Kaieteur News

Page 04

Kaieteur News

KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8491, 225-8458, 225-8465 Fax: 225-8473 or 226-8210

Editorial

The police and the society The current state of affairs arising from the suspension of the Parliament places a burden on the already stretched security forces. First and foremost, members of the police force will be expected to be on some form of heightened standby in the event that they are required to respond to any situation of public disorder.

Of course the question of an appropriate non-lethal response to incidents of public disorder should always be paramount during operations of that nature.

Considering the Linden debacle and subsequent events, it is by no means a certainty that the police have learned from those episodes. As far as common knowledge goes the force apparently has not even attempted to dissect and analyse public disorder events to try to arrive at a universally acceptable way of dealing with similar issues which may arise in the future. Impossible as it seems the administration appears comfortable with the status quo so much so that all talk about reform and modernization is just talk.

Nowhere are the Guyanese people offered a level of comfort with an image of what the new and improved police service would look like and how it would approach its constitutional obligations. From all indications it will be an uphill task to makeover institutional attitudes, develop competencies and capacities.

But the foregoing strayed from the seminal point.

Members of the force will be hard pressed to retain any semblance of what little professionalism exists in trying circumstances that are likely to emerge from this recent constitutional brouhaha.

Speaking to the question of officer safety a serious look needs to be taken at the equipment ranks are issued when they are forced into conflict situations. For one, with the possible exception of the newly formed SWAT, the bullet proof vests worn by the ordinary ranks are substandard.

The frequency with which ranks in pursuit of alleged offenders shoot up innocent bystanders begs the question of what type of requalifying firearm exercises they are exposed to and how regular these are organized. The current practice of paying money to even office bound ranks who do not qualify makes a mockery of the original intent behind the annual payout of ‘shooting money’.

What is particularly lacking in the force today is the requirement to requalify; nowhere is it apparent that drivers, technicians, et al are expected to perform at a specified level of competence that is evaluated.

It would be interesting to be told what the civilian component has recommended or actually is doing in this regard. Still on the question of officer safety it behooves ranks to be aware that they should comport themselves professionally at all material times. It had been claimed that the indiscriminate slaying of policemen during the last decade was driven in part by a perception that the police had gone overboard with their propensity for extra-judicial killings.

It would be interesting to know if the force has learnt its lesson; but from the reports at hand this does not seem likely, considering the Mahaicony, South Road, Fish Shop, and Agricola killings to name just a few. All of these occurred in this decade. The knowledge that police members have to leave their families and do not know when or if they would return, should serve be a great motivator for them to act professionally keeping their motto in plain sight at all times.

Moreover it is incumbent upon families of police persons to urge them to respect the rule of law in the performance of their duty. The fact that seemingly escapes most of us is that the problems that affect the wider society distress everyone in varying degrees, but disturbed we all are whether police or civilian or soldier.

When our police go out there all gung ho under the command of an officer favoured by the political administration with no regard for the human and other rights of the Guyanese people they are unwittingly diminishing the just struggles of the people and putting themselves and their families at risk and at the mercy of an uncaring regime.

Sunday November 23, 2014

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

Lincoln Lewis misses a vital distinction in examining the 1980 constitution DEAR EDITOR, I am responding to Lincoln Lewis’ letter titled “An inherent behaviour of politicians is to misapply the constitution to justify dastardly acts” (KN, November 17, 2014), which is a response to my letter titled “Lewis has to stop peddling the notion that attacks on the Burnham constitution are uncalled for”. Lincoln Lewis obviously did not read my letter directed at him.

He says my letter “is

absent supporting evidence to negate my consistent position that the Guyana Constitution be respected and enforced.” I clearly stated in my letter that the current constitution is fraudulent, illegitimate and illegal. It was drafted by an illegal dictatorship and supported by only around 10 percent of the voting age population in a fixed referendum. What more evidence does Lewis want that this constitution is an illegality and cannot be

respected and enforced with any legal or moral force?

Lincoln Lewis obviously does not comprehend the difference between de facto and de jure constitutionality for if he did, he would not be peddling this simplistic and, quite frankly, irresponsible and dangerous discourse.

A de facto constitution is one which exists as a matter of fact but is unlawful and illegitimate.

This aptly describes the 1980 constitution. A de jure constitution is one which is

lawful, given the force of lawfulness by a full participatory democratic referendum. A de jure constitution is also a de facto constitution. A de facto constitution is not a de jure constitution. Guyana has never had a de jure constitution.

Once the citizenry resides within the state governed by a de facto constitution, they are bound by its existence. This does not mean they morally or (Continued on page 6)

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox A poem for Glenn Lall DEAR EDITOR, Please graciously allow me space in your newspaper to pen this work of encouragement to Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall Tower of strength, wall of defence.

Called out one.

Chosen for such a time as this.

Thinking not strange concerning the fiery trail That has come to try you For God is only using you To execute His plan His perfect willFor Guyana.

Know that this battle Is not yours but the Lord.

He is only using you To speak to Guyana, To Goad Guyana to arise From slumber, from Lethargy from somnambulism. .................................................

Can the clay say to the potter What firmest thou?

Will God bring To birth and not cause to bring forth?

Know that God has called you For such a time as this.

It is not your doing but his

He knew you eons ago before You’re ever planted in your mother’s womb.

He spoke truth into your spirit He robed you with his spirit of judgment.

When you were of age He looked for a man in you A man to stand in the gap for Guyana To root out, to pull down, To destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant.

He looked for a man To usher his glory upon this nation And he found one- in you.

Be not afraid of the face of terror for he is with you.

Has he not called you by name?

Did he not choose you to be his weapon of victory?

They will fight against you But they cannot prevail For you are His voice crying in the wilderness.

He is your God, your father and so....... You are the apple of His eye.

Set your face like flint.

Walk on.

For He is with you To be your defence.

Apostle Juliet Pittman Repairers of the Breach Ministries

Let Parliament be de-rogued DEAR EDITOR, As a Guyanese, I would like to add my two cents to the pro-rogue debate. It is my honest opinion that Mr. Granger should accept the invitation of His Excellency, with two conditions.

(1) Since Parliament has representative from three political parties, and Mr. Granger and His Excellency support democratic norms, Mr. Granger should insist that a representative of the AFC be invited to the talks also.

(2) In the interest of keeping all Guyanese abreast of what happens in the negotiations, and to ensure there is no back room deals to the detriment of Guyanese people; Mr. Granger, if he is interested in the welfare of all Guyanese peoples, should insist that the negotiations be televised LIVE.

Let all Guyanese have the chance to hold our representatives to their promises of representing us.

Now, Mr. Granger should respond to His Excellency and publish the letter in all the newspapers also.

In the interest of Guyana and all Guyanese I do hope this missive is printed and that the Parliament is derogued.

M. S. Khan

Page 5

Kaieteur M@ilbox

It’s ridiculous that our administrators can’t learn from their mistakes from the 2005 flood DEAR EDITOR, The present flooding in Georgetown, the East Coast, East Bank and other places is a result of poor management when it comes to drainage and irrigation. I have seen just thirty minutes of constant rains flood the entire city. Main Street and Water Street will flood in just about fifteen minutes because the drains are too shallow to contain the water that takes the water to the main trenches and canals.

It’s ridiculous that our administrators and engineers still cannot learn from their mistakes since the 2005 flood.

For water to run off the yards into the street drains to avoid flooding the drains just can’t be two or three feet deep; they have to be about ten feet deep and the trenches need to be deeper to contain the water. Residents also need to maintain the drains in their yard by building them about five feet deep in concrete palls and raise their land level to avoid flooding in their homes.

They also need to raise their floor level and build a concrete seal around it over four feet in height to protect their buildings.

Georgetown has too much pavement sellers that need to be relocated into a separate market or arcade because these street vendors will throw their garbage in the drains when they finish selling. As I walked down King Street, Robb, Street and Regent Street, I could clearly see the garbage dumps

getting bigger and bigger and many big businesses disposed their garbage on the pavements and the streets by giving it to street dwellers.

Even if we have deeper drains we now have to implement laws about littering and now the Christmas Season is around where we see more sellers than buyers. It means the garbage dumps will get bigger and the flood water won’t go anywhere because the drains are blocked.

Flooding is something we have been living with for many years because of bad drainage and irrigation. I have travelled this entire country and have seen main trenches and canals so overtaken by bushes and trees it’s difficult to distinguish the trench from the dam. I was in Rose Hall Town recently, where I grew up, and was shocked when I looked at a trench I used to swim in as a boy.

The entire trench was taken over by huge trees and bushes but it doesn’t seem to bother the Village council. I walked a few blocks to go to Port Mourant and saw a trench we used to call Bunyan Trench in a more deplorable state than the one in Rose Hall. This huge black water trench used to be helping residents to wash, fish, and even water their garden but now it looks more like a dump heap than a trench.

I personally don’t think these problems are caused by the Ministers in Government.

It’s caused by the NDC’S who

don’t care anything but they are still collecting rates and taxes. It’s sad to see these guys trying to get a hymac to dig trenches when we are in the flood. They never prepare for the rains and they are fully aware about the seasons in which we have rains in Guyana. I note with interest yesterday that the water from my front trench is level to my yard. If I didn’t have a four foot concrete drain I would have been flooded out.

The water from the trench levelled in my yard because the trench is full of hard weeds that caused the water to remain stagnant. All the water from my yard and drains remained there for a long time.

If the NDC was digging and maintaining this three feet deep trench to ten feet deep then all the water would have drained out instantly.

But who cares that the residents and tax payers have to suffer. Even Narei was under threat because the water from their drains is level with the trench because the trench needs some real digging about fifteen feet

deep to cause some land movement with the water.

I think our administrators need to visit the Estate Cane fields to observe the high dam beds of the cane that cannot be flooded and the depths of the canals that are over 20 feet deep to contain the water cascading down the cane fields.

The Dutch and British built a magnificent drainage system but because of bad management and incompetence, we are now over taken by basic rain fall.

Over 30 years ago while growing up in Berbice I have seen over one month severe rains in Berbice and we were never flooded because drains, trenches and canals were maintained long before the May-June and November-December rains came. Many times those responsible can’t be found they either drunk or just idling but still getting paid.

If we are going to free ourselves from flooding it will need a collective work of unity between residents and administrators.

Rev.Gideon Cecil

Page 6

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox The PPP has turned Guyana into a pariah state DEAR EDITOR, Like a drug or alcohol addict, the first step towards recovery is to recognize that you have a problem. The PPP cabal has to recognize they have a serious, chronic and dangerous dictatorial syndrome. Its genesis lay in their hard-headed approach to governance, the proroguing of Parliament and their unwavering support for the Commissioner General of the GRA who leaked confidential tax information of Kaieteur News to private citizen Bharat Jagdeo and the disgraceful and foul-mouthed Attorney General. In the face of mounting criticism by the opposition AFC and APNU, churches and foreign governments, the PPP continued to govern by decree.

Like many of the policies instituted by the Jagdeo/ Ramotar cabal during the last decade, the intention was not to govern in the interests of all, but for their relatives and rich friends and the implementation was very poor at best. If the people are not careful, they run the risk in Guyana of allowing partisan, racial and marginalization politics practiced by the PPP to ruin the country even further. Not to mention their rule by decree and their belief that they are invincible and are superior to everyone else.

The current imbroglio by the PPP surrounding the no confidence motion is as unnecessary and politically opportunistic as it could ever get, and some in the regime have refused to accept the fact that it resulted from the Minister of Finance spending the taxpayers’ money without the approval of Parliament.

This type of irrational and unsound behavior, however, is unnecessary and politically suicidal. Recent opinion poll findings have shown that the proroguing of Parliament and the rule by decree have boosted the fortunes of the opposition parties and have put them ahead of the dictatorial PPP regime.

All of this is happening while the do-nothing President and his inept cabal

continue to support the vulgar and disgraceful behavior of the Attorney General. Obviously, they cannot find anything significant enough other than to prorogue Parliament and their propaganda and distortions of the truth to dangle in front of PPP supporters in order to hide their poor performance and lackluster leadership.

It is obvious that the president does not know that a day is an eternity in politics, and sometimes the political smoke is much bigger than the fire. The PPP’s massive and devastating electoral results in 2011 should remind him of the dire consequences of ignoring and abandoning the poor and the working class. Simply put, the people can do without the political theatrics of the PPP cabal who seems to turn every issue into a tug-o-war, nor do they have to rule by decree or threaten the Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall and its Editor in Chief Adam Harris with lawsuits as the best alternative to resolve conflicts.

The PPP has to be blamed for the massive corruption, high crime rate, misappropriation of state funds, which led to the no confidence motion and the proroguing of Parliament

by Mr. Ramotar.

It is shamefully unacceptable and painfully incredible for the President who is the Commander in chief of the Armed forces and the Minister of Home Affairs who is responsible for the security of the citizens to assert a lack of knowledge on significant issues that affect the citizenry.

It calls into question the ineffectiveness and poor quality of leadership and awareness. A head of state or a minister cannot conceivably know of all the happenings, but a wise and intelligent head of state and a competent and educated minister ought to establish the requisite mechanisms to keep him/herself sufficiently informed of the significant developments in, around and out of the country.

Asquith Rose and Harish Singh.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Sometimes the most lawless people in this country are people who dispense the law DEAR EDITOR, This is a brief introduction to a forthcoming column in which I will argue that unlike the rest of the world, Guyana may be the only country where some of the most unbecoming forms of behaviour occurs among the legal community; where the law, which is supposed to be upheld by legal officers, is made a mockery of.

Sociologically then, the society has to endure intense levels of degradation, humiliation, loss of dignity, loss of self-respect, total disregard for norms and values and ubiquitous

nihilism because those who invested with power to uphold the law are openly seen to flout it It was a serving AttorneyGeneral who told a media briefing in which over ninety percent of the journalists present were under twenty eight years of age that he is a man who likes to do illegal things. At the moment, our present Attorney-General may be charged or dismissed for gross unbecoming behaviour Most magistrates in Guyana don’t give a damn about public opinion. Most of these magistrates use

repugnant double standards in their sentencing policies.

Most magistrates are openly contemptuous of the less endowed classes so they treat them like slaves. These magistrates think we are fools.

They grant bail to poor people and the sum is enormous so it is tantamount to denying bail These magistrates are the poorest in terms of scholarship. And the society can never engender respect for people in authority and the consequences are terrible.

We have at the moment a magistrate who assigned a suspended sentence on an accused found guilty of over

100 pounds of cocaine. We have a judge in this country that laughs at the people of Guyana with his funny decisions that no one understands. But do you think he cares. He knows that the society is one in which people have no self-respect and no dignity so anyone in authority can do anything to the nation Finally, we have a DPP that is responsible for charging people and putting them in jail. And look at the controversies that envelopes her. In Guyana, the law people are the most lawless Frederick Kissoon

Lincoln Lewis misses a vital distinction in...

From page 4 legalistically endorse that constitution, nor does it imply the constitution is legal or moral; it simply means the citizenry operates under that constitution.

That illegitimate de facto constitution remains the constitution of the land until it is replaced by a de jure constitution. Thus, one can operate under a constitution while maintaining it is without legal and moral validity.

For example, in order to travel in their own land, Black South Africans operated under the apartheid pass laws.

This was not respect for or enforcement of the law but mere movement within it because at the end of the day, the law was imposed on the oppressed without their approval and consent and they needed to go to work, school and to their economic and leisure activities.

The very notion that because one is trapped under a de facto constitutional architecture lacking inherent legitimacy, one must respect and enforce the constitution and in doing so, legitimizing its inchoate fraudulence is exactly the kind of thinking that entrenches authoritarianism through starkly simplistic black and white fallacious thinking. Lewis’ idea that this debacle of a constitutional artifice should be clothed in legality is riotous, for it not only enables the PPP to es-

cape accountability, it also cleanses the PNC of its litany of abominations.

For anyone to not view this constitution from the de facto versus de jure stance is downright capricious. We cannot legitimize a congenitally illegitimate constitution.

We simply cannot.

We may operate under it for the next fifty years but it will not alter in a single iota its immanent illegality. One can disrespect the constitution and condemn its enforcement because of its innate illegality but still utilize it for practical purposes because they live, or are forced to live, within the confines of the state captive to the constitution.

Practically speaking, refusal to be bound by illicit laws is risky when opposing sides in a dispute (citizen or government) will rely on it to the peril of that individual’s life, liberty or property.

A people cannot be forced to morally accept illegal laws or to view them as legal no matter how freely they operate within those laws.

People must be entitled to moral outrage at and rejection of illegitimate laws even as they are forced by circumstances to condone and operate within them.

A law (constitution) created out of authoritarianism, and particularly so with no majoritarian affirmation when that is necessary, cannot be legal in the true sense of legality as conditioned on morality, democratic expression, fairness, justice, proportionality, balance, equality and democracy. It will always operate within a pretentious environment of dictatorial de facto illegality.

Contrary to what Lincoln fears, the next government will prosecute the PPP under this de facto constitution and it will invoke the right to do so

based on the de facto power that has guided this nation for the past 34 years, but the constitution remains and will remain an ingrained illegality at its heart.

The constitution does not have to be legal to hold the government accountable.

It has to exist and operate in de facto fashion to suffice.

Just as the PPP has used this de facto constitution to prosecute the citizenry, this de facto constitution will be used to prosecute the PPP. Operating within the de facto ‘law’ is not respect for it. It is what the oppressed do in classic philosophical quest for survival. Lewis should know this because this is a nation built on slavery, indentureship and subjugation. To suggest, in feckless fashion, that our ancestors should have respected and enforced the illegitimate laws foisted upon them without their democratic participation or consideration of their voices, is to preach an atrocious form of legitimizing authoritarianism.

An illegal constitution in practice, no matter how frequently applied and embraced, remains an illicit constitution at its heart.

The recent act of prorogation of a legislature by a minority executive president highlights the de facto versus de jure distinction that must be made by society.

Lewis quoted Article 119A, which deals with constitutional reform. What Lewis does not highlight are the blockages to constitutional reform in this de facto constitution and further, the gravity of executive interference in achieving constitutional reform. Contrary to Lewis’ ranting, a people cannot activate a constitution that enables executive robbery and suppression of that power.

Lewis continues to huckster

this fallacy. People power does not exist under the 1980 constitution. People power is subject and secondary to executive power.

The people elect the National Assembly and the President and the President, minority or majority president, can prorogue and dissolve the Assembly at will, without reason and on a whim.

The selection of the various commissions Lewis references are politically driven with inordinate power resident in the president in this regard. The non-establishment of these commissions reflects the torment that is executive power stymieing people power.

The selection of the dominant power roles within the judiciary requires executive/ presidential consent. It is flaccid logic and depraved morality to try to give legality to this constitution, an act that gives legitimacy to the last 34 years of misery and venality.

The constitution is here as a fact of life. We are forced to live within it and its heinous manifestations but we cannot legalize or moralize positively on it.

We will operate within it until it is radically changed.

We will rely on it for practical reasons until it is replaced with a legally chosen constitution. We will not respect it or enforce it out of any legal or moral duty but out of mere survival and mere systematic operability. It remains incipiently fraudulent, illegal and immoral. The slave-owners of America did not give their president the destructive powers the progeny of slaves and indentured servants in Guyana gave theirs. In parting, where are the legal minds of this country to lead this discourse? Non-attorneys like Lewis and myself should not be leading this discussion.

M. Maxwell

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

In wake of threats over Petrotrin oil spill - Security increased Trinidad Guardian Security at Petrotrin installations was beefed Friday night as the stateowned oil company raised its threat alert after a cryptic warning was issued in a video posted on Youtube from the group Anonymous T&T. Friday, the group, which has described itself as a “loosely associated international network of human/civil/ animal activist,” issued the threat as it called on the company to come “clean” on the Marabella oil spill and its impact on residents.

The video was highlighted on the CNC3 7 pm newscast Friday night. It was filmed as a news bulletin and featured an individual dressed in black and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. In the video, the individual alleged Petrotrin was not being open with the nation on the impact the July oil spill, which saw 8,000 barrels of oil leaking into the Guaracara River, is having on Marabella residents.

The video ended ominously with the individual stating: “We are anonymous.

We are a legion. Consider this a warning. Expect us.” Last night, Petrotrin president Khalid Hassanali told the T&T Guardian the threat was not being taken lightly. “All threats are taken seriously

Khalid Hassanali and will be reported to the police. “I was not aware that anything like this was coming, I was taken by surprise this afternoon (yesterday). Our chief security officer will be handling the matter shortly,” Hassanali said in a telephone interview. He said Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine was informed about the video and steps were being taken to address the contents of the video. Petrotrin’s chief security officer was “assessing the security at the refinery and installations,” Hassanali added.

At press time, the number views on the video stood at 301, with 28 people liking it and five people disliking it.

The cloaked individual, speaking with a distorted voice in the video, said: “It has come to our attention that a resident of Marabella, Akimoo Roger, claimed his daughter and wife are still sick and is calling on state-owned oil company Petrotrin to release medical reports and provide compensation to the residents.”

The person went on to say: “We have reason to believe that their illness is caused by the use of Corexit 9500 in the waters of the surrounding areas used to accelerate the process of degrading oil. “We also have suspicion to believe that it was also what caused the death of the couple who went swimming in the waters of the La Brea area earlier in 2014, not long after they dispersed Corexit 9500 to clean up a total of 11 oil spills which occurred between 17 December 2013 and 29 December 2013.”

However, Hassanali Friday evening denied Corexit was used in the clean-up efforts in Marabella or La Brea. “I want to assure that Corexit was not used in the clean-up in the river and in the spill that took place on December 17 last year. Corexit was used more than one mile offshore Pointe-a-Pierre and nowhere else,” he said.

St Kitts/Nevis opens Caribbean’s largest greenhouse KINGSTON, Jamaica – St Kitts and Nevis has established what they say is the largest greenhouse in the Caribbean at 24 metres tall and covering more than 14,000 square feet.

Located at the Eco-Park on the island of St Kitts, the greenhouse was officially opened on Friday (November 21) by Taiwan’s Ambassador to the twin island state, Miguel Li-Jey Tsao, a release from the St Kitts/Nevis government said.

The Eco-Park is a cooperation project between Taiwan and the twin-island state, the release said. It incorporates the “successful integration of tourism, agriculture and

renewable energy” and boasts what is termed a ‘4G’ concept by being “a green house in a glass cabin that uses green energy, and showcases green beauty.”

St Kitts/Nevis agriculture minister Nigel Carty congratulated Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas for his vision in proposing a project on this scale, which he said was inspired after a visit to a similar facility in Taiwan in 2008.

“The Eco-Park signals the way forward for ecotourism and rural development,” Carty said. “We are changing the rural landscape of St Kitts and Nevis. This is indeed real progress and real change for the people ...”

Page 7

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 9

Dem boys seh...

19 awarded for outstanding contributions to tourism industry Babbie name he cricket

By Abena Rockcliffe The annual Tourism Awards Ceremony held Friday evening at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), was graced by distinguished Guyanese such as Clive Lloyd and Dave Martins who officially accepted appointments to be among Guyana’s first tourism ambassadors.

Also, on that auspicious occasion, 19 were awarded for their outstanding contributions to the local tourism industry This year, there were 11 award categories. The Pillar of Tourism Award was given to Teri O’Brien of Suriname Airways, while Luke Johnson, who has a passion for bird watching, copped the Tour Guide of the Year accolade. The award of Tourism Entrepreneur went to Pandama Retreat and Winery and was received by the owners Mr. and Mrs. Warren Douglas.

The Tourism Ambassador Award which organizers said could have only gone to an individual who is involved in “all round tourism,” went to Manager of Air Services Limited, Annette Arjoon Martins.

The Most Outstanding Community Tourism Project accolade went to Surama Eco-Lodge and Village and was received

by Sydney Allicock.

The Destination Promotion Awards were given to the Office of Climate Change and Philippe JR Kok. Chief Executive Officer for Dagron Tours, Ann Hamilton collected the award for Most Improved Tour Operator while the Tourism RecognitionService in Tourism award was given to Salim Twahir of Knight Rider Bus Services.

Three persons were given the President’s Award for

…Six appointed as ambassadors

Winner of the Tourism Ambassador award, Annette Arjoon Martins

Newly appointed Tourism Ambassador, Dave Martins

Newly appointed Tourism Ambassador, Clive Lloyd

Investment in Tourism namely; Alfo Alphonso of 704 Entertainment complex, Chunilal Baboolall of Aruwai Investments and Brian Tiwarie of BK Group of Companies.

The Tourism RecognitionFormer Directors award was given to Donald Sinclair and Indira Anandjit while the Tourism Recognition- Former Ministers of Tourism was given to Geoffrey Da Silva, Manzoor Nadir and Manniram Prashad. A Posthumus Award in this category was given to Michael Shree Chand.

Tourism Awareness Month is currently being observed under the theme “Tourism Entrepreneurs and Ambassadors Mobilized.”

This year’s theme was, according to the Tourism Ministry, selected to highlight entrepreneurs who are regarded as key vehicles for the creation of the enterprise as it generates job growth and stimulates competition; while tourism ambassadors are individuals who educate and inspire their

family, friends and colleagues to embrace tourism and endeavor to turn every visitor encounter into a positive experience.

As part of the continuing efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce to highlight Guyana and its diverse product, the Tourism Ambassador Programme was developed. This Programme, which targets a select group of well known Guyanese, was also launched at the Guyana International Conference Centre on Friday evening. Selected ‘ambassadors’ in the diverse areas of music, arts and sports were introduced during the launch ceremony.

Those appointed tourism ambassadors are expected to play an integral role in promoting Guyana on the international front through their respective disciplines.

The initiative is expected to raise the level of awareness of tourism in Guyana.

David Martins, is well known throughout the Caribbean as the founder and

leader of the popular Trade Winds band that climbed to the top of the charts in 1968 with the hit song Honeymooning Couple written by Martins himself.

Clive Lloyd, another Ambassador, is a former West Indian cricketer. Lloyd is regarded as a powerful batsman who as captain from 1974 to 1985 was largely responsible for the West-Indies extraordinary performance in test (international) play.

Lloyd is indeed an inspiration to all cricketers; his magnificent fielding, superb batting and astute leadership is a source of pride for all Guyanese especially the cricket fraternity. To date he is considered the most successful Captain of the West Indies Cricket team.

Other ambassadors are Andrew King, a successful businessman and motor racer Nicolette Fernandes, who represented Guyana well on both the International and Regional stage in Squash as well as weightlifter, Hugh Ross.

team after he best friend These days, since you miss is de court. Don’t be surprised if somebody get charge fuh just looking at de president.

De Waterfalls boss man barely talk to Cee fuh Satar and he got to go to de magistrate court. De Waterfalls boss man got to go to court again Monday. He been going to court li’l steady this whole year. In fact, he go so steady that dem boys seh don’t be surprised if he start looking like de magistrate’s court or like one of dem magistrate.

Adam going to de High Court so much that he start looking like de Victoria statue wid she bruck hand outside de High Court.

Anyhow, de boss man been to a court in New York, wid a friend who owe child support. De case call and de judge ask de boss man friend why he not paying for de child.

De friend tun and tell de judge that de child nah look like ee.

De judge immediately tell ee, “You pay de money till de child resemble you.”

Jagdeo do so much wicked, evil and nasty things that he start to look like de devil. Is only a matter of time before he is de devil wid horns pun he forehead.

When evil things deh round dem dogs does howl.

Everywhere de local devil go dem dogs does howl. At one time when people use to hear dem dogs dem use to think was de siren pun de car.

Now everybody get so accustom that when dem hear de dogs howling dem does seh de devil passing.

Everybody remember when Babbie cricket team lose last year. Fuh honour ee best friend who was the (former) President, he name de team de Guyana Devils.

Back to de court. Dem really want dem to jail dem boys or to bruck dem. That was clear from some emails dem boys see.

Well a magistrate did fine a man $10,000 wrongfully and de man was so surprised that he seh ‘Oh sh*t.”

