Guyana Times - Thursday, March 28, 2019

Guyana needs to safeguard P marine life before 1st oil – IMO 10

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

THE BEACON OF TRUTH

Issue No. 3877

Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019

PRICE

Unconstitutional insertion appeal

Private Sector bodies call on CCJ to give timely judgement Page 3

…say reduction of contracts linked to political uncertainty

Essequibo River man goes berserk: stabs 3, rapes teen, commits suicide

$80 vat included

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Housing issues dominate Govt’s “Meet the People” outreach P14

P11 Abuse of elderly persons increased in 2018 – ChildLink

Page 2

UK PM Theresa May vows to P16 quit if Brexit deal approved

Misuse of funds, abuse of authority high on complaints P12 to NTC GECOM will continue to prepare for elections – Granger P7

PPP/C Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali continued his community outreaches on Wednesday when he met with residents of Marty’s Ville, Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara. In photo, Ali listens to concerns being raised by villagers

6-year-old killed in Berbice accident Page 2

US President tells Russia Page to get its 16 troops out of Venezuela

P12 GPL bill distribution process delayed

2 news

Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Essequibo River man goes 6-year-old killed in berserk: stabs 3, rapes Berbice accident teen, commits suicide A

By Kristen Macklingam

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saw man of Faul Mouth V i l l a g e , Essequibo River, on Wednesday went berserk and stabbed three persons and raped a 14-year-old girl before taking his own life.

Dead is 23-yearold Raphael Charles.

Guyana Times was told that Charles’ father was celebrating his birthday at the teen’s family home where they were all imbibing.

However, at about 02:30h on Wednesday, a 14-year-old girl and her parents retired to bed leaving their 15-year-old son and Charles watching television.

Shortly afterwards, Charles armed himself with a knife and slashed the 15-year-old boy to his neck and then went to the teen’s

parents’ bedroom where he dealt them several stabs about their bodies. The parents ran out of the house leaving their teenaged daughter in the bedroom.

According to the Police, the 23-year-old man then sexually assaulted the girl.

She managed to escape and ran out of the home.

Guyana Times was told that the three injured persons were rushed to the Bartica District Hospital where they were admit-

ted but because of the extent of their injuries, they were transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

The Police say that their conditions are being regarded as “serious but stable.”

Meanwhile, Charles after committing the gruesome acts, used a rope to hang himself from a beam inside the family’s house.

His body has since been taken to the Bartica mortuary.

The Police are investigating.

six-year-old was struck and killed on the Eversham Public Road, Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne) after she reportedly ran across the public road.

Dead is Arianna Lowenfield, of Epson Village, Berbice. She was a pupil of Eversham Primary School.

Speaking with Guyana Times, the child’s mother, Oma Devi Bascom, said at about 15:00h on Tuesday, she sent the child to a nearby shop to make a purchase.

She recalled hearing an impact and upon looking outside, she realised her daughter was struck down.

Meanwhile, the Police have since said the hire car, HC 2523, was proceeding South along the eastern side of the road and whilst in the vicinity of Eversham Bridge, the pedestrian suddenly ran from West to East from behind a lorry that was proceeding North and came into contact with the front centre of the hire car. Little Arianna was picked up in an unconscious state and

Six-year-old Arianna Lowenfield

taken to the Port Mourant Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

The hire car was driven by a 33-year-old man from Number 79 Village, Corriverton, Berbice.

He has since been arrested and is presently in custody at the Number 51 Police

Station. A Breathalyser test was administered but no trace of alcohol was detected, this newspaper was told.

He is nonetheless assisting with investigation.

The child leaves to mourn her two siblings and her parents.

Worshipper killed, pandit shot during prayer service

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Hindu prayer service ended tragically in Princes Town, Trinidad on Tuesday when an armed thief interrupted the service and began shooting at worshippers. One man was killed and a Pandit shot.

Joseph Narine, 60, died on the spot.

Pandit Shervon Narad is now fighting for his life at the San Fernando General Hospital. He was shot to his chest.

According to a police report at about 23:00h on Tuesday Pandit Narad was officiating a service at Hardbargain near Princes Town.

A lone gunman stormed into the place of worship and announced a hold-up.

The thief demanded the religious leader and worshippers handed over money and jewellery.

After the thief grabbed the jewellery eyewitness said he then began shooting.

Narine died on the spot and the Pandit was rushed to the Princes Town Health Centre and later transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital where he remains warded. (T&T Newsday)

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Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

BRIDGE OPENINGS

Unconstitutional insertion appeal

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

Thursday, March 28 –11:00h-12:30h and Friday, March 29 –11:40h-13:10h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Thursday, March 28 –10:10h-11:40h and Friday, March 29 –12:30h-14:00h.

Private Sector bodies call on CCJ to give timely judgement

…say reduction of contracts linked to political uncertainty

FERRY SCHEDULE Parika and Supenaam departure times - 05:00h, 11:00h and 16:00h daily

WEATHER TODAY

Sunny intervals are expected to prevail throughout the day, followed by sunny skies in the late afternoon.

Clear skies are expected in the evening, with overall temperatures ranging between 21 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius.

Winds: Easterly to North-easterly between 2.23 metres and 5.36 metres.

High Tide: 09:36h and 22:28h reaching maximum heights of 2.17 metres and 2.02 metres respectively.

Low Tide: 15:50h reaching a minimum height of 1.06 metres.

WEDNESday, march 28, 2019

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PSC Chairman Desmond Sears

GCCI President Nicholas Boyer

CCCC President Mohammed Raffik

ne day after the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) filed its No-confidence Motion appeal at the Trinidadbased Caribbean Court (CCJ), the Private Sector Commission (PSC) on Wednesday called for the court to expedite the matter in an effort to put to rest the political uncertainty facing the country.

The PSC said on Wednesday it had discussions with local and international businesses which expressed reservations in investing as the uncertainty continues. It claimed that there has been a reduction in Government and Private Sector contracts linked to the uncertainty.

“The Commission calls on the Caribbean Court of Justice to provide a prompt resolution to this matter so that both local and international organisations and businesses would again see Guyana as a country with boundless opportunities,” the private sector said.

The PSC is of the strong view that the expeditious resolution of this political situation will bring great relief to the business community. The Commission said it continues to be a strong advocate for enabling a business environment for national growth and development.

On the other hand, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) also made similar calls on Wednesday, reiterating that the level of economic activity has had an effect of political uncertainty. However, the Chamber said it remains a vigilant observer of the situation.

“The Chamber is of the fervent hope that the matter of contention in the political arena, which is now before the Caribbean Court of Justice, will be expeditiously resolved,” statement from the GCCI said, adding that this resolution will bring an end to the degree of political uncertainty and ensure that a favourable business environment prevails.

Further, the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce said whilst on the surface the ruling of the Court of Appeal seems to have calmed the nation somewhat, it said this matter should be most urgently brought to a closure so that our country can move forward.

“In this regard we are call-

ing on the Caribbean Court of Justice to urgently schedule hearings to speedily bring this issue to finality,” a statement from that Chamber added. It was also noted that the decision of the Court be respected despite concerns.

But the Chamber said the same way the Government is welcoming this ruling, it is urging that they also respect the ruling that dual citizens should not be sitting in Parliament and do something about it in the next sitting. “It should not be business as usual in this regard.”

Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo through his Attorneys on Tuesday filed a notice of application for special leave to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in relation to the decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal on the no-confidence cases.

The application is seeking an order to grant Jagdeo special leave to appeal the majority judgement of the Court

of Appeal of Guyana delivered on March 22, 2019, by acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justice Rishi Persaud, and Justice Dawn Gregory.

Further, the Attorneys are seeking an order to treat the hearing of the application as urgent and a further order for an expedited hearing of the application. Also, it is seeking an order directing that the hearing of the application for special leave to appeal be treated as the hearing of the appeal against the majority judgement, and that certain orders be made in the appeal.

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This includes an order setting aside or reversing the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal of Guyana and resorting to the decision of the acting Chief Justice Roxane George made on January 31, 2019; a declaration that the resolution of the National Assembly is valid; and a declaration that the No-confidence Motion moved by Jagdeo was validly passed.

Jagdeo, through his attorneys, is also seeking a declaration that puts to rest that 33 votes/members constitute a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly within the meaning of Article 106 (6) of the Guyana Constitution. The application is also seeking costs.

The application was filed

by Douglas Mendes, Devesh Maharaj, Anil Nandlall, Kandace Bharath, and CV Satram. The named respondents in this matter are Attorney General Basil Williams; Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland; and Minister of State Joseph Harmon, a representative of A Partnership for National Unity.

A case management conference will be conducted by the CCJ on Friday in respect of this matter.

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

Respecting its own words

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hortly after the Appeal Court announced its decision on its take on the validity of the December 21, 2018, no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, who was at the time performing the duties of President, noted in an interview that the decision must be respected.

That particular comment may have been directed at the Opposition and all others who disagreed with the ruling. While court rulings are expected to be respected, it does not necessarily means that they would be agreed with.

On the heels of the ruling, the Government wasted no time to share its pleasure at the split decision of the three Judges. In what appeared as a triumphalist report from its senior information officer, it boldly proclaimed that the decision handed down meant the coalition Government is fully legal, lawful and constitutionally remains in office without any hindrance or questions.

That was the intended purpose of the Minister’s comment made shortly afterwards given that many, including the Opposition, had deemed the Government illegal following the no-confidence vote.

The ruling has not changed the sentiments for that section of the population as the matter has been appealed and a hearing expected soon by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Yesterday, reports in sections of the media quoted the Attorney General as saying, “no restraint on Govt” and that the court ruling “cancels out the No-confidence Motion”. In other words, for the Government, it is back to normal; it remains in office as the Noconfidence Motion came and went.

That said, the Government’s call for the ruling of the Appeal Court to be respected can be seen as a plea not by coincidence as it endeavours to engender acceptance of its legitimacy within the dissenting faction. It therefore becomes not only interesting that such a plea is being made, but disingenuous since it refused to do what it is now asking of others.

Since December last year, the Government refused to accept it has been defeated by the no-confidence vote. It appealed to the Speaker of the National Assembly and failed with similar result following its appeal to the Chief Justice.

In the matters before the Chief Justice, the Government also failed to have its wish for a stay on the 90-day constitutionally mandated period for the holding of elections, granted. The legal ramifications is that it had to abide by the governing articles of the Constitution stipulating that the Cabinet resigns in such circumstances and the Government’s hold reduced similar to that of a caretaker.

Even if one were to be extremely magnamimous and give benefit of the doubt to the Government for not abiding with the ruling of the Speaker since it had sought recourse in the court, it blatantly refused to respect the decision of the Chief Justice. There could have been no excuse for it doing otherwise and with no benefit of doubt to be offered even in the period when the appeal to the Higher Court was waiting to be heard.

Simply put, the Government behaved as if the Chief Justice never ruled! Now, with what seems a convenient sense of amnesia, it rushed to pronounce that the split ruling of the Appeal Court be respected. Again, its duplicitous actions with regard to respecting the decisions of the court could not have been by coincidence.

By the tenets of the Constitution, the Government fell as a result of the no-confidence vote and upheld by both the Speaker and the Chief Justice. Had the Government abided by those two decisions, the Cabinet would have had to resign and elections already held barring an extension by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. One possibility from such an election, is the Government being removed from office.

From that, it could be said that the Government had no vested interest to respect the decisions in question which would have meant it taking a serious political risk. The Appeal Court’s decision therefore gave it a much needed reprieve as it continues to enjoy its stay in office as all await legal finality when the CCJ pronounces.

Legal minds see the Government’s refusal to respect the Chief Justice’s decision as contempt for the court; others as flagrant act of a dictatorship since the Government believably placed its own wellbeing above that of the country and its people. In the process, the rule of law was trampled upon and democracy dealt a severe blow.

Ironically, or again disingenuously, it was the Government, which when in the Opposition, accused the People’s Progressive Party’s Administration of being undemocratic with a penchant to disregard the rule of law.

In that context, the Government then presented itself as a champion of democracy with a passionate promise to uphold the rule of law and to ensure that democracy prevails. That was less than a mere four years ago. It strongly suggests that if the Government cannot remember or respect its own words in the recent past, how is it to respect the Speaker and Chief Justice’s ruling? The argument of convenience saunters on.

Kafue National Park at dawn across the Busanga plains, with the Red Lechwe busy munching breakfast (Telegraph/Joanne Hedger/Moment RF)

Venezuela: Opposition Leader promises final push against Maduro amid new blackout

Supporters of Juan Guaidó attend a rally in which he gave details of what he calls “Operation Freedom”, in Caracas on March 27, 2019 (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images photograph)

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he Opposition figurehead battling to topple Nicolás Maduro has told supporters to prepare for a final nationwide push against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader after the country suffered its fourth massive blackout in less than three weeks.

Addressing a rally in Caracas, Juan Guaidó said it was time for Venezuelans of all social classes to increase pressure through what he called Operación Libertad (Operation Freedom) – a mobilisation across the country that would culminate in a massive march through the capital.

Although he did not say when the march would take place, members of his team say it could end at one of its most politically sensitive addresses: the Miraflores presidential palace.

“At its heart, Operation Freedom means [exerting] maximum popular political pressure of the kind never before seen in Venezuela,” said Guaidó, who most Western governments now recognise as Venezuela’s le-

gitimate interim leader.

Referring to some of Caracas’ most populous slums and working class communities – traditionally loyal to Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez – Guaidó said: “We must march from Catia, from La Vega, from Antímano, from Caricuao … from Petare, from El Valle.

There must be 20, 30 or 40 different assembly points [around Caracas] so there is no way they can repress us.”

Guaidó admitted such a huge demonstration could not be organised “from one day to the next” and would be preceded by a rehearsal on April 6. The Opposition Leader said he would spend the coming weeks and months touring Venezuela and liaising with local committees to prepare.

He also hinted at the potential risks of marching on such a sensitive location, saying “responsibility” was needed in the demonstration’s planning: “We will not be cannon fodder.”

But after the latest breakdown in Venezuela’s electricity service, Guaidó

said it was necessary to up the ante.

“Today Venezuelans woke up in the dark once again because of an inefficient, corrupt and thieving regime … What we are asking for, and what we are fighting for every single day, is to live normally,” he said.

As Guaidó spoke in Caracas, his wife Fabiana Rosales was in Washington, where she was given a high-profile reception by Donald Trump and his Vice President, Mike Pence. “We are with Venezuela,” the US President said, at the start of a meeting with Rosales and other Opposition figures.

Maduro and his inner circle have put a brave face on the latest power cuts, which struck on Wednesday morning, less than three weeks after the start of a six-day nationwide blackout.

“United Venezuela will prevail,” tweeted Delcy Rodríguez, the Vice President, shortly before Wednesday’s power failure.

She denounced the “criminal imperialist attack” her

administration accuses of attacking the national grid in order to topple Maduro.

But there was anger and on the streets of Venezuela’s capital – where many citizens are now living without water as well as light – as citizens faced up to another period of profound uncertainty and deprivation.

Despite Government claims, many people suspect the blackouts are the result of crumbling infrastructure caused by years of corruption, incompetence and under-investment.

“I feel hopelessness and despair,” said Nohelia van Praag, a 43-year-old preschool teacher from Caracas.

Franklin Piccone, a teacher and activist from eastern Caracas who works in the city’s slums, said: “There is no way this government can last six years.

They have shown they have no answers. It’s just failure after failure.”

‘Horror, fear, despair’: Venezuela’s oil capital shattered by ‘tsunami’ of violent looting “We are talking about a failed state,” Piccone added.

“We are in a situation of total lawlessness.”

The Internet monitoring organisation NetBlocks reported that 91 per cent of Venezuela was knocked offline by Wednesday’s blackout.

