After dragging its feet on the parking meter project for months, government finally came to its senses and has exercised its power.

Friday March 26, 2016

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

This month marks ninety nine years of Cheddi Jagan’s birth Dear Editor, Dr. Cheddi Jagan was highly regarded throughout the world. It is no exaggeration to say that it was Dr. Jagan who placed this country on the world map way back in the early 1950’s. British Guiana during the colonial period was hardly known outside the shores of Guyana, It was not until the emergence of Dr. Jagan on the political stage that world attention began to focus on an otherwise sleepy and insignificant colony. It was the suspension of the British Guiana

constitution in October 1953 following the landslide victory of the PPP in the elections of April 1953 that catapulted the then colony on the international spotlight. Dr. Jagan and his PPP became one of the few countries in the western hemisphere in which a leftist party won office through constitutional means and it naturally generated much concern both in Britain and the United States. The United States had long ago considered the Caribbean as its backyard and any rise of leftist regimes was seen not only as an unwelcomed

development but as a political aberration that needed, as it were, to be nipped in the bud. Of interest to note was that the historic victory of the PPP in the 1953 elections, the first under universal adult suffrage, preceded the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Dr. Jagan’s activism and strong advocacy for national independence further enhanced the colony’s image on the world stage. Indeed, he had the honour of being the first colonial leader to address the United Nations C o m m i t t e e o n decolonization much to the

discomfort of Britain, the Mother country. The speech, however, resonated well with other leaders particularly from the AfroAsian grouping of countries many of whom were also at the time clamouring for idependence. Dr, Jagan’s contribution to Guyana is monumental. March 22, 2017 marks ninety-nine years of his birth anniversary and twenty years since his passing. It is therefore an opportune time to reflect on the life and work of this outstanding son of the soil. Hydar Ally

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur M@ilbox

My views on the parking meter project and nursing school DEAR EDITOR, I would like to discuss two issues. The parking meter project brings up many interesting matters. To begin with this business was not properly thought out. To my mind, the proponents of the project should have taken time to properly sort out the many issues which would normally affect such a business. I had previously written about the condition of the parapets and some roadways. I am not sure if that letter was published. The engineering concerns apart, much is still needed to be done to make this project safe for its users. I speak in the present tense since the project is not scrapped. A major concern is the fact that the agreement speaks to the prohibition of persons using their private property as parking places. They are required to first seek permission from SCS and maybe even pay tribute before such a project can proceed. The proposed competition laws and regulations of this land speak to the dismantling of monopoly entities. Then again there are certain public roads over which the ‘Chief Roads Officer” has

control and over which the City has no general jurisdiction. The punitive part of the agreement is excessive and I doubt whether a Guyanese Judge would rule in such favour. To me this whole affair needs a redo and the earlier that City Hall gets down to it the better it would be for all of us. In a word much of the contract seems to be against public policy. I come now to the second issue. I am disturbed by the recent events impacting the nursing students nationwide. I verily believe that they have been had

by sinister elements in the government services. I was able to speak late last year to some of the students concerned. One very pregnant student, who is married, was very distraught at the fact that she would have to endure a resit. She felt that she was hovering around the borders of her life. That life wouldn’t matter anymore if she were forced to do the resit. I was able to console this young woman and encourage her to continue with her studies and give it her best shot. My impression of the

nursing school from a frontal view is that this institution is not quite fit for study. Class size is about 50 plus. How then can a lecturer be effective in delivery if the classes are so large? Right away my mind went back to the late 60’s and 70’s when I lectured at the GTI and the GITC. To my mind it is well nigh impossible to be able to successfully conduct technical classes of such burgeoning sizes. I would like to say to the Hon. Minister of Public Health that there is need to take a keen look at the delivery of nursing educa-

tion. We just simply need to employ more skilled tutors and thus reduce the class sizes. Also students need more modern facilities inclusive of computer labs and libraries. I would recommend that nursing students be given laptops from the laptop program. This would greatly assist them in their endeavours.

On another matter I feel that if the GPHC can be allowed to work with two-thirds of its nursing staff authorized strength we cannot expect better services from nurses and their supervisors. The poor matron is only being given a basket to fetch water. Cyril Walker

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Bharrat Jagdeo is accused of lying

The time to act to save our young people is now

DEAR EDITOR; Jagdeo continues to prove he is a consistent liar. During the last elections, he constantly provided a diet of lies. At his recent Press Conference, Jadgeo made three premeditated lies. Firstly, he claimed I was the Guyanese Consulate in South Africa. I have never ever been, never wanted to, could not have even if I wanted to have been the Guyana Consulate in South Africa. This is a big lie. Where is the Letter of Authorization to allow me to do this? Where is the letter to be given to the South African Government? Where is the announcement? Where are the payment wires? Where are the communications b e t w e e n myself and the Jagdeo or myself and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Where is the mandate and what services did I ever provide as this fictitious Consulate? This is a blatant lie. Com-

pare this to Luncheon’s statement that no African Guyanese were qualified to be such during his testimony in the Jagdeo libel writ against Freddie Kissoon and Kaieteur News. In Jagdeo’s effort to be not seen as the tribalist he is; he is purposefully lying. The media can easily verify this by asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Jagdeo to provide the above information. Secondly, I have never threatened any Member of the Opposition. The words I wrote on facebook are pretty clear and so is the context. Minister Trotman said at a Press Conference at Cara Lodge on January 6, 2016, as appeared in the newspaper that “Around 15,000 ounces of gold are smuggled each week?” He said the gold is going to Brazil, Suriname and Miami airport and JFK and that a team from the US Federal Bureau

Stop this importation from Mexico right away DEAR EDITOR, This letter is about a looming crisis in the coconut industry, which is our third largest agricultural crop after rice and sugar. One of our largest coconut farmers has imported a container load of 10-20,000 seed nuts from Mexico to plant in the Pomeroon. This single action can and most likely will cause the death of the coconut industry in Guyana since there will be the disease LETHAL YELLOWING in about 1% of these nuts. Fo r t h o s e w h o n e v e r heard of the disease, I invite you to read about it on the Internet. It spreads rapidly and has destroyed entire plantations in Northern Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, but it is not in Guyana, at least not yet. Mr. Editor, my question

is why was permission given by NAREI to import these nuts from a country with the disease? The Ministry of Agriculture needs to launch an urgent investigation and swift action must be taken to destroy this planting material on arrival in Port Georgetown. If this is not done, then it will be another example of big money talking and all the small farmers who depend on coconut sales for a living will be on the bread line. Coconut farmers need your urgent help Mr. Minister, since the shipment arrives in a few days. Maybe His Excellency the President or the Minister of State can help the farmers by directing that urgent action be taken. P. Hamilton West Coast Berbice

of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security visited last year to brief the Government. I am sure the physical evidence to back up the FBI/Homeland Security’s claim is with the Minister. Jagdeo said I had to leave South Africa overnight and hence they had to appoint another person. If I was never the Guyana Consulate, it is easy to see this is a lie. I have never had to leave South Africa overnight and I have been back since. Jagdeo’s deceit is worsening as he tries to divide the nation. The Government should seek sedition charges as he does not, as he believes, have immunity for the rest of his life. This is why he behaves as an unbalanced person. It is time his own party reins him in as he is actually terrorizing the Indian Community with his nasty politics. Eric Phillips

DEAR EDITOR, In the news recently, I read that a teen, just fifteen years old, wept as he left the court charged with the terrible crime of murder. A while ago, I wrote the following letter and did not submit it in view of the new initiatives that are already in place. Yet, there are far, far too many youths wallowing in idleness; youths being enticed into violent atrocities; youths whose minds have been warped before they are fully formed; youths who act then cry when they realize the enormity of their actions. Therefore this is why I write. With the opening of schools for the new term, groups of teenagers - mainly boys - can be seen riding their bicycles aimlessly or just liming around. These youths have either reached the school leaving age or what is more likely, have opted out of

school. There is an urgent need to ‘rescue’ these young people before these groups degenerate into gangs and the fertile minds, energy and strength become subsumed into a world of lawlessness and crime. As evidenced by recent happenings, a high percentage of the heinous crimes have been committed by young people who as the saying goes ‘have not lost their mothers ‘ features yet’. Young people who maybe just a short while ago were the ones who had left school and limed aimlessly about. What is to be done, how can this disastrous pattern be changed? President David Granger continues to show a great interest in the welfare of the youth of our country and has initiated a number of admirable programmes. However, despite these, too many, especially, early

school leavers seem to be falling through the cracks, getting caught up in lives that are no credit to themselves, their families, or our country. As I said earlier, there is an urgent need to ‘ rescue ‘ these young people. A need to give them feelings of self worth, to awaken their interest in, and train them in skills and occupations to enable them to take care of themselves. Of course, such a programme should include the tenets of good moral values without which, a person is lesser indeed. In motivating these young people, giving them feelings of self worth, and providing them with the ability to earn a livable wage, we will be going a far way in making our country a safer place to be. These youths are at risk. Our safety is at risk. The time to act is now. Joan Collins

There are those who are challenging my employment DEAR EDITOR, I refer to the letter by Mr. Dave Roshundatt, “The Cultural Advisor should not behave like this” (KN, March 16). I applaud the one credible observation he has made, vis a vis my celebration of Phagwah. As I stated in a message on my Facebook profile “Phagwah, as we celebrate it, is the most important and quintessentially Guyanese holiday in my mind. Not only is it a symbol of the perseverance of goodness over malignant will, but the symbolism of the beauty of diverse colours, the consensus on public intimacy and transformation via the smearing of abir and dousing of water constitute a symbolic rehearsal of where we should be heading in our private lives as well. There should be no barriers in celebrating the beauty and power of our diversity and at least once a year we live up to that at a national level.” With regard to the rest of his letter, Mr. Roshundatt has now joined – not surprisingly – such illustrious figures as

Gail Teixeira, Anil Nandlall and the Guyana Times in coming up with spurious and disingenuous challenges to my employment. When I raised the issue on Facebook with regard to the assault on the men at Canal No. 1 via posting a video of their recollection in part of the events, Mr. Roshundatt rushed to claim that he did not see any evidence in the video of their claiming a racist element to the attacks. Aware of his disingenuousness in previous encounters, I quickly posted the original online account in which that component of the incident was reported upon. After increasingly skewed exchanges with Mr. Roshundatt in which he accused the media and yours truly of seeking to foment racial incitement by simply replicating and commenting upon uncontested first hand victim accounts of their unlawful assault, I challenged him to put his opinions in a medium of record. As expected, his intellectual dishonesty as displayed on social media also made it into the mainstream via his

letter. The key example is when he writes, “I looked at the story as aired on one television newscast, and there were video bites of the men that were assaulted. In those video bites no mention was made by those men of any racial slurs…” By claiming he did not see it in the video, he ignores the fact that multiple accounts in credible media – both electronic and print - included information about the slurs, information he was immediately made aware of when he first sought to debate me on the issue. Another example of his dishonesty is that he ignores the fact that, even as I have given credence to the first hand victim account of the incident, I also called in my post for full and due process into investigating the assault. Questioned about his supposed principled position on public officials making claims that are potentially disruptive to social cohesion in light of the PPP’s repeated mantra about ethnic cleansing without providing evidence of same, Mr.

PPP using the bauxite industry to poison sugar workers’ minds DEAR EDITOR, The current discussion on the sugar industry vis a vis the bauxite industry being conducted by the PPP/C is deserving of context. The issue of levy (i.e. tax to the state) was applied to sugar and bauxite and came into effect before Reynolds Bauxite Company in Berbice, and the

sugar companies (Bookers and Demerara Company) were nationalised. These acts were taken as a major plank in the nation’s developmental thrust towards taking control of its economic destiny. Jamaica, under the leadership of Michael Manley, applied similar levy to both industries, preceding Guyana in this re-

gard. The effort to make a case that sugar was discriminated against by placing a levy is mischievous. Politicians need to be told that they must stop the act of making out a case for the future of sugar grounded on partisan and racial premises. The sugar industry (Continued on page 7)

Roshundatt retreated at times into silence, at times into deflection into the claim that he doesn’t want to get ‘political’. The most revealing aspect of his disingenuous behavior is when pressed for an opinion on what burden of evidence he needed beyond direct victim testimony, Mr. Roshundatt blurted out that we should “not condemn an entire village and an entire race” for the actions of a few people. Asked to provide evidence of where such condemnation was made, Mr. Roshundatt reposted my words “This shouldn’t have to be spelt out. No citizen of Guyana should be afraid of entering any community for fear of being attacked on the basis of their race. The people behind this need to be caught, charged, tried and imprisoned.” That he should see specific condemnation in that statement has to be the result of one of three things. One, I cannot write and so I clearly communicated something other than the principle that every Guyanese citizen should feel free to enter any Guyanese community without fear of a racebased attack. Two, Mr. Roshundatt lacks basic comprehension skills. Or, three, he is so blinded by an insidious and partisan agenda that he ascribes absurd meanings to words that spell out the almost complete opposite of what he sees. In light of his deliberate blindness and evasion with respect to the pronouncements being made by Freedom House, I tend to believe it is the latter. Ruel Johnson

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur M@ilbox

PPP using the bauxite industry to poison sugar workers’ minds From page 6 belongs to Guyanese, where the initial foundation such as the canals, roadways, farmland, and revenues were built, prepared, cultivated and earned by free labour from the African community, which went on for centuries. Playing to racial fear that the earnings of Indians, who make up the majority in the industry, were taken away by the state through levy and this group is being targeted today because of their identity, must not be allowed to gain currency without factoring the centuries of unpaid wages of those who toiled before. The claim that in the 1980s the state spent billions on the bauxite industry failed to advise that a levy was also applied to bauxite. In claiming discrimination or preferential treatment of a section of workers against another, the society is being advised that in the early 1990s under the

PNC government both LINMINE and GuySuCo were placed under contract management with the intent of privatising. In 1992 GUYMINE produced in excess of 480,000 tonnes of bauxite. On the assumption of the PPP/C to office in October 1992 LINMINE production level was cut for the following year to 250,000 tonnes. This deliberate decision to drastically reduce production was communicated to the bauxite unions by Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who also advised that jobs will be cut. Clearly here it was not a case where bauxite had a production problem but a deliberate decision taken by the government to reduce production and lay off workers. The decision to reduce production led to the loss of markets, as customary buyers had to go elsewhere to meet their demands. The government made its position very

clear that bauxite will be privatised and sugar will remain a state entity. The sugar and bauxite industries cannot only be looked at within the context of race and political persuasion. The approach needs to be holistic as to what each means to the country and particularly the communities within which they exist. It was not the community of Linden or the opposition PNC at the time that privatised the steam power

plant that provided cheap energy to the people and bauxite operation. It was the PPP/C government. In privatising the bauxite company in Linden the PPP/C government refused to listen to legitimate concerns and pleas by the workers, residents, unions, then PNC opposition, and others. In the years of negotiating benefits for workers unseen wages are also factored in. In the instance of bauxite workers this included electricity and wa-

ter. When the PPP/C government took away the cheap reliable supply, concomitantly government shoulders the responsibility to ensure the service is provided. There was agreement between the unions and stateowned company that an increase in electricity will only be arrived at after agreement between the two parties. The state under the PPP/C never sought to honour this agreement, so in 2012 when the people took to the streets, it was reminder of

government’s failure to govern in good faith. In the sugar industry every Guyanese, through their ancestors, have given of their sweat and labour. Presently the industry, though comprised a majority of Indians, also has a significant amount of non-Indians. Seeking to resolve its probl e m s a n d d e t e r mining a sound way forward would not help pitting Indians against their non-Indian colleagues in the workforce. Lincoln Lewis

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Berbice businesses endorse conditional GuySuCo privatization – Finance Minister There may be some temporary humps in the road for Guyana in the foreign exchange trade as far as government is concerned but there are plans to address the situation. Some of these plans will include careful management of the country’s forests and mining lands to ensure that Guyana maximizes. Answering questions on Friday about the administration’s plans, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, said that while oil is on the horizon following a major find offshore Guyana back in 2015, a number of other areas are being looked at, for example, the sugar industry. On Friday, the Berbice Chambers of Commerce met with Finance Minister and made it clear that they would like to see privatization taking place at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), but with certain conditions. According to Jordan, some of these privatizations would include closure of a number of under-performing estates, with Skeldon at the top of the list. The disclosure would raise eyebrows since Skeldon estate has new factory, under a US$200M project that was commissioned in 2009 by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration. However, despite being hailed as the catalyst to jumpstart the ailing industry, the factory has failed to deliver and has been a financial drain on GuySuCo’s limited cash resources. In 2015, the Coalition government plugged in $12B; reducing this to $11B last year. This year, the bailout

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan was $9B. There have been offers for the takeover of Skeldon. According to Jordan on Friday, some of the proposals for privatizing sections of GuySuCo do not necessarily entail remaining in sugar production. With the vast estate lands and equipment of GuySuCo, the options are tremendous. However, the administration will have to remain mindful what happens to the 16,000-plus workers, Jordan said. The bailouts will have to target what happens to workers. Last December, Wales factory closed its gates after more than a century of operations. Rose Hall and Enmore have been recommended for closure. GuySuCo has more than $80B in debt according to figures of last year. The corporation has taken some steps to consolidate the estates on East Demerara. (Continued on page 71)

Sunday March 26, 2017

Dem boys seh...

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Kaieteur News

Telecoms liberalisation war heats up…

A lady describe GTT accuses Digicel of “illegal” Suriname Jagdeo to a T bypass; wants independent audit Some people sit down and begin talking bout de foreign currency situation. One of dem seh is because Soulja Bai win de elections that Jagdeo trying to create all kind of obstacle. Another man seh people like blame Jagdeo for everything; that dem don’t understand de man. From de time de man seh suh a lady come up and tell de people who was talking that dem don’t know Jagdeo. “That man is a cup of pain, a bucket of lies, a bottle of heart attack and a kettle of stress.” Right away a man jump up and ask de lady how she know Jagdeo so good because she really describe de man. De lady tun and tell dem that she ain’t even done wid de description. “That man is a pot of tension, a jug of confusion, a litter of difficulties, a basin of headache, a glass of disappointments, a flask of discomfort, and a tray of depression.” And de accent de lady was using tell that she come from good upbringing. When she talk she was hardly opening she mouth. Is when de lady seh that Jagdeo heself is endless sleepless nights that dem boys know who de lady was. Dem read about de lady very often and she was one of dem who refuse to tell de whole country that she was a victim of use and abuse. Soulja Bai wasn’t around when de lady was talking but when he hear de story, he ask one of dem boys if he can bring de lady to him because he want her to describe Basil de Willie. Of course when de lady start wid she description nuff people believe that de lady was describing Basil de Willie. Of course, some things people do not say about others but then again dem have people who can’t see things and shut dem mouth. That is how Basil de Willie get into trouble de other day. Talk half and guess who de lady wid de descriptions is.

As negotiations continue to liberalise the telecommunications sector to allow new players, US-owned Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) is calling for an independent third party audit of what it says are “illegal” activities of Digicel. GTT yesterday, in one of its toughest statements yet, said that its call would come given recent developments and news accounts regarding “illegal activity” being conducted by Digicel. “We believe it is time for action that gets to the bottom of this situation and finally provide transparency for everyone in Guyana,” GTT said. According to GTT, Digicel, a company that has a licence for mobile services, has been facilitating an “illegal, unlicensed transborder link between Guyana and Suriname”. GTT said that there is no ambiguity about this bypass activity. In fact, the company said, in a demonstration of “remarkable arrogance and disregard for rule of law in Guyana”, Digicel itself has

acknowledged the operation on several occasions. “Just as recently as March 21, 2017, Digicel told the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) that its bypass operation was not appropriate for the discussion at hand, while never once denying any aspect of the operation. GTT said that it knows that this “bypass” is causing very real and very significant harm to our country – by one estimate, it has cost the country an “incredible” US$30M over the last five years. “With liberalization on the horizon, the practice of equity and transparent conduct of all players is of paramount importance. It is essential that both the public and our leaders have the complete details about Digicel’s bypass operations, and that they understand the full consequences of the company’s actions, which are illegal and in direct violation of their license.” GTT recommended that Government initiate an independent, third party audit, or, investigation into Digicel’s alleged activity.

“It appears that Digicel’s bypass operation has been active for more than five years. And over the last two years, GTT, and others who support a fair and competitive telecoms landscape, have called out this situation to various governmental agencies.” GTT said that over time, and especially more recently, it has been assured that the matter has the attention of the local regulatory authorities. “However, to ensure openness and forthright conduct, and to establish confidence that all interested parties are being treated fairly and equitably, the Guyanese people must know the complete details of the unauthorized cross-border link. “While Digicel acknowledges the bypass activity, the company has never answered questions or provided any specific information – instead, it makes excuses or launches new and unfounded claims that are meant to distract the

public and the media.” GTT pointed out that since assuming office, the government has pursued a number of audits to bring clarity to various aspects of the economy. “Given the financial significance of an illegal bypass operation, it would certainly seem appropriate for a similar audit to take place here. `Secondly, we call for the public release of documentation that shows whether Digicel has made tax payments on the revenue generated by the illegal bypass operation. Given Digicel’s acknowledgement of its bypass activity, the public Continued on page 13

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Dynamic backpedals from $250 exchange rate on airline tickets

Dynamic Airways has reversed a decision to charge a $250 rate on US for tickets, local handlers, Roraima Airways announced yesterday Amidst disclosures by Central Bank that it will investigate the legality of one airline charging a $250 rate of exchange for the US dollar, the company yesterday seemed to have backpedalled from its earlier position. In a statement yesterday, Roraima Airways, which provides local handling services for US-owned Dynamic Airways, advised that it is accepting payment in Guyana dollars for airline tickets and related services at the exchange rate applicable on the day of the transaction, and mutually agreed upon. “This includes tickets bought for travel on Dynamic International Airways. Roraima Airways also wishes

to advise that travel agents remitting payments for tickets sold on Dynamic are encouraged to remit these payments in United States dollars since these agents might have access to United States dollars at competitive exchange rates.” The statement from Roraima Airways would come after apprehension by businesses last week over what appears to be a rise in the US rates. Dynamic Airways reportedly advised travel agents on Thursday that the new exchange rate would be $250 to the US dollar. The rest of the airlines were charging between $209 and $215 to the US dollar. On Friday, Governor of Central Bank, Dr. Gobind Ganga, during a press conference to express concerns over the US dollar rate, said that he will be investigating the reports of the rate hike. He also believed that the instructions to travel agents may be illegal. Roraima, in its statement yesterday, said it will accept

remittances from travel agents in Guyana dollars at a mutually agreed exchange rate to the US dollar. “Roraima Airways has noted the efforts of the Government of Guyana to stabilize the exchange rate and will monitor the rate over the coming weeks with a view to determining whether the rate needs to be adjusted. We have been in discussions with Dynamic and the airline is committed to maintaining its competitive airfares of US$579 which are currently the lowest offered on the Guyana/New York route.” The airline said that it is also committed to working with the rates available locally, Roraima’s chief executive officer, Capt. Gerry Gouveia explained. “Gouveia also pointed out that Dynamic remains fully committed to its investment in, and service to Guyana. It will continue to contribute to various social development efforts in keeping with its good corporate citizenship.”

