Guyana Times - Sunday, October 30, 2022

Surinamese crushed to death in Berbice

ASurinamese

national was on Friday crushed to death by a motor lor ry in East Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

The dead man has so far been identified as Corojoe, called “Pikachu” (only name given) of Paramaribo, Suriname. The incident oc curred at some time around 14:00h in the community of Even Creek, in the Corentyne River, Berbice.

According to reports, the

deceased and a businessman of Crabwood Creek had gone to Even Creek on an errand. Upon returning to the land ing in a motor lorry (regis tration #unknown), the busi nessman and “Pikachu” were standing in the tray of the vehicle when “Pikachu” at tempted to drink some wa ter from a bottle. While doing so, the truck bounced on the trail, and “Pikachu” lost his balance and fell between its tray and cabin. This resulted in the right-side back wheels of the vehicle running over him.

The injured “Pikachu” was picked up in an uncon scious state and taken to the Skeldon Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His body is at Anthony’s Funeral Home, awaiting a post-mortem ex amination and official identi fication.

The dead man lying on the ground

Guyana's production of nearly 360,000 barrels of oil exceeds design capacity – Exxon’s 3Q report

– as Govt approves EEPGL's 5-year Local Content Master Plan

Oilgiant ExxonMobil has posted its third quarter results for 2022, which come up to US$19.7 billion, and has at tributed increased produc tion from its operations in Guyana, which have grown to 360,000 barrels and in ex cess of design capacity, as one of the factors in its mas sive earnings.

According to the com pany in its third quarter earnings report, higher vol umes of oil from its assets in Guyana and the Permian were among the factors that contributed to its earnings. It said that assets in the Permian delivered 560,000 barrels of oil per day, an in crease of over 50,000 barrels of oil.

However, its operations in the Stabroek Block off shore Guyana averaged nearly 360,000 barrels of oil per day. In fact, oil produc tion in the Liza Phase 1 and 2 have been exceeding de sign capacity by more than 15,000 barrels of oil per day.

“In addition, two new dis coveries were announced in the Stabroek Block, adding to the company's extensive portfolio of development op portunities,” Exxon said, a reference to the oil finds at the Sailfin-1 and Yarrow-1 wells that were announced only a few days ago.

In its statement, Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Darren Woods attributed the company’s strong show ing in the third quarter to the hard work of Exxon staff, as well as the company’s cog nisance of its role to produce oil and the energy products the world needs.

“The investments we've made, even though the pan demic, enabled us to in crease production to address the needs of consumers. Rigorous cost control and growth of higher-margin pe troleum and chemical prod ucts also contributed to earn ings and cash flow growth in the quarter.”

“At the same time, we are expanding our Low Carbon Solutions business with the signing of the largest-of-itskind customer contract to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide, demon strating our ability to offer competitive emission-reduc tion services to large indus trial customers around the world,” Woods added.

Master plans

The Government of Guyana has meanwhile ap proved the local content mas ter plans of ExxonMobil sub sidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), as well as Saipem and Gulf Engineering Services Guyana Limited (GESGI).

The Local Content Act re

quires companies in the oil sector to submit five-year master plans on how they intend to promote local con tent. And a few days ago, EEPGL, the operator in the Stabroek Block, became one of the latest companies to have their 5-year local con tent master plans approved.

Saipem, whose plan was also approved, is an Italian-owned company that was awarded contracts by ExxonMobil to develop its Liza Phase 2 project in 2018, its Payara project in 2019, and its Yellowtail project in 2022. The company is pro viding a number of services, including engineering and construction services.

According to a state ment from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat was present at the

signing. He reminded the companies of some of the challenges faced by suppli ers, such as cash flow, and the need to reduce payment periods.

The Minister also re vealed that the Government is discussing with com mercial banks to have con tracts lodged as collater al. Meanwhile, EEPGL President Alistair Routledge described the signing as a step in the direction of en suring local content.

“The resource we are pro ducing belongs to the people of Guyana and we are com mitted to ensuring that they benefit from it. Today’s event was another step in that di rection since we believe that growing local content across the oil and gas sector can in crease social and econom ic benefits for Guyanese in

the short and long term,” Routledge said.

The five-year master plan is intended to provide the Minister and the Local Content Secretariat with an understanding of the con tractor, sub-contractor or licensee’s projected activities with regard to employment, procurement and capacity development of Guyanese suppliers.

Importantly, these plans include an amendment which ensures that Guyanese sup pliers of the petroleum sector are paid within thirty (30) to forty-five (45) days upon re ceipt of the correct invoice. This plan is enforceable un der the Local Content Act.

Just the week prior, the local content plans for 11 companies providing oil support services were ap proved. Two of the compa nies, Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI) and its sis ter company, Sustainable Environmental Solutions (SES), had earlier this year also received their Local Content Certificates, after satisfying the requirements for Guyanese ownership.

The other companies were Cataleya Energy Limited, International SOS Incorporated, Leader Engineering Guyana Incorporated, Stena Drilling, Tenaris Guyana, G-Boats, Weatherford, TechnipFMC, and Seacor Marine LLC.

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat with EEPGL President Alistair Routledge

Editor:

Elephants decoupling

There is the old African aphorism: “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”. We should have learnt this lesson in relation to international affairs when the USA and the USSR were locked in mortal combat after WWII. The US had carved out the Western Hemisphere as their “sphere of influence” as far back as in 1823, when Britain was the dominant world power. So, when the USSR obtained a toehold with a communist ally, Castro, in Cuba by 1960, they faced the US’ kickback. So, during the Cold War, it was not surprising when, because Dr Jagan equivocated as to his ideological leanings, he was ousted. He forgot Sparta’s advice to the pipsqueak Melians: “The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must.”

While not as stark, we are in the midst of another struggle between two global behemoths – the US and China – this time, based on economics rather than ideology. But the stakes remain the same: who will be the hegemonic power going forward? There are several great ironies in this eventuality, not the least being that the rise of China from being a poster boy for poverty at the end of WWII was facilitated by the US. After several disastrous missteps under Chinese leader Mao - while attempting to repeat the USSR’s move to wrench their nation from a peasant base into an industrialised state - relations between the two communist nations became strained.

The anti-communist US President Richard Nixon saw an opening to drive a further wedge between them, to gain an advantage over the USSR by recognising Communist China and facilitating its entry into the UN and Breton Woods family of institutions in 1972. By 1978, when the leadership of China fell into the hands of the pragmatic Deng Xiaoping, who abandoned the dogmatic Maoist centralised economy, US businesses were ready to invest. They appreciated Deng’s philosophy of “it does not matter whether the cat is black or white, once it catches the mice”, since that meant they could now take advantage of the seemingly infinite cheap labour of China.

The profits were stratospheric, and the US policymakers – lobbied by the business class – went along with the degutting of the US industrial manufacturing base that had previously supplied the world with manufactured goods and brought them unheralded prosperity. By 2000, vast swathes of mid-America became known as the “Rust Belt” because of the abandoned factories, as China became the “factory of the world” through injections of American finance and technology. The global economy underwent a seismic shift, as global manufacturing, trading networks, and supply chains that had once been dominated by the U.S., Japan, and Germany, now gave way to Chinese dominance. By 2021, China’s manufacturing capacity was greater than the US and EU’s combined.

However, by the middle of the last decade, the Trump Administration, which was panned for favouring the rich, realised that China was not only about to overtake the U.S. as the largest economy in the world, but had built its economy to be less dependent on Western technology, while building its military capabilities. Unlike other Third World economies, which had been exploited for cheap labour but had remained caught in a middle-income trap, China was strategically preparing to regain its historic place as the “middle kingdom”, around which all other countries revolved. While using capitalism in its economic institutions, it had retained the centralised command of the Government to insist that decisions ultimately redounded to their country’s interests.

The Trump Administration slapped tariffs on a wide range of Chinese goods, and while this pushed up the cost of those goods in the U.S., the effects were felt much more gravely in China. China, in the meantime, had worked its way up the value chain, and the U.S has not weakened it fundamentally. The Biden Administration has continued to discourage U.S. businesses from investing in China; and, for instance, has prevented chipmakers from supplying Chinese companies with this key input into almost every modern manufactured good.

This strategy is “war by other means”, and we are already been asked to choose sides.

The Opposition’s racebaiting agenda exposed

Dear Editor, A few weeks ago, I had cause to publicly confront the APNU + AFC with the truth and expose their vi cious crusade to incite ra cial hostility in our com munities. Therefore, it is not surprising that the re sponse from the PNC camp flowed with great adhocra cy, drawing on a few forgot ten individuals to engage in ad hominem attacks instead of addressing the truth of Government’s programmes and policies I have outlined.

The responses provide ample proof that the PNC and their agents are en gaged in a systemic racebased campaign to derail our democracy and curtail Government’s transforma tional agenda.

The respondents cannot be engaged in any serious way.

Firstly, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, has already publicly pro nounced on Nigel Hinds’s personal agenda and ex posed the reason for his contrived attacks against Government. I do believe he is seeking to erase his com ical political blunders of the past at the expense of de stroying our democracy.

Secondly, Mr. Hamilton Green also raised questions about my character through the letters’ pages. Lastly, Mr. Sherwood Lowe need ed two letters to muster his overall miniscule response.

Before my retirement as a Brigadier and Chief-ofStaff in October 2016, I held appointments at all lev

els of the Guyana Defence Force, an organization made up of predominantly Afro-Guyanese.

Over my 36 years of mil itary service, I have coun selled many young men and women, preparing them for leadership positions, not just in the military, but wherever life takes them.

It bears repeating that, as an Afro-Guyanese, I am proud of the path way to prosperity for all Guyanese under the One Guyana framework, and the leadership of President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali. Nonetheless, the Opposition wants to shift the conversa tion to the messenger, as they are confronted with the truth.

The leaders of the APNU+AFC are well known to cower when faced with the truth. One would re call this same unscrupulous group fed their supporters a steady dose of lies about possessing Statements of Poll (SOPs) to prove that the party had won the 2020 elections. The SOPs are still to be produced.

The APNU+AFC wants to shift the conversation so that they can continue to fan the flames of divi sion using sociopaths to fuel their message.

With the truth out in the open, the APNU+AFC wants to shift the conversa tion by seeking to downplay the Government’s engage ment with Afro-Guyanese leaders and communities, many of whom are seeing high-level ministerial en gagements for the first time.

By shifting the conver sation, the APNU+AFC is hoping that Guyanese will ignore the infrastructural works taking place in AfroGuyanese communities across the country, and the award of contracts to AfroGuyanese.

As I have previously out lined, there are opportu nities equally available to Afro-Guyanese and other ethnic groups through the policies and interventions of the PPP/C Government.

Our Government’s plans for prosperity include ev ery single Guyanese. Our President, I, and all Ministers of Government have been working in all communities across the country, including the Opposition strongholds.

More citizens from these communities have been benefitting more under our Government than when the APNU +AFC coalition was in office.

People have been bene fitting from roads, develop ment and upgrade of sports facilities, and university scholarships, while our lo cal artistes are being given the opportunities and sup port that they’ve never had before by performing regu larly at many Government events.

All these initia tives benefit AfroGuyanese, Indo-Guyanese, Chinese-Guyanese, Amerindian-Guyanese, Portuguese-Guyanese, European-Guyanese and Mixed-Guyanese.

There is a massive hous ing drive taking place. Our

Government has already distributed over 11,000 house lots. Roughly 50 per cent of the allotments went to Afro-Guyanese; 41 per cent to Indo-Guyanese; and just over 7 percent to mixed-race.

I appeal to Guyanese not to become entrapped by the perversion of an Opposition that is increasingly becom ing more isolated, losing significant grounds in com munities. Race-baiting pol itics is their only response, which we all must continue to reject.