Maria Laura Antunes, a 59-year-old Caracas resident who had turned out for Guaidó’s rally, said she had fled Angola, the country of her birth, in 1975 because of the war there and feared having to abandon her adopted home because of Venezuela’s collapse.

“This is so serious. If there isn’t change, it will be impossible to stay here,” she said. (The Guardian)

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

Judiciary has taken a dangerous path Dear Editor, The recent decision by the Court of Appeal on the No-confidence Motion was a severe shock for the masses; in that the Judges ruled that the Noconfidence Motion was not validly pass because the requirement of a self-imposed judicial, ‘absolute majority’ is 34 votes in the National Assembly.

The question that needs to be examined, is how do we appoint a President? According to the Constitution, if there

is two or more candidates it states in Article 177 (2) (b) “when there are two or more presidential candidates, if MORE votes are cast in favour of the list in which he is designated as Presidential Candidate than in any other lists”.

The important word here is MORE meaning that if any lists having more votes, then the head of that list becomes the Executive President. If we analyse the meaning of the words ‘majority’ and ‘more’, we will notice that majori-

ty means a greater number and more means greater, so base on the decision of the Appellate Court if the loss of confidence in a Government needed more than a single vote then we needed to amend the Constitution to have an absolute majority in order to form the Government and elect the President.

Justice is the attempt to enforce fairness and righteous behaviour and at the same time provides a system for punishing who violated it but unfortunately

what happens to those who failed to enforced justice fairly. The Judiciary has taken a dangerous path and the Court of Appeal Judges failed in the interpretation of the text of the Constitution in its originalism.

Most originalists believed Constitution text ought to be given the original public meaning that it would have had at the time that it became law.

The Privy Council was Guyana’s final court of appeal until the Caribbean

Court of Justice was introduced, the Lords in the Privy Council was guarantee free from all bias behaviour whatsoever reason being that the only arrive at a verdict based on evidence shown. It is of the view of many people that with the present political atmosphere in our country, the Judiciary is being pressured to compromise decisions by using evidence

Dear Editor, The old adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ has taken on a new level of prominence and significance in the context of the political ‘goings on’ in Guyana.

The entire Guyanese community at home and aboard are now able to compare and contrast and make conclusive findings on the real versus the counterfeit, the sincere versus the hypocrite, political grandstanding versus reasonable and rational behaviour. The swift move by the Leader of the Opposition and other parties (outside of Government) through their lawyers to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for a full and final determination of the validity of the No-confidence Motion is sufficient proof of keeping good faith with the commitments made to the people of Guyana.

This action is a clear indication that there is no intention on the part of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) to hold the people of Guyana in a protracted period of uncertainty and fear but is a clear indication of our belief in the democratic process and that this issue should be resolved by the people of Guyana when they go to the polls earliest.

We, the PPP/C, respected the ruling of the Speaker on December 21, 2018; we respected the ruling of the Chief Justice on January 31, 2019; we respect the 2-1 decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal on March 22, 2019, even though this decision was adverse to our cause and we look forward to a swift fair and binding ruling from the external review court, the CCJ. It is hoped that politics or any other consideration

outside of the law will have no bearing on the determination of this matter. While local senior A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) officials have been boasting in private and in special circles of their ability to influence the outcome of this court, it is our belief that this is an opportunity for the distinguished members of this court to ensure the scales of justice are balanced.

Many are disappointed with the utterances that are coming from the Granger Administration; it is worrying to believe that such recklessness exists among elected officials.

Parliament should not be reconvened, more so if the intention is to pass supple-

mentary papers to further fund the APNU/AFC election campaign. The current use of State resources is beyond brazen, the green and yellow is omnipresent in all ‘Government’ outreaches and events, the lack of concern for the partisan appearance of Government events raises the specter of a paramount People’s National Congress party in our country once again.

After all the legal luminaries have their say at the CCJ, we will one way or the other end up in the hands of our nation’s highest decision making body; the People; and there will be a definitive ruling.

Dear Editor, The Guyana Appeal Court decision: 3 appeal Judges; Decision 2: that NCM not validly passed; and 1 that the Noconfidence Motion (NCM) validly passed.

Now is the 2 Judges a majority; should a majority decision have been required: the Appeal Court to apply the same reasoning and logic to their decision as they applied to the NCM. The 2 v 1 = 3 divided by 2 = 1.5. As you cannot

that does not exist in the Constitution of Guyana. It is also of the belief that it will not be easy for Judges being human as they are to ignore political pressure when reaching the final verdict in a case which can cause serious concerns for democracy and the emergence of a dictatorship.

Sincerely, Zamal Hussain

Appeal Court erred in Current use of State resources is beyond brazen “what is a majority”

Yours truly, Juan A Edghill

have a 1/2 a Judge, then round up to 2 and add 1 = 3. So the Appeal Court ruling should have required 3 votes to pass and not 2.

As Justice Persaud voted against, and his vote is require to give a majority; why was this treated as a vote deeming the NCM not validly passed? The Appeal Court has erred in not applying the same logic and Maths to their decision as they applied to the NCM. Best regards, Peter Douglas

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ow often do you stop and think about your brain? Do you ever stop in awe at how incredibly smart that piece of muscle is? Or, at least check in and give it a little spring clean and a re-furb from time to time?

If you’re like most people, then the answer is no.

Research has shown that the capacity of the average person’s brain vastly outweighs what they use it for. And yet, it never occurs to us to invest in a little training every now and then!

For 400 years, scientists believed that we were stuck with the brain we were born with. Luckily for us, that theory has gone out the window along with other equally ridiculous theories like the earth being flat.

Neuroplasticity is an amazing new theory that has proven one very incredible fact: Our brains can change.

This means that if you’re not very intelligent in one area – that’s okay!

You have the option to literally change that area of your brain through a little training.

An easy way to think about it is: Your brain is a muscle – you need to exercise it regularly!

The exciting thing is, you don’t have to be a millionaire to increase your brain capacity. All you need to do is invest a little time every now and then.

So, what can you do?

Here’s eight ways you can feed your brain and increase your intelligence.

1. Be curious

Instead of taking everything at face value, get into the habit of questioning everything. This could even be products, services and processes that you come into contact with on a day-to-day basis – such as the way the car wash machine works or the way a new building is being demolished down the street. Think of how you would or could improve upon everyday things. By being curious and

guyanatimesgy.com

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questioning everything, you force your brain to innovate and create new ideas.

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2. Exercise regularly

It’s been proven that exercise helps to increase brain function and enhances neurogenesis.

This means that every time you exercise you are creating new brain cells! Get off the couch, and get moving! Your brain will thank you for it.

3. Do something new

When you experience something “new,” you stimulate your brain. Don’t get stuck in a rut doing the same old things; the only way to change the structure of your brain is to try new things. This creates new neural pathways, increasing your intelligence. You could take a new route to work, try a new recipe for dinner, or even a new form of exercise – mix it up!

4. Train your memory

Discipline yourself to memorise phone numbers and other important numbers (passport, credit card, insurance, driving licence, etc). Your memory is also a muscle that needs training, and modern technology has made us lazy! Don’t reach for the iphone; use the calculator in your head instead!

5. Think positive

Stress and anxiety kill existing brain neurons and also stop new neurons from being created. Research has shown that positive thinking, especially in the future tense, speeds up the creation of cells and dramatically reduces stress and anxiety. Try and take control of negative thoughts, and make an effort to replace them with positive ones.

6. Eat healthy

Our diets have a HUGE impact on brain function. Our brains consume over 20 percent of all nutrients and oxygen that we consume. So, remember to feed your brain with the good stuff!

(Think fresh fruits and veggies and plenty of omega 3s found in oily fish.)

7. Read a book

Reading relieves tension and stress (brain-cell killers), because it’s a form of escapism. Research has also shown that using your imagination is a great way to train your brain, because you force your mind to picture what you are imagining. Reading is a great way to trigger your imagination and fuel your creative genius.

8 Get enough sleep

Sleep is like a mini detox for the brain. This is when your body regenerates cells and removes all the toxins that have built up during the day. Get to bed between the hours of 9 pm and midnight to benefit from the most effective hours of sleep! (mindbodygreen.com)

o the brain is boss, but it can’t do it alone. It needs some nerves – actually a lot of them. And it needs the spinal cord, which is a long bundle of nerves inside your spinal column, the vertebrae that protect it. It’s the spinal cord and nerves – known as the nervous system — that let messages flow back and forth between the brain and body.

If a spiky cactus falls off a shelf headed right for your best friend, your nerves and brain communicate so that you jump up and yell for your friend to get out of the way. If you’re really good, maybe you’re able to catch the plant before it hits your friend!

But you might wonder about these nerves, which you can’t see without a microscope. What are they anyway? The nervous system is made up of millions and millions of neurons (say: NURonz), which are microscopic cells. Each neuron has tiny branches coming off it that let it connect to many other neurons.

When you were born, your brain came with all the neurons it will ever have, but many of them were not connected to each other. When you learn things, the messages travel from one neuron to another, over and over. Eventually, the brain starts to create connections (or pathways) between the neurons, so things become easier and you can do them better and better.

Think back to the first time you rode a bike. Your brain had to think about pedalling, staying balanced, steering with the handlebars, watching the road, and maybe even hitting the brakes — all at once. Hard work, right? But eventually, as you got more practice, the neurons sent messages back and forth until a pathway was created in your brain. Now you can ride your bike without thinking about it because the neurons have successfully created a “bike riding” pathway.

Emotion location With all the other things it does, is it any surprise that the brain runs your emotions? Maybe you got the exact toy you wanted for your birthday and you were really happy. Or your friend is sick and you feel sad. Or your little brother messed up your room, so you’re really angry! Where do those feelings come from? Your brain, of course.

Your brain has a little bunch of cells on each side called the amygdala (say: uh-MIG-duh-luh). The word amygdala is Latin for almond, and that’s what this area looks like. Scientists believe that the amygdala is responsible for emotion. It’s normal to feel all different kinds of emotions, good and bad. Sometimes you might feel a little sad, and other times you might feel scared, or silly, or glad.

Be good to your brain So what can you do for your brain? Plenty.

Eat healthy foods. They contain potassium and calcium, two minerals that are important for the nervous system.

Get a lot of playtime (exercise).

Wear a helmet when you ride your bike or play other sports that require head protection.

Don’t drink alcohol, take drugs, or use tobacco.

Use your brain by doing challenging activities, such as puzzles, reading, playing music, making art, or anything else that gives your brain a workout! (kidshealth.org)

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GECOM will continue to prepare for elections – Granger …to get funding from National Assembly

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midst calls for the Guyana Elections C o m m i s s i o n (GECOM) to continue its preparations for the hosting of General and Regional Elections in spite of the ruling by the Court of Appeal, and as the country waits for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to rule on the appeal, President David Granger said Government will ensure that the elections body is in a state of readiness to hold polls.

The Head of State told reporters on Wednesday morning that regardless of what has taken place in the local courts and what is ongoing before the CCJ, the Administration will ensure that GECOM has the necessary resources needed to deliver free and fair elections.

“We are going to ensure that whatever happens at any level of the judicial system, Guyana is urgently prepared… I’ve been very happy with the level of cooperation I’ve been getting from the (GECOM) Chairman and as far as possible, we are going to satisfy those needs (he requested). We are going to go back to Parliament and make requests to ensure that GECOM has everything it needs. We are committed to having clean

elections, credible elections in this country and as I said, I will engage GECOM to ensure that the request made to me by the Chairman is satisfied,” he asserted.

However, President Granger could not say when the next sitting of the National Assembly will be held.

“We have to prepare that Bill (to get the money requested by GECOM) because when we were deemed by the Supreme Court that there was no Cabinet, we could not go to the National Assembly because only Cabinet could submit a Bill to the National Assembly.

But now that the ruling of the Chief Justice has been set aside, Cabinet has sat and we have decided to go back. I cannot say when but at the earliest date possible…,” the Head of State in-

dicated to reporters.

Since the Court of Appeal’s ruling last Friday that the No-confidence Motion was invalidly passed on December 21, 2018, since it required an “absolute” majority of 34 votes, calls have been mounting from various stakeholder bodies for the elections body not to abandon plans to prepare for polls so that it is ready whenever elections are due.

Delays

Prior to Friday’s ruling, GECOM had indicated that it cannot hold elections before the March and has voted to do house-to-house registration which will conclude in November. In fact, Chairman, Justice James Patterson, in a letter to the Head of State informed him that polls cannot be held before late November 2019.

Justice Patterson explained in the correspondence that since the elections body is continuing with its normal work programme, that is, the holding of house-to-house registration, it will need some $3.5 billion to host elections and as such, “no election date should be contemplated less than five months after these funds are placed at the disposal of and under the control of GECOM”.

Upon the receipt of this letter last week, President Granger wrote Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo indicating that he will “soon” announce a date within the timeframe outlined by GECOM. However, now that the Appeal Court has invalidated the successful passage of the No-confidence Motion, which had effected a 90-day

timeline within which elections were to be held, the President has indicated no plans to go ahead with giving a date for elections.

In fact, his coalition Administration is currently gearing up to resume sittings of the National Assembly. However, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Opposition has since indicated that they will not participate in any of the National Assembly sittings until the Caribbean Court of Justice rules on its challenge of the Appeal Court’s decisions.

Lawyers representing Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has already filed the appeal, asking the regional court to restore the ruling of the Chief Justice, who upheld the passage of the Noconfidence Motion with a 33 majority.

Meanwhile, with GECOM having already rolled out its 2019 work programmes last weekend, training in this regard has commenced. Training for trainers has been completed, while enumerators will be trained this weekend.

But the impasse between the Government and Opposition nominated commissioners at the Elections Commission continues. At Tuesday’s statutory meeting, Commissioners on both sides clashed when “Election 2019”, which was placed on the agenda, came up for discussions.

PPP-nominated Commissioner Robeson Benn told the media that his Government colleague, Vincent Alexander, requested that it be removed from the agenda and instead go with elections, alone.

The former Minister, now Commissioner, said this points to the overall position, manipulations and collusions that have been taking place to have elections occur in 2020.

But Alexander had a different opinion. He said he objected to having “Election 2019” placed on the agenda because at the moment there is no mandate to conduct elections this year.

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Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Guyana accredits Zambia, Botswana diplomats

Newly accredited High Commissioner of Zambia to Guyana, Alfreda Mwamba

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s Guyana forges ahead with plans to establish a Green State, Government is looking to tap into the expertise and resources from the Republics of Botswana and Zambia as it accredits diplomats from the two southern African states.

President David Granger on Wednesday accepted Letters of Credence from the two non-resident diplo-

mats at the Ministry of the Presidency.

The newly accredited High Commissioner from the Republic of Botswana, Tebogo Teko Lily Motshome, lauded the good bilateral relations between Guyana and her country, while highlighting the importance of finding common ground to tackle global phenomenon.

“We need to choose a path, as nations, that serves the interest of all and upholds the international values that preserves and nurtures our prosperity and security, and that contributes to our collective goal of a better, safer, more just, more prosperous and sustainable world,” High Commissioner Motshome stated.

On this note, President Granger touted his Green State agenda, saying that this strengthened cooperation with Botswana will be beneficial to Guyana as it embarks on this path.

“The Green State will place emphasis on the protection of our environment,

New Botswana High Commissioner, Tebogo Motshome

the preservation of our biodiversity and the promotion of renewable energy and practical measures to ensure climate adaptation. These objectives are aligned with those articulated in Botswana’s Vision 2036… Our shared commitment to sustainable development can form the basis of mutually beneficial exchanges of experiences,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, the Head of State further posited that the renewed bilateral ties with the Republic of Zambia will also enable Guyana to establish its Green State plan.

