Guyana Times - Sunday, March 10, 2024.pdf

Sunday,

Sunday,

Guyana’s non-performing loans lowest of any country in Region – Pres Ali

…says growth in lending is sign Guyana’s economy avoiding Dutch disease

Mcator of the fact that money was circulating in the economy more than ever.

“That is not accidental. That is because there is more money in the economy. That is because there is more disposable income. That is because people are in a better position to service their loans,” he explained.

During the commissioning of Republic Bank’s new $1.2 billion branch at Williamsburg on the Corentyne on Saturday, the President spoke of how far the banking sector – and, indeed, the economy – has come over the past four years.

“The type of success the banking sector is enjoying today is not accidental. Because three years ago they would tell you what their non-performing loan [portfolio] was. And let those who like to write, write about that. What was the percentage of non-performing loans four years ago, against what it is today? What was the portfolio for lending and construction, real estate, four years ago, against today?

“What was the portfolio for lending for agriculture four years ago, as against what it is today? And you will see double and triple-digit increases in the lending portfolio. And you will see non-performing loans at 2.8 per cent, the lowest in any part of this Region – Latin America and the Caribbean – the lowest non-performing loans,” President Ali said.

The Head of State made it clear that the current 2.8 per cent non-performing loan rate, the lowest in the Region, did not happen by accident. The President pointed out that this was an indi-

“That is because the economy is performing better and creating better opportunities for people to be integrated into the financial services, that you have the expansion of lending in every single sector. That is not accidental,” he said.

Dutch Disease

In the past, President Ali has assured that his administration has been careful to not overspend and bring on Dutch Disease, an economic term for the negative consequences that can arise from a spike in the value of a nation’s currency. According to the President, all the indicators point to Private Sector growth and lending, positive signs that Guyana is doing a good job avoiding the Dutch disease.

“When you look at the growth in the Private Sector, you would see that in real estate mortgage loans, there’s an increase of 22 per cent. When you look at the credit to the traditional sectors, agriculture credit grew by 14.4 per cent, construction and engineering by 21.7 per cent. Credit to real estate grew by 22.5 per cent, and mining and quarrying grew by 18 per cent. Now, if you take countries that went through the same development model that we’re going through and you hear about

the Dutch disease, you would have seen that when oil and gas resources came, credit to the traditional sectors and other bases of the economy declined and the credit was concentrated in oil and gas. What we’re seeing here, we’re seeing that the disbursement of credit and dispersion of credit is around many sectors. And that tells a story that the economy is being diversified and being built to avoid the Dutch Disease,” the President added.

Last year, Guyana’s oil and gas sector expanded by 45.9 per cent with production of 142.9 million barrels of oil compared with 101.4 million in 2022. This includes the production of crude oil at a rate of approximately 142,000 barrels per

declined by 20.4 per cent last year owing to reduced output from both producing operators. Bauxite production is estimated to have fallen to 525,000 tonnes last year.

The other mining subsector – sand, stone, diamonds, and manganese – showed a more positive performance with a 22.7 per cent growth in 2023. Expectedly, stone and sand extraction increased by 98 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively, with demand from construction activity in the public and private sectors continuing to grow.

Predictably, as well, the construction sector grew by 26.8 per cent last year, building on the 26.3 per cent growth seen in 2022. While in the service sector, a 10.3 per cent expansion was recorded across all of the ser-

The other mining and quarrying sectors are just some of the economic sectors that showed tremendous growth last year

day (bpd) at the Liza Destiny Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, while the Liza Unity FPSO produced at a rate of 235,000 bpd.

In contrast, the gold mining industry contracted by 11.2 per cent in 2023, on account of lower output from the small and medium-scale producers. Total gold declarations fell to 432,113 ounces last year. Similarly, the bauxite mining industry also

vice industries.

Initial projections had pegged the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow by 25.1 per cent in 2023, with non-oil GDP expanding by 7.9 per cent. However, it was subsequently revealed that Guyana’s real GDP surpassed expectations and expanded by 33 per cent overall last year, with a “stronger-than-expected” growth of 11.7 per cent in non-oil real GDP. (G8)

President Dr Irfaan Ali

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Brazil and the Venezuelan threat

The following article by Dr Augusto Teixeira explores Brazil's strategic response, highlighting potential security risks in the region.

“The ongoing territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo region is a major security concern for Brazil, which has a large land border with Venezuela and Guyana, and is already facing the challenges of the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis. A Venezuelan invasion of Guyana and the subsequent annexation of Essequibo by force would create severe security problems for Brazil.

Politically, the Amazon is the main topic on which Brazil's Government gains leverage in the global arena. The Amazon is crucial to Brazil in debates about global warming, green politics, economic development, and the responsible exploitation of the jungle's resources. From a defence and security perspective, the Amazon Forest is considered a sensitive security and defence subject, specifically related to the fear of influence from extraregional powers. From the geopolitical perspective of a country that sees itself as a regional power, the northern flank, where the Essequibo region is located and the Amazon is paramount, is considered Brazil’s backyard. It is reasonable to anticipate that Brazil would take measures to prevent a potential escalation from a crisis to a war between Venezuela and Guyana. It is stated in Brazil’s National Defence Policy and Strategy that the Amazon is one of the country's main geostrategic areas of interest, crucial for its security and defence.

For over a decade, Brazil has augmented its military presence through the Amazon regions with increased personnel and means, and the reorganisation of military units. So, what is wrong with how President Lula's government has dealt with the Venezuela-Guyana crisis? Although Brazilian diplomatic tradition rests on the peaceful resolution of crises and conflicts, the country's most essential documents regarding defence policy and strategy declare that deterrence is its primary strategic posture. Deterrence is a form of strategic coercion that implies the possibility of using force to leverage threats. It aims to deter someone from initiating an action not in our interest. As pointed out by Schelling, it is a kind of diplomacy. However, due to the region's sensitivity to conflict, and what is in it for Brazil's interest, is Brazil acting to deter Venezuela? Not as it would be expected, based on what deterrence means.

On a political and diplomatic level, Brazil is soft on the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Brazil has mainly been using its diplomatic channels to hold Maduro from his violent intent. However, it is not deterrence, as taught by strategic theory or by what Brazilian defence documents state. In the symbolic realm, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, often referred to as Itamaraty, stated publicly that the Essequibo referendum was a domestic Venezuelan issue, when in fact it was a destabilising political action with potential effects on Brazil. In the defence and military realm, Brazil’s defence minister stated that the country would not allow the use of Brazilian territory in the case of a conflict escalating to war.

However, despite having relevant military bases, personnel, and equipment throughout the Amazonian region, there was no signal of credible military build-up near the possible conflict area. The public announcement confirmed the transfer of approximately 20 military vehicles to the capital of Roraima in a month, and the increase of the Special Border Platoon in Pacaraima with over 60 soldiers.

The characteristics of the Brazilian response to Venezuela's strategic challenge on its northern border make it clear that Brazil does not have a conventional deterrence strategy or posture. Despite having deterrence as the primary strategic posture in its national defence documents, neither the political level nor the military presents coherent signs that aim to deter Maduro's invasion of the Guyana Essequibo region. Although it provided clear signals that it wouldn't allow Venezuela's use of Brazilian territory to attack Guyana (direct deterrence), Brasilia failed to provide extended deterrence to the threatened country (Guyana), precisely what the US did.

Brazil's failure to successfully communicate its capability and credibility in deterring a neighbouring revisionist state, thereby relying on external powers, clearly indicates that Brazil, along with its strategic culture, lacks a proper understanding of deterrence.”

Not in

any

group undermining Jagan's role in politics

Dear Editor, Dr. Joey Jagan accused me, Ravi dev, and other activists of being and of being part “of a chorus to undermine the role of Dr. Jagan in Guyana’s politics”. We are pro-Jagan but not Marxist-LeninistStalinist-Communist. We are pro Anglo-America and proWest. The fact that we opposed Communists does not make us anti-Jagan who remains a hero. For American policymakers, there is no distinction between, communism, Marxism, socialism, democratic socialism, Fabianism, Gramcianism, etc. All are considered as a threat to American national security and grouped as one. And anyone associated with those ‘isms’, except Castro, was removed from office or undermined. Far from being anti-Jagan, I promoted Cheddi and wrote positively about him, and I did everything possible to get him elected. He was a stubborn man on communism. He was ‘hard aze’, to use the colloquial term.

We never were and will never be a member of a gang that is anti-Jagan and or anti-democracy. I know of no such anti-Jagan groups other than political nemesis. His opponents ‘loved’ him as Cheddi’s anti-Americanism, and ‘anti-Westism’ helped to secure their political control in Guyana. The AngloAmerican alliance preferred Jagan’s opponents over him as they viewed him as a threat to Western interests.

Jagan’s contributions to and role in Guyana’s politics and development are etched in the history books and can never be undermined. His character and integrity can never be impugned. And the

love of the Indian people for Jagan can never be diminished. However, Indians did not embrace or love communism. They loved Jagan and still do. He “ah abie mattie’, and we supported him for that reason not because he was a communist.

Jagan was the beneficiary of our decades-long activism in Guyana and in the diaspora and at no time did I engage in anti-Jaganism. I appealed to him to move away from communism. He rebuffed me as he did so many others. I spent twenty-five years as part of a movement advocating and lobbying for free and fair elections (FFE) in Guyana. I pioneered a free and fair election movement in New York and Trinidad. I traveled internationally on my own expense seeking support for FFE. I made financial contributions to Jagan’s PPP and urged others, including family members, to do same. I attended Jagan fundraisers in America and Guyana. I joined Pandit Ramlall, Karshan, Ramesh Kalicharran, and Jass Persaud to organize a fundraiser for Jagan in 1992. I succeeded in getting Members of Congress to pen letters that benefited Jagan. I piloted ‘motions’ for sponsorship of lectures and seminars at City College when I was in student government (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) from 1978 through the 1980s. Dr. Joey and Dr. Ralph Gonslaves spoke at one lecture series on Jagan at CCNY at the Finley Students Center that was sponsored by my government. Joey’s brother-in-law, Chuck Mohan organized several seminars and lectures of Cheddi and Janet Jagan and of other

freedom fighters at CCNY and elsewhere; the Student Government occasionally provided funding for these activities. I penned countless positive articles going back to 1976 on PPP and Jagan. I lobbied the Americans to help restore democracy in Guyana. I wrote letters to the leaders of Canada, USA, Britain, India, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, and others seeking their assistance for FFE in Guyana. I appealed to American Ambassadors Theresa Anne Tull and Dennis Hays to support FFE in Guyana. I penned a public appeal carried in the international media, including SN, NY Caribbean Daylight, NY CIA News, News India, India Abroad, etc. in 1992 pleading on the Americans to give Jagan a chance. I was criticized for it by both the left and the right. I appealed to my Professor Arthur Schlesinger (JFK’s Advisor) to reconsider his views on Jagan, resulting in a favorable article in the liberal Nation Magazine. When there was an effort to derail Jagan’s victory in 1992, I appealed to the US Administration and Members of Congress to pressure Hoyte to accept the will of the voters. After Jagan became President, I met Ambassador George Fleming Jones, appealing for increased aid for Guyana. I repeated the appeal at a media conference on Robb Street to launch Ram Jodha’s newspaper where Ambassador Jones was present and addressed the gathering. I engaged Amb. Charge Hugh Simon on the same objective after David Hobbs was recalled as Ambassador. Vishnu Bandhu was with me at an invite to Charge Simon's

residence for a private reception. When Jagan suffered a massive heart attack, an appeal was made to Charge Simon and to the Clinton Administration (for which I campaigned) for US medical assistance. The Americans airlifted him to Panama and thence to Washington at Walter Reed Hospital which is reserved for eminent American politicians. I wrote several news releases carried in Indian and Caribbean publications on Jagan’s heart attack.

I left for my research sabbatical in the Philippines. As news came that Jagan's medical condition was deteriorating, I cut short my stay in the Philippines and flew back to New York. Mike Persaud and I monitored Jagan's medical condition. Mike and I agreed to alert the New York Times of Jagan's medical condition. He spoke with the news editor to carry a story on Jagan. The news editor informed him that they were on top of the story and that an obituary was already prepared and should be passed on. And when Jagan passed on a day later, NYT carried a gracious tribute. I helped to organise tributes and memorials for Jagan at mandirs and halls. And years later, I did the same for Janet when she died.

I flew down to Guyana for Cheddi's funeral. Did the communists fly down from Russia and the former Soviet satellite states to attend the funeral? I met Basdeo Panday, Randy Depoo, Raj Singh, Arjune Karshan, Chuck Mohan, Mel Carpen and host of other ACG boys at the funeral. I reported on the funeral for the media in New York and India.

The top eight contestants in the Miss World 20204 Pageant which was held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai India on Saturday. Miss Czech Republic, Krystyna_Pyszko walked away with the crown while Miss Lebanon, Yasmina Zaytoun, copped the first runner-up spot

Urgent action needed to address electoral fraud cases

Dear Editor, There is an overwhelming deep concern and need for urgency regarding the frustrating delays in treating electoral fraud cases that plague our beloved nation.

In the heart of Guyana, a nation grapples with the shadows of electoral discontent. The aftermath of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections has left scars on the fabric of our democracy. These wounds cannot heal until our Judiciary appropriately addresses those fraud cases, serves justice, and upholds accountability.