Under the PPP/C, there will be harmony and uni ty among our people, and this seems to hurt the Opposition, as it goes against their vision and agenda not to have a united Guyana.

I will continue to resist and expose the PNC’s ri diculous claims with every fibre of my being by pre senting the truth about Government’s many initia tives in infrastructure, ed ucation, health, and oth er sectors that are creating bountiful opportunities for all Guyanese.

President Ali and our Cabinet Ministers will con tinue to deliver to the peo ple, and our focus will re main towards developing our country and doing what’s best for our people.

Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Anthony Phillips Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana

This is one of the projects that were featured at the Bishops’ High School’s Agri-Business Expo on Friday. The event was held under the theme, ‘Celebrating Agriculture Science and Innovation’

To stop all forms of rigging, immediate electoral reform is imperative!

to raise

strong com

to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance of the PPP/C

hosting the

National Stakeholders’ consulta tion

Electoral Reform.

Conference

fully, the proposed chang

to Electoral Laws, and Amendments to applicable Statutes.

His Excellency Dr. Irfaan Ali’s attendance and par ticipation, supported by Vice-President and General Secretary of the PPP Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo and other se nior party stalwarts, sends a strong signal. It demonstrates the Government’s strong com mitment to the delivery of a promise that they will facili tate Electoral Reforms to en sure that our beloved country never has to experience a re peat of the blatant attempts of rigging and stealing of power that took place follow ing the March 2020 General & Regional Elections. Those unforgettable five months through which the APNU (PNC/AFC) clandestine el ements held their knees on this nation’s neck must never happen again.

Factually, there is much evidence to confirm the dif fering levels of compliance by the PNC clan with our current electoral laws ap plied in previous elections run by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). When compared to what emerged in the months fol lowing March 02, 2020, their non-committal to play by the rules are obvious.

The precedence observed in previous elections serves to validate that the antecedent approach of the APNU is to create a ‘suck sand type’ ma neuver targeted at swallow ing up and suffocating any policy that does support their surreptitious thieving agen das. Typical in this respect is the convenient exercise of the well-known ‘party para mountcy’ against any mea sures of decency, practiced by the PNC for decades before 1992.

Contextually, it is known that a few circumstances ex ist where GECOM through its Chief Elections Officer allows a particular decision option based on occurrenc es associated with perhaps duplicitous legal inclusion in associated legislation. These shades of grey areas in the 2020 elections were stretched beyond the limits of their transparent and flex ible thresholds as far as the expected exercise of rational discretion by particular des ignated Officers of GECOM was anticipated. Officials charged with election fraud certainly went beyond al lowed flexible thresholds, us ing subjective interpretations as a false cover for their egre gious actions.

In the last elections, com mon practices, reasonable ness, and rationality by these persons were thrown out of the window. Consequently, abuse and greed over whelmed the required dis cipline of key officials who would have taken advantage of perhaps a lack of specifici ty in some cases to justify bla tantly biased decisions. The circumstances certainly justi

fy the strongest review of ap plicable legislation to elimi nate any areas of duplicity, deter deliberate fraudulent intent and provide greater clarity to prevent abuse.

The Governance Ministry and the Attorney General over several months have jus tifiably advanced Bills for the consideration of the National Assembly that address neces sary corrective mechanisms. As is required to support the advancement and accep tance of proposed changes and amendments, consulta tions with the widest array of stakeholders must be had. These commenced in 2021 in some cases with stakehold ers across the country. Of note, thorough discussions were held with the Guyana Election Commission, Political Parties, Trade Unions, and all the Civicminded citizens who showed an interest in participating in the very wide discussion.

After taking copious notes from all of the very lengthy discussions, draft proposals were prepared and circulat ed for consultation at the last Electoral Reform Conference.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC. gave a compre hensive outline of the intent and purpose of the proposed consolidated amendments to the updated versions of the RoPA Bill and Regulations which were made available once again. Additionally, the new draft amendments to the National Registration Act have also been made ac cessible for public perusal via a link published on the Ministry’s Facebook pages.

In keeping with the need for broad-based, objective, and

comprehensive feedback con siderations, 157 organiza tions were invited to the con sultation on October 25, 2022.

Notably, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance along with Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC., held one and one discussions with several eminent persons and repre sentatives of Organizations before the final draft was pre pared and sent out to guide thorough internal discus sions that were followed up with the reviews at the re cent National Conference. Readers should note that some representatives of Chief Riggers operated undercov er as they attended the con ference under the disguise of representing alternate orga nizations. Although they did not announce their presence as PNC, and representatives of the PNC they did partic ipate in the conference and contributed to its success.

The National Consultation Conference was well organized, and it was made clear that the relevant Amendments will give no Political Party any advantage over another. Further, it will ensure greater accountabil ity and transparency in the Electoral process. The pub lic consultation along with the just concluded National Consultation is sufficient for a simple majority in the Parliament to give consent.

Let us have the Electoral Reforms Amendments now and support the improve ment of legislation to halt manipulation toward rigging.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

Housing boom continues

Dear Editor,

It is great that “… near ly a dozen squatters have been allocated housing units to relocate.” This was expedited “… the Guyana Government (is pushing) ahead with the $1.5 billion Independence Boulevard Enhancement Project in Georgetown.” Now a lot of people will read this as ‘mere’ news, but if one were to ask the beneficia ries of this Governmental invention, a better per spective will be revealed.

Editor, though infor mal settlements offer at least some degree of prom ise to their residents, they lack basic infrastructure to support health and wellness, including clean water, adequate sewage systems, durable hous ing, and public spaces for commerce and recreation. Also, they are character ized by a lack of most, or all of the basic urban ser vices like infrastructur al, welfare, and commu nity services. The picture gets grimmer as squatter communities have to face

the lack of basic munici pal services, such as water supply, sanitation, waste collection, or infrastruc ture, and, as expected the people are exposed to dis eases, crimes, and natural disasters.

Then in terms of ‘mov ing out’ from such situa tions, it is next to impossi ble, as ‘squatters’ have no legal claim, and therefore, they have no collateral with which to get loans. It is like they are doomed. So, one must indeed be glad that these ‘11 Albouystown squatters’ are on their way in getting new homes.’ In fact, the press has it that the first 11 informal set tlers, residing along Punt Trench, Cemetery Road and Saffron Street in Georgetown were already given their housing units and will now be moving forward with a banking in stitution of their choice, to facilitate an affordable mortgage plan.

Another thing one must bear in mind, and this was brought out by the Government, is that peo

ple have a right to ‘safely and humanely’ relocate to areas that improve their socio-economic well-being. So, it’s a move from being in an environment that is unsightly and vulnera ble to rodents and spread bacteria, to a place of well-being, where the al location will see the bene ficiaries being issued with Certificates of Title, sig nalling legal ownership of their new land, and will also give them the oppor tunity to have legal access to electricity, water and other amenities.

The big picture, and this is from President Dr Irfaan Ali, who stated that “… the (ongoing)project aims to develop the infra structure in Albouystown (but this is just) a part of the Government’s overall plan to transform all com munities across Guyana. Preseident Ali in fact in toned that “We’re provid ing new areas for recre ation, the boulevard, the new lanes of road, the new walkways, enhance the general appearance of

the community. But im portantly, this project is going to enhance the val ue here. And it’s not only about this project. We’re going to look at all the cross streets, and all the drains in Albouystown… upgrading them into con crete walkways and path ways and concrete roads, where the space will allow. We’re going to clean back all the drainage. We’re go ing to set aside a piece of land where we’ll take all the services, give people small areas to have com mon services, so that they would not lose their eco nomic income.”

According to the Head of State, “… this is some thing Government is doing in every community to im prove living standards and create value and prosper ity.” So, truly, Guyana’s Housing Sector has been full revitalized, and the Government will eventual ly deliver affordable homes to all who so desire.

Yours truly, H Singh

The jurisprudence of Guyana’s Court of Appeal

Dear Editor, Within recent times, the decisions of our Court of Appeal have not fared well upon review by the Caribbean Court of Justice. Going back a bit, one noticed the expressions of surprise at the decision of our Court of Appeal in the “ no confi dence vote “ appeal, that 33 votes by members of our 65seat National Assembly did not constitute a majority vote in the Assembly.

In so ruling, the majori ty of the Judges of the Court of Appeal were clearly influ enced by the publicly dis closed Hughesenian formula proposed at one of the now famous “press conferences”, that: to arrive at the major ity number in the National Assembly, every effort had to be made to avoid cutting a member in half, and that what was preferred was rounding off exercise. This formula was widely support ed by a vacillating group of men, including Messrs. Nagamootoo (of Green Shirt fame), Ramjattan, and Basil Williams (the latter in his advocacy sounded rather un sure about the true nature of the Hughesenian formula).

It is sufficient to say that the Judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice poured scorn on the reasoning of the majority of the Guyana Court of Appeal.

More recently, Guyanese, and more particularly our legal fraternity, witnessed the effort by a majority of the Judges of our Court of Appeal to advance the local jurisprudence in an endeav our to give themselves juris diction in an elections-relat ed matter by the recognition, introduction, and applica tion of what lawyers along the corridors of the High Court are referring to as “the transmogrification doc trine” whereby simply put, the majority of the Judges, applied to substantial con stitutional issues the rules applicable to ordinary civil litigation.

Again, the Caribbean Court of Justice had no diffi culty in rejecting the reason ing of the majority decision of the Court of Appeal.

These unsound decisions lead to the question “ What next?”

Sincerely, Selwyn Persaud

FELINE HEARTWORM DISEASE

And here we were, thinking happily that the Heartworm discussion was over – after six columns dealing with this dreaded disease. Well, the world is not made up of only dog lovers. Believe me, I have made this point over and over – just as I had mentioned in the first episode that cats do in fact contract Heartworm in festations, but rarely (see “PET CARE,” September 18 and 25, 2022). But “rare ly” does not mean “never”. So, I must admit that some comments on the possibili ty of Feline Heartworm in fections are worthy of being taken on board any discus sion on this scourge.

We have established that the Canine Heartworm Disease (CHD) is common and ubiquitous in Guyana, especially where mosqui toes abound – which seems to be everywhere. As men tioned above, cats can be come infected with HD, but on very rare occasions. I myself, after decades of practice, have never know ingly been confronted with HD in cats, nor has any colleague of mine reported such. Cats seem to be ac cidental hosts, if and when they are infected. Similar to the infection method in dogs, mosquitoshosting infec tive imma

ture stages (larvae) of the Heartworm in their saliva - will transmit the larvae when the mosquito bites the cat. These larvae then burrow their way into the body of the cat, where they undergo structural chang es, becoming later adult worms which then get into the blood circulatory sys tem and thence to the cat’s heart. I should mention that this process can take 6 months and more.

Again, as in the case of dogs, the adult Heartworms produce offspring (micro filariae) which circulate in the blood stream. Your vet can take a blood sample, and with the aid of the mi croscope, find these microfi lariae (immature stages of the worm) wriggling around in the droplet of blood on the slide

Q:What are the symptoms of the Heartworm Disease in cats?

A: Clinical Signs are:

• Coughing

• Respiratory Distress (asthma-like at tacks)

• Inappetence (loss of appetite)

• Vomiting/gagging (sometimes with blood)

• Lethargy (listless ness; not exhibiting the usual energetic playful ness)

• Weight loss

• Incoordination of movement (difficulty walk ing)

• Ascites (fluid in the abdomen)

Q:What is the treatment?