“Guyana is keen to learn from its experience in promoting ‘green’ jobs. Your appointment will create the opportunity for both our nations to exchange good practices and experiences in ‘green’ development,” the President said after receiving Letters of Credence from High Commissioner Alfreda Chilekwa Kansembe Mwamba.

The newly accredited Zambian diplomat in her remarks recognised the need to build on this relation in the areas of agriculture, tourism and Public Sector cooperation.

“Zambia seeks to enhance bilateral cooperation between our two countries in whatever shape or form… for our mutual benefits…

How could we reinvent the will of the 60s and 70s… Is it not time for Guyana’s teachers and doctors return to Africa and boost the foundations of (countries in that region),” High Commissioner Mwamba stated.

Guyana and Zambia established diplomatic ties since February 1971. These relations were cemented by the close personal friendship between Guyana’s first Prime Minister Forbes Burnham; and Zambia’s first President, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, both passionate advocates of the African Liberation.

President’s Kaunda’s visit to Guyana in 1975 helped to deepen relations between the two states.

On the other hand, relations between Guyana and Botswana were established in October 1975. This bilateral relation was strengthened by the State visit to Guyana of President, Sir Seretse Khama in 1975 and by the work of skilled Guyanese in Botswana’s Public Sector.

Additionally, Guyana and Botswana have worked closely with each other within the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations.

Those who forget…

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…the 1992 elections amilton Green sought to sanitise his history of thuggery in Guyana’s politics record – this time specifically about his role in the 1992 elections.

However, sordid record will need more than his own testimony to even smudge that slate!! So why even discuss whether he was ACTUALLY WITH the mob at the Elections Commission in 1992, which caused President Carter to write in his book, Beyond the White House: “The most personal danger I have felt since leaving the White House was in Guyana in 1992…When I arrived (at the elections HQ) accompanied by three Secret Service agents, the building was surrounded by several hundred rioters, who had already broken all the windows with clubs and stones.”

Carter had to call not only President Desmond Hoyte but also President Bush in Washington, to exert pressure to have the elections counting consummated. Carter wrote that the tension started to build in G/town after the “quick count” showed the PNC was losing. But Green would have us believe that it was because PNC supporters were being disenfranchised because their names weren’t on the voters list. Now there were definitely some issues with the list – which had taken TWO YEARS to sanitise and caused elections to be delayed for that period. But that was random and affected supporters of all the parties.

And even Green admits that provisions were made for those persons to vote.

But Green admits he advised Hoyte and PNC “grand old man”, Ptolemy Reid, that the list “was seriously flawed and that he (Hoyte) should use his authority to abort the process”!! What he didn’t say was he used the party machinery – with which he was intimately familiar – to spread the message that the elections were being “stolen”. So his statement that “he knew about the rising tension in Georgetown” is quite disingenuous: along with some radio announcers like Roger Moore, it was he who channelled that “tension” into the rioters.

He derided Hoyte and Reid as “schoolboys”. But they’d cooperated to deny him the Prime Ministership back in 1991 and when expelled from the PNC after the elections, he never forgave them. But Hoyte had peripheralised another leader – David Granger who he sidestepped to make Joe Singh Chief-of-Staff of the Disciplined Forces.

Granger also has never forgiven Hoyte for this personal slight – and also for “accepting” defeat in 1992. One of his first acts after becoming President was to award Green the Order of Roraima and to raise his pension to that of an Ex-President!!

In Green’s book, Granger isn’t a “schoolboy” when it comes to elections.

Hence the present turmoil over GECOM and elections!! …that pot bottom black!!

Imagine the Chronic had the gall to claim the Stabber News “brings the entire practice of journalism into disrepute”!! And why? Because the SN dared to offer an opinion – in their Editorial space mind you – on the ruling by the split Appellate Court on the NCM vote!!

Now your Eyewitness knows that the Chronic is kept on a pretty tight leash by the PM’s shill over at the DPI and he has to faithfully reproduce his master’s voice. After all, Ramjattan has thrown his hat in the ring for the PM’s slot come the next elections – whenever they may fall!!

But yet, how hypocritical can these fellas get? Your Eyewitness used to think that perchance the Chronic’s staff didn’t know better when they regurgitate all that bilge excreted by their political masters. But that was proven so wrong: They lectured that: “The fundamental objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate unbiased, sober and decent manner.”

So when will they start?? …public service The Government’s pulled out all the stops at the Square to whitewash their neglect of the masses over the last four years. All Ministries present!!

But voters know that “dew cyan full wha’ rain na full”!!

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

9 Goldfields projects 1.4% hike in 2019 production News

Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

– as 2018 figures plunge

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he Canadian-based Guyana Goldfields Inc is looking to increase gold production at its Aurora Gold Mine in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) this year after recording a decline in 2018. The company currently operates the large gold mining operation in the country.

According to financial records, the company produced 150,450 ounces last year, a decrease of 10,050 ounces compared to production from the prior year. The decrease, it explained, was mainly attributable to a lower head grade of 1.99 g/t Au (2017 – 2.46 g/t Au), offset by higher mill throughputs averaging 7100 tpd (2017 – 6100 tpd).

The daily average mining rate improved by 50 per cent in order to meet the increase in stripping ratio for Rory’s Knoll open pit development. In 2018, the mill processed an average of 7000 tpd, representing a 15 per cent increase compared to an average of 6100 tpd in the prior year.

However, with the Phase 2 mill expansion commissioned in February 2019, it

is expected to further improve recovery by up to two per cent, throughout by 10 per cent, and allow for 75 per cent redundancy of the primary crusher.

The Guyana Goldfields’ earnings from mine operations were $36.6 million for 2018, a decline of $21.6 million from the prior year and this was largely driven by increased mining and processing volumes, lower gold ounces sold from lower average head grade and increased production costs.

These declines in production costs were offset by lower deprecation and lower cost of sales adjustment.

Consequently, the company finished the year with a cash balance of $82 million and total debt reduced to $40 million, down from $60 million as at the end of 2017. The company elected not to make the voluntary accelerated debt repayment of $20 million during the fourth quarter of 2018, providing the company with additional short-term liquidity. Under the current terms of the loan agreement, the company is scheduled to make eight additional quar-

terly payments of $5 million to retire the debt over the next two years.

Nevertheless, going forward in 2019, the Canadianbased company expects gold production to be between 145,000-160,000 ounces in 2019. The mid-point of production guidance is 152,500 ounces, which, if achieved, would represent an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2018. The company expects production will be evenly weighted in first and second half of the year.

President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Scott Caldwell says, “As we open a new chapter at Aurora, we will continue to focus on improving efficiency and maximising operating cash flow, while maintaining our admira-

ble safety record, including our achievement earlier this month of one million-person hours without a lost time injury.”

As part of its 2019 work programme, the company has updated its resource model and the life of mine plan. This includes an estimated average annual recovered gold production of 218,000 ounces over the next five years; a total recovered gold production of 2.15 million ounces at an average estimated head grade of 2.6 grams per tonne (g/t Au) over a 13-year mine life, and a total capital of $124 million to develop the underground mine and $256 million in sustaining capital.

“Aurora has produced more than 500,000 ounces of gold in just over three

years of commercial production and, despite some tough challenges, we remain confident in our future success,” Caldwell pointed out.

He stressed that a profitable future is inevitable as the mine transitions from an open pit operation into an underground mine.

“We have identified and initiated a number of cost savings programmes that will lead to improved operational efficiency. We have strengthened our leadership team, streamlined our organisational structure, initiated partnership arrangements with key contractors and suppliers and, in addition, implemented improved operating procedures and optimised our capital spending.

We continue to believe that there is considerable, untapped potential for additional, high-quality ounces in this system. We expect to access high-grade zones beneath “Mad Kiss” with our underground exploration development later this year and will look to secure our permit for commercial underground production in a timely manner.”

However, even as the Guyana Goldfields gears up for its underground operations – the first modern underground mine developed in Guyana – it recently had a run in with the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), which has admonished the company for insinuating that it was granted approval to commence underground operations when it only received a permit to conduct prospective works for the collection of data.

As such, the Canadian mining company noted that the underground decline is intended for “exploration and definition drilling in support of eventual planned underground production.”

Going forward, it added that the contractor will complete and reinforce the collar and extend the decline 200 metres to fulfil the scope of the early works phase.

The company expects this work will take approximately three months to complete once the contractor is fully mobilised. A budget of $2.0 million has been approved for the early works phase.

In addition, the company said it is finalising the review of bids received for the underground development contract with the target of final award in the second quarter of 2019.

Apart of the recent run in with the EPA, the company is also facing internal issues with shareholders calling for shake-up of the company’s leadership reportedly over poor performance and declining stock prices.

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Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Guyana needs to safeguard marine life before 1st oil – IMO

All vessels and ships must be standardised to reduce spills

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s Guyana moves towards an oil-producing nation, calls are being made for protection of the country’s marine life, now that exploration is at its peak and extraction slated to commence in 2020.

These calls are made on Wednesday when the Maritime Administration of Guyana (MARAD) hosted the Maritime Conference 2019.

The conference features international and local stakeholders exploring different measures which the country can undertake before 2020, the year when oil is expected to be harnessed.

According to the Regional Advisor from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Colin Young, efforts must be made to protect marine life through acquisition of the IMO standards, which also govern safety and security of exploration vessels.

He said the Government “is urged to consider that implementation is critical to safeguarding Guyana’s marine environment within which port-state inspection plays a crucial role in ensuring that shipping takes place securely, safely, and efficiently on clean oceans.”

The IMO is considered a global agency, which creates standards and regulates the performance of international shipping. Through a regulatory framework, it ensures that these standards are adopted and implemented, eliminating a pathway for ship operators to cut costs by running unsafe operations.

“The safer a ship is, the less likely it is to become involved in an accident, sustain damage or spill cargo or bunkers to the detriment of the maritime environment or cause the loss of life,” Young stated.

On the other hand, Public

Infrastructure Minister David Patterson admitted that there was much more to be done, including a revision of the legislation.

“As we recognise the projected transformation that our country will embrace, we also acknowledge that there is much more to complete, including revising and updating of our legislation to reflect the current reality.”

Furthermore, MARAD Director General Claudette Rogers recognised the requirement for the Department to position itself towards acknowledging the oncoming challenges and demands.

The Director General added that while MARAD has made significant strides in fulfilling its mandate over the last few decades, “quite a lot still needs to be done, relative to the positioning of the Department to respond to the demands and challenges that would be required in the oil and gas sector, which will undoubtedly create a dramatic shift in a country’s development trajectory.”

She added that international trade was arguably one of the driving forces in a nation’s economic trajectory.

“As it relates to international trade, some argue that it is one of the most potent elements in the process of a country’s economic development,” she said.

Guyana is now on the forefront as home to the world’s largest new deep-water oil discovery, and ExxonMobil’s intention

to develop the oil reserves puts the production date in early 2020 or possibly late 2019.

The Audit Office of Guyana has begun training to conduct environmental audits, which will come in handy to monitor the oil and gas sector.

Auditor General Deodat Sharma had informed that the audits would firstly focus on the protection of the nesting ground of the four endangered species of turtles in Guyana, in the event of an oil spill.

While oil spills are seen as a detriment to these species, basic offshore operations can affect marine animals. These include the release of sound waves into the ocean and the disposal of waste materials.

Meanwhile, GAICO Oil Spill Response Operation Services, which was created by Komal Singh, was set

Regional Advisor from the IMO, Colin Young

up as a preemptive measure against probable spillage once production commences in the future.

At the commissioning of the GAICO Wharf in 2016, Singh stated that he had noticed that there were a number of ‘near misses’ on oil spills and decided to pursue the avenue of preparing for

one in Guyana.

He said the company has since invested in a supply boat to work alongside rigs, and supply them with fuel and cargo while preparing for any occurrence of an oil spill.

Last month, ExxonMobil made its 11th and 12th discoveries offshore Guyana at the Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells in the southwest section of the Stabroek Block.

The Tilapia-1 is the fourth discovery in the Turbot area that includes Turbot, Longtail and Pluma discoveries. Tilapia-1 encountered approximately 305 feet (93 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 18,786 feet (5726 metres) in 5850 feet (1783 metres) of water. The well is located approximately 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometres) west of the Longtail-1 well.

Customisable number plates coming

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uyanese will soon be able to have customised number plates as the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is moving to make the adjustment following the end of the PZZ series.

According to a source at the GRA, the PXX series is a very exhilarating group of letters for many, noting that authorities are yet to decide whether or not the ‘Y’ series will be used on registration plates before ‘X’.

Whether or not it is used, the source added that officials at GRA have already started exploring customisable number plates.

It was explained that the owners of motor vehicles will be given letters to choose from, while the option of having a name, accompanied by a number, on the registration plates will be accessible “at a small cost”.

“It will have specific numbers and letters that you can put … everything is not quite clear as yet because it’s still going through the process through management,” the source revealed.

Examples of United States customised number plates

The option of customisable registration plates is nonetheless certain, the source added.

In the case of the vehicle being transferred and the original owner has their name on the registration plates, the new owner will also have the option of changing the name on the plates, according to the source.

In the meantime, the officials are working on how privately-owned vehicles can be differentiated from vehicles up for hire.

Registration plates in the United States have already been upgraded to the system GRA is seeking to

implement here.

Many states there distinguish their licence plates through distinctive colour schemes and logos, which persist over time. For example, the cowboy logo often associated with the state of Wyoming has appeared on that state’s licence plates continuously since 1936.

Meanwhile in Vermont, licence plates have frequently featured a green and white colour scheme, while Alaska has preferred yellow and blue.

Other states and territories, such as California, offer simpler schemes, often with a white background and little decoration.

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Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Abuse of elderly persons Repeat offender increased in 2018 – ChildLink remanded for

Murdered: Joyce Lewis

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study conducted by ChildLink in 2018 has found that abuse against the elderly has been on the increase. This was revealed on Tuesday evening at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, Greater Georgetown, when the findings from the survey were shared with the public.

Chairman of the advocacy group, Kosi John, who shared an overview of the report said, “as in those of the low-income group and also among the under aged and very young, abuse of elderly, women and children has been on the increase”.

John went further to say that urgent attention must be focused on the plight of the vulnerable group, who are often incapable of defending themselves and breaking out of the abusive environment.

The Chairman said he believes that abusive trends are linked to the fact that

young people grow up seeing that someone should be hit when they do something that is not pleasing.

“Our young people are nurtured in the crucible of violence. They see in their homes and on the streets, parents hit out at each other in settling disputes and their children in disciplining them,” he said.

John added that the trend must be arrested immediately before it consumes the entire population.

He noted that while helping victims is important, this may very well not be enough. “We have discovered that helping victims of trauma to find the words to describe what has happened to them is profoundly meaningful, but usually is not enough. The act of telling the story does not necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal responses of bodies that remain hyper vigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated at any time,” the Chairman explained.

For real change to occur, the head of the advocacy group believes that those victims must learn that danger has passed which will ultimately help them to live in the present.

A huge sensitisation operation he said will be required to help those victims.

John stated, “A massive education campaign needs to be embarked upon to edu-

ChildLink Chairman Kosi John

cate persons, particularly young people, that violent behaviour is wrong, unacceptable and a breach of one’s fundamental human rights”.

Religious and other leaders, he noted, will play a vital role in helping to achieve this objective.

A few months ago, the elderly parents of Ethnic Relations Commission, Commissioner Neaz Subhan were left traumatised after five bandits, two of whom were armed with handguns, broke into their home.

Meanwhile, after weeks of delay and professing his innocence, 26-year-old Kevon Alfred in February 2018 admitted to killing 75-year-old re-migrant Joyce Lewis at her home at Lot 3630 Christiani Street, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown.

State Prosecutor Abigail Gibbs told the court that Alfred was an unwanted guest, who had entered

Lewis’s home, strangled her to death, robbed her home, and used her mobile phone to sell the items to a witness, who was set to testify.

