Guyana Times - Thursday, November 17, 2022

Pres Ali invites Black Panther actress Letitia

Wright to visit Guyana …lauds her for successful career, recognition she brings to homeland

Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).

Letitia’s family moved from Georgetown, Guyana to London, England when she was seven years old. In the letter, President Ali made refer ence to an interview she had given in which she had exclaimed her pride in being Guyanese born.

“I was moved by an interview which you did and in which you mentioned the country of your birth and how much you wanted to make the people of Guyana proud. I thank you for the recognition which you have brought our country, and the immense feelings of pride which your superb onscreen performances have evoked,” the President said.

President Dr Irfaan Ali has writ ten to Guyana-born actress

Letitia Wright, lauding her on her successful career, and more so her acclaimed role in the Black Panther movie and its recent sequel.

The Guyanese Head of State also invited the young actress to visit Guyana, informing her in a letter dat ed November 15 that “the Government of Guyana would be honoured to host you.”

According to the President, the peo ple of Guyana would be more than de lighted to welcome her warmly back to her motherland.

Letitia Michelle Wright, born on October 31, 1993, is a GuyaneseBritish actress. In 2018, she attained global recognition for her portray al of Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Panther, for which she won an NAACP Image Award and a SAG Award. She reprised the role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black

“As President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, I would like to extend an invitation to you to visit Guyana. The Government of Guyana would be honoured to host you…I trust that your schedule and plans will per mit such a visit at the earliest opportu nity. Please accept my best wishes for your continued success. May you con tinue to make our country proud,” the President further wrote in the letter.

There have been previous calls, es pecially when the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government was in power, for the Guyana Government to extend a hand to Wright and invite her to Guyana. Those calls were not heeded, and in 2018, her role in Black Panther, a film that smashed records at the box office, went without any sig nificant acknowledgement from the then Government.

In an interview four years ago, which was broadcast on the Ebony Magazine YouTube page, Wright had spoken glowingly about coming from Guyana, and what it meant to her. According to her, ever since her appear ance in 2018 Black Panther, Guyanese have increasingly been referencing her, and even calling her their “cousin”.

Actress Letitia Wright

“Which is cool, I have loads of cous ins. But this has really made people very proud, and I’m grateful for that. It’s kinda overwhelming, because you don’t want anyone to put too much pres sure on you…but as a whole, being from my country, repping them and making them proud is cool,” she had said.

In another interview with former Miss Jamaica Soyini Phillips back in 2018, Wright had been asked about her role in the Black Panther and garner ing support from people in her home country.

“It makes me feel really proud that, as a young Guyanese woman, people are being inspired and just for them to also know that I ‘rep’ Guyana wherev er I go. I’m really happy that people are supporting…I just hope that it contin ues to inspire people, and it’s an hon our to do that for my country,” Wright had said. (G3)

Miners making efforts to comply with mercury-free transition …as GGDMA outlines plan of action for coming year

Guyana is a signatory to the Minamata con vention and, as such, has been making efforts to reduce the use of mercury in mining. Accordingly, miners and members of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) have been making efforts on their own to comply with this mercury-free transition.

The GGDMA recent ly held its 38th Annual General Meeting (AGM), the first since May of this year, during which the asso ciation’s President Andron Alphonso spoke about some of their accomplishments … and challenges.

The year has seen some victories for the GGDMA. Alphonso observed during the meeting that, already, the GGDMA has been able to unlock several benefits for

the miners through strong lobbying efforts and collabo ration with the Government.

“The number of persons entering the mining indus try is on the rise. We have seen more new entrants, both foreign and local. The industry is continuing to grow, as is our member ship,” Alphonso said as he opened the meeting.

Among the issues planned to be address, how ever, are their ongoing ef forts to find a solution that would allow the industry to transition to mercury-free mining. Mercury- free min ing was also a topic brought up by the miners at the meet ing, with some of them urg ing the GGDMA to continue to lobby the Government for additional funding for mer cury-free mining technology.

Miners in attendance at the AGM

President Dr Irfaan Ali

BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Thursday, November 17 – 13:0014:30h and Friday, November 18 – 00:00h-01:30h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Thursday, November 17 –11:55h-13:25h and Friday, November 18 –12:40h-14:10h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h daily.

WEATHER TODAY

Sunny conditions are expected in the early morning and late afternoon hours with light rain showers during the night. Temperatures should range between 22 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius.

Winds: North North-Easterly to North-Westerly between 1.78 metres and 3.57 metres.

High Tide: 11:16h and 23:40h reaching maximum heights of 2.06 metres and 2.12 metres.

Low Tide: 17:11h reaching a minimum height of 1.18 metres.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022 |

Louisiana

Opportunities are also beyond Guyana’s borders

President Dr Irfaan Ali recently made a pitch to a group of potential investors from Louisiana, United States, outlining his Government’s vision of mak ing Guyana a logistics hub in the Region.

The Louisiana District Export Council (LDEC) led the largest trade delegation to Guyana this week. More than 20 Private Sector lead ers from across Louisiana as well as Texas, Washington, and Pennsylvania have met with Guyanese business es and Government officials to have discussions on key sectors, including genera tor equipment; cybersecuri ty; automotive, building and construction materials; ener gy, and oil and gas.

Those meetings and mar ket briefings were aimed at helping the visiting delega tion to better understand the business environment in Guyana.

US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch hosted the trade mission at her Bel Air, Georgetown res idence for a reception that saw them further connect ing and networking with lo cal stakeholders.

Addressing the gather ing, President Ali posited that having such a large and dynamic US trade mission was important to Guyana as his Government work to po sition the country as a hub for reverse logistics. He not ed that there were abun dant opportunities beyond Guyana that US companies could tap into.

“We see our prosperity as part of the regional prosper ity… The opportunities are beyond our borders also…

“From Northern Brazil, you can have all the imports that the US need. How do we ensure that the US ex ports get into Brazil through Guyana as the logistics hub and then we go up back the chain, because we will cre ate the demand for shipping from both sides, which will reduce the cost of shipping,” he stated.

According to the Head of State, Guyana is build ing a system that will en sure its borders can catalyse the dream of potential inves tors having a bigger market. He pointed out that many US companies already pro duce products that were in demand in Northern Brazil, which directly borders Guyana.

“We already have a sys tem that allows duty free and a lot of tax incentives and fis cal incentives in Lethem. [We have to now look at] how do we move to have US com panies position themselves in Lethem to benefit from bigger markets and do some thing else,” he noted.

Using the examples of

products such as liquid sug ar and refined sugar, which are two imported commodi ties, the President noted that if a free manufacturing zone is set up, then that compa ny would automatically have a market for its products across the Caribbean Region duty-free.

“That is the type of vi sion that we have in creat ing Guyana as this main lo gistics hub. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and part nering,” he posited, while en couraging Guyanese busi nesses to take advantage of the opportunities these po tential investors present.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Lynch highlighted the close physical and cultural ties between the US, specifical ly Louisiana, and Guyana as one of many incentives for US companies to invest here. She told the trade mission of the many opportunities in various sectors that were available for investments.

“There are so many – in fact, I would say, endless –opportunities to invest in Guyana and endless rea

sons… The Guyanese they want what US companies have. They want quality, they want excellence, they want on-time and on budget projects…,” the diplomat not ed.

Part of the 25-mem ber visiting group were economic developers, in dustrial training experts, Louisiana state officials, as well as US Government of ficials. Combined, the US companies represented have over US$238 billion in an nual revenue and employ tens of thousands around the world.

The delegation conduct ed productive meetings with key Private Sector con tacts and experts to high light Guyana’s business en vironment, learn about the Guyana Government’s ef forts to promote investment and economic diversifica tion, explore market entry strategies, foster partner ships, and develop closer trade and investment ties between Guyana and the United States.

In total, the US firms engaged with more than 70 local organisations in Guyana’s Private and Public Sectors. Both US and Guyanese participants an ticipate future partnerships and business deals as a re sult of the meetings.

With 23 markets and 41 million people, the Caribbean presents a growing opportu nity for US companies. The delegation sought to capi talise on the strong bilat eral trade relationship be tween the US and Guyana, with bilateral trade reach ing US$1.4 billion in the first half of this year alone.

President Dr Irfaan Ali and US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch with representatives of the LDEC Trade Mission

Trade Mission …great opportunities as a logistics hub – President Ali

Editor: Tusika Martin

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Our young people

It’s a fact that youths today make up the larger part of the population of almost every country in the world. This presents certain challenges for policy-makers to develop, implement, and maintain programmes and activities which must be economically and socially oriented to satisfy these youths’ desires.

It is also well known that the absence of well-thoughtout programmes with respect to youth development impacts negatively on our young people, and sometimes even lead to them resigning themselves to lawlessness and other antisocial behaviours that are damaging to society.

Former Caricom Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, had some time ago said the majority of victims as well as perpetrators of crimes reported by the Police are young males 18 to 35 years old. He pointed to the fact that there are a number of socio-economic determinants of crime, the least of which is the high youth unemployment in the region. This is surely reason to be concerned, as right away one would begin to worry about the kind of future these persons would have, and the contributions they would make to their societies, if any at all. Certainly, this is enough reason to cause Governments and policy-makers to take a closer look at what is happening in their individual countries, and take steps to remedy the situation.

Certainly, there is a great need for intervention in order to combat the current challenges facing young people. In order to prepare young people for workplace success, job training programmes need to go beyond technical instruction and also teach “life skills” such as communication, reliability, and teamwork. This push to teach youths life skills has been validated by employers, who have consistently reported that, above all, they want to hire employees who possess workplace-ready skills such as communication, teamwork, motivation and responsibility. Technical skills, they say, can be learned on the job.

In addition to teaching youths the life skills employers look for, there is need to introduce complementary life planning activities in this component. These activities help youths in assessing who they are, their aspirations for the future, and define realistic steps towards achieving these goals.

Guyana has a number of programmes geared towards equipping young people with various skills for the world of work etc. This is commendable, but more focus needs to be placed on combining teaching life skills with the various academic or technical subjects. Meaning that these programmes should include assessment and identification of ways to build competency and skills supportive of healthy behaviours, to help young people as they mature into adulthood.

Additionally, institutions such as the family and religious bodies need to take up their roles more seriously, as happened before. Historically, the older generation had managed to transmit their beliefs, values, traditions, customs and institutions to the younger members of their societies. This was achieved largely because of the impact of agencies of socialisation such as the family, religion and the schools. Today, the impact of these institutions has been challenged and undermined by new forces, particularly television and the internet, and the pop culture as a whole.

Further, the role of the Private Sector should never be underestimated. There is need for funding for many crucial programmes aimed at creating better opportunities for young persons here. Such programmes, once effectively implemented, would see our young people become well equipped with the necessary skills to develop themselves, and in turn contribute to the overall development of the country. The Private Sector is one of the main beneficiaries of an educated and skilled workforce, and it should seek to invest in, and help to build the pool of, talent it wishes to draw from.

We believe that if our young people are to make more mature and responsible judgments, and engage in activities that are the hallmark of a socially productive adulthood, certain support systems for development must be present in the environment. Teaching life skills is a good way to start.

Dear Editor,

I refer to Mr. Sherwood Lowe’s letter which is in response to my missive in which I exposed the fallacy of Mr Aubrey Norton and the APNU/AFC’s argumen tation that the voters’ list is bloated. I would be in remiss to leave Mr. Lowe’s equally fallacious narra tive on the public record without a repudiation.

Mr Lowe accuses me of conveying “the false im pression” of the time that the APNU/AFC indicated its readiness to engage in constitutional and statuto ry reforms regarding res idency vis-a-vis registra tion and voting. Indeed, he quotes Mr Norton at an August 2022 press confer ence expressing a willing ness to do so. In my letter, I did not offer a timeframe in respect of Mr Norton’s expressed preparedness to engage in constitution al reform on the issue, but as Mr Lowe volunteers August 2022 as a date, I will use the same to say that it presumably took Mr Norton 5 months (from April to August 2022) after his assumption of office as Leader of the Opposition to publicly recognise that constitutional change is required to achieve the re moval of the alleged im pugned names from the voters’ list.

However, what I did say is that, at his press confer ence held on 8th November 2022, Mr. Norton, for the first time, provided the public with an insight to enable an understanding of what he characteris es as “bloat” on that list. Mr Norton disclosed that Guyanese not in Guyana constitute this “bloat”. I proceeded to then make the quintessential point that names that are consti tutionally authorised to be on that list, and therefore lawfully there, can never be considered “bloat”, and that Guyanese who are 18 years and over on that list are lawfully there, ir respective of where they may be located. That dead persons are disqualified from being on that list, and ought to be removed forth with, is without dispute.