With profound dismay, we witness the prolonged delay in addressing these grave allegations of fraud. The individuals implicated, including former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, former District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, and others stand accused of violating the very foundations of our democracy. After three long years, they continue manipulatively dodging the trial in the courts with abuse of the system in place.

Notably, lead persons in the Opposition APNU openly support the riggers' actions, which have undermined the integrity of our electoral process, eroded the Guyanese people's trust and confidence in our democratic institutions, and sparked widespread outrage and a demand for swift justice.

More seriously, in the face of a lack of closure to these fraud cases is the call from the PNC's once strong man, Hamilton Greene, for the PNC to continue "rigging" elections.

The emboldened gravity of the riggers' actions in the March 2020 General and Regional Elections has not only left a mark on the democratic fabric of this beloved country, but has also spotlighted the urgent need for accountability and justice in the wake of serious allegations of electoral fraud. This call to action echoes deeply within a society yearning for the principles of democracy to be highly supported, where the delay in addressing these allegations has not only eroded trust in democratic institutions, but has also threatened the very foundation of democratic integrity.

The revelations from the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2020 elections are nothing short of damning. They unveiled disturbing instances where GECOM staff ignored specific instructions of the courts and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers when accredited observers from the various participating political parties raised objections.

Further, the CoI report exposed the collusion and collaboration among senior GECOM officials to subvert the people's will and manipulate the election results in favour of

the APNU/AFC, while highlighting a glaring vulnerability in the democratic process and the imperative to safeguard it against exploitation.

These revelations are a stark reminder of the fragility of our democracy, and the urgent need to protect it from those who seek to exploit and abuse their power for personal gain.

The courts are called on to act swiftly and decisively to bring the perpetrators of electoral fraud to justice. The delay tactics employed by the accused and their legal representatives must not be tolerated, for every day that justice is delayed is another day that the principles of democracy remain undermined, silencing the voices of the Guyanese people.

Transparency and accountability are not mere buzzwords, but are fundamental pillars upon which our democracy stands. We cannot afford to allow impunity to reign supreme, nor pay any heed to the egregious abuses of power that have tainted our electoral process. The time for action is now, and the Guyanese people demand nothing less than a thorough and impartial investigation, followed by swift and decisive legal proceedings.

A comparison with electoral contention resolution mechanisms in the USA is instructive. There, electoral disputes such as those witnessed following the 2020 presidential elections led to swift legal

challenges and expeditious navigation of the matters by the Judicial system. With its capacity for rapid response to electoral disputes, the American legal system showcases the importance of an efficient, transparent, and decisive legal process in maintaining trust in electoral outcomes and the broader democratic system. This contrast underscores the critical delays in Guyana's handling of electoral fraud cases, urging an immediate and robust response to restore confidence among the Guyanese populace. If left unchecked, it could have far-reaching consequences for the stability and prosperity of our nation, particularly as we approach the next elections.

The delay in addressing these cases exacerbates the situation, fuelling frustration and disillusionment among the Guyanese people. We must restore faith by promptly demonstrating the service of justice, regardless of one's political affiliation or position of power.

Consequently, the call for transparency, accountability, and swift legal action is not just a demand for justice in response to past transgressions, but a clarion call for protecting democratic values moving forward. This scenario demands an unequivocal response from the Guyanese Judiciary in the strongest possible terms. Just as the US has demonstrated the capacity to navigate electoral disputes promptly,

Georgetown Mayor needs to get off high horse of politics

Dear Editor, Mayor Alfred Mentore needs to get off the political platform of partisan politics and into the realm of good governance as he oversees the affairs of the City.

The peace and prosperity of Georgetown should be his primary focus, and not in other avenues for which he has no authority. But, from all appearances, he is still stuck in the silly politics of PNC and PPP, and not in the business of addressing the real issues of the City.

For too long this has been the problem plaguing the capital city and its management.

Mentore is in the moribund position of politics and the grand obsession of control. The PNC's idea of "control" of the City and it being a stomping ground

for the party has consumed him; so, the latest imbroglio of who owns – or, to use the PNC's terminology, controls - Thomas Lands is his main concern. He is not concerned with the dilapidated, putrid state of the capital city, and as such, he has absolved himself of the affairs of the City. His actions are representative of the decadent party to which he belongs. They are cocooned in a web of negatives and underdevelopment. At the present moment, his preoccupation is to own and control those lands in the Kingston Waterfront. This is done against repeated warnings from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Registry that those lands are the property of the State. But the narrow myopic politics of the PNC has so blinded Mentore's

eyes that he can neither see nor think clearly; he would rather waste huge sums of money in a frivolous and vexatious case against the Government, instead of having money wisely spent on improving the lives of the citizens of Georgetown.

When you have small minds at the helm, it tells you why things go wrong and development cannot take place. But Guyana would still move forward, regardless of these obstacles that stand in our way.

Respectfully,

Neil Adams

Guyana is now called upon to act with the same urgency and determination. The Guyanese people's faith in their democratic institutions hangs in the balance, hinging on the ability of the Judiciary to bring perpetrators to justice and demonstrate that no individual is above the law. The future of our democracy depends on it, and the Guyanese people deserve nothing less than a fair, transparent and responsible electoral process.

The Judiciary's role in restoring faith in the democratic process is pivotal. By addressing the electoral fraud cases with the urgency and seriousness they deserve, Guyana can heal the wounds of past elections and strengthen its democracy for the future. The time for action is now; the people of Guyana, and indeed all who cherish democratic integrity, await a decisive response.

Sincerely,

Neil Kumar

Not in any group...

I was at Albion and also attended the night wake at the Ankerville home of Jagan’s parents where Cheddi was born and where Joey spent time during school holidays. Vishnu Bandhu, Roy Ramsaran, Ramko Kalicharran, and several other New Yorkers were there with me.

Ralph Ramkarran gave one of best tributes to Jagan at Babu Jahan. When the funeral pyre was lit by Joey and Nadira, the party comrades left in a hurry and rushed to cross the river by ferry back to town. The Jagan’s family, including Joey and his son, Uncle Suchit and Aunty Janey stayed behind as did I Roy Ramsaran and other true Jaganites to watch the last embers of the cremation.

Who displayed more love for Jagan?

Joey and others blamed America for toppling Jagan. America acted in what it thought was in its national interests. The world was divided between east and west.

FROM PAGE 4

At the height of the Cold War, you don’t defy Washington.

Guyanese couldn’t migrate to the Soviet bloc. Today, more Guyanese live in USA than in Guyana and almost every Guyanese at home seeks a resident visa and or citizenship of USA. A communist wrote that the working class of Guyana has been impoverished. The wealthy communists don’t share their loot with the workers. The working class is not invited to their homes. The poor working-class person seeks migration to America and quickly becomes a millionaire or close to it whereas his progress is stymied in Guyana and are largely excluded from the wealth of the country. I invited the working class to my pujas and assisted as much as I could with financial assistance.

Are the above anecdotes those of people who hate Jagan?

Yours truly,

Dr.

Vishnu Bisram

CANINE PARVOVIRUS (CPV)

Ithink it is well worth our while to dwell intensely on this topic of CPV, not lastly because, when this disease reaches epidemic proportions, too many puppies (as early as 6 weeks of age) and young adult dogs (even as old as 12 months of age) die a horrible death associated with bloody diarrhoea, incessant and uncontrollable vomiting, total loss of appetite, and great listlessness.

The agony in the family having to observe this ailment leading to the death of unvaccinated sick puppies and young unvaccinated adult dogs is extremely painful. It is also painful for the veterinarian who receives the CPV-infected animal too late after the infection had set it.

We concluded last week’s PET CARE column by answering some of the questions caregivers have posed relative to the Canine Parvovirus infection. Today we shall discuss some other salient is-

sues raised by concerned companion animal caregivers.

Question: How contagious is this disease?

Answer: CPV is highly contagious. But before we expand further, we must firstly understand what “contagious” means. It is the process by which a

tended period. This knowledge would be crucial in the fight against CPV, once the deaths are in a kennel or shelter, or within a litter of newborn puppies. If the infection level of the virus recedes, then caregivers would have bought more time to institute measures delineated in last week’s PET CARE column.

disease is transmitted from one animal to another by direct or indirect means.

It is important that the pet owner or breeder, or a member of a shelter management staff clearly grasp the gravity of this definition. The contagion is associated with/due to shedding of the virus in faeces (the animal’s stool), and persistence of the CPV in the environment.

Faeces are infectious as early as 3-4 days after CPV exposure. Researchers have found that significant viral shedding continues for approximately 10-14 days.

Actually, latest research has revealed that CPV shedding can continue for up to 4 weeks after infection! I have not found in the literature whether, after 4 weeks, other dogs can be infected during this ex-

Even as vets and caregivers begin to defend the ailing animals by instituting therapeutic regimes/protocols, the virus would be reducing its infectivity. That’s good news. Moreover, because the virus in the faeces would be exposed to sunlight/drying conditions, which kill it, the infectivity would be reduced.

It should be noted that CPV has been proven to survive in the soil for

and exposing it to sunlight; and chemically, by using strong chemicals in the areas where the adult and young animals tend to congregate.

Question: Is there a variation in CPV disease severity associated with other factors?

Answer: Yes. For example, dogs older than one year tend less to be infected and to succumb. They are old and strong enough to accommodate robust treatment protocols.

Also, puppies that suckle a mother who had contracted (and survived) the disease earlier in her life stand a better chance, due to the transmission of maternal antibodies (biological defence chemicals produced in response to a previous CPV infection).

The CPV disease remains, to my mind, one of the most lethal ailments which unvaccinated puppies (and young adult dogs) can encounter. You are urged to take the animal to the veterinarian immediately the moment you notice any of the symptoms. Do not wait to see if the diarrhoea would stop on its own. Or worse, do not diagnose what you think the problem is and then treat the pup/young adult by yourself.

Above all, commence the vaccination regime of your puppies against CPV at 6 weeks of age. The vaccines that are currently being produced and administered protect the animals not only against CPV, but many other killer diseases – including Canine Distemper, Leptospirosis, etc. Exploit this knowledge and actual availability of such a disease preventa-

Next week we will commence discussion on the Parvovirus infectious agent, and how it affects cats.

Yellowtail installation to be complete by December 2024

– in time for 2025 start-up of Exxon’s 4th project offshore Guyana

Ahead of the planned start-up of ExxonMobil’s fourth offshore project Yellowtail in 2025, the company is currently conducting installation activities which are expected to be completed by December of this year.

The Ministry of Public Works’ Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) announced that DP Class 3 crane ship “PLV Saipem FDS2” would be conducting installation activities in Yellowtail, under international signal, all within Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

It was explained by MARAD that these installation activities will be conducted approximately 107.4 nautical miles off the coast, over an area of 25.4 square nautical miles and will conclude on December 31, 2024.

“Mariners are required to stay clear of this vessel and navigate with extreme caution when in the vicinity. Communication can be made to the vessel or the Georgetown Lighthouse on VHF CH 16,” it was further explained.

The Yellowtail Development Project is set to commence produc -

tion in 2025 using the One Guyana Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will yield the largest production of 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) during a 20-year period that will generate at least 1300 direct jobs.

Yellowtail, which will be located 126 miles offshore Guyana, was sanctioned in April 2022. The project includes up to three drill ships drilling up to 67 wells, the FPSO vessel, and the SURF production system, with tankers taking the oil to global markets.

The US$10 billion development project will target an estimated resource base of about 900 million oil-equivalent barrels and will be the largest single investment in the history of Guyana’s petroleum sector.

ExxonMobil has said it anticipates at least six projects offshore Guyana in the Stabroek Block, which contains a recoverable resource estimate of over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The US oil major started production in December 2019 at its first development – Liza Phase One.

ExxonMobil currently has three FPSO vessels operating in Guyana’s

Stabroek Block. The current production figures will be further buttressed by the Yellowtail and Uaru developments, which are already underway, and anticipated to contribute 250,000 barrels of oil each following their respective start-ups.

An application for the sixth development, the Whiptail Project, was submitted by the Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil Guyana

Limited (EMGL), and its co-venturers. This project is currently under review by the Government and once approved, will see Guyana producing just over 1.2 million barrels of oil per day by 2027. In addition to the at least six projects offshore Guyana that Exxon anticipates will be online by 2027, it is also eyeing the possibility of having 10 FPSOs operational by 2030. Production

has already started on three projects, with the <<<Liza Destiny>>> and <<<Liza Unity>>> and the <<<<Prosperity>>> FPSO vessels in operation.

The third project – the Payara development –meanwhile targets an estimated resource base of about 600 million oil-equivalent barrels, and was at one point considered to be the largest single planned investment in the history of Guyana.

Meanwhile, the Uaru oil development, which will be the fifth one for the company offshore Guyana, is targeting between 38 and 63 development wells, including production, water injection, and gas re-injection wells. Exxon had previously also made known that it anticipated first oil from the Uaru development by late 2026 or early 2027.

Guyana, with the US oil giant as the operator, began producing oil on December 20, 2019, in the Stabroek Block. Guyana’s oil revenues are being held in the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, where it is earning interest.

EMGL holds a 45 per cent interest in the Stabroek Block, while Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd holds a 30 per cent interest, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds the remaining 25 per cent interest. However, Hess Corporation has since agreed to merge with Chevron, and this transaction is expected to be closed this year, though there have been reports of a possible delay after Exxon contested the merger.

