Guyana Times -Sunday, October 15, 2023.pdf

Let’s Talk Green Bench launched to destigmatise P16 mental health Nationwide coverage coverage from from the the best best news news team team in in Guyana Guyana Nationwide Issue No. 5523 guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON BEACON OF OF TRUTH TRUTH THE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

“There shall be no turning back of the clock of rebuilding” –…saysPres Ali on sugar industry newly reopened Rose Hall Sugar Factory must meet targets See story on page 3

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WHAT'S INSIDE: Berbice River Bridge

Weight restriction, speed limit for vehicles after sand barge collides with bridge P23

Porter dies as garbage truck crashes into trench P27

Red Road repairs

38.4% economic growth for Guyana …against regional in 2023 – new IMF projects growth average of 2.3% “Totally outrageous” Cop under close – Pres Ali blasts arrest after Region 6 officials air gun, ammo over slow pace of work found in car Page 7

Page 23

Page 26

As Guyana’s education system evolves

Young educator Trisia Abraham relishes challenge of teaching Spanish Page 14

Pedestrian walkway created within stockpile compound P22

Director of Prisons calls for reforms during Mazaruni Prison inspection P24 Food, climate & energy security in focus as Berbice Expo opens P11

2 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Revised Laws of Guyana to be completed by year end – AG …says volumes increased from 14 to 28

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC

T

he Law Revision exercise being undertaken by the Guyana Government to update the country’s law books is slated to be completed by the end of this year.

During the recent edition of his programme – Issues in the News, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, said that monies were budgeted this year for the revision of the Laws of Guyana to bring them up to date.

That exercise, he explained, is now being concluded.

“The exercise is being done at the Law Revision Centre of the Caribbean lo-

cated in Anguilla. It is expected that, and I’m being promised that, we will get the final set before the end of the year. And then, of course, we have to bring them to Guyana and replicate them,” Nandlall disclosed.

According to the Legal Affairs Minister, due to the massive number of new legislations and amendments to existing ones, the Laws of Guyana volumes have now doubled to 28.

“Currently, there are 14 volumes of the Laws of Guyana but when this exercise is concluded, those 14 volumes will increase to 28 volumes. And we will be printing 200 sets of those

28 volumes. So, you see how many laws we are passing, we’ve moved from 14 volumes of the laws to 28 volumes of the laws,” the Attorney General noted.

In addition, to the hard copies, the soft copy of the revised Laws of Guyana will also be available.

Nandlall further revealed that the covers for these revised volumes are being procured from a reputable United States-based company that has produced similar covers for the law books in many states in that country.

“So, it’s a quality company. The covers are a little expensive but you have to pay for quality,” the Minister stated.

Meanwhile, AG Nandlall went on to outline the importance of undertaking such an exercise, which was last done over 10 years ago when he was office under a previous PPP/C Administration.

“At any given time, you have a bundle of laws that being passed that are not in the formal volumes of the laws… So, at periodic intervals, countries have to en-

The 2012 Revised Laws of Guyana series

gage in what is called a Law Revision exercise where they insert into their laws all the different pieces of legislations that would have been passed over a period of time… so that the laws become consolidated and you can find all the laws in the volumes.”

“There was a great hiatus in Guyana… One Law Revision exercise was done in 1977 and another one was not done until 2012. So, that purple book which is the Laws of Guyana was done in 2012… So, you see a massive gap there. When the 2012 exercise was completed, there

were certain errors, there were certain omissions etc simply because of the volume and magnitude of the task at hand. We waited too long [to get it done],” the Attorney General stated.

This consolidation and revision initiative is a collaborative effort between the Law Revision Commission – a Unit within the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs – and the Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project, a regional justice sector reform project funded by the Government of Canada to

improve access to justice in the Caribbean.

The exercise is being executed by the Regional Law Revision Centre Inc (RLRC), an Anguillan company that specialises in consolidation and revision, among other things. The law revision initiative commenced in February 2022.

When the current consolidation and revision exercise is completed, the Regional Law Revision Centre will provide Guyana with completed electronic (MS Word and PDF versions) files of the Laws of Guyana as of December 31, 2022.

NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

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“There shall be no turning back of the clock of rebuilding” – Pres Ali on sugar industry

…says newly reopened Rose Hall Sugar Factory must meet targets

A

fter more than six years out of operation following its closure by the David Grangerled APNU/AFC, the Rose Hall Estate sugar factory has been reopened, with President Dr Irfaan Ali challenging the management of the estate to ensure that sugar production targets are met.

On Saturday, President Ali visited the Rose Hall Sugar Estate, where the factory was reopened only recently. The President assured workers that this was just the beginning of his Government’s support for sugar, considering the important role it plays in Guyana’s agricultural push.

“There shall be no turning back of the clock of rebuilding, under the PPP/C Government. We’re going to ensure that no effort is spared, in making this industry viable, sustainable and resilient for Guyana, long into the future. We’re going to invest into the training of our workers.

We’re going to invest into the improved conditions of our workers.”

“We will do everything to ensure you get better. We will not neglect you. Let us not be misguided and derailed. Let us stand together. And I assure you, just as we assured you we would reopen sugar. I assure you, as we continue to heal the wounds of the monsters, we will give you more. We will give back more to the workers,” President Ali said.

Meanwhile, the President had serious words for the management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), including Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh, who was present, reminding them of the importance of meeting their targets.

“We shall not fail… before the setting of the sun, we shall surpass our last year production. And I already told Sase, notwithstanding his kind words in introducing us, that if we don’t meet the target, his neck is on the line,” the President said, to chuckles in the crowd.

“We’re together on this.

This is no easy task to rebuild. When the first set of videos and photographs came to Cabinet on what we’re inheriting, there was a deafening silence in the room. To see punts that we spent billions of dollars on, left in the fields to rot. Once beautiful green fields, converted into forests.”

President Ali expressed regret that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has not spent more time telling the story of what the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government left for them to inherit.

President Dr Irfaan Ali on his walkabout at Rose Hall Estate

However, he noted that his Government has been preoccupied with repairing the damage.

“Because we’re busy, advancing the work of the people and the Government. We did not spend time to educate the population on what we inherited. That is why a bunch of monsters, who trampled upon the industry, are trying to redefine the industry. Your hearts and conscience must be the guide on this narrative,” President Ali informed the workers gathered.

The Rose Hall estate factory, which closed down since 2017, was recently reopened and commenced grinding. As of the end of September 2023, the estate has produced in excess of 130 tonnes of sugar.

According to President Ali,

Inside the factory

they are developing close to 4000 hectares of cane to be processed at the Rose Hall factory.

“Since 2021, approximately 2150 hectares of land is in cane. Oh, how sweet is sugar. I thank the workers, the union, the

staff. But there’s still greater work ahead of us… 40 per cent of this, 1400 hectares of land today, remain with overgrown bush. More like forest. That we have to find money to clear, reorganise and put back into production.”

TURN TO PAGE 7►

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guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

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

Improving the Health Sector

T

he news that four laparoscopic procedures were performed at GPHC last week – three of them for the first time at the institution, and one for the first time in Guyana – is a signal of the massive strides that are being taken by the Government to deliver better health care to our citizens, which is one of their basic human rights. Laparoscopic surgeries are minimally invasive, in that instead of large incisions being made to open up the chest and pelvic cavities of the body to work on inside organs with scalpels, small punctures are made, and laparoscopes — thin, telescopic rods with cameras at their ends - are guided by technology that allows the surgeons to see through light fibres and perform the procedures with long, thin surgical instruments through the “keyholes”, guided by images from sonograms and MRIs. As the GPHC noted, “By embracing laparoscopic techniques, patients can now anticipate reduced pain, fewer wound complications, quicker postoperative recovery, shorter hospital stays, and a faster return to their regular lives and work routines.”

The PPP promised in their 2020 Manifesto that they would revolutionise the health of Guyanese by providing a worldclass healthcare system. The annual budget for healthcare under their watch since 2020 has increased by almost 150 per cent, from $35 billion to $85 billion. They have also facilitated the expansion of the private hospitals, and a good example is the opening of the US$75M Sheriff Hospital at Leonora, WCD earlier this year. Two other facilities – in Georgetown and Berbice -- are in the works. Additionally, they have upgraded the facilities in the public health system to provide better primary care access at more than 240 facilities across the country, including health centres, local area hospitals, and health posts. Hospitals at Diamond, Leonora, Mabaruma, Paramakatoi and Lethem have been converted into “smart” hospitals with modern diagnostic tools.

Last year, the Government announced that seven new regional hospitals would be constructed by the Chinese firm Sinopharm. They will be built at Anna Regina, Region Two; De Kinderen, Region Three; Diamond and Enmore, Region Four; Bath, Region Five, and Skeldon, Region Six. Each of them will be 65,000 square feet. In addition to these six regional hospitals, four main tele-diagnostic centres will be upgraded to regional hospitals in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo). As such, the health system would become increasingly decentralized, obviating the need for individuals to be medevacked to the GPGC. A large part of the expansion is through an $835 million grant administered by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and funded by the former UK Department for International Development.

At the time of the announcement last year, Government announced they would invest a record $73 billion in the healthcare industry that year, compared to $53.5 billion in 2021. A total of $1 billion has been set aside for health centre upgrades, with an extra $2 billion allocated for medical and non-medical equipment. In this year, the spending in health has been increased even further.

Key to real improvement in the health sector is the training of personnel – especially of doctors, nurses and administrators – to service the modernised infrastructure.

The medical training for doctors at the UG Medical School has been augmented with several Masters Programmes and fellowships at foreign hospitals. Partnerships with such hospitals have been broadened and deepened, with local medical personnel serving stints abroad and foreign experts conducting demonstration projects locally. This was the case with the laparoscopic surgeries mentioned above. With such, interventions such as paediatric cardiac surgeries are now becoming routine. The training of nurses unfortunately has not been able to keep up with the poaching from the developed countries, which even increased salaries might not deter.

Overall, the medical delivery system the Government is shooting for is still far away. But with the political will displayed, what had been achieved in three short years, and the availability of funding from our oil revenues, it will not be long before it becomes a reality.

An Afghan burqa-clad woman with children ride a donkey in Kishim district of Badakhshan province (AFP)

Bullying: The heartbeat of violence

By Leo Gilling

A

gainst the backdrop of two separate incidents involving students at two different schools, I write this article as a concerned educator who truly cares about the teaching-learning environment.

The two incidents occurred within one week of each other and were a social media sensation because of the rapid sharing, distribution, and discussions among other concerned individuals.

When the first incidence of violence occurred, I reflected to try to recall if I had ever seen this before — one student stomping on the head of another. I couldn't find any such incident in my past.

Questions flew around in my mind about why a child in school thought it was okay to repeatedly stomp on another person's head. Where did this come from? How did we arrive here?

I didn't have enough time to finish thinking and researching answers on the first incident before I saw a video clip of a woman in white being carried off a school campus. She broke loose from her escorts, turned around, and rushed back towards some students standing on the patio at what seemed to be the front of the school. The woman was in white, obviously an adult, and got what appeared to be a flurry of kicks and thumps by a swarm of students. I wondered what transpired before. I don't even know if I care what precipitated this fracas. An adult should not be starting a fight with a child. This, along with many other school fights in the recent past, is an embarrassing moment for us as Jamaicans.

It was mind-boggling to me, so I set out to see what was on YouTube and what the news had reported about

violence in schools over the past years. There are so many videos on YouTube (no surprise) that I didn't need to go to TikTok. I also checked the print media archives. I went back as far as 2017. There were enough incidents in high schools to fill my eyes with tears. What is really happening in our country? Does anyone know?

Here are some of the headlines in the print media: 'School violence epidemic'; 'Report being prepared on Kemps Hill High fight between student and dean of discipline'; 'Ministry takes the fight to school violence'; 'School fights on the rise, concerns have surfaced again'; 'Violence in schools'; 'Two students injured in a gang fight at Tarrant High'; '16 students suspended after brawl at Meadowbrook High; fight reportedly caused by love triangle' These headlines are just a drop in the bucket.

There are various reasons for these fights; however, what we do know is that one thing leads to another.

Bullying As early as age two some children may display bullying tendencies. If nothing is done to curb the behaviour, it grows like a quiet monster and then explodes later as misconduct and criminal activities, and then we wonder: How come crime suh high?

There is an undercurrent of anger burning in our Jamaican society. Many citizens grow up with angry parents who don't recognise that their way of resolving minor problems and conflicts is with anger. Fighting and quarrelling is a natural part of our existence, so our children, who are raised in ragefilled environments, grow up and do the same: resolve disputes with violence.

We should resolve to quell these monsters inside

from early childhood. Our education system has failed to provide the support needed between zero and fiveand-a-half years to channel any negative energy into positive habits; therefore, those monsters inside our children are left unchecked, untouched, and unresolved.

Then booyah!

Some adults now realise that they have grown up with a bully mentality, and many bring the monster into marriage and relationships.

A UNICEF study suggests that nine out of 10 Jamaicans face bullies in primary and high school. Bullies are strongest when they identify someone weaker on which to prey. So a grade 11 boy picks on a grade eight boy because the eighth grader knows he is bigger and stronger. When that grade eight boy gets to 11th grade, what will he do?

Become a bully also? And so the cycle perpetuates.

This deep-seated anger is played out daily as you walk down the streets and listen to the volume of expletives launched from one person to another, sometimes even to themselves. Anger leads to never-ending quarrels. If the dispute appears to have ended, it is troubling. This is likely only "the calm before the storm". Someone is about to get hurt by a knife, a gun, or anything that can be used as a weapon.

How often do we see video clips of mothers using machetes to slap their adult daughters or sons? We often see clips of teachers being physically or verbally confronted by students, parents, or both. Bullying also causes anger to the bullied, which can lead to crime. It is a problem that needs to be addressed.

A 2012 ABC News study suggested that those with mental health disorders during childhood are three

times more likely to become bullies. The study also showed that mental disorders plague many adults bullied as children. Based on the findings of this study one could surmise that many Jamaicans are walking around with mental illness.

Bullying is eating away at the fabric of our social infrastructure, education system, and peaceful living. It is a ridiculous image, but how often do we see clips of community members resisting arrest by becoming excessively violent with a police officer who has a weapon in hand? These are not normal times, but it's an excellent opportunity to insert a common phrase: "Jamaica is not a real place."

This anger illness shows up in many ways. I recall a couple years ago I couldn't avoid the image of a man on video kicking, punching, and using a chair to beat a woman mercilessly. It was all over the internet and news reports. The woman, who appeared quite helpless to the man's strength, stood there and took the beating.

Such an image was typical throughout the community in which I was raised: big, muscular men physically abusing women. These tyrants knew who to pick on — women who could not or would not fight back.

Going back to the second of the aforementioned fights which recently occurred, I ask: What would cause a female adult to try to escape her escorts and head back to the school campus to a fight a student? The answer is bullying; mental illness; and deep, burning anger. The typical response would be to say she got what she deserved — mob justice; however, that is not the proper thought to inculcate.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

guyanatimesgy.com

5

News

Namibia, other countries approaching Guyana to learn from oil sector – VP …interested in how Guyana set up NRF, Local Content framework

T

he rapidity with which Guyana has developed a regulatory framework for its oil and gas sector continues to attract much interest in the world, including from countries that are now embarking on improving the regulatory framework of their own oil and gas sectors.