A: Well, some bad

news. There is no effective treatment. Of course, the caregiver (under veterinar ian advice) can use medical interventions appropriate in reducing the severity of the symptoms. Again, your veterinarian will introduce medication that can help with the destruction of the adult worms and the imma ture stages, the same as for dogs, with different dosage rates, of course.

I have seen natural HD medication in Pet Stores in the USA. I will contin ue to rely on the

cautious administering of science-based pharmaceuti cal drugs that bring about helpful (tested and prov en) results. If clients in sist on the use of herbal formulae, vets may guide them towards those natural products available, with out advocating or endorsing their use.

Q: Can cats survive HD?

A: Yes. I say this tongue in cheek. The lit erature says that the cat’s immune system is geared for survival. This I do be lieve. I left my own cat when she was 8 years old, and returned 14 years lat er – and there was halfblind “Millicent”, still catch ing rats. It seems that the Heartworm in about 80% of infected cats may clear up without medication within 2-4 years after diagnosis.

Q: Is Feline HD contagious to humans?

A: No. The Heartworm microfilariae die going through the human skin, and those which might get into the blood stream (of humans) will never mature into the adult form, and would soon die.

Q: Do cats have heavy bundles of Heartworm living in the heart chambers and large blood vessels?

A: No. But since cats’ hearts are comparatively small, even a few worms re siding in the heart’s cham bers can cause mechanical damage, as well as compro mise the optimal function of the heart – simply by con gestion (Heartworms physi cally taking up space). Cats, it seems, are really imper fect hosts for Heartworms.

AFC preparing itself for “next phase” of political journey

an alliance with APNU un til the expiration of the Cummingsburg Accord in December 2022, when it will be reviewed. In the case of Ramjattan, he had been challenged by former AFC General Secretary David Patterson for leadership.

Meanwhile, with Local Government Elections (LGE) set to be held on March 13, 2023, there is still no confir mation on whether AFC will contest the LGE alone or in the coalition. AFC was fa mously forced to contest the 2018 LGE alone without its coalition partner and ended up securing just 4 per cent of the total votes cast.

At a press conference over a week ago, Ramjattan had told the media that its National Executive Committee would reveal po sition the party’s position on LGE after consultations, slated before 2023.

LGE, which are usually due every two years, was last held in 2018. At the last LGE in November 2018, the then People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.

The Alliance For Change (AFC), which is expected to be come independent when the Cummingsburg Accord ends this year-end, on Saturday hinted at the next phase of its political journey in its 17 year anniversary statement.

In its statement, it spoke about its five years in office, while in a coalition with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Far from re grets, AFC expressed pride for its time in office and spoke about how it is prepar ing itself for the next phase of its political journey.

“The AFC will continue to build on our internal politi cal structures and prepare ourselves for the next phase of our political journey. We

are pleased with the outcome of our recently concluded na tional conference and the election of the new leader ship. Today, we can declare with confidence that we are here to stay. So, join us on this journey,” AFC said.

Back in June at its last national conference, the par ty had re-elected Khemraj Ramjattan as its leader and voted executive mem ber Cathy Hughes in as Chairperson, while also tak ing a vote on its future in the coalition.

Whether the AFC should stay in its marriage with APNU or go and its ‘Way Forward’ document, was put to the vote, with the AFC voting overwhelmingly to stay in a revised coalition or

parliamentary cooperation, which was option C in the document.

The third option states that the AFC can “stay in a revised political alliance with APNU, whether coalition or a parliamentary cooperation agreement but the AFC must demand and secure a firm agreement and structure for it to have a greater influence on policy positions and po litical action within the alli ance while maintaining its independence and rebrand ing and regaining its identi ty. This option will require political maturity and prag matism on the part of APNU, which may not be forthcom ing”.

In keeping with the vote, AFC will remain in

Former President David Granger and Alliance for Change Leader Khemraj Ramjattan signed the revised Cummingsburg Accord in 2019

AG Nandlall discusses legal matters with US Embassy officials

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister

Anil Nandlall, SC, last Wednesday met with some newly-appointed officials at the United States Embassy in Georgetown to discuss a num ber of legal issues.

The US Embassy del egation included Deputy Chief of Mission, Adrienne Galanek, and Political Officer at his Chambers, Howard H. Chyung.

Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel at the AG’s Chambers, Joann Bond, also attended the meeting.

Both Galanek and

pointees at the US Embassy, have pledged to continue to collaborate and work close ly with the Government of Guyana through the Attorney General’s Chambers and the

Ministry of Legal Affairs on a series of legal matters of mu tual importance to both the United States of America and Guyana.

These include collabora

tion on important legislative changes, obligations under in ternational conventions, and on general issues regarding law and legal processes.

The Attorney General used the opportunity to up date the two officials on the status of existing collabo ration and cooperation be tween the Government of Guyana and important law enforcement agencies in the United States, including the United States Marshals Service (USMS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI); and Central Authority, Department of Justice (DoJ).

Rescuing…

…boys

As the President said when he (officially?) launched his “Men of Mission (MoM): The 1000-Men Initiative” that’s supposed to help our beleaguered boys, the problem isn’t just a Guyanese one – it’s global. Earlier in the month, he’d made the original announcement from a masjid in Leguan, signalling - your Eyewitness suspects –that our religious bodies (of which we have no shortage!) have a big role to play in fixing the problem. There, he’d noted that young men and boys face a barrage of societal ills, such as drug abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, and other violent crimes. It is not that young women and girls don’t face those challenges also, but boys face them in spades!!

At Camp Ayanganna on Friday night, however, the President took a different tack. Said he: “We [men] are the root cause of much of problems in society; it’s now our time to be the root of the solution, to be the root of positivity, to be the root that makes a difference, to be a root that builds a support system. Men on Mission will be the foundation to remove violence against women and children. This is not the responsibility of women, it is a responsibility for us to work with each other.”

It's possible that he moved from the challenges faced by the young men to make a connection with the fact that, with these problems left unaddressed, as the young men become older, they inflict mind-numbing violence upon women. But if this is a global problem – which it certainly is – don’t we also have to look abroad, from where some of the impulses may be originating?? Take, for example, the misogynistic and gun-glorifying lyrics of dancehall music, that’s now being censured in its Jamaican home. Shouldn’t we be following suit??

Then there’s the chicken-and- egg conundrum of the other fact that, in general, females are the ones who raise these boys who’re later violent towards women. What about “the hand that rocks the cradle” philosophy?? We’re told that the programme aims to achieve its objectives through mentorship, counselling, and the creation of economic empowerment for the participants. But where’s the role of mothers in all this?? Shouldn’t they be taught to teach their sons more positive values towards the female species??

Then who’ll be doing the mentoring? The MoMs, led by “a broad-based committee spearheaded by the GDF’s Brigadier Godfrey Bess, with CoP Clifton Hicken as second in command”. These top two honchos are “Disciplined Forces” guys. What about the accusation, “to a hammer, everything’s a nail”? Back in the day, Burnham thought that “discipline” would solve the same challenges young men faced – and we ended up with the militarised National Service.

All your Eyewitness is saying is that we have a lotta work to do before the implementation of MoM.

…Afghan refugees

Guyanese were dumbstruck when an online news outfit reported that Guyana and Suriname were asked by the US to accept an unknown number of Afghan refugees. They were stuck in Kosovo from the 100,000 who’d fled the Taliban when Kabul fell. These were people who supported the Americans, and felt they’d be killed by the Taliban, who condemn them as “collaborators”.

Now, your Eyewitness has a soft spot for refugeeshaving witnessed Guyanese fleeing to every country on planet earth during the PNC dictatorship - but these are individuals who failed to pass the US security check!! If the US, whom they helped, is objecting to their presence in the US, shouldn’t we be wary?? Back in mid-September, a WSJ article stated that Suriname had been contacted. But one Afghan said they had concerns about that plan because of the crime levels in Suriname and the troubled economy.

So, we’re added to the list because we’re “oil rich”?? Isn’t this premature? Let’s have a public discussion on this matter!!

…dogs

While there’s no excuse for Charrandas’s obscenities, the folks who try to feed New Delhi’s 265,000 stray dogs face constant harassment from outraged homeowners. There suffer over 100 dog bites annually, and several fatal incidents of mauling of children.

The views expressed

this column

the author’s

necessarily reflect Guyana Times’ editorial policy

Attorney General Anil Nandlall and the officials during the meeting

Youth Advisory Council working on slew of initiatives – Pres Ali

mental health,

issues

targeted projects

of goods and services the Government wants to deliv er to people.

In this initial stage, the council comprises 29 young, skilled Guyanese, over 50 per cent of whom are fe male professionals. This number is expected to grow in the future.

The council works with State agencies and Ministries to advance the interests of young people, build capacity, and moti vate youths.

Further pointing out that they are the next generation of policymak ers, the Head of State had told members of the Youth Advisory Council that they are now in the real world of problem-solving. As such, they were charged to no longer stand by, but to start taking control of their futures by actively partici pating in the policy forma tion and implementation process.

“They are here because

I believe strongly that we need our young people to be critically integrated into policy-making and into the policy implementation of our country, so they can have a thorough under standing, an in-depth un derstanding, as to how pol icies are determined, why they are determined; and they can contribute in the finalisation of the policies and programmes that will take our country forward,” he was quoted as saying.

The Presidential Youth Advisory Council, which was established back in August to keep young people ac tively participating in ev ery level of decision-making in Guyana, has been work ing on a series of initiatives to target young people.

Speaking with the me dia on Friday, President Dr Irfaan Ali shared that proj ects are being pursued in the area of mental health, education and social issues among others.

“The Youth Advisory Council has been work ing on a number of plans. I know in my last conversa tion with them, they were working on a plan for men tal health and looking at

the education system and seeing ways in which they can work with the schools in career guidance. They are looking at some social programmes in different communities,” the Head of State pointed out.

Moreover, work is also being done in agriculture, to generate greater youth involvement and ensure that these persons gain ac cess to capital to expand their ventures.

“They’re looking at agri cultural projects, bringing together youth involvement in agriculture and expand ing their opportunity to gain access to capital. They are now looking at helping young people to write busi ness proposals, bringing to

gether professionals to sup port them. So, a lot of work is going on.”

The multi-member Youth Advisory Council comprises young profes sionals from various fields including medicine, aca demia, science and environ ment, legal, military, sport and students from through out Guyana.

When the council was launched a few months ago, President Ali stated that every policy decision made at the municipal, region al, and national levels in Guyana would be reflective of the involvement of the Youth Advisory Council. This, he explained, is to en sure that those policies and programmes bring the type

President Ali and members of the Youth Advisory Council at its launch

Billions injected, but tangible results yet to be seen at GuySuCo – Dr Nanda Gopaul

Although bil lions of dollars have been inject ed into the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) by the Government of Guyana, former Labour Minister, Dr Nanda Gopaul stated that tangible results are yet to be seen from such invest ments.

The longstanding trade unionist was speak

Dr Nanda Gopaul

ing at the 54th Delegates Conference of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) on Friday.

He recalled the shutting down of Wales, Enmore, Rose Hall, and Skeldon Estates by the former Government, where thou sands of workers lost their jobs and nearly 400 workers in the NAACIE categories were affected.

In lauding the PPP/C Government for making strides to address and re open the estates, he added that some issues are still to be addressed.

“Fortunately, the situa tion was promptly addressed to re-open closed estates ex cept Wales by the PPP/Civic Administration. While bil lions of dollars have been in jected into GuySuCo, we are still to see tangible results. Our sister union GAWU has issued several statements of concerns over the manage ment style in the industry.”

The Government had appointed a new Board to oversee its operations and Dr Gopaul added that GAWU must be commended for its vigilant and patriotic stance with regard to deci sions made by management that are seen to be inimi cal to the interest of the in dustry, the country, and its workers. In this breath, he also called for better wages to see a turnaround in the industry.