Before sentencing him to 23 years in prison, Justice Singh told Alfred that even though he had pleaded guilty, he showed no sign of remorse.

According to reports, Lewis’s lifeless body was found in her home by Police and her sister, Veronica Deen, on the morning of March 26, 2014. She reportedly was also found with her underwear pulled to her ankles and dark marks around her neck.

Five months after Lewis was killed, Alfred was arrested and charged with the murder. Reports are that Alfred’s fingerprints were among several that detectives had found in the slain woman’s home.

On the other hand, the executives at the Georgetown Public Hospital and the Linden Hospital Complex has been complaining of the number of elderly persons being abandoned at the institution. This phenomenon has been linked to the fact that relatives of many elderly persons are unable to cope with the responsibility of taking care of them.

simple larceny

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h r i s Pollard, of Lot 46 Durban Street, Georgetown, a well-known character to the Police, was on Wednesday placed before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts after he was slapped with a charge of simple larceny.

The 19-yearold appeared before Magistrate Faith McGusty and denied the charges which Remanded: Chris Pollard stated that on court appearance on April February 19 at Croal Street, Georgetown, 17, 2019.

Pollard, in January of he robbed Jasmine Patricia this year, appeared before of a Samsung Galaxy cellPrincipal Magistrate Leron phone valued $44,000.

While no facts were Daly and was charged for presented in court on robbery with violence. He Wednesday, Police was released on bail.

In 2018, the defendant Prosecutor Annalisa Brummel objected to bail on was brought before the the grounds that the defen- courts after he allegedly dant has five pending mat- stole his father’s .32 pistol ters of similar nature in an- and matching rounds of ammunition valued $252,600. other court.

As a result, an unrepre- Those charges were dissented Pollard was remand- missed after his father did ed to prison and he was not offer evidence in that scheduled to make his next matter.

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Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Filaria pill distribution reduced in 2018

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espite more funds being directed to the Mass Drug Administration (MDA) programme last year to treat Lymphatic Filariasis, popularly called Filaria, it was revealed on Tuesday during a review of strategies that fewer persons received pills during the distribution exercise in 2018.

The Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) representative to Guyana, Dr William Adu-Krow told the media, “Epidemiology coverage has passed from 45.7 per cent in 2015 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (DemeraraMahaica), and Five (MahaicaBerbice) to 54.2 per cent in 2016 and 82 per cent in 2017 and 79 per cent in 2018 in the four targeted Regions Three, Four, Five and 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice)”.

According to him, a new MDA strategy was used in Guyana for the years 2017

and 2018, which involved the use of school platforms with support from the Education Ministry and improved coordination techniques.

This year, the Lymphatic Filariasis situation, he informed, will be reassessed in the remaining six Administrative Regions in Guyana with the intent of scaling up epidemiology coverage.

Presently, the four regions benefitting from the free pills, Albendazole and Diethylcarbamazine Citrate (DEC), are Regions Three, Four, Five and 10 as these were found to be the most affected Regions during in a survey conducted by the Ministry a few years ago.

It was pointed out by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO), Dr Karen Campbell that nine of Guyana’s 10 Administrative Regions are plagued by the disease. These Regions, she added, have surpassed a one per cent prevalence in each.

PAHO/WHO representative to Guyana, Dr William Adu-Krow

In November, a number of persons reached out to Guyana Times to complain that their homes and even businesses were not being visited by the Public Health Ministry officials who are responsible for the distribution of Filaria prevention pills.

This newspaper understands that over US$1 million was used during last year’s campaign.

Misuse of funds, abuse of authority high on complaints to NTC

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he National Toshao Council (NTC) on Tuesday convened another session of its statutory meeting, which saw a number of issues being raised in the presence of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Minister Sydney Allicock.

During the meeting the issues of complaints from villagers about the misuse of funds and abuse to authority by their respective village leaders were high on the agenda.

According to the Indigenous Affairs Ministry, Minister Allicock heard

about a number of issues affecting Indigenous communities.

“We have heard from residents who have criticised the behaviour of some of their village leaders – not listening to their villagers, utilising monies, not consulting with residents and abusing their authority – this is unacceptable. We do not want to go down that path and we need to fix this before it becomes worse,” the Minister is quoted as saying.

The executive members of the Council were asked to engage Toshaos on a fre-

quent basis to remedy some of these problems. They were also advised to select a body, which can effectively address concerns from the villagers.

Other matters surrounded the political climate in Guyana and the allocation of a plot of land to house the NTC Secretariat. The Council is expected to present a draft for the design of the building for the project to continue.

Meanwhile, it was related that $20 million was granted to the NTC for this year.

Triple therapy

With the country still lagging behind in its epidemiology coverage, the Public Health Ministry is seeking to embark on a triple therapy programme this year, which will see persons being given about seven to nine pills to tackle the disease.

According to the CMO, the country’s current strategy would not be able to interrupt the transmission of

Lymphatic Filariasis by 2020 and so it is important for the programme to be implemented.

In fact, she said, “Our current use of DA (Diethylcarbamazine and Albendazole) would not achieve this and, therefore, we don’t really have much choice. We have to embrace IDA if we want to qualify.”

It is against this backdrop that the subject Ministry has decided to implement ‘Triple Therapy IDA’. IDA is the abbreviation for the drugs which will be used during this year’s MDA campaign – Ivermectin, Diethylcarbamazine and Albendazole.

“Two successful years of IDA coverage of over 80 per cent is mandatory if Guyana is to be successful in the interruption of transmission by 2020,” she said.

The DCMO informed that an acceptability assessment will be conducted in the month of May, which will trigger a social mobilisation

campaign. The efforts will be geared towards targeting gaps or weaknesses identified during the assessment.

“With the implementation of IDA, Guyana will be well on track to elimination (of Lymphatic Filariasis),” she assured.

Guyana’s current strategy is tailored to target the population within schools and workplaces with support coverage at fixed points. Some examples include market places, religious institutions and targeted households.

In 2003, Guyana began the distribution of Diethylcarbamazine salt (DEC salt), but with this intervention, epidemiology coverage proved difficult to detect, so the Public Health Ministry embarked on a new initiative in 2008 in a few geographic areas, which saw the distribution of Diethylcarbamazine and Albendazole tablets.

Presently, Guyana has 44 per cent geographical coverage.

GPL bill distribution process delayed

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ustomers of the Guyana Power and Light will have a delay in the bill distribution cycle in the coming weeks. The utility company on Monday informed that customers can opt to access their bill balance by using the online inquiry on the GPL webpage.

Additionally, the SMS Freedom option on cellphones can also be utilised by texting the GPL reference number to 624-0400 or 608-

8400. Moreover, the customer call centre is also available via telephone number 226-2600 to access billing details.

While these measures are to be used to honour all dues, it was not mentioned when bill distribution will commence as per normal.

One month ago, the company had experienced a cyberattack on the computerised systems. However, electricity supply was not af-

fected by this incident.

The company said in the missive that upon identification of this cyberattack, immediate actions were taken to isolate and prevent further spread of the malware.

It noted that permanent corrective measures were taken, which included, but was not limited to, initiating an Information System quarantine.

GPL said during this period, while the company assiduously worked to restore normalcy, there were service interruptions for customers visiting its offices attempting to submit queries and new service applications since the Customer Information System was taken offline.

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News

Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

NA Technical Institute assault

Police probing violent assault of students

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he Guyana Police Force has launched an investigation into a violent attack that occurred on several students of the New Amsterdam Technical Institute by one of their colleagues.

Commander of B Division (Berbice), Paul Langevine told Guyana Times on Wednesday that one of the victims’ parents filed a report with Police in Berbice and a probe into the matter has been launched. He further noted that upon completion of the investigation the necessary actions will be taken.

“I know a report was made, a parent came with their child. The report was made and the necessary actions will be taken,” Langevine said.

Outraged ensued on social media on Tuesday when the video showing the beating went viral.

In the video, the teen is seen taking off his belt and using it to inflict blows which were mostly targeted. The video angered many who viewed it and calls for the Police to arrest the student have been made. The student is also seen slapping one of the other students in a classroom. In a statement to the media on Tuesday, the Education Ministry said the investigation was launched after the video emerged on social media.

However, sources at the school told Guyana Times that the incident occurred

B Division Commander Paul Langevine

Confiscated rice shipment

Jamaica yet to make contact with GRBD – General Manager

A Police talk morals, values, ethics A snapshot of the student assaulting his colleagues at the NA Technical Institute

with Essequibo parents

A rank of G Division speaking to parents at the Anna Regina Multilateral School

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ome 60 parents from the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam) recently attended a lecture by the Guyana Police Force, where they were urged to be more involved in their children’s lives.

“Children are the future and imparting knowledge to them through their parents, is imperative,” the

on Monday.

When the mother of the aggressor was contacted by this publication, she initially refused to give any comment on the matter.

She however denied making any social media post justifying her son’s actions, adding that she is making efforts to reach out to the parents of the victims.

Since the emergence of the video, social activists and religious leaders have condemned the act, calling for a heavy penalty against the student to discourage others from such violent behaviour.

Force said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the press release, the parents were edified about the Sexual Offences and Juvenile Offences Acts, the importance of educating their children about moral, values and ethics, as well peer pressure; and the benefits of their children being involved

in Police youth groups.

The lecture was a collaborative effort between the Commander of G Division (Essequibo coast-Islands), Senior Superintendent Khali Pareshram and the Ministries of Education and Social Protection. It was hosted at the Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary School earlier this month.

fter some seven weeks after a shipment of rice from Guyana was confiscated in Jamaica for failing to meet human consumption standards, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) is yet to receive word from the country.

This is according to the General Manager of the GRDB, Nizam Hassan, who told Guyana Times on Wednesday that there has been no communication between his agency and the Jamaican counterpart nor has any information been divulged.

He maintained that the Foreign Affairs Ministry was engaged to possibly resolve the matter but they haven’t received any communication thus far.

“We haven’t heard anything. Like was said, we passed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in getting the information from the Jamaicans but I don’t think they have received any communication from that side. I can’t say what the expectations will be or when they will communicate,” said Hassan.

GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan

Nevertheless, Hassan posited that there has not been any hindrance in the supply of rice, since daily shipments are leaving Guyana.

“We are exporting every day to Jamaica. Guyana continues to export to Jamaica all the time,” he said.

The rice was confiscated by the Ministry of Industries, Agriculture and Fisheries because of high microbial content.

According to reports by the Jamaica Observer, the Food Storage and Prevention of Infestation Division of the

Ministry impounded some 1575 bags of rice worth millions of dollars.

The grains, which were exported by a local distributor, were inspected and was found to have signs of mould, clumping discolouration and wetting and as such, detained by a food storage inspector.

After being sent to a laboratory for testing, results showed that the rice contained microbial levels which were beyond the accepted limits, thus making it inapt for human consumption.

However, during a press conference, the Board stated that it was being sidelined by Jamaican authorities with regard to obtaining information about recent reports about the alleged shipment.

“We immediately contacted the agency, the Jamaica Food Storage and Prevention of Infestation Division.

We contacted them, they reported that they could not give us any information… they have not provided us with any information as I speak to you,” Hassan had said.

14 NEWS

Thursday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Housing issues dominate Govt’s “Meet the People” outreach raised issue about house lots and the need for more of the Government low-income homes.

Guyana Times spoke with a few of the persons who supported the idea as being one that helps to keep the citizens close to the Government. Brenda Bowman said “finally they are trying to meet the citizens of Guyana to discuss is-

Ishmael Benn

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esidents of Region Four (DemeraraMahaica) had the opportunity to meet with several Government officials and Ministers to have their concerns addressed in a “Meet the People” outreach hosted at the Square of the Revolution, Brickdam, Georgetown on Wednesday.

Dozens of Guyanese from Georgetown and communities nearest to the capital city stood in long lines to get into the venue which had several booths, along with staff and materials waiting to assist citizens.

The booths ranged from Government Ministries to various Government departments and service units.

The outreach saw members of the public interacting with Ministers Ronald Bulkan, Valerie Patterson, Winston Felix, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, Amna Ally, Nicollette Henry and Keith Scott, among others earlier in the day. Other Ministers joined later in the afternoon to meet with the concerned citizens.

The Department of Housing’s booth was the busiest and was active all day as scores of persons

able to file their applications or have their issues rectified, a number of them did not get past receiving a number to enter the event, only to be turned away. One such person is a father and husband, Ishmael Benn, who told this publication that although he had taken time from work to attend the outreach, he did not get the opportunity to meet with the Minister.

Benn, 51, said he applied for a house lot some 16 years ago and has still not managed to get a word, much less to meet with the Minister.

According to him, the Ministry had called his wife once explaining that they had made an error, but subsequent visits to the Ministry did not serve a purpose.

“Finally, they are trying to meet the citizens of Guyana to discuss issues that are affecting them.

Too long they have been sitting in their offices and people have their issues to be addressed” – Brenda Bowman sues that are affecting them.

Too long they have been sitting in their offices and people have their issues to be addressed. Right now I come to address a situation with the Ministry of Communities…

But we have a whole lot of issues we need to deal with.

I don’t think they can deal with all these issues in one day, but they are making an effort,” she said.

Two female senior citizens, who asked not to be named, expressed satisfaction with the fact that the outreach is now being hosted in Georgetown. They both said they attended the outreach to check up on their housing applications.

While some persons were

Publicity stunts

Instead, Benn who has served in the Guyana National Service, Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force, said he has been going to the Ministry for 16 years for a piece of land. “Every time we try to get to the Minister, she is not available and every time they keep these publicity stunts she is still not available, because I was in the line… they telling me that the numbers are finished and the have a certain number that could only deal with. Why me a Guyanese can’t get land and Venezuelans getting.”

Benn said he does not support the turn-key initiative because he cannot afford it and he would prefer if he is given a plot of land to build what he can afford for him and his family. “The turn-key houses are too ex-

One of the long lines on Wednesday morning at the Square of the Revolution during the Government outreach programme

pensive. With one turn-key house, I could build two houses on a land.”

Luckily for Benn, a Ministry staff heard the interview and intervened. He was later given the opportunity to speak with Minister Valarie Patterson. The father of one said speaking with the newspaper was helpful since it brought the attention of the Minister and team to meet with him.

He said, “I live in Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and house lots supposed to be given in Region Three and I have applied for that because I’m from that area. I do hope and I am thankful for this crew interviewing me because as a result I feel like I’m getting somewhere after 16 years. Thank you.”

Meanwhile, Citizenship Minister Winston Felix said the response was overwhelming, explaining that it is nothing new that the Government hasn’t done before. According to him, the activity is the second of its kind, since two years ago it was launched at Square of the Revolution.

It later spread to places like Corriverton, Essequibo and Linden. “It is consistent with Government’s policy to take the services Government offers to the public. You might be well aware of the fact that we have decentralised the immigration passport services and you might be aware also

that the Guyana Revenue Authority has also decentralised it office in outline district,” he added.

Felix said Government will continue to take these initiatives to the people in an effort to provide a better and more comfortable life for all Guyanese.

Campaigning on State resources

The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition has been criticised on several occasions by the Opposition and independent political commentators for campaigning heavily on State resources; a blatant abuse of taxpayers’ money and a possible violation of the law.

Recently, what was labelled as ‘Government business’ turned out to be a massive elections campaign, when a large ministerial convoy ventured to Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).

Nineteen Ministers spent three days visiting various communities, making grand promises in exchange for votes. At the community of Tiger Pond, Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix made it clear that he was there simply to garner votes.

The coalition has also been accused of forcing State agencies, such as the Guyana Revenue Authority, to attend party sponsored events.

Only recently, outspoken Attorney Christopher Ram blasted the Government for misusing public money and reiterated the need for modern campaign financing laws which will prevent this kind of abuse from happening.