During a recent press conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo explained that Guyana has been sharing its technical and policy experiences with countries that have approached, seeking to learn, including countries such as Namibia, a country on the South Western coast of Africa with estimated oil reserves of 11 billion barrels.

“We’ve had approaches from a number of places.

Namibia. A lot of people are interested in, first of all the pace at which we are developing here. And we have been sharing with them our experience, so that the Government doesn’t become a humbug to the pace of development but at the same time ensuring that all the regulatory issues are dealt with to international standards,” Jagdeo explained.

According to Jagdeo, these countries all have one

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo

The VP named Namibia as one of the countries which have approached Guyana

thing in common… their concern that if they do not set up a regulatory framework as early as possible, it could cost them dearly in the long run.

He made mention of Suriname, which recently ringfenced its first oil development at Block 58.

The former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government has been heavily criticised for not ringfencing Guyana’s own first oil production in the Stabroek Block.

Oil had already been found by ExxonMobil, when

the former Government signed the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and failed to include ring-fencing provisions, with an eye to the future. Jagdeo noted that Suriname is merely trying to stay ahead of the curve.

“If they don’t, they’re going to come in with a first FPSO, years from now. If you don’t get in very early, you may miss the bus. And Suriname is on the verge of missing the bus, given what is happening. So, we’re happy Suriname is moving forward. We believe if there is an oil industry in Suriname

and it has extra gas, there’s possibilities of working together. Maybe some common infrastructure. But they’re still a long way off from producing oil.”

“But I think that is why people are interested in Guyana, because they’ve seen our experience at putting in place a proper regulatory framework. And I’ve explained before how we have amended the licences. If you compare the early licences to the ones now, you’ll see the qualitative difference,” Jagdeo explained.

The Vice President further noted that countries are particularly interested in the way Guyana has implemented its Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and

Bullying: The heartbeat...

This should never have happened. All the girls involved need anger management. No matter how it looks, our culture/country has a deep-rooted problem that can be a causal factor in crime.

That problem needs intervention. Anger and bullying are taught to our children at an early age. Without proper intervention, things can get worse.

The grade 11 student who is said to have stomped the head of the younger grade 8 boy seems to have a bullying problem that was never resolved. Bullies pick on people who fear them or will not or can't fight back. If that eighth grader were a 10th grader of the same or bigger build, the aggressor would not have made a fuss. He would have brushed it off, sucked it up, and walked away. The eighth grader is the new kid on the block and was a perfect prey.

This child will need the type of intervention that the police are not able to give. He will now become a victim of the same system that taught him extreme anger. He has been fraught with anger all his life; it is around him, and he lives in it. The question is: Who is to be blamed? Parents?

Government? Child? School system? I hope he gets proper treatment.

Last year, I noted one of our ministers alluded to a programme to help prevent crime in schools. He used the term restorative justice (RJ).

The phrase was misused. RJ is employed by the court after an offence to resolve the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. It is not a preventative measure. It is a strategy used as a sentencing tool.

I believe the minister meant restorative practices (RP), a method to help prevent crime and disorder. RP should be introduced in schools.

Teachers, pastors, parents, community leaders, and education practitioners can be taught the principles of RP from as early as the pre-primary years to prevent aggressive and violent behaviour.

The results are difficult to quantify, but our society will look different 10 to 20 years from now with a rigorous deployment of RP. Implementing RP is an intentional practice that requires widespread application and acceptance. It must be more than just a policy that is spoken of and then shelved.

Once the policy is released, it must be accompanied by financial and human resources — experts and other personnel who can help make it successful. It requires complete buy-in from teachers, parents, pastors, and community leaders. It is possible. Our leaders must buy in and help to make it a success from the ground up.

Some necessary RP skills are active listening, being non-judgemental, being accountable for our actions; involving everyone in creating and implementing solutions;

its Local Content Policy, even though sections of the latter was modelled from Ghana’s policy.

“Some countries are now coming to ask us how, because we took a staged approach to get it early. They’re asking us a lot about our experience… the Petroleum Activities Bill.

So, I think they’re very interested,” Jagdeo explained.

Since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) came to office in 2020, they have introduced a number of new regulatory policies and laws pertaining to the oil and gas sector… including the National Resource Fund Bill and the establishment of the Natural Resource Fund Board, Local Content Legislation, the new model Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), a new Petroleum Activities Bill, and the strengthening of the Environmental Protection Agency Permits.

In 2022, the Government passed the National Resource Fund Bill and established the Natural Resource Fund Board – which has oversight on the country’s oil monies. The Government has also updat-

ed the 1986 Petroleum Act and passed the Petroleum Activities Bill. This piece of legislation aims to improve existing laws governing safety, emergency responses, and other oil and gas-related issues.

Government has also updated the PSA, which will ultimately see the State’s take rising to over 60 percent of the current revenue share. Under the new conditions of the model PSA, Guyana stands to benefit from as high as US$20 million signature bonuses for the deep-water blocks and US$10 million for the shallow-water blocks.

Additionally, all future PSAs would also include the retention of the 50-50 profit-sharing after cost recovery; the increase of the royalty from a mere two percent to a fixed rate of 10 percent; the imposition of a 10 percent corporate tax, and the lowering of the cost recovery ceiling to 65 percent, from 75 percent.

Government has also pushed to have in place, local content legislation, which paved the way for the establishment of the Local Content Secretariat, which has been in operation for over a year now. (G3)

FROM PAGE 4

peaceful conflict resolution; and so much more.

Bullying, anger, and crime are major issues in our country. They need attention, not talk. We need to address anger with emotional support and RP. If properly adopted and implemented, we could see increased cognitive development in schools and reduced misconduct and disorder. (Jamaica Observer) (Leo Gilling is the chairman of the Jamaica Diaspora Taskforce Action Network and a diaspora strategist and engagement advocate)

Sunday, October 15, 2023

06:00 (Sign on) Jewanram Rel. Hour 07:00 Cartoons 08:00 Shekinah Ministry 08:30 Evening News (RB) 09:30 Fast & Loud 10:30 Cartoons 11:00 David Persaud Religious Program 11:30 Blippi Educational 12:00 Movie - Home Team (2022) 13:30 Movie - Prom (2011) 15:30 Forged in fire 16:30 Payless Power Hour 17:30 The Healing Touch 18:00 Maths is Fun 18:30 Week-in-Review 19:00 Lucifer S5 E4 20:00 Arrow S5 E4 21:00 Riverdale S5 E2 22:00 Unsolved Mysteries 23:00 Stand-up Comedy 00:00 Sign off

6 FEATURE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023| GUYANATIMESGY.COM

DEVOTION IS AGELESS

ADOPTING THE ELDERLY DOG

Doctor’s Note: Today we are concluding our discussion on Canine Geriatrics. The article that follows was compassionately written by Ms. Indira Mattai, a member of “PAWS for a CAUSE” (https://www. pawsforacausegy.com.) in relation to abandonment of elderly dogs, which sadly does occur. I commend this article to all animal lovers, and urge that you take the advice that was provided over the last few months on the care of your pets as they become elderly and return the love and support that they loyally provided to you during their youthful years.

The case for adopting a senior dog

T

he COVID-19 pandemic had many of us contemplating our mortality and the mortality of our loved ones. We realigned our priorities and

rity for granted. We get to think about our future. We get to make contingency plans and create a support system and work to achieve our dreams.

But what about animals?

Dogs age too, but they don't have those luxuries for obvious reasons.

Quite often, dogs are abandoned once they get too "old", which may be as a result of their age, but also to the perception that they have lost the 'cute puppy' look. Once they are aban-

luck out slightly and end up at a shelter, but we can tell you from experience that it is incredibly difficult to get them adopted, and they may end up living out the rest of their lives in the shelter.

At the end of the day, adopting any rescue dog is a worthwhile and exemplary act. We implore you to consider giving an older dog accommodation during his/her golden years. Their bodies may grow old, but we can absolutely promise you their love, devotion and loyalty to you will be ageless.

Consider some of the reasons below:

for so long that their skin has sunken between their ribs. They are the ones that flinch when you raise your hand to pet them, because they think you are about to beat them. They are the ones that do not understand why their owners - their whole world and the loves of their lives - took them somewhere and never came back for them.

Puppies who are abandoned have certainly been through it, but they are too young to have seen the darkest parts of the world over and over again. Yet, some of the sweetest dogs we have ever met are the ones who are on the road to recovery from a trauma.

They may already be trained

Because senior dogs would have likely had homes before, they would already have some amount of training, and would be

You may be saving their lives

Older dogs at shelters aren't necessarily there for bad behaviour. Senior dogs are more likely to be strayed or brought in to be euthanised, partially because the treatment of health issues that developed later in life can be costly. They aren't puppies anymore, their fur may be greying or thinning, or they have been neglected for so long

considered how we would wish to live out the rest of our days. That in itself is a luxury, and we often take even the thought of secu-

doned, they do not survive for long on the street. As we say, they 'ain't got road sense'.

Sometimes, they might

able to understand basic commands. You may not have to teach the old dog new tricks unless you want to, as there is evidence that older dogs have a greater attention span than puppies.

Older dogs are calmer than puppies

that minor health issues have grown into almost insurmountable problems. If the owner was unwilling to take care of them when the minor issues arose, there is an almost certainty that

Adopting any dog is wonderful, but it is also a big responsibility. We always ask every potential adopter to consider their family and existing pets, who will interact with the newly adopted dog, and whether the older dog would have the time and energy to keep up with a younger puppy.

Older dogs can cause less destruction to a home, and make instant comforting companions, as they would have already lived through their overly energetic years.

They are ready to live a leisurely, calmer life.

Because puppies are brand new to the world, they tend to be more destructive than an older pup: simply because they have more energy, less training, and do not know the difference between what a toy may be and what is not.

Plus, they may be teething or need a level of mental stimulation that you may not be familiar with.

On the other hand, older

the owner would choose the easier option - straying or putting down.

We have rescued many pregnant mothers who have likely been abandoned because they got pregnant.

The caregivers never bothered to spay them, and chose to abandon them during pregnancy. From our experience, "short foot fluffy" dogs are a cinch to get adopted, so we believe that caregivers stray them at pregnancy because they are unwilling to take care of the litters. We have often cared for the mothers, have

dogs tend to stay close to you because they just want to be near you. They are afraid you will leave, having experienced being abandoned and finding themselves without love, without a family, a home, a roof, a meal.

We have in our care many senior dogs and cats who do not ask for much just for the security of living out the rest of their lives in a loving home, and more than likely with a napping companion!

Please contact us if you would like to bring happiness into their lives and yours.

They have an incredible capacity for love, even though they have suffered trauma

Senior dogs have a very deep capacity for love, and it is even more so if they are rescue dogs. Senior rescue dogs are the ones that are more likely to have suffered abuse, cruelty and neglect on top of abandonment. They are the ones who would have been tied to posts with no shelter from the sun or rain or dust. They are the ones who would have been starved and dehydrated, suffering

them spayed after giving birth, and find them good homes.

NEWS

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38.4% economic growth for Guyana in 2023 – IMF projects …against regional growth average of 2.3%

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he International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a report showing that Guyana will record 38.4 percent of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, against a regional growth average of 2.3 percent.

This is contained in their new Regional Economic Outlook report on the Western Hemisphere, to which Guyana belongs. But Guyana’s growth figures make a stark contrast to the 2023 average growth estimates for the Latin America

and Caribbean (LAC) Region.

According to the IMF, the LAC Region, with the exception of Guyana, will record just 2.3 percent growth. It is even more glaring when the report zeroes in on the Caribbean alone.

According to the report, the Caribbean, with the exception of Guyana, will experience moderate growth of 1.9 percent in 2023.

“Similarly, growth in the Caribbean commodity exporters will slow down in 2023 and further in 2024

as these countries face less favourable external conditions, although Guyana will continue to grow at a robust pace following the discovery of sizable oil reserves,” the report states.

“Economic growth in the Caribbean was strong in 2022 but is moderating this.

Real GDP growth in the region (excluding Guyana) firmed to an estimated 4.2 percent in 2022 as countries continued reopening after the COVID-19 lockdowns,” IMF further explained.

A dominant example of

“There shall be no turning ...

FROM PAGE 3

Cane being transported into Rose Hall Estate

“This is the difference between a Government that abandons land and people and a Government that sticks with people and converts abandoned land into productive land,” the President further said.

The PPP/C, while in Opposition, had promised that should it be successful at the 2020 elections it would reopen the closed Rose Hall Sugar Estate. Last month as the Guyana Sugar

Corporation (GuySuCo) was preparing to reopen the estate, it had invited harvesters from both the Rose Hall and Albion Sugar Estates to harvest canes at Rose Hall when ready.

However, the workers took to the street in protest, calling for Government to pay them a severance before they harvest canes at Rose Hall. The workers who went on strike were those who were transferred from

the Rose Hall Estate when it was closed in January 2017.

When the estate was closed, there were some 2500 workers at the Rose Hall Estate, 1181 of whom were retrenched, while the remainder were transferred to Blairmont and Albion Estates.

GuySuCo subsequently issued a statement saying that the workers were no longer required to go to Rose Hall and work. (G3)

The International Monetary Fund

the exceptional growth the Region experienced last year is Guyana, which the IMF noted had the world’s highest real GDP growth rate in 2022 (62.3 percent) due to ramping up of oil production. According to the IMF, however, the momentum that carried the Region’s growth throughout last year, appears to have now weakened.

“The tailwinds that supported growth in 2022 appear to be weakening, and growth in the region (excluding Guyana) is expected to moderate to 1.9 percent in 2023,” the IMF explained in their report.

Guyana has already recorded a whopping 59.5 percent real economic growth in the first half of 2023, driven not only by the oil and gas sector, but also the non-oil economy which has

been growing for successive years.

This was contained in the Ministry of Finance Half Year Report, which presents stats on Guyana’s economic performance for the first half of the year. The non-oil economy, according to the report, grew by 12.3 percent. According to the report, the growth trend is expected to continue.

The report further disaggregates the growth by sectors. For instance, the gold mining and quarrying sector is estimated to have grown by 89.9 percent in the first half of the year, driven by increased output. The report explains that these increases outweighed the declines observed in the gold mining and bauxite mining subsectors.

Meanwhile, agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors

are estimated to have expanded by 7.6 percent in the first half of the year. This was driven by growth in all subsectors – namely other crops, rice growing, livestock, fishing, forestry, and sugar.

When it comes to the oil and gas sector, this has been a major contributor to Guyana’s economic growth.

Another oil and gas project – the Payara development – is expected to start up by this year end, in anticipation of targeting an estimated resource base of about 600 million oil-equivalent barrels.

It was only in April 2023 that the Prosperity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will service the Payara project, arrived in Guyana to join the other FPSOs – Liza Destiny and Liza Unity – which are currently producing more than 380,000 barrels per day.

Production from the Prosperity vessel is expected to push daily production to some 600,000 barrels a day in 2024. ExxonMobil has said it anticipates at least six projects offshore Guyana will be online by 2027, with possibly 10 FPSOs operational by 2030.