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Community mental health being promoted by Health Ministry Fewer than 10 percent of people diagnosed with depression in countries such as Guyana are treated. This is according to Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas, Director of the Mental Health Unit of the Ministry of Public Health. Dr. Util RichmondThomas said that although there are known effective treatments for depression, fewer than half of those affected in the world are diagnosed and treated. She has revealed that approximately 50 percent of persons who commit suicide are depressed and approximately 15 percent of depressed patients kill themselves. Depression is the most common mental illness and accounts for 4.3 percent of the global burden of disease said Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas who noted that by 2030 it is forecast to be the second largest single cause of disability worldwide using the World Health Organisation’s measure DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Year). In recognizing the high prevalence of depression and the debilitating effects on ones quality of life, the Mental Health Unit of the Ministry is aiming to hit depression forcefully. The mental health specialist said that an upcoming anti-depression campaign will soon kick into high gear and it is hoped it will result in major positive changes in the lives of Guyanese.

Dr. Util RichmondThomas Barriers to the treatment of depression, she noted, include lack of resources, lack of trained health care providers and social stigma associated with mental disorders. However, other barriers, according to Dr. Richmond-Thomas, are inaccurate assessments, misdiagnosis and incorrect treatments. “The pattern is the same for all mental disorders. Almost half of the world’s population lives in countries where on average one psychiatrist serves 200,000 or more people,” Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas related. However, other mental health providers who are trained in the use of psychosocial interventions are even scarcer, she admitted. “Here in Guyana there are approximately six psychiatrists for our

population of approximately 750,000.” Currently there are three psychiatrists at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, one at the National Psychiatric hospital, one at the Linden Hospital Complex and one in the private sector. This according to Dr. Richmond-Thomas translates to approximately one for every 150,000 persons. But according to her, a major answer of the Ministry of Public Health to the existing mental health maladies is Community Mental Health. She noted that the majority of mental, neurological and substance use disorders can be managed by non-specialist health care providers. She insisted, “It is a myth that improvements in mental health need expensive technologies and large numbers of highly specialized staff.” But according to Dr. Richmond-Thomas, the Public Health Ministry will soon embark on training nonspecialist doctors, nurses and social workers throughout the 10 regions of Guyana. The trainers were trained by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) last August and according to Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas, professional staff of the Mental Health Unit have also been trained. “They are ready, willing, eager and able.”

These trained health care providers, she noted, will treat the common mental health disorders including depression, self-harm/ suicide, psychosis, bipolar disorder, epilepsy/seizures, developmental and behavioral disorders and substance abuse disorders. They will also be trained in the appropriate pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for these disorders, Dr. Richmond-Thomas said. “Of course there will always be need for specialists. However, the vision is that with so many watchdogs of the nation’s mental health, there will be a drastic reduction in mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders and a corresponding increase in quality of life,” Dr. RichmondThomas added. She noted that persons needing mental health care will no longer have to leave their communities and travel long and expensive distances to the GPHC and the National Psychiatric Hospital. “They will be able to access that care at the health centres in their community or at their regional or district hospital. Like pregnancy, diabetes mellitus and

hypertensive persons will be able to access effective care everywhere, including the health centres from competent health care providers,” said RichmondThomas as she added, “also like pregnancy, diabetes mellitus and hypertension they will be referred for specialist care when necessary.” But according to Dr.

Richmond-Thomas, unknown to many in the public, the Government of Guyana through the Ministry has long been working feverishly to turn the tides of mental health in Guyana. She noted that very few know about the strong collaboration between the Ministry and the Pan American Health Organization to bring (continued on page 72)

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More transparency needed within inter-bank foreign exchange market - IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pointed out that there is a great need for more transparency within the inter-bank foreign exchange market. This statement was made as the IMF commented on the recent increase in Guyana’s US foreign exchange rate which now stands at $230 to US$1. The international body said that the “inter-bank foreign exchange market appears segmented and illiquid.” This is to suggest that the banks did not collectively decide on an exchange rate. The IMF said that the inter-bank foreign exchange market can be further developed, “including by enhancing the transparency of market activity.”

The mission recommends that any official foreign exchange purchases and sales use a market mechanism similar to the one used for auctioning treasury bills. Treasury bills have a face value of a certain amount, which is what they are actually worth. But they are sold for less. For example, a bill may be worth $10,000, but you would buy it for $9,600. Every bill has a specified maturity date, which is when you receive money back. On issue day, Treasury delivers securities to bidders who were awarded securities in a particular auction. In exchange, Treasury charges the accounts of those bidders for payment of the securities. (Continued on page 72)

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

GTT accuses Digicel...

GTT Headquarters, Brickdam From page 9 deserves to know – with conclusive evidence – if the company has paid its fair share of taxes on the tremendous revenues it has reaped from this activity.” GTT said that the operations of the alleged bypass have enormous consequences for the Guyana treasury. “Based on extensive investigation into the magnitude of Digicel’s bypass activity, it has been estimated that the company should have paid US$30M or $7B to the Guyana treasury over the last five years. “Think about the loss to Guyana if these taxes have not been paid.” And, according to GTT, the tax losses are just one part of the equation. “In order to operate the bypass, Digicel must use valuable spectrum – spectrum that, by all appearances, the company has simply taken as its own, without payment. We all have a right to know whether this spectrum has, in fact, been stolen by Digicel.” The liberalization of the

telecoms sector has taken significance as GTT holds the monopoly on landlines and international calls. The entrance of Digicel has brought competition with consecutive governments signaling its intentions to allow other players to introduce new services and bring down internet and other costs. However, GTT has been insisting that it wants negotiations as an open playing field for the sector to impact its investments. The company has been criticized for not introducing landlines to new housing schemes despite growing demands for internet. GTT is currently before PUC, the regulator, for an increase of rates on its landlines. However, consumer advocates, have also accused GTT of not being truthful of its earnings. GTT has already cut staff in preparation for competitive playing field when liberalization becomes effective and new companies enter the market.

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Cops to locate prime suspect as Courtney Crum-Ewing’s murder case reopens

Dead: Courtney Crum-Ewing

Regan “Grey boy” Rodriques’

Since the announcement of the reopening of Courtney Crum-Ewing case, the cops have not been able to locate the prime suspect in the March 10, 2015 murder of the political activist. Crum-Ewing’s bloodied body was found on the roadway at Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD). The cops have searched more than three locations, including Regan “Grey Boy” Rodriques’s home but have not been able to locate him. It is suspected that Rodriques, who was freed of the activist’s murder six months ago, has gone into hiding after it was revealed that the case had been reopened. Ranks were out looking for the murder suspect up to yesterday morning. “He (Rodrigues) was not supposed to go anywhere and now that the case has been reopened, he was supposed to be arrested immediately, even before it was released by the media but this was not the case. He heard it was reopened, and he is nowhere to be found,” a source said. Kaieteur News was informed that the suspect’s relatives have claimed that they had not seen the 37year-old man for some time. Investigators believed that Rodrigues might have fled to the interior location to avoid capture. Crum-Ewing’s body was found hours after he had been urging residents, with a bull-horn, to vote against the then ruling People Progressive Party (PPP/C). O n e m o n t h l a t e r, Rodrigues was charged with the activist’s death after he was found with the gun that was later confirmed to be the weapon used to execute the political activist.

After the charges were read to him, he told the court, “I know that in this country once money passes to the police they do respond to you… I am an APNU stronghold.” He further added, “I know (police officer) kill Crum-Ewing, because when they ask me to kill CrumEwing and Mark Benschop. I told them no, because I’m not no killer. I even went to the police to make a report on the matter and they never took my statement.” Rodrigues was subsequently freed on September 14, 2016. Two Fridays ago, the Director of Public Prosecution, Shalimar AliHack, issued a statement, remitting the case of the Guyana Police Force and Rodrigues to Magistrate Judy Latchman for reopening. According to the statement, the sole purpose of the case being reopened is to take further evidence from the police witnesses and to rule on the voluntariness of all oral statements of the accused. Last year, the case was discharged by Magistrate Judy Latchman when the Preliminary Inquiry was first conducted. It will now be prosecuted by Special Prosecutor Attorney-atLaw, Nigel Hughes. The 40-year-old CrumEwing of Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara, was shot five times. Police in a statement had said that Crum-Ewing was walking along the roadway at Third Avenue, when a car with four men from which shots were discharged, drove up. The men escaped. The killer used a .32 pistol and fired at such close range that gunpowder burns were left on Crum-Ewing’s clothes and body.

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Victims play major role in successful outcome of domestic violence cases - Attorney-at-Law

Domestic violence has been traditionally described as acts of violence occurring in intimate relationships. It includes sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Studies show that domestic violence occurs in every culture, country, and

age group. It affects people from all socioeconomic, educational and religious backgrounds. Children and people living with disabilities are also affected by domestic violence, even if they are not abused or do not witness it directly.

Nonetheless, research conducted on the prosecution of domestic violence cases against women show that majority of the cases are not tried in court due to non –appearance of victims, resulting in the matters being dismissed. The research titled ‘The

Prosecution of Domestic Violence Cases Against Women in Guyana: Successes and Lessons Learnt’ was conducted by Attorney-at-Law Chandrawattie Persaud. It assessed the prosecution rate of perpetrators of domestic violence against women at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts for the period 20132014. The findings of the research were presented by Chandrawattie at a forum held earlier this month at the Theatre Guild. Among those in attendance were recently appointed Chief Justice (ag) Roxanne George; Minister of Social Protection, Dr George Norton; Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr. Barbara Reynolds; Deputy Vice Chancellor of Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement (PACE), Professor Paloma Mohamed. According to Persaud, studies and surveys have shown that victims are in the most part responsible for the successful outcome of the matter when reports are made to police. She said that that the successful outcome of domestic violence cases lies with the victims since some of them may not proceed with proving the allegation. Persaud added that often, victims of domestic violence would appear in court for withdrawal of the case. The Attorney-at-Law pointed out that the reasons for non-appearance of victims in court for the prosecution of these matters include fear of retribution, the desire to remain in the relationship, fear of testifying in court, domestic violence victims’ experience with the legal system is that there is no sympathy or empathy and

mandatory prosecution which may not reflect the wishes of the victim. “Some victims felt that if the abuser is prosecuted he would become more violent. One third of the victims in this study, opposed prosecution because they depended on the abuser for housing,” the Attorney-at-Law revealed. She further highlighted that many women who suffer domestic violence do not make reports or seek help. “Only about 40 percent of women affected in Latin America and the Caribbean made reports or seek help. Demographic health survey done and one of the studies included almost 30 countries show a very striking result. Only six percent of the women reported incidents to someone in authority. “Rural women were less likely to seek help than urban women and only three percent of women sought help from police.” “This number increased with the severity of the injuries suffered. An alarming 55 percent of women handled the issue personally while 34 percent were of the view that the violence was not serious enough to warrant a report. “Further, it appears from the survey that help is only sought as a last resort even if the violence is severe.” Justice Roxane George stated that the success rate of matters filed under the Domestic Violence Act is much higher. The acting Chief Justice said, “Those (Domestic Violence) matters are held in close court. Criminal matters are held in open court so right away the dynamic is different. A woman who has to tell her story in open court will be more intimidated. We have the public listening and so on

etc…” Justice George reminded that victims of domestic violence may be reluctant to “come forward” because their abuser might be providing a shelter for them. Some time back, at a Women and Gender Equality Conference, Justice George said she put forward that alternative housing should be provided for domestic violence victims. “We have to provide alternative housing. We have to look at social housing. But we have to provide those kinds of safety nets. So in our housing planning at the Housing Ministry we have to look at these kinds of things. So not just providing a house to a family and those who are in need…we have to look at other vulnerable groups. “Persons living with disabilities are in no doubt victims of violence in our communities and families.” Nevertheless, Persaud disclosed that domestic violence is a serious public health issue and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality of women globally. She stated that previously, injuries were the only health outcome of violence “But this changed as research found that calculated illnesses were associated with intimate partner violence and sexual abuse of women. These illnesses included drug and alcohol abuse, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health, emotional health and gynecological problems…” “These studies found that women in relationships with violence are four times at risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection than women who are not in violent relationships.”

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

GPHC advancing cardiac care through GPACC initiative

Dr. Isaac explains the functions of one of the echocardiogram machines used at the GPHC to offer a type of ultrasound test of the heart. By Sharmain Grainger Heart disease is a chronic condition that cannot simply be addressed and forgotten. Instead effectively tackling heart conditions requires a great deal of attention and considerable investment. It was with this in mind that that the Guyana Programme to Advance Cardiac Care (GPACC) was introduced at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Although the programme has being ongoing for the past five years, it was formalised just two years ago. Currently at the helm of this programme are Doctors Wayne Warnica and his wife Debra Isaac of the Calgary University’s Libin Cardiovascular Institute in Alberta, Canada. The two, along with other experts in the field of cardiology, have been taking months out of the year to be here in Guyana help advance the aim of GPACC, which is to advance cardiac care for both adults and children. The GPACC service Dr. Isaac assured, during a recent interview, does not discriminate. This, she noted, means that patients receiving both in-patient and out-patient services can all receive cardiac

care at absolutely no cost at the GPHC. Based on her observation, Dr. Isaac has been able to deduce that Guyana has an alarming heart disease situation found in both adults and children. While the majority of children requiring attention suffer from congenital heart conditions, Dr. Isaac explained that those found in adults are called coronary heart diseases. These can manifest in blockages to the arteries which can lead to dysfunction or decrease function of parts of the heart, high blood pressure and other heart muscle diseases that cause heart failure where the heart just can’t pump blood. The latter development means that one of the patient’s arteries is blocked and that part of the heart muscle applied by that artery can essentially die. “When that part of the heart muscle dies that damage is permanent and can lead to heart failure or death,” Dr Isaac noted. She, however, noted that the GPHC now has the opportunity through GPACC and its partnership with Dr. Mahendra Carpen [a member of GPACC], who also serves as Cardiologist at the Caribbean Heart Institute, to

help prevent heart failures from advancing. “If people come in and are having an acute heart attack we have the option to open up that blood vessel before the damage is done, but we can’t do it after a certain number of hours,” Dr. Isaac asserted. She made it clear, “if people come in eight hours after their chest pain it could be too late for us to do that treatment. We always use the term ‘time is muscle’...as the time goes on the muscle is lost.” As such any person who develops a chest pain, especially if they are predisposed to heart disease, are known to suffer from shortness of breath, “they need to come in to GPHC and come in right away. They shouldn’t go to their local clinics, because if they go to other places they can waste time...we can make the diagnosis right away,” Dr. Isaac asserted as she alluded to an ECG programme that is in place at the GPHC. Through the GPACC programme patients can benefit from the right diagnosis, the right treatment, the right surgery, if surgery is indicated, and the right followup care. “That is what GPACC is

The Baccoo Speaks The confusion over foreign currency is going to get out of hand. Despite the best efforts by the government there is a move to siphon of any additional finance because there is a big market. Some of the people with foreign accounts are capitalizing on the higher rates because of the free money that it offers, but the bottom is about to fall out.

** The disappearance of the parking meters will see a re-

turn to the days of people being robbed as soon as they leave the commercial banks. The parking meters prevented the bandits’ car from parking in the vicinity of the banks. Not so anymore. ** The fires seem to have halted, but there are now the electricity problems. There will be a casualty from an electric connection that was illegally set up.

Dr. Isaac, in the company of local staff Ms. Denise Adams, demonstrates the use of a treadmill in the Lab at the GPHC. all about,” Dr. Isaac emphasised. But since this strategic programme is built on a platform of education, she pointed out that “our goal is not just to come here and do things all the time, our goals is to actually work with the local health care team and increase their skills to allow sustainability of this

programme.” In fact, Dr. Isaac anticipates that at some point “persons will say to us ‘you don’t have to actually come and work here anymore, we can do this on our own; come and visit but we don’t need you to do the work’.” But according to Dr. Isaac, despite continued training, the GPHC has not yet gotten to the point where it

doesn’t need the support of visiting experts. However, she did reveal that “we have gotten to the point where the ECHO lab, the Treadmill lab and the Cardiac ICU are actually still continuing to work when we are not here. We are here frequently to provide support and to provide increased education, to provide (Continued on page 46)

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Sunday March 26, 2017

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The murder of ‘Teacher Melissa’: Linden’s 10-year-mystery By Michael Jordan At around eleven-thirty a.m. on Saturday, April 7, 2007, Tristan Grant, a student, went to the home of a school teacher at 134 Hippani Oval in Retrieve, Linden, to show her a school assignment. The teacher was Tristan’s aunt; 25-year-old Melissa Anthony, who taught at Christianburg Primary. The lad called for his aunt, and after getting no response, he entered the open front door and got the shock of his young life. A woman’s partly-concealed body lay on the floor near his aunt’s study, with the legs protruding from the doorway. Trying to remain calm, he walked over to the study and received another shock. Lying on the floor, in a pool of blood, and clad only in a blue sweater, was his aunt, Melissa Anthony. Someone had slashed her throat and also clubbed her at the back of the head. Despite her injuries, the teacher was still alive, though barely so. Young Tristan bolted from his aunt’s home and headed for the Mackenzie Police Station. But by the time the police arrived, Mrs. Anthony had already succumbed. Scouring the crime scene, detectives found that while the front door was ajar, there was no sign of forced entry. Some persons surmised that she

had left the door open because she was expecting her nephew. Detectives found some of the slain woman’s clothing in her bedroom. They observed a trail of blood leading from the victim’s bedroom to the study. The bed-sheet was also bloodstained while the room was in disarray, indicating that a struggle had occurred there. News of the quiet young teacher’s death shocked the neighbourhood. Melissa Anthony had no known enemies. Both she and her husband, Shane—also a teacher—were staunch Jehovah’s Witnesses. They had been married for about four years. But about an hour after Melissa’s death, detectives turned up at Redwood Crescent, Linden, where Shane Anthony was holding classes, and invited him in for questioning. Mr. Anthony told them that he had left home at around 10:30 hrs to teach lessons. He said that Melissa was alive when he left home. Despite his protestations of innocence, Mr. Anthony was kept in custody. Meanwhile, detectives from the city joined in the investigation. A close male friend of Melissa’s told Kaieteur News that he had called her at around 11:00 hrs on the day she was slain. The friend sensed that something was

Melissa Anthony amiss because of the way that Melissa had responded. This led her to believe that the killer was present when she made the call. As the investigation continued, police were informed that two cousins had heard sounds of fighting coming from the couple’s home on the day of the murder. Melissa’s husband received further bad news when detectives informed him that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advised that he be charged with murder. But then, like a crime novel, the case of the murdered teacher began to take a series of interesting turns… WOMENATTACKED The first thing that happened was when police questioned the cousins who had allegedly heard sounds of fighting while passing the couple’s house. One of the cousins denied that he was in the location when the murder occurred. Detectives promptly took both cousins into custody. They also released Melissa’s husband a few days before he

was to be charged. Eventually, the two cousins were also released after detectives failed to connect them to the crime. The second thing that happened was that a string of bizarre attacks on women began to occur in the bauxite community. A few weeks after Melissa Anthony’s murder, 29-yearold Annette Persaud awoke in her Block 22, Wismar home, to find a man standing over her. She said that despite the darkness, she recognised him as a Wismar resident who was known for similar attacks on females. When Persaud tried to push him away, the intruder stabbed her in the right thigh. He then pressed the knife to Persaud’s throat while warning her to be quiet. Fortunately, a neighbour heard the woman’s screams and called out to her. This distracted the intruder who fled through the back door. She would later discover that the man had fled with her bicycle and a bag containing $15,000. A few days later, Monique Dow, also of Wismar, was attacked, stabbed and robbed by a man who had sneaked into her home. Some days later, 25-yearold Linden resident Nadira Sahadeo, called ‘Cindy’ was in her kitchen when a man entered and attacked her. The intruder took Sahadeo to her bedroom where he tried to strip off her clothing. She managed to slash the man to the face with his own knife, but the man also stabbed her three times before fleeing with a gold chain and ring.

Police later retrieved the suspect’s knife from Sahadeo’s yard. Persons who saw the fleeing man said he was tall, slim and of African ancestry. Annette Persaud also gave a similar description of her assailant and said that he wore dark clothing. At first, suspicion fell on a young man with previous arrests for attacks on women from the area. He was questioned by detectives, but eventually released when it was established that he was ailing and apparently physically incapable of carrying out the attacks. In addition, the man was still in custody when one of the attacks occurred. Eventually, some detectives began to look at the spate of assaults and began to see a pattern in them and the murder of teacher Melissa Anthony. For one thing, if Melissa’s husband is to be believed, his wife and all the other victims were attacked when their spouses were away. This coincidence suggested that someone was checking on their movements. Then in late October 2008, police arrested and charged a 17-year-old boy from Wismar in connection with the two knife attacks on Annette Persaud and Monique Daw. He was subsequently remanded. According to some police sources, the suspect was also

questioned about the murder of Melissa Anthony. He reportedly denied killing her. ”Some people still have him as a suspect, even though he did not do it,” a close female relative of Shane Anthony told me recently. “They still have him accused for something he did not do. Jehovah knows (who the killer is) and He will reveal it in His own time.” The relative pointed to the fact that there were similar attacks on women following Melissa’s murder. “The police need to do their work; they did not.” Back then, some of Melissa Anthony’s close relatives had appeared convinced that someone other than the alleged Linden serial attacker killed her, and that the killer was someone whom she knew well. They say that some Lindeners know more than they are saying, but are reluctant to confide in the police. The relatives have urged them to do so. If you have any information about this unusual case or any other, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office, or by telephone. We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58452, 2258458, 22-58465, or 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email a d d r e s s mjdragon@hotmail.com.

