SunDAY, September 7, 2014 | guYAnAtimeSgY.com
and
High Tide: 2:52h and 15:21h reaching maximum heights of 2.65 metres and 2.69 metres respectively.
Low Tide: 08:52h and 21:14h reaching minimum heights of 0.52 metre and 0.50 metre respectively.
BY TAJERAM MOHABIR
With snap elections in the air, Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Lance Hinds is calling on all political parties to conduct their campaigns in a mature manner to protect the local investment climate.
Speaking to Guyana Times in a recent interview, Hinds said investors’ confidence, along with the confidence of the local private sector and the general public, would only increase if all parties work to build a more mature and progressive po-
litical environment.
“Almost 50 years after Independence, we still have a highly combative, partisan political process, severely affected by race and class, seemingly unable to put the nation and its people first on a regular basis.”
Even though General and Regional Elections are constitutionally due in 2016, the A Partnership
for National Unity led by Brigadier (retired) David Granger has signalled the coalition’s support of a no-confidence motion tabled by the Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader, prominent Attorney Khemraj Ramjattan.
From all indications, the elections campaigning have already begun, and it is likely when Parliament resumes from recess in October, the AFC and APNU would not back down in supporting the motion that will force Donald Ramotar-led Government to call fresh elections within three months.
There is a feeling that though the Opposition politicians are eager to go to the polls, the elections spirit is not with the populace. However, there is some time yet for the politicians on both sides of the political divide to whip up support.
Hinds, who is also Chief Executive Officer of Brain Street, a leading Information Communication Technology (ICT)-based firm on Albert Street, Queenstown, Georgetown,
said the chamber, like many other stakeholders, would have preferred if a greater effort would have been made to address issues pertaining to weaknesses in local government administration and constitutional reform.
“Because of the current parliamentary configuration; however, the Opposition has a constitutional option to move for a no-confidence vote and the Government equally has the option to dissolve Parliament and call snap elections. We have no input or control of that process,” he said.
For its part, the Guyana
Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) said that all General Elections do is instill fear and uncertainty in the minds of Guyana’s population.
GMSA President Clinton Williams had said that “to go to elections is not the best thing for the country” at this time. He described the current situation as a “double whammy”, explaining
that “there is no absolute probability that elections will not return a minority Government”.
The GCCI is urging policymakers to engage in constructive dialogue on issues affecting the economy and social development. The business representative body in a release had said: “We do not subscribe to the notion that premature General Elections is the solution to our current political impasse. General Elections are costly, time-consuming exercises which should preferably be conducted at the time when they are constitutionally due.”
Broader picture If the no-confidence motion is passed, elections will be held one year before it is constitutionally due, and according to Hinds, the onus is on the politicians to see the broader picture.
“If there is going to be any impact on investment, it will be a function of what happens after the election. It is critical that the results, and the process leading up to those results, are accepted by the majority of the electorate as fair and transparent.”
The Private Sector Commission had said elections are an integral part of the process of democracy, but given the state of things, it should not be given priority over dialogue.
“It will be very unfortunate if such a motion is passed as it would signal political instability to our foreign investors, financiers, customers and suppliers.
Editor: Tajeram Mohabir
Tel: 225-5128, 231-0397, 226-9921, 226-2102, 223-7230 or 223-7231. Fax: 225-5134
Mailing address: 238 Camp & Quamina Streets, Georgetown
Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, sales@guyanatimesgy.com
The frontal attack by Mr Carl Greenidge, one of the leaders of APNU, on the integrity of the Judiciary, is disquieting. It represents another step into the abyss of chaos and anarchy the Opposition appears determined drag Guyana into following the elections of 2011. Greenidge declared that Guyana has “a Judiciary keen to intervene at the behest of the Executive and handing out decisions that are damaging and inconsistent with the Constitution and its roots.”
All statements must be analysed within the context in which they are uttered. In the case of Greenidge, he was specifically reacting to the Attorney General’s statement that in disagreeing with the Speaker’s grounds for consigning the Finance Minister to the Privileges Committee, the Government would be seeking clarification through a ruling by the courts.
Now it is trite Constitutional law that if there is a disagreement between the Executive and the Legislature (represented in this case by the Speaker) on application of the law, then it is only the courts that can make an authoritative decision once an application by either party is made to it.
For Greenidge to declare that the “Judiciary is keen to intervene” is to violate the principle of comity that is supposed to be observed between the co-equal branches of Government represented by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.
The undisputed facts in this instance is that the Government is insisting the action by the Minister, which the Opposition seeks to censure in the Privileges Committee, was not on the basis of a “privilege” as a member of the House, as the Speaker claims, but a function as a member of the Cabinet – an Executive institution.
It is therefore the duty of the court to pronounce on the disagreement if one of the parties brings it to its notice: it cannot be denigrated as “interference”. This damages the standing of the Judiciary which, tasked with upholding the laws of the land and saving us from the “law of the jungle”, places the entire civilised order at risk. But this attack on the Judiciary is not new: it is simply a continuation of a process that has been in train even before 2011 and is part and parcel of the wider effort to prevent the Executive from governing.
To make his case for the Executive “interfering” with the Judiciary, Greenidge goes back to 2000, deliberately obfuscating all the changes that have been made on rules governing that institution which the PNC had handed over to the PPP/C.
In 2001, for instance, the rule of the President appointing the Chancellor and Chief Justice after “consultation” with the Leader of the Opposition (still the rule in other Commonwealth countries) was changed in Article 127 to require “agreement”.
The incumbents in the top two judicial slots had been “acting” for some time and the Opposition began attacking their integrity by suggesting they were left dangling by the Executive so that they would be pliable to the latter’s pressure.
However, when the President decided to confirm the incumbents, the Leader of the Opposition, refused to give his “agreement” – without offering any reasons for doing so. He suggested a whole new method of identifying persons for the posts, including advertisements. Since it is the President who would have to select the choices and then get the Opposition Leader’s “agreement”, the latter is vested with veto power, which he has shown, he will use ruthlessly.
The Opposition, and specifically Greenidge had also attacked the integrity of the Judiciary by claiming that as a budget agency, the Executive could influence the judiciary by “controlling the purse strings”. But with the House passing a motion brought by Greenidge that the judiciary be funded directly from the Consolidated Funds, this objection was addressed.
But the Opposition attacks continue unabated and will do so until the Government is deposed.
Dear Editor, It seems as if the immigration officers in the Region have little or no regard for the Treaty of Chaguaramas and the recent decision by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Shanique Myrie case when a law student from Guyana was denied entry into Trinidad and Tobago to pursue studies at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS).
I read with great concern how the law student was humiliated at the Piarco International Airport and was denied entry because there was no proof that she was a student of the HWLS or she was eligible to be admitted as a student.
I am of the view even if she was unable to prove that she was a legitimate law student who is to enter the HWLS,
she is nevertheless a citizen of the Caricom Community (Caricom) and she should have been allowed entry especially since she offered to buy a return ticket to her homeland.
I think that the Guyana Government through the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Attorney General’s Chambers should strongly protest the Kamla PersadBissessar’s Administration
and ensure that the student be admitted into the country as soon as possible before the commencement of classes at the law school.
It is high time that immigration authorities treat other Caricom nationals with respect and dignity.
Sincerely, Oscar Ramjeet
Dear Editor,
A recent report in the media saying that headteachers were urged to discipline errant staffers, purportedly to achieve higher productivity through “better attendance, punctuality and preparedness” strikes me as being quite outmoded not only in this age, but also having regard to the target group who comprise what the human resource management literature calls “knowledge workers”.
The Chief Education Officer (CEO) is reported to have asserted that “school heads must fervently seek to manage the attendance, punctuality and preparedness of their teaching staff”. This begs at least three questions: Who will manage the same school heads? Are they themselves paragons in these aspects of behaviour? Does this not relegate the proper role of the school heads to that of time-keeper
as opposed to being an inspirational motivator and leader?
Worse, the entire report seems to suggest that the leaders of the Education Ministry are depending on the ‘big stick’ approaches of adherence to monitoring and enforcement of “procedures in relation to disciplining of teachers”.
Furthermore and unbelievably, the report ascribes to the CEO the charge that “Education managers must establish a work ethic that makes attendance, punctuality and preparedness priorities in their schools,” having regard to the core of the problem being what he termed the “teacher factor”.
In my humble view, gathered from decades of learning and experience in varied and far-flung fields including teaching and education, issues of poor attendance, punctuality and under-performance are
more often than not symptomatic of underlying problems that are not curable by simplistic, heavy-handed monitoring and disciplining. Their origins, causations, preventions or cures require professional analyses that go much deeper than what appears to have been done by the leaders of our education department.
For example, to what extent have we looked at the shortcomings in our recruitment, selection, staff-training and motivation vis-a-vis relevant state-of-the art human resource management systems and practices?
What is worse than a teacher who attends regularly and punctually with well-prepared “Notes of Lessons” but who does not deliver real education because he/she is not suitable for the profession or not properly oriented, inducted, given on-the-job training
or initial oversight nor constantly motivated by regular, hopefully positive and developmental feedback in an enabling environment?
The “adoption of a nononsense approach” ascribed to/by the CEO and the Ministry only serves to expose a ‘Police and thief’ mentality which is not curbing criminal elements in the society; would it help our teachers who are now being painted with the same brush?
It appears to me that the latest dictate that our “Education managers must establish a work ethic” exposes a philosophy or mentality that is anathemic to modern management, is anachronistic like colonialism and as doomed to failure as slavery, especially in the world of knowledge workers.
Respectfully, Nowrang Persaud
In light of a release issued by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said investigations into the alleged scam involving two remigrants, along with owner and Publisher of the Kaieteur News Glenn Lall, is progressing well, while he also warned others against
for an unknown number of years before they took a decision to return to Guyana.
The Brijananans on their application form indicated that they were returning with two 2013 Lexus Suburban L57 and listed the engine numbers along with the other information on their application.
One of the requirements
that he was a Maintenance Clerk at a hospital in New York and questions have surfaced as the how he could have afforded two such luxury vehicles.
Further, on the application, the engine numbers for the vehicles were listed as JTJHY7AX7D4100270 and JTJHY7AX6D4094851 with the registration dates
as JTJHY7AX6D4096745 and JTJHY7AX6D4094851, respectively. This seems to suggest that one of the serial numbers did not correspond with the serial number on the application.
Further, for the vehicle numbered JTJHY7AX6D409481, it was noticed that the date on the New York issued cer-
attempting to trick the system.
The main parties are husband and wife Naroontandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan, who resided in the United States
for being allowed the dutyfree concession on import of vehicles is that the vehicle had to be owned for at least six months prior to the application.
Naroontandeo stated
in the State of New York being September 25, 2012 and March 3, 2013 correspondingly.
However, on the Bill of Laden for the products, the engine numbers were listed
Weeks after being on the lookout for an armed man who had committed a robbery at Castello Housing Scheme, Georgetown, the Police have finally decided to solicit the assistance of public in identifying the criminal.
The image of the wanted man was released on Saturday morning after the Police failed to locate him, more so, make an arrest.
The Police are asking persons with information to contact them on telephone numbers 225-6411, 226-7476, 227-1149, 226-7065, 225-8196, 911, or the nearest Police station if they have any information that can lead to the arrest of the man.
He is suspected to be armed and dangerous. All information received will be treated with strict confidence, the Police said.
of the man wanted for the Castello Housing Scheme, Georgetown robbery
tificate of title was March 3, 2013. This means that the vehicle may not have been owned for more than six months before the application was made by the Brijnanans.
If correct, this would be in clear violation of the regulations surrounding the application for remigrant status and duty-free concessions.
In fact, Glenn Lall was listed at the closest relative to Naratootandeo Brijnanan on the application form that was submitted to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. No children were named.
It is being alleged that Glenn Lall conspired with the other parties to import the two luxury vehicles un-
der the remigrant scheme.
