Guyana Times International August 24th 2018

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Guyana’s President meets with delegation from US Congress ISSUE NO. 412

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26 , 2018

- border controversy, oil and gas sector among issues discussed

See story on page 3

President David Granger, on Thursday, met with the visiting team of Congressmen and other officials from the United States of America at the Ministry of the Presidency in Georgetown.

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…as competition gets hotter Page 17

…relatives express shock in fatal stabbing of East La Penitence woman

Guyana Folk Festival

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Grand family fun day set for Sept. 2nd in Brooklyn

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

NEWS 3

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Guyana’s President meets with delegation from US Congress P

resident David Granger, on Thursday, met with a visiting delegation comprising Congressmen and other officials from the United States of America at the Ministry of the Presidency, where a number of issues were discussed and areas of cooperation were explored, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency stated.

The team, which was headed by Republican Bob Goodlatte, included Republicans Steve Cohen, John Rutherford, Scott Peters, Mark Sanford, Richard Hutson and Tod Rokita and other officials.

In an invited comment, the Head of State described the meeting as a ‘fact-finding’ mission as he noted that it is an important engagement between the Government of

Guyana and the United States Congress.

“We are part of the hemisphere. We have cordial relations with the United States. I see the meeting as largely fact-finding. They want to familiarise themselves with the situation in the hemisphere as a whole

and of course, today the focus was on Guyana.

So, my brief to them was largely in four areas dealing with points that I think they would have been interested in and I think in that regard it was successful,” the President said.

The four areas, he

said, covered a geographic overview of Guyana, its hemispheric affiliations and shared borders; a strategic outline, which outlined the Guyana/ Venezuela Border controversy, territorial controversy with Suriname, Guyana’s international relations and the mi-

gration of Venezuelans into Guyana; an economic overview, which dealt with the traditional sectors, the emerging oil and gas sector and Guyana’s pursuit of a ‘green’ agenda and environmental conservation.

“I dealt with the geographic scenario and the fact that Guyana is a continental state. It is a part of the SouthAmerican continent but with Caribbean characteristics. It’s the only English-speaking State and as a result of that we have lots of advantages, but at the same time, you know, we are not only perceived as the gateway to South America for the Caribbean but we’re the gateway to the Caribbean for South America. Our geographic situation has, of course, implications for border security because of

the territorial claim by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and also claims by Suriname. So, they were interested in that and I gave them the assurance that we are on our way to the peaceful resolution of the territorial controversy with Venezuela,” the Head of State noted.

The final area covered Guyana’s political and governance systems.

“The [other] area I dealt with was political. I gave them the assurance, truthfully, that Guyana is a very stable country, law-abiding country, and our National Assembly functions, our judiciary functions independently and also the executive branch. So, those three branches are separate and the executive does not interfere in the continued on page 11

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

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EDITORIAL

The results and the education sector

G

uyana is once again indulging in its annual over-the-top celebration of the results of our secondary school exams.

As we wrote last year and so many years before: “Our obsession with results of exams taken in the Grade 11/Fifth Form, when our children are merely around sixteen years old, is a sign of our country’s repressed development. Like the results of the NGSA at the end of Grade 6, these exams, as well as those of CAPE at Grade 13, the excitement surrounds the top performers who will be the recipients of scholarships for furthering their studies.

“And it is this drive for scholarships – with a few exceptions – that will be pushing our high school graduates to write every increasing numbers of subjects at these exams. It is a sign of our poverty-stricken economic status, where most of our students know they cannot afford the tuition to top quality universities outside of Guyana.” Unfortunately, there have been intermittent but inconclusive debates about the pros and cons of having children being pushed to write subjects that have absolutely no substantive utility in the advancement of their career goals.

Take, for instance, the top CAPE student. She was quite candid that because her 20 subjects at CSEC – with 18 Grade 1’s — did not secure a scholarship, she turned to CAPE as a “second chance”. Desiring to be a medical doctor, she yet wrote Pure Mathematics; Applied Mathematics and Environmental Science to boost her numbers for the scholarship jackpot rather than for further preparatory “education” in her field. The top CSEC student’s experience illustrates the personal sacrifice demanded from the students to achieve their prodigious feats.

Attending the top secondary school, the student yet had to take lessons in the mornings; in the afternoons; on weekends; and, with his mother as schoolteacher quitting her job to devote her time full time to him, study regularly until 2:30 in the morning. These are students who know the loneliness of the long-distance runner because they have felt it. The effort has to take a toll that will manifest itself in the next tertiary stage of their education, where they have a high chance of suffering from “burnout”. Guyana has produced a string of “high flyers” at the CXC, CSEC exams over the past decade, and it might be useful to conduct a survey of those who have now completed their tertiary studies, on their assessment of their earlier marathon efforts.

Another point we have been making in this space over the annual exams hoopla has been for us to spare a thought for those outside the charmed top 5 per cent. As usual, the Ministry of Education has been focusing on issuing aggregate results up to Grade 3, which count as “passes”. By this measure, one learns there has been marginal improvement that has bumped “passes” into the high sixty percent range. But what should have been done was to reveal how many students actually “matriculated”, or received at least 5 subjects including English 1 and Pure Mathematics. After all, this is the minimum qualification to enter university for non-professional studies, and also for most nonmanual jobs. Even aggregately, only 43% of passes were secured with at least a Grade 3 in Pure Mathematics.