The reference by Mr Lowe to the constitution al and legal changes ef fected in 1990 constitutes an utter red herring, and does not assist the dis course. Guyanese would recall that those changes were implemented after al most 30 years of political agitation and internation al pressure following a se ries of undisputed fraudu lent elections dating back to 1968, and were designed to dismantle an institu tionalised election-rigging

machinery installed by the PNC dictatorship, and to replace it with a modern democratic architecture that would conduce to free and fair elections. Three decades hence, and after a comprehensive overhaul of the electoral machin ery, including the imple mentation of a system of continuous registration from which the voters’ list is extracted, supported by both the PNC and the AFC, Guyana can now boast of an electoral infrastructure bearing democratic creden tials similar to those which obtain in the Caribbean, and indeed the rest of the Commonwealth.

Like its Caribbean counterparts, inherent in this cyclical continu ous registration system in Guyana are mechanisms which mandate the cleans ing of the list of disquali fied electors.

Unfortunately, like his leader, Mr Lowe pro ceeds upon the vacuous hypothesis that non-resi dent Guyanese are ‘ineligi bles’ on that list. However, he offers no explication on how he has arrived at this destination, nor does he offer a rationale for such discriminatory treat ment against Guyanese simply because of their absence from Guyana. Nevertheless, like his

leader, he advocates for their removal from the list. It is now consensual that only a constitution al change can disqualify those Guyanese from be ing on the list. I forceful ly assert that to deny thou sands of Guyanese that cherished right to vote is a monumental deprivation of a fundamental freedom of such magnitude that it mandates public consulta tion. Anything less would be a human rights damna tion. APNU/AFC professes a preparedness to do sans public consultation, yet we hear not a murmur from the various civil society or ganisations proclaiming to champion the human rights of Guyanese. Their stony silence condemns them in complicity with the perpetrators.

Great moment is made of the size of the voters’ list vis-a-vis the total popula tion. A quick scan across the Caribbean would re veal a population and vot ers’ list ratio of striking similarity to Guyana’s. That reality is simply an outward characteristic of the continuous registra tion system in jurisdictions with an overseas travelling demographic, and where residency is neither a re quirement to register nor vote.

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule, lifts off from launch complex 39-B on the unmanned Artemis 1 mission to the moon, seen from Sebastian, Florida (Reuters)

“Bloated” list argument is but simply the latest from that same genus

Injection of fresh, constructive minds needed for advancement of city

Dear Editor,

It is my considered opin ion that, in time to come, Guyana shall become a very-sought-after eco-tour ism destination; however, it will take the earnest partic ipation of all, including and particularly the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, the persons re sponsible for managing the affairs of our capital city.

Last Sunday, as I was taking a group visiting from overseas on a little trip up the Demerara River -- a most pleasant and sce nic ride, I might add, begin ning from the mouth of the river in the vicinity of the Marriott Hotel -- we could see the Lighthouse and the Stabroek Market Tower standing majestically on the shoreline. As we got closer to the market, however, we re alised that the clocks on the Stabroek Tower were not working, but even more dis appointing was the rickety and ramshackle state of the area aback of the Stabroek Market, as we stopped there

so that the visitors could purchase some fresh tropi cal fruits.

The area looks as if it had been hit by a hurricane, or as if there was a massive explosion there. The roof was in tatters and hanging loose, parts of the structure were falling into the riv er, mounds of garbage were heaped up there, the build ing that once housed the Clerk of Markets and his staff, which is not very old, was abandoned and decay ing, and the wharf area was in a very derelict state. It is a complete eyesore, and is neither very helpful nor en couraging to our country’s efforts at tourism. Can you imagine that this is what persons coming in on cruise ships see?

I would like to know what City Hall does with the stall rents collect ed from Stabroek Market?

Since 2017, the vendors on the Stabroek Market Wharf were relocated to the area west of the Parliament Building, next door to what

was popularly known as the “Dread Shop”, and a very fancy drawing was done de tailing the conversion of the wharf area into a mall, com plete with a boardwalk and entertainment area; which all seems, five years later, to have been just a pipe dream by persons living in La-La Land.

With the rapid develop ment of Guyana over the last few years, and with riv erside properties going for a premium, the city’s moth ers and fathers should re alise that they have a ‘gold mine’ there, and they should stop sitting on their hands moaning about not getting enough help from Central Government, and take on board private investors to develop that area.

I just cannot wait for the holding of Local Government Elections for the injection of fresh, constructive minds for the advancement of our city, towns and neighbourhoods.

Faithfully, Magagula Jackson

“Bloated” list argument is but...

Mr Lowe next argues that the right to vote “is constrained by certain re strictions and obligations (for example, you must reg ister to vote) to ensure the election results truly re flect the will of the people”. Certainly, one cannot find fault with such reasoning. But the persons who are on the list are registered to vote, and therefore must be allowed to vote for the election results to truly reflect the will of the peo ple. Paradoxically, it is Mr. Lowe and his party who are advocating for dereg istration of these persons and their disentitlement from voting!

The position adopted by APNU/ AFC on the voters’ list is simply another one of their political travails which will catapult the Guyanese population into another ordeal of anguish and into the throes of con fusion as they (APNU/ AFC) misinterpret and misconstrue the law and the Constitution in yet an other political gimmick which they believe will de liver them electoral victo

ry. In the process, anyone who disagrees with them, including the diplomat ic community, will be vis ited with vitriolic and vis ceral attacks. The show is already on the road. The High Commissioner of the United Kingdom is the lat est casualty. The frequency with which the APNU/AFC have engaged in such vul garity has rendered them immune to public condem nation.

Readers would vivid ly recall the public frus tration and turmoil cre ated by President David Granger’s preposter ous interpretation of the clear language of Article 162 of the Constitution, which culminated in the unlawful appointment of James Patterson as the Chairman of GECOM in 2016. This provision of the Constitution owed no interpretative diffi culties hitherto. A simi lar idiotic interpretation was placed on Article 106 of the Constitution when the no-confidence motion was passed against the Coalition Government in

December 2019. Arising therefrom was the legal and mathematical novelty of 33 not being a majority of 65, which will now remain one of the most unique ex positions of illogics offered by Guyana to universal jurisprudence. Neither has there been a recovery by the Guyanese people from the vicious mental and emotional scars inflicted during the 5 months which followed the March 2020 General Elections. Almost every day during that hor rendous period, Guyana and the world were tor tured with one imbecilic legal contention after an other, followed by equal ly inane litigious forays all the way to the apex court. I can provide more exam ples, but I think the point is made.

The “bloated” list argu ment is but simply the lat est from that same genus.

Yours faithfully, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, MP Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs

Page Foundation

Storm in a Glass

Materials

Shaving cream

◄

A large glass water

Food colouring

A spoon

Instructions:

Fill the glass 1/2 full with water Spray some shaving cream on top of the water to fill the glass to ¾ full.

Use your finger or a spoon to spread the shaving cream evenly over the top of the water. The top of the shaving cream should be flat.

Mix ½-cup water with 10 drops of food colouring in a separate container. Gently add the coloured water, spoonful by spoonful, to the top of the shaving cream. When it gets too heavy, watch it storm!

How does it work?

The mouse, the bird and the sausage

FROM

TO BE CONTINUED CONTINUED

Border controversy case World Court to start hearing oral arguments on Venezuela’s objections today

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be hearing oral arguments over the next few days on Venezuela’s ob jections to Guyana’s sub mission on the merits of the border controversy case between the two South American neighbours.

The public hearings on this matter will run from today, November 17 to Tuesday, November 22 at the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

“The hearings will be de voted to the preliminary ob jections raised by Venezuela in response to Guyana’s submission of its Memorial on the merits of the case,” Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

Venezuela is claiming two-thirds of Guyana’s land mass – the entire Essequibo region – and part of the coun try’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where nearly 11 billion barrels of oil have been found offshore and pro duction activities are ongo ing.

In March 2018, Guyana approached the World Court for a final and binding ruling on the 1899 Arbitral Award. The Court confirmed its ju risdiction to hear the case, rejecting Venezuela’s objec tions, in a judgment issued in December 2020. Then in March of this year, Guyana filed its Memorial on the merits of its case against Venezuela.

However, after refusing to join the proceedings since 2018, the Spanish-speaking nation earlier this year par ticipated in the case and sub sequently filed preliminary objections in June to the admissibility of Guyana’s Application to the Court to determine the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award.

Venezuela is claiming that the case was improper ly before the court, and that such a case should not have been brought by Guyana, but by the United Kingdom – the then Great Britain, which had signed the 1899 Arbitral Award with Venezuela to demarcate the then British Guiana’s boundaries. Guyana had been one of Britain’s colo nies and changed its name upon gaining independence in 1966.

In accordance with its rules, the Court suspended the substantive proceedings on the merits until its deter mination of Venezuela’s pre liminary objections.

Only last month, Guyana’s Agent on the border controversy case, Carl Greenidge called Venezuela’s objections frivo lous. He explained that once

this issue was dealt with, then the hearing of the sub stantive case would resume.

“Venezuela’s intent in (those good offices) engage ments is to convert the pro cess into a process that runs into infinity – the matter is not to be solved… But now that you move to a process where there has to be a de finitive decision, and dead lines have been set… the court can’t take forever to give an answer. Now it’s im portant that they divert, or waste as much as they can, so that’s the process that they’ve embarked on,” the former Guyanese Foreign Affairs Minister had posit ed.

Moreover, the Guyana Government has already described the objections by the Spanish-speaking na tion as a bid to delay the substantive hearing of the border controversy case, in which Guyana is seeking a final and binding judgement to reinforce that the 1899 Arbitral Award remains val id and binding on all parties, as well as legal affirmation that Guyana’s Essequibo re gion, which contains much of the country’s natural re sources, belongs to Guyana and not Venezuela.

Guyana moved to the World Court after exhaust ing all other means to ad dress Venezuela’s conten tions, including the United Nations-led good office pro cess between the two South American neighbours, had failed.

Judicial settlement

Back in September 2022, at the United Nations General Assembly, President Dr Irfaan Ali had reiterated Guyana’s commit ment to a peaceful resolu tion of the border controver sy. However, this had caused some unease in Caracas,

and the Nicolás Maduro-led regime had issued a state ment on September 30 in which it repeated many of its spurious claims regard ing the border controversy.

the controversy was deter mined by the UN Secretary General himself.

“We own”

Meanwhile, earlier last month, there was a wide spread campaign on so cial media, with many Government officials and other stakeholders sharing a map of Guyana to declare that everything within the country’s border is “we own”.

Further, the Foreign Affairs Ministry had reached out to major platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, re questing that they remove posts made by a number of Spanish-language social media accounts, claiming Guyana’s territory by pub lishing illegal maps.

In the meantime, Guyana continues to receive the support of various coun tries and organisations for the judicial settlement of the border controversy case. These include the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and

The Commonwealth, as well as the United States with its Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Ambassador Brian A Nichols, reaffirming his country’s support for a peace ful resolution of the contro versy between Guyana and Venezuela in October.

The public hearings commencing today will be streamed live, in English on the World Court’s website and on UN Web TV.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Governance Minister Gail Teixeira, Greenidge and A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition representative Ronald Austin are among the offi cials of the Guyanese del egation at The Hague for these hearings.

Sir Shridath Ramphal and the team of internation al legal experts will continue to represent Guyana’s case before the ICJ. (G8)

In response, the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Georgetown stood behind President Ali’s words, and reiterated that the judicial settlement route to settle

The International Court of Justice

Gold miner who killed bus driver to serve 2 more years in jail

Jerrick, of Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara (ECD), was initially indict ed for the July 13, 2014 murder of Gavin Fiffee, a 31-year-old father of three of Beterverwagting, ECD. He, however, opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter following his arraignment last month be fore Justice Simone MorrisRamlall at the High Court in Demerara.

was the aggressor, since he attacked Jerrick with a cut lass. The Judge, in arriving at an appropriate sentence for the convict, considered, among other things, the se rious nature and prevalence of the offence, as well as the impact Fiffee’s death has had and continues to have on his family. According to her, Jerrick has expressed “genuine remorse” for his actions.

For country...