The “PLV Saipem” vessel being used in the installation activities

Bartica pensioner gets 2 years for causing death of husband, wife

Byron Pearson of Mongrippa Hill in Bartica, Region Seven, has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for causing the deaths of David Huggins and his pillion rider Felicia Lewis in an accident that occurred along Fourth Avenue, Bartica on February 16, 2023.

The 67-year-old Pearson appeared on Friday before Bartica Magistrate Crystal Lambert and was found guilty of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

He had made his first appearance before Magistrate Lambert on May 15, 2023, when the charges were read to him and he had pleaded not guilty and was placed on $300,000 bail on each charge.

RECAP

Felicia Lewis was reportedly killed on the spot, while her husband David Huggins had died one day later, while re-

Convicted: Byron Pearson

ceiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital, after being involved in an accident with a car in Bartica.

It was reported that, on February 16, 2023, the couple were travelling on motorcycle CL 3359 when they became involved in an accident with motor car PRR 5669, owned and driven by a 66-yearold Pearson, a resident of Mongrippa Hill in Bartica.

Police had reported that on the day in question, at about 14:00h, the motor car, which

Dead: David Huggins

was proceeding along Fourth Avenue, Bartica, failed to heed a ‘stop sign’ on Fifth Avenue Bartica and collided with the motorcycle, which was proceeding along Fifth Avenue at a fast rate of speed.

The right-side front portion of the car had struck the motorcycle, causing the couple to fall on the roadway and receive injuries to their heads and bodies.

They were picked up by public-spirited persons in an unconscious state and taken to the Bartica Regional Hospital,

Dead: Felicia Lewis

where Lewis was pronounced dead on arrival. Her husband, however, was treated and air-dashed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he had taken his last breath just after midday on Friday, February 17, 2023.

A breathalyser test had been conducted on the driver of the motor car, but no trace of alcohol had been found in his system. He was subsequently slapped with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Backsliding on...

…promises to women

Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so let us praise all women: young women, old women, radiant women, tenacious women, pioneering women, courageous women, and every other human who is female. If for no other reason, then that they were the ones who carried us around for nine testing months, and shared everything from within their bodies to bring us into this world. No matter how you slice it or dice it, we can’t let anyone forget that basic fact!!

So, the question remains – as James Brown reminded us – why is it still “a man’s world”?? And let’s not kid ourselves, even though the Godfather of Soul belted out his provocative assertion half a century ago, it’s still true!! We’ve been hearing that women have come a long way, but it still ain’t enough, because they were kept so far behind for so long!! In politics, they weren’t allowed to vote till 1928 in the “developed countries”, and yet today, even though so many countries claim to be “democratic”, only a handful have women at their heads!!

And this is even when some countries have legislated a minimum quota of women to be in their legislature - like Guyana, with its one-third requirement. In some countries, like Afghanistan and Iran, women aren’t even allowed to show their faces in the streets, much less educate themselves in the classroom. So, what’s the hitch?? Very simply that the problem for women is men!! Way back in our caveman days, men had more physical strength to fight off those Sabre-tooth tigers, and could bop women over the head with their clubs and drag them back to their caves to have their way. And ever since, they’ve conspired to “keep them in their place”!!

And what’s that place?? Well, for one, “barefoot and pregnant”!! After all, weren’t they – rather than mencreated to bear children?? One of the major religions, with its principles formulated thousands of years ago – by men of course!! – insist that women must be subservient to their husbands. And that philosophy still holds sway, either explicitly or implicitly in “secular” forms. And from husbands being males, it ain’t difficult for males to extend the notion to all of their cohorts!!

And sadly, many women have been brainwashed to believe that nonsense!! For women to get their “equal place” in society, change gonna only be generated with them standing up and insisting they be treated equally. Remember…if rights are bestowed on you by others, they can always be taken back. One good sign in Mudland that your Eyewitness has noticed is the increasing number of women qualifying themselves for “non-traditional” jobs.

Now, they gotta demand equal pay!! Equal money will help women get respect on their own terms!!

…jailing riggers

Four years ago, Reg 4 RO Clairmont Mingo did his thing to rig the March 2, General Elections with spreadsheets and bedsheets. It’s three years since he, GECOM CEO Lowenfield, Dep CEO Myers, together with former APNU+AFC Minister and PNC Chair, Volda Lawrence; Coalition activist Carol Smith-Joseph, and several GECOM Secretariat employees were charged with trying to rig the elections by declaring a false account of votes for the said elections.

The case kept getting delayed over that time for all sorts of (specious) reasons - even though its resolution’s gotta be one of the most important items on the national agenda. Especially when General Elections 2025 are fast creeping up on us, and PNC’s old PM Hamilton Green has proposed that the Opposition rig it once again!! Now, since the PNC insists the GECOM big wigs are totally innocent, your Eyewitness was surprised there’s now a further delay because the defence attorney has demanded GECOM records that demand permission from the High Court!!

A Hail Mary??

…Haiti

It’s hard not to conclude that racism is at the bottom of the rationale behind nothing being done to stop the total anarchy in Haiti, which has been building since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021.

Monar and life in and out of the logies

TMother, son brutally chopped to death by prison escapee

– suspect visited family’s home asking for food and direction

Awoman and her son have been brutally chopped to death by a prison escapee during a visit to their home at Saxacalli village in the Essequibo River.

he passing of Rooplall Monar (1945-2024) brings us almost to the end of the line of those who wrote about Indians on the sugar plantations as a “lived experience”. Monar was born in one of the 101 logies of Lusignan, on the East Coast of Demerara, and, in 1953, moved to the new housing scheme in neighbouring Annandale. This housing scheme was established during the early 1950s, when the sugar planters decided to move all workers out of the logies that had originally adjoined sugar factories.

Monar’s poems, short stories and novels first deal with life in the logies (Backdam People; Jhanjat), and then with the housing scheme (High House and Radio). Possibly in Lusignan, as in the ninety-four logies of Uitvlugt with which I am familiar, there was a smattering of African Guyanese in addition to a “Bajan Quarter” that housed immigrants from the small islands in the early 1920s.

It was a critical period of Guyanese history, and Monar brings to life the cadences of the Creolese patois the Indians spoke three decades after Indentureship had ended. In 1947, there were 1247 logies in the 11 “grinding estates” housing some 76,000 men, women and children. The logies ranged from cottages housing two families, which were introduced after the 1930s, to holdovers from the days of slavery and early indentureship that housed up to ten families in 10X14 rooms. While living conditions had gradually been improved with, for instance, malaria having been eliminated by DDT spraying between 1945 and 1951, and wells supplying water which had previously been obtained from open, germ-laden canals, the densely-packed logies presented unique solidarities and challenges.

In 1943, Cheddi Jagan launched his political career to improve the lot of sugar workers; and serendipitously, the reformistoriented Chairman-to-be of the largest sugar conglomerate, Bookers, Jock Campbell - who had first been exposed to life on the logies during the Great Depression of the 1930s - shared that goal. The latter confessed that Jagan’s agitation helped him immeasurably to convince his board of the need for amelioration – including housing. During the Depression, conditions had deteriorated considerably, and agitation across the Caribbean had caused a Royal Commission to be brought down in 1938 to investigate. The MPCA sugar workers trade union had been formed in 1937 by Ayube Edun, and the Commission was in Guyana taking evidence when a strike at Leonora resulted in four workers being killed. The Commission recommended several wide-ranging reforms that included housing.

In 1947, a levy was imposed on all sugar exports, and a portion was assigned to a Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWF), out of which house lots were prepared in neighbouring areas, dubbed “extra-nuclear housing schemes”, of which Annandale was to accommodate 558 houses. The scheme was modelled after one in Britain, and included “dispensaries” and community centres to provide recreational activities to workers and their families. Typically, a $1000 loan was supposed to construct and paint a 20X20 house with a kitchen on a 50X90 house lot.

There was yard space for a kitchen garden and “fowl” pens, but not cow pens, which were common in the logies.

Monar’s “High House and Radio” refers to the new houses being constructed on stilts to address the endemic flooding in the logies, where the early ones had mud floors or, at best, had rooms one foot off the ground. Rats and termites were endemic, and there was no privacy between families, since the walls did not reach the roof. The “radio” was the first of new status symbols, and it brought into the “high houses” playback songs from Indian movies that had arrived in the late 1930s.

In 1937, an Arya Samaj missionary arrived in Guyana, and he precipitated wide-ranging changes in traditional Hindu practices in the logies. The same year a Muslim missionary arrived.

In 1948, a strike at Enmore – where workers from Lusignan were employed – protested a change in working conditions, and five workers were shot and killed. It was mere fortuity that those particular workers were from the logies of Enmore and Enterprise/Non-Pareil, but they had been known personally by the Lusignan workers. They, however, had participated in the funeral procession to Georgetown led by Dr Jagan and other labour leaders.

It was a time of ferment and agitation in the logies. Monar's oeuvre needs to be extended to give a fuller picture of the times that were a-changin’.

Dead are 75-yearold Elizabeth Gomes and 49-year-old David Gomes, both late residents of Saxacalli and of Durban Street in Wortmanville, Georgetown. This crime took place between 17:00h and 20:00h on Friday, May 8, 2024, and was witnessed by David’s six-year-old son.

Guyana Times understands that since the family moved to the city, they would return very often to clean their house and surroundings at Saxacalli. However, their routine visit took a sinister turn when an unexpected visitor arrived at their doorstep. The suspect, later identified as prison escapee Akeem Wong, who reportedly escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on February 15, 2024, approached the Gomeses’ residence seeking food and directions.

Police have said that David Gomes’s six-year-old son related that at about 15:00h on the day in question, the suspect visited their home and requested something to eat, while at the same time asking for directions. He was given food, and also took a few drinks with the child’s father.

“The child also stated that he later saw the suspect (arm) himself with a cutlass and (deal) his father several chops about his body. His grandmother (Nellie) went to (her son’s) rescue, and she was also dealt several chops about her body,” the police release has stated.

The police have said that after committing the act, the suspect attempted to wash down the blood, but in the process, he heard a boat approaching, and he ran into the nearby bushes and made good his escape.

The police have also said the child told them that, during the ordeal, the suspect was chopped by his father.

The child, the police said, took his father's cellular phone and sent a voice note to one of his father's friends, who in turn contacted the police.

Police investigations have thus far revealed that prison escapee Akeem Wong was seen in the area at the location, and is allegedly the person who committed the murders. The scene was processed, and it was observed that both of the deceased were chopped multiple times to their heads and bodies. The child was removed from the scene, and the bodies were subsequently transported to the Bartica Hospital Mortuary.

Wong, called ‘Bin Laden’, a convict who was serving a 15-year sentence for rape, escaped from the Mazaruni Prison in Region Seven

(Cuyuni-Mazaruni) in a brazen act on February 15. The Guyana Prison Service has said that Wong and another inmate, Gilbert Gill, were under the supervision of a prison officer, performing labour duties in a ‘wood bush’ when Wong requested permission to go defecate, and was granted same by the prison officer.

About five minutes later, a check was made for Wong, and it was discovered that he had gone missing. An alarm was raised, and law enforcement officials have widened the search perimeter around the area, but he has not been apprehended up until now.

Wong was 27 years old when he was convicted in 2020 for raping a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to the charge, which stated that on June 30, 2017, in the county of Demerara, he engaged in sexual penetration of the child.

A probation report had stated that Wong, a resident of Half Mile Wismar in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), had been associated with persons of unsavoury character, and had been involved in many delinquent activities.

According to the probation officer, Police records showed that Wong was wanted for a murder that occurred

in Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini), and he was arrested only in 2018 after a wanted bulletin had been issued for him.

The probation officer had informed the court that Wong had told her he had also previously been charged with break-andenter and robbery, but he claimed those charges had been dismissed.

Ravi Dev

Prison escapee Akeem Wong

The late Elizabeth Gomes and her son David Gomes in happier times

‘Bartica girl’ Estherine Adams gives voice to women “Chained in Silence”

Estherine Adams was scrolling through her Facebook account in late December, 2023 when she spotted a notification about submissions for the Guyana Prize for Literature.

Just a few hours remained before the deadline ended for submissions, and she had a manuscript that could be entered in the non-fiction category. She had done extensive research for her dissertation on the incarceration of non-white women in British Guiana following emancipation, and she’d completed the tedious task of crafting her project into a manuscript.

Still, she wasn’t very confident that it was complete, particularly not for submission for the country’s most prestigious literary award. “I had thought about it (submitting the

manuscript), but I felt that the work was not ready, not good enough. On the day of the deadline, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw the re-

minder on the Ministry of Culture’s page. It was the last day for submission, so I thought: ‘This must be a sign. I’m just going to send in what I’ve completed. I’ll

use this opportunity to see if the manuscript is ready for publication’. I told myself that at least I will get some good feedback on what I need to work on to

make it ready for the world of academic publishing.”

And what a feedback she got.

On Friday, March 1, her entry, “The Few Among the Many: Women’s Labour in British Guiana’s Jails, 1838-1917,” received top honours in the Guyana Prize for Literature (2023) Non-Fiction category. It was lauded as being “original and meticulously documented.”