“The unions in the in dustry will have to remain vigilant to ensure that mon ies pumped into the indus try are bringing the desired results which will ultimate ly see the turnaround of the fortunes of the industry. However, when one exam ines the level of wages cur rently paid in the industry and the number of years the workers went without any wage increase, one will find that the wages paid cannot attract the level of turn out of workers to change the fortunes of the industry

around.”

Faced with a similar situation of workers’ turn out to work in 1990, when Booker Tate was invited by the then Government to manage the industry, their first task was to address wages. They implemented a wage policy that saw work ers benefit from the follow ing increases: 50 per cent in 1990; 75 per cent in 1991; 22 per cent in 1992 and 21 per cent from March 1993.

While analysing these numbers, the veteran trade unionist commented, “These increases saw the system atic improvement of la bour turnout and improve ment in the performance of the industry. The wage in creases continued despite the fact that it was expect ed that there will be a cut in the selling price 1994 for sugar exported on the in ternational market. I make this point to draw attention to the fact that the parsimo nious increases which have been paid out to sugar work

ers will not give them the incentive to turn out fully and meaningfully to work. Higher wages should be seen as the first platform in the turnaround plan.”

He added that Government should not be influenced by critics who ar gued that they are pumping money into a ‘dark hole’.

“Those who are saying so now did not comment when from 1974 when the Government confiscated bil lions of dollars in the form of a sugar levy and wasted it in other sectors of the econ omy. In fact, from 1990 to 1994 alone the Government collected nearly 15 billion dollars in levies. Those were very huge sums of money then. It needs to be high lighted also that the in dustry has been around for nearly 400 years and has given sustenance to the country and its people. We should not de-emphasise sugar because of our new ly found oil wealth,” the for mer Minister voiced.

Electoral reform: an exercise in futility?

“Constitutional reform” and “Electoral reform” have now become fixtures on our political agenda. While there are all sorts of technical definitions, basically, constitutions describe how power in the state is distributed while elections describe how the persons who exercise that power, are chosen.

As such, “constitutional” and “electoral” reforms signal that in Guyana, how and by whom power is exercised still are not settled matters, fifty odd years after independence. None of this should surprise locals who have been subjected to a violent dictatorship where elections were rigged for decades. Then, after free and fair elections, witnessed for another decade armed bandits calling themselves “freedom fighters” and waging guerrilla warfare that turned Guyana into a killing field with hundreds of deaths.

While the last decade has ushered in alternating governments indicating that elections now select power holders equitably between the major political parties, the continued call for reforms suggest otherwise. This tells us we are politically underdeveloped and have still not reached that state of the settled democracies where their disagreement is more about policies than procedures. Unlike the game of cricket, where we have accepted the rules and “walk” when the umpire puts his finger up, some political parties even attack the umpire.

After the fiasco in the 2020 elections, where there was a blatant attempt to rig the elections while conceding the need for broad electoral and constitutional reforms, the PPP government announced they going to start by plugging holes in the laws governing the actual conduct of elections. They proposed draft changes to the Representation of the Peoples Act (RoPA) and requested comments, which they received in face-to-face interactions and in writing. The Opposition, while threatening to boycott and demanding some additional changes – such as extending biometrics from voter registration to voter identification – did participate in last week’s “stakeholders” forum. But while one must encourage these attempts to plug gaps in the law, we must accept that when the changes do not go towards improving fairness or justice of the institution, but merely to state simple procedures in an excruciatingly detailed fashion, we are spitting in the wind. The premise is that politicians are always ready to cheat during elections, notwithstanding the fact that RoPA is already two hundred and nine pages long. The drafts presented by the government were a combined thirtynine pages and included instructions such as, “Ballots cast must be shown to counting agents” and “The number of ballot papers to be issued to presiding officers” be declared.

But if, as occurred in 2020, a District Returning Officer, is required to ascertain the total votes cast in favour of each List of Candidates in their respective Polling Districts by adding up the votes recorded in favour of the respective lists in accordance with the relevant Statements of Poll, which he has to display to designated observers and officials, refused to comply with the last instruction, even after a court order, what does this bode for all the new “tightening”??

Institutions, we are informed, are the formal and informal rules and norms that organise social, political and economic relations. RoPA states our formal rules that govern our elections and one informal rule is that cheating – which deprives fellow citizens of their fundamental right to choose their government – just isn’t “cricket”. This invokes the crucial difference between “brute facts” and “institutional facts”. The former refers to things like, say, a wall, that can be described by the laws of physics and chemistry. However, institutional facts” exist only when we all agree on the formal and informal rules that is created by our social practice. A wall becomes a “boundary” – an “institutional fact” only when we agree it is that – there has to be a “collective intentionality” about it to, say, not jump over and pick mangoes. In Guyana, we still do not have that “collective intentionality” about elections to accept their results to authoritatively choose our political leaders. It started with counting English horses as overseas votes in 1968, using spreadsheets and bedsheets in 2020 to count Statements of Poll (SOP) and who knows what specific stunt will be pulled in 2025.

As VS Naipaul observed, we are a “half-formed” society which we refuse to accept and can only develop when the rules we have all agreed to are observed by all. So like Sisyphus, we will keep rolling that electoral reform boulder up the hill, only to see it roll downwards.

Family of 5 homeless after fire ravages Bath Settlement house

out but they had no assis tance.”

“The fire reel came when everything was almost fin ished burning. If they came early, probably the house and the downstairs of the house could have been saved,” she said.

The woman explained that they were unable to save anything from the house, and they are only left with the clothes on their backs.

“I can’t even tell you where we will be staying… I don’t know if you if I will be staying by my mother be cause right now my moth er lost her brother and she doesn’t even know what is

Five people are now homeless after a massive fire ravaged a Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice (WCB) home on Saturday.

Bhaskhanand Baldeo, his wife Bibi Nareema Khan, and three children aged 18, 15, and 2 years old, lost all their belongings including a motor car after the fire com pletely gutted their home.

In an interview with Baldeo after the fire, the devasted father recalled that the fire started around 08:00h when his 15-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son were at the house alone.

The man explained that based on what he was told by his daughter, she was at the bottom flat of the house when she smelled something burning and soon after, she heard items falling in the upper flat of the building.

Upon investigating, the teen said she saw the upper flat of the building fully en gulfed in flames and imme diately collected her 2-yearold brother and ran to safety. She told her father that she ran over to their neighbour’s house, and the Fire Service

was summoned.

When the Fire Service arrived on the scene, de spite their efforts to save the building, the house was completely destroyed.

Khan, on the other hand, believes that if the Fire Service had arrived on the scene earlier, their house would have been saved.

“I was on the road sell ing and my neighbours call to say that my house was on fire. At that moment, I left everything on the road and I take a taxi and I come in. When I reach in, the up stairs was on fire. Nothing downstairs didn’t burn; the house was on fire and they were trying to get the car

going on,” she explained.

An investigation was launched to determine the origin of the fire.

If anyone would like to reach out to assist this fam ily, they are asked to make contact the following num bers: 592-650-8295 and 592653-3169.

Ravi Dev

This family have lost their home to the fire

The house that was destroyed by fire

Health Minister reiterates importance of early screening at Breast Cancer Awareness activity

Inobservance of Brest Cancer Awareness

Month, the Health Sciences Education divi sion of the Health Ministry on Friday hosted a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk and Mini Health Fair at the Nurses Annex, Kingston, Georgetown.

The event was geared at sensitising the community to breast cancer and other cancers that can affect both men and women, while em phasising the importance of early screening.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, who also participated in the walk, addressed the partici pants on the importance of

screening for cancers.

While encouraging ear ly screening, he highlighted the various services provid ed by the Ministry of Health to combat this dreadful dis

ease.

In an invited com ment during the health fair, Deputy Director of Health Sciences Education, Chandroutie Persaud noted

that even though the event was aimed at sensitising residents, other organisa tions and Government en tities showed their sup port by participating in the

Health Walk.

Self-breast examina tion, visual inspection with acetic acid (via), nutri tion and counselling, ado lescent health education, blood pressure testing, high blood pressure (HB) and random blood sugar (RBS) testing, and blood donation drive were among the ser vices provided at the Mini Health Fair.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Medex Training Programme, Sarah Daniels, added, “It was the first time Health Science Division hosted a Health Walk and Mini Health Fair where stu

dents from the Government Schools of Nursing worked on raising awareness on breast cancer among men and women”.

Daniels, on behalf of the Health Sciences Education, also expressed her grati tude to all who participated in the Health Walk, espe cially the staff and officials from the Ministry of Health, public and private sector of fices within the Kingston community, cancer survi vor Sister Penelope Layne (Coordinator - Nursing Programme) and other senior officers and staff from the Health Sciences Education.

Persons at the Cancer Walk hosted by the Health Ministry

Ablend

of quality and unique ness is changing the land scape of handmade jewellery in Guyana, and it is coming from a small business named Dolni with Love.

The pandemic saw the rise of entrepreneurs taking a leap of faith and launching their businesses, and 24-year-old Amanda Jaisingh followed suit with Dolni with Love, a line of polymer clay jewellery.

DOLNI was birthed in April, 2021 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For 18 months, Amanda Jaisingh has been churning out new collections of earrings, all handmade and individually craft ed. According to her, this business is her greatest achievement, and she is capable of achieving any thing.

DOLNI with Love was named after the oldest known fired clay sculpture to date; The Venus of Dolni Vêstonice. Found at a Paleolithic site in the Moravian Basin south of Brno; this beauty was discovered on July 13, 1925 in a layer of ash, broken into two piec es.

Young entrepreneur Amanda Jaisingh shared, “When I first re searched it, I knew that was going to be the inspiration for my busi ness, as that brokenness serves as a metaphor for myself. Put to gether again, The Venus of Dolni Vêstonice is an imperfect figurine of a woman, and it all clicked for me.

I would brand my business based off of a figurine of a woman, which encapsulates and gives meaning to my slogan, ‘Birthed by a woman, for women to feel and look their abso lute best’.

Launching the business was also an avenue for her to not only tap into the entrepreneurial side, but to have multiple streams of in come and not be tied to a 9-to-5 rou tine.

“I was always looking and con stantly thinking and coming up with ideas of what I can do and what would be longstanding. I ini tially wanted to start a pottery stu

dio and do classes, because I tried my hand at pottery before and I was not bad at it, so I knew (that) with practice, I would be even bet ter. However, startup capital for such a business would be high and probably would not have been prof itable for me, so I thought the next best thing to do was try polymer clay,” she explained.

With social media exposure and the necessary research, she import ed all materials and started practis ing. Samples were given to friends, co-workers and family to test the quality, durability and anything that could have been improved be fore officially launching.

Jaisingh has been whipping up batches of clay jewellery, and con verted a regular oven to bake them. For small custom orders, she has

even used a toaster oven.

“Once I know exactly what I am going to be making and I have all the tools I need, I could sit down for twelve hours straight and make the entire collection, or I can take three days or an entire week (pre-baking process). It depends on my mood and how creative and motivated I am feeling, so I can’t exactly tell you how long it takes, because I have learnt not to push myself as hard as I was (doing) at the begin ning of my business, because burn out is real and it puts you in a place that, if you stay there too long, you find it hard to come back to your creative self,” she detailed.

Dolni with Love offers jewellery that includes mostly earrings, but bracelets and necklaces are also produced. Amanda has also had orders of rings, pendants, trinket dishes, coasters, ornaments, and other décor.

“Even though earrings are our

primary product at the moment, we plan to dive into expanding our line into other products that customers can enjoy,” she disclosed.

Speaking about the process and what goes into it, she reflected that every artist has their own unique process, and work best with their respective techniques.