In doing so, no customs and excise taxes were paid to the GRA. The Brijnanans were
on July 3, 2013 granted permission by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to return to Guyana as remigrants. The launch of the investigation prompted Glenn Lall to reportedly threaten Sattaur, and the Commissioner General has since reported the matter to the Police.
It was explained that if one were to apply the rate of taxes – 45 per cent duty, 140 per cent excise, and 16 per cent VAT to the correct value of about US$85,000 for each vehicle, then the taxes under normal circumstances for each vehicle would been US$251,000 or G$51 million, making the total concession G$102 million.
We’ve all been in situations where we’ve just had to wing it. You know...just doing something without any preparation or planning. On the fly. Sometimes we even put ourselves into those situations – we might’ve decided to procrastinate and leave everything to the last minute and bluff our way through a test or a presentation.
As students we do that a lot, usually patting ourselves on the back for pulling another fast one over our teachers. I don’t think we ever really got away with those slapdash attempts though, somehow I think our teachers knew. Maybe because our presentations were full of gems such as “Umm… well…umm…and then….like….yes well”.
Faultless elocution, that.
Of course, sometimes we could find ourselves in a situation where, despite planning ahead, things still go awry and we have to just improvise our way out of the problem. In those instanc-
es, we have to try to be a bit more flexible, to be willing to accept things for being what they are, instead of how we want them to be.
And once we don’t spend time panicking about things not being exactly as we wanted them to be, and instead think up a new plan of action, we might be surprised that the end result
thrust into new and unexpected situations. We could show up at a meeting, expecting other people to take charge, but for whatever reason, they just can’t. We could be the ones who step up to the plate. We can adapt to the new role of leader and sometimes, we’ll find that it’s a position we thrive in.
you or be able to tailor your approach to your particular situation.
And of course there are the little improvisations we make every day. Singing a song and can’t remember all of the lyrics? Most of us just make up new ones. Do the new lyrics always make perfect sense? Nope, but that’s fine since half of the pop
might be better than expected.
Unexpected things will always come up and maybe in our preparations, we should start preparing ourselves to have to think on the spot or make quick decisions, instead of just preparing for a single event. It’s not the end of the world if you’re missing some ingredients from whatever you planned on cooking, just alter the dish and create something new.
And every day we’re
But improvisation can be difficult if you’re set in your ways or if you completely spazz out if things aren’t going completely to plan. It’s good to plan ahead, don’t get me wrong – I love planning and making nice organiSed, colour-coded timetables –but it’s when you put more importance on following the exact letter of the plan than doing the actual task that things become problematic. You have to be able to think on your feet and adapt quickly to changes around
lyrics out there don’t make sense anyway – and they were written by professionals!
All of the above, of course, has been prompted by my rather detailed, colour-coded plans for getting back into a school-mindset after that looooong holiday (mine started in May). That vacation! But then they do say, “Travel broadens the mind”, right? What was it that Robert Burns said?? “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/ Gang aft agley (awry)”.
– teaching self-regulation without overstepping your bounds
BY KAREN SPANGENBERG
What if your teenage daughter asks to borrow your frontal executive network rather than your shoes today? Sounds laughable? You’ve actually been lending it to her since she was a toddler.
Think back to your child’s third birthday party. The parents all stayed at the party in order to follow their child through the chaos, squashing their impulse to grab a present, drying tears after they didn’t get the first piece of cake, and keeping an eye out for the first steps in the “bathroom dance.” A neuroscientist would say that the parents are acting as external frontal executive networks, literally lending their child their own brain’s ability to modulate emotions, resist impulses, and plan into the future.
None of us would suggest that as parents we should just back off and let our toddlers be independent at birthday parties. There would be no more toddler birthday parties! Parents naturally lend their children structures that allow them to function in complex situations. There is nothing about this “loan” that gets in the way of their being able to eventually do it on their own. On the contrary, the loan of their parent’s executive network allows toddlers to have the experience of birthday parties well before they would otherwise be able to independently join in the fun. As children grow and their executive networks begin to mature, they are progressively better at regulating their own emotions, resisting impulses, and organising their time.
As parents know, we continue to lend our children structures to assist them in regulating themselves, even
as they grow older. A set bedtime is a good example of a structure without which most older children would be walking around like zombies after staying up most of the night chatting on the phone with their friends.
The executive abilities to resist impulses, plan into the future, and modulate emotion are not only useful for being independent at birthday parties and staying awake during the day, but also for succeeding in the classroom. And yet there is a commonly held notion that as parents we should back off and leave children on their own when it comes to learning and homework.
We can lend children our executive networks in academic situations so they can learn more effectively. External structures can assist a child’s brain to learn more efficiently, as if they possessed a more mature frontal system. What is the difference between lending children structures and becoming a helicopter parent? Library day is a helpful example.
The helicopter parent stands at the door before school and hands their child their library book. The child never learns that they are responsible for remembering the book. A parent who lends their child a helpful structure might post a calendar near the door, where they have had their child circle each Wednesday and write “Library day” in red. This parent cues the child each morning to look at the calendar. On Wednesdays, the child sees its library day, and puts their book in their backpack. The message to the child is twofold. First, it’s your responsibility to remember your book for library day, and second, here is a great way to consistently remember. (www.psychologytoday.com)
Trinidad and Tobago’s (TT) first energy port, which was officially opened on Friday at Point Galeota, Guayaguayare, advances Government’s plans to form a regional link with energy companies in Suriname, Guyana and north Brazil.
So said Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, who added that the US$85 million port was opened to facilitate South-South cooperation, an initiative recommended by Persad-Bissessar in the People’s Partnership 2010 manifesto.
Port of Galeota comprises 1.2 kilometres of new access road, an energy port with five berths and eight hectares of backland with 78.6 metres dredge depth.
Ramnarine said construction of the second phase of the port will begin next year at a cost of TT$110 million once detailed designs are completed.
“It will accommodate an additional seven berths which will enable TT to participate in logistics activity in the wider Caribbean region,” the Minister said.
He added that it has already become a “dedicated berth for the TT Coast Guard” and will benefit energy companies.
“Ninety per cent of natural gas is being produced in the East coast. Right now many companies have their base in Chaguaramas, so they have to sail around the island to get to their rigs.
This port will reduce the amount of time it will take to get on their rigs and platforms and so reduce the cost and make the entire East coast energy sector more competitive,” he said.
“The port will facilitate the efficiency of upstream operators as well as facilitate our companies to do business in Suriname, Guyana and North Brazil.”
Ramnarine said Galeota was the first port to be opened in TT in 17 years.
Mayaro Member of Parliament Winston Gypsy Peters said 80 per cent of the labour for construction of the facility came from the Guayaguayare region, but when the project started “disruptive elements” tried to stymie the work.
“This is the only energy port in TT and I am glad that these disruptive elements did not get the opportunity to disrupt this proj-
ect. I want to say to those people that they must qualify themselves and then come to look for work,” Peters said.
National Energy Chairman Roop Chan Chadeesingh said the South American mainland had vast potential for TT’s energy industries.
“The Guyana/Suriname basin is considered to be one of the Region’s emerging energy markets.
As part of the national energy’s mandate to promote TT, a delegation recently visited Suriname for discussions on areas of cooperation in the development of their mining, energy and petroleum industries,” he said. Chadeesingh said Suriname’s extractive industries are diverse, unexploited and full of potential for investors.
“It is anticipated that NE’s recent mission to Suriname will serve as a spring board for future partnerships and interventions with stakeholders in their energy industry and that port will be integral to some of those initiatives.”
He said four upstream operators are already using the port facilities — bpTT, BHP Billiton, Trinity Exploration and Production and Repsol.
President of National Energy, Dr Vernon Paltoo said the port will generate revenue and improve efficiency for upstream exploration and production operators. (Trinidad Guardian)
More than 140 students in the community of Wakapoa were given footwear on September 3, compliments of Sterling Products Limited’s (SPL) Igloo Ice Cream.
This will further increase the political risk premium added to the cost of capital when overseas funding is sought by private entities and can negatively impact our economy,” the PSC had said in a statement.
Hinds told Guyana Times that should the motion be passed, the private sector could only urge that good sense prevails.
“The private sector can only try to urge the political parties to conduct their political campaigns in the manner that does not incite social, racial and related tensions. The political parties however, as is normally their wont, will conduct their campaigns as they see fit,” he said.
Emerging culture
The issue of no-confidence motion appears to be part of an emerging Caribbean culture to dislodge Governments, who in the view of their rivals, lack the wherewithal to govern effectively.
Grenada's Prime Minister Tillman Thomas in 2012 survived a no-confidence motion brought by Opposition Leader, Dr Keith Mitchell who accused him of running a dysfunctional Government.
Thomas later succumbed at the polls to Dr Mitchell in 2013. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar survived a no-confidence motion brought by Opposition Leader, Dr Keith Rowley in 2012, who accused the Prime Minister of gross incompetence, among others.
In 2010, the Jamaican Government headed by Prime
Minister Bruce Golding had also survived a no-confidence motion brought by then Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller.
Golding’s party subsequently lost to SimpsonMiller at the polls in 2012. In all these cases, the Government had a majority in Parliament, but the ruling People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) does not enjoy this status, as the Opposition holds a slim one-seat majority.
In another matter, St Kitts and Nevis Opposition Leader Mark Brantley said he has given up hope that the motion of noconfidence in the Government he filed 15 months ago will be tabled.
According to Brantley, Prime Minister, Dr Denzel Douglas has no interest in having the motion brought before Parliament.
In a court ruling last month, on February 12, Justice Darshan Ramdhani said there are no impediments preventing the motion being brought to the House, Caribbean News Now report-
ed.
Brantley is of the view that the General Election has been delayed because constitutional boundary changes approved by Parliament have not yet taken effect.
The AFC last month tabled the motion, contending that it has no confidence in the Government, claiming unauthorised spending by Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, among other matters. The Government has since dismissed the contentions raised by the Opposition parties (AFC and APNU) as groundless, while hinting that snap elections could be called before the noconfidence motion is debated.
Former Government Minister under the People’s National Congress (PNC), Dr Faith Harding has described the motion as a mistake, contending that it will not solve the problems facing the country.
She called on the Government and the Opposition to sit at the negotiation table, and give “Guyana a break!”
Acting SPL Chief Executive Officer Deodat
Each child from nursery to Grade Six received footwear. The community, located in Region Two, depends mainly on farming, fishing and producing products of cassava, such as cassava bread and casareep.
Indar said the company is happy to be associated with such an initiative and will continue to engage through its corporate social responsibility programme to assist the residence of Wakapoa as well as other communities throughout Guyana.
With the country in the throes of observing “Amerindian Heritage Month”, we’re struck with the silence on connecting the calls for Reparations to Amerindians Peoples. After all, the entire Reparations movement rests on the prior “genocide” on the Amerindians – which “necessitated” the importation of slave labour.
In the 10-point Reparations demands, number three calls for an “Indigenous Peoples Development Programme”, in which the bare bones of hip justification are stated: “The governments of Europe committed genocide upon the native Caribbean population. Military commanders were given official instructions by their governments to eliminate these communities and to remove those who survive pogroms from the Region.
“Genocide and land appropriation went hand in hand. A community of over 3,000,000 in 1700 has been reduced to less than 30,000 in 2000. Survivors remain traumatised, landless, and are the most marginalised social group within the Region. The UWI offers an Indigenous Peoples Scholarship in a desperate effort at rehabilitation. It is woefully insufficient. A Development Plan is required to rehabilitate this community.”
We just have to look at some of the headings of the other 10 points to answer some critics who say that in Guyana, the Amerindians didn’t suffer “genocide”. The history books say they were “allowed” to remain in the forests and in fact were used as bounty hunters to bring back escaped African slaves. But if “possession is ninetenths of the law”, weren’t those nations that colonised Guyana taking away the legal rights of the Amerindians over the land. Can’t get away from that!
