Berbice Times

guyanatimesgy.com

MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014

Issue No. 031

given an input earlier on... he (Opadeyi) is set on what he wants to do and we don’t have a say in anything... I feel we are not being treated fairly, you cannot just come and implement something like that. It’s unfair and it is impromptu to us,” she stated. Other students also angrily vented their frustration before noisily exiting the building.

Fee structure

Professor Jacob Opadeyi addressing students

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erbicians have rejected the proposed hike in tuition fees at the University of Guyana, saying that the increase is too exorbitant and is not matched by the quality of education being delivered. Several students at the University of Guyana, Berbice Campus (UGBC) two Fridays ago, stormed out of the auditorium of the institution after stakeholder consultations on the tuition fee adjustment proposal was held.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Jacob Opadeyi related that the proposed increase from G$127,000 annually to US$1000 (G$200,000) will aid in the development of the facility at all levels.

But many students after hearing him out became agitated and disruptive.

Looking overwhelmed, the Vice Chancellor who was perspiring heavily appealed for calm and for students to be realistic. One particular student from the Faculty of Natural Sciences became very agitated and vented her frustration when asked by Opadeyi what they would do

if they wanted their service to be upgraded. “If we want to upgrade our services that you want to give to us? That’s your business what you will do because we are already paying for services here and there is nothing free... students here and we are not working for US$1000 so how can we pay that amount... we are students okay and you are not catering for people that are at the lower level, you are just catering for maybe the ones that are rich here,” she vented.

A third year Public Management student, Melissa Faith took offence by a remark made earlier by the Vice Chancellor, saying “Sir, you stood up there and said something that made me very offended and I am sure some of the lecturers felt the same because we are not receiving crap here... I mean you cannot blame us or our lecturers for our university not being recognised, that is the only problem with Guyana; our university is not being recognised,” she opined, while pointing out that the courses done at the institution are up to par and even better than some be-

ing offered internationally.”

These comments were greeted by loud cheers and amens from fellow students.

Shellon Watson, another third year student at UGBC, while articulating her point, said that the Vice Chancellor kept comparing UG with universities around the world but asked whether he compared the earnings of the University of Guyana to that of those around the world. When questioned about her view on the entire scenario of Consultations on the University of Guyana Tuition Fee Adjustment, she said it seemed as though the administration of the university has already made their decisions. “I think they came here with their preconceived ideas and it’s not fair to us, we should have been

Meantime, Registrar of the University of Guyana Vincent Alexander explained that the university opened its doors on October 2, 1963.

As of that time, until August 1974, students were required to pay an annual fee of $100 as a tuition fee, for attendance at the University of Guyana. As of September 1974, until August 1994, under the policy of ‘free education from nursery to tertiary’ the fee was abolished and students were not required to pay any tuition. However, in 1994 under the scheme of cost recovery, the annual fee was reintroduced at the rate of US$1000 per student.

The reintroduction of fees was part of a broader scheme which envisaged the incremental realignment of salaries with those of the University of the West Indies. Thus, in 1994, there was the first increase in salaries towards the realignment.

The fee at that time was quoted in US dollars, with the clear understanding that it would have been adjusted annually to reflect

the prevailing rate of exchange of the Guyana dollar to the US dollar. However, from 1994 to present, there has been no adjustment to the fees. Some fee regimes, or the non-fee regime of 1974-1994, have been supplemented by Government subventions. Alexander said that the University Council in 2012 reaffirmed its commitment to a fee equivalent to US$1000 pegged at the prevailing exchange rate.

“It is against that background that we are assembled here in 2014, to activate that reaffirmation and

to the 2014-2015 academic year,” the Vice Chancellor informed.

Assistant Director of UGBC Jacqueline Ann Murray said that the capacity of UG to deliver the kind and quality of education which continues to contribute to the development of the human mind and by extension our country, is severely restricted by the paucity of resources available to it.

“This deficiency poses a real challenge to the University and impacts negatively its ability to effectively and efficiently improve its standards

A student venting her opinion at the consultation

to consult on the modalities for its activation in relation to students who will commence programmes in September 2014, and those who will be progressing in the programmes for which they were registered prior

in several areas,” Murray cited, while highlighting a few which include improving the teaching, learning and service environment, achieving higher quality teaching. The Berbice consultation was the last in a series of meetings.

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MonDAY, july 7, 2014

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ivestock farmers who live in residential communities are experiencing difficulty finding grazing grounds for their animals. These farmers have little or no where to graze their animals. The issue is also affecting those who rear sheep and goats.

Areas which were once pasture are no longer available to them.