“For me, I launch collections per month, and I usually know I will have about six designs per collec tion. Sometimes, coming up with a name for the collection can be a bit challenging, so I would find myself doing polls, so my clients can have a say and I can get an idea of what they want as well. But before I start my creative process, I need to know the collection’s name, then develop a theme before I can actually start making my earrings. The length of time for this can vary from one hour, to one day, to a week, de pending on my creative flow or lack thereof,” she said.

Amanda Jaisingh, Founder of Dolni with Love

Essequibo Coast resident busted with over 2.5kg ganja

Ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam), on Friday un earthed a quantity of mar ijuana, thus leading to the arrest of one person.

A report from the ranks stated that they were on mobile patrol at about 04:00h on Friday on Good Hope Stelling Road, when they observed a male, who is known to the Police by the name of Davenand Dwarka, 28, a labourer, of Henrietta, Essequibo Coast, sitting on a stall.

The suspect, having no

ticed the Police, jumped off the stall and attempted to hide by lying flat on the ground.

However, upon seeing this, the ranks went toward the direction of the stall.

At the time, the man was

clad in a pair of short black pants, black boots, a black jersey and was carrying a navy-blue haversack on his back.

A search was conducted on the suspect and his be longings but nothing was

found on his person.

Checks were then made in the haversack during which three compressed brown paper parcels, wrapped with transparent plastic containing ganja were found.

In addition, a white dig ital scale was also seen in the bag. Dwarka was im mediately told of the of fence committed, and sub sequently arrested.

The marijuana was weighed in the presence of the suspect and amounted to 2757.7 grams. He is in custody pending investiga tion and charges.

Do you have a valid Environmental Authorisation?

Welcome back readers, last week we continued to look at the EPA’s Environmental Guidelines for Poultry Rearing. As we stated in last week’s article when operating a poultry rearing operation with more than 500 fowls you need to apply to the EPA for an Environmental Authorisation. An Environmental Authorisation is not only needed for such rearing, today we will be looking at the different operations/ activities that require an Environmental Authorisation.

Just before we get into the different operations/ activities that require an Environmental Authorisation, take a look around and you will notice an increase in the number of economic, construction and other developmental activities taking place in Guyana. Remember developmental activities are necessary to improve the quality of our lives; however, they need to be conducted in a manner that will not compromise the quality of the environment and human health. Further, the Environmental Protection Agency was established to manage, conserve, protect and improve our environment. Therefore, certain types of activities need to authorised by the EPA. These include:

• Construction of roads and bridges;

• Hotels, inns, resorts, guest houses;

• Port and habour development;

• Development of industrial complexes/estates;

• Development of water distribution facilities;

• Power generation plants;

• Water treatment facilities;

• Vulcanising shops;

• Auto electrical/mechanical workshops;

• Facilities which store, treat or dispose of waste;

• Rice processing plant;

• Mining activities (sand, bauxite, gold, diamond, rock etc.);

• Pulp and paper processing

• Cement production & bagging plants;

• Asphalt/bitumen plants;

• Paint and ink manufacturing;

• Extraction of forest resources;

• Petroleum exploration;

• Pharmaceuticals manufacturing; and

• Biodiversity research and filming.

NB. This list is not exhaustive!

What is an Environmental Authorisation?

In last week’s article, we stated that an Environmental Authorisation is an Environmental Permit, a Prescribed Process Licence, a Construction Permit or an Operation Permit granted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Why is the Environmental Authorisation necessary?

Having a valid Environmental Authorisation for certain types of activity, is required by law; the Environmental Protection Act Cap. 20:05, Laws of Guyana. It also provides major benefits to the environment, the human health and secure your investment. The process ensures that development is conducted in the most sustainable way possible by mandating investors to identify the major impacts of an investment project and determine the best measures or alternatives that can be put in place to prevent or mitigate negative impacts.

Additionally, through environmental authorisation process, it is determined whether or not and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is needed before granting the Environmental Permit. This is another important process which is required to be completed by investors who are planning projects that will have significant adverse effects on environmental, social and economic well-being.

IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE OPERATING WITHOUT A VALID ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION

In order to continue to enjoy the benefits of sound environmental management and economic growth, investors need to have their permits renewed. This allows the Environmental Protection Agency to carry on monitoring project activities to ensure that they are conducted sustainably. You should apply for renewal of your permit at least 6 months prior to its expiration date.

If you are renewing your application and have made any adjustments to your operations, the Agency needs to be notified of same.

You can share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment”, C/O ECEA Programme, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, GEORGETOWN, or email us at: eit. epaguyana@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

this column

author’s

necessarily reflect Guyana Times’ editorial

The ganja that was found at Good Hope, Essequibo

she disclosed.

“Another issue that is not so much of a challenge but an issue that needs to be addressed is the availabil ity of marketing platforms for small business owners,” Amanda has said. To date, she noted, the business has generated a booming re sponse from the Guyanese populace.

“From the very start-up

In her spare time, Amanda is an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction litera ture. “I am fond of animals, as they are of me, and that is a quirk of mine that I val ue a lot. I spend most of my days binging Friends, that 70s show, and Harry Potter; it helps with my anxiety. I also love spending time with my close friends, and I cher ish the bond that I have with

The young entrepre neur has said that behind the scenes involve select ing a colour scheme, choos ing shapes, and pairing her creations with gems and charms, and it can be a lit tle tricky. She added, “But I trust the process, and hope they put together well, and most times they do. With full transparency, I do struggle at times with designs that I personally love but (are) not always a best-seller, and at first I would be hard on my self for that, but, over time, I have also accepted that that’s also a part of the jour ney, and I welcome it gra

ciously, as I do with my best sellers.”

The entrepreneur added that the effort and time that goes into a small business is tenfold in nature. It en tails being the manufactur er, marketer, social media personnel, and every role needed to see the business through.

“Crazy amount of hours, days and weeks go into the entire process, including making, baking, sanding, polishing, and assembling earrings; not to mention taking product pictures, ed iting and uploading on to our website, as well as web

site updates and actually launching and marketing the products. It takes sweat, tears, and sometimes even blood, because the amount of times I have been pricked or cut is actually ridiculous. It sounds overwhelming, and it can be at times, but like I have mentioned, being patient with myself and lis tening to my mind and body helps me overcome those negative emotions and cre ative blocks,” she explained.

Jaisingh said DOLNI with Love prides itself in of fering an experience. Apart from the products, the aim is to create an unmatched ex perience for clients.

“At DOLNI, we place great emphasis on our cli ents, and our clientele can attest to this. DOLNI is unique, because you’re not just buying earrings or neck laces, etc., you’re having an experience: receptive and kind customer service, great

packaging, and you can al ways look forward to gifts in side your order! A girl loves a good surprise, so I always make sure that’s something I do for my clients. Whether it’s a cute stud, an earring, necklace, or fun stickers, opening your package with us will always be an experi ence,” she declared.

As a small business own er, she relayed, one of the biggest challenges is ship ping and clearance rates, which affect her profit mar gins.

“Challenges now for me would be shipping and clear ance rates. As a small busi ness owner, that directly affects my profit margin. I am not sure how effective this would be for others, but what I have started doing is ordering in bulk, and it al leviates the hassle of run ning out of materials, de layed shipping, etc. and it has been working for me,”

to this point of DOLNI’s life, I have received nothing but immense support and love. Whether that comes in the form of likes, shares, recom mendations, compliments, suggestions and sales, all have aided in the devel opment and success of my brand.”

them and the comfort they bring to me, as well as sta bility.”

Anyone who wants op portunity to browse the col lection of jewellery can vis it or contact dolni.handmade on Instagram or DOLNI with Love on Facebook. (G12)

Have you ever wanted to trav el back in time to the days of the Old West, and a life of ropin’ and wranglin’ while tuckin’ into some hearty grub by the campfire? Well, such an experience is possible, and you don’t need a time machine, just a thirst for adventure.

The Rupununi region of Guyana has a num ber of exciting opportuni ties for travellers to fulfill their ranch-life fantasies.

Several working farms and cattle ranches located within the region provide some of the most authen tic cowboy experiences.

While the ranches vary in size and specific attrac

tions, they all deliver on the promise of a handson experience, something that everyone should do at least once in their life time.

Guests can saddle up and accompany Guyanese vaqueros (the Spanish word for cowboy) on cat tle roundups, where they can learn how to lasso, tie,

and even brand a steer. Of course, this being Guyana, there are a lot of other ac tivities that you would be able to enjoy. Ranch guests often go birdwatch ing, take wildlife-spotting tours, learn traditional Indigenous cooking meth ods, take a swim in a crys tal-clear stream, or just kick back and relax in a hammock. Sounds excit ing, doesn’t it?

Dadanawa Ranch Guyana’s largest and oldest ranch is Dadanawa. Located in the south ern Rupununi region near Guyana’s border with Brazil, the ranch has been in operation since the 1880s, and is currently home to over 6,000 head of cattle - at least that’s what they think. It’s hard to get an accurate count, given that Dadanawa encompass

es over 1,700 square miles of real estate, an area that’s larger than Rhode Island.

Saddle Mountain Ranch Saddle Mountain Ranch offers a genuine, old-school vaquero adventure expe rience. You’ll learn how to lasso calves in the corral, and ride across the spec tacular savannahs of the southern Rupununi region.

Lethem Rodeo

Waikin Ranch

You may camp out, or stay in the basic but comfortable facil ities. Either way, you’ll enjoy a fresh, delicious dinner under a sky filled with stars.

Waikin Ranch

Waikin Ranch is a farm and cattle ranch sitting on 33,000 acres of land in Central Rupununi. The ranch combines the own ers’ passions for agriculture, animal husbandry, conservation and hospitality to create a unique and special guest experience. The fields and orchards surrounding this property are a haven for almost 200 species of bird, while giant anteaters and deer still roam freely around the ranch, as do capybara, anacondas, and even caiman (if you are lucky).

Most trips to Waikin Ranch last between two and four days, and this property makes a fantastic base camp from which to explore the savannah and other attractions in the Central Rupununi.

Wichabai Ranch

Wichabai Ranch offers an exclusive opportunity to escape the busy city life into an authentic, untouched Indigenous lifestyle that cannot wait to welcome you.

You will be privy to experiences that would allow you to re connect and become one with nature.

Wichabai Ranch offers a number of tour itineraries that would captivate wildlife enthusiasts, adventurers, or a simple family seeking a getaway adventure. Learn how to lasso a cow, or ride a horse. Or why not take advantage of wildlife spotting experienc es, birdwatching, canoeing, or camping in the savannahs?

Wichabai Ranch is the start of a great adventure!

The Annual Rupununi Rodeo

Should you have any lingering doubts concerning Guyana’s cowboy creds, consider attending the annual Rupununi Rodeo, a raucous three-day event that draws thousands of participants and spectators.

Get ready to saddle up for an adventure of a lifetime!

For more information on how you can schedule your Rupununi experience, do reach out to the Guyana Tourism Authority at 592-219-0093-6, or send an email to info@guyanatourism.com. You can also engage with us via WhatsApp at 592-688-4155, or follow us on social media - @Discover Guyana on Facebook and Instagram as well as the @Guyana Tourism Authority on Facebook.

Sunset at Saddle Mountain

Wichabai Ranch

Paralysed youth pushes disability awareness

Onemorning in 2012, life changed for Graeme Vlyssess Edwards. An accident caused by a drunk driver left him paralysed from the waist down. Although the immedi ate months following the in cident saw him transitioning to a lifestyle where he was un able to walk, the young man was determined to make the best of his abilities.

Today, 12 years later, Edwards along with sever al other persons who are dif ferently-abled, have band ed together to form the West Side Disability Association.