De magistrate add on $5,000 and tell de man that is because you cuss in me court. De man seh, “Oh rass.” De magistrate add on $10,000 more. And she tell he every time you cuss I gun add on $10,000 to you fine.

De man quietly start fuh empty his pocket one by one.

De magistrate ask he wha he looking for. De man tell she, “Ah looking fuh see if Ah gat enough money fuh tell you, ‘Carry you mudda s***t’” Talk half and keep going to court.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Young man steals sister’s car, crashes and dies A De Willem resident lost control of a vehicle he stole and collided with a parked vehicle on the West Coast Demerara (WCD) Friday evening.

According to the Police Public Relations, around 22:30hrs Friday night, Kevin Sackichan, 20, lost control of

a motor vehicle that he was driving along the main road at Zeeburg, WCD. He collided with a parked vehicle.

The young man was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he later succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash while receiving medical treatment.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Sustained efforts being made to promote rights of disabled persons - Disability Commission Director “We cannot work without numbers,” said Director of the National Commission on Disability, Ms Beverly Pyle during an interview with this publication.

Pyle was at the time responding to recent concerns levelled by members within the disability fraternity who are convinced that enough is not being done to address their concerns.

Recently, members attached to the Guyana Disabled Organisation, Omar Cooper and Yvonne Debreu expressed their individual views that more should be done to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are respected.

According to Pyle, part of the mandate of the Commission is to register all persons within the society with disabilities. But she intimated that many persons with disabilities have not been coming forward as expected.

“Our last census in 2002, and that’s a long time ago, is telling us 50, 000 (people are living with disabilities) but on our registration at the National Commission on Disability we don’t even have 5, 000,” said Pyle who pointed out that this is in spite of the fact that “we have our registration form in every Region. We are not getting the information coming back to us.”

The Director went on to note that it is of paramount importance that persons with disability seek to register with

the Commission as “we are the ones pleading their cause.

The Commission is there to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities by advising the authorities that be to know how to plan and what to plan for but if we don’t get the information from the people with disability then we can’t inform the relevant authorities.”

The importance of registration, she noted, is crucial as once registered, persons with disabilities can be eligible to receive public assistance from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

This can also help them in getting other assistance such as hearing aids, prosthesis and wheelchairs. “We have a referral system at the Commission that takes people to these various areas that have these things available and they might have to pay a small fee but not for the entire thing, but if you are not registered you wouldn’t get that kind of priority,” said Pyle.

Her appeal to those persons who have not been in contact with the Commission is “let them check with us at the Commission so that we can enlighten them as to what is exactly going on. I am not saying that it is going as it should, but work is being done.”

“If those people can come on board perhaps to help us get this thing speedily I think

that we would go a far way,” Pyle asserted.

Speaking directly to the Disability Act of 2010, which the work of the Commission embraces, Pyle noted that “if people don’t know what’s in it they will not know what to do with it.” For this very purpose she stressed the work of the Disability Commission to sensitise the nation of the content of the relatively new Act. “It is going to take a long time for us to sensitise persons about what’s in the Act and I don’t think that we can ever reach a point where we are finished...but when we come to a point where you think that you have saturated the society I would say it is only then we can ease a bit,” asserted Pyle.

The purpose of the sensitisation process, she explained, is to ensure that persons are au fait with the content of the Act so as to ensure that they can incorporate and practice what is required of them. She however noted that thus far not much has been done in terms of implementation of the Act. This is a direct result Pyle said of “persons not fully understanding their roles in terms of allowing the Act to be implemented.”

She nevertheless noted that persons must bear in mind the old saying that “Rome was not built in a day”.

However, she pointed out that “the mere idea that the Commission has been doing sensitisation programmes shows that we are making steps in terms of understanding persons with disabilities and having persons with disabilities also understand what’s inside the Act too.”

“I think people need to take things a little slow and just let things roll on as they should in terms of them getting what they should.. you can’t always get things right away,” added Pyle.

Although the Commission currently benefits from a bolstered staff, Pyle noted that the Commission’s work is somewhat constrained by limited finances. The Commission benefits from subvention from the Ministry

Ms Beverly Pyle of Health and also from some amount of donor assistance.

But according to Pyle, “it is not always easy to get donor funding.”

As such Pyle said that “there is only so much that you can do with the budget that you have and no more.”

Currently the Commission is centralised in Georgetown and therefore it has a limited reach Region-wide, which according to Pyle, has resulted in “us not having the kind of influence we would like to have in the nation. We are the National Commission and we should be there, so it calls for budgeting so that we can get into all the Regions.”

Nevertheless, the Commission has been collaborating with various organisations across the Regions in order to access information about persons with disabilities.

It is therefore the belief of Pyle that the Commission has been instrumental in helping to ensure that “disability issues come from under the carpet...we are not yet on the table but we are above the carpet. Persons with disability who feel that things are not going the way they should have to realise that everything takes time.”

Even as the Disability Commission works on a new Strategic Plan, Pyle said that it is envisioned that the ongoing sensitisation programmes will continue into 2015 after which monitoring tools will be implemented to ascertain what measures are being implemented.

“We need to see whether people are constructing buildings with ramps to cater to persons with disability; if they can go into workplaces and be accommodated in an environment suitable to them...these are things that we will be checking on,” asserted Pyle as she spoke of ongoing plans to ensure that persons with disability are fully integrated into the society.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Dynamic returns to Guyana, Fly Jamaica increases capacity with second aircraft The traveling public might be fully catered for during the upcoming Christmas season as US-based company, Dynamic Airways, made its return flight to the Guyana market yesterday morning.

Simultaneously, the Jamaicabased airline, Fly Jamaica, landed the company’s recently acquired second Boeing aircraft at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).

Fly Jamaica is mainly owned by Guyanese couple, Ronald and Roxanne Reece, and is under the Wings Aviation branch. With the company’s recently acquired 767, the airline is increasing capacity with more seating.

Fly Jamaica is also seeking to offer special promotions to the usually heavy traffic that is expected during the holiday season. The airline landed its long-range, wide-body twinengine jet liner at the country’s largest airport Friday evening and is

expected to conduct at least three flights weekly until operations are increased to accommodate travelers as the season picks up.

Fly Jamaica’s Director, Roxanne Reece, during a press conference yesterday expressed excitement over the plane commencing its service to Guyana. The company currently offers flights from Guyana to Jamaica and New York with direct flights to Toronto, Canada.

She explained that the Jamaica/ New York is the most fruitful, while adding that operations on the Canada leg are not as

Bridge linking Guyana, Suriname to be placed at Moleson Creek Serious work to realize a bridge that will link Guyana and Suriname has started with Government last week inviting bids for the construction of bridges along the access road.

The bridge has been in the works for a number of years now with both countries looking to capitalize on the current brisk trade expected to increase many fold when the structure becomes operational.

According to an advertisement in the stateowned Guyana Chronicle last week, the government is inviting bids for the project which will be done under the Ministry of Public Works’ Capital Bridges Programme.

The Invitation For Bids (IFB) said that the construction period for the bridges is to be 40 weeks.

Companies bidding must show annual average turnover of $40M with the tenders being opened on December 2.

According to Geoffrey Vaughn, Coordinator of the Works Services Group of the Ministry, Guyana has already decided that the bridge will be built in the vicinity of the Moleson Creek stelling, Corentyne, Berbice, which currently has a ferry operating between the neighbours.

Geoffrey Vaughn However, Suriname is still finalizing details where the bridge will be anchored on the eastern side.

Under the announced arrangements, from the Guyana side, Government is to build all the access roads and structures leading to the new bridge.

With a bridge connecting Guyana and Brazil at Takutu, Region Nine, a link with Suriname has been seen as massive step of integration for South America.

Already, there is significant trade between Guyana and Suriname, with many Berbicians finding it routine to jump on a speedboat to visit the border (continued on page 62)

expected but should improve as the company moves forward with service promotion.

Reece commented on fuel prices in Guyana; explaining the financial difficulty that is faced in this area. Guyana has been marked in the past as having the highest fuel prices in the Caribbean. Reece, when asked, said that the airline’s operation is not subsidized.

In an earlier report, Mrs. Reece expressed her concern that Caribbean nationals should seriously consider supporting companies that directly service the region.

She expressed that these are the companies that provide jobs and opportunities for natives. She said that currently, in Guyana alone,

Wings Aviation has in excess of 30 staffers while more than 40 service Fly Jamaica.

However on the Jamaican leg, the company employs more than 200 persons.

Fly Jamaica’s Boeing 767 300ER adds to the company’s existing Boeing 757. The plane seats 246— 12 business, 234 economy. The company is hoping to add Montego Bay and Barbados to its routes, but there is much to be sorted out before that happens.

Reece said that passengers can expect more leg space and a smoother ride on board the larger aircraft. In coming days the company will announce offerings on luggage among others.

Dynamic Airways, despite an unfavourable start earlier

in the year, was ecstatic to be back in the market this morning. The company had secured its pass from the US authorities to fly the New York/Guyana route.

The airline secured further approval from local authorities to operate here. It will therefore operate nonscheduled flights from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to CJIA in Guyana. Flights are expected four times a week, with services until June next year.

Along with Caribbean Airlines, Fly Jamaica and Dynamic are the main companies operating the Guyana/ New York market.

With the issues that had faced Dynamic Airways and the pull

out of Travel Span, passengers were concerned that they would be bombarded with heavy airfares since those were the experiences around this very time last year. The competition, stakeholders say, should offer favourable services to the flying public.

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

‘Race cars’ of specially-bred pigs handed over to farmers

Some of the specially-bred pigs.

As part of Government’s drive to enhance local livestock breeds, the Guyana Livestock and Development Authority (GLDA) handed over 12 specially-bred pigs to swine farmers on Thursday.

The pigs were bred as part of a GLDA’s programme to boost the capability of local pork producers and improve their current stock.

Dr. Robin Austin, who heads the Genetic Improvement Unit of the GLDA, explained that the pigs are being sold on a cost recovery basis to selected livestock farmers via the Pig Rearers Association.

The breeds consist of the Yorkshire (Large White), the Danish Landrace and the

Duroc, all of which can reach 700 pounds and are intended for breeding.

According to a Government release, recipients were warned by the Agriculture Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, George Jervis, not to sell or slaughter the animals. He said that close to 1000 piglets distributed via a similar programme, were sold or killed by the farmers who received them.

“The tragedy with that is those persons have literally killed the goose that would have laid the proverbial golden egg.”

He likened the breeds being handed over to “the race cars of pigs” as they

Farmers who benefitted from the pigs on Thursday. would give the start that livestock producers want to boost their production.

The Ministry is not going to support subsistence producers, he added. “We want to work with persons who want to start off riding a bicycle with pigs and end up owning a fleet of cars from pigs.” He emphasised that for the Ministry, it was not “business as usual” with persons being solely dependent on its services.

They were urged to have the proper facilities, and were educated about how to treat their surroundings, proper record keeping when mating, balanced nutritional feed, secure markets and eventually venturing into processed products such as bacon and sausage.

“Gone are the days when you will have 50 pigs roaming in the village. Now you have rules and regulations.”

He reminded the recipients that while cows, horses, sheep and goats can be impounded, the law allows for pigs to be shot, so if someone shoots a pig and the owner comes for the meat, he/she has to fix the

damage.

The shooter could end up shooting the pig and getting the pork too, he explained.

He also recommended that people move towards “integrated farming” where the manure could be used to

fertilise plant crops such as banana or plantain. He said that they should bring others to the realisation that if they improve their breeds, they could improve their farms.

The recipients were given a list of what they must and

must not do, in the form of a Memorandum by Chief Executive Officer of the GLDA, Dr. Dindyal Permaul.

It was further explained that the 12 pigs, were medicated, disease free and weaned.

Skeldon Estate manager badly beaten after drunken confrontation A Berbice sugar estate manager has again found himself in trouble.

The latest incident has prompted increased calls for his removal from the Skeldon Estate.

According to angry sugar workers, the manager, Dave Kumar, is now being accused of accosting a female bar owner and hurling abuses at businessmen during a drunken rage on Friday night.

This latest incident would follow that of two others which resulted in union officials and sugar workers at Skeldon accusing management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) of protecting him.

According to eyewitnesses, on Friday evening a money-changer and a bank official were with others socializing at Rita’s Shop, Number 78 Village.

Kumar, who was clearly inebriated, reportedly came in and became incensed when he saw the bar owner hanging out with the group.

Using a series of expletives, he reportedly went over to the money-changer

and accosted him.

He was warned to behave.

“The people dem tell he that he is a big man, a manager of an estate and he should not behave like that. However, he said that he owns the Skeldon Estate and was sent to Skeldon Estate to take over

by President Donald Ramotar.”

The altercation moved outside the bar where Kumar was badly beaten.

According to eyewitnesses, Kumar refused to make a report to police as he feared the possible media reports.

Last Sunday, the manager was arrested by a police patrol on the Corriverton Public Road after he was caught urinating in the centre of the thoroughfare.

According to a reliable source, Kumar and some other senior Managers were at the Grill Night Spot at Corriverton and got into some altercations. The man left the night club, boarded the estate vehicle PPP 6414 along with the Agriculture Manager and proceeded to drive along the road.

He stopped a few doors from the Republic Bank at Corriverton and started to urinate in the middle of the road.

When he was rebuked he became abusive. At the same time a police patrol was passing and stopped and enquired of the men what was going on. Mr. Kumar continued to urinate and threatened to urinate on the cops.

The cops proceeded to arrest him and his colleague.

The key for the vehicle was removed and they were taken to the Springlands Police Station where they were booked.

In September, Kumar sparked a massive strike after a slapping incident with a sugar worker. He reportedly dismissed the employee, Stephen Daniels, but angry workers took strike actions, claiming Kumar was drunk, and forcing a shutdown of Skeldon estate, and the power supply there from the co-generation plant. The shutdown of the plant saw countrywide blackouts.

GuySuCo has refused to reinstate the worker and the matter has gone to arbitration.

With almost US$200M spent to build and expand the Skeldon Sugar Estate, government has been banking on that facility to turn the fortunes of the industry around, in face of falling production.

More and more there has been increasing reports that all is not well at that flagship estate.

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

‘B’ Division Police unveil elaborate Christmas Plan

By Samuel Whyte

Commander of B Division Assistant Commissioner Brian Joseph (sitting centre), Deputy Commander Senior Superintendent Marlon Chapman (seated left) and Member of Parliament and CEO of the Berbice Regional Health Authority, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo (seated right) with other senior ranks of the Division.

The Police in Berbice ‘B’ Division headed by Assistant Commissioner Brian Joseph on Friday unveiled their annually Christmas plan‘Christmas policing from November 15, 2014 to January 15, 2015’.

The plan was announced to the media in the boardroom of the Berbice Regional Health Authority (BRHA) at Fort Canje, Berbice.

It attracted Deputy Commander of the Division, Senior Superintendent Marlon Chapman, Member of Parliament and Chief Executive Officer of the Berbice Regional Health A u t h o r i t y, D r Vi s h w a Mahadeo and a number of senior police officers in the division.

Commander Joseph stated that there are a number of reasons for the police Christmas policing plan.

During the Christmas period there is usually an increase in social, cultural and economic activities resulting in an increase in shopping and visitors coming into the country for the holidays.

There are Guyanese returning on vacation and an increase in activity in the business areas, coupled with an increase in road traffic, resulting in congestion and also a likely increase in criminal activities.

Some of the main objectives and intentions of the plan are to minimize the activities of criminal elements and ensure a safe neighbourhood; to reduce traffic congestion and road accidents; to provide a safe and secure environment for citizens, visitors and shoppers.

Mr. Joseph also made some comparison for the year in review. He said that the Division did fairly well in terms of crime fighting.

“We have a good rapport and work programme and we do not aim to let up at this time.”

He gave the assurance that there will be adequate police protection and presence during the Christmas season. But the Division is working with only about half of its required staff establishment.

The Commander said that help will be coming from Georgetown. He has requested and got approval from Commissioner Seelall Persaud for additional ranks

for the Division. The numbers will be helped with the deployment of C.P.G m e m b e r s a n d Neighbourhood Police in various communities.

Commenting on the shortage of vehicles in the region the commander stated that definitely there are not enough vehicles, but there are contingency plans in place. The business committee is set to assist.

Some of the main shopping areas in Berbice that the police will pay keen attention to are New Amsterdam, Rose Hall To w n , P o r t M o u r a n t , Corriverton, Rosignol, Bush Lot and Bath, West Coast Berbice.

Also expected to attract heavier police attention are the other populated areas and known hot spots in the county.

Special arrangements will also be put in place for Christmas Eve and Old Year’s Day to deal with traffic, crowd control, late shopping and other social gatherings at a number of locations throughout the Division.

The Commander stated that the Christmas policing method will be assessed on a weekly basis and changes and adjustments will be made where necessary.

Additionally, there will be mobile, beat, marine and fixed point patrols, road blocks, raids, cordon and searches and intelligence gathering.

He said that there will be increased monitoring of the Berbice River Bridge, Moleson Creek Ferry Crossing, Rosignol and New Amsterdam Stellings and illegal crossings on the Corentyne River as well as increased monitoring of Guysuco Pay offices at Albion, Blairmont, Rose Hall Canje and Skeldon.

Areas including business places, banks, post offices and financial institutions and Television stations and hospitals will see greater police presence also.

Traffic patrols will also be intensified on the West Coast Berbice Public Road and the Corentyne Highway.

Crime tips will be distributed where necessary.

Commander Joseph assured that they are prepared to work with all stakeholders to ensure, as far as possible a crime and accident free Christmas.

Continued on page 64

Kaieteur News

Page 17

Krystal Peters

Sunday November 23, 2014

This gorgeous young woman enjoys playing badminton, modeling and is an upcoming artist. She describes herself as an outgoing and caring person who enjoys spending time with family and friends. Her favourite quote is “Strive to be a better you every day.�

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Mental health surveillance gaining close attention The adequate collection of information has long been recognised as a challenge in addressing issues related to health care. Moreover, this shortcoming is one that especially stands out when dealing with conditions of a Mental Health nature – that is, conditions that affect b e h a v i o u r, m o o d a n d thinking, and can range from depression and anxiety to schizophrenia and eating disorders, even addictions.

This state of affairs was emphasised by Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud, as he made a presentation during a recent Mental Health consultation spearheaded by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation.

At the forum held at the Ocean View International Hotel, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, on We d n e s d a y l a s t , D r Persaud disclosed that “I don’t think that in our previous surveillance system, for example, we were routinely collecting all the information that we need. “ According to him, the health sector had instead relied on intermittent studies and rapid assessments to provide required data in order to effectively plan.

But even as efforts are being made to put in place a new Mental Health Strategic Plan, the CMO is convinced that more efforts will have to depend on a more efficient form of data collection, as he pointed out that the former limitation “has been a major challenge for health generally, but more so for mental health.” “ We a r e a l l e x c i t e d about the new strategy...but we can look at how we can build integrated surveillance systems with our health information systems so that we can collect the kind of data that we need,” Dr

As the year draws to a close there is going to be even more madness in the land. It is common knowledge that there is an influx of motor vehicles on the roads. Some of the drivers are young and inexperienced.

They consume alcohol and then take the wheel.

One of them is going to crash in a crowded neighbourhood killing himself and a pedestrian.

...as Ministry prepares to craft new Strategic Plan

Persaud explained.

He pointed out that the information on suicide for instance is based purely on the mortality database maintained by the Ministry of Health. However, other vital database statistics are not similarly maintained, as according to Dr Persaud, “a lot of the times even the General Registrar Office refers to the Ministry of Health to provide information.”

Alluding to the local suicide statistics, Dr Persaud noted that there is a likelihood that there will be a difference in records kept by the Police Force, the Ministry of Health and what can be found at the office of the General Registrar. And there is a plausible reason for this, based on an explanation offered by the CMO. He disclosed for instance that the recording of different periods of death could in fact have a bearing on this state of affairs. This is in light of the fact that some persons may ingest poison (or carry out an intended act of suicide) but do not die immediately, a process that could see them being admitted to hospital first

then being sent home before succumbing.

“This is especially because of some of the (poisonous) chemicals that we have...and those (subsequent deaths) don’t get recorded by the police as a suicide death,” said Dr Persaud.

For this reason, he noted that the country’s deaths database may not always be reliable, a situation that is compounded by the fact that it is often one or two years behind, because of the complexities of coding and efforts to ascertain the accuracy of the information provided.

“A lot of times we receive death registration forms that just say pesticides poisoning and I am at a loss to decide whether this was an accidental exposure or if it was an actual suicide event,” Dr Persaud asserted.

As such he informed that the Ministry has employed officers who are tasked with “going back to the homes (of the deceased) and finding out whether the (respective) cases were intentional suicide or accidental. A lot

** The police are going to make a break in an old case of murder. They are going to

arrest a suspect who returned from hiding in a foreign country. This suspect would actually commit a crime in the adopted country and would escape back to Guyana. ** Fires are never far away.

One is going to destroy a dwelling house in the early hours of the morning. Arson would be suspected.There will be some startling findings.

of the time they actually did drink the poison v o l u n t a r i l y, b u t i n f e w cases there are some questions as to whether the person took the poison or was given the poison, which are issues we usually have to resolve,” the CMO explained.

Reiterating the need for efficient data collection, he pointed out that when the Ministry had in 2005 introduced an earlier Mental Health Strategic Plan, efforts were made even then to revise the surveillance system with a view of incorporating mental health conditions.

Dr Persaud however lamented that such conditions are often not efficiently recorded at the primary health care level – that is, at the various community health facilities spread across the country.

“When persons come in and they complain of anxiety or depression or any other mental health condition, they are treated very causally for headaches, they are given some sleeping pills and then they are sent home,

which might not be an adequate way of first of all addressing the problem, and secondly, it does not provide the kind of information that would give us enough data so that we can go ahead and plan effective programmes,” Dr Persaud stated.

Inefficiency from the community level, according to him, could by extension even limit Central Ministry’s efforts to procure medicines for this purpose.

It is the view of PAHO Resident Representative,

Dr William Adu-Krow, that while all persons do not have severe psychiatric conditions, most are subjected to some level of mental health disorder.

Based on available statistics, at least 70 per cent of the Latin America and Caribbean population has had conditions that warrant psychiatric care.

According to Dr AduKrow, conditions such as anxiety and depression also fall under the category of mental health disorders, all of which require health care.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

The tomb of Chester Williams

By Michael Jordan The man who accompanied me to see Chester Williams was a strapping ex-soldier who loved contact sports and who had lost part of a finger while fighting off a charging bull.

But this man wanted no part of Chester Williams…even though old Chester had been dead and buried for over two hundred years…two hundred and thirteen to be precise.

He remained at a respectful distance as I entered the little picketed area that enclosed the tomb. I knew that he thought me to be either brave or foolhardy to have stepped so close, to have taken this chance. It was a plain white tomb with the inscription: Chester Williams: 18 Nov. 1801 on a book tombstone. Someone had taken pains to paint the old tomb, and enclose it in a white picket fence, and to plant palm trees in the enclosure.

But the most intriguing thing about that tomb was its location: the parking lot at the National Stadium at Providence.

What was it doing there?

And why did its presence seem to evoke so much fear?

I first learned of the existence of the tomb about five months ago from the same man who had followed me to the Stadium. It was he who had told me of the legend of Chester Williams, and what they claimed happened to those who failed to respect his resting place.

The area where the tomb and stadium are located was once Plantation Providence; where rows of sugar cane stretched for miles. It was quite likely that Chester Williams was once some senior estate employee.

Intrigued, I set out to find out who Chester Williams

- Who is this mysterious man buried beneath the National Stadium’s parking lot?

The mysterious Chester Williams’ tomb in the National Stadium parking lot might have been…and came up blank. No one seemed to know anything about the tomb; not officials from the National Trust of Guyana or officials at the National Archives, not noted Professor of History, Dr. Winston McGowan, or Director of Culture, Dr. James Rose. In fact, many of the experts to whom I spoke had no idea that the tomb existed.

But the older residents of Providence had known about the tomb since they were children. Some had worked on the estate in their younger days, and none of them had anything good to say about the tomb and its long-dead occupant.

Despite the English name engraved on the tomb, they were all adamant that Chester Williams was ‘Dutch.’ And to them, that seemed to explain why any sensible Guyanese should steer clear of the old tomb.

I was taken to the home

of one of the oldest residents of Providence. He claimed that there was no name engraved on the tomb back then, and he didn’t believe that ‘Chester Williams’ is the occupant’s real name.

He had worked on Estate Providence in his younger days, and even back then, workers blamed the ‘Dutch’ tomb for what they claimed were bizarre things that happened to those weren’t careful in its proximity.

“The tomb was there and all around was cane,” he said.

“They would cut canes around the tomb and avoid their bundles touching it. You would cut the cane around it and not trouble the tomb. If yuh spirit weak and yuh go near yuh fall down. It bruck tractor plough. One man go to lift bundle and he left stiff, till they took him to the dispenser. You got men carrying new cutlasses, and the cutlass would disappear

and only the handles would lef.”

He spoke of workers falling ill after breaking ‘Dutch’ pottery in the area. He also blamed the presence of the tomb for an incident in which two workers were reportedly struck dead by lightning.

The old man claimed that between noon and 1.00 p.m was the most dangerous time to work in that location.

According to him, estate workers would sometimes see horses and huge black dogs that would mysteriously disappear.

He is convinced that the entire Providence area is haunted. He claimed that employees at a building near the Princess Hotel would sometimes “hear people walking and groaning,” or hear doors slam. And he says that he was the reluctant participant in one such unusual experience. The elderly resident’s story is that a few years ago, he rode his bicycle to an area behind the stadium, and was cutting grass for his cows when he suddenly began to feel unwell. This sudden illness so overwhelmed him that he dropped the bundles of grass and rode home.

“But when I reach home I tell myself that this (experience) was Aesop’s fables (nonsense), so I decided to go back to the same spot.” This time, he said, the same agony struck him the minute he began to cut the grass. Again, he was forced to leave the bundles of grass and hurry away from the area.

“It’s a dangerous place. It’s haunted; it’s very evil,” he says.

Even men whom I felt would not be prone to superstitions hinted that odd things indeed happened in proximity of Chester Williams resting place.

“In this world, good and evil exist in equal measure,” one respected engineer who worked at the site said. “I told them (during construction) that I would not desecrate it (the tomb) or break it. We know we got our superstitions. So

The inscription on the tombstone anyone who thinks they brave enough (to remove it) I wish them all the best.”

Former Minister of Public Works Anthony Xavier, who was appointed Site Manager when the stadium was being constructed, cleared up the mystery of who had enhanced the surroundings around old Chester’s tomb.

“When we built the stadium, and we found the grave, we did nothing to touch (trouble) it. We built everything around it. We cleaned it up and painted it and planted trees and kept it clean all the time.

“I don’t believe that you should disturb the dead. I did not trouble it when I was Minister, and when I was manager. Everybody that comes to the stadium has respect for the area.”

Like others, he had no idea who Chester Williams was, but suggested that he might have been an estate manager. And yes, there were some rather odd happenings back then, too, he said.

He recalled that during the early days of construction, workers, for some unknown reason, covered the tomb with a length of tarpaulin. “Once this was done, the rain began, and someone said that if you unpin (uncover) it the rain would stop, and it was unpinned and the rain stopped.” Mr. Xavier also recalls the day that the stadium lights kept flickering on and off. But he suspects that a glitch at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) caused the lights to malfunction. He feels that most of the other ‘supernatural’ incidents can also be logically explained.

“Guyanese tend to blow things out of proportion. I never had any experience, and as far as I know, the gentleman (Chester Williams) is lying peacefully.”

But Mr. Xavier also told me

the story of the contractor who had, “in a fit of anger,” reportedly urinated on the tomb. Within a week the contractor was dead.

The victim was actually the son of the land preparation contractor, Mr. Khemraj Singh.

Mr. Singh told me that while the medical diagnosis was that his son had a pancreatic ailment, “the old people ‘check book’ and say that he (the son) interfere with the tomb and it tek life.”

