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Kaieteur News
KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana. Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8491, 225-8458, 225-8465 Fax: 225-8473 or 226-8210
Editorial
The emasculation of the Permanent Secretary Nowadays, the role of permanent secretaries is akin to that of a toothless poodle when their functions and performance are examined. These officials, who are the chief executives, are the accounting officers with responsibility for the effective day-to-day management of their ministries and the public servants in government’s employ. Being required to serve with the domineering presence of their political bosses a constant reminder of their impotence, it is no wonder that the office of Permanent Secretary is perceived as an extension of political patronage, dominance and facilitator of the corrupt practices for which ministerial dealings are increasingly being highlighted. As the most senior public servant at a government ministry whose job it is to ensure that budgetary allocation and other funds are appropriately spent, the current behaviour of their principals suggests one of two things. It is either that Permanent Secretaries are appointed with no regard to their suitability. We can understand this in the local context since the actual Guyanese experience is one where political party activists with little or no knowledge of public service rules and with absolutely no previous acquaintance with the bureaucracy, overnight become Permanent Secretaries or deputy permanent secretaries (DPS). To expect that a Permanent Secretary faced with a situation of dubious legal merit would have recourse to a higher office for an intervention(orinterpretation)wouldbelikefightingahopelesscause. Apart from the minister, the Permanent Secretary reports to the head of the public service who in our extant circumstance is the person who also wears the hats of Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary, and Secretary of the Defence Board. This is surely a remarkable achievement which requires the energy and attention of an indefatigable person with the focus to address competing demands. It would be a reasonable assumption that our permanent secretaries –political activists or otherwise— are not subject to the level of scrutiny to which their more professional counterparts in other jurisdictions are exposed. Looking at the Guyana situation it is understood that to be a minister of government one does not have to possess any specific qualifications for cabinet duty. However, the same should not be the expectation when it comes to the selection or promotion of persons to the position of principal public servant of a ministry. After all, the people have enough of nepotism, favouritism and all the rest of it to have to put up with more mediocrity at that hitherto professional level. What is anticipated is that cabinet ministers would have made optimum use of the advice and assistance of a professional cadre of apolitical permanent secretaries if they were to discharge their constitutional duties and responsibilities on behalf of, and for the benefit of the Guyanese people. What this country is crying out for is a break from pettiness as evidenced in the way that certain ministers ride roughshod over their Permanent Secretaries and undermine their statutory function of accounting officer. What else could be the reason for this deafening silence in an environment of improper use of public funds, if not because public officers feel cowed and fearful of losing their benefits? Of course the possibility also exists that some among them might be drawing down kickbacks from questionable deals involving the public purse. The important point to be made here is that a professional Permanent Secretary is expected to provide stability regardless of who occupies the seat of government. But we are not afforded that level of comfort since even those who might have started out as knowledgeable, decisive public servants worthy of their ascension to that high office, have allowed their professional principles to be compromised on the altar of political expediency. Except for a brief flash at public sector reform some years ago, the public service has remained largely moribund in character bespeaking a lack of effectiveness on the industrial relations front.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur M@ilbox Send your letters to Kaieteur News 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown or email us kaieteurnews@yahoo.com
Where was the PSC’s voice of doom when the PPP was protesting during the budget debate? DEAR EDITOR, Many of us have been concerned about the criminalization of protest in Guyana, in particular African Guyanese protest. We have pointed to the difference in the responses of the government and some sections of Civil Society to protest in the two ethnic communities. We have also been dismayed by the seeming acceptance of this mindset by the PNC and presumably its partners in the APNU and sections of the African Guyanese Social Elite. We have argued that the right to protest is a human and constitutional right that should be protected. The threat of abuse of it by
citizens or/and its degeneration into violence are real. But those threats should not drive a society to shut down the right to protest. In the same way that the threat of libel should not lead to the shutdown of newspapers. The above comments are meant to contextualize the recent responses of the government and the Private Sector Commission (PSC) to the APNU’s announcement of its intention to engage in public protest. Let’s leave the government’s response aside for the momentgovernments never like protests aimed at them. But the PSC is at it again. This organization needs to be called out. It is
true that business organizations don’t like anything that threatens business. But in Guyana the dislike only comes to the fore when the public action is from one side of the ethnic divide. When the PPP was protesting in front of Parliament during the budget debate where was the PSC’s voice of doom? Where was the PSC’s voice of doom during the protests on the Correntyne and Essequibo? Where was the PSC’s voice during the protestsin Letter Kenny a few days ago? Why as soon as Mr. Granger announced the protests, there is the suggestion of violence and doomsday? Some may remind that there (Continued on page 6)
Sunday September 21, 2014
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The PSC cannot straddle the A reminder to readers of the fence on matters of rights nature of Ramotar’s presidency
DEAR EDITOR, The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has to stop thinking and acting as though it possesses the authority on people’s rights. The call made for years by sections of society to have the constitutionally guaranteed local government elections, is a matter of right. Rights are non-negotiable. This society is being conditioned to think that some can enjoy their rights at will, while others can only enjoy them with the permission or approval of another. This wrong outlook will not secure and respect universal principles which are underpinned in the Guyana Constitution. What this outlook has done is created a dual society that has allowed the administration and its cohorts to run roughshod over the masses and plunder the nation’s resources. In this environment, might has replaced right, and the rule of the lawless has replaced the rule of law. The PSC cannot straddle the fence on matters of rights or cherry-pick rights. You are either for rights or against rights. When the PSC along with others, including the Guyana Trades Union Congress and the We s t e r n D i p l o m a t i c Community signed petitions calling on the administration to hold Local Government Elections, these calls were underpinned by what the constitution guarantees to the people. And if after two decades the administration, with whom the PSC enjoys cozy relations, refuses to
uphold the constitution the failure of the PSC at this juncture to part company with its political ally on a matter of universal principle, brings into question its sincerity in the first instance. There are some in this society who are using their position of influence/power to create an uneven playing field and establish double standards as the norm. For this society to function effectively and efficiently, all must be held to the same standards and play by the same rules. It must never be by chance the people in the urban areas cannot enjoy what’s rightly theirs (i.e. the right to public assemble/ protest as outlined in Article 146 of the constitution) because a section (i.e. the urban-based business) feels their economic wellbeing is threatened. The constitution guarantees the economic wellbeing of every individual and business, equally as it guarantees the rights of every citizen and group. None must be allowed to violate another. Nothing in life has ever been won or achieved without a struggle. Nothing. The business community did not evolve on the landscape and secure laws to protect its interest without a struggle. And if the present corps within this community has found measures to protect its interest without having to resort to public assemble, it gives this group no right to deny those who believe that their wellbeing can only be advanced and protected through such measure.
The time is always right to engage in matters relating to the respect for rights and laws. For the PSC urbanbased Guyanese must always give up their right to public assemble because of their perception that their economic interest will be affected. It matters not to them that their workers’ and customers’ wellbeing are equally hinged to their economic interest and the nation’s overall benefit. This nation and its people are being robbed of what’s rightly theirs by the myopic and self-serving in our midst. If the PSC is genuine in its call for local government elections, respect for the constitution and the rights of the people regardless of whom they are or are represented by, then this body must work with the police to ensure any public assemble is insulated from those who seek such events to engage in dastardly acts. The PSC, like other progressive business entities around the world, must also call on the administration to ensure the safety, security and protection of those who seek to exercise their right as guaranteed by the constitution and which ought to be protected by the state. Any public assemble, be it for local government elections, industrial matters or otherwise, must be guaranteed and protected. No section of this society must be allowed to think it has the prerogative to determine for others when they will or will not enjoy or (Continued on page 6)
DEAR EDITOR, I would like to remind readers of what I wrote in my Tu e s d a y c o l u m n ( l a s t Tuesday, Sep 16). “ … so uninterested in stately matters is Ramotar that he is overjoyed to be saturated with ceremonies, country visits and foreign trips…one could well imagine, Ramotar, on hearing and seeing these things , probably says to himself, ‘let dem try deh, I got a foreign trip to look after.” The researcher cannot keep up with his visits around the country, his presence at official ceremonies and his foreign trips. This is what the Ramotar presidency is all about. This is what Ramotar wants his presidency to be
about. This week he addressed an education event, then opened the GT&T sponsored refurbishing of the UG labs then Friday the man was on a plane to New York Ramotar will come back next week, and continue to engage in these things. Let me explain in this letter what I did in that Tuesday column in relation to the words, “let dem try deh.” It refers to the depravities and controversies within the Government that Ramotar does not know about or care to know and will not want to know about until the PPP replaces him in the next presidential elections The nation should come around to the fact, however brutal or comical, the reality that Donald Ramotar sees the
presidency in those inconsequentialities described above. He will not get engaged or involve himself in high policies. He likes the foreign visits, the garlanding he gets when he visits the interior communities, talking to rural East Indians and foreign trips Look carefully at his visage when he opens GUYEXPO in a few weeks’ time. Look at the glee on his face, the gargantuan smiles, the joy of walking about the ground and visiting the pavilions. This is how he sees his presidency. The PPP has an obligation to itself to unceremoniously dump him for the new general elections. No country deserves should a nincompoop president Frederick Kissoon
The PPP a reproach to Guyana DEAR EDITOR, Guyanese have had their minds twisted and corrupted by the hate inspired by the PPP for Burnham. The PPP by peddling hatred, has become a reproach to Guyana. I lived in Burnham’s time, went with my father to cut cane on one of the estates, lined up at GNTC on Regent street for milk and whatever else, drank sugar water with bare bread when it was there, ate cornmeal without milk, ate rice flour bread, rice balls, waited for two weeks to get my dislocated arm attended to at the Georgetown Hospital in 1980, and suffered just about everything everyone in that time went through. But look at me. I don’t hate Burnham or the PNC. I understand that Burnham was caught in the global politics of
the time, and wasn’t the best at economics as still many or the world’s leaders aren’t. It was a tragic mistake and a very bad episode in the lives of Guyanese at the time and there is nothing that can be done about it. We have to move on. Guyana has to move on. The PPP is content to feed whoever will listen with their rubbish. And that doesn’t cut it. The APNU and AFC are committed to nation building and recovering lost ground. ALL Guyanese are encouraged to get on board and play their part in taking this country forward TOGETHER. And leave the PPP alone. They have sucked at our children’s lives enough. Craig Sylvester.
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Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur M@ilbox Kaieteur M@ilbox Those who think that reparation is a gift, do not fully grasp the magnitude of what transpired DEAR EDITOR, On April the 27, 1993, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) held a conference on Reparations in Abuja, Nigeria. This conference was attended by hundreds of guest and 37 heads of African States. Its duration lasted three days. The delegation drafted a declaration, that was adopted; here is one stanza. “We are fully persuaded that the damage sustained by the African People was not a theory of the past, but is painfully manifested from Harare to Harlem and in the damaged economies of Africa and the black world from Guinea to Guyana, from Somalia to Suriname.” Mr Dudley Thompson a Jamaican Human Rights Lawyer served as rapporteur for the conference said; “ Not only is there a moral debt but there is clearly established precedence in Law based on the principle of unjust enrichment.”
The conference and declaration was ignored by the American main stream media. In the year 2000 a young Female African American Law student tracing her genealogy got quite a surprise. In her research she found out that Etna, the Insurance Magnate, insured slaves from 1854 up through 1858 in two States New Orleans and St Louis. The young lady contacted the corporate giant by phone and after their discussion Etna invited her to talk with them. Their discussion resulted initially in Etna agreeing to make an acknowledgement apology. In the form of restitution they said that they would promote African American students, in the form of scholarships to Colleges and Universities. However after a week Etna reneged on their initial offer. They did make the apology, but refused the scholarships. Their spokes person, said, that indiscretion in the
past on behalf of Etna, has been far outweighed by what they have done since and what they have been commended for publicly. Eta, he said, can boast of their diverse work place and their commitment to fairness and equality. He saw no moral obligation on behalf of Etna, because he saw no parallel with any other tragedy. In finishing he pointed out that Etna was not defending their past association with such an affair, but it was not unique to Etna. Of course Etna was not the only multi national corporation that made millions on the slave business. Sam Anderson in his book “ Black Holocaust for Beginners, pointed to the development of Capitalism on the hard work of the slaves in the steel industry. Anderson named several multi national corporations that benefited financially: LLoyds of London Insurance Company, New Yo r k L i f e I n s u r a n c e Company, Barclays Bank, Colgate Palmolive. He also talked about Madison Avenue the Mecca of Advertising’s growth on the
publicity they gave to Slave ships arrival. Slave auctions, Slave escapes and rebellions. In the West Indies including British Guiana the Colonial Governments had succeeded in establishing dependence on imported foodstuffs. Therefore around 1770 they were importing most of the Continental Colonies export of fish, grain. beans, and vegetables to feed the slaves. This food export was interrupted when the 13 Colonies gained their independence and became America. With no back-up plan, 15,000 plantation workers died from famine between 1780/1787 in Jamaica alone. How many in the other islands no one knows. In his book “Sugar without Slaves” Alan Adamson tells us quite vividly how the Colonial Government in British Guiana behaved towards the freed slaves after emancipation. “Colonial administration devised a variety of tricks all to undercut self provisioning agriculture.” The general idea of the colonizers was to make the emancipated free man return to the plantation and work for wages. “Those who persisted were taxed heavily, on their homes, cattle, agriculture produce, even they themselves were taxed. This money was used to subsidize the immigration of labourers from India and Malaysia to replace the slaves.” According to Adamson the most insidious tactics were used, such as “the
conspiracy between the Governor of British Guiana and the Secretary of the Colonies Earl Grey who favoured low duties on imports in order to erode the local food production; the neglect of the Government to manage infrastructure for subsistence agriculture; and denying credit to small black farmers.” Those who think that reparations is a gift, do not fully grasp the magnitude of what transpired during what is called the middle passage. The effects of which is felt even today. This claim for reparations is not unique. In his book “The Debt what America owes to Blacks” Randall Robinson,
list litigants who were successfully compensated for wrongs committed against them. “The Allies against Germany after World War one. The Jews against Germany after World War Two. The Poles against Germany for making them do forced labour in W W two. Japanese Americans against America for being interred. The Inuit tribe collected compensation against the Canadian Government. Aborigines were compensated with land and money from the Australian Government. Korean Women forced into prostitution by Japan were compensated. Milton Bruce
Where was the PSC’s...
From page 4 was violence in previous PNC protests. We now know that some of that violence was carried out or instigated by agents of the other side. But there were many PNC and APNU street protests since then that did not degenerate into violence. For instance, the only 2011 post-election street action that ended in violence was the one in which the police used violence. And for the record there were street
protests on the Correntyne that ended in violence by the protestors. So why this drum beat of doom when it comes to African Guyanese protests? Some of us are familiar with the otherization that is central to racist constructions. Is there an otherization of African Guyanese protests in Guyana? My answer is not important here. What does the evidence show? David Hinds
The PSC cannot... From page 5 exercise a right, in pursuant of their interest. It is in the PSC’s long term interest and this nation’s as a
whole, when persons can stand up and be counted to have the laws of this land respected and the rights of the citizens safeguarded. These matters are sacrosanct and there must be no recoiling in the dogged pursuit to have them upheld. Lincoln Lewis GTUC General Secretary
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
HDC moving to recover $$ from Chinese firm Trinidad Express - The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) is moving to pursue legal claims against China Jiangzu, the contractor involved in the construction of two $26 million towers at Las Alturas, which suffered engineering failure and had to be demolished. So said PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi Friday, adding that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was “well aware” of this. The Prime Minister has announced that Government would establish a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the failed project. Speaking at a news conference at the office of the Opposition Leader in Port of Spain, Al-Rawi noted that this Government has since hired the same contractor, China Jiangzu, to build the $438 million UWI South campus project. Al-Rawi came to the news conference armed with several boxes of documents and files. He said he had the “particulars in minutiae detail of what the HDC board considered”. He gave a detailed history and account of the project. And he threatened to sue PersadBissessar if she dares talk about the issue outside the privileged walls of Parliament. “Because I guarantee you that we would take every black cent that she would pay in cost or damages as a result of defamation of character and of her wickedness in not giving the full particulars in relation to this project. “Her wickedness is going
- PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi to be demonstrated by the black and white paperwork that is in my possession and that she is aware that the HDC ought to have in its possession as well. “There is more to come and we are absolutely secure and confident in our ability to deal with this charade and wickedness and naked political attempt to sully the name of persons in public life,” Al-Rawi said. He said nothing in the packages and the board minutes which he had and which HDC should also have, spoke to any concerns with respect to the geo-technical matters involving the Las Alturas project during the time of his tenure as a director and Keith Rowley’s tenure as a minister. Rowley left the housing minister in November 5, 2007 (when the general election was held) and AlRawi’s appointment as a director on the HDC board was revoked on March 13, 2009. “At no time during my tenure, and in those board minutes, has any information come forward that demonstrated that there was a cause for concern,” he said. “At no point in time do the minutes of the HDC board meetings demonstrate any form of concern such that when a minister of government who receives board minutes, that that minister would have an alarm bell struck and make further enquiry. The board minutes
speak for themselves,” he said. Al-Rawi said the first mention of geo-technical problems came in October/ November 2009. “The geo-technical reports said that the first time that one would have been aware of slippage, concerns or problems on the site, was late October/November 2009. They state further that it was impossible for this fault to have been located,” he said. Al-Rawi said the project was a design and construct one and the contractor, China Jiangzu, engaged experts to do the geo-technical survey, the design and the project management. He said the project was first under UDeCOTT, which built two buildings in Las Alturas. On November 17, 2007, the Cabinet handed over the project to HDC. The two towers in question were built during this phase. “The Prime Minister would be aware, as we are, that there are legal proceedings being contemplated against China Jiangzu International and that there are legal proceedings available potentially against the geo-technical expert, the project manager and the other consultants involved,” he said. He said the Prime Minister, “as a senior counsel” would also know that the contractor and consultants could rely on their constitutional right against self-incrimination before any Commission of Enquiry.
Haitians detained in TCI PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands (AP) – The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands says it has detained 57 Haitian migrants whose boat was intercepted in the waters off the British Caribbean chain. Officials said the group of 43 men, 12 women and two children who were detained early yesterday will be deported.
It is the second large group of Haitian migrants to be intercepted this month by Turks and Caicos authorities. A group of 82 migrants was detained on September 1 as their boat passed near the islands. The Turks and Caicos Islands are located between Haiti and the Bahamas and long have been a destination and smuggling route for Haitian migrants.
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Sunday September 21, 2014
Sunday September 21, 2014
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Court cannot stop no-confidence Dem crooks believe proceedings - Speaker Dem boys seh...
dem have a right to be wrong …and Guyana must follow dem A man did seh that ‘The man who keeps busy helping de man below him, won’t have time to envy the man above him.’ That is A TRUE, TRUE story. But dem got some people who trying to kick down and kick out de man below dem. De man who like dig shit pun people got a woman below he who helping he fuh do dutty wuk and at de same time she helping sheself. This is a woman who like nuff wig. She got different wig, shoes, hat and bag fuh go to wuk every day of de week. Dem boys hear that Donald put a man over this woman and under de man who like dig shit. Dem really vex because dem can’t do as dem like and collect as dem like. This is de woman who collect wrang information that she pass to she boss who then try fuh pressure people. She know de information wrang but de wickedness in she mek she pass on this information and innocent people deh in court today. She collect other things too but all that gun done when de man tun on to wuk. She got to find another source fuh continue wid de lifestyle of changing wig, suit, hat, shoes and bag every day. And dem boys hear that every day since last week she boss does wake up soon and sit down and watch de camera fuh see when de paper vendor coming. Two days ago dem boys hear from a neighbor that he fed up watching de camera in he house suh he go and sit down pun de verandah and wait to see when de vendor coming. Yesterday dem boys hear that he wake up more early and like he nah only fed up watching de camera and waiting in de verandah, he come out and go at de gate. Dem boys seh is de evil and wicked things that he doing to hannest people that mek he can’t sleep in de night. Dem boys tell de neighbor that when dem boys done wid he, he gun get like Marks and he gun come to de Waterfalls paper and sit down and wait till de paper come off de press. Dem boys seh that a peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; and greed is like cancer in the bones.’ Greed does spread and it can destroy every relationship in your life. It does poison yuh attitude by mekkin yuh compare yourself to others. It robs you of joy a n d c o n t e n t m e n t . Yo u become ungrateful and self-centered. De man who like dig shit is a greedy brute, just like de fat crook, de shaat scamp and Jagdeo and he Bees. Some of dem suh greedy that dem does end up biting demself. Dem boys know that God opposes the proud, but favors the humble. The proud are those who think the world revolves around them and dem can do wha dem feel like to it and in it . Dem really corrupt this nation and have no shame about it. Dem believe that dem have a right to be wrong and dem want Guyana to follow that pattern. Talk half and look out fuh de man at he gate tomorrow.
