Guyana Times - Monday April 11, 2022

GPF pushes to re-establish scout groups in all regions P

15

Nationwide coverage from the best news team in Guyana guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON OF TRUTH

Issue No. 4976

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

More benefits in store for Lindeners –...warnsPres Ali reassures against instigators who want to destroy Govt’s trust See story on page 3

PRICE

$100 VAT INCLUDED

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Each project in Stabroek Block covered by US$600M “per occurrence” insurance – EPA Head P11 ...provided by oil company for every drilling campaign

Page 7

MoE saddened P at passing of 15 theatre legend Henry Rodney Minibus driver P16 dies after crashing into tree

Govt pushes to license Guyanese fishermen despite resistance by some Surinamese

Lawyer refutes hurling racist P16 slurs at Policewoman …says will wait for court to properly determine matter

– VP Jagdeo tells Corentyne fisherfolk

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo in discussion with Corentyne fishermen on Sunday during an outreach in Region Six

AG to Georgetown M&CC: Address street vending or Govt will act

Page 17

Guyanese in Suriname urged to tap into opportunities under Local Content Act – as Diaspora updated on Page 10

massive economic opportunities

Guyanese-T&T joint venture aims to link “other crop” farmers to int’l markets Page 9

– already bearing fruit with massive shipment of coconuts to Florida

WCD man P16 arrested for ganja possession CCJ pronounced on 111 cases from Guyana since opening in P8 2005

2 NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Kuru Kuru residents want Police station built in community – say will aid significantly in reducing crime

Commander Griffith during a tour of the community

Commissioner “Operations” (ag) Ravindradat Budhram; Commander of Regional Division 4B, Superintendent Denise Griffith, Senior Superintendent Ewart Wray and members of the IMC during the outreach at Kuru Kuru on Saturday

A

s part of a committed effort by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to strengthen relationships, members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and other Senior Officers are currently engaged in a fan-out exercise in various communi-

ties across all twelve of the Regional Police Divisions.

One such initiative was held on Saturday at Kuru Kuru, on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, which was spearheaded

by Deputy Commissioner “Operations” (ag) Ravindradat Budhram.

During the meeting, he and the visiting team interacted with residents and members of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the New Highway Producers Corp Society.

The IMC’s chairperson, Paula Nicholson through the community request-

ed that a Police station be built in the community, explaining that this will aid significantly with the reduction of crime in the community and more so, give the residents some form of security and comfort.

In this light, Budhram related that his team will work diligently to have this materialise once consultation with the appropriate agencies is held.

The Deputy Commissioner of Operations said he hopes to meet with the residents on a more regular basis while

Deputy Commissioner “Operations” (ag) Budhram and Senior Superintendent Wray in Kuru Kuru

indicating his intention to form youth and scout groups within the community.

By doing so, he explained that the Force is committed to pushing and promoting youth and community development. He also stressed the need for collaboration and partnership between the community and the Police in crime prevention.

Commander of Regional Division 4 B, Superintendent Denise Griffith, who was also present at the meeting, urged

residents and members of the committee to be vigilant and ensure that every crime and every suspicious behaviour is reported.

Senior Superintendent Ewart Wray in his remarks applauded the residents for a well-kept environment and urged them to maintain a good relationship with the Police.

The IMC members and residents have pledged their support to help the Police in the maintenance of peace, provision of security and fostering of a safer community.

NEWS

3

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

BRIDGE OPENINGS OPENINGS BRIDGE

The Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Monday, Apr 11 – No closure and Tuesday, Apr 12 – 01:00h – 02:30h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

More benefits in store for Lindeners – Pres Ali reassures ...warns against instigators who want to destroy Govt’s trust

Monday, Apr 11 – 12:05h – 13:35h and Tuesday, Apr 12 – 13:10h – 14:40h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h daily

WEATHER TODAY There will be sunshine during the day. Expect clear skies at night. Temperatures should range between 21 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius.

Winds: North North-Easterly to North-Westernly between 1.78 metres and 4.91 metres.

High Tide: 12:45h reaching a maximum height of 2.08 metres.

Low Tide: 06:15h and 18:55h reaching minimum heights of 1.25 metre and 1.05 metre.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2022

LOTTERY NUMBERS A

03 05 06

07 24 26

12

FREE TICKET

Bonus Ball

DAILY MILLIONS

01 03 05 19 23 LUCKY 3

9

9

8

8

Afternoon Draw

9

3

Evening Draw

DRAW DE LINE

03 04 08 09 15 19 20 SUPER

PAY DAY

PAY DAY

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

06 07 08 11 13 13

01 06 09 20 21

5

2 Afternoon Draw

3X Afternoon Draw

0

6 Evening Draw

2X Evening Draw

DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN PUBLICATION. PLEASE CALL THE HOTLINE FOR CONFIRMATION - TEL: 225-8902

COMMODITIES Indicators

US$

Change %

Crude Oil

$102.78/barrel

+2.14

Rough Rice

$282.72/ton

-0.42

London Sugar

$560.40/ton

0.00

Live Spot Gold

USD Per Ounce

Bid/Ask

$1944.50

$1945.50

Low/High Change

$1942.70 -2.20

$1950.90 -0.11%

President Dr Irfaan Ali

P

resident Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday reassured residents of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) that they will continue to enjoy all the benefits under the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic Administration.

His comments came on the heels of People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader Aubrey Norton recently telling Lindeners during an outreach that the Government will increase electricity rates for the region and remove the electricity subsidy that they currently enjoy.

But President Ali on Sunday made it clear that there is no differentiation between the people of Linden and the people of any other region across the country.

“The people of Linden can understand and appreciate one thing, this is a Government that will embrace them, like every other Guyanese. We don't have a different message for Linden, a different message for Berbice and a different message for Region Nine. We have one message for Guyana: all of us together, forward; prosperity for all,” the Head of State told reporters during a visit to the Parika Market.

According to Ali, the PPP/C believes in a message of “stronger together” and will do nothing during its time in office that would falter this.

“We will do everything under our leadership, under this Government’s leadership to make us stronger; stronger under ‘One Guyana’,” he asserted.

In the same breath, however, the Head of State warned residents of Region 10 to be aware of those who are trying to destroy their trust in Government and instigate bad feelings against each other.

He reminded that only recently several senior Government officials including Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had travelled to Linden for extensive and elaborate consultations during which they not only assured that the benefits to the people there will continue but even extended those benefits.

The President further stated that it was the PNC-led A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change

Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips

(APNU/AFC) coalition that shut down the call centre that was established by the previous PPP Government to cre-

PNC Leader Aubrey Norton

ate jobs for citizens in Linden – an area that is a stronghold for the PNC. Dr Ali pointed out that his

Administration, after taking office, supported the Private Sector in reopening the call centre, which has already opened up 125 job opportunities and this number is slated to grow to 250 by June.

“I don't spend much of my time on negativity. I spend a lot of my time on building Guyana in a positive way…

So Mr Norton, continue this path of propaganda, continue this path of mischief making; it will bring you nothing.

I advise you embrace the concept of Guyana. Get a full understanding of reality. This is not Guyana of the past; this is Guyana that will move forward together,” the Guyanese leader stressed.

TURN TO PAGE 8

4

guyanatimesgy.com

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

Views Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544, 223-7230, 223-7231, 225-7761 Marketing: 231-8064 Accounts: 225-6707 Mailing address: Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, marketing@guyanatimesgy.com

Reparations now

T

he visit by Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to The Bahamas, Belize, and Jamaica was intended to maintain links with a Caribbean that is fast cutting the last colonial tie by becoming Republics and jettisoning the British monarch as Head of State. But in the wake of concrete progress in the US on the question of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans, the leaders of The Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica, then Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados seized the opportunity to remind Britain of its debt.

The British Duke in Jamaica expressed “profound sorrow” for the “appalling atrocity of slavery”. He added, “Slavery was abhorrent and it never should have happened.

I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.” But as so many times in the past, he was reminded in no uncertain words that “saying sorry” is not enough.

As one Jamaican Anglican Priest said there must be a formal apology coupled with reparations: “They (the royal couple) displayed a lack of common decency, emotional intelligence, and sensitivity for the pain and suffering endured by our revered ancestors and the manumitted who were never even compensated for the centuries of Great Britain’s prosperity at the expense of their lives and dehumanising experiences. The insult to our human dignity, self-worth, and autonomy is so palpable that many no longer realise the ongoing effects of the sheer cruelty wrought upon us by the genocide and holocaust of the transatlantic slave trade.”

Back in 2013, the Caricom Heads of Government had launched a formal process for reparations and had promulgated a comprehensive “Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice”. The Plan outlined “the path to reconciliation and justice for victims of crimes against humanity and their descendants” and called for: 1. A full formal apology, as opposed to “statements of regrets” that some nations have issued; 2. Repatriation, pointing out the legal right of the descendants of more than 10 million Africans, who were stolen from their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as the enslaved chattel and property, to return to their homeland; 3. An Indigenous Peoples Development Programme to rehabilitate survivors; 4. Cultural Institutions through which the stories of victims and their descendants can be told; 5. Attention to be paid to the “Public Health Crisis” in the Caribbean. The Caribbean has the “highest incidence of chronic diseases which stems from the nutritional experience, emotional brutality and overall stress profiles associated with slavery, genocide and apartheid”; 6. Eradicating illiteracy, as the Black and Indigenous communities were left in a state of illiteracy, particularly by the British; 7. An African Knowledge Programme to teach people of African descent about their roots; 8. Psychological Rehabilitation for healing and repair of African descendants’ populations; 9. Technology Transfer for greater access to the world’s science and technology culture; and 10. Debt Cancellation to address the “fiscal entrapment” that faces Caribbean Governments that emerged from slavery and colonialism”.

In an address delivered by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission to the House of Commons, Parliament of Great Britain, July 16, 2014, he broadened the ambit of reparations to include “Asian contract slavery”. This will certainly resonate in the southern Caribbean. “100 years of colonial oppression followed 250 years of slave trading and chattel slavery.

Slavery which ended in 1838 was replaced by a century of racial apartheid, including the denigration of Asian people.

The regime of enslavement was crafted by policies and attitudes that were clearly genocidal. Indigenous genocide, African chattel slavery and genocide, and Asian contract slavery were three acts of a single play – a single process by which the British State forcefully extracted wealth from the Caribbean resulting in its persistent, endemic poverty.”

The bottom line is that we cannot speak about justice in the present and ignore the injustices from the past that are systemically embedded through the hierarchies of coloniality that remain from the colonial experience.

Repatriations are one initiative that can help equalise the playing field.

Reverend Father Monsell Alves and members of the St Sidwell’s Anglican Church during its Palm Sunday Service. Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week

The United Nations has the power to punish Putin. This is how it can be done

…Ukraine urgently needs help – and if the organisation can’t act effectively now, the global consequences could be catastrophic

By Simon Tisdall

P

resident Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s address to the UN security council came at a crucial moment for the United Nations as well as Ukraine. Russia’s illegal war of aggression, and the collective failure of the other 192 member states to stop it, represents the biggest crisis for the UN since Iraq in 2003. This visceral threat to the organisation’s authority – practical, legal and moral – is one from which it may not recover.

The principles enshrined in the 1945 UN founding charter, primarily aimed at upholding peace between sovereign states, have been torn up by the Kremlin. Repeated pleas by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for an immediate end to hostilities are ignored. And the humanitarian laws of war are being brutally disregarded, as the multiple crimes committed in Bucha, Mariupol and across Ukraine show.

The UN did not happen by accident. Nor should its aspirations and responsibilities now be considered optional or somehow secondary. Following the collapse of the League of Nations, it emerged from the smoking ruins of the second global conflict of the 20th century. The shared, urgent motivation was simple: “never again”.

Seventy-seven years later, Governments and nations badly need reminding of its central message.

Amid febrile talk that the invasion of Ukraine could spark a third world war, the UN charter has renewed relevance. Its preamble states: “We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights [undertake]... to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security”.

Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin’s regime has trashed the obligations entered into by its Soviet predecessors. Dismayingly, China – like Russia, one of five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members (the others are the US, the UK and France) – is also failing to abide by the charter, while other leading states unhelpfully twiddle their thumbs.

The UN has not been silent on Ukraine.

At the beginning of March, 141 countries in the 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately end all military operations – more than the required two-thirds majority.

Only North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and Belarus (and Russia) voted against. So what happened? Nothing. Were penalties issued or enforcement action taken? No. Three weeks later, the assembly overwhelmingly passed another resolution, insisting on aid agency access and civilian protection and criticising Russia for creating a “dire” humanitarian situation. This must have been about the time that, as we now know, civilians in Bucha were being executed, raped and tortured by Russian troops. Once again, the UN vote was largely ignored by Moscow.

The 15-member UN Security Council, the one body that really could make a difference, had already proven its impotence. In the days following the invasion, a resolution condemning the assault failed after Russia used its veto. China, India and the UAE abstained. Ukraine’s furious Ambassador memorably told the council: “ Your words have less value than a hole in a New York pretzel”.

Not giving up, Zelenskiy called on Tuesday for council members to stop what he says is a genocide and expel Russia from the Security Council, which he said was paralysed and ineffective. Kyiv, he said, wants a transparent, international investigation. In fact, the UN human rights council has already begun an inquiry. And later last week the US and Britain, which currently holds the security council presidency, expelled Russia from the UNHRC. “We cannot let a member state that is subverting every principle we hold dear to continue to participate,” said Linda ThomasGreenfield, US Ambassador to the UN. “Russia’s participation in the human rights council is a farce.” Most objective observers would certainly agree. In truth, her words may be said to apply to Russia’s presence in the UN as a whole.

How can the rank behaviour of a violently aggressive, out-of-control rogue regime possibly be tolerated indefinitely? And how can the UN be made more effective?

These fundamental questions now hang over the UN’s future. They apply, too, to other serially abusive states. But Russia is

key, given its privileged post-1945 position. If the UN is to retain its authority as guardian of the international rules-based order, if it is to be able to act decisively when those rules are broken, and indeed, if it is to survive at all as anything more than a talking shop and stage for gesture politics, it desperately needs reform.