We can perhaps get a flavour of the skewed performance from the fact that only 233 students out of 12,269 secured Grade 1 passes in eight or more subjects, while over 600 failed to secure even a Grade 3 in a single subject. And this number has to be viewed against an ever-decreasing number of students sitting the CSEC, from a high of 16,000 to now merely 12,000 countrywide. Did the “missing candidates” drop out of the school system?

It is rather serendipitous that the announcement of the lacklustre secondary school exam results coincides with that of the teachers union declaring they will be striking because of the impasse on salary increases. They are related.

Guyana's beauty: The North Pakaraimas Landscape; a scene from the 2018 Safari . (Photo by Girendra Persaud)

Women coming out from the shadows W

omen play an integral role in the development of the world.

They are fluid beings who manage to ascribe unto themselves all sorts of non-traditional roles that sharply conflict with conservative, conventional and traditional descriptions of what it means to be ‘female’ and a ‘woman’.

As a matter of fact, women, over the past four decades, have sought to remove the barriers set by society, and in some cases religion, about the types of jobs and roles that they must play in order to maintain what some refer to a healthy ‘gender-balance’.

In sharp retaliation, women have refused to be viewed as the weaker gender or sex; irrational, emotionally weak and incapable of leadership. They have broken so many barriers in order to prove to the world and menfolk what they have always known — they can do anything that a man does, just as good as he does it, or even better.

In recent times, womenfolk have achieved much success in their fight for equality and gender parity, as well as equity. They have fought long and hard to be respected, but they know too well that men will not willingly relinquish whatever God-given claim they believe they have to the divine hallways of ‘power’, ‘authority’ and executive leadership on several global fronts.

And so women internationally have set about to redefine the world they live in in order to prove that they, too, possess the divine ethos to lead, govern, and be respected, if not feared. According to Forbes Magazine, last year 100 women did just that, but out of that total, three emerged as the most powerful and influential in the world of politics. These women are the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, and

Taiwan’s President Tsa Ing Sung.

No Caribbean woman featured on that list. And this is important, because only a few women within this hemisphere attempt to run for higher political office; and when they do, they have upset the norms and status quo of their respective parties in order to be selected or seen as possessing the qualities to run as Prime Minister or President. The race is most times more taxing on women than men. Portia SimpsonMiller, Kamla PersadBissessar and Mia Motely — respectively from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados — understand this all too well. But these women, when given the chance, have rolled out remarkable reforms that have resulted in booming economies, the advancement of women and children’s rights, social progress, and law and order. But many of them have been outfoxed by their male counterparts, who most times attack their sex and their suitability to govern men, even if it is not explicitly said.

At home, Janet Jagan led the way after becoming Guyana’s first female parliamentarian and Cabinet Minister (1953, 1957, 1961), before serving as the country’s first female President under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). Winifred Gaskin and Shirley Field-Ridely are among others who soon followed.

At the December 16, 1968 elections, some 212 names featured on the lists submitted by political parties, but only 23 were women (10.8 per cent).

This number increased by 2.2 per cent in 1970, according to the University of West Indies, and by another three per cent by 1980. The numbers climbed in the early 1990s and 2000s.

Today, over 34 per cent of all parliamentarians in Guyana are female.

By throwing her hat

in the race to become the People’s National Congress’s Presidential Candidate back in 2011, the late Dr Faith Harding was attempting again to change the status quo and politics of conventionalism in her party. Despite, the fact she failed, Dr Harding wanted to send a strong message to womenfolk. That message was that they needed to do much more than be satisfied with ministerial appointments and parliamentary seats. If they wanted real change, they needed to steer the ship; fly the plane; lead the Parliament as Speaker and/or run the country. Also, Elizabeth Harper’s decision to accept nomination for the Prime Ministerial post in the PPP is nothing short of bold and admirable, though the PPP lost. The recent PNC Congress, too, where Volda Lawrence and Annette Ferguson clinched two of the party’s top posts, is also instructive.

By their actions, they have paved the way for ‘the girl child’ and womenfolk to build confidence to go against the grain. Guyanese women are strong and fierce competitors.

Whilst they thrive under Home Economics in the conventional sense, they also understand what Guyana needs to move it forward. Those women from the major political parties, who have long languished in the dark, must seize the moment and run for office in 2020. They must break the glass ceilings above their heads and at least shake-up the country’s political establishment.

Too many of our women politicians are invisible.

They must be seen and heard.

2020 may be the year when Guyanese utter the words Madam President or Madam Prime Minister again if they invest the political capital and funds needed into running a campaign using mainly women as their constituency.

NEWS 5

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Telephone giant GTT shells out US$20M for upgrade of Internet services A fter topping the list of complaints before the Public Utility Commission (PUC) last year, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) is shelling out millions in a bid to improve Internet services in outlying areas.

While addressing media operatives at a press conference on Tuesday, GTT Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Justin Nedd said the company has so far expended US$20 million on its Fibre to the Home (FTTH) project. According to Nedd, that US$20 million capital expenditure price tag is steadily rising.