While the politicians on both sides of the House continue to hint at their power play moves for the possible no-confidence motion, Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, made it pellucid that should the government decide to approach the court for a judicial review, that review will not be allowed to interfere during or before the parliamentary proceedings take place. Trotman said that it is the right of the government to bring a confidence motion and they can also ask for a judicial review. The House Speaker said, “The confidence motion is only the reverse of the no confidence motion and from my experience, when opposition parties call for that it is usually followed by that response from the government. Based on what I know and according to the Constitution that would take precedence because the government’s business comes first. Either way, the House will find itself discussing the confidence entrusted in the government and either way, the matter will be settled.” He added, “The government can go to the court for a review but I cannot allow the court to interfere with our work for we are in unprecedented waters. A judicial review can be made after we have made our decision because they have that right but not during the time we have to make a decision or before we make
Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman our decision.” While the opposition may have played one of the most unexpected moves in Guyana’s political history with the laying of a noconfidence motion, there are options available to the government that could either frustrate or simply close the chapter on preparations for early general elections. When the political opposition brought a noconfidence motion, which is premised on the belief that the powers in charge are no
longer fit to run the country, the government has the option of bringing a confidence motion to the National Assembly. A no-confidence motion is a challenge to the government’s ability to run the affairs of the country efficiently. According to a legal officer, once Government brings a confidence motion, it would take precedence over the no-confidence motion brought by the political opposition. This, of course,
would delay the process of dealing with the no-confidence motion in a timely manner. Even if the government does not decide to play this card, it can always resort to calling for a judicial review of the no-confidence motion. This can take a period of six months. The legal officer said that it is not farfetched for one to conclude that the government might go this route, as it has developed a pattern of taking matters to the court when it is not satisfied with a particular decision or ruling of the National Assembly. He explained that even the judicial review, which can take up to six months, can also be granted another extension if the Chief Justice requires such. With this in mind, he concluded that it is highly unlikely, “in spite of all the talk of early general elections” that anything will come to fruition in 2015. Attorney General Anil Nandlall was asked yesterday whether the government has considered using either of the two moves when the National Assembly comes out of Continued on page 64
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Bungled Amaila Road Project…
Govt. still to recover US$1.5M from Fip Motilall/Hand-in-Hand The contract for the construction of the Amaila Falls Access Road that was awarded to Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc was terminated. However, to date, the Guyana Government is yet to recover the US$1.5M Mobilisation Bond he had posted with Hand in Hand. Motilall’s performance bond expired in July 2011 and a replacement bond was not reinstituted. The bond was negotiated and brought into force when the contract with Motilall’s Synergy Holdings was signed in January 2010, for an eight-month duration. That meant that for the latter half of 2011, Synergy Holdings Inc. was operating with an expired bond, pursuant to its stipulations. The bond did carry a stipulation that claims could be made for six months following its expiration. Government did lay claims prior to the deadline, but the claim did not mean automatic payment. Hand-in-Hand had also issued a mobilization bond to Synergy Holdings, but that too expired. Hand-in-Hand in its financial report for the company in 2010 had listed under Contingent Liability, the Amaila Falls Hydropower Road project. In that report it was stated that the Government of Guyana had granted to contractor, Synergy Holdings Inc., the authority to construct the road to Amaila Falls and the Transmission Line Clearing Project.
Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall It said that on March 31, 2010, Hand-in-Hand on behalf of Synergy Holdings Inc., issued advance Mobilisation and Performance Bonds totaling US$1,540,000 each. “At the onset, these bonds were collaterized by a guarantee from WM Fogarty’s Ltd to the extent of US$500,000 for the initial four-month period.” The Financial Report for Hand-in-Hand also said that the, “Advance Mobilisation Bond which expired on November 18, 2010, had since been released by the Government of Guyana.” It further states, “The Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance Company Ltd remains responsible for the current performance bond, which is to be secured by counter guarantees in the form of; Escrow Account to the extent of US$500, 000; Debenture on the machinery/ equipment for the difference.” Hand-in-Hand in an official announcement following the termination of
the contract had stated, “The position of an insurance company with regard to any insurance policy or claim is strictly confidential and would not be disclosed by the insurance company unless required by law or legal process.” The insurance company had also stated that “if a claim is made under a performance bond, it goes through our claims verification and investigation process…This process is performed in respect of each and every claim regardless of size.” Large claims are submitted to the Board of Directors of Hand-in Hand for its consideration. “The Hand-in-Hand is very happy to settle any claim it is determined to be liable to pay.” The formal announcement that Hand-inHand was issuing the bond came during intense scrutiny of Synergy Holdings and Motilall’s ability to complete the road, just one month after inking the contract. It was at that time that Executive Director of NICIL, Winston Brassington, along with his Deputy, Marcia Nadir-Sharma, and Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, hosted a press briefing to quell the brouhaha that followed the announcement by Bharrat Jagdeo that Synergy Holdings Inc, headed by Motilall, had secured the contract. Brassington at that time told media operatives that there need not be any worries given that there were safeguard measures in place to ensure that Government receives what is being tendered for, hence the mobilization and performance bonds. It took more than two years of intense media scrutiny and exposure coupled with the then imminent failure on the part of Motilall before the Government moved against him and terminated the contract.
Sunday September 21, 2014
What’s happening with the fibre optic cable project? A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Joseph Harmon, is calling on the Project Manager of the EGovernance Unit, Alexei Ramotar, to be respectful towards the citizens of Guyana and at least let them know the status of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) project, commonly referred to as the Fibre Optic Cable Project. At his most recent press conference, on Friday, APNU Leader, David Granger, highlighted some of the failings of controversial projects that the government pursued. The ICT project was one of those he identified. Granger said, “This project managed by the President’s son, Alexei Ramotar, has already missed numerous deadlines for its completion. The government underestimated the massive 560-kilometre project and its completion is in doubt. It was originally expected to cost about US$32M.” Harmon, commenting on the state of the project, said that it is totally unacceptable for the Guyanese public to be left out of the loop on projects that attract their tax dollars. He said, “In March, the Prime Minister declared that US$600,000 was left in this major project and that they were then calling in an international company to review what has been done. Up to now we don’t know what happened; whether the company came; what is the cost of the work they had to do, whether in fact that US$600,000 has had been spent…and the project is still to be completed.” Harmon added that it would only be right for the officials to explain to the Guyanese nation what went wrong. “Minister (Ashni) Singh, the Minister of Finance, and Alexei Ramotar must face the nation and say what has happened to this project,
-- Harmon asks Ramotar
Project Manager of E-Governance Unit, Alexei Ramotar
APNU MP, Joseph Harmon
where is it now and where are we going to get the rest of the money to finish it,” Harmon said. Government’s ICT project was expected to conclude last year end after missing its September deadline. Late last year Alexei Ramotar, Project Manager of E-Governance Unit, said that foreign companies were lending their expertise, by examining the laying of fibre optic cable along Guyana’s rough terrain. He said that the cost for the project may significantly increase since local contractors who had bid for the project initially had underestimated the task. Apparently, the laying of a metre of cable could costs US$40 while local contractors had bid way less. The Project Manager said
contractors had complained about the small sum they had bid for the project but government continued with their tasks nonetheless. In the end, only DAX Contracting and Dynamic Engineering completed their works satisfactorily. Sections executed by Mekdeci Machinery and Construction (MMC) and G. Bovell Construction Services have to be redone. According to Ramotar, the contractors who executed poor quality works have not been paid in full for their works and Government’s lawyers are reviewing certain aspects of the contracts. Then earlier this year the government disclosed that it was revisiting its design for the laying of the cables. Nothing has been made known since then.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 13
Sleep-In owner accused of harassing elderly blind man for property The Property at the center of the dispute and the building next to it is the Sleep-In Hotel.
Home Owner Joshua Hector
A concrete fence which was constructed near to Hector’s home
C
lifton Bacchus, the owner of Sleep-In Hotel, is being accused of forcing a 91-year-old visually impaired man to sell his Hadfield Street property for $30M. According to Joshua Hector, 91, he has lived in the same property since 1974 with his wife and children, but five years ago things took a turn for the worse when Bacchus began actively pressuring him to sell his property. Hector said that two close relatives tried to sell the property to Bacchus without his knowledge but did not succeed. When
contacted, Bacchus, the owner of Sleep-In Hotel, said that ten years ago one of Hector’s sons did ask him to make an offer which he did. The offer was for $30 million but the elderly blind father Joshua, said that he was not selling his home so it fell through. Ever since then Hector told Kaieteur News that Bacchus has been trying to get him to sell his property, something he said he would not do as long as he lives. His property is located directly between two buildings owned by Bacchus. Hector told Kaieteur News that five years ago
when the hotel was being constructed on Brickdam he was approached again but he did not accept the offer. The man alleges that as construction progressed, the hotel began to expand towards his backyard. Hector said that another son, Calvin, went to the City Engineer’s Department at City Hall to a lodge a complaint but nothing came of the compliant. Joshua Hector told this publication that an extension to the hotel began about three years ago. He said that as this extension progressed they began to encroach on his fence. He said that the hotel owner along with the contractor eventually broke down the fence and erected a longer concrete one in his yard. Hector said that the hotel owner also constructed two large sheds at the side of his home. “They built the sheds…so now all the water runs into my yard”. Also with the construction of the fence, the drainage in his yard became non-existent. After the second construction, Hector said that he and a son went to the City Hall for a second time. This time several surveying officers came to assess the problem. They determined on the spot that Bacchus had encroached onto Hector’s property. However, even though
the surveyors found this out, nothing much was done to have Bacchus reevaluate the property lines. Hector said they never heard back anything from City Hall since January 2013. Hector said that he has tried numerous times to get the issue highlighted in the press but to avail. “I tried to get everybody to know
what’s going on,” Hector told Kaieteur News. Further, Hector said that he has never attempted to get the courts of Guyana involved since he believes it’s a “waste of time”. “Those matters take time and in most cases they rule in favour for the people with money.” Bacchus said that the Hector children and his
father went to school together and he respects the family. “I don’t interfere with him. The problem is that when guests of the hotel look out of the window they see this old building in which Joshua Hector lives.” Bacchus said that he has to live with the fact that a man has his home and he has to live with that.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Timehri residents concerned over “illegal” sand mining, destruction of roads While it appears that little work is ongoing on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport runway extension project, significant mining activities in the Timehri North community have residents concerned over the destruction of their environment and roads. According to a report from the Community Development Council, several heavy duty trucks belonging to China Harbour Engineering Company (Guyana) Inc. have been traversing the area taking truckloads of sand from within the community and at the same time, destroying the already short stretch of road in the area. The trucks are said to have no license plates while the operators claim to have permission from the government. The Timehri North Community Development Council (TNCDC) explained that they were surprised last Tuesday that CHEC was mining sand from within the community, allegedly with the permission of the government through its relevant agencies. They said that investigations disclosed that last Sunday a few Guyanese labourers, working with CHEC and using a bulldozer, began clearing the parapet that interlocks with the Main Access Road, in the Prison Service Area. “At first, the few residents who noticed the heavy duty piece of equipment being driven along the Main Road were agitated at the fact that
One of the areas where sand mining is being conducted a few yards away from the army’s ammo dump.
CHEC trucks line up to take sand out of Timehri.
the roadway was being destroyed by the heavy equipment since no maintenance was ever done to the road by the government.” As reports of the clearing began to spread, the executives of the TNCDC said that they were able to ascertain that “the clearing was actually to allow for the 25,000kg trucks to pass alongside each other as sand was to be excavated from a site close to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Ammunition Dump. Sand was also being removed from the road that leads to the new area that is now being used for farming. “It must be understood,
that this site is due north, clearly and totally away from the vicinity of the runway expansion and into the community itself. The initial touting that the Chinese were building a road from Timehri North to the Timehri Base Road/ Timehri Public Road was a falsehood. This is what was fed to the curious residents who dared to ask about this new activity,” the Council said. They explained that five heavily laden trucks bearing the markings of CHEC, presumably unlicensed and unregistered, (because they bore no number plates as is prescribed by the laws of Guyana) traverse the public roadways at speeds parallel
with that of minibuses. “On speaking to the Chinese official who seemed to be in charge of the operation, he quickly activated his Apple cell phone, hid it behind his back in his hand, and proceeded to answer questions. The official stated that “your country has given us permission to remove all sand. No problem”. When asked where the permission was, the official stated that it was in his office and that he will be replacing the sand with the pegasse soil (a type of tropical peat) excavated from the expansion site. However, residents say they are more concerned
about the health issues that would soon be upon the community as a result of the unearthing and transporting of the sand. The Council said, “Already, the dust issues are plaguing residents, as large and unusual build-up of dust can be seen on the furnishings and other household paraphernalia.” “The expectancy of sandassociated and related irritants and illnesses such as silicosis, miner’s phthisis, grinder’s asthma, potter’s rot and other such illnesses can certainly have devastating effects on the lives of residents, especially those vulnerable ones like infants and children, those incapacitated and the aged,
those asthmatics and who suffer with any form of lung infection.” The residents said that there has been no public hearing or meeting for whatever applications the government may have given for this form of activity given the type of impact on the environment. The residents said they were neither informed nor warned about the new activities. Last week, residents expressed further concerns about the huge sand pits that are being left within the community, some large enough to trap small children who could unfortunately fall in. “Our children play within Continued on page 64
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 19
IN DEFENCE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY A country has to be governed by laws, not by policy, because policy can be subject to arbitrariness and caprice. No country should subject its citizens to arbitrariness and whim on the part of public officials, because to do so would run the risk of advantage being taken of citizens. Policy cannot supersede law. The law is always paramount to policy and policy has to be consistent and subservient to the law. If the law allows certain actions, then policy cannot make prescriptions that override those laws. One of the unfortunate things with the politicians in this country is that they seek to make policy which imposes conditions on citizens which are not backed by laws. This is the first step towards arbitrary rule. The second step is when those who administer the law begin to believe that they make the law and therefore whatever they say or do has the force of law. The common law has its roots. One of its main roots is the defence of private
property. Indeed, there are some who hold to the view that the very reason why the common law emerged was in order to protect private property. This defence of private property goes to the heart of our legal system. Without our legal system private property would be subject to the caprice of rulers and to the mercy of those with greater strength and force. Indeed, if there was no common law, the State would have free rein in encroaching on the private property of others. A person could be dispossessed of his or her property at the whim and fancy of another and not have any recourse. The defence of private property therefore remains a key aspect of the common law, and by extension, of a country’s legal system. But by also granting constitutional protection against the arbitrary deprivation of property, the laws of most democracies have now placed the protection of property under the law, and in the case of Guyana it is under our supreme law that expressly
protects individuals from being arbitrarily deprived of their property. It is important therefore that the State, and particularly our high-string public officials, be restrained from believing that they can dictate to a citizen how he or she should use what belongs to them. It is the right of every citizen to determine what he or she wants to do with his or her property; be it a house, a piece of land of a vehicle. Obviously this right, protected by the common law, is not absolute. It cannot b e us ed for u n law ful purposes or to deprive someone of his or her legally safeguarded rights. But if I own a piece of property, the State has no role in telling me what I can lawfully not do with it. They cannot for example tell me that if I own a vehicle then I cannot have my children drive that vehicle nor have my friends use that vehicle. It is my property and once it is not used to commit a crime, then no one has any right to tell me what I can do or not do with it. This is not just a
polemical issue; it is not just a legal issue. It goes to the very heart of the relationship between a citizen and the State. The State cannot and should not be allowed to encroach on the private spheres of citizens, because to do so would amount to tyranny. Public officials therefore cannot, either through policy or otherwise, dictate to any citizen how his or her property should be used. Once the State begins to encroach on the private property of others, when it assumes that it has such a right to tell a citizen what he or she should do with what he or she owns, then we are on the road to tyranny and anarchy. The very legal architecture of the country is going to be threatened and the rights of citizens would become like common currency to be traded freely. This is a fate that must be
avoided in Guyana, especially in the midst of those who feel that public office grants them a licence to prosecute personal agendas and settle personal scores. If this threat is not contained, then every citizen big or small, rich and poor, powerful and weak, is in grave danger. The right to
public property must be preserved in all its manifestations.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
DEADLY OBSESSION with a Trinidadian girl By Michael Jordan Eighteen-year-old Nikita Ramischand never saw her stalker as she headed towards the Casa de Belize, a salon located inside the compound of her father’s sprawling mansion at LP 46 Maracas Royal Road, Maracas, St. Joseph, Trinidad. Reports of events that unfolded on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, indicated that before she could enter the salon, someone dragged her behind a guest house on the compound. Nikita’s assailant then slashed her throat and stabbed her six times in the abdomen. The killer then fled. When Nikita failed to arrive at the salon, her mother began calling her cell phone. When the calls went unanswered, the woman, her husband and other relatives began searching for Nikita. They eventually found her bloodied body behind the salon.
STILL ON THE RUN: Prime suspect Ramesh Sookram MURDERED: Nikita Ramischand Detectives believed that of the School of He was 25-year–old the killer, most likely male, Business and Computer Ramesh Sookram, a had scaled a ten-foot razor- S c i e n c e s ( S B C S ) , i n Guyanese construction edged wire fence, located on Trinidad. She was also the worker who had done some the northern side of the daughter of Guyana-born, work for the slain girl’s family home, where he hid Trinidad-based attorney father. And he reportedly had and waited for Nikita. Odai Ramischand. a motive. Ramesh and Nikita Bloodstains were reportedly Questioning close family had reportedly struck up a found on the fence. members, the detectives relationship in 2010, when Nikita Ramischand was a soon identified a prime Nikita was just 16. They second-year ACCA student suspect. reportedly concealed the relationship from Nikita’s father. In January 2012, Nikita’s father hired construction workers to renovate his property and the two lovers continued their relationship. The two reportedly spoke frequently on the phone. But by March 2012, the relationship had soured. When Ramesh reportedly
asked Nikita to get married, she refused. The jilted man allegedly began making threatening phone calls to Nikita. In early April, he had reportedly entered the family property after scaling the razor-wire fence. He reportedly confronted Nikita and began t h r e a t e n i n g h e r, b u t eventually left after she threatened to call the cops. Media reports out of Trinidad suggest that the Guyanese construction worker became more incensed when his exgirlfriend started another relationship. Relatives believe that he began to stalk Nikita. But while the Trinidadian police had a suspect in mind, the alleged killer, Ramesh Sookram, was nowhere to be found. Closed circuit television footage at Piarco International Airport, reportedly showed the suspect in company with a cousin before he boarded a Caribbean Airlines flight to Guyana. One of his hands was bandaged and police believe that he injured the limb while scaling the fence topped with razor wire after committing the murder. Immigration records in Guyana revealed that Sookram entered Guyana the day after Nikita’s murder. He was accompanied by a 16year-old cousin. Sookram allegedly called the slain teen’s mother from an unlisted number the day after the murder. He reportedly insisted that he had not murdered Nikita and
that he only learnt of the incident in the newspapers. He is said to have made several other calls to the grieving mother. Dhanwattie Sookram, the suspect’s mother, told me that Ramesh had telephoned her at around 23:00 hrs on Wednesday, April 25, and said that he was coming home. He then turned up at her Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home the following day at around 09:00 hrs. She denied that he had any injuries and said that her son had not appeared to be nervous. He had reportedly said nothing about the murder in Trinidad. According to Ms. Sookram, her son borrowed her phone to make a call. He reportedly left with the phone and never returned. Ms. Sookram claims he called her on Friday, April 27, 2012. According to her, she has not seen or heard from him since. She said that police ranks twice searched her home and the homes of her two other sons, but found no trace of the fugitive suspect. At the time, Ms. Sookram also claimed that the family was receiving death threats via phone from someone who accused them of harbouring the suspect. Mrs. Sookram insisted that she was unaware of her son’s whereabouts, and appealed for him to surrender. “Wherever he is, let him give himself up, because I can’t take this anymore.” Kaieteur News received numerous calls from individuals who claimed that the suspect was hiding out near a relative’s Soesdyke home. Back then, local police officials had expressed the view that it was only a matter of time before he was apprehended. But that was more than two years ago. If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are 22-58458, 2258465, 22-58473 and 225 8 4 9 1 . Yo u n e e d n o t disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email a d d r e s s mjdragon@hotmail.com.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 23
== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==
A day in the life of a human rights activist If I should die tomorrow, I want to make sure that I print one of the stories you are about to read in print. When you are a human rights activist, people come to you with tales that are so bizarre that even a script writer of horror movies would frown on them. I have had my share of stories that people relate to me that I found so macabre that exasperation drives you to be insulting. But naturally you have to hold back. I begin with the most incredible one in my twentysix years as a human rights activist. It happened last month. I received a call from a woman who gave her name and asked if I remembered her. She said she knows me from my days of association with Jesuit priest, Father Chira of the Catholic Church here in Guyana. I couldn’t identify her, but Father Chira and I were very close until he went back to India. He was one of the nicest Catholic priests I met in Guyana.
She solicited my help in a grave human rights situation. She asked me to make contact with a friend of hers who was being denied his rightful place by his club to play first class cricket. I made contact with him via phone and email. He was angry, contending that he is being denied his entitled place because the club is going for younger men. Immediately Shivnarine Chanderpaul came to mind. He is still playing Test cricket at age forty. I figured that this guy is in his thirties and the club is choosing players in their twenties. I suggested he speak to Khemraj Ramjattan, with the personal recommendation that Khemraj is a strong believer in justice. I sent off an email to Khemraj imploring his intervention. Khemraj replied and informed me he knows of the gentleman’s service to the club and his contribution to first class cricket in the past. Now brace yourself for the horror story. The gentleman still wants
to represent the club in first class fixtures, even though the years have passed and he is now over sixty. Bear in mind, the first class fixture is the stage where after you prove yourself, you move on to represent Guyana, then West Indies selection is near. This man was genuine in his complaint, but he needs to read any of the Tennessee Williams plays on the refusal of the aging to accept that youth goes. Imagine any of the world’s great sports in which a competitor over sixty is playing in a professional league. God! You meet all kinds in this world. A few months back, I met this dapper-looking middleaged man. Judging from the clothes he and his wife wore, they were definitely middle
class. I was at the cashier’s counter at the supermarket. He and his wife were next in line. He said, “Man, I am so sorry you aren’t writing anymore.” I looked up the ceiling, my eyes betraying my confusion; “What was he talking about?” I do five columns a week, making it 20 a month, making it 240 a year. I looked at him, with restrained frustration, and with an intestinal smile on my bamboozled visage said, “I write a column a day, and if I know your name then tomorrow I will do a column and name you in this conversation we are having.” His looks turned to when milk is turned and he was dead silent. I could see the embarrassment on his wife’s
face. Yes, you really meet all kinds in this world. This man liked my writings but has not picked up Kaieteur News in years, even though in those years I have been in the public eyes with a number of controversies, including two attacks on my life and the four-year- old Jagdeo libel case. Plus there are hundreds of annual letters on me between the Chronicle and the Guyana Times. Where is this guy living? Even if he doesn’t read the Kaieteur News, he must know I write often. I met this sad-looking woman at the supermarket last week. She said that she desperately needs my help. She intoned that for four months now her tenants have
Frederick Kissoon not being paying their rent. I enquired of her relatives. She said that she lives with her two grandchildren and she doesn’t want her children to get involved. I inquired of her, “Why then do you want me to get involved?” She stood in puzzled silence. She asked for directions to the law office of Moses Nagamootoo. These are just three instances of the mysteries of human nature.