Meanwhile, the Yellowtail development, which will be oil giant ExxonMobil’s fourth development in Guyana’s waters, will turn out to be the single largest development so far in terms of barrels per day of oil, with a mammoth 250,000 bpd targeted. (G3)

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Learning… …a lesson in war strategy

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s you know, Dear Reader, your Eyewitness is always on the lookout as he scours the news for lessons we in Guyana can apply to improve our condition.

So here we have that new Israel/Palestinian war that’s dominating our newsfeed - and TV screens, if we’re of the older generation!! So, what can we glean from the goings-on to date?? After all, we’ve got that loudmouth Maduro on our western border threatening us with all sorts of doomsday scenarios – one of which gotta be an invasion with their superior arms, like fighter jets and suchlike.

The first thing that comes to your Eyewitness’s mind is that the Israelis had lulled themselves into a false sense of security, because they’d created a border wall embedded with micro surveillance devices: finelycalibrated subterranean digital sensors of extremely high sensitivity to monitor Hamas’s movements through tunnels; patrolled the border terrain by technologicallyequipped Israeli Ground Forces; and protected their airspace by their renowned Iron Dome system - which formed a supposedly impenetrable antimissile shield over Israel for twelve years now.

But here it was - hundreds of Hamas fighters swept across the border on motorcycles, paragliders and SUVs - even as they simultaneously launched a blitz with more than 7,000 missiles!! So all the best laid plans of mice and the Israelis went awry!! And the impenetrable border came to nought. The Dome didn’t work! The Gaza barrier was infiltrated! Intelligence and surveillance collapsed!

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were caught by surprise!

Israel’s much-vaunted security and microsurveillance creds are in the dust! Israel is no longer the most securitized country in the world! That boast is toast!

So, what’s the lesson?? Simply that this was a lowtech Hamas takedown of the most sophisticated hightech national security system on the planet. And it demonstrated that an old battle technique - mass attacks - can bring down more than the walls of Jericho!!

Didn’t we read about the Mongols overrunning the Russians and Poles en masse? And the Russians learning that lesson and swarming over allied troops during WWII? What about those attacks against fortified castles during medieval times?? The troops rushing forward in full-tilt charges by war-horses under cover of fusillades of arrows — to overwhelm the supposedly better guarded walls??

So, this is the lesson for us: Just as Hamas swarmed Israel with an age-old military tactic, we’ve gotta prepare for the same against the Venezies! So what if they got their F16s?? We can mount swarm attacks by cheaply assembled and disposable drones!! Our GDF gotta move away from the fixed-position strategies and surprise the Venezies with swarm attacks!!

We’ll bring the past and future into the present!! …to treasure the girl child Last week, we were supposed to commemorate “International Day of the Girl Child” on Oct 11. But your Eyewitness didn’t notice no particularly noteworthy event arranged by the movers and shakers to remind Guyanese about our collective responsibility to correct their historic discrimination, did we?? It wasn’t till the late sixties that large sections of our nation even thought it “proper” to educate girls!! Their role was to “stay home and mind baby!!”

But girls have been clawing their way out of that ghetto on their own!! Have you noticed that, in the last decade, girls have been outperforming boys at the secondary school exams?? Did you notice that the entire Robotics Team at the World Championships are girls??

Have you noticed that the only local company that bid for an oil block in the latest round was all female??

But there’s still a long way to go in doing justice by our girl children. The pay disparity between them and men is a critical one that must go!! …about cricket consistency Your Eyewitness still can’t get over that we aren’t in the World Cup. He’s old enough to remember when India were minnows. But now they’re dominating in all versions of the game. They play for country! And we??

The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Guyana Times’ editorial policy and stance

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

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11 Food, climate & energy security in focus as Berbice Expo opens T NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Roy Sawh and political blackness

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ver the last few years, I have been writing an oral history of my village, Uitvlugt. One of its notables is Roy Sawh, who was recently praised by the Guardian as one of Britain’s “civil rights heroes” from the 1960s, with his “exhilarating Speakers’ Corner presence”.

Several podcasts and a Zoom webinar about Roy during the COVID lockdown Ravi Dev revealed he was in Australia, and last week I learnt from his brother in New York that he had passed on April 23 this year.

Few Guyanese may remember Roy, but in the sixties and seventies, he had earned a certain notoriety across the British Empire for his anti-racist activities in England. Roy was born, in 1934, of an indentured labourer father and first-generation Guyanese mother. The father eventually ended up at Plantation Uitvlugt, where he worked in the cane fields and had six children, of whom Roy was the third.

Finishing primary school, and refusing to become a teacher because that necessitated conversion to Christianity, he worked briefly at Plantation Uitvlugt’s office, before sailing to England in 1958 to study accounting. Politically aware, he had joined the PPP. Arriving in London, he was soon disabused of much of what he had taken for granted in British Guiana about what being “white” meant. As he recounts in his book “From Where I stand”, he was astounded at the sight of white railway porters when he arrived at Victoria Station and asked a policeman whether he was really in London.

In Guyana in general, and Uitvlugt in particular, Whites were overlords on the Plantation, and lived in exclusive gated “compounds” to be served by butlers, cooks, gardeners and mule boys. As in all their colonies, the British cultivated a lifestyle to emphasise their superiority over the hoi polloi, who accepted their pretentions because they ran the economy and colony.

He could secure a job as a toilet cleaner at a hotel near Hyde Park, earning £6 weekly, out of which he paid £3 for a one-room bedsit with a weekly bath. Wandering over to Hyde Park, he encountered Speakers’ Corner where, since the 19th century, individuals expressed their sentiments on every subject under the sun.

He experienced daily racist putdowns even by Whites engaged in menial occupations, which discomfited him since, unlike at Plantation Uitvlugt, they were not economically superior.

He tried his hand at Speakers Corner, but discovered there was not much he could say, and turned to educating himself from newspapers. As a member of the PPP in British Guiana, he had been exposed to politics, since Dr Cheddi Jagan had held several meetings at Uitvlugt during the leadup to the 1953 elections. Roy voted for the first time in the 1957 elections. When PPP leaders visited London, Roy was one of those who attended the meetings, and in 1962 was given a scholarship by the PPP to Moscow University to study philosophy.

By his account, he encountered racism against African students, which the Russian authorities denied, and he promptly quit the course and was deported to England. Dr Jagan and the PPP did not take kindly to his actions, and relations with the PPP soured.

Because of his Moscow foray, Roy found it more difficult to secure employment, and plunged further into educating himself – this time in libraries, where he could be warm. He earned a large following from his Hyde Park speeches, where he skewered white racism and educated non-white listeners by wittily demonstrating that “all skin teeth nah laugh”.

His position on race progressively radicalized, especially after the passage of the Race Relations Act in 1965, ostensibly to protect minorities, but was used against them. Roy evolved and lived by the philosophy of “political blackness”, which posited that if one were not White, politically one was Black, its antithesis.

Malcolm X visited Britain that year, and the parallels with the American situation were made explicit. A Trinidadian, Michael De Freitas, also militantly opposed to racism, became involved in Malcolm’s visit, and soon changed his name to Michael X. He and Roy Sawh launched an organization, “Racial Action Adjustment Society” (RAAS), to counter racism in Britain.

In 1967, Roy, as deputy of another grassroots organization, Universal Coloured People’s Association (UCPA), was charged and jailed for a speech at Speakers’ Corner concerning South African apartheid.

In September 1969, he started his most significant project - the “Free University for Black Studies” - teaching Asian, African and West Indian Studies that challenged European hegemonic discourses.

The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Guyana Times’ editorial policy and stance

he security of food, climate, and energy security are paramount on the Government’s list of priorities. This is according to Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret'd) Mark Phillips.

He made this announcement at the opening of the 17th edition of the Berbice Expo, which is being held at the Rose Hall Community Centre in East Canje, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

The Expo, which runs from October 13-16, is being held under the theme “Fostering Sustainable Economic Growth and Food Security.”

Prime Minister Phillips in outlining Guyana’s current priorities said this has resulted in many flocking to the country on a daily basis looking for opportunities to invest.

He noted that Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020 was 43.5 percent, in 2021, it was 20.1 percent and in 2022, it was 63.3 percent. This year Phillips said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects Guyana’s GDP to be 38.4 and 26.4 percent for 2024.

The IMF has also forecasted that Guyana will continue to enjoy substantial economic growth.

“Having said that you would understand why the investors are here and why the Government has decided that food security, climate

Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips

security and energy security must be of paramount importance to us.”

He said the Berbice Expo is part of the efforts that are being made to showcase the potential of the region which has vast potential.

The region, he said, is diverse with resources and can become a major tourism destination and a hub for fabrication and manufacturing, including agro-processing.

He said, however, this has not lived up to those expectations. The true potential can be achieved if the region can be perceived in terms of its vastness and diversity of resources then it will be evident that Region Six can develop into an economic powerhouse.

To do so, the Prime Minister noted the idea of Region Six being a rural community must be dispelled.

“Having such an altered mindset would allow for the

Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond

holistic development of this region. Having such an understanding would lead to a greater recognisation that this region’s potential goes beyond its agricultural and commercial endowments. It would allow us to focus on the development of the region’s savannahs, its vast forest resources, and its unquestionable ecotourism potential.

The second major problem that has stifled this region has been outward migration.”

The population of Region Six in 1980, was 152,386 and declined by almost one third to 109,431 by 2012.

The region, the MP said, has been deprived of critical resources which are needed to drive its development. The mass migration has also led to a haemorrhaging of financial resources.

A third factor that has contributed to the lack of expected development of Region

Six has been a high degree of informality and underreporting of economic activity which the Prime Minister said sees many businesses adverse to expanding their operations.

“To do so will mean that they are making greater profits than they are declaring.

The failure to expand means fewer economic opportunities for the young people of this region,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond noted that Region Six is agriculture-based but it is now holding its own in many other sectors including tourism.

The Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister urged businesses and persons to possess themselves to benefit from the massive transformation taking place in the tourism sector, which will be led by the Berbice stadium.

(G4)

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Young educator Trisia Abraham relishes challenge of teaching Spanish O ver the decade, Guyana’s education system has welcomed several Spanishspeaking students, which has been attributed to migration from neighbouring Venezuela as well as Cuba.

In recent years, that number of students has climbed to such heights that the authorities have decided to make the language compulsory in the school system.

As the situation evolves, at least one Spanish teacher is relishing the opportunity to teach the language to local students. In fact,

Spanish language teacher Trisia Abraham sharing a light moment with her students at the Santa Rose Secondary School

“encouraging results” of students of the Santa Rosa Secondary School at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams have given young school teacher Trisia Abraham a springboard to teach the language to the best of her ability.

foreign language.

“I really enjoyed how she taught Spanish, and I have learned so much from her. I'm very much grateful for her help in becoming the Spanish teacher that I am today,” she said.

After finishing secondary school in 2014, Abraham started teaching at the Santa Rosa Secondary, and after one year, she went on to complete training at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).

After successfully completing studies at CPCE in 2017, she returned to her community and was appointed an Assistant Mistress. The ambitious Abraham then attended the University of Guyana, and in 2021, she graduated with a bachelor’s in education-Spanish. Her status as teacher changed once more,

Abraham graduated from the University of Guyana with a bachelor’s degree in education-Spanish in 2021

Becoming a teacher

While growing up at Moruca, Abraham always admired her mother’s dedication to the teaching profession. So much so that she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps while honing her own love for helping and sharing her knowledge with children.

At the same time, Abraham, who heads the Department of Modern Language at her alma mater, the Santa Rosa Secondary School at Moruca, says she is prepared to expand her knowledge while teaching the foreign language to Guyanese students, and she credits late schoolteacher Bernadette Dindyall with inspiring her to teach the

and in May this year, she applied for the post of HOD of Modern Language at Santa Rosa, and was successful in being so appointed.

Not an easy task

Abraham has said that teaching a foreign language to an English-speaking population can be challenging. “It's not an easy task, but I use different teaching strategies to help them better understand the language being taught,” she said.

For example, she said, she undertakes a lot of oral practice activities with her students. She says she also gets them involved in specially themed games while teaching them the culture of the Spanish-speaking

Spanish language teacher Trisia Abraham

countries. “And they must be able to understand the cultural aspects,” she said.

Abraham says she encourages her students to learn aspects of the language by heart.

“Even if I'm teaching a class of 30 students for one hour and each child learned two to three words in Spanish, I'm a very proud teacher; because it means that they have learned something, might not be much but they have learned,” she said.

The young teacher pointed out that one of the more challenging aspects of teaching the language lies in Spanish-speaking students who do not understand or speak English language.

“It's very difficult for them, because they may not know. Most of them are accustomed to the creolese, I should say, so now the standard English will be something hard to get over to them, especially when they are writing and trying to interpret what the teacher is saying.”

She added, “As Spanish teachers, we may not find it hard to communicate with them, but it's difficult for them to learn the other subjects in English language, like sciences, Mathematics, etc,”.

However, Abraham said, there are some fast learners, and one would find them learning the English language faster than others. “But for the slow learners, it's very much challenging,” she said.

She said there is a small number of Venezuelan students at Santa Rose Secondary, some of whom are children of Guyanese parents, and she noted that they are adapting to the environment. As for the local student population, Abraham said she is seeing continuous improvement in their grades, and with the advent of technology as well as practice, she expects the grades to improve as time progresses.

At this year’s Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) exams, Santa Rosa Secondary obtained a pass rate of 66.7%.

Of the 15 students who wrote the exams, 10 passed.

Abraham said they were all Guyanese students. “I am very proud of them,” she said.

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Young educator Trisia...

Teacher Trisia Abraham and one of her students who performed well in Spanish at the CSEC exams

As time progresses, Abraham said, there will definitely be a need for more Spanish teachers, and she noted that the very students may return to teach the language after completing secondary school.

Lighter side

Abraham hails from humble beginnings. She said she lives a quiet lifestyle, noting that in addition to teaching, she likes to listen to music and she likes dancing as well. “Anything to do with dancing I would participate,” she said with a smile.

She is currently assisting the CPCE with teaching young teachers at Moruca, and she noted that she also takes part in working along with the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) of her school.

With a broad smile, the ambitious Abraham, who is in her mid-20s, said she knows it will take time, but one day she hopes to become an education officer, one who would continue to make a major impact on the development of education in her homeland and wider Guyana.

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Let’s Talk Green Bench launched to destigmatise mental health

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n commemoration of World Mental Health Day 2023 on Tuesday, the Health Ministry’s Adolescent Health Unit launched the Let’s Talk Green Bench initiative at the North Georgetown Secondary School to promote the importance of maintaining mental health and well-being.

This initiative is a result of collaboration between the Health and Education Ministries, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the

Health Ministry launches “Let’s Talk Green Bench” initiative

Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), and Desert Flower Guyana.

By installing 25 benches at 25 schools across Guyana, the Let’s Talk Green Bench programme aims to provide a safe space for students to have conversation on issues that are affecting them, without feelings of stigma or discrimination.

Deputy Representative of UNICEF Guyana and Suriname, Irfan Akhtar, explained that the colour green is used to raise awareness and reduce mental

health stigma by encouraging students to talk openly about issues affecting them.

Students can also scan the barcode on the benches to access further information on mental health.