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

President Granger on integrity: Part 1 President Granger has submitted integrity as one of the requirements the prospective GECOM chairman must embody. Integrity is essentially intertwined with moral values. The question of what are moral values has preoccupied the minds of all the great philosophers throughout history with little or no agreement. My discussion of integrity will take two forms. First, I will lay the philosophical foundations and in a followup column, look at the Guyanese situation to see if the Granger Cabinet has integrity. Part of this discussion was contained in a 2006 column on the subject. One of the great debates in philosophy is the triangular disagreement on what is morally right and morally wrong - between Hume, on the one hand, Kant on the other, and a separate contribution from the utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. It is definitely outside the scope of a newspaper column to discuss the philosophies of Hume, Kant and Bentham on morals. But very brief notes should suffice. Most students who studied philosophy would know that all the past philosophers asked the same question –

What is good? Hume broke with tradition by asking – What do we mean by good? The first traditional question in philosophy centres on the search for norms - that is, for standards or principles of right and wrong. Hume’s question, in contrast, is the pursuit for facts about what moral judgements are - what sorts of things are deemed to be good. Hume argued that moral principles are neither divine edicts nor discoverable by reason. Hume contended that moral values cannot come through reason. His position rests on his approach to epistemology, which has four assumptions; (1) – Thought consists of having ideas. (2) – Ideas are derived from impressions of senses. (3) – Every thought that something exists is a factual claim. (4) - Factual claim can only be established through observation. What Hume is saying here is that when we arrive at moral principles, we came through the route of sense impression. He wrote, “Morality is more properly felt than judged of.” We accept moral rights and reject moral wrongs from our emotions, not through reason. Reason cannot settle moral question, just as how it

cannot determine whether a portrait is beautiful or not. Kant disagreed, accepted that reason can lead us to moral judgement, and came up with a brilliant rebuttal, but to my mind he doesn’t demolish Hume. Let’s summarize Kant. He takes two positions: (1) Scientific inquiry can never reveal to us its principles that we know hold without exception. For, example, science, based on experience, reveals to us physical laws that hold true, but science cannot tell us about these concerns in the future. (2) Moral principles, however, hold without exception. For example, if it is wrong to hurt babies, then it would be wrong for anyone, at any time to do so. The reader can see clearly here that Kant is saying that moral principles hold without exception; scientific investigations cannot reveal what hold without exception. Then Kant goes on to a brilliant proposition. Moral principles are al-

ways expressed in the imperative – “do not steal” or “be kind to others.” Now since this moral imperative must hold without exception, it is different from a hypothetical imperative, which is really about something we ought to do if such and such an end is desired. This imperative is opposed to the moral imperative that holds unconditionally. What all of this means is that human beings should do what they do because it is right, and not because of any other purpose say, because of happiness or because it pleases your friend. To do so is not to act morally. Kant went on to argue that you should perfo r m your moral obligation because it is your moral duty, not because it is asked of

us. The fine part of his theory is when he said that it is not the effects or consequences of your moral act that determine whether it is good or bad. These are not within your control. What is in your control is the intent with which you act. According to Kant, because a morally good intention is one that acts solely for the sake of doing what is right, it follows that there is no moral worth in s a y, h e l p i n g o t h e r s b e cause you feel sorry for them. There is a moral worth in helping others because it is the right thing to do. F i n a l l y, t h e r e i s t h e moral philosophy of the English thinker, Jeremy Bentham. He argues that the morally best decision

Frederick Kissoon is one that produces, compared with all other possible alternative acts, the greatest amount of happiness with everyone considered. What this means is that moral judgement must bring the greatest happiness to the greatest numbers. Moral judgement of Guyana’s leaders has never done this.

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

The ugliness of a market full of counterfeit products Once again the spectre of questionable imports entering Guyana’s market is raising its ugly head. Just last week the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) announced that it refused entry of an unsatisfactory shipment of foodstuff after testing samples, as it does, on all/most shipments of imported foods. Last January the GA-FDD also stopped a shipment of flavoured milk originating in the Middle East. The product was found to be adulterated with palm oil which is expressly prohibited by the Laws of Guyana Food and Drug Act Chapter 34:04 Part II, Section 7 on food standard. This standard has been rigorously applied by the Department, not least because milk and milk products are generally consumed by children and toddlers. Over the past 16 months approximately, this Department has denied entry of several shipments of other milkbased products and two importers of condensed milk had moved to the courts to challenge the decision but they

lost. The GA-FDD Head, Marlan Cole, promised that his Department will continue to ensure that substandard goods, including counterfeits, are not released into our local market. The AFC’s responses to these recent occurrences were: “Not again! The risks to our nation’s health are too great.” We also recall vividly the strenuous fight fought by the private sector in 2013/4 to get the then government to get up and do something about the flood of counterfeit products that were appearing on supermarket on grocery shop shelves alongside or instead of their locally manufactured items. Even equipment that our authorized distributors were importing was not exempt from the ongoing counterfeiting scams. Of course, this dramatic situation had an adverse effect on:Ø The commercial sector (wholesale and retail stores included) Ø The manufacturing sector including the producers of processed foods, furniture, tools, construction materials, kitchen and other household items and equip-

ment Ø Services providers including fashion designers and craft producers Ø The tug and ferry owners who ship stone and wood from quarries and forests. In short, the livelihoods of these Guyanese entrepreneurs were put at serious risk. The biggest losers, though, were the average citizens who, after being gulled by cheaper prices, were subjected to bodily injuries from brush cutters, chain saws and other equipment they purchased right here. The nation began to learn about the pervasiveness of counterfeiting when Ansa McAl called in the media in 2014 to demonstrate how several products manufactured by the renowned Proctor and Gamble, for example, had been counterfeited and were being sold in the local marketplace. These products included Head and Shoulders, Pantene Pro V, the Olay Total Effects product line and others for which they are the Authorized D i s t r i b u t o r s . Then head of Ansa McAl, Beverley Harper, had this to

say: “It (prevalence of counterfeited products) is unscrupulous to the extent that they are actually defrauding the consumer”. She noted that her company had recorded a 25% drop in sales for the Head and Shoulders line, and a 30% drop in the sale of Heineken beer, which was also being counterfeited. It was, sometimes still is, very difficult to identify the fake products, unless a buyer looks very closely. The differences are there, e.g. the placement of expiry dates, the colour and texture of counterfeited cosmetics, the stitching of high-end shoes or flour bags. Representatives of some of those world-renowned manufacturers had already been flying into Guyana since 2012 to investigate the counterfeit complaints. They carried out their own visual and laboratory tests and some ‘soft-shoe investigations’ and then they instituted court proceedings against the local culprits whom they were able to ferret out. We (AFC) were told about technicians going into certain warehouses and witnessing the actual ex-

change of unknown brand plates on newly-arrived equipment with the reputable Stihl brand plates. Investigators also found a food distribution centre in the Ruimveldt area that was dealing in fake Del Monte (and other) canned foods. The cans leaving the socalled distributor’s warehouse carried Del Monte labels that the naked eye could not identify as fake. Their contents, though, without exception, failed every test for wholesome preserved food. This Ruimveldt operator was also taken to court. As if that were not enough, the counterfeiters began to target a few Guyanese staples that we are particularly proud of – Golden Cream Margarine and Thunderbolt flour. Both Sterling Products Limited and NAMILCO discovered the counterfeits on their own and instituted their own measures to stop the distribution of the fakes. NAMILCO was first alerted by complaints from bakers that their flour-based products were “discoloured and heavy”. The company

investigated and found some visual differences, e.g. the flour was grey not white, and the counterfeiter ’s bags weighed 39kg instead of 45kg. So, what if they had waited for the PPP government to make a move, to do something to stop the importation of horribly inferior clothing and fabrics; cosmetics that damaged ladies’ and men’s faces and hair; pharmaceuticals that were just plaster, syrup and sugar; brush cutters with moving parts made with plastic instead of metal? If they had, they would have been thoroughly undersold by now, outfoxed by imported inferior and useless counterfeits. They would have been out of business, were it not for the strong resolve the companies had to stand and fight. The AFC has been in full support of the proactive stance taken by the Ministry of Public Health, the GAFDD, the GNBS and GRA to find and destroy counterfeit products, police the ports and protect our citizens’ health.

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

My column

Are we wasting foreign currency? Guyana spends a lot of money on food imports, although the country is considered one of the more self-sufficient countries in the region. It can actually feed itself but then again, with disposable income people tend to seek a few luxuries. I still remember the hullabaloo when there was what was called import restriction. The foods in this category were potatoes, sardines, salt fish, split peas and other lentils and of course, wheat flour. Needless to say, the hue and cry that went up was deafening. People started to complain that they were being starved. I still hear that flour was an ethnic necessity without which people would die. The government of the day was trying to teach import substitution or as the late Dr Ptolemy Reid said, import replacement. The cassava flour experiment was a failure, because the people never put their minds to it. However, the canned foods and the salt fish were indeed replaced, that to this day, Guyana is in a position to export its own salted fish. Most people alive today do not know the taste of the imported cod. Potatoes are easily replaced with local ground provisions, but there are the few who insist on this foreign product. Just this past week the news came that some Caribbean countries had placed a

ban on corned beef from Brazil. The contention was that rotten beef was being used to produce this canned food that we spend millions of dollars on. The culprit is said to be brands such as Anglo. But I happened to notice that there was a brand of Grace corned beef that said ‘Made in Brazil.’ The talk is the high exchange rate. Businessmen want huge sums of foreign currency, and I am willing to bet that most of this money is to buy foreign foods that are not necessities. But if the buyers insist on eating these things, then they will have to pay even more. The fallout will be on the government, because people are going to be calling for more money since their pay will not allow them to sustain the foreign habit. I was one who was weaned off the canned food. I go to the market place and I buy the greens and vegetables on display. I go to the butchery and I buy fresh cuts. I am a lover of fish; I can eat fish seven days a week. Incidentally, in the metropolis, fish is perhaps the most expensive meat, alongside the crustaceans. In Guyana, fish is one of the cheapest meats. The only foreign input in fish is the petrol. Many of my friends eat local, perhaps because we grew up hearing the slogan, ‘be local buy local’. I still remember parents feeding their babies of plan-

tain flour. They boiled it then strained it so that the baby’s stomach would not have to work a lot. These days we buy Gerber’s because we could afford it. No more cassava porridge or even plantain porridge, because our taste is for cereal. But even then, we made our own cereal from rice. That is a dead art. In those days the lesson was that when we buy local we were creating employment for the local farmers. We do the opposite when we buy foreign foods, but as former colonials we feel obligated to put money into foreign pockets. Last week the Government Analyst Food and Drug Department put a clamp on a large shipment of tuna that appeared to be a knock-off from the Brunswick brand. I didn’t even know that we imported tuna in tins. I can imagine what else is being imported, using up foreign currency. Products made in China are all stamped big and bold—Made in China. This tuna that the Analyst stopped was made in PRC. The importer said that it stood for People’s Republic of China. I am looking to see if there are any other Made in China products with this PRC label. We should have been further ahead, because about four decades ago we tried setting up canneries. These failed because of the paucity of electricity and a lack of will.

I hear the clamour for foreign currency, and I wonder whether the bulk is for the foreign foods. Four or five years ago, the Caricom Heads of Government voted that Guyana chair the agricultural sub-committee, because the region wanted to cut back on the US$6 billion food import bill. That is a lot of money and even if Guyana could position itself to get US$2billion of that money, one can imagine what it would do to the economy. Yet as a people we appear to be prepared to buy just about everything that the foreign country makes. I could not help but notice that one airline was seeking an exchange rate of $250 to the United States dollar. This could only happen because our economic situation is such that we can travel at

will. For a poor, struggling people with a population of fewer than a million people, we have at least six airlines. We are doing well. Someone recently said to me that the Cubans come every week and spend at least US$3 million. I do not know if that money gets into the system, but it must be around somewhere. I do know when Guyanese came from abroad to enjoy the Golden Jubilee they came with so much money that the exchange rate was drastically lowered. In fact, the cambios were hard pressed to buy. Things were good. I do not know how the situation is so different, given that foreign currency is still coming into the country in more than drops. It has to be something else.

Adam Harris One school of thought is that there are people who are listening to the political opposition and trying their utmost to make the government look bad. And while this is happening, there are those who are saying that the government is at fault.

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Water Safety – Water for sustainable development Water security can be defined as the ability to access sufficient quantities of clean water to maintain adequate standards of food and goods production, proper sanitation, and sustainable health care. Water, in absolute terms, is not in short supply planetwide. But, according to the United Nations water organization, UN-Water, the total usable freshwater supply for ecosystems and humans is less than one percent of all freshwater resources. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of the population increase in the last century. Specifically, water withdrawals are predicted to increase by 50 per-

cent by 2025 in developing countries, and 18 per cent in developed countries. By 2025, 800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. Many may ask what we can do to alleviate this situation. First, we can manage our water better: take better care of our water resources, clean up the water that mankind has polluted, and improve upon current water purification technologies clean water access systems. For example: in developing countries, 70 percent of industrial waste is dumped

untreated into waters where it pollutes the usable water supply. Many pollutants in industrial waste, and those in water produced by mining and oil and gas operations, have been proven to cause immediate and chronic illnesses, birth defects, and immediate or eventual death in human populations. These pollutants have also affected crops and livestock, frequently destroying both. This practice of dumping industrial, mining and oil and gas waste and “produced water” from those processes should be eliminated, and the polluted water should be cleaned up. Access to safe water and

sanitation is now a fundamental human right. But water management also requires realistic ways of recovering delivery costs. An agreed definition of water security is vitally important in that context. Many observers have identified water as an urgent security issue. Few issues, therefore, have the potential to create friction more than the management of water shared across international borders, especially now with serious scarcity problems on the horizon. In its analytical brief, UNWater echoed its support for including water security on the UN Security Council agenda. The brief also calls for: · Recognition of the need to include water security in the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals; · A supportive policy environment, including innovative financial mechanisms to achieve water security; . Increases in capacity development on a wide range of needs, from human to financial, institutional, technological and service provisioning. By formally including water security on its agenda, the Council would recognize the direct impact of water on human security issues: either as a trigger, a potential target, or a contributing factor. Such recognition would acknowledge that water insecurity poses serious risk and that water security could contribute to achieving increased regional peace and security in the long term. KEYASPECTS OF WATER SECURITY A summary of core elements needed to achieve and

maintain water security, synthesized from a broad range of sources, include: · Access to safe and sufficient drinking water at an affordable cost in order to meet basic needs, including sanitation and hygiene, and safeguard health and levels of well-being; · Protection of livelihoods, human rights, and cultural and recreational values; · Preservation and protection of ecosystems in water allocation and management systems in order to maintain their ability to deliver and sustain functioning of essential ecosystem services; · Water supplies for socio-economic development and activities (such as energy, transport, industry, tourism); · Collection and treatment of used water to protect human life and the environment from pollution; · Collaborative approaches to trans-boundary water resources management within and between countries to promote freshwater sustainability and cooperation; · The ability to cope with uncertainties and risks of water-related hazards, such as floods, droughts and pollution, among others; and, · Good governance and accountability, and the due consideration of the interests of all stakeholders through: appropriate and effective legal regimes; transparent, participatory and accountable institutions; properly planned, operated and maintained infrastructure; and capacity development. · In December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution “Inter-

national Decade (2018-2028) for action - Water for Sustainable Development”, to help put a greater focus on water during the next ten years. Emphasizing that water is critical for sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and hunger, UN Member States expressed deep concern over the lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene and over water-related disasters, scarcity and pollution being exacerbated by urbanization, population growth, desertification, drought and climate change. The new Decade will focus on the sustainable development and integrated management of water resources for the achievement of social, economic and environmental objectives and on the implementation and promotion of related programmes and projects, as well as on the furtherance of cooperation and partnership at all levels in order to help to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the resolution, UN Member States invited the Secretary-General, with the support of UN-Water, to take appropriate steps, within existing resources, to plan and organize the activities of the Decade at the global, regional and country levels. To set the agenda in motion, UN-Water, in its 26th meeting in Geneva in February 2017, decided on the establishment of a Task Force to facilitate its support to the planning and organisation. The Decade will commence on World Water Day 22 March 2018, and terminate on World Water Day, 22 March 2028.

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

Things you need to know about food poisoning By Dr Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Food poisoning is a very common occurrence worldwide. Patients that have food poisoning will go through the bout and most often recover. A small few can become significantly dehydrated or develop a systemic infection. Children and the elderly are most often susceptible to this. Today I will highlight some important facts about food poisoning so that we can all be more aware about this common condition. WHAT IS FOOD POISONING? Food poisoning is an illness that can cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Food poisoning is caused by eating food that contains germs, such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Viruses are the most common causes of food poisoning. The norovirus is the most common viral cause of food poisoning. Two examples of bacteria

that are common causes of food poisoning are Salmonella and E. coli. HOW CAN GERMS GET IN FOOD? Germs can get in food in different ways: · People who are sick can spread their germs to the food they cook if they do not wash their hands before they touch the food. · Germs can live in or on food. If food is not washed or cooked enough, the germs in it or on it can infect people. Foods that are left for long periods without proper storage will also harbor germs. · Germs from one food can get on another food. This can happen when a person uses the same cutting board or knife to prepare different foods. WHATARE THE SYMPTOMS OF FOOD POISONING? Symptoms can happen right after a person eats the food, or not until days or weeks later. Common symp-

toms of food poisoning include: · Nausea or vomiting · Belly pain · Diarrhea that can be watery or bloody · Fever Other symptoms can include problems with the nervous system, such as blurry vision or feeling dizzy. But these problems are not as common. IS THEREANYTHING I CAN DO ON MY OWN TO FEEL BETTER? Yes. You can: · Drink enough liquids so that your body does not get “dehydrated.” Dehydration is when the body loses too much water. · Eat small meals that do not have a lot of fat in them · Rest, if you feel tired WHEN SHOULD I SEE A DOCTOR? See your doctor if you: · Have severe belly pain · Cannot eat or drink · Vomit blood or have blood in your bowel movements · Have a fever higher than

100.4°F (38°C) Young children and older adults with symptoms should make sure to see their doctor or nurse. That’s because these groups can get dehydrated more easily. DO I NEED TO HAVE TESTS? Many people do not need to have tests. But it’s possible that your doctor will do tests to check if you are dehydrated or to figure out which germ caused your food poisoning. Your doctor might do: · Blood tests · Urine tests · Tests on a sample of your bowel movement HOW IS FOOD POISONING TREATED? Many people do not need any treatment, because their symptoms will get better on their own. But some people need: · Antibiotics – These medicines treat bacterial infections. · Fluids through an “IV” – An IV is a thin tube that goes into your vein. People with a

lot of diarrhea or vomiting might need IV fluids to treat or prevent dehydration. Doctors do not usually recommend that people take anti-diarrhea medicines. That’s because these medicines can make the symptoms last longer. CAN FOOD POISONING BE PREVENTED? You can reduce your chance of getting food poisoning or spreading germs that can cause food poisoning by: · Washing your hands after changing diapers, going to the bathroom, blowing your nose, touching animals, or taking out the trash · Staying home from work or school until you feel better (if you are sick) · Paying attention to food safety. Tips include: · Not drinking unpasteurized milk or foods made with it · Washing fruits and vegetables well before eating them · Keeping the refrigerator colder than 40°F (4.4°C) and

Dr. Zulfikar Bux the freezer below 0°F (-18°C) · Cooking meat and seafood until well done · Cooking eggs until the yolk is firm · Washing hands, knives, and cutting boards after they touch raw food. Pregnant women and people whose bodies have trouble fighting off infections can do more things to prevent getting food poisoning. If you are pregnant or have trouble fighting off infections, talk to your doctor about other ways to prevent getting food poisoning.

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Kaieteur News

SUNDAY SPECIAL NEW GPC DENIES FAILING TO SATISFY 2015 DRUGS CONTRACT The New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) has categorically rejected allegations that it is yet to supply the drugs for a contract that was awarded to it by the PPP regime three days before the 2015 General and Regional Elections. The company, which is owned by Dr. Ranjisingh “Bobby” Ramroop, made it clear in a statement that it has supplied all drugs for its contracts with the government for 2015, including all rollover contracts. New GPC said that delivery notes and other necessary documents are available as proof of this statement and can be inspected. These however were not attached as evidence or supplied in its statement to the media. The company is contending that the Auditor General’s Office, which would have conducted the audit during 2016, can attest to the veracity of this statement. The New GPC’s remarks come in wake of a report that the Ministry of Public Health is still awaiting the supply of the drugs for the 2015 contract. The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Public Health, Terrence Esseboom, told Kaieteur News that “up to now, there is nothing to show” for the $1B cheque that was received by NEW GPC on

was also the explanation for the Albouystown ‘warehouse’ lease.” It added, “The NEWGPC is concerned about the apparent compulsion by public officials to use the Kaieteur News to smear the reputation it has laboriously rebuilt over the last two decades. ”NEWGPC calls upon the politicians to desist from using these types of fake news as diversionary tactics from very real problems the health sector is facing. It is our fiduciary duty to the shareholders of NEWGPC, which includes the government, to leave no stone unturned to defend their interests.” NEWGPC also noted that it prides itself on its professional approach, as the leading Caribbean manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, to maintain the supply chain in an area of national life where it is literally a matter of life and death for citizens. MONDAY EDITION PRADOVILLE 2 PROBE…JAGDEO CANNOT HIDE BEHIND VEIL OF IMMUNITY – PM

May 8, 2015. The official said, “We are still waiting for drugs New GPC was paid for. Nothing was received for it. And they received contracts after that.” Esseboom reminded that the payment arrangement which allowed New GPC to uplift the entire billiondollar cheque awarded to it by the former regime was contrary to all the country’s procurement procedures. Furthermore, the company also stated, “We note also the billions of dollars in sole-sourced contracts to other pharma suppliers, including ANSA McAL in 2015, 2016 and 2017. We expect the authorities would have better explanations for the contracts that were all sole-sourced, other than for ‘emergencies’, which

There have been many arguments proffered recently that former President and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo is protected by the veil of immunity offered by Article 182 of the Constitution when it comes to the controversial Pradoville Two case. The matter is one which saw members of the Jagdeo Cabinet, among other officials, benefitting from state lands at “pepper corn prices.” Article 182 of the Constitution provides protection for those who hold and held the Office of the President to be immune from criminal or civil proceedings. However, Prime Minister and First Vice President, Moses Nagamootoo, who is also an attorney, believes that given the circumstances surrounding the Pradoville Two matter, the Constitution does not offer protection for a former President. Nagamootoo argues that Jagdeo will have to prove that his involvement in the case and the manner in which he acquired lands at

Pradoville two was to the benefit of the state and not for personal enrichment. The Prime Minister also articulated that the veil of immunity offered in the Constitution is not sacrosanct. ”My opinion is that the Article in the Constitution behind which Jagdeo wants to hide to use as an iron clad protection could not possibly apply in a situation where you act for your personal benefit. Indeed the Constitution notes that anything the President does while in or out of office, he is not answerable for those acts.” The Prime Minister said that even with the aforementioned in mind, there is a “big but”. Nagamootoo argued that based on his interpretation of the Constitution, Jagdeo would have had to carry out his actions in the exercise of his official duty and responsibility to the state. ”He didn’t acquire that land for his official duty or buy it in the name of the tax payers. So trying to use the veil of immunity as a fig leaf to cover what is patently a malfeasance in office for personal gain, does not offer any protection for the former president. I don’t think we are at a crossroads in this regard, though I do not speak for the police or prosecutors. But I believe there are legitimate grounds to develop a case against the former president.” TUESDAY EDITION CONTRACT FOR EMERGENCY PHARMACEUTICALS …GPHC BOARD TO EXAMINE PROCEDURE USED – MINISTER LAWRENCE -INSISTS SHE DID NOT BREACH PROCUREMENT LAWS – SAYS LAWYER BEING ENGAGED TO DEAL WITH DELINQUENT SUPPLIERS Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence has attempted for a second time, to address perceptions that corruption surrounds the procedure used for the award of a recent contract for emergency phar-

Sunday March 26, 2017

maceuticals. At a press conference held at the National Communications Network (NCN) Channel 11 Monday, Lawrence insisted that she did not breach the procurement laws, while noting that the Board of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) will be examining the route taken, among other matters. At the briefing with the media which was broadcast live, the Minister also spoke to various issues, which included the state in which she found the health sector and the circumstances which led to a contract for emergency drugs. In her opening statement, the Minister said that the GPHC, like the Ministry of Public Health, has been in a crisis for some time. Lawrence said that on February 3, last, she requested a meeting with the Directors, Senior Management Officials and the Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital, Alan Johnson. She said that the reason for the meeting was due to the fact that she received reports of a shortage of drugs at the hospital. ”I met with that team and during our discussions to ascertain why there was a shortage, I was told a few things. I was told that there were over 200 drugs which were in short supply.