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Book Review…
Kaieteur News
Revolution through the eyes of a poet
Book: Life’s Many Faces - Fun on the Run by Yvonne SamReviewer: Tatiana Coy writes for Dr Glenville Ashby’s Literary Services The moral of a story is learned at its climax or conclusion. Ultimately, we must determine what we have learned from the author’s pen. Yvonne Sam has written a collection of ballads in “Life’s Many Faces,” conveying a message of positivity, strength and tenacity. A brief synopsis of life’s lessons has been truncated into a collection of poems that can be interpreted by a broad spectrum of readers. Sam has a repetitive but provocative theme. She is for the people - a politically and socially conscious artist, offering counsel to the young, e.g.African Americans. In Black Youth, Sam says, ”tears are useless for memories you must keep. So move on Black youth, let not your mind tire” and “overtaken by the rages and anger on your head Rise up! Rise Up! And play your part.” She acknowledges the emotions of the black youth
Sunday September 21, 2014
while her words encourage them to continue to work hard. The poem affirms African Americans place in society. Throughout, her poems are an edifice, serving as a strong structural platform for the readers who need motivation and reassurance. Imagine is reminiscent of the song written by John Lennon, released in 1971, by the same name. It yearns for the world to be unified. There is that quest for a utopian society where there is no apartheid and a world without war and the poor. It is an ideology pursued for centuries that seems unattainable, as close to it as we have gotten with the inclusion of the 14th amendment to the constitution. We still teeter back and forth per presidential cycles leaving us further away from our goal. Sam’s work is a source for
deep reflection. They confront common issues and allow the reader’s mind to drift where it may. For a moment, she briefly reinterprets long standing literature, especially the classics, Jack and Jill and Little Tommy Tucker, giving it life and relevance to our time. It is deft and craftily executed. She recreates the rhymes into four stanza poems, questioning “where were their parents, didn’t they care?” and “why did Tommy have to sing for his supper?” Today, many blame parents for their children’s misfortunes and mistakes. This touches on the absence of parents in today’s society where young children are left to fend for themselves. It seems that another impending gloom overshadows our youth. The metaphor of Sam’s nursery rhymes are succinct and once again can be further extended
past its four stanzas, into a book of its own. “Life’s Many Faces” covers the importance of a friendly gesture, a nice word to create an idyllic society. Encouragement follows hard truths. Taboo topics are trailed by light, almost ethereal poems that simply embrace the potential of humanity. Topics such as the role of the step-mother and the burden she carries when dealing with a step child, and how they are perceived by an outsider, are craftily tackled. In Step Mother—The Evil Other—she intones, ”step mother to the steps have not given birth still do not deserve the constant heaping dirt…to all the parents some advice I must give: do your best as long as the relationship lives on another fact; let me shed some light; be prepared that you may be alone in the fight.” Sam recognizes that this unique relationship can be perilous for reasons she strikingly spells out. “Life’s Many Faces” is a well defined book that deconstructs social issues, reexamining them through a refreshing and exhortative p r i s m . S p e a k , Friendliness and Unity for All to See are just a few of the offerings that reflect a poet of imaginative depth.
In the end we learn the purpose of “Life’s Many Faces.” For sure, our ills must be treated with Love, the title of the closing poem. And it is this love, its very essence, that will prove to be the catalyst of our redemption.
Life’s Many Faces Fun on the Run By Yvonne Merle Sam Published by XLIBRIS ISBN-13: 978-1483639994 Available: Amazon and EBay Ratings: Recommended
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 25
My column
Khurshid Sattaur uses his positaion to spite people The job of the media is to perform as the watchdog for the society. Left to their own devices, politicians would do things inimical to the interest of the society. History is full of cases of politicians using money that is not theirs to achieve certain things that they would not normally have acquired on their pay. In the United States almost each day the story of a corrupt politician using campaign funds as their own slush funds, politicians buying services of other officials and the list goes on. Some have gone on vacation with people’s money, purchased expensive gifts for wives and girlfriends and even bribed people to help them remain in office. The media has been reporting on these things and there have been prosecutions and convictions. But at no time have the media been made to suffer for the reporting. Of course, there have been cases where people who exposed
corruption actually suffered. Frank Wills, the man who discovered the Watergate burglary, was the security attendant who discovered taped locks in the Watergate office and apartment complex on June 17, 1972. For a while he was seen as a hero but in the end he suffered. He lost job after job and in the end such was the pressure that he had to resort to shoplifting for which he was prosecuted. In Guyana one newspaper, Kaieteur News, has been exposing corruption and behaviour that is not in keeping with people in public office. More recently, the newspaper zeroed in on the operations of a Chinese l o g g i n g c o m p a n y, t h e nepotism in a government department and on some questionable deals, some of which forced the government into action. Toes were squashed and tempers flared. In the end some of the people targeted, decided that they would
use their position to go after the people exposing those things that the politicians wanted to be kept under wraps. Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue A u t h o r i t y, Khurshid Sattaur, was criticized for what was obviously an act of nepotism. For sure, he did not take kindly to the expose, so he decided that he would retaliate in the only way he could, use his office to visit his critic, Kaieteur News, with sanctions within his power. I was on vacation when I learnt that the GRA was going after two vehicles that a remigrant brought in and actually loaned to the publisher of Kaieteur News. When I saw that GRA was going after Glenn Lall for using the vehicles I was surprised, because there is nothing in the laws that says a man cannot loan his vehicle. The cover came off when the GRA decided that
Glenn Lall would be at the centre of the probe. Lall had nothing to do with the vehicles, but Sattaur decided that he should be investigated. This matter is still before the courts and I am sure that it will go nowhere. But Sattaur had shown that he was prepared to break the rules to get after Lall. He leaked confidential information to the state-owned newspaper then claimed that he was acting because the newspaper had raised the issue. There was no way that the Chronicle would know about the vehicles. I know the reporters there and I know that they do not chase after stories readily. T h e n the Chronicle reported on Kaieteur News’s importation of printing ink. All the newspapers import ink from the same source, but the GRA had on one occasion detained a shipment because of the label on a drum of ink. The strange thing is that this probe was limited to
Kaieteur News, although every other newspaper was bringing in ink from the same source. By extension, if Kaieteur News was using ink from extra-regional sources and claiming otherwise then the same should have applied to the other newspapers. Instead, only Kaieteur News was being targeted. Sattaur had exposed his vendetta. Chronicle, to its credit did contact the shipper and got all the answers but Sattaur decided that he was still going to investigate, because Chronicle had started the story about the ink. The people in the wings would have eventually concluded that GRA was merely doing his job, but then this past week I got concrete information that there was a witch-hunt. Kaieteur News got incontrovertible evidence of a plan by former President Bharrat Jagdeo and Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority to break the Kaieteur News. The evidence revealed Jagdeo
Adam Harris advising Sattaur on an impending major audit of the newspaper as a public ploy to defend the GRA and Sattaur against criticisms by the Kaieteur News. This was lawlessness at its best. I must now be worried because it shows that officialdom can target individuals out of spite. I now understand why people always say that they don’t want to say anything because of victimization. Having written this, I now await my role as a target.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Where is the genuine care for the wholesome development of Amerindian communities? By Valerie Garrido- Lowe MP The Pakaraimas is home to twenty-five indigenous communities, high hills and awesome mountains, playful little creeks and picturesque waterfalls … sceneries so beautiful any photographer could not ask for more. It is also home to one of the nation’s first people, the Patamonas, whose great love for their homeland is truly admirable, a trait they share with almost all first nations’ peoples in other hinterland regions. To the few ‘newborn’ and slowly increasing adventurous souls from the coast, the once-a-year Pakaraima Mountain Safari offers excitement, an exhilarating nature challenge and lots of clean, fresh air – all good and positive things. But for the residents of that region it is not a ten-day Safari; it is everyday life and their challenges are double compared to those of our coastal brothers and sisters. Theirs is a continuous fight for their traditional land and resource rights and lifestyle while appreciating the benefits of modernization. Amerindian lands are most important to them and
in the early 1960s, with the advent of Independence, Amerindians had felt then that their lands were under threat once British rule was gone and the new system of governance was in place. That spurred Amerindian activist and the first Amerindian Parliamentarian, Stephen Campbell to petition the Queen in London in 1962 to ensure that, after Independence, the lands on which the Amerindians lived for thousands of years would not be confiscated. However, today, forty-eight years later while celebrating the achievements of Stephen Campbell, it is unfortunate that Amerindians are feeling that their rights are being ignored and their lands are slipping away from them. In the wake of demarcation, which many assumed to be best for Amerindians, a side effect has developed that I am sure was not taken into consideration. This is the fact that the demarcation of villages is causing some amount of confusion and dissatisfaction for many Amerindians, where some of the old, traditional boundaries were ignored and new boundaries were made.
Because of this, some village councils found that their village lands were reduced while others received an added portion of land. Those that were reduced were told to apply for extensions as soon as they had been demarcated; however, many are still awaiting extensions after applying for some years, as in the case of Monkey Mountain where I visited recently. In this village approximately two hundred and fifty-six persons found themselves out of the demarcated area and are now presumed to be living on state land. In 2005, the village council had applied for extension of their lands to include those displaced Amerindians who had been living there since the village was founded, but nothing was done by the authorities. In 2007, they made another request for the same extension but, although they were promised that they would have been given first preference by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, so far both their requests have fallen on deaf ears. The displaced residents are now being referred to as living in Section Two and they are not pleased about it.
Monkey Mountain residents are also expressing their dissatisfaction about another village, Taruka, making overtures on acquiring part of their village as theirs and this includes the area where the two hundred and fifty-six displaced persons occupy right now. Should their request be granted, residents of Monkey Mountain could very well find themselves being referred to as Tarukans. In the case of Paramakatoi, there was an overlapping where Paramakatoi got a piece of Kato’s land which, fortunately, has been corrected. It is no secret that demarcation seems to be having a negative effect on neighbourly relations in all hinterland regions. In the case of Kwebana in Region One, they were demarcated, but when they applied for an extension they found Bai Shan Lin doing brisk logging business in the area they applied for and their new neighbours were not too friendly towards them at all. As one Kwebana resident described, when they worked for Bai Shan Lin they cooked their own food as they are accustomed to, but had to place their pot of food on the ground. They felt bad placing their pot of cooked food on the ground so they decided to build an ordinary bench and placed the pot on it. When
their boss came out and saw the pot on the bench he flew into a rage and started shouting in Chinese, then he kicked the pot of food to the ground and kicked the bench down too. Incidents like these have caused many residents from various villages of Region Eight to believe that the best option for the safety of their lands and good relations with neighbouring villages is to acquire their land en bloc, with all villages of Region Eight included. They have started the discussion process and will be lobbying the Government and Opposition parties to get on board with this programme. And they are not alone in their quest; Region Nine and Region Seven are on the same path. Stephen Campbell must be smiling in heaven right now. I do not think though, that he would have been happy that while the PPP erected monuments to Dr. Cheddi and Janet Jagan for their work done for Amerindians in both Kato and Monkey Mountain, they have not erected any honouring the Amerindian peoples. Every morning in Kato, residents raise the National Flag of Guyana and then the PPP/C Party Flag… in all truth I cannot say which one takes precedence over the other, since I did not ask that question. In Monkey Mountain one councillor told
Valerie Garrido-Lowe me, “Miss, and they put that thing there for Burnham”! I laughed, because while some residents know a little about the monument, most do not know that much and generally come to their own conclusions. But the real issue here is that it seems no one in the Government or in the ruling party ever encouraged Amerindians to erect monuments in their own villages to honour the founders of the villages. After all, these are the people that should be honoured. There should also be village flags proudly fluttering against such beautiful backdrops. But where is the genuine care for the wholesome development of hinterland/ Amerindian communities and the Amerindian as an independent person? Presently, these ideas are taking a back seat while the promotion of the PPP/C Party takes first and centrefold space and I rather suspect that the intention is to dump such monuments in every Amerindian village.
Sunday September 21, 2014
SUNDAY SPECIAL LUNCHEON DISTANCES OP FROM RAMROOP’S INET George Melville, the Chief Executive Officer of iNet Communications this past week boasted that the entire government runs on the infrastructure of that Internet Service Provider but this claim is being rebuffed. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, denied knowledge of the existence of iNet Communications. He said that at least at Office of the President it is the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) that provides internet services for that entity. Dr Luncheon told this publication he can clearly testify to the fact that each month he would sign documentations for payments to be made to GT&T for the provision of internet service. When questioned about iNet and Melville’s brag of supplying the entire government of internet services, Dr Luncheon appeared to be at a loss. He enquired who Melville was. MONDAY EDITION HOLIDAYERS DIE IN ACCIDENT Two overseas-based Guyanese were killed and at least two others injured, after a speeding pickup they were travelling in suffered a blowout and overturned on the Linden-Lethem roadway at around 08.15hrs Sunday. Raymond Khan, 64, of Canada, and Jean Williams, 63, of Trinidad, succumbed on their way to the Georgetown Public Hospital. Kaieteur News understands that they both arrived in Guyana on separate flights on Sunday, and the accident occurred at the Rockstone junction. Sources identified the injured as Leroy Williams; his wife, Sandra Sookdeo; and the driver, identified as Michael Jordan, 43. Sookdeo and Jordan are said to be hospitalized at Linden, while Williams was treated and discharged. Kaieteur News understands that the occupants of the Ford F-1 pickup were in the vicinity of Rockstone, when one of the wheels suffered a “blow out.” Eyewitnesses, who disclosed that the driver was going at a fast rate, said that the vehicle toppled several times before coming to a stop. Persons who were in the area pulled the victims out of the wrecked pickup, but Khan and Williams reportedly succumbed shortly after.
Kaieteur News
RESIDENTS TORCH CAR AFTER DRIVER KILLS GIRL Irate residents torched a car at Letter Kenny, Corentyne, after a speeding driver struck down and killed an 18 year-old girl at around 18.00 hrs Sunday. Reena Devi Singh, called ‘Asha’ and ‘Ashmanie’ of Lot 222 Letter Kenny, had just gotten off a minibus when she was struck down by a blue Toyota, PMM3080. She was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital where she succumbed. According to reports, the 20-year-old driver, reportedly of North Ruimveldt, was about to overtake another vehicle when he struck the teen. TUESDAY EDITION BRASSINGTON SUES OVER ‘FAT CROOK’ REMARK Executive Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, has within recent weeks, filed 17 lawsuits against the National Media and Publishing Company Inc and Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris. The latest filed last week is his most frivolous. Brassington has sued over words appearing in the popular satirical daily column, ‘Dem Boys Seh,’ which he claims was written and published falsely and maliciously and was libelous. The specific words he claims to be libelous reads: “Brazzy, that fat crook think that dem boys is li’l babies. He trying fuh put pacifier in dem mouth filing not one, not two, but 13 lawsuits against them…He accustom putting thing in bag and this would be nothing strange to that fat crook.” This publication, Harris said, will stand by its assertion. He insists that the words referred to by Brassington in his lawsuit are in no way libelous. PROLONGED ABSENCE OF LAND COURT JUDGE IS APPALLING AND UNACCEPTABLE – HARMON Unresolved cases of land
disputes have been sitting on the shelves of the judiciary for nearly a year. The absence of a judge at the Land Court in the Demerara district for that period is primarily responsible for this. And while the adverse effects have been spoken about at length by several litigants, the Guyana Bar Association and even prominent lawyers, the matter is yet to be properly addressed. The court has not been functioning since last year when incumbent Commissioner of Titles Rabindra Rooplall retired. Several lawyers who spoke with this publication lamented that the nonfunctioning Court is affecting some aspects of their practice. One such attorney was Joseph Harmon of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Harmon said that he strongly supports the calls by citizens to have this “serious matter” be in the spotlight once more. The lawyer said that it is appalling that there is no Land Court judge for so long. As for the land matters that have been left languishing, the attorney added that the situation is an unacceptable one and by now, a Land Court judge should have been appointed or at least another judge should have been assigned to it to deal with such matters until one can be officially appointed to fill the position. WEDNESDAY EDITION ONLY ONE OF 858 SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS REACHED DPP – FIU The details of Annual Report for the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for the year ended December 31, 2011, leave many financial critics bewildered, particularly by the fact that out of 858 reports of suspicious activity; only one reached the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). And nothing became of that single case either. The report revealed that as of December 2011, the FIU
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iNet Communications CEO, George Melville commenced receiving monthly threshold reports on financial transactions from four categories of reporting entities; the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Cambio dealers, Licenced Financial Institutions (LFI) and Money Transfer agencies. E.B.D. HIGHWAY…WORKS STALL AS GT&T, BK CLASH A contractor on a key piece of the East Bank Demerara four-lane highway extension has clashed again with one of the country’s telephone companies over excavation works. According to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) the most recent cable damage occurred Tuesday during works by B.K International Inc., just outside the DDL compound on the East Bank of Demerara. “This resulted in disruption to GT&T and thousands of its customers as far away as West Bank and West Coast of Demerara, East Bank Essequibo and the Essequibo Coast.” Road construction along the East Bank Demerara has caused more than 10 disruptions, since 2011, to telephone service, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) said. However, the contractor, BK International, in its own statement, said that the trouble all started when an old GT&T pole fell while
Dr. Ranjisinghi, ‘Bobby’ Ramroop employees were working on the new carriageway. The company said that GT&T workers planted a new pole in the centre of the new carriageway, effectively halting construction on a significant section of the extension project - the area between the Diamond Intersection and the Diamond DSL Supermarket. “BK International crews were working on the new carriageway today when an old GT&T pole collapsed. No BK employee was injured as a result of the collapse but some telephone services on the East Bank were reportedly disrupted. When GT&T crews responded, workers from BK International rendered assistance to pull up the ruptured buried cable.” BK said that the telephone company in February this year had committed to the relocation of its aerial cables and associated fixtures to a new pole route and to relocate buried cables in this area. “However, when the pole fell today it was revealed that the cables remained buried under the active construction area.” THURSDAY EDITION MORE GOVT.AGENCIES DISTANCE SELF FROM RAMROOP’S INET George Melville, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iNet Communications, boasted that the entire
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon government is supplied with internet service by the company. However, more and more entities are distancing themselves from the telecommunications outfit owned by Global Technology. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, was the first, when he distanced Office of the President from the company saying that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) supplies that entity as well as for the One Laptop Per Family Programme. Melville had listed a number of companies including the Audit Office of Guyana, the Guyana Elections Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the privately-owned Stabroek News. Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, following checks with his Information Technology department informed this publication that his office is supplied with internet service through GT&T. A senior official at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) also confirmed that its internet service is provided by GT&T. According to the official, iNet Communications was invited to make a proposal on how they can increase the connectivity of the Commission, but it never went past this stage. The official insists that following the ‘gaffe’ there (Continued on page 43)
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
The Guyanese people demand local government elections The Guyanese people face a grave threat to their constitutional liberties and privileges. The time has come for all good people to demand their ‘inalienable’ right to elect the persons they want to represent them in their towns, villages and neighbourhoods. President Donald Ramotar and the People’s Progressive Party Civic – PPPC – administration have tried every device to derail the legislative process and to delay local government elections. This includes denying assent to two local government bills that were duly passed by the National Assembly and declining to issue the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise a third. The President and his Party have no interest in conducting local government elections. They have no intention of complying with the mandate of the National Assembly. They have no inclination to deepen local democracy. They have no incentive to heed local and international opinion. They have no intention to respect
the spirit and letter of our supreme law – the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. President Donald Ramotar does not have the prerogative to deny our entire people their right to elect their own local and municipal leaders, their right to local democracy and their right even to know when those elections will be held. The President has an obligation, not an option, to comply with the Constitution and to conform to the laws of the country. The President needs to understand that local government elections, like general and regional elections, are a constitutional necessity. He cannot postpone them indefinitely at his pleasure. Elections are not a favour or gift that the President bestows whenever he chooses to do so. The President, by deliberately delaying the holding of local government elections, violates the Constitution. The Constitution of the Co-
operative Republic of Guyana states: “Local government is a vital aspect of democracy…” This makes it obligatory for the President to provide for the conduct of the prescribed periodic elections. The President has refused to assent to the Local Government (Amendment) Bill. He did assent to the Local Government Commission Bill but his appointed Minister of Local Government has not issued the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise the Commission. Both bills were passed by the National Assembly on 7th August, 2013 thereby paving the way for elections to be held. The President, also, has not assented to the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill which mandated that elections be held by 1st August 2014. The President is presiding over an arrogant administration. It has systematically underfunded local democratic organs. It has undermined democratically-elected local councils. It has inhibited their development and impeded
the provision of services to residents. It has rendered the sixty-five neighbourhood democratic councils and six town councils ineffectual. The President’s attitude to local government has resulted in a near-total collapse in local governance. This is evident countrywide where our towns, neighbourhoods and villages suffer from unmanageable mountains of solid waste; unsanitary markets; unsightly surroundings and unlit and unsafe streets and alleyways. We t h e p e o p l e m u s t now take any and all lawful actions to defend our local democracy, to uphold the constitution and to secure our civil rights. We must combine the efforts, energies and enterprise of the entire nation in our campaign to restore local democracy to Guyana. The President must be reminded that, six months ago on 6th March 2014, several foreign missions and local non-governmental organisations issued a joint statement expressing their collective hope that local government elections would be held by 1st August 2014. That statement was signed by the British High Commission; High Commission of Canada; Embassy of the United States of America; Berbice Chamber
of Commerce; Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry; Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Guyana Association of Women Lawyers; Guyana Bar Association; Guyana Manufacturing and Service Association; Guyana Trades Union Congress; Justice Institute; Private Sector Commission and Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. We the people must work together through renewed municipal and neighbourhood councils to make our homes, villages and communities safe, sanitary, pleasant and prosperous for ourselves, our children and old folk. Our quality of life will not improve unless we stand up against the further decline and degradation of our communities and stand up for our democratic institutions and values. The demand for local government elections is a national necessity – a common cause. It is not a partisan project. We the people deserve a good life. We demand that the President respect the constitution of Guyana. We demand that the President respect our democratic right to elect our own representatives. We demand that the President issue the
‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise the Local Government Commission. We demand that the President initiate a process by which the Local Government (Amendment) Bill could be returned for his assent. We demand that the President desist from obstructing the holding of local government elections. We demand that the President announce the date for local government elections to be held. We have called on the President to simply set the date o n w h i c h l o c a l government elections will be held. He has not done s o . We h a v e t h e r e f o r e embarked on a campaign of lawful, orderly, peaceful public protests – including picketing, rallies and vigils – to raise public awareness of the threat to our collective rights. We call on all Guyanese to join this campaign to challenge the President to hold Local Government Elections without undue delay. *This article is based on the text of the Address to the Nation by Brigadier David Granger, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, on the conduct of local government elections in Guyana, on 18th September 2014.