…and anti-racism

Sentenced to 10 years in prison for man slaughter but having already spent eight years in pretrial custody, 38-year-old gold miner Orin Jerrick will have to spend only two more years in custody for him to have fully served his sen tence.

Media reports are that on July 31, 2014, Jerrick stabbed Fiffee at the Plaisance minibus park in Georgetown. It was report ed that on the day in ques tion, Fiffee was loading his minibus when Jerrick began urinating on the wheel. As a result, the now dead man confronted him and an ar gument ensued. During the argument, Fifee pulled a cutlass on Jerrick, who re taliated by stabbing him with a knife to his upper chest.

An injured Fiffee was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital by pub lic-spirited citizens, but suc cumbed to his injuries while receiving medical attention. A few days later, Jerrick, who had escaped, surren dered to the Police.

At Jerrick’s sentenc ing hearing on Tuesday, November 15, the late Gavin Fiffee’s mother demanded justice for her son, whom she said was murdered in cold blood. “My son didn’t deserve to die in this man ner. I’m hurt with pain to know that my son was hurt for no reason,” the grieving woman said.

Leniency

She implored the Judge to sentence Jerrick to either death or life imprisonment.

In begging the Judge for leniency and the vic tim’s family for forgive ness, Jerrick stated: “I am very sorry for what hap pened.” His lawyer, Konyo Sandiford-Holder, begged Justice Morris-Ramlall to temper justice with mercy, submitting that her client is a suitable candidate for re habilitation.

The prosecutor, State Counsel Muntaz Ali, asked the court to consider the se rious nature and prevalence of the offence when calcu lating a punishment for the confessed killer. “A dead ly weapon was used during the commissioning of this offence, and that is a knife. [Fiffee] was a young adult intentionally deprived of his right to live a full and suc cessful life. After [Jerrick] stabbed [Fiffee], he fled the scene,” the prosecutor high lighted.

For her part, Justice Morris-Ramlall, in her sen tencing remarks, said Fiffee

In calculating her sen tence, she commenced at a base of 18 years, from which one-third (six years) was deducted for Jerrick’s ear ly guilty plea. From the re maining 12 years, a deduc tion of two years was made for mitigating factors.

A total of 10 years re mained. Jerrick, who has been on remand for eight years, was given full cred it for time spent in pre-tri al custody, meaning that he has about two more years in prison.

State Counsels Simran Gajraj and Taneisha Saygon were the other prosecutors.

Jerrick was initial ly tried for Fiffee’s murder in 2016 and was convicted on the lesser count of man slaughter and sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment. He, however, appealed his con viction and sentence, which were both overturned by the Court of Appeal of Guyana in 2020.

As a consequence, Jerrick’s case was remitted to the High Court for a new trial. When the case came up last month, Jerrick, who was indicted for murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. (G1)

President Irfaan Ali made a bold move in addressing a gathering of Christian leaders about “dismantling racism and discrimination” in Guyana. This was done within the ambit of his “One Guyana” initiative, which , as it unfolds, is becoming clearer in its import. It isn’t a facile “feel good” call, but one that goes to the heart of our divisions – race and racism - around which most folks pussyfoot!! So, by calling a spade a spade, the President’s giving an example of how we should tell it as it is about what ails our dear old mudland.

So, let’s talk race and racism. The bottom line is that racism springs into action when we discriminate against others just because of their skin colour, or hair texture, or other PHYSICAL characteristics. Now, think about this for a minute: does it make sense to treat someone differently just because of the bodily characteristics they were born with?? What does the body have to do with being worthy or unworthy?? To paraphrase Tina Turner, “What’s race got to do with it??”

We may claim “nothing”, but, sadly, when it comes to our lives, we know the answer is “plenty”!! Some would say “everything”. So, how’s the President gonna “dismantle” something that everybody accepts is “terrible”, yet it keeps on keepin’ on to cause pain, strife and destruction?? In these deeply-seated matters, your Eyewitness was taught by his elders that you gotta get to the root of what ails you – or else you’ll just be dealing with symptoms, rather than the ailment. Like giving a feverish cancer patient Panadol!

So where did “race” and “racism” come from?? After all, folks have been physically different since the beginning of civilisation – and we didn’t have “racism”. So, what happened? Slavery happened, that’s what!! White European folks started dragging dark folks from Africa across the Atlantic to slave on their plantations, and needed justification for doing so. And that’s where the Christian Church stepped up to the crease!! They pronounced that Black folks actually didn’t have souls!! And as such, White folks were actually doing them a favour by letting them experience an up-close relationship with “souled” folks!!

Another explanation was that Black folks were the children of Ham – who’d committed the sin of looking at his dad Noah when the old man was nekked. This sin was passed on to his descendants who were “dark”, and ipso facto, those Africans they wanted to enslave!! Now, these things sound so ridiculous you may think your Eyewitness is making them up!! But any cursory googling should convince you this is where this “racism” sickness all began.

The Churches oughta fess-up about their role in starting racism, and maybe we may move on.

…and WI Cricket

Your Eyewitness has expatiated on the sterling qualities of Shivnarine Chanderpaul that earned him a spot in the ICC Hall of Fame. But Chanderpaul just rose several notches on his estimation by pointing out - unlike many in the present crop of WI players - he also played for country, but he gotta admit he was part of the generation of WI players where the change of playing for money took precedence over patriotism.

Wasn’t he in London when the team refused to fly down to South Africa in 1998 because of money – even though Mandela had personally written each of them?? At that time and for a long period – maybe still? – the problem was with the WI Board, which still acted like the players were “boys” off the sugar plantations - who should only doff their caps to them!! Yes, your Eyewitness, is a firm believer in playing for country – the Indians, English, Aussies…etc. show it can be done!!

But WI Cricket gotta take care of them!!

…and North West

At long last, the ferry to transport people and goods to and from the North West/Reg 1 to Georgetown is making its way from India.

It’ll take about the same time as the indentured ships of yore!!

Jailed: Orin Jerrick

Dead: Gavin Fiffee

Aspiring pilot jailed for 11 years for rape of underage girl

A21-year-old man who told the court that he is aspiring to become a pilot was on Wednesday jailed for 11 years for raping an underage girl.

Mark Fontanelle of Kwakwani, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), was initially charged with raping a 12-year-old girl in November 2021, and was released on $250,000 bail. Following a preliminary in quiry (PI), a Magistrate ruled that sufficient evi dence was presented against Fontanelle for him to stand trial for the offence at the Demerara Sexual Offences Court.

On November 7, 2021, in the county of Demerara, Fontanelle engaged in sexual penetration of a

child under the age of 16. Represented by defence counsel Teriq Mohammed, he pleaded guilty to the

charge when he appeared before Justice Sandil Kissoon.

State Counsel Cicelia

Corbin, in association with State Counsel Caressa Henry and State Counsel Paneeta Persaud, present ed the prosecution’s case. The prosecution’s facts re vealed that Fontanelle used violence during the commis sion of the unlawful act.

Fontanelle, in his ad dress to the court, begged Justice Kissoon for a chance to turn a new leaf.

“I want to ask that I be given a second chance. I re ally would like to fulfill my dreams…I would really like to set an example for the other men out there. Please be very lenient and have mercy on me,” said the tear ful convict, a former Sunday School teacher, during an impassioned plea.

For his part, Justice

Kissoon told the young man that while he does not in tend to “take away your life” and his dream of becoming a pilot, he has to impose a sentence that is in keeping with the principles of sen tencing. According to the Judge, crimes of this na ture have devastating con sequences and impacts on young, vulnerable victims. In this regard, he noted that no one should be sub jected to being raped. The Judge also alluded to the prevalence of child rape in Guyana -- a state of affairs that has been frowned upon by the judiciary.

In calculating an ap propriate sentence for Fontanelle, he commenced at a base of 15 years, from which one-third (five years)

was deducted for the offend er’s early guilty plea, leav ing 10 years.

Given the aggravating factors, the Judge added two years, bringing the sen tence to 12 years. He, how ever, gave a discount of one year for Fontanelle’s favour able probation report, his prior unblemished criminal record, and for him being of “much scope for rehabilita tion”.

The convict has therefore been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the offence.

While Fontanelle was out on bail awaiting trial, he was ordered to lodge his passport with the court, to report to the Sergeant at the Kwakwani Police Station, and to not contact the vic tim. (G1)

Child rapist Mark Fontanelle

Boat mishap at Imbaimadai 1 body recovered, search continues for other missing man

After days of search ing for Germain La Rose, 34, of Canvas City, Wismar, Linden and Terrence Thomas, 29, of Meadow Brook Gardens, Georgetown, who had gone missing following a boat mishap at Imbaimadai Landing on Thursday, November 10, the body of Thomas has been recovered.

Police officials confirmed on Wednesday that the man’s body was found in the vicinity of Imbaimadai Landing, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). It has also been revealed that a post-mortem examination would shortly be done to determine the cause of his death.

Meanwhile, the search for La Rose continues.

Thomas and La Rose went missing on Thursday, November 10, after the boat in which they were travel ling took in water and sank in the Upper Mazaruni River in the vicinity of Imbaimadai Landing.

Romell Ramlakhan, a Mines Officer in charge of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission at Imbaimadai Landing, has said that he and two other colleagues had re turned from a field trip at Kamarang Landing, and he was on his way to the GGMC

station when Thomas and La Rose approached him on the Imbaimadai air strip and related that they had arrived in Imbaimadai Landing to do work, but did not elaborate.

Information obtained revealed that La Rose re quested to be accommo dated at the GGMC living quarters, and Ramlakhan agreed, since La Rose was a former employee.

However, Ramlakhan said that the following day, at about 03:00h, he observed La Rose and Thomas pre paring to go on their jour ney, and he suggested that

they wait until daylight. He said that Thomas declined, noting that the journey was a lengthy one, and he used an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to drop the duo on the hill by the riverside, and he re turned to the GGMC sta tion.

The boat captain, Romain Reece, told investigators that he, La Rose, Thomas and another man boarded a metal boat, property of Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and headed for Kako Village, Upper Mazaruni, along with approximately 40 gallons of fuel and 10 signs to be erect

ed at the mining claim they were going to survey.

Some two minutes into their journey, while he was trying to plane off the boat, Reece said, the boat began to take in water, and Thomas and La Rose panicked and jumped overboard, causing the boat to take in water and sink.

Reece said that he and the other man attempted to swim to safety, and got to the river’s bank by holding on to fuel tanks, but upon reaching the river’s bank, he discovered that Thomas and La Rose were missing and the other colleague was a few feet away. Reece said an alarm was raised and

Police were notified.

It was also revealed that none of the occupants of the boat was wearing a life jacket at the time of the in cident. It was also report ed that the Mines Officer Ramlakhan did not know, and had not authorised any one to use the GGMC boat and engine. (G9)

Guyanese fugitive nabbed in Dominican Republic

Guyanese Dennis Edwards, called “Death,” a 38-yearold suspected drug traffick er, has been extradited from the Dominican Republic to the United States, and is to face drug trafficking charges.

Edwards arrived in the Dominican Republic on Monday, November 14, but was denied entry and deported by Dominican Republic authorities. He was placed on a US Government flight that landed at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey, and was detained by US Government authorities at the airport upon his ar rival there. He appeared in federal court in Newark on Tuesday, November 15, be fore US Magistrate Judge Edward S. Kiel, and is being held without bail.

According to court doc

uments and statements, the US Government claims that Edwards was part of a criminal conspiracy that ar ranged for the importation

of cocaine into the US.

The conspiracy charge against Edwards carries a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maxi mum of life in prison and a maximum fine of $10 mil lion.

In 2010, the Guyana Police Force had issued bul letins for ten persons, in cluding Edwards, in relation to a murder. Police had not specified which murders the men were being sought for, but the bulletins had come in the wake of three bul let-riddled attacks which had claimed the lives of eight people in the year 2010 and had ramped up pressure on the Police to solve the cases.

In a 2012 indictment, Edwards was charged with conspiring to import five ki logrammes or more of co caine from St. Maarten into the United States. (G9)

Germain La Rose and Terrence Thomas

Dennis Edwards, called “Death”

14 cops before courts for criminal offences

Driver arrested after teen seen hanging onto moving, overloaded minibus …zero tolerance for traffic lawlessness –

GPF

As the Guyana Police Force (GPF) con tinues to weed out corrupt and rogue officers from within its ranks, it has been announced that some 14 cops have faced le gal consequences for their allegedly ill-intended ac tions for the year so far.