Region Six Chairman David Armogan says this is one of the issues which his administration will soon be addressing. Much of the lands which were previously used for the grazing of animals have been converted into housing areas, leaving farmers without grazing lands for their animals.

Many of these farmers, although rearing on a small scale, depend of the animals to earn a living.

“Unless we can find some alternative for these people to graze their cattle, what you will find is that the various Town Council’s and NDC’s (Neighbourhood Democratic Councils) are calling in the

stray catchers and these people have to pay $8000 a head to get them [the livestock] out of the pound and they are finding it difficult,” Armogan said, as the issue was raised at the Regional Democratic Council’s (RDCs) statutory meeting on Thursday.

Armogan said if the administration does not act swiftly, the industry will continue to get smaller.

“We need to find new pasture lands.” Residents have also been complaining of the inconvenience caused by animals in residential communities. Some have complained of destruction to their plants by sheep and goats and to a lesser extent cows. Pigs have also been creating havoc in some communities, especially on the Corentyne, where walkways and in some cases roads are being damaged.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been coming down of animal owners in residential communities by issuing notices to persons remind-

ing them that it is against the law to have those animals in such communities.

Many of these farmers have now taken their cases to the regional administration appealing for help. The farmers are saying that although pasture lands are available in the region for the rearing of animals, it is not practical to take five or six heads of cattle to the pasture which is several miles away.

According to Armogan, the idea does not seem practical to him as well.

Meanwhile, large scale farmers have reported a decline in cattle rustling, which was a big issue in the region last year. Farmers had discussed the issue with regional officials, the Police and the Agriculture Minister. The Police had promised to be more vigilant and since then, several persons have appeared before the courts in Region Six charged with cattle rustling.

Now this new problem faces the administration, which the Chairman says must be addressed.

ore than 100 students of the New A m s t e r d a m Multilateral School (NAMS) are seeking transfers to the Berbice High School (BHS), Chairman of the Regional Education Committee Zamal Hussain has said.

The comments were made he addressed the Region Six Regional Democratic Council (RDC) at a statutory meeting held on Thursday. He noted that the Education Department has been informed not to grant those requests.

Regional Chairman David Armogan noted that if parents of the students who attend NAMS are seeking to have their children removed from that school, then soon there might be no need for NAMS. “We cannot allow that,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Alliance For Change (AFC) Regional Councillor Donna Mathoo said one of the reasons for parents wanting to move their children from that school is because teachers are not doing what they are being paid to do. “Teachers are not going to the classroom despite several appeals that have been made by regional officials and the Regional Education Committee.”

She noted that there are administrative problems at the school, with a constant struggle between the head of the school and the deputy.

“It is so bad that they did not make a time table for the stu-

Regional Chairman David Armogan

dents’ year end of term test... sometimes the children had tests on three subjects in one day,” Mathoo said.

When this point was raised, Armogan agreed that it could be one of the main contributory factors for the parents requesting the transfers. “We can’t allow that school to go down...,” the Regional Chairman said, noting that the New Amsterdam Multilateral School is the number one secondary school in Berbice, further stating that a new school board is soon to be put place.

CXC results over the past decade from NAMS have equalled those of senior secondary schools in the capital. “The results have not been showing any decline, it is just a discipline problem because when you look at the results, they are still number one,” the Regional

Chairman said.

Chairman of the Regional Education Committee Zamal Hussain says teachers are not pulling their weight and that must be addressed with some degree of urgency. He said for the next school term there could be a new administration at the school.

Hussain noted that the current board was recently charged with the responsibility of implementing new measures. However, Hussain did not say what those measures were.

He noted that though decisions will have to be taken, “Whatever it takes to bring the school under control, we will have to do.”

Armogan added that even if those decisions are going to hurt some, the administration will back those decisions. (Andrew Carmichael)

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MonDAY, july 7, 2014

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olice are still hunting for a man who allegedly, in a drunken rage, set his house ablaze before escaping, leaving his family destitute.

The incident occurred on Tuesday last at about 20:30h. Speaking to Berbice Times, the man’s wife Sumintra Samaru, 29, of Lot 101 Number 59 Village, Corentyne, who is badly in need of assistance to rebuild and move on with her life, recalled what transpired on the day in question. The woman said normally her husband Deodat Heera, 32, who is employed as a joiner, would leave home to go to his place of employment and return intoxicated.

“He does leave home good good and when he come back, he ah start cuss and get on,” she informed, while stating that the man is usually abusive to her and their two daughters, both verbally and physically. She recalled that on the night of the fire, her husband came home drunk and began his usual tirade from the time he entered the yard. Afraid for her safety, she hid at her parents’ residence which is situated directly in front of the family’s home. “Every time he drunk and come home he does get on and beat us and so that’s why we’re afraid and get away in front,” she said. Samaru said that after her husband enquiring from her father about her whereabouts and was told that she was not at his home, Heera started to curse and threaten him.