And there were several reasons for this: one was that the suppliers who should have been supplying drugs around that time and a few months earlier, some of them indicated their inability fulfill their contractual arrangements. Another reason was that there were some suppliers who did supply a few items on their contracts but have since indicated their inability to supply the remaining drugs listed on the contract,” the Minister recounted She said that the aforementioned, compounded by the fact that in the previous year, there were issues of short supply by some companies, led to a shortage of drugs in the hospital. ”Upon further questioning, I was also told that in order to ‘fill that gap’; the hospital was buying these drugs on a needs basis from the private institutions. And that was quite alarming to me, the fact that the importers could not supply based on their contract but they were supplying the private market,” Lawrence noted. The Minister said that the situation put a strain on the hospital to be able to dispense services at the level it ought to; hence, it was in a crisis. Lawrence said she intervened by having a stock count done. It was subsequently discovered that there (Continued on page 33)

Sunday March 26, 2017

(From page 32) were 287 drugs which were out of stock.

Kaieteur News

Currently being processed are the boat permits. WEDNESDAY EDITION

NEW GPC’S 2015 DRUG CONTRACT BEING INVESTIGATED – HEALTH MINISTER An investigation has been launched into the billion-dollar drug contract that was awarded by the former regime to New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) just three days before the General and Regional Elections in 2015. Minister of Health Volda Lawrence confirmed this during a press conference which was held Monday at the National Communications Network (NCN) Channel 11. Lawrence said, “We are investigating this matter. The investigation has been going slowly because documentation cannot be accounted for, so there is presently a search for those documents.” Additionally, the Minister said that other companies are also being investigated by the Food and Drugs Department for their importation of certain drugs. Lawrence declined to name these companies, stating that investigations are still ongoing and that some are with the police. In the meantime, New GPC has categorically rejected the allegations that it is yet to supply the drugs for the 2015 contract. ‘BACKTRACK’ REGULARIZATION…SURINAME’S ARMY, POLICE, FOOD INSPECTORS TO BE STATIONED AT NICKERIE CROSSING The regularization of an age-old ‘backtrack’ crossing point in Nickerie, Suriname, seems to be taking shape, with authorities there announcing plans to build a checkpoint and landing stage. The announcements were made during visits to the area by Minister of Justice, Jennifer van Dijk-Silos. According to a report of Suriname’s online news, starnieuws.com last weekend, consultations have been held between the ministers of Public Works, Transportation and Communications (OWT & C), Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (LVV), Planning, Land and Forest and Defense over a period of time on the issue. Those talks also involved District Commissioner (DC) of Nickerie, Wedperkash Joeloemsingh. Nickerie is a border area in Suriname with Corentyne, Berbice. For years now, it has been a passenger speedboat drop-off point for persons visiting and leaving Suriname. It has been popular especially with thousands of Guyanese who live in Suriname and also quite a few others who are trading. However, the crossing has been largely unregulated with drugs, wanted persons and uninhibited smuggling. The building of the checkpoint and landing stage, according to the news report, will take three months.

GOVT. FINALLY SINKS PARKINGMETER DEAL – POLICE TO PROTECT VEHICLE OWNERS AGAINST CLAMPERS Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan signed a new order Tuesday suspending the Parking Meter Project for a period of three months. Bulkan’s order followed deliberations by Cabinet which ultimately instructed him to formally suspend the operation of the by-laws governing the parking meter project with immediate effect. In addition, Cabinet also instructed Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan to advise the Commissioner of Police to ensure that as of Wednesday, citizens and their vehicles would receive the protection of the Guyana Police Force to prevent them and their vehicles from being unduly hindered or restrained in any way whatsoever by the Georgetown City Council and its agents. Speaking with Kaieteur News, Minister Bulkan admitted that there was some degree of ambiguity with his initial order directing City Hall to suspend the project. However, he said that this has been cured. He added that the Council was given an order and should have acted accordingly, but failing to do so lead to Cabinet’s decision to formally suspend the project. According to Bulkan in a subsequent statement, City Council would now be advised to inform the company, Smart City Solutions, that paid parking would be suspended. He said that the company would be invited to enter into negotiations, and at that stage, it would be up to the company to determine what its response to the new action of the government would be. This order came two days after a majority vote by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council sought to defy the advice of Minister Bulkan to suspend the project. Cabinet, two Mondays ago, had requested Bulkan to advise City Hall to suspend the project for three months to

facilitate consultations with citizens of Georgetown. Responding to the advice, Town Clerk Royston King had written Bulkan saying that the suspension would be impossible since the contract M&CC signed with Smart City Solutions does not provide for a suspension of any kind, and would result in a breach of the contract. King told the Minister that the M&CC would not be in a position to face the legal, economic and other implications of a breach of the contract. Ultimately, King had asked for more clarity on Cabinet’s recommendation to facilitate a full discussion by the full council of the M&CC. Meanwhile, small business owner Michael Rodrigues, on Tuesday afternoon expressed his frustration by using a sledgehammer to smash off a ‘boot’ or ‘clamp’ from the front right wheel of his Toyota Raum motor car. His vehicle was parked opposite Harvey’s Furniture and Appliance Store on Regent Street. The boot was placed on his wheel by a SCS staffer after the man refused to pay for parking. Rodrigues said that his vehicle was clamped around 11:00hrs. According to Rodrigues, he resorted to removing the clamp because he is planning to take care of himself, since it seems as though the government has left Guyanese “at the mercy of Tiberius”. “Smart City Solutions has locked my wheel. I will be taking off those locks myself. I don’t know what the consequences will be, but in light of the Mayor and City Council not caring, the government not caring, I myself have lost care.” After removing the clamp from his vehicle, Rodrigues was approached by a Constable of the City Constabulary. However, the frustrated man entered his vehicle and quietly drove away. GUYANESE NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OIL DEALS, BENEFITS – PRIVATE SECTOR COMMISSION Devastating effects can follow when a nation’s resources are mismanaged; when various forms of corruption are allowed to take the steering wheel instead of effective

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systems of governance. Guyana, a resource-rich nation, has great experience in this regard. Its forestry sector is an ideal example of demonstrating what happens when checks and balances are not in place; when the nation is left in the dark about what it is getting in return for the exploitation of its resources. With this as its premise, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) is taking a firm stance when it comes to Guyana’s looming multibillion-dollar oil and gas industry. Members of this body insist that given Guyana’s lessons in other sectors, Guyanese need to know more

about the oil deals that are currently in place, and what the nation and its people stand to benefit. Specifically making these points recently was the PSC Chairman, Eddie Boyer. ”Guyanese need to know what is really going on out there in that Stabroek block… how many oil companies are out there, what they are finding, how we are going to work on policing these people in ensuring that Guyanese get what they deserve for their resources, and what deals were signed between those companies and the Government of Guyana,” the (Continued on page 34)

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Sunday March 26, 2017

(From page 33) businessman stated. He added, “They (the government) should be preparing the private sector and the Guyanese people for the future that awaits them with this oil sector. We cannot begin to imagine the future that lies ahead of us with what is going on out there. The carbon credits, the other minerals out there…what is out there can really propel Guyana to the next level.” Other members of the Private Sector who spoke with Kaieteur News indicated that the Government should also push to hold more seminars and programmes that would make Guyanese more aware of how they intend to handle the coming oil sector. They also called for the speedy reform of legislation governing the oil and gas sector. PRISONER TAKES CONTROL OF COURT COMPOUND IN HOUR-LONG STAND-OFF A prisoner taunted a police rank to shoot him during unrest between prisoners and police officers Tuesday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. The episode lasted for approximately an hour, during which persons were prevented from entering or exiting the court compound. The ordeal attracted a sizable crowd of spectators. The drama unfolded at around 10a.m., as three murder accused – Orin Arthur, Yori Varswyk and Steven Prescott – were being escorted out of the prisoners’ van. Police ranks struggled to control Arthur as the prisoner demanded to speak with his attorney. An outraged Arthur flung off his loose handcuffs. The prisoner reportedly threw away two other handcuffs. The handcuffs landed in the compound of the St. Andrew’s Kirk, situated across the road from the courthouse. A passerby went to retrieve the handcuffs. A few minutes later, a heated argument broke out between Arthur and a police constable who was armed with a high-powered rifle. From all indications, the prisoners had refused to be placed inside the holding area, where other prisoners stood.

US$13.3M between them, with commitments up to US$10M. GEA, GRA IN SHOWDOWN OVER FUELBOAT

Efforts made by police ranks to place the men in confinement proved futile as they were seen sitting and walking about in an area in the Police Outpost where female prisoners and juveniles are kept. The rank, who appeared agitated, was seen pointing his weapon at Arthur who was standing behind grillwork in the Police Outpost. Arthur continued his tirade as he demanded the armed police rank to shoot at him. A series of expletives were used. Another rank subsequently requested observers, including reporters, to “clear” the stairway. As a result, persons proceeded onto the balcony on the upper flat of the courthouse where they continued viewing the commotion. An Assistant Superintendent of Police was heard shouting “reporters please go in court”, as another police rank threatened to arrest a reporter who remained on the stairs. Meanwhile, Prescott requested to speak with media operatives, while Arthur was seen talking with an attorney. Eventually the prisoners calmed down and were escorted back to the Camp Street prison. The three murder accused were brought to court Tuesday for continuation of a preliminary inquiry into the murder of Trevor Abrams, a former Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) engineer. How-

ever, the prisoners did not appear before a Magistrate since they were taken back to the penitentiary. Based on information, the chaos did not affect court proceedings. About two weeks prior, Varswyk had refused to go through the prisoners’ chute which opens into the courtroom after complaining that the area was filthy. A police rank was later seen escorting the murder accused up to the courtroom using the stairs where members of the public would gather. Another police rank was then seen sweeping out the prisoners’ chute with a broom. Earlier this year, Arthur and Varswyk were committed to stand trial at the High Court in Georgetown for the murder of former Sterling Products Limited guard, Wilfred Stewart, which occurred on December 24, at Providence, East Bank Demerara. THURSDAY EDITION $230 TO US$1 – EXCHANGE RATE FOR US DOLLAR HITS ALL-TIME HIGH Something noteworthy is happening in the local foreign currency trade, with rates hitting up to $230 in one city bank this week. The matter has raised alarm bells for the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), with Central Bank on Wednesday saying that it

will investigate. According to the GMSA, the matter was raised at a recently-held meeting of its Board of Directors, who deliberated deeply on the “woes” of the manufacturing sector. ”The board is disappointed at the rate of deterioration of the Guyana dollar and has estimated that the real exchange rate, when available, being used for the purchase of foreign exchange is $230.00, for the replacement of imported inputs into the sectors.” And indeed, it appeared that at least one bank was charging that much. On Wednesday, Kaieteur News’ Accounts Department reported that it was told by the Foreign Trade department of Republic Bank, Water Street, that the selling rate for US for wiring large amounts was $230. However, that would be in stark contrast to the rates being advertised by commercial banks on Wednesday. Trinidadian-owned Republic Bank’s online selling rates were for electronic transfers- $210 with buying at $208.50 for US$1. Notes were being sold for $210 while purchases were at $207. The website of the privately-run Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) seemed a little way off as it was buying notes for $200 and selling for $210. Under Central Bank regulations, the spread is not supposed to be more than $3. For others (drafts and transfers) the rates at GBTI were $210 while purchases were $204. When contacted Wednesday, Governor of Central Bank, Dr. Gobind Ganga, expressed surprise at the development, as his information differed from the findings presented by Kaieteur News. He said that indeed he had heard of a $230 rate but this, he was told, was only for credit cards. The official pointed out that credit cards have higher charges and fees. According to his figures, the average weighted purchased of US by commercial banks was around $215, while sale of the US dollar was hovering just over $219. As of this week, commercial banks reportedly had over

A major investigation has been launched into how a fuel boat was allowed to off-load thousands of gallons of fuel despite being sealed by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The boat, Atlantica, reportedly a Panamanian-registered vessel, is currently moored at the Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC) wharf. The fuel on board, estimated at over 700,000 gallons, has a street value of almost $500M. According to officials, who asked not to be named, the off-loading has raised serious procedural questions. Kaieteur News was told that the vessel landed in Guyana five weeks ago with its crew claiming mechanical problems. It has remained since then at the GNSC wharf. About a week ago, the vessel requested permission to transfer its fuel to another vessel named Joobilee. Officials suspected that it was really the intention to move the fuel into the local market without the relevant taxes being paid. The request raised eyebrows and the vessel was placed under the surveillance by the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), the regulator of the fuel sector. GEA inspectors reportedly found that Atlantica had no importing wholesale licence and therefore would have been breaching regulations by off-loading any fuel in Guyana. With regards to the vessel, Joobilee, it reportedly did not have the requisite permits to receive the fuel. On Monday, representatives of Joobilee reportedly made an application for what is known as Bulk Transportation Carrier Licence, and was granted one within 24 hours. Officials told Kaieteur News Wednesday evening that this was highly irregular as a permit like that normally takes about a month, because of the stringent checks and balances in place. On Monday also, Atlantica, for some unknown reason, was reportedly taken into custody and sealed by GRA officers. However, officials were reportedly tipped off that Atlantica was pumping fuel to Joobilee in a late-night operation. GRA officials had reportedly not given permission and the fuel was not marked by GEA, a procedure that is used to ensure that taxes are paid. Officials said that everyone related to the issue of both vessels will have to answer. SQUATTING CONTINUES AT MARRIOTT…ENGINEER’S REPORT CLAIMS CHINESE CONTRACTOR OWES HOTEL US$900,000 Almost eight months after (Continued on page 35)

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(From page 34) moving in and setting up camp in an unfinished section of the Marriott Hotel, over outstanding monies, a number of Chinese workers are still there. But it appears that the situation is far from resolved. This is because government is claiming that it owes the contractor nothing. Instead, it says, the contractor owes the hotel US$900,000. A new Board of Directors of Atlantic Hotel Inc., the state-owned company of the Kingston property, is expected to make the issue a top one on its agenda. The workers are from Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), a company owned by the Chinese government. That company had received a contract in 2011 to build the hotel, which on paper, cost over US$51M. However, estimates by critics of the project, had tagged real costs to be over US$80M. The hotel was opened in early 2015, weeks before general elections that saw a new government under David Granger taking office. SCG was insisting that it was owed between US$4-5M for works done. Government in January insisted that the figure was more likely over US$800,000.The year-long defects reporting period ended in April last year. AHI and its parent company, National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), had been attempting to make the hotel work. It was unable to meet payments to creditors, including one major commercial bank, forcing Government to step in. While the administration had initially signalled intention to sell the hotel, that has not yet materialized. Business has improved considerably with a number of events as a major boost to revenues and its restaurant section doing better. To further its prospects, the previous AHI board, headed by Ansa McAl executive, Beverley Harper, had announced plans to complete an adjoining part of the hotel that was designed to be an entertainment complex. It is in this part of the hotel, which is blocked off from the rest of the property that the Chinese construction workers have taken up camp, after abandoning their temporary accommodations located in the compound. SCG has been arguing that it owes contractors and others in China, and a number of companies there have threatened to sue. Kaieteur News was told that late last year NICIL commissioned an engineer from CEMCO, a consultancy firm, to oversee works. A final report found faults and reversed the US$800,000-plus that Government had claimed it owed. Rather, it was the Chinese contractor that was assessed. That bill is for almost US$900,000. FRIDAY EDITION CURRENCY WOES WILLSEE A BOOMING BLACKMARKET TRADE – JAGDEO WARNS Guyana is facing a real problem that have a devastating domino ef-

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lot of the transactions will come out of the Cambios and banks and go on the streets… underground economy once again.” The politician added that cambio owners will try to cheat the system. “They themselves will post one rate on the receipt but take more…This simply causes the government to lose taxes…This full-fledged panic approach will not work; a parallel market will develop.” Jagdeo said that the possibility exists that the market may have cleared at $210 or $230 but the “panic actions will make it climb further. The projections are an unbelievable $250, $300. They are driving the market into a full-fledged panic and you will see the reemergence of a blackmarket. It will affect everything else.” fect. There will be a reemergence of the underground economy and a parallel market. There will be less tax income and the cost of living will go up. The Government of Guyana could have contained this situation, but either its incapability to do so or its lack of interest is to be blamed for what is to unfold, said Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo. At a press conference held on Thursday at Freedom House, Jagdeo was talking about the fact that Guyana’s dollar value has declined. The exchange rate is rising. Jagdeo told the media that the government’s denial of the “fact” that there is a foreign currency shortage is proof alone that “these people don’t know what they are doing.” The Opposition Leader said that a simple comparison of the balance of payment figures published by the government will show a reduction in foreign currency inflows from most sectors. Jagdeo continued, “This government will harm all of our futures…It’s either they are unconcerned or incapable of addressing the problem the way it should be addressed.” Jagdeo said that the urge to

hoard foreign currency is picking up because of an expectation that the rate is climbing. He added that the statement that the GYD$230 rate of exchange is only for credit card transactions is nonsensical. “It is almost criminal to say that that is the case, because the reality is different and everyone who has gone to buy some currency knows this is the case, except the Ministry of Finance.” Jagdeo said that the government is now “bullying” the commercial banks not to sell for more than $215. ”This morning they sent people out to talk to the non-bank Cambios to tell them if you sell beyond $215 it will affect your licence. If they think that this is going to calm the rate, they are wrong. It will drive more fear into people and cause further panic.” Jagdeo went on to say “They are saying you can buy maximum for GYD $212 so you can sell for $215. If the people do that, those who have foreign currency will just sit on it. No one will sell at that rate when they can sell at a higher rate.” Jagdeo opined that there will be a reemergence of activities such as what goes on at America Street. “A

SATURDAY EDITION GOVT. TARGETS US DOLLAR ACCOUNTS, OTHER MEASURES TO CONTROL FOREIGN CURRENCY “SLIDE” -EXPORTS SHORTFALL LAST YEAR WAS US$30M-$40M Government has not ruled out taking a tough stance on US dollars account holders who hoard and abuse the system by applying to the market for transfers. The announcement was made Friday by Government following a meeting with bankers to determine what exactly is happening with the foreign currency trade. The administration, on one hand, is insisting that there is no shortage of US dollars. It bases this on figures being supplied by commercial banks which indicate that there is almost US$13M at the banks for trade, and roughly around the same amount in commitments (applications for transfers, drafts). On Friday, amidst worry by businesses and the administration, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan; Junior Minister, Jaipaul Sharma and

Central Bank Governor, Dr. Gobind Ganga, met with representatives of the commercial banks at the ministry’s Main Street boardroom. After that meeting, in engagements with the press, the government officials seemed clear that some advantage was being taken on the trade and that in the coming days a number of measures will be introduced to stabilize the situation. According to the Central Bank head, there should be no cause for alarm. Earlier last week, a statement from the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) in a statement called for Government to take action, with selling rates for US at an all-time high of US$1 to G$230. Prior to that, there have been complaints by businesses of being unable to access foreign currency for transfers. However, Government insisted that the rate was around $215 with that $230 rate for Visa and other credit cards- a miniscule amount in the bigger trade. Jordan made it clear that the situation would have arisen in two of the leanest months of the year - January and February. Last year, top earners like sugar, rice and bauxite performed badly with export revenues for the country seeing a decline of between US$30 and $40M. Central Bank had stepped in from time to time and injected monies, almost to the shortfall, to the banks to meet demands, Ganga disclosed. Based on recent findings, there are indications that the demand and supply situation was further exacerbated by a number of businesses with foreign currency accounts which instead of using those funds, decided to apply in the normal market system for funds. This is hoarding, the officials stressed. CORNER SHOP CAMBIOS SURFACING As concerns grow about the (Continued on page 36)

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(From page 35) devaluation of the Guyana dollar and the parallel increase in the rates of foreign currency, shops are now ‘popping’ up offering to buy currency without the necessary authorization from the government. On Friday, a Chinese clothing store on King Street, was buying US currency for $215; there were no visible signs that indicated that the establishment was an authorized agent to conduct such business. The notice of the buying of foreign currency was carefully secluded inside the store at the cashier counter. When an explanation was sought from the shop owner as to whether he had the necessary documentation to do such a business, the Chinese national could not say. He claimed language created a barrier. What the man did say was that “There is problem we buying”. The businessman seemed unconcerned about the attention he was receiving for his new business venture. GOVT. FORKS OUT $220M EVERY SIX MONTHS FOR MARRIOTT’S LOANS The loan repayments for the state-owned Marriott Hotel continue to be borne by Government as the Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), the owner, does not have the monies. The Kingston hotel, according to Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, would have been obligated to fork out almost US$1.1M ($220M) every six months to Republic Bank Limited, for 13 years. But since its opening in early 2015, the hotel has done poorly, as a key money-earning section - the entertainment facility - has not been completed. The entertainment section was supposed to include a casino, nightclub and restaurant. The revenues from that section are what Marriott had been banking on to meet com-

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Hospital, where he succumbed. During her ruling, Magistrate Azore told the court that an eyewitness to the accident testified that Lewis rode past him and he later observed a collision. According to Magistrate Azore, the eyewitness said that he saw Lewis attempting to cross the road without looking at oncoming traffic. Magistrate Azore said that after reviewing the evidence it was found that Lewis swung across the road and was hit by the motor car being driven by Powers, who swerved but failed to avoid the collision. Powers told reporters that he felt good after the trial concluded. He had been released on $250,000 bail pending trial. After learning of the decision, Lewis’s daughter stepped out the courtroom and sat on a bench where she wept uncontrollably. mitments, including loans, salaries, Marriott fees and utilities. Since taking office in May 2015, the Coalition Government has been saddled with paying the amounts to the bank which has lent almost US$30M. According to Minister Jordan, although the bank has given the hotel and government time to make the payments, the reality is that “time is not infinite”. Currently due to the bank is almost US$750,000 ($150M). The expense is an unbudgeted one for the administration, the minister said Friday, but the money has to be found. AHI is the state-owned company that controls Marriott. PORKKNOCKER NOT GUILTY OF ‘SIX HEAD’ ROAD DEATH Manx Powers has been found not guilty of killing former boxing champion, Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis in an accident which occurred in

