Guyana Times - Sunday, October 25, 2020

P17 Sir Ron Ghanie: Moulding the minds of Bartica’s children for over 2 decades Nationwide coverage coverage from from the the best best news news team team in in Guyana Guyana Nationwide Issue No. 4449 guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON BEACON OF OF TRUTH TRUTH THE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Govt probing massive land conspiracy connected to Ogle/Diamond bypass project …prime land leased to shell companies under APNU/AFC flipped for profit Page 30

$245M Dr Yesu Persaud Clinical Education Centre opens

PRICE

$120 VAT INCLUDED

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Dust from Uitvlugt Estate's chimneys plaguing WCD, EBE P32 …residents call for urgent Govt intervention

APNU/AFC-hired prosecutor wants payment from PPP/C Govt P33

3 years later

Mother still battling to keep son alive after tragic accident P24

…to be used for UG, GPHC's medical programmes

…US$17M upgrade for district hospitals – President Ali Page 9 …electronic medical records system being explored

Giftland to start Guyana produced supplying power 12.3M barrels of to GPL grid by oil during 1st half of 2020 – BoG weekend …COVID-19, sharp drop in prices affect output Page 3

Tourism Minister renounced US citizenship before becoming MP Page 29

2 more P27 COVID-19 deaths, 34 new cases recorded …13 persons in ICU

Cop dies in Mahaicony P31 crash

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Private farmers to provide 34% of canes for P34 Skeldon Estate

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NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Sunday, October 25 – 13:30h – 15:00h and Monday, October 26 – 01:30h – 03:00h and 14:30h – 16:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Giftland to start supplying power to GPL grid by weekend

Sunday, October 25 – 12:30h – 14:00h and Monday, October 26 – 13:30h – 15:00h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 11:00h and 16:00h daily

WEATHER TODAY Expect sunshine and thundery showers during the day. There will be partly cloudy conditions at night. Temperatures should range between 21 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius.

Winds: South South-Westerly to SouthEasterly to Easterly to East North-Easterly to North-Easterly to North North-Easterly to Northerly between 1.78 metres and 3.57 metres.

High Tide: 12:15h reaching a maximum height of 2.05 metres.

Low Tide: 18:09h reaching a minimum height of 1.19 metre.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2020

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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

$41.77/barrel

-1.65

Rough Rice

$220.08/ton

+0.97

London Sugar

$395.60/ton

-0.85

Live Spot Gold

USD Per Ounce

Bid/Ask

$1901.30

$1902.30

Low/High

$1892.50

$1916.10

0.00

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Change

Prime Minister Mark Phillips

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n estimated $35 million per month will be paid to the Giftland Mall for the supply of electricity to the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) – as the entity pursues various initiatives aimed at increasing its power generation capacity to ultimately bring an end to the constant power outages which continue to be a major bugbear for many citizens.

According to information received, an average of US$46,000 will be paid per month for power from Giftland.

This would translate to some $9.9 million per month.

In addition, GPL will be paying for fuel at around $25.6 million per month. In total, this would work out to approximately $35.5 million per month.

In an invited comment, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Samaroo Ramtahal explained that the price tag for the purchase of electricity from Giftland is economical.

"The fuel oil we're using right now, for example, from the 5 megawatts [from Giftland] is heavy fuel oil which is very, very cheap compared to if you have to buy LFO which is light fuel oil. So that's the first saving," he said.

"The other saving is if you compare it with an alternative. We could have gone with a MACORP rental [generator], the cost would be almost double the operating cost had we gone to use a MACORP rental generator set," Ramtahal added.

A further breakdown showed that GPL agreed to pay some US$0.04 [4 cents] per KW/h during peak hours and US$0.03 [3 cents] per KW/h during off-peak hours. Peak hours are usually from 6 pm to 9 pm.

Meanwhile, the agreement set out an estimated sum of US$0.08 [8 cents] for fuel per KW/h.

This works out to an average of US$0.11 [11 cents] for both power and fuel per KW/h.

According to information received, it is estimated that some 1,460,000 kilowatts will be utilised on a monthly basis.

The Giftland Mall currently has a system that produces 6.7 megawatts of electricity, 5 megawatts of which is HFO [heavy fuel oil] fuelled.

However, it only uses 1.6 megawatts during prime operations.

The excess power, which is approximately 3.3 megawatts daytime and 4.6 megawatts at night, will be supplied to the national grid by month-end.

Further, the Giftland Mall is hoping to provide, in due time, an additional 5 megawatts of power to GPL as allowed under their 10-megawatt contract with the entity.

According to the proprietor, Roy Beepat, the company is waiting for the appropriate time to make another application to supply the extra 5 megawatts of power of gas or LFOpowered energy to back up the grid.

The Giftland Mall had, since 2016, offered to sell Government its excess electricity, but this was rejected. At a press conference in June 2019, GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Albert Gordon, had said that buying power from an independent power producer (IPP) is a complicated issue which includes negotiating pricing and legal matters.

But now that the project is finally realised, Beepat said he is very grateful for the opportunity to be contributing to a solution to the country’s power woes.

In an invited comment, the local businessman said he is happy to be able to supply the nation with “very badly needed power at very economic prices”.

“It’s really a win-win for the entire nation,” he said.

Other plans

In addition to the Giftland Mall, other private entities are being engaged to supply power to the national grid.

In September 2020, the Government had announced that over 30 companies have submitted Expressions of Interest to supply GPL with electricity.

Prime Minister Mark

Owner of Giftland Mall Roy Beepat

DCEO of GPL Samaroo Ramtahal

Phillips – who has responsibility for the energy sector – said Government is in the process of engaging other companies to feed power to the grid. He is hoping these come on stream in time for Christmas 2020.

“We are looking at other producers in Guyana that can come on board between now and Christmas and produce, maybe a small amount of electricity, maybe if it’s 10 megawatts or a little more than that,” he explained during

an exclusive interview with Guyana Times on Friday.

“The plan is to really augment what is being produced now by GPL. I think GPL produces just about 135 megawatts and according to the Standard Operating Procedures, they’re supposed to have 25 per cent of that as a reserve…and the reality is that they’re basically producing to meet the demand and not being able to create that reserve,” the PM outlined.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Views Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544 223-7230,223-7231,231-0544, 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

A viable sugarcane industry

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he PPPC had committed to reopening the estates that were unilaterally shuttered by the APNU/AFC Government, and upon assuming office on August 2nd, immediately “put their money where their mouth is”. Steps have already been initiated to reopen Rose Hall and Skeldon estates in Berbice, and Enmore/LBI on the East Coast of Demerara. Wales is slated to be diversified outside of sugar.

But if the plan to again make the sugar industry profitable is to be successful, there first would have to be a plan, a holistic one that looks in a hardnosed fashion at where the industry is; where the Board of Directors (BoD) wants it to be; and, most importantly, exactly what the BoD expects the management team to do to achieve that objective.

Towards that end, we offer some suggestions. First of all, we believe that the sugar plantations can be made viable within a regime that more clearly articulates the de facto change in strategy from a sugar industry to a sugarcane industry. The change is more than semantic. At the most mundane level, it stresses the fact that all the end products – sugar (bulk and packaged, raw and refined), electricity, alcohol, ethanol, paper etc. - depend on sugarcane being supplied, and therefore its production must be given the central role in any future strategy.

One area that has to be looked at is the recruitment practices for field management staff: Field Manager, Senior Field Manager, Asst. Field Mngr. (harvesting), Asst. Field Mngr. (crop husbandry), Asst. Field Mngr. (mechanical tillage), Agri.

Superintendent (Agronomist), Asst. Field Mngr. (cultivation), Field Workshop Superintendent, Field Superintendent, Supervisors (one for each gang), Field Foremen, ChargeHands.

Of recent, GuySuCo has had great difficulty in recruiting and retaining managers from Field Superintendent level upwards. This will remain a problem if upper management continues to insist on “book qualifications” being the main criteria for recruitment. Individuals with book qualifications retain the ingrained West Indian aversion to be connected to manual labour, and basically see themselves “catching their hand” until they locate greener (white collar) pastures. They avoid the fields like the plague.

The industry’s focus ought to shift towards promoting upwards from the supervisors’ category individuals who started as ordinary workers, because they would more likely remain on the job for the status conferred by the positions.

They ought to be trained in the use of the now available handheld computerised devices that allow the complicated flow of field operations’ information to be monitored and evaluated daily.

In addition to the abovementioned product mix from sugar cane, we suggest that the production of biogas be made standard at all sugar factories. Molasses and bagasse are not the only by-products in the production of sugar from sugarcane; the wash-and-press mud is extremely rich in methane or bio-gas, which can be extracted and bottled for commercial sale, or for providing fuel to the fleet of vehicles used in the sugarcane cultivation. The vehicles would have to be slightly modified.

The generation of electricity from bagasse ought not to be seen as simply a subsidiary operation in the production of sugar, but as an economic enterprise on its own merits.

Mauritius embarked on this road in the mid-eighties, and most of its factories now have co-generation capabilities that in 2016 satisfied 22% of the national demand by exporting to the national grid 663GWh. For the Berbice plantations, the cogeneration potential would be augmented if the four factories consolidated their co-generation plants. If power generation is evaluated on its own capabilities, some of the Type III lands in Demerara, that give such poor yields for sugarcane, could be converted into cultivation of fuel cane, which is not only hardier, but contains more fibre and thus generates more energy in power generation. Unlike the sugarcane, the fuel cane can also be harvested in sub-optimum weather, since sunlight to maximise sucrose content is not a factor: the number of available days in the wetter Demerara plantations could then be increased, thus lowering unit costs.

Exposing all corrupt activities by officials at GECOM Dear Editor, The recent daylight attack on the home of Chief Justice Roxane George bears all marks of the bullish brand and flagrant desperation that our nation and the world witnessed from the APNU/AFC cabal since the valid No-Confidence Motion. The terroristic “toygun tantrum” cannot be taken lightly! Rather, the occurrence and threats must be vehemently rejected and opposed, while every effort to ensure the arrest of culprit messenger must be used to expose the true authors of his mission.

It is a known fact that this brilliant and certainly sober-minded Chief Justice has in the past, acted decisively without fear or favour, in defending the autonomy of the Judiciary as a key pillar of our democracy and Government.

The rulings of the Caribbean Court of Justice on her instructive decisions, confirm her esteemed judicial qualifications and exercise of judgement, which provides broad-based confidence. In this respect, it cannot be overemphasised that no effort must be spared in always protecting the pillars of impartiality, fairness, and transparency of our Judicial arm of Government.

Given the level of outlandishness we have seen from Senior APNU/AFC conspirators and their suspected agents in the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the situation demands the Government’s strongest considerations. While we are confident in the fearless stand of our venerated Chief Justice, the

nation’s highest trained team of security forces must provide the highest quality of service to her personal self, together with her immediate family.

Editor, it is no longer surprising that after fooling their supporters for months by highlighting and conveying an absolute refusal to exit the offices of Government, our citizens relegated Opposition are now attempting to persuade supporters that the PNC’s election petition will put the legal PPP/C Government out of Office. Except for a few clearly sadistic-minded individuals, the Guyanese people are ready and willing to move forward in harmony. These attempts at intimidation, therefore, will not work.

From the evidence derived from the vote recount process and results, it must be now crystal clear to all Guyanese that it was the same illegal, fraudulent spreadsheet used in 2011, which created the opportunity for the APNU/AFC to rig those elections. There are certainly many questions to be answered, and our nation deserves to know the truth. Indeed, the answers to these questions inform the reasons why there is such a vehement public outcry for the injustice of the delay in hearing the PPP/C’s 2015 petition to be ventilated.

It is recalled that myself, among several duly appointed PPP/C officials, were at the GECOM building on High Street when GECOM Returning Officer Melanie Marshall agreed to revisit the Statements of Poll. In the pro-

cess, she feigned sickness and the commenced process ended abruptly. This resulted in the Granger cabal being wickedly entrusted into Government.

After five years, the PPP/C is still waiting for the 2015 election petition to see the daylight.

At those 2015 elections as well as those in 2020, strong evidence existed of GECOM officials being complicit in characteristic unsavoury biased roles. In the former, several issues such as the dumping of Disciplined Services votes at particular Polling Stations; the tearing out of ballot sheets from one polling booth and transferring same to other polling booths by GECOM election officials without any record occurred.

The PPP/C still has a strong 2015 Election Petition and a remedy by the Judiciary is certainly anticipated, even if the results mean a revelation of the truth. Politically, this is significant and fair, given that there will be disclosure of the true character of those corrupt actors who are continuous in their fraudulent attempts.

Further, it will assist in cleansing the certainly contaminated and seemingly poisoned institution.

The hearing of the 2020 election petitions must be a transparent process. It is notable that smoothness of the voting process throughout the country generated no reported reasons for any queries. It is, therefore, necessary to ventilate how some of the recount discoveries occurred without any intervention from Senior

GECOM officials. Is it that they were creating a mechanism for query?

The most important document for the elections officials to confirm and validate the election results is the Statements of Poll (SoPs). It is on record that David Granger and the APNU/AFC 2020 elections Campaign Manager Joseph Harmon said that the 2020 National and Regional Elections was free and fair.

The APNU/AFC was demanding that Granger be sworn in as President with the same results. So why did APNU/AFC and the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield hide their SoPs? These positions must be thoroughly ventilated when the matters are called.

After five long months and the intervention of Caricom, the powerful international observers’ teams, the imminent international diplomats in Guyana along with the united Guyanese political parties, the opportunists PNC cabals were forced to accept that Dr Irfaan Ali was the truly winning and deserving candidate.

Fortunately, the vote counts were significant enough to overwhelm the seemingly orchestrated errors. After the full scrutiny, all allegations of irregularities and improprieties must also be exposed, and the culprits condignly dealt with.

The two petitions must be used to expose all GECOM corrupt activities and officials, as well as other complicit conspirators.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

It is high time to reconsider dual citizenship provision in the Constitution

Dear Editor, Once again, the issue of dual citizenship has surfaced in Guyana as it relates to serving in the National Assembly.

In the latest episode, Minister of Tourism, Industry, and Commerce Oneidge Walrond was forced to issue a public statement reassuring Guyanese that her US citizenship was renounced before being sworn in as a Member of Parliament (MP). This apparently after questions were raised in the public domain regarding her eligibility to sit in the National Assembly.

As the Minister noted, she was advised that the “sections of the Constitution prohibiting elected members from being dual citizens” did not apply to her as a technocrat Minister.

Regardless, she took the commendable position to renounce her US citizenship, thereby removing any doubt or opportunities for political mileage. While I am sure some legal minds will argue that this provision also applies to technocrats, the Minister appears to have gone above and beyond what was required of her.

In a broader lens, the constitutional provision prohibit-

ing dual citizens from serving as MPs places an imprudent limitation on how dual citizens can serve their country of birth.

While this constitutional provision may have had its genesis due to Janet Jagan’s presidency, it is hurting the prospects of highly qualified Guyanese boasting dual citizenship the freedom to serve in the highest levels of Government. This is unfortunate given that Guyana now more than ever before needs highly skilled people to help steer its development trajectory in the coming decade and beyond. More so, it is disappointing that dual citizens have to choose. We have seen what happened when the young MP, Adrian V Anamayah was asked to decide. In the end, Guyana lost.

It is worth reemphasising that many dual citizens left Guyana’s shores not because they wanted to pledge allegiance to a foreign power but primarily because of better educational and economic opportunities. Many of these opportunities would not have materialised if they remained in Guyana, even if they were already highly qualified. And pursuing or accepting dual cit-

izenship was not only a means to solidify their educational and economic gains in a foreign land but, more importantly, to support or sponsor immediate and extended family members still struggling to make ends meet in Guyana.

Regardless of the reason for their migration, many dual citizens would have contributed to Guyana’s development over the years through vacations, remittances, and investments, however large or small. Many dual citizens in the diaspora would have also contributed to political parties’ fund-raising activities in places like Miami, New York City, and Toronto.

Furthermore, dual citizens can vote, and some returned to Guyana and voted in the recent Regional and General Elections. Despite all of these benefits provided by dual citizens, they are told that they are not good enough to serve as an MP or in the halls of power as a dual citizen. Thus, to constitutionally restrict their participation in Government is insulting.

Of course, the overarching argument is that dual citizens hold allegiance to another country and may not put Guyana’s interest first and foremost. This

may be a legitimate concern, but it is equally applicable to Guyanese that do not hold dual citizenship. We do not need to look further than the production sharing agreement for the Stabroek oil block, which was negotiated by (non-dual citizen) Guyanese. Or the group of (non-dual citizen) Guyanese that tried to rig the March 2 elections and send the country into the international wilderness. Did they have Guyana’s best interest at heart?

In a recent interview, Mr Peter Ramsaroop echoed renewed calls for members of the diaspora to invest in Guyana.

As one of the lucky ones who immigrated to the United States and subsequently returned to Guyana after twenty-odd years, Mr Ramsaroop understands firsthand the importance of dual citizens and their contributions to the country’s development. Thus, it is time for dual citizens to have an equal say in how the country is governed now and in the future. It is high time to reconsider the dual citizen provision in the Constitution.

Yours faithfully, Omchand Mahdu

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25 2020

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

There is always strength in unity Dear Editor, The great tragedy of Guyanese politics is the narrative of our division, propagated by self-interest politicians and an opposition party reliant on outrage to drive turnout instead of passion and inspiration.

The more we believe that our struggles exist among ourselves instead of against wealthy corporate interests and unchecked power, the less able we are to unify around common values.

Leaders and residents in Region 10, and our nation in order to heal the wounds of manufactured division, we must re-discover a sense of purpose built around those shared values. We have to re-discover the courage of past

generations that defeated fascism. These moments of action were inspired by crisis and challenges. Our circumstances today are no different. COVID-19, massive inequality. Our path to unity and healing revolves around just that: extending our new Government’s dream and its promise of progress to every Guyanese who has been locked out under the previous APNU/ AFC Administration.

However, our PPP/C Government’s national COVID-19 relief and support programme - $25,000 per a household - can be that new national project which will be built around our shared values — free from partisanship, guided by policy and principles. It means

reckoning with our extreme inequality, our legacy of systemic racism and divisive system of politics. Our PPP/C Government guarantees healthcare, where every life matters, where education doesn’t come with lifelong debt, where housing isn’t out of reach and where everyone lives a life of dignity. We need to embrace our Government as a force for good.

Until we heal the anguish of our nation’s despair, we cannot bridge divides born of struggling to survive. Lindeners – Guyanese, we hold the power; we just have to re-discover it. Our current state of affairs is a self-fulfilling prophecy of despair and doubt. But it doesn’t

have to stay that way. Our Government has paved that path and made that commitment to every Guyanese to break beyond party identity, empowering us to come together as a single collective voice of citizens. The question before all of us: How do we come together?

How do we heal our divides?