And everything flowed from that land: We can’t bootstrap and say “the Europeans discovered the land” can we?? So we look at “Cultural Institutions” of Amerindians. This has pretty much descended into having Amerindians dress up in grass skirts and feathers, drink paiwiri from calabashes, and cook with Casareep.
This Eyewitness is concerned about the cultural underdevelopment of the Amerindian peoples. What happened with their indigenous “religions” in which they had worked out a wonderful ecological equilibrium with their environment?
The Reparations Petition calls for “Illiteracy Eradication”. Now let’s be honest. Who was left with the greatest burden of being illiterate and miseducated?? Even today, Amerindians are the ones who’re at the back of the “last bench” in school. Just as there’s a call for an “African Knowledge Programme”, there must be an analogous one for Amerindians. And this must be placed in the hands of Amerindians – and not Anthropologists who still see these peoples as the paradigmatic ethnological specimens.
We need say no more about the need for “Psychological Rehabilitation” and “Technology Transfer” to Amerindians. Let the education of Amerindians about Reparations begin.
With the Mexican standoff – you know, where all the combatants have their guns drawn, pointed and cocked –between the two major race groups on the Coast showing no sign of letting up, the Amerindians’ve become the cynosure of all political eyes! The Government’s being blamed for wooing the Amerindians with an eye on their vote?
Weeeelll....excuse me!!! First of all, when elections loom or even on the horizon – is the Government supposed to stop working in certain communities? If they continue with their own supporters’s communities, they’re “pandering”; if in the Opposition’s, they’re “bribing”, and if on neutral ground like the Amerindians, they’re “wooing” and playing “pork barrel politics”. Can’t win. Can they?
Well, let’s get this straight, if you can’t please everyone, you just gotta do the right thing. And as we explained about – and supported by all the empirical evidence –Amerindians are economically and socially worst off by every measure. The Government should just go right ahead and continue with the Amerindian Development Programmes. Even if the Opposition insists on lopping it off again.
The Amerindians are “guardians of the forests”. That’s the role every UN and NGO agency has awarded them. So how come there’s all the ruckus when they sold some logs to Baishanlin?
Imagine roaming the streets for 17 long years, enduring derision, taunts and harsh criticisms. Imagine being beat down by the elements of the weather while living among the dead.
Sleeping on tombs during the night and seeking refuge between the huge trunks of enormous trees during the day.
Imagine sneaking through the backdoor of your own home to steal because you couldn’t live there anymore, paying no attention to the sleeping children whom you nurtured within your womb.
Imagine rummaging daily through reeking garbage bins, being screamed at and beaten upon and made to do almost anything to fulfil your increasing desire.
But imagine, after years of heartache and confusion, you are able to reunite with the people you treasure most in the world.
Shredded to pieces
That was the experience of “Sandra” (only name given), also known as “Granny”, of Albouystown, Georgetown, whose life had been shredded to pieces by the misuse of 'crack'-cocaine.
For 17 years, Sandra felt the brunt of the effects of the most debilitating substance, which has left many persons, battered and unchanging.
“It was terrible,” she told Guyana Times during an interview on Friday.
A 62-year-old mother to five girls and one boy, Sandra began smoking cocaine at the
“matured” age of 40.
Speaking with this publication, she related her experience which she said has left an indelible mark on her psyche and that of her children, who were then young teenagers. Her venturing into such a lifestyle was simply out of curiosity, she related, as she was already smoking cigarettes.
“I was sitting on a bench opposite a church with my friend. The man she was living with came up and told her he had something to send to Suriname, but needed to sample it first.”
The content of the packages Sandra later leant were cocaine and marijuana.
She explained that the man wrapped the marijua-
na, after which he rubbed on some cocaine and handed it to the woman, who “took a pull and then turn to me and say try it”.
Sandra said she accepted and that night became the beginning of a dangerous road she had to travel. She said she spent the remainder of that night smoking out the all the money she had for her family. She continued with the practice, selling out the little things from the home. It had come to a point when she could not handle it and just packed up and leave. Her young children were left to fend for themselves. “I lost my respect,” she said, pointing out that everyone who would normally look up to her, began looking away.
style has robbed her of family and friends. “I tell you, I don’t know my kids,” she revealed. She related that she used to sell the substance in the US, after it was introduced to her by her boyfriend. She admitted that she shrugged at the idea that she could become an addict, boasting that she could never be engaged in such acts.
Heart-rending
But the most heart-rending experience for Sonia was losing her children who were all taken by child services and placed into foster care. She recalled leaving her now 12-year-old son, in the hospital when he was born, all because of her addiction to the substance.
The Phoenix Recovery Project located at Mon Repos was a life-saver for the now drug addiction Counsellor, who said had it not been for the programme, “I probably would not be sharing my story today”.
Sandra said with all that she has endured, when the programme was launched in 2008, she was among the first set of persons to benefit. She revealed that she has been clean for six years now.
This publication also met with 37-year-old “Sonia”, a US-based Guyanese who was deported back here in 2007. Sonia said her cocaine life-
After being caught up with the law in the US and serving two of a four-year sentence, Sonia said she was deported to Guyana, where she became homeless.
After a few years of continuous drug abuse here, she said she was introduced to the Phoenix Recovery Project, where she was given hope.
Although she has had two relapses since joining the programme in 2008, she said she remains committed to doing the right thing, since she wants to be a part of the life of her daughter, who is 23-months-old.
Another client at the Phoenix Recovery Project is bubbly 30-year-old
Canadian-based Guyanese Natasha, who was also deported here because of addiction to cocaine.
Natasha took a pull at her first cigarette at the tender age of five and this was all due to seeing her mother doing it. She continued on and off and by the time she was in her early teens, smoking cigarette had become a habitual thing.
She said she first smoked cocaine at age 19, not because she wanted to, but as a form of rebellion against her mother, who refused to lend an ear to her complaints of sexual abuse.
Recovery Since joining the recovery last October, Natasha has escaped seven times. Her escape would often lead her to downtown Georgetown, where she said she would endure severe pressure, including sexual abuse. She said she is thankful for the persistence of the staff of the institution, especially Administrator Clarence Younge in getting her back. She noted that she has no intention of leaving without receiving treatment.
The Phoenix Recovery Project since its inception in 2008 has interacted with just over 65 female drug addicts. And while not all have successfully gone through the process, the few that did are forever grateful for another opportunity at life.
The Guyana Foundation has announced the findings of a research study into the underlying economic and social factors driving the high prevalence of suicide and suicidal behaviour in Guyana. This qualitative study
was conducted by Serena Coultress, a researcher in the Global Health programme at Maastricht University in The
Netherlands, who was hosted by the Guyana Foundation earlier this year.
During her time in Guyana, Coultress gathered data from three selected groups of stakeholders: suicide attempters; religious leaders, and; mental health professionals.
Her findings indicate that suicide in Guyana is interconnected to poor coping skills associated with a cycle of violence that includes murdersuicide, interpersonal violence, corporal punishment, and child sexual abuse.
These are inextricably linked, fuelling one another, and are amplified by predominant notions of masculinity, family dysfunction, sexual inequality and alcohol abuse – all of which are major catalysts for the poor coping strategies found across ethnic groups.
These findings are significant, as they offer insight and perspective into what is viewed as a “suicide crisis” in Guyana. In fact, only this past Thursday, the World Health Organisation released its first suicide report, which lists Guyana as having the highest suicide rate in the world in 2012 – with an overall rate of 44.2 cases of suicide per 100,000 individuals.
The increased ranking for Guyana comes even though there has been an 8.5 per cent decline in the country’s suicide rate between 2000 and 2012. This suggests that local efforts to combat suicide have simply not kept up with that of other countries, which have done a better job at tackling the problem.
The WHO report also highlights the disproportionate number of suicides that are committed by male Guyanese – the suicide rate was higher for males than for females across all age groups. In 2012, the overall suicide rate for males was 70.8 per 100,000, while that for females was 22.1 per 100,000.
Societal expectation
Coultress’ study found that the disproportionate number of suicides committed by males was linked to societal expectations of gender roles. These gender roles are shaped by culture, where men are viewed as “providers”. Those who did not meet these expectations were subjected to stigma and social isolation.
Of particular note was the depressed economy that inhibits some men from maintaining employment and fulfilling their “provider” role. Where suitable coping skills were lacking, this resulted in conflicts, which, in some cases, led to violent expressions towards female partners that were potentially aggravated by alcohol abuse.
The lack of suitable coping mechanism feeds a sense of hopelessness and frustration, which, inevitably, requires an external outlet. Suicide is then viewed by those who attempt it as a “solution” to the problems faced, unless alternative coping strategies are introduced, or personal cir-
Satiricus’ brow was furrowed. Surely all his fellow newspaper hacks couldn’t have missed what was playing out on this voters’ list thing. The Pee an’ See we’re so misunderstood. No matter what they did, folks just didn’t believe they were on the up and up. So here they were, not being taken seriously when they said the PPCEE were making a fuss so they could question the elections later.
“Jeez,” exclaimed Satiricus to the fellas at the back street bar, “who know rigging more than the Pee an’ See??”
“Yuh right!” agreed Cappo. “It tek a teef fuh catch a teef!”
“And the Pee an’ See thief a whole lotta elections!!” grinned Suresh. “And they questioned voters list in every election since 1992. And challenged them too! They know what they talking about!”
“But yuh gat fuh admire de Pee an’ See,” interjected Bungi, Cappo’s cane-cutting partner. “Na everybady does admit deh wrang.”
“Wha yuh mean??” asked his buddy a bit roughly.
“Well de las’ time, Pee an’ See seh how SurujBallsy cock up de wuk,” Bungi replied, “And now look how deh seh de man like wan genius fuh mek wan perfect list.”
“But I don’t know what the PPCEE complaining about,” observed Hari who’d been listening to the gaff. “Is only 3000 dead people on the list.”
“Budday! In my village alone, they have more than 3000 dead people!” laughed Teacher Samad. “I mean “brain dead”...and if you brain dead! You dead! no.” Everybody chuckled.
“Deh gat some brain-dead people right hay at dis table!” cackled Cappo.
“But leh we get serious chaps,” interrupted Suresh. “How come Pee an’ See agree wid Ballsy that the list “almost perfect” and that the PPCEE only throwing talk?”
“Budday, is the Pee an’ See fella the new head,” replied Suresh, “and the big Enchilada Surujballsy lose he balls after Pee an’ See march in front of he house the last time!”
“Yes,” grinned Teacher Samad, “he choke on his wine.”
“Well, if the expert in rigging and doubting the list to make trouble later - the Pee an’ See – seh the PPCEE just bluffing, it got to be true,” concluded Satiricus as he raised his glass. “You got to go with the experts, no?”
cumstances are altered.
The study also found that in Guyana, the role of ethnicity in suicidality has been overemphasised. Although problematic gender roles were found to be amplified within Indian and rural community, it was impossible to say with any certainty whether these gender roles were driven by the Indo-Guyanese culture, or the rural location of many predominantly East Indian communities.
Participants in the study also highlighted their belief that the suicide rate may be higher among the Amerindian population, but this remains undocumented due to their largely isolated locality. Additionally, when suicide is recast to include “suicidal behaviour” inclusive of reckless behaviour, the differentiation between Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese was less obvious.
In light of this study’s findings, Coultress’ main recommendation is that suicide prevention in Guyana cannot be solely focused on coping strategies and on tackling the sense of hopelessness, as these occur late in the process towards suicidality, in which individuals are likely to have already suffered abuse, stigma, isolation or poverty.
Suicide cannot be considered or redressed in isolation. Instead, an effective solution requires a collaborative and
broader approach, and the efforts of mental health professionals must be supported by broader social change.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of the Guyana Foundation, Anthony Autar, expressed thanks to the participants in the research study, and to Coultress for her work in Guyana.