She said that they subsequently went to bed at her father’s residence thinking that her husband had fallen asleep. However, at about 20:20h, she was awakened by loud shouts of

Deodat Heera who is in hiding, is wanted by Police for allegedly setting his home ablaze

‘fire! Fire!’. She disclosed that upon exiting her parents’ home, she was greeted with the shocking site of the raging inferno that was her home.

She said that they could not have saved anything from the house as it was already too late and is counting her losses in the millions.

“By the time the fire service came, everything done burn and gone down… we ain’t left with anything… is what neighbour give we, is that we get,” she pointed out. Samaru is appealing to the general public to render any assistance to her and her two daughters, ages nine and 14. Meanwhile, Police are still looking for the man who went into hiding. The Force is appealing to anyone who may have information on the whereabouts of Deodat Heera to contact the nearest Police station.

ulture itself comes in many layers and one of those layers of culture may be part of your identity in a subculture.

In other words, in cases where diverse societies have come from many different parts of the world, they have often retained much of their original cultural traditions.

And for that reason, they are likely to be part of an identifiable subculture in their new society.

This is what sets them apart from the rest of their society. An example of this in Guyana would be ethnic groups such as Guyanese Indians, Guyanese Africans, and Guyanese Chinese. Each of these subcultures shares a common identity such as food,tradition, dialect, and other cultural traits that come from their common ancestral background and experience.

Eventually though, the cultural differences between members of a subculture and the dominant national culture do disappear. At a certain point in people’s lives, they start to see themselves as being part of the cultural mainstream of the nation. For example when Guyanese migrate elsewhere, they refer to themselves as Guyanese rather than Guyanese Indians and Guyanese Africans.

Another important layer of culture consists of cultural universals, which are a type of learned behaviour patterns that are shared by all of humanity regardless of where they originated from. The interesting thing is that no matter which part of the world people live, they share these universal traits.

Some very good examples of these “human cultural” traits would include things like when

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people are using age and gender to classify each other, for example, the use of the term teenager, woman, man, etc or even having a sexual division of labour, for example, men’s work versus women’s work, etc.

Culture and society not interchangeable I am not sure how many people realise it or not, but culture and society are not the same thing. Cultures are more of a development type of learned behaviour patterns and perceptions, whereas societies are groups of interacting organisms.

Therefore, people are not the only ones that have societies.

However, in the case of humans, societies are the interaction with other groups of people, both directly and indirectly. Generally speaking, people in human societies tend to perceive the fact that their society is distinct from other societies in terms of expectations and shared traditions.

In other words, everyone feels that their group is the best over others.

Human societies are intimately connected because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society, though human societies and cultures are not the same thing. One should realise that cultures are not the product of individuals only, but rather they are the constantly evolving products of people interacting with each other.

In a sense, cultural patterns such as language and politics do not make sense but in terms of the interaction of people, it becomes okay or acceptable. When you

Narine Dat Sookram

really think about it, there would be no need for language or Government if you were the only human on earth, but this is not the case.

Many cultures have developed their own specific ways of carrying out their universal traits. A good example is that deaf people in a subculture will use their hands to communicate through the use of sign language instead of verbal language; sign languages have grammatical rules just as verbal ones do.

And in some cases where not everyone speaks the same language, then it is not uncommon to have people use their own sort of sign language as well.

The message here today is to be respective and open to everyone’s culture whether we agree with their values or not.

For questions, comments, and feedback, email mcnarine@ rogers.com.

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guyanatimesgy.com

MonDAY, july 7, 2014

Low yield predicted for autumn rice crop … millers still concerned about markets

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espite the ongoing struggle to find markets for the last crop’s bumper harvest, Berbice rice farmers are again projecting a huge autumn crop (second crop), but warned about lower yields.

Speaking to Berbice Times, Mohindra Persaud, General Manager of Nand Persaud and Company Ltd – one of the largest rice millers in the country – said based on his outreaches across the region, more lands have been cultivated which would mean an increase in the production. “The coming rice crop is a big one again I am sure… going around the Corentyne for the past two months, I have seen numerous land preparation,

cultivation and farmers more busy since there are more acreage coming into cultivation,” he said.

He is of the view that although the area may be heading for one of the biggest cultivations yet, the yield of the grain that was derived from the last crop would not be of the same standard. “From my prediction I would have looked at this, despite having more land under cultivation, we will definitely not have [a] good yield,” he said, adding that this is normal trend in rice cultivation.