First, we have to recognise that we’re more unified than we imagine. The truth is that politics shouldn’t be so confrontational or conflicted. The solutions are out there and Guyana is for all Guyanese and we must reject those who seek to divide us, those with the nefarious plans aiming to divide and cripple Guyana. The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic Government over the

past three months has been working to ensure that every Guyanese reaps the benefits of the development that is to come in the future and is already here. Their primary objective is to ensure that every Guyanese is treated fairly and prospers under the PPP/C Administration, especially our young people.

Let us grasp at every opportunity. As our country prepares for further development, we must be reminded that Guyana belongs to every Guyanese and as leaders, we must put our country above selfish ideals which is imperative as we come together since “there is always strength in unity”. We must, as a town, as a nation, ask ourselves the question, is this our des-

tiny? And we must take courage and answer definitively. Since our PPP/C encourages us daily to garner the strength and put aside the divisiveness in party politics, religion, class and elitism and work towards the creation of an egalitarian society that lacks social stratification with the exception of inequality based on ability and age which provides equal access to resources and prestige to all Guyanese. Our elected Government is working tirelessly to deliver for our people and to ensure that Guyana is the place to live if we are going to prosper in a true sense.

Sincerely, David Adams

Understanding how a US President is elected Dear Editor, Guyanese have their eyes on the US Presidential Election. But few probably understand the process. I didn’t understand the process until I took a course on American Politics in my undergraduate studies.

Later, with my knowledge and background in Political Science, I taught American Politics for some 25 years.

The US and Guyana’s Presidential Elections are very different. The candidate with most or a majority of votes is not necessarily elected President in the US unlike in Guyana. America is probably the only country where a presidential candidate can win the most votes and still not be elected as President. The electoral votes (538) of the 50 states plus Washington DC choose the President and Vice President. Al Gore (2000) and Hillary Clinton (2016) won the popular votes but did not win the Presidency because they lost in the electoral college.

While the Guyana President is elected directly by voters, the US President

223-7230-1 (Ext 55)

is indirectly elected by voters. In US, voters cast ballots for electors who in turn elect the President and Vice President. When registered voters go out to vote, they are voting for a list of electors (called electoral college) from each state who will gather in December to cast ballots for the President and Vice President. The votes that are cast by the voters will be counted that very night (plus early voters casting ballots over last two weeks and absentees ballots) while the votes of the electoral college vote will be counted in January and announced by Congress (Vice President) declaring the winner. There are 538 electors and a majority of 270 is needed for victory.

Each state has a num-

ber of electors equal to its congressional size (minimum 3 as in Alaska to maximum 55 as in California that depends on the size of the population of the state).

When people vote, they cast ballots for a list of electors (identified by a party with names given but are not on the ballot) from that state.

Whichever party or candidate receives the most votes will win that list of electors from the state. (Two states divide up the number of electors by proportion of votes). When all the electors of states won by a candidate that are added cumulatively, the party or candidate that wins a minimum 270 votes is declared President Presumed or PresidentElect. If no one gets a majority of 270, the election is thrown to Congress to

choose a President and VP. The electors would gather in December in Washington and vote for the President and VP. They can change their mind and vote for another candidate for President and VP, and it is known to happen in the past. The ballots are opened by Congress in January and counted.

Whichever presidential nominee gets the threshold of 270, wins and the Vice President announces the winner. The actual popular votes are also counted and added cumulatively in the state won by a candidate.

The vote count is to determine the popularity of a candidate.

When people cast ballots, there is only one vote for President and VP. But when the electors cast their

vote in the electoral college, they vote separately for President and VP. If no candidate gets the minimum 270 votes or if there is a tie of 269, then the election is thrown to Congress to choose the President and VP. The House determines the President based on the 51 entities, each having one vote with 26 needed for victory. The congressional delegation from each state would gather and decide by a majority how each state will cast its vote between the two contenders.

The Senate chooses the VP from the 100 Senators; 51 needed for victory.

In Guyana, there isn’t a vote for Vice President or Prime Minister; the President appoints someone in those positions. In the US, there are separate bal-

lots for President, Members of Congress, and for other offices. In Guyana, when one votes for President, one also votes for the number of seats for a party assigned to the Parliament in a PR system. The head of the party list chooses the MPs in Guyana. In the US, people vote directly for Members of Congress. The President or leader of the party plays no role in choosing a member of Congress. The President or party leader cannot select the candidate for Congress or any elective office. All nominations for office are done democratically in elections restricted to party members. Who will win the US presidency is the subject of another article.

Yours truly, Dr Vishnu Bisram

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Giftland to start supplying...

It is also anticipated that an additional 10 megawatts of power will be added to the grid by yearend through the installation of a new generator at the Garden of Eden Plant on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD).

Additionally, by April 2021, some 46.5 megawatts of electricity will come on stream through a dual engine generator, also to be installed at Garden of Eden.

A longer-term plan is the gas-to-shore project, for which a Task Force headed by former Chief Executive Officer of NICIL, Winston Brassington has been assembled to look at various options.

PM Phillips said the goal is for the gas-to-shore project to produce an additional 200 megawatts of power and for it to come on stream by Christmas 2024.

While the Government has not engaged any investors on this major project, the Prime Minister said presentations have been made by various foreign entities on the initiative.

“We have a number of companies that have been doing presentations to myself and different members of the Cabinet who are responsible for the energy sector,” he explained.

The Winston Brassingtonled team is currently reviewing the available data with the aim of determining the next steps to take regarding the gas-to-shore project.

“What will happen is that the team will look at all those existing studies and try to see which one better suits Guyana as we move forward to accomplish this gas-to-shore project within the given timeline,” the

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Prime Minister explained.

He noted that “bringing gas to shore itself, creates a number of possibilities for the industrialisation of Guyana.”

“We believe that if we can produce 200 megawatts from the gas-to-shore project, that along with what we have available through GPL, will satisfy not only the domestic but the commercial and industrial needs of Guyana,” PM Phillips expressed.

Furthermore, he said the Government is also pursuing initiatives to meet off-the-grid demands for electricity through an energy mix of solar, wind and hydropower.

The Prime Minister explained that there are a number of small renewable energy projects in various hinterland communities which will be soon

completed.

The Amaila Falls Hydropower Project – the PPP/ C’s flagship initiative which was shelved by the then APNU/ AFC coalition Administration – will also be resuscitated, PM Phillips said.

However, he noted that because the project was canned by the former Administration, it will take years before any real progress is made.

“We have to go through the whole cycle of looking back at the studies and trying to garner funding for the project, so that will take some time, maybe six to ten years…had the last Government pursued Amaila Falls, because a lot of work was done, we had estimated that by 2017, Amaila Falls would have been realised,” PM Phillips said. (G11)

Consensus…

U

…with the PNC? N Resident Co-ordinator Mikiko Tanaka, presumably speaking for the organisation she represents, had some advice, on the 75th anniversary of the UN, for the Guyanese political leaders.

She said, “Parliamentary decision-making should entail consensus building and compromise so as to be inclusive of all sides.” Is she for real?? How long has she been in Guyana? Your Eyewitness knows that these diplomats have to be…urm…diplomatic. But even then, don’t they have to make suggestions that fall in the realm of possibilities?

Was she here on Dec 21, 2020?? That’s when the APNU/AFC MP Charandass exercised one of the fundamental mechanisms in parliamentary democracy designed to save its inalienable imperative that the voice of the people, through their representatives, must be unfettered. Was Ms Tanaka expecting that after the No Confidence Vote was passed, the PPP should have COMPROMISED to allow the PNC to violate a constitutional provision specifically inserted to perform the function that was intended??

Why didn’t the PNC “compromise” in 2015 when it had a one-seat majority that was challenged by the PPP in court, but the petition was never heard by the courts?? Why didn’t the PNC “compromise” when every court, excepting one in Guyana, snickered when the PNC insisted that 33 wasn’t a majority of 65 – when they’d taken the reins of Government on just that same majority?? But we really don’t have to go over the entire shameful year in our history, do we?

Seems to your Eyewitness that it’s only when the PNC doesn’t get its way that we hear these calls for “compromise”. What is the PNC’s is the PNC’s, but what is the PPP’s should always be open to negotiation – at the end of the barrel of a gun held by the PNC!! Now, that doesn’t look like “compromise” to your Eyewitness, but as plain old bullyism!!

Whenever the PNC doesn’t get what it wants, it just creates mayhem – most recently at West Coast Berbice – and out come those calls for “compromise”!! This is pure, unadulterated nonsense!! No country can go forward unless those who purport to represent their constituency are amenable to keeping agreements THEY THEMSELVES AGREED TO AND SIGNED! Burnham signed an agreement with the Brits and the UF in 1964 to use elections to remain in office, then broke the agreement at the very next elections!! And breaks them to the day he croaks, when his successor does the same thing. The Americans then pressured the PNC to sign a new agreement on running elections from 1992 – but here came Granger, the latest PNC leader, who broke that agreement the first chance he got!!

And this Tanaka lady from the UN expects the PPP to now “compromise” with the PNC?? Right!! …on Movie Night Well, thank God someone on the COVID-19 Task Force allowed good sense to prevail. Your Eyewitness’s spirits had perked up when he heard MovieTowne was gonna bring back the old “drive in” movie experience. Regular movie going, of course, had ground to a halt with this COVID-19 pandemic. Too risky, said the authorities, even though they’d allowed more bodies per cubic inch every day of the week in the shopping areas of downtown Georgetown!!

But, for a day, the COVID-19 Task Force insisted they couldn’t give permission. Didn’t they realise it wasn’t just MOVIES your Eyewitness protested (with some serious internal screaming!) but DRIVE-IN MOVIES?? Didn’t they want this new generation to experience - at long last some old-fashioned, non-mediated, non-social-media sparking?? Didn’t they want some callow, pimply-faced youth to let his fingers do the walking on something other than a glass-covered smartphone?

Anyhow, as your Eyewitness said, good sense prevailed, so don’t bother calling him tonight.

He and his baby will be sparking!! …on lockdown Now, don’t get your Eyewitness wrong; he agrees the authorities have to get tough with enforcing the COVID-19 regulations.

But, at MovieTowne, folks are going to be in their own cars. And wearing their masks, no?

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

NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Dr Yesu Persaud Clinical Education Centre opens … to be used for UG, GPHC’s medical programmes …US$17M upgrade for district hospitals – President Ali …electronic medical records system being explored

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he Dr Yesu Persaud Clinical Education Centre was on Saturday declared open by President Irfaan Ali, a new addition in the health sector to serve the needs of the medical education programmes.

Located on the southern side of the Georgetown Public Hospital, Dr Persaud would have committed $215 million for the construction of the building, with the Guyana Government injecting some $30 million. After approval from Government, the crafting of architectural designs, and construction spanning three years, the building was finally completed.

The three-storey structure, measuring 20,000 square feet with a usable roof terrace, will serve the medical programmes of the University of Guyana and Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. There is adequate space for administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, conference rooms, dry labs and skills training labs.

In January 2015, a release from the centre said that the then Director of the UG School of Medicine, Dr Madan Rambaran, had approached Dr Yesu Persaud to assist in getting a facility to serve the needs of the medical education programmes.

This was as the University of Guyana’s Bachelor of Medicine; Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme, established in 1985, and post-graduate clinical education programme,s in 2006, have been growing substantially but never had purpose-built facilities.

The need for more and better facilities for these programmes became ever more pressing when the Caribbean

President Irfaan Ali joined Dr Yesu Persaud for the unveiling of the building

Accreditation Authority for Medicine and Health Professions (CAAM-HP) in its 2013 report found the facilities substandard and not meeting the programme and student needs.

In his remarks on Saturday, Dr Rambaran said accomplishing this feat was well sponsored and managed by the Yesu Persaud Foundation.

Responding to commendations on his role in ensuring the dream was realised, Dr Persaud said he was satisfied with the investment.

He said throughout his life’s journey, helping persons who can’t help themselves was always critical in his mind.

Public-Private Partnerships

Meanwhile, President Irfaan Ali highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships in an enabling environment for the further development of the health sector.

“We have to fix primary healthcare and to fix that we have to invest in community healthcare. You will see in the next budget that

we are going to create a new programme for research and development at the primary healthcare level,” the Head of State positioned.

He acknowledged that while the human potential of the country is “mind-blowing,” 75 per cent of highly-skilled people are underutilised. There are also inefficiencies in the healthcare systems. These issues, he said, are currently being reviewed by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony.

“We have to put that skill to work. We have a primary healthcare problem and we are going to fix it. We want to fix it together with the practitioners… with the university. “I will be the first to admit to you that you deserve more, you deserve better.

But also, will be the first to tell you that we are a growing economy. We just had an emergency budget. And your President’s commitment and your Government’s commitment is that you will get more and you will get better.

Just give us the time.”

The President used the platform to announce that in

partnership with the Indian Government, Guyana’s health sector would soon benefit from an investment of US$17 million. In addition, he said that resources have been set aside for the upgrading of many district hospitals including Lethem, Paramakatoi, Diamond, Leonora and Linden.

The Head of State stressed the importance of public-private partnerships and highlighted Government’s moves such as giving corporate tax breaks on private education, healthcare and health services. This, he said, is only the beginning since there is a need to integrate private healthcare with national healthcare. President Ali

stressed on the need to create a level playing field where access to healthcare is not affected by economic barriers.

He noted that technology modernisation is paramount.

Currently, the Government is in discussion with the Indian High Commission to have an electronic medical records system that chronicles medical data for every citizen from birth to death.

Also sharing his remarks was Minister Anthony, as he hailed Dr Persaud’s efforts in having the new building constructed. He said he was pleased and happy to know that the Institute of Health Science of the University of Guyana will have a new home.

Additionally, Dr Anthony noted that since post-graduate training started at UG and the GPHC, 144 doctors in various specialities have been trained. Another 138 are currently in training. He said the new facility will allow for the expansion of current post-graduate training and provide the institution with better accommodation for simulation labs and other modern teaching aids.

Dr Yesu Persaud is synonymous with business and entrepreneurship. He also has a philanthropic side, with the promotion of education and skills training and through his generosity and charitable work.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Project Democracy to foster “Guyaneseness”

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here have been persistent calls, now turning desperate, for a new political order in Guyana. We insist, however, that any new political system we construct ought to be built on a foundation of justice, with the cement of truth. We therefore turn to our realities in Guyana, and are hoping that by now even the PNC would concede that we should aim for a multicultural/multiethnic society and polity as we strive to improve our welfare through the free enterprise system within a democratic state.

We would agree that we, Guyanese, have to achieve some commonality of purpose, which would obviously assist to pull us through the inevitable bad patches. We propose that a feeling of “we, the people” – of “Guyaneseness” - can be engendered in the process of our conscious construction of a democratic state. We call this “Project Democracy” – the creation of conditions wherein we are Ravi Dev all treated as one – equally – by the state. We propose democracy as our goal, since the autonomous end of politics - the authoritative allocation of power - is the fundamental problematic of our polity.

Our ethnic security dilemmas are a consequence of our fear of powerlessness under the present political system. Equality of opportunity; affirmative action; due process; justice and fair play, and rule of law may seem dry compared to the warmth of the blood ties of “nation”, but they can engender the unity of public purpose and the recognition of individual worth through common citizenship.

And what would provide the incentive for creating such a state? The same incentives that spurred the development of every other democracy – crises and social conflicts.

Our present crisis has already precipitated a wide-ranging discourse on what state structures may distribute power more equitably in Guyana. The test of our democratic system would be to successfully mediate the social conflicts in our society and achieve such goals as economic growth, material security, cultural autonomy, and freedom from arbitrary violence.

Even as we agonise over our failure to improve our circumstances, we have overlooked the fact that not only “nation”, but the “state” itself and the other mega-institutions are also variables that can each be modified to further our goal of deepening democracy in Guyana.

The question which has to be answered, we feel, is: What state structure can provide the most incentives for politicians to equitably distribute power among the various groups in the polity?

In other words, we have to create the context for democracy to take root. Integrative federalist principles have informed most of the innovations in multinational/ethnic states across the world, and those have been able to alleviate hostilities and further the democratic ideal.

Our cultural/national sphere would be demarcated as a private one, with minimal state intervention, and Multiculturalism would be the order of the day.

Among modern states, Canada seems to have hit a good note for us to emulate, with its stress on citizenship and multiculturalism, and rejection of jingoism.

We have an opportunity to close the gap between the “one nation” model, which can lead to chauvinism and hatred of the “other”, and the “individualised” ideal, which spawns anomic, atomised, angst-filled souls. In our multicultural/multinational state, acceptance that humans need to belong to a coherent “way of life” can be accommodated and balanced by the simultaneous necessity to learn about other cultures and possibilities. This provides the democratic imperative of choice, in that it privileges no individual or group (such as Whites) as a “superior” standard for emulation.

In terms of institutions coordinating the activities of our citizens, we will have to strike the balance between the roles of the state (coercion), market (competition), and community (cooperation). With our necessity to accommodate diversities, we see federalist devolutionary principles informing our governmental structures - with a key role for the villages. A market-oriented free enterprise system would allow us to plug directly into the global marketplace, and be disciplined and toughened by international competition.

Internally, it would, of course, provide a locus of countervailing power to the always potentially predatory state.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

FEATURE

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 202O | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Lydia Valladares introduces plantbased cuisine to Guyana’s palate very fragrant pepper known as seasoning pepper, tamarind cassareep, barbecue sauce all made with local ingredients. I also have pre-order sales for selected items like banana bread, cinnamon rolls, plant-based coconut yoghurt, veggie patties and family-sized lasagna. There are other items to come,” the vegan chef shared.

When asked about the response from the Guyanese populace, she explained that the conventional culture revolves around the use of animal products in many of the local cuisine, resulting in many

By Rupa Seenaraine

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eganism and plantbased meals are the common trends being adopted in the present generation, and have been placed on the pedestal for its tremendous benefits.

Now, 35-year-old Lydia Valladares has opted to offer such meals exclusively, after tapping into her Guyanese heritage and Canadian influence.

Veganism is dubbed as a practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet.

Speaking with Guyana Times, Valladares described herself as a chef that focuses on healthy whole foods and solely vegan cooking.

Her creations led to the es-

tablishment of Lydia Vallo Foods, which offers these meals locally using fresh produce and natural ingredients.

“The foods that I create are a mix and a fusion from different cultures and techniques of cooking and preparing food. I like to use a wide range and variety of spices and ingredients, resulting in bright colourful

and delicious foods full of flavours and textures,” she explained.

This interest initially stemmed from her love for cooking and the vegan lifestyle – which was adopted since 2014. She said veganism opened up new avenues to create foods that are healthy and appetising, while eliminating processed and refined goods.

“Since becoming vegan I

have had the opportunity to learn a lot about the importance of food and what are the best foods to not only survive but thrive, and I think that is something really important to remember that I think we have become removed from since the invention of processed, refined, packaged and fried foods.”

The idea was birthed in Guyana during the month of February when Lydia was stranded during the lockdown. She then utilised her skills to offer vegan meals and food products, using the abundantly fresh foods that are grown locally.

Presently, Lydia Vallo Foods offers a wide variety of options and the menu is frequently expanding. She has used local ingredients to create sauces, yoghurts and breads, which are available for customers.