Mr. Singh said that the tomb was “broken up,” and that workers repaired it.

The old Providence resident with whom I spoke believes that the Indian nationals who were involved in the stadium project did something to ‘quiet down’ the ‘entity’ in the tomb.

If that is so, it doesn’t seem as if they did a good job, since some claim that, occasionally, odd things still happen near Chester Williams’ tomb.

There’s a persistent rumour that a young woman who went to a show at the National Stadium not too long ago fell into a fit after urinating near the tomb.

Though they claim to have never had any odd experiences, some stadium employees say they steer clear of the burial site.

“He deh in he corner and ain’t bothering nobody,” one staffer said. “Them (the ‘Dutch’) is funny people. “ They also caution visitors to give old Chester his space, and to never, ever, answer a call of nature near his tomb.

If you have any further information about this or any other strange case, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location, or reach us on telephone numbers 22-58458, 2258465, 22-58473, or 2258491. You can also contact Michael Jordan on his email address mjdragon@hotmail.com.

You need not disclose your identity.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 23

== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

My 34-year-old shoes and the yearning for a bygone age In 1980, I stared through the glass window of a store in downtown Toronto and my eyes lighted on a pair of men’s brogues. There was nothing special about it; it was a typical pair of brogues, but it stirred me emotionally. I bought it.

I wore my brogues at every formal occasion and took them with me when I went to work in Grenada. One evening, Donald Rodney, brother of Walter, who also worked in Grenada, invited me and my wife to a party. That was the last night I wore my Toronto brogues.

It was a moonless night. I had to walk about a quarter of a mile from my home to the main road. The road was typical of those in Georgetown with humongous craters.

I walked into a muddy crater and my brogues were water-soaked. I packed my brogues in the container when I was leaving for Guyana and please believe me; that 1980 pair of shoes I didn’t know I still had until last Sunday.

It was put away in one of many cartons of vinyl records I haven’t touched since leaving Canada.

Those cartons were stored away when I moved from Wortmanville to Turkeyen.

Last Sunday while rummaging through the bottom of our walk-in closet, my eyes came across my 34-year-old brogues.

How interesting? I was due to attend the funeral of the mother of one of my daughter’s best friends, the third within a month (including my mother-in-law and Adam Harris’s son - all three just died suddenly; none were ailing). The idea occurred to me that after more than two decades I could wear my brogues again. But! Was it good?

I took my brogues flung it in the air and let it drop hard on the ground to see if it would fall apart. I twisted it in my hand. I contorted it in my hand. My brogues would not buckle. I decided I would wear my brogues to the funeral. As

a back-up though, I put the Brazilian pair of cheap black shoes in the car trunk just in case my Canadian footwear collapsed. At the funeral service at the MYO ground the shoes were hurting my insteps.

I took them off. I noticed my daughter’s friends were smiling. That was logical; I didn’t wear them since the early eighties. My Toronto footwear purchased many moons ago stood the test of time. My brogues are a perfect pair of shoes. I intend to wear them at formal occasions for the rest of my life.

Do you know how many pairs of “dress” shoes I have bought since I returned to Guyana in the early eighties?

I cannot count. None of the Chinese-made ones lasted more than a year.

My wife bought me a pair of Chinese loafers for my 2012 Christmas. It lasted exactly five months. For my 2013 birthday, she bought me Brazilian-made moccasins.

Those are what I wore to her

mother ’s funeral and the funeral of Adam Harris’s son.

But in all honesty; I think they haven’t got long more.

The story of my 1980 brogues is amazing. I put on those shoes last Sunday and my mind went back to the days of my youth when consumer goods, clothes, cars, bicycles, manufactured things in general, would last forever.

Where has that age gone? Wasn’t that a golden era? My mom bought me a water-gun for Christmas when I was five years old. I cherished that gun as if it were human.

Buried inside of it was the symbol of the person that I loved more than myself.

I showed that pistol to my would-be wife when she visited my home on Durban Street for the first time. I was twenty-seven then.

That gun was new as when my mom bought it twenty-two years earlier. My heart broke when I got the news in Toronto that our

Durban Street home had collapsed in 1980 and my gun was lost.

My wife bakes her chicken and meat in an aluminium pan we bought in 1979 from Honest Ed (a store in downtown Toronto that caters for immigrants). If you know my wife you could ask her. It’s true.

We still use that pan and it is as shiny as any one you could buy in a Chinese store in 2014 in Guyana.

This column would run into thousands of words if I describe all the consumer goods we still have from our

Frederick Kissoon student days in Canada.

Today we can refer to this period we live in as the age of the rip-off. Consumer items, television sets, electrical irons, the whole damn lot, die within months.

If only yesteryear’s world could return. Why can’t it?

Page 24

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Managing the difficult patient encounter in the Emergency Room (The perspective of Dr Zulfikar Bux, Head of GPHC’s A&E; Asst. Prof. of Emergency Medicine) In the ideal world everybody gets along, and there aren’t personalities and cultural differences that make us differ in opinion.

Obviously there is no such existence and it is even more complicated in emergency rooms (ER) where the environment is high-stressed and unpredictable.

Emergency physicians cannot anticipate that all

encounters will unfold according to the standard expectations for successful patient-physician relations, that is, that privacy and confidentiality will be maintained and patient autonomy exercised.

P r i v a c y, a u t o n o m y, even assessing and addressing the medical complaint itself are often not the emergency physician’s first priority in managing uncooperative patients.

These Physicians are

expected to maintain calm and be respectful to every patient.

Often however, there are patients or relatives who are aggressive because of anger or an unstable state of mind.

These persons can pose a threat to the staff and other patients in the ER and must be kept in check for the safety of all.

In most emergency departments, aides or security personnel are available to assist if the patient becomes unruly.

Those not involved in the patient’s care (hospital security personnel or police officers) should be discretely placed, so that the patient is aware that they are present or nearby, but they should not intrude on the patientphysician encounter unless they are actively engaged in guarding or controlling the patient.

The physician’s first intervention is to assure the patient in a nonthreatening way that, regardless of the circumstances, his or her health is the physician’s primary concern. Often physicians must maintain

control of their own emotions, responding to patient anger and even abuse, calmly and un-defensively.

It is difficult to list what goes on next in sequence. The physician must determine, almost simultaneously: · Whether the patient is likely to pose a threat of harm to him or herself - or to others. · Whether or not a medical emergency or need exists.

Whether the patient is in physical distress. Intoxicated.

Psychotic. Attempting to get a prescription for narcotics. · Whether the patient is competent to accept or refuse treatment. If not, whether someone is present who can speak as the patient’s surrogate.

The possible combinations of answers to these questions determine how the encounter proceeds.

If a medical need is present and the patient is not combative or hostile and is competent to discuss and consent to or refuse treatment, the encounter resembles a traditional acute medical intervention. If medical need is present and the patient is highly combative or frenzied, with

frankly compromised mental status, he or she can be restrained or sedated so that the need can be assessed and treatment can proceed.

The physician may ask security personnel or police to detain or control the patient.

A patient’s decision on his or her care should make sense relative to his or her values.

Refusing surgery because it is frightening, for example, may be perfectly reasonable, but not consistent with a goal of continued life. Obviously, the need to feel secure about the patient’s competency increases as the risk associated with an intervention or the refusal of an intervention increases.

A psychiatric consultation may be needed.

In all events, seriously injured or ill patients who refuse treatment should be given comfort care rather than turned away because of their refusal.

As the distress from the injury or illness increases, and with continued encouragement of medical staff, they may change their

Dr Zulfikar Bux decisions.

Given the likely physical and emotional distress of patients with emergency medical needs, their possible estrangement from routine health maintenance, and the diverse psychosocial and cultural backgrounds and expectations that converge in the emergency d e p a r t m e n t , i t ’s s m a l l wonder that the real life “ER” offers an intense immersion course in managing difficult clinical encounters. Emergency Physicians are therefore trained and expected to be the calm minds in the midst of crisis.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 25

My column

Justice favours the official

The courts are there to dispense justice and for the man in the streets this is what they do. However, there are some complaints that as one gets higher up the social ladder then the justice system tends to favour the wealthy and those in the government circles.

Indeed, people have seen the wealthy get a mere slap on the wrist for crimes that others have been sent to jail.

Take the case of the driver who killed a woman as she was standing on the roadway awaiting transportation home.

This driver was drunk and after what seemed a lengthy delay he was charged and granted bail.

The ordinary man, had he attempted to leave the country, would have been detained. At least in the past once a person entered the courts his name was forwarded to the immigration department.

But this individual was able to walk through the airport and disappear in a move to escape trial.

I have seen the newspaper reports and I noticed that his aunt is a prominent person in the government and that he lived in a location known as

Pradoville II. There have been many like him who continue to elude the arms of justice. Then there are those who are targeted by the government because they adopt a position that appears to run counter to what the government wants or does. Generally, critics fall into this position.

I remember when the Working People’s Alliance was in its heyday. They were specially targeted by the police for all manner of evils against the government. Back then, though, the justice system comprised people who brooked no interference, so if the charge was trivial the judges or magistrates simply let the people go.

I suppose the same thing operates today, but there is the belief that some of the people in the judiciary are reluctant to take decisions against the government. Glenn Lall, through his newspaper, has been one of the critics of the government, and it now seems that he is public enemy number one.

For one, the government instituted charges against him for fraud. A remigrant couple

with whom Lall was close, imported two high-end vehicles.

The government concluded that the couple could not own the vehicles and because of their relationship with Lall and given Lall’s money, the government decided that Lall used the couple. There was not one iota of evidence to support the charge, but the charges were instituted. Lall is defending himself.

The use of the courts does not end there. The Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority reported that Lall had threatened him. That charge has also been instituted. Lall is to appear in court tomorrow to answer this charge.

The shoe goes on the other foot when Lall reported that the Attorney General had threatened not only him, but his staff at Kaieteur News. To go further, he presented recorded evidence of the threat. Rather than make the Attorney General the target of the investigation, the authorities once more targeted Lall.

In fact, the initial plan was to charge Lall, and that may still be the case. Meanwhile,

no action has been taken against the Attorney General.

For sure, when John Public sees this he is bound to be cowed.

The result is that more and more people would shy away from complaining about the things that bother them at the level of the government.

There are communities that know this very well and they react in strange ways. When there are crimes, to a man the people would tell the authorities that they saw nothing. In short, they clam up. Others would say what they think the authorities want to hear.

This may be the reason why there has not been a mad rush by people to use the crime hotline. Recently, I had cause to ask Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee about the response to the ‘I paid a Bribe’ hotline.

He did say that the hotline attracted a few calls, but there has not been the mad rush.

For sure, people in this country are in no hurry to embrace officialdom, and for the same reason as exemplified in the Glenn Lall case.

Yet, I like officialdom, because it helps to maintain

order in the general scheme of things. The other day I was at the Miami International Airport on my way to the Malvinas or Falklands. I had to get a visa to Chile and I had about an hour to get to the Chilean embassy.

I met one of the airport personnel, might have been security or someone in authority. I simply said that I had a short time to get to the Chilean Embassy. This official walked me to the head of the line and the rest is history.

Would the same thing

Adam Harris have happened in Guyana?

Perhaps, but I am sure only for someone high up in the social chain.

Page 26

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

101 REASONS FOR NO CONFIDENCE

By Moses V. Nagamootoo AFC Vice-Chairman The Motion contained 10 words: “that this National Assembly has no confidence in the government”.

It was on the Order Paper for debate, and passage, on November 10, 2014. But the minority PPP government, out of fear of those 10 tiny words, shut down Parliament by a Presidential Proclamation,

styled “Prorogation”.

Guyanese hardly knew that word before. But they are now seeing widespread condemnation of the PPP’s action, many seeing it as cowardly, as anti-democratic, as dictatorial.

Even present “comrade” like Joey Jagan and former leader, Ralph Ramkarran and colleague Henry Jeffrey, have come out against the prorogation, and have joined the call for Parliament to

be re-convened. The PPP, which under Ramotar lost its majority in the National Assembly in 2011, has now found itself almost totally isolated on this issue.

The major Western partners have warned that Guyana is stepping out of the folds of democratic states. Caribbean press concluded that whilst the PPP government was elected, it has now lost legitimacy. This is not a good place in which a minority government should find

itself.

President Ramotar is buckling. He knows that he could lose two years of his term, in much the same way that Mrs. Janet Jagan lost hers, and was forced by pressure politics in 1999 to hand the country over to her worse nightmare – Jagdeo.

He has indicated that he would limit the prorogation period and, also, he has summoned the Opposition Leader to talks. But all too late, as no decent Opposition would talk whilst their Parliament is shut down, or under political duress. The combined opposition has said: “no parliament; no talks”. They would raise the tempo: “No Parliament; No Government”.

10COMMANDMENTS It is now timely to explain why those historic 10 words have been used as a commandment for the government to go.

Basically, it captured and reproduced one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shall not steal”.

That was the immediate, underlining reason, for the no confidence motion which I first floated during July 2014 on my Facebook page as a rhetorical question. People responded that it was a good idea.

At that time, we were confronted with a situation in which the Government spent $4.5 billion without the approval, in defiance of the opposition of the National Assembly, and in violation of Articles 217 to 220 of the Guyana Constitution, which prohibit unauthorized and illegal spending of public monies.

The minority PPP Government had thrown down the gauntlet. It would not obey the National Assembly, nor be accountable to the House. It was declared that the PPP would disobey the Guyana Constitution that commands government to spend the people’s money only with parliamentary consent.

Parliament is the keeper of the people’s purse.

The AFC lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police that the Minister of Finance has violated the law, and that he has committed an unlawful act for which he ought to be prosecuted.

Up to this time, no charges have

been laid against the Finance Minister.

A Partnership for National Unity by motion sent the Finance Minister before the Privileges Committee of Parliament for him to show cause why he should not lose his seat or be prosecuted. But, predictably, the PPP circled the wagons.

It considered as an Untouchable the Finance Minister, just in the same way that it cuddled the Home Affairs Minister when three peaceful, unarmed, protesters were shot and killed in Linden and, more recently, vouched for the integrity of the cuss-bird, Chatree Attorney General, when he intimated that an independent, non-government newspaper would be attacked and innocent persons would be harmed.

The prorogation shut down the tribunal, and the Minister remains at large, a free man. Unlike Watergate, when sanctions were finally imposed, All the President’s Men are out there – handing out state vouchers to needy parents, spewing silly excuses for the President’s uncouth behavior, and unleashing feral blasts against the opposition on state media, in what must be a pre-election jaunt.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION The Guyana Constitution provides protection for the people against a rogue government that would violate the law and the Constitution itself with impunity. Article 106 (6) states: “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”

New general elections should then be held within three months. But President Ramotar made a pre-emptive strike. He shut down the Parliament on the day he re-convened it. He ran from the No Confidence Motion.

I was to use cricket parlance on that day when I said that the no confidence motion was like a bouncer. And Donald Ducked. It was my nephew, Mahendra Nagamootoo, a former national and West Indies bowler, who gave Ramotar’s action that spin.

Moses V. Nagamootoo OTHERMAJOR VIOLATIONS But illegal spending was just the immediate cause. There must be 101 other reasons, many for constitutional violations, why this government must go. · Denial of Local Government elections last held in 1994; · Refusal by the President to assent to opposition Bills; · Failure to set up Public Procurement Commission to check corruption; · Non-appointment of a Chairperson for the Integrity Commission to probe funds of public officials; · Diversion of billions in public funds to NICIL and retention/spending of same without parliamentary approval or scrutiny; · Giveaway of television and radio spectrum to cronies of the regime; · Misuse of state resources and media for partisan, PPP party propaganda purposes; · Use of confidential tax information to blackmail critics and to terrorise dissidents; · Complicity in plot to discredit and destroy the character of the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Guyanese would add to this “Crime List” the lack of protection from widespread crime, joblessness, and despair leading to drugs abuse, suicide and migration.

The PPP can no longer use prorogation as a fig leaf to cover its incompetence and misrule.

Sunday November 23, 2014

SUNDAY SPECIAL K/NEWS DEFENDS BRASSINGTON’S 17 LAWSUITS… COMMENTSARE FAIR, TRUE AND OF PUBLIC INTEREST – LAWYERS Weeks after filing 17 lawsuits against Kaieteur News over the contents of the satirical column, ‘Dem Boys Seh’, a senior Government official in charge of overseeing state investments and privatization deals, will have to prove his cases in court. This is because the newspaper has categorically denied the libel claims of Winston Brassington, stating in its defence that the comments were true, fair and published in the course of disseminating matters of public interest.

In July, Brassington, the Executive Director of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) filed 13 actions saying he was libeled in the popular column, over a period of time. He said that he was targeted for his role in the state-owned power company, Guyana Power and Light Inc. and the Marriott Hotel construction, among other things.

In September, Brassington again filed four more lawsuits saying he despised being called a ‘fat crook’.

However, in its defence, the National Media and Publishing Company Inc, which publishes Kaieteur News, and Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris, stated several instances in which the issue is in the interest of the public and will be justified in the trials.

RAMOTAR BENT ON ABUSE OF POWER, RAPE OF ECONOMY – GREENIDGE A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, said Saturday that while the government, has attempted to silence the legislature, the body will not be silenced.

It is not without weapons, he said. Greenidge said that it is imperative to remind President Donald Ramotar of such. In light of the prorogation of the Parliament, it is clear that Ramotar’s “disgraced Presidency is bent on the further abuse of power and rape of the economy,” Greenidge said.

He said that the National Assembly was never intended to be superior or junior to the executive, let alone to the President.

He said that it would be inconceivable that the public would sit idly by if the President tried to close down the courts, one of the three

Kaieteur News

Page 27

pillars of the constitution.

The others are the Executive and the Parliament.

In similar vein, he said that the public should not entertain President Donald Ramotar’s “ridiculous excuse” for closing down the National Assembly.

MONDAY EDITION RAMOTAR CONDONES MINISTERS’ USE OF THE TREASURYAS THEIR PRIVATE BANK ACCOUNT – AFC Recent pronouncements

by President Donald Ramotar on issues that came out of the recorded conversation between Attorney General, Anil Nandlall and a Kaieteur News reporter have resulted in a drawn conclusion that Guyana is being run at the lowest standards.

General Secretary of the Alliance For Change (AFC), David Patterson, last Sunday told Kaieteur News that he had no other choice but to arrive at that conclusion because the stance being taken by the President is strongly suggesting that he is condoning Nandlall’s actions.

The President held a press conference last Friday and addressed his recent prorogation of Parliament.

In an invited comment yesterday, Patterson deemed Ramotar ’s statements nonsensical. He said that the misuse of public funds can never be regarded as a private matter. The General Secretary said, “This is the typical PPP (People’s Progressive Party) way of doing things. They use the treasury as their private bank account, hence the reason they think that they are not accountable.”

TAXI DRIVER SURVIVES TWO BULLETS TO HEAD A teenaged taxi driver was shot twice to the head last Saturday night, by one of two gunmen who led him to a desolate area in the Zeelugt Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), with intentions to kill him.

It seemed that the two gunmen only wanted to kill taxi driver Ramesh Persaud, since they did not take his cash and jewellery, which exceeded $100, 000.

Persaud was extremely lucky, since the bullets did not damage any vital organs in his head.

One of the bullets is still lodged at the back of his head while the other was surgically removed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, where Persaud is a patient.

Doctors say it is too risky to remove the remaining bullet at this time. Speaking from his hospital bed Sunday, the 19year-old Persaud, who lives

Winston Brassington at Parika Backdam, East Bank Essequibo, told this newspaper that he was “shot for no reason” because the gunmen did not rob him.

Persaud also insisted that he is not involved in any “bad business” that could put his life at risk.

The teenager explained that he was hired by one of the gunmen at the Parika junction around 21: 00 hours, and was requested to drive to a nearby Chinese restaurant to pick-up another man.

After he made the pick-up, Persaud said that the gunmen requested a drop-off in the Zeelugt Housing Scheme, EBE. He noted that one gunman was in the front passenger’s seat, while the other was in the back seat of the vehicle.

TUESDAY EDITION INDEPENDENT OMBUDSMAN TAKES ON MINISTER GOPAUL - TELLS HIM TO “REREAD” REPORT ON NBS FRAUD CHARGES Days after an explosive report that raised serious questions over the manner in which charges were laid against three top managers of the New Building Society (NBS), Ombudsman, Justice Winston Moore, has taken on a Government Minister who criticized him. According to the Judge, who has sweeping, independent powers to

Knews’ Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris investigate complaints against public officials, he read statements attributed to Dr. Nanda Gopaul, Minister of Labour, that the NBS Board of Directors was not afforded a hearing by the Ombudsman.

Moore, in a statement, said that he spoke to Dr. Gopaul by telephone on Friday “advising him to read or re-read my report and to point out where in the report I made any finding on anything done by the NBS Board.”

The Ombudsman noted that the only mention he made of the NBS Board is in one sentence of the report, and in which he said that “I have no jurisdiction to pronounce on the action of the NBS Board in firing the managers and I therefore refrain from any comment.”

Justice Moore urged Minister Gopaul to now do what is “honourable”.

The report had angered Government officials. NBS Chief Executive Officer, Maurice Arjoon, and his two managers, Kent Vincent, and Kissoon Baldeo, were all charged in June 2007 for a $69M fraud at the bank.

The charges were later dismissed, but not before the three were sacked for what NBS Board of Directors said was “dereliction of duty, negligence and serious misconduct”.

Christopher Ram In January shortly after Justice Moore was sworn in, Arjoon who had been insisting that he was framed, filed a complaint with the Ombudsman’s office insisting that he was deliberately and maliciously charged.

TEEN SISTERS PERISH IN SUSPECTED ARSON ATTACK The family of two teen sisters was Monday plunged into sorrow as news of their demise by fire began to spread. The girls perished in a massive blaze which completely destroyed the three-storey building they were living in with their father.

Fifteen -year-old Theresa and 12-year-old Feresa Rozario were said to have been burnt beyond recognition when they were trapped in the early morning inferno that also left their father, Hilrod Randolph Thomas, nursing second and third degree burns at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Reports are that around 02:00hours Monday, the property which also housed several small businesses some of which were recently renovated, became engulfed in flames. Unconfirmed reports are that the children were unable to escape the heavily grilled building, while the father allegedly jumped through a window.

Moses Nagamootoo In the meantime, police investigators say that they will be reviewing footage from buildings to ascertain whether this is a case of arson.

An alleged eyewitness told media personnel that he was present when men lit the building. The man who was on the street in the early morning hours said he was standing at the corner of King Street and North Road when he noticed a car continuously traversing the area.

The male sex worker said the men had a brief discussion with him, before they turned into Company Path. Two occupants later exited the vehicle near the NBS building and walked along Avenue-ofthe-Republic before turning on to Robb Street and walking east to the now burnt out building. One of the men, he claimed, kicked a door open, entered the property and lit the building.

The witness said the building apparently did not light at first, but by this time the men had already walked up Robb Street where the car was waiting at the corner. He continued that the car apparently drove south along Wellington then west onto Regent Street before stooping at the corner of King and Regent Streets. They again exited the vehicle and one person stood at the (Continued on page 47)

Page 28

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Another month, another flood (APNU republishes this article first published on 12th January 2014 owing to its relevance to the disastrous flood that occurred on 20th November 2014.)

Every month, there is a major flood somewhere in Guyana. The year 2013 opened with flooding on the East Coast Demerara in January. Floods followed in sections of Kingston, Georgetown, in February; in parts of Uitvlugt on the West Coast Demerara, in March; on the East and West Coast Demerara and the Essequibo Coast in April; at Den Amstel on the West Coast Demerara, in June; in Albouystown, Georgetown, in July; on the East Bank Demerara, in August; at Tuschen, once again on the West Coast Demerara, in September; again in Albouystown, Georgetown, in October and in many parts of Georgetown and elsewhere, in November.

The hinterland was not spared. Floods affected

Bartica in the CuyuniMazaruni Region and St Ignatius in the Rupununi Region, in May and in the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region in December.

Monthly flooding incurs incalculable losses in terms of the destruction of farms, death of livestock and damage to homes, household goods and domestic and agricultural equipment. Farmlands are affected by massive flooding which destroys cultivated areas.

The endless, inevitable, monthly cycle of floods still continues nine years after the notorious “Great Flood” of January 2005. Floods, from 1988 to 2006, affected 965,000 persons and resulted in more than US$663M in economic damage, according to an InterAmerican Development Bank study.

The ‘Great Flood’ reportedly affected 25 per cent of the national population and caused economic losses equivalent to 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for that year.

The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration never conducted an inquiry into that catastrophe and its salutary lessons seem not to have been learnt. Since the ‘Great Flood,’ the administration has been on a spending spree, squandering billions on World Cup cricket, hosting the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) and building a five-star hotel and other prestige projects while neglecting the infrastructure needed to protect the coast from flooding.

It is a well-known fact that Guyana’s coastal zone lies near or below sea level. The rate of sea-level rise in the Caribbean is predicted to be five times greater than the world’s average, according to the IDB study.

This means that sea-level rise resulting from global warming could “significantly increase disaster risk in Guyana to levels that threaten the physical and economic viability of the coastal zone.”

The study points out,

further, that “a result of the dynamic interplay between high tides, high rainfall levels and a network of drainage and irrigation canals, conservancy dams and sluices designed to support agriculture, the coastland, as well as riverine areas and some low-lying parts of the hinterland, are at high risk to flooding.”

The coastland is dissected by the estuaries of numerous rivers, creeks and canals where the outfall channels are periodically blocked by ‘sling mud’ which constantly moves along the coastline.

Coastal towns and villages were built on old cotton and sugar plantations which used to possess thousands of kilometres of drainage canals discharging water through these outfall channels into the rivers or the ocean. This network included dams and kokers which had to be regularly repaired and which required the periodic dredging of the outfalls and estuaries of several rivers, including the Berbice, Demerara, Mahaica

and Pomeroon. Siltation accumulates without this dredging, causing flooding in farms and settlements. Sea defences also require continuous vigilance and maintenance as breaches or overtopping have frequently contributed to flooding.

Drainage canals must be maintained. They rarely have concrete walls and as a result, there is continuous erosion of the banks and growth of vegetation such as the formidable Moco-Moco, water hyacinth wild eddo and other water weeds.

Canals are often clogged with garbage, silt, sand or builders’ waste.

The ubiquitous canal system has become a victim of the extensive use of concrete surfaces in yards and public places, the deliberate obliteration of canals to facilitate construction, sprawling new housing schemes and squatter settlements, and of careless solid waste management.

The damaging effects and frequent occurrence of

flooding in this country demand more serious attention from the government than the usual, annual ad hocery and phony expressions of concern for the victims.

The PPPC administration needs to promulgate a National Flood Control Master Plan that must comprehend the consequences of climate change that are so evident to everyone else everywhere around the world today.

The proposed Plan must be capable of anticipating the monthly cycle of flooding and of notifying citizens early of the onset of extreme weather and the threat of flooding. The Plan must strengthen disaster risk management agencies and maintain sea defence and flood protection infrastructure.

The Plan, most of all, must embody a strategy to protect lives and property from the consequences of the devastating floods of the sort that have affected our country over the past decade.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Lions Club of D’Urban Park sponsors spectacles for 34 students The Lions Club of D’Urban Park in collaboration with Ming’s Optical provided spectacles for 34 students from five selected primary schools around Georgetown on Wednesday last. The activity marked the end of the club’s annual “Eye Screening Project” that commenced on October 9 last, in observance of World Sight Day. According to the President of the Lions Club of D’Urban Park, Zaleena Lawrie, over 250 students were screened from the St. Pius, St. Sidwell’s, Tucville, Enterprise and East La Penitence Primary schools. She said that the students were selected from grades four and five of the schools.