“This is really an investment in the future of the country… what I see is customers want faster Internet,” Nedd said. “They want reliable Internet. They don’t care if you deliver that Internet in a paper bag or a fibre-optic cable. So (its) based on the geography of the particular area.

(But) as we continue to deploy, we look for the best technology to give people the fastest possible speed.”

“For a very linear, long stretch, 200 houses deep area, you might use a different technology to a densely populated area like central Georgetown.

But specifically for the fibre to the home project, this is a very significant project. This is modern and future proof stuff.

GTT is pursuing its fibre-optic rollout programme

It’s not something available in every part of the US,” he further explained.

He noted that there are several considerations when installing this technology, including population density. But hand in hand with the company’s continued expansion, Nedd revealed that Internet traffic has been on the rise and has grown by more than 13 per cent.

Most visitors, the CEO said, go to Google, Netflix

and Facebook. He explained that there are 6000 first time Internet customers and a waiting list of 4000 applicants.

While this is a lot, Nedd noted that the company would be able to meet the needs of the country.

According to the PUC in its 2017 annual report, a total of 296 complaints were received against GTT for last year. This figure is almost double the complaints received about Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) ser-

vice. Coming in a distant third was the Guyana Water Inc (GWI), as 38 complaints were recorded. U mobile cellular incorporated (Digicel) customers registered a mere three complaints for the year.

“The complaints received from GT&T followed the same trend as previous years with the majority of complaints received pertaining to technical issues. GTT has advised that the company is in the process of providing new technologi-

cal installations to some of the areas which were previously served by the obsolete Fixed Wireless System (FWA),” the report noted.

“Data service via Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is being offered to the Essequibo Coast. Areas such as La Grange on the West Bank of Demerara that was once served by the obsolete FWA system benefited from Fibre to the Home (FTTH),” the report adds.

The PUC expressed expectations that other areas would benefit during the year 2018 as GTT continued its FTTH rollout. It also noted that the company has been installing its new Blaze system using fibre as opposed to copper technologies.

According to the report “the upgrade for existing DSL customers requires a new application for service, for which new Internet equipment, backup power supply and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone will be provided. The telephone through the fibre-optic network thus becomes an Internet phone where the local telephone number will remain the same and the service will not be susceptible to some of the challenges inherent with copper.”

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Direct cash transfer to citizens is not the way to go Dear Editor, The announcement by Dr Clive Thomas of a grand cash payout of US$5,000, the equivalent of Gy$1 million, sounds like the “good life” is finally here; yes, at last it seems like the present poverty will be a thing of the distant past. That announcement has caused some prominent personalities to write in exhilarating penmanship splashed all across the print and electronic media.

Listen to the comment from one politician/trade unionist, “Professor Thomas is on to something…let’s not shy away from conversation on its feasibility.”

Another politician has said, “I support cash transfers to Guyanese households”, and the list goes endlessly on.

In the first place, let’s take a look at the reaction of President Granger and his Finance Minister to the pronouncements of Dr Thomas. Both gentlemen have expressed shock and disbelief as to what Dr Thomas was talking about.

You are speaking about the Economic Advisor to the President making certain pronouncements and the President and Finance Minister showing total ignorance as to what he was talking about.

So, if the movers and shakers of the economy can show such disparaging reactions to the same issue, what do you expect to happen when real dollars kick in? The answer: total chaos and confusion. In the end, corruption will flourish while the fortunes of the poor plummet.

From experience, raw cash handouts do not work, they just add to one’s economic woes. You just have to take a look at Trinidad and learn from their experiences when their oil revenues came on stream. Trinidad instituted a direct cash transfer in a programme called C.O.L.A (cost of living allowance). C.O.L.A lent credence to a spending spree never before seen in the history of the poor in Trinidad.

The poor in particular spent on things for this present frivolities while things permanent and essential were left undone; so when oil prices dipped, fortunes tumbled for the people whom it was designed to help. The evidence of this squandermania can still be seen in Trinidad today, where the so-called poor live in hovels.

Those who took care of the transitory items, like wine, women and song, contrasted against the lasting permanence of those who took care of tomorrow. There is always the danger of hard cash being doled out to “the poor,” because this means there is bound to be a repeat performance of Trinidad.

What needs to be done —

and this was already in place when the PPP/C was in office — is there must be an admixture of cash handouts plus firm, sustainable, fiscal endowments with a futuristic view in mind; otherwise you are headed for certain failure as a nation. Below is a summary of these: 1. Revive or resuscitate the sugar industry, at least 7,000 jobs would be assured.

Those that are employed would be providing for their families while the country would be earning valuable foreign earnings as sugar exports rise.

2. Encourage foreign companies to invest in our economy as the economy gets a shot in the arm. These areas include forestry, fishing as well as mining.

3.

Enhance the WOW (Women of Worth Programme, where soft loans would be made available for the start-up of small businesses for our women, especially single mothers.

4. Revive the student loans at our tertiary institution, so that our best and brightest minds can be educated and have an equal opportunity as those who can afford a university education.

5.

Reinstitute the G$10,000 per child “Because we care programme.” This programme is twofold in that it is real income for homes, while at the same time ensuring that each child stays in school and receives an education.