“We have long-known that Guyana has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. However, one of the factors that has inhibited efforts to tackle this problem was the lack of insight into the reasons for the high prevalence of suicide in Guyana.”
“The findings of this study provide invaluable insight, and will be of great assistance to the Guyana Foundation, and hopefully to other entities, as efforts continue to end the senseless loss of lives. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to all the participants who made this study possible, and to Coultress for the sacrifices she made in coming to Guyana to undertake this study.
“The Foundation will continue its efforts to bring relief to people in need across Guyana, with an emphasis on tackling the factors occurring early in the process towards suicidality. As the findings of this study suggest, suicide is preventable, but so too is the violence, abuse and isolation that precedes it.”
The Amerindian Village culminated on Saturday evening at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia following five days of lively activities celebrating Amerindian Heritage Month 2014.
The event saw scores of exhibitors showcasing their produce, talent and hospitality to those who visited the venue.
In light of the economic challenges faced by the Amerindian communities, they were grateful for the exposure given to them during the five days, noting that it was indeed a golden opportunity to show off their work and talent.
A few exhibitors told Guyana Times that while villagers depend mainly on farming; most of the young people now resort to craft as a mean of meeting their economic needs.
This, however, poses another challenge since getting their pieces marketed is a challenge.
Bridgette Alleyne, who travelled from Region Eight, explained that tourists hardly visit her village; hence, the pieces that they either weaved or sculpted are left in their possession until opportunities such as the Amerindian Village comes around.
She added too that they have to travel some distance which is quite expensive, but they do not have a choice, since their main motive is to market their products.
Alleyne said sometimes they get an adequate income to live on. “Sometimes when we sell one vest, which is like
stuff, but not all the time, people visit our village,” Dundas stated.
She specialises in making earrings, beaded chains, clothing made from tibisiri straws and other decorative items.
While some of the exhibitors have participated in the Village before, for some, it was a first time experience.
Pleasant memories
One such person was Nocolan, a young man from Kabakaburi, who related that he was eager to be a part of the event. The young man claimed that for the past few days, he has gotten enough experience and memories to take back with him to his small village located 20 minutes from Charity, Essequibo Coast.
In addition, he said the event has provided him an opportunity to promote himself as an individual and more importantly, as a crafts-
for $8500, it goes a long way,” she added.
Elizabeth Dundas of St Cuthbert’s Mission, Region Four, who has been a part of the Amerindian Village from the inception, agreed that over the years, the event has grown tremendously.
She recalled, a few years ago, a handful of people graced the village, but for the past two years, the support has been overwhelming.
Nevertheless, she added that business is great, noting that after the Amerindian Village, business becomes dead.
“In our village, there is the Craft Association building where the ladies would make their pieces and display them… but sometimes they are there for a while without a sale…. We depend on tourists to come in and buy out
man.
His line of exhibits included sculptures, decorative pieces, personal items and artifacts.
After a four-year hiatus, Foster Simon who specialises in sculptures is amused at the way the event has grown over the years. He too recalled attending the event at the Umana Yana and there were a few people who would visit the event on a nightly basis.
He emphasised that once the event is publicised, persons would visit the venue and make their purchases. He went on to say that his pieces are priceless works of art, taken him days, even weeks and months to complete.
These sculptures are sold at various prices, ranging from as low as $15,000
to $80,000. His pieces, he added, are made from several species of wood, including Green Heart. Simon also related that persons will not find his art work anywhere else except in St Cuthbert’s Mission.
He stated that Amerindian Village gave him an opportunity to showcase his work, since it is extremely difficult to have a vibrant market in his community.
Simon thanked the Amerindian Affairs Ministry and the Government for providing the opportunity to market their products.
Two weeks after gunmen stormed a D’Urban Street Chinese restaurant killing waitress Debra Blackman, the Police have reached a dead end in their investigations.
They are now calling on the public to assist them in identifying the gunman.
The Guyana Police Force on Saturday released images of the wanted man with the intention of making an early arrest. The images of the two gunmen were captured on surveillance cameras which were handed over to the Police on the night the woman was shot and killed.
Investigators subsequently launched a manhunt for the two men whose faces were exposed, but to date, no arrest has been made.
Initial investigations suggested that from the way the two gun men operated on the night of the shooting, they might have been monitoring the business place.
Blackman of Critchlow Circle, Tucville, Georgetown, was shot dead during an attempted robbery.
She was shot twice by one of the two robbers who posed as customers. According to information received, no one else was in the restaurant since a young woman had left seconds prior to the shooting.
It was reported that the two young men walked
into the restaurant and ordered a chicken fried rice and waited until it was prepared. As the waitress brought out the food, one of the men pulled out a gun and pointed it at Blackman, who attempted to run.
The gunman opened
fire, striking the woman to the neck and the shoulder.
She subsequently fell to the ground while the men made good their escape on a motorcycle.
Shelly Ann Beni, the dead woman’s daughter recalled being at home on the night of the shooting when she received a telephone call from a friend, informing her about the incident. Guyana Times was told that bandits had gone to the restaurant twice before, but the woman
managed to escape.
Unfortunately, this time, she was fatally shot. She has been working at the restaurant for the past 11 years.
Anyone with information that may lead to the identification of the men is asked to contact the Police on telephone numbers 225-6411, 225-2227, 227-1149, 2267065, 225-8196, 911, or the nearest Police station. All information will be treated with strict confidence.
After four months on the run, Police have managed to apprehend 37-year-old Errol Khan, also known as Venood Maraj, who allegedly hacked his lover’s husband to death in early May.
The stabbing incident occurred at Lot 418 Haslington, East Coast Demerara.
A Police source confirmed that the arrest was made on Saturday evening while the suspect was traversing the Stabroek Market Square.
Moments after his arrest, he allegedly confessed to the murder of Chetram Bharat, recalling that on the night of the incident, he went to the home of his lover and requested her to go out with him.
She reportedly refused; hence, he got angry, went into the house and hacked the man to death while he was asleep on the bed. After committing the heinous act, he walked out of the house and again requested the woman to go with him.
But it was at this time that she raised an alarm, claiming that it was a robbery. Khan subsequently rode off from the scene and was not seen since.
The source told Guyana Times that advice has already being sought from the Director of Public Prosecutions and charges are expected to be instituted on Monday.
Bharat, 41, a fisherman of Lot 418 Haslington, New Housing Scheme, was chopped several times to his head, upper body, and one of his hands was almost
severed.
His wife, Lomattie Ramdat, 36, was also injured, receiving chops to the head, face, and hand. Parts of her nostrils and lips were severed as well as a portion of her elbow. She is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
According to reports, Khan reportedly stormed into the couple’s home armed with a cutlass and carried out the brutal attack.
Information reaching Guyana Times revealed that Ramdat was having an affair with Khan while her husband of 22 years was away in Suriname. Ramdat and Khan were reportedly living together, but the woman subsequently ended the relationship and a spurned Khan constantly threatened to kill her and her teenage children.
As a result, the woman and the children went to live with her sister; however, when Bharat returned to Guyana, the woman returned to their home, but the children refused to go back. On the night in question, neighbours heard screaming coming from the house and then it stopped. Ramdat’s sister was informed and upon checking the house around 04:00h on the morning of May 2, the couple was found covered in blood. Bharat was already dead while Ramdat was barely breathing. She was immediately rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was admitted a patient.
Whether directly or indirectly, every aspect of national development depends on dependable utilities; that is to say power, water, and transport. As a nation, we need to ensure that our citizens are with all of these at all times.
If we have no dependable power, our children cannot study as they should. When the lights do not come on or when they go out for no reason and with no notice, our children become destabilised. Concentration is impossible.
Even as adults, we become frustrated and angry. Even as adults, we tend to (at best) resign ourselves to a certain kind of helplessness and hopelessness. If we adults feel this way, can we imagine what our children feel? I know of children who freeze with the onset of a blackout. Then they become hysterical – screams, flaying arms, tears, fear. Even the best parents cannot calm them down enough to concentrate on school work in the blackness.
Our appliances get fried from this on/off thing. They become fried by power fluctuations. Our businesses close. Our food spoils, and the working poor cannot afford to go and buy more. Our entrepreneurial spirit is snuffed out.
Any ingenious idea like recycling plants, mills, packaging plants, assembly plants, and so on, just cannot get off the ground. As a nation, we become stuck in the preindustrial age. We put out the light of talent in the eyes of our children.
In this column, we have complained – admittedly, sometimes bitterly – of the power woes of Regions Five and Six, especially. Things have gotten better, thank you very much. It may not be because of this column, but that it is better is what really matters. But now we hear of Essequibo! Please, let us make this better too.
Water. Any time we turn on taps, there should be water. It is one of the ways of the 20th Century and before. Not so in our nation. We wait for 16:00h for the water to flow. We rush around with our buckets to fill our drums. Or for those who have these electrical water pumps, we plug in and get the water to fill our over-head tanks.
Of course, without power these electrical pumps don’t work, so there is no water. We cannot bathe with spoons of water, and it ought not to be so in this age. The irony is that we are “The Land of Many Waters”.
This all reminds me of a great poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that I read as a four-year-old or so. “Water water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
We also need flowing water
Ofor reasons of health. Stagnant water is dangerous. It attracts insect-borne diseases. This puts at risk the health of our citizens. This then puts a strain on our already fragile health system. The current Health Minister has spoken of this several times. And the man is pin-point right.
Everything is related to everything else! The physicists call it the “ripple effect” or the “butterfly theory”. One of the finest minds with which we have been blessed is Leonardo da Vinci put it this way in his Notebook “The Nature of Water”: “If a drop of water falls into the sea when this is calm, it must of necessity be that the whole surface of the sea is raised imperceptibly, seeing that water cannot be compressed within itself like air.”
This was since the 1500’s. Our national leaders still have not understood fully that all things are related. In other words, all ministries must work together since each affects the other.
We have already written about transportation. This is a basic utility. If our national transportation is not efficient and cheap, everything goes awry. We cannot plan our days, we burn in the sun and drown in the rain while we wait. We risk grave dangers. And we waste time! By the time we get to our respective workplaces, we are exhausted from stress and worry and fear and uncertainty.
No one works well under these circumstances. No one! Teachers cannot teach as they should. The Police cannot serve and protect as they should. Nurses cannot bring us to health as they should.
So when we have blackouts and fly into hysterical rages and need a nurse, they are too tried to tend to us as they should. Yet they do, somehow. When we have infected water, same thing.
When the lights go out and the criminals come out, our Police cannot come as they should to serve and protect. Everyone is too tired and frustrated to be excellent. The best ones do well, and much praise must be given to them.
To all you professionals and struggling brothers and sisters out there, please know that we know.
fficials of Baishan lin International Forest Development Inc on Thursday met with representatives of the newlyformed Linden Kwakwani Road Users Association (LKRUA) to further discuss a massive road rehabilitation programme set to get underway soon in Region 10.
According to a release, the meeting was held at the company’s head office at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Speaking at the meeting, Baishanlin’s General Manager, Yu Mingxin said the company stands ready to assist the LKRUA in its efforts to improve the state of the roadway.
The LKRUA delegation, led by Chairman, Phillip Bynoe, met with the Baishanlin team following
a meeting the group had at the Umana Yana to discuss plans surrounding the rehabilitation of the roadway and the inputs from several stakeholders.
Mingxin was briefed by LKRUA Secretary, Patricia Boyle on some of the requirements for the road works, specifically as
it relates to equipment.
Baishanlin is currently in the process of examining Boyle’s request and is expected to assist with the rehabilitation efforts, as the company is doing now in Kwakwani.
The discussion also focused on the possibility of a new arrangement be -
tween the company and the group regarding the purchase of logs.
Baishanlin remains committed to the road rehabilitation efforts and will continue to support such initiatives throughout the communities in which it operates, the release said.