“The realisation of the West Side Disability Association was in thoughts during the course of 2021 in a disabili ty studies course which was done by the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities,” Edwards told Guyana Times.

He said that after he completed the course, in December 2021 he decided to go ahead with pursuing the foundation of the organisation.

Edwards, who was born in Brazil,

said he and another colleague, Joel Ramesh, recruited persons to be part of the organisation. “We suc cessfully gathered persons and 6 of the 9 members are persons with different disabilities,” he said.

An ardent sports enthusiast,

the former Leonora Secondary School student reiterated that the organisation’s main focus is on persons with disabilities as well as the rights of persons with disabil ities and the reinforcement of the 2012 Disability Act.

Awareness project Edwards said the organisa tion is currently undertaking a disability awareness project which is being done online via the Zoom social media plat form. “We started that earli er this year and we have seen a growth in persons gaining knowledge about disabilities,” he said.

In addition, he noted that other organisations within the Caribbean such as the Youths with Disabilities NGO from Dominica collaborated with the West Side entity to have a consistent approach to the sharing of disability aware ness. Edwards said he is pos itive the goals of the NGO will be realised as time pro gresses.

Currently, the West Side entity is preparing to un dertake a host of activities for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities which will be observed early in December.

Personal upliftment

While speaking about life fol

lowing the accident that changed his life, Edwards said that the ex perience has inspired him to en hance his qualification, includ ing academic feats. At the time of the accident, he was cycling along the roadway on the West Coast of Demerara when the vehicle struck him down. Edwards was at the time training to become a football referee.

In recent years, Edwards en rolled in four universities to complete various academic pro grammes, including Master’s pro grammes. The programmes are done virtually. He said the studies take up most of his time.

At the University of Barcelona, Edwards is pursuing stud ies in medicine while he is pur suing a Master’s in Business Administration at the Barcelona Executive Business School. He is also enrolled in several other insti tutions online.

The young man noted that he will continue to spread aware ness of persons with disabilities, since according to him, they can also make a valuable contribution to society, despite the challenges they face.

Graeme Vlyssess Edwards relaxes at the Leonora Track and Field Stadium following an exercise

ANSA McAL riding Guyana’s development trajectory 30 years on

…Minister Walrond pushes for inclusion of local businesses

According to Anthony N. Sabga III, the “ANSA” component of ANSA McAL was birthed in Guyana in the 1960s, while his grandfather worked to develop what would become a thriving business across the Caribbean region many, many years later.

Sabga’s utterances, serving as a testimony to the commitment of his fam ily, and by extension that of their company, to the Guyanese market in which they operate, were made as the company celebrated its 30th anniversary of opera tion in Guyana, beginning in 1992.

The ambience at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingstown on Friday last truly befitted the Company’s elite ranking; and, of course, in terms of top-ranking, the gathering of business and market

ing executives from within and around Guyana could not be complete without the presence of several of ANSA’s trademark bever ages swishing around in glasses. Punctuating the chatter that engulfed the room was a history of the Company, presented by for mer and current Managing Directors: Beverly Harper, Now Country Head of ANSA McAL; and Troy Cadogan, current Managing Director thereof. It was a history that boasted the involvement of numerous Guyanese stalwarts, like Paul Chan-A-Sue.

“…even then, he saw the beautiful opportunities this country had to offer,” Sabga shared as he revisited the memory of his late grand father, the renowned Dr. Anthony N. Sabga I.

Anthony N Sabga presenting Minister Walrond with a portrait of the Jubilee Arch, which the company intends to illuminate

GWI awards 24 students with bursaries

larly with the advent of the growing oil and gas sector.

GWI CEO Shaik Baksh related to the students that determination is key to suc ceeding and reaching higher heights. He told them to uti lise their time and the inter net wisely to expand their knowledge.

Seeraj reminded the stu dents and parents gathered that extracurricular activi ty such as sports and music help in giving them a holis tic lifestyle.

Twenty-four stu

dents were on Friday awarded bursaries to talling over $840,000 as the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) honoured the children of its employees who wrote the 2022 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

The ceremony was host ed at the company’s head office in Georgetown which saw Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal telling the awardees that it matters not what school they were awarded but the effort they put into learning.

Croal encouraged the stu dents to focus on their school work so that they may excel and be a part of Guyana’s fu ture development.

He posited that Guyana will not be the same five years from now when they graduate, due to the trans formation that is cur rently taking place under President Dr Irfaan Ali. In

this regard, he advised them to take advantage of the op portunities currently avail able to them, so that they can reap the benefits when it comes time to choose a ca reer path.

The Minister made ref erence to the numerous non-traditional avenues available for work, particu

As a former Minister of Education, Baksh high lighted Mathematics and English as the most chal lenging subjects for stu dents to gain high scores in at CSEC over the years. As such, he encouraged them to work towards good grades at the level of their secondary school life, as this will ulti mately set them up for good overall results at CSEC.

Baksh, who is also a former lecturer at the University of Guyana, said aiming to do well in the core subjects will ensure them an opportunity to progress to the tertiary level.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman of GWI’s Board of Directors, Dharamkumar

Executive Director of Human Resources Management & Development, Elvis Jordon said their award is the testi mony of their hard work, as well as that of their teach ers and parents as they pre pared for their examina tions.

This year’s top achievers are Ruel Joseph who secured a place at Queen’s College; Liesl Pearson, Tomesh Sookram and Chivrat Singh, who were all awarded The Bishops’ High School; and Nandita Neeroram, who got St Rose’s High School.

Giving the vote of thanks, Ruel Joseph, on be half of his fellow students and their parents, thanked GWI’s Board of Directors and Management for the recognition and awards pre sented to them.

The bursary awardees at the event

Minister Collin Croal handing over one of the awards to a student

Guyanese man fatally shot in New Jersey

Street, Lodge resident, Curt Johnson, was gunned down while leaving his brother’s birthday celebra tions in New Jersey.

While the motive re mains unclear, they have ruled out robbery given the number of gunshots fired and the fact that Johnson was still wearing all his jewellery.

MoU inked to develop farm service centres across Guyana

…farmers to benefit from technological skills’ training

AUS-based Guyanese was shot and killed in New Jersey, United States, on Thursday evening. The dead man has been identified as Rayon Shepherd.

According to an RLS Metro Breaking News ar ticle, the incident occurred sometime around 21:30h in Newark’s West Ward, NJ.

It was reported that Police responded to reports of shots fired near 153 Isabella Avenue.

“Units arrived and taped off the area after

they found a severely in jured, unconscious, and unresponsive male suf fering multiple bullet wounds. The victim was pronounced dead a short time later,” the article de tailed.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is cur rently investigating the fatal shooting. This is the second Guyanese that was killed in New Jersey with in a matter of five months.

In May, a United States-based Guyanese singer and former Hadfield

Prior to this incident, last year June Guyaneseborn Norman Corlette who is originally from Sheriga Scheme, Enmore North, East Coast Demerara, was fatally stabbed to death on Lincoln Avenue in Newark, New Jersey.

A family member had told this publication that the incident stemmed from a confrontation between Corlette and a man who dropped home someone close to the victim who was in New Jersey babysitting his child.

As a result of the inju ries he sustained, Corlette allegedly buckled and fell to the ground and subse quently died, the relative said.

The Guyana Government through the Ministry of Agriculture has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Planet One Agro Ventures Limited, paving the way for the development of several integrated farm service cen tres across Guyana.

Once established, the centres will seek to improve Guyana’s agro-productivity as well as farmers’ process ing capabilities.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, sign ing on behalf of Guyana, said that the agreement, to some extent makes way for a more modernised sector. This, he added, is in keep ing with the Government’s plan for the sector.

While giving some in sight on the project scope, Minister Mustapha said that the company will be responsible for delivering solutions geared at empow

ering farmers through the establishment of farm in frastructure development.

“This entails the design ing, building, and or con struction of industrial stan dards infrastructure to host processing units, special ised agriculture and labo ratories for agriculture re search and development among other things. They will also look at the pro curement and supply of farm mechanisation tools and equipment, crop pro ductivity equipment which includes equipment for soil laboratories, as well as equipment for bio labora tories for biofertiliser and pesticide equipment for ITC laboratories,” he shared.

Minister Mustapha also said that the MoU will al low for the empowerment of farming communities.

“When these centres are set up, farmers within those areas will benefit from tech nological transfers. They

will be able to improve their farming skills while bene fiting from technology soft ware development, train ing, and capacity-building programmes,” he added.

Over the next six months, Planet One Agro Ventures Limited is expect ed to prepare a detailed project plan, as well as an implementation strategy and a financial proposal, af ter which both parties will move forward with the proj ect which is expected to be in operation before the end of November 2024.

Planet One Agro Ventures Limited forms part of the Planet One Group of Companies which serve as a potent vehicle for farmers to step up and achieve their production targets. Its service centres provide farmers with access to agricultural knowledge on modern farming tech niques and storage practic es.

Dead: Rayon Shepherd

Minister Zulfikar Mustapha with representatives from Planet One Agro Ventures Limited and other representatives of the Ministry

Jagmohan's libel case against

settled out of court

The Guyana National Newspaper Limited (GNNL), the pub lishers of the Guyana Chronicle newspaper, have reached an out of court set tlement with well-known businessman and gold ex porter Tamesh Jagmohan, who had sued them, along with writer Adam Harris, for $200 million for a de famatory article that was printed before manage ment changed in August 2020.

Jagmohan, through his Attorneys-at-Law Glenn Hanoman, Manoj Narayan and Joshua Abdool, had sued GNNL on August 17, 2020, for an article they printed on May 3, 2020, un der the pen of Harris.

It is an article that made a number of defam atory statements about Jagmohan and his activ ities during the election period. Jagmohan, the Executive Director for El Dorado Trading, was an election observer during the March 2020 General

and Regional Elections.

At the time the article was published, the Guyana Chronicle newspaper was under the management and stewardship of a Board of Directors appointed by the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government, who in turn appointed the management team.

“A new Board of Directors was appointed in September 2020, and that Board considered the alle gations raised in the law suit filed by Mr Jagmohan and also sought legal ad vice thereon,” a statement from GNNL stated, add ing that their review of the case showed Chronicle’s new administration that there was no evidence to support the baseless alle gations in the article.

“It was further deter mined that none of the al legations published against Mr Jagmohan could be cor roborated or supported by any records or informa tion in the possession of the newspaper and that the publication was com pletely unjustifiable and indefensible. As a result, the Guyana Chronicle un der the administration of its new Board immediate ly caused the defamatory article to be removed from the newspaper’s website and online archive.”

GNNL in their state

ment went on to apologise to Jagmohan and his fam ily for the defamatory ar ticle and noted that their settlement does not af fect the liability of Harris, who is still a defendant in the case. And in an inter view with this publication, Narayan made it clear that his client will be continuing his lawsuit against Harris. In his lawsuit, Jagmohan had sought over $150 mil lion in damages and $50 million in aggravated dam

ages, as well as injunctions.

The lawyer noted the negative impact the article had on Jagmohan’s reputa tion and business and the work that had to be done to re-establish his reputation and partnerships on an in ternational scale. Narayan pointed out that the base less article resulted in in tense scrutiny for his cli ent, which he has since been able to clear.

“This settlement only relates to those two parties (GNNL and Jagmohan). Mr Adam Harris is also a de fendant in the case and Mr Jagmohan is pursuing the case to its end against Adam Harris. As you know Mr Jagmohan is perhaps the largest gold export er from Guyana. He holds an export licence for gold and it’s one of his larg er business ventures from Guyana,” Narayan said.