This is not a new idea. Numerous proposals have been floated and sunk over the years, mostly involving the enlargement of the UNSC’s permanent membership to include states such as Japan, Brazil, India, South Africa and Germany. Some suggest abolishing the UNSC veto. All such ideas have predictably foundered on national rivalries and the jealous preservation of existing rights, with Britain and France prominent among the guilty parties.

This situation plainly cannot continue while Ukraine burns. A sensible, doable first step would be to hold an exceptional one-off vote to allow majority voting in the Security Council on specifically Ukraine-related issues and override Russia’s inevitable veto. The rule change could be ratified by the anti-Russia two-thirds majority that already exists in the general assembly. If Putin didn’t like it, he could lump it. And if he didn’t comply with subsequent resolutions – for example, on withdrawing Russian forces – all UN members would be expected to support UN-agreed punitive measures, as in the case of North Korea.

Majority voting in the UNSC could be introduced more generally over time. But, in any event, Guterres should now ask all member states to support the convening of a new foundational conference akin to that in San Francisco in 1945, to relaunch the UN, institutionally and organisationally, in ways that reflect the global power balances and priorities of the 21st century.

This is a critical moment. Ukraine needs urgent help. The UN desperately needs a fresh start. And so, too, does the disintegrating international order. If the UN fails over Putin and Ukraine as the League of Nations did over Mussolini and Ethiopia, then the global consequences, as in the 1930s, may be catastrophic for all. (The Guardian) Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the Guardian

guyanatimesgy.com

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

5

You can send your letters with pictures to: Guyana Times, Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown, Guyana or letters@guyanatimesgy.com

Leonora Market and beyond Ring-fencing is a double-

Dear Editor, The idea of creating a massive tarmac for the Leonora Market is a good idea but still does not provide a solution that balances demand and supply. The current Administration should consider the creation of a second market where there is sufficient demand to support its existence. Based on personal observations and the comments of the vendors, it is clear that there isn't sufficient demand to support a large number of vendors inside and outside the Leonora Market.

If we are to pursue a fair solution, then it is only just that the vendors inside the market get the benefit of the development. They have been paying rent for years, while those outside the market

have been selling without paying rent, thus having a cost advantage that gives them the ability to undercut the profits of the vendors inside the market. An equitable solution would be to remove the vendors along the road and create a new market location where they can also benefit from good infrastructure and a source of captive demand.

This will allow both groups to benefit from stronger demand for their products.

Another essential solution has to do with the professional service provided by the Police at the market. The presence of law and order is critical during and after this transition period so as to avoid confrontations from escalating. The Police should have been able to prevent unauthorised vendors from es-

tablishing a presence outside the market. This must be a priority in the current Leonora Market after a solution is put in place. If a new market is established, the Police should also ensure that unauthorised vendors do not establish a presence. The Government must allow those adhering to the policies of the market to benefit from their investments. The Police have a major role to play in ensuring our markets are safe and free from those who break market policy by illegally selling goods in unauthorised locations.

It should also be noted that this is a problem across the country in other established markets.

It would be beneficial to have a meeting between the Government and the administrators of the vari-

ous major markets nationwide to establish a national standard and policy that will ensure our markets are tourist-friendly (safe and sanitary), profitable investments for authorised sellers, and have the infrastructure necessary to maintain a high standard that allows for a pleasant shopping and selling experience. The Mayors also have a role to play, and making this an ongoing annual process will help ensure that agreed-upon solutions are implemented and new opportunities identified to continually improve our markets are discussed. What the current Administration has recently done is a good first step in this direction.

Best regards, Jamil Changlee

Moving away from the rhetoric of being politically correct Dear Editor, When the PPP/C Government was elected to office, it was a solemn oath between them and the people of this country to govern and govern well. It was not a manifesto like the common ones politicians make when they are out of office waiting to get in, that is, we would do this and we will do that, lavishing those high-winded promises just to satisfy the emotions of those their listeners.

That was not the case for the PPP/C, they wanted a change from that deceitful game politicians to play, a moving away from the rhetoric of being politically correct. It means removing oneself from the shallowness and insidious propaganda of politics.

In that regard, the PPP/C

formulated a visionary, workable plan for this nation, to fix the present problems as well as to move us forward into the future. It is arduous task that requires great thinking and planning and turning those plans into concrete goals. This takes much effort and when I say much effort, I am talking about working on your plan amidst obnoxious opposition from the main PNC party.

We must not forget that they are always lurking in the shadows to seize that opportunity to malign, tear down, and repudiate every plan there is. For this reason, it makes governance ever so difficult. But, the party in Government has weathered the storm quite admirably, and we are ever so grateful for the effort.

The fundamental prin-

ciple of governance is that it must not only be in Government, that is, only in the office, closeted and far removed from the people. Government and governance is best demonstrated when it can go down into the highways and byways and be with and among the people, to hear their problems and work out ways in resolving them; this is Government at work.

And I am not speaking of making your presence felt in select communities, I am

speaking of a Government for all of Guyana. True governance must be seen and felt in every community in which our people live and dwell. Team PPP/C has been at work with this form of Government in a strong and determined way, and there is only one result that can be gleaned from this effort. We are proud of our Government and wish them all the best in the coming years.

Respectfully, Neil Adams

edged sword Guyana can well do without

Dear Editor, Governments have a number of competing priorities when they sit down to negotiate contracts with companies. This is driven first and foremost by the need to maximise revenues to the State. But at the same time, authorities have to also ensure that there are incentives that would allow companies to invest, in the case of oil and gas, billions of US dollars upfront.

According to the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), by introducing ring-fencing rules, governments must be aware of the need to balance the objectives of early revenues versus future revenues.

To quote the NRGI directly, “By preventing investors from obtaining a deduction against current income, governments speed up income tax collection, but they may also delay further investment and exploration, reducing the future tax base”.

In the absence of ring-fencing rules, countries such as Guyana can encourage companies to explore larger areas and develop more wells, which ultimately leads to more revenue and more production. So far for Guyana, this seems to be working. We now have four approved offshore develop-

ments with two producing oil. Last year revenues from Liza Phase 1 totalled more than US$600 million since production started in 2019. The Government is projecting almost US$1 billion this year with Liza Phase 2 now online. These projects have only been made possible by hundreds of millions of US dollars being invested in exploration and development work over the years by the oil companies operating offshore.

There is also the flawed argument that has been made that the absence of ring-fencing means Guyana has to pay for wells that come up dry outside of the Stabroek Block, such as at Kaieteur and Canje. This is as far from the truth as one can get.

The cost to drill those wells is being carried entirely by the licence holders/ partners. In the absence of a commercial discovery that leads to oil production, which turns a profit, Guyana does not pay a cent.

As a country, we certainly want to get as much revenue as possible. But getting more in the short term might not be worth sacrificing long-term revenues and the overall pace of development.

Sincerely, Romel Khan

6

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

Page

Foundation ◄

By Stephen Spender

My parents kept me from children who were rough Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams.

I

n this fun and easy magic science experiment, we’re going to investigate gravity by making an egg dive into a pitcher of water.

Materials:

Pitcher Water Egg Aluminium pie pan Cardboard paper towel tube

Instructions:

Fill the pitcher halfway with water.

Place the pie pan over the mouth of the bottle.

Stand the cardboard tube on end on the pie pan.

Carefully balance the egg on the end of the cardboard tube so it is positioned over the mouth of the pitch-

er.

Quickly pull the pie pan away and observe what happens.

How it works:

No magic here actually and just more science. When the pie pan is quickly pulled away, the egg stays suspended in mid-air for a split nanosecond due to inertia.

Inertia explains that an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Almost immediately gravity takes over and the egg will fall straight down and land in the pitcher of water.

Make this a science project:

Try different objects. Try objects that have different weights. Try longer cardboard tubes. (sciencefun.org)

I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys Who copied my lisp behind me on the road.

They were lithe they sprang out behind hedges Like dogs to bark at my world.

They threw mud While I looked the other way, pretending to smile.

I longed to forgive them but they never smiled.

Summary

In the poem, the persona recalls a childhood where his parents kept him from 'rough' children. His parents hope to protect him from the derision and harassment of these children, which, throughout the poem, is shown to be true. However, it becomes evident that in keeping him from these children, his parents greatly restrict his freedom, and he is jealous of the freedom that these rough children possess. The mood of this poem is reflective. The themes include childhood experience, parental influence and social segregation.

1) Write an extended summary of 200 words 2) Analyse the following lines: "My parents kept me from children who were rough" "Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams."

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know” – Pema Chödrön

"I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms" "I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys Who copied my lisp behind me on the road."

WORD SEARCH

7 Govt pushes to license Guyanese fishermen despite resistance by some Surinamese – VP Jagdeo tells Corentyne fisherfolk NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Some of the fishermen at the meeting on Sunday

By Andrew Carmichael

T

he Government will continue to do all it can to ensure that fishermen on the Corentyne are licensed to operate on the Corentyne River despite resistance from some Surinamese.

This is according to Vice President Bharat Jagdeo who met with fisherfolk on the Corentyne on Sunday.

Following a high-level meeting in Guyana during August 2021, between President Dr Irfaan Ali and Surinamese Head of State President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, the two leaders had issued a joint press statement indicating that the age-old issue of licences for Guyanese fisherfolk to operate in Suriname’s territorial waters will be addressed.

These fishermen operate from the Corentyne coast and have to use the Corentyne to get access to the Atlantic where they get most of their catch. The Corentyne River is considered Surinamese territory.

Currently, the licences are issued to Surinamese businessmen at US$100 per year and rented to the Guyanese fisherfolk at US$3000 annually.

“This issue was dis-

cussed at the highest level during which an agreement was put in writing.

We can’t go higher than that raising this matter and still it is unsolved. More so, you have discrimination against our fishermen because some have complained of harassment and we think that there is a group of people out there who are benefitting enormously from this - the current system, they want it to stay like this,” the Vice President told fishermen.

“The only thing that we can commit to is keeping the pressure up,” Jagdeo added while pointing out that the issue is a priority for the Guyana Government.

“Dealing with this means we have to wait on them, we cannot make the decisions because it is another country and it is their waters we are talking about. Never for one minute should the fisherman of this country doubt for one moment where the People’s Progressive Party sympathy is; it is just that we are in the same boat with you. Trying to get this solved for a long time.”

About 150 boats operate from the Number 66 Fisherman’s Co-op Society thus providing direct employment for about 800 fishermen. Additionally, some 200 persons are employed

in providing services which include transportation, fish vending and repairs to machinery and equipment.

However, Chairman of the Fishing Co-op, Pamashwar Jainarine explained that while they were expecting to get their licence for 2022, fisherfolk are now being further pressured. He said the Surinamese are now demanding that they reduce the size of their vessels.

Currently, most of the boats are 40 feet in length and they are now asked to reduce them to 30 feet.

Jainarine argued that because of the amount of ice that is needed to store catch during a fishing expedition and the 100 pounds seine they carry, using the suggested smaller boat will not work.

Further, it is now required that the fishermen leave their boats on Suriname’s side of the Corentyne River. However, the Co-op Chairman pointed out that no security is provided to secure the boats and the water current is very strong which could result in them being pulled into the Atlantic.

He explained that each boat is valued at over $4 million.

Further, Jainarine relat-

ed that the middlemen are now collecting back the licences which were rented to the Guyanese fishermen if they do not comply with the new imposed regulations.

Already four licences have been reclaimed.

“If we do this, the co-op will have to close because there are a number of people who depend on this coop. They will have to sell all of their fish to Suriname and so the fishing industry here will die. They will have to buy their ice in Suriname and that is with one of the things we here at the co-op used to generate revenue,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha explained that the issue of licensing for the fisherfolk was on the table being discussed with officials in Suriname prior to the PPP/C being removed from office in 2015.

“We restarted those discussions when we returned to Government in August 2020. And there was a lot of commitment from the Surinamese. They were looking at the laws and said they were going to form a Government company and issue the licence to the fishermen directly. They promised in the first instance that

they will give 150 licences.”

Mustapha said a meeting was held two months ago and Suriname had committed to an agreement made between the two nations.

Also speaking on the issue was Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd who stated that the Government has been and will continue to advocate on behalf of the fisherfolk. “We are convinced that they have their own issues in Suriname, our responsibility is to ensure that we keep the dialogue open and keep the conversation going,” Todd told the fishermen.

8 NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

CCJ pronounced on 111 cases from Guyana since opening in 2005

CCJ Judge Denys Barrow of Belize

S

ince its opening 17 years ago, the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has pronounced on 249 cases, of which the majority – 111 were from Guyana. The other 88 are from Barbados, another 42 from Belize, and the remaining eight from Dominica.

This was revealed by CCJ Judge Denys Barrow during his presentation at a virtual law conference organised by the Bar Association of Guyana as part of activities in observance of its Inaugural Law Week 2022 which was held from April 3-9.

Justice Barrow’s presentation was based on Guyana’s contributions to the jurisprudence of the CCJ which, in its appellate jurisdiction, is the final court of appeal for criminal and civil matters for the aforementioned countries.

The regional court decided its first case from Guyana

on May 12, 2006. It was the case of Griffith v the Guyana Revenue Authority and another.

He also recognised the efforts of the lawyers who appeared in this case.

Justice Barrow explained that the practice area in which most of these judgements have been given include land, criminal, constitutional, company, and commercial law, practice and procedure, judicial review, and Original Jurisdiction claims. In its Original Jurisdiction, the CCJ is an international court with exclusive authority to interpret and apply the rules set out in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) and to decide disputes arising under it.

The RTC established the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). In its Original Jurisdiction, the CCJ is critical to the CSME and all 12 Member States which belong to the CSME (including citizens, businesses, and governments) can access the court’s Original Jurisdiction to protect their rights under the RTC. He told the gathering that Inaugural Law Week 2022 provides a fitting opportunity to fully recognise how greatly the development of an appellate court’s jurisprudence depends on the efforts of the officers of the court – its lawyers.

He said, “It takes excellent lawyering to produce excellent judgements. This adage expresses just how dependent a court is on

The law…

G its lawyers. By the quality of their efforts and talent, lawyers enable courts to produce judgements of the highest quality. It is fundamental that this is the process that enables and assists the court to develop its jurisprudence.”