According to a recent United States (US) re port on human rights in Guyana, in 2021, Guyana saw 11 Police officers ar rested and charged with multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy, and larceny for inflating the costs of meals procured for Police officers and keeping the difference.

During a press confer ence on Tuesday, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum re vealed that for the year so far, 14 officers have been charged with criminal of fences.

“Here is a breakdown of the various offences: mur der - one, corruption - three, conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice - one, ob structing the course of jus

tice - two, assault causing bodily harm - one, simple larceny - one, assault - two, larceny by a public officerone, and trafficking in nar cotics - two. This gives you a total of 14”, he said.

Despite their role as public servants, some of the men and women who swore an oath to keep com munities safe have contin ued to find themselves in these controversial situa tions over the years.

Just recently, two Police officers in Division Six, Ramesh Chaitram and Marlon Khadoo, appeared before the court to face charges for an alleged cor ruption transaction. The cops allegedly demand ed $400,000 from a civil ian to hide a case involving the discovery of an illegal firearm. Shortly after, the regional top cop issued a stern warning to officers about Police corruption. He said that, once found guilty, they will face the full force of the law. (G9)

Aminibus driver was ar rested and immediate ly charged after a teen in school uniform was seen clinging on to the back of his bus while it was in motion.

The minibus operator was charged, Police say, after they saw a Facebook post cir culating on the social media platform of the youth danger ously slinging behind a mov ing Route 40 minibus that was overloaded.

“The Police managed to arrest the driver of the mini bus. The vehicle was also impounded at the Traffic Headquarters, Eve Leary,” a release from the Police read.

On Tuesday, the driv er was charged for breach of condition of road service li

cence; failing to exhibit rev enue licence and fitness cer tificate, tinted motor vehicle, and breach of prescribed fit ness.

According to the Police Force, it has zero tolerance for traffic lawlessness, and every driver who is found in violation of traffic regulations will face the full brunt of the law.

“The Guyana Police Force wishes to encourage all driv ers, pedestrians, and persons using our roadways to be

Earlier this month, Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton

Hicken

more responsible and to re member the theme for Road Safety 2022, which is: ‘Safe driving saves lives!” the GPF has said.

said that all Police ranks will be zeroing in on traffic lawlessness. He said that to reduce carnage on the roadways, there must be a rigorous education campaign. (G9)

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum

The abus after it was impounded by Police

The teen hanging on to the minibus as it was driving

Nearly $6B in contracts signed to upgrade 12 water treatment plants

As part of its goal of de livering treated wa ter to at least 90 per cent of the population, the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) on Wednesday signed contracts to the tune of almost $6 bil lion for the rehabilitation of 12 existing water treatment plants across the country.

Contracts were awarded for the upgrade of water treat ment plants at Vergenoegen, Pouderoyen, and Fellowship in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Better Hope, Mon Repos and Friendship on the East Coast of Demerara as well as Eccles, Covent Garden and Grove, East Bank Demerara – all in Region Four (DemeraraMahaica); Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); and New Amsterdam and Port Mourant in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

According to GWI Chief Executive Officer (GWI) Shaik Baksh, the rehabilita tion of these plants will bene fit thousands of persons.

“Some of these plants and the filters are over 40-50 years so they are very aged. So, we’ve taken a decision that we should replace those filters and have an upgrade of other components of those treatment plants… For the 12 upgraded plants, we ex pect 60,000 more beneficia ries. They’re already supply ing treated water to certain areas or zones, but this will

increase by 60,000 more with the upgraded plants,” he stat ed.

Only last month, GWI signed some $8.5 billion in contracts for the construc tion of seven new water treat ment plants across the coun try at Onderneeming, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Parika, Wales, Lust-en-Rust and Caledonia in Region Three, and Cummings Lodge and Bachelor’s Adventure in Region Four.

The setting-up of these new treatment plants and upgrading existing ones along with another project for 10 small in-line filter plants to come next year are all

part of GWI’s Coastal Water Treatment Infrastructure Programme that will be im plemented during the 20212025 period.

CEO Baksh noted that this aggressive and com prehensive programme was aimed at achieving the goal of distributing treated water to 90 per cent of the coastland within the next two to three years that will benefit in ex cess of 300,000 persons.

The GWI Head said he was proud that the agency was able to push ahead with the first two components of this larger initiative in the past year.

“The goal is to provide

safe and reliable water to the population. Already, we are on our way to provide 99 per cent access to the coastal belt of water and 100 per cent ac cess to water in the hinter land communities. It’s a mas sive separate programme of drilling the wells, distribution networks and so on. So, the goal really is to ensure that water reduces the poverty lev els in our country. We’re tar geting unserved areas. We’re targeting the new housing developments…[which] have been factored into this treat ed water programme,” Baksh stated.

Remedy deficiencies

In fact, he further dis closed that only recently they were able to restore treat ed water to residents in ma

jor communities along the East Bank Demerara corri dor including Grove, Covent Garden and Eccles after more than five years. He noted that teams of contrac tors and engineers were still working on that corridor to remedy deficiencies in the distribution network such as leakages.

Baksh posited that ulti mately, the GWI was work ing to have persons drink ing the water coming directly from the taps/pipes.

Meanwhile, the 12 con tractors who will be under taking these upgrade works at the water treatment plants are Compass Engineering (Friendship); H Nauth and Sons (Mon Repos and New Amsterdam); D & R (Better Hope); Dax Engineering

(Grove, Covent Garden and Eccles); International Import and Supplies (Port Mourant); Singh and Son (Cotton Tree); S Jagmohan and Co (Fellowship and Pouderoyen), and Toshiba Water Solutions Inc (Vergenoegen).

CEO Baksh used the op portunity to charge these 12 contractors to adhere to the contract terms and deliver their respective projects on time and with high-quality work.

“We expect timely com pletion… We don’t expect any delays in the execution of these programmes. As a matter of fact, I know some contractors – from what I’ve been told – have already started sourcing materials and so on in terms of mobilis ing and will commence work very shortly. So, I expect the timely completion of these projects…

“We expect a high quali ty of work and quality ma terials for the storage and filters, the pumps and the motors that you have to pro vide. We will be paying spe cial attention to quality ma terials and quality work, and we’re developing a quality control programme for this… On our side, we will ensure payments are expedited,” the water company boss stated.

Moreover, it was noted that GWI has been building capacity to establish a cohort of in-house project supervi sors to provide oversight of these projects in order to en sure that contractors deliver quality work. (G8)

CEO Shaik Baksh and other GWI officials along with the contractors who will be upgrading the 12 water treatment plants

Haslington man nabbed with ganja

Amale resident of Haslington, East Coast Demerara who was nabbed with a quantity of cannabis has been arrested.

Reports are that at about 18:45h on Tuesday, a party of Policemen, act ing on information re ceived, went to Golden Grove Market Square and accosted the 32-year-old unemployed man of South Haslington, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

It has been report ed that Police ranks car ried out a search on the person of the man and on his immediate surround ings, and a number of leaves, seeds, and stems suspected to be cannabis were found on the ground about one foot away from

him. He was told of the offence, but remained si lent.

He was then escort ed to the Cove and John Police Station, ECD,

along with the suspect ed cannabis, which was weighed and amounted to 67.5 grams.

The suspect is in custo dy pending charges. (G9)

Dispute over ganja ends in murder

32-year-old Sherwayne Underwood of La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara (WBD) was killed at about 03:00h on Tuesday by a man in a dispute over mar ijuana.

The 29-year-old sus pect, of La Parfaite Harmonie, was subse quently apprehended by Police ranks, and has since admitted to fatally stab bing Underwood during a fight.

Reports are that the men were at Policeman Corner at La Parfaite Harmonie, imbibing when a misunderstanding devel oped over marijuana that the late Underwood was using.

The suspect allegedly

told Underwood the weed he was using was “bush weed”, and the suspect also dealt Underwood a punch to the side of his head.

A fight ensued, during which the suspect whipped out a knife and dealt Underwood a single stab to his abdomen.

Underwood ran a short

distance before collapsing, and was picked up in a con scious state by public-spir ited persons and rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injury.

The suspect, who had made good his escape from the scene, was arrested at about 06:20h on Tuesday, and was escorted to La Parfaite Harmonie Police Station, where he gave a video-recorded statement under caution, admitting to the crime.

Underwood’s body is presently at the Ezekiel Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination, and investigations are on going. (G9)

Miners making efforts...

“Members in attendance raised concerns over the in creasing malaria cases in the interior, and called on greater intervention and support from the Ministry of Health. Members also urged the GGDMA to con tinue to lobby Government for: new roads; rehabilita tion and upgrading of ex isting roads, bridges and airstrips; to examine a re duction in late fees charged by the GGMC, to seek addi tional funding for Mercuryfree mining technology, and to engage with banks and suppliers for better fi nancial terms for the in dustry,” a statement from GGDMA said.

Alphonso, meanwhile, outlined some of the ma jor objectives the GGDMA would be focusing on in the upcoming year. Those in clude cost of production, lack of adequate infrastruc ture, labour shortages, the renewal of the Investment Development Agreements (IDAs) for Miners, and im proved infrastructure for

the mining sector.

Another issue that would be addressed by the GGDMA is the opening up of new mining lands, allow ance for miners to have the option to be paid up to 100 per cent of funds earned from gold sales in foreign currency, and the remov al of restrictions on the age of ATVs for which waivers can be garnered.

Administrative Manager of the GGDMA, Avalon Jagnandan, mean while explained that the Association has launched an initiative to support miners in need of work grounds. He informed the gathering that several min ing blocks would be made available to miners of all scales to access, and urged miners to visit the GGDMA Secretariat for details.

Mercury, also known as quicksilver, is a highly tox ic chemical used in min ing to bind gold together. Exposure to mercury fumes affects the nervous and re productive systems, and

FROM PAGE 2

damages brain function.

Guyana signed on to the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2013 and ratified the convention in 2014. Over the years, the Ministry of Natural Resources has partnered with the WWF and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to draft a National Action Plan (NAP) which would see a phased reduc tion of the use of mercu ry in the mining sector to complete elimination by 2027 through the imple mentation of a phased mer cury reduction strategy.

The NAP captures a number of objectives and strategies as outlined in the Minamata Convention. These include mercury-use reduction; increasing the viability of small- and me dium-scale mining; man agement of mercury waste; environmental assessment; contaminated sites; public health aspects, and public information awareness and education. (G3)

Remorseless child rapist fails in bid for leniency …jailed for 15 years

Aremorseless child rapist has been jailed for 15 years and three months. Thirtythree-year-old Ray Williams, who groomed his 12-yearold victim, was sentenced on Wednesday when he appeared before Justice Sandil Kissoon at the Sexual Offences Court in Georgetown.

By pleading guilty to three counts of child rape, Williams, a coal miner and father of four, did not put the young girl through the har rowing ordeal of a trial.

He first raped the child between February 26 and July 31, 2021, then again between August 1 and 31, 2021, and again between September 1 and 30, 2021.

Notwithstanding his guilty pleas, Williams main tained his innocence.

“I am asking for mercy from the family [of the vic tim] and for the Judge to have mercy upon me, know ing that this is something I didn’t commit. I’m going to jail for something that I have never done,” said Williams, who appeared in court from prison via Zoom.

According to the sex of fender, he pleaded guilty to the charge because “I don’t need to stay long in jail; so, I just admit to what is the

crime so that I can pay my time.” He said the victim “knows in her heart” who ha rassed her.

On the first count of rape, Justice Kissoon sen tenced Williams to 12 years in prison. He, however, ad justed the sentence upward for the repeated sexual as sault on the girl. As such, Williams was handed prison terms of 13 years and three months and 15 years and three months on the second and third counts respective ly. The three jail terms will run concurrently.

In admonishing Williams, whom he described as a “sex ual predator”, the Judge told him that he had violated a position of trust as an adult, a husband, a father of four, and a spouse.

Williams was represent ed by Attorney-at-Law Teriq Mohammed, while State Counsel Cicelia Corbin, in association with State Counsels Caressa Henry and Paneeta Persaud, presented the prosecution’s case.

The marijuana that was found in the man’s possession

Dead: Sherwayne Underwood

Child rapist Ray Williams

Investors to find ways to incorporate people & communities

…economic diversification must be paired with social integration – Ali

With a British Trade Mission in Guyana seeking out invest ment opportunities in sectors such as agriculture, the ex tractive sectors and in man ufacturing, President Dr Irfaan Ali has urged them to also look at the social side of investing and seek to incor porate the people.