That was a week ago —possibly too short a period for Estherine Adams to come down to earth. “Wow! That was my immediate reaction upon hearing that my work was shortlisted,” she told Guyana Times.

“My friends were saying to me, ‘You know you’ll win this!’ But to be quite honest, I did not believe I would, especially looking at the lineup I was up against. I am humbled to have won the award,” she said.

In ‘The Few Among The Many’, Adams poignantly shows how the labour of non-white women prisoners was exploited in service of British Guiana’s plantation economy during the 1883-1917 post-emancipation period. This research was for her 2022 dissertation (Ph.D. History,) project.

“But I can argue that it started a lot earlier, when I worked as a researcher on several Leicester University /ESRC/UG/ Guyana Prison Service projects that explored various aspects of the prison system in Guyana, to ascertain the colonial legacy on the current prison system. While researching at the Walter Rodney Archives (supplemented with documents from the National Archives, Kew London, the University of Guyana’s Caribbean Research Library), I was amazed at the volume of documents on the colonial prison system, including prison reports, punishment records, clemency petitions, parliamentary papers detailing prison reforms, etc.

“What struck me is that a lot tended to focus on incarcerated men, which in a sense is understandable, since men make up the majority of the prison population. But every so often, these women kept emerging, and I found that interesting. They were few in comparison to the men, but their presence in the prison was significant. And so began my journey to excavating these women’s stories,” she detailed.

Unearthing these harrowing stories tested her emotionally. “The women I met during this research had different stories; some heart wrenching, like the 14-year-old girl sentenced to death; some funny, some inspiring with their acts of

resistance and their resilience. Several stories inspired a sense of outrage, like this story of an enslaved woman who had been incarcerated for a few years and ended up having a child while in jail. Some had me rooting for the women, like the one who escaped jail only to be found many years later with a well-established business in Berbice. I can go on about these wonderful women who took me through a rollercoaster of emotions,” she declared.

“This was my most challenging project to date. I probably wrote about five different drafts of this work. It is always challenging to pull the material together, because I always collect way more than I need, and sometimes I feel like I need to include everything. I had a wonderful dissertation advisor, Professor Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, who kept remining me that it was okay to leave stuff out. He would say to me, ‘Estherine, think of this dissertation as your first book project. Once you get this out of the way, you’ll use the other material you have for your second and third books’,” she disclosed.

“Of course, I always felt guilty for including some of the women and not being able to include others. Like Talitha LeFlouria, one of my favourite authors, suggests, I feel giving voice to these women who have been Chained in Silence for so long is important work,” she explained.

Dissertation into manuscript

Another challenge was converting her dissertation into a manuscript. “It’s a lot of work; almost like rewriting the entire thing, and I had been working on it since my graduation,” she explained.

And even on completion and submission, she had little hope of even being shortlisted. “Wow! That was literally all I said when my friend Shammane Joseph-Jackson called me at 10:30 to tell me that I was shortlisted. I think there was some mix-up with my email, so I did not receive the initial correspondence from the Ministry of Culture informing me that I was shortlisted. So, when Shammane called, both of us were surprised. On her part, because I did not tell anyone that I had submitted an entry, and on my part, because I still doubt my abilities,” she explained.

“The response has been tremendous, and I’m still a bit on the high.”

Estherine Adams

Multiple Guyana Prize winner Harold Bascom aims for new horizons

He’s a novelist, artist, illustrator, playwright; and on Friday, March 1, he was awarded the Guyana Prize for Literature in the Drama category for an unprecedented fifth time.

At the healthy ‘young’ age of 72, the prolific, multi-talented and extremely disciplined Bascom has no intention of relaxing, but has rather added to his already demanding workload. Plays, a film script, art projects, a truly creepy graphic novel that’s set in a fictional US community, and a biography are just some of the projects he intends to complete this year.

Despite his demanding workload and work week, Bascom managed to squeeze <<Guyana Times>> into his schedule to speak candidly about his award, projects, challenges, and other aspects of his craft. We sat down with him for an interview recent-

ly, aspects of which are stated hereunder.

GT: How do you feel about winning yet again? And were you confident about winning?

HB: It always feels good to be winning again. As for whether I was confident about winning, the answer is yes. Let me address that: I knew my play was going to win like I knew that the four other Guyana Prize-winning plays I wrote were going to

win. And I beg readers to understand that this is not arrogance; it is just cold, indifferent confidence in my ability to work hard to be the best.

I always dare myself to go above the ordinary. I would push my mind onto an intellectual level where most other Guyanese playwrights probably don’t care to go. I always tell myself that my competition doesn’t understand how much the creative process expects from them, and because of that they would be writing ‘soft’, meaning they would be writing about shallow, predictable things.

GT: That’s a daring answer, so I must ask you how you come to think that way about your fellow Guyanese playwrights.

HB: I lived most of my life in Guyana, and I know the intellectual level of the average Guyanese, now that reading has tanked generally. To write well, one needs to read well, and sadly, read-

ing has ceased to be a priority on the agenda of my average countryman/woman. How many bookstores are in Georgetown? How many are in Linden? How many are in New Amsterdam? How many in Essequibo? How many would-be writers read voraciously now? It is through reading that one’s intellectual awareness becomes enhanced through ideas and broader human themes.

Then there is the sad fact that too many Guyanese have not been pushed to think critically. So, when that lack of reading is combined with the lack of critical thinking, I believe that shallowness is the result. As such, there’s no surprise that the average writer — in this context playwright —coming out of Guyana will be producing underwhelming plays.

So, yes, I knew I

would have won with “UNFOUNDED”, and this has absolutely nothing to do with me being in the USA! I wrote the play “TWO WRONGS” in my Hadfield Street, Lodge home; it won the Guyana Prize in 1994. I also wrote the play “MAKANTALI” in Hadfield Street, and it won the Guyana Prize in 1996.

GT: What is the UNFOUNDED” about, and what spawned the idea?

HB: In “FOUNDED”, I set out to make aware that, as Guyanese, we need to analyze, in my view, what is the hypocrisy of our existence as a nationality. To do that, I crafted a multilayered drama with parallel stories to make the point. In the play, I created “BUDDAY” — a man mixed with all the possible races in Guyana, a true Guyanese — and put him in the face of the audience.

TURN TO PAGE 18

‘Bartica girl’ Estherine...

Estherine Adams grew up in Bartica, and ironically, attended the Mazaruni Primary School before moving to St. John the Baptist Primary.

“I then attended the Anna Regina Multilateral School (go ARMS!),” she disclosed.

“I always loved reading, and my mother nurtured this love. As children, she encouraged us to stay inside and read, rather than being outside gallivanting (her word, not mine!). She used to tell us, ‘Books can’t seh you seh’.

“I was a business student in high school, but when I entered CPCE (Cyril Potter College of Education), there was no business studies programme at the time, and my two options to major were English and Social Studies. I had excellent CXC grades in both subjects, but felt Social Studies would be easier. I did not know at the time that Social Studies at CPCE meant courses in history, geography and social studies. In my first history class, the tutor was Ms. Nebert Haynes, I clearly remember her standing in front of the class and lecturing. She had no text books or lecture materials; she was just teaching the class from memory. That lesson was Europe in the late 15th century. That was my wow moment! My come to Jesus! My eureka moment! Right there and then I knew I wanted to teach history, and the rest, as we say, is history,” Estherine explained.

“After college, I returned to Bartica, where I taught history and geography at the Bartica Secondary School. I then moved to Georgetown to pursue my BA, and then

FROM PAGE 13

my MA in history. I taught at Campbellville Secondary, North Georgetown Secondary and St. Rose’s High before moving over to the University of Guyana as a full-time faculty member,” she explained.

Estherine Adams has a slew of impressive credentials: Head of the University of Guyana’s Department of History and Caribbean Studies; Ph.D., History, (University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, USA); Master of Arts, History; Bachelor of Arts, History, (distinction) as well as her Cyril Potter College of Education Trained Teacher’s Certificate (Cyril Potter College of Education, Turkeyen).

She is seeking to have her ground-breaking manuscript published. “I’m interested in academic publishing, so I am looking at various university presses. I am still in the process of finalising the book proposal that I’ll be sending out to potential publishers,” she said.

“I also had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the Gladstone Library in Wales last November, as winner of the 2023 Miranda Kaufmann Black British History Scholarship. I was able to photograph a large part of their archive on British Guiana, and came across an inquiry into a sexual abuse scandal on the West Coast of Demerara in the early 1800. So, one of the projects I am currently working on is a piece about this prominent reverend from the London Missionary Society who was accused of raping several enslaved women,” she disclosed.

(Michael Jordan)

Multiple Guyana Prize winner Harold...

Budday, an in-your-face narrator and social commentator, intermittently converses with the audience as the play unfolds.

He also ties together the story of the controversial love affair between Tyrone Blackman and the extremely light-skinned Indranie Gunraj, even as the nation is gripped in anxiety over the rumour of an impending invasion by neighbouring Venezuela.

Let me add this: Should I be asked, “Why did you name your play ‘Unfounded’?”, I’d answer: Something ‘unfounded’ is something not based on fact, and in the context of our nation, as Guyanese, there is nothing more unfounded than our national motto: One People, One Nation, One Destiny. In this play, I thought to address the need for us to find that common ground and realize our unavoidable oneness.

GT: What is your writing process?

HB: My writing process begins with notes on my cell phone early in the morning while sitting up in bed. I would then email those notes to myself. Once out of bed, I’d go up to my office-studio, where I copy and paste those notes into a Word Document on my laptop, and the real writing begins.

That’s when I consider which voice will do the story justice, and then start firstly on the structure of the plot, and start fleshing out the characters with backstory and whatever research is necessary to make the piece of fiction work.

Then I’d write until something begins to shape up to my satisfaction. After a few hours, I often get a first draft that often feels good. Then I would check for the flow of it. That’s when I would activate Microsoft’s Text-to-Speech and listen to what I’ve written. If it sounds lumpy, I’d rewrite it until the cadence of the sentences is smooth to my ear.

Once I feel I have a good draft, the next step is getting feedback from my editors. I’d send the story out to them, and let them critique it coldly. Once the criticisms are back, I fix the things I agree need to be addressed, and then I would go for the final draft. Of course, I’d listen to the story once again, run it through Grammarly once again, and my process ends.

GT: How do you manage to write so vividly and realistically about a Guyana you left so long ago?

HB: Even though I’ve left Guyana since 1996 and am now residing in the USA, it’s as if I never left Guyana. My home is a little Guyana, and Guyana lives inside of me. When it comes to research for one of my Guyanese plays, I continue to have friends in Guyana with whom I’m in easy contact through Facebook Messenger. Take the other day, when I was writing about Linden and needed to remember how many minutes it took to cross from Wismar to Mackenzie, I quickly opened up Messenger and asked a friend in Linden, and he gave me the answer. So, being able to write vividly and realistically about Guyana is easy. My soul is still there, and my recall of my country is sharp, even at age 72.

GT: What do you hope will come out of ‘Unfounded’ and your last play that won the Guyana Prize for Literature (Caribbean Award), namely ‘Desperate For Relevance’?

HB: When I wrote Desperate For Relevance, which won both the Guyana Prize and the Caribbean Award, I imagined that, some-

how, it would cement cultural relations between Guyana and the wider Caribbean, from where the dead writers in the drama came. I thought theatre people in the region would look at it, maybe review it, maybe stage it, but there was silence. None from the Caribbean recognized the play, and it came to nothing.

Luckily, it is now being analyzed by academic and Guyana Prize-winning poet Berkeley Semple. Maybe something might still come out of Desperate For Relevance. Fingers crossed.

As far as what will come out of “Unfounded”, I don’t know. I hope it gets produced in Guyana and shown in centres in Guyana’s three counties.

GT: How do you feel that no one has attempted to push your plays through the Caribbean and further?

HB: I feel bad, but it is what it is. Listen, once you understand the cultural game as is played in Guyana, it doesn’t affect you that much. What do I mean? In Guyana, for a writer’s work to be pushed, he or she has to be of the right pedigree, the right qualifications, and above all, know the right people. If the majority of those attributes coincide, the sky is the limit.

Even though, before this win, I had won the Guyana Prize four times and was rated as a Caribbean Writers Series Novelist because of my novel “APATA: The Story of a Reluctant Criminal”, published by Heinemann Educational Books, if you Google the phrase “Guyanese writers,” you will not see the name Harold A. Bascom.

In New York, there is the Guyana Cultural Association which, through the years, has featured a lot of budding and established Guyanese writers, playwrights, novelists and painters in its GCA magazine. Let’s talk about that glossy periodical: How many times have they ever featured me or my work in it? Zero! NOT ONCE! It’s as if I do not exist.

This has always been baffling to many people who know the volume of work I’ve done as a Guyanese book illustrator, painter, novelist, writer and playwright, along with the number of Guyana Prizes that I’ve won. And what’s most ironic is that the founder, Vibert Cambridge, knows me and my work exceptionally well. We worked together when he was in the Guyana National Service. The late Claire Ann Goring knew me and my work exceptionally well also. Do you know how many times I’ve had to field the question, “Why, Harold? Why does the GCA treat you the way they do?” I’ve always shrugged and said, “Maybe it’s because I am not from Georgetown. Maybe they want to erase my name

and everything I’ve ever done as a Guyanese. Maybe because I don’t have a degree. Maybe they’re afraid of me. I don’t know.”