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says in keeping with its mandate to promote compliance with the laws, regulations and policies it administers, the entity continues to remind taxpayers of the various requirements that must be met in order to be deemed compliant.
The revenue body in a release said as such, it is once again reminding the tax-paying public that concessions are not by right, but have preconditions applying as well as post conditions as to the application of those concessions.
In the case of remigrants, it is the norm for all remigrants to provide the necessary proof of the use of their assets prior to their remigrant status being obtained, apart from such items being registered legally in their name.
One such proof is the presentation of insurance documents attesting to the use of their vehi -
cle or other large capital item. The necessary evidence that the person is the holder of a valid driver’s licence is also necessary information that is usually requested attesting to use.
Recently, it has come to the attention of the agency that a large number of remigrants, having returned to Guyana from their sojourn overseas, are not keeping for their use, the assets that are presumably their property acquired while living abroad.
The GRA holds the view that this is highly irregular and advises that this will in no form or shape be condoned by the agency. The agency’s letter is very clear in that it indicates that the concession is granted for the specific use by remigrants and should not be transferred, leased or sold for a period of three years after one’s return to take up their residence in Guyana as a bona fide remigrant.
Many remigrants when found not to be in possession of their vehicles are using many used and jaded excuses including, lending their assets to their close relatives among others.
The GRA views this as a violation of the condition under which the remigrants are granted their concessions, and will take all necessary action to enforce the penalty clause under which violation of the concessions occurs.
Where the remigrants are unwilling or unable to pay the pro rata taxes or in some cases the entire amount due, recourse will be taken to forfeit such assets.
Taxpayers have rights, and the GRA views the use of the court by remigrants to challenge the actions taken by the agency as a right or entitlement. Notwithstanding, the authority will do its part to protect the integrity of and to continue to give credibility to the scheme.
Further, it is even more essential to note that in determining genuine remigrants, the post audit activity carried out by the agency is not only to validate the invoices and title used in the transaction, which are often times highly tampered, but to request of the relevant tax authorities which GRA has treaties with, to disclose relevant tax information.
This includes the recent agreement signed on by the Government to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as it relates to US residents.
The GRA urges those who are contemplating making use of concession schemes to be cognisant of the laws including anti-money laundering legislation, regulations, international agreements and policies governing same as there are serious consequences once found guilty of violating the laws pertaining to such offences.
Two projects under the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded by the Caribbean Local Economic Development Project (CARILED) will soon be launched in Regions Three and Four.
Giving an update on the projects at a press briefing on Friday, Local Government Ministry Permanent Secretary Collin Croal disclosed that the project in Region Three is the Canal Polder Green Initiative, and entails the construction of three greenhouses. Work on this project has already begun.
He noted that two of the greenhouses are almost completed while construction of the third is about to begin. In addition, training for farmers in the Canal Polders will also be held during the last week of this month.
This is to expose the farmers to cost effective and efficient farming techniques. The project is expected to be launched in mid-October and is being executed to the tune of US$41,500.
Meanwhile, the Friendship Swine Development Project is being implemented in Region Four and the construction of a swine facility will commence on Monday and should be completed by mid-October.
Construction materials
According to the Permanent Secretary, the necessary construction materials are being procured. He added that a training workshop for livestock farmers will also be conducted on animal husbandry, farm management practices, how to use the facility, among other areas.
The workshop will commence during the first week in October, followed by the launching of the project by Local Government Minister Norman
Whittaker.
It is focused on boosting the production levels while at the same time improving the quality of produce for both local and international markets. Some US$42,000 has been plugged into the Friendship Swine Development Project.
Two other projects have already been launched in Regions Two and Six.
In Region Two, the Tapacuma Women Agriculture Diversification Project was implemented to the tune of US$42,000 and it is running smoothly. Additionally, Croal said the farmers received a tractor from the Local Government Ministry as part of the project.
A whopping US$94,500 has been injected into the Mara Agriculture Enhancement Project, Region Six which
is expected to commence soon.
As part of the project, a mini-excavator was procured and farmers underwent training on how to operate the machinery. They will soon be given access to use it.
“We want to commend the Mara agriculture farmers for being ahead of all the other projects and to note they even had exchange with the Tapakuma group, sharing some of their knowledge,” the Permanent Secretary stated.
Croal also gave an update on some of the projects under the CARILED programme. These include the training of 29 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) from the four regions in Local Economic Development (LED).
Exchange of knowledge
Also some 61 participants would have benefited from the exchange of knowledge and LED practices facilitated by a Councillor from Toronto, Canada. Two studies are almost complete in identifying areas of improvement for women in business and access to micro-financing as part of international funding, Croal said.
He further stated that 50 NDCs received training and packages with the necessary tools and materials on how to increase access to finance. Then 60 community consultations were held across the four selected regions to discuss local economic development and to assist in identifying the opportunities as well as interventions to foster development in those communities.
CARILED is a six-year programme aimed at fostering and improving LED in the Caribbean. The programme is currently in its first phase, and is being carried out in seven Caribbean countries, including Guyana.
The Guyana Elections Commission, the General Register Office and the Home Affairs Ministry must come up with a practical and mutually acceptable system that would result in the removal of the names of thousands of dead persons which are still on the Official List of Electors (OLE). It is shameful, that the names of these individuals continue to reappear on successive voters lists because of the lack of adequate systems to properly sanitise the National Register of Registrants, the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) and the Official List of Elections.
No amount of boasting by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally that the entity’s lists are “near perfect” or that there are adequate systems in place to prevent persons from utilising the identities of ‘the dead’ on the list to vote will suffice.
As a matter of fact, in the current tense political atmosphere and given Guyana’s experience before the first free and fair elections in 1992, nothing must be left to chance. GECOM cannot afford to mount the high horse and must ensure that adequate systems are place to ensure that people are not disenfranchised, while at the same time, minimising any opportunity for elections rigging.
It is no secret that thousands of people in several pre-1992 elections were said to have used the identities of dead people and those who reside abroad to cast ballots and proxies.
This cannot be wished away and regardless of the perceived integrity of the list, GECOM must press the General Register Office to deliver its work with more accuracy, consistency and with all of the necessary documentation.
No system is fool proof and every single complaint raised by the political parties, whether credible or not, must be taken seriously and treated with dispatch even if the party is seeking to score political points.
GECOM can ill-afford to have hostile relations with its political partners and cannot become an aggressor when addressing their concerns under the pretext that it is seeking to safeguard its image.
Additionally, it is also worrisome that GECOM’s Chairman would reject a request to hold another round of continuous registration exercise after the completion of the current Claims and Objections Period of the sixth cycle.
No proper rationale was put forward as to why this is not feasible except that the current exercise was completed and that a further number of people could become eligible. A discussion at the level of the Commission should give serious thought to this, especially as a possible snap election looms early next year given the tabling of a non-confidence motion by the Alliance for Change.
It would be instructive if GECOM released the figures of the amounts of claims and objections that were raised during the initial time allotted for the exercise and the nature and the amounts of claims and objections after the extension was granted.
Interestingly, in what appeared to be a forum to beat its chest and boast about its past accomplishments, GECOM was in a desperate attempt to prove the People’s Progressive Party wrong but really justified all of the concerns raised by the party.
In the presence of the media and diplomatic community, GECOM’s Chairman and the Secretariat’s staff did the unthinkable and gave the impression that a tight shift was being run and they knew it all. All bases were covered and given its experience, it was operating a world class electoral bureau to say the least.
This is the same Commission and Secretariat that Opposition Leader David Granger says needs to be reformed following the last elections; the same Commission that produced elections results that were rejected three times; same Commission which was accused of miscalculating votes in relation to seats by the Alliance for Change and other stakeholders.
The Commission’s public relation stunt did not fool anyone, there are serious problems at the Commission which are being hidden and in due time, they will receive much media attention when the now very silent Alliance for Change and A Partnership for National Unity goes on the attack.
Until then, the dead live on the PLE and possibly, the OLE.
Residents of La Parfaite Harmonie, a new housing area on the West Bank of Demerara have full access to a 3.5 kilometre road built at a cost of over $604 million.
The La Parfaite Harmonie Highway was commissioned on Saturday by President Donald Ramotar and Housing Minister Irfaan Ali.
The highway is opened
in housing in Region Three since the year 2000 to date is more than G$13 billion. This Government, your Government has spent more than $30 million in Region Three in the last 14 years to improve housing in Region Three,” the Minister said.
He noted that concerns were raised about security along the highway and Government has since put arrangements in place.
so that we can have security at the entrance and exits,” he said.
In addition, Ali said work is set to commence on another 20 kilometres of roads in the community.
Ali said his Government is one that delivers. He went on to say that the President had earmarked $1 billion for the Rural Enterprise Development, and under this programme, Government is looking at
newly-commissioned
to two-lane traffic and leads to the six communities that makes up the La Parfaite Housing Scheme.
The land that was used to construct the road was acquired by the Government free of cost from a private owner and was built by all local contractors.
Minister Ali said the Government has been investing in the development of La Parfaite Harmonie and Region Three by extension. According to the Minister, since the year 2000, Government has invested some $15 billion in the community which saw some 8000 lots and 40,000 residents benefiting. He noted that an average of $2 million was invested per house lots.
He noted that the key projects ongoing include the upgrading of 20 kilometres of roads to asphaltic concrete surface.
“The total investment
ing the feature address noted that road is expected to improve the daily lives of residents as it will be less time consuming for commuters while at the same time ensuring productivity.
“This road will make you feel as if you are living directly in Georgetown, because the time that you will take to get to your destination will be cut tremendously and that is important in many regards, it will help not only to make it more convenient… but I anticipate it will help with production and productivity as well,” President Ramotar said.
The President added that Government has invested a lot in the development of Region Three as he pointed out that a study is currently being conducted for another location to cross the Demerara River.
Central Planning and Housing Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Myrna Pitt told the residents gathered that her agency is committed to the development of La Parfaite Harmonie through ongoing
“The Guyana Police Force working with the private sector has already constructed a 40-foot container Police outpost and we’re going to put that outpost at the head of the road
building a call centre in La Parfaite Harmonie that will see approximately 300 residents gaining employment.
Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar, deliver -
Marlon Webster is from Guyana, South America and known for his soca music. Marlon is now in the USA releasing “Train Wreck” his first pop single. Slowly crooning from the speakers, “Train Wreck” eases into itself with sweet, albeit high octane vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and rapturous passion that’s infectious as it is catchy. If you’re looking for an addictive track for long summer drives, look no further.
“Train Wreck” is impacting radio nationwide and is Number Nine on the BDS Top 40 Radio Indicator!
Marlon has opened for Neyo, Akon, and R Kelly.
Growing up in Guyana, chances are you spent a lot of time listening to Soca music, an offshoot of Calypso. It is not unusual to see boys and girls dancing in the street, singing along to popular songs. Singer/songwriter Marlon had already spent many years hanging out with friends in his neighbourhood, dancing till dark, when he was asked to try out, at the age of 14, for a popular local band called Pinnacle. No one cared that he was under age, the children could pack in a crowd.
infrastructural works.
“This scheme already has facilities such as a primary school, health centre and a multipurpose community centre. With the construction of a secondary school to commence shortly at Westminster,” Pitt added.
She disclosed that five acres of land was identified for the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to design and construct a Water Treatment Plant that will serve the West Bank area.
The Chief Executive Officer noted that plans for the construction of a polyclinic are also in the works. She mentioned too that lands for a Police station, Magistrate’s court, and commercial and industrial areas to provide employment, have been singled out.
“The Central Authority is also committed to working in partnership with residents to develop La Parfaite,” she stated.