On Wednesday, the President witnessed the signing of a partnership agreement between Guyana and the United Kingdom (UK) at the Marriott Hotel. Afterwards, President Ali engaged the British Trade Mission, which arrived in Guyana earlier this week.

He told them of the boun tiful opportunities for invest ment in Guyana, but also told them of Government’s expec tations. One such expecta tion is that investors would find ways in which they could involve communities and or dinary people in their devel opments.

“It’s a very complex de bate, but we are in the room

to find solutions and to en sure that our Private Sector and the Governments from both sides are integrated into those solutions; that they find a way in which they can survive; a way in which they can make a decent return; and a way in which they can incorporate people in their development,” the President said.

“At the end of the day, we want to have a system of in vestment in which people be come prosperous. One of the reasons why we’re pursu ing call centres…as part of the technology’s platform (is) we’re going to pass legisla tion by the end of this year… we must have legislation in the Parliament for data cen tres,” he said.

According to President Ali, this would be a massive business opportunity. Added to this is the need for reliable power and energy, which is a work in progress. Ali further emphasised the need for so cial and economic diversifica tion.

“The next eight years is to ensure we have a very rig id, strong system in place to build an economy 2030 and beyond that is function al, highly competitive, above par, and among the big econ omies. That requires social and economic diversifica tion,” the President added.

“I’ve added social diversi fication. You won’t see it in a text book, because in my own reading I’ve come to the conclusion that diversifica tion cannot only be economic in nature, it has to be social. And social diversification is a concept that speaks to more regional planning, more re gional orientation of growth and prosperity; looking more to the community level,” he explained.

The President also reit erated to the investors that Guyana is undergoing a mas sive transformation, and his Government continues to work on building the coun try’s economy to make it be come extremely competitive by 2030 and beyond.

The British Trade Mission is in Guyana from November 14th to 16th, during which they would be engaging the Government and local Private Sector. Their visit is as a result of collaboration between the Department for International Trade of the British High Commission, the Caribbean Council, and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

The forum, meanwhile, featured presentations by Sector Leads and UK Industry, as well as minis terial interventions and dis cussions in several priority areas, including infrastruc ture, housing, education and agriculture.

The UK delegation in cluded British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller; UK’s Trade Commissioner to Latin America and the Caribbean, Jonathan Knott; and oth er visiting officials, while

President Ali was accompa nied by Ministers Dr Ashni Singh, Hugh Todd, Oneidge Walrond, Juan Edghill and Collin Croal, along with oth er officials.

In his remarks, Knott noted Guyana’s green energy potential and also expressed that the two countries share a similar mindset when it comes to turning Guyana into the investment hub of the region.

“We share your ambition to build capacity and capabil ity. We share your vision that Guyana is going to become a hub for investment gateway in South America,” Knott told those in attendance.

The British Trade Mission’s visit to Guyana aims to increase growth in trade and investment be tween Britain and Guyana. Guyana only recently col laborated with the UK Caribbean Infrastructure Fund, with the latter pro viding US$66 million toward

the US$190 million Lindento-Mabura road project. The two-lane highway between Linden and Mabura Hill forms part of the arterial link between Linden and the Lethem Highway, and links Georgetown to the Brazilian border.

Additionally, through the UK Export Finance (UKEF), the Government of Guyana is constructing a paediatric and maternal hospital. The building and equipping of the state-of-the-art hospital will cost 149 million pounds.

Meanwhile, co-oper ation programmes/proj ects between Guyana and the UK also include the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, the Lethem Hospital, the Leonora Cottage Hospital, the Mabaruma Hospital and the Paramakatoi Hospital. And as of November 9, through collaboration be tween the two countries, Guyanese are now able to visit the UK visa-free. (G3)

900 students to benefit as breakfast programme is launched in Region 5

Education Minister Priya Manickchand on Wednesday launched a programme which would pro vide a daily breakfast to all Grade Six students in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).

Manickchand has said she is happy to be launching ‘Ednutrition’ – breakfast for success in the region, where some 900 Grade Six students from 25 schools would be ben efitting. The programme was launched at the Belladrum Primary School.

“When we say all chil dren will get breakfast, that is what we mean. At this point, it is for all children in Grade Six,” the Minister has said. “This morning (Wednesday) we are very glad to be launch ing ‘Ednutrition’ -- breakfast for success in Region Five, (where children) will, for the first time in the history of this country, receive breakfast from the Government as help and assistance, not only to get their schoolwork going, but to put more money in their par ents’ pockets,” Manickchand has said.

“This is not the first

time Region Five is getting breakfast for some children. Breakfast for Region Five started in 2015, but at that time, seven schools were get ting breakfast. Now all the primary schools (Grade Six children) in Region Five will get breakfast regardless of where they are from,” she said.

She pointed out that when the programme was held in 2018, there were three per sons supplying the meals for the seven schools. “Right now, 25 people are supplying 25

schools.” This, the Minister has said, resulted in 25 wom en who did not have jobs prior now having a business oppor tunity to provide the meals. They were chosen by the indi vidual schools.

“When we started, we had black eye as one of the meals, and like every other house, the kids hated black eye, so we had to change that. We are listening to what the children are saying, so as to be able to improve the programme,” she said.

When asked, children at

the launch on Wednesday said their favourites were the sandwiches and cereal.

According to the Education Minister, research around the world has proven that children who benefit from healthy nutrition learn better and perform better in school. Additionally, she said the School Feeding Programme has shown increased atten dance and enrollment at schools.

The programme was of ficially launched nationally in September, with a prom ise that it would be spread to the coastal Regions: Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (DemeraraMahaica), Five (MahaicaBerbice), and Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

Children living in the hin terland regions are already benefitting from a separate feeding programme.

“It is not only breakfast we are offering. For the first time, all your Grade Six children right here at Belladrum and everywhere else right across this region have all of the text

books they need – for free in their individual book bags.

The Education Minister pointed out that some may argue that textbooks were al ways being issued for free, but she said there were only four textbooks given to each stu dent.

“We have given a package of over seventeen. The way I arrived at what must be in that package, it is what my child was using in a private school. If this is good for the private school children, it is good for every other child in this country. There are some books that you never saw be

fore, and couldn’t even access even if you were willing to save your money to purchase them…,” she explained.

For this year, $267 million is being spent on the break fast programme for Grade Six pupils. In addition, a mon itoring and evaluation offi cer from the region has been employed to help monitor the breakfast programme so that excellence is always delivered.

To date, 12,401 students are benefitting country wide from the breakfast pro gramme, while 235 persons are directly employed through the programme. (G4)

President Dr Irfaan Ali (centre) surrounded by the Trade Mission and Cabinet members

Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd (left) and British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller signing the trade partnership, pact while UK’s Trade Commissioner to the region, Jonathan Knott looks on

Education Minister Priya Manickchand with students of the Belladrum Primary School

Unidentified body found stuffed under bridge on Brickdam

Just one day after news emerged that a body was seen float ing next to the Anna Catherina Seawall, West Coast Demerara (WCD) on Tuesday, another body has been found stuffed un der a bridge at Brickdam in Georgetown.

Law enforcement officials were called to the Brickdam area at around 17:00h on Wednesday after receiving reports that a body was seen under a bridge in the vicini ty of the Schuler and Gomes Optical Services building on Brickdam. Upon arriving at the scene, cops spent hours

trying to break the bridge, which is partially concealed, to reach the body.

When Guyana Times ar rived on scene, the stench of the partially decomposed body was overwhelming.

Neighbours said that for days they had been smelling a foul odour in the area and had thought it was emanat ing from the body of a dead animal.

One man told this pub lication that the smell had become unbearable for him and his family, and he had been hoping that something could have been done soon.

Reports are that the

Schuler and Gomes busi ness place, in an effort to get rid of the smell, had decided to clean the trench in front of their property when the body was discovered under the concrete bridge.

Owner of the business place, Don Gomes, told the media that he had been get ting the stench since Sunday. He said that after asking his workers to check the trench,

and upon learning there was a body there, he immediately informed the Police.

After the body was pulled from under the concealed bridge, the businessman said that, based on his ob servation, the person cannot be identified as anyone he knows.

A probe has been launched into the discovery. (G9)

Agri Minister announces black giant chicken programme for Corentyne single mothers

careful,” he said.

The villages that are add ed to this programme in clude Lancaster, Liverpool, Ulverston, Manchester and Alness.

Recognising that poor drainage and irrigation is a recurring issue for residents, the Minister committed to spending $42M to clean drains in communities with in the NDC, and a further $35M to look after the drains in the cultivation area.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has announced that select single mothers from Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne) will soon benefit from the receipt of black gi ant chickens which they can use to their economic bene fit.

This announcement was made when the Agriculture and Natural Resources Ministers, Zulfikar Mustapha and Vickram Bharrat respectively, held a community meeting on Wednesday at Bloomfield,

Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne).

According to Minister Mustapha, the black gi ant chicken project would benefit all single moth ers in the Whim/Bloomfield Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).

He said each recipi ent would receive 25 baby chicks.

“We can even extend it to Alness. From Alness to Bloomfield – all the sin gle mothers. A lot of people during the flood relief conned the process, so we have to be

Meanwhile, during the outreach, the Minister also listened to, and addressed, various concerns of the res idents. One resident point ed out that after years of agitating to have the street in which she lives upgrad ed from a mud surface to asphalt, rice farmers have started using its surface to dry their paddy. She said they did so for the last two crops.

“They take over the whole street, and there is nowhere to walk. At one time they cut the electric wire and did not

report it, and another time they cut the telephone wire and took off the internet. I was without internet for five days, and I have online classes,” she bemoaned.

This resident said she had approached the Whim/ Bloomfield NDC questioning the use of the road by rice farmers to dry their paddy.

“The NDC told me that in this area there is no drying floor for the farmers. I am simply asking if there are plans to have a drying floor for the rice farmers in this

area to dry their paddy.”

The Agriculture Minister, acknowledging that there is no such facility in the com munity, said he would have his technical staff try to lo cate suitable land and build a drying flood for paddy with funds from the 2023 National Budget.

Another farmer said he was in need of improved swine breed, and asked for two animals. His request was granted, as the Minister committed the Guyana Livestock Development

Authority (GLDA), which is an arm of the Agriculture Ministry, to give the farmer one of the breed of animals he was requesting.

Several other requests were granted to farmers on the spot as the Minister re minded them of the impor tance the Peoples Progressive Party Administration is put ting on agriculture. He also reminded them that while in Opposition, the previous Government had made a lot of promises to assist the farming community, includ ing rice farmers, but after taking office, the then head of State, David Granger, had told rice farmers that rice is private business and had given them no support.

He also pointed out that even though the Coalition, before taking office, had also promised not to close any sugar estate, they did the opposite soon after taking of fice.

He promised to be back in the community early next year. (G4)

The unidentified body that was found under the bridge

The area in which the body was found

A Police rank breaking the bridge with a sledge hammer to reach the body

Regional

At COP27, Brazil’s Lula vows halt to rampant deforestation

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to crack down on illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and to make his country a leader in the global fight against climate change.

The statements on Wednesday, which come six weeks before Lula is set to take office, signalled a departure from the pol icies of current President Jair Bolsonaro, who pre sided over years of ram pant Amazon deforesta tion.

By contrast, Lula said that climate change would have the highest profile in his Government and that he would work to strength en oversight and monitor ing systems dismantled over the last four years.

“I am here to say to all of you that Brazil is back in the world,” Lula said in front of hundreds of at tendees gathered in a pa

vilion in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was met with en thusiastic chants.

“You all know that we are going to undertake a big fight against deforesta tion,” he said.

Brazil is home to 60 per cent of the Amazon, which spans eight countries and acts as a massive offset for

global carbon emissions, a fact underscored by Lula in his address.

“There is no climate se curity for the world without a protected Amazon,” Lula later said in his formal speech. “We will do what ever it takes to have zero deforestation and the deg radation of our biomes.” ( Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Dominican Republic steps up Haitian deportations, raising tensions

The Dominican Republic is stepping up deportations of Haitians and is creating a Police unit focused on foreigners, fuelling ten sions between the two Caribbean nations whose relations have for decades been marred by migration disputes.

Dominican President Luis Abinader last week issued a decree calling for stepped-up migration pro tocols enforcement and the creation of a Police unit to investigate foreigners liv ing in "illegal land occupa tions".