GT: You came from relatively humble beginnings, do you sometimes look back with amazement at where you are today?

HB: No. I always knew I was destined to do significant things. Even as a child, growing up in New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop to a mother who was a housewife and a father who was a travelling salesman with a grip, selling raw cloth and female attire in Linden.

GT: How do you manage to be so prolific?

HB: I feel wired to write. I liken my need to be always writing as to what is said about some sharks: that they cannot stop swimming, lest they drown. With me, it’s as if I have to keep writing, or sink into irrelevance. And so, I’m always generating creative ideas, always thinking, “What if?”

I remember one day looking at my partner taking off her Covid mask after having arrived home from work one night, and the thought hit me: “What if someone, in the process of taking off their mask, takes off the bottom of their face along with the mask?” And out of that crazy thought the short story “The Last Variant” was born.

Another reason I manage to be prolific is that I’m always bubbling over deep inside with ideas that I feel I need to express — things I feel I need to say. As such, I’m ever pushing myself to meanings and points of view through fiction, be it an idea for a new play, a new short story. My questioning mind influences my output.

I’ve disciplined my mind to be focused, almost single-mindedly on a creative task; and through the years, I’ve learned to compartmentalize projects. In other words, I can do a series of different creative projects in a parallel and do each exceptionally well.

On the wall above my desk, for example, there’s a timetable; it reminds me of what I need to do each day, and when I enter into that specific project, it’s as if I’m entering a special world that carries its own creative discipline. I’m there.

Maybe that ability to multitask has something to do with my planet. See, I’m a Scorpio. Maybe it has something to do with my lifestyle; my life is frighteningly single-minded. All I live for is to learn something new every day and create. I hardly go out, I hardly interact with people, and I have few friends because I prefer to be alone. I’m homebound by choice.

GT: Do you think you’ve grown consistently?

HB: Yes. I feel I am “growing” consistently. Achieving one’s creative plateau is a quest one hopes to achieve before transitioning. After that, it’s up to someone else to take over from where you left off and take it to another level. I believe that. I am afraid of mediocrity, so I push my creative mind brutally. When I write, I always set out to say something profound in my work. As far as themes and plots go, I am not one for the predictable and that which can be considered run-of-the-mill. Even when my plots may seem ordinary, I push my mind for that deeper interpretation born of the deepest analysis as a social commentator.

I’ve always been faithful in my definition of what my role is as a writer, an artist, or a playwright. It is to be an antenna or a barometer for whatever society I find myself

enmeshed in.

GT: You once said your father wasn’t too pleased about you, his seemingly dreamy son, leaving school to pursue an artistic career. What do you think he’d say if he could see your success?

HB: My father, Harold A. Bascom, Sr, was a piece of work. What is ironic about him was (that), even though he was the one cynical about me dabbling in my aspirations to be an artist, and that it was my mother who told him to leave me alone, that I knew what I was doing, she died before I became a Chief Illustrator Artist with the Ministry of Education, and started putting out those readers like “Cumfa Drums are Calling”, “Balram’s New Home”, Our First Village”, “The Moco Moco Tree”, and others. And who do you think was displaying those supplementary readers with his son’s photograph at the back of them? My father. So, my current success would have seen him over the moon with pride. Sure of it!

GT: What exciting projects are you working on?

HB: I’m working as co-writer on an autobiography, as well as putting together a collection of my short stories for publication, as well as working on a full-length play for a paying client. I’m also monitoring my first graphic novel making its rounds through a series of agents in the hope that it is taken up for

agented representation.

Then there is a painting project that I will soon be embarking on, in which I will be doing a series of paintings from which Guyana Prize-winning poet Berkley Semple will write poems. We would be aiming to do a book of our collaboration, something like “Derek Walcott, Peter Doig: Morning Paramin.”

GT: In your theatrical career, you are not only a playwright, but you are also a stage play director.

HB: With all of the plays I’ve done at the National Cultural Centre, I didn’t only write them, I also directed them. And this is something many don’t understand about me. I always wanted

to become a film director, and even though I’m now seventy-two, it can still happen. But yes, I’ve directed all of the plays I’ve written; no, that’s not accurate, because I haven’t directed “MAKANTALI” yet, and when I do, it will be a masterclass for other directors.

GT: Can you recall any challenging happenings while you directed any of your plays?

HB: Yes, some were amusing, light; and then others were extremely disturbing. There was the time an actor came to rehearsals drunk, and I was pissed. Told him off and cancelled the rehearsal.

Then there was this night I was letting the actors flow with a certain scene, but as I listened to their lines, I thought that one actor was saying too much, and maybe if his lines were fewer and more to the point, the scene would be better; so, I yelled: “Cut! Cut!” They looked at me like, “What happen, Harold?” And I turned to the actor who I thought had too many lines and said: “We’re going to cut those lines you have. That playwright maybe likes to write a lot of lines!”, And everybody is looking openmouthed. Then one actress, Anne Wilburg, says to me, “But Harold, you is the playwright!” I laughed and told her that when I write a play, I’m a playwright; and when I’m directing, I’m a director, and can separate my playwright self from my director self, and that as a director, the lines were crap.

But there was one very painful experience. There was this play that I rehearsed five weeks on, and on the third day before the play opened at the Cultural Centre, the lead actress sent back her script with a note that read, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, I would not be able to be a part of your play.”

I later heard that some individuals in the drama fraternity told her that I was making a lot of money and my actors weren’t getting enough, and that making one of my plays fail would be the thing to put me in my place.

GT: Did you have to cancel your production?

HB: When I told the cast that the lead actress was out, many of them panicked. But I calmly told them that the show would go on, and that we’d recast on the spot. I gave Anne Wilburg, my most capable actress, the lead role; and yes, we struggled, but on Saturday night the play opened. But can you guess who was there sitting in the front row of Auditorium Front? The girl who was supposed to be the lead actress.

GT: That was brutal. Wow!

HB: I thought it was, but quite recently I was speaking with Vivian Williams, who was a fellow playwright and producer-director who had a similar experience that totally upstaged mine. A key actor in one of his plays dropped out one day before his play opened. Thankfully, Vivian was also an actor as well as a director, so he had to play the original role he cast himself for in his play, and had to play the role of the actor who dropped out as well.

And why did Vivian’s actor drop out? Same story: Greed. He wanted more money. But there was another unforgettable experience I had in theatre, and it was over my play “Witch-hunt for Harry Barker.” There were elements who sabotaged my play, so that it “bust” at the box office. It was a bad thing. But luckily, they did not succeed in destroying me as a producer. I bounced back.

$120B invested for completed, ongoing four-lane highways – Minister Croal

The Guyana Government’s expansive development strategy has seen a planned investment exceeding $120 billion for several completed and future four-lane highways. This assertion was made by Housing Minister Collin Croal as he presented the

“National Development Strategies for Housing and Infrastructure” during the Annual Police Officers' Conference on Friday.

In the expansion of road networks is the Eccles to Great Diamond Interlink Road, pegged at $5 billion for 5.6 kilometres of roadway, which was commissioned in 2021.

In 2022, the $2.8 billion Mandela Avenue to Eccles four-lane Highway was commissioned, followed by the commissioning of the $13.4 billion Eccles to Great Diamond Highway in December 2023.

Works are progressing on the Schoonord to Crane Highway, as well as on the $10.4 billion Great Diamond to Buzz Bee Dam road. The $80.4 billion Buz Bee Dam to Land of Canaan roadway and $40.5 billion Land of Canaan to Soesdyke Highway are in the design phase.

In Budget 2024, billions of dollars have been allocated towards the completion of ongoing and new highway projects across the country, thereby opening new routes and keeping traffic jams at a minimum.

Looking at the housing sector, Minister Croal highlighted the allocation of over 30,000 lots to Guyanese, including Joint Services members, over the past three years. Further, he emphasized the direct impact of the housing programme on the Joint Services, as they are also beneficiaries of the home construction initiative which spans several regions.

In Government’s quest to allocate 10,000 house lots annually, approximately 40 housing areas have been established since 2020. Total allocations as of February 2024 stand at 30,793.

Infrastructural works have commenced in all areas developed during this time.

The Young Professionals’

housing development programme has led to the construction of affordable units at Providence, Prospect, Little Diamond, La Bonne Intention, Edinburgh, Cummings Lodge, Hampshire/Williamsburg, Amelia’s Ward, Little and Great Diamond, Leonora, Edinburgh and Ordinance Fort Lands.

More than 30 private contractors have been engaged in the construction of low, moderate, middle and Young Professional houses. Private companies were contracted to execute infrastructure works in new and existing housing areas. The CHPA has also been working with interested and qualified private sector companies and organizations to provide lands for development.

Affordable housing has been made possible with the reversal of VAT on building materials, access to affordable financing for home ownership, and partnerships which have incentivised the private sector’s involvement.

Through collaboration with the Finance Ministry and the banking sector, there has been a reduction in residential mortgage interest rates at lending institutions.

The Government has also facilitated the review of the NBS Act, which enables the Building Society to raise its mortgage ceiling to $30 million.

The Guyana Revenue Authority has also raised the Mortgage Interest Relief ceiling from $15 million to $30 million. Under the steel and cement subsidy initiative, a brainchild of President Irfaan Ali, some 1095 vouchers have been distributed, worth $273 million.

Continually, the Central Housing and Planning Authority is working to acquire lands from GUYSUCO, NICIL and GLSC.

The Eccles to Great Diamond Interlink Road

Housing Minister Collin Croal speaking during the Annual Police Officers’ Conference

MoH probing toddler’s death at West Demerara Hospital

– family blames negligence of health authorities

The Health Ministry has launched a thorough investigation following the death of 19-month-old Kayden Munroe on Thursday at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH).

On Saturday, the Ministry in a statement related that a multi-disciplinary team was investigating the fatality.

According to the Ministry’s records, 48 hours before the baby’s death, he had visited several health institutions, including the Den Amstel Health Centre, the Leonora District Hospital, a private pharmacy, a private doctor’s office and then the WDRH.

As part of the multi-disciplinary team’s investigation, a post-mortem will be

conducted on Monday.

“Already, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr

Narine Singh has initiated a thorough investigation of this child’s death,

starting with compiling reports from all the medical providers that were involved. This part of the investigation will be completed by the end of the day on Saturday,” the Ministry shared.

The CMO has also initiated a process to complete in-person interviews with the officers this weekend. In addition, the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Department is conducting its own investigation, since the child was also seen at a health centre. Both the CMO’s office and the MCH will also interview members of the family.

“The MoH assures the family that a fair, independent and multi-disciplinary investigation will be conducted and a report will be submitted to the Minister

shortly. Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony and the Ministry of Health express our profound condolences to the family of the child and assure the family and the public that a full investigation will be conducted,” the statement added.

Devi Munroe, the child’s grandmother told another section of the media that the child took the Yellow Fever and MMR vaccines at the Den Amstel Health Centre, West Coast Demerara (WCD) on Tuesday, March 5.

After he got the shots, she related, they went home and soon after, he developed a fever. The next day, the fever worsened and the child was taken to the Leonora Diagnostic Centre where the health officials there gave him Panadol syrup and sent him home.

Munroe further related that after her grandson’s condition worsened, they took him to a pharmacy and clinic at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) where the doctor diagnosed that he was suffering from “tapered breathing” and instructed that he be taken to the West Demerara Hospital.

Without hesitation, she rushed him to the WDRH and the child was immediately taken to the emergency room where the doctor “sounded him” and related that “nothing is wrong with him and that he is breathing fine”.

The woman was then ordered to sit and wait her turn as the nurse was compiling the baby’s chart. She told the media that she waited for almost an hour by which time she related that her grandson was getting cold and “turning blue”.

“I told them this baby is turning blue and I keep begging them to help me see a doctor, but they keep telling me I have to wait my turn. “I said ‘doctor, please, I need you to look after my baby, he is not breathing properly, the baby is panting for breath’,” a distraught Munroe told Newsroom.

The child was finally put on oxygen and after some 10 minutes, he was taken for an X-ray, but he died soon after.

“After the X-ray, he was not breathing. They started doing CPR and hooking him up to the machine, but by then, my baby was gone,” the grieving grandmother related.

The grandmother is alleging gross negligence on the part of the doctors and nurses who reportedly did not take her complaints seriously and took a lengthy time before they examined the child.

Last October, a fiveyear-old child died hours after she was transferred from the WDRH to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

At that time, recognising several shortcomings at the West Demerara Hospital, it was announced that changes were being made to address the concerns. Several practices that affect quality at the hospital were also discontinued.

One of the challenges facing the overall health sector has been the institutionalisation of patient-friendly services. While significant improvement has been achieved, the sector continues to be challenged by inappropriate behaviour by a small number of staff members, the Ministry had said.

Former Guyanese Consul to Grenada passes on

Former Honorary Consul of Guyana in Grenada, Deodat Singh, has passed away. The announcement was made by President Irfaan Ali on Saturday as he sent out condolences.

According to the Head of State, Singh had been an exceptional servant to the Guyanese community in Grenada for over two decades, especially during the devastating hurricane of 2004.

“He demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and welfare of our citizens living abroad, which embodies the true spirit of service and compassion.

The late Deodat Singh, former Honorary Consul of Guyana in Grenada

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they mourn the loss of this remarkable individual,” the President has penned.