Pinnacle played at some of the biggest clubs and Marlon was invited to Barbados to try and further his career. While he was introduced to music industry folks, and got the chance to sing with two very popular Caribbean artistes – Krossfyah and For the People – Marlon went back to Guyana after two years, where he promptly took over as lead singer for Mingles Sound Machine, the most popular cover band in Guyana. They toured all over Barbados and Guyana, played at huge festivals and even performed for the President of Guyana. Marlon’s star was on the rise.
As his status grew, so did his desire to start writing and performing his own music. Marlon decided to enter the very popular Carib Soca Monarch competition, a massive music event in the Caribbean where 15 singers compete against each other. Winning became his sole focus.
At the same time, Digicel, a cell phone company that was looking to make a big splash in Guyana, approached several well-known musical artistes, including
Marlon. They signed Marlon as a Brand Ambassador, and he began performing at their events, appearing in radio and televisions ads, on prints adverts and more. By the time Carib Soca Monarch rolled around in 2007, Marlon had three songs on the charts and was doing daily interviews to promote himself. His win was a triumph, and something he had worked very, very hard to achieve.
“King” of Soca He spent the next year working as both the “King” of Soca and with Digicel. He opened for acts that came to Guyana including Ne-yo, Akon and R Kelly. Despite the fame at home, Marlon realised that his career was not growing in a way he had hoped; he wanted to see what else was available to him. As luck would have it, he received interest from a cruise ship and was invited to sing on a ship sailing to Australia. He loved it, but performing three to four shows a night was taking its toll. He told the ship that he would do one more cruise with them. It was on this final cruise that Marlon met people who wanted to invest in, and work with, a talented pop singer. As soon as they heard Marlon sing, they knew they found their guy. The first step was to bring Marlon to Canada, and then New Jersey, to work with Producer Ced Solo (Ariana Grande, Ginuine, Anthony Hamilton). The two hit it off right away. In addition to Ced, Marlon hooked up with Grammy Award winning Producer/Engineer Zach Ziskin. Ziskin took a few tracks Marlon has written and they are working together on a pop sound reminiscent of two artistes Marlon is constantly compared to, Usher and Taio Cruz. At this point, Marlon cannot wait to do is return to the stage. “I am so ready for what’s next. Music does a lot for me. It makes me happy when I am sad, it gets me on a high, takes me places where I’ve never been before. When I am on stage, I don’t feel like myself. There are times that I look out into the audience and I feel like I can fly, like nothing is impossible any more. The music takes over me.” Marlon’s new single, “Train Wreck” is scheduled to be released in July. (Broken Records Magazine)
SunDAY, September 7, 2014 | guYAnAtimeSgY.com
With technology that has never been used on cruise ships before, including high-tech “WOWband” bracelets and apps that put everything at passengers’ fingertips, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas has been dubbed “The World’s First Smartship”.
The Quantum’s facilities include high-speed Internet, which enables passengers to interact with a radio frequency identification (RFID) bracelet that keeps them connected to the ship’s network from the moment they step aboard.
These WOWband wristbands manage room access, as well as onboard purchases, dining and tour reservations. The rubber-protected bands never demagnetise, moreover.
Passengers who book dining reservations, shore tours and other cruise activities before departure can have that information and all their necessary check-in documents ready and loaded on their RFID bracelets when they arrive. According to Royal Caribbean, the plan is to get guests aboard the ship within 10 minutes.
Adding to the high-tech on the high seas, a new app called “Royal IQ” can track
Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas has been dubbed “The World’s First Smartship”
the ID, stateroom, preferences and reservations of each guest and provide maps of the ship and its daily schedule of events. Tapping the wristband also allows passengers to interact with “Royal IQ” with hand signals at screens positioned throughout the ship. The advances are made possible by faster Internet access than that available on other cruise ships, which is facilitated by a network of low-orbit satellites from O3B Networks. These communications satellites maintain geosynchronous orbit closer
to Earth than satellites used by other ships and allow Internet signal transmission directly to Quantum.
The O3B Network lets passengers use Skype and play interactive games with people across the world while at sea, a first for cruise ships, according to Royal Caribbean.
The smartship also boasts such novel features as a robotic bartender in a “Bionic Bar” where drinks are ordered on tablets.
For passengers with inside staterooms, the ship offers virtual balconies in the
The US Coast Guard Cutter Legare offloaded approximately 2800 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated wholesale value of more than US$93 million on Thursday afternoon at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida. The offload is a result of two successful drug interdictions in the Caribbean since August 23.
While on routine patrol, the crew of a US Customs and Border Protection marine patrol aircraft spotted a go-fast vessel with suspicious packages aboard, North of the Gulf of Uraba on August 23.
Deployed armed helicopter crews from the Coast Guard Cutter Bear and Coast Guard Cutter Legare were launched and located the suspected smuggling vessel. During the pursuit, the helicopter crewmem-
bers witnessed the suspected smugglers jettison several packages into the water.
A smallboat crew from the Cutter Bear arrived on scene with the now stopped go-fast vessel and conducted a boarding. Four suspected smugglers were taken into custody, and 32 bales of contraband, which later tested positive for cocaine, were retrieved from the water. The Bear crewmembers destroyed the go-fast vessel as a hazard to navigation
During a second interdiction, a US Customs and Border Protection marine patrol aircraft crew spotted a suspicious vessel off the coast of Panama on August 28. The crew of the Legare boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II, and through a search of the ship, located approximately 1,493 kilograms of contraband,
form of large, high-resolution screens that display feeds from cameras mounted on the bow and stern, giving guests the illusion of a real balcony.
“This ship’s combination of ease and flexibility
would make a yoga instructor proud,” Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain said at a press conference at the shipyard in Papenberg, Germany.
“We were determined to take the best advances in modern technology, turn them into shipboard ‘wows’ and take the frustration out of the vacation,” he added. The formal launch of Quantum of the Seas is scheduled for the end of next month.
which tested positive as cocaine. The eight crewmembers aboard the Hope II and the vessel were taken into custody and will be turned over to US officials for further investigation.
These interdictions were part of “Operation Martillo”, which is one component in the US Government’s wholeof-Government approach to countering the use of the Central American littorals as transshipment routes for illicit drugs, weapons and cash.
“Operation Martillo” is an international operation focused on sharing information and bringing together air, land and maritime assets from the US Department of Defence and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Western Hemisphere and European partner nation agencies, to counter illicit trafficking.
By Rajiv Bisnauth
Demerara relied on their quartet of spinners to pull off a commanding 144-run victory over Berbice in round two of the senior Inter-County tournament on Saturday at the Wales Community Centre ground, West Coast Demerara.
Defending a challenging total of 232, the hosts’ spinners maintained consistency throughout, restricting the Ancient County team to 88 all out off 24.2 overs.
A target of 233 was always a tall-order for the Berbicians. The turn from the track made the conditions seem alien to the visitors, and a vocal crowd, plenty of whom were backing Demerara, only enhanced that feeling.
The ball was gripping and turning, and Berbice’s batsmen seemed as uncomfortable as someone undertaking the Ice-bucket challenge.
Debutant left-arm spinner and Man-of-the-Match Raj Nanan (4-25) and offspinner Steven Jacobs (3-22) were the main destructive forces, claiming the first seven wickets.
Leg-spinner Amir Khan (2-1) and debutant off-spinner Yatesh Dhanpaul (1-14) were the other successful bowlers.
Seon Hetmyer (18),
Kandasammy Surjunarine (15), Anthony Bramble (17) and Krishendat Ramoo (11) were the only batsmen to offer some form of resistance with the bat.
At the break of the opening stand of 31 between Surjunarine and Bramble, the Berbicians lost wickets frequently to control spin bowling from the hosts.
Earlier, Berbice spinners as well did a commendable job to stifle Demerara in the middle overs and eventually restricted them to 232-8.
Shemroy Barrington scored a 69-ball half-century, while Trevon Griffith (49), Rajendra Chandrika (43) and
all-rounder Paul Wintz, who hit a brisk unbeaten 31 from 27 balls, which featured two sixes and a four towards the end of the innings, reinforced Demerara’s total.
Berbice skipper Narsingh Deonarine (2-28) and Deveon Clements (2-25) were the chief destroyers, while Veerasammy Permaul, Krishendat Ramoo and Keon Joseph picked up a wicket each.
Berbice enjoyed early success when opener Andrew Lyght was trapped leg before wicket to pacer Keon Joseph for five in the third over.
However, fellow opener Trevon Griffith then gath-
ered momentum and together with Rajendra Chandrika put together a quick recovery and added 55 runs.
The partnership lasted 10 overs before Griffith was adjudged leg before wicket to off-spinner Deonarine. Striking the ball with crisp perfection, Griffith capitalised on the short balls. The left-hander smashed eight fours and a six on his way to 49 off 44 balls.
Robin Bacchus joined Chandrika and took the total to 111 with Bacchus showing more intent to go for the bowling.
He first struck Krishendat Ramoo for the innings second six and then hoisted leftarm spinner Veerasammy Permaul for his second. He also stroke two boundaries in his 32-ball 27 before Deonarine did the trick again, removing Bacchus leg before wicket in the 23rd over.
Permaul made his presence felt, getting the Demerara skipper, Christopher Barnwell for one. Shemroy Barrington joined forces with Chandrika and together kept knocking the ball around added 31 runs in 8.3 overs.
But a freak run out effected by Ramoo brought about an end to a fighting 43 from 78 balls from the right-handed Chandrika.
Demerara then scored
Initially though, things were tough. Rubel Hossain used the new ball to nip past Chanderpaul’s outside edge and into the keeper’s gloves. The appeal was instantaneous, but the umpire disagreed. Mushfiqur Rahim, misled by the noise of bat hitting ground, opted for a review and lost it. There were a few more deliveries that beat the bat, and there was enough reason for the two batsmen to stick to their naturally circumspect style of play.
Brathwaite added to his reputation of being stubborn with Chanderpaul, one of the best exponents of that trait, to guide him. He favoured pace on the ball, hitting a couple of fours off Rubel in the 96th over with cuts and pulls.
Taijul Islam posed greater threat, beating Brathwaite a number of times. However, the bats-
22 runs during the mandatory five overs batting Powerplay; thereafter the out-of-sort Steven Jacobs (14), Barrington and Amir Khan (6) were the other batsmen dismissed.
Meanwhile, in the other second round game, Essequibo trashed the National Under-19 team by 229 runs at the Demerara Cricket Club ground.
Batting first after winning the toss, Essequibo amassed a huge total of 3868 off their 50 overs. Opener Kevon Boodie smashed an entertaining 217 off 147 balls, inclusive of 14 fours and 21 sixes.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul top scored with 46. Kemo Paul (33), Shimron Hetymer (20), Brian Sattuar (17) and Kemol Savory (13 not out) offered support. Anthony Adams (4-15) and Homchand Persaud (429) were the main wickettakers, while Brian Herbert supported with 2-36.
The third and final round is billed for Monday with Demerara challenging the National Under-19 team at GCC and Berbice facing Essequibo at Everest. Both games start at 09:30h and admission to the venues is free.
Other notable contributions came from Royan Fredericka (45), Anthony Adams (26), Ricardo Adams (18), Narwayne Fredericks (16) and Vijay Surujpaul (12). Ronaldo Ali-Mohammed (2-39) was the best bowler for the youngsters. In reply the National Under-19 lads were bowled out for 157 in 34.2 overs.
man corrected his tendency to hang hang back in the crease against the spinners and began working Shuvagata Hom and Taijul quite well through the onside to ease past his 150.
Chanderpaul barely put a wrong foot after the initial half an hour, waiting for the poor delivery to get runs. He eventually reached his fifty off 171 balls, in the same over that Brathwaite secured his double ton and West Indies moved past 400.
Brathwaite had been bogged down in the 190s. He spent 39 deliveries nudging around before reaching his double hundred with slog off Mahmudullah, the same bowler he had hit the boundary to reach his century on the first day. He claimed all his previous landmarks - 50, 100 and 150 - with fours as well. He hit 14 in all, but played out 314 dots from 437 balls faced. (Cricinfo)
Kei Nishikori stunned world number one Novak Djokovic at the US Open to become Japan’s first Grand Slam singles finalist.