“Currently, I am making sauces, delicious yellow pepper sauce made from the

questions from people. After engaging and sharing her explanation, it is met with positive feedback.

Valladares pointed out, “Culturally, Guyanese foods include a fair amount of animal products resulting

Plant-based chef Lydia Valladares

in a lot of questions, comments and sometimes concerns. After explaining what kind of meals and foods you are able to prepare and after trying Lydia Vallo Food, people have had positive and e n c o u raging experiences.”

After hosting her first event here just over one w e e k a g o at the Pantry, t h e r e was significant support for her concept, especially from persons that are open to trying new things.

She is planning to join the Almond Tree Farmers Market during the month of November, over at Lance Gibbs Street, where the idea is to bring together local organic farmers and artisans

who are creating all-natural products.

“The event was a vegan barbecue event which had a great turnout and support. There was some delays causing wait times but [it’s] all in the learning process for next time. I am so excited to be a part of the Almond Tree Farmers Market…I will be one of the vendors at the market selling my sauces and other to-go items to snack on,” she stated.

Valladares labelled plant-based diets as one of the fastest-growing diets that people are undertaking, mainly to alleviate their health conditions. It is also welcomed by healthy persons, who are interested in the multiple benefits.

“Many people are becoming aware through social media about the health benefits of following a plant-based diet. The plant-based diet is the only diet that is proven to reverse heart disease and major improvements seen in people suffering from other diseases - multiple sclerosis and type 2 diabetes. Plantbased foods have so many health benefits for anyone, not only people who are sick.”

14 FEATURE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Minibus wardens introduced SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL at Timehri bus park PRACTICES

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ays after the Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn announced that a rotation system would be developed for bus operators at the Stabroek area to ease traffic congestion, the United Minibus Union (UMU), Route 42 (GeorgetownTimehri) has implemented a warden system.

This was done on Saturday at the minibus terminal in Georgetown.

On Saturday, the UMU announced that four wardens - one female, and three males - in uniform will ensure that a rotation system is maintained at the bus park. On Friday, to aid the efforts of the Association, the Brickdam Police Traffic Department presented the Branch Secretary, Pastor Felix Walker, with sanitisers, masks and highlighting straps.

Last week, minibus drivers along with President of the Minibus Association

I

Standing (left to right) UMU President Eon Andrews, Inspector Boyce, Sergeant Wickham, two traffic ranks, Pastor Felix Walker and the four minibus wardens

Eon Andrews, vendors, and other stakeholders met with Minister Benn at the Saint Stanislaus College, Georgetown, to discuss issues of road safety and congestion at the Stabroek Market Square.

During the engagement, Minister Benn pointed out that the Ministry will be looking to improve transportation and conges-

tion issues at the Square.

Additionally, he said that tents will be placed at minibus parks to facilitate hand sanitising and the issuing of face masks. This is to aid in curbing the spread of COVID-19. The issue of disorder at the minibus parks and touts were also addressed during the meeting. The meeting between the operators, vendors and

the Minister stemmed after a walkabout in the city by Benn and Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill. During the walkabout, several issues including congestion, unclean roads and obstruction of traffic were identified. Following the walkabout, both Ministers came to the consensus that the encumbering vendors will be relocated.

n last week’s article, we covered the role of the EPA in the agricultural sector - to ensure that human health and that of the natural environment is not compromised. The end of October also signals the end of Agriculture Month in Guyana. This, however, does not mean that we must forget to employ good practices in our agricultural operations, whether we operate a simple kitchen garden, rice mills, or industrial fish farms. This week, we’ll take a look at sustainable agricultural practices that you can and should adopt.

Our wellbeing is closely linked to the health of the environment in which we live. Since sustainable farming methods affect the environment in a positive way, they also contribute to our quality of life. A sustainable food system is one that does not require chemicals, conserves energy and water, emphasizes local production, decreases inputs and utilises resources more efficiently on site, values biodiversity and ecology, and works within our global natural resource limitations.

Firstly, and most importantly, sustainable agriculture produces safe food with high nutritional value. The quality of food is now more important than ever before. Numerous studies have shown that the nutritional content of grains, fruits and vegetables keeps decreasing over the years. Scientists believe that popular high-yielding varieties of crops often have poorer capacities to absorb nutrients from the soil due to their weaker root systems, which is linked to lower nutritional content of the final product.

Negative effects of increased pesticide levels in foods produced from intensively-farmed lands are numerous, and impact both human health and the natural environment. Everyone can agree that less pesticides and other chemicals used to grow food is only better for us.

Food diversity is also much greater from sustainable farms, as those farms are not solely focused on producing major crops like corn or wheat. Instead, they often cultivate local varieties in highly-diversified farming systems.

But that’s not all. There are more advantages to sustainable farming in terms of providing economic opportunities to rural communities, such as giving jobs to young people and supporting socio-economic development of rural areas. At the same time, sustainable food production is more compatible in reducing the impacts of climate change, and helps to strengthen ecosystem resilience.

Benefits of sustainable agriculture

Unlike intensive agriculture, sustainable farming has great potential for benefiting the environment and preserving natural resources. It does so by following natural cycles, recycling nutrients and water while omitting excessive use of agricultural chemicals.

Sustainable agriculture strives to help the environment by: * Reducing agricultural runoff; * Preventing pollution of lakes and rivers; * Saving water; * Naturally maintaining soil fertility by recycling nutrients on farms; * Enhancing carbon sequestration by soils and perennial vegetation; * Promoting energy efficiency of farming operations; * Decreasing emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases; * Creating habitats for pollinators and beneficial insects; and * Ensuring welfare of farm animals, but also providing space for their respectful coexistence with native wildlife.

Sustainable practices in agriculture

*Hydroponics and aquaponics These innovative farming techniques involve the growing of plants without soil, nourishing the plants through specialised nutrients that are added to water.

In hydroponic systems, crops are grown with the roots directly immersed in a mineral solution, or with the roots in an inert medium, like gravel or perlite.

Aquaponics is the combination of rearing aquatic animals and using that mineral solution to grow crops. * Agroforestry and food forests Agroforestry involves the growth of trees and shrubs among crops or grazing land. Agroforestry systems can combine both agriculture and forestry practices for long-lasting, productive, and diverse land use when approached sustainably.

In agroforestry systems, trees create a favourable microclimate that maintains favourable temperature and soil humidity while protecting crops from wind or heavy rain. Trees have another important role. They stabilise soils, minimise nutrients’ runoff, and improve soil structure. This is the reason why agroforestry has become one of the powerful tools of farmers in dry regions with soils susceptible to desertification.

Besides promoting healthy growth of food crops and maintaining soil fertility, trees in this farming system provide wood and fruits as an additional source of income for farmers. In these systems, possibilities for product diversification are many. Farmers can go even as far as growing a whole edible forest.

Patterned after natural forest ecosystems, <food forests (also known as “forest gardens”)> are designed permaculture systems that consist of a multilayered edible “forest.” Such a “forest” is composed almost entirely of perennial food plants, including a canopy of tall and dwarf fruit and nut trees, a fruit shrub layer, layers of perennial herbs, mushrooms and vegetables at the ground level, climbing plants, and root vegetables underground. Food forest systems are very productive, due to both the diversity of plants that are growing there and all of the plants within the system taking advantage of each existing niche within the system. * Natural Pest Management One of the main aims of sustainable agricultural practices is the prevention of the use of synthetic pesticides and other chemicals that should suppress pest infestations and pathogens. Applying increasing amounts of chemicals to grow food is not part of the long-term solution, and doesn’t help our health either.

Greater diversity of crops, intercropping, and crop rotations are among the pest management methods that have proven successful. The key to their success lies in dispersing preferred food sources of pests by blending in crops they do not favour. Additionally, diverse crops attract diverse insects, and some of them are natural predators of pests, helping to keep their populations within limits and thus mimicking how the real ecosystem balances itself out. *Mulching, groundcovers, and manual weed control Farmers and other growers can dramatically reduce the growth of weeds and conserve soil moisture by covering the soil around their plants through the use of mulching and ground covers. By naturally suppressing weed growth, these practices greatly reduce, or in some cases even eliminate, the need to apply herbicides to kill weeds. Organic mulch materials like, for example, wood chips, straw or grass clippings also improve nutrient retention in soils and encourage activity of soil micro-organisms that help create healthy aerated soil structure. This reduces the need for tillage, as soils are less compacted.

In addition to these practices, you can find guidelines for poultry and swine rearing on our website at www.epaguyana.org.

References

http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/thematic-sitemap/theme/spi/soilbiodiversity/agriculture-and-soil-biodiversity/sustainable-agricultural-practices/ en/ https://greentumble.com/10-sustainable-farming-methods-and-practices/ You can share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment”, C/O Communications Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, GEORGETOWN, or email us at: eit.epaguyana@ gmail.com, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

An assessment of the Government’s performance within the first 100 days in office

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oday’s theme is an important topical discussion in the public’s interest, to ascertain the commitment and seriousness of the Government of the day in developing the country and serving its people, as well as the technical soundness of the Government itself to achieve these targets.

The Government’s first 100 days in office is fast approaching, and its performance is, so far, nothing short of commendable amid the unprecedented and unforeseen challenges prior to contesting the national elections. In order to assess the Government’s first 100 days’ achievement, one has to first assess this from the perspective of the Government’s manifesto for the next five years. In so doing, in reviewing the manifesto, there are seven major areas of focus which capture the Government’s five-year development plan for Guyana, including other areas of improved governance and the delivery of public services as follows: 1.

Rescuing the productive sectors 2.

Securing the benefits of oil-and-gas for all Guyanese 3.

Infrastructure boom: Building for the future 4.

Cheaper and more reliable electricity 5.

ICT: connecting every Guyanese to the future 6.

Utilising resources in a sustainable manner to create jobs and incomes for all 7.

Better quality of life for all (this include improved public goods and services, public security, health, and governance).

Under the first thematic area above (rescuing the productive sectors), a menu of measures was included in the manifesto, among which were the removal of VAT and other regressive taxes on key productive capital items, and the reduction of fees – all of which were implemented in the Government’s first “emergency” budget. We can therefore safely say that almost 100% of these measures was already implemented in the first 100 days through the budget. Most notably, the Government is moving aggressively to reopen the sugar estates, which is also a commendable achievement in the first 100 days.

With respect to the second thematic area, “securing the benefits of oil-and-gas for all Guyanese”, a number of actions were taken immediately within the first 100 days to achieve this goal. Among those actions was the formulation of a local content panel which includes, and is led by, private sector leaders. That panel has conducted a series of consultations, including with the private sector of recent.

The Government has also negotiated for better terms, as promised, in Exxon’s application for another licence for the Payara development. This is also commendable, and the details were immediately released to the public upon approval. We can safely say 50% of work to realize this goal has commenced.

To achieve cheaper and more reliable electricity, the actual fruition of this goal would be achieved in the long term. Notwithstanding, the Government, within the first 100 days, is moving aggressively to work with Exxon on the gas-to-shore project. In fact, Mr. Winston Brassington has recently been appointed to head this project. Allowing private sector players to sell power to the national grid is another achievement in this regard.

On the Information Communications Technology (ICT) front, within a matter of weeks, the Government was able to fully implement liberalization of the sector, which resulted in almost immediate reduction of rates by telecommunication companies. Though the more profound benefits for consumers would take some time to be realized, this is a good achievement, as the first step in the right direction to facilitate this.

Under the seventh thematic area, tremendous work has commenced in this regard within the first 100 days. This work includes the immediate distribution of land titles to persons to enable access to building their own homes. The work being done by the Ministry of Housing and Water within the first 100 days is commendable.

From assessing the appointments to the various State Boards as well, which include private sector representatives, civil society and opposition political parties, the PSC is pleased to see that Government has fulfilled its promise on inclusive governance. We therefore expect to see more of this in the short to medium and long-term.

If one were to score the Government’s achievements based on what has been done in the above thematic area, the score in percentage form would look like the following:

# Thematic Areas Achievement (%)

1 Rescuing the productive sectors (fully implemented in emergency budget) 100 2 Securing the benefits of oil-and-gas for all Guyanese (the new provisions mandated in the Payara licence, move on local content to be legislated etc.)

25 3 Infrastructure boom: Building for the future 10 4 Cheaper and more reliable electricity 10 5 ICT: connecting every Guyanese to the future 50 6 Utilizing resources in sustainable manner to create jobs and income for all - 7 Better quality of life for all (this includes improved public goods and services, public security, health and Governance). 10

Total out of 700 = 100% the full manifesto 205/700 or 30% overall Overall, it is safe to score the achievements so far out of a total of 700. For each area above combined, the Government has achieved 205, which is equivalent to 30% of the promises outlined in its five-year manifesto. This level of achievement should not be taken for granted, and at the same time, the Government is urged to maintain this level of consistency as it seeks to continue enhancing the level of performance.

To achieve the goals outlined in the manifesto would require the continued cooperation and support of all stakeholders and all Guyanese.

About the Author: JC. Bhagwandin is an economic and financial analyst, lecturer and business & financial consultant. The views expressed are exclusively his own and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper and the institutions he represents. For comments, send to jbbankingadvice@gmail.com.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

FEATURE

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

By Lakhram Bhagirat

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s cliché as one would say it is, Ron Ryan Ghanie or Sir Ron as he is known to many, never wanted to become a teacher, but now he cannot see himself anywhere except in front of a classroom.

The 39-year-old teacher from the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Region had his eyes set on becoming an accountant since he had fallen in love with the subject Principles of Accounts while he was a student. It was there he started shaping himself to join the world of accounting when he finished school, but life had other plans for him.

Ghanie, a Bartica native, recently completed 20 years in the teaching system and has been actively shaping the minds of the children in the township all of his professional life and more than half of his life.

Growing up in Bartica in the 80s and 90s was all about the simple life. He comes from a family that was all about supporting each other. His parents always ensured that he and his siblings were respectful to others and to date, they still hold those values dear. It is those values that continue to guide him in his professional life.

Life was not without its challenges, but Ghanie played the hand dealt and learned from experiences. His early childhood and primary school days were good times. He cannot remember ever having a bad experience during those days and, even if he did, the good ones overshadowed that.

In school, he was considered the model student because he worked hard, followed the rules and was always respectful.

Though according to him, he was never the brightest in the class, his hard work and determination fuelled the drive to excel. He secured a spot at the Bartica Secondary School – the top school in the Region at the time – when he sat the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE).

High school was a whole new ball game for him. It had its own set of challenges but he

conquered.

“I struggled, needless to say, but I overcame whatever came my way. I remained steadfast in the pursuit of my academics. I wanted to make something of my life, and I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. I was disciplined and self-motivated. I had this quote in my head ‘to break the cycle of poverty, start by taking in your education’ and I don’t quite remember where I had read that or who said that to me but it just stuck,” he said.

He started to think about a career when he entered his third year of secondary school and while there were many choices, teaching was never one. He was introduced to Principles of Accounts in Fourth Form and it was from there he decided that accounting was for him. He worked the hardest in his class to ensure that his decided career path would be realised.

He exited the school system in 1997 at the age of 16 with 6 CXC passes in hand and among them was POA. The world of work was awaiting his entrance but he also wanted to pursue additional studies which were out of the question at the time. He weighed the options and decided to put his dream career on hold for the while and like many of his classmates, he applied for a post as a teacher.

“Having applied for a teaching position I was invited to attend an interview. I was excited and nervous on the day of the interview, having read all the literature (from books) on interviews; remembering things I read in the newspapers on current affairs; the names of the Ministers of Government and regional officers. I was prepared for whatever they (the interview panel) may ask of me.

Well, so I thought. It was my turn and I walked into the room; waited until I was asked to take a seat. My heart was in my throat when one of the panellists asked me why I wanted to become a teacher. Being the

Professional development and advancement

honest person that I am, I said ‘I applied to become a teacher because there are no other jobs available.’ Needless to say, I didn’t get the job because the cliché answers they were waiting to hear didn’t come from me,” Ghanie recounted.

However, three years after that interview – and after he took up a post at a stationery shop – the Regional Education Officer at the time requested a meeting with him. There, he was offered a job as a teacher but he was hesitant since he still had dreams of becoming an accountant.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

18 FEATURE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

By Lakhram Bhagirat

T

eaching is more than just imparting academic knowledge; it is about the holistic development of those in your charge and with the advent of the technological era, teachers are now tasked with evolving their methods.

Ambika Singh has been in the teaching profession for over 18 years now and she has witnessed a complete evolution of the profession. She is the current Head of the Sciences Department at the Mahaicony Secondary School.

Her journey though, has not been on a perfectly paved road, rather it has been on one lined with potholes.

She grew up in a household with eight siblings and being the 8th of 9 children was not the ideal or best situation to grow under. She explained that the sheer amount

Singh with her colleagues, calling for respect for teachers

of siblings placed her at a disadvantage when it came to obtaining an education.

“Especially when you live with an alcoholic father and brothers and the rest of the

family who never saw the importance of education. But at that time looking at my family I knew exactly what I didn’t want to be. I made school compulsory for myself, even

though many times I turned up to school late because of the struggle to get passage (transportation money), I still made it to school,” she recounted.

Learning was challenging for her as well because she had no one to assist or advise her since none of her siblings ever finished secondary school. Nevertheless, she persevered, intending to lift herself up and out of the situation she was in.

“I wrote CXC and I obtained 7 of 9 subjects. Yes, failed Math and English but it didn’t stop me. I rewrote them the following year. Then I started to work as an account clerk at a rice milling company after which they became bankrupt,” Singh said.

After the company became bankrupt and she was out of a job, Singh had no other option than to seek employment elsewhere. With very little opportunities for employment available in Region Five (Demerara-Mahaica), she applied for a teaching post. She was appointed to teach at the Belladrum Secondary School in October of 2002.

Singh was employed to teach English - the subject she failed initially. However, she approached the challenge head-on and was even pro-

moted to temporarily head the department for over a year.

After spending three years in the system, she applied to become trained in the field.

At the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), she decided she wanted to specialise in the sciences but at the interview, she was advised to opt for Social Studies because her qualifications best situated her for it.

She did not have a good grade in chemistry and biology and did not sit physics which disqualified her from specialising in sciences.

Dejected, she decided to follow the advice and registered to specialise in social studies.

“At the orientation, there was this humble, approachable and polite woman who spoke as the HOD (Head of

“Teaching for over 18 years has given me the opportunity to grow as a person. I will not trade being in the classroom with any other job if I have a choice. There are challenges but it’s the challenges that motivate you to want to do better the next day. Being a teacher is not just about teaching academics, its about inculcating positive thinking and proper values into students’ lives. Its often said that if a child hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.

To some extent, this is true but not in all cases because a child sometimes cannot learn because of many outside factors that teachers cannot control, and our system does not cater for those factors.

“Teaching has changed in many aspects over the years,

Ambika Singh

Department) for science, Ms Noella London-Joseph. After listening to her, I approached her and indicated my interest to do science and not social studies and she said welcome to science. I never showed up to the social studies class.