Chairperson of the Eye Screening Project and member of the Lions Club of D’Urban Park, Odetta Fogenay said that of the 250 students screened, 130 were referred for eye examinations and 34 students were awarded spectacles at a total cost of $408,000, at $12,000 per pair. The presentation was made by Dr. Michelle Ming at her facility. Fogenay noted that the activity will continue in similar fashion next year.

Kaieteur News

(From left) President of the Lions Club of D’Urban Park, Zaleena Lawrie, a club member, Optometrist, Michelle Ming and Lions Club of D’Urban Park member, Odetta Fogenay, along with some of the students who received spectacles.

Page 29

Page 30

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

WILDLIFE conservationists to up awareness drive on protected species Stakeholders in the wildlife protection arena are increasing public awareness programmes to highlight the existence of “Wildlife Management and Conservation Regulations.”

Environmental advocate, Annette Arjoon told Kaieteur News last week that a group of concerned stakeholders are currently working on several programmes - which are soon to be released - to educate the public on the importance of conserving the nation’s wildlife.

She said the soon-to-becommissioned body is also working on mechanisms to address the issues facing the protection of the country’s wildlife. One mechanism, Arjoon pointed out, is ensuring public awareness. In this regard, she told the publication that it is important that persons familiarize themselves with the 2013 legislation which speaks specifically to wildlife management and conservation.

Arjoon told the publication that several wild animals that are given ‘protected’ status are still very much at risk in their habitats. She referred to the 2013 wildlife legislation which

states that collecting, holding in captivity, hunting, killing, or otherwise molesting ‘protected’ species is prohibited.

She also alluded to the killing of the national animal, the Jaguar, which has ‘protected’ status. Arjoon said that the Jaguar is one of the endangered animals that the body is working towards increasing education about their existence.

In January 2013, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Panthera Corporation (Panthera), aimed at preserving the national animal. Guyana was the latest country to partner with Panthera on a regional effort to protect the species, and facilitate genetic flow between important Jaguar habitats.

The MoU provided a framework for research and surveys on the Jaguar, public education on the behaviours of large cats, and the examination of economic opportunities associated with Jaguar conservation,” the Ministry had stated.

The Natural Resources and the Environment

Ministry in collaboration with the US based organization Panthera recently embarked on a project to regulate wildlife within certain areas of the country’s interior. Their intention is to locate wildlife harvesting areas, create monitoring programmes, identifying wild meat markets, and raising awareness of national and international wild life regulations among several other concerns.

Wildlife advocates are encouraging hunters and trappers to avoid overhunting by catching only what is needed. They are also asking that the country’s closed hunting seasons be respected; wild birds are hunted from January 1 to May 31 and mammals from May 1 to July 31.

Advocates have rejected the killing of wild animals “for fun” and referred to ‘nontarget’ species such as wildcats, savannah foxes.

“Birds of prey are often killed or wounded intentionally by hunters who shoot at them,” an awareness poster had stated.

Citizens are being asked, however, to report wild life hunting or trapping activities believed to be questionable -

to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Hunters should have the relevant permission to enter private property/lands.”

Another big issue highlighted by wildlife advocates is the demand for wild meat. Local “bushmeat” will influence hunting activities, but hunters are asked to ensure that demand does not conflict with the established closed seasons when hunting is not permitted.

“From time to time, conflicts between humans and wildlife do arise. You are encouraged to share such scenarios with the EPA so that, whenever possible, a solution could be found that may not necessarily require the killing of such wildlife causing nuisance.”

“Help to educate others about Guyana’s wildlife and emphasize the importance of protecting and conserving them for future generations,” is a theme driven by the wildlife advocates. Some of the country’s protected animals include the Giant Armadillo, Puma, Giant River Otter, Red Siskin, Arapaima and the Leatherback Turtle.

Arjoon in a recent

Preserving Guyana’s national animal is a major concern for the country’s wildlife advocates comment had mentioned also that Guyana’s healthy wildlife population is a major tourist attraction that has seen many happy tourists returning from the Iwokrama Reserve to boast of jaguar sightings.

She said that the relative inaccessibility to the natural wildlife habitat offered much protection in the past which allowed thriving populations.

“However, this is slowly changing as Guyana’s pursues its economic development with the mining and forestry sectors, both of which require access to natural resources,” she stated.

She opined also that the construction of access roads

have also enabled the easy movement of hunters - some of whom operate full-time in the provision of fresh meat.

Arjoon believes that the growth of the wild meat market has also caused grave concerns in relation to the preservation of the country’s wildlife.

Arjoon, a passionate conservationist, pilot and executive, is convinced that the survival of the wildlife populations depend on the collective effects of everyone to protect those animals. If not, she opined, they might not be around for the generations to come.

(Zena Henry)

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 31

Energy efficiency can lead to $$M savings in oil import bill

By Rabindra Rooplall As Energy Week concluded, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, in the capacity of Minister of Energy and Electricity, noted that with the status of an oil-importing country, Guyana is vulnerable to fluctuations in regional and international energy markets.

Indeed, Guyana recently felt the effects of the supply disruptions when the two main suppliers of petroleum products within the region experienced difficulties in supplying products.

Nationally, Prime Minister Hinds said a small shift in demand based on increased energy efficiency can lead to savings of millions of dollars in the country’s oil import bill.

Energy Week 2014 was celebrated under the theme, ‘Achieving Climate, Environmental and Economic Resilience through Sustainable Energy’.

Hinds explained that Energy is integral to every country’s economic growth and development.

“It is important for diverse economic activities such as transportation, agriculture, fishing, mining and manufacturing, all of which undoubtedly are key sectors for our economy.

Additionally, energy is also a

major contributor to health and well-being in providing services such as lighting, transportation, cooling, entertainment and much more.

“We have also noted that these supply disruptions are also becoming more frequent.

They certainly do remind us of how necessary energy is to our economic well-being and daily lives. In addition to using energy more sparingly and efficiently, we need to start increasing our storage capacities and reserves to cushion supply disruptions,” the Energy Minister noted.

The CARICOM Energy Policy, Prime Minister Hinds said, advocates the provision of secure and sustainable supplies of energy, energy efficiency in all sectors, and energy access. By advancing collective goals, interconnection of energy systems and opportunities for country collaboration, the policy ultimately aims to achieve sustainable development in the Region.

Hinds stated that in the Electricity sector, Guyana has been “steadily increasing the generation capacity of the Guyana Power and Light, our national electric utility, and recently made significant investments in upgrading the transmission network. Our next phase of work is to be

- PM focused on improving the distribution networks, strengthening the human resource capacity of the company and reducing technical and commercial losses….an area that we can certainly benefit from your support.”

He further stated that Guyana’s energy policy, informed by the Low Carbon Development Strategy, is focused on providing reliable and renewable energy to all persons living here. The 165 MW Amaila Falls HydroElectric Project, a major transformational project of the Low Carbon Development Strategy, is intended to provide people with lower cost, more reliable and sustainable electrical energy.

“It is indeed unfortunate that such an important development project was met with resistance and is still to be concluded.”

“Government is committed to ensuring that all citizens have access to electricity as part of its socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation initiative.

Our Unserved Areas Electrification and Hinterland

Electrification Programmes have been extending electricity services with much success. Mini-grids were installed and operating at Lethem, Mahdia, Port Kaituma and Moraikobai along with more than 14,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) installations for homes, primarily in hinterland communities.

In the next few months, another 6,000 solar home systems and 100 solarpowered ICT hubs will be installed in 100 villages. In the last few years, through pilots and demonstration projects, we have been furthering our knowledge of solar grid-tie applications,

solar cooking stoves, solarpowered street lights, energyefficient wood stoves, lowcost bio-digesters, bio-diesel and bio-ethanol production, wind energy and wind profiles.”

Hinds asserted that at the household and individual level, simple actions like plugging out appliances and turning off lights when not in use, or using energy-efficient lighting, can also lead to substantial savings.

Public education and awareness programmes by the Guyana Energy Agency and the Guyana Power and Light offer guidelines and ideas on how to save energy and money in the home.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds

Page 32

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Jamaica to host CXC governance meetings Jamaica will host the annual governance meetings of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on 4th and 5th December 2014 in Kingston, Jamaica.

The meeting of the School Examinations Committee (SEC) will be held on Thursday 4th December and the 46th meeting of Council, CXC’s highest decisionmaking body, will be held on Friday 5th December.

Among the major agenda items for discussion at the Council meeting are the report on the administration of the 2014 examinations, the R e g i s t r a r ’s R e p o r t t o Council, the 2015 budget, and update on CXC Strategic Plan 2015 – 2020.

The presentation ceremony for the most outstanding candidates in the May/June 2014 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) will be held at 7:00 pm on Thursday 4th December at the University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters, UWI Mona Campus.

During the ceremony, which also marks the official opening of the Council meeting, awards will be presented to 16 students: eight for outstanding performance at CAPE, and eight for outstanding

performance at CSEC. The awardees come from Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Reverend Ronald Thwaites, Minister of Education, will deliver the feature address at the ceremony and declare the Council meeting open.

Andrew Holness, leader of the opposition; Professor E Nigel Harris, chairman of CXC; Glenroy Cumberbatch, acting registrar of CXC will also speak at the ceremony.

During the ceremony, Denise Watts-Lawrence, Pearson Country Manager for Jamaica, will present the second CXC/Pearson CAPE Humanities Award to Jozelle Dixon of Wolmers Girls’ School, Jamaica; while Dr Leslie Simpson, CARDI representative in Jamaica will

present Ricardo Nugent of William Knibb Memorial High School, Jamaica with the CARDI Agricultural Award.

The Regional Top Awardees and a CXC delegation will pay courtesy calls on Sir Patrick Allen, governor general of Jamaica; Portia Simpson-Miller, prime minister of Jamaica; Reverend Thwaites and Mr. Holness.

The awardees will also have opportunities to interact with students from schools in Jamaica and visit places of interest including the Jamaica Police Academy and Chukka Adventures.

The Council comprises representatives of 16 participating countries, the U n i v e r s i t y o f t h e We s t Indies, University of Guyana and the teaching profession.

The Council deals with finance and administrative issues, while the SEC deals with technical and examination issues. Jamaica last hosted the CXC governance meetings in 2005.

Page 40

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 41

Page 42

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Gafsons assists disabled mother with fencing of property - Now able to have thriving garden without animals trespassing

By Rabindra Rooplall Imagine getting through your busy day without feet.

Picture your life without the ability to walk as you normally would, or care for your basic needs, or even being able to have a regular job.

This is the daily reality for Amanda Anthony of Lot 7, Block 5, Hope Village, East Coast Demerara, who recently had her yard fenced by corporate giant Gafsons Industries Limited.

This, she said, would now assist her in having a thriving kitchen garden since previously her plants were destroyed because animals within the area would traverse through her yard.

After the death of her husband, Ms Anthony said she was fortunate to have a Non-governmental organization - Habitat for Humanity - build a house she happily calls home.

She further expressed equal gratitude to Mr Sattaur Gafoor for fencing her entire yard.

Last year, Habitat for Humanity Guyana gave Ms Anthony a great Christmas

by moving her into her twobedroom home. This year, she received another Christmas gift which came in the form of her yard being fenced.

Anthony, a 53-year-old mother of two, was born without the parts of her legs below the knees.

Originally from the interior region, she moved to Georgetown with her husband and children about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the family. Her husband died of malaria.

Amanda was left with two children to support and no source of income. Having been born with the aforementioned disability, Amanda adjusted to life without her lower legs. While it did not hinder her capacity to function, she was unable to garner employment, which resulted in her not being able to afford to send her children to school, and them not completing primary school.

As a result, her 23-yearold son became the sole breadwinner, working for a minimal salary that was not sufficient to cater to the family’s daily needs and pay a mortgage. When Amanda approached Habitat Guyana for support to construct her home there was no hesitation that she would become the first recipient of the promotion.

In addition to Scotiabank, Habitat Guyana received

support for other areas of the home such as furnishing and the provision of food items from Courts, Ansa McAl, the Braam family, the Guyana Relief Council, which provides a monthly food hamper, and private donors.

She explained that her bills are paid with the collection of monthly public assistance. She continued: “I may not be able to do plenty things, but I cook my own food, do my own cleaning, and take care of myself. If anyone ever hires me I would try my best to work hard and be useful.”

Ms Anthony further explained that she constantly wondered why she was different and questioned the purpose of life…or if she even had a purpose.

“I am really good at embroidery; I have never been hired by anyone to work.

I always say to myself that no one wants to employ me, and how am I going to take care of myself, but God always has kind-hearted people helping me. Otherwise when my husband was alive he would take care of the family, he died in 2011, and since then I have been facing more challenges.”

According to Ms Anthony, the victory over her struggles, as well as her strength and passion for life today, can be credited to her faith in God.

Amanda Anthony poses near her new gate and fenced property

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 43

Page 44

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

PREVENTION is better than cure!

(From the desk of the Vector Control Director, Dr Reyaud Rahman) We have always been told by our elders that “prevention is better than cure”. I must say that I do firmly believe so, especially when it relates to medical illness or conditions.

There are some diseases which are completely out of our hands and are determined either by family history or just plain bad luck.

However, when looking at some of the diseases in Guyana - from vector-borne diseases (Malaria, Dengue fever etc.) to even some Chronic diseases (Diabetes, Obesity and Overweight, Hypertension etc.) - we have quite a lot of control over these conditions in most cases and can protect ourselves from them.

When we contract vectorborne diseases such as malaria, it is mainly because we are not using our Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs), insect repellents, burning coils, using aerosol sprays, wearing light coloured clothing or staying under a LLINs during peak biting hours (between dusk and dawn generally).

We allow breeding sites to flourish and our vector population then multiplies (especially mosquitoes) this causes great problems as the control of diseases such as

Dengue becomes even more of a problem.

Breeding sites are very easy to develop. A tiny puddle with fresh rain water can potentially breed hundreds of mosquitoes which would become adult mosquitoes in a matter of weeks. Areas which are overlooked easily by individuals are the vases in our homes which we full with water to keep fresh flowers alive longer. The kitchen sink is also a potential breeding site. When the water runs off our recently washed dishes some water remains at the bottom of this dish rack and is a potential breeding site.

On another but very important note, there are many different delicious dishes on offer in Guyana.

However, many times these dishes are not in our best interest. Most persons in Guyana consume flour and rice. We are plagued with a diet rich in carbohydrates, fats and cholesterol.

It is advisable to monitor our diet closely by monitoring what we consume as we increase our risk of diabetes, stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure and many other diseases.

Our plates should be as colourful as possible with different vegetables, protein, whole grains and fruits. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that we

Dr. Reyaud Rahman eat the same amount of calories that our bodies are using, eat more plant foods (vegetables, nuts fruits etc), limit your intake of fats, limit your intake of sugar and limit your intake of salt. The WHO estimates that a diet low in fruits and vegetables is responsible for 2.7 million deaths alone.

We are directly responsible for our health and wellbeing and we should not be robbed or allow ourselves to be robbed of our lives because of preventable diseases. It is necessary to take responsibility for our surroundings and our bodies in order to live better quality lives and make our families happy by having us healthy.

I therefore urge you strongly to protect yourselves by not only destroying breeding places for mosquitoes around your homes and/or work places, but ensure that what you eat is healthy.

A Compelling Look at Men’s...

From page 38 got conventional care alone.

It is important to note that these patients did not know they were being prayed for, and therefore their recovery could not be explained away as a placebo effect.”

He cements his position

with the endorsement of Dr Larry Dossey's 'Prayer is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer,' and subsequently echoes the words of Dr Julian Whitaker: "If you are very ill (or a family member is), pray for recovery and encourage others to do likewise."

General hospitals, burdened by bureaucracy, shortage of medical personnel and their inability to meet the overwhelming demands have taxed governments to the limit.

Conversely, private hospitals

have turned the Hippocratic Oath on its head, bleeding those seeking an alternative to Government managed institutions. The result is a health system that subverts the basis upon which it was created.

Dr Vendryes' work responds to this daunting scenario. Its relevance has never been more exigent.

'An Ounce of Prevention' goes a step or two beyond mere information. It is judiciously and authentically presented; an oeuvre, no less, that leaves no stones unturned in pursuing the proverbial Philosopher's Stone.

We are counselled that our body is the temple of God. Indeed, Dr Vendryes charges us with this sacrosanct responsibility.

Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby An Ounce of Prevention: Mainly for MEN and the Ladies who care for them

by Dr Anthony Vendryes 2014 www.tonyvendryes.com ISBN: 978-976-95705-0-4 Available: amazon.com Ratings: Essential

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 45

Kidney damage in Poor sleep tied to uncontrolled diabetes inflammation in teens

By Dr. Kumar Sukhraj A common complication that a diabetic person may experience is nephropathy.

Nephropathy means damage to the kidneys. Diabetic nephropathy is damage to your kidneys caused by uncontrolled diabetes. In severe cases it can lead to kidney failure. It is important to note that not everyone with diabetes has kidney damage; however kidney damage can occur if a diabetic does not take good control of their health.

Each kidney is made of hundreds of thousands of small units called nephrons.

These structures filter your blood and help remove waste from your body.

In people with diabetes, the small blood vessels in the kidneys are damaged and the nephrons thicken and slowly become scarred over time.

When this happens, the kidneys begin to leak and protein (albumin) passes into the urine. This damage can happen years before any symptoms begin.The exact cause is unknown. However, kidney damage is more likely if there is poor control of diabetes with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

In some cases, your family history may also play a role.

People with diabetes who smoke and those with type 1 diabetes that started before age 20 have a higher risk for kidney problems.People of African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian origin are also more likely to have kidney damage.

Often, patients may not have any symptoms as the kidney damage starts and slowly gets worse. Kidney damage can begin 5 to 10 years before symptoms start.People who have more severe and long-term

(chronic) kidney damage may have symptoms such as: · Fatigue most of the time · General ill feeling · Headache · Nausea and vomiting · Poor appetite · Swelling of the legs Your doctor can order tests to detect signs of kidney problems in the early stages.

When kidney damage is caught in its early stages, it can be slowed with treatment.

So it’s important for people with diabetes to have regular testing, usually every year.

As damage to the kidneys gets worse, your blood pressure rises.

Your cholesterol and triglyceride levels rise too. You may need to take more than one medicine to treat these complications. There are many steps a person can take to prevent and manage kidney failure. These are as follows; · Keep your blood sugar levels within your target range. This can help slow the damage to the small blood vessels in the kidneys. · Work with your doctor to keep your blood pressure under control. For most people who have diabetes, the ideal blood pressure is below 120/80. High blood pressure is 140/80 or higher when you have diabetes. · Keep your heart healthy by eating healthy foods and exercising regularly.

Preventing heart disease is important, because people with diabetes are more likely to have heart and blood vessel diseases. And people with kidney disease are at an even higher risk for heart disease. · Watch how much protein you eat. Eating too much is hard on your kidneys. If diabetes has affected your kidneys, limiting how much protein you eat may help you

Poor Sleep Dr. Kumar Sukhraj preserve kidney function.

Talk to your doctor or dietician about how much protein is best for you. · Watch how much salt you eat. Eating less salt helps keep high blood pressure from getting worse. · Don’t smoke or use other tobacco products.

Please feel free to send an email to kumarsukhraj@yahoo.com or call 6228032 for further enquiry and discussion on the topic. Patient education plays an important in the diagnosis and management of diabetes and any other illness. Please look forward for a continuation of the discussion on health issues in the next publication.

REFERENCES American Diabetes Association.Standards of medical care in diabetes— 2012.Diabetes Care. 2012 Jan; 35 Suppl 1:S11-63.

Parving H, Mauer M, Fioretto P, Rossing P, Ritz E. Diabetic Nephropathy. In: Taal MW, Chertow GM, Marsden PA, Skorecki K, Yu ASL, Brenner BM, eds.

Brenner and Rector’s The Kidney. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011

Teens who don’t get enough sleep may be at risk for chronic problems later in life from increased inflammation throughout the body, according to a new study.

Those who didn’t get enough sleep during the week and especially those who slept longer on weekends had higher inflammation levels tied to heart disease and diabetes, researchers report in Sleep Medicine. Investigators used blood tests to measure kids’ C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. High levels indicate that the body is in “inflammation mode,” said lead author Martica Hall of the psychiatry department at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

“Frankly, high CRP over a long period of time is bad for everything,” Hall said. “We say it increases the risk of ‘all things bad.’” This study only measured CRP levels at one point in time, but “folks that have chronically high CRP are at risk for heart disease and diabetes,” Hall told Reuters Health by phone. “For adults we know that short sleep is associated with CRP levels.”

The researchers also had the 244 healthy high school students wear wrist monitors that recorded how much they slept.

Most kids had CRP levels in the low to moderate risk range, below 3 milligrams per liter, but 33 students qualified as “high risk” by scoring above that threshold.

On average, the kids got less than six hours of sleep per night during weekdays and between seven and eight hours on the weekends.

Teens who slept the least during the week were most likely to be in the high-risk group. Additionally, those who slept at least two hours longer on the weekends were more than twice as likely to be in the high-risk group, compared to those who had more consistent sleep times throughout the week.

Kids in the high-risk group also tended to have a higher body mass index, which is a measure of weight in relation to height.

Sleep duration was still linked to CRP levels even when the authors accounted for depression, sex, race, parental education and body mass index, which is usually

Rushing to put on condoms may lead to problems Rushing to put on a condom may lead to problems that raise the risk of sexually transmitted infections, according to a new study.

Survey responders, almost 60 percent of them women, were more likely to report condom breaks, leaks and slips when it was put on in a hurry, researchers found.

Couples who rushed were also more likely to report not using a condom for the entire sex act. “The message is take your time,” said Dr. Lydia Shrier. “If you’re going to be using the condom, use it correctly so you avoid the type of problems we reported

on.” Previous research into condom problems were limited by having asked mostly men about their last sexual experiences, said Shrier, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the study’s senior author. The new study used data collected from 2007 through 2011 from 512 men and women who sought treatment at five U.S. health clinics with reputations for diagnosing and treating sexually transmitted infections. The participants, whose ages ranged from 15 through 65, recorded their sexual encounters in an online

diary for up to 180 days. In total, the data covered 8,856 instances of vaginal sex between men and women that included condoms. In about 7 percent of those sexual encounters, the participants reported being rushed while putting on the condoms.

Overall, the condom broke, slipped off and leaked about 5 percent of the time when people rushed to put it on, compared to about 2 to 3 percent of times when they didn’t rush. Additionally, 22 percent of people who were rushed while putting on a condom reported not using the condom throughout sex,

compared to about 14 percent of people who were not rushed. “I think that this study demonstrates that

being rushed when putting a condom on can produce a whole range of problems with a condom,” Shrier said.

an important predictor of CRP levels, Hall said.

“The kids who have a big discrepancy between the amount of sleep they get between weekdays and weekends, as well as those who have short sleep during the school day, that’s associated with higher level of CRP,” Hall said.

Similar results have been seen in adults and the elderly, but these studies that look at one moment in time can’t prove cause and effect, Dr. Francesco Cappuccio told Reuters Health in an email.

“In other words, is sleep deprivation causing an activation of inflammation or is an underlying reason for raised inflammatory markers the cause of reduced sleep?” said Cappuccio, a cardiovascular physician at the University of Warwick in Coventry, U.K. who was not involved with the new study.

Caution is always a good approach for results like these, but there are plenty of reasons for believing that sleep deprivation could be harmful, he said.

CRP levels can be lowered, but it would take a separate experiment to determine if changing sleep patterns would effect that change, Hall said. “The cool thing about sleep is that it’s changeable,” she added.

Hall said kids and parents should focus on lengthening sleep times during the school week and not worry so much about the weekend. Other studies have found that highly variable sleep lengths are associated with health risks, so standardizing and lengthening sleep for five of the seven days of the week is a good start, she said.

“One of the reasons why there is such a move for trying to change high school start times is this is a population which is biologically predisposed to be awake at night,” Hall said.

Page 46

Kaieteur News

‘Dumb and Dumber’ sequel outmuscles ‘Hero’ to win weekend box office “Dumb and Dumber To”, the sequel to the 1994 comedy that raised stupidity to an art form, led the U.S. and Canadian box office this weekend, taking in $38.1 million and outmuscling last week’s winner, “Big Hero 6.”

“Hero,” Walt Disney Co’s animated story of a boy and his robot, settled for a close second with $36 million, according to estimates provided by tracking firm Rentrak. Director Christopher Nolan’s space adventure “Interstellar” collected $29.2 million for third place.

“Dumb and Dumber To” stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as dimwitted friends searching for the long-lost daughter of one of the buddies. The original film, Dumb and Dumber,” was among 1994’s biggest hits, with $127.2 million in domestic ticket sales.

“We felt it was going to do over $30 million, but this is bordering on $40 million,” said Nikki Rocco, president for domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, the Comcast Corp unit that released the film.

“The timing was right for a comedy of this nature, one with broad appeal,” Rocco added, noting the studio successfully broadened the film’s appeal to ethnic audiences, with Hispanics making up 38 percent of ticket buyers. “Big Hero 6,” which features the voices of Damon Wayans, Jr., James Cromwell

Director Gina PrinceBythewood’s third film follows well-received titles “Love & Basketball” and “The Secret Life of Bees.”

“Gone Girl,” director David Fincher’s box office hit starring Ben Affleck as a man suspected in his wife’s disappearance, rounded out the top five with $4.6 million, bringing its domestic haul to $152.7 million. Paramount, a unit of Viacom, distributed “Interstellar.” Independent studio Relativity released “Beyond the Lights.”

Taylor Swift shakes off competition to hold Billboard top spot Taylor Swift reigned atop the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart for a second consecutive week on Wednesday after scoring the biggest debut in a dozen years.

“1989” sold 402,000 copies in its second week according to sales figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, outpacing the cumulative sales of the rest of the nine albums in the top ten of Billboard’s weekly album chart by nearly 100,000 copies.

The “Now 52” compilation held steady at No. 2 with sales of 59,000, and only three new entries made the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart this week.

Veteran singer Bette Midler ’s “It’s the Girls” clocked in at No. 3, British electronic music DJ Calvin Harris’ “Motion” entered at No. 5 and country singer Sam Hunt’s “Montevallo”

Randy Jackson exits ‘American Idol’ after 13 seasons “American Idol” judge and mentor Randy Jackson is leaving the Fox TV singing competition after 13 seasons, the network said on Tuesday, after the show suffered a decline in ratings in recent years.Music producer Jackson, 58, was one of the show’s original three judges along with Paula Abdul, who departed the show in 2009, and Simon Cowell, who left in 2010. Jackson left the judges’ panel after 12 seasons, but continued as a mentor in the 13th season this year.

“He’s provided great advice and support, shaping the success of so many Idols we have discovered over the years,” the network and show’s production companies FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment said in a statement “We hope he’ll visit

and Maya Rudolph, has collected $111.7 million in the United States and Canada since opening on Nov. 7, for a global total of $148 million.

Disney said the film helped propel the studio’s strong year at the box office. On Friday it surpassed $4 billion in global sales for the second time in its history.

New release “Beyond the Lights,” the story of a pop star struggling with the pressures of fame who falls in love with a policeman, took fourth place with $6.5 million.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Randy Jackson from time to time,” the statement added.

“Idol,” once one of the top ratings hits on TwentyFirst Century Fox Inc’s Fox Broadcasting with more than

30 million viewers at its peak, has seen a drop in viewership despite its high-profile judges. The show hit a series low of 10.6 million viewers tuning into the season finale earlier this year.

Current judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. will all return for the show’s 14th season next year, as well as host Ryan Seacrest, who has been with the show since its premiere in 2002 and has become one of the highest-profile U.S. television hosts.

Fox recently slumped to last place in ratings among the major U.S. broadcasters, and the network’s top entertainment executive Kevin Reilly stepped down from his role. Fox said “Idol” will be scaled back next season from about 50 hours to 37 hours.

Beyonce’s Song “Ring Off” Leaks, Reignites Jay Z Marriage Trouble Rumors And so it begins — again. Beyonce’s new song “Ring Off” from her upcoming platinum box set was leaked online this week, reigniting rumors that the superstar and husband Jay Z are enduring marriage problem behind closed doors. The new track describes a person left picking up the pieces after a failed relationship — one which may have involved infidelity.