However, he noted that there are existing laws which can be enforced to penalise defaulters.

Campaign financing

The Carter Center had recommended the implementation of campaign financing laws and even prior to that, the AFC was pushing for the implementation of the laws; however, after years in Government, the party and its coalition partner are yet to make a step in that direction.

In its final report on the 2011 General Election, the Carter Center said the need to create legislation to cater for campaign financing was important and even reiterated that in its 2015 report.

Additionally, the report stated that Guyana’s legal framework for elections was silent in the area of registration and operation of political parties.

The passage of the no-confidence vote in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018, triggered the holding of General and Regional Elections constitutionally due within 90 days, cutting short the coalition’s five-year term in office.

Kitty man remanded on car parts theft

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agistrate Faith McGusty on Wednesday remanded a 57-year-old Kitty, Georgetown resident after he appeared before her at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to answer to a simple larceny charge.

Michael Smith denied the charge, which alleged that between March 16 and 17, 2019 at Pike Street, Kitty, he stole a quantity of car parts including a

car battery, two car mirrors, a sun visor, electrical fittings, among other items; all at a cost of $58,000 and the property of Viswanand Narine.

According to the prosecution’s case, the Virtual Complainant discovered the items missing from his parked vehicle. The VC, who observed a trail of blood leading away from his car followed same which led to the suspect’s home.

According to the prose-

cution, when the suspect was confronted by the VC, he fled the scene. A report was then made to the Kitty Police Station after which a search was conducted at Smith’s home where the stolen items were recovered.

Police Prosecutor Annalisa Brummel objected to bail being granted.

Magistrate McGusty upheld the prosecution’s submission and remanded Smith to prison. The case will continue on April 10.

news

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THURsday, MARCH 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

With some help from the Saramaccas …trailblazing Guyanese entrepreneur grows from strength to strength W

hen Guyanese entrepreneur Sherl Daniels lived in neighbouring Suriname, she noticed something that aroused her curiosity and admiration. It was a group of women with dark skin, particularly white teeth and long, beautiful hair. Daniels asked who these people were and was told that they were the Saramacca women who had made a trip to town.

Daniels first attributed this to good genes. She had heard that the bloodline of the tribal Saramacca people – the largest group of Maroon peoples of African descent in the world – was virtually uninterrupted for centuries.

Then she remembered that many scholars credit the Saramacca with the greatest success at carrying on the customs of their African homeland. This made her wonder: Could their luxuriant, shiny, healthy hair be based on natural beauty products that were largely unknown to the outside world?

She decided to find out; it was a decision that changed her life. Her quest to find out the Saramacca secrets for beautiful hair allowed her to acquire priceless information about ancient haircare techniques and natural haircare products – knowledge that would eventually enable her to launch her hair products, Sherl’s

Cosmetics. Without hesitation, she gives much of the credit to the secrets she gleaned from the traditional practices of the Saramacca people.

What they told her opened her eyes and opened the door for her trailblazing success in the haircare industry. Recalling her learning experience, Daniels said, “It took me a while to actually be friends with them. They took me to the village and showed me what they would do. I was also reading up and researching what was best for my hair…I talked to them and I got the right guidance as to what I need.”

Early in her mission, Daniels decided to expand her knowledge beyond what she learned from the Saramacca and incorporate knowledge from other unorthodox sources. She incorporated several Guyanese folk treatments and recalled getting some useful tips from an Amerindian girl who had unusually thick hair.

By trial and error, she figured out what worked best for her, and found many innovative solutions for common hair problems.

When persons around her started noticing the fantastic results, Daniels quickly became the best advertisement for her products.

“I started using it in my

Sherl Daniels

hair and folks around me were like, “what are you using? I want some of this!”...

My relaxed hair grew very long and it was almost at my waistline… so everybody was amazed,” she recalled.

Her hair attracted so much attention from family and friends that Daniels would make hair products and give them away to all

who wanted to try them.

The demand for her products kept growing and it wasn’t long before Daniels had the idea to sell some and see what the market had in store for her. Eight years ago, she started small, just making 20 bottles of hair oil and 20 tubs of a product she calls Mega Growth.

The response from the

public was overwhelming.

As orders for her products grew, home-based production became a serious challenge. She soon had to move production from the kitchen of her East Ruimveldt residence to her garage to get more space. By that time, she had expanded her product line to include shampoos, conditioners and moisturisers.

Daniels also began working with chemists and medical experts to improve her products continuously, and also to use their knowledge to identify and eliminate harmful ingredients in her manufacturing processes.

From the reviews of countless satisfied customers, her products produce tremendous results. Daniels said feedback from customers indicated that her products give users coarser, healthier strands of hair and stimulate rapid hairgrowth. She guarantees that most persons’ hair will definitely benefit from the use of her products; however, she emphasised that they might not work for persons whose hair follicles are permanently damaged due to old age, health issues and other factors.

The main ingredients Daniels uses include natural oils from local fruits, herbs and vegetables such as awara, coconut, tonka, avocado, coconut, kuru and others. She also uses aloes

for many of her products.

“All these oils are combined with the right balance. You have to know how to combine them,” she said.

She gathers 90 per cent of these oils from Guyana, especially from Amerindian communities in the interior.

For her range of fragrances, she sources unique scented oils from the Rastafarians from Jamaica. Many key chemical ingredients she has to acquire from various overseas nations, which she admits is a challenge.

However, Daniels identified her main challenges as a lack of manpower, machinery and space to run her operation more efficiently. At the moment, she ‘cooks’ her products in special crockpots, but these can only produce small quantities at a time. With good machinery, however, she can produce hundreds of gallons of product at a time.

That is why she is participating in the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) Marketplace UncappeD event on March 31 at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. She expects her products to once again be a big hit at the event, which would help expand her customer base and might even cause a few investors to knock on her door to see if they can negotiate a mutually profitable business deal.

Boeing unveils fix to flight system after deadly crashes Engines on disaster Norway cruise ship failed from lack of oil

FAA’s “oversight approach needs to evolve.”

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and other top officials were also on the hot seat on Capitol Hill.

Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg was not called to the Senate hearing, but is expected to testify at a later date.

Ahead of the tough questioning, the Workers stand beneath a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft company launched parked at Southern California Logistics Airport on March 27, 2019 in a campaign to conVictorville, California vince the flying public that it is admbattled aviation gi- erything to make sure that dressing the issues with ant Boeing pledged accidents like this don’t hapthe 737 MAX, including Wednesday to do pen again,” Mike Sinnett, a fix to the Maneuvering all it can to prevent crash- Boeing’s vice president of C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s es like the two that killed product strategy, told reAugmentation System nearly 350 people in recent porters at a factory in (MCAS) implicated in the months, as it unveiled a fix Washington state. deadly crashes.

Meanwhile, across the to the flight software of its At the company’s masgrounded 737 MAX aircraft. country in the nation’s capsive factory in Renton, Boeing gathered hun- ital, the head of the US air Washington, Boeing undreds of pilots and report- safety agency faced harsh veiled the software changes ers to unveil the changes to questions from senators the MCAS stall prevention over its relationship with and offered reassurances.

Sinnett said it will take system, which has been im- and oversight of Boeing. only about an hour to inDan Elwell, the acting plicated in the tragedies in stall the updates and they Ethiopia and Indonesia, as head of the Federal Aviation defend- can begin as soon as regulapart of a charm offensive to Administration, restore the company’s repu- ed his agency but acknowl- tors authorise the changes, edged that as systems be- which were developed “after tation.

“We are going to do ev- come more complex, the months of testing and hundreds of hours.”

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The MCAS, which makes the aircraft dive in order to regain speed if it detects a stall or loss of airspeed, was developed specifically for the 737 MAX, which has a heavier engine than its predecessor, the 737 NG. Among the changes, the MCAS will no longer repeatedly make corrections when the pilot tries to regain control, and will be automatically disconnected in the event of disagreements between the two “angle of attack” (AOA) sensors, the company said.

This is a major change because until the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy earlier this month, the MCAS was set to react to information from a single sensor and would repeatedly override pilot corrections.

The initial investigation into the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October found that one of the AOA sensors failed but continued to transmit erroneous information to the MCAS. Boeing also will install a warning feature — at no cost — called a “disagree light” to indicate to the pilot when the left and right AOA sensors are out of sync. (AFP)

The cruise ship Viking Sky arrives at port off Molde, Norway, on March 24, 2019. (Svein Ove Ekornesvag/NTB scanpix)

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he cruise ship at the center of an investigation after more than 470 passengers were forced to evacuate became disabled due to a lack of lubricating oil, officials said Wednesday.

Low oil levels were the “direct cause” of the engine failure that wreaked havoc over the Viking Sky’s trip off Norway’s North Sea coast on Saturday during a storm, Lars Alvestad, the acting director general of the Norwegian Maritime Authority, said.

He noted the amount of oil was “relatively low” but still “within set limits.” Sensors detected the oil shortage and shut down the engines to prevent a breakdown.

Dozens of people were injured during the ordeal, including 36 who were admitted to the hospital.

Viking Sky “suffered power ‘blackout’ in challenging weather conditions,” he said.

The ship’s operator, Viking Ocean Cruises, said it welcomed “the prompt and efficient investigation” of the weekend emergency and accepted the findings.

It was carrying 1,373 passengers and crew members when the engines stopped and the ship began rocking violently. Helicopters took passengers off one-by-one as the winds whipped and waves up to 26-feet high crashed into the ship.

The engines restarted Sunday. (NY Daily News)

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guyanatimesgy.com

THURSday, MARCH 28, 2019

Regional

US President tells Russia to Peru Police arrest 5 men for gang rape of get its troops out of Venezuela mentally-ill teenager U P

S President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Russia to pull its troops from Venezuela and said that “all options” were open to make that happen.

The arrival of two Russian air force planes outside Caracas on Saturday believed to be carrying nearly 100 Russian special forces and cybersecurity personnel has escalated the political crisis in Venezuela.

Russia and China have backed President Nicolás Maduro, while the United States and most other Western countries support Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó. In January, Guaidó invoked the Constitution to declare himself Venezuela’s interim president, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

US President Donald Trump meets with Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuelan Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, March 27, 2019

“Russia has to get out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he met with Guaidó’s wife, Fabiana Rosales.

Asked how he would

make Russian forces leave, Trump said: “We’ll see. All options are open.”

Maduro, who retains control of State functions and the country’s military, has

said Guaidó is a puppet of the United States.

Russia has bilateral relations and agreements with Venezuela and Maduro that it plans to honour, Russia’s deputy United Nations Ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Twitter.

A spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the United States should pull troops from Syria before telling Moscow to withdraw from Venezuela.

“Before giving advice to somebody to withdraw from somewhere, the United States should bring to life its own concept of exodus, particularly from Syria,” Zakharova said, speaking on Russia’s State Channel One, TASS agency quoted her as saying. (Excerpt from Reuters)

olice in Peru have arrested five men in connection with the gang rape a mentally-ill young woman last week and are searching for two other suspects in a case that has shocked the South American country.

Prosecutors are examining the contents of three cellphones seized from the suspects, ages 20 to 27, who allegedly recorded the rape of their 19-year-old victim and shared it on social media, the Attorney General’s office said on Twitter.

Local media said the rape took place on March 20 and that the victim suffers from schizophrenia.

Police believe the suspects were trying to blackmail the victim’s cousin, State news agency Andina reported.

The case, which has re-

ceived widespread media coverage in Peru, has triggered an outcry and fuelled calls in Peru for an end to violence against women and girls that often goes unpunished.

So far this year, at least 39 women have been murdered in the country of 32 million people, according to local TV channel America TV, which has started to keep a running tab.

Ana Jara, a former Prime Minister and minister for women and vulnerable groups, said the victim had been previously abused.

“As a girl she was raped by two people and now she’s the mother of a six-monthold child,” Jara said on Twitter, calling for tough prison sentences for the men. “It was premeditated, recorded and spread on social media.” (Excerpt from Reuters)

Anger after Bolsonaro Chile court orders Catholic Church to compensate abuse victims calls for Brazil army to mark 1964 coup A Chilean court has ordered the country's Roman Catholic Church to pay compensation to victims in a sex abuse case against influential former priest Fernando Karadima.

A unanimous ruling issued on Wednesday requires the Church to pay 100 million pesos (US$146,000) for "moral damages" to each of his three victims.

Juan Carlos Cruz, Jose Andres Murillo and James Hamilton, who accuse Karadima of sexually abusing them three decades ago, had sued the Church for allegedly covering up Karadima's abuses for years.

Once a parish priest in El Bosque, an upmarket, conservative neighbour-

Former priest Fernando Karadima is accused of the historical sex abuse of three minors, charges he denies [File: Carlos Vera/Reuters]

hood of the Chilean capital, Santiago, Karadima was defrocked by Pope Francis in September. He has always denied accusations that he sexually abused the three

men when they were boys.

The appeals court's decision is the first to order Chile's powerful Catholic Church to pay damages and comes amid an ongoing cler-

ical sex abuse scandal engulfing the deeply religious Andean country.

The case could pave the way for a flood of civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages from the Catholic Church in Chile and beyond. The decision may still be appealed to Chile's Supreme Court.

In a post on Twitter following the announcement, Cruz said he was "happy" with the decision, which he felt would help all those who had experienced the "horror" of sexual abuse.

Karadima, now 88, lives in a nursing home in Santiago.

Owing to the statute of limitations on sexual crimes under Chilean law, he was never charged by civilian authorities. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Guatemala amnesty would free war criminals, soldiers who held women as sex slaves

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tarting in 1982, during one of the darkest moments of Guatemala’s civil war, at least 11 Mayan Q’eqchi indigenous women were kidnapped, enslaved and raped over a period of six years at an army camp in the jungle.

Now an alliance of lawmakers who back Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales is drumming up support for an amnesty bill that would allow the men sentenced for the atrocity to walk free.

Dozens of other army veterans convicted of crimes against humanity would also benefit.

The legislation is part of a growing pushback by conservatives against justice initiatives in the Central American nation, where a brutal US-backed counterinsurgency campaign resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

“We were raped by men who we didn’t even know, and we don’t want

any woman in our country to ever suffer something like that again,” said Demecia Yat, 60, one of the survivors of the enslavement at the Sepur Zarco military outpost on a plantation in northeastern Guatemala.

In 2016, two soldiers were sentenced in the case to a combined 360 years in prison for crimes against humanity, including sexual slavery and murder. (Excerpt from Reuters)

but many other Brazilians view it as a dark period that resulted in human rights abuses, disappearances and the murder of political activists.

"The coup d’état of 1964 ... was a violent and unBrazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro democratic rupture of the razil's federal prosecuconstitutiontor's office on Tuesday al order," the citizens' rights said it was opposed defender's office, which is to far-right President Jair part of the federal prosecuBolsonaro's plan to allow tor's office, said in a statethe armed forces to official- ment. ly commemorate the 55th "If repeated in the presanniversary of Brazil's mili- ent times, the conduct of the tary coup this weekend. military and civilian forcBolsonaro, a former army es that promoted the coup captain who waxes nostal- would be characterised as a gic for the 1964-1985 dicta- ... crime against the constitorship, on Monday asked tutional order and the demBrazil's Ministry of Defence ocratic state." to organise "due commemSpeaking with reportorations" on March 31, the ers on Monday, Bolsonaro's day historians say marks spokesman confirmed the the coup that began the dic- President planned to allow tatorship, which support- the military to commemoers call a "military govern- rate on Sunday the beginment". ning of the country's 1964Some Brazilian conser- 1985 dictatorship. Sunday vatives and members of will be the first time since Brazil's military view March 2011 that the military will 31 as the day they liberated officially commemorate the the country from the threat date. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera) of communist usurpation,

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Legislation targeting gangs and guns T&T: 18 charged with flood relief fraud to go before Jamaica Parliament T

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amaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the Government will be taking new legislation to the House of Representatives to deal with threats posed by gangs and guns.