I was approached by the Student Welfare Officer and told I was going to fail science because science is perceived to be hard for normal people. But I let them know

even though 'chalk and talk' are widely used in many schools still. The introduction of technology has become very interesting for the students since they can visualise the actual concepts. No longer students have to write long pages of notes since textbooks are available for their use.

On, the other hand, teachers are burdened with completing records which sometimes takes away the focus on

I will take full responsibility for my actions,” Singh recounted.

She successfully completed her training at CPCE and was transferred to Bush Lot Secondary School. After two years of teaching there, she went on to the University of Guyana where she read for her Bachelor's Degree in Education. She was also on the path to completing her Master’s Degree in Education but had some complications.

planning the best lesson,” the teacher said.

She advised that persons entering the profession have to be open to learning as well as teaching, noting that there is so much to learn as one becomes comfortable in the profession. As a teacher, she relishes the feeling when her students perform well at their examination but she is also equally proud when they excel in areas other than academics.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

20 FEATURE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

By Lakhram Bhagirat

“I

love this job although it is not what I wanted to do at first, I have grown to love it. I cannot see myself doing anything else other than teaching. I have been here for 25 years now and I have a lot more to give. This is my life, educating our children,” Sir Vijay Mohabeer said.

Visvamintra Mohabeer, or Sir Vijay as he has been known as for the past 25 years, joined the teaching profession on February 14, 1995.

Ever since, he has been on staff at the Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary School on the West Coast Demerara (WCD).

To understand his drive to be the best in the profession, one would have to go way back into childhood days of growing up in the East Bank Essequibo village of Zeelugt. He hails from a large family and is the 4th of 9 children for his parents.

He explained that his childhood was filled with memories of going into the backdams to catch fishes and cut firewood so that his mother, who was a housewife, could prepare their meals.

“I grew up with four brothers and four sisters and back in those days things were very rough for us. My mother was a housewife and my father did carpenter work and we had very little growing up but we had some good memories. If you know

about the firesides, back then our mother would cook on the fireside so we would go into the backdam and cut wood for her to cook.

We used to enjoy doing that and, on the weekends, we would go and catch fish and have fun as young children. It is among the best memories I have as a child and I cherish them,” he recounted.

He received his primary education at the Zeelugt Primary School and after he wrote the Common Entrance Examination, he secured a Sir Vijay with his students back in the day place at Zeeburg Secondary School. After he complet(CPCE) where he was formally ed secondary school, Mohabeer then trained as a teacher. Upon attainwent on to work with the Demerara ing his teaching certification, he then Distillers Limited for two years after went on to the University of Guyana and ended up quitting his job because where he read for his Bachelor’s of the shift system and the distance Degree in Education. he had to commute.

“I believe in getting qualified. I All this while, he had not consid- furthered my qualifications because ered teaching but one day he just hap- I know how I wanted to position mypened on the thought and made an self. Although I never had a certain application. He was hired and sent to career path set, I did not think about the Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary School teaching but let me tell you that this and thus commenced his teaching ca- is something I cannot see myself not reer. doing anymore. I want to be able to Over the years in the system, he say that I helped all my students to has sought to improve his qualifica- become the better versions of themtions in order to better serve the chil- selves and realise their potentials,” dren under his charge. He attended Sir Vijay said. the Cyril Potter College of Education He entered his first classroom on

February 14, 1995, and since then never took one sick day or any other form of leave.

Even, during his vacation time, he would be working with his students.

At Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary, he has taught the Grade Six class for over a decade, where he led the school to improved percentages at the National Grade Six Examinations (NGSA). The school has always recorded passes in the 90-percentage bracket for those exams.

He was promoted to the post of Principal about 2 years ago and ever since has decreased his time in the classroom in exchange for the administrative aspect of the school. However, he still provides the requisite guidance to all his students and even teachers and keeps the channel of communication open at all times.

He allows his students to be independent thinkers so that when they go out into the world they can observe, think and form informed opinions. He not only mentors in the area of academics but allows them to become exposed to the arts, culture and sports since he believes a balance is needed.

In the 25 years that he has been in the system, he has observed the

teaching profession being overhauled as well as had to adapt to the ever-changing world. That meant he had to embrace technology and newer styles of teaching. At times, he even became a student while navigating his way around technology.

However, he has also seen students become more distracted with very little intervention from parents.

“Over the years in this job here I have seen the children performance drop. Technology is one of the reasons for the low performances. We see the children are becoming more and more distracted with tablets and phones and so on. We know it can also help in the learning process but the children are using it to do the opposite.

“Back then we used to have better learning because the children were more focused. They used to do their homework and then come in class to discuss and so. Now we have some children never doing their homework and assignments and we are not getting the cooperation from some parents and so,” the veteran teacher said.

Mohabeer intends to leave behind a legacy where he can be among the country’s dedicated educators and hopes to offer his service and expertise even after he retires. The veteran advised the younger teachers to ensure they focus on developing themselves so that they can be in the position to offer the best to their charges.

FEATURE

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

PUPPY AILMENTS ( CONTINUED) HERPES VIRUS IN PUPPIES

Q: I have been told recently that puppies (like humans) can contract the HERPES VIRUS. Is this true?

A: Before I answer that question directly, allow me to make a few introductory comments.

Some of you may recall that, a few decades ago, there was a great awareness of the Herpes virus in humans – especially in the sexually active human population. I vaguely recall that both “TIME” and “NEWSWEEK” magazines carried this ailment in their respective cover page stories. It seemed that sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like Syphilis and Gonorrhea had been removed to the back burner and replaced by Herpes.

Then came AIDS – and that pushed all other STDs off the entire stove. Sadly, now we do not speak too often about these ailments. We

have had SARS and Ebola and now COVID-19 to contend with. But Herpes, in all of its various types is still lurking around – as are all the others mentioned above.

But this Herpes is a very special virus. Scientists contend that it has infected hominids even before they were humans (over 6 million years ago). This virus accompanied us in our evolutionary journey and remains with us – very actively – to this day.

All very interesting.

But now we must answer the question properly.

Yes puppies (and adult dogs) do fall ill to the Herpes Virus (HV). It assails puppies between 5 days t o three weeks of age.

Q: What are the symptoms of a Herpes Virus infection in puppies?

A: (i) Puppies become listless and are unwilling to nurse (suckle). (ii) They exhibit signs of discomfort. For example,

they cry a lot and react painfully, if one touches the abdomen. (iii) The abdomen is often bloated. (iv) Sometimes a diarrhoea develops (green-yellow stool). (v) Difficulty breathing/ shivering/seizures (vi) There is a relatively sudden onset of this ailment in the newborn pup. The pup is fine one day and by the next day it is dead.

Q: How does the puppy acquire the HV infection?

A: In all likelihood, especially since this disease shows itself so soon after birth, the pup contracts the ailment from the mother while she is actually giving birth to her puppies. That is, as the puppies pass through the mother dog’s vagina. But let us be clear on this matter: the pups can also be infected by the oral and/or nasal secretions of the mother dog as she licks them soon after

birth. There are researchers on this disease who maintain the pups can be infected even while they are still in their mother’s womb.

It should be noted that it is highly likely that another adult dog, carrying the Canine Herpes Virus (CHV) and visiting your kennel, can in fact transmit the disease.

Q: Can humans get Canine Herpes Virus from their dogs and vice versa?

A: NO – on both counts.

Herpes simplex Virus (I and II) cannot be transmitted to adult dogs/puppies.

Similarly, the Canine Herpes Virus has not been proven to affect humans, and believe me when I say that a serious amount of research has been carried out on the transmissibility of this disease.

In fact, let me promise that later, in these Pet Care columns, I will deal with diseases that can be transmitted between companion animals (pets) and humans and vice

versa.

Q: Are there vaccines against Canine Herpes Virus?

A: NO. Now, the good news relative to Canine Herpes Virus: 1) Over the years, veterinarians here in Guyana have been confronted with neonates exhibiting symptoms reminiscent of CHV in puppies. However, the existence of CHV in canines (newborn, young and adult) has not been identified scientifically. It is quite possible that this disease does not exist here in the Republic. Also, this virus seems not to flourish in hot temperature environments. Nevertheless, as I have written above, this disease in an insidious but quick killer. Please be on the lookout for the described symptoms in the newborn litters, and, if they are evident, rush to your vet.

2) Should this disease exist in Guyana, or wheth-

er our country is vulnerable to these microorganisms reaching our shores, in spite of all the good work State Veterinarians are doing to keep diseases out of Guyana, the ease of international travel (notwithstanding the current COVID-19 restrictions which would not last forever), and the porous nature of our borders make it imperative that we must always be conscious of the possibility of this virus breaching our defenses. We must therefore introduce in our homes and kennels such preventative measures that would help in reducing the possibility of infections and their spread. This means (primarily) keeping the kennel and the immediate surrounding environment clean, especially before, during and after the whelping season/ period.

Enjoy the Navratri celebrations.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

FEATURE

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

3 years later of respiratory help).

In a telephone interview on Saturday, the child’s mother, Bibi Shanaz Khan, explained that even though

Mother of injured child: Bibi Shanaz Khan

By LaWanda McAllister

A

single mother of eight is still battling to keep her 11-yearold son alive after he was left paralysed following a motor vehicle accident outside their home at Felicity, Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara (ECD) almost three years ago.

Matthew Zaman is still unable to speak or move his hands and legs, and he cannot breathe without the help a nasal cannula (a device used to deliver supplemental oxygen or increased airflow to a patient in need

was later discharged from the medical institution. He sustained a fractured skull, which resulted in swelling in the brain; damage to

“I don’t even get public assistance, I go to get the form, and the welfare girl was not nice to me. She asked me why we want help with this child, and if we are working with his father, and she refused to give me the form” – paralysed child’s mother Bibi Shanaz Khan three years have passed, she is still fighting to keep her son alive, even at the expense of a comfortable night’s rest.

In December 2017, the lad’s family was met with the tragic news that Zaman was struck by a minibus in front of their home.

Following the accident, he was admitted as a patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital for over a month.

However, Matthew surprised everyone and continued to fight for his life, and

his lungs, and injury to his spine, which hinders his mobility.

“He is still the same way… I am not seeing any improvement, but I am still keep trusting God. Sometimes I have to be up whole night and whole day because he is getting pain. When he wakes up at 4 o’clock he nah sleep back till next day...” she explained.

Since the accident, Bibi left her job as a domestic worker to care for her son.

On Saturday, she told this publication that it has been

Injured: Matthew Zaman

difficult for her over the past three years.

Nevertheless, she said she is nowhere close to giv-

ing up on her son. She said she is grateful for the little she has and thankful for the support persons give to

her from time to time.

“I don’t even get public assistance, I go to get the form, and the welfare girl was not nice to me. She asked me why we want help with this child, and if we are working with his father, and she refused to give me the form…. I would normally get a little help from CIOG (Central Islamic Organisation Of Guyana) and from BM Soat (BM Soat Auto Sales)… but, I am contented because I didn’t give anybody anything…”, she explained.

Khan explained that she and Matthew’s father separated when he was just two years old.

Following the accident, the driver, who struck the lad down, was charged for dangerous driving. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison but appealed the case and was freed.

Anyone desirous of helping Mathew can contact the family on (592) 659-6766.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

FEATURE

25

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

HEALTH TIPS- UTERINE FIBROIDS progesterone in the body resulting in rapid growth of this tumour.

TYPES OF FIBROIDS

Dr TARIQ JAGNARINE

F

am Medicine, Endocrinology and Diabetes Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumour of the female genital tract however; their true prevalence is probably under-estimated. A Recent study have estimated that the lifetime risk of fibroids in a woman over the age of 45 years is more than 70% and 25% in women of reproductive age, with incidence higher in blacks than in whites. It has an incidence of 217-3745 cases per 100 000 women/years and prevalence 4.5-68.6%.

Fibroids are abnormal growths that develop in or on a woman’s uterus.

Sometimes these growths (tumours) become quite large and cause severe abdominal pain and heavy periods. In other cases, they cause no signs or symptoms at all. The growths are typically benign, or noncancerous.

No one knows for sure what causes fibroids.

Researchers think that more than one factor could play a role including the following: • Age. Fibroids become more common as women age, especially during the 30s and 40s through menopause. After menopause, fibroids usually shrink.

• Ethnic origin.

African-American women are more likely to develop fibroids than white women.

• Obesity.

Women who are overweight are at higher risk for fibroids. For very heavy women, the risk is two to three times greater than average.

• Eating habits.

Eating a lot of red meat (e.g., beef) and ham is linked with a higher risk of fibroids.

Eating plenty of green vegetables seems to protect women from developing fibroids.

• Hormones: oestrogen and progesterone are the hormones produced by the ovaries. They cause the uterine lining to regenerate during each menstrual cycle and may stimulate the growth of fibroids.

• Family history: Having a family member with fibroids increases the risk of fibroids. If a woman's mother had fibroids, her risk of having them is about three times higher than average.

• P r e g n a n c y : Pregnancy increases the production of oestrogen and

The type of fibroid a woman develops depends on its location in or on the uterus.

• Intramural fibroids: Intramural fibroids are the most common type of fibroid. These types appear within the muscular wall of the uterus. Intramural fibroids may grow larger and can stretch the uterus.

• Submucosal: fibroids grow into the uterine cavity. Submucosal tumours are not as common as the other types.

• Subserosal fibroids: Subserosal fibroids form on the outside of the uterus, which is called the serosa. They may grow large enough to make the uterus appear bigger on one side.

• Pedunculated fibroids: Subserosal tumours can develop a stem, a slender base that supports the tumour. They might look like mushrooms or a pendulum.

SYMPTOMS OF FIBROIDS

The symptoms experience will depend on the number of tumours present as well as their location and size. For instance, submucosal fibroids may cause heavy menstrual bleeding and trouble conceiving.

Symptoms of fibroids may include: • Heavy bleeding between or during your periods that includes blood clots • Pain in the pelvis or lower back • Increased menstrual cramping • Increased urination • Pain during intercourse • Menstruation that lasts longer than usual • Pressure or fullness in the lower abdomen • Swelling or enlargement of the abdomen • C o m p l i c a t i o n s during pregnancy and labour, including a six-time greater risk of caesarean section.

• Reproductive problems, such as infertility, which is very rare If the tumour is very small or the woman is going through menopause, they may not have any symptoms.

Fibroids may shrink during and after menopause. This is because women undergoing menopause are experiencing a drop in their levels of oestrogen and progesterone, hormones that stimulate fibroid growth.

DIAGNOSIS OF UTERINE FIBROIDS

For a proper diagnosis, persons would consult a family physician or a gynaecologist to get a thorough history and physical examination including a pelvic exam done. This exam is used to check the condition, size, and shape of the uterus. Other tests are indicated, which include: • Ultrasound: An ul-

trasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images of the uterus on a screen. This will allow doctors to see its internal structures and any fibroids present. A transvaginal ultrasound, in which the ultrasound wand is inserted into the vagina, may provide clearer pictures since its closer to the uterus during this procedure.

• P e l v i c MRI: This in-depth imaging test produces pictures of the uterus, ovaries, and other pelvic organs.

TREATMENT

A treatment plan is developed based on a person’s age, the size of the fibroids, and the overall health. A combination of treatments may be applied.

• M e d i c a t i o n s : Medications to regulate the hormone levels may be prescribed to shrink fibroids.

These medications will either cause the oestrogen and progesterone levels to drop.

This will eventually stop menstruation and shrink fibroids or stopping the body from producing follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).

Examples include: • Other options that can help control bleeding and pain, but won’t shrink or eliminate fibroids, include: • An intrauterine device (IUD) that releases the hormone progestin • Over-the-counter (OTC) anti-inflammatory pain relievers, such as ibuprofen • Birth control pills • Surgery: Surgery to remove very large or multiple growths may be performed. This is known as a myomectomy. An abdominal myomectomy involves making a large incision in the abdomen to access the uterus and remove the fibroids.

The surgery can also be performed laparoscopically, using a few small incisions into which surgical tools and a camera are inserted.

Fibroids might grow back after surgery.

• If person’s condition worsens, or if no other treatments work, hysterectomy is performed. However, this means that they would be unable to bear children in the future.

• Non-invasive or minimally invasive procedures: A newer and completely non-invasive surgical procedure is forced ultrasound surgery (FUS).

High-energy, high-frequency sound waves are directed at the fibroids to ablate, or destroy, them.

• Myolysis procedures shrink fibroids using heat sources like an electric current or laser, while cryomyolysis freezes the fibroids. Endometrial abla-

tion involves inserting a special instrument into the uterus to destroy the uterine lining using heat, electric current, hot water, or extreme cold.

• Another non surgical option is uterine artery embolization. In this procedure, small particles are injected into the uterus in order to cut off the fibroids’ blood supply.

HOME REMEDIES AND NATURAL TREATMENTS

Certain home remedies and natural treatments can have a positive effect on fibroids, including: • Acupuncture • Yoga • Massage therapy • Applying heat for cramps (avoid heat if experiencing heavy bleeding)

• Dietary changes can help as well. Avoid meats and high-calorie foods.

Instead, opt for foods high in flavonoids, green vegetables, green tea, and fish such as tuna or salmon.

• Managing stress levels can also benefit women with fibroids.

• Weight loss The prognosis will depend on the size and location of the fibroids.

Fibroids may not need treatment if they are small or do not produce symptoms. If pregnant with fibroids, or become pregnant and have fibroids, doctors will need to carefully monitor your condition. In most cases, fibroids do not cause problems during pregnancy.

Uterine fibroids are highly prevalent in reproductive-aged women, and as women continue to delay childbearing, an increasing number of patients will require fertility-preserving treatment options.

26 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Guyana produced 12.3M barrels of oil during 1st half of 2020 …COVID-19, sharp drop in prices affect output

G

uyana produced 12.3 million barrels of oil during the first half of 2020. However, production was beset by the problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and drop in oil prices and as such, fell short of the targeted production figures.

This is according to the Bank of Guyana’s half-year report, which covers the period up to the end of June 2020. According to the report, Guyana was able to produce 12.3 million barrels of oil, at an average of between 65,000 and 75,000 barrels of oil per day.

“However, this performance was 38 to 46 per cent lower than the 120,000 barrels per day targeted during the review period. The petroleum and gas industries were faced a sharp drop in oil prices from depressed demand and higher inventory of crude oil as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s adverse effect globally,” the report stated.

The report also noted that the petroleum and gas and support services industries expanded by 4712.9 per cent.

In sharp contrast, however, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of non-oil economic industries such as agriculture, gold and bauxite contracted by 4.9 per cent in total.

“The lacklustre performance in the non-oil GDP largely resulted from slower activities in the services sector due to lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus,” the report went on to explain.

Overall, the agriculture sector’s output fell by 4.1 per cent. It was explained that this was driven by lower returns for forestry (17.3 per cent reduction), fishing (12.1 per cent reduction) and livestock (2.3 per cent).

Conversely, sugar and rice grew during the half-year, compared to the corresponding period in 2019.