Critics in Haiti have noted those plans run counter to a United

Nations call for countries not to return citizens to Haiti due to chronic gang violence.

"Prime Minister Ariel Henry is very concerned about the mass depor tations that are taking place in the Dominican Republic," said JeanJunior Joseph, a spokes person for the Prime Minister's office, in a statement on Wednesday. "We hope that the rights of our citizens are respected."

The Dominican Republic's Foreign Ministry did not immedi ately respond to an email seeking comment.

Turk on November 10 called on the Dominican Republic to halt deporta tions of Haitians, citing vi olence and systematic hu man rights violations in their home country.

Abinader in comments broadcast by Dominican media described Turk's comments as "unaccept able and irresponsible", saying that the Dominican Republic did not have re sources to help more Haitians and adding that authorities would boost de portations.

Barbados “reaping what we sow” – PM

The recent gun violence in Barbados is the re sult of the island reap ing what it has sown over a period of time, says Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.

She was speaking at a media conference on Tuesday at the Grantley Adams International Airport, moments after ar riving from an overseas trip to several African countries.

“We were the most shocked people when we came into office to find the state of lack of security that we found. I have not seen guns yet that are biodegrad able so once they come in they are going to remain,” she said.

“Let’s get context here too. You have the United States of America that has gone crazy and we have to get a hemispheric approach to ban assault weapons, be cause the truth is it is the automatic weapons that cre ate even greater fear. The reality is that throughout every Caribbean country, throughout every Central and Latin American coun

try, but above all else worse than that, the United States of America that is respon sible for the manufacturing (of the guns); this is what we are facing.”

Mottley said the problem could not be solved “only by dealing with it”, but it has to be dealt with.

“That is why even with the Trust verification at the ports, I am deeply upset it has taken as long as it has

taken as it has done to do it. I have spoken internally about it and everybody who works in a sensitive position has to make up their mind that they have to be subject to different types of rules and conditions than those who don’t work than those who don’t. That is what it is. To whom much is given much is expected.”

(Excerpt from Nation News)

Gleaner appoints Moya Thomas as editor-in-chief

The Gleaner Company has appointed Moya Thomas as edi tor-in-chief, effective December 1, 2022.

Thomas will take over from Kaymar Jordan, who resigned last month after three years in the job.

With the appoint ment, Thomas will be come the third female editor-in-chief in the newspaper company’s 187-year history. The first was Wyvolyn Gager, who served from 1994 to 2001, while the second was Jordan.

Moya Thomas

cluding over 20 years in editorial management.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker

It was not immedi ately evident how many Haitians have been deport ed since the decree took ef fect. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Thomas brings with her 30 years' media and journalism experience, in

She has previously served as general manag er of Love FM, group head of news at the then RJR

IMF sees Nicaragua's economy expanding by 3% next year Venezuelan national held with shotgun in T&T jailed

AVenezuelan nation al who was caught by the Police with a loaded shotgun has been jailed for 24 months.

Jose Vicente Gamero, 36, pleaded guilty to pos session of a Mosberg Maverick shotgun and one round of 12-gauge car tridge when he appeared

virtually yesterday before Point Fortin Magistrate Alicia Chankar.

Gamero was arrested on Tuesday around 07:55h in Cedros.

Four ranks of the South Western Division Task Force, were on patrol when they saw him walk ing with a white crocus bag

across his back.

He began to run when he saw the Police vehicle.

The officers gave chase and held him a short dis tance away.

They checked the bag and found the loaded shot gun. He was then charged. (Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian)

Nicaragua’s econ omy is forecast to grow three per cent in 2023, down from expected growth of four per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement released on Wednesday, adding its economic outlook is fa vourable despite global risks going forward.

"Nicaragua's economic outlook is favourable, al though risks to the outlook

are on the downside, pri marily due to global head winds," the IMF said in a statement after concluding a mission in the country.

The IMF said real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is expect ed to moderate to three per cent in 2023 owing to weaker external demand and tighter external fi nancial conditions.

After contracting by about nine per cent during 2018-2020, Nicaragua's

economic activity is recov ering well, supported by appropriate macroeconom ic and financial policies and substantial pre-crisis buffers from Government deposits and international reserves, the fund added.

The IMF underscored that Nicaragua still needs to maintain prudent mon etary, fiscal, and financial policies in order to "build resilience" and achieve sustained medium-term growth. (Reuters)

In remarks at the COP27 United Nations climate summit, Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva championed his country's role in fighting climate change [Nariman El-Mofty/AP photo]

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley

Communications Group and consultant head of news at the Caribbean New Media Group in Trinidad and Tobago.

(Jamaica Observer)

Around the World

Republicans win US House majority, setting stage for divided Government

Oil falls as Druzhba pipeline reopens, China COVID worries stay at the fore

Oil prices settled more than a dollar lower on Wednesday after Russian oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary restarted and as rising COVID-19 cases in China weighed on sentiment.

Brent crude futures settled a dollar lower at US$92.86 a barrel, down 1.1 per cent. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid by US$1.33, or 1.5 per cent, to settle at US$85.59 a barrel.

The market gave up early gains after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that flows through the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia had resumed following a brief outage.

The market later recovered some losses after US crude stocks fell more than expected on the back of heavy refining activity. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US crude inventories fell by 5.4 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a 440,000-barrel drop.

In addition, tanker tracker Petro-Logistics said in a report that exports from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have fallen significantly so far this month.

"Various geopolitical influences – from an oil tanker being hit by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman, to Russia tensions – are being largely dismissed in favour of a focus on the more bearish elements such as weak Chinese economic data and demand," said Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler.

In China, rising COVID-19 cases weighed on sentiment after an easing of virus restrictions this week.

Meanwhile, Iraq plans to raise its production capacity to around seven million barrels a day in 2027, State-owned oil marketer SOMO told Reuters, although any increases will be in coordination with OPEC.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast demand growth to slow to 1.6 million bpd in 2023 from 2.1 million bpd this year. (Reuters)

As blast hits Poland, Russia loses more ground in Ukraine

In the 38th week of the war, a blast in Poland threatened escalation and Russia pounded cities across Ukraine with missiles after losing Kherson city.

A Russian-made missile hit a Polish village near the border with Ukraine during the 38th week of the war, briefly raising the spectre of NATO involvement and a broader conflagration, as Russia faced losing even more ground in southern Ukraine after its withdrawal from Kherson.

Two people were killed on Tuesday when the missile hit NATO member Poland.

It initially raised con cerns that Russia had hit Poland either deliberate ly or with a stray missile, but on Wednesday, Warsaw and NATO said the explo sion was likely an “unfortu

nate accident” caused by a Ukrainian air defence mis sile launched to intercept a barrage of Russian missiles.

NATO and Poland still said Moscow was ultimate ly responsible for the inci dent due to its attacks on Ukraine, and Warsaw said later it did not definitive ly rule out a “provocation” by Russia. Both Kyiv and Moscow have denied respon sibility for the blast.

The incident came as Russia pummelled at least 12 cities across Ukraine with dozens of missiles on Tuesday, mainly targeting energy infrastructure and causing blackouts for mil lions of people.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister said it was the big gest bombardment of power facilities in the nearly ninemonth-old Russian invasion. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Republicans were pro jected to win a ma jority in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting the stage for two years of divid ed government as President Joe Biden's Democratic Party held control of the Senate.

The victory gives Republicans the power to rein in Biden's agenda, as well as to launch potentially politically damaging probes of his administration and family, though it falls far short of the "red wave" the party had hoped for.

The final call came af ter more than a week of ballot counting, when Edison Research projected Republicans had won the

218 seats they needed to con trol the House. Republican victory in California's 27th Congressional district took the party over the line.

Indonesia hands G20 presidency to India

The party's cur rent House leader, Kevin McCarthy, may have a chal lenging road ahead as he will need his restive cau

cus to hold together on crit ical votes including funding the Government and mili tary at a time when former President Donald Trump has launched another run for the White House.

While the loss takes away some of Biden's pow er in Washington, he has signalled he expects Republicans to cooperate. In a news conference last week, he said, "The American peo ple have made

The United States re turns to its pre-2021 pow er-sharing in Washington as voters were tugged in oppo site directions by two main issues during the midterm campaigns – high inflation and abortion.

(Excerpt

from Reuters)

campaign

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday officially handed over the G20 pres idency to India at the end of a summit of the bloc's leaders in Bali.

The Group of 20 ma jor economies adopted a joint leaders' declaration and produced other part nerships, Jokowi, as the President is known, said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India's G20 presidency will be in clusive, ambitious, deci sive, and action-oriented, noting that the country was taking charge at a time when the world is grappling with geopolitical tensions, economic slow down, and rising food and energy prices.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday criticised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting at the

G20 summit, a rare pub lic display of annoyance by the Chinese leader.

In video footage pub lished by Canadian broad casters, Xi and Trudeau can be seen standing close to each other and convers ing via a translator at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.

"That is not appropri ate, and we didn't do it that way," Xi said in Mandarin, smiling.

"If there is sincerity, we can communicate well with mutual respect, oth erwise the outcome will not be easy to tell."

His displeasure was likely a reference to me dia reports that Trudeau brought up "serious con cerns" about alleged es pionage and Chinese "in terference" in Canadian elections when meet ing with Xi on Tuesday, his first talks with the Chinese leader in more than three years.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

As Donald Trump an nounced his third run for the US pres idency, a political scene still recovering from months of midterm campaigning turned its attention to the former President’s Mar-aLago residence in Florida.

Democrats were quick to remind their audience of the tumult and what they call “failures” of the Trump years, and cracks in the Republican support for the former President became more prominent. While many far-right Republicans rushed to endorse Trump, some conservative news outlets and commentators warned the GOP against re aligning behind him.

The announcement late on Tuesday came as Trump’s Republican Party grappled with its disappointing mid term election performance under the de facto steward ship of the former President.

“Florida man makes an nouncement,” read a head line at the bottom of the front page of the New York Post, a conservative tab loid that backed Trump

for years. News of the an nouncement was buried on page 26.

The National Review, an other conservative publica tion, ran an op-ed by its edi torial board titled, “No.” The article described Trump’s presidential bid as an “in vitation to double down on the outrages and failures of the last several years that Republicans should reject without hesitation or doubt”.

After last week’s mid term vote – in which numer ous Trump-backed candi dates lost key races – many in the party started break ing away from the former President. His announce ment on Tuesday night of a presidential run strength ened that trend.

“We need more serious ness, less noise, and lead ers who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victim hood,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a poten tial candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, wrote on Twitter in a veiled shot at Trump. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Caution, excitement, indifference: US reacts to Trump’s

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo take part in the handover ceremony at the G20 Leaders' Summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022 (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan/Pool)

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters after McCarthy was nominated by fellow Republicans to be their leader or the Speaker of the House if they take control in the next Congress, following House Republican leadership elections at the US Capitol in Washington, US, November 15, 2022 (Reuters/Michael A McCoy)

Former US President Donald Trump

DAILY HOROSCOPES

Spending money while you're feeling emotional is discouraged. Take care of your physical and mental well-being. Do your best to eliminate stress by putting your energy into something positive.

(March 21-April 19)

(April 20-May 20)

Make a move. Do your own thing and leave nothing to chance. Focus on how you earn your living and what you can do to improve your position or profes sion. It's time to change things up.

Be careful what you wish for, or you may end up in a damaging feud. Getting along will be half the battle. Aim to please, compliment others often and of fer everyone a fair deal.

(May 21-June 20)

(June 21-July 22) (July 23-Aug. 22)

Knowing what everyone else is do ing will help you make better deci sions. Consider what you can do to bring greater depth to whatever you pursue. Someone will praise you for your contri bution.

Have fun and enjoy the benefits of do ing business with people who share your concerns. Keeping things amicable, sim ple and to the point will pay off and help you get needed approval.

Stay on track, and don't lose sight of your goal. Don't let outside interference or emotional stress cause you to react in haste. Bide your time, think matters through and do what's best for you.

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Do your due diligence and go directly to the source. Getting the correct infor mation is crucial if you want to come out on top. Sign up for events that will bring you in contact with helpful people.

(Sept. 23-Oct. 23)

(Oct. 24-Nov. 22) (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)

Interact with people from different backgrounds, and you'll learn some thing new. Be cautious regarding joint ventures. Do your own thing if you don't share the same motives as a prospective partner.

motions will interfere with common sense. Take a moment to evaluate mat ters and the suggestions made by those closest to you. Anger will hold you back. Rethink your strategy.

