Guyana Times - Sunday August 29, 2021

One year later…

Guyana’s 1st partial P13 skull transplant patient adjusting to life very well Nationwide coverage coverage from from the the best best news news team team in in Guyana Guyana Nationwide Issue No. 4754 guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON BEACON OF OF TRUTH TRUTH THE

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021

Diplomatic community, int’l organisations support Guyana’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign

− call on all diplomatic staff to get vaccinated

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WHAT'S INSIDE:

543lbs ganja discovered during CANU operation P26

See story on page 27

Improved water supply on P10 stream for Reg 1 residents

IDB quarterly report

Guyanese benefit from US$69M in COVID-19 banking relief through Govt policies Ogle AC Marriott No Grades Hotel to present 2, 4, 9 Environmental Assessments Management in 2021-2022 Plan to EPA − 150-room hotel to entail access academic year Page 3

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road, other infrastructural works

…NGSA slated for July 2022

“We turn to P28 him for support and advice on various matters” – brother of dead ASP Mansfield − says information is being withheld from family − driver of pick-up involved in accident still on run

Over 800 COVID-19 cases recorded P30 in 1 week

…1 more death, 180 new cases reported on Saturday

Essequibo pensioner robbed of XR motorcycle during home P30 invasion

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

NEWS

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Sunday, Aug 29 – 10:00h – 11:30h and Monday, Aug 30 – 11:00h – 12:30h

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Sunday, Aug 29 – 08:25h – 09:55h and Monday, Aug 30 – 09:35h – 11:05h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

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

WEATHER TODAY There will be sunshine during the day. Expect partly cloudy skies at night. Temperatures should range between 22 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius.

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

High Tide: 08:43h and 20:59h reaching maximum heights of 2.31 metres and 2.3 metres.

Low Tide: 14:32h reaching a minimum height of 0.96 metre.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2021

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COMMODITIES Indicators

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Crude Oil

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IDB quarterly report

Guyanese benefit from US$69M in COVID-19 banking relief through Govt policies

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he Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has revealed that persons with loans that were at risk of being defaulted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have benefitted from a whopping US$69 million through polices implemented by the Government of Guyana.

In the IDB’s quarterly report, it explained that one of the main policy tools from the Bank of Guyana was extending debt payment schedules and reducing interest rates. This relief period allowed beneficiaries to avoid having their loans classified as non-performing.

“Commercial banks agreed to provide shortterm loans at concessional rates between 5-6 per cent, lower than the prime lending rate of 10.3 per cent.

Commercial banks agreed to offer general concessional reductions of interest rates of 1 per cent and up to 2 per cent on consumer loans below G$10 million (US$48,000),” IDB said.

“The total loan portfolio of deposit-taking institutions was approximately US$1.5 billion in December 2020. Of that total, approximately US$69 million benefitted from relief measures, accounting for 4.6 per cent of total loans,” the institution further explained.

Meanwhile, the IDB noted that new COVID cases increased significantly towards the end of the first half of 2021 in Guyana. This is a trend similar to that observed in other Caribbean countries, as well as the region at large. The IDB further noted that the average number of daily new cases per month increased from 42 in January to 118 in May and declined to 80 in July.

“Similarly, the total number of deaths per month increased from 12 in January to 93 in May, declining to 72 in July. In relative terms, the seven-day rolling average of new cases per day peaked on May 28, with 80 cases per million population before declining to 50 on August 10, below the peaks of Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and The Bahamas,” the IDB said.

“Currently, only Barbados has fewer daily new cases than Guyana.

As of early July, Guyana had procured approximately 566,000 vaccine doses, of which 1.1 per cent was from the COVAX facility. Authorities have announced plans to procure 688,000 additional dos-

Bank of Guyana

es, which would cover the country ’s entire adult population of approximately 600,000.”

The IDB also touched on the Government’s measures for reducing the spread of COVID, including requiring persons entering Government buildings to show proof of vaccination.

Public transport operators, domestic and international, also have to show proof of vaccination.

“This measure has affected both private and public sector workers, such that the Ministry of Health announced on August 12 that health and public transportation on workers would be given a twoweek extension to comply

with the vaccination requirement. Regarding international travel, effective August 8, all incoming adult travellers must show proof of vaccination of at least one dose along with a negative PCR test,” the IDB noted.

Back in August of last year, President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced a series of measures agreed with the local banking sector to ease the burden on citizens. These include lowered interest rates and an extension of the moratorium on loan payments.

This meant that customers with mortgages and other loans would be spared the financial burden of servicing those

loans during the pandemic. In addition, their loans would not be classified as non-performing, ensuring that they do not default.

“Commercial banks agreed to offer general concessional reductions of interest rates of one per cent and up to two per cent on customer loans below $10 million until December 30, 2020. The existing lending rate ranges between 6.5 per cent and 16 per cent.

Some commercial banks have agreed to apply special treatment to the interest accrued during the moratorium period,” the President had explained.

“Commercial banks have agreed to waive all bank charges, including ATM and Merchant Bank charges, to encourage more out-of-bank transactions as well as…transactions by senior citizens,” he had noted, adding that these measures will not impact the soundness of the banking sector.

The Head of State had also announced that the Bank of Guyana would relax certain requirements that would allow banks to cushion their losses and increase liquidity by $9.4 billion. In December of last year, all of these COVID-19 relief measures were extended until June 2021.

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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

Guyanese Strategic Culture

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ust before the Nov 2011 General Elections, there was a conclave of five academics of Guyanese origin at Florida International University (FIU), to discuss aspects of “Guyanese Strategic Culture”; which was synthesised into a report by Dr Ivelaw Griffith and submitted to the US Southern Command.

Griffith was appointed VC of UG in June 2016. In the decade since that report, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge; which demands that our strategic culture be re-evaluated in light of the pertinent changes, and, not unrelatedly, to counter the distortions introduced by Griffith, who was Chairman of the YSM when David Granger was working his way up the local military hierarchy.

Definitions of “Strategic Culture” are legion, but the conceptualizer of the tool, which can be used to analyze the behaviour of states in the international arena, saw it as the “sum total of ideals, conditional emotional responses, and patterns of habitual behaviour that members of the national strategic community have acquired through instruction or imitation, and share with each other with regard to…strategy.”

Basically, it integrates the “emotionality” of states national pride and prestige - and the “egoism of states” (the pursuit of national interests).

For heuristic purposes, Griffith broke the concept down to four elements - 1: origins, 2: “keepers”, 3: challenges and 4: continuity and change. In terms of “origins”, these were earliest bequeathed by colonial rule, that stressed an authoritarian political culture undergirded by force.

The “keepers” after 1957 and into the present are the PPP, PNC and the Disciplined Forces.

The PNC rule between 1964 and 1992 was supported up to 1989 by the strategic concerns of the US to “not have another Cuba in the hemisphere”, which made them ignore their own strategic cultural imperatives of supporting democracy and the rule of law. By 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, that concern had disappeared, and the US signalled it would not turn a blind eye to the PNC’s mockery of democracy by rigging elections and creating a dictatorship. The free and fair elections of 1992 were presaged by massive economic changes away from Burnham’s co-operative socialist adventurism, demanded by the IMF as conditionalities for loans to bail out the bankrupt country.

The PNC, which had increased the Disciplined Forces exponentially with their supporters, remained steeped in authoritarianism and anti-democratic practices, and refused to accept the legitimacy of the PPP Government.

They launched a war of attrition that widened the racial/ ethnic cleavages in the society and destabilised the integrity of the state as protests segued after the 1997 elections into ever-escalating violence.

This took an ethnic turn, and only ended in 2008, when the “freedom fighter” bandits were all wiped out by Police action and extra-judicial killings, while testing the integrity of the Disciplined Forces.

These issues were still fresh when the Strategic Culture analysis was done by Griffith, but were generally elided to present a binary of “good PNC” versus a “bad PPP” to SouthCom. Since then, we have had the experience of the PNC-as-APNU form the Government in 2015, then ousted at the polls in 2020 while attempting to rig the elections in front of the ambassadors and representatives of most of the world.

The withdrawal of the US forces in Afghanistan begs the question as to whether the US policy-makers in Washington and their armed forces on the ground heeded their analyses of the Strategic Culture of the Afghans. That is dominated by the variegated tribal nature of the society; their pride in not being defeated by any foreign power; and, last but not least, adherence to an Islamic world view guided by Sharia law. Western democracy does not loom large in this configuration.

Here, in Guyana, the US – with strategic concerns about oil and Venezuela - must also appreciate that the PNC appears unable to accept that it must jettison its anti-democratic practices. The PPP, to its credit, has never wavered in its commitment to democracy, and brings this value to Guyana’s strategic Culture.

A family evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va, on Friday, August 27, 2021 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Every teacher who is medically able should be immunised against COVID-19 Dear Editor, The coronavirus outbreak has caused major disruptions to daily life, and children are feeling these changes deeply.

While they return to school, it will be not only welcome, but exciting for many students, others will be feeling anxious or frightened.

Starting school or starting a new school year can be stressful at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic. Children may feel nervous or reluctant to return to school, especially if they have been learning at home for months.

Be honest – for example, you could go through some of the changes they may expect at school, such as needing to wear forms of personal protective equipment.

Children may also find it difficult being physically distanced from friends and teachers while at school. We could encourage them to think about other ways to bond and stay connected.

Reassure children about safety measures in place to help keep students and teachers healthy, and remind children that they can also help prevent germs from spreading by washing their hands with soap and coughing or sneezing into their elbows.

Remind children about the positives – that they will be able to see their friends and teachers (if they are physically returning to the classroom) and continue learning new things.

However, every teacher who is medically able should be immunised against COVID-19, and the Government should implement mandates to ensure that they are. Today, immunisation requirements are the rule, not the exception, for

our children.

Some educators are arguing that mandatory vaccination is a violation of freedom and bodily integrity. However, as anyone who had a good civics or constitutional law, teacher could tell you, even our most vital rights have limits.

With so much uncertainty, we have no choice but to rely on one part of the pandemic that is certain: the vaccines provide protection against the virus. For us and our children, COVID-19 vaccinations are the least our Government can do to continue the care work to which we’ve committed our lives. Inoculation alone isn’t a guarantee that our children and families would have the safe public education that they deserve, but, without question, we owe it to them and to one another to try.

The most compelling case for a vaccine requirement for educators is a moral one: What do we owe our children and students? Like it or not, the work of a teacher is inextricable from caretaking. They are responsible for other people’s children for most of their working hours every day, and they do many things in service of that obligation, which include mandated reporting of suspected child abuse, and even everyday tasks as simple as taking attendance help teachers ensure that students are safe. These are among other reasons why families trust teachers with their children.

Widespread vaccination would protect students, particularly those who are too young to be vaccinated, with little risk of serious harm to anyone involved. How, in good conscience, can teachers refuse this opportunity?

It’s human nature to protect our children above all

else, and the best way to protect them is to get everyone who is eligible vaccinated, and surround children who are not yet vaccine-eligible with people who are vaccinated to effectively shield them from COVID harm.

I’m a parent; parents’ rights are very important.

However, I do believe that they’re not without some reasonable limitation, depending upon safety, reasonableness, and complying with our Government’s health need.

Getting vaccinated is a key step in preventing COVID-19 infection and decreasing transmission. Continuing mitigation measures are also likely to keep any COVID-19 surges at bay, especially as our country struggles to cope with the devastation caused by COVID-19.

The single most important step a parent can take is to have everyone that’s eligible in the family vaccinated. That’s exactly what I have already done in my family. I have only my 14-year-old son left to be vaccinated, and I strongly support vaccination.

Right now, only people aged 12 and up can get vaccinated. This means there are hundreds of thousands of kids who are not old enough to get the shots. We can really lower these children’s risk if we surround these children with vaccinated people. Of course, there will still be risks at school, but the Ministry of Health has layers of protection in place that would help.

Additionally, parents, we should not overlook minor symptoms that we might have pre-COVID. So, if our child has a cough or runny nose, don’t assume it’s just a minor cold. Keep that child home, and speak to your pe-

diatrician to rule out COVID. This perception that kids don’t have to worry about the virus is wrong. In fact, COVID-19 is deadly - hundreds of kids have died - and vaccination is the key to fighting the virus.

It protects against serious illnesses and death. I know we’re still months away from vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11, but I strongly encourage anyone that is aged 12 and over to get vaccinated as soon as you can.

Personally, we have mixed feelings about returning to school. We know the joy of a busy classroom, and we know that many will benefit from the structure and socialisation that come with learning in a shared space with their peers.

At the same time, as cases rise, we sympathise with students and teachers who have experienced devastating losses in the past 20 months, and feel anxious about returning.

We have to implement commonsense safety measures, like mask and vaccine mandates, and clear and consistent protocols for dealing with COVID-19 cases in schools to help us ensure that students’ and families’ fears are abated.

As adults, we have to work together and be the examples for our children, who are malleable and impressionable.

We can all agree that our Government has one essential function: to protect us from physical harm. Many students are too young to receive a vaccine. For the Government to protect our children’s right to a public education, we are required to, at times, subjugate our liberty interests to the more important interests of our society.

Sincerely, David Adams

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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

Nation is upset with unions, Cooperation needed unvaccinated nurses, teachers between National for new wave of COVID infections Archives and GRO

Dear Editor, I was praying and fasting for God to save the people of Guyana from the virus. God appeared to me and said He would grant me one wish. I asked the Lord if He can build a bridge between Guyana and Hawaii, that I always wanted to go to Hawaii.

The Lord said, “Do you know that’s a very hard thing you are asking Me to do?” I said, “OK, Lord, how about if You can cause all our unvaccinated nurses, teachers, and others in Guyana to understand that we are in an international state of emergency and that the vaccinations save lives, not kill people, and that they should take the vaccinations so our country can move forward.” The Lord replied, “That bridge to Hawaii, do you want one lane or two lanes?”