When the deadly COVID-19 disease arrived in Guyana, the former A

Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government took a number of steps from closing Guyana’s borders to mandating that only essential businesses open their doors. The remaining businesses, including those in the productive sector, received nothing in the form of a stimulus from the then Government, which last passed a budget in November of 2018.

This was corrected when the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government took office in August 2020 and passed its emergency budget within two months. A slew of measures was included in the budget, aimed at incentivising businesses to keep them afloat through the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on equipment and machinery, as well as other tax measures.

Guyana, with oil giant ExxonMobil as the operator, began producing oil last year in the Stabroek Block, lift-

The Stena Carron drillship offshore Guyana

ing its first million barrels of profit oil from the Liza-1 well in February 2020. Oil tanker Cap Phillippe transported this lift from the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, allowing Guyana to receive its first payment the next month.

That money, $11.4 billion, constituted Guyana’s first oil revenue-based earnings from production in the Liza field. It was deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in March of this year.

An additional the sum of $7.3 billion was subsequently deposited, as well as royal-

ty payments. So far, Guyana has received three cargo lift payments and two royalty payments, courtesy of the Liza-1 well. This means approximately US$150 million has been deposited in the Natural Resources Fund housed in the Natural Resource Fund.

However, this money has remained untouched, as the protracted political crisis that followed the March 2nd General and Regional Elections sabotaged any attempt to set up a system for withdrawing funds. The Natural Resource Fund Act stipulates that various committees must be established

to provide oversight for the fund. It is expected that this legislation will be reviewed by the current Government.

Following his recent keynote address to the Forecast on Latin America and the Caribbean Conference, President Dr Irfaan Ali had made it clear that the monies will remain untouched until key reforms intended to ensure transparency are enacted.

“My Government is focused heavily on transparency and accountability. As you know, we have demonstrated this after the negotiations of the licence for the Payara.

Not only did we make the agreement public, but we also made the environmental permit public, so nothing is done in secrecy,” he had reminded.

“I’ve said before, there’ll be an arm’s length relationship with the politicians.

We had international experts leading those negotiations and discussions,” the Head of State was quoted by the Office of the President as saying.

FROM PAGE 17

He was encouraged to give it a try and on October 17, 2000, he stepped into his first classroom at St Anthony’s Primary – his old school – and started a journey filled with highs and lows but one he does not intend to leave behind.

“I remember thinking, standing in front of the class, what am I getting myself into here. All eyes were on me. I was super afraid.

It was then that I realised that I had the future in my hands. The young minds of tomorrow I get to help shape and mould and I wasn’t going to mess that up. Here was my opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others,” he said.

Ghanie is now a Class One Grade One Secondary Science Trained Teacher.

Over the years, he has

taught at St Anthony’s Primary, Bartica Secondary School and now the Three Miles Secondary School where he holds the position of Senior Master. He teaches POA, Chemistry, Biology and Integrated Science.

“I must say though that from 2000 to now teaching and learning have changed so much. It a bit tougher now than then, but I try always to stay above things.

I keep advancing myself to keep up, especially in the areas of technology as I am a technological migrant and not a native. The years after that flew by so quickly.

There were so many mentors along the way and to whom I will always be grateful to, for their encouragement and support along my 20-year journey. There were tough times and times when

I wanted to quit but all those experiences added to my character and my disposition.

“Teaching grew on me and I fell in love with a career that I didn’t see myself being a part after that first interview. Sometimes I think what my life would have been like if I had the opportunity of becoming an accountant. I don’t see myself doing anything other than teaching though. It’s what I was made into – a teacher.

I still have a few years left in this profession before that chapter closes off on me and I intend to make the most of it…to inspire my students to become all that they can be. I’m an advocate for education and I will continue to push my students into that direction for an educated nation is a rich nation.”

NEWS

27

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

2 more COVID-19 deaths, 34 new cases recorded …13 persons in ICU

T

here are now 119 coronavirus-related deaths in Guyana, after two persons succumbed while receiving treatment on Saturday. The number of COVID-19 deaths for the month of October stands at 37.

The Health Ministry announced that the latest fatalities are two men: a 78-year-old from Region Four (DemeraraMahaica) and an 86-year-old from Region Eight (PotaroSiparuni). They both died while receiving care at a medical facility.

The last set of deaths were reported last Wednesday, after three persons died from the life-threatening virus. All

three victims were males from Region One (Barima-Waini).

A 68-year-old male would have died on Wednesday while receiving care at a medical facility, while the other two fatalities – 80-yearold Lionel Peters of Red Hill Settlement and 78-year-old Lewis Miller of Manawarin – died on Tuesday while receiving treatment at medical facilities.

As it relates to new cases, 34 were recorded on Saturday.

Some 2098 males and 1896 females contracted the virus, reaching a total of 3994 cases detected in Guyana thus far.

There are 13 persons in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 104 in institution-

al isolation, 740 in home isolation and 37 in institutional

quarantine. Another 47 recoveries were recorded for one

day, contributing to a total of 2970 recovered cases and 944 active cases.

Two new cases were detected in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), three in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 21 in Region Four, one in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), two in Region Seven (CuyuniMazaruni), and five in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

There were no increases in Regions One, Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Eight and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) which remained at 662, 25, 128 and 375 respectively.

Region Four has the highest number of cases, 1835 – representing almost half of the country’s total cases.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

28 FEATURE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Pressman attacked, beaten outside home

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pressman was on Friday night attacked in front of his Princes Street, Georgetown home as he was leaving for work.

Dishon Manniram, 33, of Princes Street, Georgetown, told Guyana Times that the incident occurred at about 22:00h.

According to Manniram, he had just exited his yard when a group of men surrounded him and began beating him. He said that he attempted to defend himself but was overpowered.

“They jump me and start cuffing me in my face, they burst my head and sprain my hand… when they come to me, they didn’t say anything, nobody said nothing to me, they just jump me,” Manniram recalled.

ate attack on me,” the pressman said. After beating Manniram, the men ran away

and he then raised an alarm.

The man is now fearful for his life.

2 more COVID-19 deaths...

Dishon Manniram’s swollen face following the incident

He said the men were wearing masks.

“I can’t remember everything but I remember one of

Dishon Manniram’s head injury

them had on Nike sneakers and short pants.

When they jump me, I fall on the ground,” Manniram ex-

plained.

He said that he was baffled as to the reason for the attack since the men did not take any of his valuables. He pointed out that he has no issues with anyone.

“I don’t have any issues with anybody. I can’t say if it was robbery or a deliber-

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony would have announced in recent time that steps would be taken to update local guidelines after US regulators have given full approval for antiviral drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients.

Previously, the Government had given approval for the use of remdesivir to treat critically ill patients after early clinical trials indicated a quicker recovery period of COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, convalescent plasma, where the blood from someone who has recovered from an illness is used to help others recover, has not been as beneficial as studies have shown. However, Dr Anthony explained that those studies were imprecise because not everyone who recovered from

FROM PAGE 27

COVID-19 would have had a high titer (presence) of antibodies in their blood.

All Guyanese are reminded to observe the protocols of the COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No 9), which are in effect until October 31, 2020.

This order emphasises the need for correct and consistent use of a face mask when leaving home; the importance of maintaining the six feet physical distance from others; and the need for good hand hygiene to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or need any additional information, kindly contact the COVID-19 Hotline 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy.

NEWS

29

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Tourism Minister renounced US citizenship before becoming MP

T

ourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Oneidge Walrond made it pellucid on Saturday that she renounced her United States (US) Citizenship prior to taking the Oath of Office as a Member of Parliament (MP).

On Saturday, Walrond explained that she renounced her citizenship and received a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, before she took the oath of the National Assembly on September 1, 2020.

“I wrote to the US Consular Office on August 18, renouncing my citizenship to the United States of America with immediate effect. I was thereof informed of the administrative procedure I must comply with to obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States,” Minister Walrond said, as the Opposition – APNU/AFC- continues to peddle the narrative that she is a dual citizen.

In fact, Walrond revealed that she received legal advice that as a Technocrat Minister, Article 155 (1) of the Constitution of Guyana would not exclude her from being an MP while also being a dual citizen, since this provision speaks to the qualification of an MP for “election” to the National Assembly.

Walrond was never on the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) candidates’ list, but rather was appointed as a Technocrat Minister.

However, the Minister noted that she still took the step to resign “out of an abundance of caution.”

“On August 5, I was invited by His Excellency Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali to serve in his Cabinet. I accepted because I consider the opportunity to serve my people and my country at this capacity as both an honour and privilege. As an Attorney-at-Law and being mindful of my (then) status as a US Citizen, I sought the counsel of other attorneys on whether the sections of the Constitution prohibiting elected members from being dual citizens applied to me as a Technocrat Minister.”

“Despite advice that this provision did not extend to technocrats, out of an abundance of caution, I decided to renounce my citizenship to put the matter beyond all doubt and avoid any distraction to the good work of the Government,” the Tourism Minister, who is a former Magistrate, explained.

Even though Walrond has given up her citizenship, the Opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has insisted that she must take the further step of resigning.

states that “No person shall be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly who (a) is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state (dual citizen).”

APNU/AFC misconstruing Constitution

Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond

During the press conference, APNU’s MP Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde pointed to Articles 103 (3) and 155 (1), to support his contention that Walrond should resign. According to Forde, the Opposition will consider instituting legal proceedings.

Article 103 (3) of the Constitution of Guyana states that the President is allowed to appoint “not more than four Ministers and two Parliamentary Secretaries shall be appointed by the President from among persons who are qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly.”

Article 155 (1) of the Constitution meanwhile

In an invited comment, however, Attorney General Anil Nandlall lambasted APNU/AFC for misconstruing what the Constitution says. According to Nandlall, Article 155 (1) speaks to elected MPs and not Technocrat Ministers, who have no rights to vote.

“Every time the APNU/ AFC speaks about constitutional violations, they remind the world of their inglorious track record of trampling upon the Constitution for five successive years and attempting to steal the Government, between 3rd March 2020 to 2nd August 2020,” Nandlall stated.

“Now, they are desperately attempting to create a constitutional storm in a teacup. A proper construction of Article 155 of the Constitution clearly establishes that it only applies to elected members of the National Assembly, of which Minister Oneidge Walrond is not. Minister Waldron

was appointed a Technocrat Minister and sits in the National Assembly by virtue of that appointment only, as an un-elected member.”

Nandlall reminded that even though the provision did not apply to her, Walrond still made a commendable decision to relinquish her citizenship prior to taking the Oath of Office as an MP. He, therefore, questioned why the Opposition was seeking to get political mileage out of a non-issue.

The issue of dual citizenship came up after December 21, 2018, when Alliance For Change (AFC) MP Charrandas Persaud voted in favour of the NoConfidence Motion, which toppled and effectively led to the booting of the former APNU/AFC coalition from Government.

The former Government used Persaud’s dual citizenship as a weapon in its arsenal seeking to overturn

the No-Confidence Motion, arguing that Persaud was not qualified to be in the National Assembly and as such, his vote in favour of the motion was invalid.

In February of 2019, acting Chief Justice Roxane George had ruled on the case filed by Compton Reid over the dual citizenship of Persaud. While she ruled that the No-Confidence Motion was validly passed, Justice George reaffirmed Article 155 (1) of the Constitution - that Persaud was not eligible to be elected as an MP. In the new dispensation of the twelfth Parliament, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira and Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, two of the several MPs who were flagged as dual citizens last year, both submitted proof that they renounced their citizenships. They have since returned to the National Assembly. (G3)

30 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Govt probing massive land conspiracy connected to Ogle/Diamond bypass project …prime land leased to shell companies under APNU/AFC flipped for profit

M

assive tracts of prime State land which were leased at bargain prices under the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government are likely to soon be the subject of criminal investigations, as the current Government undertakes a review of several shady land deals in the proximity of the Ogle/Diamond bypass road.

The review of the legality of these transactions is being undertaken by the Attorney General Chambers. In an exclusive interview with this publication, Attorney General Anil Nandlall revealed the methodology used to process these transactions.

He said that the lands were not publicly advertised but instead, deals were brokered and processed through shell companies who then went back and sold the land, using loopholes in the leasing agreement that allowed them to flip the State land for a tidy profit.

Ordinarily, once State land is leased to a developer it cannot be sold without per-

mission but rather, must revert back to the State after a certain period has passed. It seems that the leases were devoid of this provision.

“The clause in the lease, which ought to say that the tenant shall not part with possession or sublet, without the permission of the landlord, has been altered to say that the tenant can do that.

So, the lawyer who drafted these leases also seems to be part of that conspiracy,” Nandlall explained.

“Significantly, these lands have now passed into the hands of third parties, exploiting that deliberate omission in the lease… these are commercial lands. They will become of greater value; the bypass road is passing there.

These are huge swatches of commercial land, of great value, that has been leased to shell companies and then sold to third parties for millions of dollars,” Nandlall told this publication.

He added that all of this occurred “under the noses” of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) and Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), two agencies which

An artist’s impression of the road link, showing the four connectors from Ogle, ECD to Great Diamond, EBD

he noted were instead busy witch-hunting the then PPP Opposition.

Nandlall made it clear that the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) and the Guyana Police Force’s other investigative arms including SOCU are likely to get involved, as money laundering may very well be a component of the investigation.

“A Government has a

duty to protect the patrimony of the State. And the State has agencies that are created to protect its own interests.

The Guyana Police Force is one of those agencies, whose process will be activated,” he assured.

The Ogle/Diamond bypass road is a massive project conceived as a way of steering traffic away from central Georgetown and the East Bank thoroughfare and easing the massive traffic jams.

It is supposed to see some 26 kilometres of road constructed, linking two of the country’s main thoroughfares.

This new road link will also be connected to key communities in Georgetown and along the East Bank of Demerara. These include Diamond, Mocha and Eccles – all on the East Bank – and Aubrey Barker Road in Georgetown. These connections will prove crucial in diverting traffic.

There have long been reports, however, of a land grab in areas associated with the Indian Export/Import (Exim) Bank-funded project.

And with the contract for the road likely to be awarded by

this year-end, land associated with the project that was secured since 2015 is likely to have jumped in value.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has adopted a no-nonsense policy on land that was allocated under the former APNU/AFC Government during the time when they were in caretaker status and not authorised to conduct such large transactions.

As of October 6, 2020, five companies had announced that they surrendered to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), large tracts of land that were given to them under controversial and non-transparent circumstances by the then APNU/AFC caretaker Administration.

The companies that have since reverted lands to the State are Navigant Builders Incorporated – the developers of Windsor Estates; Cardiology Services Incorporated; the Corum Group; American Marine Services Incorporated and Supergraphics Enterprise.

In all of those cases, the firms had expressed a desire to work with the new Administration to get the necessary approvals needed to pursue their respective developmental goals.

NEWS

31

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Cop dies in Mahaicony crash Police clear roads as

protest erupts at WCB

Dead: Police Constable Raoul Archer

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police officer died on Saturday evening after crashing into a parked trailer on the Mahaicony Public Road, East Coast Demerara.

Dead is Police Constable Raoul Archer, who was attached to the Fort Wellington Police Station, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice). Reports are the accident occurred at about 18:00h on the Fellowship Public Road,

A

The scene at No 5 Village, WCB, earlier on Saturday (Facebook user photo)

The motor car which the cop was driving at the time of the accident has been totalled

Mahaicony.

According to Police, Archer was driving motor car PYY 2468 east along the northern carriageway of the public road reportedly at a

fast rate, when he lost control of the vehicle and collided with the trailer that was parked on the side of the road.

Investigations are ongoing.

GAWL denounces any attempt to intimidate Judges

T

he Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) on Saturday denounced all attempts made to intimidate Judges in Guyana.

Only last week, one day before the case management hearing of the APNU/ AFC-filed election petition hearing, two persons armed with a toy gun intruded and attacked the security and home of the Chief Justice of Guyana, Roxane George.

In a statement, the GAWL said “we strongly condemn the incident, which occurred at the home of the Honourable Madam Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George on the 21st October, 2020. The GAWL implores all citizenry to respect and uphold the rule of law”.

“We denounce any attempt to intimidate Judges or diminish their complete neutrality and integrity or to affect the outcome of cases,” the statement read.

GAWL further urged

investigators to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the atrocity. They implored that law enforcers ensure that all Judges are adequately protected, to avoid any future occurrence.

On Wednesday last, at about 14:00h at Justice George’s residence, two police ranks were attacked. It was disclosed that on the day in question, the two ranks were on duty at the Judge’s home, when one left to use the washroom.

The security was confronted by a man, who is about 5 feet 4 inches in height, dark in complexion and slim built. He was wearing black short pants and a white jersey tied around his face. He was also armed with what appeared to be a black handgun Upon seeing the officer, the man approached the rank and pointed the object in her direction. It was reported that he tried to punch the officer, but he

missed.

According to the rank, she called out to her colleague, who was armed for assistance, and was in the garage of the building.

The rank, having heard the call, went to inquire, and saw the suspect pointing the object at him. He immediately ran for cover.

However, the person then dropped the object, ran in a northern direction, jumped over a fence and made good his escape.

No shots were fired, and no one was injured. The object was picked up and is suspected to be a toy gun.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Guyana Times on Saturday, Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Public Relations Officer Royston Andries-Junor said the last information he received was that one person was arrested and in custody in relation to the invasion up to Friday night.

Investigations are still ongoing.

few residents of West Coast Berbice on Saturday blocked the public road and set afire debris at Number Five Village, as they continue to call for justice for murdered teens Isaiah and Joel Henry.

However, law enforcement officers quickly put out the fire and cleared the roadway.

In a statement, the Guyana Police Force said they received a reported at about 13:45h of the public road running through No 5 Village, WCB, being blocked.

“Following receipt ranks from the Division immediately responded and observed that the road was indeed blocked and the debris used to block same lit and burning. At this time, the ranks have managed to partially extinguish the fire and clear the roadway, allowing traffic to flow again,” the police said in a statement.

No one arrested has been made.

The butchered bodies of the Henry teens were found in clumps of bushes and partially covered in mud after relatives went in search of them on August 6.

Post-mortem examina-

tions conducted revealed that the teenagers died from haemorrhage and shock.

In the case of 16-year-old Isaiah, he sustained a severed spine between the second and third vertebrae and a number of chop wounds to his head.

The murders sparked widespread protest action, particularly along the West Coast Berbice corridor, with persons blocking the roads and burning debris while calling for justice.

The situation escalated as protesters blocked traffic along the WCB roadway while robbing, beating and extorting innocent commuters. Millions of dollars were also lost as vehicles went up in flames.

As the unrest continued, 17-year-old Haresh Singh of Number Three Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB), was found dead hours after he had left home on his motorcycle to attend his family’s farm in the backdam.

It was reported that the sound of Haresh’s motorcycle stopped along the dam and shortly after, his family members saw a fire blazing on the dam. Suspicious that it was the motorcycle, rela-

tives went to investigate and discovered the motionless body of the teenager and the torched motorbike.