A financial deal will turn out better than anticipated. Look over contracts, prepare documents and invest more time and money in yourself. Use your skills more diversely.

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

(Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

Just keep moving. Channel your energy into something you want, and you won't be disappointed. Refuse to let a change someone makes affect your plans. Don't make unnecessary adjust ments.

Don't share too much information. Check out what everyone is doing, and you'll gather knowledge to help you move forward with your goals. An emotional situation will teach you something.

(Feb. 20-March 20)

CALVIN AND HOBBES

DILBERT

West Indies’ early exit from ICC Men’s T20 World Cup…

CWI names Lara, Arthur, Thompson Jr to conduct comprehensive review

Athree-member group of independent pro fessionals has been named by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to conduct a comprehensive review of the early exit by the West Indies Men’s team from the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.

CWI yesterday an nounced that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Review Group will undertake a ho listic assessment of all as pects of the team’s prepara tion and performance at the global tournament.

The three members are: Brian Lara, the West Indies batting legend and current IPL T20 Head Coach; in ternational cricket coach South African Mickey Arthur; and Justice Patrick Thompson Jr., a High Court Judge at the Eastern

Caribbean Supreme Court, who will serve as Chair of the Group. The group have already begun their work.

The West Indies team failed to qualify for the Super12s phase (second round) after losing unex pectedly to lower ranked teams Scotland and Ireland. The losses caused great dis appointment and frustra tion among all West Indies Cricket stakeholders. The Group B qualifier round was played at Bellerive Oval in Tasmania, where the team achieved their only victory over Zimbabwe, a team that qualified ahead of West Indies by defeating both Scotland and Ireland.

The three-member pan el will submit to the CWI Board of Directors a report with relevant insight and clear recommendations. It

IPL 2023 auction…

is also intended that this review would establish a process and template for fu ture performance reviews. The Terms of Reference (ToR) will be published.

In commenting on the appointments, CWI President Ricky Skerritt has said: “CWI is fortunate to have such a knowledge able and totally indepen dent panel agree to serve West Indies Cricket under challenging circumstanc es. I am especially grate ful for their commitment to lend some of their valuable time to this important re view project. It is vital that players, coaches, admin istrators and all of us who love West Indies Cricket recognise that creating a sustainable learning cul ture throughout the organi zation is a prerequisite for

player growth and team im provement.

“Emotion-based and knee-jerk type decisions have failed CWI repeated ly in the past. I am confi dent that this independent World Cup review process will produce findings and learnings that should be of great benefit to our crick et system going forward.” (Windies Cricket)

Kolkata Knight Riders’ unusual approach, and a wake-up call for West Indies

KKR: second-smallest squad, smallest purse

Franchises

sometimes use trades to increase their purse for the auc tion. It's what Delhi Capitals did when they offloaded India allrounder Shardul Thakur, whom they had bought for INR 10.75 crore, to Kolkata Knight Riders. Knight Riders, how ever, used the trade win dow differently. Thakur was the third player they got via a trade, having already procured New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson (INR 10 crore) and Afghanistan wicketkeep er-opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (INR 50 lakh) from Gujarat Titans. So, Knight Riders dropped INR 21.25 crore during the trading win dow to acquire three play ers, a decision that might seem debatable to some, giv en they could have poten tially bought more players for less at the auction.

Here's why Knight Riders will disagree. They already knew Pat Cummins, Sam Billings and Alex Hales were going to be unavailable for IPL 2023, so they had to fill those three gaps. And they went after three play ers likely to feature in their starting XI.

In Ferguson they got a quick capable of bowling in all phases of the game, and someone who has already had some success with them. In Gurbaz they brought in fire power at the top of the order, something they sorely missed last sea son. In Thakur they saw a replacement for Cummins

-- a wicket-taking bowler who can bat in the lower or der. During the previous mega-auction, Thakur had been bid for by several fran chises, so there was no guar antee that Knight Riders would have got him for this price had he gone into the upcoming auction.

The auction, however, is going to be tricky for Knight Riders. They have only 14 players in their current squad - so they certainly need to bolster their bench - but only have INR 7.05 crore. They don't have deep pockets to outbid their com petition, so they will have to be strategic about whom they want and how they are

South Africans released, for perspective, was two]: Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, Odean Smith, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Romario Shepherd, Sherfane Rutherford and Dominic Drakes.

A lot of these players were bought at inflated pric es last year, a by-product of the mega-auction dynamics, and the teams could look to buy some of them back at lower costs. However, is this also a reflection of the state of West Indies Cricket?

Is it a wake-up call to their players that IPL fran chises are not just looking at muscular batting, but are

er price.

The catch, however, is that established Indian bat ters are always in high de mand, and usually in short supply at a smaller auction like the one next month. Even though his returns in the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy were modest165 runs, strike rate 154.2 - he has been prolific in re cent IPL seasons, and is su perb in the field. With sev eral teams in the market for an Indian top-order batter, Agarwal could just be in for another big payday.

Different roads to recovery Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians finished eighth, ninth and tenth re spectively last season, and each team has adopted a dif ferent retention strategy.

Sunrisers have disman tled most of their class of 2022, releasing their captain Kane Williamson and star batter Pooran, who could have been a potential leader in the future. Williamson's drastic dip in batting form coincided with Sunrisers fin ishing last in 2021 and third last in 2022. And Pooran's 306 runs at a strike rate of 144.34 last season did not justify his price tag of INR 10.75 crore, the highest for a West Indian player at an

ESPNcricinfo has learned that Brian Lara, Sunrisers' new head coach, wanted a fresh start, and was not shy of dropping big names while retaining a (mostly) young er group of players who have shown promise of develop

ing fast. It is a pragmat ic approach, but Sunrisers also have the cushion of the largest purse to aggressively pursue high-profile players at the auction.

Like Sunrisers, Mumbai have also failed to make the playoffs in the last two sea sons. Their strategy at the previous mega-auction was questionable: they spent massively on a couple of players, which forced them to bulk-buy lesser-known names to fill up the squad. Now Mumbai have released 13 players - one more than Sunrisers - letting go of sev eral bowlers, most of whom did not create enough im pact or did not have op portunities to do so. Their core, however, remains in tact. They expect Jofra Archer to be fit and form a formidable pace attack with Jasprit Bumrah and Jason Behrendorff, whom they traded in from Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Mumbai, however, are still without a quality all rounder and a lead spinner, and those remain significant holes to fill for their exten sive coaching staff as well as their famed scouts.

The Super Kings, on the other hand, released only eight players, including Robin Uthappa, who had re tired, the injury-prone Adam Milne, who played just one game last season, and Chris Jordan, who featured in four matches in IPL 2022. Bravo was the only regular first XI player that they released, and it remains to be seen if they buy back the 39-yearold allrounder.

While Bravo could still be bought back for a low er price, Super Kings' lead ership group has enough faith in their new bowl ing core that played con sistently last year: Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh and Dwaine Pretorius. And Deepak Chahar, who missed last season with an injury, is with them too.

Also, with Ravindra Jadeja declaring that he was ready for a "restart" at Super Kings, MS Dhoni's men have a formidable at tack led by Sri Lanka's Maheesh Theekshana for the spin-friendly home con ditions at Chepauk.

So, while Sunrisers have gone in for a revamp, Mumbai and Super Kings have retained the backbone of their squads. All three franchises will have a lot to do to fill gaps at the auction on December 23. (Cricinfo)

Brian Lara

Justice Patrick Thompson Jr CWI President Ricky Skerritt

Mickey Arthur

Chennai might look to buy back Bravo

Jason Holder has been released by LSG

FIDE appoints Farley to its Global Strategy Commission

The World Chess Federation FIDE has disclosed it is excited to announce the composition of the commissions for the period 2022-2026. Guyanese Frankey Farley has been appointed to the Global Strategy Commission, to serve for the next four years. Farley will serve alongside his fellow members Elikem Ameku of Ghana, KK Chan of Hong Kong, Malcolm Pein of England, and L Morten Madsen of Norway. The Commission is headed by Emil Sutovsky of Israel.

The role of the FIDE Commissions is crucial in ser vicing federations, improving our technical capacity, and accomplishing FIDE social

goals. As the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich explains, “The difference between cor porations and organisations like FIDE, with an import ant social component, is that a large share of work is vol untary-based. People who love chess and are ready to devote their time and effort to chess are key to making us succeed. This is why we high ly appreciate each and every person who is ready to serve, understanding that any po sition in FIDE provides a privilege to be part of excit ing projects and initiatives, but even more so, it envisag es new duties and responsi bilities".

According to the FIDE Handbook, the President

appoints the chairperson, a secretary, and up to 3-4 councillors, who are vot ing members. Continental Federations can also appoint a non-voting member to each commission. The rest of the positions are filled after ex tensive consultations with chairpersons, continents and federations.

FIDE also receives multi ple suggestions from individ uals. “We would like to ex press our appreciation to all those who were part of the process and provided their input.

“When deciding about the final composition of the com missions, the following prin ciples have been taken into consideration, trying to find

an optimum balance and making a compromise when necessary:

- Proficiency of the candi dates, including their former track record and relevance to the ongoing projects or ex pected areas of development; and/or management skills and availability to carry out professional and largely vol untary work for FIDE.

- Geographical balanceall continents are represent ed in each commission.

- Gender balance – the less represented gender in each commission should not go below a 25% representa tion.

- The number of mem bers is established in ap proximately 20 for each commission, even though some flexibility is allowed to make room for Councillors.

Wakenaam Cricket Committee/ Seeraj Bhimsain U19 40-over competition…

Chairpersons are also al lowed to engage external ex perts when needed for spe cific projects, task forces or working groups.

“In total, the commis sions amount to a consid erable workforce amount, with a total of 285 people, in which 111 of our member federations are represent ed: 53 from Africa, 58 from America, 61 from Asia, and 108 from Europe. Of them, 78 are women (27%), and 207 are men (73%).

8 of the 15 Commissions have just seen a new chairper son appointed, while anoth er 3 (Trainers, Qualification Commission, and Social Commission) had already been renewed during 2022”.

Wakenaam Strikers defeat Royals to win tourney

30, while Pooran had Chulai caught for 38, after he had registered four fours, as Wakenaam Royals fought back.

Sukram contributed 11 as Wakenaam Strikers were bowled out for 147 in 26.1 overs. Pooran captured 3-21, Evans had 2-24, and Henry 2- 28.

Players from both teams received medals, and both teams took home trophies.

Henry, with 126 runs and five wickets, was the MVP and best batsman in the com petition; while Chulai, with nine scalps, was the best bowler.

Wakenaam Strikers defeated Wakenaam Royals two games to one to win the Wakenaam Cricket Committee/Seeraj Bhimsain U19 40-over crick et competition which conclud ed recently at the Wakenaam Community Centre ground.

Wakenaam Royals won the final game of the threematch series by five runs.

Batting first, Wakenaam Royals lost opener Justin Dowlin (01) lbw to Ravy Nandalall, before Gladewin Henry Jr and Shahid

Mohamed steadied the in nings somewhat.

Mohamed was caught off leg-spinner Bomesh Lall for 12, and Henry and Trivel Evans continued to gath er runs as they shared a third-wicket stand.

Henry looked solid as he hit four fours, but was tak en off medium-pacer Tomesh Persaud for 23. Evans, mean while, was not afraid to play his shots, and slammed six fours and one six before he was bowled by Golcharran Chulai for 40.

Wakenaam Royals even tually made 152 all out in 28 overs. Chulai picked up 4-20, while Lall and Aarva Sukram each had two wickets.

Wakenaam Strikers were given a decent start by Nandalall and Persaud, but Evans handed his team the breakthrough when he bowled Nandalall, who had slammed two fours, for 14, while Pooran uprooted the stumps of Nazam Mohamed for three.

Persaud and Chulai steadied the chase fair

The Rockaway Group of Companies, in col laboration with Sunita Travel Service of New York and the Commander of ‘C’ Division, Kaliram Paresram, have outfitted the East Coast Under-15 Team for the up coming Demerara Cricket Board’s Under-15 Inter Association Tournament, which is scheduled to begin on Friday, November 18, 2022.

At the GCB’s LBI Cricket Facility, a simple handing over ceremony was held in the presence of players and man agement of the East Coast teams. Mr. Hafeez Ali, CEO of the Rockaway Group and a staunch supporter of crick et on the East Coast, wished the team well and urged the

players present to wear the uniforms proudly and repre sent the team to the best of their abilities.