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, noting that stigma surrounding mental health continues to be a significant challenge, emphasised the need for greater awareness to counteract this.

“If people feel that they are being stigmatised, they won’t want to seek assistance; and if they’ll be dis-

criminated against, they won’t access the services being offered. So, we need to destigmatise and ensure people don’t feel discrimination, so that we can offer services to people who need them,” Dr Anthony said.

He noted that changes within the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Act seek to improve the way mental health is addressed in the country, as more attention is placed on the issue, leading to better diagnoses and treatment for persons with mental health conditions.

In moves to fight against the high rate of suicide in the country, the National Assembly last November passed the Suicide Prevention Act 2022, in

which the Government enacted the decriminalisation of suicide. And last August, the National Assembly passed the Mental Health Protection and Promotion Act 2022, which protects, promotes and fulfils the rights of those persons during the delivery of mental health care.

In May, the Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Presidential Youth Advisory Council (PYAC), had further launched the National Mental Health Website to better document and respond to the needs of individuals across the country who seek mental health services.

During Tuesday’s launch, PAHO/WHO Representative Dr. Luis

Codina highlighted that psychiatric hospitals around the world are closing due to mental health issues being treated at the community level.

Also in attendance at the launching ceremony were Director of Primary Health Care Services, Dr Ertensia Hamilton; Coordinator of the Adolescent Health Unit, Cilandell Glen; Youth and Adolescent Development Officer attached to UNICEF Guyana and Suriname, Jewel Crosse; Deputy Head Teacher (ag) Michele Jordan; Chief Welfare Officer Vickram Mohabir; Health and Family Life Education Coordinator attached to Education Ministry, Carol Benn; and Guidance and Counselling Officer Onika Bishop.

NEWS

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11th CaSES Conference…

Guyana makes new leap in laparoscopic surgery aries of all our healthcare workers, but nurses especially are being recruited constantly from Guyana and

T

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony

he prevalence of laparoscopic surgeries continues to advance in Guyana as the country played host to the 11th Caribbean Society of Endoscopic Surgeons (CaSES) Conference, in which medical practitioners across the Caribbean region connected over developments in the areas of laparoscopy and endoscopy.

During day two of the three-day conference, Friday, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony explained that while performing laparoscopic surgeries is a good initiative, sourcing equipment and trained personnel was earlier a challenge. However, he noted that through dedication of the staff of the Georgetown Public Hospital, especially Dr Hemraj Ramcharran, over 20 surgeons have been trained thus far to perform these procedures.

Further, with the consistent construction and upgrading of hospitals across the country, the new facilities are expected to be equipped with the necessary equipment to perform these surgeries effectively.

During a presentation on laparoscopic surgery in GPHC and Guyana at large, GPHC surgeon Dr Jagnand Ramnarine explained that the country documented its first surgery of this sort in 2001, later recording an average of three cases per month between 2002 and 2014, a GPHC statement explained.

Following the introduction of the General Surgery Residency Programme at GPHC’s Institute of Health Science Education, this number continued to grow, with the hospital seeing an aver-

mally invasive laparoscopic surgeries were performed by renowned regional surgeons from CaSES, three of which were conducted for the first time at the hospital, and one for the first time in Guyana. These surgeries involved Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy; Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass – a procedure that offers new hope to patients in need of gastric bypass surgery; Tip Inguinal Hernia Repair – a procedure to repair the right inguinal hernia; and Laparoscopic Hysterectomy – a procedure that involved the removal of the uterus. The surgeries were broadcasted live from the operating theatres to a training room at the Institute of Health Science Education (IHSE), thus enabling participants to witness and learn from the experts.

“By embracing laparoscopic techniques, patients can now anticipate reduced pain, fewer wound complications, quicker post-operative recovery, shorter hospital stays, and a faster return to their regular lives and work routines,” a GPHC press release stated.

The three-day conference had a number of presentations, including: Tips and Tricks for Laparoscopic Hysterectomy; Laparoscopic Hepatectomy and Roux-en-Y Bariatric Surgery; as well as Challenges in starting Laparoscopic Hepatobiliary Surgery in a Caribbean country, and Laparoscopic Approaches to Complex Endometriosis.

Nurses

During his remarks on Friday, Minister Anthony also stated that more needs to be done to retain nurs-

A presentation at the 11th Caribbean Society of Endoscopic Surgeons (CaSES) Conference

age of 26 cases per month in 2018. By 2022, within the period from January to August, 129 cases were successfully performed.

GPHC on Friday had reported that four mini-

es within Guyana and the Caribbean’s health sectors.

“We recognize that we’re having a challenge with nurses, training staff and retaining them. Early this year, we increased the sal-

other Caribbean countries, and that’s a major problem.

This is something we have to work on as a region; and if

not addressed, it can lead to degradation of the quality of health care that we can provide,” Dr Anthony said.

Dr Anthony further advocated for cross-collaboration training to be done with the Caribbean countries. (G13)

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Scenes from Berbice Expo 2023 The 17th annual Berbice Expo and Trade Fair was declared open on Friday night by Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d), Mark Phillips at the Rose Hall Estate Community Centre Ground, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) (Photos courtesy of Office of the Prime Minister and DPI)

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Red Road repairs

Pedestrian walkway created within stockpile compound A s works continue to fix the damaged Red Road, Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD), the Public Works Ministry on Friday announced the creation of a pedestrian walkway to accommodate persons seeking to safely travel within the area. “[Public Works Minister Bishop Juan Edghill] is urging persons to use the walkway and avoid the dangers of traversing through the construction area,” a Ministry statement read.

This announcement came about a day after a bulge between six and eight feet rose on Red Road, due to the weight of the stockpile of aggregates on the extension of the parking lot of the National Stadium.

Since then, the Ministry,

Public Works Ministry created a pedestrian walkway within the stockpile compound at Red Road

alongside a number of contractors, have been seeking to repair the 150-metre stretch of damaged road by redistributing the 30,000 tonnes of aggregates in the stockpile to reduce its pressure.

During a press briefing on Friday, prior to the announcement of the walkway, Minister Edghill had noted that some four contractors actively engaged in Government contracts that need crusher run were being

involved in this process of redistribution.

Meanwhile, as the use of heavy machinery continues during the rehabilitation works, Edghill emphasised the importance of maintaining the safety of pedestrians

as the project currently does not have an exact timeline for completion.

“It’s a real safety concern, because these [contractors] don't hear you walking and even if you shout and they're sitting in the machine, they wouldn't hear you because of the level of noise,” Edghill said.

He explained that on Thursday, the Ministry had engaged the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel to allow patrons to bypass the construction work.

“We would prefer not to have people on the carriageway and that's why immediately, we had the Police engage the security of Princess hotel to get that gate open and we did have some movement,” Edghill said.

“But [on Friday], we don't

have that same facility. I can’t make Princess continue to provide that facility. We will continue to appeal to see people get that. Maybe they have their own safety concerns,” Edghill said.

This stockpile of aggregates emerged from a need to address the shortage of crusher run in the country as the Public Works Ministry sought to collect various levels of aggregates for construction materials to be distributed across various Government projects accordingly.

However, Edghill noted that this Red Road experience is prompting the Ministry to reevaluate the level of tonnage that can be stored in stockpile yards, and potentially enforce some level of regulations in the future.

NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Cop under close arrest after air gun, ammo found in car

Berbice River Bridge

Weight restriction, speed limit for vehicles after sand A barge collides with bridge

A

ll truck, tractor and freight vehicle owners and operators are encouraged to take note of a reduction of the weight limit for the Berbice River Bridge to 20 tonnes, until further notice.

The Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI) on Saturday disclosed that this change comes after a barge loaded with sand collided into the Bridge at about 20:30h on Friday.

In addition to the vehicular weight reduction, the BBCI also advised commuters to adhere to the Bridge’s speed limits of 30 kmh on the carriageway and 15 kmh on the ramps.

“These measures have been implemented for the safety of everyone. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation,” the BBCI

Berbice River Bridge

stated.

In accordance with the Berbice River Bridge Act, Chapter 51:06, Act 3 of 2006 No 8 (v), the Bridge, in normal circumstances, accommodates up to 32 metric tonnes gross weight.

Further, all articulated trucks and any trucks

that transport heavy cargo from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) are usually required to stop and check with the security stationed at the eastern end of the Berbice River Bridge to facilitate weighing of the trucks before transiting the bridge.

Police Constable from Regional Division Two (PomeroonSupenaam) is currently under close arrest following the discovery of an air pistol and ammunition in his car.

According to Police Headquarters, a search of the officer’s vehicle was conducted on Friday around 16:15h, revealing a black air pistol inside the glove compartment. Additionally, two live 9mm rounds of ammunition were found on the floor of the driver’s side and within the panel of the driver’s side door.

The officer, who is part of the general section of the division, was informed of the offence and subsequently escorted to the Anna Regina Police Station. There, he is cooperating with authorities in their investigation.

The gun and ammunition that were found by Police

Only a few days ago, in Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne), two policemen were under close arrest on the grounds of suspected corrupt activities. It was confirmed that the individuals involved were a Subordinate Officer and a Constable.

The incident in question occurred on the Corentyne Coast, where law enforcement officers stopped a busi-

nesswoman during a routine roadblock and noticed a substantial amount of foreign currency in her possession.

The policemen allegedly demanded that a portion of the money be handed over to them, threatening arrest if their demands were not met.

Upon receiving this information, senior ranks were notified and an investigation was initiated. (G9)

24 NEWS Director of Prisons calls for reforms during Mazaruni Prison I SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

n a determined effort to enhance operational standards and strengthen communication within the prison system, Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot conducted a comprehensive day and night inspection at Mazaruni Prison.

The inspection aimed to supervise operations, improve communication channels among the Director, officers, and inmates, and facilitate well-informed decision-making processes.

During the visit, Director Elliot stressed the urgent need for thorough evaluations of the existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in prisons. Acknowledging the critical role of meticulous assessment, this initiative will

Director of Prisons Nicklon Elliot during the inspection of the Mazaruni Prison

promote active engagement with staff at all levels, encouraging direct interaction and feedback.

This proactive approach not only reinforces commu-

nication but also addresses potential issues within the prison system. The primary objective is to enhance overall operational efficiency and create a safer envi-

ronment for both staff and inmates.

These efforts follow recent statements by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, emphasising the need

for continuous vigilance within the prison system.

He emphasised the Ministry's commitment to fortify prison security after several prisoners, in-

cluding notorious criminal Royden Williams, known as “Smallie,” escaped from penitentiaries nationwide.

Williams, who had been under a death sentence, managed to escape from Mazaruni Prison in May 2023 with the assistance of prison officials.

His escape exposed vulnerabilities in the prison system, prompting a thorough investigation that led to the identification and charging of individuals involved in his escape.

In response to these challenges, Director Elliot's inspection underscores the ongoing commitment to reform, ensuring a secure and effective prison environment in the face of evolving security threats. (G9)

NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

427 traffic violation cases reported on Friday

T

he Traffic Department of the Guyana Police Force reported a staggering total of 427 cases of traffic violations on Friday.

Among these, 108 instances were linked to speeding, while eight were attributed to driving under the influence (DUI).

In response to this concerning trend, road safety officials have intensified their efforts to promote responsible driving. They have conducted educational programmes and lectures in schools, specifically targeting young drivers to emphasise the importance of adhering to traffic rules.

These initiatives have also extended to bar owners, patrons, and individuals frequenting entertainment venues nationwide.

The core focus of these programmes is to instil a sense of responsibility and

respect for the road and all road users. Law enforcement has emphasised that speeding is never a solution, and driving under the influence is never a viable choice. Such reckless actions not only jeopardise the lives of the offenders but also pose significant risks to other innocent road users.

The Force has urged citizens to strictly follow traffic laws, warning of rigorous enforcement against any violations. The objective is to create a safer road environment, ensuring full compliance with the country's laws.

Recently, Traffic Chief, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Singh emphasised the need for responsible alcohol consumption

Traffic officers carrying out traffic enforcement exercises

among motorists.

He clarified that while individuals can drink with-

in legal limits (with a permissible blood alcohol limit of 35 micrograms), it's crucial to have a sober companion if planning to exceed this limit. Singh highlighted the potential for alcohol-induced confrontations and urged individuals to recognise their limits and remain in control.

He questioned the logic of excessive alcohol consumption leading to helplessness, especially when it endangers the lives of others on the road.

Over the past two months, the Guyana Police Force has significantly intensified its efforts to curb DUI cases. A month ago, 33 drivers were arrested and brought before the court on DUI charges. These arrests underscore the grave

dangers associated with driving under the influence and demonstrate the Police Force's unwavering commitment to ensuring road safety. (G9)

26 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

“Totally outrageous”– Pres Ali blasts Region 6 officials over slow pace of work

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resident Dr Irfaan Ali on Saturday condemned several senior officials over their inability to promptly address a number of issues that are affecting residents of Mara, on the East Bank of Berbice.

He was at the time engaged in a cabinet outreach in Region Six (East BerbiceCorentyne).

The Mara residents had raised concerns about drainage issues and the pace of construction of the community’s main access road.

“I am disappointed with the engineer coming to communities (and) not preparing

President Dr Irfaan Ali addressing Mara residents alongside Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha; Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Charles Ramson; Minister within the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry, Anand Persaud; and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall

any report, not following up on anything. The areas with gaps we have to fill. We are paying people, and we’re not going to tolerate the lack of care and concern for the community,” Ali said.

“The cabinet is in the field every single day. We’re making the resources available. In a small society like ours, we can’t have little gods all over the place,” Ali added.

President Ali also expressed disapproval at the system governing the payment of old age pensions, with residents having to travel all the way to New Amsterdam to collect their pensions despite a directive having been given for the money to be paid right in the community.

“That’s a cabinet directive, so somebody has to answer some questions. And I’m disappointed with the Regional Executive Officer (REO), because he knows of the policy and he never reported to the Minister that the pension is not paid in the

community,” Ali said.

During the outreach, Ali indicated that five acres of state land will be cleared for farming activities – a move that would benefit some 70 farmers in the East Bank Berbice area.

Meanwhile, the President committed to fixing transportation challenges for the 16 children attending school in New Amsterdam, aiming to find a solution before the end of next week.

He also expressed plans to start work on a new well and canal before the end of the year, expected to greatly benefit the community.

Going forward, the Head of State said a new approach would be taken with the involvement of residents, especially in road construction projects.

“We’re not here to hide any issue, or misrepresent any issue. This is what good governance is. We promised you that we will come to listen to you and make decisions in your interest, and that is what we’re doing.” he declared.

President Ali and his Cabinet Ministers, including Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall; and Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Charles Ramson, are on a two-day outreach in Region Six, during which they are slated to engage residents from a number of communities, and visit several major project sites.

The leaders also engaged residents of Rose Hall, Port Mourant and Manchester on Saturday.

2 Essequibo Coast men charged with violent crimes

T

Charged: Chandra Persaud

Jailed: Kevin Odit

wo men have last week been separately arraigned in the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court on allegations of having committed violent crimes.

In the first case, Kevin Odit, 23, of Anna Regina has been jailed for 12 months after he admitted to unlawfully wounding 56-year-old Chateram Persaud, also known as ‘Wolfee’, on May 28 at Anna Regina Market Road, Essequibo Coast.