Our Guyanese people are very difficult to deal with. Can you imagine a doctor in the protest line and 50 hospital workers not vaccinated, and they want to go into the hospital, al-

though the Government had laid out the new rules?

Can you imagine the GTU and GPSU think they can use a national calamity to score political points, and GTU threatening to sue? It’s time for teachers to form a new union and public workers too, if unions are going to play politics with our health and safety.

Since the unions care so much, they should pay for the weekly tests if they don’t want members to take the vaccine.

The unvaccinated should know there are many bloggers who are angry at their intransigence in getting vaccinated. The “Captain” said, “Protests must be meaningful. They should be protesting the worst oil contract that the APNU Govt. signed with Exxon.”

Muhammad Raoof said, “Yes, protest ‘Fu’ spread more and more of the virus.

This COVID thing spreading more, yet these people protesting AGAINST the very thing that could/would save their lives.”

Fuad Rahaman said,

“It’s a terrible act of political desperation to risk the health of your own supporters with a deadly virus just to score political points.

Even a reckless leader like Donald Trump is encouraging his predominantly White supporters to get vaccinated.

However, we have political leaders opposed to the Gov’t here recklessly putting people in harm’s way.

Misleading their supporters for 5 months after the elections about their fraudulent claim to victory failed.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now they are at it again, misleading their supporters on a public health matter that can have tragic consequences for themselves and others…”

Jim Cruise said, “I wished my PNC party would come hard and stop this nonsense. We are looking sillier as the days go by.

We are looking plain foolish… Say, is there any hope for us in 2025????”??

Here is a headline for our teachers, “New York City, The Country’s Largest

School System, Mandates Teacher Vaccinations.” And one for our nurses, “There’s no way to find a bed: Oklahoma hospitals are running out of room amid COVID-19 surge.”

And to all the unvaccinated, here is a just released report, “As Adult ICU Patients Hit Record Highs for the Pandemic, New Report Shows Unvaccinated People Are More Than 15 Times More Likely to Die From COVID-19 Compared to Vaccinated People.”

Nation, be your brother’s keeper. Encourage everyone to get the vaccine, so our country can move forward. Teachers, you mould the nation. Nurses, you are our first line of defence. Stop playing these games that you don’t have enough information on the vaccines! Ministers, please release data on numbers of unvaccinated teachers and nurses.

Sincerely, Dr Jerry Jailall

Guyana and Suriname are good neighbours with excellent relationship Dear Editor, The just concluded State Visit to Guyana by the powerful delegation from Suriname was indeed a huge success.

The meetings were well planned and carefully executed. The amicable relationship between the two First Families is certainly highly appreciated, as it strengthens the countries’ economic and political bonds.

The Guyana-Suriname Business Council will certainly strengthen the bilateral relationship between our two countries. As newcomers in the oil and gas sector, the two countries will be looking to allow each other’s Private Sectors to push sustainable development in a more meaningful way to further strengthen bilateral ties.

Expectations are sky– high as Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo is expected to lead another high-powered team from Guyana to Suriname, where there will be thorough discussions on the handling of any potential oil spill. Since Guyana and Suriname share the powerful rainforest in this part of the world, the meeting in Suriname will discuss the two countries’ preparation for the important International Climate Change Conference, to be held later this year.

It is indeed heartening to know that the Guyana/ Suriname Strategic Dialogue Cooperation Platform

(SDCP), which was set up between the two countries in November 2020, is functioning even better than expected.

As a result of the policy papers provided by the SDCP, the two countries are presently benefiting from better coordination initiatives in foreign policy and political dialogue, environment, security, health, infrastructure and transportation, agriculture, investment, trade, and enhancement of the Private Sector.

The thorough discussions on the many issues that took place between the technical teams from the two countries, and particularly the positive approach by the two leaders - His Excellency President Mohamed Irfaan Ali and His Excellency President Chandrikapersad Santokhi is a clear manifestation that our two countries, and particularly our people, will benefit significantly.

Their Excellences expressed satisfaction at the signing of that historic Air Services Agreement on December 7, 2020 between our two countries.

However, all Guyanese and Surinamese, along with the wider population in this hemisphere, are looking forward to the construction of the Corentyne River Bridge.

That bridge would further open up our two countries with a better flow through

the entire Caribbean and South America.

The tourism sector will certainly blossom, as our precious ‘Lung of the Planet’ -the rainforest- becomes more easily accessible to ecotourism.

Our Caribbean sunshine, hospitality, and that muchsought-after breath of fresh air will certainly create an influx of ecotourists into our Guyanese “slice of Paradise”.

As for sports, it is most heartening to hear that we would have the restart of the Inter Guiana Games (IGG).

Our youths and students are looking forward to participating in, and competing at, the

IGG. Those Games exposed our youths to international competition at a very young age, and fostered better relations between our nations.

Significantly, only students who are in school are allowed to participate in these Games. Hence both countries recognise that education is a must, and our students’ priority must be education.

Our two nations are surely going to benefit from the two Governments’ excellent relationship.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

Dear Editor, The Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana and the General Registry Office (GRO) of Guyana should cooperate to transfer old records to the National Archives, especially for ancestral research.

These documents are rapidly decaying, and should be digitised as soon as possible.

For some time now, the Walter Rodney National Archives has been seeking from the GRO old birth, death and marriage records to aid the public in research, especially since they have the space and support staff to do so. GRO is overwhelmingly busy.

And while there have been improvements, more has to be done.

During my visit at GRO, I observed that their office was packed and chaotic upstairs. People did not form a line, nor had a ticket number for their inquiry. It was a futile visit. The need to conduct research for educational purposes, ancestry, and finding family members is of great importance for many Guyanese, both at home and abroad.

The corruption of indentured immigrants’ names was extraordinary. This is why some can’t connect with lost relatives, have

one name, or have three names all together as one. Many times, the father’s first name ended up as the surname of the newborn. This happens when there are language and cultural barriers.

The digitising of our ancestral records should no longer be delayed. This project was proposed two decades ago. With the cooperation of the Netherlands, Suriname, and Mauritius, Paramaribo has one of the most stateof-the-art digital archives in the Caribbean. Their archives hold a large collection of indentureship and slave records, and include correspondences between Guyanse hero Cuffy, Akara and the Dutch authorities.

Guyana, The Netherlands, UNESCO, and Suriname have committed to this endeavour. We hope the project becomes a reality. The Kingdom of the Netherlands has been aiding Guyana in translating and digitising records from the Archives that relate to its presence in Guyana. The Guyana archives, like that of Suriname, will be linked to the Royal Archives of the Netherlands, thus allowing access to a vast collection of materials.

Sincerely, Ray Chickrie

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Feature

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n response to our topic last week on the nutritional aspects of pet care, one reader jumped the gun and asked whether one could deworm and vaccinate female animals when they are pregnant. Let us consider these issues this week.

Deworming during pregnancy

Scientists discovered many decades ago that puppies in the womb can be infested with worms, long before they are born.

This infestation of the foetus with worms originates from the worm burden of the mother. So, obviously, it would make sense to deworm the mother before and even during pregnancy. However, certain dewormers (especially those based on chemical compounds called "organo-phosphates") are pretty strong.

The manufacturers advise us to use only on healthy animals. Really what they are saying is that we should use these dewormers only on animals that are not under stress conditions.

Well, I can think of only a few situations in which there is less stress for the female dog/cat than pregnancy.

Furthermore, if the animal is heavily infested with worms, then that in itself represents a stress factor too.

In other words, one should keep far from these dewormers that are known

Care of Pregnant Pets – cont’d

to contain active ingredients which could create more damage than good.

Your veterinarian can give you the appropriate advice. I prefer to conduct a general check-up on the pregnant animal at least twice (once every three weeks) during its pregnancy. The caregiver may wish, under the advice of his/her veterinarian, to deworm the prospective mother dog/cat just prior to mating (when she is in heat).

In addition, I should mention that as the worms die from the application of dewormer (tablets, syrups, capsules, injections, etc.), they seen to give off toxic substances that makes the host animal ill. Of course, we now have a dilemma. If we underdose the dewormer so that its strength does not adversely affect the animal, then the worms don't receive the full blast (potency) of the dewormer, and therefore can quickly develop a resistance to the chemical in the dewormer. On the other, hand, if we over dose, we can damage the animal.

Should we vaccinate during pregnancy?

Again, allow me to refer to the manufacturers. Many of the vaccinations contain live viruses - even though these viruses may be attenuated (weakened). It is pretty much accepted that the live virus (pertaining to the disease against which you

are inoculating) could elicit a reaction that could end in an abortion (miscarriage). The rule therefore is simple.

Do not vaccinate your pet when she is pregnant.

But I will let you in on a "secret".

During my 52 years as a veterinarian, it has come to my knowledge that, on rare occasions, pregnant animals have been unwittingly vaccinated.

Not once have I experienced a consequential miscarriage. Only when one sees the puppies being born (and a check is made on the date the animal was vaccinated) does one realise that the pet must have been pregnant - perhaps a week or two - when the scheduled inoculation was administered. Of course, no one bothers to tell the vet that the bitch had mated.

This behooves us veterinarians to be especially careful when questioning the client prior to the vaccination of the patient.

Advice on miscellaneous treatments during pregnancy

1. Try not to bathe your dog with chemicals (anti-tick/flea preparations, etc.) during pregnancy. Within the same context, you might be well advised to take off the flea and tick collar during pregnancy. If an immediate invasion of ticks and fleas follows, then we may have to introduce other methods to counteract the scourge. While I am on this subject, allow me quickly to mention that when the puppies/ kittens are suckling, please do not use any chemicals on the mother dog/cat.

2. If it can be avoided, please do not use antibiotics on the mother dog/ cat during pregnancy.

3. Hormones should not routinely be administered during pregnancy unless there is a dire need therefor.

And then, only under Veterinary supervision. In my view, a reproductive hormone intervention is generally taboo, and is only to be used as a last resort and for a very specific reason.

4. If it is not absolutely necessary (and it usually is not), do not X-Ray the pet during the first weeks of pregnancy.

COMPLAINTS MANAGEMENT

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he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established on June 5, 1996 under the Environmental Protection Act, Cap. 20:05, Laws of Guyana, to oversee the effective management, conservation, protection and improvement of the environment.

The Act requires the Agency to take the necessary measures to ensure the prevention and control of pollution. In doing so, addressing environmental violations is integral to the work of the Agency; these usually occur in the form of environmental complaints. It is the responsibility of everyone to identify and report poor environmental practices. Therefore, complaint management is a vital aspect of environmental and human health protection.

In accordance with Part V, Section. 19 (1) (a) of the Environmental Protection Act, Cap. 20:05, Laws of Guyana, “A person shall not undertake an activity that causes or is likely to cause pollution of the environment, unless the person takes all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent or minimise any resulting adverse effect”.

Addressing environmental complaints

The Environmental Protection Agency continues to receive a large number of complaints related to various environmental nuisances. This steady increase has placed additional pressure on the Agency’s resources to have the complaints addressed in a timely manner. In this regard, the Agency has developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for expeditiously and efficiently addressing environmental complaints. The SoP provides for the complaints to be managed by a single hub, which would enable the Agency to track the status of any complaint at any given time, and provide accurate updates.

The Agency received 571 complaints in 2019, while a total of 581 complaints was received in 2020. The majority of the complaints were related to noise, odour, and improper waste disposal; and ranged from residential agriculture to spray painting to mechanic workshops to lumberyards and furniture manufacturers.

A collaborative approach

The Agency’s work enables Guyana to contribute to global and national environmental protection and conservation. As such, the Agency’s approach to complaints management allows for the Agency to collaborate with other key organisations to eliminate complaints’ backlog and bring resolution to many of the recurrent complaint matters. Given the many challenges we face, especially in this new COVID-19 pandemic, and adhering to the restrictions have limited the Agency’s time of response.

Agencies such as the Local Government, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, Regional Democratic Council, Guyana Forestry Commission, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Central Housing and Planning Authority have, over the years, assisted the Agency in resolving many complaint matters.

Standard Operating Procedure for complaints’ management

You, too, can assist the Agency. Members of the public can report environmental complaints utilising any of the following methods: • Complaints 24-Hour Hotline Number: 592-225-5469; or • E-mail: complaint@epaguyana.org.

Please note, complaint reports MUST include: i.

Nature of the complaint; ii. Name and address of business/entity/person causing the pollution; iii. Name of the complainant (person making the complaint); and iv. Contact information and address of complainant.

You can also message us on Facebook or Instagram.

Complaints can also be made at our Regional Offices in Whim, East Berbice; and in Mackenzie, Linden: 2. Whim Office – 337-2201; and 3. Linden Office – 444-2313.

Remember, your first line of action should be to make contact with your local government authority (Regional Democratic Council/ Neighbourhood Democratic Council) on the matter.

Please be assured the Agency will treat all information received from the public with strictest confidence. Complainants, however, should be willing to attend court and testify, should the matter require legal action.

You can share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment”, C/O ECEA Programme, 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.

7 Ogle AC Marriott Hotel to present Environmental Management Plan to EPA — 150-room hotel to entail access road, other infrastructural works T NEWS

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

rinuyana Investments, which received land from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) under the previous Administration to construct a Marriott brand hotel, has been granted environmental assessment exemption from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

According to a notice from the EPA, Trinuyana will be exempted from having to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), although it stressed that the proposed projects were not given the greenlight as yet.

The exemption, according to the agency, is because a screening determined the proposed project will not have any significant effects on the environment.

EPA is allowed this discretion under Section 11 of the Environmental Protection Act Chapter 20:05. The agency further explained that any minor issues that may arise can be addressed through the appropriate environmental safeguards.

In Trinuyana’s case, the company will have to prepare an Environmental Management Plan that will detail these safeguards.