“The volume of gold he exports annually when you’re dealing with that kind of volume of gold, you tend to establish banking

relations not only locally but regionally and interna tionally. And then you have the suppliers. And so, any hint or allegation of wrong doing, whether true or not, could affect those business relationships.”

Narayan noted that Jagmohan was eventually able to clear himself, due to the fact that he was in nocent of the allegations contained in the article. Nevertheless, the article for a time put his client’s business under strain and caused tremendous harm.

“It did cause severe strain and tension on his international business, which he’s had to work as siduously to clarify and clear up and set the record straight, that he’s not in volved in any of those ac tivities that he was alleged to be involved in. It was just a reckless article that was published at the time, because Mr Jagmohan was perceived to be a support er of a particular political party.”

ANSA McAL riding Guyana’s development...

Chronicling ANSA’s growth throughout the years, the younger Sabga enlightened the gathering about the Company’s inten tions in the prestigious pres ence of Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Executive President of the Republic of Guyana. He posited, “I wish to affirm unequivocally (that) we re main steadfastly poised to deepen our partner ship with the Government and people of Guyana in this very exciting phase of Guyana’s development. We’re proud to be part of the landscape, part of this progressive country that recognises the importance of not just building for the sake of building, but build ing for economic resilience.”

Sabga and ANSA McAL were resolved to not allow this anniversary to pass without a true commemo ration. In what is perhaps a manifestation of their drive to ‘light up’ the East Coast corridor on which the com pany’s Headquarters are currently based, the CEO announced that the com pany would be illuminat

ing the Cumming’s Lodge Jubilee Arch.

“This year, as part of the celebration of our 30th an niversary in Guyana, we’re currently furnishing this arch with solar panels and solar lighting. The lights will be officially powered on in December of this year, and will illuminate the city and surrounding communi ties,” Sabga III explained.

Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Oneidge Walrond mean while embraced the oppor tunity to put forth a chal lenge to the conglomerate.

ANSA McAL have, in their time operating in Guyana, branched out from just products and beverage dis tribution. With subsidiar ies like Guyana Breweries Inc, ANSA Motors, I Radio,

T.Wee, The Colour Shop and ANSA Mini Mart, the Guyanese Minister is hop ing that the platform can be used to propel Guyanese products.

“As we look forward to your next 30 years in Guyana, I wish - as I’m always inclined to do on these occasions - to extend a challenge,” Walrond said in addressing the gather ing. Turning her full atten tion to ANSA McAL, she reminded, “At the launch ing of the minimart facili ty last July, my challenge to you was to maximise the offerings of Guyanese prod ucts in your retail offer ings, to give our products more prominence and place amongst the others in your inventory. You took up that challenge.

“The occasion of a 30year anniversary demands something more substan tial, but we can think of it as not so much of a chal lenge, but an invitation. I would challenge or in vite you to think of what the economic landscape in Guyana would be like in the

year 2052 with the benefit of a 30-year plan.”

As such, Walrond laid her cards on the table, stat ing, “What we would like to see is ANSA being not only a distributor in Guyana for foreign products, but a distributor overseas for Guyanese products.”

Couple with her Ministry’s ventures, such as the recently-commis sioned Business Incubator

PAGE

at Berbice, Walrond be lieves the foregoing prop osition can do wonders for the growth of local busi nesses.

“With purposed action and impact of partners like ANSA McAL, it is entire ly possible that Caribbean and, indeed, global brands can emerge from the ranks of our agro- processors,” a very confident Walrond ex plained. (Jemima Holmes)

Businessman Tamesh Jagmohan

Columnist Adam Harris

Anthony N Sabga: CEO, ANSA McAL Group

Minister Oneidge Walrond addressing the ANSA McAL 30th Anniversary celebrations

Repeated attacks on cattle leave farmer contemplating next move

– over 13 head of cattle stolen for year thus far

carry away two cows, then they carry six heads cow and now they carry two. I had 186 heads sheep right here at this farm; I have two farms – one here and the other one at the sa vannah, and all the sheep – 186 heads thief out.” Anghad said that was a few years ago.

“I tell myself that I gon mind back sheep and then I think to myself that if I mind back, they gon thief them out – they thiev ing too much. I never see nobody get catch, people thief and then it just quiet down. The thieving is now more and more,” he said.

According to the farm er, he would appreciate it if the Police can be more active in those areas that are linked to the back lands. He said he has con templated selling his ani mals but it is very hard for him to give up his passion, even at 82.

Anghad said he once had over 1000 heads of cat tle but now he is down to less than a quarter of that number.

“One time they kill three of them and left the head and guts and carry away the carcass. That is about four months ago and a month ago they thief six

heads – cut the wire and carry away the cows; some of them were pregnant.”

When contact ed, Police Commander Senior Superintendent Shivpersaud Bacchus, who met with cattle farmers on Saturday at Number 63 Village, explained that the Police have been patrolling the backlands with horses.

He pointed out that they were able to track down a group of cattle rus tlers who tried to escape by crossing the Berbice River. As such, four of them were caught in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) with the loot.

ACorentyne farm

er is contemplating whether he should continue his cattle rearing trade after repeated at tacks on his stock for the past few months.

The most recent attack was between Thursday evening and Friday morn ing when two cows were stolen from his pasture at Number 64 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.

The farmer, Harrypersaud Anghad, has confirmed that at least 13 heads of cattle were sto len for the year thus far.

However, Devendra Ramnauth, who attends to the animals, made the dis covery on Friday morning at about 10:00h.

“They get a gate and so I open the lock and go in. when I go in ah start check the cow and see two miss ing.”

Ramnauth further stated that there were 30 heads of cattle in that en closed area.

After realising that the animals were missing, he inspected the area during which he saw the fence damaged.

“The wire cut and it cut with something like a pli ers and the two cows miss ing; onto now I can’t find them,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Anghad

who has about 250 heads of cattle, said he suspects that it is the same person who keeps taking his ani mals. He recalled that six heads of cattle were re moved from his ranch last month.

“One time they thief three heads of cow, and then the next time they

Crowd-crush kills at least 149 at Seoul Halloween festivities

South Korea’s first big Halloween celebra tion since the end of COVID restrictions turned to tragedy on Saturday night, when at least 149 peo ple, mostly teenagers and young adults, died as party goers surged through a nar row alley in a popular night life district in Seoul, officials said. Authorities are still in vestigating what caused the incident, but Choi Seongbum, chief of the Yongsangu Fire Department, said it was a “presumed stampede” and that many people fell, injuring at least 76 people.

Revellers had poured into the Itaewon night club district to enjoy South Korea’s first Halloween cel ebration since crowd limits and face mask rules imposed by the COVID pandemic were lifted. Witnesses said that even before the chaos broke out, partygoers were packed so tightly in the nar

row streets that it was diffi cult to move around.

“I saw people going to the left side and I saw the per son getting to the opposite side. So, the person in the middle got jammed, so they had no way to communicate, they could not breathe,” Witness Sung Sehyun told CNN. He said the space was like a “jammed subway.”

Authorities received the first reports of people “buried” in crowds around 22:24h on Saturday night.

Yonhap News Agency re ported that some people had suffered from “cardiac ar rest,” attributing the state ment to fire authorities.

Emergency officials assisted at least 81 people in Seoul’s Itaewon neighbourhood re porting “difficulty breath ing.” But early suggestions of a gas leak or fire were dis counted.

Police closed off the area and social media vid

eos showed people wear ing Halloween costumes ly ing in the streets and on stretchers as first respond ers rendered aid and queues of ambulances formed to take away the injured.

Dozens of people were transferred to nearby fa cilities, said Choi Jae-won, the head of Yongsan Health Centre. The bodies of the victims were transferred to multiple hospital mortuar ies, authorities added.

The Seoul city govern ment received reports of missing people as friends and families searched for people known to be at the event who didn’t come home.

As the sun rose on Sunday, Police officers were seen scanning the sidewalk for personal belongings and pieces of identification as they tried to determine the final number of injured and dead. (CNN)

3 in custody over death of Berbice man

Police in the East Berbice-Corentyne re gion are investigating the death of a so far uniden tified male who died after he fell through the flooring of a house, but not before receiv ing blows from an intoxicat ed man.

While no information on the deceased was provided, Guyana Times was informed that the incident took place at about 21:00h on Thursday at Lot 12 No 78 Springlands, Corentyne.

Reports are that the three suspects – Vishnu Nankumar called “Visho”, 53; Suraj Persaud called “Derrick”, 54; and Robert Stanley, 65 – were imbibing at the residence in celebra tion of Nankumar’s birth day.

However, during that evening, the deceased went into the house where the men were and picked up a pitchfork, which he then pointed to Persaud’s neck.

This resulted in Persaud re ceiving injuries.

In retaliation, Nankumar reportedly grabbed a piece of wood and dealt the now dead man two lashes on his hand and forehead, respec tively. During this time, the flooring of the house broke, thus resulting in the man falling through. The uncon scious man was taken to the Skeldon Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. As such, the Police were called in and the three suspects were arrest

ed. They were highly intox icated with minor injuries about their bodies.

They were taken for medical attention but were treated and sent away. The men remain in custody as sisting with the investiga tion.

Meanwhile, the detec tives have taken two pieces of wood from the scene and lodged them. The man’s body is presently at Anthony’s Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem and identifica tion.

Over 3lbs ganja found in East Canje home

Two persons are now in Police custody af ter more than three pounds of marijuana was unearthed at their Canje, Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne) home.

The discovery was made during an intelligence-led operation headed by an Assistant Superintendent of Police at Sheet Anchor Village, East Canje, Berbice.

Based on information reaching Guyana Times, the team, acting on information received, went to the loca tion and conducted a search at the home of the suspects.

During the search, three bulky parcels wrapped in black and transparent plas tic, which contained a quan tity of Cannabis sativa, were found in the kitchen ceiling.

Further checks were conducted in the bedroom,

The narcotics found at the home of the suspects

where another black plas tic bag containing more sus pected cannabis was found tucked between a chair’s cushion.

The suspects were ar rested and escorted to the Central Police Station along

with the narcotics, which were weighed in their pres ence and amounted to 1537 grams or 3.389 pounds.

The suspects, Jason Charles and Drucilla December, are presently in custody pending charges.

The fence that was destroyed by the cattle rustlers

Harrypersaud Anghad

The unconscious man after falling through the house

GCC Men, Vets dominate Night Four of Bounty Supermarket National Indoor Hockey Championships

NightFour of the Bounty Supermarketsponsored National Indoor Hockey Championships, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) on Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown, has been dominated by experience on the courts.

The opening match-up wit nessed the YMCA Old Fort Top Form going down to the GCC Pitbulls by a single goal. The Woodroffe men were on point for their team, as two goals off the stick of Samuel and one off the stick of Vladimir gave their team a 3-2 advantage. Simeon Moore marked his name by scoring two field goals for Old Fort Top Form.

The first female game of the evening saw the YMCA Old Fort Igniters narrowly defeating the Saints women by one goal. A penalty corner was awarded to Old Fort wom en, and captain Carolyn Dean, leading from the front, took the shot and successfully found the back of the net of the Saints

women.

Face-off in the Vets Over-35 category was between Bounty GCC and YMCA Old Fort. The latter suffered another defeat at the hands of GCC, as their nets were riddled four times.

Old Fort opened the scoring in the 3rd minute when former skillful national player Askofu Simon punctured the GCC net with a field goal.

This small victory did not

last long, as the Kevin Spencer response was eventually a dou ble, followed by a double from Devin Hooper. The other goal for Old Fort came from Jason De Santos. The game ended in favour of GCC 4-2.