6. Revive the free social benefits such as free water and electricity for the elderly in our midst.

7. Revive the revolving loan agreement and duty free concessions for teachers and other public servants.

In this way, more persons would have a place called home as well as their own means of transportation.

You would have noticed that most of the points raised above start with the root words “revive”, “reintroduce” and “encourage”, which means that those programmes were there under the previous PPP/C Administration; plans and incentives we hitherto enjoyed and have grown accustomed to. In this regard, I urge this regime to learn a serious lesson, if ever they are to become a success story. But this is all wishful thinking, because from what obtains, people’s development is the least of their concerns.

Finally, as we view the experiences of Third World countries, where sovereign wealth has suddenly come on-stream in their economies, let us learn from their mistakes and make our own situation a lasting success.

Sincerely, Neil Adams

Guyanese teachers poorly paid when compared to regional counterparts Dear Editor, WPA is dismayed by the inability of the Government to arrive at an amicable settlement of the wage issue with the Guyana Teachers Union. What is even more frightening is the Government’s apparent indifference to the threat of industrial action by the teachers. Rather than trying harder to arrive at an agreement, the Ministry of Education, according to reports, appears to be more concerned with hiring scab labour to counter the teachers’ threat. This insensitivity towards the teachers’ reasonable demands is at odds with President Granger’s strident education activism and advocacy for increased and improved access to quality education by our children.

WPA stands with the teachers in their just demands for a living wage, and in their civil right to take legitimate action in pursuit of those demands.

Both the right to a living wage and the right to strike are sacred rights for which successive generations of Guyanese fought and

died. WPA takes a dim view of any Government that seeks to violate those rights, and urges the leadership of the Coalition Government to avoid that course of action. This Government must, at all cost, prevent a collision with teachers; it is not good for the country or for the image of the administration.

It is no secret that a central aspect of our deteriorating public education system is the state of the teaching profession.

Compared to many countries in our region, Guyanese teachers are very poorly paid. According to most informed observers, this has in turn negatively affected both the morale and the quality of work of the teachers. It stands to reason, therefore, that any improvement of our education outcomes must be partly premised on improving the quality of instruction in the classrooms.

It is in that spirit that WPA unequivocally supports the teachers’ demands for increased wages. We see this as an indispensable incentive for improved teacher instruction. Improving

the wage package for teachers creates the conditions for Government to better hold the teachers accountable for improved practice and better outcomes. Better wages for teachers will not automatically turn around the performances of students; much more needs to be done. But if teachers are better compensated, the opportunities for more commitment by teachers would be enhanced.

From the political angle, WPA feels the Government is committing political suicide by picking a fight with teachers, most of whom voted for the Coalition. It is bad politics to alienate your supporters on a matter that could be easily solved. We therefore urge the Government to give the teachers their due. It would be an economic boost for teachers, and that would have direct and indirect impacts on the state of education, while ensuring that a key electoral bloc is not alienated.

Sincerely, Working People’s Alliance

Will the Coalition Government ever make GuySuCo viable?

Dear Editor, The greatest enigma Guyanese have experienced is the way forward for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) – to close the estates, to diversify, to make all viable and then sell some, and to downsize and to ‘upsize’. Even the sugar workers who were dismissed are being fed with euphemistic epithets to give them some mental reprieve.

We were told in February this year that G$10-15 billion is needed to open the closed estates and then sell them to fetch a ‘good’ price and then a week later we were told that G$30 billion is needed ‘to provide much capital injection, support infrastructure maintenance, and upgrades at Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt’.

There are so many variations, combinations and permutations that Guyanese are perplexed and in a quandary as to what actually is the fate of GuySuCo and those who depends on it. The G$15 billion loan was supposed to be finalised in March this year but that did not come to pass. However, what is more mysterious is the fact that although the G$30 billion loan did materialise, it is just apparently sitting in the bank accumulating interest which will cost us US$40 million. It was supposed to be utilised for capital injection and infrastructure maintenance and other upgrades. This apparently did not happen, since the starting of the second crop was postponed because of impassable dams. The Special Purpose Unit (SPU) had the entire out-of-crop period to fix the dams but they did not and it is evident that any amount of rainfall will sure-

ly affect the achievement of this crop’s target. This is what happened in the first crop this year.

If the SPU is so short-sighted as to not fix the dams, it makes us wonder how they are going to make GuySuCo viable.

In fact, during the out of crop period, I saw a backbreaking exercise at one of the estates where tractor and bell loader operators have to break concrete columns to fill holes at the back-dam. It just goes to show the ingenuity the estate managers must employ to get the crop started whilst the SPU is sitting on the G$30 billion loan oblivious of the struggles faced by management.

However, apart from the harsh economic realities which the dismissed sugar workers have to grapple with, the depressed state of the communities affected and the overall economic decline, the embarrassingly short-sighted and dumb decision to close the Skeldon Estate is now affecting the profit-making Skeldon Energy Company Incorporated (SECI) which despite millions being spent to get it in operation, there is not enough biomass to generate power. When the Estate was in operation, the source was the bagasse from sugarcane production but with the closure of the Estate and the downsizing of sugar production, this cannot be realised. In addition, though a meeting was held earlier this year to source wood, cone husk and rice straw to be substitutes, this is yet to be realised. The former President of the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, Mohamed Raffik had bluntly said ‘it is not possible’ and it seems that his prophecy is being fulfilled. Therefore,

we can expect to have frequent blackouts since the backup from the Skeldon Energy Company Incorporated (SECI) to the Guyana Power and Light grid will be unavailable.