The CCJ Judge noted that it has been remarked that Guyana, which has by thousands of times the largest landmass and lowest population density, generates the most land law cases. This factor, he noted, makes it curious that a discernible feature is a concern with title to land and many of these are commonplace. He, however, said that some of these cases attract attention because of the need they demonstrated for the CCJ, in the particular circumstances, to clarify the operation of the establishment.

Savings law clause

He said that constitutional law cases from Guyana have attracted particular attention for the development in the jurisprudence on the “savings law clause”, which has bedevilled the full enjoyment of some fundamental rights declared in the

More benefits in store...

Only Saturday evening, Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips in a broadcast statement dispelled what he described as “lies” peddled

by Norton, who is slated to be sworn-in as an APNU/ AFC Opposition Member of Parliament on Wednesday and will likely take up the role of Opposition Leader.

PM Phillips, who has direct responsibility for the energy sector, declared that there are no plans to increase the electricity rates being paid by the people of Linden.

He explained that what happened is that the Management Committee of the Linden Utility Cooperative Society Limited (LUCSL) was replaced by the Chief Co-operative Development Officer (CCDO).

The Co-operative Society Act, Chapter 88:01, empowers the CCDO to take over any cooperative or friend-

ly societies, or credit union if it is found, by the CCDO, to be mismanaged or not transparent.

“What has happened in Linden is that the CCDO – the Chief Co-operative Development Officer – replaced the management committee for gross mismanagement; and that committee is replaced by an interim committee of management, and the members of that interim committee of management are residents of Linden of good standing in that society. They’re tasked, within six months, to bring some order and financial discipline to that Co-op Society – the LUCSL,” the Prime Minister noted.

According to PM Phillips, “I wish to repeat that at no time, is the Government interested in taking control of the Linden Utility Co-ops Society Limited; at no time will the Government direct the affairs of the Linden

FROM PAGE 3

Utility Co-ops Society Limited, and at no time did the Government mention or pass any instructions to increase the electricity rates paid by the people of Linden.”

The new members of the interim management committee are: Chairwoman Renee Mac Donald, Winston Caesar, Hilton Lyle, Wanda Richmond, Courtney Handy, Leon Greaves and Latoya Walks.

The electricity costs for residents in that region are significantly subsidised by the Government.

Reports in 2014 indicate that Lindeners pay $5 per kWh while the rest of Guyana pays $64 per kWh. In fact, in that very year, $3.2 billion was budgeted to maintain the subsidy in Linden and Kwakwani so that 10,500 electricity customers in the region could continue to benefit from the rates that are highly subsidised.

Constitution.

He went on to explain that the clause, included in the attainment of independence in various constitutions across the region, served to preserve existing, pre-independence laws and saved them from being declared invalid for being in conflict with the new constitutions.

Justice Barrow highlighted that the clause has been allowed to operate for decades after the attainment of independence to preserve laws that are universally acknowledged to violate basic human rights.

Instead of being struck down, the CCJ Judge said that such unconstitutional laws have been protected or saved by the savings law clause.

“It is important to recall that the clause was intended, at inception, to allow us space, for local legislatures to reform existing laws that will be revealed to be unconstitutional with the advent of the new Constitution,” he pointed out. “However, because there has not been the legislative reform which was contemplated in the conception, the clause has been allowed to operate for decades after the attainment of independence to preserve laws.”

Justice Barrow reminded that in the case of McEwan and others against the Attorney General of Guyana, the CCJ declared invalid a colonial-era law that criminalised cross-dressing because it infringed the constitutional right to equality before the law, non-discrimination, and freedom of expression. He noted that the apex court held that the savings law clause was incapable of preserving the law from a declaration of unconstitutionality and being struck down.

Meanwhile, by signing and ratifying the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice, other Caricom Member States have demonstrated a commitment to making the CCJ their final court of appeal.

The CCJ said that is a realisation of a vision of our ancestors, an expression of independence, and a signal of the region’s coming of age.

…on show enerally, lawyers get a bad rap…and with good reason, no? Well, you really can’t blame them COMPLETELY. After all, no matter what happens after every case is adjudged, half of the participants – the losing half – are sure to swear a curse on the entire legal profession!! And a tad more passive-aggressive there are the “lawyer jokes” that abound: “How does an attorney sleep? Well, first he lies on one side, then he lies on the other”!!!

But it would appear that after the depths to which some in the legal profession sunk (even if it hadn’t seemed possible!!) to justify the PNC’s rigging, the profession’s Bar and Bench went to great lengths this year to raise their profile. As for “esteem”, there’s no hope there! They held a week-long series of activities starting last Sunday with a walkathon and ended last Saturday night with a dinner at the Marriott. At $16,000 a pop, clients can expect to be billed for the five hours!!

The black-tie and elaborately-gowned dinner attendees were supposed to be addressed by Head of the CCJ, Justice Saunders. But since when can lawyers resist the opportunity to drone on –- as so many of them did!!

Talk about an echo chamber!! Anyhow the most pertinent aspect of the event was it brought down the curtains on lawyer redux! ( Q: Why does the bar association code of ethics prevent sex between lawyers and their clients? A: To prevent clients from being billed twice for essentially the same service!!)

In the middle of the week, most of the streets of downtown Georgetown were closed off to permit the enactment of a medieval spectacle that one thought would’ve been abandoned after independence along with powdered wigs!! This was the opening of the “Demerara Assizes” where serious criminal cases will be tried. The Police were out in spotless whites and various and sundry legal potentials took salutes after a phalanx of lawyers robed in black marched through the streets!! But hey!! If the politicians who boasted about throwing off the yoke of colonialism could revert to “jacket and tie” before they could say “Jack Sprat!”, why shouldn’t the lawyers signal their colonial heritage?? After all, as with the Senior Counsel designation, this parade may permit an inflation of fees? (A man asked his lawyer what his fee was. “$100 for three questions,” answered the lawyer. “Isn’t that a little steep?” said the man. “Yes,” said the lawyer. “Now, what’s your third question?”)

But seriously, folks. There’s the majesty of the law that we can’t ignore since it’s what stands between the law of the jungle and a society where justice rules.

And maybe we’ll get there one day?? …and AFC Your Eyewitness wonders if there isn’t a law that can be invoked to take organisations out of their misery – like some jurisdictions permit euthanasia with humans when they reach a point of no return. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they? The announcement by the AFC that they’ll hold “leadership elections” this June 11 – and Ramjattan would be competing – is what provoked this thought.

Even if the AFC weren’t the “dead meat” Ramjattan had predicted they’d become if they tied bundle with the PNC, how could they hold “leadership” elections on June 11??

This is just 2 days before the assassination of a TRUE LEADER in the form of Walter Rodney!! In the last seven years, the leaders of the AFC demonstrated exactly what leaders SHOULDN’T be!! They’d insisted they’d act as a “third force” to move the PNC away from the debilitating zero-sum politics that has destroyed Guyana.

Yet after they coalesced, they not only supported Granger by slavishly acting as doormats, but FACILITATED his excesses! Bun dem!! …on international overreach Russia never intended to occupy Kyiv. That feint was to extend the Ukrainian army. They now have the eastern, Russian-dominated third of Ukraine.

Will they be allowed to keep it?

The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Guyana Times’ editorial policy and stance

Readers are invited to send their comments by email to eye@guyanatimesgy.com

NEWS

9

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Guyanese-T&T joint venture aims to link “other crop” farmers to int’l markets – already bearing fruit with massive shipment of coconuts to Florida

The coconuts at the Guyana Marketing Corporation packaging facility

A

Coconuts arrived in Miami

Guyana-Trinidad and Tobago joint venture which seeks to increase the production of local farmers and connect them to international markets, is already bearing fruit with the exportation of 40,000 locally grown coconuts to Florida, United States of America (USA).

The joint venture in question involves GK Logistics, a local company that is affiliated with the Roraima Group of Companies and RAMPS Logistics, a T&T company that has done logistical services and shore base management for Exxon’s local operations since 2015.

According to a statement from Arapaima Logistics, which shipped the coconuts, the shipment of dried coconut arrived on March 28, 2022, and were sourced from farmers in Pomeroon in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

“The realisation of the ini-

tiative resulted from a collaboration between GK Logistics and Pomeroon farmers designed to source, package and transport agricultural produce for export markets.

Ramps Logistics provided logistical support for the exercise utilising its international supply chain network to help connect the coconuts to the global market,” Arapaima explained.

Lauding the robust response of the farmers despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Arapaima described the shipping of the coconuts as a first step in the direction of increasing the volumes of local agricultural “other crop” produce exported to the international market, in keeping with Guyana’s objective of increasing its earnings from the country’s agricultural sector.

It was explained that the long-term goals of the project entail offering the farmers

Transporting coconuts from farms in Pomeroon

fixed-term contracts and incentives for them to increase their production. According to Arapaima, the farmers have been responding positively, having invested over the past year in upgrading their farms.

“Arapaima’s longer-term objective is to offer farmers fixed-term contracts that include secure payment arrangements. Ramps Logistics has also committed to utilising its supply chain network to seek to create further opportunities for farmers to secure guaranteed prices for their products once they are available.”

“Meanwhile, Arapaima Logistics is keen to work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana and the Ministry’s supporting agencies, includ-

ing the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), to increase opportunities for farmers and agro-processors to access regional and international markets.”

It is not lost on the company that the President Dr Irfaan Ali-led Government has been emphasising the development of Guyana’s agricultural sector and making Guyana the “breadbasket” of the Caribbean. In fact, it was President Ali who led the charge in announcing Guyana’s aim to reduce the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) food import bill by

25 per cent by 2025.

“While Arapaima’s initial initiative involved a single commodity – coconuts – the company is committed to exploring international markets for other local agricultural produce, including pumpkin, pepper, plantain, eddoes, dasheen, yam, lime and pineapple,” they explained.

“With over sixty (60) years of experience in the logistics sector, Arapaima Logistics seeks to use its resources to create entrepreneurial opportunities outside the oil and gas sector. Contextually, this inaugural shipment of coconuts to the USA is the first of various opportunities the company intends to explore for exporting products from the Caribbean and South America to global markets

and expanding its suite of services to Guyana.”

The services offered by Arapaima Logistics Incorporated include air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, shore base management, personal logistics and immigration services, marine agency services, third-party procurement services, charters, medical evacuation, aircraft ground handling, aviation security, airline catering, accommodations, and tours.

It was only in January that Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, during an appearance before Parliament’s Sectoral Committee on Economic Services, had said that Guyana is in the process of reclaiming and expanding its “other crop” markets.

10 NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Guyanese in Suriname urged to tap into opportunities under Local Content Act – as Diaspora updated on massive economic opportunities

T

he Guyanese diaspora, which, according to Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud, has a critical role to play in Guyana’s economic development, is being urged to tap into the opportunities available under the Local Content Act and the local content framework it supports.

Persaud and Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha met with Guyanese living in the Dutch-speaking Republic of Suriname on Saturday.

During the meeting, members of the Guyanese diaspora were also updated on the developments here, as well as opportunities for them to contribute to the country’s ongoing economic expansion.

With some 25,000 Guyanese living in the neighbouring South American nation since the 1970s, who work in the agriculture, fishing, construction and even the oil and gas sectors, the Foreign Secretary explained that the intention of the outreach was to update the diaspora of the countless opportunities that exist in Guyana.

The Foreign Secretary explained that the role of the diaspora in Guyana is critical in allowing the country to accelerate the vision of President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali… a vi-

Agriculture

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha greets members of the Guyanese diaspora community in Suriname

sion of creating opportunities for all people under his “One Guyana” initiative.

According to Persaud, the diaspora should also avail itself of the opportunities that exist in the Local Content Act, which he called an incentive for Guyanese, including those living abroad, to tap into.

The Local Content Act was passed last year. It mandates that oil and gas companies operating in Guyana, as well their contractors and sub-contractors must procure from Guyanese companies by the end of 2022, 90 per cent of

office space rental and accommodation services; 90 per cent janitorial services, laundry and catering services; 95 per cent pest control services; 100 per cent local insurance services; 75 per cent local supply of food; and 90 per cent local accounting services. These are just some of the 40 different services outlined in the first schedule.

The Act also sets out the establishment of a Local Content Secretariat, which allows locals to register their businesses and their individual skill sets. This is so there is a ready-made

pool of skills and services to draw from, when opportunities become available in the sector.

There are two portals.

One register deals with supplier registration and the other deals with employment registration.

Applicants have the option of submitting their applications in either electronic or hardcopy form. Once their applications are submitted, applicants will receive an acknowledgement of receipt and a reference number, after which a review process will start.

Meanwhile, Minister Mustapha informed the Guyanese diaspora of the advancements in the agriculture sector, including the wide-ranging opportunities for local farmers and the Government’s effective approach to addressing the rising cost of food prices brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently, the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Guyanese officials encouraged those who are interested to pursue the opportunities, given the anticipated needs of the various sectors in Guyana. Meanwhile, persons were also updated on the incentives available for Guyanese who wish to return home under the Government’s Remigration Scheme.

Guyana’s Ambassador to Suriname, HE Keith George, was also part of the interaction and will be coordinating follow-up interactions through his staff, with the Guyanese living in the Dutch-speaking republic.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has been leading a driving effort to return Guyana to its place as the bread basket of the Caribbean. President Dr Irfaan Ali has repeat-

edly said that in the next four years, Guyana, via the cultivation of more diversified crops, would be aiming to reduce the Caribbean Community (Caricom) food import bill by 25 per cent, called the “25 by 2025” initiative.

Government, in its 2020 Emergency Budget, removed Value-Added Tax (VAT) on agricultural machinery, fertilisers, agrochemicals, and pesticides, making it more feasible for such investments.

Among the Government’s plans is for Guyana to be a net exporter of soya bean in the next five years. With Guyana spending close to US$25 million annually on proteins just for the poultry sector, the Government, since taking office, has been promoting the domestic cultivation of grains like corn and soya bean.