“In the mirror you would stare/And say a prayer like, ‘I wish he said I’m beautiful’/ I wish it didn’t hurt at all/I don’t know how I got here, I was once the one who had his heart,” the lyrics read.

“Until you had enough, then you took that ring off/ You took that ring off/ So tired of the lies and trying and fighting and crying/ You took that finger.”

Over the summer, sources told Us Weekly that Beyonce was preparing to divorce Jay Z, just three months after their infamous elevator fight with Bey’s younger sister Solange.

An insider told Us at the time

that the rapper had a “wandering eye” and that the “XO” singer even leaned on friend Gwyneth Paltrow for advice. (The Oscar winner split from Coldplay’s Chris Martin in March.)

The powerhouse duo have remained a united front

in public since then, with Jay Z even presenting a tearful Beyonce with the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs in August. Last weekend, they attended Solange’s wedding to video producer Alan Ferguson together in New Orleans.

Mike Nichols, the entertainment icon and husband of ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer, died suddenly Wednesday at the age of 83.

Nichols’ death was announced in a statement by ABC News President James Goldston.

“He was a true visionary, winning the highest honors

in the arts for his work as a director, writer, producer and comic and was one of a tiny few to win the EGOT-an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony in his lifetime,” Goldston said in the statement. “No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike.” Nichols was born in Germany in 1931, and came to the United States when he was 7

years old, when his family escaped Nazi Germany. He arrived in America speaking little English, but his enthusiasm for his new country never waned.

He graduated from the Walden School in New York City, and began pursuing theater while attending the University of Chicago in the early 1950s.

Entertainment Icon Mike Nichols has died at age 83

rounded out the list at No. 10.“1989” opened with 1.3 million copies last week and became Swift’s third album to open with more than 1 million copies, making her the only artist to achieve the milestone. The album, billed as Swift’s first all-pop record, has benefited from multiplatform promotion and the

singer’s dedicated social media following.

On the Digital Songs chart this week, which measures single song downloads, Swift’s “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” were at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively, behind Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” at No. 1.

Sunday November 23, 2014

From page 27 corner, while the other man went to the building with a lit bottle and again attempted to burn the building. The men both ran back to vehicle and made good their escape.

WEDNESDAY EDITION PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS CONTINUE…”RAMOTARIS ADISGRACE,AHEARTLESS PHARAOH” – PROTESTORSCHARGE Referring to the country’s President as a “disgrace” and a “heartless Pharaoh”, demanding that he “let the country go,” amid other anti-Ramotar chants, scores of frustrated citizens gathered for an intense two-hour pro-democracy protest outside the Office of the President on Tuesday. The demonstration was part of the parliamentary opposition’s promised series of protests.

The group was led by Opposition Leader David Granger and other executive members of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) including Shadow Minister of Local Government, Ronald Bulkan, Chief Whip, Amna Ally and Parliamentarians, Annette Ferguson and Chris Jones.

Granger imparted a few words of inspiration to the eager group before the start of the protest in front of the Office of the President on Vlissengen Road.

CG BANDITS CHASED AFTER ROBBERY, 1 KILLED,1CRITICAL Two armed bandits on a CG motorcycle were severely beaten leaving one dead, following a failed robbery at La Bonne Intention (LBI) Estate Road, East Coast Demerara on Tuesday.

After a severe thrashing by residents in the area, the robbers were dragged and dashed into a police pick-up before being taken to the Georgetown Hospital, where one remain under guard.

Dead is 28- year-old Trelon Munroe of Cummings Lodge.

At the scene of the incident, police recovered an identification card which labeled the other bandit, Kevin David, 26, as a soldier of the Guyana Defence Force, which only irked LBI residents further.

Kaieteur News

According to Police, at about 13:30h, 37-year-old Jasadai Persaud was at her home at Cherry Field, LBI, when two men rode up on a motor cycle, one of whom was armed with a firearm, and held her up.

The men robbed her of a bag with cash that had been withdrawn earlier in the day from a city bank. As the men left the premises they were confronted by the victim’s husband, who retreated after a shot was discharged in his direction. The perpetrators fled the scene on the motor cycle, but were pursued by a relative of the victim in a motor car, during which the perpetrators lost control of the motor cycle and fell. An unlicenced .32 revolver with 4 rounds and a spent shell, along with a quantity of the stolen cash were recovered by the police.

THURSDAY EDITION GUYANAEASESEBOLA TRAVELRESTRICTIONS ONAFRICANCOUNTRIES Government on Wednesday lifted travel and visa restrictions on all West African territories, with the exception of four. The four territories still facing restrictions are Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mali.

The restrictions, which were instituted by the Governments of Guyana and other Caribbean territories, constituted a proactive tactic to prevent the entry of the Ebola virus.

The initial decision to put in place the restrictions occurred in early September but according to Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, as of Wednesday a revised restriction was implemented by Government.

The latter move came on the heels of a recent Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Trinidad where a decision was taken to review and revise the restrictions taking into consideration the state of the virus which surfaced in West Africa earlier this year.

AGNANDLALL’STHREATS TOKAIETEUR NEWS…REGIONALMEDIA BODYCONDEMNS GOVT. STANCEON JOURNALISTS’SAFETY A regional media body condemned Government on Wednesday, calling for the state

to pull out all stops to ensure the safety of media workers.

According to the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), the Government of Guyana must do all in its power to protect media workers from violent attacks and acts of intimidation. The government must also ensure that it does not send mixed signals about its stated commitment to a safe environment for all journalists and media practitioners in the country.

The ACM said that it has noted the alleged threat of gun violence against media workers at Kaieteur News reportedly made by Attorney General Anil Nandlall and recorded by a senior reporter.

ACM said that in a statement on the allegations, the Guyana Government has described the conversation as “private; it was illegally recorded, distorted, manipulated and taken out of context to reflect a different dialogue”, and that as the Attorney General has since filed legal proceedings “the matter is currently sub-judice”.

The media body, which has members in CARICOM member countries and is part of the global media association, said that it is cognizant in the same statement of Government’s claim that the Kaieteur News was guilty of offensive publications and efforts to “solicit apologies, retractions or clarifications are met with further abuse” and “injunctions issued by the judiciary restraining offensive and libelous publications are ignored with impunity…”

“The ACM believes the government must be unambiguous in its stated commitment to freedom of the press, especially as it is aware thatin2006maskedmenarmedwith automatic weapons killed five employees of Kaieteur News printing staff execution-style.”

FRIDAY EDITION BUSINESSES QUESTION $$M SPENT ON DRAINAGE SYSTEM …ASGUYANACAUGHT OFFGUARDWITHHEAVY RAINS,FLOODING Guyanese in the nation’s capital, and other coastal districts, awoke Thursday morning to heavy

Page 47

Opposition Leader David Granger, minutes before protest

flooding caused by incessant overnight rainfall, and as is now normal, received the vital weather advisory on the situation after the fact. By daybreak, several regions across the country were under siege, as inches of unexpected heavy rainfall inundated the land.

As flood waters began to rise, citizens frantically trying to get their belongings off the ground to avoid the destruction.

In areas which were terribly hit, even the beds of some persons were submerged, while many of the household items floated through their front and back doors.

The inclement weather also forced the closure of schools and impeded the smooth flow of traffic. The high water posed serious challenges to business operators. the Private Sector Commission (PSC), in a public statement, expressed concern that once again it seems that the leaders of the nation have been caught off guard.

“The alert mechanisms, forecasters and administrators both in central and local government have disappointed us in their proactivity and reaction to this development.”

The body also questioned the unfolding of the situation, “even after the millions (of dollars) being spent on the Doppler weather stations, hundreds of millions (of dollars) spent on drainage and irrigation annually, billions of dollars spent on the significantly delayed Hope Canal Project and the billion dollars currently being spent on the cleanup campaign. Our confidence in the effectiveness

A section of the protestors being led by parliamentarian Annette Ferguson’s pro-democracy chants

of these programmes has been further diminished.”

GUYANABREATHESEASY ASVENEZUELAPLEDGES TOCONTINUEOILDEAL Amidst worry by regional leaders, Venezuela on Thursday pledged to continue supplying oil on favourable terms to Petrocaribe member states despite a drop in international crude prices.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez, the former Chief Executive Officer of state oil company, PDVSA, stressed at the opening of the gathering that the South American nation remains “firmly committed” to the initiative. Members of Petrocaribe were in Venezuela for the occasion of the 14th Meeting of the Ministerial Council. There have been widespread concerns that Venezuela, facing internal turmoil, would consider ending the arrangement. Any such move would have left many CARICOM member countries reeling as they would now be forced to buy oil directly from the world market.

Petrocaribe is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Venezuela.

SATURDAY EDITION BUSINESS COMMUNITY SAYS GECOM READY FOR ELECTIONS Representatives of the business community have expressed satisfaction on the readiness of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to host Local and General Elections at a short notice. According to GECOM which is tasked with managing elections for the country, senior representatives of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) “have expressed satisfaction” pertaining to the state of its preparedness, relative to the conduct of General and Regional or Local Government Elections,

should a date be set for any at short notice.

“This sentiment was expressed collectively by the PSC’s representatives at the conclusion of a meeting between these two entities on Wednesday, November 19, 2014, at the GECOM Boardroom.”

GECOM said it arranged the briefing session in response to a request from the business body for a meeting to be held to discuss several germane issues.

“With regard to the probable conduct of Local Government Elections, GECOM emphasized that the President’s non-assent to outstanding legislation relative to Local Government, which were approved by the National Assembly, has no bearing on the Commission insofar as the conduct of these elections are concerned.”

BERBICERIVERBRIDGE RETRACTORBREAKS DOWN - PM HINDSAMONG THOSESTRANDED Hundreds of persons were stranded on both sides of the Berbice River on Friday evening as the Retractor Span of the Berbice River Bridge stopped working. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic at 15:30 hrs, but when it was time to close the span to allow a flow of traffic at around 17:00 hrs, it would not close.

Technicians worked feverishly to ascertain the root cause of the problem.

Irate motorists and passengers at both the Palmyra and D’Edward ends of the bridge wondered when they would get to their destinations. Many feared that they would miss their flights out of the country.

Among those stranded were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and his team who were in Berbice on Friday.

According to reports, the Prime Minister checked into a New Amsterdam Hotel for the night. .”

Transport Minister, Robeson Benn, confirmed that ferries were activated between Rosignol and New Amsterdam.

Engineers managed to effect a temporary fix around 21:00hrs.

Page 48

Have a Laugh FIRE TRUCK A firefighter was working on the engine outside the Station, when he noticed a little girl nearby in a little red wagon with little ladders hung off the sides and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.

The girl was wearing a firefighter's helmet. The wagon was being pulled by her dog and her cat.

The firefighter walked over to take a closer look.

'That sure is a nice fire truck,' the firefighter said with admiration.

'Thanks,' the girl replied.

The firefighter looked a little closer. The girl had tied the wagon to her dog's collar and to the cat's testicles.

'Little partner,' the firefighter said, 'I don't want to tell you how to run your rig, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar, I think you could go faster. ' The little girl replied thoughtfully, 'You're probably right, but then I wouldn't have a siren.’ ******************** CHEWING GUM An Australian man was having a coffee and croissants with butter and jam in a cafe when an American tourist, chewing gum, sat down next to him. The Australian politely ignored the American, who, nevertheless started up a conversation.

The American snapped his gum and said, You Australian folk eat the whole bread?'

The Australian frowned, annoyed with being bothered during his breakfast, and replied, 'of course.'

The American blew a huge bubble.

'We don't. In the States, we only eat what's inside. The crusts we collect in a container, recycle them, transform them into croissants and sell them to Australia.'

The American had a smirk on his face.

The Australian listened in silence.

The American persisted, ‘D'ya eat jam with your bread?'

Sighing, the Australian replied, 'of course.'

Cracking his gum between his teeth, the American said, 'we don't. In the States, we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels, seeds and the leftovers in containers, recycle them, transform them into jam and sell it to Australia...

The Australian then asked, 'Do you have sex in the States?'

The American smiled and said 'Why of course we do.'

The Australian leaned closer to him and asked, 'And what do you do with the condoms once you've used them?'

'We throw them away, of course!'

Now it was the Australians turn to smile.

‘We don't. In Australia , we put them in a container, recycle them, melt them down into chewing gum and sell them to the United States ... Why do you think it's called Wrigley's?’ ******************** The A B C...

After being married for thirty years a wife asked her husband to describe her.

He looked at her slowly...then said, "You're A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.... I, J, K." She asks...... "What does that mean?"

He said, "Adorable, Beautiful, Cute, Delightful, Elegant, Fancy, Gorgeous, Honey.

She smiled happily and said...."Oh, that's so lovely.....

What about I, J, K?" He said, “I'm Just Kidding!"

His eye is still swollen....but it will get better......... ******************** In a divorce court a woman requested the judge: "Your honor, I want to divorce my husband."

"But why?" asked the judge.

She replied, "Because he is not faithful to me."

The judge asked, "How do you know?"

She replied, "My lord, not a single child resembles him."

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Born Loser

Garfield

Non Sequitur

Peanuts

Shoe

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 49

Best Homemade Facial Salt Scrubs You Should Try Right Away Salt scrubs are expensive skin care options that offer miraculous results. If you are already a blessed woman with lots of money, buying expensive salt scrubs from the market should not be an issue for you. However, if you belong to the class of many mortals like us women, then this feature of making salt scrubs at home will surely make your day.

Salt scrubs offer unmatched exfoliating and moisturizing benefits upon use. They also offer anti-fungal and anti-bacterial benefits that protect the skin against dryness and inflammation caused due to microbial infections. So if you are looking forward to a super-healthy skin that always glows, then the following are the salt scrubs you must be using!

1. Epsom Salt And Coconut Oil Face Scrub For Oily Skin: Epsom salt offers the goodness of deep exfoliation, while coconut oil clears trapped skin impurities.

How To Make?

Take half bowl of Epsom salt and mash it to make its particles finer.

Transfer the mashed Epsom salt into an air tight glass jar.

Take half bowl of coconut oil and transfer it onto a pan.

Heat it on low flame.

When the coconut oil becomes warm, switch off the flame.

Transfer the warm coconut oil into the glass jar containing Epsom salt.

Mix the two ingredients well, until the salt saturates in oil.

Add lemon juice to the saturated mixture and stir well.

This makes your salt scrub for oily face. Use it thrice in a week before bathing for best results.

Benefits: (i) Epsom salt offers deep exfoliation to oily skin.

Coconut oil offers necessary moisturization, but clears unwanted dirt and sebum trapped in skin pores. (ii) Lemon juice reduces the size and appearance of open pores. It offers astringent benefits and reduces redness and inflammation too. It also targets blackheads, whiteheads and acne marks. (iii) It also reduces the unnatural glare from oily skin.

2. Sea Salt And Almond Oil Face Scrub For Dry Skin: Sea salt is an essential bathing salt that makes the skin supple, radiant, blemish-free and fair. You can find sea salt easily in groceries and malls.

How To Make?

Take half bowl of sea salt and crush it to make its particles finer.

Transfer the sea salt into a glass jar.

Take almond oil (just about half a bowl is enough) and transfer it to the jar containing sea salt.

Mix sea salt and almond oil well to make a fine paste.

Add orange juice and grape juice to the mixture and beat well.

Use every alternate day for visible effects.

This salt scrub is exclusive to dry skin, as it repairs chapped skin and prevents further damage too.

Benefits: Sea salt is essentially rich in skin exfoliating minerals. It is also loaded with the goodness of silica particles that make the skin blemish free.

Almond oil is loaded with the goodness of vitamin E. Vitamin E is a fairness agent too. The dry skin becomes dull, as skin's cells lose their elasticity. Almond oil offers deep moisturizing and toning benefits to dry skin. Vitamin E makes the skin up to two times fairer and brighter.

Orange juice is rich in vitamin C. It offers moisturization and makes the skin fair.

Grape juice is an exceptional source of skin friendly anti-oxidants. Those anti-oxidants increase the sheen and radiance of the skin by flushing out free radicals from it.

This makes the skin younger, fairer and radiant.

3. Table Salt And Jojoba Oil Scrub For Sensitive Skin: This face scrub is exclusive to sensitive skin and it causes no breakouts.

How To Make?

Add half a bowl of table salt to a glass jar.

Take half a bowl of jojoba oil and transfer it into the glass jar having table salt.

Beat well to make a fine paste.

Add mausami juice to the glass jar and beat well.

Apply twice in a week for best results.

This salt scrub is an amazing repairing therapy for sensitive skin. It controls oil formation and dryness, both, in sensitive skin.

Benefits: Table salt offers gentle exfoliation to sensitive skin. The particles are too fine to cause any reactions. Thus, exfoliation with table salt does not break out sensitive skin.

Jojoba oil offers controlled moisturization. It doesn't make the skin too oily or too dry.

Mausami juice complements sensitive skin, as it causes no inflammation. It reduces the size of open pores and also keeps the skin clean and fresh.

These salt scrubs are inexpensive but amazing when it comes to giving your skin that lost dose of vitality and radiance. So delay no more! Prepare these scrubs for a beautiful you!

SOLUTION FOR LAST WEEK’S SEARCH & FIND

Page 50

Kaieteur News

Junior page

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kiddies Section

The

Frog Prince

Continued from last week And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.

As soon as it was light the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.

'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'

But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same

tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said: 'Open the door, my princess dear, Open the door to thy true love here!

And mind the words that thou and I said By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished to see,

I must pass the test

by Uncle Roy As this term in school comes to an end, I know I will have to do tests, And I must make a good effort To really bring out my best.

I am aware there are a few lessons, That I did not well retain, So I will have to take the time To make sure I study them again.

The holidays will soon be here, When I will be free to play, So I should now spend more time To study harder each day.

I know I will feel bright and good, When I do well at my tests, And my parents also will be so pleased, That our holidays will have more happiness.

instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and standing at the head of her bed.

He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights.

'You,' said the prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you as long as you live.'

The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying 'Yes' to all this; and as they spoke a brightly coloured coach drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst.

They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great many years.

WHY DON'T BIRDS ON A WIRE GET A SHOCK?

WHY DON'T BIRDS ON A WIRE GET A SHOCK?

N

ow how is t h a t possible?

The fact is, for a living creature to get a 'shock' t h e re h a s t o b e a s u bsta nt i a l f l ow o f current through the body. However, there is b a re l y a ny c u r re n t running through the bird's body for two reasons.

Firstly, the bird not only forms a circuit with the wire, but it also offers a high resistance to current, so the current passes through the wire instead of the bird.

It's a bit like this, would you prefer going on a smooth road or a road full of potholes?

The answer is obvious and just like you, the current prefers taking the easier path. All o b j e c t s o ffe r s o m e amount of resistance to the flow of current, depending on the material.

This is just one of the reasons why birds don't get shock, however the more important reason why current does not pass through the bird is, there is barely any, if at all, voltage difference

across the bird.

Current flow is actually just the flow of minute charged particles that are invisible to the naked eye.

These charged particles need an energy input in order for them to get transferred. The amount of energy needed to move the charges from one point

there must be a sizeable difference in voltage across the body.

While the potential difference between the wire and Earth may be thousands of volts, the potential difference between the bird's two feet is extremely tiny and so a very small current flows through the bird which can barely be

to another is measured in terms of the potential difference between the two points.

A bird perched on high-tension wires has both its feet placed firmly on the same wire, so the net potential difference from one end of the bird to the other is, for all purposes, next to nil.

In order for current to flow through the bird,

registered.

If the bird were to touch the wire and simultaneously another wire, it would receive a mild shock.

On the other hand if it were to touch the wire and some other object connected to the ground, it would receive a deadly shock, the greater the potential difference, the greater is the current flow.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 51

Poets’

TEEN TIME

Corner

How can I improve my grades in school? I find Happiness (Continued from last week) We all know of the panic that can be caused when a teacher announces that a test would be forthcoming in a few days. But, if you know how to plan ahead for such, a test need not make you over-anxious.

First of all, listen

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK See each day as a new start in making a fresh effort to do better

carefully and try to make out what kind of test it would be, either multiplechoice or essay-type, and the topics that would be covered.

You should also do this in the following days so as to get clues on what will appear in the test. Next, review your notes, textbook material and homework assignments relevant to what is expected to come.

A useful exercise is to get someone else, either an older brother or sister, a friend or a parent, to ask you questions on the material, and note the things in which you were

not too knowledgeable, so that you can revise these later. The night before the test, having made sure that you have gone over all the topics, you should try to relax and get a good night's sleep.

Having done your best, you may find that you still failed. This should not be a cause of too much disappointment, but a spur to find out in what areas you were lacking, and to try to work on these a little more.

One of the biggest fears connected with getting a poor grade is having to face parents.

When you have to do this

with a less that average mark, then you will need to accept any form of discipline they will impose on you.

Then your obligation will be to convince them that you will make up your mind to work harder in the future.

Once you commit yourself to do so, then that effort will almost certainly be reflected in better grades that will make you and your parents feel happy and satisfied.

This can also lead to them developing more confidence in you and giving you more freedom to indulge in other activities.

I find happiness in each little thing – Sunset gleaming on a kiskadee's wing, A spider patiently spinning its web, Flowers that keep a hummingbird fed, Colourful leaves on stout trees tall, The faithful friends that come or call, A warm shelter from the cooling rain, Patterns of drops on my window pane, The unique mosaic of a butterfly's wing, The joyous sounds of birds that sing, The antics of children and pets at play, Sunset at the close of a work-filled day, The taste of a fresh-baked loaf of bread, And a peaceful place to rest my head, The touch of a hand, a smile of love, All thankful blessings from our God above.

TELL IT TO UNCLE ROY DEAR UNCLE ROY, I am writing to tell you that many of us young people are really confused about the things that are going on in our country. This is mostly among the politicians who I think are only thinking about themselves, and so we feel that our country will not progress as a result of this constant quarrelling among them all the time.

Apart from the feeling that we

youths have that each of the political parties is only concerned about getting power, we cannot get any example from them about how to agree on what is to be done to develop our country.

This will surely affect us when the time comes for us to take over from them and manage the affairs of our nation. I think that if they were acting differently they would be educating us on how we should act when we

will be the ones to be a part of the political structure.

I hope that all of the politicians, whether in the Government or in the Opposition, will really think of our country first and try harder to come to agreement on what should be done to keep our country moving forward.

Yours truly, D. Lall, Better Hope

The number in each square is equal to the product of the numbers in the circles on either side. Fill in the missing numbers.

Solutions to last week’s puzzles FAIRY TALE WORD SCRAMBLES Answers: 1. visit, house, woods, ears, devour 2. dwarfs, ogre, witch, prince, fairies 3. greedy, poor, strong, sly, goodness 4. cottage, village, woods, tower, castle

Page 52

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Country Profile:

Tanzania REVEALED: OVERVIEW

Look what Virat has to say about Anushka I

n d i a batsman a d m i t s seeing actress Anushka Sharma.

India's top batsman Virat Kohli has asked the public to use common sense on his much talked about relationship with actress Anushka Sharma, saying they indeed are seeing each other and their privacy should be respected.

'It's out in the open' "It is out in the open (jo hai sabke saamne hai abhi). We are not hiding anything, we are not trying to hide anything. I don't want to hide anything.

But if you get repeatedly asked on the same thing and if it is made a matter of debate then both the individuals don't feel it is right," said Kohli at the launch of his fashion line yesterday.

Kohli said it was already obvious that he and Anushka were in a relationship and people should not be curious about them anymore.

"If you are seen together somewhere and still people ask 'is it confirmed?', then it is a matter of common sense. If you know then why ask the same

question, that is our basic logic behind it.

It is not something wrong apparently for people that we are doing.

"We will not personally like to speak about it because it is something very personal for us and that should be respected by the media and everyone else as well," added Kohli.

'Boxer Sarita was right' The 26-year old stand-in-skipper also batted for boxer Sarita Devi and felt that her decision to not accept the bronze medal at the Incheon Asian Games wasn't against the rule.

"I think a sportsman needs utmost support from his sporting association or sporting firm. I don't think her decision was against the rules."

Warring Divas: Is PC heading for a 'Kat' fight?

B

uzz from Arpita Khan's marriage celebrations is that star guests Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra did not see eye-to-eye at the wedding.

The two actresses made sure that they did not cross each other's paths. Kat prefered to hang out with filmmakers Karan Johar and Kabir Khan. Now it is well known that Kat and PeeCee do not really share any warm vibes.

Last year, when Priyanka was shooting for an item number in 'Shootout

in Wadala', Kat had dropped in on the sets to meet choreographer Ahmed Khan along with 'Bang Bang!' director Siddharth Anand.

Though they were under the same roof, neither Kat nor PeeCee bothered to acknowledge each other. Years ago, Piggy Chops was linked to Ranbir Kapoor during the making of 'Anjaana Anjaani'.

However, the link-up buzz died a natural death after the film's release.

Wonder what keeps them irked with each other until now?

Tanzania has been spared the internal strife that has blighted many African states.

Though it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with many of its people living below the World Bank poverty line, it has had some success in wooing donors and investors.

Tanzania assumed its present form in 1964 after a merger between the mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar, which had become independent the previous year. Unlike many African countries, whose potential wealth contrasted with their actual poverty, Tanzania had few exportable minerals and a primitive agricultural system.

In an attempt to remedy this, its first president, Julius Nyerere, issued the 1967 Arusha Declaration, which called for self-reliance through the creation of cooperative farm villages and the nationalisation of factories, plantations, banks and private companies.

But a decade later, despite financial and technical aid from the World Bank and sympathetic countries, this programme had completely failed due to inefficiency, corruption, resistance from peasants and the rise in the price of imported petroleum.

Tanzania's economic woes were compounded in 1979 and 1981 by a costly military intervention to overthrow President Idi Amin of Uganda.

After Mr Nyerere's resignation in 1985, his successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, attempted to raise productivity and attract foreign investment and loans by dismantling government control of the economy.

This policy continued under Benjamin Mkapa, who was elected president in 1995.

The economy grew, though at the price of painful fiscal reforms.

Tourism is an important revenue earner; Tanzania's attractions include Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, and wildliferich national parks such as the Serengeti.

Tanzania has become a target for poachers, and conservationists have warned that the current rate at which elephants are being killed for their ivory the entire population could die out by the end of the decade.

The political union between Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania has weathered more than four decades of change. Zanzibar has its own parliament and president .

FACTS Full name: United Republic of Tanzania Population: 47.6 million (UN, 2012) Capital: Dodoma (official), Dar es Salaam (commercial) Largest city: Dar es Salaam Area: 945,087 sq km (364,900 sq miles) Major languages: English, Swahili Major religions: Christianity, Islam Life expectancy: 58 years (men), 60 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 Tanzanian shilling = 100

management of the Tanzanian economy, but his political power base was undercut at the 2010 election when he won 61% of the vote on a low turnout of 42%, down from the 80% he won in 2005 on a turnout of 72%.

The main opposition Chadema party, whose candidate finished closest to Kikwete, rejected the 2010 outcome, alleging fraud.

Mr Kikwete served as foreign minister in 19952005. As chairman of the African Union he played a significant role in finding a solution to the post-election chaos in neighbouring Kenya in 2007.

He is a veteran of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has run Ta n z a n i a s i n c e independence, and has steered the country towards a free-market economy without totally rejecting the socialist principles of

President Jakaya Kikwete cents Main exports: Gold, sisal, cloves, coffee, cotton, cashew nuts, minerals, tobacco GNI per capita: US $540 (World Bank, 2011) Internet domain: .tz International dialling code: +255 LEADERS President: Jakaya Kikwete Jakaya Kikwete has been president since 2005 and is now serving his second term, having won re-election in October 2010.

He has won much international praise for his

founding President Julius Nyerere. Mr Kikwete, a former army officer, was born in October 1950 and is married with eight children.