Sunday September 21, 2014
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Sunday September 21, 2014
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Head of State boasts of improvements in education - encourages young teachers to offer skills in interior locations
A
President Donald Ramotar addressing the gathering at the National Park
lthough it isn’t viewed as a simple task, the Ministry of Education is on an ambitious quest to raise the quality of education it offers. Speaking at the Education Month rally on Friday at the National Park, Head of State, Donald Ramotar, made no bones of vocalising that while his Government has been busy putting infrastructural measures in place it is yet faced with the challenge of raising the quality of education. And in order to achieve this goal, the President spoke of the need for keen support, particularly from young teachers. As such he made a call for “our young teachers, who are pioneers, to take up the challenge to go into the remote areas, into the interior areas, where they can make an important contribution...” This is particularly important, he noted, because based on reports out of the Education Ministry the farflung areas of the country are lacking enough qualified teachers. “We have to correct that and the young are the most pioneering in spirit and for that reason I would expect the young teachers will take the challenge to go learn (about) and fall in love again with our beautiful country,” declared the President. And while some persons may be convinced that life in the interior may be too much of a challenge, President Ramotar assured that the experience could in fact be a memorable one. Alluding to his own travels, he revealed that he has been able to travel the country extensively, as well as throughout the world. He therefore noted that “I can say without fear of contradiction that the beauty that this country possesses: in our people, in our landscape, generally is second to none that I have seen everywhere.” According to him, too, every opportunity “I get to travel to the interior or to travel along the coastline I fall in love again with my
country and I am sure many of you should take the opportunity to see what a beautiful land we have, to cherish it, to protect it and to move it along.” And according to the President, his Government has over the years been directing much investment into the education of its children with a view of ensuring that the future is a better one for the country. And it was because of this investment, he noted that Guyana is today able to boast the highest enrolment in nursery schools. In fact he asserted that the nursery enrolment Guyana has been able to record is better than what obtains in the entire Caribbean. G u y a n a ’s i m p r o v e d nursery enrolment is characterised by an additional 2,681 children in the system, which was realised through an initiative of the Ministry to admit children earlier to schools. Previously a child had to be three years old by March 31 in order to enter Nursery School in September of the same year. However, with the revised undertaking by the Ministry, children were from this year able to enter the nursery level in September even if they would have turned three in June. According to the Ministry, based on its figures drawn from the 10 administrative regions, there has been an average increase of 23 per cent to the enrolment. CURRENT STATISTICS Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery), Ms Ingrid Trotman disclosed that from the 465 new children enrolled in nursery schools in Region One, 115 are from the new age cohort. This figure accounts for 25 percent of the total number enrolled. In Region Two, the Ministry saw 989 new children registered for nursery school of which 158 or 16 per cent are from the new age cohort. Region Three enrolled a total of 1, 845 new nursery children of (Continued on page 40)
Sunday September 21, 2014
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Head of State boasts of improvements in education From page 34 which 311 are from the new age cohort. This number amounts to 17 percent of the total children enrolled in that Region. The number of new children benefiting from the new nursery age in Region Four amounts to 580. This figure equals 20 percent when juxtaposed with the total number enrolled for this new school year which totals 2,934. And then in Region Five, 895 children students were registered, of which 150 are of the new age cohort
accounting for 17 percent of the entire number registered. In Region Six, the total number of children registered for nursery school is 1,206. Of that number 314 are from the new cohort and represent 26 percent of the pupils registered for this new school year. In addition, Region Seven enrolled a total number of 177 new nursery children of which 47 are from the new cohort; accounting for 27 percent of the new children enrolled for this new school year. Region Eight registered
198 new children of which 42 or 21 percent are from the new age cohort, while Region Nine registered 58 new children as a result of the new age cohort amounting to 17 percent of the 339 total number of nursery school children registered. The only Region to show a 49 percent enrolment rate of children within the new nursery age cohort is Region 10. Of the 1,165 nursery children enrolled, 568 or 49 percent are from the new age cohort. And in Georgetown there
were 1,823 new nursery children registered of which 338 or 19 percent are from the new age cohort. MEASURES IN PLACE With the increased number of children attending nursery school across Guyana, the Ministry has made arrangement for additional furniture to be procured as well as new books and toys. Moreover, an increased number of nursery teachers have been recruited and strategically placed to absorb the increased intake of nursery
school children within the sector. The Ministry, after announcing the new nursery age earlier this year, held a number of public consultations across the country to inform parents of the essential things they needed to do in order to prepare their children for entry into the nursery school environment. Parents were encouraged to ensure they teach their children simple, but important things such as feeding themselves and using the toilet. The change of age for enrolment at the nursery level came because of pleas made to the Minister during the national outreaches which has therefore allowed for thousands of children across the country who would have had to wait until September of 2015 to start school to benefit from an early start to their formal education. And according to the President, “the earlier we involve our children in schools, the earlier we get them into the atmosphere of learning, the more we expect them to be a success and be able to carry on; not only to pass their exams but to live
successful adult lives as well.” In order to accommodate an increase in nursery education, the President disclosed that his Government has been building nursery schools in almost every community throughout the country. But while the nursery level of education is seen as crucial, the President also stressed the extreme importance of primary education as well. And primary education, according to him, is equivalent to the foundation of a good and strong building. “That is why I am proud of the achievements that we have made in primary education,” said the Head of State as he alluded to the fact that Guyana has been able to achieve universal primary education. This undertaking, according to him, is simply Guyana’s efforts towards producing more solid and well qualified individuals, an undertaking that is bolstered by the availability of secondary education. Currently Guyana is working towards achieving universal secondary education.
Sunday September 21, 2014
From page 27 was no movement towards iNet providing GECOM with internet service and rather, internet service is supplied to the Commission through GT&T. A Government Ministry has also denied being serviced by iNet Communications. Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Agriculture, George Jervis, has also sought to distance that entity from iNet Communications. GT&T TELECOMMUNICATIONS LICENCE PROHIBITS OTHERS – DR. MAHADEO “While iNet Communications Inc has said that it has had a Telecommunication Licence for many years, I do not know any company other than the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) or Digicel that received a Telecommunication Licence.” This is according to former Chief Executive Officer of GT&T, Dr. Yog Mahadeo, who further insists that GT&T’s licence precludes any entity from being granted a telecommunication licence except in the mobile arena. George Melville of iNet Communications has claimed that the company is in receipt of a Telecommunications Licence for over 14 years now. According to Dr. Mahadeo, what happened was that the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) through the Government of Guyana gave “permits” to a few entities for use of a certain frequency – for free.“These permits were, I believe, restricted to the sale and distribution of internet access and were given to ENetworks, Quark Communications Inc and iNet.” According to Dr. Mahadeo, it is important to note that while the company received free frequencies, Digicel and GT&T had to pay per a complex formula for the spectrum. He said, too, that what was more intriguing was that the “freeness” was backed by granting “permits” to use what is usually known as the open spectrum. “It was clear that the Government of Guyana avoided any legal challenges from GT&T by issuing these permits (instead of licences).” Dr. Mahadeo observed that the main persons behind these three companies, ENetworks, Quark Communications and Nexlink, are known to everyone. One of them even appeared in the list of candidates for one political party at election time. FRIDAY EDITION
Kaieteur News
GRANGER DECLARES PROTESTS FOR LOCAL GOVT. ELECTIONS Repetitively using three key words from the preamble of the Constitution—”We the People”—Opposition Leader, David Granger on Thursday issued an address to the nation, in which he detailed the “grave threat” that the Guyanese people are under and that the time has come for citizens to take all possible legal action to protect themselves. “We (A Partnership for National Unity) have called on the President to simply set the date on which Local Government Elections will be held. He has not done so. We have therefore embarked on a campaign of lawful, orderly, peaceful public protests – including picketing, rallies and vigils – to raise public awareness of the threat to our collective rights. We call on all Guyanese to join this campaign to challenge the President to hold Local Government Elections without undue delay.” Granger said that all “good people” must now demand their ‘inalienable’ right to elect the persons they want to represent them in their towns, villages and neighbourhoods. He asserted that President Donald Ramotar and the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration have tried every device to derail the legislative process and to delay local government elections, including not assenting to two Local Government Bills that were passed by the National Assembly and declining to issue the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise a third. He said that Ramotar and the PPP “have no interest in conducting local government elections. They have no intention of complying with the mandate of the National Assembly. They have no inclination to deepen local democracy. They have no incentive to heed local and international opinion. They have no intention to respect the spirit and letter of our supreme law – the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana”. SATURDAY EDITION APNU SEEKS DISCUSSIONS WITH PRESIDENT TO “FORESTALLFINANCIAL CATASTROPHE” Even as it prepares to vote yes to a No-Confidence Motion that has the potential of forcing President Donald Ramotar and his Administration out of office, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is calling on
the Head of State to hold “serious” discussions to forestall a “financial catastrophe.” The opposition coalition’s leader, David Granger made this call on Friday as he hosted his weekly press conference at his Hadfield Street headquarters. Granger recommended that Ramotar hold these “serious” discussions with the opposition and other stakeholders and said that this should be done soon. The Opposition leader stated that the multistakeholder review would reexamine the current flawed infrastructural expansion strategy, re-order national developmental priorities, remove misfits from managerial positions, correct errors, place the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited( NICIL)’s finances totally and firmly under parliamentary control and stop the massive waste of public funds. He sought to justify such a call as he pointed out that “Donald Ramotar’s presidency is failing.” He said that all the “flagship projects are floundering, the strategy for infrastructure development he inherited was monumentally misconceived and have degenerated into a series of serious and costly blunders.” US$20M EAST BANK FOUR-LANE ROAD…PUBLIC WORKS MINISTRY MISMANAGED PROJECT, CAUSED DELAYS - BK INT’L The quarrel over the removal of utility lines to facilitate extension of the four-lane extension on the East Bank of Demerara, has taken a turn for the worse with
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the contractor of a critical section on Friday accusing Government of mismanaging the project. As a matter of fact, the delays could see completion going beyond next year. According to BK International’s Managing Director, Brian Tiwarie, “the problem with this East Bank Expansion Project is that the Ministry of Public Works is not doing a good job of management and supervision and as a result the work is constantly being extended by delay after delay.” Tiwarie went further: “…at this rate, the project may extend to 2015 or beyond. As a company, we continue to lose money on equipment and labour stationed on the East Bank every time there is a
delay.” The problems started Tuesday after BK was reportedly working around the DDL turn in Diamond. An old pole of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) fell, damaging underground cables of the company, and disrupting services to several areas, including commercial banks, the hospital and an insurance company in Diamond. GT&T, in a statement criticizing BK, said that the extension project from Providence to Diamond has seen almost a dozen disruptions in Diamond since works started almost three years ago. GT&T had accused BK of misrepresenting the facts and being unethical.
The Ministry of Public Works said that BK had not been given permission to work in the area where the pole was. GT&T had rushed to the site on Tuesday, planting a new pole in the middle of what BK said would be the new carriageway. The planting of that pole effectively stopped the contractor from doing its works, the contractor said. BK, in its statement challenged the Ministry of Public Works to support its charge that the GT&T cable damaged recently was in an area not assigned to BK by the consultants. BK also refuted GT&T’s statement that the pole was outside of the area that it was agreed to carry out contract works in at that time.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Stroke – cerebrovascular accident (CVA)
A Stroke is a medical condition where the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or severely reduced, thus depriving brain tissue of oxygen and food. A stroke may be caused by a blocked artery (ischemic stroke) or a leaking or burst blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke). Some people may experience a temporary disruption of blood flow through their brain (transient ischemic attack, or TIA). Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. A stroke is a medical emergency and treatment need to be prompt in order to save the patient from severe brain damage and even death. In Guyana, stroke is a common problem and the risk factors are prevalent. Some factors can also increase your chances of having a heart attack. Stroke risk factors include: Lifestyle · Being overweight or obese · Physical inactivity · Unhealthy/unregulated eating habits · Heavy or binge drinking of alcohol · Use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines Potentially treatable conditions
· High blood pressure — risk of stroke begins to increase at blood pressure readings higher than 120/ 80 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg). Your doctor will help you decide on a target blood pressure based on your age, whether you have diabetes and other factors. · Cigarette smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. · High cholesterol — a total cholesterol level above 200 milligrams per decilitre (5.2 millimoles per liter). · Diabetes. · Obstructive sleep apnea — a sleep disorder in which the oxygen level intermittently drops during the night. · Cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, heart defects, heart infection or abnormal heart rhythm. Other risk factors · Personal or family history of stroke, heart attack or transient ischemic attack. · Being age 55 or older. · Race — AfricanAmericans have higher risk of stroke than do people of other races. · Gender — Men have a higher risk of stroke than women. Women are usually
older when they have strokes, and they are more likely to die of strokes than are men. Watch for these signs and symptoms if you think you or someone else may be having a stroke. Note when your signs and symptoms begin, because the length of time they have been present may guide your treatment decisions: · Trouble with walking. You may stumble or experience sudden dizziness, loss of balance or loss of coordination. · Trouble with speaking and understanding. You may experience confusion. You may slur your words or have difficulty understanding speech. · Paralysis or numbness of the face, arm or leg. You may develop sudden numbness, weakness or paralysis in your face, arm or leg, especially on one side of your body. Try to raise both your arms over your head at the same time. If one arm begins to fall, you may be having a stroke. Similarly, one side of your mouth may droop when you try to smile. · Trouble with seeing in one or both eyes. You may suddenly have blurred or blackened vision in one or
Start early for a lifetime of good vision and healthy eyes If your mother told you to eat your carrots so you’d be able to see in the dark, she was right. It turns out that feeding kids carrots is just one of a number of things parents can do to promote a lifetime of healthy eyes and good vision. Other things include regular eye exams, and sunglasses or hats to shade kids’ eyes, experts say. While so-called refractive error (that is, the need for vision correction) and eye disease is sometimes hereditary, and some eye disease is congenital, some issues are preventable, said Dr. Ron Weber, an Atlantabased ophthalmologist. For example, myopia, or nearsightedness, “not only has a genetic component but is also influenced by how kids use their eyes during childhood,” he told Reuters Health by phone. He said that extended close work, such as reading, has long been suspected to cause nearsightedness. Recent support for the association has come from a study (online here: bit.ly/1tYhqKD) in which people with a higher level of education were more likely to have myopia,
purportedly because they spend more time reading or working on computers. Another study (online here: bit.ly/1wxsiUl) showed that children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to become myopic. But these findings don’t mean kids should be discouraged from reading or working on the computer. Instead, Weber suggests, make sure a child’s environment is well-lit while they are doing close work. Parents should also help kids get into the habit of holding their reading material at the optimal distance – about 18 to 22 inches, he said. Finally, taking a break every five
minutes or so, to let the eyes relax and focus on an object in the distance, will also help. One of the most important things a parent can do to help head off eye disease and vision problems is to make sure their child gets regular eye exams, beginning early in life. “The majority of vision problems in children are preventable and treatable,” said Dr. Ida Chung, president of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. “Eye conditions, whether hereditary or not, can best be managed by having the child receive their first eye examination as early as possible.”
both eyes, or you may see double. · Headache. A sudden, severe headache, which may be accompanied by vomiting, dizziness or altered consciousness, may indicate you’re having a stroke. Seek immediate medical attention if you notice any signs or symptoms of a stroke, even if they seem to fluctuate or disappear. The longer a stroke goes untreated, the greater the potential for brain damage and disability. To maximize the effectiveness of evaluation and treatment, you’ll need to be treated at a hospital within three hours after your first symptoms appeared. If you’re with someone you suspect is having a stroke, watch the person carefully while waiting for emergency assistance. A stroke can sometimes cause temporary or permanent disabilities, depending on how long the brain lacks blood flow and which part was affected. Complications may include: · Paralysis or loss of muscle movement. You may
become paralyzed on one side of your body, or lose control of certain muscles, such as those on one side of your face or one arm. Physical therapy may help you return to activities hampered by paralysis, such as walking, eating and dressing. · Difficulty talking or swallowing. A stroke may cause you to hav e l e s s control over the way the muscles in your mouth and throat move, making it difficult for you to talk clearly, swallow or eat. You also may have difficulty with language (aphasia), including speaking or understanding speech, reading, or writing. Therapy with a speech and language pathologist may help. · Memory loss or thinking difficulties. Many people who have had strokes experience some memory loss. Others may have difficulty thinking, making judgments, reasoning and understanding concepts. · Emotional problems. People who have had strokes may have more difficulty controlling their emotions, or
they may develop depression. · Pain. People who have had strokes may have pain, numbness or other strange sensations in parts of their bodies affected by stroke. For example, if a stroke causes you to lose feeling in your left arm, you may develop an uncomfortable tingling sensation in that arm. People also may be sensitive to temperature changes, especially extreme cold (central stroke pain or central pain syndrome). This complication generally develops several weeks after a stroke, and it may improve over time. But because the pain is caused by a problem in your brain, instead of a physical injury, there are few treatments. · Changes in behaviour and self-care ability. People who have had strokes may become more withdrawn and less social or more impulsive. They may need help with grooming and daily chores. As with any brain injury, the success of treating these complications will vary from person to person.
In a new study, the vast majority of kidney failure patients told researchers they saw no need for a kidney transplant because they were doing fine on dialysis – but the researchers say these patients might not realize how much a transplant could help them. “Nobody is doing fine on dialysis to the point where a transplant wouldn’t be better for them,” senior author Dr. Dorry Segev told Reuters Health. “Transplantation is the better form of renal replacement.” A kidney transplant doubles a recipient’s life expectancy, said Segev, a transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His group’s study, published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, showed a gap in dialysis patients’ knowledge about the benefits of transplants over dialysis, Segev said. Researchers surveyed 348 patients being treated at 26 Baltimore-area freestanding dialysis centers, asking whether a dozen potential concerns constituted reasons they would not pursue a transplant. The average age was 56 and half the patients had been on dialysis for at
least two months. Overall, more than 68 percent of the patients told researchers “I’m doing fine on dialysis.” The older the patient, the more likely they were to report feeling fine on dialysis, the study found. Less educated patients were more likely to report being content with dialysis than those with higher degrees, the study found. Almost a quarter of patients had not seen a nephrologist (a doctor who specializes in kidney disease) before starting dialysis – and these people were almost twice as likely to report that no one had discussed a possible transplant with them. Nearly 30 percent of participants reported feeling uncomfortable asking a friend
or relative to donate a kidney, the study found. The authors say such reluctance to ask friends and relatives to donate kidneys is consistent with prior studies. Also consistent with prior studies, the researchers found that women tended to be more fearful about transplants than men, with 26 percent of women saying they feared a transplant compared to less than eight percent of the men. Women do just as well after a transplant as men, if not better, Segev said. “That’s another area where we need to work on education and assurance,” he said. In sum, he said, the study points to a lack of education for renal-failure patients about the benefits of kidney transplants.
Kidney patients know little about transplant benefits
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 45
Judge dismisses wig lawsuit against rapper Nicki Minaj
Leonardo DiCaprio named U.N. messenger of peace for climate
A judge has dismissed a $30 million federal lawsuit by a celebrity hair stylist who accused rapper and former “American Idol” judge Nicki Minaj of stealing his designs for the colorful wigs that helped boost her career. Although the wigs Minaj wore are “unique and distinctive in the ordinary sense of the word,” they were not recognizable by the public as having been designed by Terrence Davidson, the stylist who
brought the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy ruled Thursday. Davidson, whose celebrity clients include singers Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson, began working for Minaj in 2010 and designed her wigs for highprofile events worldwide, said the suit filed in Atlanta last February. The rapper also wore Davidson-designed wigs in a music video for the song “Super Bass,” according to
the lawsuit. One of Minaj’s best-known wigs is called the “Pink Upper Bun.” When Davidson stopped working for Minaj more than a year ago, the pop star began copying his wig designs and selling them online, he alleged. D a v i d s o n ’ s representatives claim it is the first-ever intellectual property lawsuit over wigs. They did have an immediate comment Thursday on the suit’s dismissal.
Hollywood actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio has been named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, a post he will use to raise awareness about climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said on Tuesday. DiCaprio will address a U.N. summit meeting on climate change on Sept. 23, a day before the U.N. General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders begins. Many leaders from the 193 member states of the United Nations are expected to attend the climate session. “Leonardo DiCaprio is not just one of the world’s leading actors,” Ban said. “He has also a l o n g - s t a n d i n g commitment to environmental causes, including through his foundation.” I n 1 9 9 8 , t h e actor established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, whose mission is protecting Earth’s last wild places and building a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world, the United Nations said in a statement. The
Hollywood actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio
organization has contributed funds toward protecting tigers in Nepal, elephants in the wild, and marine animals, including sharks. “I feel a moral obligation to speak out at this key moment in human history - it is a moment for action,” DiCaprio was quoted as saying in the statement. “How we respond to the climate crisis in the coming years will likely determine the fate of humanity and our planet.” DiCaprio, 39, added that it was an honor for him to accept the post. The Academy Award-
nominated star of “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Aviator” joins other celebrities past and present, from Audrey Hepburn to Angelina Jolie, who have represented various U.N. organizations. There are currently 11 other messengers of peace and one goodwill ambassador, the United Nations said. Other messengers who advise the world body on a variety of issues include actors Michael Douglas and Charlize Theron and author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Singer Taylor Swift leads People Magazine’s best-dressed list Mexico lawmakers seek to fine Miley Cyrus for flag spank while twerking
A Mexican state legislature has asked the country’s federal government to fine singer Miley Cyrus after one of her dancers spanked Cyrus’s backside with a Mexican flag as she “twerked” during an independence day performance. Cyrus, 21, who has grabbed headlines for her admitted drug use, sexually suggestive dancing and wearing as little as a pair of boots in a music video, was performing in Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. Local lawmaker Francisco Trevino said that the Nuevo Leon state legislature had approved a warrant for the Interior Ministry to enforce the law on use of the flag. She or her team could be fined up to the equivalent of around $1,200 or be detained for 36 hours, Trevino said. Mexican authorities are often sensitive toward signs of disrespect for national symbols. In 2008, singer Paulina Rubio was fined for posing without clothes but wrapped in the country’s flag.