Odit, a labourer, appeared virtually from prison before Magistrate Esther Sam, and changed his initial plea of not guilty to guilty. He was conse-

quently sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

And Omesh Chandra, also known as ‘Dumb Boy’, a 23-year-old labourer of Riverstown, Essequibo Coast, was arraigned before Magistrate Sam charged with felonious wounding.

It is alleged that he wounded Sheldon Patterson, a 25-year-old labourer of Zorg, Essequibo Coast, in an incident that occurred on August 29 at Riverstown.

Magistrate Sam has placed Chandra on $500,000 bail, and adjourned the case to October 27, when he would be arraigned in the Suddie Magistrate’s Court.

NEWS

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Porter dies as garbage truck crashes into trench

The garbage truck in the drain

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n an early morning crash, a labourer tragically lost his life after a garbage truck, owned

by Puran Brothers Inc, veered into a nearby slushfilled drain in the vicinity of Cullen Public Road, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

Dead is 33-year-old Angel Jesus Azocar Rodriguez of Reliance, Essequibo Coast.

Reports are that the incident occurred at about 05:30h on Saturday morning.

According to information reaching Guyana Times, the truck, GAE 4065, driven by 45-year-old Rambeer Singh, was proceeding north on the western driving lane at a fast rate of speed when Singh lost control of the vehicle and it plunged into a nearby drain.

Additional information revealed that 39-year-

old Govji Daniels, a porter of Richmond; Aiasiah Latchman, 26, a bill checker, of Lot 66 Pomona Housing Scheme, and the labourer, Rodriguez, were in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

According to a release from Pooran Brothers Inc at about 04:30h on Saturday morning the group of men left the Bush Lot office and were heading to Suddie Public Hospital to pick up garbage.

However, while negotiating a turn, Singh lost control of the vehicle and subsequently veered into a nearby trench along the Cullen Public Road.

The release also disclosed that three occupants managed to free themselves, but unfortunately, Rodriguez was pinned inside the cabin of the truck.

Dead: Angel Jesus Azocar Rodriguez

He was pulled out of the vehicle in an unconscious state and rushed to the Suddie Public Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The driver of the vehicle is currently in custody assisting with the investigation. (G12)

28 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

$100M recreational park opens in Corriverton A

$100M recreational park was on Saturday officially opened by President Dr Irfaan Ali in Corriverton, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) The Corriverton Recreational Park is situated opposite the Corriverton Market and adjacent to the Corentyne River.

The project, which was being spearheaded by First Lady Arya Ali until its completion, is equipped with a parking lot, amenities for kids to play, a walkway, benches, and washroom facilities among others.

President Ali pointed out that the new facility is part of a larger picture that intends to boost tourism in the region.

The First Lady in launching the project last year said it was a part of the National Beautification Project.

President Ali on Saturday in making mention of the Corentyne River Bridge, which is soon to be constructed to bridge Guyana and Suriname, said the bridge will open up more economic and tourism opportunities for Region Six. According to President Ali, more important is the infrastructural development that will come on stream, which includes expanding the Corentyne Highway to make it a four-lane one, the construction of a new stadium, and the building of an industrial hub. The infrastructural development would also see new malls and hotels coming onstream in the region.

“All of those things will come together to create a diversified economy in which agricultural, tourism, industrial development, and the

An aerial view of the Corriverton Recreational Park

energy sector will improve.”

He said the energy sector will have a very strong base in Region Six as well as transport and logistics.

“Because this is the region identified to be linked to Brazil through the establishment of a deep-water port to support both Guyana and Brazil in the expansion of our energy sector. All of these things will create new

demands for services and opportunities for more visitors. All of this necessitates building infrastructure to support it.”

He said plans are afoot to ensure that the new park will host specific national events.

“These events will stimulate the growth of traffic coming into Region Six.” President Ali pointed out

that there is a continuous flow of both marine and vehicular traffic at the Berbice River. Hence a new Berbice River Bridge will be constructed to facilitate such.

The current Berbice River Bridge is a floating bridge and has to be closed to vehicular traffic to facilitate the movement of marine traffic.

Touching on the national events, the Head of State outlined that in November there will be one week of Diwali activities at the new park. The celebrations, he explained, will be both cultural and religious in nature.

Ali pointed out that the lighting that will be used will make the park a tourist attraction during the week of activities which is hoped to pull persons from neighbouring Suriname and also various parts of Guyana.

“We want to do the same thing for Eid where we will have a week of activities and festivity and also for Christmas so that this can be a modern investment that will stimulate the businesses around; the hotels and the restaurants. So this facility is not just a recre-

ational facility. This facility is one that will open up opportunities for the expansion of business opportunities.”

For this to be achieved, the President said standards must be adopted and kept.

“We cannot misuse this facility.”

The park is expected to be a safe space that is open to everyone and to promote family health.

“It should be an environment in which women and the elderly can have firstclass relaxation in comfort.

We have been observing some behaviours that are not in keeping with this facility,” the Head of State said while pointing out that the guidelines for uses of the facility will be enforced.

“We have to protect this.

This is your asset. This is your park; you have to protect it and use it in the manner for which it was designed.”

The Head of State took the opportunity to congratulate the Office of the First Lady and the First Lady herself for spearheading the development of the park.

(G4)

Guyana Where & What accomplishes 15 years of continuous publication

T

he pocket-sized tourist guide handbook, “Guyana Where and What”, has now, in 2023, accomplished 15 years of continuous production annually except for 2021 (the COVID period).

Published by General Executive Management Services (GEMS Inc), the guidebook is the brainchild of its publisher and editor, Gem MadhooNascimento.

World Cup Cricket in 2007 inspired the first publication and since then without fail, a new edition has graced the magazine stands of many tourism resorts, tour operator destinations, hotels, guesthouses, travel agencies, airports, expos, regional and international trade fairs and mega tourism events hosted by the various Ministries.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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GNBS playing its role in Guyana achieving Guyana Where &...

SDG Three – Ensuring healthy lives

FROM PAGE 28

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he Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has been working to contribute to Guyana’s achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Three – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

This was expressed by Executive Director (ag) Donovan Fraser during an address posted on the organisation’s official Facebook page, as the celebration of National Quality Week continues under the theme: A Shared Vision for a Better World.

“Over the years, the GNBS has positively contributed to the SDG. We have made considerable inroads in ensuring the implementation of standards in our health sector, particularly, through our lab certification programme,” he is quoted as saying by DPI.

GNBS Executive Director (ag) Donovan Fraser

This programme has led to most of the medical laboratories in the country being certified in accordance with national standards, while other health institutions have since achieved accreditation.

Over the past month, the institution has certified a number of laboratories across the country.

Just last week and in late September, QualiTEST Medical Laboratory and Max Hanoman Medical Laboratory were certified.

This takes the Bureau’s certified laboratories to approximately 31.

Certification ensures operational efficiency and boosts customers’ confidence in a medical institu-

tion.

“The GNBS has a commitment to implement standards across all sectors that will benefit the country’s economy,” Fraser stated in the DPI report.

He further encouraged businesses to take advantage of the services being offered by GNBS so that they can play their part in the country’s development.

The institution has hosted a number of educational campaigns, symposiums, an award ceremony, and training programmes.

A release from GEMS Inc said that the publication has found its way into many schools for teachers interested in expanding their knowledge of Guyana and sharing it with their students. The guidebook is a mine full of information for both Guyanese and visitors to our shores.

The book is free and is paid for by various client advertising.

According to GEMS Inc, during the COVID years, it was very difficult to up keep publishing, but because of the continuous support of many Government agencies and some private sector organisations, only one year was missed.

The 140-page guidebook continues to provide an exceptionally useful guide for the many visitors to our shores whether on holiday or business. The detailed map of Georgetown and Guyana in the book provides very useful information to assist the visitor to wind their way around the city and country.

“We, at GEMS, are continuously working towards making it a complete tourism guide/directory listing all our hotels, lodges, restaurants, resorts, travel agencies, airports, airlines, taxi services etc, as approved by the Guyana Tourism Authority,” the release stated.

30 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Dental School being transformed into main reference centre for dentistry – Dr Anthony

T

The annual Dentex Convention for Dental Extenders hosted at Regency Suites, Georgetown

he Cheddi Jagan Dental School located on Carmichael Street, Georgetown, will be modernised as the Health Ministry is seeking to transform the institution into a reference centre by integrating technology and increasing resources for improved services.

With these investments, patients will experience en-

hanced dental treatment, care, and related operations.

This was disclosed by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during his remarks at Saturday’s opening of the annual Dentex Convention for Dental Extenders hosted at Regency Suites, Georgetown.

According to a DPI report, he explained that every area in the health sector

is being improved through investments in infrastructure, equipment, and training opportunities for health professionals.

“We desire that this is going to become the major reference centre for dentistry in the country. And, we are going to put in some innovations because … we are still doing some things in a very primitive way, mean-

ing old-fashioned. The technology we have has gone past what we have there and we’re still not upgraded,” the Minister is quoted as saying in the DPI report.

The Government, the Minister reiterated, is keen on improving services in each medical area in keeping with its vision of transforming the sector into a world-class healthcare system.

As the Government is providing resources to improve the quality of service, Dr Anthony emphasised the need for continuous training and retraining of professionals to maintain the standards. Attendees were encouraged to advance their studies and refresh their minds with the newest information and technology critical to modernising services.

They were also urged to use all resources provided by the Ministry to improve their skill sets to avoid human errors in service deliv-

ery, “You still have to keep yourself updated with that would be current practices and again, we can facilitate this with having regular seminars, having regular conferences.”

Principal Dental Officer of the Cheddi Jagan Dental School, Dr Marvin Monzie revealed that 102 professionals participated in

the convention. Other attendees at the convention were Professor Rajini Kurup, Assistant Dean attached to the University of Guyana; Dr Sarah Lall, Representative from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and Dr Kevin Jodah – Dental Surgeon attached to Dental Imports Guyana.

Israel prepares ground assault on Gaza as Palestinians flee

I

srael was preparing on Saturday to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, after telling Palestinians living in the densely populated territory to flee south towards a closed border with Egypt.

The Israeli national security adviser meanwhile warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah not to start a war on a second front, threatening the “destruction of Lebanon” if it did.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas in retaliation for a rampage in which its fighters stormed through Israeli towns a week ago, shooting civilians and seizing scores of hostages in the worst attack on civilians in Israel’s history. Some 1,300 people were killed in a brutal onslaught that shocked Israel, over the killing and horrifying mobile phone footage and reports from medical and emergency services of atrocities in the towns and kibbutzes that were overrun.

In response, Israeli jets and artillery have subjected Gaza to the most intense bombardment it has ever seen, putting the enclave, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under total siege. Gaza authorities say more than 2,200 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Rescue workers searched desperately for survivors of nighttime air raids.

Thousands of Palestinians fled the north of the Gaza Strip on Saturday from the path of the expected Israeli ground assault, while Israel pounded the area with more air strikes and said it kept two roads open to let people escape. U.S. President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, while reiterating “unwavering” support, discussed international coordination to ensure innocent civilians have access to water, food and medical care.

Biden also spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who stressed the urgent need to allow urgent humanitarian aid corridors in Gaza.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians would “remain in our land” even as one million Gaza residents were reported to have fled their homes since

Israel began its bombardment.

The surprise Hamas attack on Oct. 7 launched the region into a new crisis as furious Israeli leaders prepare to respond with crushing force.

“IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers and battalions are deployed across the country and are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of the war, with an emphasis on significant ground operations,” the military said in a statement.

It added this would include air, sea and land assaults and cover an “expanded arena of combat,” without elaborating.

On Friday, the Israeli military told the population of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes the enclave’s biggest settlement Gaza City, to move south immediately. On Saturday, it said it would guarantee the safety of Palestinians fleeing on two main roads until 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT). As the deadline passed, troops were massing around Gaza.

Hamas has told people not to leave and says roads out are unsafe. It says dozens of people were killed in strikes on cars and trucks carrying refugees on Friday, which Reuters could not independently verify. Israel says Hamas is preventing people from leaving in order to use them as human shields, which Hamas denies.

In one Gaza City neighborhood that Israel ordered evacuated, bombs fired from warplanes hit several houses during the night, residents said.

“We lived a night of horror. Israel punished us for not wanting to leave our home. Is there brutality worse than this?” a father of three said by telephone from a hospital where he had taken shelter, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals.

“I prefer to die and not leave, but I can’t see my wife and children die before my eyes.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received an Israeli order to evacuate the hospital by 4:00 p.m., but would not do so because it had a humanitarian duty to keep providing services to the sick and wounded. (Excerpted from Reuters)

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32 NEWS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Bocas Breakthrough Fellowships open for applications

A

new fellowship programme for early-career Caribbean writers, administered by the Bocas Lit Fest, is now open for applications.

Running from December 2023 to May 2024, the Bocas Breakthrough Fellowships will support five early-career Caribbean writers based at home in the Region in advancing or completing a book manuscript or other body of work, and developing their professional skills and networks in the regional and international literary world.

The application deadline is 31 October, 2023.

The fellowships are funded by Creative Caribbean, a joint project implemented

by UNESCO, the Caricom Secretariat, and The University of the West Indies (UWI), with funding from the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, under the ACP-EU 11th EDF Culture Programme.

Creative Caribbean brings the Region’s creative com-

munity together to achieve shared goals and initiatives for the advancement of the Caribbean as a cultural and creative space and economic player.

To apply for the Bocas Breakthrough Fellowships, writers must be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, living and working in the Caribbean Region, and be 18 years old or over by the ap-

plication deadline. Writers must not have previously published a book-length work in any genre.

Each fellowship will include participation in a series of monthly virtual seminars with international literary professionals, six months’ mentorship from an established author, publication of a chapbook with an excerpt from the writ-

er’s work in progress, and a stipend of US$300. Fellows will also participate in the 2024 NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain in April 2024, with travel and accommodation costs covered for fellows based outside Trinidad.

Writers can apply online via the Bocas Lit Fest website at www.bocaslitfest. com/awards/bocas-breakthrough-fellowships

Guyanese encouraged to apply for Cultural and Creative Industries Grant

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uyanese across the country are encouraged to apply for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports’ Cultural and Creative Industries Grant with the promise of earning up to $1 million.

The main objective of the grant is to support the setting up or expansion of cultural products or projects within Guyana’s creative sector.

What sets this initiative apart is not only the ambition of its financial allocation, but the core principles that underpin it. With an annual budget of $30 million, this grant represents a monumental investment in the Caribbean, unprecedented in its scale.

Each grant, approximately US$5000, aims to empower individuals with the resources they need to turn their creative visions into reality. The programme is firmly anchored in the values of inclusivity and diversity, reflecting the Government’s unwavering commitment to unifying the country and its recog-

nition of the importance of culture.

For those eager to participate, the application process is straightforward and inclusive. To be eligible for consideration, ap-

plicants must be Guyanese and have been residents of Guyana for at least two years prior to applying.

Applications are to be submitted online no later than November 30.

FEATURE

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HEALTH TIPS

FOOT CRAMPS

cramps are harmless and temporary. These muscle cramps are often easy to treat and prevent. The following sections list the most likely causes of foot cramps.