His predecessor Benjamin Mkapa retired after 10 years in power. He was credited with being the driving force behind Ta n z a n i a ' s e x t e n s i v e economic liberalisation, which was well received by the IMF and World Bank.

Under his presidency inflation dropped, the economy grew and Tanzania's foreign debt was wiped. But then as now, government critics say most Ta n z a n i a n s r e m a i n impoverished.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 59

Fallen, retired soldiers honoured at Veterans’ Day wreath laying ceremony

A section of the gathering at the wreath laying service.

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) for its 49th anniversary honoured and paid homage to exarmy personnel and military officers with the observance of Veterans’ Day. The event was a wreath-laying ceremony on Friday, last, at the Veteran’s Monument, Base Camp Ayanganna in the Capital City. The observance saw interfaith prayers offered by representatives of the Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths

for those who served in World Wars One and Two. The event was graced by the various heads of the Discipline Forces and special invitees. Among those in attendance were Major General (Retired) Norman Mc Clean, Chief-of-Staff (Retired), Rear Admiral Gary Best, Major General (Retired) Joe Singh and members of the Veterans’ Legion.

The “Day for Veterans” is an annual event to honour all brave

and fallen soldiers.

Chief-of-Staff of the GDF, Brigadier Mark Phillips stated that he and his ranks have noted the sacrifices of the fallen, their hardship and inconvenience endured as they served to maintain law and order in Guyana and the preservation of territorial integrity.

“You before us have rendered exemplary service to our nation, safeguarding our national patrimony. Whether you served in

Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Brigadier Mark Phillips (right) presents a monetary donation to the President of the Guyana Veterans’ Legion, Retired Colonel George Gomes.

British Guiana Volunteer Force (BGVF) or Special Service Unit, you played an important role in our transition from colony to an independent state.”

“We recognise your service today, and today, like since 1965, the GDF will continue to function to earn the respect of the Guyanese society in defence, development, diplomacy and democracy,” the Chief-of-Staff remarked.

Stating that he is cognizant of

the challenges facing the veterans, Brigadier Phillips pledged to continue to focus on welfare issues.

He added that moves are apace to see a substantial dedication in the monthly payment by occupants of Joint Services home.

Brigadier Phillips also took the time out to congratulate the veterans for having one veteran body.

President of the Guyana Continued on page 64

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 61

The High Court of Guyana: A unique institution

By Sunita Samaroo The court system is intricately designed and sometimes can prove confusing, simply because it’s one that has developed over hundreds of years.

In Guyana today, each court has specific features and it’s often a mindboggling thing to know just what happens where.

A point to note is that there are several courts in Guyana: the Court of Appeal, Full Court, High Court, Magistrates’ Court and Land Court. While they are all a part of one body called the ‘Judiciary,’ there are specific distinctions.

My last feature focused on the realities of the Magistrates’ Court but this week I’ve endeavoured to offer a glimpse of just what happens inside the walls of the High Court.

Despite its name, the High Court is the third-highest court in the country and it stands, in power and responsibility, right above the Magistrates’ courts. There is one High Court but cases are heard by judges in each county at High Court buildings in Georgetown, Demerara; New Amsterdam, Berbice and Suddie, Essequibo.

Most proceedings in the High Court are held before a single judge and these judicial officers are assigned to both criminal and civil cases. While there is provision for twelve judges of the High Court, the overall responsibility lies with the Chief Justice.

What types of cases are brought before the High Court? Dressed in austere

black and red robes and sitting in an organised courtroom, Judges preside over serious criminal matters such as murder, attempted murder and rape among other things.

These cases are first called in the lower court where the Magistrates would have been tasked with determining the merits of charges for indictable offences by conducting preliminary inquiries/ committal proceedings. If enough is established, the case is sent for High Court trial.

Magistrates cannot rule in these cases. Passing judgment for these serious charges is the responsibility of a High Court Judge.

A feature very unique to the High Court is that criminal cases also engage the attention of a Jury - a body of people (typically twelve in number) sworn to give a verdict on the basis of evidence submitted to them in court. These civilians selected are said to be free of prejudice.

They are the ones who return a verdict; often times after hours and hours of

deliberation.

In the last feature, I explained that a matter being discharged should not be confused for an acquittal.

The reality is that a Judge has the power to dismiss a serious charge (attempted murder, murder).

All criminal proceedings in the High Court are brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The DPP has at all times the discretion to withdraw or reinstitute a charge. If reinstituted, it will have to start over from the Magistrates’ Court then proceed before a Judge.

Law suits are also filed in the High Court. If persons, companies or institutions feel they have been wronged and wish to make compensatory claims exceeding $50,000 – the matter is heard by a Judge.

This Court is also tasked with handling custody and adoption of children, divorce, injunctions, applications for probate (first step in the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person, resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person’s property under a will) and letters of

administration as well as the passing of transports to land and mortgages.

To claim the “big dollars” for slander, trespass or injuries received in a car accident, a writ of summons must be filed in the Registry of the Supreme Court. It is then served by a Court Marshal on the person the claim is made against.

Section 20 of ‘The Law and You,’ a leaflet published by the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers in 2003 says that it is advisable to have an attorney-at-law represent you in the High Court where rules of evidence and procedure have to be followed strictly.

The booklet was edited by Attorneys-at-Law Rosemary Benjamin, Rose Cadogan, Sandra Bart and sitting Madam Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire.

During court proceedings, a Judge is respectfully addressed as “Your Honour” while the Prosecutor (the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law) as “Sir” or “Miss.”

Prosecutors in the High Court for criminal cases are

normally Attorney-at-Laws attached to the DPP Chambers.

An important point to remember is that the rule of

dress in any Court is “decency.” The court is a serious place and your style of dress should always exhibit your respect for it.

Page 62

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

IT DOESN’T TAKE A SCIENTIST TO SOLVE GUYANA’S FLOODING PROBLEMS

By Ralph Seeram On my recent visit to Guyana I was “hanging” out with my friends in New Amsterdam at a “rum shop”.

We had a roadside view, thanks to an extension of the premises to the road. We were sitting over a main concrete drain which was about one foot deep.

I found it odd; nostalgia stepped in. You see, I grew up in the area, and I recalled the concrete drain was four to five feet deep back then.

I am seeing visions of old Uncle Dabit with his long broom sweeping that very gutter in that very spot. Uncle Dabit was part of a team that was dedicated to cleaning the drains, gutter and trenches in New Amsterdam back when I was a “small boy”.

In those days there was no flooding in New Amsterdam or the type of flooding Georgetown and the Coast have been experiencing this week.

Social media especially

were “flooded” pardon the pun with pictures of a flooded Georgetown, the water was not discriminating residences from business. All were affected.

The consensus seemed to be “rain set up”, Georgetown flood.

There is enough blame to go around, everybody pointing their fingers at each other but themselves.

So who’s to blame? It’s the government, the municipality and the residents themselves.

The government needs not to create any new infrastructure to solve this problem. The infrastructure is already there, problem is they have been neglected for decades, by the PNC and now the PPP government.

The solution is so simple; clean the drains, gutters and canals; it is simple as that. We all know Guyana is below sea level, so the water does not drain in the rivers or ocean 24 hours a day. That is where the canals and drains and gutters come in. You see people think

Bridge linking Guyana, Suriname to be placed ...

From page 10 areas.

The idea for the bridge was developed after a visit by Surinamese President, Desi Bouterse, in September 2010.

Earlier this year, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, disclosed that the money for the bridge

is to be funded by the Chinese, through an arrangement with Suriname.

She said that the money would be coming from the US$3B in loans to 10 Caribbean nations, including Guyana, that was announced

by Chinese President, Xi Jinping, some time back.

of the canals, gutters and drains as only to drain water.

What is lost on people is that they serve a double purpose, it’s not only to drain water but they also serve as a reservoir, a catch basin if you will.

When it rains, the water accumulates in them until the tide is low for the kokers and sluices to open for water to drain in the ocean or rivers.

But what has happened over the years, the trenches, canals and drains have been neglected, silted or blocked up completely.

So I fail to see why people are surprised that the city is flooded. Residents who throw their garbage in them also add to the problem.

Recently when I was in Georgetown, I was in the Kitty area, where some trenches which serve as main drainage were overrun with thick grass and garbage. I passed by the Kitty Market and Police station and was sick to my stomach, literally sick. I felt like throwing up. The drains were blocked, filled with stagnant and filthy blackish water.

Don’t let me tell you about

the stench; it was unbearable.

It’s a disease outbreak waiting to happen. The businesses in that area can do much to help tidy the area. If I was a consumer in Guyana I would not go shopping in that area.

The businessmen in that area, just like most businessmen around the country, feel they have no social responsibility to keep their environment clean, healthy and attractive.

They feel like it’s only the Government’s responsibility to keep the drains clear. If the government agencies make a concerted and sustained effort to clean all trenches and drains on a proactive basis, this problem can easily be solved. It is as easy as that.

But what I find is that Government agencies are more reactive rather than proactive.

Last year I attended a wedding. The wedding party had to leave Kitty to go LBI, East Coast Demerara. Driving along the road along the seawall I could see the homes on the right under about two

feet of water. On the way back the road was blocked and traffic was diverted to the Railway Embankment. I could not help seeing several excavators clearing the canals for the water to drain faster.

So what was wrong with this picture? Here is the government reacting to situation, if the authorities had cleared those canals on a steady basis there would have been no flooding. That is what I am talking about being proactive.

Everything helps. If residents take pride in cleaning their environment keep the drains in front of their yards clean, dispose of their garbage properly, the drains will not be clogged.

One of the problems is when there is a serious flood it is not the government that suffers, not the government that loses. It is the residents and the business community that suffer.

The older folks of Georgetown will tell you that Georgetown never flooded “when rain set up”. So why is it being flooded now?

Sometimes population growth has an impact on infrastructure such as drainage. We cannot make that argument in this situation, as Guyana’s population has remained stagnant at around 750,000 people since “I was a small boy”.

Here in Florida which experiences heavy rainfall, they have a simple solution.

Most communities have retention ponds and some of these are like lakes.

So when there is a heavy downpour these reservoirs collect all the excess water and drain later.

The canals, trenches and drains are Guyana’s reservoirs. If they are silted, over run with grass and garbage, where do you expect the excess water to drain? Into yards and businesses of course. One can easily come to the conclusion that the drainage system was better a hundred years ago than it is in Guyana today.

Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; ralph35@hotmail.com and Facebook.

Student critical after SUV collides with minibus Six minibus passengers, including a female student of St. Stanislaus College, were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Friday night. The minibus in which they were traveling, toppled following a collision with a sports utility vehicle at the junction of Garnett and Middleton Streets, Georgetown.

According to the minibus driver, 31-year-old Michael Edghill, the accident occurred around 10:30 hours, while he was travelling west on Garnett Street approaching Middleton Street, with 10 passengers in his bus.

Edghill, who insisted he had the “right of way”, claimed that the female driver of a Toyota Rav 4 (PPP 396), did not decelerate at the junction of the streets as she was required to do by law.

The route 48 bus driver alleged that the woman was speeding, when she slammed into the “back wheel” of his minibus, as he was crossing over Middleton Street.

Edghill said that the impact caused his bus to topple and sent his passengers “flying through the windows”.

Ranks from the Kitty Police Station responded immediately to the scene and took the injured victims to the GPHC in a police vehicle.

All the passengers sustained minor injuries

except 14-year-old Emaane Forester, who lost four of her teeth and sustained several abrasions about her body.

The student, of 21 Supply Village, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was traveling with her mother, Gail Forrester, when the collision occurred.

Her mother is demanding compensation from the driver of the Toyota RAV 4 who is currently in police custody assisting with investigations.

The injured Emaane Forrester.

Mini-bus after toppling several times.

Sunday November 23, 2014

FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754.

One 9FT Slate Pool table Coin Operated. Call: 6106322 Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943 Plants! Plants! A variety of Orchids, Roses, Also indoor & outdoor, etc – Call:6671759, 652-8322

Kaieteur News

SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. – CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 CAR RENTAL DOLLY’S CAR RENTAL CALL: 225-7126/ 2263693 DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM/ WWW.DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL.COM PROGRESSIVE AUTO RENTAL: CARS & SUV FOR RENTAL- $4,000 & UP PER DAY- CALL: 643-5122, 2193900, EMAIL: PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM Aidan’s Car & Pickup rental, cheap rate, low security - Tel: 698-7807

D6R Caterpillar Bulldozer, D8K Caterpillar Bulldozer, Price to go – Call: 611-4775 New XBOX 360 4GB with controller - $60,000, online orders for all your cell phones & accessories – Call: 6752239/ BBM 7FF1557E 1 Model M Bush Truck with Winch & dump, 1 Honda ATV 4-wheel bike used only for prospecting, 250 hours, excellent condition.

Contact: 672-4536 Sheep for sale - Call: 6956139 XBOX360 250GB Hard drive, 7 games, 2 controllers and intercooler price - $75,000, concrete plant pots from $1200- Contact: 642-9901 Pools table cloth, balls, pocket cuestick, rubber, coinshute tips, chalk springs, chalk holder, coins– Call: 669-9927 Canon Image Runner 400/ 330S, working condition and for parts – Call: 624-7155 One 33FT Flat Baton 400LB ‘5 Inch’ cat guts seine, one Tahoma Engine – Call:2207655, 220-0410, 695-9860 Bedford Truck Model M 4X4, 2 Perkins engine, one 6, one 4 Cylinder, fully bead, Owner leaving country Call: 693-2237 Wolf power 7500E, Generator, One Tohatsu everrun , outboard engine 18HP. Owner leaving country Call: 693-2237 Peavey Amplifier (PV1200), Cerwin Vega Bass Bin, 2 Crest Audio Power amplifiers – Tel: 685-9189 3" Honda water pump – 5.5HP Brand New, one Garmin GPS map. Owner leaving country – Call: 6932237 Hacked PS3 with 40 top games and more - Call: 6519620

LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel: 644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997 PEN PAL Indian Male from USA is seeking female age 30/33 with good personality. Call:6653246 (no texting)

FOR SALE One 14 inch dredge / draga Call: 663-0742 One 1200lbs ice machine $200,000 negotiable – Call: 231-0655, 683-8734 One desktop computer for sales- comes with everything from backup battery to printer- Call: 669-1646

Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call Sabita: 225-6496, 662-6045 Guyana Passport & Visa Forms Application, USA, Canada and England. Tel: 626-7040; 265-4535.

Repairs & spare, fridge, freezer, A/C, washers, stoves.

Contact Nick: 683-1312, 6273206 Repairs, sales & spares air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & stoves.

Ultra Cool, call: 225-9032, 647-2943 Grooming Palace Barber Shop & Salon, excellent, prestige & refine haircuts & designs, Royal Castle Building South - Tel: 6018045, 218-0116 Repairs to refrigerators gas stoves washing machine, A/ C units – Call Lindon: 6411086, 694-2202, 227-8907 Tera Tech: Computer repairs, cell phone unlocking and accessories, website development, 21 First Street Alberttown. Call: 677-9938, 673-6566 FOR LOW COST: REPAIRS TO FRIDGE, FREEZER, A/ C UNIT, MICROWAVES, TV & WASHING MACHINE CALL: 629-4946 OR 2254822 BrianMoe@642-3543; Computer Technician; FB:Brian.Moe.165; Home and office visits at your comfort!!

Start an Internet café at home, work or in the interior- Call: 592-676-7592 For garden design and landscaping services – Call Jade Gardens on 603-5689 We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer, dryer Call Omar:2310655,683-8734

Empty 50 Gallon Steel drum for sale, going cheap – Call: 628-1756, 228-5655 9 weeks German shepherd pups – Contact: 654-6355 Complete music systems with RCS speakers & QSE AmpsCall:699-5790

EDUCATIONAL

DBX Drive Rack, Pioneer (CD Player), CDJ 2000 – Tel: 685-9189 Fluffy Puppies, Tibetan Terriers – Call:662-4694

Earn a Certificate in Cosmetology or nails alone.

Tel:225-5360, 687-7566, 6257844 VEHICLE FOR SALE

Excellent quality used salon equipment & AC units.

Owner leaving country. Call: 664-5401.

2002 Toyota Premio $2.450M, 2003 Toyota Spacio (new model) $2.150M – Tel:681-7117, 227-5950 Series: PRR 9216, White Premio. Call: 265-3053, 6273139

Imported German Shepherd and Huskies pure bred pups.

Call: 664-5401.

WANTED Graphic Artiste @ Trophy Stall (Bourda Market).

1 Experienced cook (Interior Restaurant); Ages 30-45, 1 Female Bartender for Interior Location; Ages 20-30.

Attractive Salary! Tel:6812997, 680-1323 Labourers to work at Hack’s Hallow Block Factory, preferably from E.B.D - Contact: 226-8766 or 265-7385 between 8:00am & 4:00pm We buy land in Parfait Harmonie, Schoonord, Eccles, Uitvlugt, Providence, Herstelling, Cornelia Ida & Nonpareil – Call: 675-7292, 218-5591 Ladies to do cleaning, canter drivers - $22,000, porter to work on W.C.D – Call: 6848231, 622-9341 1 Female to work in snackette & bar , must know to cook, age 20-35yrs – Tel:647-7432, 223-5798 Live in waitress to work in Liquor Restaurant – Call:6863116 Cook, waitress to work at New Bar in Agriculture Road Call: 612-2522 Male/female kitchen attendant, roti/pastry cooks @ Hack’s Halaal Restaurant, Commerce Street.

Workers to plant pineapples on highway farm – Phone: 639-5577 One female domestic, must be able to wash, press, & clean - Call: 600-2745 Wallaba squares to buyContact: 610-2335, 261-3645 between 8am-5pm Live in domestic in Peter’s Hall, 1 week on; 1 week off, 40years plus, starting $13,000. Call:675-0767 Attractive live in waitressCall: 327-0252/674-4665 Hairdresser, nail technician and one barber @ Grove Time Square Mall – Call: 6694390, 216-3174 Arc/Acetylene Welder, experienced in construction and fabrication. Live in driver & wife. Call: 227-1830 HEALTH Hazel Herbal Store for genuine herbal supplements.

Iridology Evaluations on Monday December 8th 2014.

Call: 226-9136 ACCOMODATION SIGNATURE INN: Luxury Suites & Apartments. Free Wi-Fi & Breakfast; AC & Self Contained Rooms @ 83 Laluni Street Queenstown.

Tel: 592-226-2145 Harmony Inn: Furnished apartments (A/C, Hot & Cold, refrigeration, microwave, etc) $5,000-$8,000. Your luxury hide away. Tel: 668-0306, 6947817

Page 63

SALON Make Up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals, Black Opal and Sacha cosmetics. Call: 647-1773/660-5257 Glamazon Beauty Salon and Cosmetology School, Located 28 Sheriff Street C/ Ville, Visit us or Call for an appointment. Tel:225-5360, 687-7566, 625-7844

FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 GT TOOL RENTALS: COMPACTOR; CHIPPING HAMMER RANSOM & FLOOR SANDER, (SALE) AND MORE, SAWS & DRILLS -$10,000 - CALL: 675-0767, 667-2535 Five bedrooms house, 107 Lamaha Gardens & Large Parking; AC Rooms Hot & Cold, Purified Water System Call: 661-8908, 335-3590 4 Bedrooms house- AC, Security camera, GEB alarm, phone, 2 vehicle parking, etc @ Friendship, E.B.D. Call: 674-6363 Fully furnished apartment with TV, Air- Condition, hot & cold, cable in South - Call: 689-5877 Two bedroom apartment at Stewartville West Coast Demerara, 1 Business place at Stewartville opposite Primary & Secondary School Call: 613-5261 Hair station to rent behind Bourda Post Office opposite The Net Library Contact: 676-4316, 602-0333, 225-4665 One top flat @ Enmore $35,000 monthly – Call: 6771495 Three bedrooms house to rent in Diamond Housing Scheme, E.B.D – Call: 6679499

PROPERTY FOR SALE 7 Acres with house @ Canal No.2 Polder -$12.5M – Call: 655-2860, 686-4994, 225-3070 2 STORIED 3 BEDROOMS CONCRETE & WOODEN PROPERTY ON LARGE LAND 300FTX40FT, IN BERBICE, NEAR CANJE BRIDGE. CALL MAX: 6098132, 672-8569

VEHICLE FOR SALE Toyota Prado, Price$5.5M Neg. Call: 643-2403 Nissan Titan for sale, immaculate condition, must see serious enquiries only.

Call 641-4556 (Anytime after 4:00pm) 2005 Honda Airwave, Mint Condition - $2.6M negotiable Call: 592-6851231, 592-670-2343 2003 Toyota Premio - $2.3M, New Model Spacio $2.150M, fully loaded, unregistered. Call: 617-2891 We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30 seater buses; Extra Cab pickups; 2006 Tacoma- Call: 680-3154 AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms- Call: 680-3154 Blowout Sale!

– Unregistered 2007 Madza Axela - $2,350,000 – Crystal Lights, Alarm, Steering Wheel Audio Control . Call: 643-6565, 226-9931 Blow Out Sale!!!

Unregistered Toyota IST $2,250,000- Bodykit, TV, Spoiler, Fogs, Alloy Wheels, Crystal Lights & Alarm – Call: 643-6565, 226-9931 1 AT170, Small Canter Truck – Call:664-5444, 601-4929 Minibus (pitbull) sliding glass - $15,000- Contact:6280909 Toyota 212 Carina, Toyota Vigo Pick-up, Nissan Pathfinder Jeep, excellent condition, prices negotiable.

Call: 264-3732, 225-8427, 6097766 1-Honda-600RR, Toyota Raum, Rav4, AT212, AT192, EP71 Starlet, Fun cargo, Tacoma 2007- Call: 644-5096, 697-1453 Toyota Hilux Enclose Type like Pathfinder looking for $1.5Milion – Call: 679-3681 Green Toyota Corona AT170, 5 Seating Capacity – Call: 666-7037, 223-6098, 602-4536 Red Toyota AE100 5 Seating capacity (leather) good condition – Call: 666-7037, 223-6098, 602-4538 Unregistered Spacio 2004, camera, rims, body kit, Fielder 2003, black interior, fully loaded. Call: 617-5536 PRR IST, Mags Body Kit, Music, Crystal HID lights, Chrome Kit - $1.7M - Call: 6177113 Mitsubishi Lancer, Body kit, Fog Lamps, music & spoiler - $750,000 – Call: 647-0271 1RZ Minibus - $800,000 negotiable, BKK Series – Call: 682-6294, 609-7205 (Continued page 64)

Page 64

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Macorp invests $100M in Port Kaituma (From page 63)

VACANCY

LAND FOR SALE

Carpenters & Welders to work in Coverden E.B.D. Apply in person to Alabama Trading, Georgetown Ferry Stelling.

ECCLES: Build your own home in a modernize gated community, lot size 60X100 - $7.5M – Call: 227-2913, Cell: 689-3033

Work from home;earn $5,000- $20,000 daily- Contact: 233-6517, 622 1957,www. jobfairworld wide.com F o r o n e m a l e c l e a n e r, apply to Alabama Trading, G/town Ferry Stelling Stabroek.

IT Technician to install outdoor antenna, must have driver’s licence. Send application to jobs@awngy.com.

Live in House Keeper 3545yrs, Long term employment. Call: 697-8797.

Nail Technician, barber, hairdresser. Tel:225-5360, 687-7566, 625-7844 CANTER DRIVER/ SALESMAN and Factory Assistant living on E.B.D, free accommodation also available. 266 4427 One Trainee refrigeration technician – Call: 231-0655, 683-8734 Sales girls & boys @ Avinash & Ravina’s Stores – Call:2263361, 227-7828 TAXI SERVICES City Taxi Service since (1968), 8 Vlissengen Road, Newtown -24hrs service – Call: 225-8600, 226-1088, 2271101, 226-7150 Eddie’s Taxi Service, 6 Vlissengen Road, Newtown.

Call: 226-0606, 225-1513

ECCLES: Commercial Lots - $14M – Call: 227-2913, Cell:689-3033 Parika (Butcher Shop Street) – One (1) Lot 38' X 150' $ 7m - Contact 650-0402 - for serious inquiries Blankenburg @ The Back Of Gas Station (3) Lots @ 75' X 76' Each. $20M for all 3 Lots.

(1) Lot for $10m - Contact 650-0402 Blankenburg Public Road, W.C.D, 38X150, 37X150$16M Each. Call: 666-3619 Prime High Income land (110ftX50ft) Parfaite Harmonie. Main Road Corner lot suitable for business $3.5M - Call: 675-7292 Grove with foundation $2.6M, Providence -$5M, Herstelling (110ftX50ft) $5M, Parfaite Harmonie (110ftX50ft), Business Spot - $3.5M – Call:677-7095 1500 ACRES TRANSPORTED LAND IN REGION 6 @ No19 Corentyne Highway, Cane & Rice Cultivation, & Fish Ponds Etc. Call: 694-0079 Three Acres transported house lots and 1 Acre rice land @ Golden Grove W.C.Berbice – Call: 603-2095

PROPERTY FOR SALE Diamond Section “A”, 274 Great Diamond, E.B.D, 56’ by 40’ building on 111’ by 60’ land- $17.5 Million- Call: 2332546, 233-5859 TO LET Barber Stations & Hair Stations for hairdressers, in lucrative & friendly environment. Call: 601-8045 Alberttown - $60,000 $70,000, Greenfield Park $US1300, BB Eccles - $55,000 -$65,000 – Call Diana: 2272256, 626-9382.

5th Street Alberttown: Three bedroom house, bottom for business, air conditioned & surveillance - $1200US. Call: 231-7805, 618-7483 Two bedroom furnished house in Crane Housing Scheme W.C.D. Call: 671-6855

3 bedrooms upstairs & 3 bedrooms downstairs, Thomas Street Kitty, Georgetown – Tel: 680-7047 Six acres prime roadside land and metal workshop in Corriverton, can be sold with or without workshop. Call: 626-6245 House & Land @ Cemetery Rd. Helena No.1 Mahaica E.C.D. Land (65FTX150FT) - $13M- Tel:689-0820, 6743902 1-3 Bedrooms flat house with full bath at Recht- Door – Zee, Parfaite Harmonie W.B.D – Serious enquiries only – Call: 643-4740

Machinery Corporation of Guyana Limited (Macorp), the sole authorised dealer for Caterpillar Machinery celebrated its anniversary of keeping the operations of miners running in Port Kaituma yesterday.

Macorp provides sustainable products such as: engines, components, services and solutions for a total life cycle value.

According to a press release sent by Macorp, 12 months ago, the company launched the $100 million investment, to the further development of the local mining sector, as well as providing advice

and solutions that add value for users of its equipment.

“If you want mining to stay, and you want to be efficient, you must also ensure that it is done in accordance with our laws, our regulations, and also with good mining practices so an integrated solution must run the entire gamut concerned and connected with responsible mining,” was Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud’s challenge to Macorp a year ago.

Macorp thanked the customers in Port Kaituma and promised to continue

to provide the required products and social support to an increasing clientele and developing communities; to ensure that they are successful in their business and everyday life.

According to the release, customers are enjoying less downtime in the mines and easier and more affordable access to spares and the many integrated solutions offered under their preventative maintenance scheme which lends to the reduction of harmful mining practices.

The core business in Port Kaituma is Product Support.

Govt. has taken major interventions to...

From page 8 to ensure that mining lands are easily accessible.”

Efforts are also being made to implement road monitoring checkpoints to ensure that roads are not used indiscriminately in times of heavy rainfall since this result in the deterioration of the roads.

“The list of roads and bridges submitted by GGDMA for rehabilitation and repairs in 2014 was included into GGMC’s Work Plan for 2014 and work ongoing or completed for those roads/bridges. This is in addition to other roads and bridges that the commission is currently rehabilitating or funding.”

Also introduced are the availability of new areas for mining and a reduction in royalty and property rental

rates.

In the area of work permits, which miners were complaining took too long, the Ministry said that it is working with GGMC and in tandem with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and GGDMA to streamline the process for applications for work permits.