Pop star Taylor Swift, who has adopted a sexier look on red carpets, was named People magazine’s bestdressed celebrity of the year on Wednesday. Swift led the annual unranked list of the top 10 best-dressed celebrity style icons that also included Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, singers Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna and actresses Emma Stone and Emma Watson. Rising starlets Chloe
Grace Moretz and “Mad Men” actress Kiernan Shipka tied for a spot on the list, rounding out the 11 honorees. Swift, 24, opted for figurehugging ball gowns, cropped tops with skirts, sequined mini dresses and most recently at the MTV Video Music Awards, a derriere-skimming Mary Katrantzou alphabet romper that she told the magazine “was a risk.” The singer described her own style as “feminine, leggy and
ever-changing.” “Scandal” actress Kerry Washington was named world’s best dressed woman last year, but she did not feature in this year’s list. People also named its best-dressed celebrity couples, which include singer John Legend and model wife Chrissy Teigen, country music couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert and late night talk show host Seth Meyers and his wife Alexi Ashe.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 53
Five Guyanese on abandoned oil tanker for 19 months T
r i n i d a d (Newsday) - Five Guyanese who have been living for the past 19 months on a Nigerian oil and gas vessel docked in Trinidad waters, have vowed not to leave the ship unless they are paid US$215,000 in wages. The M T Tumini has been docked a mile off Trinidad Cement Limited’s jetty with the Guyanese holed up in there since July last year, coming to shore only every three weeks to fetch drinking water and food. Wi t h l i t t l e f u n d s remaining, however, having been paid July 2013 wages in January this year, the Guyanese are pleading for intervention by the Trinidad and Tobago government to seize the ship under International Maritime Law. Attorney Nyree Alfonso has written to the vessel’s former owner in Nigeria, Petroleum Brokers Shipping Services Limited, threatening to arrest the vessel and sell it in order to meet the wages of the Guyanese crew. With the crew running out of funds to even purchase drinking water, the
Guyanese made a desperate plea for local intervention Friday, telling Newsday that they sought assistance from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in London, who advised them not to leave the vessel, for fear that they would lose their wages. M T Tumini was first purchased by Petroleum Brokers Ltd of Nigeria in 2008, from a Florida-based company which worked the vessel in the Caribbean, transporting fuel. However, after the Nigerian company purchased the vessel, it never sailed due to extensive repairs that were needed. A Nigerian bank - Eco Bank, took over the mortgage on the vessel and continued to finance its operations in Trinidad. A five-member crew from Guyana was hired to man the vessel. They are: Rakesh Jim (Chief Officer); Roy Fredericks (Chief
Engineer); Lawrence Daniel (second Engineer); Mohammed Gadwah (second officer); Neil Rampersad (Assistant Engineer/oiler). These men are still aboard the vessel, and up to Friday, spoke to Newsday seeking the T&T government’s intervention, claiming that it seems that Eco-Bank has abandoned the vessel in Trinidad. “We have not been hearing anything from the authorities in Nigeria about the fate of the vessel, and our salaries for the past 19 months. We are the crew maintaining the vessel,” one of the men told Newsday yesterday. The Guyanese crew has not left the vessel since July last year, except to use a dingy to get on shore at Claxton Bay to purchase water and foodstuff to take back to the vessel. Newsday was shown written correspondence
from the ITF, dated February 6, 2014, in which Angie Robinson (Maritime Operations, London)) advised the five Guyanese crew members not to
abandon the vessel as it would be difficult for them to recover their wages. Alfonso’s letter threatened that under Trinidad and Tobago law, if the vessel
remains in local waters, judicial arrest proceedings could be taken out to move the court for an order for sale of the M T Tumini, in order to settle the crew’s wages.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Guyana Foundation appoints educationist to Board of Trustees
T
he Guyana Foundation has announced the appointment of Vidya Seekwar-Jaisaree to its board of Trustees. She will serve a two-year term commencing on October 1, 2014, and brings a distinguished record of achievement in the education sector in Canada to her new role. A former student of The Bishops’ High School as well as Queen’s College, she pursued her post-secondary education in Ontario, Canada where she graduated with a B.A. Honours in French and English. She went on to pursue a career in education, holding both a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Education. Ms. Jaisaree has worked in the elementary school system in Ontario as a teacher, a vice-principal and a principal in both English and French schools. She holds special qualifications in the teaching of French as a Second Language and children identified as gifted. She is also a trained Reading Recovery teacher, a programme designed to offer intensive support to young at-risk readers. Ms. Jaisaree’s work as an educator extends beyond the elementary school system. She has worked as a Course Director at York University, training prospective teachers in the pre-service education programme and supporting and coaching them as they practiced their craft in various classrooms. She has also worked as a Programme Officer at the Ontario College of Teachers where she was involved in reviewing and developing the Standards of Practice and Ethical Standards for the teaching profession in Ontario. In 2013, she was seconded from her position as principal in a French Immersion school to contribute her expertise as a Student Achievement Officer with the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat at the Ontario Ministry of Education. In her current role, she is engaged with educators across Ontario in raising achievement levels in literacy and numeracy and ensuring equity of outcomes for all students. She offers support to teachers, principals and
Vidya Seekwar-Jaisaree superintendents as they develop and implement system and school improvement plans. Ms. Jaisaree is a passionate educator who sees education as the single most effective way to allow children to reach their potential, regardless of social or economic circumstances. She has worked as a member of a Parent and Community Engagement Committee, focused on engaging parents as partners and advocates in their children’s education and making schools safe and inclusive places of learning. She credits much of her success to the strong educational foundation she received in Guyana. As someone who benefited from a strong public school system in Guyana, Ms. Jaisaree looks forward to giving back to Guyana some of what she was fortunate enough to have received. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to the work of the Guyana Foundation. According to Founder of the Guyana Foundation, Mrs. Supriya Singh-Bodden, “the decline in literacy levels in Guyana has been of tremendous concern to the Foundation. We have been actively seeking out like-minded individuals to build and strengthen our work in the area of literacy, and are confident that Vidya’s experiences as an educator in Canada will be invaluable to us. We are so delighted that she is a part of our team, and look forward to the new programs that she will help us to develop to bring improvement to the lives of Guyanese.”
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 59
Church of The Nazarene Prime Minister visits parents of celebrates sixtieth anniversary Letter Kenny teen accident victim Prime Minister Samuel Hinds paid a courtesy call on the parents of Meena Devi Singh, 18, who was struck down last Sunday evening along the Letter Kenny Public Road on the Corentyne. The official was accompanied by Region Six Chairman, David Armogan; and Members of Parliament, Faizal M. Jaffarally and Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo. Singh, called ‘Asha’ and ‘Ashmanie’ of Lot 222 Letter Kenny, had just got off a minibus when she was struck down by a blue Toyota, PMM3080. Singh, the only girl for her parents, was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital, where she succumbed. The driver, 20-year-old Andrew Johnson, was released on $600,000 bail on Wednesday during his first appearance at the Whim
Pastor James Morgan about to donate blood at the church’s Medical Outreach Programme. The Church of the Nazarene located at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, celebrated sixty years of existence and service to the local community on Friday last. Several exciting activities were planned to mark the milestone, including a Community Fair (barbeque dinner and a concert) and a Medical Outreach Clinic held last Saturday, which provided medical services free of cost to members of the community. The highlight of the programme of activities will be the grand church service today at 14:00 hours. During its sixty years of existence, the Church had a total of fourteen Pastors, some of whom emerged from the laity. The current pastor of the Church is Reverend James
Morgan who has held that position for a number of years. According to Pastor Morgan, the Church has over the years been actively involved in providing for the less fortunate. “We have provided food, clothing, paid medical and funeral expenses and made donations in cash and kind to orphanages and impoverished individuals,” he said. The Pastor added, “While our main emphasis is on things spiritual, we also encourage our members and friends to embrace good health practices and pursue education in order to enjoy a very good life. As a church we give thanks to Almighty God for reaching the sixty year milestone. We give honour, glory and praise to
God for the difference He has made in the lives of so many believers.” The Church of the Nazarene is an international organisation with its headquarters in Kansas City, United States of America. It operates in 159 countries with a membership of about 2.3 million. In Guyana there are two districts – Demerara/ Essequibo and Berbice. Each district has a Superintendent who oversees the churches under his purview. It is an evangelical Christian denomination which emphasizes “holiness” as a way of life for believers. The Church of the Nazarene had its origin in the year 1954 and was the first established Christian Church in the Herstelling community.
The story of Jesus being told to children via a puppet show during the children’s concert.
Magistrate’s Court. Hinds sat and chatted with the parents. He told them that accidents do happen, “but everyone needs to ensure that accidents are few...” Guyana is having too high an accident rate on the roads, “and it is a concern of the government which is trying to prevent things like speeding, often drinking and driving. Sometimes being on the cell phone contributes and sometimes pedestrians, too, are not as careful as they ought to be.” The dead girl’s parents told the Prime Minister that their daughter had plans to become a nurse and had commenced studies at the School of Nursing. Singh’s cremation will take place today.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Amerindian Ministry official threatens legal action over news report on sex affair Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Nigel Dharamlall, has threatened legal actions against HGP Nightly News, following a news report Friday which alleged that the official beat a staffer over a triangular love affair.
In a letter dated yesterday to the Beterverwagting news outfit E d i t o r- i n - C h i e f , B a s i l Bradshaw about a newscast aired on Channel 16/Cable 67, Dharamlall’s lawyer, Sase Gunraj, said that his client is vehemently denying the allegations. The lawyer demanded a retraction and apology. The newscast on Friday did not name Dharamlall but said that a top official within the Amerindian Ministry
could soon lose his job over “allegations of physical assault, which stemmed from a triangular relationship.” The newscast said that the unnamed official beat a staffer in his office. The matter was reported to the police and Minister Pauline Sukhai. The report was headlined, ‘PS IN HOT W A T E R AGAIN...ANOTHER CASE OF STAFF ABUSE’. According to the lawyer, the report suggested that his
client committed a criminal offence or several criminal offences; and “is abusing and/or misusing the office of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affair.” “Please be informed the aforesaid publication is indisputably libellous and has caused my client great p ublic ridicule, odium, contempt, embarrassment, humiliation, both locally and internationally and has caused disparage to the
office of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, which he holds.” Dharamlall demanded that the newscast publish a retraction of the “libellous” statements and offer an unreserved apology within 48 hours from the date hereof. “If you fail to do so, I have instructions to institute legal proceedings against you and the publisher of the HGP Nightly News.”
Permanent Secretary, Nigel Dharamlall
Sunday September 21, 2014
FOR SALE LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754. Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call:225-9032,647-2943 Used electrical motor, 60HZ, 440Volts, 30HP, 6 0 H P, 7 5 H P, 1 2 5 H P, 150HP,200HP (in excellent condition) contact: 601-3194 or 266-2207
Kaieteur News
FOR SALE Massey Ferguson 590 tractor backend $150,000. (1) 575 Massey Ferguson working condition - Call: 682-7710, 668-9380 Xbox 360 S&E systems, games, harddrives, controllers & Accessories, HDTVS also available - Call: 683-8386 1 Ice-o-matic cube machine 1600lbs, single phase - Call Vick: 220-2136
Salad bar, bar stools, popcorn maker, sesame street walker, electric deep fryer, Epson projector with screen- Call: 669-0366
House for sale and immediate removal – Call: 225-1886, 628-9500, 6251974 Canadian rebuilt Perkins Duetz engine, Lincoln generator welder, model M with winch, 320 excavator – Call: 691-2921
American bully purely bred pups razors edge bloodline Contact: 6674845, 220-7933
Ricker Filter for excavator or trucks Contact: 697-2550, 613-1810
Dressed and mill cut lumber: Kabukalli, silverballi, greenheart, crab wood etc – Call: 688-6579 Brush cutter, pressure washer with car accessories, six seat dinning set - Call: 669-0366 Bearings 32228, 23224, etc Tel: 662-9889 Complete equipment for water dredge, hardly usedEnglish Perkins outboard engine radio set etc.Contact:693-3779 6600 Ford engine $300,000, Massey Ferguson 390 (double drive) backend engine, gearbox, front axle &650,000- Call:682-7710, 668-9380 Pork $300 LB in 25Lbs, Salted Pork - $300LB, George & Hadfield Streets – Tel:6094594, 266-2711 Massey Ferguson 390 4X4fully renovated – Call: 6886274, 691-3851, 338-2591 All sizes in outboard motor & diesel generator, Toyota Tacoma, Ford F150 – Call:682-5474 Dachshund puppies $10,000 – Tel:694-3567, 2160521 One 1200lbs ice machine $200,000 negotiable - Call: 231-0655, 683-8734 Honda Generator DX 5000W, new $340,000 or best offer, Detroit diesel turbo charger 91-92 series - Call: 697-2550, 613-1810 Cheap! One Nikon D70 S/R Camera, 1 Seiko Yachting timer watch – Tel: 692-0659
Fridges imported from brands, whirlpool, frigidaire, Maytag - $150,000 –Tel: 6882717 or 689-8528 Brand new: 1 coats tyre changer, 1 lawn mower, 1 pressure washer, 1 compressor – Tel:267-2329; 691-5588 Massey, Yanmar Ford 5000 Logging/ Agriculture Tractors, parts, Loader & Ford Truck- Call:615-1578/ 694-3595: Tools & Chainsaw668-2831 Brazilian Virgin Human, hair, curly/straight/wavy, 12"-30" long, low wholesale price – 200 pieces available –Tel: 6224215 Two mining blocks in Kurupukari, for sale – Call: 655-6889, 655-8499, 660-2324. one(1) house lot in Peter street Parika -Contact:6500402
LAND FOR SALE Prime Land @ Corriverton, 1.3 Acres, roadside land suitable for gas station/ hotel/ shopping mall, etcCall: 626-6245 Parfait Harmonie $1.3M & in a high income area - $2.6M (100ftX50ft), Herstelling $4.5M (110ftX56ft) -Tel: 6757292. Diamond/Grove New Scheme, First Bridge, Corner lot with foundation and post - $7M - Tel:603-9700
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VEHICLE FOR SALE
WANTED
SALON
FOR RENT
We buy & sell vehicles for cash, also parts available & 30 seater buses; Extra Cab pickups; 2006 TacomaCall:680-3154
Over edge and straight stitch operator to work at garment factory-Call 222-2541Monday to Friday.
Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad. Call: 660-5257, 647-1773
PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 GT TOOL RENTALS: PUMPS; CHIPPING HAMMER RANSOM; SANDING MACHINE 30% OFF, SAWS & DRILLS (FOR SALE) - CALL: 6750767, 667-2535
SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.–CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620
Apartments at Nandy Park, E.B.D - Call:227-5194/ 624-5194 One nails table - Tel: 602-5469 Place for bond/office or other - Call: 680-9905
AT192, 212, Allion, unregistered Premio, Hilux Surf, BNN, RZ & Pit-bull, 7 seater super custom. Cash / terms- Call: 680-3154 Noah Spacio, Premio, Rav4, Reverse Camera, TV registered and unregistered Tel: 697-0294 Smart Choice Auto unregistered Spacio (old & model) Allex, Voxy, Bluebird, Premio-Call:652-3820,665-4529 One Hilux 4 door pick up off Road Wheels, Off Road Suspension, A/C - $2.5M Negotiable - Tel: 699-1300 Mercedes Benz 1986 original “Baby Benz” air locks, automatic, good condition $2.5M Neg – Call:614-6655 Toyota Raum, FunCargo, AT212, AT192, EP71 Starlet, L-Touring Wagon, Hilux Surf 4 - Runner & Vigo - Tel:6445096, 697-1453
One DAF 55 Sand Truck drivers with mechanical experience. Preferably in the Land Of Canaan areaTel:227-5585 Cashiers, salesgirl, porters and a domestic maid, Apply to 1E Dennis & Middleton Streets Campbellville Barber position at Top Salon, top salary minimum, 1 year experienced needed Contact: 614-6655 Experience dispatchers & drivers with minibus & hire car license to work for a reputable transportation service- Call: 645-0025 Counter attendants, Roti/ puri cooks, apply @ Shanta’s, 255 Camp + New Market Street Couple or small family to live and work at New hope E.B.D Tel: 266-2711, 6094594
First Class Auto: Allion, Premio, Spacio, Fielder, Sienta, Runx, Bluebird – Tel:609-8188, 602-6307 Unregistered Premio $2.3M Negotiable, fully loaded - Tel: 226-5473
Porter & Canter driver, must be from W.C.D 40yrs and older - $30,000 - Call: 684-8231 One male or female to work in the interior in a shop – Tel: 669-6030
Toyota RAV 4 PKK Series, lady driven, good offer - Call: 609-8425
Florida Real Estate, We buy all Low & High income house lots in Guyana - Tel: 652-2018
1 Toyota land cruiser Prado PMM Series – Call: 219-5354, Monday to Friday – 8:154:15PM, Saturday 8:15-1:15PM 1-Dodge Ram 4x4, model 2002, 4 wheel drive $2.6M. 1F150 model 1999 $2.2M- Call: 674-4929 Black Mercedes Benz C200, new Altezza (sports look) & AE100 (loud music, average 6m- Call:679-3140 Star Cars Auto:- In stock: Allions, Premio, Spacio, Fielder, new Raum - Call: 6793140 Toyota Noah /Voxy, unregistered - $1.9M - Call: 603-9700 Toyota Spacio 2006 model, Toyota Rav4 2001 Model – Call: 231-2431 or 664-5114
One cook to work in a kitchen in the interior – Tel: 681-6044 Attractive live in waitressCall: 327-0252/674-4665 One cook at Hibiscus – Tel: 231-5857 Couple to live in: Husband (Labour), Wife (domestic), no rent, good rate – Tel:227-1830 Handy boys to work free live in accommodation & meals – Call: 228-5655, 628-1756
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 Bus service available for school children- Call:6188394 FOR LOW COST: REPAIRS TO FRIDGE, FREEZER, A/C UNIT, MICROWAVES, TV & WASHING MACHINE CALL: 629-4946 OR 2254822
Hire cars; contract cars & drivers at Atlas Taxi Services – Tel:661-3043 Labours for wood concession, accommodation provided - $5,000 per day – Call: 618-0487
Blowout Sale!! Unregistered, New model Raum- bodykit, TV, spoiler, Alloy Wheels, alarm - $2,250,000 – Tel:6436565; 226-9931
One male Bahier $100,000 monthly – Tel:694-2310 Handyman with gardening experienced – Call:2312076 Female worker needed, 3 CXC subject or sound secondary school education. Call: 612-1607
Salon Stations @ 51 Robb & Albert Streets to rent, must have clients – Call:2314010, 627-8277, 669-6110 One bedroom furnished apartment for rent – Tel Winston: 660-6446 1-2 Bedroom house at Grove, Married working couple, preferred - $40,000 monthly – Tel: 266-3179 or 675-9971 1-2 Bedroom apartment located at BB Eccles – Contact:233-5139 Commercial Space for rent at Lot 12 North Road – Call: 6628715, 680-1198 One downstairs with 3 bedrooms at 26 Hill St, Albouystown –Contact: Bibi at same address, preferably decent working couple Restaurant and bar for rental – Call: 669-0366 Complete salon, barber shop – Contact Simone: 227-0501, 626-5317
Hello the doctor is back, have your gas stove repaired and service - Tel: 601-0595, 685-1301 BrianMoe@642-3543; Computer Technician; FB:Brian.Moe.165; Home and office visits at your comfort!!
Wash bay workers @ Classic Ride Wash bay, Nandy Park – Tel:233-5227
2004 Subaru Impreza WRX: AWD, manual, 2L Turbo, PKK Series, 81,000 KM $2.8M Negotiable – Tel: 6987104
One Leyland DAF dump truck with Hiab – Contact:6711608 Unregistered Premio with Rims - $2.250 – Call: 657-1796
Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call Sabita: 225-6496, 662-6045
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/ 690-6494.