A consortium of investors is already involved in the cultivation of a 115acre soya bean and a fiveacre corn pilot project in Ebini, Upper Berbice River, where harvesting started last year. The project is a joint venture between various local and foreign investors – aimed at proving all raw materials for the production of livestock and poultry feed for the local sector.

NEWS

11

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Each project in Stabroek Block covered by US$600M “per occurrence” insurance – EPA Head ...provided by oil company for every drilling campaign

E

The Liza Unity FPSO

ach of oil giant ExxonMobil’s projects in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana is covered by US$600 million in “per occurrence” insurance coverage, something which the oil company had to provide upfront.

This was explained by the Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram, in an interview with this publication. Parsram explained that this “per occurrence” insurance covers all exploration and drilling done

by Exxon affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL).

“Where oil spills are concerned, the insurance covers. During exploration, this covers third-party liabili-

ty and what you call operator extra expenses. Thirdparty liabilities cover any claims, compensations, or damages, for any third party. Operator expenses cover well control, clean-ups, contamination, pollution and so on.”

“So, for these things, the amount is US$100 million for third party and US$500 million for (Operator Expenses). So, US$600 million in total. For every drilling campaign, they provide to us coverage of US$600 million for each of the projects,” he said.

Parsram further explained that there is another amount, called Construction All Risk (CAR), that was in place during the start-up of the Liza Unity Floating

Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel that is being used in the Liza Phase 2 development.

“When they were constructing for Liza 2, they had what was called Construction All Risk. That is for damages to the FPSO, to the equipment, the risers, the wells and all these different things. But those things don’t really deal with oil spills. That is for the company to recover its costs for damages,” he said.

Besides the aforementioned forms of insurance, EEPGL also has self-insurance in place to the tune of US$5 billion. These is essentially EEPGL assets.

The EPA is also negotiating a parent guarantee agreement to the tune of US$2

billion, although the regulator is pushing for this sum to be considered negotiable in the event that reasonable credible costs for responding to an oil spill exceed this amount.

It has previously been pointed out by the company that EEPGL was established in 1998, and had, as of year-end 2020, approximately US$5 billion in assets. These assets are considered a primary form of financial assurance and are separate from the assets of the other Stabroek Block co-venturers. In fact, Exxon noted that these other co-venturers also have substantial assets and share

EPA Head Kemraj Parsram

any liability for response activities.

The company had also noted that in Guyana, they adhere to an internationally accepted, tiered response system used to de-

termine the requirements of response personnel and equipment in the case of an oil spill.

This system, they had noted, is aligned with the principles of the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC), the Caribbean Island Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Cooperation and the National Oil Spill Response Plan of Guyana that was implemented in 2021. All of this combines to provide an efficient framework to build preparedness and response capabilities matching the oil spill risks from any of its operations.

12

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

President, Cabinet members v P

resident Dr Irfaan Ali along with Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret'd), Mark Phillips; Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; Tourism Industry and Commerce Minister, Oneidge

Walrond; Minister within the Housing and Water Ministry, Susan Rodrigues and Education Minister, Priya Manickchand.

The decision stemmed from an on-the-ground interaction with the vendors who complained about the current condi-

13

| GUYANATIMESGY.COM

visit Parika, Leonora Markets tion of the market and how illegal vending along the roadside has negatively affected their businesses.

This is the second market that the President has visited in Region Three this weekend. On Saturday, he visited

the Leonara Market, where he proposed building a huge tarmac for vending after listening to the concerns of the vendors. On Saturday, International Relations Minister, Hugh Todd and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar.

14 NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11,, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Major upgrades, expansion for Parika Market to curb roadside vending – President Ali – as Govt intervenes to address issues facing market

President Dr Irfaan Ali and his Ministers interacting with vendors at the Parika Market

P

resident Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday announced major expansion and upgrade works for the Parika Market, Region Three (Essequibo IslandsWest Demerara) with the aim of regularising roadside vending there.

The Head of State, accompanied by Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips and several Cabinet Ministers, conducted a walkabout exercise around the area during which they interacted with vendors, shoppers as well as the market’s officials.

Speaking with reporters afterwards, President

Ali highlighted some of the pressing issues that the management of the market faces including illegal vending outside the market, inadequate infrastructure and facilities, and insufficient revenues.

Currently, he explained that the market earns approximately $1.2 million monthly but its expenses – inclusive of wage/salary bill, garbage collection fees and utility dues – exceed the revenues.

Additionally, the market also has another $10 million in rent outstanding.

“So, I want people to understand this, whilst the

market management can do better and should do better, they are faced with this reality too,” President Ali explained.

He went on to note that, “Here is where the Government comes in. So, it is obvious that they don’t have any capacity or capability to invest in infrastructure upgrade here, and this is a public service – the entire region and people from Berbice, all over, utilise the service.”

The President, however, revealed that during his interactions with the vendors plying their trade outside the market premises on

Sunday morning, there was a willingness to relocate.

To this end, the Head of State has instructed Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar, and Industry and Commerce Minister Oneidge Walrond, to engage the management committee of the Parika Market as well as the vendors on moving this process forward.

“We’ve already initiated some discussions with the people who have the ballfield – there are two ballfields. So, we’re going to upgrade one so they can use that one and see if we can extend the market on this additional land. So, what we’ll do is that we will expand the tarmac; we’ll look at putting in the walkway canopy that they want, and then we will also look at enhancing the facilities, washroom facility and everything.”

“Sometimes we have to make hard decisions.

Sometimes people have to embrace decisions that may seem hard initially, but decisions that will ultimately benefit them, benefit everyone and take away a lot of problems. So, we will invest in that and then we’ll ask everybody to move in the [expanded] market,” President Ali posited.

According to the Head of State, these follow-up discussions will commence sometime this week when the Ministers return to talk to the various stakeholders.

The President expressed

his hope to have these talks wrapped up as early as possible so that physical works can begin. In fact, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, has also been tasked with mobilising the resources needed to take this effort forward.

“The consultations shouldn’t last more than two weeks, depends on how it goes. And then we’re going to try to see what additional resources are needed and then we have to move forward. But definitely, something has to be done… I hope before [six months] we can start something physically here because it is a major issue. We cannot allow it to continue and I’m not prepared to allow it to continue. All of us will have to embrace the decision.”

Sunday’s visit to the Parika Market followed a similar exercise at the Leonora Market, West Bank Demerara, the previous day.

He and several Ministers had an interactive session on Saturday with residents and vendors of the Leonora Market, where he proposed building a huge tarmac for vending.

In addition, the President also announced the rollout of a massive and active outreach programme as part of efforts to take the Government to the people of Guyana.

President Ali reminded that when he first assumed office in August of 2020, he

had promised citizens that the Government would stay committed and connected to the people. Although the COVID-19 pandemic hindered large-scale interactions, the Cabinet was still able to reach and engage with people all across the country.

But with COVID-19 cases dropping, the Government will now look to be more interactive.

“I want to assure all Guyanese that what you will see now is an enormous, energetic outreach programme.

We don’t want people to come to the Government, we want to come to people, and we are not afraid of doing this because we know our policies are oriented around the development and advancement of every Guyanese.”

The President underscored that the attitude of officials must change and that the Government cannot be “lawmakers in a chair anymore”.

“The people want to feel connected; they want to see these officials on the ground to connect with them, talk to them, be able to interact with them, and that is what we are encouraging.”

Further, President Ali reminded of the importance of dealing with the issues and problems of ordinary Guyanese. He said that beneficial initiatives by the Government are not fully executed because of the disconnect.

Police yet to ascertain how Soesdyke man was murdered – victim dies before giving Police statement

T

he Guyana Police Force seems to be unaware of how a 41-year-old miner of Swan, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, was allegedly wounded and later died because according to them, he died before a statement was taken.

On Friday the Police Headquarters issued a wanted bulletin for 19-yearold Joshua Williams, who they say is wanted for questioning in relation to the murder of Davis.

The Police said the murder was committed on March 28, 2022, at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD), but no other details were divulged.

However, Guyana Times has been informed that the suspect and the victim had an argument that resulted in a fight, during which Davis was wounded. He was taken to the hospital,

Wanted: Joshua Williams

where he was admitted as a patient, and subsequently died.

The Police subsequently stated that Davis was allegedly wounded by 19-yearold Williams on March 19, 2022, at about 01:00h at Swan Village.

They stated that on three

occasions, an officer went to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation to interview and obtain a written statement from the victim, which proved futile. “…because he (Davis) was admitted a patient in the ICU after he underwent surgery for the injury received. He was not in a position to make a statement,” they said.

On Monday, March 27, at about 09:28h, the officer returned to the medical facility to interview the victim and was informed by a nurse that he had died earlier that day while receiving medical attention in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while receiving medical treatment.

As such, the Police Force was unable to acquire information on what led to the man’s murder. Up until press time on Sunday, the suspect was still on the run.

NEWS

15

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

MoE saddened at passing of GPF pushes to re-establish theatre legend Henry Rodney scout groups in all regions

Henry Rodney

T

he Ministry of Education has expressed sympathy to the family of legendary Guyanese actor Henry Rodney who passed away on April 7 at the age of 63 at the Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, New York City.

The Education Ministry said that for years, Rodney kept Guyanese entertained through his many roles on the theatre stage and on television.

Over the past four decades, the Ministry said he performed in shows such as, “Nothing to Laugh About” and the “Link Show.” It pointed out that he was most popularly known as Franklin, a character he played in the local television sitcom, “Agree to Disagree”.

The Education Ministry said Rodney was passionate about the theatrical arts and made several valuable contributions to society. “He was one of the founding lecturers at the National Drama School. In addition to this, he worked along with the Ministry of Education in organising and hosting cultural events. He also lent his support to the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security as a Child Rights and Women’s Rights advocate,” a statement from the Ministry reads.

According to the Ministry, the talented thespian spent over 35 years in the country’s education system as a drama, English, and literature teacher sharing his expertise at the St Joseph High School, St

Rose’s High School, North Georgetown High School, APEX Academy, Cyril Potter College of Education and the Marian Academy.

He also worked along with the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA). The missive added, “The Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand while saddened by his passing is grateful for his invaluable contributions which she believes will live on in all those he touched. The country is poorer without him”.

“Rodney has indeed left his mark on Guyanese society. He was a true son of the soil and his rich contributions to this nation will forever be treasured. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, children, family, and friends during this difficult time.”

Guyana Times understands that Rodney was in critical condition at the hospital after he suffered a heart attack three days before his passing. Rodney was a diverse artist in his own right, impacting theatre, spoken-word poetry, comedy, radio, and television in his 30-plus years of performing both locally and abroad – in the Caribbean, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

He was born on February 23, 1959, in the village of Beterverwagting on the East Coast of Demerara.

He leaves to mourn his wife Joan and their daughters Tamara, Tuana, and Tchaiko.

GPF recommends carpooling to ease traffic congestion

Inspector Maniram Jaganandan

I

n an attempt to offer a solution to the increasing traffic congestion in the city, the Guyana Police Force said they are in support of carpooling.

Traffic officer attached to the Diamond Police Station on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), Inspector Maniram Jaganandan said he believes this will contribute to the ease of traffic congestion.

He said the carpooling plan is targeted at single-occupancy cars (one person in a car), and advised that fam-

ilies consider using one car within a household, rather than multiple.

“We are always advocating for carpooling because if every one of us is working at a particular place in close proximity to each other, we can use one vehicle especially if it is four or five persons working at a particular place, we can carpool and go to work,” he explained.

Traffic in the city and the East Bank corridor reaches maximum congestion during peak hours in the morning and the afternoon. During the peak hours, there are hundreds of cars entering and leaving the city or heading over the Harbour Bridge, which would cause traffic build-up.

Research worldwide has shown that by having more people using one vehicle, carpooling not only eases congestion, but also reduces each person's travel costs such as fuel costs, tolls, and the stress of driving.

Just recently, General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB), Wayne Watson issued a warning to drivers who commute on the Demerara

Harbour Bridge, to stop causing confusion by manipulating the lines and lanes to get a quick pass through the traffic.

Watson advised that drivers be very considerate, knowing the traffic buildup they can cause. He also asked that irrespective of what portfolio a person holds, he or she must be respectful of the other road users.

A week ago, the Guyana Police Force said that in an effort to reduce the traffic chaos and confusion at the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken met with Traffic Chief Ramesh Ashram and the DHBC management to reassess the traffic strategy that was put in place to alleviate the traffic woes at the bridge during the peak hours.

During the meeting, Traffic Chief Ashram said more traffic ranks will be visible at specific points along the road, to assess the traffic situation; and in the event of congestion, a decision will be taken to open up an extra lane to ease the traffic flow.

A

Acting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken

cting Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken along with a team visited several communities including Kaneville, East Bank Demerara (EBD), and Bare Root, East Coast Demerara (ECD), in his pursuit of bridging the gap between residents and law enforcement officers.

During his visit to the communities, the Commissioner said that the Force is in the process of re-establishing scouts in all of the regions.

He noted that the skill sets learnt through the Scouts Association will benefit the youths in making them more marketable in acquiring positive employment while noting that this can only be possible by having trust in the Police Force.

He said this is in order for them to harness the children in a positive way, inculcate positive cultures and refrain from delinquent behaviours.

He assured the gathering that training will commence within the next two weeks under the supervision of the Police with permission granted by their parents and in return, the youths will share values learnt with their communities.

"You must be your brother’s keeper if we are to move forward in a cohesive manner," the Commissioner said.

Hicken also alluded to the need for unity amongst the residents of the communities - reminding them that their neighbour is their best security. He said when persons “are pulling their curtains, it must be pulled for a specific purpose, which is to be their brothers’ and sisters’ keeper”.

With the golden opportunity of having community policing in each community, the Top Cop urged that groups should be formed to aid in creating a safe environment.

“Members of the corporate sector must be able to go into your community without fear for employment and job opportunities,” he declared.

M e a n w h i l e , Deputy Commissioner “Administration” (ag) Calvin Brutus in addressing the residents, informed them of the Force’s commitment to the reactivation of youth activities, including the youth pageants, youth groups and sports - which were dormant.

"We want to ensure that we have a crime-free community," Brutus pleaded.