The coalition Government, when in Opposition had lambasted the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government for the subsidising of GuySuCo to keep it afloat, to inject much needed capital and to support infrastructure maintenance. During the period of 2011 to 2015, the PPP injected G$26 billion dollars with all the estates in operation with no job loss.

On the other hand the coalition Government in less than three years injected more than G$32 billion, and managed to close three estates, dismiss 7000 workers and could only manage to produce just over 100,000 tonnes of sugar. Now another G$30 billion is needed to make the estates viable. It makes me wonder if this coalition Government will ever make GuySuCo viable or the G$30 billion loan is just another victim of the gross mismanagement and squandermania we have witnessed during the past three years!

I am in total agreement with the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo that the G$30 billion could have gone into restructuring the industry, while keeping all of the estates open and GuySuCo’s workforce employed and engaged.

Yours sincerely, Haseef Yusuf RDC Councillor, Region Six

news 7

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Parliament Clerk denies knowledge of requests for liquor by MPs sons catered for.

Hughes said that just over 300 persons eat at every sitting of the National Assembly.

That works out to be G $ 2 2 0 0 ( U S $ 1 1 ) per person.

Among that 300 persons would be the MPs, 65 of them; 40 media workers; 115 Parliament staffers; drivSherlock Isaacs ers and medical personnel. s more questions Opposition Leader than answers Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had remain over whether taxpayers are recently suggested that footing the bill for ex- free alcoholic beveragpensive liquors that are es should no longer be reportedly consumed by served at Parliament.

Members of Parliament He made this statement (MPs), Clerk to the after he was asked to Parliament, Sherlock comment on the large Isaacs has denied any spending on food at knowledge of requests Parliament. According made by MPs for alco- to him, this may reduce the spending. holic beverages.

“It’s not just food.

Isaacs, who is currently on leave, told It’s a huge amount of this publication that an alcohol that gets conMP requesting a drink sumed and imbibed in at the VIP Lounge of the Parliament … fanthe Parliament has not cy, fancy liquor,” he happened before and said, explaining that this comes at the exwill not be tolerated.

He claimed that he pense of taxpayers.

Jagdeo made it clear is unaware of any situation where an MP re- that he is not opposed quested an alcoholic to having food served to legislators, but he drink and got one.

He reminded that believes that alcohol MPs only indulge in should not be an option the drinking of alco- nor should it be on the hol at special occasions menu at Parliament.

He claimed that in cases where there is Opposition parliamena party or one organised by the Parliament. tarians also did not inIsaac said he cannot re- dulge in consuming the call at any time where alcohol but did eat the alcohol was served out- food.

“They do eat. We side of those occasions or for any other reason. eat. I eat the food.

However, sources What do you suggest? have claimed that alco- I don’t go and eat the hol has been served to food? … I eat the food, MPs without a special but I don’t drink the liquor,” the Opposition occasion.

In fact, the source Leader said.

Isaacs recently disalleged that during one occasion, two MPs were closed that G$700,000 even engaged in imbib- was spent on food ing with Parliament for each sitting of staff which ended in Parliament. If comthe wee hours of the mittee meetings are to be included, it means morning.

P u b l i c almost G$80 million T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s would have been spent Minister Cathy in the last three years Hughes in defending alone overall on food.

But besides the the Government dehigh food bill, Jagdeo, nied that alcoholic beverages are served a former President, arat Parliament. She gued that the dietary said the whopping expenditure has intremendousG$700,000 food bill for creased ly under the coalition every sitting is justified Administration. in the number of per-

A

Ganga Persaud accuses Local Govt Minister of setting the stage for manipulation of LGE results

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ormer Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud has thrown down the gauntlet and called out his incumbent successor, from the opposite political divide, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan over the move made by the coalition Government to declare Mahdia, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) a new town and add a number of new Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in several areas.

According to Persaud, Bulkan went beyond his ambit to do something he described as undemocratic when he announced plans to have some constituencies reduced in some existing Local Government Areas (LAAs).

“I think what has happened there is the Minister has really overstepped his boundary, and in a conspiracy and secrecy, he made adjustment to boundaries by reducing the number of seats per constituencies in the selected Local Authority areas,” Persaud told this media group on Tuesday.

Persaud said the Minister’s move runs counter to everything transparent, democratic and accountable. “He did it without consulting the residents. And what compounded the situation, too, was when the Guyana Elections Commission attempted to implement the decision of the Minister (in regard to) the boundaries (and) constituencies that were reduced.”

He continued, “What they sought to do was to merge those constituencies in which the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had no contest in the last election, or won by 80 to 90 percent. So they sought to merge those right away, and you are taking away one seat from the PPP.” The former minister said this move highlights the undemocratic nature of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC). “They are seeking once again to find innovative and creative ways to manipulate the elections and to put

Ganga Persaud

on the minds of Guyanese people scenarios and situations that are unconstitutional,” he explained.

Asked whether there are grounds for a legal challenge in this issue, Persaud, a current Member of Parliament for the PPP, said he thinks there is enough reasons for one to be filed.