“We will shortly come to the Parliament with a new piece of legislation to create an intermediary extraordinary power to assist the Police and the military,” he announced as he called on the Opposition to give its support, when the time comes, for the passage of the legislative measure.

The Prime Minister assured Jamaicans that the Government “is doing everything in its power” to address crime and violence.

He said that in addition to guns and gangs, the activities of dons, youth disengagement and unattached youth, and cybersecurity also pose a threat to the society.

Holness said that while the Government needed to have the capacity to effectively address these issues, “this is not a capacity that can be arbitrarily used”. (Excerpt from

Caribbean360)

he Social Development Ministry is considering having regional corporations handle flood relief exercises in future after 18 people – including two Ministry staffers and a trainee – were charged for fraudulent activities concerning the last October exercise.

Social Development Minister CherrieAnn Crichlow-Cockburn confirmed this in the Senate on Tuesday while replying to Opposition questions.

Crichlow-Cockburn said a Fraud Squad Unit (FSU) investigation into fraudulent activity related to the October flood relief exercise began on November 13, 2018. She said on November 17, several people were

charged for fraudulent activities related to the flood relief exercise, including two Ministry staffers and an On-The-Job trainee.

“To date, based on information provided by the FSU, 18 people have been charged for fraudulently receiving flood relief cheques,” Crichlow-Cockburn added.

“One worker was assigned to the Ministry by the Public Service Commission and another was a Ministry contract officer plus the Ministry OJT trainee,” she said.

Crichlow-Cockburn could not immediately say how much money was lost to fraud. (Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian)

guyanatimesgy.com

THURsday, MARCH 28, 2019

17

Around the World

UK PM Theresa May vows to quit if Brexit deal approved Moroccan Government set

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ritain’s Prime Minister has said she will step down if her Brexit deal is approved by Parliament, as legislators rejected a series of alternative approaches to the agreement negotiated by Theresa May with the European Union.

In a meeting with legislators from her Conservative party on Wednesday, May said she would quit if her twice-defeated divorce deal passes at a third vote, which the Government hopes to hold later this week.

“We need to get the deal through and deliver Brexit,” the Prime Minister said, according to a statement released by her office. “I am prepared to leave this job earlier than I intended in order

UK PM Theresa May says she will step down if MPs approve her Brexit divorce deal [Alastair Grant/AP Photo]

to do what is right for our country and our party.”

It is the first time the embattled leader has acknowledged she is prepared to resign in order to secure the

votes for her Brexit deal to pass. The Prime Minister did not set a date for her departure, but a leadership contest is likely to take place after May 22, her office said.

“I know there is a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, and I won’t stand in the way of that,” May said.

Later on Wednesday, MPs voted on eight possible alternative approaches to the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, but none of the options won majority support.

The Opposition Labour party’s plan, calling for a customs union and close alignment with the EU’s single market was defeated by 307-237. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Group claims raid on North Korea’s Embassy

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shadowy group committed to ousting North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has claimed it was behind a raid last month at the North Korean Embassy in Spain.

Cheollima Civil Defence, a self-styled human rights group, reportedly fled with computers, a phone and hard discs.

The break-in occurred just days before a key summit between US President Donald Trump and North

Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The group denied using force, saying it was “not an attack”.

However, a Spanish high court judge said the 10 assailants shackled, beat and interrogated Embassy staff in the incident on February 22.

It remains unclear why the raid took place.

Cheollima wrote online that it had “responded to an urgent situation in the Madrid

Embassy”.

It said it had “shared information of enormous potential value” with the FBI, the US intelligence agency, “under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality”.

On Tuesday, Judge José de la Mata lifted a secret decree on the investigation, according to a document from Spain’s High Court.

The break-in began at 16:34 (15:34 GMT), it said, and most of the intruders fled at 21:40.

The Judge said the group had “identified themselves as members of a human rights movement seeking to liberate North Korea”.

One of their number, named as Adrian Hong Chang, allegedly gained access to the Embassy by asking to see the commercial attaché, whom he claimed to have met previously to discuss business matters. His accomplices burst in once he was inside, the Judge said.

to sack striking teachers

T

eachers who have instigated a four-week strike will be fired along with trainees who joined them, Morocco’s Education Minister said on Wednesday, days after authorities used water cannons to prevent thousands of them from spending the night in protest in front of the Parliament in Rabat.

The striking teaches should “stop disrupting public education” and return to the classrooms or face a similar dismissal procedure, Said Amzazi said at a news conference without giving precise figures.

Thousands of teachers, employed by regional delegations of the Education Ministry, took to the streets of Rabat on Saturday and Sunday demanding their integration in the civil service as employees of the Education Ministry, a decision that they perceive will improve their job security

including better retirement pensions.

The protesting teachers have extended on Monday their strike for a fourth week in a row, leaving seven per cent of Morocco’s seven million students out of school, according to the Education Ministry.

“After four weeks, we can no longer call this a strike.

This is rather leaving a job without notice,” he said.

Some 55,000 teachers out of 240,000 in total have been hired on renewable contracts by regional education delegations since 2016 to address overcrowding in rural classrooms.

To quell teachers’ protests, regional education delegations adopted on March 13 an employment status that scraps hiring by renewable contracts in favour of an automatic integration in what the Minister described as “the regional civil service”. (Excerpt from Reuters)

US man pleads guilty to hate crimes in EU Parliament approves ban on single-use plastics Charlottesville car attack

E

uropean Union legislators have overwhelmingly approved a ban on single-use plastic items – including straws, forks, knives and cotton buds – to counter pollution amid efforts to push manufacturers to step up their recycling efforts.

The measure, which passed on Wednesday and will take effect in 2021, targets the top 10 disposable plastic products that wash up on European shores, provided that consumers have alternatives.

They include plates, balloon sticks, food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene and all products made of oxo-degradable plastic.

EU countries can choose their own

The EU recycles only a quarter of the 25 million tonnes of plastics waste it produces per year [AFP]

methods of reducing the use of other single-use plastics such as takeout containers and cups for beverages. They will also have to collect and recycle at least 90 per cent of beverage bottles by 2029.

(Excerpt from BBC News)

Tobacco companies will be required to cover the costs for public collection of cigarette stubs, which are the second most littered single-use plastic item.

The ban was approved at the European Parliament on Wednesday.

“Today, we have taken an important step to reduce littering and plastic pollution in our oceans and seas,” European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said on Wednesday, after 560 legislators voted in favour, 35 against and 28 abstained.

“We got this, we can do this. Europe is setting new and ambitious standards, paving the way for the rest of the world,” Timmermans added. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Syrian Army says Israeli strikes hit northern Aleppo city, damages materials only

T

he Syrian Army on Wednesday intercepted several missiles that were fired by Israeli jets during raids on an industrial zone in the northern city of Aleppo with damage to materials only, State television said.

“The Israeli aggression targeted some positions in Sheikh Najar industrial

zone and a number of enemy missiles were brought down,” an army statement said.

Military experts say Aleppo is one of the main areas where Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have a strong military presence where it supports local militias that have for years been fighting alongside the

Syrian army to defeat insurgents.

Israel, which considers Iran as its biggest threat, has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets in Syria and those of allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel had carried out

“hundreds” of attacks over the past few years of Syria’s war to curtail Iran and its ally Hezbollah.

With an election approaching, Israel’s Government has increased its attacks in Syria and has also taken a tougher stance towards Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon. (Reuters)

A

man convicted on state murder charges in a deadly car attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal hate crime charges in a case that stirred racial tensions across the United States.

Under a plea agreement, James Alex Fields Jr, of Ohio, pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 federal charges stemming from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on

China to prosecute former Interpol Chief

F

Former Interpol Chief Meng Hongwei

US approves secret nuclear power work for Saudi Arabia

U

S Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved six secret authorisations by companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia, according to a copy of a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The Trump Administration has quietly pursued a wider deal on sharing US nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia, which aims to build at least two nuclear power plants. Several countries, including the United States, South Korea and Russia are in competition for that deal, and the winners are expected to be announced later this year by Saudi Arabia.

Perry’s approvals, known as Part 810 authori-

File photo: US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, March 20, 2018

August 12, 2017. He did not plead guilty to one count that carried a potential death penalty.

Fields appeared stoic, with his hands folded in front of him for much of the hearing. He did not speak, except to repeatedly respond “yes, sir” when US District Judge Michael Urbanski asked him if he was pleading guilty knowingly and voluntarily. (Excerpt from Reuters)

sations, allow companies to do preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of the deal, but not ship equipment that would go into a plant, a source with knowledge of the agreements said on condition of anonymity. The approvals were first reported by the Daily Beast.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said in the document that the companies had requested that the Trump Administration keep the approvals secret.

“In this case, each of the companies which received a specific authorisation for (Saudi Arabia) have provided us written request that their authorisation be withheld from public release,” the NNSA said in the document. (Excerpt from Reuters)

ormer Chinese head of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, will be prosecuted in his home country for allegedly taking bribes, China’s Communist Party says.

He has also been expelled from the party and stripped of all Government positions, according to the party’s watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Meng’s disappearance in September prompted international concern.

He was reported missing by his wife during a trip back to China.

The 65-year-old, who had been living in France, resigned as Interpol President after being detained by the Chinese authorities.

In October, Chinese authorities said Meng was being investigated over suspected bribe-taking.

Meng is said to have abused his position for personal gain, misusing state funds to finance his family’s “extravagant lifestyle” and disregarding Communist Party principles. (Excerpt from BBC News)

18

guyanatimesgy.com

thursday, March 28, 2019

ARCHIE

ARIES (March 21April 19)

dilbert

TAURUS (April 20May 20)

You will make your voice heard if you speak from the heart. Valuable information will be offered if you reconnect with a former co-worker or friend.

GEMINI (May 21June 20)

Take on what matters, but don’t push yourself to the point of exhaustion. Know when to let go and when to strike. Timing is everything when it comes to success.

CANCER

You can bring about positive change if you volunteer to help a cause take steps to improve your surroundings. Don’t wait for someone else to make the first move.

(June 21July 22)

Peanuts

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Calvin and Hobbes

Listen to others, assess your situation and figure out how you can best use the information you’ve been given. Subtle changes will serve you best.

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

Don’t make a change on a whim. Know what you are up against and plan your actions strategically.

Following what someone else says or does will lead to a costly mistake.

Stay focused. You’ve got what it takes to reach your goal, as long as you don’t let someone talk you into going overboard. Stick to your original plan.

LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

Be careful what you promise or agree to. Someone will take advantage of you if you are too accommodating. Learn from your mistakes and don’t let yourself be exploited.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 22)

Set your goal and don’t stop until you reach your destination.

Traveling, forming partnerships and making personal changes are favored. Personal gain, love and romance are heading your way.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23Dec. 21)

Stick to what you know and do best. If someone tries to coerce you into something you shouldn’t do, have enough sense to say no. Look after your own interests.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19)

It’s time for a change.

Consider what is working for you and what isn’t, and replace the negatives with positives. Life is about choices, so make a good one.

SUDOKU

solution for LAST PUBLISHED puzzle AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 19)

PISCES (Feb. 20March 20)

Don’t let anger take charge or allow anyone to take advantage of you.

Focus on what’s best for you and proceed quietly until you have reached your goal. Put yourself first.

Involvement in self-help groups and volunteering your time for a cause you believe in will lead to interesting connections. A reunion will open doors that were closed in the past.

THURSday, MARCH 28, 2019

19

Russell steals the show as Knight Riders make it 2 in 2

S

unil Narine provided the fast start, Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa built an outstanding platform, and Andre Russell - who else! - gave the Kolkata Knight Riders innings a furious fini s h , whomping five sixes and three fours in a 17ball 48. A target of 219 always seemed too much for Kings XI Punjab, even on this super-flat Eden Gardens surface. The visitors made a valiant charge in their own innings, but did not have the firepower that Andre Russell

Knight Riders poss e s s e d , and ultimately went down by 28 runs.

As with the bat, so was Russell great with the ball. It was Russell who had Chris Gayle top-edge a pull to be caught in the infield. It was Russell who generated a little extra bounce a second time, and had Sarfaraz Khan produce another top-edge this one to be gobbled up by the keeper. His bowling analysis, in the end, was 2 for 21 off three overs - the best figures for the match.

Thanks largely to him, the Knight Riders have had an outstanding start to their season. They are two wins from two games now - Russell has claimed the Man of the Match award on both occasions.

But it could have turned out so differently…

Alright, who’s the culprit?

Own up. This is where the game was won and lost.

Russell had actually been bowled by an outstanding Mohammed Shami yorker at what should have been the end of the 17th over. He had been on 3 off 5 balls at the time. Knight Riders would have been 163 for 3 with three overs to go.

Russell’s leg stump was pegged back, and he was walking off the ground when… hang on… the umpires realised something was amiss. A no-ball was signalled. Not because Shami had overstepped. Not because the ball was over waist-high. The no-ball was for something far more avoidable.

Only three Kings XI fielders had been inside the 30-yard circle at the time of delivery. The visitors’ celebrations were cut short. Shami was seen in conversation with David Miller. Captain R Ashwin was seen ranting in anger in the general direction of the universe.

Dre Russ comes back, takes a single to keep the strike, then next over, top-edges a six, bludgeons a four to deep midwicket, top-edges a four, and monsters another one over the deep Robin Uthappa

midwicket boundary. To add insult to Shami’s injury he then bludgeons three consecutive sixes off Shami’s next over (the 19th of the innings), and drills a four t hr o ug h wide longoff as well.

Following

that reprieve, Russell plunders 45 off 12 deliveries. Kings XI might have had a manageable target, if not for that.

Ashwin watch

the two, hitting five sixes - all in the arc between cover and midwicket - to hurtle to 64 off 34 balls. Uthappa ensured he stayed until the end, however, making 67 off 50 - turning the strike over to Russell in those definitive overs.

For Kings XI, Mayank Agarwal hit 58 off 34, and David Miller made 59 off 40, but even with a strong supporting hand from Mandeep Singh, who hit 33 off 15, they never looked like getting close.

So you’re not a fan of mankad dismissals.

So you’re still scandalised by his run out of Jos Buttler. Well strap in, snowflake. Get a load of the stunt Ashwin pulled in this game.

Sixth over of Kings XI’s innings, Uthappa fielded the ball at cover, and the Kings XI batsman took a run. But then, when it was Unflattering figures fairly clear that the ball was dead (the batsWhile a few the visitors’ batsmen can take men were not alive to the possibility of another run, and the fielders were merely pass- some positives from the game, their bowlers ing the ball back to the bowler for the next will probably want to forget it. No one went at ball), Uthappa lobbed the ball to Russell at less than nine runs an over. Shami, Ashwin mid-off, who lost it in the floodlights, and and Varun Chakravarthy all disappeared at ducked, leaving the ball to skip away to the more than 11 an over. (ESPNcricinfo) boundary.

3 Ashwin was out of his seat in the dugout straight away, marching to the fourth umpire, making an impassioned Kolkata Knight Riders Innings Kings XI Punjab Innings (target: case that four overthrows had (20 overs maximum) 219 runs from 20 overs) been conceded. Incredibly, CA Lynn c Miller b Mohammed KL Rahul † c Kuldeep Yadav b the fourth umpire Shami 10 Ferguson 1 agreed.