May 2015. Lewis became famous when he fought for a world title and became the first Guyanese to capture the WBC Welterweight title in 2001. The decision was handed down Friday by Magistrate Fabayo Azore in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. Police Prosecutor Stephen Telford has given oral notice in court of his intentions of appealing the decision. Powers, 33, a pork knocker, of 102 Campbellville, Housing Scheme, Georgetown, was accused of driving motor car PNN 596 in a manner dangerous to the public, thereby causing the death of Lewis on May 7, 2015 at New Hope, East Bank Demerara. According to reports, Lewis, 44, of Hutsonville, New Hope, East Bank Demerara, was riding his bicycle, when he lost control and drove into the path of the car. He was rushed to the East Bank Demerara Regional

IMF FORESEES IMPROVED ECONOMIC GROWTH THIS YEAR In spite of some of the controversial routes it has taken since assuming office, it appears as though the coalition administration is steering the economy in the right direction when it comes to nationwide development and stimulating growth. This was one of the perspectives offered in the preliminary findings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff that was recently in Guyana to assess the economic health of the nation. A staff team from the Fund, led by Mr. Marcos Chamon, visited Guyana from March 6 to March 17 to hold discussions for the 2017 Article IV Consultation. Ms. Srobona Mitra, the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) Mission Chief, joined the concluding meeting. The team met with Finance Min-

ister, Winston Jordan; Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman; Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson; Central Bank Governor Gobind Ganga; other senior officials, representatives from the private sector, the opposition party, labour unions, and other stakeholders. The visit by the IMF delegation was in keeping with its Article IV Mission. Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF usually holds bilateral discussions with members every year. During those consultations, the mission reviews the overall economic developments in the country, as well as its policy measures aimed at maintaining economic stability, ensuring a sustainable external balance and further liberalizing foreign trade. Upon the completion of the IMF mission consultations, the IMF Executive Board discusses the staff report and issues an assessment of the country’s economic situation and the adequacy of its economic policy measures, based on a comprehensive analysis of the overall economic situation and a wider fiscal policy strategy of the member country. According to the IMF Staff, Guyana’s economy continued to expand, although growth was uneven. It said that in 2016, subdued agricultural commodity prices and adverse weather conditions led to a contraction of agriculture, with negative spillovers to manufacturing and services. Additionally, it noted that delays in public investment remained a drag on construction. Nevertheless, the Staff said that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was buoyed by very large increases in gold output, including from new mines, with total real GDP increasing by 3.3 percent despite a contraction in non-mining GDP. In 2017, the mission said that it projects real economic growth of 3.5 percent driven by an increase in public investment, continued expansion in the extractive sector, and a recovery in rice production. Should this become a reality, it would represent an increase from Guyana’s 2.6 percent growth rate last year. Furthermore, the Mission said that despite weather-related shocks to food prices and excess demand during Guyana’s Golden Jubilee, inflation remained subdued at 1.5 percent at the end of 2016, and is expected to be around 2.5 percent at the end of 2017. The Mission stated that increased exports of gold and improved terms of trade helped Guyana achieve a current account surplus. It also asserted that the anticipated start of oil production in 2020 will provide a significant boost to exports and official reserves in the medium-term. Additionally, despite slower than expected growth, the IMF staff said that fiscal revenue increased due to improvements in tax administration and higher royalties from the mining sector.

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GPHC advancing cardiac care through GPACC initiative From page 25 increased service and we are always available and in contact online, but they [local staff] are actually really running the service on their own.” As part of the education support being offered, a nursing professor, a nursing educator and a senior nurse clinician are currently at the GPHC sharing their expertise with local nurses, even as they manage the cardiac intensive nursing care programme. It has been one year since the latter mentioned programme has been going full throttle with the view of training the GPHC nurses to become cardiac heart failure nurse specialists. Once training is completed these nurses, according to Dr. Isaac, will be expected to manage the

out-patient clinics and conduct education sessions for patients. Added to this, she revealed that GPACC is currently about to commence its sixth ultrasound and echocardiography training for physicians and technologists. She, however, noted that while there are currently fulltime personnel who are able to perform and review echocardiograms, “because of the system that we have developed we can do real time review...even when I am not here and I’m back home at the University of Calgary, every day I can download the studies that are done here, I can look at them, review them and view the interpretations that were done by the local staff and make revisions as necessary.” Revisions, according to

Dr. Isaac, are intended to help to provide patients with better care, while at the same time providing feedback and learning for the people tasked with doing the echocardiograms, so that their skills can improve. The GPACC initiative is one that is interlinked with the hospital’s collaboration with the Baby Heart Foundation that has been offering crucial paediatric cardiac care. Just last week, the Foundation completed eight paediatric cardiac procedures, and there are plans for a few more to be completed this week by a team of experts currently lending their support at the GPHC. The team is being led by the Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Operations, Dr. Rodrigo Soto.

Sunday March 26, 2017

Guyana fully represented at a number of important fora

Three Guyanese will participate in a study tour to gain skills in resources and technical expertise in the areas of citizen security and the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to improve case and data management within the Criminal Justice System. Minister of State, Joseph Harmon at his weekly postcabinet briefing said that the United Nations Development Programme-sponsored Crime Observatory study tour and technical exchange will be held in Belize from tomorrow (Monday) to Wednesday. Cadet Officer Devon Gordon and the Ministry of Public Security staffers, Courtney Samuels, Head of Policy and Research Unit and Michelle Baptiste, Observatory Officer, will attend the event. On April 4, last, Harmon said that approval was given for Marcel Huston, Chief Education Officer (acting) to participate in the Caribbean Safe Schools Ministerial Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda. The objective of the forum, according to the minister, will be to promote and raise awareness on the three pillars of School Safety of the worldwide initiative on Safe Schools in the Caribbean, and to identify national and joint regional achievements regarding school safety, and to adopt the declaration and road map on school safety and be committed to its implementation The meeting will enable Ministers of Education and Senior Advisors to meet with relevant support groups involved in school safety in the Caribbean. Guyana will also participate in a Caribbean Technical Distance Training Workshop on Public Private Partnership to manage fiscal costs and risks to be held in St. Kitts from March 29 to 31. The workshop will address the effective management of costs and risks involved with Public and Private Partnerships in which

the public sector is required to deal with the issues, while the private sector supplies infrastructure assets and services for joint projects. Bernard Lord, Department Head Project Cycle Division and Miguel Cho Kang, Head of Regional Planning, of the Ministry of Finance, will attend the workshop. Guyana will also be represented at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation Meeting (ACTO) of the Forest Authority under the project under Forest Covers, which will be held in Suriname from March 30 to 31. The meeting will seek to develop and implement Forest Covers management in the Amazon Region by strengthening existing regional cooperation and coordination in deforestation management. Hannah Jose, Project Officer of the Planning and Development Division and Hansrajee Sookdeo, Project Officer, REDD Secretariat, both of the Guyana Forestry Commission, will attend that meeting. Additionally, Minister Harmon said a Guyana delegation will attend the Amazonian Seminar on Social Protection organized by the Brazilian Government in partnership with the World Bank and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to be held in Belem, Brazil, from March 27 to 31. The seminar will provide a platform for the representatives of government academia, Indigenous people, civil society and international agencies to share experiences regarding social protection in the context of the Amazonian Region. Participation in this seminar will assist in providing experience and knowledge needed for the formulation of public policies to guarantee the involvement of the Amazonian population development process.

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Press ahead with overhaul of sugar industry The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is encouraging the Government of Guyana to press ahead with the overhaul of the sugar industry. But while the administration is making steps in this regard, the IMF cautioned that the government should be mindful of the large social impact. It said, too, that the government should provide a safety net to protect those affected by that process. The aforementioned was noted by IMF Staffers who were in Guyana during March 6 to 17 to hold

…but be mindful of social impact - IMF discussions for the 2017 Article IV Consultation. The staff team from the Fund was led by Mr. Marcos Chamon. Ms. Srobona Mitra, the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) Mission Chief, also joined the concluding meeting. The team met with Finance Minister Winston Jordan, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson, Central Bank Governor Dr. Gobind

Ganga, other senior officials, representatives from the private sector, the opposition party, labor unions, and other stakeholders. The visit by the IMF delegation was in keeping with its Article IV Mission. Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF usually holds bilateral discussions with members every year. During those consultations, the mission reviews the overall economic developments in the country,

as well as its policy measures aimed at maintaining economic stability, ensuring a sustainable external balance and further liberalizing foreign trade. Upon the completion of the IMF mission consultations, the IMF Executive Board discusses the staff report and issues an assessment of the country’s economic situation and the adequacy of its economic policy measures, based on a comprehensive analysis of the overall economic

situation and a wider fiscal policy strategy of the member country. Since 2016, the IMF had expressed concern about the state of affairs regarding Guyana’s sugar industry. In fact, the IMF in its 2016 report, noted with some degree of concern that transfers to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) were equivalent to 1.8 percent of GDP in 2015 and was budgeted to be about 1.3 percent of the GDP for last year. The IMF Staff urged the authorities to adopt a restructuring plan for the sector that will improve cost efficiency, productivity, and alternative revenues streams, drawing upon the reforms proposed by the Commission of Inquiry. The international delegation said that the scope and pace of reform should take into account social implications. In this regard, it appears that the Government is making “some” headway. Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, opined that based on the allocation for sugar in the 2017 budget, government has indeed started the process of

reducing the billion dollar bailouts to the sector. He said, “When we started in 2015, we started with $12B; then 2016 we had $11B going towards the sector; and for 2017 we have $9B. So there is a process of reduction that is taking place and I dare say that for as long as GuySuCo exists, in whatever shape or form, there will have to be a process of transfers until it can be brought into a better state. It is what we call too big to fail…” The Finance Minister said that the sector is one which has too much history for it to simply be abandoned. He said that it is a considerable part of the economy, both in terms of the Gross Domestic Product and employment. Even in the area of foreign exchange earnings, the Finance Minister said that the sugar industry plays a part in that. The economist noted that while sugar is too big to fail and transfers would continue in some form, future allocations would have to be targeted to a substantial improvement in the state of the company. In this regard, he expounded, “The transfers can’t continue to go down a black hole as Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has said on several occasions. Indeed, any structural adjustment of the kind that has to take place in GuySuCo is going to be extremely painful. All that we can do is ease the pain and hope that the measures that will be put in place will yield early fruits.”

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Petroleum Commission Bill for Nat’l Assembly in next sitting Stakeholders from the industry and civil society on Friday made their input in the draft Petroleum Commission Bill, as Guyana continues to prepare for oil production. Hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the consultation was held at the Marriott Hotel, Kingston. The Petroleum Commission Bill makes provision for the establishment of a Petroleum Commission to serve as a regulatory agency for Guyana’s emerging oil and gas industry, according to Government. This is the second round of consultations since the bill was made public in December. The bill can be found on the Ministry’s website. The functions of the commission were key points raised during the initial review. Stakeholders raised concerns and queries on the establishment of the board, powers of the minister and remuneration of staff. Minster of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, noted that the appointment of the board will be inclusive. “The board shall consist of a Chairperson, appointed

by the Minister, the Director of Petroleum and not more than seven other persons who shall comprise representatives of the parliamentary opposition and civil society,” Minister Trotman explained. The draft Petroleum Commission Bill has 44 sections which cover areas pertaining to the establishment and incorporation of the Petroleum Commission, functions and duties of the Commission, financing among others. Minister Trotman explained that the Commission also draws from similar commissions established in Africa and Trinidad and Tobago. The Petroleum Commission will be a semi-autonomous organisation like the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). The bill will be presented at the next sitting of Parliament which is scheduled for April, Minister Trotman. He explained that it will go before a Select Committee when it is

presented in the National Assembly. “It will be further examined and we can receive presentations on its improvement, and we certainly would like to have it passed into law by August before we go into recess,” Minister Trotman explained. Oil was discovered by ExxonMobil, a US exploration company, offshore Guyana in 2015. It has been confirmed that the find was commercial and that full production will commence by 2020. Guyana is currently introducing new legislation and systems in place, along with training technical staffers in preparation. An on-shore site is being constructed in Berbice to deal with the demands of floating oil production facility.

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Avoid Unsightly Fungal Toenail Infections Fungal nail infections, though unsightly, are generally painless and can often be prevented, a skin and nail specialist says. “Fungal nail infections are common and tend to run in families because of an inherited tendency, although not everyone is susceptible,” Dr. Joshua Zeichner said in an American Academy of Dermatology news release. “Since fungal nail infections are contagious, it’s important to take precautions to reduce your risk of getting an infection,” Zeichner added. He’s an assistant professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Signs that you’ve picked up a fungus include yellow or brown nails. The nail may also lift off the nail bed, or split or crumble.

So what can you do to keep this icky problem at bay? The first step is keeping your toenails trimmed short. This helps prevent debris from building up under the nails and minimizes the risk of nail injuries. Cut nails straight across to keep them strong and avoid ingrown toenails, Zeichner advised. In addition, always wear proper-fitting shoes. The tips of your shoes shouldn’t touch your toenails. It’s also a good idea to alternate your shoes each day so they can air out before you wear them again. Breathable footwear is best, because fungus thrives in warm, moist areas, such as hot, sweaty shoes. Wear sandals whenever you can. If you have to wear socks, choose ones that wick moisture away from your skin, Zeichner said. Put antifungal sprays or

powders in your shoes and on your socks before wearing them in order to control sweat that can lead to fungal infections. Doing so is especially important in hot weather or before a workout, he noted. Don’t go barefoot in public places, such as pools and locker rooms. Zeichner recommends wearing shower shoes or flip flops to protect against fungus on the floor that can cause athlete’s foot, ringworm and other skin conditions. Never wear other people’s shoes or share nail clippers and files. If you go to a nail salon, check that staff sanitize tools and thoroughly disinfect footbaths before each use, or use your own footbath. If the salon does not appear clean, go to another one, Zeichner said. https:// medlineplus.gov/news/ fullstory_164207.html.

Better sleep can make us feel like a million bucks Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders are dangerous, costly, and impact our health and overall well-being. New research puts forth sleep as a major public health concern, and shows that the effects of a good night’s sleep are as beneficial for our happiness and well-being as winning the lottery might be. Insufficient sleep has been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a major public health concern. It is currently estimated that between 50 and 70 million people in the United States have a sleep disorder, and one analysis revealed that over a third of adults do not get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to traffic accidents and occupational errors that can, in turn, cause industrial or environmental disasters. Additionally, sleep deprivation has many adverse health effects. According to the CDC, not getting enough sleep may lead to a range of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, or cancer, as well as generally increasing the risk of dying prematurely. Finally, a lack of sleep simply makes us unhappy. Insufficient shuteye reduces the quality of life, productivity, and may even lead to depression. New research by scientists at the University of

Warwick in the United Kingdom underscores the importance of sleep for public health, and suggests that improving our sleep quality can make us as happy as winning the lottery. The study, published in Sleep, was led by Dr. Nicole Tang, of the Department of Psychology at Warwick. Dr. Tang and colleagues examined the sleep patterns of 30,594 people over the age of 16 in the U.K. across a period of 4 years: sleep quality and well-being were assessed once between 2009 and 2011, and again between 2012 and 2014. The variables analyzed were sleep quantity, sleep quality, and the use of sleep medication. The outcomes researchers looked at were health and well-being. To measure these outcomes, the team used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) as well as the mental and physical component scores of the 12-Item ShortForm Health Survey (SF-12) a scale commonly used to assess health-related quality of life. Using linear regression models on each outcome, the scientists adjusted for potential factors that may influence the results. Some of these confounding variables included sex, age, and ethnicity, as well as education and employment status. The researchers found that insufficient sleep or poor

quality of sleep can worsen medical conditions and emotional states. Interestingly, the use of sleep medication was also linked with these adverse effects. Improvements in sleep quantity and quality, as well as using less sleep medication, were found to correlate with higher scores on the GHQ and the SF-12 scales. In fact, the researchers found a 2-point improvement in the GHQ score, which is the equivalent of an 8-week program of mindful cognitive therapy aimed at improving psychological well-being. As the researchers note, the score improvements were also comparable with the average increase in well-being measured in lottery winners 2 years after a $250,000 jackpot win. Overall, improvements in sleep quality accounted for the largest beneficial effects on health and wellbeing, suggesting that the quality may be more important than the quantity of sleep we get. D r. Ta n g a d v o c a t e s promoting the reduction of sleep medication and improvement of sleep quality as public health values, and underscores the importance of improving sleep behaviors for the health and happiness of the general population, not just those with acute sleep disorders.

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

Nia Long and Taraji P. Henson’s Empire Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Feud Boils Down to Being the Bigger Star Are More Than ‘’Just a Fling’’

Nia Long and Taraji P. Henson’s Empire feud is real, according to a source close to the TV show’s set. Amid reports that the two actresses are “at each other’s throats” on the set of the Fox show, a source tells E! News that their bickering boils down to each actress wanting to be the star of the show. “Tensions calmed between them towards the end of the season, but it comes down to the fact that they both have been in the industry for so long and both want to be the star,” the insider explains. “Unfortunately for Nia, Taraji is the star of Empire and no one and nothing will ever change that. Nia came with her own ideas, and they weren’t having it.” Tensions rose to such levels that the source confirms producers were looking into ways to shoot their joint scenes separately. “Unfortunately, that’s true,” the insider says. Then again, “Nia may not be on the show anymore after this,” the source adds. But Long is also set to lead The Goldbergs spinoff, so she might not have re-

turned to Empire anyway. Our source also tells us that Long’s threat to sue over an “improper goodbye” stems from an event that took place on the last day of filming. “It was when Nia made a big scene and claimed to ‘file a lawsuit’ against the crew after they rewrapped her trailer for a girl in the Make-a-Wish Foundation whose wish was to come to Empire,” the source reveals. “Nia had finished filming and left so they changed her trailer into the Make-a-Wish girl’s trailer.

Then Nia popped back up and threw a giant fit when she saw it.” Afterwards, the two actresses “argued pretty badly in front of everyone.” Long’s rep, however, says all of the feud rumors couldn’t be farther from the truth. “This story is complete nonsense,” the star’s rep said in a statement. “Throughout her long, established career, Nia has been nothing but a consummate professional treating all members of productions with respect.

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez are warming things up with their new fling this spring...but will they last through the season? An insider tells E! News that they may actually be getting more serious than everyone originally thought. “All his friends can tell he really likes J.Lo [but] in the beginning they thought this may just be a fling.” However, our source says his friends have recently changed their minds. “Friends are slowly thinking this may actually be a great match. He calls J.Lo his lady. He would wife her up in a heartbeat...She is different than other people he’s dated.” Not to mention, our source says they have a “crazy” connection and are “always all over each other when they are out.” Still, they’re both very busy—he’s a special instructor for the New York Yankees and she’s managing her television show as well as a Las Vegas residency. So how do they make it work?

“He has some free time [right now],” our insider explained. “So he’s been living the life and enjoying time with J.Lo.” Not to mention, she’s supported him during spring training with the Yankees, and they’ve already fit in a quick getaway to the Bahamas. They even work out together when they can! In fact, J.Lo has been spending time in Miami while she works on her Spanish al-

bum, and Rodriguez has been spotted hanging out with her in the city where the heat is on, hitting the gym with her and going out to dinner together. So yes, they’ve proven to be getting more serious since first sparking rumors earlier this month. “Jennifer and Alex are heating up big time,” a source shared with E! News exclusively last week. “They went from zero to 100 really quick.”

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Kaieteur News

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East Bank lands to private developers ...

Two years later, Govt. still to announce actions Despite promises made to repossess huge swaths of prime housing lands on the East Bank Demerara that were sold under questionable circumstances to private developers the Government is yet to announce actions. Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan had told media operatives that the matter is engaging the attention of the Attorney General Chambers with the possibilities being explored whether the lands-more than 400 acres-- can be repossessed. The AG told Kaieteur News at the National Communications Network (NCN) on Friday that Minister Bulkan has raised the issue but he (Williams) will have to “probably check the Chambers to see if there is anything there in particular”. The Minister was reminded of the legal aspect of the arrangement between the State and the Private Developers. He noted that he has not “been armed in particular, in relation to that issue. He added that he thinks that the issue is being dealt with by the Central Planning and Housing Authority (CH&PA). Efforts to contract Minister Bulkan yesterday were futile. The decision to sell those lands to a number of developers was made in the last days of the Bharrat Jagdeo administration with most of the deals consummated under former President Donald Ramotar. There was no clear basis what methodology was used to determine the prices per acre-— some developers just paid more than others. However, the developers largely failed to implement the necessary infrastructural works for drainage and internal roads as was stipulated under the terms of agreement upon receiving the lands. The deals had caused anger, especially with questions swirling in light of the fact that the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) had more than 20,000 applications for lands in its database. Bulkan had admitted under questioning at that press conference that there is the issue of significant concern to administration and one that spoke of lethargy, sluggishness and malaise from the developers. In late 2015, months after taking office, the Coalition Government and several top officials had paid a visit to some of the site where they noticed that the lands sold to private developers were way behind schedule when it came to developmental works. From the inspection, the then Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Keith Scott,

announced that he had summoned senior principals, including some from Sunset Lakes Inc. and Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited, to update him. Along Mocha Road, Courtney Benn has reportedly acquired 50 acres of land behind New Providence. Further north, behind the Princess Ramada Hotel and Casino, Dax Contracting Services also had a plot of land. Owner, Faisal ‘Dax’ Mohamed, has been reportedly selling plots of it. The Minister, accompanied by his team of engineers and technical staff members, was concerned that lands were being sold without homes being built, which was tantamount to speculation. At Sunset Lakes Inc., a 100acre plot was sold by Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to businessman, Brian Tiwarie, and located behind the National Stadium. Sunset Lakes (Tiwarie) reportedly bought the 100 acres for $458M and reportedly resold it for over $800M to Baishanlin, the controversial Chinese company. According to the Sunset Lakes agreement of sale and purchase, the purchaser (Sunset Lakes) must complete all infrastructural works within eight months of taking possession in 2011. The company also had two years to complete the construction of all houses in the proposed housing scheme and to have 100 percent occupancy. Failure by Sunset Lakes to construct homes within 24 months could see CH&PA fining the developer up to 25 percent of the current market value of the vacant parcel of land. There have been criticisms how the more-than 400 acres of land stretching from behind Republic Park to Little Diamond ended up mainly in the hands of close friends of the previous administration. At least 16 private developers benefited from as early as 2011. Still another 11 companies, as of July 2014, were set to receive lands from CH&PA for areas in Little Diamond and Great Diamond. CH&PA has made it clear that there are no available house lots in Region Four to allocate to persons. Minister within the Ministry of Communities Valarie Adams-Patterson, who has responsibility for housing, noted that the government will be investing in housing units. The town houses, duplexes and low income accommodations are to address the growing population density while effectively utilising diminishing land space.