Deputy Commissioner “Administration” (ag) Calvin Brutus

He further stated that the Guyana Police Force in partnership with other stakeholders will be assisting with vocational training, academic studies and scholarships for children from primary to secondary education.

Brutus said such scholarships will not only be extended to the tuition fees, “but all the resources required to do their academic studies in ensuring that the youths are occupied in the acquisition of a sound education so that they are suitably equipped for Guyana’s promising future”.

He assured the residents that as the programme thrives, they (the current leadership of the GPF) are forming a foundation so that it will continue to prevail long after they are gone.

Efforts are also being made to aid with funds for youths to kickstart their own businesses. This, Brutus said, can only be accomplished by the support of the community.

At the end of the outreach, several food hampers and kites were distributed to the residents of the various communities.

16 NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Lawyer refutes hurling racist slurs at Policewoman …says will wait for court to properly determine matter

A

ttorney-at-Law Nirvan Singh has broken his silence over allegations made against him by Policewoman Shawnette Bollers who once performed security duties at the home of his father, former Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Carl Singh.

His alleged conduct, which has been the subject of media reports, has been met with condemnation from a wide cross-section including the People’s National Congress (PNC) which has called on the Bar Association of Guyana to publicly condemn the attorney’s conduct as well as to impose fitting sanctions.

But attorney Singh in a letter to the editor denied the allegations. “As a result of my engagement with a Police rank providing security services at our residence on March 20, 2022, there have been several reports, rumours, and allegations that are untrue and have no basis in that engagement, or as a result of it,” he said in the missive.

While he is constrained from a specific comment

at this time given that the matter is now being litigated before the courts and is, therefore, sub judice, the lawyer, who was admitted to the Bar in October 2017, pointed out that he recognises that there are no such rules in the critical court of public opinion.

Addressing his alleged attack on Bollers, he said, “I, therefore, wish to say that the racist conduct, of which I am accused, in no way reflects my philosophy or personal values. More importantly, it would be an indictment on my parents and elders, given their efforts to ensure that my upbringing would produce in me a person of the highest moral, ethical, and professional conduct”.

The lawyer said that while he waits for the matter to be properly determined in court, he will strive to remain respectful and faithful to his values, to serve his clients from all walks of life with professionalism, and to use every opportunity to be of service or support to his fellow citizens regardless of race, class, or creed.

He expressed that he is eternally grateful to all of those persons, from both near and far, who have reached out to offer support in this most difficult time.

Guyana Times understands that the Police have conducted investigations into the allegations levelled against the lawyer and a file has been forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.

The Policewoman has since filed a $150 million suit against attorney Singh.

Bollers, in legal documents, deposed that on March 20, she was performing duties at Justice Singh’s Middle and Cummings Streets, Georgetown home when his son approached her and chased her out of the property, forcing her to abandon her post and duties.

In chasing her, the Policewoman complained that the lawyer spoke to her in an “aggressive and loud manner” while hurling several racist remarks at her. She said the tirade lasted for 14 minutes after which she fled the scene and walked a couple of

Essequibo).

The dead man was identified as 48-year-old Lennox George of Annai Village, North Rupununi. Reports stated that the accident occurred at about 03:45h and involved minibus bearing reg-

istration number, BAB 4875 owned by the Annai Central Village Council.

At the time of the accident, there were two passengers in the minibus – 20-yearold Junliana Williams and her 6-year-old son, Julio Williams, both of Annai Village, North Rupununi.

Police investigations revealed that on the day in question, the minibus was proceeding along the Bina Hill Public Road at a fast rate of speed and ended up in a pothole.

The driver reportedly lost control of the minibus and as a result, it collided with a nearby tree on the grass parapet. The driver was pulled from the wreckage in an unconscious state while the two passengers were taken to the Annai Health Centre where they were treated.

Nevertheless, George was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to the Lethem Regional Hospital Mortuary awaiting a post-mortem.

miles to another location in Georgetown in the dark of night alone.

She argued that the words uttered by attorney Singh in their natural and ordinary meaning were understood to mean that she was not a human being and by extension not worthy of recognition in her humanity or human dignity; was not a human being but rather an animal; that her race was not worthy of respect; that her race is synonymous with or akin to monkeys of the black skin colour; that she is not professional and not an individual worthy of respect, visibility, and human identity.

As a result of the publication of the slanderous statements, Bollers submitted that her reputation has been subjected to ridicule and lowered in the estimation of right-thinking persons in society. In support of her case, she said she will rely on the fact that attorney Singh has failed to respond to her lawyer’s letter for an apology.

In a preaction protocol

Attorney-at-Law Nirvan Singh

letter to attorney Singh, Bollers’s lawyer, Eusi Anderson wrote: "It is not my place to determine the truth of these allegations, that forum is a court of law.

If, however, there is truth in one iota of them, I caution that speaking to brown and black people in that form was last appropriate about

400 years ago and certainly not in the decade of African People.

That any person who speaks to a brown person in that manner in 2022, especially in your esteemed office, is both out of time by 400 years and out of place in an era where race is no longer a bastion of insult".

WCD man arrested for Minibus driver dies after ganja possession crashing into tree

A

minibus driver was in the wee hours of Saturday killed after he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree at Bina Hill Public Road, North Rupununi, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper

The ganja that was found at Lite Street Crane, WCD

O

ne man was arrested on Saturday evening after he was found with a quantity of ganja at Lite Street Crane, West Coast Demerara (WCD).

Police stated that on the day, at about 18:30h, ranks acting on information received went to the area where they contacted the 25-year-old suspect.

The suspect at the time was clad in short black pants and a black jersey, standing on the eastern side of the road in front of a shop

entrance, and was seen acting in a suspicious manner.

A Police Corporal reportedly approached the man and carried out a search on his person in the presence of another Police rank.

However, nothing of evidential value was found.

A further search was then conducted around the surroundings during which a white plant pot was seen about six feet away from where the suspect was standing. In the plant pot, a black, bulky transparent

plastic bag was found.

The bag was opened in his presence and a quantity of ganja was found.

He was then told of the allegation and under caution, he replied saying "da is not me thing big boy, I just come from work". He was then arrested and escorted to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station, where the ganja was weighed and amounted to 34 grams.

He remains in custody and is assisting with Police investigations.

17 AG to Georgetown M&CC: Address street vending or Govt will act T NEWS

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

he Guyana Government is calling on the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to address the issue of street vending throughout the city, especially in the major commercial districts.

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall reminded that encumbering public reserves inclusive of road shoulders, embankments, pedestrian walks, Government reserves, and State reserves is a criminal offence.

To this end, he cautioned that “…if this state of affairs is not addressed by the City Council, the Government will be forced to act including taking over some of these city streets under The Roads Act”.

Nandlall pointed out that the Mayor and City Council has been legitimising criminal occupation of the reserves by accepting a fee from persons and allowing them to vend on these lands. These vendors erect makeshift stalls, sheds, or place caravans, motor vehicles, carts and other recep-

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC

tacles on these lands from which they do vending.

“This use of these lands is causing serious traffic hazards, traffic congestions, public inconvenience and they also affect private proprietors from accessing and enjoying the use and benefits of their properties,” the Attorney General stated.

In fact, he reminded that businesses on Regent Street and other commercial streets have been forced to secure orders of court against vending on the pavement in front of their commercial premises.

Only in December, the

Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine

Shamdas Kirpalani store secured an order from the High Court, which instructed the Town Clerk to prohibit pavement vending in front of the business’s Lot 107 Regent Street, Lacytown, Georgetown location.

In the judicial review proceedings filed, the businessowners complained that the encumbrance of the pavement and road by vendors has over the years affected their business. They deposed that there is an encumbrance of the pavement and persons who traverse the pavement are greatly inconvenienced as at most

Cashier accused of embezzling employer’s money

A

cashier accused of embezzling over $200,000 from her employer was on Friday charged and released on $100,000 bail. Sheneka Morgan of Plaisance, East Coast Demerara (ECD), appeared before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

She pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on March 30, while being employed as a clerk or servant at Betting Court, Norton Street, Georgetown, she received on behalf of her employer $221,861 which she converted to her own use and benefit.

While out on bail, Morgan is required to report to the Brickdam Police Station Criminal Investigations Department (CID) every Monday until the hearing and determination of her trial.

The Police prosecutor told the court that the young woman is employed at the company as a cashier and is responsible for receiving money for the placement of bets.

On the day in question, a check was conducted on her computer which revealed $221,861 as cash on hand. However, the prosecutor said that Morgan had no money in her possession.

As such, a report was made to the Police. According to the prosecutor, she was told of the offence committed and cautioned in ac-

Charged: Sheneka Morgan

cordance with the Judge’s rules during which she admitted to crediting bets which she was not permitted to do. Morgan is due back in court on June 3.

Last month, Solana Wills, 31, who is accused of embezzling over $3 million while she was employed as a supervisor at Leibrands Financial Management and Tax Consultancy, was charged.

Particulars of the six charges against her stated that, between August 1 and December 20, 2021, at D’Urban Street, Georgetown, while being a clerk or servant of Leibrands Financial Management and Tax Consultancy, she fraudulently embezzled $3,134,290 in cash, received or taken into possession by her for or on ac-

count of her employer.

The Police prosecutor related that, besides receiving funds from clients on behalf of the company, Wills was also tasked with ensuring that clients pay their employees’ National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) deductions. Between the periods mentioned in the charge, the company’s clients had handed over monies to Wills to pay their employees’ statutory deductions.

The woman, however, allegedly stole the monies.

A report was filed against her with the Police, and following investigations, she was arrested and charged. Wills, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was released on bail in the sum of $200,000.

times the vendors occupy most of the pavement.

They said that vendors trespass on their property by placing or hanging items on the grillwork of their building and/or by bracing the southern walls of the property. As a result of pavement vending, customers cannot park in front of the store.

This court ruling came months after Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine had announced plans to regularise all street vending activities in Georgetown.

During a meeting with vendors in February 2021, Narine explained that the implementation of the regularisation policy will ensure that street vending was done in an organised and uniform manner.

However, AG Nandlall has highlighted that street vending not only hinders

traffic and business operations but also produces garbage that has become a monumental problem.

“So, while the Government is expending a tremendous amount of time and resources in trying to clean the city and its environs, a venture that the City Council has publicly refused to join hands on, they exacerbate the problem by licensing to create these public nuisances. We simply cannot continue in this way,” Nandlall contended.

The Attorney General recognised that the issue of street vending is a countrywide problem in most if not all communities. This, he added, is compounded by other eye sores including wrecked vehicles left on street corners and parapets.

Against this backdrop, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils

(NDCs) across the country have been advised to remove these encumbrances and institute criminal charges if necessary.

“While the Government recognises that these vendors are earning a living and in that respect is empathic, they cannot continue to do so in a manner that causes public disorder, and creates a public nuisance. The laws must be enforced to ensure an orderly society,” Nandlall posited.

Over the weekend, President Ali visited two markets in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) – Leonora, West Coast Demerara, and Parika, East Bank Essequibo – where he announced plans to have those roadside vendors removed and placed within the confines of the market premises.

18

guyanatimesgy.com

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

Regional

Honduran Judge approves Tobago stakeholders: Fuel price extradition of ex-Police boss to US increases create more hardship

A

Honduran Judge on Friday signed off on the extradition of former police Chief Juan Carlos Bonilla to the United States, where he is wanted for drug trafficking and use or possession of firearms.

Bonilla, also known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger”, was captured in early March when he was driving through a toll booth north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Judicial spokesman Melvin Duarte announced the Judge’s decision to send Bonilla, wanted by the Honduran Government since May 2021, to the United States.

In April 2020, US authorities accused “El Tigre” of supervising cocaine shipments to the United States on behalf of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his

T

Former Police Chief Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla, wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges, is presented to the media at a Police base following his detention after being on the run for several months, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 9, 2022

brother, former politician Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez.

The former President, who left office in January, is jailed in Honduras awaiting extradition to the United States on drug trafficking and arms possession charges.

Duarte said authorities still do not have a date set to send Hernandez to the States.

A US Judge last year sentenced Tony Hernandez to life in prison plus 30 years for his involvement in a cocaine trafficking case. (Reuters)

obago stakeholders have said the Government’s decision to increase fuel prices would place further hardship on tourism-related businesses still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.

In the Parliament on Friday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that from April 19, 2022, the prices of premium gasoline and super gasoline will be adjusted by TT$1 per litre to TT$6.75 and TT$5.97 per litre, respectively, while the price of diesel will be adjusted by 50 cents per litre to TTT$3.91 per litre.

Veteran tour boat opera-

tor Michael Frank said the move could be disastrous for the industry.

“We are already reeling from two years of not working,” he told Sunday Newsday.

With the recent removal of safe zones and Covid-19 restrictions in most sectors, including beaches and rivers, Frank, owner of Frankie Tours, said tour boat operators had anticipated an almost immediate increase in visitors wanting to go on boat trips to the Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool.

But he said this has not been the case.

“The passengers are down right now, but they are

projected to go up as soon as Easter reaches.”

Frank, who has been in the business for more than 30 years, said many people want to go on reef tours but have no money to pay.

“People are coming on the boat but they have no money to pay for it. They literally begging us to go out on a boat trip. So, it is going to be very hard to balance it with the increase in fuel prices now.”

He added, “I don’t know how we are going to survive.

We do not want to raise prices again because things are already hard for everybody generally.” (Excerpt from Trinidad Newsday)

Mexican President tests political T&T: Parents pleased as top students muscle with referendum on his future to share President’s gold medal

T

he two children at the centre of the SEA awards fiasco – Aaron Subero and Ameerah Beekhoo – will share the top spot for the first time since the awards system began.

In a media release on Saturday, the Trinidad and Tobago Education Ministry again apologised for the fiasco that transpired over the past couple of days saying that it was not “intentional, and should not have occurred”.

But while the Ministry has promised to investigate how this debacle happened in the first place, the parents of each ‘golden child’ said that they were all happy with the resolution.

The Sunday Guardian spoke to Aaron’s mother, Natasha De Coteau-Subero and Ameerah’s father, Dr

Nickelson Beekhoo, Saturday and both offered hearty congratulations to each other.