EDUCATION IAE (Secondary Educational) 194 Camp Street, register for Forms 1-5, Lessons, CXC Adult Classes for repeaters & beginners Tel: 223-0604; 683-5742 Institute of Academic Supremacy Forms 1-5, CXC Adults Classes for repeaters / beginners $1200, Grade 6, 9 Lessons - Call: 231-5678, 690-5008 Foundations of home nursing, child care & care for the elderly courses - Call: 692-2063, 613-0803, between 7am to 3pm and 8pm to 10pm Starting on 4th October 2014: Maths Lessons Forms 2, 3,4,5,6 & private CXC, contact Sir Das on Tel:6543159 A.S.A.P at 44 Delph St Campbellville G/Town (Continued on page 64)
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Timehri residents concerned... The CJIA runway expansion site as recent as Thursday. (From page 63)
MASSAGE The Gent’s Spa: Be pampered by beautiful masseuses, new attendant Candy, four hands massages, drinks available – Tel: 657-5979 VACANCY
PROPERTY FOR SALE 3 Storey business property @ Middle Street G/Town opposite GPHC, 2 business property @ Whim Public Road Corentyne – Call:2315171, 619-7134 Two storey concrete house (26X45 ft), 4 bedrooms, 3 washrooms, grilled with electronic security @ Granville Park, Beterverwagting - Tel: 672-6169 One concrete new flat house 28X34 with foundation for 2 storey behind $6.8M negotiable @ Parfaite Harmonie WBD – Call: 604-3568, 661-8700 2 Storey wooden & concrete with 3 bedrooms situated in Canal #2 W.B.D - Tel: 686-8173 3 Bedrooms, large kitchen, big balcony, land space (can hold 4 houses). @ East Canje, Berbice. GYD$15 M neg. Tel: 917-622-0934, 305964-5389, 333-6386. One 25X50 2 storey building - $15M & One house lot $1.2M @ La Parfaite Harmony W.B.D - Contact: 622-1782, 687-7553 Fully A/C, suitable for business, address: Section ‘C’ Enterprise. For more info contact: 668-2230, 626-3901 One unfinished house @ Parfaite Harmonie - $4.3M – Call: 601-3469, 600-1062 Apartment building Located Lot 68 William Street Kitty, Price - $35M negotiable – Contact: 674-9266 Property for sale, 8 Street Foulis, Enmore Tel: 2563360, 685-8485 Albouystown: Corner Spot Business and residence, 3 bedrooms upstairs, parking - $11M negotiable – Contact: 227-0583 Property at Covent Garden E.B.D – Contact #265-6679, 678-7186 One property in Nandy Park EBD – Tel:655-6889, 6558499, 660-2324
LEARN TO DRIVE Soman Son & Outar Driving School at Maraj BuildingTel: 644-5166; 622-2872; 6150964; 689-5997
24 Hour East Coast Guyoil needs night pump attendants, salesgirl, office assistant & handyman- Call: 669-4755/ 695-9880
Certified massage therapist @ Kneading Solace, hot stone & sauna facilities. Appointments only – Call: 628-4422, 671-3456, 618-0853 American Style massage services- Call:678-7499
Live-in housekeeper to care for infant, ages 35-45yrsCall:697-8797 Driver must have a valid hire car license. Apply with written application & passport picture @ Survival sheriff St.- call:227-5286/9 Experienced maid, applicant must be 25years & older must be able to cook, clean & care for kids- Call:227-5289 LORRY DRIVER and Factory Assistant living on E.B.D, GUARD for Land of Canaan, accommodation available. 266 4427 Work from home & earn $5,000-$20,000 daily Contact Jobfairworld - Tel: 233-6517/ 622-1957, www. jobfairworldwide.com, free training available
DRESSMAKING Jean offers courses for dress making, curtains, floral arrangements, cake decoration - Lot 153 Barr Street -Tel: 618-1706, 670-2653 ACCOMMODATION Aracari Resort W.B.D. One mile from harbor Bridge – Rates $40USD, Double occupancy, breakfast included - Tel: 264-2946
Experienced Bartenders and cleaners- Call:225-8572 between 7am-9am Hairdressers, apply with written application to West Shore Plaza W.C.D Tel:2691524, 656-3561 Exist for an experienced accountant. Apply to 21-22 Hinck Street – Georgetown. Email: gavinhec@gmail.com Real estate vacancy at GME Realty, please text your information to Mr. Waaldijk 658-3011 One person to operate super bet machine - Tel: 625-5322 One welder and fabricator of mining parts – Tel: 642-7898 Trainee Computer Repairs Technician, ages17-25yrs, address application to ‘Trainee Technician’ POBOX10566, September 30th 2014 One part time, weekend domestic, must resides on West Bank Demerara – Tel: 664-9923 FOR SALE/FOR RENT American pool table - 2770578 Located @ Lot 5 Block ‘K’ Waller’s Delight W.C.D - 4 bedrooms all self contain. Price $2500000 / per month $100,000 - Tel: 674-4929/ 662-0187 Land Situated at Omai and Mabura – Contact:651-9473, 656-3228
TO LET Furnished and unfurnished two bedrooms apartment & rooms in Eccles, for short or long term – Tel: 690-6494; 225-3234 Newly built 2 bedroom semi furnished bottom flat in Festival City, asking price $80,000 - Call: 619-2141 after 4:00 Business place to let situate in De-Willem Public Road W.C.D – Contact: 625-9743 One bedroom apartment in Grove E.B.D – Tel: 687-7376
From page 14 these areas, we farm here and work here and this is not healthy,” one resident told the newspaper. Farmers are also fearful that the sand mining activities will reach new farming areas since it was after an argument with farmers and the Chinese earlier in the week which lead to them ceasing clearing activities a few yards away from the farms. These farmers were removed from their initial farming area and claimed to have lost hundreds and thousands of dollars in revenue as a result of the
destruction of their produce. Another resident complained about the continued destruction of the roads by the Chinese workers. Despite the road being in a deplorable state for numerous years, residents claim that it was not as bad as the Chinese equipment now have it. Heading towards the South Dakota race circuit, Chinese workers turn off the main road to head to a loam pit, but the road they use is now almost impassable, the man said. He said his car has on numerous occasions been
stuck in the mud, until the Chinese company, on one occasion, had to pay for repairs to his vehicle and a complete wash since mud had gotten inside the car. The loam and sand, the residents said, are being taken out of the community and not being used on the runway’s expansion. They said, in fact, work has hardly been done on the runway project. One Chinese worker who spoke with Kaieteur News at the expansion site on Thursday said the site is “very soft.”
Court cannot stop no-confidence... From page 9 recess in October. “I will comment on our moves at the opportune time,” he said. However, a government official has confirmed that talks have already begun as to how the administration plans to effectively deal with the political opposition’s noconfidence motion. While talks of a possible judicial review and laying of a confidence motion are in the
air, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC). Khemraj Ramjattan, had stated that he had reliable information that three parliamentarians from the Opposition’s camp are expected to be bought to vote against the no-confidence motion. However, government has dismissed such allegations and has called on the attorney to make a report to the police and release forthwith all information that he supposedly received from his source. Ramjattan said that it comes as a surprise that those two options are now on the table for the government and though speculative, he said that the Constitution is most explicit when it comes to a no-confidence motion. He said that once this motion is passed by a majority of the Parliamentarians of the House, the government must resign within 90 days and elections held thereafter. “Based on my legal opinion, there is nothing that
causes that motion to be subject to judicial review, but knowing the busybody called Anil Nandlall (Attorney General), he will take it to the Chief Justice, and I rather feel that he will make short shrift of it.” “The only people that can block this motion are the movers of the motion or the parliamentarians by not voting for it, and that is the limit in relation to that, so I am not in any way scared…We have got reliable information that the PPP’s answer to the no-confidence motion is not what is being said, but at least by buying off three parliamentarians at $30M each to vote no, rather than yes, and that’s the only way…and that’s the only option they have.” Leader of the A Partnership for National Unity, David Granger, said at his recent press conference that he was not aware of such claims made by Ramjattan but is certain that if any opposition member is to be bought, it would not be any from his team.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Jagdeo/Sattaur plot to destroy Kaieteur News...
Page 65
Cop kills man after victim assaults policewoman
Dead: Adrian Bishop
Senior police officials were last night grilling a police constable who allegedly killed an unarmed man who had reportedly assaulted a female rank in Hill Street, Albouystown. Police sources confirmed that Adrian Bishop, said to be about 28, was shot in the right side of his neck around 17.30 hrs in the vicinity of Hill Street and Punt Trench Dam, Albouystown. At the time Bishop, who had a lengthy criminal record ranging from carjacking, assault and armed robbery, was sitting in a police minibus in which the arresting ranks had placed him. The sources confirmed that Bishop was unarmed, while the police constable, who is seconded to the Brickdam Police Station, was armed with a shotgun. Albouystown residents and police sources confirmed
that Bishop, who is said to be from Campbellville, had struck a policewoman with a bottle a few minutes before he was slain. Some residents alleged that the female rank is a former girlfriend of Bishop’s. Kaieteur News was told that the injured policewoman made a report at the Brickdam Police Station. She then accompanied about three of her colleagues back to the scene in a “silver-grey Pitbull bus.” According to some residents, Bishop was walking south along Hill Street towards Punt Trench Dam when the policemen arrived. Eyewitnesses alleged that the ranks began to assault the unarmed Bishop before forcing him into the police vehicle. They alleged that while Bishop was sitting in the bus, a policeman, who was outside the vehicle, pushed a
shotgun through one of the windows and shot Bishop. Eyewitnesses claimed that immediately after, the apparently confused rank walked towards Punt Trench Dam and threw down his weapon. Some angry residents hurled missiles at the vehicle, but the policeman’s colleagues retrieved the firearm and drove to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where Bishop was pronounced dead. Bishop and two others had appeared in court a few
weeks ago for allegedly hijacking a businessman’s car in Cross Street, Alexander Village, Georgetown. They were released on $100,000 bail each. In August, Bishop was remanded for allegedly robbing Marlon Henry at gunpoint of a motor scooter and other items. In May, 2008, Bishop was charged with robbing Lester Simon and Kenrick Lawson, respectively, of their cars at gunpoint Police allege that Bishop was in the habit of resisting arrest.
GPHC constructing $7.1M decontamination FACILITY FOR SANITATION WORKERS The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) recently commenced the construction of a new decontamination facility, which will be utilized by the hospital’s sanitation workers. According to GPHC’s Director of Facilities Management, Kamal Harricharran, the building is estimated at $7.1M, with Simcon Engineering receiving the contract to con-
GRA's boss, Khurshid Sattaur, reportedly illegally facilitated the import of these three luxury vehicles to Chinese-owned, Bai Shan Lin. From page 3 members within the ruling People's Progressive Party/ Civic and Government are determined to silence the voice of the independent media. “The use of the Guyana Revenue Authority, a body to which members of the public entrust their most private information, as a weapon against the media is a dangerous development indeed, and a violation of press freedom… “Kaieteur News is forced to ask what other tax information has not been
compromised by Sattaur and Jagdeo?” Lall opined that it is time for Sattaur to step down as Commissioner-General of GRA with an independent, criminal investigation launched to enquire the role played by Jagdeo, and to ensure that the tax agency is operating within its mandate. “We also call on President Donald Ramotar to take steps to prevent Mr. Jagdeo from interfering further in his administration of the country,” Lall said.
struct it. He noted that the building will house three bathrooms, three toilets, a storage room and locker-room facilities for the staff after their daily duties. Harricharran said that the hospital has 16 sanitation workers who will be utilizing the facilities for their daily decontamination process. “Sanitation workers deal with the removal of infectious
and non-infectious waste material from the hospital. This facility is being built so that the staff can clean and decontaminate themselves after work, so as to promote cleanliness and prevent the spread of diseases in the hospital,” he said. He noted that the sanitation staff is mainly responsible for monitoring the hydroclave system and main-
taining cleanliness of the hospital’s environment. The construction commenced on September 8 and is expected to be completed by November 8.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Caribbean told to proceed with caution on ganja decriminalization St Thomas, US Virgin Islands: Caribbean Governments are being warned to proceed with an abundance of caution in relation to the decriminalisation and legalisation of marijuana. The call was made by one of the respected medical associations in the region, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), during the State of the Industry Conference now under way in the US Virgin Islands. In a televised presentation to delegates at the annual conference Friday, head of CARPHA, Dr C James Hospedales, declared that Caribbean governments should “proceed with an abundance of caution, given the significant adverse effects of cannabis smoking on health and social and occupational functioning, and especially so among youth”. He also argued that even the Dutch have been pulling back from some of their liberalised approaches with respect to marijuana. The CARPHA executive’s proclamation did not go down well with US Virgin Islands senator Terrence
‘Positive’ Nelson, himself a Rastafarian. Nelson believes it is time CARICOM “adopt” marijuana as a Caribbean commodity that markets itself to the world. He argued that informally, the Rastafarian community in Jamaica played a key role in terms of the country’s tourism offering. He pointed out that if ganja smoking was legal, more people would come to the Caribbean for the weed. Hospedales said the region already has two major legal substances-abuse concerns - alcohol and tobacco - which cause a tremendous amount of harm. “In the case of the latter, it is harmful when used as directed, and in all its forms, hence the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.” He noted that many different types of publichealth and scientific studies clearly demonstrate significant adverse effects of cannabis smoking on physical and mental health, as well as its interference with social and occupational functioning. According to him, these negative data far outweigh a
few documented benefits for a limited set of medical indications, for which safe and effective alternative treatments are readily available. “If there is any medical role for cannabinoid drugs, it lies with chemically defined compounds, not with unprocessed cannabis plant,” Hospedales said. On the question of decriminalisation of the weed, he flatly disagreed, stating that this would result in significant neurologic, cognitive, behavioral, and physical consequences of short- and long-term marijuana use, which are well known. “These include negative effects on short-term memory, concentration, attention span, motivation, and problem solving, which clearly interfere with learning.” There are adverse effects, he said, on coordination, judgment, reaction time, and tracking ability, which contribute substantially to unintentional deaths and injuries among adolescents (especially those associated with motor vehicles); and negative health effects with repeated use similar to effects seen with smoking tobacco.
Cuba to privatize 9,000 restaurants Havana (AFP) - The Cuban government announced plans Friday to sell nearly 9,000 state-owned restaurants to private operators, the latest step in the communist island’s economic reforms. Cubans frequently complain about the country’s 8,984 state-owned restaurants, which are famous for poor quality, bad service and running out of food. Deputy Trade Minister Aida Chavez said the state
would sell them off in a gradual process starting in 2015. “Cuba will substantially change the structure of its food services in the coming years, with the gradual and orderly transfer of the industry into the hands of the non-state sector,” she said, according to the state-run National Information Agency. Chavez said the government would rent the buildings where the restaurants are located to the
new owners but sell off all other assets, from stoves to chairs to utensils. “The decision... aims to modernize a sector that today demands services with the quality and security the Cuban people, and the tourists who visit us, deserve,” she said. Cuba currently has 1,261 private restaurants that offer better-quality food and service at a higher price than state establishments. Known as “paladares,” they were first authorized by former president Fidel Castro in the 1990s. Initially, Castro only allowed family-run restaurants with a maximum of 12 seats, but today they can seat up to 50 guests and hire staff. That has been a key development for the country’s tourism industry, which draws nearly three million foreigners to the island each year. Cuba has begun gradually opening its economy since Castro, the 88-year-old father of the island’s communist revolution, ceded power to his younger brother Raul in 2006. But the reforms have so far failed to deliver the hopedfor boost to economic growth.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Rowley: Probe LifeSport too Trinidad Express Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley wants to know why the Prime Minister has not ordered a Commission of Enquiry into LifeSport which took $400 million or into the $36 million paid to Adolphus Daniell under the programme. Rowley also noted that no Commission of Enquiry was ordered into the Beetham Waste Water Treatment plant, which was awarded to an SISled consortium at a cost which was $400 million higher than the next ranked bidder. He said he understood that this contract was now being sublet by the Government’s “favourite contractor” to another contractor. The Opposition Leader also raised the fact that no Commission of Enquiry was ordered into the purchase of land for $175 million by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) under the tenure of current Minister, Roodal Moonilal, when that same land was valued by “one of the most prominent valuators in the country”, Lindon Scott, at $52 million. He was responding to the Prime Minister’s announcement of a Commission of Enquiry into the Las Alturas Housing project at a news conference Friday at the Opposition Leader’s Charles Street office in Port of Spain. Rowley also wants the Prime Minister to state what
...PM orders Commission of Enquiry into the Las Alturas apartments criminal liability did she accept as Minister of Education for the purchase and renovation of the BH Rose Hardware in 2001, a building which was deemed to be wholly unsuitable for use as a school. “She was directly involved in advancing that public purchase as Minister of Education... One can’t get more direct responsibility than that,” he said, adding that there is no school there now and the matter has disappeared from the radar. Rowley also wants to know why the Prime Minister did not implement the recommendation of the UFF Commission of Enquiry and initiate a further enquiry into the Valsayn Housing Project which cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” and which was done by UDeCOTT, NUGFW and Hafeez Karamath. Rowley said the only action the Prime Minister has taken is to appoint the NUGFW leader as a senator and Vice-President of the Senate. Rowley said newspaper articles showed that in January, 2010 residents began to be fearful about the apartment cracking up. Resident expressed their fears again in articles published in November 19, 2010. He said in November 6,
2010, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal told the Parliament that the Las Alturas Towers were built on a “gravel heap”. By May 2011, Government was saying that the Morvant apartment may be demolished. He said one would have assumed that if the situation warranted a Commission of Enquiry, there would have been one long before now. “I can tell you this is nothing more than political grandstanding, political mischief and it is part of the UNC campaign, seeking to create a subject on which they could speak in the election. “Because they can’t speak about LifeSport, about crime, or the number of Cabinet reshuffles held or the economy and other issues...so they create an issue for an election campaign conversation. And how best to do that if you can draw the Leader of the Opposition into some liability in that matter?” he said. Rowley said the Commission of Enquiry had the potential to derail or delay the efforts of the HDC to recover the public monies through the contractual legal arrangements between HDC and its contractor, China Jiangzu.
DPP: Jamaica must rise above ‘informer fi dead’ culture Jamaica Observer - Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn is imploring Jamaicans to be responsible and rise above the ‘informer fi dead’ culture, in support of the fight against crime. Llewellyn said the police alone cannot solve every case without getting the assistance of members of the public, who must be courageous enough to come forward and not be intimidated by criminal elements. She was addressing a Criminal Justice Seminar at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday. In the fight to bring criminals to justice, the DPP lamented that law enforcement and prosecuting authorities have to be grappling with the “dysfunctional moral compass within the public psyche”, where many persons have become indifferent to rising crime, upholding the belief that “if it is not happening to me, then it doesn’t really matter”. Quoting lyrics from a dancehall song advocating the ‘informer fi dead’ culture, Llewellyn noted this ‘spoken culture’ seeps into the consciousness of potential witnesses who may come from a particular stratum of society. “In fact, it is all pervasive and it helps to feed this apathy and indiscipline and sometimes fear to disengage from the system. Sometimes, you would be amazed, in terms of the levels of advocacy that we as prosecutors
have to use to encourage, to convince people to come forward to give the evidence,” she said. The DPP pointed out that despite technological advances, increased equipment and the move by the Government to overhaul certain Acts, there are some situations that require the co-operation of an eyewitness or witnesses to bring criminals to justice. She noted, for example, that this indifference to crime is often manifested in domestic violence cases in which death has occurred, where, based on investigations, community members tend to be aware of the discord, yet are unwilling to get involved, “and expect the police authorities to use telepathy”. Llewellyn said this apathy has also spilled over in the courts where persons who have been summoned for jury duty do not wish to co-operate as responsible citizens and play their part in bringing criminals to justice. She pointed out that when the Circuit Court opened in St Catherine on September 16, only 27 people were registered as having been present for jury duty. She noted that of the 390 jury summonses that were sent out, only 40 were returned as having been served. “The court was opened with 169 matters, all to be tried by the jury on their list, including 24 murders, and 111 sexual offence matters. In the latter category, 59 of these matters are with complainants who are children,” she said.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
El Salvador ex-president Five-year jailed on corruption charges initiative
to promote breastfeeding imminent
Francisco Flores
San Salvador (AFP) Former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores, accused of embezzling $15 million donated by Taiwan while in office, was sent to prison after the court revoked his house arrest. Under heavy elite police guard, the ex-leader was taken from his home in an exclusive
residential area in the west of San Salvador and taken in a police car to the AntiNarcotics Division, where he was confined to a cell, civil police deputy chief Howard Cotto told reporters. “It is a normal cell, with nothing special and where the president will be alone,” added Cotto, who had earlier
escorted Flores himself to jail. On Thursday, the First Criminal Chamber overturned a September 5 court ruling that allowed Flores to remain under house arrest for the duration of the trial. Flores, who was president of the small Central American country from 1999 to 2004, claims to be a victim of political persecution. He is accused of embezzlement, illicit enrichment, and actions detrimental to public administration. He was investigated by El Salvador’s Congress as well as the attorney general’s office after then president Mauricio Funes said US Treasury Department reports showed suspicious transfers by Taiwan to Flores between 2003 and 2004.