File photo: One developer along Mocha Road had the land in this manner, although they had received it about two years before

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Kaieteur News

Sunday March 26, 2017

Sunday March 26, 2017

By Dr. Neromini Fagu Just before you give that winning smile you hear the words: “Say cheeeeeseee”. A healthy smile embodies your overall health, and taking care of that smiles require work on various fronts. You need to ensure you do your part at home with your daily regimen of brushing and flossing as well as visiting your dentist regularly for check-ups. Another component to a healthy smile is what you put into your body. Certain foods are needed to strengthen teeth and bones and ensure healthy gums. One such food source is dairy products including milk, yoghurt and cheese. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the making of cheese dates back over 4000 years. It is not known who first discovered cheese but tales have it that it was accidentally made by an Arabian merchant who kept his milk in a sheep-stomach pouch as he travelled in the desert. The lining of the pouch and the heat of the sun caused the milk to separate into curd and whey. There are around 2,000 varieties of cheeses that are produced all over the world

Kaieteur News

SAY CHEESE!

mainly from the milk of cows, goats, sheep, and buffaloes. Cow’s milk is the most widely used milk for making cheese and the ratio of milk used for cheese production and cheese yield is ten to one. In some countries camel, yak, reindeer, elk, and donkey’s milk are also used in cheese production. Some of the varieties of cheese include: Cheddar: A semi-firm

cheese with flavour ranges from rich and nutty to extremely sharp. Mozzarella: Widely used for pizza and lasagna. Brie: Soft, creamy and mild tasting. Camembert: A creamy cheese similar to Brie. Gruyère: The classic fondue cheese. Feta: Made in Greece from sheep or goat’s milk. Mascarpone: An Italian cow’s milk cheese that has the consistency of clotted cream. Roquefort: A type of blue

cheese made from ewe’s milk and aged in the famous caves of Roquefort, France. Cottage, Cream and Ricotta: “Unripen” cheeses with a short shelf life. Cheese is an excellent source of calcium which is needed for strong bones and teeth. It’s also packed with Vitamin D, which helps our bodies to absorb the calcium,along with folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, and Vitamins A, B2, B12, and K2.When consumed together with calcium, vitamins K2 and D3 are especially usefulat protecting your bones, brain and heart. Cheese also contains casein which is a protein that when combined with phosphorus and calcium help to replace lost minerals in teeth. In addition, it has conjugated linoleic acid, a proven anti-cancer agent and a booster of metabolism. If you are still not sold on the benefits of cheese, then listen to this: According to a study from the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), cheese can protect your pearly whites from the damages of acid erosion which affects your enamel. Our mouths naturally have a slightly acidic (low) pH, and when we consume foods or drinks that drive that pH level even lower, it affects the enamel of the tooth. When

STANDARDS IN FOCUS

Learning the Metric System - using the Units of Volume This week we will take another look at the Metric System which is a measurement system using Standard International (SI) Units. It is simple to learn and easy to use because of its decimal nature. The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) would like all of Guyana to adopt and use this system of measurement. Let’s look at the metric units used for measuring Liquids also referred to as measurement by Volume. Volume is referred to the space an object occupies and it is measured in cubic metres (m3). The volume of a container is generally understood to be the capacity of the container, that is, the amount of fluid (gas or liquid) that the container could hold. Therefore, the Metric unit for measuring Volume is the cubic meter (m3) but the Litre which is a unit of volume denoted as capitol “L” is used especially for measuring liquids. The general rule for writing metric symbols is to use lower case letters, However there is an exception in this case. Another commonly used unit is the millilitre (mL) which is used for measuring smaller amounts of liquid. Here are some examples: 1 Litre (L) of water at 40C weighs 1 kilogram. Litre (L) - The Litre is used for measuring intermediate and large amounts of liquids, such as fuel at the filling stations, juices, water, and cooking oil., One litre is equivalent to one and three quarters of a pint. 4.546 Litres are

equivalent to 1 gallon. Millilitres (mL) - The millilitre is used for measuring very small amounts of liquids. For example contents of medicines..1000 millilitres is equal to one litre. In Guyana soft drinks are sold in 250 mL, 500 mL or ½ litre, 1 litre and 2 litre packages. There has been significant progress in the implementation of this unit of measurement in Guyana . Wholesalers of liquid commodities have been measuring, prepackaging and labelling the said commodities in litres and millilitres with the exception of a few who still label their products in imperial units. Further, the GNBS has managed to have all fuel stations throughout the country convert their dispensing meters from imperial to metric, and as such, fuel is sold in Litres and millilitres. Wholesalers and retailers of all liquid commodities, especially drinking water, and liquidized petroleum gas now need to go a step further and label their products totally in metric, excluding the imperial conversions. Advertisements for these commodities also need to be done in the same manner. CONSUMERS DO NOT BUY RICE, PEAS AND OTHER SOLID GRAINS BY LITRES. THESE COMMODITIES MUST BE WEIGHED AND SOLD BY MASS BECAUSE THEY ARE SOLID. For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0069, 219-0065, 219-0062.

the pH level is below 5.5 the potential for tooth erosion increases, putting you at risk for cavities. Normally, saliva acts as a neutralizing agent and restores pH levels in the mouth after we eat, and some foods like cheese can assist in the pH-boosting process. Eating cheese has also been found to stimulate saliva production, and the various compounds found in cheese adhere to tooth enamel thus protecting them from acid attacks. Not everyone can consume dairy products due

to the lactose content. For those who are lactose intolerant, there are products on the market that are lactose free. However, the variety and choices may not be as diverse. Another option is to use alternatives such as goat cheese which seems to be more tolerable to those who may be lactose-intolerant. So the next time you get a craving for a snack, instead of reaching for a carb-filled or sugar-filled snack why not grab some cheese. It is a healthy alternative that will do the body good as well as help to prevent cavities.

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Dr. Neromini Fagu For more information contact OMNI DENTAL at 295 Quamina Street, Georgetown Tel: 227-0025, Parika Tel: 260-3133 or send emails to nerominifagu@hotmail.com.

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WANTED One driver/porter from Diamond, Grove area. Call: 2161043, 677-6620 Female worker wanted sound secondary education, computer literate-Tel: 6225518 SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.-CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620 Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Guyana passport application. Graphics design, advertisement. Tel: 6267040; 265-4535. INNOVATIVEMARKETING & PUBLISHING INC –TEL: 600-4212: We create A/ works, logos, busi ness cards, posters, etc, placements of ads included. Repairs to washers, dryers, stoves, deep fryers, control system etc. Call: 619-0793/ 699-8802 Singh AC Service & Refrigeration, repairing auto A/C, washer, fridge & stove @ ZZ Durban Street Wortmanville. Call: 698-7807/ 683-6741 Passport, permanent & visitor visa application, Professional Immigration Consultant – Sabita Immigration Services. Call: 225-6496/ 662-6045 35yrs Experience Spraying and repairing all types of furniture, also floors, spindles, all different stripes. Call: 677-6679/ 662-7965 Eagle’s: Re-gas -$8,000, Washing machine repairs, Gas Stove, Plasma flat Screen & more. Call: 697-2969/6460966 Veterinary Services, East Side Animal Clinic @ 147 Section ‘A’ Grove Block ‘Y’ East Bank. Call: 216-4144/ 6817215 Building Contractor Estimates, house plan to be drawn give us a call: 2160671/692-8464/622-0267 Repairs at low cost: Fridges, air- conditioners, washing machines, TVs, microwaves, freezers- Call:629-4946 or 225-4822 Brian Moe @ 642-3543: Computer Technician, FB: Brian.Moe.165; Home and office visits at your comfort!! TAXI SERVICE GR TAXI SERVICE. CALL: 219-5000; 227-1982 & 225-7878 (24HRS)

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

VACANCY Accounts Clerk for Eccles, Industrial Site area knowledge of NIS, PAYE, VAT, Quickbooks. Call: 6144358 Gardener , watchman, handyman, guard – Call: 2237500 Monday – Friday 8:154:15pm, Saturday 8:15am1:15pm High-level client care management support specialists wanted. Contact jobs@expresstruckingcorp.com or 227-6025 for inquiries Pump attendant Call: 6240033/ 680-3863 1 Company driver, 1 porter. Call: 680-3863 1-Cook, 1 Cleaner, Customer Sales assistant. Call: 624-0033 Security Guard, office clerk, bilingual person, bus driver. Call: 638-5303/ 227-7380 Exist for sewing machine operators, persons with intermediate level training will be considered. Call: 2255948/ 644-4398

Urgently needed investor to invest in gold purchasing in the Interior. Call: 658-7553 Driver for water truck, preferably on the E.B.D- Call/ Whatsapp: 682-1048 Live in female supervisor with secondary education @ bar shop 25-35yrs, waitress, salary $80,000 monthly. Call: 610-3974 General service mechanics to work in the interior with a mining company. Must be capable of servicing dredges and excavators. Call 2237165. Attractive salary. Experienced excavator operators. Good salary.Call 223-7165 Taxi Driver Preferably living in Georgetown area age 35 and older. Call: 226-1157/ 6432554 Handy boys must have police clearance, puri cooks. Apply to Shanta’s, 225 Camp and New Market Street. 1 Accounts Clerk, preferably from E.B.D – 5 subjects CXC minimum @ gtcareers592@gmail.com

Cook/Baker and Kitchen Assistant for interior location. Applicants must be experienced, for details call: 618-2020

Electrician, experienced in wiring lift for stop/go sequence. Carpenter for finishing work on house. Call: 655-5861

Exists for 2 Kitchen assistants @ People’s Choice Café, strictly night shift. Call: 679-9449/ 231-3059

Drivers for canter truck- must have experience, to work on W.C.D-$30,000 weekly. Call: 684-8231.

One experienced female Accounts Clerk- apply in person to Alabama Trading, 66 Robb Street Bourda.

Wanted land to buy at: Tuschen, Uitvlugt, Zeelugt, La Parfaite Harmonie, Eccles, Providence, Herstelling. We Pay Cash. Call: 614-6802

Handyman between age 25 to 35. Contact 223-5273/74

We are buying lands in Eccles, Herstelling, Farm, Zeelugt, Bartica, Providence. Call: 648-5822/629-2881. One shop assistant to work in the Interior, must have experienced. Call: 668-6421 Residential house lot and mining claims to buy. We pay in USD dollars. Chantal: 6834794/ Florida: 954-734-4411

HEALTH Dietitian’s Clinic: dietary counseling for all disease conditions, BMI check, blood pressure testing etc. Call: 231-9335, 699-7083

FOR SALE

FOR RENT

- Make-up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals, etc. - Cosmetology Courses: $120,000 - Technician Course: $45,000. Call: 6471773/660-5257

LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754. 2 Leyland Dump truck (55210), 1 Caterpillar Backhoe, owner migrating, very good condition. Call: 672-5876

PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Lot 14 Croal & Longden Street: 4 Storey building (infront Demico). Call: 6631876

Fibre-Tech 220 9192/6907. Fiberglass, Resin materials in any quantity all for your repairs.

Vreed-en-Hoop Junction: office, storage bond, lesson place, church -$20,000 per month. Call: 603-6400

One Diesel welding generator 4 cylinder, 1-6000 W, Miller welding, generator new. Call: 699-4300/ 228-2734

Bottom flat house @ 25 North Road & Oronoque Street, fully furnished/ air condition/ residence /business.Call: 226-7012

Live in or live out waitress. Call: 643-9007/ 666-4647

One experienced legal computer clerk. Call: 6247087/ 226-4283/258-0213/ email:husainsaphier@ yahoo.com

Tutor/Nanny with computer knowledge – apply to Alabama Trading, 66 Robb Street Bourda.

SALON

Handyman and Driver, apply at Nimbus Water, 79 Albert and Laluni Street, Queenstown. Call:231-7002/ 622-0445

TO LET Bottom Flat – 2 Bedroom with toilet and bath, fully grilled, C.I, W.C.D. Call: 6999128/ 277-0108 Lodge apartments (Vlisssengen/Durban): furnished (visitors) USD$600$1,000 monthly, unfurnished 2 bedroom -$60,000, studio $40,000 monthly- Call:668-7687/ 677-9638/697-6421 Lodge (Vlissengen/ Durban): Professional/ Office/Business (no food retailing) space. Call: 6687687/ 677-9638/697-6421 Furnished apartments @ 318 East Street, North Cummingsburg, few lots away from G.P.H.C & Balwant Singh Hospital. Call: 653-0490/6414614/226-3199 2 Bedrooms apartment in Eccles New Scheme. Call: 2253234

Fully Setup taxi service with 16 Radio sets, location Sherriff Street. S e r i o u s i n q u i r y o n l y. Call:695-0704 Fox tail, palm plants 2 and 3 feet tall wholesale - $300 each. Call: 638-8858 La Parfaite Harmonie -$1.4M, $1.8M, $1.7M, Uitvlugt $2M, Diamond -$4M, Herstelling -$3.5M, Farm $6M, New Road V/Hoop $27M. Call: 604-6724 La Parfaite Harmonie -$1.4M, $1.8M, , Uitvlugt -$2M, New Road V/Hoop -$29M, Tuschen -$1.5M, House & Land @ La Parfaite Harmonie -$20M. Call: 614-6802 PS3 and Controller with 20 games $60,000, 360XBOX and 6 Controllers with 40 games -$70,000- Call: 6017152/ 226-0382

LEARN TO DRIVE C. Persaud & N. Outar Driving School formerly Soman & Sons Driving School @ Maraj Building- Call: 644-5166; 6222872; 615-0964; 689-5997 (affordable packages).

Kobelco 210, Perkins 4 CYL, Yangdong 4CYL, Miller Welder, HondaATV, asking -$18,000,000. Call: 651-4699/ 677-8104 Great Deals on video games & all gaming consoles. PC, video games & repairs – Call: 672-2566; 265-3231 New Portable Massage chair with free carry case$42,000.Call:227-1939

WANTED We buy land in Eccles, Herstelling, Farm, Zeelugt, Bartica & Florida, all legal fees paid. Call: 233-3006/ 6585897/651-1969 Pawn your land for up to $1M, Only in Eccles, Herstelling, Farm, Zeelugt, Bartica. Call: 233-3006/658-5897/651-1969 Get up to $5M for your land in Eccles, Providence, and Herstelling. Call: 233-3006/ 658-5897/ 651-1969

New Portable Massage table with free carry case$58,000.Call:227-1939.

Upper flat for rent 3 bedrooms in Atlantic Gardens- Call: 2274377/227-0613/624-6013 2 Bedroom Executive furnished Apartment in residential Area, close to Ogle Airport with all modern amenities.Call:622-5725/6641070 2 Bedroom upper flat located at 261 Golden Grove , Tank Street (3rd corner). Call: 2335802/ 600-4984/ 641-1476 Spacious 3 bedrooms lower apartment, prime location @ Diamond E.B.D - $62,000. Call Romona 6pm – 642-2054 Self-contained rooms in Prashad Nagar. Tel: 227-2993 Apartment for rent at Lot 656 Diamond, 4th Avenue, E.B.D: 2 bedrooms with AC. Call 2164563/685-1640. Three storey 75ftX30ft concrete building, open floors, two offices, two washrooms, driveway @ 25B Princes St., Charlestown. Call: 223-0654/225-0605 1 Bedroom apartment well secured for working person $35,000 monthly, light, garbage included. Call: 6388858 Apartment for rent @ First Street MonRepos, E.C.D – Call: 602-4105/ 614-0005

One Ford Van E350, one Toyota Tundra, One Caterpillar back hoe 4x4, one bobcat Tel: 660-2212 7840 Ford Tractor Baldan Rome Plough Chipper, cage wheel, 16inch pump, complete music set. Call: 228-2551/ 613-3175

Minibus Drivers - 45yrs and older. Call: 666-6991

1 Steel hull boat for sale 50’X13’X6’, 1-GM Engine 165 HP, Alison gearbox. Price negotiable. Call: 691-5104

1 AC Technician with tools, 1 porter, 1 painter with knowledge of carpentry. Call: 698-7807

1 Twin Steer Leyland DAF dump truck, GMM6584 & for flat beds Leyland DAF lorries. Call: 649-8449

ACCOMMODATION Harmony Inn: Furnished self contained apartments & rooms from $20USD daily. Call: 218-1400/ 694-7817 Secret Villa apartments fully furnished, hot & cold water, Jacuzzi, air condition from $20USD daily. Call: 225-6337/ 266-5244/668-0306 Continued on page 71

Sunday March 26, 2017

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Kaieteur News

CONSUMER CONCERNS

WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY - protecting against risks of a growing digital world By Pat Dial On 15th March every year, World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is celebrated worldwide when focus is given to a particular consumer concern and consumers assert their solidarity. This year’s focus is “Building a digital world consumers can trust”. By 2020, 52% of the world’s population would have been online. At present, the figure is 40% which means that in less than five years the numbers of people worldwide being online would have grown by a third. Long before the third quarter of the century, therefore, the entire world would have been online. The computerization of the world would bring fundamental and revolutionary changes in the life of Mankind. In Guyana there is the urgent necessity for state agencies to educate the population as to the constructive and creative use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The School System had already started work in this direction and many of the younger generation are quite knowledgeable in ICT. It has already become very important in Research and Education as a whole. ICT would be far more extensively used in commerce and would be the main way people buy and sell goods and services. It would also be used to find markets for the producers of industrial and agricultural products and could lead to the revival of industries such as Rice and Sugar. It would also be progressively used by Government. People would be able to access the services of Government Departments online. Such, for example, would be the payment of taxes, getting birth and death certificates and dealing with Departments such as the Deeds Registry, the Housing Department, the Forestry Department and Geology and Mines. People would be able to contact each other, both at home and overseas, with greater convenience, speed and certainty. In other words, ICT would be able to make social, economic and even political life easier, cheaper and less time-consuming. But these benefits and the revolution which are now overtaking the world could

bring with it certain risks to the consumers. For one, the new dispensation would require everyone to supply, overall, a great deal of personal information such as bank account and credit card details, medical records, email and telephone connections, details on relatives and close members of one’s family. All this information would be in the hands of servers and there is no security for it. Secondly, it could be stolen by unscrupulous persons. The accusations and cross-accusations of hacking of e-mails which came out during the recent United States Presidential elections is an example of this. In this milieu of openness, ordinary consumers need to be protected more than ever and what underlines this necessity is that, at the moment, even highly advanced and sophisticated developed states such as the United States of America are finding it difficult to protect their secret and confidential information. The first line of defense lies with the service providers who must meet the challenges of finding secure and reliable ways of utilizing data and developing strategies that would lead to a trustworthy digital world for consumers. The theme of this year’s WCRD “Building a digital world consumers can trust” emphasizes this necessity and call for its quick implementation. WCRD is particularly associated with Consumers International (CI) which has

a membership spread over the globe. The Guyana Consumers Association was one of the comparatively early members of CI because of the brilliant leadership of the late Eileen Cox who was known and respected in consumer circles worldwide. Consumer organizations all over the world, including our own Association, are devoted to protecting basic rights of consumers, demanding those rights are protected and respected, challenging market abuses and other social injustices, as for example when public utilities like the Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n companies overstep their mark and attempt to exploit consumers. Consumerism is a necessary concomitant to the successful working of the Free Market Economic System and indeed any other economic system. This need for Consumerism has led to its steady growth in all countries. Consumerism prevents adversarial relationships between the people of a country and economic and governmental systems and generally results in happier and easier relationships. The main consumer bodies which the public could approach for help in their problems are the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, the Public Utilities Commission, the Consumer Division of the Ministry of Business led by Ms. Cheryl Tinnis, the Competition and Consumers Affairs Commission led by Ms. Dawn Holder and the Guyana Consumers Association.

From page 70 CAR RENTAL PROGRESSIVE CAR RENTAL: SUV FOR RENTAL- $4,000 & UP PER DAY- CALL: 677-7827, 6435122 ,EMAIL:PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM AIDAN’S CAR RENTAL: PICKUP, 9-11 SEAT MIN BUS, GOOD FOR AIRPOTR & FAMILY OUTING, CHEAPEST RATE . Call: 698-7807 DOLLY’S CAR RENTALCALL: 225-7126/226-3693 DOLLYSAUTORENTAL@ YA H O O . C O M / W W W. DOLLYSAUTORENTAL.COM WING’S CAR & PICKUP RENTAL: LOW DOWN PAYMENT, CHEAP REATES,SPECIALOFFERS FOR THE SEASON. CALL: 690-6494

PROPERTY FOR SALE Transported property @ Grove and Diamond $16M negotiable. Call: 625-5461 House & Land available for sale. Contact Pacific Development Inc @ Lot 3 Church Street, G/Town. Call: 223-6035/227-8274 Tuschen: 2 storey building, 2031 ft2 - $9.8M Negotiable. Tel: 231-9690 (During working hrs). Parfaite Harmonie: 2 storey building, 1245 ft2 - $9M Negotiable. Tel: 231-9690 (During working hrs). Tain, Corentyne: 2 storey building 3309 ft2 - $8M Negotiable. Tel: 231-9690 (During working hrs).