“Certainly! I think the people within the constituency have a right to challenge it and say, ‘Two years ago, we went to the polls as an independent area, where we were electing our own leader; and now you have not consulted us, but now merged us into a wider area’,” he said.

PPP executive member Gail Teixeira said on Monday that while the party is not contemplating any move to the court over the issue at this time, it is an opportunity for the GECOM to pull its socks up.

The PPP has asserted that the Minister failed to observe the constitutional provisions enshrined in Article 13 of the Guyana Constitution when he made the moves to increase LAAs. Another PPP executive member, Zulficar Mustapha, explained that Bulkan announced the cre-

ation of one new township and eight new NDCs, and an increase of nine LAAs, bringing the total LAAs to 80.

Mustapha said this created some confusion, as Orders 16 and 17 of 2018 created the Aranaputa/ Upper Buro-Buro Neighbourhood and the Annai Neighbourhood, but Order 19 only included the Aranaputa/Upper Buro-Buro NDC. He stressed that no consultations have been done prior to the changes, nor has the Minister made a move to provide reasons for his reduction of the LAAs. This is even though some two months has elapsed since the change was made.

The media was also informed that a meeting was held with the PPP and GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield on July 30, 2018 to address some concerns the party has.

In their list of approximately 13 observations and concerns, the Opposition noted that GECOM has not informed them as to what the specific re-demarcations in the constituencies are.

The PPP said it is causing delays in commencing and finalising the identification of candidates for the 2018 Local Government Elections (LGE), “as the geographic identity of the proposed constituents remains unknown.”

In addition, the PPP informed Lowenfield of the need for security markers to be placed on all requisite forms to be used as part of the process for the upcoming November 12 LGE. The Party said it strongly believes this would help to safeguard the integrity of the process.

The PPP has also asserted that it remains convinced these developments point to gerrymandering of the boundaries of the constituencies in 14 LAAs, and the attempt to increase the APNU’s balance of votes through the creation of 10 new LAAs.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

Police labels PNC Congress after-party vehicular smash-up as “minor incident” W hile the Guyana Police Force (GPF) customarily sends out Police releases regarding matters under investigation, including accidents, the lack of information following an accident involving a Government vehicle has prompted enquiries.

This publication made contact with several Police officials, including acting Traffic Chief Ramesh Ashram, to ask for an update on the investigation of the accident that occurred last week following the PNCR’s congress, but Ashram could give no update, as he reportedly was “not at work.”

He, however, did refer this publication to a senior officer at the Brickdam Police Station; but that official was at first unsure which accident he was being asked about, and its connection to the People’s National Congress (PNC).

According to that official, however, the matter is supposed to be investigated.

When contacted on Wednesday, Police spokesman Jairam Ramlakhan revealed that there has been no arrest.

He did not say who were involved in the accident, but described the matter as “minor”.

The accident occurred following a social event held for the delegation of the 20th Biennial Congress of the

Scenes from the smash-up outside the Georgetown Club

People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) at the Georgetown Club on Friday evening.

Festivities ended in chaos after at least five vehicles belonging to attendees -- including the one attached to the

Social Cohesion Ministry -became involved in a massive collision outside of the Camp Street, Georgetown venue.

Efforts made then to contract Social Cohesion Minister Dr George Norton for a comment on the issue had proved

futile. Even then, details were sketchy. However, both Police “A” Division Commander Marlon Chapman and acting Traffic Chief Ramesh Ashram had confirmed the incident.

However, while Chapman had noted that he had no information regarding what had transpired, Ashram had disclosed that one State vehicle belonging to the Social Cohesion Ministry had been involved. The Traffic Chief had further explained that the multiple-vehicle collision was deemed minor, as only vehicles were damaged.

When this publication spoke to him subsequently, he said he had only been briefed on the accident, and had not received a full report as yet.

That was on Saturday.

Meanwhile, while unconfirmed, information has surfaced that the accident may have occurred as a result of the PNC/R Congress attendees attempting to drive while inebriated. Several persons were said to be injured. It is unclear whether the Police had administered breathalyser tests on the individuals involved.

‘Need for forensic audit of Georgetown City Hall’ - Councillor

“I

think the way the City Council has been run, it has been mismanaged.

The only way for the situation to change is for a complete forensic audit. No matter who wins the Local Government Elections, the ground work must be set for a forensic audit so you can start from scratch” – Councillor With questions recently raised over the food bill at the National Assembly, a Councillor is pressing for a forensic audit into the Georgetown City Council as he fears that lack of accountability may be masking similar expenditures.

In an interview with Guyana Times International Councillor Bishram Kuppen expressed his concern over the spending at the Council, especially as he says that promised quarterly financial reports have not been presented.

“It has always been a concern of mine for all the expenditures that the City Council had and whether those expenditures are actually beneficial to the people of Georgetown.

When I saw that food bill there from Parliament, I recalled in the beginning in the City Council there were these lavishes given out to Councillors and perhaps the staff also.”

“Over a period of time they have scaled back,” he continued. “But the concern is still we don’t know what the food bill is or if the Council is buy-

also, the Chairman had said if Council Kuppen wants to see details and a quarterly report, he would get it. That was years ago and I’ve never seen it. The Committee has failed to provide full disclosure of all the expenditure and all the contracts they have approved.”