According to the EPA, this plan will “address specific issues identified in the screening process and detail specific and practical mitigation measures to ensure that the proposed project can be undertaken in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner.”

According to the project summary, the hotel will be situated on 2.61 acres of land 2.5km south of the Atlantic Ocean and 0.5km east of the Eugene F Correia Airport.

Hotel investments

The Trinuyana sod turning last year at the site earmarked for the hotel. From left, former NICIL boss Colvin Heath-London, former Business Minister Haimraj Rajkumar, Trinuyana investor John Aboud and Clinton Williams

While the land, which used to be a sugar cane plantation, is currently undeveloped, Trinuyana plans extensive landscaping and other infrastructural developments.

The project summary further states that the hotel will be five storeys tall, with 150 rooms. Retail stores are among the hotel’s planned features, as well as a courtyard. There will also be paved parking lots with 114 parking spaces, drive aisles and site roads.

“A service road will be constructed in the west and south peripheries of the site.

Landscaping is planned in and around the periphery of the site. Areas of land will be modified, and new plants, trees arid grass will be planted to enhance the appearance of the facility,” the summary detailed.

“A new access road will be constructed north of the

site. A new bridge will be constructed at the northern end of the access road. The bridge will be constructed over an existing canal and will provide access to the facility,” the summary also stated.

In February of 2020, a sod-turning ceremony was held by Trinuyana at the site earmarked for the Marriott Hotel at Ogle. At the time, NICIL had said that the project would cost US$75 million and that geotechnical works were already underway.

Trinidadian investor John Aboud was behind the project, which NICIL had said would create over 500 jobs during and after construction. As it was one of the projects for which land was signed away just before the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) left office, there had been some uncertainty over whether it would continue.

If the AC Marriott Ogle goes ahead, it will be one of several hotels that will come on stream over the next few years. Back in March 2021, the sod was turned for a US$15 million boutique hotel under the Aiden brand to be constructed in the heart of Georgetown. The hotel, which would feature 101 “smart rooms”, is being constructed as part of the Best Western Hotel and Resorts franchise.

Globally recognised hotel brands like the Hyatt, Hilton and Radisson hotels have also expressed an interest in investing in Guyana. And in November, the Government of Guyana, through the Tourism and Commerce Ministry and the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with

investors for a US$90 million Hilton Hotel to be constructed at McDoom, Greater Georgetown.

The investors in the luxury hotel are part of a joint initiative among 658 Guyana Holdings, GREC Investment Group and TOTALTEC Oilfield Services Guyana Incorporated. It was also announced that the 289-room branded hotel would be constructed in the already busy area which is home to many businesses such as Gafoors, Pritipaul Singh Investment, Guyana Shore Base Inc, Farm Supplies, and Schlumberger.

Construction was slated to begin in January 2021 and was expected to last for two years.

Around the same time, Chairman of the Giftland Group, Roy Beepat announced plans to construct a US$100 million Radisson Blu Hotel as part of an interna-

tional chain of hotels in several destinations around the world. According to Beepat, the agreement has already been finalised to offer this five-star package to Guyana.

Last year, local construction company R Bassoo & Sons Ltd entered into initial agreements with Marriott Hotels International and the Government of Guyana to design and build a Marriott Courtyard – a US$20 million project – at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD).

This was in response to Government’s Request for Proposals (RFP) for hotels to be constructed in the vicinity of Guyana’s main port of entry. The Marriott Courtyard at the CJIA would be the second Marriott Hotel brand in Guyana, and is anticipated to be open by 2023.

8 NEWS

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Fisherman granted bail on assault charge

— labourer slapped with larceny charge

Survival…

W

T

Charged for stealing: Roopesh Shiwlall

hirty-seven-yearold Umar Jumai also called “Muggie”, a fisherman of Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, was on Friday granted bail in the sum of $25,000 on an assault charge. Jumai made his virtual appearance before Alex Moore at the No 51

Magistrate’s Court where he pleaded not guilty to the charge.

He was reportedly arrested on August 17, 2021, and charged with assault causing actual bodily harm contrary to Section 30 (a) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02.

Charged: Umar Jumai

He is expected to make his next court appearance on October 7, 2021.

Also making his appearance before Magistrate Moore was 45-year-old Roopesh Shiwlall also known as “Jack”, a labourer also of Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, Berbice.

He was slapped with a simple larceny charge which was committed on August 25. He reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to him. As such, he was released on 75,000 bail and will make his next court appearance on October 18.

…of the weakest hen Darwin came up with his Theory of Evolution, a key component was his insistence that its mechanism was “survival of the fittest” - in a process of “natural selection”. Lots of folks forget the last part. And in Guyana, they therefore miss why the PNC still survive when they’re weaker than “rotten rope”! Or, in the case of the AFC, “dead meat”!!

What natural selection means is that the “fittest” is defined by the environment. Lots of fur on an animal in the tropics doesn’t make him fitter to survive here than if he were in the frozen tundra! So, if we really want to predict whether the PNC are going the way of the Dodo, then we’d better examine the environment in which they operate. What we think is “weakness” might just be the feature needed to survive in the environment in which those two parties operate!!

Now, right now, the minnow challengers are coming after the PNC leadership, and your Eyewitness had speculated that Granger and Harmon might be using the “rope-a-dope” tactic in the “rumble in the jungle” now going on. The AFC evidently believe that the PNC big wigs are going down for the count, and in their characteristically lowdown (“down low”?) manner, they’re trying to carve out some space for themselves before the referee slaps the canvass! They’ve made their move in Region 4 RDC, where two of their Councillors are challenging the PNC Chair and his Deputy.

Now, we know there was some bad blood even before the elections, when the AFC was promised the Reg 4 Deputy’s post but the PNC reneged! But note the timing of the challenge: Ramjattan figures the PNC ship is sinking, and like the rat he is, he’s jumping off!!

Poor fella. But then he’s not exactly noted as a strategic player, is he? Like the minnows, he doesn’t appreciate the importance of the environment for the PNC and their present leadership’s survival potential.

In Guyanese politics, control of the Party’s organisational mechanisms - especially the voting mechanisms at Congress - is crucial for political survival, especially at the top. All the noise and bluster by the minnows - and now the move by Ramjattan and the AFC - will be for naught, like mutts barking at a passing car! - since Granger and Harmon control the party’s mechanisms!! Why do you think fewer than the proverbial handful of PNC MPs have criticised Granger implicitly or explicitly??

Granger will ensure that only folks loyal to him get invited to Congress - virtual or live. And in this environment, Granger is the fittest!! As they say in Guyana, “moutar different from guitar”!!

And it’s been all moutar from the minnows up to now!! …of the economy The Delta variant of COVID-19 is forcing even the developed economies to rethink reopening up their economies. They had a head-start with vaccines - and hogged them for the longest while to take care of their own - but now they’re facing the same challenges as we are. On one hand, the new strain’s proving to be much more invasive that the previous ones, and there’s no way to predict that future mutations won’t continue this trend.

On the other hand, all countries are faced with “vaccine hesitancy”, along with the long established antivaxxers. This is the big stumbling block to reaching the nirvana of “herd immunity” - where the vaccine spread will be self-contained. In Guyana, it’s unfortunate that politicians seeking to challenge the PNC leadership are leading a movement to encourage “non-vaccination” under the false dilemma of “my body, my choice”!!

They’re simply exacerbating the stranglehold on the economy more than even the mandatory distancing, masking and hand-washing have caused.

Undermining the PPP regime? …and success The epitome of survival and success in Guyana, of course, has to be Cheddi Jagan. Imagine, remaining 28 years in the political wilderness, yet believing his day would come!

There is something to be said for blind faith!!

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

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10 NEWS Improved water supply on stream for Reg 1 residents SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Minister Croal during his visit to the area on Saturday Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal interacting with a resident of White Water

R

esidents in White Water, Region One, (Barima-Waini), can look forward to enjoying improved access to potable water in the new year, according to Housing and Water

Minister Colin Croal.

The Minister made this announcement during an outreach at the White Water multi-purpose hall on Saturday and was accompanied by Health Minister, Dr

Frank Anthony.

During his engagement, Croal stated that a number of new wells will be drilled within the Mabaruma sub-region in 2022. After the drilling of these wells,

systems including those in Wauna, White Water and Kamwatta will be interconnected.

“By doing this, residents within these communities will experience increased water pressure and overall improved water access,” the Minister said.

This adds to a list of programmes that has seen significant improvement in the sub-region over the past year.

Less than two weeks ago, a needs assessment was conducted in the Mabaruma sub-region by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), which highlighted the importance for the expansion

of the region’s services.

Minister Croal stated that in addition to increased water access, the Ministry, through GWI, will also be training a number of Community Support Officers (CSOs) to monitor and give technical support to water systems in the area. This, he said, will significantly benefit the communities and improve the water service.

In addition to this, Minister Croal noted a number of upcoming training programmes, which will be led by the Labour Ministry – Board of Industrial Training.

Meanwhile, Minister Anthony outlined the en-

hancement of regional health services, including upgrades of the Mabaruma Regional Hospital and White Water Health Post, among other developments.

The Minister, in highlighting that Region One has the highest vaccination rate in the country, encouraged residents to continue the pace of inoculation.

He also engaged residents on Government’s vaccination programme for children with the Pfizer/ BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. He emphasised that vaccines are safe and scientifically proven to be the best way out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEWS

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PNC’s racist economic policies

W

e close August by addressing another revisionist assertion about Forbes Burnham: that his government’s systemic policies towards Indian Guyanese were not

“racist”.

In 1964, Burnham inherited an economy dominated by colonial interests, where Indians had independently created their major economic niches outside of sugar - rice and a toehold in importation and retailing. Rice production had reached 275,000 tons, becoming the largest employer of Indians who had entered mainstream retailing Ravi Dev in Georgetown.

However, after 1965, the PNC mandated all rice be bought and sold through governmental entities. It fixed a low domestic price, and then exported the rice at much higher prices.

The huge 118% implicit tax on rice farmers crippled the industry, which by 1985 had shrunk to 95,000 tons.

Examining the proposed spending in the PNC’s 1972-76 development plan, present UG Chancellor J.E. Greene concluded, “The crucial factor in terms of patronage is the shift in the proportion of government expenditure away from the Indian farmer into the pockets of the African wage earner.”

In the sugar industry, Indian Guyanese comprised the bulk of the low-paying field labour, and were pitifully poor. But after “profit sharing” was arbitrated in 1968, they received a welcome average of a month’s salary as “back pay”. In 1974, however, when sugar prices spiked, the PNC Government imposed a levy on profits, scooping off $256M by 1975 and US$1.5 billion by 2003. Neither the workers received their share of profits (60%) nor the industry their 40% for reinvestment in field and factory. Sugar was crippled

by PNC’s misguided policies, even as it funded the economy.

The military and militarised units such as Police, Army, National Service and Peoples Militia were boosted to absorb the bulk of unemployed African-Guyanese youths. By 1976, according to Prof Ken Danns, Guyana had “Disciplined Forces” with a combined strength of 21,000, up from 2631 in 1965. Its soldier-to-civilian ratio of 1:35 was one of the highest in the world. According to the Latin American Bureau, “The intake into all of the disciplined services is 90% black, reflecting the widespread violation of entrance requirements exercised by leaders of the ruling party.”

To support this manpower, spending moved from $22M or 8% of the budget in 1966 to $113M or 14.2% of the budget in 1976.

By 1977, the Government nationalised and controlled over 80% of the economy. Between 1965 and 1981, the bureaucracy - including that for “regionalisation” and 7 new Ministries - grew by over 400% from 27,000 to 124,000. The upper and middleclass supporters of the PNC were empowered through jobs in the bloated public sector (including the nationalised industries), boards, and directorships of Government corporations. “State control …gave to the regime control of the lion’s share of the country’s economic resources, to be used for the satisfaction of the patronage claims of its black and coloured supporters.”

According to Prof Percy Hintzen. Indian-Guyanese were further miniaturised in the Public Sector.

Housing was another area to transfer wealth to PNC supporters. The 1972-76 “Feed, Clothe and House the Nation” plan called for building 65,000 “housing units”. According to Carl Greenidge, “Some 31 subsidised, low-cost housing schemes were initiated between 1970 and 1980…The estimated costs were some $500M. In addition…several housing schemes, including North Ruimveldt, Meadow Brook, and Lodge Backlands, were developed by the CH&PA.” There were also several schemes in rural areas for PNC supporters, such as De Kendren, Crane, Wisroc. They were all African-Guyanese- dominated, Indian-Guyanese had to “squat”.

The PNC instituted an External Trade Bureau (ETB) to control importation of all goods; distributed through the intriguingly named “Knowledge Sharing Institute” (KSI) - most located in African-Guyanese-dominated areas. In Linden, there were 11 KSI outlets, while in the sugar belt stretching across the Coast, and with several times the population, there were five. These destroyed Indian-Guyanese importation and “shop-keeping”/ retail sector.

Co-operatives were the vehicle for transforming the “small” African Guyanese man into a “real man”. The newly established Co-op Bank provided loans, while the Ministry of Co-ops provided land, implements, seeds and technical help. The Guyana Marketing Corporation, Chaired by ASCRIA’s Eusi Kwayana, provided markets.

Co-ops paid no taxes on profits.

Unlike present claims, the MMA, which opened up 54,000 acres for rice and cash crops, was opened up to both African and Indian-Guyanese from Region 5. Unfortunately, most Africans subleased their lands to Indian-Guyanese farmers.

Their motto remained, “Laboro, ergo sum” – I work, therefore I am” – even when unprofitable.

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FEATURE

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One year later…

Guyana’s 1st partial skull transplant patient adjusting to life very well

By Lakhram Bhagirat

J

ust over a year ago, Guyana broke new neurosurgical ground with its first ever partial skull transplant done on then 24-year-old single mother Analisa Latchman.