PEN PAL Indian Male is seeking a serious relationship with female between age 20-30. Call: 653-0975 Decent Elderly Indian Christian widow is seeking honest respectful widower. Please no block numbers, no messages. Call: 668-1110 Male seeking serious relationship with female. Call: 601-3045

We Specialised in uniforms and evening wear, also classes in designing and sewing. Call: 626-2629/ 6766312

WANTED One maid to work eight hours Monday to Saturday. Call 225-8645

FOR SALE XBOX 360 with games, PS2 Slim with games, Dell Inspiron laptop, Samsung tab 3 Kids, LG Smartphone. Call: 621-9604/694-1748

1-Leyland DAF GRR Series; excellent condition. Call: 6804101 Dwayne Stephen Auto Sales! New Shipment of Vehicle: Rush, Blue Bird, Note, Axio, Allion. Call: 6652330/ 648-6869 Not working Vehicles: 1 Surf, 2 Pathfinders, 1 Bobcat, 3 Toyota Cars, 1 Canter, 1 Fiber glass boat. Call: 227-4377/ 624-6013 Unregistered Fielder -$2.5M, Axela 2011 -$2.7M, 2010 Fielder, all dark interior. Call: 617-5536 RZ Minibus- $850,000 negotiable. Call: 697-2550/ 613-1810

Subryanville property for sale: 44 fifth Avenue., Subryanville, Georgetown $45M or best offer. Call Mortimer: 625-7669/ Richard: 624-1154 House for sale 2482 North Ruimveldt, 2 flat, no flooding, 6 feet fence, in secure area. Price $21M negotiable. Call: 233-5400/ 618-0595 House/land with business- 5 bedrooms, 2 bath W.C.D, Anna Catherina. Call: 6142466 Goat Creek, Riverfront , 75Acres land -$7M, Lanaballi River Front, 50Acres -$9M. Diamond -$7.5M Call: 688-0087

DRESSMAKING

VEHICLE FOR SALE

LAND FOR SALE 1 Lot of land @ Yarrowkabra -$950,000. Call: 672-5876 Transported land for sale size 37X270 @ Coglan Dam, Vreed-en-Hoop, W.B.D. Call: 650-5644/677-9938 Transported corner lot with approved building plan @ 90 Garnett & Republic Streets, Newtown Kitty. Call: 601-6000/227-3305

Riviera Island: 145 Acres $30M, Tuschen property $5.8M, $6M, $15M. Call: 6880087

Providence -$5M, Herstelling -$6M, La Parfaite Harmonie $1.4M, Uitvlugt -$3M, Farm (East Bank) -$3M. Call: 6845822/ 629-2881

Tuschen 5,8,6,2 bedrooms; Hope- 2 bedrooms $7.8M. Call: 688-0087

East ½ 84 David Street, back lot for sale- Contact: 84davidstreet@gmail.com

Melani 2 bedrooms - $10M, Tuschen $11.5M & $25M, Canal #2 (15 acres) -$9M. Call: 688-0087

Providence (110ftX60ft) $5M, Bartica New Scheme$3.5M, Herstelling New Scheme -$3M. Call: 233-3006/ 658-5897/ 651-1969

1-2 Storey building 3 bedrooms upstairs, 2 apartments downstairs, all self-contained @ avenue B Diamond, E.B.D- Call: 6585452

La Parfaite Harmonie -$1M, $1.3M (corner lot) & $1.6M, we also buy and pawn land. Call: 233- 3006/ 658-5897/ 6511969

10 Minutes away from Georgetown, you can own your own home, now in construction, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, concrete house. Call: 675-1510

Uitvlugt New Scheme (100ftX50ft) -$3.5M, First Street (20ft reserve) we buy and pawn land. Call: 2333006/ 658-5897/ 651-1969

One Roadside, 2 storey building @ V/Hoop (ideally business/residence). Call: 614-0107

Farm (East Bank next to Herstelling) (100ftX50ft) $3.5M, We buy and pawn land. Call: 233-3006/ 658-5897/ 651-1969

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Kaieteur News

Corentyne man freed of shooting Rose Hall Town Cambio dealer A Corentyne resident who was one of two persons charged with robbery under arms and felonious wounding has been freed of the charge. The men, Pertab Arjune, 25, of Belvedere, Corentyne, Berbice and Marlon Ellis, were jointly charged, on Wednesday August 12, 2015 at Rose Hall Town, Corentyne Berbice, with shooting and wounding Cambio dealer, Anil Kumar Sukraj, 25, of David Street, Rose Hall Town. The men first appeared before Magistrate Marissa Mittleholzer in the Albion Magistrate’s Court. However the Magistrate recused herself from the matter after allegations were made by the victim’s father on national television. The matter was then switched to the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court presided over by Magistrate Alex Moore. Pertab (and Ellis) while

armed with guns allegedly attempted to murder Anil Kumar Sukraj, 25, of David Street, Rose Hall Town. He was also charged with on the same day, time and location, shooting and robbing Sukraj of US$3,000US and $150,000 Guyana Currency. During the trial attorney at law Mursalene Bacchus, who appeared for Pertab, contended that there were no evidence put forward by the prosecution to implicate his client. Bacchus in his submission contended that both the VC and his father testified and neither implicated his client in the robbery. The witnesses in their statements to the police also did not implicate his client in the crime. He thus submitted that the matter against his client be dismissed. The Magistrate concurred with the submissions by Mr.

Bacchus and freed the accused. However the matter against Ellis is continuing. On the day in question Sukraj, called “Fat Man”, was sitting on a stand on the corner of the public road with a wad of money in his hand soliciting business when two men came up to him. The men demanded his money before shooting him. Sukraj fell and the bandits grabbed what they could before escaping. The injured Sukraj was picked up and rushed to the Anamayah Memorial Hospital where he was admitted for emergency treatment. He was reportedly shot in the left forearm, the bullet reportedly exiting and reentering the right side chest. The police subsequently swooped down on a house at Belvedere and arrested the suspect. He was subsequently charged. Ellis was also arrested and charged.

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Berbice businesses endorse conditional GuySuCo privatization... From page 8 With regards to rice, the loss of the Venezuela market will not likely see the 700,000 tonnes production levels returning immediately but the sector will continue to perform, Jordan said. Rather, the attention will have to be placed on other crops like coconuts and fresh produce. Already, to spur the market, moves

have been made to improve the laboratories of Government and the construction of a modern abattoir. With several forest areas opened up as a result of the concessions being given back by Barama, BaiShanLin and Demerara Timbers, Jordan sees the housing sector as a huge market. He pointed out the importation of building materials for housing which

Berbice Chamber of Commerce is not immune to Skeldon factory and other parts of GuySuCo being privatized.

has affected the demand for foreign currency. Wi t h r e g a r d s t o i n v e s t m e n t s , Jordan acknowledged that these have dropped. However, he was quick to point out that the investments were mainly in the mining and forestry sectors. The fact remained that there was very little lands for forestry to be given out in 2015 when the Coalition government took office, he said. Two large scale gold mines, Aurora

and Troy Resources, are in full production mode and are currently taking back their monies to repay loans. Jordan noted that these are all issues that come with investments. He said that the country will have to carefully ensure it builds capacity for technical persons and introduce more research for agri produce, if this country is serious about building the food export sector.

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Iran denies harassing U.S. warships in Gulf, warns of clashes Reuters - Iran denied yesterday U.S. accusations that its fast-attack boats were “harassing” warships at the mouth of the Gulf, and said Washington would be responsible for any clashes in the key oil shipping route. U.S. Navy commanders earlier accused Iran of jeopardizing international navigation by “harassing” warships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and said future incidents could result in miscalculation and lead to an armed clash. They spoke after the U.S. aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush confronted what one of the commanding officers described as two sets of Iranian Navy fast-attack boats that had approached a U.S.-led, five-vessel flotilla as it entered the Strait on Tuesday on a journey from the Indian Ocean into the Gulf. It was the first time a U.S. carrier entered the narrow waterway, where up to 30 percent of global

oil exports pass, since President Donald Trump took office in January pledging a tougher U.S. stance towards Iran. In Tehran, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said the U.S. claims of the confrontation in the Gulf were based on “false reports or ulterior motives”, the state news agency IRNA reported. “We emphasise that the Americans would be responsible for any unrest in the Persian Gulf, and again warn that the U.S. military must change its behaviour,” Jazayeri said, without elaborating. U.S. commanders earlier said Tuesday’s incident, in which the George H.W. Bush sent helicopter gunships to hover over the Iranian speedboats as some came as close as 950 yards (870 meters) from the aircraft carrier, ended without a shot being fired.

Community mental health being... From page 11 Community Mental Health to Guyana and improve the quality of life and health of all Guyanese. “Like the slogan ‘No health without mental health,” Dr. Richmond-Thomas said that the ministry recognizes the importance of good mental health in enabling persons to realize their potential, cope with the stresses of life, work productively and contribute to the community. But according to her, Guyana has not been suffering alone. “All over the world there is a large gap between the need for treatment and the actual provision of it. Between 76 percent – 85 percent of people with severe mental disorders receive no treatment for their disorder in low-

income and middle-income countries. In high income countries that figure is 35 percent – 50 percent and, according to Dr. RichmondThomas, “Suicide in Guyana is a reflection of this problem.” Through various programmes and sustained collaboration with NGO’s and other stakeholders, Dr. Richmond-Thomas said that the suicide rate is expected to drop significantly by 2018. “There are many planned programmes that are going to unfold,” added Dr. RichmondThomas, as noted that “Guyana has been through rough days in terms of mental health but as in the poem of Artur Clough “Say not the struggle naught availeth” Let us not faint because the results may not be immediately apparent.”

More transparency needed within... From page 12 The IMF also said that the “recent increase in exc h a n g e r a t e f l e x i b i l i t y, should facilitate adjustment to external developments, and safeguard reserves.” There has been much concern being expressed over the recent hike in for-

eign exchange. Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo had been very gloomy in his predictions. He said that if the situation is not dealt with in the right manner and soon, Guyanese will experience increased cost of living, a parallel market will be established and there will be a reemergence of the

underground economy. Jagdeo said that the Government of Guyana could have contained this situation, but either its incapability to do so or its lack of interest is to be blamed for what is to unfold, said Jagdeo. He said that the projections for what is likely to unfold are “unbelievable.”

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Major nations responsible for keeping world peace - China vice premier Reuters - The world’s major nations are responsible for maintaining global peace, and all countries should remain committed to a road of stable and peaceful development, China’s Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said yesterday. His comments followed media reports this week that North Korea was in the final stages of preparing for another nuclear test. Earlier this month, Pyongyang launched

four ballistic missiles in response to joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which it regards as preparation to war. “Large countries have the responsibility to maintain global peace, should increase strategic dialogue, increase mutual trust, and respect each other’s core interests and major concerns,” Zhang said at the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia in southern China’s Hainan province.

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since the beginning of 2016.Washingtonhasbeen pressingBeijing to do more to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes. China has called for a dual-track approach, urging North Korea to suspend its tests and the United States and South Korea to halt military drills, so that both sides can return to talks.

Iwokrama in historic engagement... (From page 3) forest of one million acres at the heart of Guyana was offered to the international community in 1989 by then President Desmond Hoyte, to be used to demonstrate that the forest could be used beneficially without destroying it. Dr. Thomas also highlighted that the forest is comanaged between Iwokrama and 20 indigenous communities surrounding the forest, because the indigenous people are the real owners of the forest and their traditional knowledge, together with that of the scientific community, is what will lead to Iwokrama fulfilling its mandate. “The indigenous people in this country own their land. Once you own something, you care it. The forests and their savannahs is their supermarket, their hospital, their aircondition and the source of clean water. It is their life,” she noted. Those who attended the

workshop were between the ages of 15 and 55. They included persons who are blind, visually impaired or have other physical disabilities. Diane Singh, 22, who became blind when she was 11years-old due to meningitis, was one of those present and found the workshop very interesting. “Although we have a disability, we should know about what is going on around us and in our environment,” she said. Ms. Singh wrote CXC through the Guyana Society for the Blind and is currently pursuing a degree in social work at the University of Guyana. Iwokrama plans to reach out to other groups and school which work with people with disabilities; and expressed appreciation to Conservation InternationalGuyana and Protected Areas Commission for providing some of the educational aids for the exercise. The Iwokrama International

Centre (IIC) was established in 1996 under a joint mandate from the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat to manage the Iwokrama forest, a unique reserve of 371,000 hectares of rainforest “in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”. The forest is zoned into a Sustainable Utilization Area (SUA) and a Wilderness Preserve (WP) in which to test the concept of a truly sustainable forest where conservation, environmental balance and economic use can be mutually reinforcing. The IIC collaborates with the Government of Guyana, the Commonwealth and other international partners and donors to develop new approaches and forest management models to enable countries with rainforests to market their ecosystem services whilst carefully managing their resources through innovative and creative conservation practices.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday March 26, 2017

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

After healthcare flop, White House seeks help from Congress on tax R e u t e r s - U . S . Vi c e President Mike Pence yesterday blamed the U.S. Congress for thwarting a Republican plan to overhaul healthcare law, but acknowledged that the White House will need to work with lawmakers to accomplish its next set of legislative plans. Speaking to a group of small business owners in C h a r l e s t o n , We s t Vi r ginia, Pence said President Donald Trump is ready to move on to his next priority: simplifying the tax code and cutting tax rates. “We’re going to roll our sleeves up and we’re going to cut taxes across the board for working families, small businesses and family farms,” Pence said. “ Wo r k i n g w i t h t h i s Congress, President Trump is going to pass the largest tax cut since the days of Ronald Reagan, and we’re going to get this American

Mike Pence economy moving again,” he said. Comprehensive tax reform has eluded previous Congresses and administrations since 1986 when it was last accomplished under former President Ronald Reagan. Pence made his comments the day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed to find enough support within its own ranks to pass legislation to roll back Obamacare — a setback that raised doubts about

Trump’s ability to deliver on other big promises requiring help from Congress. Trump and Republicans had campaigned to overhaul former Presid e n t B a r a c k O b a m a ’s h e a l t h c a r e l a w, w h i c h they have argued is too intrusive and expensive. “As we all learned yesterday, Congress just w a s n ’ t r e a d y, ” s a i d Pence, who spent a dozen years in Congress starting in 2001, and has been a key emissary for Trump on Capitol Hill. “With 100 percent of House Democrats — every single one — and a handful of Republicans actually standing in the way of President Tr u m p ’s p l a n t o r e p e a l and replace Obamacare, we’re back to the drawing board,” Pence said. On tax reform, Pence said Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent to spur investment.

Thousands demonstrate in London against leaving the EU

Demonstrators take part in a Unite for Europe march, as they head towards Parliament Square, in central London, Britain yesterday. REUTERS/Paul Hackett Reuters - Thousands of people marched through London yesterday to protest against Britain leaving the European Union, just four days before Prime Minister Theresa May launches the start of the formal divorce process from the bloc it joined 44 years ago. The Unite for Europe march was due to end with a rally in Parliament Square, scene of this week’s attack by British-born Islam convert Khalid Masood in which four

people died. Marchers observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims at the start of the demonstration. In bright sunshine, they waved EU flags and banners with slogans like “So what’s the Plan” and “Stop Brexit” as they made their way to parliament. One banner from a marcher in Hastings on the south coast - scene of England’s epoch-defining defeat to William, Duke of Normandy - read: “Hastings, in Europe since

1066.” Another simply said “Happy Birthday EU” in a reference to this weekend’s 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding, currently being commemorated in Rome. Joss Dennis was one of three coach loads of protesters who had travelled from Bristol in western England, which voted 62 percent to stay in the EU in last June’s referendum compared with the national 52-48 percent vote to leave.

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Lower Corentyne beat West Demerara Bramble (77), Chanders (50) fail to... to take inter secondary schools title Lower Corentyne defeated West Demerara to win the final of the Guyana Cricket Board inter secondary schools tournament which was contested on Friday at Bourda. B a t t i n g f i r s t , We s t Demerara were bowled out for 107 in 44.5 overs. Nicholas Holder and Christopher Gurdyal made 21 each while Dev Seepersaud got 18 and Kemar Ferreira 16. Kristoff Williams had 4-2, Junior Sinclair 3-14 and Joshua Wilson 2-18. Lower Corentyne re-

Kevlon Anderson sponded with 108-6 in 29 overs. Man-of-the-match

Kevlon Anderson hit 44 and Sinclair 20.

(From page 76) Harding was introduced, Chandrika eased him through extra cover for four and Hetymer smashed him twice to the cover ropes and disdainfully flicked him for another four to gallop to 24 by Tea. Chandrika was with him on 12 and the Jaguars 40 without loss. After Tea Hetmeyer pounced on Nurse and swatted him for four behind point but hit the next ball straight to extra cover to depart at 441 after clobbering six fours in his 28-ball cameo, at a time when a long responsible innings would have been better suited for the situation with Guyana hoping to save the game. Leon Johnson, also short of runs in recent times, joined

Chandrika, also struggling for form and the pair embarked on consolidating the position. Johnson got going by stroking Nurse for four to post the 50 from 72 balls before using his feet twice to hit Nurse for a couple of boundaries, while Chandrika punched Warrican for four through cover. However, Chandrika (24) after hitting three fours, again failed to build on a fair start and was caught and bowled by Warrican to give the leftarm spinner his 100th wicket at this level and leave the Jaguars on 70-2. Eight runs later Johnson (16) was caught behind and once again it was left on Chanderpaul, with two tons and four fifties in this season’s tournament, to bail them out. He started by lift-

Trinidad boxing promoter, Boxu... Sunday March 26, 2017 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Prove your worth; concentrate on getting the job done and steer clear of office politics and gossip. If your lover tries to curtail your freedom, it may lead to conflict. Make love, not war, and all will be fine. TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Don't push your luck with authority figures. Try not to hesitate; act on your initial instincts. New relationships could evolve through group activities. GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Attend to things that you should have done yesterday. Your position may be in question if you haven't been pulling your weight. Do not get involved with individuals who are already committed to others. CANCER (June 21–July 22) Don't do something silly just to get back at your mate. Travel and entertaining conversation will be informative and uplifting. You will feel compelled to do some traveling. LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) Changes in your home will be positive. Property investments should payoff. You may find yourself in an uncomfortable situation if you have overloaded your plate unintentionally. Later in the week your boss will pat you on the back for a job well done. VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Relax and enjoy what you've accomplished when you're finished. Try to stay calm and understand both sides

of the situation. Don't be too quick to judge your position or surroundings at work. LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Your communication skills are at an all-time high. You can enhance your reputation if you treat family and friends with respect and dignity. Family may not want to get involved but an entrepreneur will. SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Arguments with relatives may lead to a split in the family. Social activities or travel should be in your plans. Avoid getting too close to coworkers or employers. SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) Get help to finish a project if you need it. You may come down with minor infections if you have allowed yourself to get rundown. You must watch your tendency to spend whatever you make. CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) You may be somewhat emotional concerning a rather private matter. Children may be less than honest with you. Don't allow your lover to take advantage of your good nature. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) Your temper could get the better of you if you confront personal situations. Do not be surprised if your partner doesn't understand your needs. Use your quick wit to win points with friends. PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Travel will be fun and entertaining. Minor accidents are likely if you take risks. There will be hidden matters that you may find disturbing.

(From page 79) feels that the ruling body has neglected the interests of the territorial associations and that has inspired him to collaborate with the WBC to foster the requisite changes for Caribbean boxers. “There are more than 40,000 (amateur) boxers under the IABA umbrella yet a mere 2000 benefits from (IABA) largesse,” he pointed out. He said that IABA is not investing enough in the Caribbean and it was this reality that has caused him to collaborate with the WBC to realize his goals. “We are not confronting those officials; we are merely concerned about the large numbers of disenfranchised boxers in the Caribbean in whose lives we could make a positive difference,” he asserted. pic - boxing boxu potts pix - Boxu Potts (extreme R) along with other officials just after the close of ceremony. He is

joined by WBC’s Bob Yalen, former world champion, Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, referee, Joe Cortez and Will Boodhoo receiving their Level One Referee/Judge Certification from World Boxing Council.

ing Nurse back over his head and smashing Warrican for successive boundaries while Singh flicked Kevin Stoute for four after cover-driving Nurse to the ropes when he give the left-hander width. Chanderpaul chopped Chase for four and banged Stoute to the extra cover boundary to move to 600 runs this season as he and Singh remained to the end with hopes still alive of saving the game which resumes tomorrow after a rest day today facilitate the T20 international between West Indies and Pakistan. Scores: PRIDE 480 for three decl. (Shai Hope 215 not out, Kraigg Brathwaite 143, Shamarh Brooks 67; Romario Shepherd 2-111). JAGUARS 250 (Anthony Bramble 77, Shiv Chanderpaul 50, Raymon Reifer 31, Rajindra Chandrika 24; Miguel Cummins 5-41, Roston Chase 4-46) and 119 for three (Shiv Chanderpal 30 not out, Shimron Hetmyer 28; Ashley Nurse 2-33).

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Sunday March 26, 2017

One week Primary School Table Tennis training Programme conducted in Berbice The Ministry of Education- Department of Sport/National Sports Commission over the past week conducted a Schools Developmental Table Tennis Coaching Programme for Primary schools in East Berbice. The sessions, which were conducted by National Table Tennis Coach Linden Johnson, were for students between the ages of 6 years and 11 years. It involved schools from Crabwood Creek on the Upper Corentyne to schools from East and West Canje, New Amsterdam and East Bank Berbice.

The activity which commenced on Monday March 20th ended on Friday March 24th with a whole day session at the Berbice High School in New Amsterdam. The sessions were held at the Port Mourant Community Center, Skeldon Community Center and the Berbice High School. Each school was not allowed to send more than 24 (12 boys and 12 girls). Each School was entitled to one session at one and a half (1 ½) hour per session. The aims and objectives of the programme is to develop and improve the level of table tennis in

schools; help students with the basic skills of table tennis; help students to be better prepared for future tournaments; train a nucleus of students to prepared for CXC exams, increase the number of participants involved in table tennis by 25%, in Berbice; identify players for future tournaments; create an integrated coaching programme that incorporate the coach education and player’s development and motivate and encourage schools and players to join forces and work in partnership.

Three session per day were conducted beginning from 09:30 hrs – 11:00 hrs (1 ½ h), session two from 11:00 hrs – 12:30 hrs (1 ½ h) and the third session from 13:00 hrs – 14:30 hrs (1 ½ h). The programme attracted over 400 students. Johnson was assisted by Gibran Hussain Sarfaraz. According to Johnson the turnout was overwhelming with lots of talent spotted. Follow up visits will be undertaken throughout the year. An inter primary school tournament is slated for next term. (Samuel Whyte)

The Table Tennis sessions at the Berbice High School being conducted by National Coach Linden Johnson.