He radiSP Narine c †Rahul b Viljoen 24 CH Gayle c Prasidh Krishna b oed his on-field RV Uthappa not out 67 Russell 20 colleagues, N Rana c Agarwal b Varun 63 MA Agarwal b Chawla 58 alerted them AD Russell c Agarwal b Tye 48 SN Khan c †Karthik b Russell 13 to Ashwin’s complaints, after which KD Karthik (c) † not out 1 DA Miller not out 59 the standing umpire sigExtras (lb 1, nb 1, w 3) 5 Mandeep Singh not out 33 naled four runs. The ball TOTAL (20 Overs, RR: 10.9) Extras (lb 1, w 5) 6 wasn’t dead after all.

218-4 TOTAL (20 Overs, RR: 9.5) 190Whatever you think of the Did not bat: Shubman Gill, 4 ethics of any of this, it’s hard PP Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, M Did not bat: R Ashwin (c), GC to dispute that Ashwin has Prasidh Krishna, LH Ferguson Viljoen, CV Varun, Mohammed lit up this first week of the Fall of wickets: 1-34 (CA Lynn, Shami, AJ Tye IPL. Next match, he’ll proba2.4 ov), 2-36 (SP Narine, 3.3 Fall of wickets: 1-11 (KL Rahul, bly barge into a batsman midov), 3-146 (N Rana, 14.3 ov), 1.4 ov), 2-37 (CH Gayle, 4.2 ov), pitch, knock him over, and run him out.

4-213 (AD Russell, 19.4 ov) 3-60 (SN Khan, 7.3 ov), 4-134

SCOREBOARD

The half-centurions

Russell stole the show, but the 110-run stand off 66 balls between Uthappa and Rana had already set Knight Riders on track for a mammoth score. Rana was by a distance the more explosive of

BOWLING M Shami (4-0-44-1) CV Varun (3-0-35-1) GC Viljoen (4-0-36-1) AJ Tye (4-0-37-1) R Ashwin (4-0-47-0) M Singh (1-0-18-0)

(MA Agarwal, 15.2 ov) BOWLING M Krishna (4-0-42-0) LH Ferguson (4-0-42-1) AD Russell (3-0-21-2) K Yadav (4-0-32-0) SP Narine (2-0-26-0) PP Chawla (3-0-26-1)

Bragging rights at stake as Kohli faces Bumrah

A

fter losing their respective opening fixtures, both teams will be eager to bounce back and register their first win of the season.

Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will both be looking to recover from disappointing starts to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 campaign when they meet at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on March 28. The match

also pits the no. 1 ranked ODI batsman Virat Kohli against the best ODI bowler Jasprit Bumrah.

RCB made a disastrous start to their IPL 2019 campaign as they were bowled out for just 70 on a spin-friendly Chepauk track. None of their batsmen barring Parthiv Patel (29) could reach double figures, with the likes of Kohli and AB de Villiers firing blanks. Chennai chased down the total comfortably with 7 wickets and 14 balls to spare.

Mumbai on the other hand were blown apart by a fantastic innings from 21-year-old Rishabh Pant who finished with an unbeaten 78 from just 27 balls. Pant fired Delhi to 213/6 and barring Yuvraj Singh (53 off 35) and Krunal Pandya (32 off 15) none of the other Mumbai batmen turned up as they fell short by 37 runs.

Kohli wasn’t bothered too much by the result in Chennai saying after the game that “it’s good to get a game like this out of the way - this early in the tournament.” However, the RCB skipper will be eager to get his team off the blocks quickly, especially with growing criticism on his failure to win a single IPL trophy.

Mumbai who are known to be slow-starters in the IPL haven’t won a season-opening game since 2012. However, their slow start cost them last season as they failed to make it to the playoffs after losing seven of their first eight games. The sole victory in that dismal run came against RCB and MI will be hoping to make a better start this season

as they chase a fourth IPL crown.

Mumbai Indians squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Quinton de Kock, Evin Lewis, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff, Lasith Malinga, Anmolpreet Singh, Barinder Sran, Pankaj Jaiswal,

Rasikh Salam and Yuvraj Singh.

RCB Squad: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Nathan CoulterNile, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Colin de Grandhomme, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Heinrich Klassen, Gurkeerat Singh, Himmat Singh and Prayas Ray Barman. (Money Control)

20

GUYANATIMESgy.COM

THURSday, march 28, 2019

GABA/Let’s Bet Sports KO Tournament…

Vikings sink Pacesetters to cop 3rd – Kobras continue impressive run

I

t was a night of upsets as the Guyana Amateur Basketball Association (GABA)/Let’s Bet Sports First and Second Division Knockout Tournament continued under lights at the Burnham Hardcourt, with two matches being played in the both divisions.

In the first match-up of the night in the Second Division, the Pacesetters went down to the Vikings 6977, with the losers practically handing the game to their opponents. The Pacesetters edged the Vikings in the first half of the match-up, winning the first quarter 1615, but allowed the Vikings to outplay them to lead at the half 34-26.

The Vikings are third-place runner-ups for the Second Division

Bayern Munich sign Atletico Madrid’s World Cup-winning defender

B

ayern Munich have signed Atletico Madrid defender Lucas Hernandez on a fiveyear deal worth a club record 80m euros (£68m).

The 23-year-old, who won the 2018 World Cup with France, will join the Bundesliga leaders on 1 July.

During his medical at Bayern, doctors discovered Hernandez had damaged a ligament in his right knee and he subsequently had surgery on Wednesday.

“This is a really important day in my footballing career,” Hernandez said.

“Bayern Munich is one of the best clubs in Europe and the world. I’m proud to be able to fight for all possible titles with Bayern.”

Hernandez, who can play at both centre-back and left-back, has made 67 La Liga appearances at Atletico and won the Europa League and Super

Cup. He has won 15 international caps for France, featuring in all

their World Cup games in Russia.

“I’m very happy to be able to sign one of the best defenders in the world, a World Cup winner, in Lucas Hernandez,” said Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic.

“Lucas will con-

Lucas Hernandez

tinue our great tradition of French footballers and improve our team.” (BBC Sport)

However, Lady Luck was not on their side in the second half, and the Pacesetters set a genuine pace which propelled them back into the game. At the end of the third quarter, the Pacesetters were trailing by one point, with the game poised at 53-52.

Then the Pacesetters scored just 17 points in the penultimate quarter, which was not a good finishing sign. The Vikings outscored the Pacesetters in the closing moments of the game by a mere seven points to take third place in the second division.

In the second game of the night played in the First Division, the Kobras were

able to advance yet another step further as they were able to pip the Eagles, winning the match 62-60. The Kobras matched the Eagles’ intensity basket for basket in the first two periods of the game, as the score read 32-20 for the Kobras at half time.

The closely-contested battle continued with the Eagles outscoring the Kobras 22-19 in the third period. The Kobras were able to keep the opposition at bay in the final period, despite the Eagles winning the final period 18-30.

On game night, matches continue at 18:30h and 20:30h.

Miami Open 2019: Halep through to semis S

imona Halep moved closer to reclaiming the world number one ranking after defeating China’s Wang Qiang 6-4 7-5 to reach the Miami Open semi-finals.

Halep only needs to reach Saturday’s final to knock Japan’s Naomi Osaka off the top women’s rankings.

The 27-year-old from Romania was 5-1 down in the second set but fought back by winning six consecutive games.

“My coach said I was rushing a bit so I managed to calm down,” she said.

“That was great advice. I started well and played some smart tennis but in the second set, she started to raise her game.”

Halep converted seven of eight break points and hit 24 winners compared to 14 from Wang.

She will play the winner of an all-Czech contest between world number five Karolina Pliskova and Marketa Vondrousova in the next round.

The other semi-final will be played between

rallies, tactical points. The big points went my way and that was the difference.

“I’m serving great this week and hope I can

Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.

Simona Halep reached the third round of the Miami Open in 2018V

Federer reaches quarter-finals

Three-time champion Roger Federer eased into the quarter-finals of the Miami Open with a straightset victory over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.

Switzerland’s Federer, who last won the title in 2017, beat the 13th seed 6-4 6-2 in one hour and one minute.

The 37-year-old fourth seed, who hit 22 winners and won nine of the final 11 games, will play South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the last eight.

“I thought it was an interesting match,” Federer said.

“There were really long

keep it up in the next round.”

W o r l d number five Federer has lost to Anderson only once in six meetings, coming at Wimbledon in 2018.

Anderson beat Australia’s Jordan Thompson 7-5 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals in Miami.

“Kevin is a great player, he’s got one of great serves in the game at the moment,” Federer said.

“In America on hard courts, that’s his cup of tea, but I’m playing well and I hope I can bother him.” (BBC Sport)

IAAF President Coe has “opened old wounds”, says Semen-

T

he recent remarks of IAAF president Sebastian Coe regarding gender classification have “opened old wounds” for double Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya.

South African Semenya, the 800 metres champion at both the London and Rio Games, is currently challenging the IAAF’s proposals to alter the regulations affecting women with higher than normal levels of testosterone who compete in track events ranging from 400m up to a mile.

Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced it would be delaying a decision on the case, while IAAF chief Coe

– himself a double Olympic champion over 1500m in the 1980s – gave an interview to the Australian Daily Telegraph.

Coe said: “The reason we have gender classification is because if you didn’t then no woman would ever win another title or another medal or break another record in our sport,” which has prompted a heartfelt response from Semenya’s camp.

“This weekend Ms Semenya read the comments of Mr. Sebastian Coe published in an exclusive interview,” the statement began. “Ms Semenya remembers her story breaking out of Australia 10 years ago on the eve of

IAAF President Sebastian Coe

her competing in the 2009 World Championships.

“After winning the 800m final the next day Ms Semenya stood in the middle of the stadium knowing

that everyone watching the event was judging her. She was 18 years old. The nature of the intrusive medical examinations that Ms Semenya was subjected to following the event were discussed publicly, including by the IAAF. “The scars Ms Semenya has developed over the past decade run deep. She has endured and forged herself into a symbol of strength, hope and courage. Reading the comments of Mr. Coe this weekend opened those old wounds and the reference by the Daily Telegraph (Australia) to “the muscle-packed Semenya” is just the latest illustration of how the issues have been distorted by innuendo.

“Ms Semenya is a woman. There is no debate or question about this and the IAAF does not dispute this.

She was born a woman, raised a woman, socialised as a woman and has competed as a woman her entire life. Mr. Coe may have views about transgender women in sport, but that is a different issue.

“Ms. Semenya has challenged the regulation that affects women athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) and forces them to undergo invasive medical intervention to be able to participate in women’s sport. Ms Semenya does not wish to undergo medical intervention to change who she is and how

she was born. She wants to compete naturally.

“Women with DSDs are born with rare genetic differences. These differences should be celebrated in sports like all other genetic variations that make elite events worth watching.

Mr. Coe is wrong to think Ms Semenya is a threat to women’s sport.

“Ms Semenya is a heroine and inspirational role model for young girls around the world who dream of achieving excellence in sport. Ms Semenya hopes and dreams that one day she can run free of judgment, free of discrimination and in a world where she is accepted for who she is.”

(Sportsmax)

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COOK,

RECEPTIONIST/

Cornwall was the only bowler to finish with 50 wickets or more in the season, as he snared five wickets three times and had a single 10-wicket match haul.

Anthony Bramble of reigning fivetime champions Guyana Jaguars was the leading wicketkeeper for the second straight season, effecting 43 dismissals, comprising 42 catches and one stumping, and takes the Deryck Murray Award and a US $1,500 cheque.

Bramble also earned an additional US $1,500 and the Malcolm Marshall Award for the Best All-Round Performance, as chosen by the Selection Panel of Cricket West Indies.

The Jaguars wicketkeeper/batsman gathered 580 runs at an average of 52.72 from 14 innings in 10 matches in addition to his productive work behind the stumps.

Jonathan Carter of Barbados Pride gave further evidence that he has one of the safest pairs of hands in the Championship, as he pocketed US $1,500 and the Clive Lloyd Award for holding onto 21 catches in the outfield for the second straight year.

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he past eight months have been nothing but exceptional for Narayan Ramdhani as he strives to further perfect his skill.

After winning his fair share of tournaments, at Kings University, the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) levels, Ramdhani has been rewarded for his continued work on the badminton court.

List of tournaments won by Narayan Ramdhani in his first year playing for Kings University:

Recently, Ramdhani was bestowed with the honour of being named the Most Valuable Player and Athlete of the Year at the Kings University, as the institution hosted its awards night in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Winning more than a handful of tournaments in his time there, Guyana’s top badminton player walked away with a heap of awards which also included recognition for winning gold at the ACAC Championships and placing number one In Alberta, recognition for winning gold and bronze at the CCAA National Championships and placing number three in Canada and recognition for win-

Circulation Department on Phone: 223-7230 EXT: 55

The other individual award, chosen by the Selection Panel, saw Anderson Phillip, an emerging pacer from Trinidad & Tobago Red Force, receiving a US $1,000 cheque and the Andy Roberts Award for being the Most Promising Fast Bowler. He bagged 28 wickets at 24.57 each in eight matches.

In addition to the Championship prizes, each franchise gained US $3,000 for winning a match.

As a result, champions Guyana Jaguars pocketed US $36,000, comprising the US $15,000 grand prize for winning the Championship and US $21,000 for winning seven matches this season, and runnersup Barbados Pride earned US $26,000, consisting of US $8,000 for finishing second and US $18,000 for winning six matches.

Third-placed Hurricanes earned US $18,000 for six wins this season, fourthplaced Red Force carried away US $12,000 for four wins, and fifth-placed Jamaica Scorpions and bottom-placed Volcanoes bagged US $9,000 each for three wins apiece. (CWI)

Ramdhani rewarded for outstanding performances

Contact our

Narayan Ramdhani poses with his raft of awards

ning the ACAC All-Conference Award for outstanding achievement in the field of college sports in Alberta and for having been selected for the 2018-19 All-Conference Badminton Team.

Without a doubt, his awards will inspire him on the path to greatness, with international events such as the Pan-American Games and 2020 Olympics looming ahead.

GSSF successfully hosts 2019 AGM

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VACANCY

CUBAN

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indward Islands Volcanoes veteran left-handed opener Devon Smith and Leeward Islands Hurricanes champion off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall were the top individual performers and led the incentive award winners in the recently-concluded 2018-19 West Indies Championship.

Smith, who holds the record for the most runs in a single season, gathered 745 runs in nine matches at an average of 43.82 to top the batting aggregates for the season straight season.

He and fellow veteran opener Montcin Hodge of the Hurricanes were the only two batsmen that cracked the 700-run club for the season.

Smith again earned the Vivian Richards Award for the most runs in the season and a US $1,500 cheque.

Cornwall collected exactly 54 wickets at 17.68 apiece in nine matches to finish with the most wickets in a season for the first time. He earns the Courtney Walsh Award and a US $1,500 prize.

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Bramble, Cornwall lead incentive award winners

Silver (Singles) & 5th Place (Doubles) ACAC #3 Tournament in Alberta, Canada 2019 Gold (Singles) & 4th Place (Doubles) ACAC #2 Tournament in Alberta, Canada 2019 Gold (Singles) & 4th Place Doubles) ACAC #1 Tournament in Alberta, Canada 2018 Silver – Kings University Open Doubles in Edmonton, Canada 2018

ARE YOU HAVING PROBLEMS WITH MONEY, JOB, LOVELIFE, DOMESTIC PROBLEMS/MARITIAL PROBLEMS, ALL DIFFICULTIES IN YOUR LIFE, YOU CAN ADJUST YOUR LIFE ETC. CALL FOR APPOINTMENT 692-9449.

CARICOM VACANCY Applications are invited from suitably qualified individuals to fill the following vacant, contracted position of GARDENER/HANDYMAN at the Secretary-General’s residence: Requirements for the position: Able-bodied with a sound primary education / At least 3 (three) years’ experience in the field of gardening and landscaping / Knowledge of and experience in the use of the brush cutter / Formal training in gardening/agriculture would be an asset.