Commander Paresram expressed appreciation at being part of such a spon sorship, and encouraged the players with some words of wisdom before wishing the team many successes in the tournament.

On behalf of the players, Munesh Outar thanked the sponsors and promised their best efforts on and off the field.

The President and ex ecutives of the East Coast Cricket Board would like to thank the sponsors for their collective effort, generosity, and continued commitment and support.

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they rotated the strike. Persaud struck three

fours before he was bowled by Tikeshwar Nankoo for

Frankey Farley has been elected to serve on the Global Strategy Commission

Golcharran Chulai accepting his prize from boxer Elton Dharry

Gladewin Henry collecting his trophy from Khemraj Surujpaul

Members of both teams posed with WCC Chairman Khemraj Surujpaul (L) and boxer Elton Dharry

Part of the handing over ceremony

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CG United Super50 Cup 2022…

- as semifinal battle with Jamaica awaits Batting 50 overs high on Guyana's agenda

By Brandon Corlette

The Guyana Harpy Eagles’ batting has been an issue for dis cussion during the ongo ing CG United Super50 tournament. However, the Guyanese team are in the semi-final, and will play Jamaica Scorpions to day, Thursday November 17, from 14:00h Eastern Caribbean time in North Sound, Antigua.

The Jamaicans will have the advantage of having already played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, while the Guyanese would be trav elling from Trinidad and Tobago to Antigua.

Allrounder Romario

ets this season, has said that batting all the overs and scoring 300 runs will be key for Guyana Harpy Eagles to reach another Super50 final.

"We did not bat 50 overs in this tournament as well, (but) our batsmen are try ing hard. We have some seasoned batsmen, so they have to put their hands up. If we bat 50 overs, we know what we are capable of, be cause we have some really explosive guys. If we bat 50 overs, we can get over 300 runs easily," Shepherd add ed.

Reflecting on the Harpy Eagles' start, Shepherd said: "Tournament has been going well. We had a

put their hands up and had a look at themselves in the mirror, and try and came back. Tevin Imlach, who is our leading run-scorer, my self and Gudakesh Motie have put up…hands.

"Motie, who is a spinner in the West Indies setup, is basically looking to show his class in this tournament, while Imlach has been play ing well and looking to get into the West Indies Team," Shepherd has said.

Imlach has scored 248

departments is key for his personal game.

"A World Cup is a big thing. I am trying to do my best in each and ev ery game. When I look back, I can say I gave my all in this game; and…my name should be up there for selection when the time comes," Shepherd told CWI media.

Cottrell and Odean Smith will be aiming to use their experience to topple the Guyana batting.

Shepherd, who has scored 143 runs and has 10 wick

few games where we start ed bad, but the guys have

runs this season at an av erage of 49.6, with two half-centuries under his belt. The likes of Shimron Hetmyer (90 runs in five in nings), Sherfane Rutherford (128 runs in six innings), and Leon Johnson (83 runs in six innings) will have to turn up with the bat.

Motie, who has 11 wick ets in six innings at an av erage of 20.09, will do the bulk of the bowling, while Shepherd would want to add to his 10 wickets this season.

The aggressive all-rounder Shepherd also noted that doing well in all

Meanwhile, Guyana's opponent, Jamaica, will be led by the 2022 Caribbean Premier League champi on skipper Rovman Powell. He will be supported by Brandon King, who has 261 runs. Powell himself has 216 runs, and he will be key for the Scorpions.

In the Scorpions’ bowl ing group, Dennis Bulli has 12 wickets, while seamer Nicholson Gordon has 10 scalps. The likes of Sheldon

Guyana Harpy Eagles: Leon Johnson (Captain), Veerasammy Permaul (Vice Captain), Akshaya Persaud, Tevin Imlach, Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Quentin Sampson, Clinton Pestano, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Nial Smith, Kevin Sinclair, Kemol Savory.

Jamaica Scorpions: Rovman Powell (Captain), Chadwick Walton, Aldaine Thomas, Brandon King, Marquino Mindley, Nicholson Gordon, Jamie Merchant, Alwyn Williams, Dennis Bulli, Andre McCarthy, Jeavor Royal, Pete Salmon, Odean Smith, Sheldon Cottrell.

Thrills at 2022 National Archery Indoor Finals

The curtains came down on the 2022 National Archery Indoor Championships on Saturday last at the National Gymnasium with the finalists waging a tough battle for the top spots.

The match play events began in the Barebow di vision with the finalists in their respective cate gories: Men U18, Women U18, Men and Women. In the Men U18, Luzigue Stanley of Nations Archery Club took the gold against Antuwan Lamazon of The Archery Guild, who re ceived Silver, and Alistair Cedarry, also of Nations, who copped the bronze.

In the Women U18, Malaika Bynoe took gold, Katiffa Fraser took silver, and Stephanie McTurk took the bronze, all of whom are from Nations Archery Club.

The Men’s Barebow saw Archery Guyana’s Jeewanram Persaud and ProArchers’ Mehandra Chatargum battling it out for the gold medal. Persaud emerged victorious, with Chatargum taking the silver, and Muhammad Zamaluddin, also from Archery Guyana, taking the bronze.

In the Men’s Recurve finals, Persaud came up against Sean Duncan, but Duncan took the gold, leav ing Persaud with the silver and Nicholas Hing taking the bronze.

The Men’s U18 recurve matches were all Nations Archers, as Christian Craigen took gold over Nicholas Sookdeo’s sil ver and Alistair Cedarry’s bronze. Sookdeo was the

youngest archer to have competed in the competi tion.

For the Women’s U18 Recurve, Nations Archery’s Malaika Bynoe received gold, as no other contested her division and category.

In the Women’s Recurve matches Samira Duncan (The Archery Guild) took home the gold medal against Archery Guyana’s Roshini Boodhoo, who took silver, and Bibi Saleema

Salim, also from The Archery Guild, copped the bronze.

The final match was the Women’s Barebow, which was a nail-biting af fair as The Archery Guild’s Julie-Ann Williams defeat ed Roshini Boodhoo to the gold in a 1-arrow shoot-off, with Williams’s arrow be ing closer to centre than Boodhoo’s, who took the sil ver. Harshita Chatterjee of ProArchers took the bronze

in this division.

At the presenta tion ceremony after the event, Secretary-General of Archery Guyana, Mrs. Vidushi PersaudMcKinnon, thanked the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Minister Charles Ramson, the National Sports Commission, and Director of Sport Mr. Steve Ninvalle for their usual kind support of the sport. She went on to thank all the participants, coaches, parents, teachers, media, well-wishers and general public for attending over the past week.

Mrs. McKinnon indicat ed that she has been ex tremely pleased and en couraged by the largest ever turnout of representa tives from clubs, indicating it attracted participants from as young as twelve years old.

Secretary-General Mrs. Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon proceeded to announce the results as the Chair of

Competitions Committee, Mr. Umasankar Madray, presented the medals.

Certificates of participa tion were also presented to each and every participant.

Final results are as follows:

Men’s U18 RECURVE

Christian Craigen - 1st Gold

Nicholas Sookdeo - 2nd Silver

Alistair Cedarry - 3rd Bronze

Men’s U18 BAREBOW

Luzigue Stanley - 1st Gold

Antuwan Lamazon - 2nd Silver Alistair Cedarry - 3rd Bronze

Women’s U18 RECURVE

Malaika Bynoe - 1st Gold

Women’s U18 BAREBOW

Malaika Bynoe - 1st Gold Katiffa Fraser - 2nd Silver Stephanie McTurk - 3rd Bronze

Women’s RECURVE

Samira Duncan - 1st Gold

Roshini Boodhoo - 2nd Silver Bibi Saleema Salim - 3rd Bronze

Women’s BAREBOW

Julie-Ann Williams - 1st Gold

Roshini Boodhoo - 2nd Silver Harshita Chatterjee - 3rd Bronze

Men’s RECURVE

Sean Duncan - 1st Gold Jeewanram Persaud - 2nd Silver

Nicholas Hing -3 rd Bronze

Men’s Barebow Jeewanram Persaud - 1st Gold

Mehandra Chatargum2nd Silver

Muhammad Zamaluddin3rd Bronze

Director of Sport, Mr. Steve Ninvalle, con veyed that the National Sports Commission and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport are happy with the trajectory of Archery. Director Ninvalle went on to say, “We have seen a mete oric rise in the development of the sport under its present administration, and stand ready to continue our sup port of this sport discipline.”

The Board of Directors wishes to convey its pro fuse thanks to the Archery National Judges for their professional work over the week. Special thanks to Director of Shooting Mr. Robert Singh, Line Judge Mr. Ryan McKinnon and Chairman of Judges, Mr. Nicholas Hing.

Tevin Imlach is the leading run-scorer for Guyana

Rovman Powell will lead the Jamaica Scorpions

Romario Shepherd has led the team with his all-round abilities

CG United Super50 tournament…

The maiden List A century from Roshan Primus went in vain as Barbados Pride lost to Trinidad and Tobago Red Force by 11 runs in a thrilling semi-final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

Pride ended on 302-8 with Primus un beaten on 130, while Red Force scored 312-6 in their 50 overs, with Nicholas Pooran scor ing a blistering century. This win means that defending champions Red Force are into Saturday's final.

In the chase of 313 runs, Pride lost Kyle Hope (04) and Zachary McCaskie (01), both removed by the fiery Shannon Gabriel. And Shai Hope (24) and Jonathan Carter (45) added 32 runs in a partnership that ended when Hope was undone by Sunil Narine's brilliance.

Carter was partnered by Nicholas Kirton, and the duo had a busy 63-run stand for the fourth wicket, but Kirton departed for a 31-ball 35, and his replacement Shemar Springer left the crease after contributing five runs.

At that point, Roshan Primus and Akeem Jordan joined forces and showed great fight. The score was 146-6 in 29.3 overs, with Red Force in control. Primus and Jordan then went on the attack, and added 93 runs to the score before Gabriel got his fourth wicket af ter a run-out.

All the while the Red Force continued

to hunt, Primus contin ued to hit the ball cleanly, and he reached his maid en List A century with a boundary.

With 17 runs needed in the final over, bowled by Gabriel, the pacer defended in finesse as Primus ended on 130 not out. His innings came off 79 balls and had 10 fours and nine sixes. Gabriel ended on 4-43 in 10 overs.

Earlier, Red Force had lost two wickets for two runs on the board when right-arm seamer Akeem Jordan removed Kjorn Ottley (01) and Jason Mohammed in consecutive deliv eries.

Opener Amir Jangoo and the veteran Darren Bravo then joined forced and the duo added 92 runs for the third wicket. Bravo made a classy 54 from 65 balls in an innings that included seven fours and one six.

Pooran came and attacked from the in ception, taking confidence from his last in nings, when he scored 99 not out in Trinidad and Tobago. The pocket-rocket Pooran bat ted 82 balls and scored 111 runs in an in

FOW: 4/1 (1.4) Zachary McCaskie 13/2 (3.3) Kyle Hope 45/3 (11.6) Shai Hope 108/4 (23.6) Jonathan Carter 118/5 (26.2) Nicholas Kirton 146/6 (29.3) Shemar Springer 239/7 (43.0) Akeem Jordan 239/8 (43.1) Jomel Warrican

Bowling

Akeal Hosein 10-0-58-0

Shannon Gabriel 10-1-43-4

Terrance Hinds 8-0-63-0

Sunil Narine 10-0-35-1 Imran Khan 6-0-46-1

Yannic Cariah 6-0-53-1

nine overs. Jangoo, who made 81 from 114 balls, and struck six fours and one six, added 147 runs with Pooran for the fourth wicket.

Akeal Hosein came and added the finishing touch with a blazing 42 from 20 balls. He struck three sixes and the same amount of fours in his knock that propelled

Red Force to 312-6 in 50 overs.

This was the first 300-plus total in Antigua this season.

Jordan was the pick of the bowlers with 2-31 in 10 overs. The second semi-final will bowl off to day, Thursday November 16, with Guyana Harpy Eagles playing Jamaica Scorpions from 14:00h.

nings laced with eight sixes and five fours.

He was caught at long-on off the bowling of Springer, who eventually ended with 4-64 in

Gabriel made early inroads with his pace

Pooran scored a fine hundred for Red Force

Primus scored his maiden century