Now, one year later, Analisa is on the road to full recovery and thanking everyone involved.

At the age of about 10, the Lima, Essequibo Coast resident began noticing an indentation on her forehead and that began her never-ending doctors’ visits. For all of her teenage and young adult life, she had been in and out of doctors’ offices.

The indentation on her left forehead was causing her eyes to recede into her skull and as she matured, it became more pronounced.

She had, at that time, no pain or anything that really warranted immediate medical attention. However, as she matured and reached her 20s, she started to experience constant headaches.

“In 2019 around August, I visited an ophthalmologist. Well he said that the eye had a problem and I should get a CT scan done.

I was thinking it was the eyes, that was causing the severe headaches and so at the time I was working and I went and got the glasses and then I went and got the CT scan. My cousin who is a doctor was with me during the whole process,” she recounted.

After the scan was done,

Analisa saw neurologists and other specialists but no one could have given her a definitive diagnosis and her condition was worsening.

She started getting severe headaches that resulted in the loss of consciousness and that began scaring her.

The sporadic episodes of loss of consciousness started in June 2019 and eventually became regular.

During my recent conversation with her, she recounted that she was scared because she was a single mother and her condition was inhibiting her ability to care for her daughter, Arianna Mansie.

Dr Sarah Lall Khan, Analisa’s cousin, took her to meet with neurosurgeon, Dr Amarnauth Dukhi.

“In June I got the first

episode of loss of consciousness and then it kept progressing like, you know, it will happen like every three days, every four days and then it gone to every two day and so. My cousin said that Dr Dukhi was our last option. I saw Dr Dukhi on the first of July, I could remember clearly and from there when I saw him, he told me exactly what was happening and that I needed surgery so to fix it,” she said.

She was diagnosed with craniofacial dysplasia.

However, after Dr Dukhi looked at her scans and records, he later diagnosed her with one of the rarer forms of craniofacial bone disorder – craniofacial fibrous dysplasia. According to the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, fibrous dysplasia

is a non-malignant condition in which normal bone and marrow are replaced by fibrous tissue and haphazardly distributed woven bone.

In Analisa’s condition, her skull and facial bones were affected, and were not as hard as normal bone; and because those “bones” were soft and stringy, they were more fragile and prone to break.

She required surgery to fix it and Dr Dukhi began crafting her treatment plan.

Dr Dukhi and team had to create a replacement for 40 per cent of Analisa’s skull, so he took scans and reconstructed it in 3D. He concluded that she needed a replacement and they were able procure the services of KLS Martin in the United States to have a partial skull replacement customised to Analisa’s specific needs.

Brain surgery is generally expensive because of its particular approach

as well as the risk involved and being a single mother meant it was a struggle for her. Also, Dr Dukhi approached the Administration of St Joseph Mercy Hospital for assistance, as well as local businessman and Vice Chair of the Hospital’s Board, Chris Fernandes, who offered to cover the hospital costs for Latchman’s surgery.

So Analisa just paid a fraction of the cost for her surgery. She also received donations from a number of persons to aid.

…one year later

Ever since Analisa underwent surgery on August 22, 2020, her life has been somewhat pain-free and she is now adjusting.

“I can tell you that surgery at a young age can really change someone’s life.

Since then, my life is not the

same, it’s like everything I have to take precautions of. My entire diet has been changed. I am not the person I was let’s say five years ago but I’m here doing my best,” she said.

TURN TO PAGE 18

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The Small Business Bureau and its evolving role in Guyana’s transformative economic agenda

T

HE Small Business Bureau (SBB), having been established by the previous PPP/C administration, has an important role to play in Guyana’s long-term economic development. The growth and development of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are of paramount importance in developing economies such as Guyana; to not only contribute to growth in GDP, but also the creation of employment and improved livelihoods for our people through the creation of wealth and prosperity, inter alia, sustainable development.

Access to financing is typically difficult for SMEs, owing to a series of limitations with respect to the businesses themselves, and, by extension, the management and owners of the said enterprises. With respect to the technical limitations of businesses, most SMEs lack crucial expertise in the industry within which they operate, such as sound financial management practices, and particularly cash-flow management. These, therefore, inevitably disqualify such entities from accessing financing through the commercial banks. Moreover, this is compounded in light of the underdeveloped nature of Guyana’s financial market.

The very nature of microfinancing and venture capital firms, which are the ideal institutions that are structurally designed to propel the growth, emergence and development of SMEs, is largely non-existent in Guyana, except for the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED). It is this kind of institutional framework, therefore, that I envisage the Small Business Bureau can bridge in the form of a hybrid of these two types of institutional frameworks, in order to achieve its mandate with a very high level of success; that is, to function both as a microfinance institution and a venture capital firm.

It is against this background that I am of the strong view that the SBB can be overhauled structurally and be repositioned.

As it is currently, the SBB administers a revolving fund of US$5 million through a local commercial bank, where that fund is used as partial security to incentivise the commercial bank(s) to lower the interest rates on loans extended to SMEs. Notwithstanding, this is not sufficient, given the limitations and lack of incentive by commercial banks to invest more technical resources to ensure the success of SMEs, or, more particularly, new ventures. It is this gap that the SBB needs to bridge, and hereunder mentioned are some of my thoughts on how to strategically achieve these goals: (i) The SBB needs to do more in terms of extending technical support to SMEs and applicants seeking to establish new business ventures in close working collaboration with the banks.

In so doing, it needs to develop its training and development capacity to entrepreneurs in the area of business strategy and decision-making, financial management and other key areas in management training. This should be in the form of a mandatory six-week course and/or ongoing training and support. (ii) The SBB needs to work with all the chambers and business-support organisations across the length and breadth of the country, to provide support, build capacity, and offer its products and services to entrepreneurs throughout the country.

Memoranda of understanding can be established with these organisations in this regard. (iii) The SBB needs to obtain additional funding apart from the US$5 million revolving fund from the GRIFF funding mechanism. It needs funding to the tune of about US$20 million.

Additional funding can be accessed through MSMEs funding programmes through the Caribbean Development Bank, InterAmerican Development Bank, and the World Bank. (iv) A larger percentage of the funding can then be allocated towards grants, so that more potential entrepreneurs can benefit from grants after having undergone the requisite mandatory training in business, financial management, and entrepreneurship by the SBB. (v) The SBB also needs to function as a venture-capital firm wherein, for new ventures where grants and/or loans are being extended, it can have a strong technical team to manage these portfolios in conjunction with the banks, and provide ongoing technical managerial oversight to ensure a higher success rate of new ventures benefiting from the SBB’s pool of funding for at least one year. After this period, all SMEs can continue to benefit from other technical support as they pursue successful growth strategies. And finally, for now, (vi) More financial institutions need to come on board to administer the SBB funding programme, for SMEs to achieve greater access and expediency.

The SBB as an institution now needs to evolve to play a larger development-financing role, in order to successfully achieve its mandate and contribute to achieving equitable economic development within the framework of a wider spectrum.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------About the Author: JC. Bhagwandin is a financial and economic analyst. 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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18 FEATURE

Guyana’s 1st partial skull transplant...

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM29

“I’m not 100 per cent recovered, properly as yet but I believe I’m getting there. I am still getting headaches in an out but they are not as bad and I am guessing that it is all part of the healing process. Dr Dukhi did tell me that it will take some time for me to be 100 per cent better and I am holding on to that,” Analisa added.

Speaking about the recovery process, Analisa told me

Analisa and her daughter Arianna

FROM PAGE 13

that it has not been a smooth ride. As expected with any medical procedure, the recovery process is hard but brain surgery puts that recovery into another realm. After surgery, Analisa made frequent visits to Dr Dukhi for checkups but now those visits are every three months since her recovery is progressing in line with the plan.

“I had to do back scans and so to see what was happening, how I’m heading along with the healing process. But so far everything is quite okay.”

Just about three months ago, Analisa started working again. She is now a Credit Officer at the Small Business Development Finance Trust in Essequibo. According to her, work has helped her avoid depression since she was holed up at home recovering.

Analisa added that she is extremely grateful for the assistance she would have gotten leading up to her surgery and after.

“I must thank my doctor, Dr Dukhi. He’s been a very wonderful person. He’s a humble person, and a very helpful person and without him, I don’t know where I would have been today. He has done so much and I thank him.

Thank you so much to the entire public, everyone that supported me and I don’t even know half of the people have supported me. Mr Chris Fernandes played a great part in my surgery. It had some people from the village that did a barbecue to help, family, relative all. I have relatives up to now by my side and every time I call on them, they’re there. My parents I must thank them, they never leave me, they never gave up on me they, they’re always there.”

For now, Analisa is still finding her footing but is grateful that she was able to receive the help she got.

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20 FEATURE

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With sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture in mind, Michael Blake finds success in growing mushrooms

By Lakhram Bhagirat

M

ichael Blake, a man who has been in information technology for all of his adult life, is using his skills and attention to detail to find success in the agricultural field. However, the concept of growing his own food has never been foreign to the Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD) native.

Growing up, Michael’s parents had their own kitchen garden and even opened their backyard to members of the community who would farm for the benefit of the community. That has impacted the way Michael sees food and growing his own food.

About five years ago, the 42-year-old Network Operations Manager decided that he needed to look at alternative types of activities to both act as a hobby and supplement his earnings. It was then he decided to look at ag-

riculture. At the time, he had a small kitchen garden at the back of his home and his neighbours were willing to purchase vegetables from him so that further fuelled the decision to enter into the field.

However, he wanted to do things differently. Always being someone that takes into consideration the realness of climate change and the sustainable way of development, Michael started to explore sustainable and eco-friendly farming methods and crops.

“I started to research different farming methods and all these things and non-traditional goods. Because our agricultural sector is traditionally, you know, flooded more or less with the high demand for traditional things but I wanted to create a niche.

Also, I would have recognised in my research the dangers of a lot of chemicals we use in farming especially in Guyana.

I know it’s not properly regulated and I know farmers use

a lot of poisonous chemicals which we then ingest that can cause cancer and all these things.

“So those are the things that pushed my research.

I started looking at things like microgreens and then I came upon mushrooms and mushroom farming and that piqued my interest. So, I spent like the last three years doing a whole lot of research on mushroom farming,” he explained.

He began the experimentation with actually growing mushrooms in March 2020 and later began commercial production in January of 2021. However, mushrooms are not Michael’s only passion and he has since leased a plot of land from the Government where he is growing organic produce.

“So, mushrooms of itself, when I looked at it, it fits into a couple of the criteria I was looking for. One is sustainable, it is what I consid-

Michael Blake

er green agriculture, it is very eco-friendly and it is grown on agricultural waste. You can literally grow mushrooms on any agricultural waste from sawdust, straw, banana suckers – when you cut down the banana you can grow mushrooms there – corn cobs or any agricultural waste. I know we have a lot of waste coming out of the traditional agricultural sectors here in Guyana and I think it would be a good way to reuse and extend the value of that waste. So that was one of the big things that I identified with, he explained.

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FEATURE

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The artiste at the piano

By Jarryl Bryan

“T

int”, the song by Guyanese artiste Azariel that shows him reasoning with “Police” to release him and his heavily tinted car has now racked up over 1 million views on YouTube, less than a year after being released.

It is a monumental occasion for Azariel, whose full name is Kristoff Azariel Sauns. Azariel is also a certified aircraft maintenance engineer.

The 25-year-old who hails from Crane, West Coast Demerara (WCD), currently resides in the Turks and Caicos Islands and according to him, “Tint” is a historical moment for the local dancehall industry.

“Tint touching 1 million views is monumental, given that it’s the first Guyanese dancehall track by a male artiste to touch 1 million YouTube views. That’s something that could never be forgotten, so I’m very proud of that especially given the negative comments I

heard through the grapevine from some people in the Guyanese entertainment space,” he said.

Azariel had a busy 2020, with the release of his debut studio album “Lwlss”, dropping a well-produced music video for “Tint” and even feuding with popular local DJ Magnum.

But where did his musical journey start?

Azariel credits his cousin and local artiste Stiffy Stiff, whom he has since collaborated with on a few songs, with getting him into the studio.

“I use to write music but I use to just write it and record it with my phone and send it to people on WhatsApp and ask them what they think about it. I use to send it to my friends and some family. And my cousin Delon Garraway, Stiffy Stiff, heard it and he had already been recording music. So, he said ‘yo, you should come to the studio. You got talent. You should come and leh we put in some work’.”

Azariel said that at first, he was reluctant to make that professional leap since he was still studying aeronautical engineering. But he decided to give it a try and the result was his first song, “Gym Body” featuring Stiffy Stiff.

The young musician writes all his songs and that is something he prides himself on.

However, his musical journey has not been without its challenges.

“Some of the major hurdles faced with music in Guyana is getting recognised. Getting your music out there, played on the radio. Those are some of the initial stumbling blocks. Because it was really hard to get some DJs to play your music,” he said.

“Most Guyanese artistes can tell you, the DJs in Guyana are foreign-minded. That’s just how

Kristoff Azariel Sauns

it is. But I guess we just gotta network. That’s basically it, everything else is just promotion.

But the fact that I have a career in engineering, I don’t get to put my 100 per cent into music.

It’s basically me doing it when I get the time to do it.”

Tint If you go through YouTube comments under the song “Tint”, which has over 16,000 likes, most of them are positive and in praise of the lyrics, delivery and video quality. Special praise has been reserved for Azariel’s embrace of the Guyanese accent, at a time when several Guyanese singers and DJs strive to emulate Jamaican patois.

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23 Ebesowàna Natural Foods: Andrew Campbell’s way of transforming the local food landscape FEATURE

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best experiences.

“It was just like the total freedom, you know.

We grew up probably just listening to radio. The first time I saw a movie was a school fair and the first movie I saw was Jungle Book. And, you know, that like really scary for me because you’re hearing well, in our community, the elders will talk about tigers, which is the Jaguars and the period that they would roam.