Working hours: 07:00 hrs – 15:00 hrs Monday to Friday and 07:00hrs – 10:00 hrs on Saturday. How to apply: Applications with bio-data must be submitted by April 5th, 2019 and either e-mailed to procurement@caricom.org or mailed/ delivered to: The Programme Manager Procurement, CARICOM Secretariat, P.O. Box 10827, Greater Georgetown, Guyana. Applications must include the names and contact details for 3(three) references.

sports

223-7230-1 (Ext 55)

he fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Guyana Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) was held at the Grand Costal Inn on Thursday, February 28.

Members were given the opportunity to discuss the activities and plans at the AGM, which was chaired by Director Dr Pravesh Harry. GSSF President Ryan McKinnon delivered opening remarks to the Meeting and reflected on 2018 being another good year. He congratulated the organisation and thanked all members for their continued support in promoting sport shooting and expressed hope that they would continue to build the sport.

Foundation Secretary Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon delivered a comprehensive report on the 2018 activities of the GSSF, including affiliation to local and international bodies.

She also touched on key topics such as general firearm safety, increased membership growth, continuous monthly training courses, the various sport shooting disciplines currently encompassed, donations made, general outreach to supporting agencies, shooting range access, support programmes and the ongoing development of the sport of shooting in Guyana.

The Report of the External Auditors, along with the Financial Statement of the GSSF, was presented by the Foundation’s Treasurer, Ray Beharry to the membership and this was duly adopted at the AGM. The External Audit of the Financial Statement was duly conducted and issued by Auditor Harryram Parmesar from the Parmesar Audit Firm.

Another significant aspect of the AGM was the motions which totalled five which were unanimously carried.

Thanks were expressed to the following persons and entities who assisted in one way or the other for 2018: Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan; Minister within the Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Ministry, Valerie Garrido-Lowe; Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton; Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, National Sports Commission; Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Patrick West; Ryan McKinnon; Infotrans Guyana Inc; Neutrino Inc; Julius Simon; Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Godfrey Statia; Hakeem Mohamed; Mohamed and Saudia Qualander of Queensway, then Assistant Police Commissioner David Ramnarine; Police Commissioner Leslie James; Dr Bhiro Harry; GPF OC TSU Guy Nurse; Queensway Security Service Inc; Tamesh Jagmohan; El Dorado Trading; Bish and Vikash Panday, Directors of P&P Insurance and Consultants Ltd; Harryram Parmesar of Parmesar Accounting Firm; Kevin Daby; the management and staff of Grand Coastal Inn Inc; Colin Changur; Mark Singh; Andrew Phang; International Technical Supplies (Guyana) Limited; Rajiv Latchana, Managing Director of NVR Security Services Inc; management of Clear Waters; Drs Pravesh Harry and Kevin Jodah; Board of Directors of DIG Inc; Dental Imports Guyana Inc; Brian Backer; Board of Directors of Orinduik Development Inc; Nicholas Boyer; National Hardware; Aleemul Ali Fabrication Company; Match Committees, the media, the GSSF members and the Board of the GSSF.

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thursday, march 28, 2019

GUYANATIMESgy.COM

CWI Women’s T20 Blaze…

Guyana seek redemption in T&T clash

By Brandon Corlette

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he Shemaine Campbelle-led Guyana team will play Trinidad and Tobago in the opening round of the Colonial Medical Insurance T20 Blaze Tournament.

The hosts will play the second of the three matches scheduled for the National Stadium Providence, from 14:00h local time today, Thursday, March 28, 2019.

Speaking on the eve of the clash, Guyana’s Captain stated that the batters would have to step up their game. “The main game plan is for the batters to get runs on the board,” Campbelle declared.

The Guyana Captain lauded the bowlers, especially Erva Giddings, who was Guyana’s best bowler in the just-concluded Super50 Tournament with 10 wickets to her name.

The Guyana team that played in the Super50 Tournament that finished with 10 points and recorded two wins from five matches will not see wholesale changes made. The likes of Afruica Gentle and Lafona Gilgeous may be exposed at the latter part of the T20 Blaze Tournament.

Campbelle, who finished with 211 runs for Guyana, the most in the team, stated that during the practice sessions, the girls have been focusing on batting, which requires improvement. Apart from Campbelle, only Shabika Gajnabi surpassed 100 runs in the five matches in the

Super50 Tournament.

The likes of Akaze Thompson, Lashuna Toussaint, Melanie Henry, and Sheneta Grimmond will have to pull their weight in the opener against Trinidad and Tobago in the shorter format of the game. Tremayne Smartt and Giddings, who are expected to form the core of the bowling line-up, have both chipped in with useful knocks with the bat after top-middle order batting failures.

Guyana bowling line-up consists of variety, left and right-arm seamers, off-spinners and the lone left-arm spinner in Kaysia Schultz, who played a handful of matches in the Super50. The last time Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago clashed – in the opener of the Super50 format – Guyana were in control of the game when they had the top-order wickets in the bag, but critical moments lost by the Guyanese saw the Trinidadian lower-order capitalise and score a respectable total.

In that match, Guyana’s batting failed with only Campbelle scoring 45 runs as she lacked support from her teammates with the bat. That was the trend throughout the entire Super50 Tournament with the exception of Gajnabi ,who was the only other Guyanese to score a half-century in an innings.

Meanwhile, the Merissa Aguilleira-led Trinidad and Tobago team are a domi-

Team Trinidad and Tobago

nant force only conceding one defeat in the Super50 Tournament. The top-order batters in Felicia Walters, Rachel Vincent, Stacy Ann King and Britney Cooper have all chipped in. However, Vice Captain Reniece Boyce was the most consistent batter of the Trini divas while Aguilleira has found form with the bat in the final against Barbados where she looked her positive self, scoring runs freely. The bowling of the Trinidadians will continue to

pose a threat with the likes of Karishma Ramharack, Leandra Ramdeen and Anisa Mohammed playing as specialist spinners.

Ramharack finished the Super50 Tournament with 13 wickets while Ramdeen had 10 and Mohammed, nine.

Apart from the pace that the Providence pitch offers with the new ball early, the pitch supports the spinners and batters will have to wary since three matches will be played in one day.

61st Seniors Caribbean Table Tennis Championship…

Day 3: Guyana’s women dominate, men continue to toil

By Timothy Jaikarran

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he action continued at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Homestretch Avenue as the 61st Seniors Caribbean Table Tennis Championship entered its third day.

The competition served off with the men’s team battling it out for supremacy as Group One saw notable wins coming from Puerto Rico, who defeated Martinique 3-0. In Group Two, the Dominican Republic dominated St Lucia 3-0 and Barbados crushed St Vincent and the Grenadines by the same margin in Group Three.

Heading into the second round, Puerto Rico stunned Guadeloupe 3-0, then Guyana were set to take on the Dominican Republic who swept that round and remained unbeaten on Wednesday alongside Puerto Rico.

In Guyana’s match-up, the opening doubles pair of Joel Alleyne and Christopher Franklin were unable to defeat Emil Santos and Isaac Vila as they lost 11-8, 11-8 and 11-6. From there on, it was a stroll in the park for the Dominicans as they took a clean sweep of the other four singles matches in

their round.

Barbados then defeated Jamaica 3-1 to end the second round.

After such a dominating round, the Guyanese team were set to duke it out with St Lucia in Round 3. The home team were able to ward off the St Lucians 3-1. The doubles pair of Franklin and Nigel Bryan dominated as they won 3-0 against Chris Wells and Adrian Albert. Despite losing a few matches in the singles category, the home team came out on top at the end.

In the other two match-ups of the third round, Martinique defeated Guadeloupe 3-1 and Jamaica stunned St Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0.

For the Guyanese women, it was complete domination as they set out to face Martinique in Round 1.

In the doubles match, Natalie Cummings and Daniela Fonseca played their three rounds with everything they had and they walked out victorious 11-7, 11-6, 11-5.

In the singles round, Trenace Lowe and Fonseca recorded notable wins in their singles matches. After winning round 1, Guyana moved on to round 2 where they

Part of the action in the women’s match-up against Jamaica

won 3-0 against Barbados. Barbados looked shaky against Jamaica in round 1, but prevailed 3-2 before meeting the hosts.

On match days, the action will commence at 10:00h, and the competition is open to the public.

1st step to progress: CWI and Simmons make amends

Everything’s alright! Director Enoch Lewis, former Coach Phil Simmons, President Ricky Skerritt and Vice President Dr Kishore Shallow

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alm waters are currently occupying the Caribbean Sea as newly elected Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt embarks on reforming Cricket within the region.

Just days after his election to office Skerritt and former CWI Coach Phil Simmons have made amends and as such come to an amicable resolution in the claim from Simmons’ dismissal as head coach in 2016.

This is the first action by President Ricky Skerritt and Vice President Dr. Kishore Shallow to fulfill their campaign promise from the 10 point “Cricket First” plan, to repair stakeholder relationships, particularly with former players.

At a meeting today between the two parties at Sandals Grande, Antigua, the new President Ricky Skerritt on behalf of CWI told Phil Simmons, “We would like to apologise to you for referring to your appointment as a “mistake”. Cricket West Indies did not make a mistake when we selected you as our Head Coach.”

President Skerritt added, “In my previous role as CWI Independent Director, I was involved in the interview panel that recruited Phil Simmons from a long list of competitors and he

was the best candidate. Subsequently based on the results he produced on the field, he proved himself to be a very competent coach in his time with West Indies, winning the World T20 in 2016, and now currently with Afghanistan.”

In accepting this apology Mr. Phil Simmons said: “My family and I are relieved that we have been able to finally close this matter, and I am pleased that it has been done so amicably.

Following the election on the weekend I am more confident than I have ever been that the future of West Indies cricket is in good hands. I am a very proud West Indian and I hope that in the future I get the opportunity to try and help move our cricket forward again. I would like to offer my congratulations to President Skerritt and Vice-President Shallow.”

After the court hearing formalities in the Antigua Industrial Court on Tuesday, it was agreed that the settlement amount will remain confidential.

Cricket West Indies wishes Mr. Simmons continued success in his current Afghanistan Cricket role and all future endeavours.

guyanatimesgy.com

thursday, march 28, 2019

23

National team push forward in spite of team composition concerns

Golden Jags Captain Samuel Cox and Head Coach Michael Johnson

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ow that Guyana have already qualified for the Gold Cup, many critics who were vocal about the team’s local-toforeign player ratio have been silenced.

However, despite the concerns, the management of the national team is of the belief that the foreign line-up has added to the quality of Guyanese football.

Prior to Guyana’s meeting with Belize, many concerns were raised by football fanatics and critics about players who were not born in Guyana but had Guyanese lineage, who made up onethird of the national team. On the other hand, according to the Belize Coach Palmero Salas, their team had only five such players.

Captain of the Golden Jaguars, Samuel Cox, was very passionate about the subject, noting that at the end of the day, they all considered themselves Guyanese.

“Five years I’ve been here; I’ve seen the ups; I’ve seen the downs; I’ve seen things that people in here

don’t even know about. But I’ll tell you what: every single person behind the scenes has worked their socks off. And those players on the pitch and on the bench involved, they have just made history. That has never been done in this country before – we are the greatest team to achieve something. Whether it’s foreign based or local based, it doesn’t matter because we’re all one.

One country, one team, one dream,” he declared.

From a more technical perspective, Head Coach Michael Johnson explained that the addition of foreign-based players not only improved the level of football played by the national team on Saturday night, but they also assisted the local players.

“These players have played at the top end of the spectrum in England, you cannot dismiss Callum Harriott, Keanu MarshBrown. These guys have played Premier League football, to come and aid the country and give us that support that we definitely need. These guys are a pivotal part but also, within the training camp the standard that was brought was the best. But not only the best, because of the foreign-based players but because of the local players who pulled up as well,” he explained.

From the perspective of the Guyana Football Federation President Wayne Forde, it matters not where Guyana’s players come from but their commitment to the game and Guyana’s development are what is important.

“We must recognise that this is a symbolic and tremendous accomplishment for Guyana. When we go and play in the Gold Cup, there are probably 40 million people on this planet that would hear the name Guyana for the first time and to me that is the point. So, I do not pay any attention to the narrative that we try to tie ourselves to whether someone was born here or not.

The fact that our guys are willing to come and wear the badge with honour and distinction is a privilege and we are happy that they came out tonight and gave 100 per cent and brought us over the line,” the local football chief said.

Going forward, Coach Johnson noted that it was too early to disclose his Gold Cup and Nations League plans, but promised greater things from the national team.

“There’s more to come, ‘cause they’re going to develop with each other: their relationship is going to develop – it’s going to get stronger; the group’s going to get better. The more time we spend, the more efficient it’s going to be, because we’re getting to know one another. We had a few debutantes tonight and I thought they played really well. There’s more in the tank and there’s also some good young players coming through as well.

So, I’m excited by the future,” Johnson said.

The Golden Jaguars last Saturday sealed their entry into the Gold Cup after defeating Belize 2-1 at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora. Neil Danns and Emery Welshman scored for Guyana, and it was a full team effort to hold off Belize in the second half for the win.

CWI Women’s T20 Blaze…

Fearless Barbados, terrified Leewards to clash in opener – defending champs J’ca, Windwards also on fixtures

aggressive brand of cricket, without doubt, we can come out on top in the T20 Blaze,” the confident Barbados Captain disclosed.

The Barbados team remain an assured unit and they would be eager to complete the double, winning both the Super50 Cup and the T20 Blaze. Meanwhile, Barbados opponents Leeward Islands are yet to find their feet on Guyanese soil, playing five matches in the Super50 and losing each of those matches. In the shorter format, they will be seeking a change of fortune.

Jamaica have gathered momentum after defeating the Leeward Islands comprehensively in the fifth round. The senior players in Stafanie Taylor, Cheadean Nation and Chinelle Henry all had a decent Super50 tournament. Jamaica, who favour the T20 format, will be eyeing a successful title defence when the five-round T20 Blaze starts today. The Tournament is scheduled to be completed on Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

Jamaica’s first opposition has been relying heavily on Afy Fletcher, who will need support in the T20 format. The Windwards team that won only one match in the Super50 Tournament will be looking for different results in the T20 Blaze. (Brandon Corlette)

Team Barbados are confident of completing the double

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n the first of three matches at the National Stadium that are scheduled for today, Thursday March 28, 2019, Barbados will play Leeward Islands from 09:00h local time.

That match will be followed by Guyana versus Trinidad and Tobago from 14:00h while defending champions of the T20 Blaze Tournament, Jamaica will play Windward Islands from 19:00h in the third and final match of the day at Providence.

Speaking to the media after the Barbados’ triumph, world number one T20 all-rounder, Deandra Dottin stated that coming off on a winning note in the Super50 Tournament as champions would boost the team’s confidence. “This is not an advantage but it’s just a different format of the game,” Dottin disclosed.

“Our expectations heading into the T20 format remain the same: we as a unit will continue playing the same aggressive and fearless cricket throughout the T20 Blaze Tournament,” the leading run-getter in the Super50 explained. Dottin, who batted in the middle order during the Super50, is expected to replace Danielle Small at the top to open the batting with Hayley Matthews.

Meanwhile, the multi-talented Barbados Captain, Hayley Matthews stated that they have completed one phase of the mission, which is to win both titles. Moving forward the expectations of Barbados remain the same: “if we continue to play the same

The Afy Fletcher-led Windward Islands

thursday, march 28, 2019

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

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CWI Women’s T20 Blaze…

Page 23

Guyana seek Fearless Barbados, terrified redemption in Leewards to clash in opener T&T clash – defending champs Jamaica, Windwards also on fixtures

61st Seniors Caribbean Table Tennis Championship…

Page 22

Page 22 Team Guyana

VIVO IPL 2019…

Match #7 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians Time: 10:30 hrs

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