With that being said, the Councillor stressed the need for a revamp of the system coming out of Local Government Elections (LGE). According to Kuppen, LGE must be used as a catalyst to bring more accountability and transparency

is for a complete forensic audit. No matter who wins the Local Government Elections, the ground work must be set for a forensic audit so you can start from scratch.”

“You can know what systems are there, where the loopholes are, if there were improprieties, if there were illegal activities. Just like what the President said when he launched forensic audits into the various Ministries. He said this was the way to reset things. So we do need to reset the system and hold those who

City Hall Councillor Bishram Kuppen

ing food for the staff, whether breakfast or dinner in the morning. Because we don’t get any detailed financial statements.”

According to Kuppen, both he and other members of the Council have requested these documents from the Town Clerk and the head of the Finance Committee, Oscar Clarke, through Mayor Patricia Chase Green.

“There was one particular instance where the Town Clerk said, and his words were to the effect that the Finance Committee headed by Clarke, who has been there close to 20 years, approved expenditure for the City Council.”

“At one of those meetings

City Hall

to City Hall.

“I think the way the City Council has been run, it has been mismanaged. The only way for the situation to change

are accountable for misuse of the funds, accountable to the law.”

Earlier

City Hall this

year,

City

Hall’s inability to account for monies by providing relevant documents had prompted Auditor General Deodat Sharma to announce that another audit would be carried out at the municipality.

He had made it clear that approaches would be made to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Chambers this time around, if City Hall continued to be non-cooperative with auditors.

Last year, the AG’s attempts to conduct an audit were stymied by documents not being provided. According to Sharma at the time, there were a number of gaps that remained unfilled in the investigation.

He had noted that as a result of these missing and sometimes even damaged documents, there would be a number of pages in the final report that would carry disclaimers. This is all despite City Hall being the ones who wrote to the Auditor General’s Office requesting an audit.

It was at one time reported that during the final phase of the audit, the probe was stalled due to this lack of cooperation. Things had reportedly reached a point necessitating a letter to be sent to Town Clerk Royston King, over the undue delays being caused by City Hall officials not making the necessary documents available for the auditors.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Guyana taking steps to meet Guyanese shaken again as int’l tourism standards aftershocks rattle Venezuela

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F

The guides during the training exercise

he Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has announced that it has committed to the international adventure travel guide standard.

As such, a training activity was initiated last week which was designed to meet the adventure travel guide standard. Entitled ‘Raising the Bar for Adventure and Ecotourism Guiding’, the training was offered to pre-qualified tour guides and held in the North Rupununi region, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).

The training included master training for four local guide trainers to lead future trainings. It was led by the CEO of Pandion Consulting Daniel K Moore, who has 20 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, professional travel guide, Adventure Travel Master trainer and is a trainer for the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA).

The core focus of the training was on how to fit naturally in the overall adventure experience, the importance and psychology of customer service, storytelling and interpretation,

and the concept of sustainable practices. However, the ultimate goal is to build existing capacity to train travel guides via elevating tour guide standards across the country.

“The Guyana Tourism Authority is focused on raising tourism standards in the country to meet international traveller expectations and international standards. We have formally committed to adhering to the principles of the Adventure Travel Guide Standard and implementing its requirements,” said the Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority, Brian Mullis.

Approximately 150 tour guides are currently operating in Guyana, conducting independent tours or for local companies and lodges. The GTA is of the view that it is important that they are quipped to provide a professional experience for tourists.

Part of the course included building domestic capacity by targeting five core competencies which include technical, medical, customer service, interpretation and sustainability.

Man dies in WBD motorcycle crash

F

ifty-four-year-old Oswald Dey of Good Intent, West Bank Demerara (WBD), who was employed as a United Nations (UN) Operations Officer in Guyana, died on Tuesday evening after his motorcycle collided with a pedestrian at Bellvue, Village.

Dey was pronounced dead on arrival at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) after he collided with 35-year old Stanleytown WBD resident.

According to reports, Dey was heading North in the direction of Vreeden-Hoop when he collided with the pedestrian.

Police on Wednesday disclosed that the pedestrian was struck from behind and reportedly fell onto the surface of the road, while Dey was thrown from his motorcycle, hitting his head in the process. Both men were promptly picked up by a Police vehicle which

was in the area and taken to the hospital where Dey succumbed to his injuries.

When Guyana Times International visited Dey’s relatives on Wednesday, they were still coming to terms with the sudden loss.

His son, Sherwin Dey, is a university student and his plans were completely shattered since he was set to be engaged on Wednesday night.

The young man related to this publication that his last conversation with his father was when he told him that he was happy he was getting engaged.

His older son, Marvin Dey, an Army officer stationed in Berbice, was especially affected since he last saw his father alive two weeks ago. He said his dad was strict with education, mentored several young men in the community and was devoted to his job at the UN, which he start-

Dead: Oswald Dey

ed in 2016.

“My father was very loving; he set a great example [and] had our best interest at heart,” Marvin Dey told this publication.

He also said that his father completed his Master’s Degree in Business Administration several years ago. Dey was a father of five.

Meanwhile, the pedestrian suffered injuries to his right foot as well as his head.