My grandparents would talk about having everybody indoor early during that period. So, my experience seeing that and having to walk through like the jungle pathway to get home, that was a bit scary,” he recounted.

He remembered being a

from his various networks.

“I saw my athletes representing Guyana at the Under 20 South American Games…I got whatever the schools need I ensure that they got the equipment. My mom she worked with various ambassadors and through her you know she provided linkages where I can seek assistance to

Dried fruits

Andrew Campbell

By Lakhram Bhagirat

I

t is a fact that every fruit season we have tonnes and tonnes of fruits going to waste because of under consumption. In the Rupununi we have mangoes galore and every mango season we see pictures with hundreds of them just lying there, rotting.

On the coast, we have watermelons going bad because they do not sell as fast. We have pineapples becoming spoiled and banana just sitting there and getting black. It is not a case where we hoard these fruits rather a case where the demand for them in their raw form just does not coincide with the supply.

Birthed out of experimenting with dehydrating ginger, Ebesowàna Natural Foods has found a unique way to utilise those fruits that would otherwise go bad.

You must have heard about or seen some of the products from Ebesowàna Natural Foods whether it is pepper powder, the best ginger powder in the country or expertly dried fruits. Those along with rich dark chocolate are some of the products coming out of Ebesowàna Natural Foods and its mastermind Andrew Campbell.

Before we get into Ebesowàna and their products, let us learn about the man behind the idea.

Andrew was born in Santa Rosa located in the Moruca SubRegion of Region One (BarimaWaini). He lived there with his grandparents up until he was seven years old and according to him, it was a great experience.

He spent those initial years fishing in the savannah, roaming his community and having the

rather mischievous child always getting into trouble at school and home. His days entailed his grandmother running behind him in the savannah to discipline him for whatever trouble he got into.

He later moved from Santa Rosa to Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD), where his grandfather got a job on a chicken farm. There he was not only introduced to poultry rearing but also all forms of agriculture.

Back in Moruca everyone had a farm, so Andrew knew a little about farming prior to moving to Timehri.

The then young Andrew would move again, this time to the city to live with his mother.

They eventually constructed a home at the squatting settlement in Sophia, Greater Georgetown.

“We moved in there (at Sophia) that was like in December 2000. I can always remember that because it wasn’t a nice experience for me then because it was the first time I walked in like a real muddy place and falling down. I was wondering where my mom was taking me but, yeah, eventually that became my home until 2010,” he said.

After completing his secondary education at St John’s College, Andrew moved on to the University of Guyana where he read for a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in History with minor studies in Tourism. He graduated from the University in 2010 and then took up a teaching post at North West Secondary School, teaching History and Geography.

However, his impact went beyond the classrooms he taught in. Andrew got his students actively involved in sports and in the seven years he spent there, he mentored over 300 youths in the arena of football and hundreds more when it came to other sports. He was able to secure the necessary gears through funding and donation

get gears for schools,” he said.

Andrew, through the years, has also been involved in a number of archaeological expeditions in and out of Guyana.

He worked on the archaeological and anthropological survey in Paramakatoi, the Siparuni Trail or the Old Indian Trail that was used for hundreds of years by Indigenous people. He worked on the Red House Restoration Project in Trinidad as well.

Ebesowàna Natural Foods When he first moved to Region One for teaching, Andrew had to wait months before he could have accessed his salary so he needed to find alternative means of generating an income.

Realising that there is a constant demand for ginger and the North West producing, hands down, the best ginger in the country, Andrew looked in that direction.

He began liaising with farmers there and ventured into the realm of supplying ginger to

the city markets. However, that was not as profitable since there were issues with payment from vendors and other differences.

Eventually, he also acquired some lands in Region One where he farms as well.

In 2018, he was doing some voluntary work in Region Nine (Upper TakutuUpper Essequibo) when he got wind of a grant by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) so he applied. The grant was initially for US$3000 but the amount was reduced to include more beneficiaries. In July 2018, Andrew received the US$2000 grant and began experimentation.

He purchased a dehydrator, grinder and some packages to begin experimentation with dehydrating and grinding ginger.

The equipment arrived in Guyana in September 2018 and the experimentation began.

After a few trial and error sessions, he got the hang of things.

“I find that I get the better grasp of things if I go into the practical mode first and then do the theoretical just reinforce everything. Yeah, you’ll make a few mistakes and stuff like that but it gives you like a form of understanding of the whole concept of the dehydrating.

So, I read, I experimented and learned from errors and after two or three trials I got the best temperature to dry at, the period, how to stack the tray etc and the ginger was really good,” Andrew explained.

Soon, Andrew realised that he could dehydrate almost anything so he started the experimentation again. He ventured into dehydrating watermelons, pineapple and bananas and they were all big hits with his roommates and friends.

He researched every fruit and the best method to dehydrate them while retaining their nutritive value.

“You have to understand which is the best temperature to dry it because if you apply too much heat you would kill off all the nutritive value, the vitamins, everything that is nutritive that that particular fruit or food. If you try at a too low temperature, it may lead fungus developing so you have to know the technique which is best.”

It was not until February 2019 that he came up with a name for his business venture.

“Ebesowàna is a Lokono family name. It means to change and transform and the idea behind that name is to change the way we utilise healthy and organic foods in Guyana and to prevent the high level of wastage.”

Under the Ebesowàna brand, Andrew dehydrates watermelon, pineapple, mangoes and bananas which he packages and sells. He also processes ginger

into power as well as a variety of peppers (scorpion, wiri wiri) into powder and flakes infused with citrus.

He has the capacity to process up to 4000 pounds of fruits and spices and is continuously growing his operation. Andrew sees his products as adding value and shelf life to quickly perishable goods while also transforming the way we look at the foods.

Chocolate making In 2019 Andrew was in Trinidad when he met up with chocolatier Jill Lian Goddard who convinced him to get into the business. Goddard operates Sun Eaters Chocolate and is also a member of the Alliance of Rural Communities of Trinidad and Tobago (ARCTT) where communities engaged in chocolate making or agroprocessing have self-control of whatever product they produce with 95 per cent of the generated income going back to the communities.

She encouraged Andrew to get into chocolate making using the same model as ARCTT. He was convinced at the end of their meeting and upon his return home ARCTT gifted him a concher while Goddard gave him a juicer to commence the

process. He along with friends raised some funds and bought a tempering machine and some moulds.

He made his first batch of chocolate in July 2019 and it was “terrible”. It was a 50 per cent dark drinking chocolate, which was made to test the bean and sugar quality. He realised that the quality of sugar available in the supermarkets were not refined enough so he went to the source – GuySuCo and bought export quality sugar.

Andrew then started experimenting again and this time the quality was to his liking. At first, he had problems accessing beans but now the supply is constant.

The chocolate making process commences with the fermentation of the beans which takes a minimum of six days.

After fermentation it moves into drying the beans and that can run up to two weeks depending on the weather. The next stage is roasting and that is critical to the taste of your end product.

Over-roasting creates a bitter chocolate and under-roasting does not allow the cocoa fat – a critical component in chocolate making – to be released.

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24 FEATURE

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With sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture in mind...

Another driver for Michael deciding to enter the mushroom farming arena is the fact that with Guyana’s new economic position and changing culinary landscape, the demand for alternative foods will increase. In fact, we are seeing that already with more and more people opting for non-traditional foods while also hopping on the health food trend.

“Historically, also, the older generations in my family had challenges with things like hypertension and diabetes and in my research, I recognised the medicinal properties of mushrooms in aiding the management of these very common lifestyle diseases. So, it fits quite a few of what I was looking for in my choice of what foods to grow and how to grow them. It is also a bit climate-resistant because you can create an indoor microclimate and grow them,” Michael added.

Currently, Michael farms his mushroom indoors where he can control the climate so that his crops can remain bountiful.

Michael grows one of the gourmet varieties of mushrooms – the oyster mushroom.

This, according to many food review blogs, carries the flavour profile of shellfish and in the raw form, they are fairly robust and peppery.

Cooking them makes it milder and with the ability to withstand longer cooking times, oyster mushrooms are the perfect meat substitutes in stews and other dishes.

“Right now, I do pearl oysters and pink oysters but through my research and development, I am now looking to move to grow other gourmet mushrooms. So right now, I’m expanding on my oyster farm and researching to start growing other gourmet mushrooms which would include the lion’s mane, golden oyster and some other varieties of oyster and eventually I’ll expand into things like shitake and other gourmet varieties.

“Once I think I would have covered most of the main and common gourmet variety, it is my intention, hopefully, maybe in about two to three years to start growing medicinal mushroom and providing medicinal supplements for our population,” he said.

Getting started and challenges

Michael understands the importance of research and when he was getting started, he made sure to inundate himself with the relevant information. However, he also believed he needed hands-on guidance which he sought from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and while they encouraged his venture, they had no resources to provide on the ground assistance to him.

Nevertheless, he persisted and networked with a Professor from the University of Guyana - Tain Campus who provided some technical knowledge on growing mushrooms.

Since Michael created his own climate room to grow his mushrooms, it means he requires steady power to ensure consistency. However,

with the unstable electricity supplied by GPL, this poses a challenge to him.

“Operationally, my challenge currently is the cost of electricity and the amount of blackout. So, if you can imagine, if I need to be running air conditioning and other things to build my environment a certain way and then GPL will say on this day, you’ll get this number of hours of blackout. I’m not at the point where I can afford a generator. So, when the blackout comes, my environment collapses and I can easily lose that crop and the whole value of that. So, I would say the electricity situation in Guyana right now is currently my number one challenge,” he explained.

Another challenge he faces is accessing the relevant tools and materials needed for mushroom cultivation since they are not readily available on the local markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a further delay in ship-

FROM PAGE 20

ping so meeting his customers’ demand is taking longer.

In order for you to access Michael’s mushrooms, you can contact him on +592 608-1116 or check his Facebook page – Callisto Farms.

He explained that the reason he sells his produce to customers directly is to ensure maximum freshness.

“This is essentially because one of the key parts of my brand is to develop the mushrooms as fresh as possible. So, nobody that gets mushrooms from me, get them in more than 24 hours after they have been harvested and the only way I can guarantee that right now, is by taking the order directly. So, most persons get their mushrooms literally within an hour of harvesting as fresh as you can get them because there is no waxy coating over it to try to store it. The mushrooms I grow, grow very delicate and usually have about seven-day shelf life. So, they degrade quickly and they need to be used fresh within seven days or less stored in a refrigerator.”

Michael advised that anyone deciding to enter the non-traditional crop arena should ensure that they research carefully. He is also offering his knowledge to those who are interested.

“Many have attempted farming and rushed into it, and only then quit after six months or a year because they did not do enough research.

For mushrooms specifically, it is my intention to do consultancies and teach others and provide resources that were never available locally here for me when I was starting. If others would like to get into mushroom farming, I am more than willing to assist. It is not a case where I think there’s a market, I’m trying to monopolise on so I’m willing to offer any assistance to anybody that is looking to get into mushroom farming.”

FEATURE

Azariel: The aircraft engineer...

According to Azariel, the song has somewhat divided opinion among actual Guyanese Police, with most tending towards the entertainment value of the song.

“Some Police found the humour in the song and some of them really like the song and a lot of times when I pull up on roadblocks, these guys would be asking me to sing the song so a lot of Police especially give positive feedback. However, there were still some that felt disrespected by it somewhat.

“That was not the intention behind the song. It was just for entertainment purposes.

Music is an expressive art form and it was just me expressing things that people face daily and not just in Guyana,” Azariel said.

The music video featured famous Guyanese personality “Kunchi” as one of the Police Officers. Kunchi himself is known for Kunchi TV productions, where he releases comedy skits. According to Azariel, working with Kunchi was a fun experience.

“With Kunchi, what you see is what you get. The same type of person Kunchi is in those videos, funny and always got everybody laughing, always being in character, that’s the type of person Kunchi is and that was how he was on the set all the time, even when we weren’t filming.”

Feud He also spoke about his feud with DJ Magnum, which saw the two men trading blows on social media and resulted in Azariel releasing his single “Belly”. According to Azariel, feuds are healthy for the musical industry once they don’t descend to violence.

“In the music industry music is an

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FROM PAGE 21

Ebesowàna Natural Foods...

FROM PAGE 23

Azariel during the music video of “Tint”

expressive art form, so a lot of people will express their feelings and somebody is going to take offense or not to whatever somebody says and they’re going to reply or not. So that’s just how it is and that’s the culture in dancehall music and most of these things don’t necessarily be personal.

“A lot of these things does be just music and I feel that is healthy every once in a while, once there is no physicality. Because anybody could get physical anytime. But that doesn’t make any sense. That’s jail time, that’s waste time. Them things don’t make no sense. Music is a way to express,” he said.

Looking forward, Azariel, who was featured on BBC Radio 1Xtra in the UK, “A Caribbean Christmas” hosted by Seani B in December, urged fans to expect more creativity from him. He promised to continue to make songs about trending topics, while

entertaining.

Azariel, who produces his music with AJ Records owned by Guyanese music producer and engineer, Adrian Johnson, was hopeful that he can return home to make live appearances on stage when the COVID pandemic eases.

He also had some advice for singers now looking to enter the industry.

“My advice to somebody now starting out in the music industry would be to produce quality music. Promote yourself as much as possible and be patient because there will be a lot of things that will make you want to stop you. You won’t get a motivation to write songs some days, things like that but you just got to keep at it. Once you’re persistent then eventually things will happen. If you fail at one song, promote it, promote it as much as possible and if nothing is happening, try something else.”

The best ginger powder in Guyana

The cracking and winnowing process comes next where the cocoa nibs are released from their shells. The nibs are then conched for at least 24 hours to make the chocolate. After conching comes tempering and that gives the chocolate its sheen as well as stabilises the solids to it takes longer to melt.