“Measures were instituted to ensure that the process is expeditious and as transparent as possible so as to ensure that mining operations are not constrained by workers not having the requisite documentation.”

“Given the interventions of the Ministry, the application and granting process for work permits was reviewed and the duration for completion was reduced. In addition, as was

Electrician shot to the neck An electrician is currently nursing a gunshot wound to his neck at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), after he was shot at a Kitty residence last Friday afternoon.

The circumstances under which Devon Howell was wounded are unclear.

In a release the police said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident that occurred at about 17:30h on November 21, 2014, in a home at Dandrade Street, Kitty, during which Devon Howell, 20, of Da Silva Street, Kitty, was shot and injured to his neck.

Kaieteur News

understands that so far, police have not been able to confirm if Howell was also robbed during the incident.

According to the wounded man’s mother, Allison Howell, she was “at work” when the incident occurred.

She said that she received a phone call from her mother, Desiree Howell, who informed her that “Devon was shot and is at the hospital.”

The tearful mother noted that she received information that her son was shot at a residence in D’Andrade Street, where he usually “plays Nintendo with his friends”.

‘B’ Division Police unveil...

From page 14 He stated that they will up the ante against persons selling and lighting squibs and bombs, noise nuisance and road rage.

The commander and his senior ranks, although working under severe constraints including vehicular and staff shortage have been credited with the reduction of crime in the Division. He also shared the telephone numbers of all the senior ranks in the Division. He is urging residents to report anything untoward.

recommended by the GGDMA the effective dates of the Work Permits were revised to be the date when it was granted and not the date of application.”

There has also been an increase in security in the mining areas in light of reports with law officials.

The Ministry said it was instrumental in arranging meetings with the police to expedite the firearm applications for bona fide miners.

Training has also played a major part in the interventions.

“The Mining School continues to train persons in entry level skills for the mining sector and this increases the pool of human resources available for miners. A thriving and vibrant mining sector is the goal of the Government and all miners/stakeholders.

“In this regard, the Government of Guyana remains steadfast and reiterates the commitment of the Ministry and GGMC to working in partnership with GGDMA and all stakeholders in dealing with challenges of the industry.”

Fallen, retired soldiers...

From page 59 Veterans’ Legion, Retired Colonel George Gomes, encouraged new veterans to join the veterans’ legion where their focus is to maintain the bond that existed during their service in the Force.

“We look forward to coming to Camp Ayanganna on Veterans’ Day. This is our homecoming and just passing through the gates and coming in is a very good feeling.”

“Military service cannot be compared to teachers, nurses or with the civil servants because it’s where you step forward and you are prepared to put your life on the line for your country,” he said. There is a need for a well staffed and equipped National Veterans Secretariat, he added.

The Legion President said that they faced a problem attracting soldiers who would have left the army over the last five or six years. “For some reason, the youngsters now look at the organisation and say ‘it’s for old, grayhaired people.’”

He urged the Chief-ofStaff to include veterans in training programmes and courses. He suggested that the veterans be invited to interact and let them know ”soldiers are not friends for a day or two, soldiers are people who are bonded for life, as a matter of fact our motto is ‘remembering our service, maintaining the bond’.”

“When you join the army you live in a bunk room. Your comrades around you, you see them and get to know them more than your family.

It’s even more bonding when you go to interior locations and have to spend the minimum of thirty-two months.”

“Those soldiers in that location become closer to you than your brother and other family members. That’s why we want to ensure that the bond is maintained. We want the new veterans to be encouraged to join the Guyana Veteran Legion. We have a home there for them when they leave the army,” Gomes said.

During the ceremony, $1 million was donated by serving soldiers to the GDF to assist the veterans’ legion.

This money is said to have been accumulated from all GDF members who donated one day’s pay.

Wreaths, decorated with poppies, were laid by the Chief-of-Staff and the retired Colonel Gomes on the Veterans’ Monument. The memorial was commissioned on the occasion of the army’s 40th anniversary.

It had been constructed by the Veterans Association which recognised that there was already a monument for fallen soldiers but thought it fitting to have one for local soldiers. The words “For our fallen heroes and those who have served,” are inscribed there.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 65

Page 66

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Colombia’s Santos says FARC release of hostages will be next week BOGOTA (Reuters) Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he hoped next week to secure the release of five captives, including an army general, held by Marxist FARC rebels, a move that will allow stalled peace talks to continue.

In a message from his Twitter account yesterday, Santos said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had provided the coordinates to the pick up zone to free the hostages and he would facilitate the operation in coming days.

He did not name the captives or say whether they would be freed all at once or on different days, but the FARC last Sunday seized army General Ruben Dario Alzate and two people traveling with him in the Pacific coastal area of Choco.

A week earlier two soldiers were taken hostage in eastern

Arauca department.

After a tense few days, the FARC on Wednesday promised to release all five captives in a bid to renew peace talks halted abruptly by Santos following the abductions.“The coordinates have been received. I am giving instructions to facilitate the liberation for next week,” Santos said in the Tweet, probably referring to an order that military activity in the areas is halted to allow the FARC to move securely.

The suspension of negotiations - taking place in Havana - is the most serious setback to the peace efforts after two years of discussions that have resulted in partial accords on three out of five agenda items.

Even while security has improved massively over the last decade or so, talks have been taking place amid continued conflict and attacks on civilian and military

targets continue, as well as offensives against economic infrastructure.

General Alzate, a lawyer and a soldier were taken hostage by a FARC patrol as they left a boat in the poor and crime-ridden region of Choco. Santos immediately suspended talks until the rebels freed them.

Alzate is the highestranking military captive ever taken by the FARC. The rebels’ decision to release the captives may counter critics of the peace process who say the FARC is not serious about ending Latin America’s longestrunning war, which has killed more than 200,000 people since it began in 1964.

The FARC says it has stopped kidnapping for ransom but maintains military personnel are fair targets in the absence of a ceasefire.

Alzate was considered a prisoner of war.

PM PREPARES TO ACT - Cabinet to meet on fate of NHT board tomorrow The Gleaner - The controversy bedeviling the Government following more than two weeks of intense national debate on the purchase of the Outameni property in Trelawny refuses to go away, with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller preparing to take action on the composition of the National Housing Trust (NHT) board after she meets with Cabinet tomorrow.

An announcement is expected to be made after the meeting, addressing the future of the Trust’s board of directors.

A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister Friday said Simpson Miller acknowledged that the current public debate surrounding the Outameni

purchase has resulted in the resignation of some board members.

Two members of the board - Kavan Gayle, an opposition senator and trade unionist, and fellow trade unionist Helene Davis White resigned last week.

It is understood that another board member, Brenda Cuthbert, resigned Friday.

With the resignation of Cuthbert, the board does not have the minimum nine members required to operate.

According to the prime minister, the resignations have implications for the continuation of the work of the board in giving oversight to the NHT in carrying out its functions.

Simpson Miller also said

Ex-Virgin Islands official convicted of corruption CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) — A federal jury has found the former executive director of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ legislature guilty of accepting bribes and of extortion.

Louis Willis was accused of accepting bribes including $13,000 in cash and checks in exchange for securing more than $350,000 worth of contracts. He served as the

legislature’s executive director from 2009 to 2012.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Friday that his responsibilities included overseeing renovation of the legislature building and awarding contracts related to the project.

The 56-year-old Wills is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13.

Portia Simpson Miller the Government would continue to ensure that the NHT fulfils its mandate of increasing and improving the existing supply of housing, promoting housing projects, creating affordable housing solutions for low-income contributors, as well as prudently administering and investing the monies of the Trust.

The opposition Jamaica Labour Party has called for the resignation or sacking of the Easton Douglas-chaired NHT board.

In responses to calls from several private-sector groups to investigate the deal, Auditor General Pamela Monroe-Ellis sent her team of auditors to conduct a probe into the purchase of the Orange Grove property in Trelawny for $180 million.

The Office of the Contractor General has also been asked to carry out its own probe.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

‘Moment of truth’ nears in Iran nuclear talks Vienna (AFP) - Iran and world powers still appeared a long way off from a nuclear deal late Saturday with US Secretary of State John Kerry and officials on both sides warning of major gaps two days before a deadline.

“We’re working hard,” Kerry said in Vienna, “and we hope we’re making careful progress, but we have big gaps, we still have some serious gaps, which we’re working to close.”

Kerry, who on Friday postponed a trip to Paris to remain in Vienna, met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday afternoon, their fourth meeting in three days.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the Austrian capital since Saturday midday, called this final weekend of talks, after months of negotiations, a “moment of truth”.

At stake is a historic deal in which Iran would curb its nuclear activities in exchange for broad relief from years of heavy international economic sanctions.

It could end a 12-year standoff that has even raised the prospect of Israeli military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Kerry spoke to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday by phone.

“The gap remains big...

There now needs to be a political decision,” an Iranian source told AFP on condition of anonymity, putting the onus on the world powers to make concessions.

A European source in the talks said Saturday there has been “no significant progress” and “the chances of getting a deal are pretty reduced”.

“In order to get a deal the Iranians will have to budge in a rather substantial manner,” he said. Discussions about an extension could begin as early as Sunday, he said.

- Extension Many experts believe that the deadline may be extended, as happened with an earlier cut-off point of July 20, but officials insist that this is not on the table — yet.

However a senior US official said late Saturday that the aim remained getting a deal by Monday night “but we are discussing both internally and with our partners a range of options”.

The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany have been locked in talks with Iran since February to turn an interim accord reached a year ago into a lasting agreement by

November 24.

Such a deal is aimed at easing fears that Tehran will develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities.

The Islamic Republic hotly denies such an aim and insists its programme is entirely peaceful.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius also joined the talks on Friday. Both have since left but were expected to return.

It was unclear when or whether Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a key player in the talks, might also arrive. Earlier this week the head of the Russian delegation said Lavrov would come only if there was serious progress. Lavrov said from Moscow on Friday that “all the elements are already on the table” for a deal and that all that was missing was “political will”.

Kerry on Friday “updated” Lavrov by phone.

Kerry has also talked with the foreign ministers of several Gulf states and with those of Turkey and Canada, aides

said.

Some areas under discussion appear provisionally settled in what would be a highly complex deal that would run for many years, even decades.

But two key issues remain: enrichment — a process that renders uranium suitable for peaceful uses but also, at high purities, for a weapon; and the pace of the lifting of sanctions.

Iran wants to massively ramp up the number of enrichment centrifuges — in order, it says, to make fuel for a fleet of future reactors — while the West wants them dramatically reduced.

“The remaining issues are tough and an agreement will require difficult political concessions from both sides,” Arms Control Association analyst Kelsey Davenport told AFP. “Even though progress is slow, it is movement in the right direction. The parties may not get there by midnight on Monday, and a short extension may be required to make it over the final hurdles,” she said.

WHO declares end of separate Ebola outbreak in Congo

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Friday that an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo was over after no people showed symptoms for two incubation periods since the last case.

The outbreak, the seventh in the former Zaire since the virus was identified there in 1976, was separate from the one spreading in West Africa, where more than 5,400 people have died.

There were 49 deaths out of 66 people infected in the remote northwestern Equateur province during the threemonth outbreak, Congolese authorities said last week. A WHO spokesman confirmed the figures.

Two maximum incubation periods of 21 days each must pass with no new cases being detected before the United Nations health agency can declare that an outbreak is finished.

Page 67

Page 68

Kaieteur News

Falling gold prices…

Govt. has taken major interventions to reduce impact - Ministry Several measures are in place to help gold miners cushion the impact of falling prices.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Four months later, Guyana awaits Sun and Sand Hotel - firm concentrating on mining

Nothing doing: There was no sun and definitely not much evidence of sand yesterday at the Liliendaal site of the proposed US$54M Indian-owned hotel.

Following a worrying drop of gold prices on the international market, Government says it has intervened with a series of measures aimed at reducing the impact.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment yesterday, the gold mining sector of our economy has been the catalyst for economic growth and has improved the economic well-being of citizens of Guyana.

“This has been achieved because of the consistently rising levels of gold declaration over the last decade. The importance of the gold mining sector to our economy cannot be over emphasized since gold has been the largest earner of foreign revenue for the last seven years.

“It is in this light that given the low gold prices on the international markets and the resulting impact on the mining operations and the mining sector, the Government of Guyana (GoG), through the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE) and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), engaged the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA) and identified areas of concern and implemented measures aimed at ensuring that the sector remains viable.”

Among some of the interventions were duty free concessions. “Small and Medium Scale operations benefit from duty free access to All Terrain Vehicles (ATV), excavators, bulldozers and other machinery used in the mining industry. These waivers on duty are available to new entrants to the sector and for current miners based on production levels.”

VEHICLE CONCESSIONS Another concession is that of double-cab pickups.

“Government recently approved the granting of waivers for double-cab pickups to miners based on their production levels which was used to determine the various categories and associated waivers that would apply.”

Assistance is also coming in concessions for spares and equipment.

“A list of 19 suppliers of mining equipment and spares was approved for tax waivers on the importation of said equipment. This will reduce the cost of spares and critical suppliers for miners, in addition to the items that are currently imported duty free, such as pumps, flexes, and matting etc.”

Regarding complaints that fuel costs remain too high, the Ministry said that Government has granted an import licence to the association under its name “GGDMA Trading Inc.”. “The

request for a fuel importation licence was posited by the GGDMA to reduce the cost of fuel for miners and such this licence was granted by the Government. Miners also have a concession on fuel where it only attracts 10 per cent CIF Excise Tax.” The Ministry said that cognizant of the financial challenges faced by small and medium scale miners to adopt mercury-free technologies, with alternatives to mercury in gold mining costly and not readily accessible by small operators, it has further ‘incentivised’ measures to incorporate mercury-free technologies into their practices, establishing the Mercury-Free Mining Development Fund (MFMDF) of $1.0 Billion.

“The main objective of the MFMDF is to provide small and medium scale miners with the wherewithal to adopt mercury-free technology and to increase the level of gold recovery in the mining sector.

“The MFMDF is designed to address the needs for working capital and investment financing at beneficiary level for adopting technology to be used in the mining sector that are more environmentally friendly.”

FOREIGN CURRENCY Another measure introduced is that miners will have access to 10 per cent of their gold sales available in US dollars to assist in retooling, capital acquisition and diversification of investments.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission continue to undertake the rehabilitation of hinterland roads and infrastructure Continued on page 64

Four months after a glitzy launch of a multi-milliondollar hotel at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, construction is yet to start.

At issue is the muchtouted investment by Indianowned Sun and Sand Group of Companies.

There has been absolute silence on the project by both Government and the investor.

A visit to the Liliendaal site yesterday by this newspaper found only a signboard in evidence.

There were no construction materials on the ground that was partially flooded from recent heavy rains. On July 9, last, Sun and Sand turned the sod for the construction of a US$54M five-star, luxury hotel and casino at Liliendaal.

There were several Government officials including President Donald Ramotar and Tourism Minister, Irfaan Ali. Also, there was former President Bharrat Jagdeo and Managing Director of BK International, Brian Tiwarie.

It was announced then that construction on the163room hotel will begin immediately and expected to be completed in

approximately 18 months.

It was disclosed also that Sun and Sand was highly interested in investing in Guyana’s mining, housing and shipping sectors.

When completed, the 290,000 square feet hotel is expected to house a commercial block and club house of approximately 45,000 sq. ft. It is being touted to provide direct benefits to Guyanese through the provision of several hundred jobs. Yesterday, asked about the status of the hotel, Tiwarie said, “I am not really the local contractor you know… I just watching over one and two fine things. Is me friend dem man. I just looking over some things for them but they are here right now, you should call them and ask them why they ain’t start as yet.”

Calls to the Managing Director of the Hotel Project, Bhushan Chandna, did not bear much success yesterday as his assistant who answered his mobile number insisted that he was not in Georgetown.

The associate was asked the reason for the company not commencing construction, to which he said, “The Company is not

President Donald Ramotar and Sun & Sand Group of Companies, Bhushan Chandna, turning the sod for the construction of the new hotel back in July.

really looking at the hotel business right now.

It is focused on other interests, but I can’t say (at this time). Mr. Bhushan will be here on December 1.

The people for the mining are here but not for the hotel.

I cannot tell you much about the hotel business.”

A source at the Lands and Surveys Department confirmed that the Indian firm is still to complete payments for the Turkeyen Lands.

According to the official, Sun and Sand seems no longer interested in the hotel business but rather in the mining sector.

The official revealed that former President Jagdeo had a hand in the deal and made promises to the Indian firm.

This newspaper understands that the company is being more cautious with its investments considering the political climate in which the ruling party is under heavy fire for a number of critical issues.

The situation will leave questions open - what happens to the land that Sun and Sand was granted at Liliendaal and whether the deal on the hotel was tied to mining permission.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 69

“The fans are special to sports” Colin E. Croft Being a West Indies sports fan, especially cricket fan, is a difficult, sometimes depressing, sometimes enjoyable, pastime. Long before I was an international crickete r, I w a s a f a n , listening to cricket in the middle of the night from Australia, on short-wave radios as big as a 19-inch televisions!

Not players, not administrators, excluding broadcasters, sports fans are the best. Being awake late at night and early mornings take its toll, but missing cricket world-wide would be worse.

My first listening gig, aged 8, was AUS v WI 1960/1, the

series everyone remembers that included the 1st Tied Test. In primary and high school, we played every game there was - cricket, soccer, hockey, table tennis, athletics, swimming, netball, basketball, volleyball. Thus we became sports fans.

Sports was; mostly still is; about enjoyment. We still managed to complete high school assignments!

When playing cricket back then, I was either Charlie Griffith (Barbados) or Conrad Hunte (Barbados), then WI Test players. For soccer, I was always “The Kaiser” – Franz Beckenbauer (Germany). As especially a young fan, you always tried to imitate your

idols!

1965, a poor country boy from the same village, UnityLancaster, as present WI cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose father and uncle were wicketkeepers for our village cricket teams, I could not afford to pay to get into Georgetown Cricket Club/Bourda Cricket Ground, to see my first Test match ever - WI v Australia.

So, I jumped over the fence that separated the Georgetown Football Club and Bourda, as the trees surrounding the cricket ground were already over-full with people!

1970 was my first exposure to World Cup football, when

Sunday November 23, 2014 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Some fascinating conversations with friends, relatives, and others close to you could take place today, bringing new ideas your way, Aries. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Your career and financial goals should be within your grasp. Both your physical energy and inner power are operating at their peak, making this an ideal day to make clear plans. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Today you're likely to feel like the powerful creature you are. Your physical energy is high, and you look and feel great. Your intellect is sharp, so if you indulge in any kind of learning process, you will benefit greatly. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Your intuition should be very high right now, as is your power of manifestation. Today you need to try to curb your thoughts and only think beautiful things, because you might find that whatever you think about seems to manifest! ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Your immediate goals and wishes might suddenly appear to come together today, seemingly of their own accord. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): If you've been working toward manifesting extra money in your life, Virgo, you will probably see it happen today.

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22):Obstacles that you encountered in attaining your cherished goals could suddenly seem to melt away, clearing the way to make your dreams come true, Libra. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): A lot of activity could occur at home today, Scorpio. Perhaps you will have visitors or do some work on the house. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): Whatever goals you've been trying to reach may finally become reality today, Sagittarius. Finalizing everything could involve a lot of running around in the car and meeting with other people, but you're likely to feel exhilarated all the same. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Events over which you seem to have no control seem to be coming together to make things happen for you, Capricorn. You might find this a bit frightening, but don't let it get to you. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): Your energy is probably high today, almost to the point where you feel you might be able to run a marathon! Seriously, you're probably thinking in terms of getting out of town for a while. ********************* PISCES (Feb. 19 March 20):Your inner power is probably at an all-time high, Pisces. You should be feeling especially confident.

that magnificent Brazil team, including Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto, beat Italy 4-1 in the final at Azteca Stadium in Mexico, listening to commentary for that game in Spanish. At least I knew when goals were scored!

BEST SOCCER TEAM EVER – BRAZIL 1970!

By 1971, I was playing Under-19 cricket for Guyana, but still had to be at Bourda by 2:00am – you remember those days – to get in to see WI play India. That was not dedication. That was the real cricket fan in me!

1971 too, Joe Frazer beat Muhammad Ali in their first encounter. As a massive Ali fan, I cried!

1975 – WI won the 1st World Cup, beating Australia in final (9:00pm in UK). I was studying navigation and Air Traffic Control in T&T, but all school work was forgotten; all West Indians listening to that too.

1978, while playing for Guyana, having already played for WI, even ‘Man of Series’ 1977 v Pakistan, when, at Queen’s Park Oval, with dirty clothes on at Day 1 – T&T v GUY – “Mikey”, a little man with a massive voice shouted, above 10,000 voices; “Hey Croft, in Trinidad, we does play cricket in white!”

Caribbean fans; everyone has an opinion, everyone is an expert. You simply have to like them. Queens Park Oval was the scariest cricket ground then; 30,000 people total. Do not screw up there!

1978, World Series Cricket, Australian fans extremely noisy and abusive when we wore pink clothes.

40,000 at Sydney Cricket Ground, nearly 100,000 at Melbourne Cricket Ground; most scary too!

1979, I played in World Cup final at Lords; got that last wicket too; as WI defended as champions,

Jeffrey relishing debut season...

From page 73 drivers in the world including FI Romain Grosjean.

Meanwhile, due to Jeffrey’s outstanding performance Guyana was able to grab the overall title with a total points’ tally of 541 to relegate into second place Barbados who closed the three legs on 482 followed

by Trinidad and Tobago on 400 and Jamaica in the cellar with 151.

beating England. Thousands ran on to the ground. I am not sure how I got to the pavilion. That was the best achievement in my life, rating after becoming a father twice!

1981, the 1st ODI in St. Vincent, everyone in that country were at that game.

Crazy stuff, but we managed to win too, after making just 127 in a 50-overs game!

1994 Soccer World Cup, living in USA, ESPN were innovative with coverage, superimposing games in a square cocoon, with continuous soccer on-going, while advertising was shown on edges. Brilliant!

2004, I was on the edge of my seat as WI beat England in Champions Trophy, Kennington Oval in London, courtesy of Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw, who brought home Brian Lara’s WI team, after it looked as if we could lose!

2010, for FIFA World Cup South Africa, what I remember most from that tournament were the fabulous, melodious noisy VUVUZEALAS and how much the fans enjoyed themselves there!

2012 – West Indies winning World T-20 in Sri Lanka, beating the home team in the final, with Dwayne

Colin E. H. Croft says: Bravo, Chris Gayle and Darren Sammy celebrating massively with ‘Gangnam Style’ dancing!

2014 – I saw every game from FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

What a show. Everyone wanted to be there, most in Brazil to enjoy the games for the occasion, not always for winning or losing.

Cricket, not the University of West Indies, not politics, not even carnival, but cricket, is the only aspect of Caribbean life that is totally allencompassing. It is the only thing that everyone has an opinion on!

Being a WI cricket fan could kill you with stress, so fluctuating are fortunes, but I will forever be a sports fan, with ICC Cricket World Cup coming in 2015 and Olympics Games in Brazil in 2016. More fun. Enjoy!

Page 70

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

What the Caribbean Cup has taught Guyana This past Tuesday, Jamaica lifted the 2014 Caribbean Cup after defeating Trinidad and Tobago by virtue of a penalty shoot-out, with both teams heading to the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup safe in the knowledge that they are by far the best teams in the Caribbean. Guyana, who quietly exited the competition in qualifiers, can learn from both nations as to what needs to be done to ensure footballing progress: mainly, having a strong, professional domestic league that allows teams to play regular games and grants players the opportunity to constantly develop in the process by training hard to compete in high quality battles on a weekly basis.

When Alpha Utd played in this year’s CONCACAF Champions League, it was a historic occasion: they were the first club side from Guyana to make the group stages of the tournament, and although they did not perform as well as they would have liked, the experience of playing an MLS team and other top sides in the region should have proven to be a platform for future development.

However, fast-forward two months after their last game in the tournament, and Alpha United have not played a single competitive game due to the non-start of the GFF Super League. Instead, the team has been taking part in the recent GFA/Stag Beer Futsal tournament, which is not a competition that can develop the team in regards to actual football matches.

With no domestic league

football having taken place since April, on what criteria can the Normalisation Committee leading the federation use to create the core of a successful National Team?

Head coach of Alpha Utd, Wayne Dover, highlighted Guyana’s need for a professional league in Guyana: “If there’s a birth of a pro league, I think it will be beneficial to Guyana in many ways. It would give our players a chance to compete competitively, our coaches to function in a competitive environment, and it would allow for foreign players and coaches to join the league, which will have a great effect on the (footballing) economy.

I think the whole attitude and mind-set of the players will change dramatically, more so the people in the footballing fraternity, it will force everyone to act professionally and do things right.” Jamaica, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, both have professional domestic leagues that allow players to focus on football without the burden of worrying about their financial security and both nations are reaping the rewards of this. The Jamaican Premier League resumed on September 7th, which allowed the Jamaican federation two months to decide which players were in-form and performing well enough to feature in their National Team for the 2014 Caribbean Cup. Waterhouse FC, Jamaica’s top club side, also featured in the CONCACAF Champions League, and whilst Alpha United have played zero competitive games since the tournament ended,

Waterhouse FC have played nine competitive league games.

Trinidad and Tobago realised the need for a professional league twenty years ago as a means to improve the National Team (after producing their worst tournament performance at the 1993 Caribbean Cup), and created the TT Pro League as a result in 1999. With Guyana producing its worst performance at the Caribbean Cup this year, perhaps it is time to start thinking about setting up a Professional League in Guyana. Whilst it is a huge under-taking, T&T begun by firstly creating a semi-professional league that implemented a minimum wage for all players, and then gradually progressed to becoming fully professional over time. The results of having a professional league for both Jamaica and T&T have been remarkable, both teams have subsequently qualified for FIFA World Cups and stars of the respective leagues (Kenwyne Jones, Ricardo Fuller, Ricardo Gardner and Jason Scotland) have earned moves abroad to England’s Premier League, arguably the best league in the world, thus gaining more experience by facing worldclass opposition every week.

In fact, as many as approximately 105 footballers hailing from T&T or Jamaica have played football in other pro leagues across the world, after starting off by playing professionally at home first.

Guyana has the talent to succeed, but no current outlet to demonstrate it to a wider audience, Guyanese stars such as Trayon Bobb and

Deonarine hits 2nd consecutive ton but Peters (5-36) orchestrates...

From page 71 was soon caught & bowled by Mervin Matthew for two at 276-6 and when Matthew trapped Anthony Bramble in front for a duck and Peters induced Veerasammy Permaul (1) to nick a catch to the keeper and had Devendra Bishoo caught at slip, first ball, the Jaguars had capitulated to 277-9 and had lost four wickets for a run.

Chris Barnwell, one of two all-rounders in the side, clobbered two pugnacious

fours in a typically positive unbeaten 18 before Peters finished off the innings by having Ronsford Beaton (1) LBW to claim his 6th fivewicket haul. When the Volcanoes began their reply, 33year-old Devon Smith erupted with a couple of stunning offside boundaries off Beaton before Theophile executed a gorgeous off-driven boundary off Reifer, who shared the new ball with Beaton. Deonarine was introduced into the attack after three overs and after being

smacked for four through extracover by Smith he got his revenge when the left-hander, who has had his problems against the off-spinners in the past, was LBW for a cameo 26ball 29 with six fours on the fast outfield with the score on 33-1.

Theophile and 26-year-old Andre Fletcher carried the score to 60 before Fletcher was dropped by Bramble off of Deonarine before he had scored. Theophile (21) was then bowled with a beauty from Permaul that did not turn just before the close to bring night watchman Peters (2*) to the crease to join Fletcher (9*).

The contest is scheduled to commence at 09:00hrs for the last two days to make up for time lost on the opening day.

Santokie Nagulendran

Jamaal Shabazz and Wayne Dover have both called for a Professional League in Guyana.