On possible damaging effects of El Nino, Persaud said there are no immediate threats to the rice sector in Berbice as he has been urging farmers to

ensure early cultivation, thus beating the dry spell.

He said too that he has implored the drainage and irrigation authorities to irrigate water early so that farmers can commence an early crop. “I am personally watching the El Nino and I think within the rice sector here, we kinda cross that danger… the paddy in the field is starting to get to a point where there is no need for much or no water so if we do have a dry spell within a month… by then almost 70 per cent of the rice planted would not need water,” he posited.

Frustration On the vexed issue of markets for the rice, Persaud said this is a very frustrating issue at this

point in time. However, he posited that Guyana is in a very good position regarding the Venezuelan market which pays a superior price for rice but stressed that somehow this confuses the industry as well.

“When you have 50 per cent of rice being sold at a high price and the other half on an average or low price, it confuses people… but the way forward for marketing is that we have to sell to markets that give us the best and second best price. We have to sell our produce to the max and the remainder we will have to accept what is the world market price,” he said, stressing that there is room for more markets, however, the European and Haitian prices must be accepted.

Strategy Persaud said the constraints faced at his company are that they have to deal with a buying strategy where some millers have a huge export market in Venezuela while theirs is restricted to a minimal exportation there. “We have to buy on the lowest or average market on the export end, while some can purchase almost everything and sell it to Venezuela… so we are at a disadvantage, but despite this set back, we do what we have to do to ensure we buy to make a small margin and keep going so that farmers can be paid to commence their crop,” he said.

Persaud disclosed that currently at Nand Persaud, there is a lot of rice stored awaiting exportation. However, he is optimistic that by the time harvest is ripe for the autumn crop, they would have been able to sell the additional and excess rice stored and it would not affect their buying, milling or marketing capacity. He concluded by stating that one of the improvements needed in the industry is to stop cultivation of the extra long grain rice here and invest more in the cultivation of the American length rice, which according to Persaud, is in demand.

Truth

Simply the

No outrage

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e Berbicians seem to have lost the ability to be outraged at even the greatest insult. We keep our outrage for very private conversations and for the rum shops after we have had lots to drink.

We are okay with being consistently led down muddy roads by our leaders. We are resigned to every manner of crime, except when it happens to us. We are mousequiet when we get Professor Daizal Samad into a taxi and are violated.

We go dead quiet when GPL does its dark thing, although Region Five has had no power for almost FOUR days now! And when our Jagdeo-facilitated Berbice Campus is reduced to shambles, we just take it like mice. The most tragic victim of betrayal is the one who multiplies that betrayal with selfbetrayal.

Last Friday, the University of Guyana’s big administrators made a trip to what could have been OUR Campus, but is now theirs more than ever.

Dem chap come fuh tell abee dat abee gat fuh pay more fuh guh university. And it seem like they make it sound as if dem doing we a big favour. It seems that some of our students were not happy.

Oh gosh!

All of our students ought to have known this was coming, but they did not support the move to have autonomy. They were quiet. “Regular” Berbicians were more than supportive. They signed a petition in their thousands. We wish the students had been a bit more forth-coming with their support, but that was just a wish. It may not have made difference anyway, since our Government seems to suffer from paralysis.

Now the chaps come all the way down to us and tell us: “Yawl gat fuh pay more for spoil goods!”

Because we did not speak up before, whatever we say now is just so much hot air. It does not matter how much we bleat. Berbicians will have to pay more for a place that has gone in the direction of decayed Turkeyen.

UGBC was not so long ago a place about which we were all proud – and a place where all were welcomed and respected and helped. And it was a place that every Berbician in and out of the country wanted to help. And my goodness, they helped!

We did not have to beg. Dem people come and say: “Hey professor bai, wat we can do fuh help?”

This is how we got 14 scholarships for bright but financially distressed students to attend the place.

We got donations of tens of thousands of books. We got a nice sturdy portable stage worth $6 million in just six hours! The man who led the charge was Mr Ramdat Nandkisore, the Administrative Officer who worked under me and who advised me along the way.

Oh, he was kicked to the grass corner by Turkeyen as well. No problem! He is Berbician. We can take good kick, bai. When they kick the man, me bin vex bad bad. Me kick up a stink when they kick de man to the grass corner. There was no other public outrage. But plenty people bin come and poosoor poosoor at me house bout how bad dem treat a good man.

UGBC does not need a tuition hike! And we do not need more Government subvention! If Berbicians want to know how we can do this magic, ask me…me guh tell ayuh again!