Chocolate is expensive, time-consuming and laborious so Andrew’s main challenge is the cost of power as well the unreliability of GPL. He explained that if he is tempering chocolate – which is about 6 hours – and blackout comes he has to start all over which makes him incur additional expenses.

Andrew is also working with local farmers and providing them with cocoa seedlings so they can be able to supply him in the future. He is also working with communities to get them interested in the chocolate making business.

Overall, Andrew is dabbling in every aspect of agro-business and sharing his knowledge for the betterment of communities.

With a background is history, Andrew can talk for hours about the history of every ingredient in his products.

To contact Andrew, you can visit Ebesowàna Natural Foods Facebook page or call +592 6658306.

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543lbs ganja discovered during CANU operation

A

joint operation between the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) led to the discovery of 543 pounds of ganja at Campbell Avenue, Georgetown, on Thursday.

Based on reports received, the search was conducted at two locations and on a Route

32 minibus.

Following the discovery of the large quantity of ganja, the persons were arrested and taken to CANU Headquarters where they are assisting with investigations.

Back in June, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) unearthed 136.4 kilograms (300lbs) of ganja at Unity, East

tained a total of 300lbs of ganja that was valued at $18 million. One person was arrested.

Then in July, two persons were arrested after the drug enforcement unit intercepted a vehicle and discovered 73lbs (33.2 kg) of cannabis.

CANU had reported that their officers, during an operation on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), stopped a vehicle along the Lusignan Prison Road and discovered the large quantity of ganja.

Coast Demerara (ECD).

It was reported that ranks were conducting an operation when they found a 17-foot wooden boat along the Unity foreshore with a large fertiliser bag filled with marijuana.

A search of a nearby coconut grove led to the discovery of an additional 17 bags of marijuana. The 18 bags con-

The ganja that was found during the operation

NEWS

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Diplomatic community, int’l organisations support Guyana’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign − call on all diplomatic staff to get vaccinated

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n a bid to push for more vaccinations, a number of diplomatic missions and international institutions resident in Guyana are coming on board to support the Government of Guyana’s vaccination drive.

The diplomats urged persons to get vaccinated in a combined message, pointing out that COVID-19 continues to be a major challenge for the global community.

They noted that the highly contagious variants of the virus are disrupting economies and putting strain on healthcare systems worldwide.

“Vaccines have been developed scientifically and there is empirical evidence that shows that they are very effective in combatting the virus and preventing serious illness and hospitalisation even if someone contracts the virus,” the diplomats said.

The bodies noted that the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Health, has launched an aggressive national vaccination campaign to vaccinate all eligible Guyanese, as well as visitors in Guyana.

According to the missions, their own staff are required to be vaccinated. They also reiterated the importance of Guyana achieving herd immunity.

“The missions and international organisations are encouraging their staff, colleagues and friends to get vaccinated and during diplomatic activities organised by the Diplomatic Corps, full vaccination of members is a requirement and all

preventative measures are strictly adhered to.”

“We would also like to take this opportunity to encourage all eligible persons in Guyana to get vaccinated at one of the many sites offered by the Ministry of Health and to observe the key measures suggested by the World Health Organisation to avoid infection; that is to say, the use of face masks, adequate social distancing and frequent hand washing or hand disinfection,” they stated in their message.

The signatories to the message included the Embassy of the British High Commission, the Canadian High Commission, the Delegation of the European Union, the Indian High Commission, the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba (Dean of the Diplomatic Corps) and the Embassies of Argentina, China, Malta, Mexico, Russia, Suriname, United States and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, international organisations included the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture, the InterAmerican Development Bank, the International Organisation for Migration, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the lwokrama International Centre, the United Nations Children Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Aids Secretariat.

For the month of August, 64 persons have died – 16 of which were reported by the Ministry within the past week. Meanwhile, an updated dashboard showed six more persons being admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, amounting to 28.

There are 104 persons in institutional isolation, 1576 in home isolation and nine in institutional quarantine.

Guyana’s active cases have peaked to a whopping 1708.

In terms of testing, some 264,091 persons have been swabbed since the start of the pandemic – of which 12,167 males and 12,980 females were infected. Only 22,829 have recovered. In the Region of the Americas, over 82 million infections have been reported with two million deaths. Globally, cases have surpassed 214 million with an excess of 4.4 million deaths.

Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Director, Dr Carissa Etienne had announced recently that only about 23 per cent of people in the region have been fully vaccinated, and in many countries, coverage is much lower.

Additionally, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil reported the highest number of cases. Many Central American countries, including Belize, Guatemala and Honduras are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections. Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and smaller Caribbean islands such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica have reported steep increases in new infections and deaths.

28 NEWS

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No Grades 2, 4, 9 Assessments in 2021-2022 academic year …NGSA slated for July 2022

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he Education Ministry has taken a decision not to facilitate the National Grades Two, Four and Nine Assessments for the upcoming academic year – in light of the COVID-19 disruptions which have hampered the preparation of students.

Chief Education Officer, Dr Marcel Hutson recently stated that the Education Ministry would have examined the possibility of having these assessments written during the 2021-2022 academic year.

However, it was decided that these assessments would not be possible, since students might not be able

to fully prepare themselves.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector has been affected tremendously with the absence of face-to-face learning.

“We have taken a stance that it is no point going in that direction because our students have not been exposed the way we would like them to be exposed.

So, it might not be a logical thing to have those examinations executed at this point in time. Learners entering Grades Two, Four and Nine may not have effectively completed the curriculum and therefore, these are some of the reasons,” Dr Hutson explained.

Meanwhile, the National

Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) has been tentatively set for July 6 and 7, 2022. This is since examination classes will be facilitated on a daily basis when school reopens on September 6 thus ensuring adequate contact time for students.

“We’re hoping that the children that are going into the examination classes, like the Grade Six and CSEC classes, that they’d be out every day. It’s nothing new for the Grades 10 and 11. They were out every day and they’ve done well generally,” he explained.

According to the CEO, the Ministry has been ac-

tively working to find solutions to ensure students are engaged to avoid any further learning loss.

“The easiest thing to do is to say we’re in a battle and we’re losing and therefore we should give up or wait and see how things should pan out. That is not leadership. Leadership is about fighting even in a crisis and arriving at solutions to treat a problem. We have a problem and we’re in a pandemic. Therefore, the Ministry of Education just didn’t sit down. It is easy to say we’re not ready and not doing anything but when you wear the hat, then you begin to understand the work that people have to do

Chief Education Officer Marcel Hutson

to get us to where we are.”

The Grades Two, Four and Nine Assessments were not written in 2020 either. Only the NGSA and Caribbean Secondary

Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations were facilitated.

With schools closed since March 2020, online platforms and other resources were enabled as the new tool to reach students, but there were setbacks in some remote communities owing to difficulties in access. Along with textbook and workpapers, radio and televised programmes were also introduced.

It was reported that 92 schools across the three levels will be opened, with the remainder operating on rotation basis. Others in the secondary level will resort to a full reopening as more students get immunised.

“We turn to him for support and advice on various matters” – brother of dead ASP Mansfield — says crucial information is being withheld from family — driver of pick-up involved in accident still on run

T

he relatives of former Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Gordon Mansfield, who was killed after the vehicle in which he was travelling turned turtle at Buck Hall, Region One, is not satisfied with the manner in which the matter is being handled.

Speaking with Guyana Times on Saturday, brother of the dead ASP, Karl Jones claimed that they have received little or no information from the Guyana Police Force and more so, certain information is being withheld.

“We are very dissatis-

fied with the information coming to the family, we were first told that the accident happened at 10:00h and they waited till after till 15:00h to contact the family… a worker from the company claimed that he was calling somebody and he didn’t get through… as such, I had to journey to the office in Carmichael Street to request information,” Jones explained.

The vehicle, owned by Aurora Gold Mines, was said to be transporting four passengers inclusive of the driver when it encountered mechanical problems and suffered a blowout, thus

causing the vehicle to turn turtle.

The brother explained that there was confusion with the information received from the company about where his brother had died. Jones stated that he was told by the manager that his brother died at the scene of the accident while he was told by another employee of the company that his brother died while receiving medical attention at the Woodlands Hospital.

He is, however, hoping that the Police would meet with the relatives and clear up the misinformation.

In fact, the Police in a

release close to two days after the accident, related that on Thursday at about 10:00h, a pick-up bearing registration number PVV 8623 was proceeding along the Buck Hall Road and in the process of descending a hill, the driver lost control of the vehicle which flipped several times before coming to a halt.

As a result of the accident, Daniel Powell, 24, of Caneview South Ruimveldt Georgetown; Sherwin Grimes, 53, of 300 Wisroc, Linden; and Gordon Mansfield, 56, of Diamond Housing Scheme, sustained injuries.

Teens disappear from Berbice orphanage

Mother of missing 15-year-old blames CC&PA, orphanage

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he mother of one of the three girls who went missing from a Corentyne orphanage just over two weeks ago is now blaming the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) for the child’s disappearance.

The mother has criticised the agency and the administration of the orphanage for allowing the situation to develop to the extent whereby three girls ran away and cannot be found.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 had run away from the Canaan Orphanage at Port Mourant, Corentyne, without a trace. The children were reportedly taken into custody by the CC&PA and handed over to the orphanage to be taken care of.

The reasons for removing the children from their respective homes were not disclosed but the parents are holding out that the children should have received better care. However, following the disappearance, the parents were not made aware until a

week after.

The mother of the 15-yearold girl had reported that after finding out that her daughter was missing, she was advised by the Child Care and Protection Agency not to inform the media about the incident.

The 15-year-old had been a resident of the orphanage from the age of 11 while the 14- and 16-year-olds were relatively newcomers.

Speaking with this publication, the mother related that one week after the teenager had gone missing, she received a telephone call from an officer from the CC&PA office at Whim inquiring whether her daughter had visited her.

After replying in the negative, it was then she was told that the child had run away.

“So, I tell her that I will call by my relatives to see if she had contacted them but the call was disconnected.”

According to the mother, the following day she telephoned the orphanage to make inquiries and was told

Canaan Orphanage at Port Mourant, Corentyne

that the teenager was indeed missing. “They tell me that she follow dem two other girls and run away.”

The woman said she subsequently heard that her daughter had a cellular phone and was using it to communicate with a male. As such, she questioned the reason for her not being informed of the situation but a solid response was not provided. It was only on Monday last; the mother was officially informed that the Police had gotten involved and were in search of the missing teenagers.

“What I want to know is why they did not tell me since they know that she had a cell phone. If anything happens

to my daughter, the Child Protection Agency will be responsible. If not, I will go very far with his story. We don’t know if anybody kill her or doing her anything. A lot of things does go on at that orphanage,” she said, while providing information which she asked not to be made public.

“Plenty of people talking about that orphanage. I want the authorities to look into it.

Night time I can’t sleep because of this thing with this girl,” she added.

Regional Commander Jairam Ramlakhan has confirmed that the Police are making every effort to locate the whereabouts of the three teenagers.

Dead: Former ASP Gordon Mansfield

The injured men were picked up and transported to Goldfields Health Centre where Mansfield died while receiving medical attention. The two other men were air-dashed to Georgetown where they were further treated at the Woodlands Hospital.

Grimes was admitted as a patient while Powell was treated and sent away.

The Police also stated that ranks are making every effort to arrest the driver of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the aggrieved brother explained that Mansfield was a very quiet, easy going, professional and loving individual.

“He was quite a nice person and would’ve retired as Assistant Superintendent

of Police in December and he was very fun-loving person, someone who I could always turn to for assistance, someone who is always willing to help out family members and friends.”

Jones stated that his brother was a father of two and had been married for the past 20 years.

“I could tell you it’s very hard…we’re trying to cope with it but it’s not easy.

He was one of the stronger members of the family… we turn to him for support and advice when necessary… it’s very hard at this time,” Jones expressed.

Mansfield retired from the Guyana Police Force in 2020 and joined the gold company as a security advisor. ASP Mansfield was seconded to the DPP’s Chambers in 2014 and 2016 as a Police prosecutor under the Early Case Assessment Programme (ECAP), and he had been responsible for prosecuting Police matters in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts One and Three.

After leaving the DPP Chambers, Mansfield returned to the Brickdam Police Station to serve in the Court Superintendent’s Office, and later in the Region Three Court Superintendent’s Office.

(Amar Persaud)

ECD man gets bail on robbery charge

T

wenty-four-year-old Fazal Shakir of Le Ressouvenir Railway Embankment Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD), pleaded not guilty to a robbery with violence charge and was granted bail by Magistrate R Liverpool.

Shakir was accused of assaulting Fareed Gani during a robbery on August 23, 2021. Based on investigation, the charge was instituted and as such, he made his appearance at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.

Charged: Fazal Shakir

After pleading not guilty to the charge, he was released on 50,000 bail and the matter was adjourned to October 6, 2021.

NEWS

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

23-year-old disappears after seen Over 490 children in Reg 2 now computer literate walking around “half-naked”

R

onaldo Douglas, a 23-year-old machine operator of 12th Street Diamond, East Bank Demerara (ECD), went missing since Sunday last while staying at an aunt’s La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara (WBD) home.

Prior to his disappearance, he was seen in the vicinity of his Diamond, EBD home walking around “half naked”. This was according to his father, David Douglas, who spoke with Guyana Times on Saturday via telephone.

“When I go up there in Diamond I was waiting on my wife, and then he was acting in a strange manner, walking around, eyes wide open, talking different things and I thought he was like on some drugs thing or something,” his father stated.

The man further stated that after seeing the state

that his son was in, he immediately took him to the hospital, where a CT scan and drug test were done. The results proved that no drug was found in his system and that his brain is normal.