The final match of the eve ning took place between GBTI GCC Spice and GBTI GCC Tigers. The Spice ladies were on point, and netted four goals, with Ashley DeGroot-Khalil

opening the scoring for her team and ending with anoth er. Her efforts were followed by those of Sonia Jardine and the hunter Abosaide Cadogan, who each scored one.

The Tigers put up a good fight, but managed only three goals, with captain Gabriella Xavier making a double and receiving support from the

nimble and aggressive Sarah Klautky.

Woodpecker Hikers re main undefeated in the wom en’s category, earning them the number one spot to date.

In the second position is GBTI GCC Tigers. In Group ‘A’ men, Bounty GCC stand on top, and in Group ‘B’, GCC The Sequel are atop. GCC Vintage is

ranked number one after play ing three games in the Vets’ category.

Action continues today, Sunday October 30, with the semifinals and finals’ show down promising to be exciting and entertaining, as trophies for MVP, Best Keeper and first place winners, among others, are up for the taking.

Glenn Phillips outscores Sri Lanka in huge win for NZ

Finn Allen took a low catch. This left Sri Lanka at 8 for 4 after four overs, and de spite Bhanuka Rajapaksa's 34 from 22, they did not look like ever launching a serious recovery.

Early excellence

What Sri Lanka would rue most is that they let the game slip after making such a strong start: Theekshana swung one into Allen's off stump in the first over; de

Silva bowled Devon Conway in the third; Kasun Rajitha had Kane Williamson caught behind in the fourth. But whereas New Zealand lat er put on an outstanding fielding performance, Sri Lanka's was awful. Besides the dropped catches, there were fumbles in the out field, misfields in the circle, and poor throws from every where; and those went some way in deciding the game. (ESPNCricinfo)

Sri Lanka had New Zealand at 15 for 3 in the powerplay, but they then dropped Glenn Phillips, and it was all New Zealand from there on.

Phillips bashed 104 off 64 deliveries to almost sin gle-handedly carry New Zealand to 167 for 7 (the next-highest score in the team was 22), before Trent Boult and Tim Southee put on a powerplay showcase that took four wickets be tween them while the field ing restrictions were still on in Sri Lanka's chase.

Whereas New Zealand kept enough resources in store for a late-overs’ explo sion, hitting 113 off the last 10, Sri Lanka squandered their batters before any sort of base could be established. They crashed to 58 for 6 af ter 10 overs, and had no hope at all from there, eventual ly being bowled out for 102, as Boult finished with ca reer-best figures of 4 for 13

and Southee claimed 1 for 12.

This result took New Zealand to the top of the Group 1 table, with five points and an outstanding net run rate of 3.85. It sent Sri Lanka down to near the bottom of the table, with two points after three matches and a poor NRR of -0.89. This means New Zealand are in an excellent place to not only qualify for the semifinals, but also finish top of their group. Sri Lanka, however, will find a semifinals’ spot incredibly difficult to seize from here on.

Phillips dropped We're not out to make Phillips's century seem un earned, because, of course, it was. But had Pathum Nissanka held a sitter off Phillips in the seventh over off the bowling of Wanindu Hasaranga, Phillips would have been out for 12 off 15, and New Zealand would have been 29 for 4.

Phillips was also dropped

for 45 off the 38th ball he faced, when Dasun Shanaka was unable to hold on to a tough chance as he ran in from long off.

Spectacular hitting Sri Lanka kept taking the pace off the ball to Phillips, and in the best moments in this outstanding knock, Phillips kept bullying the bowling over the boundary, mostly with brute strength. His successive sixes off Maheesh Theekshana in the 17th over were especially bril liant. He first backed away to blast Theekshana high over wide long-on for six, and when the bowler pulled back the length next ball, Phillips backed away and bullied him into the sightscreen with a flat bat.

All up, Phillips hit four sixes - the others coming off seam bowling - in addition to 10 fours. One of those fours was the murderous pull that got him to his second T20I

century, and the second for New Zealand at a World Cup.

The key partnership of the innings was Phillips's stand of 84 with Daryll Mitchell, which helped raise New Zealand from the depths. Mitchell contributed 22 off 24, whereas Phillips contrib uted 59 off 40.

Top order carve-up

Signs were not good for Sri Lanka when Southee opened with a wicket-maid en, bowling four swinging dot balls to Nissanka, before the batter was stressed into attempting a weird leg-side heave which ended with him being trapped lbw.

It got worse when Trent Boult claimed two wickets in the next over, having Kusal Mendis caught behind off the outside edge, before bowling Dhananjaya de Silva off the inside edge.

In Boult's second over, Charith Asalanka sliced one to backward point, where

ov), 5-24 (Chamika Karunaratne, 6.1 ov), 6-58 (Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 9.6 ov), 7-64 (Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva, 11.4 ov), 8-65

Theekshana, 12.3 ov),

(Dasun Shanaka, 16.6 ov),

Kumara, 19.2

BOWLING O-M-R-W

Southee 4-1-12-1

Boult 4-0-13-4

Lockie Ferguson 4-0-35- 1

Mitchell Santner 4-0-21-2

Ish Sodhi 3.2-0-21-2

Abosaide Cadogan in action

Kevin Spencer was solid for Bounty GCC

New Zealand celebrating the fall of another wicket

Glenn Phillips smashed

to outscore Sri Lanka’s

GTT Guyana Open golf championships off to a flying start

The Lusignan greens looked especially lush, inviting and ready for action as the 18-hole GTT Guyana Open golf tour nament teed off early on Saturday morning at the Lusignan Golf Club, East Coast Demerara (ECD) with scores of golfers from around the region and further afield taking a shot at the prizes.

During the tourna ment’s official launch, on Friday evening at the LGC Clubhouse, it was revealed that, for the second year run ning, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) Company has sponsored

vulged why the Company had again jumped at the opportunity to support the event.

ment and dedication towards the game of golf. Sports in our country is a pillar of na tional pride, and we cele brate wins as a feeling of collective accomplishment,” Wong declared. He later add ed, “At GTT, we are commit ted to the development of sports locally, and we have demonstrated that dedica tion through similar contri butions across several sports disciplines.”

Responding to the GTT benevolence, LGC President Patanjilee Persaud said, “We’d like to thank the spon sors, GTT, for this second year in a row. They’ve been overwhelmingly supportive of the Lusignan Golf Club, and we look forward to being a friend of theirs in the com ing years.”

Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’… Melanie-B, Liliendaal Hustlers flawless on opening night

“Our support for this tournament for the second consecutive year is in part an example of our commit

The two-day gross tour nament features flights such as men’s 9-and-under; 10-18 handicap, 19-28 handicap, and the ladies’ 0-36.

Defending cham

pions Melanie-B, Liliendaal Hustlers, and Old School have se cured quarterfinal berths following impressive wins in the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ East Coast Demerara futsal tourna ment which commenced on Friday evening at the Haslington Tarmac.

Witnessed by a large crowd after a two-year ab sence, two-time winner Melanie-B bested Portmore 2-0 after Jermaine Gustav and Philip Williams scored in the 12th and 14th minutes

respectively.

Liliendaal Hustlers like wise crushed Haslington 3-0 after Pernell Schultz bagged a first-half double in the sixth and ninth minutes, and Raushan Ritch scored in the seventh minute.

And Old School downed Uprising 5-1 after Jahall Greaves recorded ‘Guinness Goals’ (a goal scored in the final three minutes, which counts as two) in the 19th and 20th minutes, while Travis Martin netted in the 14th minute. For the losers, Shawn Adonis scored in the 16th minute.

Up to press time, the quarterfinal matches and the plate section of the tour nament were underway. Over $450,000 in cash and prizes are up for grabs in the three-day tournament. The final will be staged at the same venue on Saturday, November 5th.

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this prestigious event. GTT’s Sales Director of Business Solutions, Hilton Wong, di

GTT Sales Director of Business Solutions, Hilton Wong

A look at the Day 1 happenings in the GTT Guyana Open golf tournament

A scene from the Old School (red) and Uprising clash in the Round of 16 section in the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ East Coast Demerara zone

Chanderpaul is lone Guyanese in West Indies Test squad for Aussie tour

Cricket West Indies (CWI) Selection Panel has named the Men’s Test squad for the upcom ing series in Australia. West Indies will be under the leader ship of Kraigg Brathwaite and will face the hosts in two Test matches at the Perth Stadium (30 November to 4 December) and the Adelaide Oval (8 to 12 December).

The Selection Panel has named one newcomer to the squad in the person of left-handed opening batter Tagenarine Chanderpaul, and has recalled two experienced players in allrounder Roston Chase and middle-order batter Shamarh Brooks.

Lead Selector, the Most Hon. Dr Desmond Haynes, has said:

“We have a core group of players who have been part of the Test squad and have per formed well. We have played two series this year – against England and Bangladesh –

and won both. We have been playing good Test cricket, and expect to do well against the Australians on their home turf.

“We have one newcom

GCB congratulates Tagenarine Chanderpaul on WI Test call

The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) is con gratulating Tagenarine Chanderpaul on his maid en call-up to the West Indies Test squad.

Tagenarine, son of former West Indies batting prodi gy Shivnarine Chanderpaul, made his first-class debut against Leeward Islands in 2013, and has to date accu mulated 2669 first-class runs, including five centuries and ten fifties, with an average of 34.21.

The 26-year-old Tagenarine also had out standing performances during the recent West Indies/ Bangladesh A team tour, re cording 109 not-out and 49 in two first-class matches played.

West Indies will be gin their 2022 Test tour of Australia with a Three-Day practice match against ACT/ NSW, which gets underway from November 17, 2022 at St. Philips Oval in Canberra. This match will be followed by a day/night four-day prac

tice match against the Prime Minister’s X1, which is sched uled to be played at Manuka, Canberra.

These matches will pro vide the West Indies with use ful practice and game readi ness for the two Test matches, the first of which is scheduled to be played from November 30 to December 4 at the Perth Stadium, and the second from December 8 to December 12, 2022 at the Adelaide Oval.

The President and Executive members of the Guyana Cricket Board here by extend best wishes to Tagenarine Chanderpaul, and encourage him to draw from qualities that made his father a great West Indies batter hailing from Guyana’s soil.

er to the team in Tagenarine Chanderpaul. He equipped himself very well in the West Indies Championship four-day matches, and also did a very good job at the top of the order against Bangladesh A in Saint Lucia this summer. He has what it takes to do well at the highest level.”

Haynes added: “Roston Chase has returned to the squad as an allrounder, and we believe his experience and skill set will be beneficial; and Shamarh Brooks has also re turned to bolster the mid dle-order batting.”

The West Indies Test squad is expected to assemble in Australia on 10 November. As part of the preparations for the two-match series, the visitors will have a three-day warm-up

game against an ACT/NSW XI at the Philip Oval in Canberra from Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 November.

This will be followed by a four-day pink ball match against the Australia Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra from Wednesday 23 November to Saturday 26 November. The day/night match will be played under lights, and will recog nise the anniversary of the in augural fixture in 1951, also against the West Indies.

The Test series will be contested for the prestigious Sir Frank Worrell Trophy –named in honour of the leg endary West Indies captain. It will also form part of the ICC World Test Championship.

FULL SQUAD: Kraigg

Brathwaite (Captain), Jermaine Blackwood (Vice Captain), Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Anderson Phillip, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales and Devon Thomas.

MATCH SCHEDULE –West Indies Tour of Australia 17-19 November: v ACT/ NSW XI at Philip Oval, Canberra 23-26 November: v Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval, Canberra (day/night)

30 November to 4 December: 1st Test at the Perth Stadium, Perth 8-12 December: 2nd Test at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (day/night)

Tagenarine Chanderpaul

Dr Desmond Haynes, CWI Lead Selector

Tagenarine Chanderpaul