* LOW POTASSIUM HYPOKALEMIA MAY CAUSE FOOT CRAMPS.

Dr. Tariq Jagnarine

F

oot cramps happen when a muscle contracts involuntarily.

Possible reasons include dehydration, low potassium levels, nerve damage, and tight shoes. Home remedies such as drinking more water may help, but some people may need medical treatment for an underlying condition. Foot cramps are a type of muscle cramp that occurs most often either in the arch of the foot, near the toes, or on the upper part of the foot.

Muscle cramps are the involuntary contractions of a muscle. These spasms can occur during daily activities, or wake a person in the middle of the night.

Like other muscle cramps, foot cramps can cause mild-tointense pain, until the muscle relaxes and the cramping ends. A gentle massage, or stretching exercises, can often help the muscle return to a relaxed state. Foot cramps are a common occurrence, and are rarely a cause of concern.

People who have frequent or chronic foot cramps can speak to their doctor about their symptoms.

CAUSES

Most of the causes of foot

Potassium is an electrolyte that helps control functions that are vital to muscle movement and maintenance.

When potassium levels dip too low, a person may experience cramping in the feet and legs.

If a person’s potassium levels are frequently low, they may have a potassium deficiency, which doctors call hypokalemia. In moderate-to-severe cases of hypokalemia, a person may experience: * Cramping * Fatigue and weakness * Abnormal heartbeat * Constipation A doctor can diagnose hypokalemia by testing potassium levels in the blood and urine.

* OVEREXERCISING

People at all fitness levels, from beginners to top athletes, can experience muscle cramps if they push their muscles too far compared with their usual activity levels.

According to a 2019 article, exercise-related muscle cramps are the condition that most commonly requires medical attention when people participate in sports. If a person exerts themselves too forcefully during their workout or sports practice, overworked muscles can spasm more, and cause foot cramps.

* DEHYDRATION

When a person becomes dehydrated, their body lacks the necessary amount of water to help the tissues and organs function correctly. Dehydration can lead to muscle cramping throughout

the body, including the feet.

Dehydration can occur for several different reasons, including: * Diarrhoea * Vomiting * Not drinking enough water * Exercise * Overheating Some people may not realize that they are not drinking enough water. If any of the following symptoms occur, a person may be dehydrated and requires treatment: * Dry mouth * Craving sweets * Skin drying out. * Fever * Concentrated urine, which will appear darker than usual. * Chapped lips * Headaches * Bad breath * Lack of urination

OVERLY TIGHT SHOES

When a person’s shoes are too tight, blood circulation to the foot can be reduced. When blood is no longer circulating as it should, the muscles in the foot can cramp.

Signs that a person’s footwear is too tight include the following: * The feet are starting to feel numb. * An inability to wiggle the toes in the shoes. * An uncomfortable rubbing against the heels or toes * The shoes leave indenta-

tions on the feet.

By replacing their restrictive footwear with well-fitted shoes, people can prevent circulation problems.

MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS

Several types of medication can cause muscle cramping as a side effect. These include: * Asthma medication * Statin drugs * Neostigmine (Prostigmin) * Medications for Parkinson’s disease * Osteoporosis drugs * Medicines for Alzheimer’s disease * Diuretics * Blood pressure medication.

However, not everyone would experience muscle cramps after taking these medications.

NERVE DAMAGE

Nerve damage does not cause cramping. However, the pain and discomfort that it causes in parts of the body can feel like cramping. It is possi-

ble that a person would feel the effects of nerve damage in their feet. People with diabetes are particularly prone to nerve damage in this part of the body. People may also experience nerve damage if they have: * Had exposure to toxins. * Certain genetic disorders * Metabolic issuesDIABETES * Had an injury in or near their foot. * Been taking certain drugs to treat cancer.

REMEDIES AND TREATMENT

A person can drink water or drinks with electrolytes in them to treat dehydration.

The best remedies and treatments would vary, depending on what is causing a person to experience cramping in their feet. In most cases, people can relieve cramping with light stretching and gentle massages.

If low potassium levels are causing muscle cramps, people can try taking potassium supplements. Otherwise, they can increase their dietary intake by eating potassium-rich foods such as potatoes and bananas.

Most people should be able to treat dehydration by drinking water or drinks with electrolytes in them. Dehydration may require medical intervention if a person cannot keep fluids down. In those cases, intravenous fluids may be necessary.

If overexercising is the cause of foot cramps, a person

can reduce the amount of time they spend exercising, or decrease the intensity of the exercise. Sports massages can also help.

When shoes are the problem, people can relieve cramps by changing their footwear. Many shoe stores offer foot-measuring services to help people find shoes that fit properly.

If a medication is causing cramping, a person should make their prescribing doctor aware of this side effect. The doctor may be able to suggest an alternative medication or treatment method.

Finally, a healthcare professional may be able to provide medication, creams, or other therapies to help alleviate problems relating to nerve damage.

PREVENTION

Some foot cramps are preventable. For example, people can often prevent foot cramps by using the following methods: * Exercising within a comfortable limit, and wearing suitable sports shoes * Eating a diet rich in vital nutrients, including potassium * Drinking plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. * Wearing well-fitted shoes * Changing any medication that is causing muscle cramps, under a doctor’s instructions.

If nerve damage is causing foot cramps, a person may need medical treatment to help relieve the pain.

34

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

Regional

IMF says recent El Salvador No shade, no water, mission was ‘very productive’ and record heat: More migrants die in US desert T

V

eteran firefighter Daniel Medrano got out of his truck somewhere in the barren outskirts of Sunland Park, New Mexico, where a vast expanse of yellow sand is dotted by stubby bushes.

Under one, he found a body.

Medrano wrapped a black scarf around his nose and mouth as he looked closer: Black sneakers, green hat, dark hair in a braid.

Empty water bottle at arm’s length. The Aug 17 afternoon was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38°C), and Medrano believed the woman had died days before – another migrant killed by scorching heat while entering the United States.

In the last 12 months through September, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) logged 60 migrant deaths due to heat in the El Paso Sector, triple the same period a year ago.

The sector spans the Chihuahuan Desert through New Mexico and parts of Texas along 268 miles (431 km) of the border. It has

US Border Patrol agents detained migrants who attempted to cross the US-Mexico border undetected, in a desert area outside Sunland Park, New Mexico, US, June 23, 2023

been the busiest area for migrant crossings into the US southwest at a time when overall border apprehensions are on track to match or surpass record levels.

Migrant advocates and academics have said for years that policies like increased fencing and checkpoints, intended to deter those aiming to cross illegally into the US, push migrants to take increasingly perilous routes to evade detection.

That includes ever-longer treks through remote stretches of desert where

they are prone to exhaustion and dehydration.

Migrants can also be abandoned by human traffickers without water, or jammed into sweltering truck trailers. The 2022 death toll at the US-Mexico border prompted the UN migration agency to deem the area the world’s deadliest land migration route.

As weather extremes are expected to worsen due to climate change, these journeys will likely only become riskier. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Colombia to spend US$4.25 billion to buy land for poor farmers

C

olombia’s leftist government will spend US$4.25 billion to buy some 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land for poor farmers or displaced people, as part of a bid to increase agricultural output and boost peace efforts, an official said.

The plan, which began last year and is set to end in 2026 when President Gustavo Petro leaves office, is part of Petro’s ambitious efforts to end Colombia’s six-decade conflict, which has killed more than 450,000 people. The conflict, which has involved rebels’ groups, the Government, paramilitary organisations and crime gangs, originally began as a fight for land rights.

“We have a goal of 1.5 million hectares to benefit approximately 150,000 families, 10 hectares (24.7 acres) per family,” said Gerardo Vega, head of the National Land Agency, in an interview late on Thursday.

“With the commercial cost of the land, about 18 trillion pesos has been budgeted over four years,” he said, adding that some 100,000 hectares have already been given away and

Colombian President Gustavo Retro speaking during an event with peace negotiators of Colombia’s Government and the National Liberation Army (ELM) rebels in Bogota, Colombia August 3.2023 REUTERS/Vennesse mere/File Photo

that the purchasing process is set to accelerate.

Petro had originally said his Government would buy 3 million hectares, but the official goal is now half that.

The new owners of the land, located all around Colombia’s diverse terrain, will be encouraged to grow rice, corn, fruit and other crops, Vega said, and the Government plans to ensure them access to other services.

Purchasing efforts can be slow, Vega added, as the Government works to ensure the properties do not have displaced claimants

who were forced to leave by armed groups.

Colombia’s Government also redistributes land confiscated from criminals and rebel groups and is making a push to formalise ownership for farmers who have worked land for generations without formal deeds.

Some 1.3 million hectares have already been formalized, Vega said, and all the redistribution efforts should total about 7 million hectares by the end of Petro’s term.

“Land is a synonymous with peace,” he said.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

he International Monetary Fund’s engagement with El Salvador has been “very productive” following a recent visit from a negotiating team, but an agreement is “not there yet” for a new financing programme, an IMF official said on Friday.

“The engagement with El Salvador has been very productive,” Rodrigo Valdes, director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, told Reuters. “We just had a mission there, a negotiating mission, but we knew that it would be a first step,” he said. “We’re not there yet.”

Salvadoran eurobonds are among the best performing so far this year, and investors have looked at a possible deal with the IMF as a catalyst for the next leg of the rally.

Valdes said there is not a time-frame set for reaching an agreement or even setting the next meeting

Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Western Hemisphere Department, Rodrigo Valdes, speaking during an interview with Reuters on the fourth day of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, following last month’s deadly earthquake, in Marrakech, Morocco, October 12, 2023

and “important” structural measures are needed, “so it’s better to do it well than to rush it.”

The size of an eventual programme would be set near the very end of negotiations, said Valdes, with the amount linked to the gap on the balance of payments.

“There are ongoing dis-

cussions on the measures (to be taken) and that will allow us to properly assess financing gaps,” he said.

The IMF said in late September that it was working with El Salvador on “technical issues” and on minimising the risks from the country’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

EU launches Digital Jamaica

T

he EU, earlier this week, launched the Digital Transition Programme for Jamaica at a function in Kingston.

Under Global Gateway, this is an innovative programme to increase inclusive access to and use of ICT across the country, in support of the country’s transition towards a digital economy and society.

European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen said: “I am proud to launch the Digital Jamaica programme. In order to thrive in tomorrow’s working world, young people need strong digital skills and access to high-quality Internet. With this programme, we are connecting

Jamaica’s youth to broadband and providing them with the skills and education they need to succeed in the future. This is what our Global Gateway investment strategy is all about: delivering sustainable hard infrastructure and providing through soft infrastructure citizens with the skills and tools they need to benefit from it.”

The Digital Jamaica programme objectives are twofold: to connect Jamaicans with improved broadband access while providing those working and learning in the education section with training in digital skills.

Under Global Gateway, the EU’s positive offer to deliver trusted and sustainable connections for

our partner countries, the Digital Jamaica programme will “connect” the island through a 9.5 million in direct budget support to the Jamaican Government.

This will support the installation of Wi-Fi networks in schools and the training of teachers on digital skills.

It is expected that national training programme will inspire a strong trickle-down effect with students who will and a greater use of digital tools. In order to further bridge the digital divide, EU will facilitate and support private investments in the Jamaican digital sector, particularly in areas so far underserved or unconnected across the country. (Excerpt from Jamaica Observer)

Ecuador candidates end campaigning ahead of Sunday’s vote

E

cuador’s two presidential candidates - leftist Luisa Gonzalez and business heir Daniel Noboa - officially closed their campaigns with rallies and vehicle caravans on Thursday, as both promise to fight worsening insecurity and unemployment.

The campaign ahead of Sunday’s election has been marked by violence and threats against candidates, including anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio’s murder before the August first round.

Seven suspects jailed in the case were subsequently also killed.

Banana heir Noboa, 35, has led recent polling, though

some surveys put voting intention for him and Gonzalez within the margin of error.

He has pledged to attract foreign investment, create jobs, particularly for young people, and use technology to combat rising crime, which the outgoing government has blamed on drug gangs.

Noboa closed campaigning in Quito on Wednesday with a caravan around the city, though a technical issue with his flight from Guayaquil significantly delayed his agenda.

“Our proposals are very clear and that’s why we have the confidence of the majority of the Ecuadorean people, the majority of young people,” Noboa said on social

media. “We are the new generation!”

Gonzalez, who won 34% of the vote in the first round and is a protégé of former President Rafael Correa, asked her supporters to “care for votes in every corner of the country.”

Gonzalez has promised to bring back the high social spending which characterised Correa’s decade in power and use $2.5 billion from Ecuador’s international reserves to shore up the economy.

More than 13 million people are obliged to vote in the contest, whose winner will govern during a shortened term until May 2025.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

35

Around The World

OILNEWS OIL NEWS

Water a ‘matter of life and death’ for Gaza after Israeli siege, says UN

Treasury targets T firms ignoring US$60 cap on Russian crude

T

he US Treasury Department has announced sanctions on two companies for allegedly violating a price cap on Russian oil agreed last year by Western countries.

Vessels owned by companies based in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey were cited as having violated a price cap set in December by the countries in the Group of Seven leading economies, the European Union, and Australia.

The coalition set the price cap at US$60 per barrel for Russian crude to restrict income for Russian oil that could then be used to fund its invasion of Ukraine.

A vessel owned by UAE-based Lumber Marine was found to have violated price-cap policy, the US Treasury Department said in a news release. The vessels carried Russian-origin crude priced at more than US$75 a barrel, the Treasury said in a statement on October 12.

The department also sanctioned Turkey-based Ice Pearl Navigation Corporation, saying one it its vessels carried crude oil priced above US$80 a barrel.

Global oil prices have risen to around US$85 a barrel in recent months.

"Today's action demonstrates our continued commitment to reduce Russia's resources for its war against Ukraine and to enforce the price cap," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

The cap bans Western companies from providing maritime services such as insurance, finance, and shipping to Russian seaborne oil exports sold above $60 a barrel. The coalition implemented the programme to restrict Russian revenue while keeping oil flowing to markets.

Both tankers used US-based service providers while transporting the Russian origin oil, the Treasury Department said.

"Because of the actions we're announcing today, and the further actions we will take in the coming weeks and months, these costs will continue to rise and Russia's ability to sustain its barbaric war will continue to weaken," a senior Treasury official told reporters in a conference call.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on October 11 said the price cap had sharply reduced Russian revenues over the past 10 months and that it was critical to keep imposing severe and increasing costs on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Since the establishment of the price-cap policy, the coalition has closely monitored markets, including price trends and volumes exported by Russia, a statement from the G7 and Australia said.

Russian oil tax revenue was down 45 percent from JanuaryAugust this year, relative to 2022, the statement said.

"Given recent price movements, the coalition is focusing on supporting compliance and enforcement of the policy," it said, adding that when it has evidence of illicit or deceptive practices related to shipments of Russian-origin crude oil, it will "respond in accordance with the respective restrictive measures."

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on October 12 that preliminary estimates showed Russian crude oil exports last month stood at 4.9 million barrels per day, down about 100,000 bpd from the May-June average.