The simple act of breastfeeding has numerous health benefits to both mothers and their babies. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends early initiation of breastfeeding (within the first hour of birth) and exclusive breastfeeding (no water, other fluids or foods) for six months, followed by continued breastfeeding for two years or more, with appropriate addition of complementary foods. Adults, who were adequately breastfed as infants have reduced risk of being affected by Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and other chronic illnesses. Studies have shown that such persons have a reduced risk of having various types of cancers, being overweight, suffering from low blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and type-2 diabetes. However, local health officials have noted that while some mothers have embraced the practice, there is still need for more awareness, which will assist in highlighting the advantages of breastfeeding. To commemorate National Breastfeeding Week, which was observed under the theme “Breastfeeding a Winning Goal for Life,” last week, health workers spearheaded awareness walks, seminars, workshops and discussions at various hospitals and community health centres countrywide. Breastfeeding Committees in Regions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 hosted a number of activities aimed at promoting breastfeeding with special emphasis placed on importance of breastfeeding and a mother’s nutritional intake. However, owing to the need for more sensitization, the Ministry of Health has embarked on an initiative to develop a five-year strategic plan to improve the health of infants through the promotion, protection and
support for breastfeeding. National Breastfeeding Coordinator, Ninian Blair, said that the plan will highlight the unique and ideal nutrition process which breastfeeding provides for infants, and contributes to their growth and development. The plan will be disseminated to communitybased support groups, media and other organisations. Blair said that the objective of the project includes promoting breastfeeding through a code of practice for advertisers and producers of breast milk substitutes and complementary infant foods. Highlighting some of the challenges associated with breastfeeding, the coordinator explained that “some manufacturers would have persons giving out samples of these substitute formulas at the clinics and health centres which we see as a challenge when encouraging mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life.” She said that the code of practice for manufacturers will assist in moderating and monitoring the social impact of marketing and advertising the substitute products. In addition, she noted that breastfeeding mothers also have a higher need for more vitamins and minerals. As such, their diet may include multivitamin and mineral supplements as well as a regular intake of calcium, whole grain, fruits, vegetables and protein. In recent years, career moms also have noted the challenge associated with exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months of the baby’s life. Researchers and public health professionals have been exploring ways to improve support for all working mothers wishing to breastfeed. During the interim, working mothers are encouraged to utilize the
breast pumps to ensure that their babies receive the adequate daily nutritional intake while they work. Local healthcare workers have said that support is vital to ensuring that “first-time mothers,” inculcate the healthy practice of breastfeeding. Healthcare workers have also said that close relatives and friends form a vital aspect of providing support and encouragement to new mothers. As such, based on the revised national policy, work outlined in the National Breastfeeding Strategy will also seek to ensure that breastfeeding is not dealt with in isolation, but rather alongside other important nutrition-related interventions; creating a plan/ strategy which will include a broad array of partners (Government, nongovernmental organizations, community-based groups, media and other organisations already operating at the community level). The National Breastfeeding Coordinator related that a series of consultation sessions were conducted with key stakeholders, including members of hospital breastfeeding committees, Georgetown School of Nursing staff, Region Three Breastfeeding Advocate Committee, Municipal Day Care Services, Communication Experts, Women’s Affairs Bureau, Food and Drugs Department, Rights of the Child Commission, Private Hospitals, and Commercial Consumer Affairs workers to ensure harmonization in field approaches to allow rapid roll and expanded coverage. She said that the breastfeeding committee is in the final stages of developing the strategy which will resuscitate the breastfeeding culture. Work outlined in the strategy is expected to commence in 2015 and conclude in 2020. Breastfeeding Week is usually observed during the third week of September, every year. This year increased focus was placed on the contribution which breastfeeding makes towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is to fight poverty and promote healthy sustainable development by 2015.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
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“Beatings!” - hope the trend continues If Sylvia Croft was alive now, was still of fertile age and had had the last of four children; me; six years ago, she would probably have spent the rest of her life in jail after that, based on today’s laws about child abuse. Most parents back then would have accompanied her there too. The jails would be full! No child born in the Caribbean around 1950/60’s, especially if male, survived without the regular proverbial beatings that have been prominently displayed recently on televisions in USA. The National Football League – Grid Iron Football – is so up in arms; no pun
intended; about a guy ‘sharing licks’ on his son, that one wonders if they are not just trying to protect their image, after probably being caught off-guard about so many other nefarious happenings involving their star players. The only major problem was that the beaten boy was just four years old. No four year old knows what “bad” is. But I doubt that there are any West Indian males my age, 61/62, from maybe age six to almost graduating from high school, who could not describe those beatings in great sordid details! If, while in primary school, we had done
something to get a few strokes from the headmasters’ or head-mistresses’ canes, then stupidly went home to explain the episodes to ‘the old people’, you were almost guaranteed a beating at home too: “If sir beat you, you must have do something wrong!” More blows! Even Dr. William Crosby – Bill – in his one-man standup HBO show a decade ago, admitted that his parents beat him, just as was done by Minnesota Vikings’ star running back Adrian Peterson to his son. Bill Crosby, me, many other sons of that time too, have one thing in common. As licks rained from all angles,
Sunday September 21, 2014 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Any work today could require a higher level of concentration than you can muster, Aries. You might lapse into daydreams, think about personal matters, and feel guilty because you aren't doing what you're supposed to be doing. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Today your creative impulses could seem blocked, Taurus. You might be trying to reach your own or someone else's deadline. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): A friend who planned to come over tonight might not show up, Gemini. You may worry, since this person isn't one to blow you off. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Travel of any kind might be virtually impossible today, Cancer. Airports could be jammed, flights delayed, and planes plagued with mechanical problems. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): This isn't a good day to invest in anything. Don't spend much time working on speculative projects, Leo, and don't put your money into anything but gold, land, or blue-chip stocks and bonds. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22): A love partner could be gloomy today, Virgo. This might be the kind of day when no matter how many times you draw your mate's attention to the doughnut, he or she still sees only the hole. The glass is always half empty, never half full.
LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): You tend to be curious, Libra, and you're always trying to learn more about your many interests. But today you could be eager to research a subject but be unable to find any information about it no matter how many libraries or databases you explore. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): The need to attend to business or networking obligations disguised as parties could get to you today, Scorpio. You may have been forced to attend too many of these recently, and now there are even more coming up. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): Your home could be empty today, Sagittarius. Other household members may be away and you could find it depressing. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Someone close to you might be uncharacteristically silent today, Capricorn. Something is bothering them terribly, and they don't seem to want to talk about it. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): Financial worries might come up today, Aquarius. You may check your bank balance and find that you have little money. ********************* PISCES (Feb. 19 March 20): Today you might be so gloomy that you don't even want to get up. It might not be a good idea to stay home, however. Try to find some tasks to distract you.
Colin E. H. Croft says:
Shivnarine Chanderpaul bats against Bangladesh. (ESPNcricinfo) we regularly heard the dirge: “I made you, so I can kill you!” They really tried hard to do so too! I am fortunate. I have two now adult off-springs, but at no time have I had the cause to discipline them with whip or belt. Perhaps they were too frightened of me; “big pussycat” as they called me; or maybe respected me so much that outside of the standard cautionary word, nothing untoward happened. But kids are still being beaten everywhere. The massive question is this: Do they warrant the beatings, or are parents to allow them to run roughshod over everybody and everything? That is not an easy one! Speaking about blows and severe lickings, Bangladesh suffered terribly at the hands of WI in that last series. We all know that WI should always beat the Tigers, but that shellacking, especially in the 2nd Test, in St. Lucia, was almost distasteful, so shockingly cricket poor were our recent visitors. They disintegrated from a very promising 158-2, after being set an improbable 489 to win, to be all out for 192, losing eight wickets for thirty four runs, in just nineteen overs. The innings was so shambolic. Yet, it was not totally Bangladesh’s players fault. They have not played a Test series since last
February! Shivnarine Chanderpaul eventually got his 30th Test century, in 158 Tests, now with a Test aggregate of 11,684 runs; average 53.10, after his much maligned 85 no. in Test No. 1. So, he is only 269 runs behind Brian Lara’s total of 11,953 runs, in 131 Tests, average 52.88, as the biggest run getter for West Indies. With three Tests v India soon, then another three Tests against South Africa coming back to back after those in India, it is only a matter of time before our “Tiger” breaks that runs scoring record for WI too! Chanderpaul has certainly beaten Bangladesh terribly in his last six innings v his namesake Tigers; to be only once out, for one, while the other scores were 151 no., 203 no., 85 no., 84 no., and 101 no. Interestingly, one aspect to emerge from last week’s 2nd Test, WI’s 500th, was that always invigorating challenge of selecting the best WI team ever, from 1948 to now, eleven from three
hundred players who have played Tests for WI. Ironically, but expectedly, no two teams by any two people were the same! More particularly, almost all selected teams included Sir Vivian Richards, Lara, even Sir Everton Weekes, but, wonder upon wonders, no Chanderpaul, except when the selectors were from the South American mainland. Who exactly would like to see Chanders bat instead of Lara or Sir Viv? Courtney Walsh, once WI captain, now selector, with 519 Test wickets, most by a West Indian, does not make many teams either. Sir Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall, Sir Wes Hall, Joel Garner, Andy Rob e r t s o r M i k e Holding make up most bowling teams with Lance Gibbs and Sir Gary Sobers. Most of those names e m a n a t e d f r o m a n era when West Indies actually did beat the entire world too! To celebrate 500th Tests, WI captain Denesh Ramdin led for first his Test series win, beating Bangladesh 2-0. Let us hope that the beatings continue when WI meet India next, then South Africa. Enjoy!
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Banks Sevens on AAG to host National today at National Park Senior C/ships today
In the absence of defending champions the Guyana Defence Force, participants, University of Guyana, Pepsi Hornets, Police and Yamaha Caribs will be looking to take full advantage of the champions nonappearance when the Banks DIH One-Day Sevens Tournament is held today, at the National Park. The tournament is one of the most anticipated events on the Guyana Rugby Football Union’s calendar and President of the Union Peter Green stated the Banks Sevens would be used to identify players to
be selected to the national squad which will commence training shortly as Guyana aim to recapture the NACRA Sevens title when the competition is held later this year in Mexico. According to a release, three women’s teams representing Hornets, Caribs and Police will be part of the day’s activities. Scrum off is 10:30 hrs today with the traditional March Past of teams followed by remarks from officials. Trophies and Medals would be awarded to the winning teams.
Banks DIH Guyana Classic International Badminton tourney underway The Guyana Badminton Association Banks DIH Guyana Classic International Tournament, which involves Suriname, who will contest in the Under-11, Under-13 & Under-15 Boys and Girls Events, which started yesterday and concludes today at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Today play will run from 10:00am to 3:00pm. The Suriname team, which
features 16 players and 19 Officials/Parents, arrived for the event and will look to make their mark. The Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) is trying to keep Badminton in the Junior level going as the top players are advancing to the higher level, hence the GBA’s thrust to get the upcoming players in form and ready to fill the spots vacated by those
moving forward. The GBA would like to thank Mr. Carlton Joao of Banks DIH for making this tournament possible along with Director of Sport Neil Kumar of the National Sports Commission. Special thanks also go to Ms. Surujdai Ramraj and Emily Ramdhani - Secretary of the GBA, for putting all measures in place to make this tournament possible.
Trinidad and Tobago win CFU Under-20 Championship It took a second half hattrick from the prolific Kadeem Corbin, for Trinidad and Tobago to blank Haiti 3-0 and grab the 2014 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Men’s Under-20 Qualifiers Championship, on Friday last at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, in Trinidad and Tobago. The first 45 minutes failed to produce much scoring opportunities which saw the half ending goalless, however the young Soca Warriors regrouped and came
out with a different game plan and in the 54th minute Corbin struck his first goal. Despite the efforts of the Haitians to level the score and keep their opponents at bay, Corbin netted his second goal in the 82nd minute and completed his hat-trick in the 86th minute for a comfortable 3-0 triumph. Meanwhile, in the third and fourth play-off Cuba edged out Aruba 2-1. Cuba went ahead in the second half with a goal from Eddie Luis Sanamë in the 54th
minute. Ricky Hodges drew level for Aruba in the 85th minute. But the Cubans rallied and three minutes later found the clincher when Frank Manuel Lopez netted and ended the game 2-1. At the distribution of awards ceremony, Trinidad and Tobago’s Kadeem Corbin copped the Golden Boots and MVP Award. The Golden Gloves Award went to Jean Marc Antersijn from Aruba, while the Fair Play Award went to Team Aruba.
The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) will today host its National Senior Track and Field Championships at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary, as part of its mandated calendar of events for the International Association of Athletics Federation. The annual mandatory meet will commence from 10am with the AAG publicly stating that it will use the meet to select a team for the South American Under23 Championships set for October 3-5 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Senior Championships will feature a plethora of athletes over 16years-old vying for honour and bragging rights to be called the ‘top senior athlete in the nation’. Notwithstanding, Guyana’s top club, Police Progressive Youth Club, will only be fielding about six athletes at the meet since their training programme is geared toward Joint Services. Contacted yesterday, Police Coach, Mark Scott told Kaieteur Sport that Olympic quarter-miler, Winston George will not be competing today. In addition, national sprint ace, Alita Moore
Tevin Garraway
Kevin Bayley
will also not be competing along with several of their senior athletes. “Right now we are preparing for Joint Services and we only had about a week’s notice for this meet. We will focus on those who we believe could qualify for the Under-23 Championships at the meet,” Scott said. In that regard, he said that sprinter Tevin Garraway and middle distance dynamo, Kevin Bayley will lead about six
athletes representing the club today. The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is also in a preparation mode for the InterServices Annual Athletics Championships (ISAAC). But despite the focus of those two teams, the meet is expected to attract athletes from Running Brave Athletics Club, Upper Demerara, Mercury Fast Laners and several other clubs today in an effort to put their athletes up for national selection.
The Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) will today host two Cross-Nation Exhibition Games at the Burnham Basketball Court as warm-up for a National Hard Court Series that will commence at a date to be announced. The Games begin from 4:30pm when New Amsterdam’s Canje Knights take on Georgetown Nirva
Knights and will continue at 6:30pm when Linden’s Victory Valley Royals battle Colts in what should be a thrilling encounter. Royals just coming off a win in their 20th Anniversary tournament, compliments of sharp-shooter Chris Williams and Marlon Pollydore will look to continue their
- Police focus on ISAAC
Cross-nation exhibition b/ball games begin today
- ahead of National Hard Court Series ascendency against the number three ranked club in Georgetown, Colts. President of the GABA, Michael Singh told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that the games are geared as giving the teams a feel of what the actual Hard Court Series will be like so that they fine tune their skills ahead of the event.
Yaya Toure: Man City midfielder Amerindians celebrate Heritage month with competitive sports activities disappointed by birthday row BBC Sport - Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure says he was disappointed with the speculation that surrounded his future at the club during the summer. In May, Toure supported claims from his agent that City “disrespected” him on his 31st birthday, having previously dismissed Dimitri Seluk’s comments. But, speaking to Football Focus, he said: “My agent made a little joke about it and people took it seriously. “I was quite surprised about the way people and the media reacted to that.” As City travelled to the United Arab Emirates to celebrate winning the Premier League, the club presented Toure with a cake on his 13 May birthday and tweeted congratulations. But, speaking
Yaya Toure at the time, Toure’s agent Seluk, said: “None of them shook his hand on his birthday. It’s really sick.” Toure initially distanced himself from Seluk’s comments, but then took to Twitter to say: “Everything Dimitri said is true. He speaks for me. I will explain
after the World Cup.” Now, the former Barcelona man has moved to clarify the controversy, saying: “Over the summer there was a lot of speculation about birthday cakes and rubbish like that. It was disappointing for me. “I’ve been in Manchester for four years now and I have never demanded a birthday cake.” Ivorian Toure, who has won two Premier Leagues, the FACup and the League Cup since moving to City from the Nou Camp for £24m in 2010, also stated that his new desire is to win the Champions League. “I know the fans love me; they are always good to me,” he said. “My target now is the Champions League. I want to win it for them.”
It was fun, frolic and friendly rivalry when Amerindians comprising 15 teams from several villages in 9 of Guyana’s ten administrative regions converged at the Everest Sports Club to show off their cultures while engaged in stiff sports rivalry in commemoration of Amerindian Heritage Month, yesterday morning. A large crowd of supporters were on hand at the venue to witness the indigenous groups compete in volleyball, cricket and football among other disciplines which was competed among 15 teams from 9 of the country’s 10 administrative regions. They included St Cuthbert’s Mission, Laluni, and Swan (4), Linden and Wiruni (10), Tapakuma (2), Maraikabai (5) Mabaruma and Moruca (1), Mahdia, North
Rupununi, Central Rupununi and Karasabai (9), Jawalla and Paruima (7). The activities commenced yesterday and will conclude today and in the male cricket matches contested yesterday Laluni defeated St Cuthbert Mission by 8 wickets while Morakobai triumphed over Matakai by 4 wickets. Mainstay defeated a combined team of Orealla and Siparuta by 6 wickets while Cambelltown drew the bye. Today, 4 teams will compete against each other in semi-finals affairs before the respective winners contest for the championship honours. Campbelltown will clash with Mainstay while Laluni play Moraikabai and the respective winners will clash for the championship.
The female cricketers were also in action and Laluni prevailed over Campbellstown by 22 runs while Matarkai secured a 31 runs victory over Tapacoma. Moruca then defeated Maraicabai by seven wickets while the combined team of Orealla and Sipuruta lost by 4 wickets to Swan. Over on the eastern side of the ground several teams battled for honours in volleyball and Mainstay triumphed over St Cuthbert Mission 15-12 and 1513 while Wayaka prevailed over Laluni 15-7 and 17-15. Up to press time the groups were engaged in football matches and those engagements would continue today where an overall champion would be crowned. Luluni is the overall champions in both male and female categories.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
The Annual Mayor’s Cup football tourney set for October 11 The 2014 edition of the A n n u a l M a y o r ’s C u p football tournament starts October 11 with a tripleheader at the Victoria ground on the East Coast of Demerara starting at 4:00pm. Coordinator Lennox Arthur informed that 32 teams compete for attractive cash prizes and the Mayor’s Cup. The winners walk away with $1,000,000, runners-up $500,000, third $200,000 and fourth place $100,000. Teams will come from Georgetown, East Coast, West Demerara, Berbice and East Bank Demerara, while matches will be played at several venues. Those venues are Victoria, Den Amstel, Monedderlust West Coast Berbice, GFC and the National Stadium. Arthur informed that five of the teams participating this year are new to the Mayor’s Cup; Haslington (EC), Eagles (WD), Agricola, Kuru Kururu and Timehri Panthers (EB). Among the other teams on show are defending champs Alpha United, who will be keen on maintaining their dominance, while other past champions in Fruta Conquerors, Camptown, Pele and the Guyana Defence Force. The remaining teams are GFC, Western Tigers, Beacon, Riddim Squad, Santos, Police, Golden Grove, Vi c t o r i a K i n g s , B V Triumph, Buxton, Mahaica, Ann’s Grove, Stewartville, Slingerz, Young Achievers, Pouderoyen, Monedderlust, Rosignol United, Cougars, NA United and Grove Hi Tech. T h e M a y o r ’s C u p
GCB senior four-day Inter County tourney
Development Squad beat E’bo by six wickets Hetmyer, Hemra and Jacobs slam half centuries
Hamilton Green
Committee is in the process of approaching sponsors for assistance and is calling on corporate Guyana to support the tournament, which has received the full approval of the Guyana Football Federation. Opening round of games a t Vi c t o r i a w i l l s e e Haslington vs GFC, Golden Grove vs Western Tigers and Victoria Kings vs GDF. October 17 at GFC - Grove Hi Tech vs Beacon, BV Triumph vs Riddim Squad and Buxton vs Conquerors. October 18 at Den Amstel – Eagles vs Santos and Stewartville vs Camptown. October 23 at No 5 West Coast Berbice – Rosignol vs Den Amstel, Cougars vs Slingerz and Monedderlust vs Police. October 24 at GFC – NA United vs Agricola, Alpha vs Mahaica and Pele vs Ann’s Grove, and October 25 at D e n A m s t e l – Yo u n g Achievers and Pouderoyen vs Timehri Panthers.
Other games featuring the winners of the opening round are fixed for October 29, 31, November 1, 5, 12, 14, 19 and 23 when the final and third place playoff will be held. The tournament, organised by Mr. Arthur and the Mayor ’s Cup Committee, is held in recognition of Mayor Hamilton Green’s birthday. This year, the Mayor turns 80 years on November 8. Mayor Green in his earlier years was a multitalented athlete. He participated in athletics and football for his school Queen’s College, along with table tennis, dominoes and was a general fitness enthusiast. He has made lots of contributions to sport over the years also. Mayor Green served as Prime Minister and Minister of Sports during the PNC government and was also one time Patron of the Guyana Football Federation.
Alpha hammer Caledonia AIA 5-1 in practice game Alpha United hammered Caledonia AIA of Trinidad and Tobago 5-1 in a practice game yesterday at the Centre of Excellence stadium in Trinidad. Preparing for their return CONCACAF Champions League clash against the Portland Timbers of the US in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday, Alpha were busy preparing for the encounter with several practice games which culminated yesterday. They leave today for the US and their return clash. Gregory Richardson and Manasseh Primo, who netted a
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double, were among those on target for Alpha. They led 2-1 at the interval, slamming in three in the second half. Alpha scored some 16 goals in their last three games with a 60 win over Den Amstel and a 5-1 victory over a Georgetown combination ahead of yesterday’s hiding of Caledonia. The game was watched by executives of the club and also Coach Wayne Dover, who expressed pleasure at their performances and was looking forward for a similar or even better showing against the Timbers on Tuesday.
Manasseh Primo
B y Z a h e e r Mohamed T h e G C B Development Squad defeated Essequibo by s i x w i c k e t s i n their first round game of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) senior four-day Inter County tournament yesterday. S e t 2 6 7 f o r v i c t o r y, The GCB Development Squad, led by half c e nturies from Shimron H e t m y e r, C h a n d e r p a u l Hemraj and skipper Steven Jacobs, formalized victory after lunch on the third day as they ended on 271-4 at the Demerara Cricket Club. T h e G C B Development Squad resumed on their o v e r n i g h t s c o r e o f 84 without lost with Shimron Hetmyer on 52 and Tagenarine Chanderpaul on 27, the pair extended their stand to 137 with level headed batting. They carefully rotated the strike and were quick to dispatch the bad balls. H e t m y e r, t h e m o r e aggressive of the two, s t r o k e d M a r k Ty r e l l f or a boundary and drove Anthony Adams down the ground for another, while Chanderpaul took boundaries off Adams and Fredericks. The pair continued to accumulate their runs as they frustrated the Essequibians somewhat, until Hetmyer who appeared set for a century was caught off Adams for a well compiled 85 which contained eleven fours and came off 121 balls in 147 minutes. Left arm spinner Hemchand Persaud then had Chanderpaul c a u g h t in the slips with one that bounced and turned with the score on 149. He departed for 44 with three fours off 138 balls and occupied the crease for 162 minutes. Skipper Jacobs and Hemraj carried their team within sight of v ictory with a third wicket stand of 106. H e m r a j s t a r t e d o ff h i s i n n i n g s i n attacking fashion, d u m p i n g P ersaud for two sixes and driving Adams for a boundary. The Essequibo spinners managed to slow the scoring rate with some
Chanderpaul Hemraj collects runs on the on-side during his innings.
Steven Jacobs plays through the off side.
steady bowling, but Hemraj and Jacobs were content to settle for singles and doubles. However Jacobs matured as his innings progressed and spanked Fredericks to the mid-wicket boundary before driving him through covers. The right handed Malteenoes Sports Club all-rounder was put down by Ricardo Peters, running in from long-on off Adams, but soon reached his fifty a single to long-on. Hemraj drove Adams to the cover boundary to reach his h a l f c e n tury and then celebrated the milestone, which came off 91 balls, with a six off Peters over long-on. But Peters wasn’t afraid to loop the ball and bowled Jacobs for 51 as the batsman
attempted to sweep with the score on 255. He spent 70 minutes at the crease and faced 88 balls, hitting six fours. Hemraj, who plays for Everest Cricket Club, punched Peters t h r ough covers before he was out hit wicket in the said over for 66. He batted for 118 minutes and faced 108 balls and hit four fours and a similar number of sixes. Keemo Paul (06*) and David Latchaya (03*) then saw their team to victory off 75.1 overs. Peters was the pick of the bowlers with 2-16 off three overs, Adams had 1-28 and Persaud 1-38. Scores: Essequibo 2 3 2 a n d 1 6 3 , Development Squad 128 and 271-4.