The 10th seed won 6-4 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 and will take on Roger Federer or Marin Cilic for the title on Monday.
Nishikori, 24, coached by Michael Chang, responded superbly after losing the second set to claim the biggest win of his career.
“It’s just an amazing feeling, beating the number one player,” said Nishikori.
“I hope it’s big news in Japan. I feel the support from Japan. It’s 4 o’clock in the morning but I hope a lot of people are watching.”
Nishikori had needed 10 sets and more than eight
hours to win his previous two matches, but produced a remarkable performance as temperatures hit 36C and humidity soared.
“It was really tough conditions today, it felt a little bit heavy and humid,” he added. “I guess I like long matches.”
Few expected Nishikori, making his Grand Slam semi-final debut, to have the stamina to test Djokovic after his epic wins over Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka in previous rounds.
The Japanese player made the better start though, breaking twice to take the first set against a strangely flat Djokovic, who beat Britain’s Andy Murray in a gruelling quarter-final.
It was still no surprise when the Serb, playing in
Barbados riding ace Patrick Husbands remained firmly in the hunt for his seventh title at Woodbine when he reeled off three impressive wins on Friday’s nine-race card, to climb to within three of the lead at the prestigious Canadian racetrack.
The 41-year-old captured the CAN$66 000 race one with 2-1 chance Maythefourthbwithu, re-
Maythefourthbwithu to victory by half length over the three-year-old fillies. He raced the dark bay filly off the pace early on before bringing her to challenge in the stretch to edge the leaders in a tight finish.
In race three over six furlongs, Husbands stalked the pace from along the rails with five-year-old gelding Orbit Express, watching as Enjoy the Movie and
turned in the $34 000 race three over six furlongs to win with 5-1 bet Orbit Express, before sealing his triple with success in the $50 500 race seven with 6-1 chance Miss Giacomo.
Husbands now has 98 wins and is now within touching distance of threetime defending champion Luis Contreras who is perched on 101 victories.
Eurico Rosa da Silva, the 2010 champion, has now slipped to third on 84 wins.
Husbands, who has been in a purple patch of late, opened his account on Friday when he guided
Conquestor exchanged the lead through the half-mile run in 45.05 seconds.
Once in the stretch, Husbands angled Orbit Express to the outside and rallied him strongly, and got by the leaders late to win by a length.
Going 6-1/2 furlongs in race seven, Husbands settled the five-year-old mare Miss Giacomo off the pace set by 4-1 chance City Trip with Barbadian jockey Chris Griffith aboard.
He rallied his mount in the deep stretch and she responded, reeling in City Trip to reach the wire 2-1/4 lengths clear.
Things didn’t go as planned for world number one
his 24th major semi-final, raced through the second set in half an hour as Nishikori appeared to finally be flagging.
A dramatic third game early in the third set proved pivotal, though, as Nishikori survived four break points and seven deuces to hang on, bringing the crowd on side as they got behind the underdog.
jor shock became very real when he then dropped serve at the start of the fourth set.
The frustrated Serb screamed in the direction of his coach Boris Becker, while the German’s former on-court rival Chang clenched his fists as he willed on Nishikori in the opposite corner.
There was one more test for Nishikori to negoti-
Flashing backhand and forehand winners had Djokovic reeling as Nishikori broke for 5-3, but a nervous service game followed and he double-faulted when trying to close out the set.
Again, it appeared that Djokovic would finally assume control and power on to a fifth straight US final, but the top seed continued to struggle and played a poor tie-break.
A wayward forehand on set point was his sixth unforced error in 11 points and the prospect of a ma-
ate but, just as he had done over the course of three dramatic matches, he played his way out of trouble from 0-40 to move 2-0 up, and Djokovic would not get another chance.
Another searing backhand return brought up two match points and Djokovic’s challenge ended with a tired forehand over the baseline.
“Other than that second set my game today was not even close to what I wanted it to be,” said Djokovic.
“A lot of unforced errors, a lot of short balls. I just wasn’t myself.” (BBC Sport)
Many were called but in the end
Stewartville
Gunners and Showstoppers are the only two teams left standing and will contest tonight’s final of the inaugural Ansa McAl Trading’s Stag Beer West Side 5-aside football tournament at the Vergenoegen Rice Mill
Tarmac from 20:00h.
Before the showdown, which will see the winner pocketing $200,000, DeKinderen Village and New Road Eagles are set to clash in the game that will determine the tournament’s third and fourth place teams.
Another mammoth crowd was at hand to witness last Friday’s semi-finals, which certainly did not live up to expectations. The unpredictable nature of the tournament took a complete turn as the semi-finals turned out to be one-sided affairs.
In the first game of the double-header, Stewartville Gunners made light work of DeKinderen Village, defeating them 3-1.
Initially, DeKinderen Village signalled their intention to eliminate the Gunners when Ulric Bourne found the back of the net in the 10th minute; a lead which they enjoyed throughout the first half.
But the Stewartville team, dressed in full ‘Gunners’ (Arsenal) replica apparel, equalised through Dwayne Charles upon kick-off in the second half (21st minute) and Orette Stephenson extended the lead three minutes later.
Donald Bobb then put the icing on the cake in the 38th minute to seal the win and send Stewartville Gunners through to the finals.
The evening’s second game had nothing for the fans to be ‘wowed’ about, other than the fact New Road Eagles had their wings clipped in a 6-2 drubbing suffered at the hands of Showstoppers.
New Road Eagles flew out the nest and raced to an early lead when Simon Emmanuel opened his team’s account in the second minute, but that was only thing his side had to cheer about.
Dexroy Adams scored his first of four goals in the 16th minute and then followed up with strikes in the 24th, 25th and 36th minutes, while Anthony Sancho (34th minute) and Winston Johnson (39th minute) were the other scorers for Showstoppers.
Ravi Chand’s 27th minute goal for New Road Eagles failed to have any significant impact on the contest as none of the other players for the eventual losers came close to scoring.
Apart from the $200,000 going to the team that triumphs in tonight’s final, the runner-up is set to take home $100,000 while third and fourth will receive $75,000 and $25,000 respectively.
Coordinator Collin ‘BL’ Aaron said that he’s extremely happy with the support the event has received thus far and is in anticipation of a climax that’s only fitting for a tournament that has seen its fair share of upsets.
Despite one player suffering a broken leg in the quarter-finals, Aaron said that the tournament has been incident free and thanked the players and their supporters for being very discipline.
"We need more three-day cricket," says Beharry
First Vice-President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)
Anil Beharry is calling for three-day cricket to be re-introduced into the itinerary of Berbice cricket. His call came as he addressed government officials, including President Donald Ramotar, cricketers, sponsors and cricket administrators at the BCB Diamond Jubilee celebrations Sunday.
While noting that government has been making significant input into cricket, the administrator/player feels that enough is not being done to sustain the longer version of the game.
He noted that government has been upgrading grounds around the county which will go a far way in returning the game to its former glory.
“We notice that many Berbice
Anil Beharry
cricketers are making the West Indies team, but they are not staying there. I hope that with the development of these grounds we will have more
cricketers coming up and sustaining their positions in the Berbice, Guyana and West Indies teams,” Beharry commented.
He added, "We need more threeday-day cricket, but it is not marketable; it is expensive and for some reason sponsors don’t want to put their money into it because it is not as exciting as the other forms of cricket, particularly with the advent of 20/20.”
Beharry opined that a good cricket lover is one who loves Test cricket. “20/20 and 50-over is by the wayside compared to Test cricket so we are appealing to sponsors and if possible to the government to assist us to run off a three-day competition in the county of Berbice come 2015,” he urged stakeholders.
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South Africa won a firstever tournament final against Australia after a Dale Steyn bowling masterclass handed them the advantage and an anchoring innings from Faf du Plessis - which ended just four short of what would have been a fourth century in the series - guided a composed chase. Steyn’s four wickets, which included two in two balls, led a surge through the Australian middle-order in which South Africa plucked five wickets for 29 runs. South Africa paced the reply perfectly using du Plessis’ purple patch as the pivot and winning with 9.1 overs remaining.
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On a pitch that had not been used in the tournament so far, Steyn found movement early on and reverseswing by the half-way stage. Australia could not muster anything similar, nor could they find a way to dislodge du Plessis who eventually fell searching for his milestone.
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Swing was on offer from the outset but it did not account for the initial breakthrough; Phillip Hughes’ overeagerness to show aggression did. He hit the first ball of Steyn’s third over hard but AB de Villiers had moved himself out of slip and to short cover, where he collected a stinger. Similarly, after Wayne Parnell’s opening over cost nine runs, Steve Smith tried to take the leftarmer on and top-edged a pull that ballooned straight up for David Miller at midon.
South Africa spinners then enforced a stranglehold as Aaron Phangiso found bounce and Imran Tahir used the googly to good effect. Ultimately, it was Tahir’s variation that accounted for George Bailey who chopped one on as he failed to pick the wrong ‘un. Australia needed a batsman to partner Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh looked the candidate to do the job but the strike was sel-
Australia Innings Finch b Steyn 54
Hughes c de Villiers b Steyn 15
Smith c Miller b Parnell 10 Bailey b Tahir 12
M Marsh b Parnell 27 Maxwell lbw b Steyn 0 Haddin lbw b Steyn 6 Faulkner c Miller b M Morkel 40 Johnson c Phangiso b M Morkel 6 Starc not out 29
Lyon not out 0
Extras: (1-nb, 9-w, 4-b, 4-lb) 18
Total: (for 9 wickets; 50 overs) 217 Bowling: Steyn 10-1-35-4, M Morkel 10-0-58-2, Parnell 10-1-40-2, Phangiso 100-36-0, Tahir 10-0-40-1
dom rotated. Finch reached his third fifty of the tournament and but Australia were stung when Steyn’s second spell launched in full swing, literally.
Finch’s growing unease was exposed when Steyn ripped through the batpad gap and wrenched the stumps from the ground. With his next ball, Steyn trapped Glenn Maxwell on the back foot to open Australia up. After a six off Tahir, Marsh’s threat was also blunted when he insideedged a Parnell delivery onto his stumps in the over before the Powerplay, leaving the lower-middle-order with a big job.
They could not complete it after Steyn trapped Haddin and Morkel dismissed Mitchell Johnson. Australia were 144 -8 with 12 overs remaining and in danger of totalling less than their lowest score of the series – 209-9 when they lost Zimbabwebut James Faulkner had other ideas.
His first task was to bat
Fall of wickets: 25 (Hughes), 49 (Smith), 82 (Bailey), 115 (Finch), 115 (Maxwell), 132 (M Marsh), 137 (Haddin), 144 (Johnson), 215 (Faulkner) South Africa innings
Amla c Bailey b Smith 51 de Kock c Bailey b Maxwell 7 du Plessis c Faulkner b Johnson 96 Parnell b Faulkner 6 de Villiers not out 57 Duminy not out 0
Extras: (1-nb, 2-w, 1-b) 4
Total: (for 4 wickets; 40.5 overs) 221
Bowling: Johnson 9.5-052-1, Maxwell 2-0-12-1, M Marsh 5-0-25-0, Starc 4-027-0, Faulkner 8-0-54-1, Lyon 10-1-41-0, Smith 2-0-9-1
Fall of wickets: 14 (de Kock), 112 (Amla), 126 (Parnell), 217 (du Plessis)
out overs and he employed an industrious approach with Mitchell Starc for seven overs in which they added only 23 runs. Once the last five overs dawned, the pair pushed. Starc cleared longon off Phangiso, Steyn’s final over cost 13 runs with Faulkner hitting him to cow corner and extra cover and Australia inched over 200. Fifty runs came off the last five overs to give Australia’s bowlers something to work with but they needed to dig holes in South Africa’s lineup early and often.