The teen was bleeding through his nose and had wounds to his head, ears, neck and hands. According to the family, there was also an “X” on his neck. They then rushed the 17-yearold to the New Amsterdam Hospital, but he succumbed on the way.

Initially, it was suspected that Singh’s murder was in retaliation for the deaths of Isaiah and Joel since one of his close relatives was among those arrested after the cousins’ murder.

Meanwhile, Police had established that 16-year-old Isaiah and 19-year-old Joel Henry were murdered in one location and then their bodies transported to the coconut estate on which they were discovered.

The Government had invited a five-member team of investigators from the Regional Security System (RSS) to visit Guyana to assist the Guyana Police Force.

The findings of the RSS investigation have not been released to the public.

32 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Dust from Uitvlugt Estate’s chimneys plaguing WCD, EBE …residents call for urgent Govt intervention

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he soot produced by the Uitvlugt Estate chimneys on the West Coast of Demerara has been affecting residents in nearby communities, polluting the water that is used for drinking as well as the general environs. The issue has been plaguing the areas for some time, but now it is unbearable.

Guyana Times visited several affected residents on Saturday, who raised concerns regarding the issue, pointing out that households are specifically affected

The Uitvlugt Estate

during the beginning of the crop season since the dust settles on every surface. It was indicated that this matter was caused by a decision to shorten the length of the chimneys.

In Tuschen Housing Scheme, Marcia Sandy explained that the soot and dust-like particles have been an issue for some time.

Every day, she is forced to close all windows to prevent

Soot has been accumulating in the dwellings of residents

Affected resident Chandradeo Ramsamooj

the particles from entering her house.

“Since I came here to live, it’s very dusty. I don’t really have the place open. If you notice, all my windows are down because the dust gets inside, especially through the back door. I would observe it coming from there as well,” Sandy shared.

The dust is also trapped on clothing hung outside, which warrants a second washing.

“I am really fed up of this dust. Every day couple hours, I have to be sweeping and wiping thick dust coming from the Uitvlugt Estate and no one seems to be doing anything about the situation. Many of us depend on rainwater to cook, but we can’t use it anymore as it is very dirty. This puts an additional burden to buy water to cook….I plead on the authorities to look into the matter and do something urgently to address this problem. We can’t take this situation anymore” – WCD resident “The soot would fly and it affects me. I would have to be sweeping very often because of the blackness and it also affects my clothing.

When I wash my clothes, sometimes I have to rewash the whites because the dust would capture on the clothing. It dirty the clothes. This has been happening since I came to live here, which is about two years now,” the affected woman added.

Meanwhile, Chandradeo

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

Ramsamooj explained that the burnt matter pollutes the water that is stored for drinking purposes. In many households, families utilise the rainwater for drinking but this has become contaminated. The man said he has established a makeshift unit to prevent the dust from entering his water tank, since it is expensive to purchase water for both cooking and drinking.

“We does use the rain-

water and the dust going onto the roof. When the rain fall, it going into the tank.

I put something to strain it but how much that can help? We using the water to drink and can’t afford to buy water but that’s about it.

Something have to be done,” Ramsamooj shared.

Meanwhile, Nazia Mohammed said she has been purchasing water because she has toddlers in her household.

“The dust flying and going into the tank with drinking water, going into the gutters and so on. We used to use it to cook so right now we buying water to do everything. We have to be cleaning the house, the yard, the gutter and so on,” she shared.

Another resident also shared that the current situation is unhealthy for children. He has joined the calls from other persons for the relevant authorities to alleviate their distress.

He expressed, “I am really fed up of this dust.

Everyday couple hours, I have to be sweeping and wip-

ing thick dust coming from the Uitvlugt Estate and no one seems to be doing anything about the situation.

Many of us depend on rainwater to cook but we can’t use it anymore as it is very dirty. This puts an additional burden to buy water to cook. I hope the Government and GuySuSo will look into this issue. It is not healthy for anyone, the kids are affected also. I plead on the authorities to look into the matter and do something urgently to address this problem. We can’t take this situation anymore.”

When contacted on Saturday, Agricultural Minister Zulfikar Mustapha pledged his assurance to get abreast with the current issues facing residents. He indicated that the Guyana Sugar Corporation will also be engaged on the matter, in an effort to have it addressed.

“If there is an issue there, we will have to look at it. I will ask GuySuCo to look at it since it’s affecting residents,” the Minister assured.

SYMPTOMS

People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness.

Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms or combinations of symptoms may have COVID-19:

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF? Cough

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

Or at least two of these symptoms:

Fever People who think they may be affected by coronavirus need to call the Public Health Ministry hotline 227-4986/624-3067 for further advice. They should not go to their GP, A&E, pharmacy or hospital.

If you have come into contact with somebody who may be infected, you may be told to self-isolate. People needing to do so should take "common-sense" steps to avoid close contact with other people.

(Adapted from BBC News)

Headache

Chills

Sore throat

Repeated shaking with chills

New loss of taste or smell

Muscle pain Children have similar symptoms to adults and generally have mild illness.

NEWS

33

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

APNU/AFC-hired special prosecutor wants payment from PPP Govt

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ne of the attorneys-at-law who was hired by the APNU/AFC regime as a Special Prosecutor has filed a lawsuit against the PPP/C Government, seeking payments for services he provided under the previous Administration.

Back in 2017, the coalition Cabinet had approved the appointment of six Attorneys: Michael Somersall, Hewely Griffith, Lawrence Harris, Patrice Henry, Compton Richardson, and Trenton Lake as Special Prosecutors on several cases derived from various forensic audits conducted into the Pradoville 2 Housing Scheme land acquisition among other probes. These charges stemmed from investigations conducted by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) – a branch under the Guyana Police Force that was established for probing financial offences, including Anti-Money Laundering (AML) offences.

However, under the coalition regime, the Unit mostly went after many of the then former PPP/C Government officials based on a series of forensic audits that were conducted by the coalition.

In the suit filed since February 2020 against the Attorney General Chambers, which was headed by APNU/ AFC’s Basil Williams at the time, Attorney Henry is seeking orders from the court to grant him compensation to the tune of some $6.5 million for loss and damages he suffered following the breach of oral and written agreements he had with Williams.

According to the court document seen by Guyana Times, Henry said he en-

Attorney-at-Law Patrice Henry

tered into the agreement with Williams on June 21, 2017, and was paid an initial retainer fee of $2 million upon that signing. One of the terms of the agreement, however, was that the lawyer would be paid an hourly fee of $20,000 for legal services in prosecuting those matters.

Henry said following the signing, he commenced working on the case involving officials from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).

The lawyer said he was further tasked with three sets of matters, that is, the case against the GRDB officials who were charged with fraudulent appropriation of property; the case against former Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President, Omar Shariff, who was charged along with another for failure to comply with a production order under the Anti-Money Laundering Act; and another case against two persons for exporting gold without a licence.

Henry, according to the court document, also worked on several other cases.

However, he noted that while he received payments for his services rendered, it

wasn’t until August 2019 under the then caretaker APNU/AFC when the AG Chamber “refused, neglected and/or failed” to make any further payments although he was still working as contracted.

The lawyer claimed that had written several letters demanding outstanding payments for his legal services since August 2019 but still had not been paid. He noted that in October 2019, then AG Williams changed the payment agreement into categories of Forensic Audit matters and Non-Forensic Audit matters. The lawyer said he was asked to submit a draft contract along with retainer payments for two non-forensic SOCU matters at $1.5 million each and despite doing so, he was not paid even after repeated and consistent demands.

He then wrote the AG Chambers on February 6, 2020, indicating that legal action would be instituted if the payments were not made

by February 11. Henry said that these matters, for which he was hired as a prosecutor on behalf of the State, “created a financial burden” on his small practice.

As such, Henry is claiming special damages to the tune of $6.4 million as a result of the AG Chamber’s unilateral breach of contract; and general damages in excess of $100,000 for consequential losses he suffered.

He also wants an order from the court permitting him to complete the remaining four matters that he is currently prosecuting with full payments including outstanding fees, in order to mitigate his losses.

Henry is also seeking an

order for him to be paid at the hourly rate of $20,000 pursuant to previously written and oral agreements for the remaining matters until completion along with retainer fees. He further asked for a 6 per cent interest per annum from the time of filing until judgement.

According to current Attorney General Anil Nandlall, “there is no greater evidence of political interference in the criminal justice system than what is expressed in the attached legal proceedings.”

Nandlall pointed out that during the APNU/AFC Administration, these politically-directed charges filed against PPP leaders for which Special Prosecutors were, specifically, retained and directed by then Attorney General Basil Williams, constitutes a violation of Article 187 of the Constitution, as well as an abrogation of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers.

“Under Article 187 of the Constitution, it is the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) that is vested with the exclusive authority to institute or advise the institution of or prosecute or advise the prosecution of criminal charges. The Executive, more specifically, the Attorney General, has no such power or authority,” Nandlall contended.

Only in August, it was disclosed that over $68 million were spent by the APNU/AFC coalition to retain private lawyers for legal advice and several legal proceedings including the series of litigations regarding the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) as well as the electoral proceedings following the March 2, 2020 elections.

$18M in equipment donated to Guyana by University of Toronto professor

Some of the donated musical and science equipment

G

uyanese-born University of Toronto Professor Rita Persaud has donated $18 million in musical and science equipment to five secondary schools and the University of Guyana.

The Education Ministry on Saturday said that tapping into her network in Canada where she lives, Professor Persaud was able to procure drum sets, violins, saxophones, microscopes, telescopes among other equipment. The items are valued at $18M and will be donated to Berbice High School (BHS), J.C Chandisingh secondary, Abrams Zuil secondary, Anna Regina Multilateral, Cotton Field secondary and the University of Guyana.

Professor Persaud is quoted by the Education Ministry as saying that the institutions reached out to her at different levels for assistance and she immediately agreed to assist. She pointed out that having intimate knowledge of the importance of music and science in education she purposed to ensure she was able to deliver for the institutions.

According to the Professor, her satisfaction is rooted in the fact that music provides an outlet

for students and it builds self-confidence. Further she explained that music also helps with self-esteem and has threptic benefits.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Priya Manickchand expressed her gratitude to Professor Persuad and the other donors who contributed immensely to make the venture a reality for the institutions and students. At the handing over exercise to representatives of the institutions at the Education Ministry Brickdam office on Friday, Permanent Secretary Alfred King said that the donation will improve the delivery of the Fine Arts and sciences in these institutions.

The items received are six complete seven-piece drums sets, one electronic violin, two Saxophones, four Clarinets, one television, 16 microscopes electronic computer interfaced, two (2) measuring scales for laboratory, one Trombone, three Trumpets, six six Violins, one Flute, one printer, two TASCO Telescopes, six Telescopes Celestron Astromaster (for Physics, Science, or Cosmology program), four Chemistry kits, textbooks for the university of guyana library, one laptop and two computer screens.

34 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Private farmers to provide 34% of canes for Skeldon Estate …“we have had so much corruption, wastage in GuySuCo” – Agriculture Minister

P

rivate farmers will be required to provide 34 per cent of the cane needed at the Skeldon Sugar Factory when it resumes operation in order for the estate to be successful.

This was according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha on Saturday when he met with private farmers, who cultivate lands at Skeldon and Crabwood Creek, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

Minister Mustapha noted that skilful management of the estate will be a key component if the estate is to succeed.

As part of the initial stages of proprietary arrangements being put in place for the reopening of the Skeldon Estate, Mustapha said private planters will have to return to the land and start growing canes.

To this end, the Minister met with the farmers to ascertain issues which they are likely to encounter if they are to supply canes for the Skeldon Sugar Factory.

“This Estate should have been a model sugar factory in Guyana and around the Caribbean. However, it did not live up to its expectations but if we work together, we can make it the model factory that we want it to become,”

Mustapha told the farmers.

He explained that they will have to make a tremendous contribution toward the successful operation of the factory.

“We don’t want to fail this time around. That is why I am here to listen to some of the issues that you want to resolve before you start to cultivate sugarcane again,” he indicated.

One of the farmers, Anand Singh, said one of their biggest concerns is the lack of funds to go back into cane cultivation.

“We have a large loan at the bank and we failed to make payments to the bank.

So, we cannot approach the banks again for any additional loans. We want a grant from the Government so that we can resuscitate our farms,” he told the Minister.

Together, all the farmers at Crabwood Creek and Skeldon have a combined 4600 hectares of land, which was once under cane cultivation.

About one-third of that was put under rice cultivation after the Skeldon Estate went out of operation.

Another private farmer, David Subnauth, told Mustapha that the onus is on the Guyana Sugar Corporation

Some of the private came farmers who cultivate lands at Skeldon and Crabwood Creek, Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne) met with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and a team from GuySuCo (GuySuCo) to succeed. He said if the Corporation fails, then they will fail as well.

He suggested that the fields which are under GuySuCo’s control in the Upper Corentyne be given out to private farmers. He further recommended that each farmer be given 20 acres to cultivate in two crops per year.

“They should be able to produce a minimum of 4 tonnes of sugar per acre. That would give them about $400,000 per acre. That will be enough to sustain a family for the year,” Subnauth stated.

He went on to remind

that GuySuCo’s management failed in the past to fully utilise the lands.

“Mr Anand Singh in 2015, produced one-third of the sugar that Skeldon produced and he only had fifteen workers as against the estate with some 2000 odd workers. So, private cane farming is very important,” Subnauth pointed out.

“If we, as private cane farmers, can produce cane and make a profit, why is it that GuySuCo can’t do it when they have all the things in their favour?” he argued.

Subnauth further suggested that the stores at the estate

Ruimveldt, Albouystown, Rasville and Wortmanville to deliver education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chalkboards were erected in

the communities along with the distribution of learning materials to assist with education delivery. (Education Ministry photo)

Taking education into communities

A

team led by Chief Education Officer, Dr Marcel Hutson and comprised of teachers Leanchor Rowland, Caren

Charles, Lisa Liza Ryce; Technical Facilitator, Kerwyn Jacobs and District Education Officer, Deborah Hutson visited the communities of East

be opened to the public. This way, he noted, private cane farmers and even rice farmers could make purchases.

“Similarly, we should do that with the field workshop.

The field workshop must be self-sustainable. It is possible. They can take in jobs from outside including the private cane farmers,” Subnauth suggested.

Meanwhile, another farmer, George Biaghnauth, explained that many of the farmers do not have enough collateral or guarantors to secure the required loans from the bank. He said GuySuCo needs to play a role and act as a guarantor for farmers to access loans.

He said that GuySuCo had promised that it would produce a ton of sugar from ten tons of their cane but instead they have had to supply as much as 40 tons of cane for the corporation to produce one ton of sugar.

“Farmers subsidised GuySuCo for a number of years and that is why farmers today are strapped for funds.

We have no funds to go back into cane farming. We cannot afford for the company to leave us stranded again. We have had our hands burnt.

We need GuySuCo to guarantee our loans,” Biaghnauth asserted.

His brother, Lloyd, who also is a cane farmer, enquired about the money which private cane farmers owe to GuySuCo. The farmers had earlier sent a letter to the Minister asking for the Cane Farmers Act to be reviewed. This, Mustapha said, will be discussed with Cabinet.

However, the Minister noted that even without revising the Act, systems can be put in place so that both parties can benefit.

One such recommendation is to allow the farmers to have a representative present when their canes are being weighed and tested. Mustapha further explained that corporate tax will be retroactively removed from all loans the farmers

have with financial institutions. Hence, farmers will only have to pay the principal and interest.

“The interest we can talk about,” the Minister indicated.

“We can give help to go back to the land but the Government can’t dish out cash and give to every farmer. We have to do things that will benefit all the farmers,” he added.

The Minister further committed GuySuCo to provide the needed drainage and irrigation for the farmers.

“This will benefit all the farmers. Later on, we can have another discussion to look at things like tillage and so forth. We can also look to see what other incentives we can extend to the farmers.

We have already removed the VAT which was on agriculture equipment and supplies,” he outlined.

GuySuCo management

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister agreed with the farmers that GuySuCo’s management has failed. He said currently, his Ministry is trying to revamp the entire management structure at GuySuCo. “We know for a fact that management has neglected GuySuCo. We have had so much corruption and so much wastage in GuySuCo which has also contributed to the downfall of GuySuCo,” Mustapha said.

Meanwhile, the Minister also met with cane farmers at Bloomfield and Letter Kenny, who produce cane for the Albion Estate.

Both of those co-ops do not have active leases to cultivate cane. Each of the co-ops had a lease for 450 acres but they have both expired.

Mustapha asked that they discuss the issue with Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission before any further steps are taken on his end.

The Minister also had a private meeting with GuySuCo managers, who pointed out that there were a number of issues affecting sugar estates.

(Andrew Carmichael)

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Regional

35

Venezuela opposition Tropical depression formed figure Leopoldo López south of Cuba set to strengthen leaves Spanish embassy A

L

eading Venezuelan opposition figure Leopoldo López has left Spain's embassy in Caracas after seeking refuge there in April 2019 and secretly fled the country, his family said.

His father said López had gone to Colombia and was now heading for Spain.

López took shelter in the embassy after appearing with Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó and calling for a rebellion to oust President Nicolás Maduro.

He was arrested in 2014 accused of inciting violent political protests.

López, who has repeatedly denied the charges, received a 14-year jail sentence in a military prison.

But in 2017, López - a Harvard-educated former mayor who has been prevented by the Government from standing for public office - was moved to house arrest.

He had been under house arrest when he was released

Leopoldo López, a Harvard-educated former mayor, was arrested in 2014 and charged with inciting violent protests

last year by security agents backing the opposition.

A Venezuelan court then issued an arrest warrant for López, stating that he had violated the terms of his house arrest. It said López should serve the remainder of his 14-year sentence in prison.

He sought refuge at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in the Venezuelan capital.

On Saturday his father, also called Leopoldo López, said his son had left the embassy "about two days ago"

and on Friday crossed the border into Colombia. He added that his son was making his way to the Spanish capital Madrid to be reunited with his wife and three children.

Venezuela has been engulfed in a years-long political and economic crisis.

Residents accuse the Venezuelan Government of neglecting states in the country's interior - they say it diverts supplies to Caracas, where the Government is based. (Excerpt from BBC News)

Mexico's ruling Morena party elects leader after fractious race

Lawmaker Mario Delgado (L) of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) chats at the Congress in Mexico City, Mexico December 13, 2018

T

he ruling Morena party of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador late on Friday chose a new leader, Mario Delgado, after two previous failed attempts characterised by bitter infighting.

Mario Delgado, a centrist leading Morena in the Lower House of Congress, claimed victory over veteran political operator Porfirio

Munoz Ledo, who has been critical of Lopez Obrador on certain issues.

Delgado won by taking 58.6 per cent of the vote to 41.4 per cent for Munoz Ledo, the El Universal newspaper said, citing Morena lawmakers.

But in a sign of the underlying tensions that have spilt out in the open within Lopez Obrador’s party, leftist Munoz Ledo, 87, disputed the result by saying it was

“illegal”.

The previous poll was declared a tie, with both candidates accusing each other of trying to gain control of the party illegitimately.