He was provided with some medication and the doctor suggested that the father take him to a physiatrist. Based on his condition, the father thought it best for his son to stay with his aunt at La Parfaite Harmonie, who can keep an eye on him since he had to work.

Instead, the young man made his way out of the house, unbeknownst to the aunt. He was reportedly spotted in the vicinity of the Timehri minibus park, Stabroek area. He was wearing a pair of three-quarter trousers and a T-shirt.

At the time of this disappearance, the young man was unemployed. The worried father is seeking the public’s assistance to locate

Participants of RFPC/Zara Computer Training Programme annual graduation on Saturday

Missing: Ronaldo Douglas

his son. Anyone with information about the young man’s whereabouts is asked to contact his father on telephone number 681-1477.

Amid COVID-19 pandemic

Regional Leaders’ Meeting to replace National Toshaos Conference — Amerindian Heritage Month celebrations to be held virtually

I

n light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the National Toshaos Council which is normally held annually will be replaced with a series of Regional Leaders’ Meeting.

This is according to Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai during a press briefing at the Ministry’s boardroom where plans for the upcoming Amerindian Heritage Month celebrations were released.

The Minster revealed that discussions at the meetings are expected to be centred around the leaders’ concerns; their development challenges and their input for the upcoming budget for 2022.

“We will present an occasion for the leaders to collaborate…and have an engagement with Ministers to facilitate active discussions on the way forward and more so to address issues that are normally raised at the NTC,” Sukhai related.

She noted that the event will also see regional leaders being elected as executive members of the National Toshaos Council.

With Region One (Barima-Waini) having the largest number of leaders that are expected to be in attendance, Minister Sukhai noted that the region will be split into two sub-districts.

“We’ll have a meeting in the Moruca sub-district and we will also have a meeting in the Mabaruma sub-district.”

Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai

Regions Seven (CuyuniMazaruni), Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) are expected to have single meetings.

The coastal regions which comprise Regions three (Essequibo IslandsWest Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Five (Mahaica-Berbice); Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) as well as Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) will have their meeting in Region Two at the Mainstay/Wayaka district.

With this new initiative and accommodations set in place for the meetings, it is expected that all COVID-19 protocols and guidelines will be easily maintained throughout the duration of the meetings.

Meanwhile, the launch of Amerindian Heritage is slated for September 1 but will not entail the usual fanfare. This time around, the celebrations will be

held virtually with several planned activities.

The celebrations will be observed under the theme “Maintaining our Traditional Integrity, Celebrating our Cultural Identity” with the interpretation being “we believe that Amerindians should be proud of their background, we also believe that they should continue to work to sustain their traditional practices by various means, and they should uphold their culture so that they’ll be able to pass it on to the current generation and for the future generations to come.”

This year’s celebratory events will see three events as opposed to five in the previous years.

These events are a virtual concert, an art & crafts exhibition in honour of Stephen Campbell, and a series of Amerindian cuisine samplings at the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, Thomas Street, Georgetown.

O

ver 490 participants on Saturday graduated from various Information Technology programmes from the Richard Faikall Police College (RFPC)/Zara Computer Training Centre located at Suddie on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

At the graduation ceremony, which was held at the Police Training Centre, the graduating students were presented with tokens and certificates. The youngest graduates from the programme were six years old while the oldest graduate is seventeen years old.

Training began in 2020 with foundation courses and several other courses were offered during the 2020-2021 academic year including Advanced Microsoft Office Programming, PC Repairs and Maintenance, summer classes, Web Design, and also Police Training.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony was as one of the trainers, Yaleena Jairam, who explained that the institution has successfully completed nineteen programmes consisting five foundations, three advanced, two PC Repairs and Maintenance, one Police programme, and seven summer programmes in three different age groups ranging from 6-9, 10-13, and 14-17 years old.

Jairam added that this year, the Zara Computer Training Programme launched the Web Page

One of the young graduates receiving her certificate

Design course which was established and executed as an advanced level programme.

“Our goals are accomplished through partnership, hard work, and vision, from a great leadership Sergeant Handover. Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader they set out to make difference. For our leader it’s not about role, it’s always about the goals,” Jairam said.

She also reminded the gathering that for the year 2021, the institution aims to facilitate two adult foundation programmes and one advanced programme which will benefit 60 students, thus making it a total of 551 participants for the year 2021.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Gladwin Handover, who is in charge of the RFPC/Zara Computer Centre noted that he is impressed and overwhelmed at the fact that the Centre continues to provide much-needed training to Guyanese from all walks of

life, all religions, races, and ages.

“Talking about ages, I am [flabbergasted] to know that more than 400 of the people trained are youths.

It tells me Guyana’s future is bright,” Handover said to the gathering.

Delivering the feature address was Police Commander of Region Two, Superintendent Denise Griffith, who encouraged the graduands to utilise their new skills purposefully. She also implored them to use the extracurricular exposure to help them as they return to school and for their future endeavours.

One of the participants, Fawaz Ali, thanked Sergeant Hanover and the Zara team for the opportunity to study at an advanced level in the field of Information Technology.

He also encouraged his fellow youths to get onboard and enrolled.

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guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021

News

Over 800 COVID-19 cases recorded in 1 week

Hotspots in Regions 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 being monitored

− Diamond, Timehri, Sophia, Tuschen, …1 more death, 180 new cases reported on Saturday Kitty and Wismar among hotspots

GUYANA COVID-19 DASHBOARD AUGUST 28 UPDATE

NUMBER OF NEW CASES

180

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN INSTITUTIONAL ISOLATION

104

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN HOME ISOLATION NUMBER OF PERSONS IN COVID-19 ICU

1576 28

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN INSTITUTIONAL QUARANTINE

9

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES BY GENDER (FEMALES)

12,980

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES BY GENDER (MALES)

12,167

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES IN GUYANA SINCE 2020

25,147

NUMBER OF RECOVERED CASES

22,829

TOTAL 1st DOSE VACCINATED

308,758

FULLY IMMUNISED

159,460

TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATHS

610

DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES SINCE MARCH 2020 REGION 1

1354

REGION 2

762

REGION 3

2972

REGION 4

11,596

REGION 5

823

REGION 6

2048

REGION 7

1347

REGION 8

386

REGION 9

2246

REGION 10

1613

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN BE SAFE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Wear a face mask.

Keep a physical distance of at least 6 feet.

Wash your hands or use handsanitizer If you have any symptoms, call the COVID-19 Hotline.

GET MEDICAL ADVICE ON COVID-19 FROM MOH 24/7 HOTLINE NUMBERS: 2311166; 226 7480; 624 6674; 624 2819; 624 3067 OR 180/181.

I

n one week, Guyana has recorded a whopping 811 new cases of the novel coronavirus across the country, with 16 fatalities.

As of Saturday, 180 new cases were detected thus raising the total confirmed cases to 25,147. When compared to last Sunday, this figure was at 24,336.

In addition, the Health Ministry reported one more fatality on Saturday, as the death toll moved up to 610.

This is after an 81-yearold man of Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) succumbed on August 27 while receiving medical attention.

For the month of August, 64 persons have died – 16 of which were reported by the Ministry within the past week.

Meanwhile, an updated dashboard showed six more persons were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), amounting to 28. There are 104 persons in institutional isolation, 1576 in home isolation and nine in institutional quarantine.

Guyana’s active cases have peaked to a whopping 1708.

In terms of testing, some 264,091 persons have been swabbed since the start of the pandemic – of which 12,167 males and 12,980 females were infected. Only

22,829 have recovered.

Of the 180 new cases, 10 were reported in Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam); 39 in Region Three (Essequibo IslandsWest Demerara); 109 in Region Four (DemeraraMahaica); five in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); seven in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); six in Region Seven (CuyuniMazaruni); two in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); one in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and one in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

There were no positive cases in Region One (Barima-Waini).

In the Region of the Americas, over 82 million infections have been reported with two million deaths.

Globally, cases have surpassed 214 million with an excess of 4.4 million deaths.

Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Director, Dr Carissa Etienne had announced recently that only about 23 per cent of people in the region have been fully vaccinated, and in many countries, coverage is much lower.

Additionally, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil reported the highest number of cases. Many Central American countries, includ-

ing Belize, Guatemala and Honduras are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections. Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and smaller Caribbean islands such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica have reported steep increases in new infections and deaths.

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

Persons with comorbidities have been continuously asked to continue taking their respective medications or treatment to control their condition. The preventative measures and guidelines to protect against the virus must be adhered to since this category of person is at a greater risk if they contract COVID-19.

All Guyanese are reminded to observe the protocols of the COVID-19 emergency measures which emphasise the need for correct and consistent use of a face mask when leaving your home; the importance of maintaining the six feet physical distance from others; and the need for good hand hygiene.

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony

T

he Health Ministry is monitoring several COVID-19 hotspots across six administrative regions in the country, with Georgetown still recording alarming infections and increased active cases.

For Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Tuschen has 23 cases. On the East Bank Demerara in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), there are 39 cases in Diamond, 31 in Grove and 27 in Timehri.

On the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), 21 cases were recorded in Better Hope.

In Georgetown, the Ministry is monitoring 45 cases in Sophia, Greater Georgetown; 35 in Kitty, 32 in South Ruimveldt, 32 in Campbellville, 28 in Cummings Lodge and 28 in Lodge.

For Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), New

Amsterdam has 30 active cases; while Bartica in Region Seven (CuyuniMazaruni) has 33. Over in Region Nine (Upper TakutuUpper Essequibo), Mariwau village has 35 active cases. In Wismar, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), there are 18 active cases.

Speaking on the situation, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony outlined, “Currently, these are the areas where we’re monitoring more stringently but I think people in these areas need to take some additional precautions of making sure that they wear masks and social distancing more continuously and properly; and get vaccinated.”

The Minister noted that Guyanese should take the pandemic seriously and adhere to the measures, especially with the rise of the Delta variant and other surges. Otherwise, the death toll will surge.

“I really hope people take this thing seriously because if we do have a Delta surge, unfortunately we are going to see more people getting infected, more people getting hospitalised and see more deaths…

Apart from the increase in cases, we’re also seeing an increase in hospitalisation.

Again, if people take more precautions, we would have less cases coming into the hospital and if people get vaccinated, we’ll see less people come in with a more

severe form of the disease,” Dr Anthony cautioned.

Recently, it was revealed that the Ministry was preparing for any surges that may arise from the circulation of the Delta variant, by putting systems and human resources in place at the designated COVID-19 facilities.

Speaking on the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, he was quoted saying, “We have expanded that unit to have now about 45 beds with ventilators and monitors and so forth.

When you have a patient in the Intensive Care Unit, it’s quite an intensive process, meaning that the doctor-nurse ratio per patient is almost like a one-on-one ratio. So, you need a lot of people to be able to monitor these patients.”

Since the virus was first detected in the Wuhan province of China, there have been several mutations.

From the first-discovered Alpha strain in the United Kingdom last year, authorities have moved to trace the Beta and Gamma variants.

However, the Delta variant has already been detected in over 140 countries. As such, local health authorities are managing the situation as if the variant is here.

As of Friday, 308,758 persons have been vaccinated and this represents 60.2 per cent of the adult population. Second doses are at 159,460 or 31.1 per cent.

Essequibo pensioner robbed of XR motorcycle during home invasion

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67-year-old pensioner of Huis’t Dieren, Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam), was in the wee hours of Saturday robbed during a home invasion by two armed men. The man was relieved of one XR red and black motorcycle bearing registration CK 8430, $300,000 in cash, one cell phone and a wrist watch.

Police investigations revealed that at about 19:00h on Friday evening, the victim secured his home and retired to bed, leaving his motorcycle in the kitchen area and a hand bag with the cash on a chair.

At about 03:00h the next morning, he reportedly felt someone choking him and a knife being placed to his neck. His hands were sub-

sequently bounded with a piece of wire.

The suspects began cuffing the pensioner about his abdomen after which they placed him to sit on his bed where they took off his wristwatch. They then ransacked the home for more valuables.

The perpetrators reportedly collected the mobile phone that was on a table and the bag containing the money along with the motorcycle and made good their escape.

Police further stated that the victim then jumped his fence and was untied by his neighbour who took him to the Suddie Hospital where he was treated and sent away. A report was subsequently made to the Police and an investigation was launched. No arrests were made.

B

Reifer's all-round effort, Phillps’s 50 lead Royals to 1st win

arbados Royals got their first win of the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a comfortable 15- run victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs yesterday.

The Royals won the toss and opted to bat first, and Glenn Phillips en-

end of the Barbados innings as he hit 56 runs from 46 balls, and was ably assisted

by Raymon Reifer in a brisk partnership of 79 runs.

The total of 161 always looked like 15 runs too many, and the Tallawahs got their chase off to the worst possible start by losing four wickets inside the PowerPlay.

Some good bowling and electric fielding by Hayden Walsh Jr had the Tallawahs on the back foot throughout.