“I am looking forward to meeting her and congratulating both her and her parents,” De Coteau-Subero said in a telephone interview.

“We really have to celebrate the children and I can’t wait to meet her,” she said.

De Coteau-Subero is an engineer and her husband is in IT, and Aaron has inherited their mathematical inclination.

While this is a major achievement for her son, it is not his first, young Aaron won second place in the Mental Maths competition in 2019, placing first in Port-of-Spain District and second in the country.

“All the negativity that was being thrown at them was

unwarranted, it’s not our fault how things were handled, and I think both children did excellent and they should both be proud. I think the parents should be proud as well,” she said.

Ameerah’s father shared similar sentiments.

In a brief telephone interview, Beekhoo described his daughter as “humble” and one to shy away from the limelight.

“These are exceptional results from two brilliant children,” he said.

“Remember they wrote this exam under the COVID restrictions. In fact, they were the first group to write when the restrictions were put in place.”

The award ceremony is set for today. (Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian)

M

exicans on Sunday voted on whether their president should stay in office, in an unprecedented referendum he argues is vital to confirm his democratic mandate, but which the Opposition casts as a costly distraction from the country’s real problems.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a pugnacious leftist who has governed since December 2018, is the architect of the first so-called recall referendum in modern Mexico, and critics and supporters alike expect him to win easily.

The vote has fuelled speculation it could open the door to extending presidential term limits in a country where the Head of State is allowed to serve only a single

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

six-year period.

Lopez Obrador denies he wants to extend his term,

but he has used the referendum to fire up supporters and pan the Opposition, many of whose leaders have encouraged Mexicans to ignore the vote as a propaganda exercise for the President.

Opinion polls suggest turnout is likely to fall short of the 40 per cent threshold required to make the ballot binding, although a steady flow of voters entered polling stations in Mexico City on Sunday and videos posted on social media showed officials in the president’s party working hard to get the vote out.

“Democracy has to become a habit in Mexico,” the President told a crowd after he left a voting booth, “so that no one forgets that the people are the ones who govern.”

(Excerpt from Reuters)

Israeli medical team heads Former Ecuador Vice President to Haiti to help burn victims

released from prison

Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas reacts as he arrives to court, to attend his trial on bribery from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, in Quito, Ecuador, December 13, 2017 (file photo)

F

ormer Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas was released from prison on Sunday, after a Judge ruled his physical and psychological well-being were at risk, officials and Glas’ supporters said.

Glas had been sentenced to jail in 2017 after a court found him guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in return for handing the scandal-ridden firm State contracts. He served four-

and-a-half years.

A judge ruled on Saturday that he should be released after a habeas corpus petition, a court in Santa Elena province said in a statement.

“On the aforementioned citizen weigh three sentences, two of them already executed, for the crimes of illicit association and bribery, and a process for embezzlement, whose appeal is still to be resolved,” the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

Videos on social media showed Glas greeting hundreds of supporters as he left jail, while his former boss, ex-President Rafael Correa, tweeted his support.

“Jorge has recovered his liberty through a habeas corpus which determined that his (legal) guarantees have been violated and also that the context of insecurity that exists in the prisons means those centres are absolutely impeded in providing the care that he needs for the health condition Jorge has,” lawmaker and Glas ally Fausto Jarrin told Journalists outside the prison in Cotopaxi.

Glas is unable to leave Ecuador and must report to authorities once a month, Jarrin added.

Correa – who has lived in Belgium since he left office in 2017 – himself has been sentenced to eight years for financing his political movement with unfair charges levied on contractors.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

T

he Director of Israel’s National Burn Centre at the Sheba Medical Centre, Professor Josef Haik arrived in Haiti earlier this week to help patients who were badly injured when a fuel tanker crashed in the north of the country last December.

Last December 14, a fuel tank truck crashed and then exploded, killing more than 65 people and burning dozens of others as residents rushed to collect the leaking gas.

Haik is leading the mission in cooperation with the United States Burn Advocates Network (BAN) to the hospitals in Haiti that are still overwhelmed with the wounded.

Prior to departing Israel, Haik said the team was prepared to help as many burn victims as possible.

“Unfortunately, a few months ago they had a big fire disaster, and they still have injured patients that

Director of Israel’s National Burn Centre at Sheba Medical Centre, Dr Josef Haik (right) and other burn experts after their arrival in Haiti - Sheba Medical picture

we need to treat,” he said.

“We’re going to do as many surgeries as we can to try and help their wounds.

We will [also] bring equipment they are lacking and teach them how to use it and leave it there so they can continue rehabilitating Haiti.”

Haik, who also heads Sheba’s division of plastic surgery and is a professor at Tel Aviv University, previ-

ously brought his expertise to Haiti in February 2020.

It was the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country 10 years earlier, and Haik led an international team of burn surgeons, sponsored by BAN, to set up the first paediatric laser for treating disfiguring burn scars in children at Sacre Coeur Hospital in Milot. (Excerpt from CMC)

guyanatimesgy.com

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

19

Around the World

OILNEWS OIL NEWS

Ukraine conflict hurts Russian science, as West pulls funding struction of high-tech research facilities in Russia, such as an ion collider and a neutron reactor for which Europe had pledged 25 million euros (US$27.4 million).

Such technology would unlock a generation of research that could contribute to everything from fundamental physics to the development of new materials, fuels and pharmaceuticals,

OPEC+ alliance put to the test amid Ukraine War

E

arlier this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was welcomed in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

To the dismay of the United States, the red carpet was rolled out for him, on the anniversary of the uprising against Assad, amid war mongering by his Russian ally in Ukraine.

Just before, British PM Boris Johnson has been on a visit himself to both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, not only to promote Global Britain, but also in a bid to convince both Gulf states to increase oil production.

Johnson was acting as an emissary from the West, after the Gulf countries’ leaders declined to take a call from US President Joe Biden to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices, signalling their unhappiness with the perceived Western lack of support for their security.

It’s not just refusing to take Joe Biden’s calls, however. More broadly, the Gulf states are hedging their bets on the Ukraine issue. The Emirates abstained during a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s invasion, and the Emirati leader, popularly known as “MBZ”, referred to “Russia’s right to ensure its national security” in a call with Russian President Putin. There has even been speculation that the UAE could help Russia avoid Western sanctions, with Emirati officials reportedly assuring Russians that they will not enforce sanctions unless mandated by the UN — something which Moscow would certainly veto.

On top of that, there is a deal between Russia and the Saudi-led oil cartel, OPEC, which the Saudis and Emiratis are reluctant to abandon, as it was hard-fought in 2020 and involved great concessions from Russia.

The OPEC question will become increasingly important because the situation on the energy front is dire. The International Energy Agency has warned a global oil supply shock may be coming due to large-scale disruptions to Russian oil supplies, which would drive oil prices to even higher levels than today. While Saudi Arabia isn’t pumping oil at full capacity and has not yet pledged to do so, the UAE has promised to push OPEC to pump more oil, but this development has yet to materialise and wasn’t agreed upon with other OPEC members in advance. Despite the talk, actions on the ground further indicate the Emirates are moving away from the West, a shift which is in line with broader trends in the Gulf region.

Indeed, the sanctions which have cut off several Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system and frozen reserves accumulated by the Russian central bank, have renewed debate on the role of the US Dollar as a global reserve currency, particularly in the Gulf.

Some have argued that “we are witnessing the birth of Bretton Woods III — a new world (monetary) order centered around commodity-based currencies in the East that will likely weaken the Eurodollar system.” For the moment, however, this remains a minority view, while the general consensus is that there is little alternative to the US dollar in the short- to medium-term.

The lack of trust in China’s currency should stymie Beijing’s hopes of turning the yuan into a global reserve currency. Gold has proven to be a safe store of value, but despite the fiat money of governments being eroded to finance state spending, gold is not used as a regular payment method. The euro is still plagued by its shaky political underpinnings, while it is still an open question whether bitcoin will be able to resist state action banning it, if it will ever be widely adopted in the first place.

The continued primacy of the US dollar also makes the argument less convincing that Western sanctions against Russia will push in to a separate trading bloc led by China, creating a kind of dichotomy within the global economy.

That is unlikely to happen fast. Not only is China far from enjoying the degree of trust required to offer the world’s reserve currency, it’s impossible for Russia to simply replace its trade with the West with Chinese trade, as the volume of Russia’s current trade with the West is simply too high.

(Excerpt from Oilprice.com)

Sergey Zimov, 66, a scientist who works at Russia's Northeast Science Station, holds an ice crystal in the underground area where sample materials are stored in permafrost at the Pleistocene Park outside of the town of Chersky, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Russia, September 13, 2021

D

ozens of international scientists have arrived each year since 2000 at Russia's remote Northeast Science Station on the Kolyma River in Siberia to study climate change in the Arctic environment.

Not this year, though.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry froze the funding used to pay personnel at the research station and to maintain instruments that measure how quickly climate change is thawing Arctic permafrost and how much methane - a potent planet-warming gas is being released.

The funding freeze will probably lead to an interruption of the continuous measurements at

the station dating back to 2013, compromising scientists' understanding of the warming trend, said Peter Hergersberg, a spokesperson for the Max Planck Society, which is funded by the German state.

Reuters spoke with more than two dozen scientists about the impact of the Ukraine conflict on Russian science. Many expressed concern about its future after tens of millions of dollars in Western funding for Russian science has been suspended in the wake of European sanctions on Moscow.

Many communication channels are closed and research trips have been postponed indefinitely.

The projects affected by the suspension of Western assistance include the con-

Australia election: PM Scott Morrison calls poll for May 21

Scott Morrison has been Australia's Prime Minister since 2018

A

ustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called a federal election for May 21.

Morrison's ruling coalition holds 76 seats in the House of Representatives the minimum needed to retain power.

Polls suggest there will be a change of Government, with the opposition Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, tipped to take office.

However, in the last election, the centre-right Morrison won despite most polls predicting otherwise.

Morrison announced the date after talks with the Governor General in the

capital, Canberra.

"It's a choice between a strong future and an uncertain one. It's a choice between a Government you know and a Labor opposition that you don't," the Prime Minister said on Sunday.

But Albanese - pointing out Morrison's own Deputy Prime Minister called him "a hypocrite and a liar" - argued that "we can and must do better".

"The pandemic has given us the opportunity to imagine a better future and Labor has the policies and plans to shape that future," he said on Sunday.

Morrison is the first leader to serve a full term in office since John Howard, who won four elections before losing to Labor's Kevin Rudd in 2007.

Since then, what observers call the "coup culture" of Australian politics has led to a series of short-lived premierships.

Morrison's Liberal-led coalition is defending a oneseat majority. Even though it has won seven of the past nine federal elections, it may be hard-pressed to do so again, say political analysts.

(Excerpt from BBC News)

scientists said.

Another 15 million-euro (US$16.7 million) contribution toward designing low-carbon materials and battery technologies needed in the energy transition to combat climate change has also been frozen, after the European Union halted all cooperation with Russian entities last month. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif submits nomination to become new PM

P

akistan opposition politician Shehbaz Sharif has submitted his nomination to be the country’s next Prime Minister.

The younger brother of three-times Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, 70-year-old Shehbaz led the opposition efforts in Parliament that eventually toppled now former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the early hours of Sunday morning.

After submitting his nomination to the legislature on Sunday, Shehbaz said Khan’s departure was a chance for a new beginning in Pakistan. Shehbaz, the centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party chief, is widely expected to be named the country’s new Prime Minister today.

“A new dawn has started … This alliance will rebuild Pakistan,” Shehbaz told Parliament on Sunday. His first tasks will be to repair relations with the powerful military as well as the

United States, and tend to a faltering economy.

Khan had antagonised the US throughout his tenure, welcoming the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and more recently accusing Washington of being behind the attempt to remove him.

Washington dismissed the accusation.

Khan’s party has also nominated the former Foreign Minister as a prime ministerial candidate, saying their members of Parliament would resign en masse should he lose, potentially creating the need for urgent by-elections for their seats.

The first Pakistani Prime Minister to be removed by a no-confidence vote, Khan had clung on for almost a week after a united opposition first tried to remove him.

On Sunday, he repeated allegations that a foreign conspiracy was behind a conspiracy of regime change in Pakistan.

(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Israel, West Bank on edge after more bloodshed

I

sraeli forces killed two Palestinian women on Sunday after one ran towards troops and the other stabbed a soldier in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, Israeli security officials said.

The bloodshed follows a string of deadly Arab attacks in Israel. There have also been Israeli raids in and around the West Bank city of Jenin, a militant stronghold, against what Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called "a new wave of terrorism".

No weapon was found on the body of the woman shot in Bethlehem after she ignored soldiers' calls and warning fire to stop approaching, the Israeli military said, adding that it had launched an investigation.

In the second incident, a woman armed with a knife

was shot dead after she slightly wounded a paramilitary border policeman in Hebron, outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which Muslims call al-Ibrahimi mosque, Israeli security officials said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed both deaths.

Israeli forces have been on high alert following attacks by three members of Israel's Arab minority and two Palestinians from the West Bank that have killed 14 people in Israel since late March.

More than 20 Palestinians, many of them armed militants, have been killed by Israeli forces since January, while Palestinians have reported a rise in violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. (Excerpt from Reuters)

20

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

guyanatimesgy.com

DAILY HOROSCOPES

ARCHIE

Take charge, and finish what you start. Clearing clutter and taking care of unresolved issues will lighten your load and lift your spirits. Do something exhilarating.

(March 21-April 19) Be specific regarding your expectations and what you are willing to offer others. Honesty may be provocative, but it will help you resolve issues swiftly.

Make your views extremely clear.

DILBERT (April 20-May 20)

Take care of yourself and your responsibilities. A moderate plan will allow you the freedom to manipulate the outcome if necessary. Do the work yourself to avoid disappointment.

(May 21-June 20) Draw on people who have skills that complement what you have to offer.

Putting together a team will help you navigate solutions and free up time to spend with loved ones or pursue a hobby.

PEANUTS (June 21-July 22)

Stick to what you know and do best.

Avoid getting involved in something that disrupts your life or harms your reputation. Concentrate on financial matters, and don't let anyone take advantage of you.