Dead: Kayden Munroe

Guyanese man found dead on Suriname jetty

AGuyanese national identified as 'Shado' by Surinamese authorities has been discovered dead on a jetty along the Commissaris Thurkowweg in Suriname.

The man was found lying unresponsive near an office belonging to the owner of a scaffolding, who promptly alerted the Nieuw Amsterdam police about the presence of the body at around 7:30h.

Upon arrival at the jetty, known locally as Pantoen, law enforcement officials confirmed the identity of the man; and despite efforts to revive him, including the dispatch of the Meer Zorg ambulance, the man died while awaiting medical assistance, as reported by the Surinamese police in the East region.

Initial examinations done by medical professionals and forensic investigators discovered no sign of foul play at the scene. However, the cir-

cumstances surrounding the man's untimely demise remain under investigation, and his body has been seized for further examination.

Not long ago, a Guyanese fisherman was found dead in a boat in Suriname. That victim was identified as 55-year-old Nigel Thomas of 34 Lusignan, East Coast Demerara and of 13 Yarrow Dam, La Penitence, Georgetown.

This man was reported-

ly discovered dead by a colleague in the wee hours of the morning inside a boat, according to reports.

A doctor who was called in had indicated that no crime had been involved, as the father of one had reportedly died of natural causes.

After the police had conducted their investigations, the corpse was handed over to the next of kin, in accordance with the Surinamese Public Prosecution Service.

Police to utilise rivers in developing rapid response – Pres Ali

…says 4 boats procured for marine operations

Guyana is now focused on utilising its rivers to enhance rapid response by the Guyana Police Force (GPF), with investments in resources and building capacity to support this new approach.

President Dr Irfaan Ali shared during a recent address at the Annual Police Officers’ Conference that policing must match the country’s landscape. In Guyana’s case, its expansive rivers will prove useful in setting up a robust river patrol and transportation system for law enforcement.

“We have worked with the Police Force and matching assets with the landscape. So, for example, we have all the rivers. We are known as a Land of Many Waters. We

are known for the expansive rivers that cover our coastlands, but we have never utilised this asset to support policing. So, one of the things that is being done now, is the response now, is we are building a river response capacity and capability,” Ali remarked.

The Commander-InChief shared that there would be bases along the coast to support this marine response. Thus far, four boats have been sourced to expand this operation – two of which have arrived.

“If you have to go through the traffic from Stabroek to Diamond, the marine response will be half the time or less the time to establish, a presence anywhere along the coast. So, we have about

four boats…Those will now form part of the coastal patrol team. So, all of this would add to reducing the time of response, and you will see also with them, because security is integrated and intelligence-led, so all the players in the security landscape must be able to share on a platform. And that is an important part of what we are doing,” he explained.

Two months ago, British warship HMS Trent entered Guyana’s waters, in its effort to carry out routine defence cooperation exercises with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Coast Guard.

The ship, a river-class patrol vessel, was in Guyana to take part in joint exercises with Guyana’s military as the country sought to bolster

its internal security.

Then in February, it was announced that capacity to monitor our maritime borders would see another boost with the brand-new Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), built by United States-based Metal Shark Boats for the GDF.

This acquisition was part of efforts to modernise and expand the Army to meet future defence and security needs – a huge aspect of which is to boost its assets. GDF ranks have been undergoing training over the past three years on operating the OPV.

In August last year, President Ali said that the vessel being procured from Metal Shark would also help Guyana in patrolling its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) against ille -

President Dr Irfaan Ali

gal fishing. He pointed out that Guyana has been losing significant revenue from illegal fishing in its EEZ, a problem that is be -

ing dealt with through the modernisation and outfitting of the GDF with a wide range of marine and aviation equipment.

Govt awards $127M in contracts to East, West Ruimveldt residents –

10 women among awardees

Atotal of 27 contracts totalling $127 million were awarded to residents of East and West Ruimveldt, Georgetown for major community development works.

The contracts were inked in the presence of the Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar and the Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy.

The projects were awarded to a diverse group of people, including 10 women, middle-aged individuals, youths, and men.

The contacts included the construction of concrete walkways, culverts, bridges, and cul-de-sacs, as well as the cleaning and desilting of community drains, among others.

Guyana Times understands that the provision of contracts to residents is a result of a recent commitment made by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, to empower villagers, particularly the youth, to utilise their time productively while contributing to the enhancement of their community.

In an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), contractors expressed gratitude to the Guyana Government for providing them with the opportunity to contribute effectively to Guyana’s infrastructural development.

Contractor Tiffany Greenidge explained that the contracts would not only generate employment but also enable her to support her family financially.

“I am a part of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) in Laing Avenue and I am always helpful in the area… I must say that I am very proud of being a contractor. As a single parent with four kids… I must say thanks to the Vice President,” Greenidge stated.

Lazeena Joseph, a young resident, expressed her happiness in contributing to her village’s development. She emphasised the significance of addressing the recurring issue of flooding caused by clogged drains in the area.

“I am very excited and at the same time really emotional, because this is a milestone for me to be awarded this contract. It shows how committed the Government is to making peoples’ lives better. I am so happy to be helping my community by fixing the roads and cleaning the drains that oftentimes cause flooding in the area,” the youth shared.

Meanwhile, Roynell Berkley, one of the male contractors, stressed the importance of enabling individuals in the community to willingly contribute to the enhancement of their villages.

On this point, he urged all his fellow contractors to execute quality work and make the community proud.

“It’s very nice that the Government is giving contracts to the people in the area…We need good work and proper work done. We don’t need no faulty work in the area, then people have to complain and make it bad for contractors in the area,” Berkley stated.

During his address, Minister Indar underscored the significance of these contracts, emphasising that they were part of the Government’s efforts to work alongside residents to build their communities.

While urging the contractors to execute their work professionally so that taxpayers could have value for money, the Minister said the projects would also build residents' capacity to execute other works in the country.

“We are fulfilling a commitment made by the Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo when he came here on the 19th of February… we are here again and between that time to now the engineers came and did the assessment of the area, they made the Bill of Quantity and they came up with about 27 contracts or what we call lots,” the Minister posited.

“This, on the other hand, is what you call community participation projects… so you will do it to quality, you will do it, so you can be remembered and you will do it, so you can develop from it…When it comes to employment… it is better for you to employ people from right in the community,” Minister Indar encouraged.

Meanwhile, Minister McCoy underscored the importance of women’s participation in the expansion of Guyana’s infrastructure, and on this point, he congratulated the women for stepping out of their comfort zones and actively participating in the country’s development efforts.

“It must be celebrated, because it means that we are in keeping with the international objectives and goals that Guyana is making strides when it comes

to women's empowerment and women’s development. And almost everywhere you go in Guyana, you can see women leading the charge and carrying out mandates and coming out of traditional roles,” Minister McCoy expressed.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Public Works’ Force Account Unit embarked on a project to rehabilitate 45 roads in East and West Ruimveldt, as well

as six roads in Alexander Village in keeping with promises made by the Vice President at outreaches in the community. Works in Alexander

Village have so far been completed by the Special Projects Unit, while construction on 26 roads in East Ruimveldt and 13 in West Ruimveldt is ongoing.

Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, and Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy, posing with contractors

One of the young female contractors signing her contract

IDB commits US$20M over 5 years to accelerate regional integration

– money to be disbursed to further strategic development programme

Regional Governors of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) have agreed to commit US$20 million towards the bank’s Ordinary Capital Strategic Development Programme, which is aimed at accelerating regional integration in the Caribbean under the “One Caribbean” initiative.

“One Caribbean” envisions a region where climate adaptation, disaster risk management and resilience, citizen security, Private Sector engagement in the economy, and food security can all be improved through more digitalisation and strengthening of institutions.

During the recent 2024 Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the IDB and IDB Invest in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the IDB Governors for Guyana, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago also agreed to commit US$20 million to this cause.

“The Governors agreed to the establishment of a Transitory Emerging

Need for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean under the IDB’s Ordinary Capital Strategic Development Programme, representing a commitment of up to US$20 million over five years,” a statement from the Finance Ministry said, “to accelerate the advancement of the Programme's priorities and a Partnership and Resource Mobilisation Strategy to help leverage additional funding sources for One Caribbean”.

While in Punta Canta, Guyana’s Minister of Finance ,Dr Ashni Singh participated in several discussions with some of the key issues to be addressed by Governors, including the new IDB Group Institutional Strategy, the proposal for a capital increase for IDB Invest to implement a new business model that would expand its development impact through the Private Sector, and new funding for IDB Lab to evolve its business model and make it more systemic and financially sustainable.

Recently, the Finance Minister described the

IDB as a dependable, relevant, and responsive development partner over the past 47 years. Further, he had said that “this relationship has evolved since our membership from concessional lending during periods of challenging economic circumstances to our present reality of being amongst the fastest-growing economies in the world”.

He had also noted that the Bank has remained

steadfast in its support of Guyana’s development agenda, maintaining its position as Guyana’s largest multilateral lender and main source of external financing. According to Dr Singh, the IDB has been providing major development support to Guyana through both its public and Private Sector arms.

The IDB Annual Meetings take place every year in a designated member country. This year, as

a prelude to the Annual Meetings, Guyana hosted the Twelfth Annual IDB consultation with Caribbean Governors in February. On the sidelines of the February engagement, Guyana and the IDB signed several key agreements to advance development in various sectors.

The IDB Group is the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. It contrib -

utes to improving lives by providing financial solutions and development expertise to public and Private Sector clients.

The Group comprises the IDB, which has worked with Governments for more than 60 years; IDB Invest, which serves the Private Sector; and IDB Lab, which tests innovative ways to enable more inclusive growth.

Minister Singh led the Guyana delegation at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the IDB and IDB Invest, in Punta Cana.

The meetings were held from March 6 to March 10 and included discussions by economic and financial leaders from the 48 member countries of the IDB, about the challenges and opportunities for development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Accompanying the Finance Minister to the meetings were the Chief Planning Officer at the Finance Ministry, Dr Tarachand Balgobin, and the Alternate Executive Director in the Caribbean Office of the IDB, Navita Anganu Ramroop.

Diabetes is leading cause of kidney failure in Guyana

Patients diagnosed with diabetes are more at risk of suffering from kidney failure, given that diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure in Guyana.

In 2023, the Health Ministry revealed that a total of 150 young persons in Guyana were battling type 1 diabetes while an estimated 60,000 persons have type 2 diabetes.

Additionally, 330 persons currently require dialysis treatment to help them live and as the country focuses on improving the treatment for persons with diabetes, the Health Ministry is hoping to detect persons at risk for diabetes or those who are pre-diabetic much earlier.

Last week, Health

Minister, Dr Frank Anthony announced that the obesity rates in the country were linked to several changing lifestyle factors, which the population have adopted, ranging from dietary choices to sedentary lifestyles.

The Minister pointed out that the consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and a decrease in physical activity are among the risk factors contributing to the high prevalence of obesity.

According to a Nephrologist at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr Baldeo Singh this issue must be addressed given that kidney disease is linked to other health complications.

“Once you have kidney

disease, you may have eyes [disease] as well, because they come hand in hand… around 15 to 20 years when you have kidney disease, your eyes are affected and kidney disease also increases the risk of heart disease… And the major cause of death in kidney disease is heart disease,” he related during a televised programme.

Signs and symptoms of kidney failure include swollen feet, abdomen and face; decrease in urine output and in advanced stages, decreased appetite, weight loss, difficulty sleeping, and nausea.

To counter this health issue, Dr Singh said they first have to deal with the risk factors that contribute to kidney disease such

as obesity which causes diabetes.

“If you have type 1 di-

abetes and you have it in your teens, by the time you reach 30 or 40, you

will have kidney disease or even earlier. If you have type 2 diabetes and you got diagnosed in your thirties or forties, by the time you reach fifty you will be diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, if these things are uncontrolled,” he explained.

Through its Chronic Disease Programme, the Ministry of Health will be increasing screening for kidney disease this year. Further, drugs used to treat diabetes will be standardised along with the new guidelines’ detailed goals and targets for prevention and control.

Follow-up care and primary-care measures that can be used to prevent complications will also be further prioritised.

Dr Baldeo Singh, Nephrologist at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, with IDB President Ilan Goldfajn (centre) and regional leaders, including Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, after signing on to the “One Caribbean” programme on Friday

Regional

Heavy gunfire near Haiti’s National Palace in Port-au-Prince

Heavy gunfire was seen on Friday near Haiti’s national palace in its capital of Port-auPrince, according to reports by news agency EFE, in the midst of political turmoil sparked by Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s absence.

Haiti entered a state

of emergency last Sunday after fighting escalated, armed gangs broke inmates out of prison , and an estimated over 10,00 people were displaced while Henry was in Kenya seeking a deal for an international force to fight Haiti’s gangs.

The United States earlier this week called on Haiti’s Prime Minister to expedite a political transition as armed gangs seek his ouster.

Henry, Haiti’s unelected interim leader, landed in the US territory of Puerto Rico on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Peru rules out 2 suspects planned attack at APEC forum

Peru’s authorities ruled out the initial hypothesis that an Iranian and a Peruvian arrested on Friday were planning an attack on an Israeli person at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

The arrests prevented an attack on a foreign businessman, according to a statement by APEC’s Peru office, which is currently attached to the Foreign Ministry.