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Berbice Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition

Bad and Bougie, Yong Guns, Trafalgar among teams moving on Lichfield Nuggets, Vendetta, Money Pull Up, Bad and Bougie, East Bank Young Guns, Trafalgar and Mahaicony were among the teams advancing to the round of 16 stage following opening night action on Friday in the Berbice Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition. Played at the New Amsterdam (NA) Stelling Tarmac in East Berbice, Bad and Bougie eased past West Side Gunners by a 4-2 margin with Kevin Dey firing in a brace in the 14th and 19th minutes. He was assisted by Shamar Andrews and Jason Ross who netted in the fifth and 21st minutes respectively. Stephon Moore and Keiron Arthur responded for the Gunners in the sixth and 23rd minutes respectively. Lichfield Nuggets defeated Canje 2-0 with Carlos Grant and Julius Wright the players on target in the third and11th minutes respectively.. Money Pull Up beat Rose Hall ‘A’ by a 5-2 margin with Horace Roach

lashing in a pair in the fourth and 12th minutes, while Winston Benjamin recorded a similar tally in the 13th and 16th minute along with a solitary strike from Lesi Beckles whose goal came in the 15th minute. David Moore scored both goals for Rose Hall ‘A’ in the sixth and 20th minutes. Vendetta squeezed past Golden Stars 2-1. Samad Orokium booted in a brace in the 11th and 13th minutes, while Akeem Rudder had given Golden Stars the lead as early as the second minute. In other results, Mahaicony defeated Young Gunners 2-1 in a penalty shootout after regulation time ended 1-1. East Bank Young Guns and Trafalgar defeated Orealla ‘B’ and Courtland Bulls respectively via walkover. Meanwhile, the winning team will receive $400,000 and the c h a m p i o n s h i p t r o p h y, while second, third and fourth placed finishers will t a k e h o m e $ 1 5 0,000, $100,000 and $75,000

GBA nominates ‘AK47’ for Sportsman Award - Ninvalle The Guyana Boxing Association created a bit of history locally by announcing that it has nominated Caribbean Super Heavyweight champion Jason ‘AK47’ Barker for the 2016 Sportsman of the Year Award. The disclosure was made by GBA president Steve Ninvalle yesterday. Barker, an inmate of the Georgetown Prison, defied the odds when he moved up from his heavyweight comfort zone to snatch the region’s superheavyweight title in Barbados last December. “We obviously had no hesitation is nominating Mr. Barker. He has done, himself, the Guyana Prison Service and Guyana very proud. I am not certain but this may be the first time that we have actually had an inmate of the prison being nominated for such a prestigious award,” Ninvalle said. Barker has ruled the local heavyweight scene with an

iron fist. He won the National Open with ease and has not lost a fight during last year. With promptings from the local coaching team he decided to take aim at the Caribbean Super Heavyweight title in Barbados. There in the final, ‘The Prison Pride’ defeated Jamaican Ricardo Brown who outweighed him by over 40 pounds. “Even with the odds stacked against him Mr. Barker was able to achieve what many considered to be improbable. Even if he were to quit the sport now he would still be a success story. He has turned his life around and is well respected in the prison. It is our hope that his achievements, disciple and dedication would inspire other inmates,” Ninvalle added. The National Sport Awards is scheduled to be held on April 21 and is organized by the National Sports Commission.

respectively. Action in the competition continued last evening, while the semifinals and final will be played today, at the same venue. In the night’s results: Game-1 East Bank Young Guns vs Orealla-B Young Guns won via walkover

Game-2 Trafalgar vs Courtland Bulls Trafalgar won via walkover Game-3 Mahaicony-1 vs Young Gunners-1 Mahaicony won 2-1 on penalty kicks Game-4 Canje-0 vs Lichfield Nuggets-2 Carlos Grant-3rd Julius Wright-11th Game-5

West Side Gunners-2 vs Bad and Bougie-4 Bad and Bougie Scorer Shamar Andrews-5th Kevin Dey-14th and 19th Jason Ross-21st West Side Scorer Stephon Moore-6th Keiron Arthur-23rd Game-6 Rose Hall-2 vs Money Pull Up-5 Money Scorers

Horace Roach-4th and 12th Winston Benjamin-13th and 16th Lesi Beckles-15th Rose Hall Scorer David Moore-6th and 20th Game-7 Vendetta-2 vs Golden Stars1 Vendetta Scorer Samad Orekium-11th and 13th Golden Star Scorer Akeem Rudder-2nd

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

Digicel Regional four-day cricket

Bramble (77), Chanders (50) fail to prevent Jaguars following-on By Sean Devers in Barbados In association with Stage Beer & Vnet Communications Needing 230 to avoid an

innings defeat, Guyana Jaguars, following-on, were 119-3 and fighting for survival at the end of the third day of their eighth round contest against

Barbados Pride in the Digicel Regional Four-Day match at the Kensington Oval yesterday. A well played 77 by 26year-old Keeper Anthony

Bramble and a carefully constructed 50 from Shiv Chanderpaul added 106 for sixth wicket to lift the Jaguars from 133-5 before the last five wicket tumbled for 11 runs in 8.4 overs as they fell for 250 in 89.2 overs in reply to the 480-3 declared made by the Pride. Raymon Reifer (31) who shared a 47run fifth wicket stand with Chanderpaul, was the only other batsman to reach 25. The 26-year-old Miguel Cummins registered his ninth five-wicket haul (5-41) and was supported by offspinner Roston Chase (4-46) and by the close the Jaguars in their second innings were fighting back on 119-3 with Chanderpaul (30) and Vishaul Singh (14) at the crease with the Jaguars still 111 runs behind. Play commenced with the Jaguars overnight on 119-4 in sunny conditions and Chanderpaul leaned back and cut off-spinner Ashley Nurse for four to move to 21 and go to 26,002 First-Class runs from 356 matches. Reifer took control of the partnership with positive stroke play and hit five boundaries from 65 minutes

Guy 119-3 in 2nd inns and 57 balls in 31 before he edged Cummins to the Keeper at 133-5. Bramble hammered Nurse over mid-wicket for four and the 200 came up in the 61 over before Bramble c u t J o m e l Wa r r i c a n delicately for four behind point before slog-sweeping him into the Greenidge and Haynes. The pugnacious Bramble cut Kevin Stoute for four before gloriously stroking him through extra cover for another four in his next over to reach his fifth fifty from 64 balls, 69 minutes with eight fours. Chanderpaul was content to play the supporting role and by Lunch the Jaguars were 2295 with Bramble on 72 and Chanderpaul on 39. The partnership was 96 but the Jaguars were still 251 run adrift of the Pride’s 480. After lunch Bramble passed his previous best of 73 but when he was LBW to Cummins for 77 at 239-6 to end the century partnership, it triggered a batting collapse as Chase and Cummins went to work with the second new st

ball which was taken after 80 overs with the score on 2395. Chanderpaul played a rare aggressive shot when he danced into Chase and hammered him past mid-off for four before he whipped Cummins delightfully through mid-wicket for another but when the 42year-old left-hander pushed forward to Chase and was taken at slip after posting his 137 fifty from 189 balls, 269 minutes with four fours and six at 245-7, things fell apart. Cummins removed Romero Shepherd, who made his maiden fifty in the last game in Trinidad, debutant Clinton Pestano and Devendra Bishoo for ducks as the Jaguars lost their last six wickets for 17 runs. Following-on, the Jaguars started in positive fashion with Chandrika hitting Cummins back past his ankles for four, while Shemron Hetymer struck Cummins for four and flicked Chase, who opened the bowling, to the fine leg boundary. When debutant Keon (Continued on page 73) th

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

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UG overcome Police Milo 18 and under Schools Football Competition Masters crush Tutorial 12-1 by four wickets

Keron Sewnarine University of Guyana (UG) defeated Police by four wickets when the Georgetown Cricket Association Carib Beer first division T20 tournament continued yesterday at Eve Leary. Despite being given a cracking start by opener Alex Algoo, Police could only muster 76-9 after the game was reduced to 10 overs due to rain. Algoo clobbered off spinner Linden Austin for five sixes and a four in the first over which also included a no ball to propel Police to 35 off opening over. But after he departed shortly after for 35, UG managed to restrict Police with some steady bowling. Spinner Royston Alkins

had Sherwin McPherson (03) caught before bowling Ricardo Adams for six leaving the score at 44-3. The rest of the batting struggled with the next best being 10 from Raun Johnson. Keron Sewnarine was the pick of the bowlers with 2-2 from two overs, while Michael Shallim took 2-6, Suresh Dhanai 2-8 and Alkins 2-10. In reply, UG lost Leon Williams run out for four before Darnel Douglas was taken off Randolph Knights for nine as UG slipped to 232. Damien VanTull struck Adams for a six before he was bowled by Adams for 16 while Alkins was caught off Harris leaving UG in trouble at 33-4. Dhanai kept UG on par with sixes off Adams before he was caught and bowled by the said bowler who also removed Sewnarine for eight as Police fought back. Shallim went without scoring however Ray Newton (12*) and Austin (06*) saw UG home with Austin hitting the first ball off the last over from Johnson for four. UG finished on 77-6 in 9.1 overs; Adams captured 326. The competition continues at 13:30 hrs today with Police hosting DCC and Everest staying at home to GCC. (Zaheer Mohamed)

Regional Cricket roundup -

Scorpions (201) & 172-7 vs Red Force (174) — 2nd day, 8th round PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC — Jamaica Scorpions, leading Trinidad and Tobago Red Force by 27 runs, were 172 for seven in their second innings at the close on the second day of their eighth round Regional four-day match at Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday. Scores: SCORPIONS 201 (Jermaine Blackwood 68, Derval Green 53, Devon Thomas 23; Imran Khan 4-28, Sheldon Cottrell 3-34) and 172 for seven (Fabien Allen 60, Devon Thomas 38; Rayad Emrit 3-30, Marlon Richards 2-25) RED FORCE 173 (Kyle Hope 67, Yannic Cariah 45; Nikita Miller 4-39, Damion Jacobs 3-46) Volcanoes (540) vs Hurricanes (135-4) — 2nd day, 8th round BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC — Leeward Islands Hurricanes, replying to Windward Islands Volcanoes’ 540 all out, were 135 for four in their first innings at the close on the second day of their eighth round game in the Regional fourday championship at Warner Park here Saturday. Scores: VOLCANOES 540 (Sunil Ambris 231, Kyle Mayers 76, Devon Smith 65, Tyrone Theophile 30; Rahkeem Cornwall 4-151, Jason Campbell 3-100) HURRICANES 135 for four (Kieran Powell 49, Keacy Carty 35, Nkrumah Bonner 27 not out; Shane Shillingford 342)

-Chase Academy in action today

Part of the action between Morgan’s Learning Centre and EAST Ruimveldt yesterday at the Ministry of Education ground. M a s t e r s A c a d e m y, Morgan’s Learning Centre and Sir Leon Lessons registered emphatic wins when play in this year’s Milo 18 and under Schools Football Competition resumed, at the Ministry of Education ground, Carifesta Avenue. Masters Academy led by four goals from Calvin Peters and three from Tyrone Khan posted a comfortable 12-1 t r i u m p h o v e r Tu t o r i a l , while Sir Leon L e s s o n s b eat Dolphin 71 and Morgan’s Learning

Centre hit seven past a hapless East Ruimveldt that failed to register a goal. In the day’s full results: Game-1 Masters Academy-12 vs Tutorial Secondary-1 Masters Scorers Calvin Peters-5th, 9th, 32nd and 36th Tyron Khan-52nd, 60th and 62nd Dorinyn George-58th and 64th O’Neil Glasgow-1st Ryan Dowden-28th Carl Lynch-41st Andel Smith-47th Tutorial Scorer

Zion Gray-57th Game-2 Carmel Secondary-1 vs Lodge Secondary-0 Darrel Niles-55th Game-3 Dolphin Secondary-1 vs Sir Leon Lessons-7 Sir Leon Scorers Adrian Aaron-9th, 40th, 57th and 59th Omari James-56th Meshach Barratt-60th Dexter Blue-65th Dolphin Scorer Shemar Welch-68th Game-4 Morgan Learning Centre-7 vs East Ruimveldt0

Chris Casey-44th and 55th Orin Moore-30th Lionel Holder-34th Daniel Clarke-53rd Daniel Floyd-62nd Meanwhile in today’s round of matches: 1 1 : 0 0 h r s Queenstown Secondary v/s Buxton 12:30 hrs School of the Nations v/s Pure Masters 14:00 hrs Q u e e n ’s College v/s Bishop’s High School 15:30 hrs C h a s e Academy v/s South Ruimveldt Secondary

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Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

GFSCA launches Masters Inter County tourney By Zaheer Mohamed With the aim of promoting the sport among the seniors, The Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association (GFSCA) on Friday last launched its inaugural Inter County Masters tournament at M i k e ’s P h a r m a c y a t Blygezight, Bel Air. The tournament, which will be played on a round robin basis, will commence on April 15 and conclude on April 16 at Ogle Community Centre ground, East Coast Demerara. The teams competing in the tournament are Valvoline and Wellman of Demerara, Trophy Stall of Essequibo and Permaul’s Trading of Berbice. The winning team will take home a trophy and $200,000 and the runner up a trophy and $100,000. The tournament’s best batsman, best bowler as well as manof-the-match in the final will also be rewarded. Prior to the final, an exhibition game will be played between Demerara and Berbice females in which the winner will pocket a trophy and $50,000 and the

runner up a trophy and $25,000. Speaking at the l a u n c h i n g c e r e m o n y, president of the GFSCA, Ramchand Ragbeer, expressed gratitude to the sponsors, adding that he is expecting a keenly competitive tournament. Organising Secretary of the GFSCA Wayne Jones stated that the tournament will be held under the rules of the GFSCA and while it’s only for players over the age of 45, teams will be allowed to field two players who are over 45. Jones related that Bar-bque will be on sale on both days at the venue at a cost of $1,000 and fans can obtain tickets prior to the competition at Mike’s Pharmacy, Sankar Auto Works and Trophy Stall. He related that admission to the venue is $200, but patrons who are in possession of BarB-que tickets will be given free entry into the venue. In addressing the gathering, CEO of Sankar Auto Works, Sase Sankar, who is one of the official sponsors under the Valvoline brand, said that they are

Members of the GFSCA and sponsors share a moment following the launching ceremony. pleased to be associated with the tournament and he expects a successful one. He added that the Valvoline is one of their best achievement over the past few years and they intend the make it one of the most popular lubricant locally. A n i l B e h a r r y, w h o r e p r e s e n t e d P e r m a u l ’s Trading and Distribution of Berbice, lauded the GFSCA for the initiative and said

they are proud to be part of such a wonderful tournament. He informed that this competition is the brain child of Mike Singh and Mr. Permaul, and that it will grow from strength to strength whereas they are looking at staging the Open category in the future. Mike Singh CEO of Mike’s Pharmacy said that while he is happy that the

tournament, which is another level from the regular club competition, has become a reality, he is hoping that fans can see some exciting action throughout the tournament. Tr o p h y S t a l l h e a d Ramesh Sunich added that he is excited to be part of the action and thanked the GFSCA for the opportunity. He pledged his continued support for sports.

A PA system will provide on-field updates, while fans can contact Jones on 650 1790 and Ean Bacchus on 661 8263 to solicit information on the Bar-Bque tickets. Sankar’s Auto Wo r k s , Tr o p h y S t a l l , Permaul’s Trading and Distribution and Mike’s Pharmacy under their Wellman brand are the sponsors on board.

Windies out to erase bad memories BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC — Following their chastening whitewash last September, West Indies are quietly hoping to return the favour on home soil, when they take on Pakistan in a the fourmatch Twenty20 International series starting at Kensington Oval here today. T h e T 2 0 Wo r l d champions looked a shadow of the side that dominated the showpiece in India just months before, as they slumped to an embarrassing 3-0 loss in the United Arab Emirates. But even though revenge rests on their minds, captain Carlos Brathwaite said they were taking nothing for granted against a dangerous Pakistan side. “They are very, very worthy opponents,” Brathwaite told reporters here yesterday. “I think they are one of the better teams in the world as well and it is tough playing them in their backyard but we welcome them to the West Indies and we want to take home advantage as well.

“Hopefully we can reflect the score that we were given away from home.” He added: “I think they play a fearless brand of cricket. Sometimes you see them skiddled out for 80 but on another day they can make 180, 200, and it can be very exciting as well. “I think one of their strengths is their rotation of strike in the middle overs, they play spin very well. “It’s about us counteracting that but not focussing on their strengths but maximising ours.” West Indies will again miss the talents of superstar opener Chris Gayle and will also have to do without the experienced all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell. However, they have at their disposal the likes of Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons, all of whom are proven match-winners in the game’s shortest format. Brathwaite pointed out that even without some of their leading names, West Indies were still an extremely strong side and

were backing themselves to put up big totals. “We have strength in depth. Not having Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell and still being able to pick the team we’ve selected is massive for any international team,” he noted. “One thing we’ve always been able to boast of is power-hitters and we have four or five one after the other and with three or four in the shed. There’s a perfect mix of experience and youth as well. We have very, very young guys like … Rovman Powell, Jason Mohammed but then there’s still elder statesmen — although Pollard is only 28 he is a T20 veteran. “ Yo u h a v e M a r l o n Samuels and Lendl Simmons who have been touring all over the world and playing with success so I think that blend of youth and experience as well as powerful hitters coming on to the back end of the T20 innings, we can capitalise in the last 10 overs anywhere in the world against any team in the world.” Last year’s nightmare

West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite looks on during training for Sunday’s opening Twenty20 International against Pakistan. (Photo courtesy WICB Media) against Pakistan still looms large. It was not so much that the Windies lost the series but rather, the way in which they did. They mustered a paltry 115 in the opening game batting first and lost by nine wickets, failed to chase down 160 in the second outing and lost by 16 runs before scraping together 103 in their final game to lose by

eight wickets. Brathwaite admitted he was still unsure about what went wrong but said he hoped to the team would put things right in the upcoming series. “[I’m] not sure. It’s a multitude of factors. Obviously when things don’t go as well as you would like, everyone seems to know the problem but in the dressing

room we are trying to find the solutions,” he said. “Hopefully those solutions manifest themselves on the field come Sunday and we can get a win in Barbados and then get three more in Trinidad which would be an ideal situation.” Yesterday, West Indies left out Jonathan Carter, Andre Fletcher and Veerasammy Permaul from the final 13-man squad. SQUADS: WEST INDIES — Carlos Brathwaite (captain), Samuel Badree, Jason H o l d e r, E v i n L e w i s , Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton, Kesrick Williams. PAKISTAN — Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Ahmad Shahzad, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Fakhar Z a m a n , I m a d Wa s i m , Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz , Hasan Ali, Sohail Tanvir , Wahab Riaz, Rumman Raees, Usman Khan Shinwari.

Sunday March 26, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Endurance Rental Cup Karting Competition

Team Nexus dominate both categories Team Nexus dominated both the 500 and 600 lbs Classes in the monthly Endurance Rental Cup Karting Competition which continued Friday night, at the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club on Albert Street. Appearing in the 500 lbs Class, the combination of Brian Ten Pow, Carlos Rodrigues and Gregory Mohamed came home ahead of Team Truck Masters that contained Raymond Baksh, Stephan Jeffrey and Andrew Phang, while Team Palm Court that consisted of Mark, Stephen and Emma Vieira finished third. In the 600 lbs Class, Teram Nexus with Matthew Phang, Carlos Rodrigues and Stephen Nobrega aboard relegated team Palm Court that consisted of Mark and Stephen Vieira and Stephan Jeffrey into second place, while Team E-Racing with Denzel Hopkinson, Jason Gonsalves and Shane Haly in the lineup ended third. The night’s full results are seen below:

Menbers of Team Nexus (from left)- Matthew Phang, Steven Nobrega, Gregory Mohamed, Brian Ten Pow and Carlos Rodrigues pose with their hardware following the conclusion of the presentation ceremony. 500lb 1. Team Nexus (Brian Ten Pow, Carlos Rodrigues, Gregory Mohamed) 2. Truck Masters (Raymond Baksh, Stephan

Jeffrey, Andrew Phang) 3. Palm Court (Mark Vieira, Stephen Vieira, Emma Vieira) 600lb 1. Team Nexus (Matthew

Phang, Carlos Rodrigues, Stephen Nobrega) 2. Palm Court (Mark Vieira, Stephen Vieira, Stephan Jeffrey) 3. E-Racing (Denzel

Hopkinson, Jason Gonsalves, Shane Haly) Fastest lap 43.1- Brian Tenpow 500lb 42.9- Matthew Phang

600lb The event was sponsored by Secure Innovations and Concepts, Monster Energy, Karcher, Auto Fashion and Big Kahuna.

Trinidad boxing promoter, Boxu Potts, organizes historic training/certification course Touts partnership with WBC to improve boxers’ fortunes As boxing organizers continue to enact strategies towards the development of boxing in the Caribbean, popular boxing promoter/manager, Trinidadian, Boxu Potts, spearheaded an historic training/certification course that endeavors to improve the lot of professional boxers in the region. The three-day event punched off last Monday morning in the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Trinidad and Tobago and concluded two days later where participants received Level One certificates in refereeing, judging, and coaching. Activities were facilitated by top brass of the World Boxing Council (WBC), world renowned referee, Joe Cortez, former ESPN and ABC producer and expert statistician, Bob Ya l e n , f o r m e r w o r l d champion, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and WBC International referee/judge,

Guyanese, Will Boodoo. The occasion was also graced by Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Commission (TBBC) Dr. Barry Ishmael, and fellow directors, Dr. Rochelle Mohammed and Terry Young. T&T Sports Minister Darryl Smith was notably absent and was represented by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs Ian Ramdahin. The WBC officials said they were pleased to be in Port-of-Spain and relished the opportunity to pass on what knowledge they possessed to the eager participants. Cortez, who has officiated in more than 160 world title fights and is now an analyst with ESPN, encouraged the participants to set their goals high and work hard. He told them they had the ability to achieve those goals while aspiring to officiate in a world title match in the near future. “But there may be some

Boxu Potts (extreme R) along with other officials just after the close of ceremony. He is joined by WBC’s Bob Yalen, former world champion, Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, referee, Joe Cortez and Will Boodhoo receiving their Level One Referee/Judge Certification from World Boxing Council. of you who may not want to be a referee, judge or coach; you can be an inspector, a position which necessitates working with officials to enforce the rules on fight night,” Cortez informed. TBBC chairman Dr Ishmael hopes that the certification and training programme is ongoing so as to strengthen the development of the sport. He thanked the WBC and Potts for their support in ensuring

the initiative is successful even as he confidently proclaimed that the benefits will redound to the nation in the short and long term. Dr Ishmael also announced that along with the WBC programme, the TBBC has also launched an effort to enhance the infrastructure of gyms through a grant of up to $30,000, and provide boxing gear. The WBC certification

programme is aimed at developing a professional and amateur programme under the auspices of the TBBC and the WBC for coaching, regular competition and the upgrading of officials to service a local boxing industry. Participants were exposed to theoretical and practical sessions in all aspects of the course curriculum, and the

facilitators had subsequently evaluated their performance. Successful participants were issued with Level One certification and told that other levels will follow. Kaieteur Sport spoke with Mr. Potts shortly after the curtains were drawn and he said that he was forced to collaborate with officials of the WBC because he has lost confidence in the ruling amateur body (IABA). He (Continued on page 73)

t r o Sp Berbice Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition

Bad and Bougie, Yong Guns, Trafalgar among teams moving on

Part of the action in this year’s Berbice Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition.

Players battle for possession in one of the matches in this year’s Berbice Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition.

Digicel Regional four-day cricket

Bramble (77), Chanders (50) fail to prevent Jaguars following-on Guy 119-3 in 2nd inns

Shiv Chanderpaul played the supporting role in his century stand with Anthony Bramble as passed 26,000 runs in First-Class cricket and still there in the 2nd innings yesterday. (Photos by Sean Devers)

Jaguars Keeper Anthony Bramble cuts for four during his attacking innings at Kensington Oval yesterday.

Windies out to erase bad memories Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Limited, 24 Saffon St.Charlestown, Georgetown.Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/ 226-8210