(July 23-Aug. 22)

CALVIN AND HOBBES

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Make subtle changes. Try to understand what others need. Think about how best to get what you want without slighting someone who counts on you.

Keeping the peace will help you fulfill your expectations.

Reach out to people who have something to offer. Collect information and share your thoughts. Share interests and expenses with someone like-minded. It's time to get things done, so get moving!

(Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Look at every possibility and situation; you'll come up with a unique way to keep everyone happy. Don't let emotions take the reins. Strive to be mindful of others while looking out for yourself.

SUDOKU (Oct. 24-Nov. 22)

Take your time. Being impatient will be costly. Look for a bargain or wait until you can pay for something outright rather than going into debt. Don't believe a persuasive sales pitch.

(Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Consider making changes at home that will help you relax. A discussion with someone close to you will help resolve a nettlesome issue. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to domestic matters.

LAST PUBLISHED WORD-- ABRUPTLY

SOLUTION FOR LAST PUBLISHED PUZZLE

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Sit tight when in doubt. Keep a watchful eye, but don't feel inclined to make a move just because someone wants a change. Pay attention to what's important to you.

(Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Evaluate your position, finances and stress level, and you'll come up with a strategy to lower anxiety. Having a plan in place will encourage you to budget wisely and refuse temptation.

(Feb. 20-March 20)

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

A

blazing opening stand from Prithvi Shaw and David Warner set Delhi Capitals up for a 44-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium.

The two added 93 in just 8.4 overs to lay the foundation, before cameos from Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, and Axar Patel propelled them to a daunting total of 215.

Shreyas Iyer had opted to bowl hoping for the pitch to get better in the second half.

The pitch did not change much, though, and Knight Riders' sedate start meant the asking rate was always on the rise. Shreyas and Nitish Rana kept them in the hunt

for a while, but once they were dismissed, the chase fizzled out.

Khaleel Ahmed, coming in for Anrich Nortje, picked up 3 for 25, including two at the top of the order, while Kuldeep Yadav mopped up the lower middle order to finish with 4 for 35, including a three-wicket over.

Shaw was imperious in Capitals' previous game, against Lucknow Super Giants. He carried that form into this game, punching the first ball of the innings, bowled by Umesh Yadav, for four. Later in the over, he clipped one behind square leg to pick up another boundary. Warner joined him by pulling Rasikh Salam to the deep-midwicket boundary.

With not much help from

Kuldeep Yadav claimed four wickets

the surface, Umesh went short in the third over. He rushed Shaw with a bouncer, but the batter managed to pull it behind square leg for four. Umesh went short once again on the next ball. Shaw attempted another pull, but this time got pinged on the

Man City, Liverpool share spoils in pulsating title clash

M

anchester City remained one point clear of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League standings after the highlyanticipated clash of the giants ended in a pulsating 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The match lived up to its billing right from the off as City flew out of the traps, racing into a fifth-minute lead after Kevin De Bruyne's strike was deflected past Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.

City, playing with the high pressing intensity which their opponents are famed for, could have taken the lead moments earlier, but Raheem Sterling shot softly at Alisson from a glorious position.

With the raucous home crowd sensing Juergen Klopp's side were wobbling; however, Liverpool showed their mettle as they regrouped and levelled eight minutes later through Diogo Jota, assisted by a perfectly-cushioned Trent Alexander-Arnold pass.

The tempo was relentless, the action gripping, and the momentum shifted again when Gabriel Jesus restored City's lead in the 36th minute.

Liverpool cleared a corner only as far as Joao Cancelo and the Portuguese full back floated the ball back deep into the box where Jesus had stayed onside, nipping past Alexander-Arnold

and steering the ball past Alisson.

It was the first time Liverpool had trailed at the break in the Premier League this season, but they did not need long to restore parity, scoring 46 seconds after the restart.

Mohamed Salah picked the ball up on the right flank and split the City defence with a superb pass to Sadio Mane who burst goalwards before converting with his customary precision.

Regain control City were stunned, but Pep Guardiola's side recovered to regain control of the midfield for much of the second half and they came closest to winning the game.

Sterling thought he had again given the hosts the advantage in the 63rd minute, racing on to a brilliant De Bruyne through ball, only for the former Liverpool forward to be ruled offside following a VAR review.

In the 90th minute, City substitute Riyad Mahrez shaved the outside of the post with a free kick and in stoppage time, the Algerian had a great chance to win the game, but his attempted chip was off target.

It was a questionable decision from Mahrez when a more conventional approach might have paid off, but City were left

to digest a point that changes little in the race.

"It's a great chance. Riyad chose to chip and if it goes in it's a wonder goal," said De Bruyne.

"We played very well, I think we had the upper hand.

This is the way we need to play the rest of the season. I know people said whoever wins gets the title. But it's too hard, the schedule is too tough for both teams to win every game, but we will try," added the Belgian.

The result was a repeat of October's scoreline at Anfield and was the first time City had scored first and not gone on to win in the Premier League this season.

A fourth Premier League crown in five seasons is in City's hands, though, as they moved on to 74 points, one ahead of their title rivals, with seven games left for both teams, there is still plenty of work to do.

"Of course, we knew we would come under pressure early on, they are a fantastic team," said Liverpool Captain Jordan Henderson.

"I felt we settled down a bit and caused them problems.

It's pleasing how we twice came from behind. We have to concentrate on ourselves and win as many games as possible.

If they slip up, we have to be there right behind them. We'll keep going until the end," he added. (Reuters)

helmet. The ball flew to the third-man boundary for four leg-byes. After passing a concussion test, Shaw flicked the next ball for another four. Warner welcomed Pat Cummins with successive fours and Shaw finished the over with a pulled six to bring up the team's fifty in just four overs.

Seeing his seamers going for plenty, Shreyas turned to Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine inside the powerplay. Warner did not let them settle and Shaw brought up his half-century off just 27 balls, before Varun castled him with a googly. But Pant continued in the same fashion – he and Warner took 24 off Varun's next over, taking Capitals to 125 for 1 after 11 overs.

Two overs later, Warner hit Andre Russell for a straight six to reach his half-century, off 35 balls. Warner and Pant added 55 in 24 balls before Pant miscued a slash off Russell and was caught at third man.

In an innings where five Knight Riders bowlers registered an economy rate of 10 or more and another went for eight an over, Narine finished with 4-0-212. Lalit Yadav tried to sweep him only to be trapped lbw.

Rovman Powell attempted a slog sweep and a swirling top edge was taken by substitute Rinku Singh at fine leg. Soon after, Umesh sent back Warner when the batter pulled one to Ajinkya Rahane at deep midwicket.

After 18 overs, Capitals were 176 for 5, with Axar batting on 9 off ten and Shardul on 3 off three. For a moment, it looked like Capitals had blundered by not sending in Sarfaraz Khan until then and Knight Riders might restrict them to under

200.

But then Shardul and Axar combined to hit three sixes and a four in a 23-run 19th over bowled by Umesh.

Shardul started the 20th over by smashing Cummins over mid-off for four and ended it by launching him over deep midwicket for a six. In all, 39 runs came off the final two overs; Shardul finished with 29* off 11, Axar with 22* off 14, and Capitals with 215 for 5.

On the first ball of the innings, Mustafizur Rahman went up in appeal for caught-behind against Rahane. Umpire Jayaraman Madanagopal raised his finger only for Rahane to get the decision overturned on review. The ball had brushed the pad, not the bat. On the next ball, Madanagopal once again gave Rahane out, this time lbw. But once again he had to change his decision as there was a big inside edge involved. Rahane chased the third ball and got a faint edge to Pant. However, none of the Capitals players appealed and Rahane survived again.

From the other end, Venkatesh Iyer pulled Shardul for successive sixes, but Khaleel got him holing out to deep square leg on the same shot. In his next over, Khaleel finally ended Rahane's stay, with Shardul taking an excellent catch,

21

running back from mid-on and holding onto the ball after juggling it three times.

Fifty and out for Shreyas Shreyas and Rana kept the chase alive for a while.

They took the side to 107 for 2 in the 12th over before Rana slapped a full toss from Lalit straight into the hands of long-on. In the next over, Shreyas skipped down the ground to Yadav and launched him over long-on to reach his fifty in 32 balls. He attempted a repeat on the next ball but failed to read the googly and was stumped.

Sam Billings, in the company of Russell, kept Knight Riders' hopes alive for a tad longer. He hit Axar for a four and a six in the 14th over but Khaleel came back to dismiss him. In the next over, Kuldeep picked up Cummins, Narine, and Umesh in the space of four balls. For Umesh's wicket, he ran towards midwicket and dived full length to complete the return catch near the 30-yard circle. With 73 required from four overs, it was too steep a mountain to climb even for Russell.

(ESPNcricinfo)

SCOREBOARD DC INNINGS Prithvi Shaw b Varun 51 David Warner c Rahane b Yadav 61 Rishabh Pant (c)† c Yadav b Russell 27 Lalit Yadav lbw b Narine 1 Rovman Powell c sub (RK Singh) b Narine 8 Axar Patel not out 22 Shardul Thakur not out 29 Extras (b 4, lb 7, nb 3, w 2) 16 TOTAL 20 Ov (RR: 10.75) 215/5 Fall of wickets: 1-93 (Prithvi Shaw, 8.4 ov), 2-148 (Rishabh Pant, 12.5 ov), 3-151 (Lalit Yadav, 13.5 ov), 4-161 (Rovman Powell, 15.1 ov), 5-166 (David Warner, 16.4 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Umesh Yadav 4-0-48-1 Rasikh Salam 1-0-10-0 Pat Cummins 4-0-51-0 Varun Chakravarthy 4-0-44-1 Sunil Narine 4-0-21-2 Andre Russell 2-0-16-1 Venkatesh Iyer 1-0-14-0

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS INNINGS (Target: 216 runs from 20 overs) Ajinkya Rahane c Thakur b Ahmed 8 Venkatesh Iyer c Patel b Ahmed 18 Shreyas Iyer (c) st †Pant b Kuldeep Yadav 54 Nitish Rana c Shaw b Lalit Yadav 30 Andre Russell c Khan b Thakur 24 Sam Billings † c Lalit Yadav b Ahmed 15 Pat Cummins lbw b Kuldeep Yadav 4 Sunil Narine c Powell b Kuldeep Yadav 4 Umesh Yadav c & b Kuldeep Yadav 0 Rasikh Salam c Powell b Thakur 7 Varun Chakravarthy not out 1 Extras (lb 3, w 3) 6 TOTAL 19.4 Ov (RR: 8.69) 171 Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Venkatesh Iyer, 2.3 ov), 2-38 (Ajinkya Rahane, 4.4 ov), 3-107 (Nitish Rana, 11.4 ov), 4-117 (Shreyas Iyer, 12.5 ov), 5-133 (Sam Billings, 14.4 ov), 6-139 (Pat Cummins, 15.3 ov), 7-143 (Sunil Narine, 15.5 ov), 8-143 (Umesh Yadav, 15.6 ov), 9-170 (Andre Russell, 19.2 ov), 10-171 (Rasikh Salam, 19.4 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Mustafizur Rahman 4-0-21-0 Shardul Thakur 2.4-0-30-2 Khaleel Ahmed 4-0-25-3 Axar Patel 30-32-0 Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-35-4 Rovman Powell 1-0-17-0 Lalit Yadav 1-0-8-1

22

MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2022

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

H

aving lost their fourth toss in four matches, Rajasthan Royals found a way to defend successfully for the third time in a highly-tactical game.

Royals promoted R Ashwin to number six in the 10th over only for him to declare himself out in the 19th over to allow Riyan Parag hitting time in the middle. Lucknow Super Giants were not to be left behind: they promoted K Gowtham and Jason Holder as two wickets fell in the first over to make sure their main batters were not exposed to Trent Boult's swing.

A measure of how difficult it is to defend is that despite Shimron Hetmyer's assault towards the end of the first innings – he scored 38 off the last 15 balls he faced – despite Boult's swing at the start to get KL Rahul first ball, despite Ashwin's four overs for 20 runs, despite Yuzvendra Chahal's two overs in the last five to take four wickets, it came down to Indian Premier League (IPL) debutant Kuldeep Sen having to defend 14 in the last over.

Unlike the India international Prasidh Krishna, who attempted yorkers in the 19th and conceded 19 to Marcus Stoinis – incidentally held back for just this role – Sen bowled length and wide outside off to bowl three dots to make it 14 needed off two.

The four and six off the final two balls did not matter.

Quick start for Royals

Royals are by now used to the difficult task of batting first, and accordingly their openers came out firing. Jos Buttler got stuck into Holder, and Devdutt Padikkal, replacing Yashaswi Jaiswal at the top of the order, cut Ravi Bishnoi for two boundaries in the fourth over to make it 39

Boult destroyed the top order

for 0.

Dushamntha Chameera then returned to bowl a three-run fifth over. Buttler felt obliged to go after the sixth over, but Avesh Khan was spot on with the first ball, finding the stumps. An almighty slowdown ensued even with Sanju Samson batting with all his intent. Overs five to 15 produced only four boundaries; the 11 overs went for just 53.

Four wickets fell, too.

Samson missed a slower full toss from Holder, and a frustrated Padikkal fell to a reverse-sweep off Gowtham for a run-a-ball 29. When Gowtham turned the ball against the round-the-wicket angle to bowl Rassie van der Dussen, it was apparent this was not an easy pitch. That's when Royals sent Ashwin out.

Ashwin breaks the shackles

Ashwin has batted in the top six previously in the IPL, but typically in low-scoring games to stabilise tricky chases. This was the first time he was batting in the top six when setting a target.

He was 9 off 14 at the start of the 16th over when he de-

cided his job had been done.

He began to hit out now, and sent Gowtham for successive sixes, only the third time he has hit more than one in an IPL innings.

Hetmyer flourishes amid chaos

After a boundary-less 17th over by Avesh, Hetmyer found the freedom against Holder, hitting the 18th over for two sixes and a four. Two balls into the 19th, Hetmyer was left stunned at the sight of Ashwin walking off and Parag walking in. That didn't stop Hetmyer from hitting the next two balls for sixes – an upper-cut and a slog over midwicket. Holder tried yorkers in the last over, and Hetmyer and Parag hit a six each to give Royals just the finishing kick they needed.