A spokesperson for Peru’s Interior Ministry also ruled out a link be -

tween the captures and the forum.

Peru’s Chief of Police, Oscar Arriola, told a press conference on Friday the arrests were made after an investigation in coordination with international intelligence agencies, which provided “sensitive” information about an Iranian citizen who arrived in Peru at the beginning of March.

“We had to act quickly because today (the Iranian) was set to return to Iran after forming a terrorist cell to wipe out an Israeli national,” Arriola said.

Other Police sources

had said preliminary findings indicated a possible attack targeting an Israeli at the forum.

Both the Iranian, whom Arriola identified as 56-year-old Majid Azizi, and the Peruvian were arrested on Thursday, he said. Azizi also holds Peruvian nationality by marriage, Arriola said.

Arriola said authorities had identified the Israeli who would have been targeted in the attack, though they were choosing not to release the person’s name due to security reasons.

(Reuters)

Barbados Budget Day is March 18

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley will deliver her 2024 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals on Monday March 18, at 15:00h in the House of Assembly.

The Budget Speech, a ministerial statement, will follow the second reading of the Appropriations Bill 2024, which the Prime Minister will “move” in her capacity as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.

In keeping with custom, the House of Assembly

is expected to dedicate the remainder of the week to the Opposition’s reply to

the speech and debate by Members of Parliament.

(Nation News)

THA scraps Jazz Festival

The highly-anticipated annual Tobago Jazz Experience will not be making a return in 2024, as the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has decided to scrap it due to its “unsustainability”.

However, the THA says it will support any jazz-related activities planned for April 2024.

The announcement was made by the Tobago Festivals Commission Limited, a year after Chief Secretary Farley Augustine raised concerns over the event’s future.

At that time, Augustine revealed the THA executive’s intention to consider a new approach, wherein private promoters would take on a larger role and become major investors in hosting the festival.

In its first release on the issue, the commission said, “This was in part due to the current model of the festival not being deemed as sustainable.”

In an updated release, it said the decision was due to various factors affecting its feasibility and sustainability.

“This decision, while not made lightly, aligns with our commitment to delivering high-quality cultural experiences that resonate with the evolving interests of our audience.”

Contacted for a comment on the decision, Tourism Minister Randall Mitchell wished the commission all the best.

“The festival and tourism product in Tobago falls under the responsibility of the Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities, and Transportation. And if follow-

ing their last edition in 2023, they now, in March 2024, deem the festival event to be unsustainable, I could only wish them the very best in reorganising the popular festival in the near future for the sake of the associated tourism stakeholders (accommodation providers, tour operators) who depend on those patrons visiting the island during the period.”

Meanwhile, news of the cancellation left one tourism association and its members disappointed. (Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian)

Former Pablo Escobar associate arrested on drugs charges in Colombia

Asuspected drug trafficker and former associate of the late Colombian drugs baron Pablo Escobar has been arrested at his luxury villa in the city of Medellin following an international operation, Spanish Police said on Saturday.

The detained man is suspected of being the nexus between Medellinbased traffickers and the European crime groups Ndrangheta – based in Italy – and Mocro Mafia, which operates from the Netherlands, police said in a statement.

“He was known by Police authorities for having collaborated in the past with a historical leader of (the Medellin Cartel) between the 80s and 90s,” the

Police statement said. A Police source with knowledge of the investigation identified the man as Julio Andres Murillo Figueroa, and named the cartel leader he had links to as Escobar.

The operation leading to the suspect’s arrest began after an exchange of information between the Spanish National Police’s fugitive unit and their counterparts in Colombia, the statement said.

UK-based Privy Council to hand down Kartel appeal decision next week

Jamaican entertainer

Vybz Kartel and his three co-convicts will in less than a week know whether their 2014 convictions for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams have been upheld by Jamaica’s final appellate court, the United Kingdom-based Privy Council.

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in a statement to Jamaican media entities on Friday, indicated that the anticipated ruling will be handed down on Thursday, March 14 at 11:00h Jamaica time. The indication comes a mere three weeks after the matter was heard by the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council over two days, starting on February 15. Kartel’s Attorneys had requested an expedited decision on the basis that their client had been diagnosed with a supposedly life-threatening illness.

The panel comprising President of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Lord Reed, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lord Briggs, Lord Burrows, and Lady Simler was asked to decide whether the convictions of Vybz Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, and his co-convicts Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John were

safe, based on three grounds. Attorneys for Kartel asked the body to rule on whether the original trial should have excluded the telecommunications evidence relied on by the prosecution, and to say how he should have handled the allegations that there were attempts to bribe members of the jury during the trial, and more specifically whether that jury should have been discharged. Furthermore, the panel was asked to rule on whether the Judge was wrong to invite the jury to reach a verdict late in the day, given the special circumstances of the case. (Excerpt from Jamaica Observer)

A woman with a gunshot wound is transported by two men on a motorcycle as Haiti remains in state of emergency due to the violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 9, 2024 (Reuters/Ralph Tedy Erol photo)

Julio Andres Murillo Figueroa was arrested in Colombia (Police via the Independent)

A section of the audience at the International Night of the Tobago Jazz Experience at the Parade Grounds, Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, in April 2023

Prime Minister Mia Mottley

OIL NEWS China holds the key to 2024 global oil demand growth

Despite an increase in China’s crude oil imports in the first two months of 2024, it’s too early to say how the purchases of the world’s top crude importer will impact global oil demand and prices this year.

One thing is certain – the impact, in either direction, will be felt across the market.

Chinese imports rose in January and February this year compared to the same two months of last year, according to official Chinese data released this week. But the base for comparison with early 2023 is low and the month-on-month trend compared to December 2023 is for lower imports.

Time will tell how soon the Chinese imports will reverse the trend, and whether international crude oil prices and China’s crude import quotas and fuel export quotas will have more weight in refiners’ purchases compared to underlying domestic oil demand in China.

At the start of 2024, the crude imports showed a mixed bag of trends.

Chinese crude oil imports jumped by 5.1 per cent in January and February compared to the same two months last year, Government data showed on Thursday, as fuel demand rose during the Lunar New Year holiday last month.

China saw oil cargo arrivals rise to a total of 10.74 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first two months of 2024, compared to about 10.4 million bpd in January-February 2023, according to Reuters’ calculations based on data in tons reported by the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

China’s customs office does not report separate data for January and February to avoid distortion due to the Lunar New Year holiday, which typically begins at the end of January or early February. This year, the holiday period fell in the middle of February.

However, on a per-day basis to account for the February 29 leap day, the increase in the combined January-February crude imports is just 3.3 per cent compared to the same months of 2023, Reuters’ columnist Clyde Russell notes.

Moreover, the 10.74 million bpd imports in January and February were significantly lower than the 11.39 million bpd crude arrivals in December 2023.

The high imports in the last month of last year were partly driven by the slump in international oil prices in the fourth quarter, down from a 2023 high of over US$95 a barrel in September.

Time and again, Chinese refiners have shown in recent years that they are willing to step up purchases when prices are relatively low and hold back the buying spree when oil climbs above US$80 per barrel. Even if domestic and fuel export demand is not too high, China is using the cheaper crude it has imported to boost stockpiles.

Despite the annual increase in the January-February crude imports, “the overall buying trend remains soft as the purchases were lower when compared to imports of 11.39MMbbls/d in December,” ING commodity strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said, commenting on the official Chinese crude import data.

“China has been slowing its overseas purchases primarily due to slowing demand from refineries, weak economic indicators, and higher inventories,” they added.

As prices have recently moved above US$80 a barrel again, and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) signalled with the rollover of the cuts it would be looking to tighten the market in the second quarter, Chinese crude imports in April and May could remain soft as they would have been contracted at around this time and at about the current prices.

More fuel export quotas for Chinese refiners could incentivise more refinery throughput and product exports after very weak January and February, in which – due to a lack of quotas – China’s exports of petroleum products slumped by 30.6 per cent year-over-year to about 1.18 million bpd.

A decisive rebound in China’s economy will help lift oil demand and imports this year, but if brighter economic prospects – also outside China – lead to higher oil prices, Chinese refiners may opt to dip into their inventories and slow opportunistic crude purchases.

(Oilprice.com)

Around The World

UNRWA: Sweden and Canada resume funding for UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Sweden and Canada

have said they will resume aid payments to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

They were among 16 countries that paused funds after Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staff of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

The UN is investigating, and France's Foreign Minister is leading a review.

Sweden said on Saturday it would send 200 million kronor (US$19 million) initially, after UNRWA agreed to more checks on its spending and staff.

"The Government has allocated 400 million kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today's decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor," it said in a statement.

It comes after Canada said on Friday that it would re-start funding for UNRWA while investigations into the agency's staff continue.

On October 7, Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza's border into Israel, killing about 1200 persons and taking more than 250 hostage.

In response, Israel launched a campaign of air strikes and a ground invasion of the territory.

More than 30,900 persons have since been killed in Gaza, the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry says, and the amount of aid reaching civilians has plummeted.

The UN has warned that a quarter of the Strip's population is on the brink of famine and children are starving to death.

UNRWA is the biggest

UN agency operating in Gaza. It provides healthcare, education and other humanitarian aid, and employs about 13,000 persons there.

Its chief Philippe Lazzarini said he was "cautiously optimistic" donors would start funding it again within weeks.

He said the agency was "at risk of death" after major donor countries suspended funding following allegations in late January that

a number of staff members were involved in the attack. Within days, Lazzarini said an investigation was being carried out, and "to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance", these staff members had been sacked.

On Friday the EU, UK, US and others said they planned to open a sea route to Gaza to deliver aid that could begin operating this weekend. (Excerpt from BBC News)

Pope says Ukraine should have “courage of the white flag” on negotiations

Pope Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the "white flag" and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow's full-scale invasion two years ago, and that has killed tens of thousands.

Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday's latest of-

fer by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

Erdogan made the fresh offer after a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has said while he wants peace he will not give up any territory. The Ukrainian leader's own peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian

Nigeria abduction: 15 more students kidnapped as army search continues

Nigeria's spate of abductions worsened on Saturday as more than a dozen students and four women were kidnapped from a school in Gada, Sokoto.

Local Member of Parliament (MP) Bashir Usman Gorau told the BBC that 15 students were among those kidnapped early in the morning.

Meanwhile, the army is still searching for hundreds of schoolchildren taken in the western town of Kuriga on Thursday.

In an update, the State Governor, Uba Sani told the BBC that at least 28 of these children had escaped.

Thursday's kidnapping –which saw 280 students taken – was the biggest mass abduction from a school since 2021.

Gangs of armed men on motorbikes took primary and secondary school children between the ages of eight and 15, school authori-

ties and parents said. Nigerian troops are working with Police and local search teams to comb forests within the state of Kaduna, where Kuriga is located, as well as neighbouring states.

Almost every family in the town is thought to have a child among those kidnapped.

One pupil, believed to be 14 years old, who had been shot by the gunmen and was being treated in hospital, has since died.

The kidnappings followed women and children taken from a remote town in Borno state the day before.

Sani said the lack of boots on the ground was the main reason for the rise in kidnappings in the area.

Families of the abducted children have formed vigilante groups and are seeking help from neighbouring communities on the whereabouts of the children.

(Excerpt from BBC News)

troops from all of Ukraine and the restoration of its state borders. The Kremlin has ruled out engaging in peace talks on terms set by Kyiv. A spokesman for Zelenskiy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Pope's remarks.

In the interview Francis was asked for his position on a debate between those who say Ukraine should give up as it has not been able to repel Russian forces, and those who say doing so would legitimise actions by the strongest party. The interviewer used the term

"white flag" in the question.

"It is one interpretation, that is true," Francis said, according to an advance transcript of the interview and a partial video made available to Reuters on Saturday. It is due to be broadcast on March 20 as part of a new cultural programme. "But I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates," Francis said, adding that talks should take place with the help of international powers. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Portuguese head to polls as right, left seen almost evenly matched

Portuguese voters will elect a new Parliament today, facing a choice between switching to a centre-right government or keeping the centre-left in power, although neither appears to have a clear path to a full majority as the far-right's clout grows.

The issues dominating the campaign in western Europe's poorest country include the housing crisis unleashed by soaring rents, low wages, sagging healthcare and corruption, seen by many as endemic to the mainstream parties.

The early election, four months after Prime Minister Antonio Costa's sudden resignation amid a graft investigation, again pits against each other the

two centrist parties that have alternated in power since the end of a dictatorship five decades ago.

The ruling Socialist Party (PS) could attempt a replay of their old alliances with the Left Bloc and the Communists that allowed them to govern between 2015 and 2019, if the combined left gets more than 115 seats in the 230-seat Parliament.

The Democratic Alliance (AD) of right-leaning parties, helmed by Luis Montenegro, leads in most opinion polls, but it could struggle to govern without the votes of far-right Chega. Montenegro has so far ruled out any deals with the radical populists, who want a Government role.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

ARIES

(March 21April 19)

TAURUS

(April 20May 20)

GEMINI

(MAY 28June 20)

CANCER

(June 21July 22)

LEO

(July 23Aug. 22)

VIRGO

(Aug. 23Sept. 22)

LIBRA

(Sept. 23Oct. 23)

SCORPIO

(Oct. 24Nov. 22)

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 23Dec. 21)

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22Jan. 19)

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20Feb. 19)

PISCES

(Feb. 20Mar. 20)

Push forward with strength and courage. Don’t settle for less; stand your ground and make things happen. Accept a challenge and use wit, intellect and speed to outmaneuver opponents.