But it also said Russia's total exports of crude oil and products in September rose by 460,000 bpd to 7.6 million bpd, with crude accounting for 250,000 bpd of the increase.

(Oilprice.com)

he United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians has said water has now become a “matter of life and death” for people in the Gaza Strip after Israel cut their water supplies.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Saturday that more than two million people are now at risk as water runs out.

“It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must: fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for two million people,” said UNRWA CommissionerGeneral Philippe Lazzarini.

No humanitarian supplies have been allowed into Gaza for a week now, according to the agency.

Clean water is running

out in the Gaza Strip as its water plant and public water networks stopped working.

Palestinians are now forced to use dirty water from wells, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases.

Israel has also enforced an electricity blackout on Gaza since Wednesday, which has impacted the water supply.

Meanwhile, thousands have moved out of northern Gaza after Israel ordered them to do so amid its air attacks, something the UN called “impossible”. Nearly one million people have been displaced since last week.

“We need to truck fuel into Gaza now. Fuel is the only way for people to have safe drinking water. If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and wom-

Palestinians queue to fill containers with water in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2023, as bombs fall on Gaza for an eighth straight day [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

en. Water is now the last remaining lifeline. I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now,” added Lazzarini.

Last Friday, the

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched a surprise multi-pronged assault on Israel, which killed at least 1300 people. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

New Russian strikes take place on Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, top general says fighting further north has worsened

R

ussia's military pressed on with fierce assaults on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Saturday, with shelling so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, the town's top administrative official said.

It was the fifth straight day of assaults on the town in Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas, focal point of Moscow's 19-month-old inva-

sion of its neighbour.

Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

Fighting intensified in other sectors of the 1000-kmlong (600-mile) front, with a top Ukrainian commander saying clashes further north had "significantly worsened" in recent days.

Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said residents had

experienced a rare overnight respite from air strikes, but attacks had resumed at daybreak.

"They are striking with everything they have. Bouts of shooting, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and a lot of aircraft," Barabash told national television.

All rescue operations had been halted, he said, amid reports of people believed to be trapped under rubble of buildings levelled by shelling

and air strikes.

Barabash said 1620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large coking plant and a pre-war population of 32,000.

The town, 20 km (12 miles) west of the Russianheld town of Donetsk, has become a watchword for resistance. It held off attacks in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists seized areas of eastern Ukraine and has undergone serious fortification since. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Taliban to join France deploys 7000 troops for extra security China's Belt and Road after teacher slain forum, elevating ties

F

rench President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday deployed up to 7000 soldiers for increased security patrols, as bomb alerts forced the evacuation of the Louvre museum a day after a teacher was killed in an Islamist attack.

France was put on its highest security alert on Friday after a 20-year-old man fatally stabbed a teacher and gravely wounded two other people at a school in the city of Arras in northern France.

The Louvre museum, the Palace of Versailles and Paris' Gare de Lyon train station were evacuated on Saturday after receiving bomb alerts, which proved to be false alarms, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

He declined to comment on the investigation into the Arras attack but said a "jihadist atmosphere" had de-

veloped following events in the Middle East, where Israel is conducting a military offensive against Hamas fighters after their deadly rampage last Saturday.

"We think the absolutely disgusting geopolitics has allowed a certain number of people to take action in the name of radical Islam," Darmanin told a news conference.

Macron's office said the soldiers would be deployed

by Monday evening until further notice as part of an ongoing security operation in major city centres and tourist sites.

The latest security alert comes as France hosts the Rugby World Cup and less than a year before Paris welcomes the Olympic Games, which include plans for an unprecedented opening ceremony outside a stadium and a parade down the river Seine. (Excerpt from Reuters)

T

he Taliban will attend China's Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

Taliban officials and Ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focused on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend.

The forum in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping's ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.

The Taliban's acting Minister for Commerce and Industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing in the coming days, Ministry

spokesman Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad said in a text message to Reuters.

"He will attend and will invite large investors" to Afghanistan, he said.

The impoverished country could offer a wealth of coveted mineral resources. A Mines Minister estimated in 2010 that Afghanistan had untapped deposits, ranging from copper to gold and lithium, worth between US$1 trillion and US$3 trillion. It is not clear how much they are worth today.

China has been in talks with the Taliban over plans, begun under the previous foreign-backed Government, over a possible huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan.

Azizi will continue discussions in Beijing on plans to build a road through the Wakhan corridor, a thin, mountainous strip in northern Afghanistan, to provide direct access to China, Akhundzada said. (Excerpt from Reuters)

36

guyanatimesgy.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

Question everything before making a move. Having (March 21things in order will put April 19) your mind at ease, allowing you more time to be creative. Be true to yourself.

ARIES

You’ll gain momentum TAURUS and the assistance you re(April 20quire to reach your full potenMay 20) tial. You’ll thrive on change that sparks your imagination and encourages you to explore the possibilities.

Be careful whom you GEMINI (MAY 28- trust. Someone will use manipulative tactics to push June 20) you in a direction that’s not right for you. Don’t give in; act on your behalf and seek out what makes you happy.

Reflecting on the past CANCER will help you make progress.

(June 21Consider your choices and July 22) make changes that allow you to use your strengths diversely. Stepping outside your comfort zone will pay off.

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Don’t underestimate your ability to persuade others to see things your way.

When faced with opposition, offer incentives to ensure you maintain control.

Anger will hold you back.

Consider what’s working for you and rethink how (Aug. 23- you move forward. A learnSept. 22) ing expedition will help you update and streamline your plans to suit your situation.

Progress takes initiative.

VIRGO

Pickles

Bask in the light and let LIBRA your glow inspire others to (Sept. 23follow your lead. Speak up, Oct. 23) share your ideas and gravitate toward those with something to contribute. A demonstrative approach is called for.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 22)

Peanuts

Compassion, understanding and discipline will bring about change that sets you free and allows you the time and space to follow your heart. Stop dreaming and start the ball rolling. Romance is favored.

SAGITTARIUS Reach out to someone (Nov. 23you respect, and you’ll gain Dec. 21) insight into how to help others. Be prepared to work hard in order to prevent an outsider from taking charge.

CAPRICORN Alter your living space to accommodate an oppor(Dec. 22tunity you want to pursue.

Jan. 19) Find a practical way to start a new venture without going into debt. Discipline and hard work will be crucial.

Calvin and Hobbes

Play fair, but play to AQUARIUS win.

Maintain an endearing (Jan. 20attitude that grabs attenFeb. 19) tion and positive support.

Know your limits, keep the peace and enjoy the ride.

PISCES (Feb. 20Mar. 20)

Change will require keeping an open mind and abiding by the rules and regulations. Look to those you respect for guidance.

You can cut corners, saving money and time.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

37

ICC World Cup 2013…

India hand Pakistan another World Cup beating – Bumrah and spin do the trick

T

he game that always promises and rarely delivers came and went once more, promising plenty at various stages, and ultimately delivering what a blue mass of humanity had come to see: a crushing India win.

A stunning middle-overs collapse from Pakistan, which had them lose eight wickets for 36 runs, turned what should have been an enthralling run chase into a dull formality. Each India bowler played a part in his own way, five different players splitting the ten Pakistan wickets evenly.

With Pakistan folding for 191, India - spearheaded by captain Rohit Sharma - dazzled and sizzled; though really it was like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Pakistan had already checked out of this game, and were bystanders as India romped home in front of approximately 100,000 supporters, to go to pole position in the World Cup race, for which they look favourites.

India won the toss and opted to bowl, flying in the face of one of the features of their historical ODI World Cup dominance over Pakistan: making them chase. In only one of their previous seven World Cup encounters have India triumphed by chasing; but on a slow, low pitch, India left the job of figuring out the par score to Pakistan's batters.

Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq batted with

impressive calm in a cauldron early on, negotiating Jasprit Bumrah while putting away Mohammed Siraj with relative ease. And when Shafique fell victim to low bounce and Imam to a slightly wild shot, Babar and Mohammad Rizwan stepped in and began to steady the ship once more.

Pakistan weren't being flashy, but it felt like they were being mature, taking the emotion out of the game and accepting the task ahead would require steel and grit.

Pakistan's two best batters, who struck up a sedate 50run partnership, and began to assume a position of dominance when their captain brought up his first half-century of the tournament.

Pakistan sat pretty at 155 for 2, but the blue torch paper was about to be metaphorically lit in

Ahmedabad.

Siraj had been expensive in his second spell too, but as Babar tried to an-

Jasprit Bumrah removed the dangerous Mohammad Rizwan for 49

Rohit Sharma launched a few rockets on the day

one on to his stumps bowled around his legs - off his gloves.

India had introduced panic into an eerily calm Pakistan, and the game would never be the same again. Bumrah, curiously wicketless until then, cleaned up Rizwan one shy of a half-century with an

Rohit came out in the same creamy, luscious form he demonstrated against Afghanistan, taking the attack to Pakistan's vaunted pace unit early, biting chunks out of the low target.

Shubman Gill, recovered from a nasty bout of dengue fever, was similarly

India's bowlers, for their part, never really let them out of sight. A couple of expensive overs were followed by several tight ones, the first-change bowlers backing up the openers, and Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja executing their tight-fisted roles to perfection.

But none of it appeared to be unduly unsettling

SCOREBOARD Pakistan (50 ovs maximum) Abdullah Shafique lbw b Mohammed Siraj 20 Imam-ul-Haq c †Rahul b Pandya 36 Babar Azam (c) b Mohammed Siraj 50 Mohammad Rizwan † b Bumrah 49 Saud Shakeel lbw b Kuldeep Yadav 6 Iftikhar Ahmed b Kuldeep Yadav 4 Shadab Khan b Bumrah 2 Mohammad Nawaz c Bumrah b Pandya 4 Hasan Ali c Shubman Gill b Jadeja 12 Shaheen Shah Afridi not out 2 Haris Rauf lbw b Jadeja 2 Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 1) 4 TOTAL 42.5 Ov (RR: 4.45) 191 Fall of wickets: 1-41 (Abdullah Shafique, 7.6 ov), 2-73 (Imam-ulHaq, 12.3 ov), 3-155 (Babar Azam, 29.4 ov), 4-162 (Saud Shakeel, 32.2 ov), 5-166 (Iftikhar Ahmed, 32.6 ov), 6-168 (Mohammad Rizwan, 33.6 ov), 7-171 (Shadab Khan, 35.2 ov), 8-187 (Mohammad Nawaz, 39.6 ov), 9-187 (Hasan Ali, 40.1 ov), 10-191 (Haris Rauf, 42.5 ov) •

BOWLING Jasprit Bumrah Mohammed Siraj Hardik Pandya Kuldeep Yadav Ravindra Jadeja Shardul Thakur

O-M-R-W 7-1-19-2 8-0-50-2 6-0-34-2 10-0-35-2 9.5-0-38-2 2-0-12-0

India (T: 192 runs from 50 ovs) Rohit Sharma (c) c Iftikhar Ahmed b Shaheen Shah Afridi 86 Shubman Gill c Shadab Khan b Shaheen Shah Afridi 16 Virat Kohli c Mohammad Nawaz b Hasan Ali 16 Shreyas Iyer not out 53 KL Rahul † not out 19 Extras (lb 1, w 1) 2 TOTAL 30.3 Ov (RR: 6.29) 192/3 Did not bat: Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Shubman Gill, 2.5 ov), 2-79 (Virat Kohli, 9.5 ov), 3-156 (Rohit Sharma, 21.4 ov) • BOWLING O-M-R-W Shaheen Shah Afridi 6-0-36-2 Hasan Ali 6-0-34-1 Mohammad Nawaz 8.3-0-47-0 Haris Rauf 6-0-43-0 Shadab Khan 4-0-31-0

Shreyas Iyer was aggressive against spin

gle one down to deep third, that devilish low bounce struck again, knocking back his off stump.

Next ball, Saud Shakeel called for a run that was never there, and was saved only by an errant throw.

After 30 overs of calm, Pakistan's nerves began to fray. And Kuldeep knew just how to exploit them. He later said he knew Shakeel liked the sweep shot, so he dragged his length back and skidded one on, trapping him in front. In that same over, Iftikhar Ahmed was unfortunate to chop

unplayable offcutter, before a quicker one - equally impossible to negotiate - toppled Shadab's off stump.

Hardik Pandya put paid to Mohammad Nawaz, and Ravindra Jadeja mopped up the tail.

A taut Ahmedabad suddenly had all the pressure released, and with India due to bat soon, a carnival-like atmosphere took hold. There was reason for Indian fans - and there were almost exclusively Indian fans in this colosseum - to be excited for what would follow.

enterprising, and the pair struck five fours off the first two overs, before one slash off Afridi flew straight to Shadab at point.

It meant Virat Kohli and Rohit were united at the crease, just like they had been during that decorated, procession-like chase against Afghanistan. While Kohli timed the ball well enough, this was the Rohit show.

Haris Rauf came into the attack, and was greeted by a monstrous tonk over mid-on for Rohit's 300th ODI six. Three balls lat-

er, he played what perhaps was the shot of the game, a sliced six over cover, after perfectly reading an attempted slower ball.

Kohli miscued one to mid-on off Hasan Ali, but India were under no pressure whatsoever.

Shreyas Iyer was a useful accomplice to the devastating beauty at the other end, which had Rohit bring up a 36-ball half-century.

Next over, Rauf was pulled over square leg in another sumptuous display of strokemaking by Rohit as India sped towards the target.

Shadab, hopelessly out of form, was never going to alter the trajectory of this game. After a couple of tight overs, he was bulldozed out of the attack by Iyer and Rohit, his last delivery a loopy waist-high full toss which was such a gift it may as well have come with a bow on it. Rohit dispatched it into the stands over midwicket, and the first ball next over, Iyer was treating Nawaz the same way.

Ahmedabad now waited expectantly for another Rohit ton, though in that aspect they would be disappointed. Afridi returned and found a way to make the Indian captain miscue one to midwicket, and he perished 14 short.

But that was as good as it got for Pakistan, as KL Rahul and Iyer eased home, the latter bringing up his unbeaten half-century with the winning shot, a straight drive for four. It was the exclamation mark on a win that had been scripted a few hours previously in a manic ten-over spell.

(ESPNCricinfo)

38

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

8 women among 14 new C-licensed coaches T

he concurrent running of two CONCACAF C-Licence Coaching courses has resulted in the production of 14 new C- licensed coaches in Guyana, 8 of whom are women.

On one hand, the CONCACAF W pathway C-Licence course saw 19 female coaches from Regions 1, 3, 4 and 10 being engaged.

On the other hand, 14 coaches attached to the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Academy Training Center (ATC) and youth teams were trained for the C-Licence qualification at the same time.

During a simple presentation ceremony for the 14 successful coaches on Friday at the GFF’s Campbellville Headquarters, Technical Director Bryan Joseph shared the next steps in the coaching journey with the group. Joseph told the newly licensed coaches, “Your work

GFF’s 2nd Vice President Bruce Lovell presenting a certificate to a new C-licensed coach

is not done. We are at the beginning of a long journey of inspiring and teaching the generations about life and the beautiful game. your immediate next steps over the next couple days will be us reaching out to you and offering opportunities for your further development

through internship at the respective Academy Training Centers.