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Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Elite Referee/Assessor Course opens in Florida Sunrise, Florida – CONCACAF Vice President Alfredo Hawit launched the c o n f e d e r a t i o n ’s E l i t e Referee and Assessor Course on Thursday during a ceremony that also honored those match officials who worked at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The annual gathering is comprised of 11 referees, 17 assistant referees, 25 referee assessors and seven instructors. In his opening remarks, Hawit, who is also the Vice Chair of CONCACAF’s Referee Committee, said: “For me to talk about refereeing, it is not only familiar, it is part of my life athletically speaking. I have an affinity for this sector that is refereeing because at my beginnings as a national and international leader, I took on this challenge in the refereeing corner that allowed me to know more than just about the purely sporting structure. I have thoroughly known the referee as a person who is essential in this profession.”
Participants take time out for a photo. (Photo: Hector Torres) Topics to be addressed on the four-day agenda include a comprehensive review of the World Cup, fitness, match analysis, plus integrity and diversity. To start each day, the participants will go through the paces of practical field sessions, before taking part in classroom-setting instruction that concentrates
on the technical aspects of refereeing. “I concur with the thoughts of our President, Jeffrey Webb, and our (General) Secretary, Enrique Sanz, who wish to provide personal attention to the referees in the pursuit of development and excellence for each country, as well as to our confederation,”
expressed Hawit, a former professional footballer in Honduras with Universidad and Olimpia. “This can only be achieved based on effort, hard work every day and, I assure you, that we will achieve together.” The program, scheduled to conclude Sunday, is being led by FIFA instructors Esse Baharmast, Peter
Prendergast, Rodolfo Sibrian and Hector Vergara. Erick Samayoa and Allan Brown — FIFA Referee Fitness Instructors for the CONCACAF region – are directing all conditioning aspects, while CONCACAF Deputy General Secretary Ted Howard, a member of t h e F I FA R e f e r e e s Committee, and
CONCACAF consultant Brian Hall are also sharing their expertise. Carlos Batres and Alfredo Whittaker, heads for refereeing for the by the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), respectively, are special invited guests. (CONCACAF.com)
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
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GCB Inter County Cricket
Griffith’s maiden unbeaten ton puts Demerara in impregnable position against Berbice By Sean Devers Defending Champions Demerara put themselves in an impregnable position by the end of the penultimate day of the senior InterCounty four-day match against Berbice at Bourda yesterday. Chris Barnwell (36) and 23-year-old Trevon Griffith added 62 for the third wicket after Rajendra Chandrika (13) had retired hurt at 45-2 to take Demerara to 186-5 before the declaration came when Griffith reached an unbeaten 102. His maiden century at this level came from 351 minutes, 149 balls with nine fours. Berbice set 411 to win from 30 minutes yesterday and the entire final day today, finished the day on 33-2 with Kandasammy Surujnarine on four and night watchman Keon Joseph on eight, still needing 378 runs for an unlikely victory. Berbice resumed on 130
- 5, still 312 runs away from Demerara’s 442-6 declared and although Wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble and Skipper Narsingh Deonarine staged a mini recovery by adding 58 for the sixth w i c k e t b e f o r e Wi n t z removed Bramble for 62 at 188-6 and when Deonarine (30) departed 11 runs later, also off Wintz, Demerara were in firm control with Berbice wobbling on the ropes at 199-7. Zaheer Mohamed then picked up the next two wickets including Veerasammy Permaul (15) before Wintz (4-54) cleaned up the tail by scattering the stumps of last man Raun Johnson (6) to wrap up the innings at 11:00hrs. Mohamed (2-29) and Barnwell (2-65) provided s u p p o r t t o Wi n t z f o r Demerara, who surprisingly decided not to enforce the follow-on although their bowlers were all fresh and Berbice were trailing by 224
runs. By Lunch the host had already lost Robin Bacchus (3) well taken low down at deep backward square by Devon Clements as he swept at Deonarine, who opened the bowling with Royston Crandon, off the last ball before Lunch at 8-1. After the interval Shemroy Barrington (1) edged a ball, which did not spin, to the Keeper as Demerara slipped to 10-2, while first innings double centurion, Chandrika, used to his feet to Deonarine first ball to get off the mark. Griffith cut Deonarine for four and along with Chandrika took the score to 45 in hazy sunshine on a track still good for batting with some attractive strokeplay on the fast outfield before Chandrika retired hurt on 13. The left-handed Griffith, who has one 50 from five First-Class matches, hammered Deonarine to
Lewis Hamilton takes dramatic Singapore pole over Nico Rosberg BBC Sport - Lewis Hamilton took pole position from team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg by a tiny fraction in a thrilling qualifying session in Singapore. Hamilton was just 0.007 seconds quicker than Rosberg as Mercedes faced a threat from rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the standard on the final run in the top 10 shoot-out but was pipped by 0.173secs. Ricciardo was third from team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. “Damn it,” Rosberg said over the radio, when he realised he had been beaten by the narrowest of margins in probably the closest qualifying session of the year. The German leads Hamilton by 22 points in the championship and a victory by either in the Singapore Grand Prix today would be a significant blow in their intense battle for the title. But they will not have the race their own way, judging
by the closeness of the opposition. Hamilton and Rosberg were only sixth and seventh fastest after the first runs in final qualifying, beaten by b o t h Wi l l i a m s c a r s , Ricciardo and both Ferraris. Kimi Raikkonen, only 0.023secs slower than teammate Alonso on the first runs, was taken out of the fight early when his engine hit trouble on his preparation lap for the final shoot-out. The last few seconds were thrilling as Ricciardo set the pace with a lap of one minute 45.854 seconds, only to be beaten by Rosberg before Hamilton leapfrogged them both. Vettel then leapt ahead of Alonso into fourth, knocking the Spaniard down to fifth even though the Ferrari driver had improved by more than 0.2secs over his first run. That, though, was enough to beat Massa by 0.093secs. It was breathless stuff. “Quite an exciting qualifying session,”
Hamilton said. “I guess noone was expecting to see how close everyone was. I saw the Ferraris very close and for it to end up as it did is great for our team. “The last lap I locked up into turn one and lost quite a bit of time but managed to pull it back. I lost 0.15-0.2secs but I kept going and it got better and better on that lap. It ended up very close.” Rosberg said: “Seven thousandths, you know, it’s nothing. I look back at the lap and I could have done it. But Lewis did a good job to get pole. Fair play.” Behind Massa, Raikkonen had to settle for seventh on probably his most competitive showing of a disappointing season, ahead of Williams’s Valtteri Bottas, McLaren’s Kevin M a g n u s s e n a n d To r o Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. M a g n u s s e n ’ s performance was especially impressive - he is the only driver who has never raced on this track before and he beat team-mate Jenson Button into 11th place.
long-on for four, while Barnwell rocked onto the back foot and smashed Deonarine for four and swept him for another boundary in the same over as the DCC pair gained momentum the longer they batted. Johnson was introduced into the attack and Barnwell, with four First-Class fifties, clipped the pacer neatly off his pads for four with effortless ease before Griffith majestically caressed Johnson to the point boundary. Griffith tucked Johnson off his hips for a double to reach his 50 from 70 balls with five fours as the lead progressed to 320 and the partnership to 50. Barnwell swept Steven Latcha for four even as
Permaul persisted with his leg-stump line attack and when Latcha removed Barnwell for 36 to break the 62-run partnership, the score was 107-3 at Tea and the lead 331. After the break, Griffith pulled Clements for four and swept him to the square-leg boundary to move into the 80s, while Vishaul Singh, who scored his fourth InterCounty ton in the first innings, played the supporting role before he cut a ball to close to him and was caught behind for 17 at 1544 to break the 47 run partnership. Mohamed dapped a quicker delivery from Crandon past Permaul at slip for four before Griffith give himself room and found the
gap between cover and point with immaculate precision as the ball raced to the boundary like a bullet. Mohamed (10) was removed by Crandon at 1755 before Griffith reached his ton and the declaration was made with Chandrika, who resumed his innings, not out on 15. When Berbice began their second innings with 10 overs to bat in the day, Wintz operated with five slips and a gully to the openers and Jason Sinclair (4) was soon run out at 15-1 and Clements (7) was bowled by Barnwell before the close yesterday. Today if it rains or Berbice manages to bat out the day the home team could regret not enforcing the follow-on.
Page 74
Kaieteur News
Sunday September 21, 2014
Shiv Chanderpaul debuts for GCC ladies start strong in Hikers Hockey Floodlight last Friday Night Club 4th Annual Junior Indoor Tournament The 4th Annual Hikers Hockey Club Junior Indoor Tournament bullied off on Friday evening at the National Gymnasium Mandela Avenue, when the players took to the court for a night of intense action in the Woodpecker Products under 21 divisions. GCC’s vaunted girls team, showed their strength in depth by disposing of Old Fort 9-0 and Hikers 3-1 despite the absence of a number of their national players. It was the lethal combination of Ashley DeGroot’s clinical finishing a n d A l i y a h G o r d o n ’s blistering pace that gave the Bourda girls a flying start in their title defence. Hikers’ Latacia Chung also made her presence felt on opening
night scoring twice in her club’s 3-0 defeat of Old Fort. On the boy’s side, a much improved GCC put away Saints with relative ease 3-0 before battling to a 2-2 draw with a talented Old Fort side led by the magical stick work of Omar Hopkinson. Defending boys champions Hikers, also signaled their intentions of retaining their title with efficient 5-1 and 71 victories over Old Fort and Saints respectively. The business end of this category will take place this afternoon starting at 2:00pm. Sever key match ups were staged yesterday. The tournament will conclude today with the very competitive iNet Communication under 16
categories followed by the conclusion of the Woodpecker Products Under 21 categories. The tournament is being run by the junior players of the Hikers and Saints Hockey Clubs as part of their junior development programmes, where youngsters learn all the intricacies of pulling off a tournament of this magnitude. In addition to playing in the tournament, junior players are responsible for performing the duties of judges and umpires for all the games in addition to organizing and staffing the food and drinks bars. The presentation ceremony will take place this evening at 6:45pm.
Dowlin, Wintz to lead teams in Nedd T20 fixture Newest Floodlight player Shiv Chanderpaul receives his team shirt from youngest Floodlight player Romeo Deonarain. As he turns 40, Shivnarine Chanderpaul qualifies him to be a player of Floodlights team. Chanderpaul sparkled at the recently floodlighted DCC Ground on Friday evening last with an explosive half
century. Bel Air Rubis posted 174 in 20 overs batting first. Chanderpaul then led the way for Floodlights with an entertaining 75 to overhaul the total. He was supported by Patrick Khan 36, Khalid Baksh 40 not out and his
opening partner Romeo Deonarain who made 8. On Pitch#2, Mike’s Wellman defeated Parika Defenders by 14 runs. Mike’s Wellman batting first made 198. Parika Defenders in reply could only reach 185 all out.
Prasad Memorial T20 cricket - Wakenaam
Good Success, Zeelandia record victories Good Success and Zeelandia recorded victories when the Badri Prasad Memorial T20 tournament continued last Sunday in Wakenaam. Good Success defeated Maria’s Pleasure by eight wickets at the Wakenaam Community Centre ground. B a t t i n g f i r s t , M a r i a ’s Pleasure were skittled for 45 in 11.4 overs. Bernard Lewis made 17 as off spinner Nazeer Mohamed grabbed 3-2, medium pacer Wazir Khan 2-8 and Chandrika Ragnauth 2-12. Good Success knocked of the required target in 6.2 overs, ending on 46-2. Jaggernauth Manbodh led with 21 while Khan made 15. Lewis took 1-18. In the second game at the said venue, Zeelandia overcame Noitgedacht SC by seven wickets. Noitgedacht took first strike and scored 153 all out in 19.5 overs. Curtis Clementson cracked 61 and Dillon
The Queenstown based Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) is expected to come alive on September 28 when the Club’s head coach Garvin Nedd host a T20 game. The day’s activities which will commence at 10:00 hrs will also involve a bar-b-que, Kiddy cricket Festival, Ladies Open and Men Over-40 softball and the young brigade of the club engaging each other in a match, with the action culminating at 19:30hrs, with the specially organized T20 clash between
a DCC XI and a Rest Team. Players in the caliber of skipper Travis Dowlin, Trevon Griffith, Christopher Barnwell, Jonathan Foo, Lennox Cush, former West Indies fast bowlers Reon King and Colin Stuart and current Guyana Cricket Board senior Chairman of Selectors Rayon Griffith will feature for the DCC XI.The Rest XI will be led by Paul Wintz and will have within its ranks, Steven Jacobs, Narsingh Deonarine, Kevon Boodie, Robin Bacchus,
Ricardo Adams, Raj Nannan, Jermaine Neblett and Rajendra Chandrika. National coach Esuan Crandon has been entrusted with such duties for the DCC XI and will have Ian John as the Manager, while Rest Team will be coached by Clive Grimmond with Robert ‘Pacer ’ Adonis as the Manager.Admission to the venue is $200, with drinks, bar-b-que and lots of refreshments on sale, while a Kid’s Corner will also be in place.
Young Superbiker Kevin Persaud, one to watch
Navishaul Pooran
Nazeer Mohamed
Retemiah 33. Harry Sukar picked up 3-35, Darmindra Pooran 2-20 and Ajay Ghansam 2-30. Zeelandia replied with 154-3 in 18.2 overs. Navishaul Pooran stroked 67 and Sukar supported with
33 not out. Curtis and Retemiah took one wicket each. Good Success will take on Zeelandia and Sans Souci will play Noitgedacht in the semifinals today at the said venue.
In just one year, young Superbiker Kevin P e r s a u d h a s q u i ckly emerged as one of the rising stars in the sport and come September 28 when the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club stages its ‘Race of Champions’ Meet, racing fans and experts of the sport will be able to make their own assessment of this fast improving racer. Persaud whose father is one of the most sought after Superbike mechanics in the country, perhaps, had no other choice, but to become a racer, having seen all his life some of the best exponents of the sport seek his father ‘Smellie’ expertise to whip their machines into readiness to thrill fans at the South Dakota Circuit. The young Persaud, who will be astride a 2011
Kawasaki ZX6R at the upcoming Meet, started his career last November, during the final leg of the Caribbean M o t o r R a c i n g Championship in the ‘B’ Class and returned with two sixth placed finishes. Speaking with Kaieteur S p o r t a t h i s f a t h e r ’s Wo r k s h o p y e s t e r d a y, Persaud said despite those results he remained confident in his ability and returned to the track this March and immediately showed admirable improvement, registering two second placed finishes and a third to crown a good Meet. Asked whether he will be challenging the likes o f S t e p h e n ‘Valentino R o s s i ’ Vi e i r a , N i k h i l Seereeram and the others, he stated that he will not be
doing so on this occasion, but is hoping to do so in the near future. “I will be racing in the Super Stock category and some of the guys I will be going up against are Matthew Vieira, Nicholas Boodhram and a few others, but I’m confident that I can do well against them,” Persaud told this newspaper. He reckoned Matthew Vieira will be his toughest opponent, but said he will be going all out to reverse his fortunes against him after being beaten by him in the past. “ I h a v e l o t s o f confidence that I will be on the podium come race day and I’m even hoping to claim the top spot ahead of my rivals,” Persaud said. Kaieteur Sport wishes him every success in his endeavour.
Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 75
All round input needed for a return of the boxing crowds Suggests Michael Benjamin Back in the late seventies, the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), then with three bleachers and an approximate capacity of 3000 patrons would have been bursting at its seams with screaming fans when such pugilists as Lennox Blackmoore, Patrick Ford, Lennox Beckles and a myriad of other pugilists graced the square jungle against local and internationally acclaimed opposition. When those pugilists hung up their gloves, another erstwhile group of warriors including Barrington Cambridge, Jeff Roberts,
Darius Ford, and yours truly (if I can be excused to blow my own trumpet), among others, commanded the local scene and promoted the legacy thus retaining the action packed encounters and by extension, the huge crowd support. Somewhere in the late eighties, a new crop of pugilists graced the scene and inexplicably the crowds disappeared. The many promotional groups, the likes o f D e l M a r, P e o p l e ’s Syndicate, Ringside and a host of others simply disappeared and the promoters blamed the absence of the crowds coupled with poor corporate
support as their key reasons for downing arms; the corporate entities lamented the poor and sometimes mediocre performances of the boxers for restricting support, a chicken and eggs situation. The concomitant result is that boxers are now fighting to near empty stands with the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) being the sole group battling with the promotion of cards. While a plethora of reasons may be extended for the sad state of affairs, one of the key reasons for the dissipation of all round support has its genesis in several highly touted theories and unless
Hand-in-Hand back on board
Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire & Life Insurance Companies Navin Ramlochan-Inspector of the Direct Sales Department presents the cheque to Club Supervisor/Race Secretary Desiree Lee yesterday. Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire & Life Insurance Companies with a reputation of being a reliable supporter and sponsor of motor racing has once again come forward and offered its support to the upcoming Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) Meet scheduled to be staged on September 28, at the South Dakota Circuit. During a simple ceremony which was
conducted at the Company’s Head Office on Avenue of the Republic, Navin Ramlochan- Inspector of the Direct Sales Department handed over a cheque for an undisclosed sum to Club Supervisor/Race Secretary Desiree Lee.Lee in response thanked the Company on behalf of the Club for its continued support towards the sport, adding that the entity has over the years constantly affirmed its
obligation to assist in the development of motor racing.Lee disclosed that twenty-four (24) races are carded for the day and competitors will line up in all the different categories in what is already being touted to be a day of kee rivalry among the best in the business. The first race is set to begin at 09:00 hrs with the line up of competitiors set for 08:30 hrs.
Peter Abdool expeditiously grappled, will witness a further degradation and an eventual unceremonious halt to the developmental wheels that has kept the sport limping forwards over the past few years. There is absolutely no doubt that President of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), Peter Abdool’s heart is in the right place; he has spent endless hours mulling over strategies coupled with millions of dollars to keep the sport alive. There is no need to mention the Guyana Fight Night initiative which apparently failed to gain momentum and after approximately three years is in danger of extinction. So, barring an adverse response to the poor all round support, what then is the answer to the issue of improvement of the situation? If one is to be honest, GBBC President, Peter Abdool, would be more interested in the advancement of the boxers; his only concern for crowd support is because it is the catalyst to the aforementioned variable. It therefore means that there is a need for the intervention of other stakeholders if the equation is to be balancaaed. Boxing is a trade that is learnt in the gym but since the sport is regarded as a microcosm of life, boxers ought to be taught that the sport can be extrapolated to daily activities for a better understanding of the sweet science. Those that extend the view that the Guyana fight Night initiative was ill advised and proved to be
Dexter Marques counter-productive do not understand the logistics of the sport or just prefer to adapt a blinkered view of the wider picture. To begin with, dozens of pugilists, at home and further afield in the Caribbean, have been kept active and elevated their professional lives through the acquisition of lucrative fights. Many of our local pugilists also won the lucrative Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) belt and went on to attract world acclaim, Clive Atwell, Leon Moore, Elton Dharry and Dexter Marques are but a few that readily comes to mind; the problem seems to be that boxing buffs seem to have lost confidence in the present crop of boxers to truly turn in action packed bouts. Mr. Abdool’s position as the CABOFE boss has also served local pugilists well but it seem painfully obvious that our boxing (fraternity) is taking this for granted. Just about a week ago, several boxers out of Jamaica travelled to Guyana to engage their counterparts on a card promoted by the GBBC and dubbed ‘Return of the Contenders.’ It must be noted that the ‘Contender’ is a spring off from Mr. Abdool’s Guyana Fight Night initiative. Once again, the promoter had to contend with dismal crowd support and if one is to be honest, just two bouts really made the grade as crowd pleasers. The Derek Richmond/Sakima Mullings bout fizzed out to a farce after the former boxer suffered an early injury and by the end of
the second round it was all over. Winston Pompey may have turned in his best performance of his professional career to date, but while he has shown improvement in the physical department, he has blundered mentally and may just need a few weeks at the drawing board to reorganize his career. Richard Williamson commenced his professional career on a successful note after he would have had a commendable amateur career. It seems though, that he has lost his way and appeared weak and out of sorts for his last few fights. Leon Moore, just back from the USA, cannot honestly feel satisfied with a lopsided TKO victory over Mark Murray and ought to be cognizant of the quality of opposition from here on; fighting bums would only give a false sense of invincibility. The standout on that card was Dexter Gonsalves who stopped Mark Austin after eight rounds of wellstructured attacks and counter attacks. (His performance is for another, soon to be written article). The news that Atwell is back and is on a collision course with Mullings is certainly heartening but good fights on a one off basis can hardly compensate for the poor quality of performances that seems to be the norm rather than the exception. The team of coaches, the likes of George ‘Canchi’ Oprecht, Lennox ‘Cappell’ Daniels, Joseph Murray, Sebert Blake as well as those out of Berbice will now have to instil in their fighters that they must change their approaches and support the work of the officials of the GBBC if the crowds are to return. There were too many technical flaws in Richmond and other boxers’ repertoire and the gym is the place to correct them. Otherwise, boxers need to take a page out of the books of their international colleagues who understand the intricacies of the sport and aspire to sell tickets by their actions and words. The stark reality is that boxing is now show business—no show, no business.
t r o p S GCB Inter County Cricket
Griffith’s maiden unbeaten ton puts Demerara in impregnable position against Berbice Trevon Griffith bats during his century yesterday at Bourda.
Young Superbiker Kevin Persaud, one to watch
Young Superbike racer Kevin Persaud (right) poses with his 2011 Kawasaki ZX6R and father ‘Smellie’ at the Workshop yesterday.
Lewis Hamilton takes dramatic Singapore pole over Nico Rosberg
Development Squad beat E’bo by six wickets
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