Stop and think before you take on something for the wrong reasons. Refuse to let anyone manipulate you. Be true to yourself and know enough to walk away from temptation.

Choose to learn, expand your interests and skills, and make personal or physical changes that help you get things done. Don’t let anger stand in your way. Let go of the past.

Take the road less traveled and you’ll find your happy place. Let your creativity lead the way. Follow your heart, and happiness will prevail.

Push for what you want and refuse to let anyone disrupt your plans. Don’t feel you must follow the crowd or dismantle your plans due to someone withdrawing their support. Trust in yourself.

Consider making a move or change that will broaden your trajectory and stimulate your mind. Be receptive to learning and experiencing something new; it will help you find your passion.

Put muscle behind the lifestyle changes you want to make. Engage in events or activities conducive to meeting new people and sharing information that can change your perspective.

Step outside your comfort zone and try something thought-provoking. Engaging in something unfamiliar will spark your imagination and encourage you to make personal changes.

Stop struggling; pay attention to what you can achieve. Don’t listen to someone who is feeding you false information. Do the research yourself and you’ll discover you plenty of options.

Address financial and domestic matters head-on. A couple of changes to your household expenses will make your life less stressful. Look for inexpensive entertainment.

Pace yourself. If you take on too much or don’t take the necessary time to do a good job, you’ll face criticism and opposition. You’ll take your critics by surprise.

Change what’s necessary. Work with what you have; you’ll save money and discover what you can accomplish. Don’t give in to temptation or let someone lead you astray.

Peanuts

Calvin and Hobbes

Pickles

RHTY&SC, Poonai Pharmacy honour U11 and U13 champions

…Sohil Mohammed receives cricket gear

“We are very proud of you, for winning the titles and for upholding the rich tradition of the RHTY&SC.

Our objective is to dominate cricket at all levels in Berbice, by working as a collective unit and be focused, disciplined and dedicated. Use this reward as an incentive to do similar feats in the future.”

Those were the words of RHTY&SC Secretary Hilbert Foster at a simple ceremony to honour members of the Rose Hall Town Poonai’ Pharmacy Under-11 and Under-13 teams for emerging champions of Berbice at their respective levels. The ceremony was sponsored by Poonai’s Pharmacy and organized by the management of the RHTY&SC.

The Poonai’s Pharmacy Under-11 team defeated arch-rivals Albion in the finals of the BCB/Rickey Moore and Son Tournament. Foster described the championship win as a great surprise, as Albion had defeated their

Rose Hall Town counterparts twice before in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.

RHTY&SC cricket manager Robby Kissoonlall has said the players were determined to emerge as champion, and had dedicated themselves to working hard to

correct mistakes in their game. He also said the full time return of Foster to the club after his resignation at the Berbice Cricket Board has had a positive impact on all cricketers. The end result has been the capture of four major cricket titles within the last

der-11 team received a financial stipend and an educational package as their award. The members of the Under-13 team received a financial stipend and a special MK watch for emerging as champions of the Romario Shepherd Under-13 tournament, after defeating Rose Hall Canje by six wickets at the Canje Ground to win their second overall Berbice title.

has congratulated both teams on been crowned champions of Berbice and for representing his company’s brand well on and off the field.

four months at the U11, U13, U23 and first division levels. The club has, to date, reached the quarter finals of the Dr. Amarnauth Dukhi U15 and U17 tournaments, while the senior team has also reached the finals of the BCB Premier T20 tournament. Each member of the un-

The Poonai’s Pharmacy Under- 13 team has reached all four finals of tournaments organized by the BCB since the introduction of under-13 cricket in the county. Assistant Manager Keith Hicks has urged the players to continue working hard, and has committed the club management to provide all the necessary support. He noted that, since its formation, the team has produced several Berbice and Guyana players, including Tameshwar Deonadan, Rafael McKenzie, Balraj Narine, Dinesh Singh and Leon Reddy. Sponsor Poonai Bhirooj

Meanwhile the RHTY&SC has handed over a pair of wicket- keeping pads and gloves to Sohil Mohammed on his selection to the Guyana Under-15 team. Foster has wished Mohammed well on the tour to Antigua, and has urged him to represent the club’s brand well.

The Rose Hall Town Farfan and Mendes U15 player is a solid middle order batsman and wicketkeeper, who has played for Guyana in 2022 and 2023 at this level. Foster stated that Mohammed is the 8th RHTY&SC member to gain national selection in 2024 following Kevlon Anderson, Kevin Sinclair, Shemaine Campbell, Sheneta Grimmond, Shabika Gajnabi, Plaffiana Millington and Trisha Hardat.

Mohammed has expressed gratitude to the club for the donation of the gear.

Members of the Under-11 and Under-13 teams posing with RHTY&SC officials

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024… WI 4-Day Championships 2024…

Twenty teams, 55 games, 7 countries, millions of viewers to be involved Holder, Roach strengthen Pride ahead of clash with Harpy Eagles

The International Cricket Council (ICC)

Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be hosted in the West Indies and USA during the period June 1-29, 2024, and there will be a total of 20 teams participating, while 55 games would be played in seven host nations.

Guyana is one of those host nations, and will have the responsibility of hosting six games under the intense

gaze of a global viewership of millions of persons.

The First Special Meeting of the Council for National Security & Law Enforcement (CONSLE) and Attorneys General of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Host Countries opened on March 8th, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency in Trinidad and Tobago. The meeting, which concludes today, is one of several preparatory meetings that have been

planned ahead of the hosting of this mega-cricket event.

Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken and Assistant Solicitor General Shoshanna V. Lall, along with Chief Parliamentary Counsel Charles Fung-A-Fatt, are currently representing Guyana at this special ICC Cricket World Cup meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. June is a little more than three months away!

West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder and seamer Kemar Roach will bolster Barbados Pride for the upcoming rounds of the West Indies Championship, both being included in the squad for the fourth-round clash with Guyana Harpy Eagles at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua, scheduled for Wednesday.

For Holder, the former West Indies Test and OneDay captain, it would be his first regional first-class match in four years. The 32-year-old, who is also a former Barbados captain, will be joined by fellow international stars Roach and Raymon Reifer in the Vasbert Drakes-coached 12-man squad led by current Test skipper Kraigg Brathwaite.

Holder’s red-ball career has come under the spot-

light in recent times, after he turned down a central retainer from Cricket West Indies and also opted out of the two-Test tour of Australia in order to focus on franchise Twenty20 cricket. However, he did declare that he had intentions of quitting the longest format, and, as such, should be included in this summer’s visit to England for the three-Test series.

Holder’s last regional first-class game was against Harpy Eagles at Providence, during the 2020 season which was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 35-year-old Roach, who will be turning out in his first regional first-class game in four years, having also last featured in the 2020 season, is the fifth highest wicket-taker in Tests for West Indies with 270 scalps, and has also tak-

en 523 first class wickets from 162 matches.

Holder and Roach will certainly add impetus to the Pride’s bowling attack, which comprises Chemar Holder, Jair McAllister and Shaquille Cumberbatch.

Barbados are currently third in the championship standings on 43.8 points, almost two points behind second-placed Leeward Islands Hurricanes (45.6), with unbeaten Windward Islands Volcanoes topping the standings with 62.2 points.

Squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (captain), Shaquille Cumberbatch, Shane Dowrich, Chaim Holder, Chemar Holder, Jason Holder, Jair McAllister, Zachary McCaskie, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Jomel Warrican, Jonathan Drakes, Shian Brathwaite (Sportsmax)

Guinness ‘Greatest of...

“This year, we will reintroduce the Skills Challenge, where persons can showcase their talent. This season will run for four months, as mentioned before, with the top teams participating in the national final.”

Focusing on the Georgetown zone, Baptiste shared why it was important to organizers to start in this division. He highlighted that it sets the tone for the remainder of the competition.

“As you know, this tournament was birthed in Georgetown, so Georgetown is kind of the mother of all street football, and everything starts from here. So, once persons see the football starts in Georgetown, the other areas start to get in the groove and get their game on; get in the teams, practising and so on. So, it’s important,” Baptiste disclosed.

Further, he related, “Before, we would start the season on the West Coast of Demerara, but we’ve changed it around. We want to start in Georgetown to

kind of set the pace, and then we move into the other sub-meets.”

In addition, the Guinness tournament will venture to a new area in 2024: Essequibo. As such, Baptiste gave an update on how preparations are going for the staging in Region Two.

“We’re now in talks with individuals in Essequibo. As you know, Essequibo is not known as a big football enthusiast county, so to speak; so, we’re in communication with persons…to first coordinate the football. Once that is done, we’ll then move around to the communities, to see how many teams we can gather from those communities; then we’ll go forward from there,” Baptiste divulged, even as he revealed that the date for their sub-meet is not yet set in stone.

The Guinness street ball tournament will kick off at 19:00hrs on Friday with a battle between Alexander Village and Rising Stars. At 19:45hrs, Sophia and Bent Street will go toe-totoe, while festival City and

Laing Avenue Ballers will lock horns at 20:30hrs. the penultimate game of the evening will see Northeast La Penitence and Ballers FC clashing at 21:15hrs, then Gold is Money and Renegade All Stars bring down the curtains from 22:00hrs. The Georgetown submeet will see 32 teams vying for supremacy.

Jason Holder and Kemar Roach

Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken at the CONSLE meeting with Guyana’s Shoshanna V. Lall and Charles Fung-A-Fatt

Caricom Classic Chess tournament 2024…

Guyana Team One overcomes Cayman, Dominica in rounds 7 & 8

The Guyana Team

One chess team, consisting of CM Taffin Khan, FM Anthony Drayton, Jessica Callender and Shazeeda Rahim, continues to perform excellently, with Khan, Drayton and Rahim racking up most of the points for Guyana, which steadfastly hold on to the second position in the Caricom Classic Chess Team Tournament.

Taffin Khan has remained undefeated, winning all eight games played so far; while Anthony Drayton recorded seven wins and a draw, and Shazeeda Rahim won five games, drew two, and lost one. Jessica Callender has gained 2.5 points.

Team One was triumphant in round seven with match points 3.5-.5 against the Cayman Islands. Khan and Drayton defeated veterans Clifford Shaw and Christopher Young, while Rahim defeated young Zara Majid, and Callender drew with Laia Swaminathan.

In round eight, Team One dominated Dominican

team members Nigel Francis, Nicholas Goldberg, Zahidu Henry and Ayani Casimir - 4-1.

The Guyana Team Two, comprising Keron Sandiford, Kyle Couchman, Sasha Shariff and Aditi Joshi, finally recorded a win in the week-long battle with the Caribbean nations. This win has come against the Cayman Islands in the eighth round.

The round-robin format saw Team Two coming up against Barbados in the seventh round and the Cayman Islands in the eighth round. Team Two lost to Barbados 1-3, but prevailed against Cayman Islands 2.5-1.5.

The female players on Team Two defeated their opponents from the Cayman Islands. Joshi played white versus Zara Majid of the Cayman Islands, who played black, and they were embroiled in a tense game position, for which Joshi admitted she sacrificed a rook by taking Majid’s knight to relieve the pressure. They infiltrated

Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ set for GT kickoff on Friday

Street football powered by Guinness will return to the thoroughfares of Georgetown after a four-year hiatus in less than a week, following the launch of the 2024 ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ and Skills Challenge competition on Friday last.

Thus the National Park in Georgetown will come alive on Friday, March 15, when the tournament commences in the Georgetown zone for the first time. Streetball fans would be having high expectations.

At the Guinness Grill and Jerk Bar, located at the intersection of Cummings Street and South Road in Georgetown, this year’s

each other’s territory, but black missed a grave white threat, and Joshi moved in with her Queen for a quick

checkmate, and Majid lost. Sasha Shariff defeated Laia Swaminathan of the Cayman Islands in 24

moves. Shariff used her Knight to threaten her opponent’s King, but Shariff’s rook finally ended the game

with checkmate.

Kyle Couchman drew with Christopher Young, while Keron Sandiford lost to Clifford Shaw.

In the final round, scheduled for Saturday, Trinidad and Tobago were set to battle Guyana Team One for the Caricom Classic chess title. The intense and exciting outcome of this inaugural Caricom Classic tournament will depend on how well the home team performs.

After eight rounds, Trinidad and Tobago lead with 16 points, Guyana Team One have 14 points, Barbados have 12 points, Jamaica have 11 points, Bahamas have 7 points; Suriname, Saint Lucia and the Cayman Islands each have 6 points, and Guyana Team Two and Dominica close out the points’ spread.

tournament was officially launched on Friday evening with Guinness Brand Manager Lee Baptiste giving an overview of what to expect from this year’s tournament. He announced, “The season this year will consist of 7 sub-meets and the national finals. For the first time, we’ll be heading to Essequibo, and this completes one of our major objectives: touching the hearts of persons in the three counties in Guyana. The other areas are Georgetown, Linden, Berbice, East Coast Demerara, Bartica and West Coast Demerara.

Guinness Brand Manager Lee Baptiste

Guyana Team Two opposing Cayman Islands