Their ugly fight has come to represent the tensions roiling Morena, a party created by Lopez Obrador in 2014. A wide range of politicians with sometimes clashing ideologies joined Morena as the party gained momentum on way to its dominant 2018 national elections triumph by Lopez Obrador.

The fissures in the party may pose a threat to Morena’s electoral performance at the 2021 mid-term elections, where the party hopes to maintain its tight grip on Congress.

Delgado, 58, is seen to be close to both Mexico’s President and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who some see as a potential successor to Lopez Obrador when his six-year term finishes. Mexican leaders can only serve one term. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Committee to review exemptions for T&T nationals

T

he Prime Minister is setting up a small committee to remove the exemption process for nationals to return home.

The announcement was made on Saturday during a press conference.

The committee would include the Minister of National Security, Minister

of Health, and the Attorney General on Sunday.

"That committee's work is to try to get us to remove the exemption system and to allow persons to come home as flights are available," he said.

"The reason I am able to think like that and go down that route is because I am

now satisfied that we can monitor persons coming in by using an identification of persons who can come home and quarantine at home."

The quarantine system, he said, would still be enforced under the guidance of the Chief Medical Officer.

(Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian)

tropical depression formed Saturday afternoon south of Cuba amid forecasts that the system would become a named tropical storm later this weekend and possibly a hurricane within days, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The Miami-based centre said Tropical Depression 28 emerged about 255 miles (405 kilometres) south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. At 5:00 pm EDT, the storm had top sustained winds of 30 mph (45 kph) and was moving toward the north-northwest at two mph (four kph).

Forecasters said the depression is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm sometime today and

could attain hurricane status over the southern Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday. The centre said the storm is expected to remain south of Cuba on Sunday and approach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula — or the Yucatan Channel — late Monday before entering the southern Gulf.

The Government of Cuba

has issued a tropical storm watch for the province of Pinar del Rio. Meanwhile, the hurricane centre said people on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula should monitor the progress of the storm, which is expected to gradually strengthen over the next 72 hours. (Excerpt from Jamaica Observer)

COVID-19 cases increase across Caribbean region

S

everal countries in the region have seen an increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours.

In Suriname, the only positive COVID-19 case reported Friday evening has been registered in Wanica district. Of the 76 people who were tested for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, 75 were negative. Suriname has 5155 infections, including 36 active cases.

In the past 24 hours, another 15 people were declared cured, pushing the figure to 5010.

For the eighth consecutive day, there has been no change in the death rate,

which stands at 109.

There are also 23 people in hospitals, six in the intensive care unit and 21 in isolation. The number of people in quarantine increased from 185 Thursday to 365 Friday evening.

A 32-year-old male visitor, who arrived on British Airways on October 9, has become Barbados' latest positive COVID-19 case.

The authorities said that the visitor, who was not identified tested positive after a second test and that the number of persons in isolation remain at 11, and recoveries have increased to 208. There are now 227 recorded cases.

Meanwhile, Grenada has confirmed that a French national who arrived there on a private carrier has tested positive for the virus.

The Ministry of Health said Saturday that the 32-year-old man had arrived there on October 16 and tested positive after a second test.

It said he has been in quarantine and that the other passengers on the plane have all tested negative.

The Ministry also announced that three other persons tested positive for the virus earlier this week and are still in quarantine. (Excerpt from Jamaica Observer)

IMF notes calls from Caribbean for policy changes regarding assistance

IMF Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang

T

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it has heard the calls from small island developing states (SIDS), including those in the Caribbean, about the methods used by the developed countries and the international financial agencies to provide financial assistance to them.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley recently said middle-income countries need “fair and predictable” access to non-market finance based on their vulner-

ability.

“We have heard the argument about vulnerability loud and clear and are trying to study how best to respond to this concern,” IMF Deputy Managing Director, Tao Zhang, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) in an exclusive interview.

He said that the Fund's Rapid Financing Instrument already provides middle-income countries with emergency access to very low-cost borrowing, with no ex-post conditionality.

Zhang told CMC that the IMF will continue to adapt its lending policy to the “unprecedented uncertainty, by increasing the flexibility of programme design and streamlining conditionality to ensure more tailored support and foster national ownership”.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Finance, Economic and Planning Minister, Camillo Gonsalves, said recently that Caribbean

countries need immediate and innovative responses to this regional calamity.

Zhang said debt issues, and debt relief, have been high on the Fund's agenda, adding “we are helping our members tackle debt issues through action on several fronts.”

He said the Washingtonbased financial institution is exploring ways to close gaps in the international financial architecture to make debt resolution more efficient.

Earlier this month, Commonwealth Finance Ministers, including those in the Caribbean, issued their first joint statement in over a decade, in which they called on the G20, Paris Club, World Bank and the IMF to extend financial support to vulnerable nations given the deep and widespread economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Excerpt from Jamaica Observer)

36

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Around the World

Afghan bombing: Kabul education centre attack kills at least 18

A

t least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside an education centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, officials said.

The explosion at the private facility, which offers courses for students in higher education, occurred late in the afternoon, the Interior Ministry said.

The building in the predominantly Shia Muslim Dasht-e-Barchi area usually hosts hundreds of students.

Many have been taken to hospital. There are fears the death toll may rise.

The Islamic State group said it was behind the attack in messages posted on its social media channels, but did not provide any evidence.

The education centre attacked on Saturday usually hosts hundreds of students

Earlier, the Taliban denied involvement in the attack.

"A suicide bomber wanted to enter the education centre," Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said in a statement, AFP news agency reports.

The spokesman added that the attacker was identified by security guards "after which he detonated his explosives in an alley".

One local resident, Ali Reza, told AFP that those killed and injured were students waiting to enter the

facility.

Afghanistan has seen a rise in violence in recent weeks - with most of the attacks carried out by the Taliban. The violence threatens to imperil peace talks between Government forces and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The Shia community in Afghanistan has previously been targeted by Sunni Muslim extremists such as the Islamic State group, which views the Shia practice of Islam as heretical.

Earlier this week, 11 children and their prayer leader died an airstrike on a religious school in the northern Afghan province of Takhar, according to local officials.

(Excerpt from BBC News)

Attackers storm Cameroon school, kill several children

A

ttackers have stormed a school in southwestern Cameroon with guns and machetes, killing at least eight children and wounding a dozen more, according to the United Nations.

Arriving on motorbikes and in civilian clothes, the men attacked the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, at

around midday on Saturday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, described by the UN as “the worst atrocity” since the resumption of the school year earlier this month. It was not clear if the attack was linked to a continuing struggle between Government forces and armed groups in the English-speaking west seeking to form a breakaway state.

Some children were reportedly injured jumping from second-storey windows.

“They found the children in class and they opened fire on them,” city sub-prefect Ali Anougou told Reuters.

Isabel Dione ran into the school to search for her 12-year-old daughter when she heard about the shooting. She found her on the floor of a classroom, bleeding from the stomach.

“She was helpless and she was shouting ‘mum please help me’, and I told her ‘only your God can save you now’,” Dione told Reuters. The girl was rushed to hospital where she is undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound.

Local education official Ahhim Abanaw Obase confirmed six deaths of children aged between 12 and 14 and added that another eight had been taken to hospital.

(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Nigerian Police mobilise to quell worst unrest in 2 decades

N

igeria’s Police Chief ordered the immediate mobilisation of all force resources on Saturday to try to control the worst street violence in two decades stemming from protests against Police brutality.

The unrest, unprecedented since the 1999 return to civilian rule, is the most serious political crisis confronting President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler elected in 2015.

Violence, particularly in the commercial capital Lagos, escalated after demonstrators were shot on Tuesday night in the city’s Lekki district during a round-the-clock curfew.

Witnesses blamed sol-

diers.

Rights group Amnesty International said soldiers and Police had killed at least 12 protesters in two districts, though the army and Police denied any involvement.

Several states, mostly in southern Nigeria, have imposed curfews after two weeks of confrontations between protesters and members of the security services.

As pockets of unrest flared again on Saturday in parts of the country, a spokesman for southern Cross River state said several buildings had been vandalised over the last two days including a shopping mall, a bank and electoral offices.

Cars drive past people cleaning the streets as Nigeria's Lagos state eases a round-the-clock curfew imposed in response to protests against alleged Police brutality, after days of unrest in Lagos, Nigeria October 24, 2020

A round-the-clock curfew was reimposed on parts of the central city of Jos, just a day after it was relaxed on Friday, following the looting of emergency food supplies stored there by the Disasters Ministry, authorities said.

On a call between Buhari

and former Nigerian presidents, the head of state said 51 civilian fatalities and 37 injuries had been recorded as a result of “hooliganism” in recent weeks, according to a statement released on Saturday outlining his opening remarks. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Europe becomes 2nd region to cross 250,000 deaths as 2nd COVID wave hits

E

urope became the second region after Latin America to surpass 250,000 deaths on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, with record numbers of daily COVID-19 infections reported in the past two weeks.

Europe reported 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, as many Southern European countries this week reported their highest number of cases in a single day.

Europe accounts for

nearly 19 per cent of global deaths and about 22 per cent of global cases, according to a Reuters tally.

The United Kingdom leads Europe’s death toll with about 45,000 deaths, followed by Italy, Spain, France and Russia.

Based on the last seven-days daily reported average deaths, Russia is reporting 250 deaths per day, Europe’s highest toll, followed by the United Kingdom and France with

about 143 deaths each.

The average number of COVID-19 deaths reported each day in France has been increasing for 10 days straight, according to Reuters analysis.

Spain recently crossed 1 million cases and is reporting 136 fatalities on the latest seven-day average of reported deaths. Its death rate of about 7.38 per 10,000 people is the highest in Europe and second highest in the world after Peru.

The global coronavirus tally stands at about 42.1 million cases and 1.1 million deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

While health services have not so far been overwhelmed to the extent they were in the first wave, medical authorities have warned of a likely surge in demand for intensive care beds as colder weather forces more people indoors and infections spread. (Excerpt from Reuters)

OILNEWS OIL NEWS Oil falls about 2% on Libyan output, COVID-19 demand concerns

O

il fell nearly 2 per cent on Friday, finishing lower for the week, in anticipation of a surge in Libyan crude supply and demand concerns caused by surging coronavirus cases in the United States and Europe.

Crude prices sank after Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) said it lifted force majeure on exports from key ports and output would reach 1 million barrels per day in four weeks.

“As soon as that came out, the market cratered,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.

US crude settled at US$39.85 a barrel, falling 79 cents, or 1.9 per cent. Brent crude settled at US$41.77 a barrel, losing 69 cents, or 1.6 per cent. For the week, US crude futures lost 2.5 per cent and Brent futures shed 2.7 per cent.

Italy and several US states reported record daily increases in infections, while France extended curfews for about twothirds of its population as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across Europe.

“What’s holding us back is the uncertainty about demand - when we’re going to get a vaccine, when things are going to get back to normal, concerns about more shutdowns,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Moscow did not rule out extending OPEC+ oil output cuts, but that assurance did not offset the expectations for rising Libyan output and demand worries, analysts said.

“They need to say, ‘We are not going to bring back those two million barrels,’” Yawger said.

OPEC+, which includes Russia and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is due to increase production by 2 million bpd in January 2021.

US energy companies added five oil rigs to raise the total rig count to 287 in the week to Oct 23, the highest since May, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said. The rig count is an indicator of future supply. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Record-breaking Colorado wildfires force more evacuations

A

uthorities in the US state of Colorado have issued an evacuation order for residents near Rocky Mountain National Park, as gusting winds on Saturday fanned the second-largest wildfire in the state’s history.

Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for eastern Estes Park, a small town in northern Colorado, after wind pushed the 188,300-acre (76,200-hectare) East Troublesome Fire further east.

A red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service was in effect for the area as winds of 97 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) and low humidity were expected through Saturday.

The fire, which started on October 14, was 14 per cent contained as of Saturday.

The blaze has killed at least two to date, after an elderly couple was found dead in their home outside the town of Grand Lake, about 30km (19 miles) from Estes

Park, on Friday.

Colorado has witnessed the largest fires in its history this year, which has also seen massive blazes in California and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Another fire in northern Colorado that began in August and is still spreading – known as the Cameron Peak Fire – has become the largest in state history.

As of Saturday morning, that blaze was 60 per cent contained and has destroyed more than 207,000 acres (nearly 84,000 hectares), officials said.

Authorities in Colorado said this week there was a possibility the Cameron Peak Fire and the East Troublesome Fire could merge.

Scientists have pointed to climate change as making wildfires more intense across the US, among other major climate events, such as storms and droughts.

(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

ARIES (March 21April 19)

37

Don't put pressure on yourself or anyone else. Work alone to get things done. Make sure your expectations are reasonable. A change of attitude will improve a meaningful relationship.

Take control. Don't wait TAURUS for someone to make the first (April 20move. Initiate plans with a May 20)

loved one. A personal change will encourage you to cut your overhead and share your expenses to reach a common goal.

GEMINI Someone will misuse infor(MAY 28- mation you share. Protect your reputation and position at all June 20) costs. Your ability to come up with great ideas and solutions will help you gain respect.

CANCER Reach out to an old friend (June 21- or touch base with a relaJuly 22) tive. The information you pick up will help shape your life.

Romance is in the stars.

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

VIRGO

(Aug. 23Sept. 22)

Dilbert LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 22)

Peanuts

Don't make an unnecessary move. Being impulsive will set you back. Keep the peace in order to bypass a no-win situation.

Forge ahead. It's time to put your experience, knowledge and skills to work. A lifestyle change will encourage you to spend more time doing the things you enjoy most with a loved one. Embrace the unknown with enthusiasm.

Keep your life simple, your temper under control and your focus on your objective. Refuse to let someone interfere with your plans or dominate your life.

Follow your heart and dreams.

A change will help you thrive. Look beyond the clutter in your life. Take heed of someone's advice, but adjust it to fit your current situation. Clear up emotional baggage.

SAGITTARIUS Stick to what's most famil(Nov. 23iar, and you will avoid a conDec. 21) fusing situation. Making your

residence more comfortable will help you feel less stressed about the future.

CAPRICORN Consider your financial options and how best to bring in (Dec. 22extra cash. Update your skills, Jan. 19) apply for a license or pick up supplies that will encourage you to start a small but lucrative sideline.

Calvin and Hobbes

Aim to do whatever it

AQUARIUS takes to lower your stress.

(Jan. 20Don't spend unnecessarily or Feb. 19) make promises you can't keep.

You're better off keeping your thoughts to yourself and refusing to give in to temptation.

PISCES Look for ways to bring (Feb. 20- about changes that will imMar. 20) prove your life. If you are

straightforward with others regarding your intentions, the input you receive will help you reach your goal.

38

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Kolkata Knight Riders win big against Delhi Capitals – through efforts of Rana, Narine, Chakravarthy

chances, and Chakravarthy’s figures can partly be ex p l a i n e d that. Pant slogged

KKR celebrate their win

K

olkatha Night Riders’ last game - against the Royal Challengers Bangalore had seen them being restricted to a mere 84 runs for the loss of 8 wickets after their 20 overs had expired. Today, against the Delhi Capitals, they were 42 for 3 after 7.2 overs.

Andre Russell was still out injured, so they didn’t have the likeliest of candidates to spark an unlikely turnaround; therefore, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ hold on fourth place had never looked this tenuous.

At the crease were Nitish Rana, with scores of 9, 2, 9, 5, 29 and 0 in his last six innings; and Sunil Narine, who had a highest score of 17 from five innings this season. That run of form had cost Narine his place at the top of the order, and there was no way to tell - given the unusual trajectory of his career, spent almost entirely in the tail or at the top, with hardly anything in between if he could crack a T20 middleorder gig.

Rana and Narine, however, put on 115 in 56 balls, and the Knight Riders posted 194 for 6, the second-highest first-innings total in Abu Dhabi this season.

Their bowlers roared into life too. Pat Cummins, who’d gone wicketless in six of his last seven games, blew away both openers with his seam movement.

And then it was all Varun Chakravarthy. The match was in the Knight Riders’ control when he came on, but Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant had moved the Capitals into a position where they still had a chance: they needed 119 from 54 balls, with eight wickets in hand. He was bowling on a pitch where the Capitals had bowled only four overs of spin, and where one of them - R Ashwin - had gone for 45 in his three overs; but Chakravarthy could have been bowling somewhere else entirely.

The Kolkatha Knight Riders had begun the game with the worst net run rate of all eight

Varun Chakravarthy celebrating the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer

contesting teams. They ended it with a healthy improvement on that front.

Shuffling the pack Since shelving the Narine option, the Knight Riders have generally opened with Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi, and had used Rana at #3.

It hadn’t been working though, and the Knight Riders came into this game with the worst powerplay run rate (6.73) of all teams; they hadn’t ended a single powerplay without losing a wicket.

They shuffled their top three today, without immediately apparent success.

Anrich Nortje sent back Gill and Tripathi by the end of the powerplay, and Rana - who opened for the first time this season - was batting on 13 off 14 at that point. Then, in the eighth over, Kagiso Rabada produced a bit of late outswing to nick off Dinesh Karthik.

Ashwin x (Narine + Rana) = mayhem In between Ashwin’s first two overs, the Capitals bowled Tushar Deshpande and Marcus Stoinis, who went for 18 and 11 respectively, with both batsmen giving themselves room and hitting inside-out with impunity.

The Capitals, perhaps, had erred in their choice of bowlers during this mini-phase. In retrospect, they might think it was probably a moment to bring on Rabada or Nortje to break the momentum that the Knight Riders were so ominously gathering.

The four overs starting with Ashwin’s introduction brought the Knight Riders 59 runs.

An emphatic finish Nortje came on after those four overs, and sent down a 13th that went for only eight, with four of those coming via an edged boundary. Showing control with his wide yorkers, Deshpande conceded only

nine in the 16th over.

Rabada then bowled a 17th over that showed up the Capitals’ early tactics against Rana and Narine. Both batsmen can be discomfited by fast, short bowling, but the Capitals hadn’t bowled much of it at all to them.

That was until Rabada dismissed Narine with a short ball that cramped him for room, and bowled another good bouncer from which Rana, with a top-edged hook, picked up a boundary.

The Knight Riders continued to dominate either side of those reasonable moments for the Capitals. Rana unfurled a Knight Riders shirt with his recently deceased father-in-law’s name on it, reminding everyone of the emotional hurdles he’d had to get through while playing this innings, in addition to all the cricketing ones. Narine, in the process of picking up 13 off the last four balls he faced from Ashwin, got to his fifty as well.

Rana and Eoin Morgan smacked the bowling around for 37 off 18 after Narine’s dismissal, and though both fell off the last two balls of the innings - Rana to one of the few shoulder-high short balls he faced - the Knight Riders were well and truly in command The real Pat Cummins He is truly a fast bowler, whose 145kph deliveries hit the pitch hard. He seams them and gets the ball to jar the bat upon impact; or the pad, as when he nipped the first ball of the Capitals’ innings back at Ajinkya Rahane and trapped him on the crease; or the stumps, as when he straightened one past Shikhar Dhawan’s outside edge in his second over to bowl him for 6, following innings of 69*, 57, 101* and 106*.