“This internship will allow you to work along with more experienced coaches in developing your competency, and prepare you to lead your individual clubs and community teams. Your place-

Coach Sampson Gilbert; GFF’s 2nd VP, Bruce Lovell; General Secretary Ian Alves, and technical Director Bryan Joseph are flanked by the coaches who received their certification

ment in the Academies is another step taken to foster the growing of young female players in the game, and to encourage more young ladies to be part of the football develop structure,” Joseph explained.

Newly-licensed coaches Devnon Winter and Amanda Angoy shared what the journey to acquiring the C-Licence has been like for them.

“First of all, it’s a great achievement for me, because

I’ve been working on this for a while. It’s not easy, the process was tough, had some days that you want to give up; but then, when you think about developing football in Guyana, it gives you that inspiration to keep going. So, I’m happy that I’m here now, I started from D- Licence, work with the youth development on the East Bank, and now I’m here, C-Licence and keep progressing all the time,” Coach Winter related to this publication.

Coach Angoy shared, “Of course, it always gotta be fun, but it was a little challenging as well, because it had late nights trying to prepare, getting all the stuff together, getting all the kids together to execute what you had to do.”

Within approximately one and a half years, it is expected that these coaches would be eligible to undertake the B-Licence course.

Australia’s rout of West Indies marred by controversial umpiring

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clinical bowling performance led by Kim Garth, Annabel Sutherland and Alana King helped Australia romp to a dominant eight-wicket win over West Indies and a 2-0 ODI series triumph. But their victory at Junction Oval was slightly overshadowed by two controversial TV umpiring decisions.

Sutherland claimed three wickets, while Garth, King and Tahlia McGrath each picked up two, as West Indies were bowled out for just 103 inside 31.4 overs after being sent into bat.

Then a 57-run opening stand at better than a run-aball between Phoebe Litchfield and Alyssa Healy laid the foundation for a comfortable chase, with Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney finishing the job untroubled with 34.3 overs to spare. The only concern for Australia came when Ashleigh Gardner copped a blow on the thumb in the field, which required an x-ray, but she was cleared of any damage.

West Indies were thoroughly outclassed by Australia, but controversial decisions from TV umpire Claire Polosak did them no favours, although it is highly unlikely they had a significant impact on the result.

West Indies were 38 for 2 in the 12th over -- after Garth had struck twice early, including the big wicket of skipper Hayley Matthews for 23 -- when the first of two decisions went against them.

Stafanie Taylor chipped a return catch back to Sutherland, which dipped at the bowler’s feet in her follow-through.

Sutherland did very well to get her right hand down, but the ball appeared to wedge in her fingers after brushing the ground first.

However, Polosak took a long look at various slow-motion replays, and was satisfied that Sutherland had got her fingers under the ball to complete the catch cleanly, and

Taylor was given out.

Two balls later, in the next over from King, Polosak was called on again. This time, Shemaine Campbelle had been given out lbw by onfield umpire Eloise Sheridan, and she immediately reviewed the decision. Campbelle was trying to defend King on the front foot with her bat and front pad very close together. Again, Polosak needed a long look at the slow-motion replays to determine whether Campbelle had hit the ball before it struck the pad. It looked clear that the ball had deflect-

tion from bat into the pad, but it’s hard to say,” Deitz said.

“We just have to accept the decision and move on. The umpire on the side can’t do too much about it, so we will just wait after the game and get clarification. But it’s out, so we just have to move on.”

It left West Indies in tatters at 39 for 4; and without any reviews left, after Matthews had earlier burnt one on her plumb lbw off Garth. Although they were out of reviews, they did not need them, despite the next three batters also falling lbw.

fall, chipping McGrath to midoff.

The chase was a straightforward affair, with Healy and Litchfield barely taking a risk while finding the boundary at will with some lovely drives and flicks. West Indies helped the Australian duo with some woeful ground fielding. Both openers fell trying to accelerate proceedings. Perry and Mooney took no such risks to see Australia home.

(ESPNCricinfo) Kim Garth picked up the wicket of Hayley Matthews again

because of her thumb injury, Healy opted to give Georgia Wareham and McGrath a bowl instead, the latter having not bowled since the second T20I in Sydney.

Wareham did pick up Williams for 25 when she skied a slog straight up in the air, to leave the visitors 84 for 8. But Cherry-Ann Fraser provided some plucky resis-

tance, striking a huge six off Wareham over deep midwicket that bounced off the concourse and out of the ground on to Lakeside Drive.

Karishma Ramharack struck a blow lofting McGrath over cover to find the rope, but fell trying to repeat the dose holing out to Wareham, who had been placed there shortly after. Fraser was the last to

SCOREBOARD Alyssa Healy and Phoebe Litchfield put on 57 runs for the opening stand

ed off the bat, as there was evidence both on UltraEdge and on the replay to show the ball deviating.

Polosak, however, determined that the ball touched the front pad first before hitting the inside edge and then deflecting. After deeming it hit the pad first, ball tracking showed three reds, with the ball smashing middle stump well under bail height.

The decision caused Matthews to walk out of the team dugout and voice her frustration to the fourth umpire on the boundary edge.

West Indies coach Shane Deitz was interviewed by broadcaster Channel Seven shortly after. He said he believed Taylor’s catch did not carry, but he was measured in his analysis of the lbw decision. “[It] definitely looked like there was some bat and devia-

Chinelle Henry and Aaliyah Alleyne were both trapped plumb in front playing from the crease to straight balls from Sutherland.

King continued on from where she left off on Thursday, causing West Indies batters all sorts of problems with her immaculate control. She had Rashada Williams dropped at slip by Mooney, after inducing the edge with a beautiful legbreak, but later trapped Shabika Gajnabi at the crease with one that skidded on straight.

Captain Healy strangely opted not to continue with the destructive duo of Sutherland and King, despite the pair having claimed five wickets between them, following six last Thursday, and pulled them from the attack with West Indies teetering at 80 for 7.

With Gardner unavailable

West Indies Women (50 ovs maximum) Hayley Matthews (c) lbw b Garth 23 Zaida James c †Healy b Garth 0 Rashada Williams † c King b Wareham 25 Stafanie Taylor c & b Sutherland 4 Shemaine Campbelle lbw b King 1 Chinelle Henry lbw b Sutherland 1 Aaliyah Alleyne lbw b Sutherland 4 Shabika Gajnabi lbw b King 7 Cherry-Ann Fraser c Sutherland b McGrath 19 Karishma Ramharack c Wareham b McGrath 9 Shamilia Connell not out 1 Extras (lb 2, nb 1, w 6) 9 TOTAL 31.4 Ov (RR: 3.25) 103 Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Zaida James, 3.2 ov), 2-28 (Hayley Matthews, 7.2 ov), 3-38 (Stafanie Taylor, 11.5 ov), 4-39 (Shemaine Campbelle, 12.1 ov), 5-43 (Chinelle Henry, 13.4 ov), 6-47 (Aaliyah Alleyne, 13.6 ov), 7-69 (Shabika Gajnabi, 19.1 ov), 8-85 (Rashada Williams, 26.3 ov), 9-102 (Karishma Ramharack, 31.1 ov), 10-103

(Cherry-Ann Fraser, 31.4 ov) • BOWLING O-M-R-W Megan Schutt 5-0-17-0 Kim Garth 5-0-14-2 Alana King 8-1-20-2 Annabel Sutherland 4-0-23-3 Georgia Wareham 6-0-17-1 Tahlia McGrath 3.4-0-10-2 Australia Women (T: 104 runs from 50 ovs) Phoebe Litchfield c Zaida James b Alleyne 27 Alyssa Healy (c)† c Fraser b Connell 32 Ellyse Perry not out 29 Beth Mooney not out 11 Extras (lb 2, nb 1, w 4) 7 TOTAL 15.3 Ov (RR: 6.83) 106/2 Did not bat: Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt, Georgia Wareham Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Alyssa Healy, 8.5 ov), 2-63 (Phoebe Litchfield, 9.4 ov) • BOWLING O-M-R-W Chinelle Henry 4-0-21-0 Cherry-Ann Fraser 4-0-26-0 Shamilia Connell 2-0-15-1 Aaliyah Alleyne 2-0-17-1 Karishma Ramharack 2-0-6-0 Hayley Matthews 1-0-3-0 Stafanie Taylor 0.3-0-16-0

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39

GCB’s Bissoondyal Singh, Executives meet Harpy Eagles ahead of departure

calm ‘Blue Hurricane’ – Pacer Shamar Joseph added to squad

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resilient bit of second half play pulled Guyana’s senior men’s national team, the Golden Jaguars, from the jaws of defeat all the way to a crucial 3-1 victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday afternoon.

Competing at the St. Kitts and Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) Technical Center, the Golden Jaguars found themselves trailing the Puerto Ricans for much of the first half in the top-of-the-table Group D clash. Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz opted for a starting XI that read: Goal keeper Quillian Roberts, Captain Daniel Wilson, Reiss Greenidge, Curtez Kellman, Jalen Jones, Nathan Moriah-Welsh, Stephen Duke-Mckenna, Kelsey Benjamin, Elliot Bonds, Omari Glasgow and Liam Gordon.

What appeared like early nerves for the Golden Jaguars resulted in Puerto Rico controlling possession in the initial minutes of the game. ‘El Huracán Azul’ (The Blue Hurricane) wasted no time in capitalizing on their good touches, as Leandro Antonetti in the 11th minute netted what would be their only goal.

Darren Rios set up the scoring opportunity with a commanding shot across the face of the goal, which Antonetti need only to tuck in for the strike.

Omari Glasgow (on ball) brought his personal tally to 5 goals from 3 games

The remainder of the half passed quietly ,as the Golden Jaguars built up their momentum with a handful of shots on target.

In the second segment, a daring foul on Kelsey Benjamin in the 58th set up Guyana’s first scoring opportunity. As expected, Omari Glasgow went to the penalty mark and executed beautifully, sending the ball into the left corner, to level the scores in the 60th.

Just three minutes later, a spirited play set up by Stephen Duke-McKenna and Captain Daniel Wilson resulted in Liam Gordon rushing the defense, to make his way into the box. The pass came close to the corner of the nets, passing the Puerto Rican goalkeeper Joel Serrano, who had no time to react, the ball met Kelsey Benjamin in the perfect po-

sition to ease it in behind Serrano’s back for Guyana’s second strike.

A moment of lapse on Serrano’s part spurred Guyana third strike in the 85th minute. Deon Moore made initial contact with the long pass forward with a header, the pass meeting Serrano well outside his area. Relying on his footwork, or Serrano’s lack thereof, Moore rushed the keeper, executed the steal and guided the ball into the goal.

The 3-1 victory keeps the Golden Jaguars unbeaten in their 2023/2024 CONCACAF Nations League Group Stage campaign, and propels them to the top of Group D of League B. Guyana will meet Puerto Rico again at the same venue on Tuesday, October 17.

(Jemima Holmes)

GCB President and Executives interacting with the GHE team

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head of the upcoming CG United Regional Super50 tournament, the President and Executives of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) met and chatted with members of the Guyana Harpy Eagles team on Friday evening.

Friday’s courtesy call at the Windjammer Hotel in Kitty saw GCB President Bissoondyal Singh alongside a few of his executives, including Secretary Ronald Williams.

The team greeted members of the Eagles team, including skipper Veerasammy Permaul, Kemol Savory, Ronsford Beaton, Kevlon Anderson, Niall Smith, Quentin Sampson and others.

Assistant coach Garvin Nedd spoke briefly on his team’s current state of mind, as well as their goals for this upcoming challenge. Nedd pointed out

Shamar Joseph in action

that the players were confident as they seek to wrap up the year with the 4-Day, CPL T20, and Super50 titles in their possession.

GCB President Singh thanked the team for their cohesion, and lauded them for their recent performances in the inter-county as well as the practice games. He urged them to represent Guyana with class and success, adding

that they need to remain ambassadors of the country.

Pacer Shamar Joseph has been added to the Eagles team, the announcement being made late on Friday evening.

The squad’s potential has thus been bolstered.

The Guyana Harpy Eagles departed Guyana and arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday.

Pan Am team ‘all set’ for Santiago 2023 …Minister Ramson and President Munroe extend best wishes to Guyana’s Pan Am Games Team

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hybrid meeting convened in the Boardroom of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport on Friday 13th October formed part of the new protocol between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport; National Sports Commission and Guyana Olympic Association, as it relates to meeting with national athletes to ensure all systems are in place to aid their performance and wellbeing, and to wish them well.

Minister Charles Ramson Jr. met with Guyana’s athletes and officials selected for the 2023 edition of the Pan American Games in a hybrid format at his Ministry’s Main Street conference room.

Minister spoke to the athletes and extended good wishes on behalf of himself and the Government and people of Guyana. He individually spoke to the respective managers, coaches and athletes of each team, en-

qualified athletes for at the games.

Guyana will be represented in the disciplines of Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Swimming and Weight Lifting. Esport Chef de Mission is Mr. Deion Nurse.

Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr.

gaging them on their preparedness, queried if there were any challenges or aspects they believed could be worked on collaboratively to achieve improvement, and the athletes’ prospects at the games.

He urged the athletes to do their best, be proud representatives, and use the opportunity as a building block to achieve greater heights in all aspects of their careers as

athletes and in their general development.

President Godfrey Munroe of the Guyana Olympic Association was present with members of his Executive Committee.

He delivered a charge and wished all the athletes well on behalf of the G.O.A. A key feature of Guyana’s representation is the multiplicity of disciplines, of which we have

Team Guyana Archery 1st –5th November 2023 • Devin PersaudPermaul Athlete • Wayne De Abreu Manager Coach Athletics 29th October– 4th November • I m m a n u e l Archibald Men’s 100 and 200 Metres • Leslain Baird Men’s Javelin • Keliza Smith Women’s 100 metres • Jasmine Abrams Women’s 100 metres • Aliyah Abrams Women’s 400 metres • Johnny Gravesande

Coach Badminton 21st to 25th Oct 2023 • Priyanna Ramdhani Women’s Singles • Jonathan Mangra Coach Boxing October 19th –27th October 2023 • D e s m o n d Amsterdam Men’s 80kg • Keevin Allicock Men’s 57kg • Alesha Jackman Female 66kg • Emmanuel Pompey Men’s 92kg • Joel Williamson Men’s 63.5kg • Terrence Poole Coach Table Tennis 29th October–5th November 2023 • Shemar Britton Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles • Chelsea Edghill Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles

• Idi Lewis Coach Taekwondo 21st –24th October 2023 • Ceili Peterson Women’s Kyorugi -49 Kg • Ramphal Ramjeet Manager Coach Weight Lifting 21st –24th October 2023 • Krystol Chanderban Women’s 52 KG • Shammah Noel – Men’s 81kg • Sean Cozier Coach Swimming October 20th to 26th 2023 • Alika Persaud • Raekwon Noel • Sean Baksh Coach Esport 30th Oct to 5th November 2023 • Hemchandra Persaud athlete – efootball 2023 • Shoaib JumanYassin Coach/Manager Physiotherapist • Ms Vanessa Wickham Chef de Mission • Mr. Deion Nurse

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

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

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calm ‘Blue Hurricane’

Executives meet Harpy Eagles ahead of departure

‘all set’ for Santiago 2023

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