Phillips scored his ninth CPL fifty

sured they put a competitive total on the board with an un-

SCOREBOARD Royals Innings Johnson Charles c Brathwaite b Pretorius 25 Shai Hope † b Permaul 7 Kyle Mayers c Green b Permaul 1 Glenn Phillips not out 56 Jason Holder (c) c Brooks b Russell 12 Azam Khan c Green b Powell 13 Raymon Reifer not out 31 Extras (b 1, lb 1, nb 1, w 13) 16 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 8.04) 161/5 Did not bat: Thisara Perera, Hayden Walsh, Mohammad Amir, Oshane Thomas Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Shai Hope, 3.1 ov), 2-34 (Kyle Mayers, 3.5 ov), 3-35 (Johnson Charles, 4.1 ov), 4-51 (Jason Holder, 6.6 ov), 5-82 (Azam Khan, 12.2 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Migael Pretorius 4-0-39-1 Veerasammy Permaul 4-0-15-2 Andre Russell 4-0-49-1 Imran Khan 2-0-11-0 Rovman Powell 3-0-21-1 Chris Green 3-0-24-0 JAMAICA TALLAWAHS INNINGS (TARGET: 162 RUNS FROM 20 OVERS) Chadwick Walton † c Perera b Holder 3 Kennar Lewis c Walsh b Reifer 10

Haider Ali c Walsh b Mohammad Amir 7 Rovman Powell (c) run out (Walsh) 9 Shamarh Brooks c †Hope b Perera 47 Carlos Brathwaite c Phillips b Reifer 29 Andre Russell c Walsh b Reifer 0 Migael Pretorius c & b Mohammad Amir 15 Chris Green c Mayers b Perera 9 Veerasammy Permaul not out 2 Imran Khan not out 0 Extras (lb 2, nb 1, w 12) 15 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 7.29) 146/9 Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Chadwick Walton, 1.5 ov), 2-14 (Haider Ali, 2.4 ov), 3-22 (Kennar Lewis, 4.1 ov), 4-33 (Rovman Powell, 5.2 ov), 5-99 (Carlos Brathwaite, 14.2 ov), 6-103 (Andre Russell, 14.5 ov), 7-123 (Migael Pretorius, 16.5 ov), 8-144 (Shamarh Brooks, 19.2 ov), 9-145 (Chris Green, 19.4 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Mohammad Amir 4-0-23-2 Jason Holder 3-0-22-1 Raymon Reifer 4-0-31-3 Oshane Thomas 4-0-34-0 Hayden Walsh 3-0-17-0 Thisara Perera 2-0-17-2

Royals got their first win of the tournament

beaten 56 from 46 balls.

In reply, the Tallawahs’ chase was over before it really began, as they lost four wickets in the PowerPlay,

as a result of which they never kept pace with the run rate.

The Royals opted to make a change to their opening pair, with Shai Hope partnering Johnson Charles, and it appeared to work, with them putting on a 32-run partnership from 20 balls.

However, once Hope was dismissed, it sparked a flurry of wickets that left the Royals tottering at 48/3 at the end of PowerPlay.

It could even have been worse, but Haider Ali dropped Glenn Phillips when he was on 2 runs; and Phillips punished that drop in the back

GBA celebrates International Boxing Day

G

uyana has, for the first time in the history of local amateur boxing, participated in International Boxing Day celebrations, which are supervised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

With training programmes including Guyana’s past, present and future boxing talents, Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) President Steve Ninvalle has shared how this would impact the fraternity, and has proffered his gratitude to the leadership of AIBA, President Umar Kremlyov, for equipping and placing Caribbean nations in the ‘front seat’ of the development of boxing.

“Well, Guyana is honoured to be a part of the International Boxing Day. The International Boxing Day activities are something that go across the world, and it’s the first time that we as an Association will be participating,” Ninvalle, GBA President, said on the occasion.

He went on to reveal, “What we’ve done, we’ve

31

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021

had several programmes.

One was held at the Andrew ‘Six Heads’ Lewis Gym on Saturday. I think one of our former boxers would’ve gone over to assist in repainting and cleaning up the yard and so forth, and on the actual day, August 27, we (had) a massive showcasing of our past boxers, our present boxers, and our future boxers.”

Highlighting that this is the first time Guyana is participating in the celebrations, Ninvalle credited the relationship between AIBA and the Caribbean boxing nations to the election of AIBA’s President, Umar Kremlyov.

Ninvalle said, “This has been the brainchild of AIBA President Umar Kremlyov, who I think has the vision to take our boxing to another level. We (the entire Boxing Family) are now reaping the benefits of him being the President of AIBA.” Ninvalle went on to share, “It also says that our Caribbean brothers and sisters are being drawn in to what is done with

GBA President Steve Ninvalle

boxing internationally.

Before, it was not like that, we always had a back seat, and now we are also in the front seat of the development of boxing.”

Ninvalle took opportunity to send warm wishes to the members of the GBA, and to the athletes, for making this year’s venture a success.

“So, I’d like to congratulate Mr. Kremlyov; I’d like to congratulate my executives of the Guyana Boxing Association, and also the athletes and coaches,” The GBA President said.

Ninvalle has expressed hope of improving the celebration in years to come.

“I think this programme will do well for us, and, hopefully, next year we can replicate and do something much better.”

International Boxing Day was celebrated on Friday, August 27.

Carlos Braithwaite and Shamarh Brooks threatened to bring them back into the game with a 66-run partnership, but a double-strike from Reifer got rid of Braithwaite and Andre Russell in the same over.

Despite some late blows from Miguel Pretorius that made the last few overs interesting, there was always too much for the Tallawahs to do once Russell had departed.

(CPL)

Match officials successfully complete FIFA Member Association Refereeing Course

Match officials showing their certificates of attendance at the closing ceremony of the FIFA Member Association Refereeing Course

T

he Guyana Football Federation (GFF) wrapped up its annual FIFA Member Association Refereeing Course on Friday with 17 match officials receiving certificates of attendance at the country’s first in-person FIFA football development programme since 2019.

The course, which updates referees on the latest changes to the laws of the game and provides elite guidance for officiating matches, was led by FIFA Referee Development Officer Javier Santos, FIFA Referee Instructor Peter Prendergast, and FIFA Fitness Instructor Alan Brown, as well as GFF Referee Instructors Ingram Johnson and Sherwin Moore.

GFF President Wayne Forde congratulated the group for completing the top-level training course as the Federation advances its plans for the safe and structured return of play in the coming months, once permission is granted by the authorities.

“I’ve received only positive feedback from our Head of Refereeing, Dion Inniss, about your performance this week,” Forde told participants. “We are extremely proud of the dedication of this group of match officials, which is now well equipped to ensure the return to competitions will be well managed on the field of play.”

With just three females

participating in the course, including FIFA Referee Maurees Skeete, Forde called on the GFF’s regional associations and football community to seek out and encourage more women to sign up to train as match officials.

“We have so much planned for women’s football in the coming months and years, and we really want to see more female referees as part of that evolution,” he said. “I would like to personally encourage more women to join us on this journey as we develop football for all,” Forde has said.

Inniss, who also serves on the GFF Executive Committee, has urged all participants of the course to maintain the levels of peak performance, decision-making, and fitness they had

achieved during five days of intensive theoretical and practical sessions at the GFF National Training Centre at Providence, East Bank Demerara.

“Many times, after these courses, you are highly motivated and at your peak, and then, a few weeks and months later, you can get demotivated and be back to where you were. My hope is that this time around that is not the case,” Forde has said.

The FIFA course is the second refereeing programme that the GFF has organised for its match officials this month, following on from a three-day seminar led

by Guyanese-born Dianne Ferreira-James, a Concacaf Elite Assessor and Head of Refereeing for the Bahamas Football Association.

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A

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

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2021

guyanatimesgy.com

Lewis, Thomas lead Patriots to victory over Warriors

Mohammed Hafeez chipped in with 38*

Dwayne Bravo celebrating the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer

Evin Lewis (L) and Devon Thomas (R) shared a crucial partnership to help their team over the line

Chandrapaul Hemraj topscored for the Warriors with 39

A

n opening partnership of 113 between Evin Lewis and Devon Thomas set the tone for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots’ chase of 147 against Guyana Amazon Warriors, resulting in the Patriots inflicting an eight-wicket defeat on the Warriors with 1.1 overs to spare, and reserving for themselves a place at the top of

started cautiously with just 29 runs in the first five overs - three out of four fours had already come off Lewis’s bat by then.

And he made full use of the final over of the powerplay to sweep and ram Imran Tahir for two sixes in a row as he continued to enjoy the legspinner’s bowling.

When Tahir tossed one up in the

Brandon King’s lack of form continues

the CPL 2021 points table.

Lewis led the way with 62 runs from 39 balls, carving four fours and five sixes in an authoritative innings. Although Patriots had

eighth over, Lewis went over the bowler’s head; and when Tahir went flat, Lewis cracked him over deep midwicket for six in subsequent overs.

The bowler got a measure of revenge when he had Lewis stumped off a googly in the 14th over, but by then the Patriots were well on track for victory.

At the other end, Thomas stayed solid. Although on 11 from 26 balls at one stage, he broke the shackles by whipping and slapping Odean Smith for two fours. Next over, he launched Ashmead Nedd over deep square for six, and eventually ended with 55 not out off 54.

That the Patriots didn’t have a big total to chase was due to Dominic Drakes, who finished with 3 for 26 in four overs. The Warriors had a rocky start, falling to 31 for 3. Odean, who had been sent at No.3 in their win against Trinbago Knight Riders, couldn’t replicate his success this time, falling for a seven-ball duck to Drakes.

The bowler also snaffled Shoaib Malik, who struggled to 5 off 12 before he was caught brilliantly by Joshua Da Silva behind the stumps, diving to his

SCOREBOARD right.

Da Silva was brought into the XI because Chris Gayle had a toe injury.

Chandrapaul Hemraj got things going for Warriors after the slow start, hammering Fawad Ahmed for six before clobbering Fabian Allen for four and six more. That Allen over cost 22, but Hemraj fell to Fawad for 39 soon after; and at 82 for 5, Nicholas Pooran and Mohammad Hafeez remained the Warriors’ last recognised batters.

Pooran deposited Fawad for three sixes in the 14th over, and got 23 from just 10 balls before falling to Allen.

Hafeez propelled the Warriors in the final two overs, smashing Drakes for successive sixes and then clattering Dwayne Bravo for consecutive fours to drag his team to 146. It didn’t prove enough in the end.

(ESPNCricinfo)

G

uyana Amazon Warriors went down by eight wickets in their second match of the tournament, played against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at Warner Park. After the match, captain Nicholas Pooran said he got the toss wrong, thinking the ball would spin a bit later in the game.

Pooran also disclosed that Warriors are still working on the combination of the team, but a finisher is required, hence he is batting at number seven.

Asked what went wrong for the Warriors, Pooran said: “Definitely fell short with the bat, 15-20 runs. I think we got the toss wrong.

I thought it would spin a little more in the back end. A lot of talented players, we’re trying lots of things, hopeful-

Captains Nicholas Pooran and Dwayne Bravo will meet again today, Sunday August 29

ly we can get the right combination at the right time. I

just want to win games for my team. If you look at the

balance of our team, we need a finisher.”

GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS INNINGS (20 OVERS MAXIMUM) Brandon King c Rutherford b Cottrell 11 Chandrapaul Hemraj c Asif Ali b Fawad Ahmed 39 Odean Smith c Lewis b Drakes 0 Shoaib Malik c †Da Silva b Drakes 5 Shimron Hetmyer b Bravo 4 Mohammad Hafeez not out 38 Nicholas Pooran (c)†c Lewis b Allen 23 Naveen-ul-Haq c †Da Silva b Fawad Ahmed 4 Imran Tahir c Thomas b Drakes 4 Ashmead Nedd not out 1 Extras (lb 2, w 15) 17 TOTAL (20 Ov, RR: 7.29) 146/8 Did not bat: Nial Smith Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Brandon King, 2.1 ov), 2-19 (Odean Smith, 4.2 ov), 3-34 (Shoaib Malik, 6.5 ov), 4-67 (Shimron Hetmyer, 9.3 ov), 5-75 (Chandrapaul Hemraj, 11.4 ov), 6-103 (Nicholas Pooran, 14.3 ov), 7-108 (Naveen-ul-Haq, 15.5 ov), 8-134 (Imran Tahir, 18.6 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Sheldon Cottrell 2-0-8-1 Paul van Meekeren 4-0-24-0

The Warriors will have to make a quick transition as they play the same opposition, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, today, Sunday August 29, from 14:30h at Warner Park.

Meanwhile, captain of the Patriots, Dwayne Bravo, was a happy man as Patriots got the better of the strong Warriors.

“I am very happy, a great team effort. Guyana is one of the better teams in the tournament, so I give credit to my bowling group to restrict a very experienced batting line-up. That’s all we ask as a team: just have that hunger. It is a wicket that offers something for both spin and pace. And if you bat properly and apply yourself, you can make runs too, it’s a small ground. As long as you play the game smart, you’ll get

Dominic Drakes Fawad Ahmed Fabian Allen Dwayne Bravo

4-0-26-3 4-0-33-2 4-0-36-1 2-0-17-1

ST KITTS AND NEVIS PATRIOTS INNINGS (TARGET: 147 RUNS FROM 20 OVERS) Devon Thomas not out 55 Evin Lewis st †Pooran b Imran Tahir 62 Sherfane Rutherford c & b Naveen-ul-Haq 14 Fabian Allen not out 4 Extras(lb 3, nb 1, w 8) 12 TOTAL (18.5 Ov, RR: 7.80) 147/2 Did not bat: Joshua Da Silva †, Asif Ali, Dwayne Bravo (c), Dominic Drakes, Sheldon Cottrell, Paul van Meekeren, Fawad Ahmed Fall of wickets: 1-113 (Evin Lewis, 13.4 ov), 2-135 (Sherfane Rutherford, 17.4 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-18-0 Naveen-ul-Haq 3-0-28-1 Imran Tahir 4-0-32-1 Odean Smith 3-0-18-0 Ashmead Nedd 2.5-0-18-0 Nial Smith 2-0-30-0

the results,” Bravo said.

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots: Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Ravi Bopara, Paul van Meekeren, Sherfane Rutherford, Sheldon Cottrell, Fawad Ahmed, Devon Thomas, Rayad Emrit, Asif Ali, Colin Archibald, JonRuss Jaggesar, Dominic Drakes, Joshua Da Silva, and Mykile Louis.

Guyana Amazon Warriors: Nicholas Pooran, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, Shimron Hetmyer, Mohammad Hafeez, Brandon King, Naveen-ulHaq, Romario Shepherd, Waqar Salamkheil, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Nial Smith, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Kevin Sinclair, and Ashmead Nedd. (Brandon Corlette)

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