Walter Moore made moves to Trinidad and Tobago in order to further their career, and both now play their club football in Europe, such is the high regard the TT Pro League is held in across the world. Speaking exclusively, former Guyana Head Coach and current Head Coach of Trinidadian club Caledonia AIA, Jamaal Shabazz, said, “In the Caribbean where finances

are low for International friendlies, a strong premier league is a necessity to have the players competing at a high level week in, week out.

Guyana has not recognised the value of a Odinga Lumumba, and how he has created a somewhat professional unit in Alpha Utd, to create an avenue for people like Wayne Dover to work at a high level and excel.”

Shabazz went on to say, “Javed Ali at Slingerz is another good example of business stepping into football in Guyana and providing employment and professional opportunities for both players and staff. If we can support these efforts with a single entity ownership (of the Guyana Premier League), I predict that Guyana will soon become a force again in Caribbean football. There are clubs with strong tradition like Pele FC, Western Tigers, Fruta Conquerors, Santos, Camptown and GDF.” Wayne Dover and Jamaal Shabazz, two men who took Guyanese football to its highest level, have both spoken about the importance of regular club football and a heightened sense of professionalism in the league.

If Guyana wants to see the team one day lifting the Caribbean Cup, or qualifying for a FIFA World Cup, it needs to start at a grassroots level and professionalise the game for both its players and staff to build a platform for success.

Blackwood signs cricket gear contract Jamaica Gleaner Kingston, Jamaica - Jamaica and West Indies middle-order batsman, Jermaine Blackwood, along with his management company, Gillings Global Sports Management (GGSM), have agreed to a two-year cricket-gear contract with Sanspariels Greenlands (SG) Private Limited of India.

Blackwood, who is managed

by GGSM, is one of the region’s young talents from whom much is expected, said he was very pleased with the deal arranged by his management company.

HIGHADMIRATION He further stated that he is very comfortable with the products and has very high admiration for the quality of the equipment from SG, which he has already started to use in his training sessions.

“I feel like they were designed for me” he said,

Jermaine Blackwood has signed a contract with Sanspariels Greenlands (SG) Private Limited of India. while displaying some of the equipment during the contract-signing session with the GGSM local director.

“Our sports management company, GGSM, is quite excited about the partnership we were able to secure for Jermaine, as we believe there is a unique synergy between our player and SG of India,” the Florida-based CEO, BradOneal Gillings, said.

He went on to mention that the company is currently working on signing other young and upcoming talents, which span the sporting spectrum to also include track and field, football and basketball, with the hope of securing a similar partnership for them. Blackwood broke into the West Indies Test squad in June 2014, during the home series against New Zealand, after a successful first-class season as the leading run-scorer in the 201314 season of Regional FourDay competition with 611 runs.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

All in place for Budhan Memorial Turf Club meet today All is set for the grand one day horserace meet organised by the Budhan Memorial Turf Club set for today at the club’s Track at No 66 Village Corentyne Berbice. The six race meet has attracted over 50 horse with three races for horses classified J , one for K and two for unclassified animals.

Horses such as Iron Man, Cattle King, Quincy, Smarty Light, Sporting Time, Lady Secret, Red Jet, Million Dollar Man, Good Zapper, Cart Man, Prince Bayaya, wicked Revenge, Regina, Slim Shady, Fit Fight, Pick Pocket, Bunny Signs,

Triple, Key for the Killer, Swift Way, Nobre Import, Royal Cash, Little, Famous Pride, Party Time, Speed Vision, Royal Intention, Windy Killer, Dance For Gold, Dynamite, Sugar Boy, Prince Stallion, Cyrus, Little Star, The road is Mine, Sunny Silence, Willie Up Town, Flying baby and Cash Money are among the lot that will be looking to be among the money.

The race for horses classified J1 and lower will see the winner taking home $120 , 000 over 6furlongs.

The winner of the J2 and lower event will collect $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 in another 6 furlongs event.

The J3 and lower horses will also race over 6 furlongs for the $90,000 winner’s money.

The K and lower race is a one mile affair and has a winning pocket of $80,000 and trophy available.

The final two races are for unclassified animals one and two where the animals will race for an undisclosed sum of money in two 6 furlongs races.

According to information the track is in the best of condition and turfites are expected to urn out in large numbers to be a part of the day’s action.

Race time is 13:00 hrs.

Pepsi Sonics host U-23 FiveA-Side B/ball tourney today Pepsi Sonics Basketball Club will be hosting an Open Under-23 Five-A- S i d e Basketball tournament at their home court at the National Gymnasium from 11am today; the day’s activity also features an exciting three-point shootout among the be s t m a r k s m e n i n Georgetown.

Speaking to Kaieteur Sport yesterday, Sonics President, Merle Casey said that the activity is another one of programmes

geared toward continuing to develop the sport. She informed that she anticipates one of the biggest turnouts they have had for an activity thus far.

“The competition will involve players from Schools, Institution s , C l u b s a n d Street-ballers; teams will be competing for cash prizes of $50,000, $35,000 and $20,000 for the first, second and third places respectively and $10,000 for winner of the three point shoot-out,” she said.

Merle Casey

WICB four-day Franchise cricket

Deonarine hits 2nd consecutive ton but Peters (5-36) orchestrates Jaguars collapse

By Sean Devers On a day blessed with glorious sunshine, Narsingh Deonarine continued his dream season with his second century in as many matches before left-arm Vincentian pacer Kenroy Peters orchestrated a Guyana Jaguars batting collapse, as their last seven wicket tumbled for just 28 runs on the second day of their second round WICB FourDay first class cricket Franchise against the Windwards Volcanoes at Providence yesterday.

By the close the Volcanoes had reached 63-2 from 31 overs still behind by 227 runs and with the dangerous Devon Smith already back in the hutch, the home team holds the advantage going into today’s penultimate day.

Deonarine’s 11th FirstClass hundred and his eighth for Guyana, a masterful 139, spearheaded the Jaguars to

291 after they were comfortably placed on 263-3 before Pascal started the slide when he trapped Deonarine LBW as the left-hander played across the line.

Deonarine’s century took 369 minutes and 292 balls and was decorated with 15 fours and his partnership with Chanderpaul for the fourth wicket was 153 runs after the pair had joined forces on Friday when Assad Fudadin departed at 110-3.

The host began the day on 168-3 and by Lunch Jaguars had reached 243-3 as they only managed 75 runs in the 150-minute opening session. The 31-year-old Deonarine reached three figures from 107 minutes and 93 balls and was unbeaten on 123 at Lunch and with him was 40-year-old Chanderpaul, who batted in dour fashion and spent close to an hour in the forties and had just managed 23 runs in the extended session, not out

on 48.

After the Interval Chanderpaul reached his 127th First-Class fifty as he sliced fast bowler Nelon Pascal for his second boundary while Deonarine, making a deliberate effort to ‘up the tempo’ danced into slow bowler Tyrone Theophile and spanked him for a one-bounce boundary over mid-on. Chanderpaul, Guyana’s only batsman with 5,000 Regional First-Class runs then pulled Pascal to the square leg fence to move into the sixties.

Peters then got rid of the stubborn Chanderpaul LBW for a 312 minute and 220- ball 62 after he had stopped play because the floodlights, which were turned on in bright sunny conditions was distracting him. His demise left the Jaguars on 270-5.

Raymond Reifer, Guyana’s lone overseas pick, never suggested permanence and (Continued on page 70)

Page 71

Statistician Charwayne Walker this week asks; Did you know that the touring Barbados National Football Team defeated British Guiana two – Nil in a three match series in 1962 but suffered losses to local club teams Police and Sandbach Parker?

Police and Sandbach Parker first division teams defeated the touring Barbados National Football Team in 1962. Barbados led by Reggie Haynes defeated the Maurice Moore led British Guiana Football Team two – Nil in a three match series in 1962.

The tourist buoyed by a two – Nil thrashing of G.F.C in the opening match drew the series opener one – all at the G.F.C Ground. The Bajans went ahead in the seventh minute when Alvin Corneal beat British Guiana custodian Birdette Marshall with a beauty. British Guiana equalized in the fifteenth minute when Compton ‘the Surgeon’ Julian headed home an educated corner kick from Lewis ‘Water Boat’ Weithers.

At the end of full time, the score remained one – all.

British Guiana Squad: Birdette Marshall – Goalkeeper George Niles (deceased) Monty Hope (deceased) Lionel Gill George Greene Maurice Moore (deceased) – Captain Hubert ‘Senor’ Braithwaite George Dyal Edmond ‘Screw’ Richmond (deceased) Lewis ‘Water Boat’ Weithers (deceased) Compton ‘Surgeon’ Julian Patrick Britton Ingram Layne

Harold Blenman (deceased) Patrick Dyal Winston Dehaart (deceased) Patsy Pieters (deceased) The second match of the series was a thriller; Barbados won by four goals to three.

Barbados went ahead in the third minute through Hartcourt Hinds. British Guiana evened things up in the fourteenth minute when debutant Ingram Layne beat the Barbados custodian with a stunner. Hartcourt Hinds put the visitors ahead in the seventeenth minute, while Victor ‘Gas’ Clarke made it three – one a minute later.

At Lemmon time the score read Barbados (3) British Guiana (1). After the resumption, danger man Hartcourt Hinds scored again in the forty eight minute and Barbados started to celebrate but the celebrations were short lived because British Guiana scored two quick goals through Ingram Layne and Edmond ‘Screw’ Richmond and suddenly the score read Barbados (4) and British Guiana (3). British Guiana pressing for an equalizer was awarded a penalty just before full time which Lionel Gill failed to convert. Barbados won the final match three – one, Victor ‘Gas’ Clarke netted a double; the other goal came from Skipper Reggie Haynes. Ingram Layne was the British Guiana goal scorer. Strange enough local first division teams Police and Sandbach Parker registered victories against the same Barbados National Team that British Guiana failed to defeat. Police led by a helmet-trick (four goals) from the elusive Ingram Layne,

destroyed Barbados National Team six – three at G.F.C. The other Police marksmen were Ingram’s brother Cosmo Layne and Lionel Gill. Goal scorers for Barbados were Victor ‘Gas’ Clarke who netted a double and Skipper Reggie Haynes.

The historic Police 1962 first division team: H. Nelson – Goalkeeper Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts Hubert ‘Senor’ Braithwaite – Captain Lionel Gill Ingram Layne Cosmo Layne C. Gordon H. Coleman H. McLean Carlyle McDonald N. Mingo Alvin Bacchus A week later, Sandbach Parker emulated the Police Team by trouncing the touring Barbados National Team four – Nil at G.F.C. The touring Barbados National Team 1962: Alvin Corneal – Everton Claude Gregoire – Everton Dudley Downes – Rangers Victor ‘Gas’ Clarke – New South Wales Hartcourt Hinds – Everton Reggie Haynes – Captain – Everton Lloyd Seale – Lodge School Michael Evelyn – Carlton Paul Rapson – Carlton Dennis Cumberbatch – Everton Rawle Pickering – Everton Horace Hunte – Rangers Carlos Griffith – New South Wales Lenville Small – Everton Gregory Williams – Everton Martin Gill – Everton Harold Griffith – Manager

Guyana women hockey team edge Jamaica in thrilling shootout at CAC event The Guyana national hockey women’s team celebrated their second victory of the competition at the expense of a distraught Jamaica when the two sides clashed Friday morning in their placement match of the 2014 CAC Games in Vera Cruz, Mexico. In contrast to the first few days of competition, the sun came out with a vengeance and both sides would have to rely on their fitness and determination to manage the high-paced game staged at 11:00am.

Jamaica took control of the match in the early minutes as the Guyanese seemed to be outgunned by their speed and athleticism. Jamaica played an attacking brand of hockey and set Guyana on its heels, creating a few early penalty corners and

scoring opportunities. The Guyanese would finally find themselves midway through the first half and settled into their usual short-passing game to tilt the possession in their favour.

Despite there being no goals in the first half, spectators were treated to a well-balanced match with goal-scoring opportunities at both ends. The second half saw Guyana strengthen their grip on the match as they pushed the game into the Jamaican half as the sun began to take a heavy toll on the Reggae ladies. Guyana piled on the pressure in the closing minutes and seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough but the final horn would come moments too early leaving the score deadlocked at 0-0. Of the five Guyanese selected to be part of the penalty shootout, Gabriella Xavier would

step up first and easily score on Jamaican Captain and goalkeeper, Lorie-Ann McIntosh, with a drag to the left and reverse sweep. With sister Alysa Xavier stopping two Jamaican shooters, Guyanese Captain Chantelle Wales stepped up to bury the Jamaicans with a diving finish to give Guyana the 4-2 victory. Apart from the match boosting Guyana into the playoff for 5th and 6th place versus Barbados, the victory was sweet redemption for Guyana who lost to Jamaica in the CAC games four years earlier. Cuba upstaged Trinidad by 4-2 in the first women’s semi-final, while surprise of the tournament, the Dominican Republic secured their place in the final with a 2-0 victory over hosts Mexico.

Page 72

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

BIG RIDE 5 set for today

Invitation extended to all to participate; four cycles to be won

Flashback! Dr. Frank Anthony (centre) leading off at the inaugural BIG RIDE in 2009.

With the aim of encouraging persons to adopt a healthy lifestyle through exercise, the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports in association with the Ministry of Health, Guyana Cycling Federation and the National Sports Commission will today host BIG RIDE 5. This event is open to all and sundry

according to the organisers, as long as you have a cycle and protective gear you are welcome to participate.

The starting point is the University of Guyana access road (next to seawalls) from 16:00hrs and will conclude as customary, at the Carifesta Sports Complex, Carifesta

Avenue.

Some of the participants will ride away lucky as Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony will be giving away four cycles. It is not known who will ride away with those gifts, butthat will be disclosed today.

Other prizes will be presented to the Village

with most riders; organization with the most riders, Best uniformed group, Government Ministry with the most riders, School with the largest group of participants, Largest Youth Group, Largest female group, Youngest rider, Youngest female, Oldest rider, Most innovative and creative rider and Oldest cycle.

Errors cost Hamilton pole position Burrell says Boyz’ success will boost BBC Sport - Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position at the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix today.

Rosberg was 0.386 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate as Hamilton managed to secure second place despite an errorstrewn session.

Hamilton is 17 points ahead of Rosberg and needs only to finish second to the German in the race to secure the title.

Hamilton faces an evening of decisions about how to approach the race after missing out on pole.

He was fastest in the second knock-out part of qualifying as Rosberg managed only fourth place after making his own mistakes. But, when it mattered in the top 10 shootout, it was Rosberg who got the job done and Hamilton who made crucial errors.

Rosberg set the benchmark with a lap of one minute, 40.697 seconds as Hamilton looked on course to at least match him before running wide at the penultimate corner and locking a wheel into the final bend to end up 0.324 seconds adrift.

On their final runs,

Rosberg set the target even higher, with a lap of 1:40.480.

Hamilton could manage only 1:40.866 after what Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described as another “messy lap”.

Rosberg, who won the last race in Brazil from pole and has now qualified fastest three times in a row, said: “It was a great day again.

“We did a good job sorting out the car. I was really happy with the set-up and I got a good lap in at the end.

“But it is only one step, a small step. I was hoping, who knows, there could be a Williams between the two of us and that can always happen tomorrow.

“I need to get the job done and continue on the sort of form I had in Brazil. I am sure it is going to be a great battle between the two of us. Of course I hope for more than that, some kind of help from Lewis.”

Hamilton said: “I genuinely didn’t have the best of laps but it was still a good qualifying session, I really enjoyed it. But tomorrow is the special day.”

He said his approach to the race would be “the same as always”.

The Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe

Massa were third and fourth ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas was 0.545 seconds behind Rosberg, suggesting the two Mercedes will be untouchable in the race today.

Behind Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel took sixth on his final appearance for Red Bull before joining Ferrari next season. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was an impressive seventh, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button on a potentially crucial weekend for himself and team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

Magnussen was 0.323 seconds behind the 2009 world champion in the second session and qualified 11th on the last race weekend before McLaren make their decision about w h o w i l l p a r t n e r Fernando Alonso, who is joining the team in 2015.

Alonso qualified 10th, beaten by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for only the third time this season after making a mistake and running wide.

Englishman Will Stevens, making his grand prix debut for the revived Caterham team, qualified last, but a respectable 0.555secs behind his experienced team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.

FIFA ranking, bargaining power Jamaica Observer CATHERINE HALL, St James — Jamaica’s success in the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) Men’s Caribbean Cup in Montego Bay this week should result in a big leap in the FIFA rankings as well as open the door for better international friendlies.

A beaming Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell, clutching a glass of celebratory liquid late Tuesday night outside the hospitality tent at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, is envisioning a bright future for the n a t i o n a l s e n i o r m e n ’s programme.

Qualification to the CONCACAF Gold Cup next year and the prestigious Copa America Centennial Cup in 2106, both in the United States, as well as Copa American next year to be hosted by Chile, are in the bag, but Burrell wants more.

“What happened tonight (Tuesday) would have given us the fillip with respect to getting better international games, and I

Captain Horace Burrell know that there were some teams waiting on this result to pencil in Jamaica on their list of teams to play in friendly internationals,” he said.

The next FIFA period, Burrell noted, was in March next year and already he was looking ahead. “I am almost assured that we will be playing a huge game in March,” he said.

Burrell said the Caribbean Cup puts the JFF in a stronger position to bargain for games, rather than having to settle for peanuts.

“We will now be able to refuse games (as) we can call the shots,” the former army man said. “When you are not doing well you have no clout and no bargaining power and we now have that,” he boasted.

On the back of two wins and several losses since Winfried Schaefer took over as head coach, Jamaica dropped like a stone in the FIFA rankings to the present 113th, but Burrell is looking for an equal movement in the opposite direction after beating teams ranked much higher, including Trinidad at 49 and Antigua in the low 70s.

“One of the things I am looking forward to seeing is a huge upward movement in the FIFA rankings, and with a little luck, we could be the best mover of the year having come back from such a low rankings and won this tournament,” said Burrell, who is also a CONCACAF vice-president.

“Based on how the ratings operate, when you play competitive games the points count more and one can expect a big move upwards,” he explained.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 73

Jeffrey relishing debut season CMRC success Making his regional debut this year, Guyana’s Group 4 driver Kristian Jeffrey underlined his talent with another dominating performance at the just concluded final leg of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean M o t o r R a c i n g Championship (CMRC) after capturing two wins and a third place finish from three races which enabled him to be crowned Caribbean individual champion.

Jeffrey, who totally dominated the marquee Group 4 event in the opening leg in Barbados, winning all three races, before suffering mechanical issues in Trinidad and Tobago in the second leg, securing a mere 10 points, rebounded on home soil to seal the individual title after amassing 153 points and in the process became the first Guyanese to win on debut and the first to cop the individual title.

Jeffrey, who drives a Mitsubishi Evolution IX, made his debut in motor

racing as a karter, before graduating to racing cars and impressed right away in his first season in 2014, racing unbeaten at Bushy Park in the opening leg of the CMRC and crowned it all with a captivating performance at home against the toughest opposition in the Series.

Young Jeffrey, who would have learned all the tricks of the trade from father Kevin, a standout driver in the Group 4 category, showed his class after racing to an impressive win against the experienced Barbadian Stuart Maloney, a former champion of the Caribbean and who had split the rivalry amongst the two competitors in the first two races in the final leg at the South Dakota Circuit, before the high-spirited Jeffrey engineered an electrifying overtake at the Clubhouse turn to grab his second podium.

It was a move of youthful brazenness and fearlessness, but at the same time not seen as disrespectful to his more

Guinness ‘Greatest of de Strests’ Futsal resumes today at Demerara Park Play in the Banks DIHsponsored Guinness ‘Greatest of de Styreets’ Futsal Competition resumes today, at the Demerara Park at Ruimveldt with eight more matches, starting from 19:00 hrs. The second round of matches which was to be played on Thursday and Friday at the Abouystown Tarmac will now be played at the Demerara Park at Ruimveldt due to the inclement weather which has affected the playing area at the previous assigned venue.

According to a release from the Organisers, the fixtures remain the same and

they are seen below.

Globe Yard engages Adelaide Street, Charlestown; North Sophia tackles Festival City Warriors; former champion Leopold Street go up against Stevedore Housing Scheme ‘A’; Hope Street of Tiger Bay plays D’urban Street.

After the break, reigning champion Queen Street of Tiger Bay battles West Back Road; West Front Road ‘Gold is Money’ matches skills with Cross Street; Broad Street Bullies battles Riverview and host Albouystown ‘B’ entertain South Sophia.

GDA tourney set for November 30 The Guyana Draughts Association (GDA) will host a tournament on November 30 at the National Gymnasium.

The games will be played on the 100 square boards.

The top five finishers

will be given food hampers and entrance fee is $500.

Action gets cracking at 09:30 hrs and entries will not be accepted after 10:00 hrs.

Players country wide are invited to participate and can contact Jairam on 6146671 for more information.

established counterpart.

The new Caribbean champion along with another local champion Mark Vieira will now move on to the Race of Champions Meet set for December at Bushy Park in Barbados where they will compete against some of the best (Continued on page 69)

Newly-crowned CMRC champion Kristian Jeffrey (left) poses with his dad Kevin following his outstanding performance at the just concluded final leg of the Series at the South Dakota Circuit.

Page 74

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 23, 2014

Over 900 swimmers from 170 countries for 12th FINA World C/ships Guyana to be represented

T

he Qatari capital will welcome the international swimming elite and world aquatics community for the 12th edition of the FINA Wo r l d S w i m m i n g Championships (25m), taking place from December

3-7, 2014 at the Hamad Aquatic Centre. Over 900 swimmers from 170 national federations are expected to compete in Doha, which will feature a total 46 events, including 12 relays.

Guyana is expected to be represented by President of

the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) Ivan Persaud among others.

P r i o r t o t h e championships, FINA will hold its third World Aquatics Convention at the Ritz Hotel from November 29 to December 1. Among its many highlights are the

Aquatics Conference, the FINA Swimming Coaches Golden Clinic, the Exhibition and the Gala “Soiree des Etoiles”.

Under the theme “Aquatics - Engaging for Success”, the conference will address top issues in the world of Aquatics, relating to sport development across

all FINA disciplines, the global sport market, sponsorship and partnership, new technologies and media, etc. Key players in the sport industry, experts, athletes and representatives of national member federations will all step on the stage to share visions and ideas.

At the same venue, the second FINA Swimming Coaches Golden Clinic will take place from November 30 to December 1, bringing together some of the world’s most brilliant coaches to discuss the keys to success in competitive swimming, among other topics.

The Exhibition will provide a unique showroom for sport manufacturers, FINA partners and sponsors, future host cities of FINA World Championships, including Guadalajara 2017, Gwangju 2019 and Budapest 2021, and a networking

Ivan Persaud opportunity for the Aquatics family.

In addition, an extraordinary meeting of the Congress will be organised on November 29 in Doha, as well as a “Soiree des Etoiles” rewarding the Best Athletes of 2014 on December 1.

(FINA)

Rohan Auto Spares /Ramchand Auto Spares softball continues today Due to rain and waterlogged outfield, the 4 Semi-finals which were slated for Friday and Saturday night at the DCC Ground, will now be played today at the Police Ground at Eve Leary.

Starting at 9:30am on the E a s t e r n p i t c h : M i k e ’s We l l m a n v s . S l i n g e r s (Masters), while 12:30pm

Wolf warriors vs Farm (Open).

Also 9:30am: Western Pitch: Floodlights vs Parika Defenders (Masters), 12:30PM Regal vs. Ariel Uprisers (Open).

The Male/Female Day/Night Finals are set for the DCC ground on Saturday November 29th starting 12:00noon.

KMTC Xmas Race Meet set for December 26 The Kennard Memorial Turf Club (KMTC) will host its Xmas race meeting on December 26 at Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne Berbice.

Seven races are carded for the day and entries close on December 20; no late entries will be accepted.

The programme features the J3 and lower W/A (5 furs) race with the winner taking home $150,000, followed by the G 3 and lower W/A (5 furs) with a top prize of $300,000, D 3 and lower W/A which has a first place prize of $500,000, I1 and lower W/A (6 furs) for $250,000, J1 and lower W/A (6 furs) for a winning prize of $200,000, G1 and lower

W/A (7 furs) at an attractive $ 3 2 0 , 0 0 0 . T h e d a y ’s activities will conclude with the A3 and lower W/A (6 furs) main event for a whopping $1,000,000.

The races will be run under the rules of the Guyana Horse Racing Authority. In the event that there is less then five horses entered for any race the club reserves the right to cancel or reframe the said event or reduced the prize money after consulting with the horse owners.

Owners of horses must pay at least $5,000 for each horse at the time of entry. Five horses must start a race before a third prize is paid and seven horses before a fourth.

Sunday November 23, 2014

Kaieteur News

Page 75

Elton ‘The Bully’ Dharry intensifies preparation for Sint Maarten title fight Four months after scoring a first round technical knockout over Leshaun Blair in a scheduled 6-round encounter in Washington USA, local and World Boxing Council Caribbean Boxing Federation ( W B C C A B O F E ) bantamweight champion, Elton ‘The Bully’ Dharry, returns to the ring against Nicaraguan, Jose Rios, for the

Elton Dharry (15rounds.com)

AAG holds a retreat today to chart forward course The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) will today hold a One-Day Retreat at the Splashmins Resort, Linden/Soesdyke Highway starting from 8:30am.

It will be the first such retreat in a few years and is being held under the theme, ‘Athletics – The Way Forward’.

Council Members, Coaches and Officials will have a number of ‘Break-Out’ Sessions to come up with the best ways possible to move the sport forward.

Among the topics to be addressed – How to have a positive impact on how to p r o d u c e Wo r l d C l a s s Athletes, Funding for events and the current level of our national athletes.

Registration of participants will commence at 8:00am. This will be followed by opening remarks from the Chairman of the session and President Aubrey Hutson.

Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n f o r participants and the media leaves Olympic House on High Street at 7am.

PG III shifts to CASH tonight The third annual Phillip George (PG III) Legacy tournament will shift to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall tonight owed to inclement weather that has inundated the Burnham Basketball Court, which had hosted all the games up until tonight.

President of Colts Basketball Club, which is hosting the competition, Michael Singh, who is also President of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) said that he restructured the fixture for the Sports Hall until the competition ends.

Tonight’s big game will feature Pepsi Sonics against Linden’s Royals in a showdown that will determine who advances out of a group that also includes

Michael Singh Colts. Both Colts and Sonics are undefeated in the competition.

IBF Inter Continental Bantamweight title at the L.B. Scott Sports Auditorium, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, December 6, on a card dubbed ‘This is War.’ Reports are that Dharry has intensified training activities at the Gleason’s Gym, Brooklyn NY and is confident of lifting the accolade. He enters the contest with a glamourous

record of 16 wins of his 22 fights to date, 10 of them were by the knockout route, while he has suffered 2 losses and drew one of his bouts.

Further, Dharry has won all 13 of his last fights (9 of them finished inside the distance) and is confident of clinching the accolade.

Dharry’s opponent s is as formidable as they come having compiled a record of

12 wins with his sole loss to his countryman, Imer Valesquez, while securing 1 drawn decision against Dixon Flores last August. He is still to score a knockout but conversely, he is still to have been knocked out. Rios last fought his countryman, Frederick Castro, in his hometown and triumphed unanimously at the end of their 10 rounds contest.

t r o p S WICB four-day Franchise cricket

Deonarine hits 2nd consecutive ton but Peters (5-36) orchestrates Jaguars collapse See stories on P.71

Kenroy Peters in action during his 5-36 against the Jaguars yesterday

Narsingh Deonarine cuts during his century yesterday.

Guyana women hockey team edge Jamaica in thrilling shootout at CAC event

Guyanese goalkeeper Alysa Xavier blocks the penalty attempt by Jamaican Demi Nicholson

Chantelle Wales’ diving finish sealed the victory for Guyana.

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