From 13 for 2, the Capitals went for the approach that most chasing teams have employed in this IPL - preserve wickets and back your lower

order to catch up with the required rate.

Iyer timed the ball like a dream right from the moment he came to the crease, and check-drove Cummins wide of mid-on for four; and Pant hooked his fifth ball for six.

But neither batsman took too many chances either side of that sort of strokeplay, and the Knight Riders bowlers didn’t give too many freebies away.

Enter Chakravarthy When you need 119 from 54 balls, you need to take

by

t h e second ball he faced from Chakravarthy to the fielder at deep square leg, for instance, and Shimron Hetmyer and Iyer also fell to catches on the boundary in his second over.

But Chakravarthy, and Narine too, bowling with a modified action that hid the ball behind his back before delivery, like a slow Jeff Thomson - bowled differently to Ashwin on a pitch that didn’t offer too much grip.

Ashwin didn’t necessarily bowl a Test-match trajectory, but he certainly hung the ball in the air for longer than Chakravarthy and Narine did. The two Knight Riders spinners instead bowled much like their seam-bowling counterparts, predominantly quick and into the pitch, short

SCOREBOARD KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS INNINGS (20 OVERS MAXIMUM) BATSMEN R Shubman Gill c Patel b Nortje 9 N Rana c Deshpande b Stoinis 81 RA Tripathi b Nortje 13 KD Karthik †c †Pant b Rabada 3 SP Narine c Rahane b Rabada 64 EJG Morgan (c) c Rabada b Stoinis 17 PJ Cummins not out 0 Extras (lb 1, w 6) 7 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 9.7) 194/6 Did not bat: LH Ferguson, KL Nagarkoti, M Prasidh Krishna, CV Varun Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Shubman Gill, 1.5 ov), 2-35 (Rahul Tripathi, 5.4 ov), 3-42 (Dinesh Karthik, 7.2 ov), 4-157 (Sunil Narine, 16.4 ov), 5-194 (Nitish Rana, 19.5 ov), 6-194 (Eoin Morgan, 19.6 ov) BOWLING TU Deshpande A Nortje K Rabada AR Patel MP Stoinis R Ashwin

O-M-R-W 4-0-40-0 4-0-27-2 4-0-33-2 1-0-7-0 4-0-41-2 3-0-45-0

DELHI CAPITALS INNINGS (TARGET: 195 RUNS FROM 20 OVERS) BATSMEN R AM Rahane lbw b Cummins 0 S Dhawan b Cummins 6 SS Iyer (c) c Nagarkoti b Varun 47 RR Pant † c Shubman Gill b Varun 27 SO Hetmyer c Tripathi b Varun 10 MP Stoinis c Tripathi b Varun 6 AR Patel b Varun 9 K Rabada c Tripathi b Cummins 9 R Ashwin not out 14 TU Deshpande c Morgan b Ferguson 1 A Nortje not out 0 Extras (lb 1, nb 2, w 3) 6 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 6.75) 135/9 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Ajinkya Rahane, 0.1 ov), 2-13 (Shikhar Dhawan, 2.3 ov), 3-76 (Rishabh Pant, 11.2 ov), 4-95 (Shimron Hetmyer, 13.2 ov), 5-95 (Shreyas Iyer, 13.3 ov), 6-110 (Marcus Stoinis, 15.1 ov), 7-112 (Axar Patel, 15.5 ov), 8-132 (Kagiso Rabada, 18.5 ov), 9-135 (Tushar Deshpande, 19.5 ov) BOWLING PJ Cummins M Prasidh Krishna KL Nagarkoti LH Ferguson SP Narine CV Varun

O-M-R-W 4-0-17-3 2-0-19-0 2-0-11-0 4-0-30-1 4-0-37-0 4-0-20-5

of the batsman’s natural hitting arc.

To this Chakravarthy also added a layer of mystery, getting his wrong ‘uns in particular to kick up off the surface. Occasionally he bowled one slower, with more loop, but usually did this while bowling a wider line.

The wickets kept tumbling, the Capitals’ task grew increasingly desperate, and the Knight Riders began looking more and more like the Knight Riders of old.

(ESPNCricinfo)

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

39

Kings XI Punjab apply late strangle on Sunrisers Hyderabad to seal incredible win were beaten in Khan’s first over, then Rahul hastily stabbed a shorter googly towards midwicket in Khan’s second over. Khan made the incision in his third with a tossed-up googly that dipped sharply and bowled Rahul through the gate for a run-aball 27.

The collapse, part two

The collapse, part one

T

he Kings XI Punjab had no business winning this. They had managed all of two boundaries in their last 13 overs, and it could’ve been just one, had David Warner not fumbled at wide long-off in the final over of the Kings XI’s innings.

Rashid Khan, Jason Holder, and Sandeep Sharma all bowled skilfully to limit the Kings XI to 126 for 7.

David Warner and Jonny Bairstow then dashed out of the blocks, and rattled off 56 together in 38 balls. The Sunrisers Hyderabad had no business losing this. However, they unravelled spectacularly in the face of smart bowling on a tiring Dubai track, and were bundled out for 114, losing 10 of their wickets for a mere 58 runs.

Chris Jordan, picked in place of James Neesham, and Arshdeep Singh claimed five of those wickets in the last two overs as the Kings XI de-

fended the lowest total this IPL. The Kings XI’s come-frombehind victory - their fourth win on the trot - moved them up to fifth on the points table, just behind the Kolkata Knight Riders, who had retained their fourth spot after toppling the Delhi Capitals earlier in the day.

As for the Sunrisers, they dropped to sixth, but they’re still in the hunt for the playoffs, and are the only team outside the top three with a positive net run-rate.

BOWLING Sandeep Sharma KK Ahmed JO Holder Rashid Khan T Natarajan

O-M-R-W 4-0-29-2 4-0-31-0 4-0-27-2 4-0-14-2 4-0-23-0

Chris Jordan was man of the match

Jordan flapped a catch to short-fine leg for 7, they were 105 for 6. However, in the last two overs, Nicholas Pooran struck two fours, the second of which slid under Warner, to drag his team to 126 for 7.

ing to finish his quota by the ninth over. Abdul Samad, who was promoted to #4, took on Shami, but holed out to midoff, where Jordan grabbed an excellent overhead catch.

It probably still didn’t look enough when previous match-winners Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar were tapping the ball into the gaps, adding 33 off 44 balls.

However, it started to look enough once J Suchith, the substitute fielder, plucked one out of thin air to remove Pandey for 15 off 29 balls.

After Arshdeep Singh had Shankar nicking off for 26 off 27 balls, the equation boiled down to 17 off 12 balls, with five wickets in hand. The batsmen panicked, but Jordan and Singh didn’t, and it proved 13 runs too many for the Sunrisers. (ESPNCricinfo)

RHTY&SC, MS, and Namilco forge a highly successful cricket relationship

Rashid, and his ripping googlies

After perfectly judging a skier at deep-square leg to get rid of Mandeep Singh for 17 off 14 balls - Mandeep having been pushed up to the top in place of the injured Mayank Agarwal - Rashid tested KL Rahul and Chris Gayle with big-turning googlies.

Gayle and his off-stump

SCOREBOARD KINGS XI PUNJAB INNINGS (20 OVERS MAXIMUM) BATSMEN R KL Rahul (c) † b Rashid Khan 27 Mandeep Singh c Rashid Khan b Sandeep Sharma 17 CH Gayle c Warner b Holder 20 N Pooran not out 32 GJ Maxwell c Warner b Sandeep Sharma 12 DJ Hooda st †Bairstow b Rashid Khan 0 CJ Jordan c Ahmed b Holder 7 M Ashwin run out (Shankar) 4 Ravi Bishnoi not out 0 Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 5) 7 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 6.3) 126/7 Did not bat: Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh Fall of wickets: 1-37 (Mandeep Singh, 4.6 ov), 2-66 (Chris Gayle, 9.6 ov), 3-66 (KL Rahul, 10.1 ov), 4-85 (Glenn Maxwell, 13.4 ov), 5-88 (Deepak Hooda, 14.2 ov), 6-105 (Chris Jordan, 17.3 ov), 7-110 (Murugan Ashwin, 18.2 ov)

At the other end, Holder kept hiding the ball away from Gayle’s swinging arc.

Gayle duly tried to manufacture a boundary, but couldn’t clear long-off. Then, when Glenn Maxwell searched for a release, he holed out to longon. He has now played out 100 balls this IPL without hitting a six.

In the absence of Neesham, the Kings XI’s batting was lighter, and when

Even though the pitch was slowing down in the second half, the total didn’t look enough. It certainly didn’t look enough when Warner and Bairstow dominated the Kings XI in the powerplay, sprinting to 52 without loss.

Warner reverse-whipped leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi’s first ball for four, and then when he attempted an encore off the second, he tickled a googly behind and was given out following a successful review from Rahul, who had caught the ball behind the stumps.

In the next over, M Ashwin, the other leg-spinner, drifted a leg-break in and bowled Bairstow around his legs.

Rahul then punted on Mohammed Shami and brought him back, decid-

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD INNINGS (TARGET: 127 RUNS FROM 20 OVERS) BATSMEN R DA Warner (c)c †Rahul b Ravi Bishnoi 35 JM Bairstow † b Ashwin 19 MK Pandey c sub (J Suchith) b Jordan 15 Abdul Samad c Jordan b Mohammed Shami 7 V Shankar c †Rahul b Arshdeep Singh 26 JO Holder c Mandeep Singh b Jordan 5 PK Garg c Jordan b Arshdeep Singh 3 Rashid Khan c Pooran b Jordan

0 Sandeep Sharma c Ashwin b Arshdeep Singh 0 T Natarajan not out 0 KK Ahmed run out (Ravi Bishnoi) 0 Extras (w 4) 4 TOTAL (19.5 Ov, RR: 5.74) 114 Fall of wickets: 1-56 (David Warner, 6.2 ov), 2-58 (Jonny Bairstow, 7.2 ov), 3-67 (Abdul Samad, 8.5 ov), 4-100 (Manish Pandey, 16.1 ov), 5-110 (Vijay Shankar, 17.5 ov), 6-112 (Jason Holder, 18.3 ov), 7-112 (Rashid Khan, 18.4 ov), 8-114 (Sandeep Sharma, 19.2 ov), 9-114 (Priyam Garg, 19.3 ov), 10114 (Khaleel Ahmed, 19.5 ov) BOWLING Mohammed Shami Arshdeep Singh M Ashwin Ravi Bishnoi CJ Jordan

O-M-R-W 4-0-34-1 3.5-0-23-3 4-0-27-1 4-0-13-1 4-0-17-3

The first division team making a donation to the Rose Hall Town Primary School

I

n September 2019, the National Milling Company of Guyana (NAMILCO) Ltd came on board as the official sponsor of the first division team of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, MS, replacing Gizmos and Gadgets in this regard.

Now celebrating its first anniversary, the partnership and its achievements have cemented the position of the Rose Hall Town Namilco Thunderbolt Flour Team as the country’s leading cricket team, with an unmatchable list of achievements on and off the field.

Club Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster has said Namilco has been a strong supporter of both the first division team and the Under-21 Team, which it also sponsors. On the cricket field, The Rose Hall Town Namilco Thunderbolt Flour First Division team has won three different tournaments under the sponsorship, and participated in a semi-final match before the COVID-19 pandemic stopped activities of the Berbice Cricket Season.

The team won the Busta Champion of Champions 40 overs tournament; the Ivan Madray Memorial 20/20, and the Sky Vodka 50 over tournaments. The team has also qualified for the semi-finals of the historic Banks Beer first division two-day tournament,

finishing second to arch-rivals Albion Cricket Club in Zone B. This team was scheduled to play the Young Warriors CC in the semifinals, but had been unable to so do because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rose Hall Town Namilco Thunderbolt Flour Under-21 team is also waiting to play Albion CCCC in the finals of the Berbice Cricket Board’s Elizabeth Styles tournament.

These two teams have produced several players who have gone on to represent Berbice, Guyana, and even the West Indies.

Matthew Pottaya, Christopher Deroop, Jonathan Rampersaud, Nyron Hicks, Mahendra Gopilall and Jeremy Sandia represented Berbice at the junior level.

Clinton Pestano and Kevin Sinclair played for Guyana at the senior level while Assad Fudadin turned out for the Jamaica team in the CPL tournament. Kevin Sinclair, also, played for the West Indies Emerging Team which won the Cricket West Indies 50 overs tournament before going on to become a sensation for the Guyana Amazon Warriors 20/20 team in the Caribbean Premier League.

Three of this team’s female players: Shemaine Campbelle, Sheneta Grimmond and Shabika Gajnabi, have rep-

The Rose Hall Town Namilco Team poses after winning the BCB Ivan Madray 20/20 tournament

resented the West Indies on a regular basis; while, off the cricket field, the Namilco Thunderbolt Flour Under-21 and First Division teams have hosted more than 70 community development programmes as part of their personal development project. These include Youth Information Booklet, Namilco Tribute to Law Enforcement Officers, Namilco Tribute to Medical Personnel Programmes, Gregory Gaskin Berbice Sports Awards, Walter Nero Memorial Father of the Year, DTV-8 Mother of the Year, Clean-up campaign of the Rose Hall Town public beach, School bags distribution programme, old age pensioners monthly breakfast programme, donations to senior citizens and children’s homes.

Other programmes include assisting more than 100 youth cricketers to acquire their own gears, and distribution of 6000 food hampers under the Basil Butcher Trust Fund.

Over $1M worth of chicken products, face masks, sanitizers and cleaning detergents were shared out as part of the COVID-19 response, while donations of vital items were also made to hospitals, post offices, police stations and NDC/ Town Councils. Donations were also made to several persons whose houses were either destroyed by fire or had fallen down.

Additionally, the team has co-produced the RHTY&SC 30th Anniversary Magazine and co-organised numerous activities to mark the historic anniversary.

Foster hails the relationship between the RHTY&SC, MS, and Namilco, noting that the company has, for over two decades, been very supportive of the club. On an annual basis, Namilco supports the RHTY&SC, MS, by co-sponsoring its Christmas Village, awards ceremony, cricket academy, review magazine, Say No/Say Yes campaign, among other programmes.

The club and Namilco had in 2019 come together to organise a highly successful Day of Sports at the Albion Sports Complex to mark the company’s 50th anniversary. The event was a huge success, with RHTY&SC members, several volleyball clubs and students from twenty primary and secondary schools participating in cricket, volleyball and athletics events for attractive prizes.

Foster hails the cooperation of the company’s management with special mention made of Managing Director Bert Sukhai; Asst to the Managing Director, Autamaram Lakeram; Finance Controller Fitzroy Mc Leod; Human Resources Manager Michelle Majors, and Jamie Shultz.

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

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

guyanatimesgy.com

“I can still Woolford Avenue the new ‘hot spot’ for night sports serve the Caribbean” – Ninvalle O

ver two weeks ago, President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle, announced that he would be stepping down from his post on the Caribbean Boxing Steering Committee.

Subsequently, Cecil Forde of Trinidad and Tobago, who had replaced Ninvalle, also opted to resign with immediate effect.

The move raised eyebrows among the Caribbean boxing fraternity, but Ninvalle is insisting that his decision was not made in bad faith.

In fact, the GBA boss has shared that his decision was purely personal, and was influenced by consideration for his workload.

“As I’ve said, that (resignation) is for personal reasons, that’s why I stepped aside,” Ninvalle has said.

Declaring himself still committed to serving the Caribbean, Ninvalle explained, “You know, there’s so much that your shoulders can take. I have not resigned from the Americas Boxing Confederation, of which I’m Vice President, but the Caribbean Steering Committee. I had to step aside.

“I think I can still serve the Caribbean, I don’t have to be at the helm, but there’s

still much I can do to support; and that is what I intend to do.

“This is a very pivotal time for our region, because we go into the AIBA election that is in December.

That, of course, will steer us for the next four years. We need to make sure

t h a t whoever is engaging with the presidential candidates are persons who are trusted and respected, and persons who can negotiate,” Ninvalle stated as he highlighted some of the areas of focus for the Caribbean leaders in boxing for the foreseeable future.

“We cannot just put together a crew and have them go and represent you, because it’s vicious, and you need to have your most experienced hands on deck,” he stressed.

The GBA boss remains adamant that he would be available to serve the Caribbean boxing fraternity should the need arise.

“Again, I remain ready to give support, advice, and whatsoever is needed to move this region forward,” he declared.

Highlighting another issue that plagues boxing and pugilists in the Caribbean, Ninvalle shared that more must be demanded from the region’s leaders and representatives.

“Our region has always been on the back burner as it relates to boxing, and I think that whenever we have these negotiations we must, first and foremost, find out what is in it for the Caribbean, and then we can go to any other region.

“Many of the times you would find that we have been promised, and those promises have not been delivered. It has not materialised, it has not come true, and we stand risking the chance of having something like that happen again if we don’t have serious negotiators on hand to deal with our presidential candidates,” the GBA President has posited.

(Jemima Holmes)

T

he dedication to ensure that sports will be a major part of life in the post COVID-19 era is definitely real, as is evident from the investments being made by the various entities along Woolford Avenue and Thomas Lands.

Ever since the Guyana Golf Association partnered with the Scouts Association of Guyana and the Guyana Teachers Union to upgrade their grounds and bring another sport into the heart of the city, the area has become a magnet for development.

If you haven’t had a chance to pass by recently, it’s worth a visit to see the fully lit golf driving range that meets international service standards and is open daily until 9pm.

And as if that weren’t enough, massive renovations underway at the Muslim Youth Organization ground will see a total redo of the sports facility to include a

floodlit ball field to encourage night play when it’s much cooler, and this would extend the hours of use of the facility.

Sports fans already have access to go-kart racing at the GMRSCA race track, and the GNIC is racing to upgrade its cricket ground as per its maintenance programme, so the entire Woolford Avenue would be showpiece for a wide range of sporting activities.

Add to that the Queen’s College ground which is now in possibly itsbest condition as the much-anticipated return of cricket and football is evidently imminent.

Not to be outdone, ACDA has expended great effort to redo its facility, which would complete renaissance of the Woolford Avenue-Thomas Lands area.

Youthful Minister Charles Ramson has a strong focus on sports, and it is clear that all sports dis-

ciplines, organisations and grounds are in full support of this direction the country is taking to build events for its youths.

Head of the Guyana Golf Association, Aleem Hussain, has said, “It is exciting to see all the emphasis on upgrading of the surrounding grounds, because it would lend to the growth of all sports and bring more athletes into the ‘Sports Corridor’ in Georgetown.”

Over the past few years, golf has risen in popularity, especially among women and children; and the Woolford Avenue location has helped to make it more accessible to persons who wish to try the sport without the cost of investing in equipment.

Now with a wider choice of activities and lighted grounds, families can spend longer hours outdoors, and enjoy physical activities under strict social distancing guidelines.

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