Boult swings, LSG go funky

Boult has bowled the first ball of an innings 79 times. Only twice has he gone round the wicket, both times to Rahul. Boult said it was James Neesham's sug-

Chahal was player of the match for his four wickets

an early wicket, because they wanted Stoinis to bat after the 15th. First came Gowtham. Boult went over the wicket to swing the ball back in and trap him dead in front. Then came Holder.

With the ball moving around, the dots piled, and Holder fell trying to force Krishna's hard lengths. Super Giants were 14 for 3 in the fourth over.

Spinners take over

If the plan was to be disruptive and aggressive with low-cost wickets, the Royals bowlers had now forced Super Giants to play old-fashioned cricket. Quinton de Kock – a poor match-up against both the spinners – and Deepak Hooda had to rebuild the in-

Chahal delivers big blows

Super Giants kept holding back till the 15th over after which they needed 69 runs. With two Chahal overs in the bank, Samson also didn't need to wait for Stoinis to arrive. In the 16th, Chahal dismissed both de Kock and Pandya. Soon, de Kock, who struggled for fluency throughout, found longon with a vertical pull, and Pandya was defeated on the sweep.

In the 18th, Chahal got rid of Dushmantha Chameera too, but Avesh hit a six off the last ball of Chahal's spell to keep Super Giants in the hunt. Just about.

SCOREBOARD RR BATTING Jos Buttler b Avesh Khan 13 Devdutt Padikkal c Holder b Gowtham 29 Sanju Samson (c)† lbw b Holder 13 Rassie van der Dussen b Gowtham 4 Shimron Hetmyer not out 59 Ravichandran Ashwin retired out 28 Riyan Parag c Gowtham b Holder 8 Trent Boult not out 2 Extras (lb 3, w 6) 9 TOTAL 20 Ov (RR: 8.25) 165/6 Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Jos Buttler, 5.1 ov), 2-60 (Sanju Samson, 8.3 ov), 3-64 (Devdutt Padikkal, 9.1 ov), 4-67 (Rassie van der Dussen, 9.5 ov), 5-135 (Ravichandran Ashwin, 18.2 ov), 6-163 (Riyan Parag, 19.5 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Dushmantha Chameera 4-0-22-0 Jason Holder 4-0-50-2 Ravi Bishnoi 4-0-29-0 Avesh Khan 4-0-31-1 Krishnappa Gowtham 4-0-30-2

LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS INNINGS (Target: 166 runs from 20 overs) KL Rahul (c) b Boult 0 Quinton de Kock † c Parag b Chahal 39 Krishnappa Gowtham lbw b Boult 0 Jason Holder c Ashwin b Prasidh Krishna 8 Deepak Hooda b Sen 25 Ayush Badoni c Parag b Chahal 5 Krunal Pandya b Chahal 22 Marcus Stoinis not out 38 Dushmantha Chameera lbw b Chahal 13 Avesh Khan not out 7 Extras (lb 1, w 4) 5 TOTAL 20 Ov (RR: 8.10) 162/8 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (KL Rahul, 0.1 ov), 2-1 (Krishnappa Gowtham, 0.2 ov), 3-14 (Jason Holder, 3.3 ov), 4-52 (Deepak Hooda, 9.1 ov), 5-74 (Ayush Badoni, 11.6 ov), 6-101 (Quinton de Kock, 15.3 ov), 7-102 (Krunal Pandya, 15.5 ov), 8-126 (Dushmantha Chameera, 17.5 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Trent Boult 4-0-30-2 Prasidh Krishna 4-0-35-1 Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-20-0 Kuldeep Sen 4-0-35-1 Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-41- 4

that he would abandon his favoured length for yorkers, especially with a wet ball.

Sen's lengths in the final over were in the slot, but he stayed wide of Stoinis' reach.

Stoinis tried one ramp and two hits down the ground, but could not find the boundary.

(ESPNcricinfo)

CLASSIFIED ADS ACCOMMODATIONS Aracari Hotel, West Bank Demerara (Versailles – between Harbor Bridge and Vreed-en-Hoop) – AirConditioned Comfort. Amenities include TV, Restaurant, Bar, Swimming Pool, Gym. Free Parking, Free WiFi. Spend 7 nights and get 1 Free. Rates from $45 US. Breakfast included. Long term rates available. Phone: 264-2946-9. www. aracariresort.com

BUS SERVICE Need a bus? Call Us. Matthews Bus Service and Tours. Call: 6392663/673-2348.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Restaurant for Rent – West Bank Demerara (at Aracari Resort, Versailles – between Harbor Bridge and Vreed-en-Hoop). Turn Key Business. Covid-19 Reduced Capacity 60; furnished and equipped.

Phone 264-2946; 626-5290

ENTERTAINMENT

de Kock continued his fine form

gestion at breakfast. Samson was told of the plan seconds before the start of the chase.

Boult bowled it full, and got it to seam in. Rahul said he did not see it or he would have put some bat on it. It went past the inside edge, and bowled him.

Now this cannot be a response to a first-ball wicket. LSG always wanted to go funky should they lose

nings. Just after the timeout at 52 for 3 in nine overs, Hooda tried to hit out, and Sen hit his wicket, much like Avesh did with Buttler earlier. When Chahal got rid of Ayush Badoni at the end of the 12th over, Super Giants promoted Krunal Pandya even if it meant having two left-hand batters in the middle. Samson, too, kept holding Chahal back for Stoinis.

The endgame

With 34 needed off two overs, Royals predictably went to the senior bowler first to hopefully leave the youngster some cushion.

Krishna, who has become a bit of a hard-lengths specialist for India, stuck with yorkers. Apart from a ramp for four, Stoinis' two sixes in the over came off missed yorkers. It was a little surprising

Swimming Pool Family Fun & Picnic – Crystal Clear Pool. Kids and Adult Sections. Very Safe. Aracari Resort : West Bank Demerara (Versailles, between Harbor Bridge and Vreeden-Hoop)- Every Weekend. DJ Music.

Groups and Excursions welcome.

(Fee applies)- Phone: 264-2946-9.

TOUR (EASTER WEEKEND) Easter Weekend trip to Suriname, April 14th – 17th. Call: 6392663/673-2348.

TOUR (INDEPENDENCE WEEKEND) Independence Weekend, May 26th – 29th. Call: 639-2663/673-2348.

VACANCY Vacancy exists for one security guard contact 655-6511.

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

“Skills for Cash” 7-a-side football tournament

23

East Coast, Berbice teams into next round

P

aradise (East Coast Demerara) and their Berbice namesake, Paradise Invaders United following lopsided wins, stormed into the next round of the 592 Beer “Skills for Cash” sevena-side football tournament on Saturday at the Victoria Community Ground.

In the feature contest of the double-header, Paradise brushed aside Victoria 4-1.

Despite taking the lead in the 14th minute, compliments of a Quason McAulay penalty, the hosts incurred four goals to exit the event.

Jermin Samuels initiated the blitz with a 30-yard screamer which struck the crossbar and ended up in the back of the net in the 16th minute.

This was followed by an Anil Hernandez conversion into the left corner in the 25th minute from within the centre of the 18yard box which handed Paradise the 2-1 lead.

A second from Hernandez in the 44th minute pushed the score to 3-1, as he slotted his leftfooted shot into the lower left

corner from inside the right of the 18-yard box.

Tyreek Cummings sealed the outcome four minutes later through a right-footed effort which nestled into the left corner, after striking the woodwork.

Meanwhile, Paradise of Berbice made light work of Ann’s Grove, winning by a 4-1 score.

Although Ann’s Grove took the lead in the sixth minute through Alden Lawrence, Donovan Francis equalised four minutes later with a shot into the right-hand corner.

Paradise seized control of the contest in the 27th minute as Francis lashed a powerful shot into the roof of the net, after cutting into the 18-yard box.

The score ballooned to 3-1 in the 40th minute via Jamal Cambridge, as he scooted the ball into the lower left corner from within the centre of the penalty area.

The win was then achieved as Capello Daniels blasted a rightfooted shot into the roof of the net in the 47th minute.

Action resumes on Thursday at the same venue. The winner

Paradise scorers from right: Tyreek Cummings, Anil Hernandez, and Jermin Fraser

of the tournament will receive $300,000, while the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers will pocket $200,000, $100,000, and $50,000 respectively.

Complete results Game1 Paradise Invaders (Berbice) 4 v Ann’s Grove 1 Paradise Scorers Donovan Francis –10th and 27th Jamal Cambridge – 40th Capello Daniels – 47th

Ann’s Grove scorer Alden Lawrence – 6th Game 2 Paradise (East Demerara) 4 v Victoria 1

Coast

Paradise scorers Anil Hernandez – 25th and 44th Jermin Samuels – 16th Tyreek Cummings – 48th Victoria scorer Quason McAulay – 12th

Paradise Invaders scorers from right: Jamal Cambridge, Donovan Francis and Capello Daniels

NY Tri State Tour to Guyana..

Forrester slams 176; Berbice U-17s beat NY Tri State in tour opener Leon Johnson bags 5 and scores half-century – DCC beat Police despite Dick and Adams threat

G

Ansh Rai extracted turn and bounce at Albion Story and photos By Brandon Corlette

A

Berbice Select U-17 team defeated the New York Tri State team by 34 runs in a 45-over clash at Albion Community Centre Cricket Club.

Batting first, the Berbicians posted 155-8 in 45 overs and restricted the New York side to 121 all out in 42 overs.

Ruhan Swar had the highest score of the match, scoring 32 for the New York Tri State team. The opening batsman struck three fours in his 72-ball innings. Captain Utkarsh Srivastava and deputy Adil Shivakumar made 17 each in an ordinary batting display, coupled with poor running between the wickets.

Gracing the venue with his presence was Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) President Hilbert Foster, along with a small number of friends and family of

the cricketers. The Berbice bowlers shared the wickets among themselves, with Rashad Gafoor claiming 2-10, Kumar Deopersaud 2-11, and Afrasz Budhoo 2-28.

Despite early-morning showers across the Ancient County, the New York Tri State team got their tour to Guyana underway. After winning the toss, New York Tri State asked the Berbice U-17 Select team to bat first and in the first over of the day, right-arm fast bowler Anirudh Bolisetty struck gold, removing opener Rashad Gafoor (4) with the score on 5-1.

Afrasz Budhoo struck two fours in his 12, but was removed by the impressive left-arm spinner Ansh Rai at 23-2. A slight drizzle paused the game with the score on 42-3 in the ninth over. Upon resumption, West Indies Under-16 batsman Rampertab Ramnauth

Swar goes big during his top-score

continued to play his shots, but he was undone by a spectacular catch from Ansh Rai at deep mid-off for 19, which included three fours.

The scoring rate for the Berbice Under-17 team slowed up as Romesh Bharrat dropped anchor.

Sanjay Algoo was bowled all ends up for three while Salim Khan came and made 12. Bharrat, who made 23 from 87 balls, departed with the score on 108-6 in 33.4 overs. He was removed by Mihir Patwardhan.

Matthew Pottya (0) and Colis Harcourt (4) fell cheaply, but Albion's Damien Cecil stood firm and added 38 vital runs with Raj Tikka for the ninth wicket. Cecil was the eventual top-scorer with 26 from 50 balls with one four, while Tikka made 23 from 28 balls. Fast bowler Bolisetty ended with 2-31 in a collective bowling effort, to restrict the Berbicians to 1558 in 45 overs. The New York Tri State team will play the Berbice U-15 team today at Chesney.

eorgetown Cricket Club (GCC) and Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) registered wins over the weekend in the GISE Star Party Rental and Trophy Stall first-division two-day tournament played in the city.

At Police Ground, DCC defeated Police by four wickets (Duckworth-Lewis Method) and GCC thumped Malteenoes by 130 runs at Bourda.

On the opening day of the match, GCC, opting to bat first, posted 129 all out while Malteenoes replied with 126 all out.

In the first innings, Renaldo Ali Mohamed topscored for GCC with 33 while Forrester made 30.

Nichosie Barker claimed 4-46 in 14.1 overs. Diquan Murray had 3-30 in eight overs. Malteenoes replied with 126 all out in their first innings, with Barker returning to top-score with 38 and Jermiah Scott making 33. Stephon Wilson had 4-22 while Johnson had 2-14.

Winston Forrester slammed a magnificent 176 from 165 balls in the second innings for GCC, while National Captain Leon Johnson claimed 5-31 in 8.5 overs, and also scored 65 with the bat.

Forrester struck 25 fours and two sixes in his 176 while Johnson struck 10 fours and one six in his knock of 65 as GCC reached 302-4 in 55.5 overs. Daniel Ross had 2-37. In response, Malteenoes reached 175 in their second innings,

Winston Forrester slammed 176 for GCC

chasing 306.

Mervin Permaul made 47 in the second innings.

Meanwhile, in the other fixture, at Police Ground, Police scored 184 all out in their first innings while DCC made 193 all out in reply. Police made 77 all out in their second innings and DCC ended on 70-6 with Dwayne Dick capturing 5-31 in nine overs.

In Police’s first innings, Steven Sankar destroyed the lawmen with 4-70 in 13 overs. In DCC's response, Chris Barnwell made 56 from 77 balls with two sixes and three fours.

National selectee Anthony Adams claimed 4-49 in top overs for Police.

Sankar then claimed 3-19 in 4.3 overs while Barnwell and Raj Nanan had two wickets, to bundle out Police for 77 in the second innings. DCC lost six wickets in the second innings with Dick wreaking havoc with 5-31 (9). Trevon Griffith made an unbeaten 16 to see DCC over the line.

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

Sport is no longer our game, it’s our business

Page 22

NY Tri State Tour to Guyana..

Page 23

Berbice U-17s beat NY Tri State in tour opener GUYANA TIMES - www.guyanatimesgy.com, email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, NEWS HOTLINE: 231-8063 EDITORIAL: 223-7230, 223-7231, 231-0544, 225-7761 SPORT: sport@guyanatimesgy.com SALES AND MARKETING: 231-8064 - marketing@guyanatimesgy.com - PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GUYANA TIMES INC.