Australia had an early success as Glenn Maxwell, sharing the new ball, had Quinton de Kock caught at cover off a leading edge. That brought du Plessis in early again and gave him the time he needed to craft his innings.
Du Plessis’ touch was Midas-like as he drove through covers, swatted short balls to midwicket and skipped down the track to Faulkner to hit him for six and bring up a fifty with Amla, who was almost invisible. Du Plessis gave Australia an opportunity when he was on 34 as he skied one over long-off but Finch could not judge his position well enough to take the catch. After the let-off, du Plessis punished Lyon to reach his fifty off 45 balls, before Amla got to his, off 72 deliveries in the next over. Amla only added another run and then hit a Smith long hop straight to cover. Wayne Parnell was promoted to No.4 in an experiment that did not work because it slowed South Africa down. His partnership with du Plessis lasted for 30 balls and yielded 14 runs to allow Australia to regain some control. Parnell chopped Faulkner onto his stumps but even at 126-3, South Africa’s position was far from precarious. (Cricinfo)
Cult/EBFA U-17 final…
Grove Hi Tech further underlined their billing as the best club on the East Bank when they won the Cult sponsored East Bank Football Association (EBFA) Under-17 League on Saturday afternoon, edging Herstelling Raiders 2-1 in the final at the Grove Playfield.
Goals from Denzil Crawford in the 33rd minute and Kirk Cummings two minutes later handed Grove the lead in an exciting encounter. Not to be outdone, Herstelling Raiders, led by the inspirational Seon Alfred who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, hit back in the 38th minute
from the penalty spot. Alfred’s goal not only put pressure on the home team but also placed him level with Joel Dick as the competition’s top marksmen with 12 goals apiece. Grove’s goalkeeper Lloyd Matthews and Coach Levi Braithwaite were named Best Goalkeeper and Best Coach respectively. In the third place match, Agricola Red Triangle led by a hat-trick from Dakhawn Matthews turned by the challenge of Kuru Kururu Warriors 3-1. It was the Warriors who drew first blood just two minutes on, compliments of a Kevon Walker goal.
The Linden/Soesdyke Highway based lads held
on to that lead for quite some time as they kept Agricola at bay. But constant pressure saw them cracking and that’s when Agricola drove home the advantage.
Matthews hit the network in the 53rd, 66th and 68th minutes to wrest the game from the Warriors to seal the third place on their return to competitive youth football.
Continental Group of Companies Sales Manager, Khemraj Dhanraj, and Marketing Assistant, Indar Jaigobin, were on hand to witness Saturday’s proceedings and expressed their company’s delight at being a part of the game on the East Bank.
Dhanraj said that he was impressed with the pool of talent in the association, while complimenting the players and coaches for making the sacrifice to come out every week to compete.
He pledged continued support for the game on the East Bank. EBFA President Wayne Francois expressed gratitude to the sponsors for their commitment to youth development noting that two of the players from the competition represented Guyana’s Under-17 team in the CFU qualifying competition.
Clubs were told to start preparations for the soon to start EBFA Under-13 competition.
Devon Thomas, the West Indies wicketkeeper, has been discharged from hospital after being involved in an accident on Thursday. Thomas had lost control of his car and went off the road outside Pares Village in Antigua.
“I was driving up the road, going at good speed,” he told the Daily Observer. I tried to overtake and think I steered away a bit too hard and I slid across the road just above Pares. They (doctors) say they are going to check first and then they can adjust but at the moment I can’t say if I am go-
ing to be out of cricket and for how long.”
Zorol Barthley, the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association president, said the injuries weren’t lifethreatening and Thomas should recover quickly. Thomas has 445 runs from six first-class matches and was the top-scorer for Leeward Islands this year. He had also turned out for Antigua Hawksbills in the Caribbean Premier League and last played for West Indies in February 2013. He has 21 ODIs and three T20s under his belt. (Cricinfo)
Despite a valiant effort, Guyana Media XI went down to Gas Masters by 29 runs in a feature 20/20 match on Friday afternoon at the Everest Cricket Club ground, Camp Road.
Batting first after winning the toss, Gas Masters, led by a fine innings of 88 not out from Saeed Mohamed, piled up 157-4, before good bowling restricted Guyana Media XI to 128-8 when the overs expired.
Seamer Ishaka Jackman gave Guyana Media XI a fantastic start, uprooting the leg-stump of Chandrika Jeenarine (00) off the fourth ball of the innings, before trapping the other opener Fazleem Mohamed (00) leg before in the third over as Gas Masters slipped to 122.
The burly S. Mohamed, who came in at three, and the experienced Ramo Malone repaired the damage with a workman-like partnership of 28, before the latter was brilliantly caught by Esan Griffith running back from wide mid-off and taking a diving catch on the
rebound. Malone went for 19 (1x4), handing debutant leg-spinner Shahrukh Imran his first wicket at 40-3 in the ninth over. Skipper Nadir Baksh joined S. Mohamed and the pair batted to the water break, which was taken at the end of the 10th over with the score 51-3.
After the resumption, the pair proceeded to dominate the Guyana Media XI
bowling attack, racking up 106 from the last 10 overs during a partnership of exactly 100 runs for the fourth wicket in nine overs.
S. Mohamed, who was dropped by Roberts at midoff on 13, brought up his fifty off 34 balls with his seventh boundary, while Baksh played the perfect foil, rotating the strike and putting away the bad balls when they were offered.
The partnership ended when Ravi Persaud threw down the stumps at the non-striker end with Baksh short of his crease as they attempted a single at 1404 in the 19th over. Baksh’s innings included one towering six.
After his dismissal, S Mohamed continued to bat with ease, finishing strongly with a few fours in the death overs to take Gas Masters to
157-4. His innings spanned 52 balls and included 15 sweetly timed boundaries. Bowling for Guyana Media XI, Jackman ended with 2-11 from four overs, while Imran had 1-32.
Faced with an asking rate of 7.9 per over, Guyana Media XI lost openers Rajiv Bisnauth (03) and John Ramsingh (16) inside the six-over Powerplay, which yielded just 28 runs.
Keon Blades, promoted as a pinch-hitter, and Ravi Persaud took the score to 45 in the ninth over before Blades was bowled by Harish Loaknauth for seven (1x4), and Persaud (14, 1x4) followed soon after at 60-4 in the 12th over.
Wicketkeeper Daniel Singh and Avenash Ramzan then posted the best partnership of the innings, adding a brisk 47 in six overs, but their efforts were a tad late as the required rate jumped to 12 an over. Singh, who was the aggressor, hit three fours in a topscore of 32, while Ramzan made 10.
Roberts and Imran struck a pair of boundar-
ies each in the dying stages, scoring 13 and 10 not out respectively, as Guyana Media XI closed on 128-8. Bowling for Gas Masters, S. Mohamed claimed 2-16, while there were one wicket apiece for Terry Narine, Jeenarine, Loaknauth and Talish Ramotar.
At the presentation ceremony that followed, Gas Masters collected the winner’s trophy, while Guyana Media XI copped the runnerup trophy. S. Mohamed was named Man-of-the-Match and Best Batsman for Gas Masters, while Narine was named Best Bowler for the winning team.
For Guyana Media XI, Singh was adjudged Best Batsman, while Jackman copped a trophy for being the Best Bowler. Both teams would like to express gratitude to executives of the Everest Cricket Club for use of the facility for the match.
Meanwhile, Guyana Media XI is expected to be in action again next Sunday against Jasper Renegades at the YMCA ground, Thomas Lands.
Executive Director of the Caribbean Regional AntiDoping Organisation (RADO), Tessa ChadertonShaw, is in Guyana and conducted a successful antidoping seminar on Friday at the National Resource Centre. With the Ministry requesting the seminar, Chaderton-Shaw laid out the purpose of the one day activity.
“The whole purpose of today [Friday] was really to give managers, coaches, the athletes’ entourage a better understanding of what doping is and what it isn’t. We would’ve looked at the role of the Caribbean RADO, the services it provides to the region and more specifically to Guyana. We had a very comprehensive fivehour training seminar that was very well attended and I leave here very satisfied today,” Chaderton-Shaw stated.
Chaderton-Shaw also highlighted the benefits of such a seminar. “Guyana has had some positive test that has been made public, and one test is one too many, and our effort is really to spread that message far and wide so that we have a level playing field and all Guyanese athletes are playing fairly.”
Further, with Guyana having four Doping Control Officers, namely Charles Corbin, Dr Karen Pilgrim, Dr Clive Bowman and Dr Navin Rambarran, Chaderton-Shaw commended the officers on their job over the last year.
“The doping control officers in Guyana have done a phenomenal job, they have been testing athletes over the year,” she mentioned. Meanwhile, the RADO Executive Director did not shy away from highlighting what she believes will aid in less doping cases.
“I think one of the first challenges is consistent anti-doping education being delivered across all sport federations, doing it consistently, it takes time. Antidoping is an area of sport development that people tend to frown on, and ignore because there is a certain intrusion of privacy; we have to make sure that the urine is leaving their body so a chaperone, of the same gender, must accom-
The Courts 10k is officially on the cards for September 28 and distance athletes will be able to test their mettle against each other on the day.
Speaking with President of the Athletics association of Guyana (AAG) Aubrey Hutson, Guyana Times Sport was able to confirm the date for the event.
“We are having a meeting with Courts tomorrow [today] on details for the 28th and not the 21st as stated on our calendar,” Hutson related to this publication.
Meanwhile, when asked whether the National Senior Championships will be the weekend before, Hutson tentatively agreed.
“Yeah that is right, I’m suppose to have a meeting next week with the coach-
es on that,” Hutson told Guyana Times Sport.
In addition, with the dates likely set in stone, the National Seniors will be highly anticipated as it will be the first time that the newly acquired Automatic time system and photo finish equipment will be used.
(Treiston Joseph)
pany [the athlete], but we are trying to change that stigma, and ensure that it
is something that is embraced and seen as a pivotal component of sport
development,” ChadertonShaw. She added, “The other
area of concern is testing, doing more testing both in and out of competition across all disciplines. With the assistance of the board members, and the doping control officers in collaboration with the national sporting federations this can be achieved. But it is something that we have to keep chipping away at, in all of our fifteen member countries. So the challenges faced by Guyana are quite similar across the board.”
In recent years, doping has plagued world sport giving athletes unfair advantages in their various elements which the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) has tried to eradicate over the years.
Permanent Secretary of the Sport Ministry Alfred King sits on the board of RADO, which is the regional body for anti-doping in the Caribbean.
Kraigg Brathwaite raised his maiden double-century - the third youngest West Indian to the mark at 21 years and 279 days - but his watchfulness contributed to a slow second day at Arnos Vale. Their run rate had been 3.03 on the first day but slid to 2.85, allowing Bangladesh some breathing space despite them not picking up any wickets.
Persistent overnight rain ate three hours and 45 minutes away from the second day but West Indies managed 407 for three after 56 overs. Brathwaite and his hero
Shivnarine Chanderpaul added 146 runs at a run-rate of 2.49 per over, having come together with 2.3 overs remaining on the first evening. West Indies’ run-rate was the most talked about point on the day. The morning session was lost to a wet outfield, however the hosts were in no rush to make up for lost time. They took 80 runs from 28 overs after lunch and were happy with scoring at a measly 2.25 runs in the final session’s play.
The pitch wasn’t doing much and Bangladesh’s bowling was steady at best throughout the 56 overs that
were possible. There were moments when caution was needed, but not in the second session when the spinners looped the ball into the slot with the field up.
The Bangladesh fielders were joking about keeping this partnership going into the third day. Every team, barring Zimbabwe, have struck at more than three runs an over against Bangladesh over the past five years. Had West Indies followed their average of 3.31 runs per over, they would have reached 450 by the second day.