Investigations are ongoing.

Wednesday’s aftershock measured 5.9 on the Richter scale

ollowing Tuesday afternoon’s shaking that resulted from an earthquake in neighbouring Venezuela, Guyanese were met with more vibrations after an aftershock rocked the Spanish-speaking country on Wednesday and experts are saying that another earthquake could occur again.

According to information obtained, residents across several areas of Guyana again felt another earth tremor at about 09:30h on Wednesday after an aftershock measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale was recorded in Venezuela. However, these vibrations where not as intense as those felt on Tuesday. Region One (Barima-Waini) Chairman Brentnol Ashley told this newspaper on Wednesday that the aftershock lasted less than one minute.

“You could hear things making noise because of the trembling but it wasn’t for very long. There is no report of anything being damaged as yet,”

Ashley said.

However, Guyanese could be bracing themselves for more unsettling movements since experts at the UWI Seismic Research Centre are predicting that another earthquake in eastern Venezuela can be expected. UWI Seismologist, Dr Joan Latchman has said that another earthquake is possible, noting that there have been at least seven aftershocks so far.

There have been early reports of structural damage to buildings, as well as cracks in floors and roads in Venezuela and Trinidad after the earthquake hit Tuesday. The SRC put the earthquake at a depth of 73 kilometers and it was felt in the northern parts of South America and several Caribbean nations, including Trinidad.

The 7.3 magnitude struck Venezuela at about 17:30h on Tuesday and many said that it was the worst they had felt in recent memory.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

Opposition awaiting President’s choice for Top Cop O

pposition Leader, Dr B h a r r a t Jagdeo on Thursday stated that he is awaiting the President’s choice of the nominee for the position of Commissioner of Police (COP) before he raises any questions in relation to the selection process.

Jagdeo explained

tion that the Police Commissioner has to be “unbribable” leaves room for judgment to be passed on the rejected nominees. “…what is he saying about the candidates who are there and generally, the [Guyana] Police Force? …In a way, it’s disparaging the people there and whoever

Bi-partisan approach needed to address influx of Venezuelan refugees in Guyana – Region 1 Chairman

and Chairperson of the Police Service Commission after the Chairperson has consulted with the other members of the Commission.”

With the recent reconstitution of the Police Service Commission, the process will move forward, the President had promised, while

A

Region One Chairman, Brentnol Ashley

s more Venezuelans continue to cross Guyana’s porous borders, a bi-partisan approach is being seen as the most appropriate way to tackle the issue at hand. This is according to Region One (Barima-Waini) Chairman, Brentnol Ashley during an interview with Guyana Times International on Monday.

“We have to put aside whatever might be

couraged. Some persons even from the level of the Town Council, they are very reluctant, they are not in favour of even having our Warrau brothers and sisters in the communities. They are concerned about security, but we are assured

by Central Government that they will be working towards ensuring that the people remain safe,” the chairman explained.

Further, it was pointed out that villagers are

identified for the establishment of a homestead settlement area or a humanitarian centre for registered Venezuelans who have fled to Guyana.

According to the Minister, the land has been identified as a result of a collaborative effort of the Mayor and Town Council of Mabaruma and the Citizenship Ministry.

The decision was taken during a multi-agency coordinating committee meeting on August 14.

The Public Health Ministry has since established health posts in the outlined areas, including at Mabaruma and Morawhanna, and is expected to establish yet another outpost at Imbotero Village by which migrants and residents would be screened and vaccinated. Additionally, the Ministry will bolster its presence in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

Refrigerators for the storage of vaccines at the locations have already

Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and President David Granger during a previous engagement (File photo)

to media operatives during his weekly press conference on Thursday that he intends to inquire from the Head of State, David Granger, what assessment was undertaken to ensure that the candidate he [President] selected is “unbribable” and holds all the qualities that the President outlined he wanted in the new COP. Earlier this month, Granger told media operatives that some of the qualities the new Top Cop should possess are integrity, intelligence and impartiality.

“I don’t give orders to the Commissioner of Police, but I want somebody who is unbribable; I want somebody who is intelligent; and I want somebody whose commitment is to carrying the programme of Security Sector Reform, who has the initiative and who can generate public trust. If I put somebody there who is not trust worthy, the public would laugh,” he had said.

Jagdeo, had voiced his opinion that Granger’s asser-

he selects. People will feel that the other candidates were bribable, that’s why they were not selected,” he said on Thursday during his weekly press conference.

According to the PPP General Secretary, this reason given by Granger for the lengthy period in which it is taking to have a substantive Police Commissioner appointed is just “another lame excuse.”

Moreover, he posited that the President should have applied this same “unbribable” criteria when he was selecting his own Cabinet. “…if the President had applied this criteria to his own Cabinet, he may not have a Cabinet today…He should focus on unbribable Ministers too, given what we’re seeing now,” he said.

Article 211 (1) of the Constitution vests the President with the authority to appoint the Commissioner of Police and every Deputy Commissioner of Police only after “meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition,

noting that he has already spoken with the Chairman of the new Police Service Commission, Paul Slowe, on the matter.

F o r m e r Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud went into pre-retirement leave back in February, and officially retired two months later.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Administration, David Ramnarine, has since been the acting Top Cop. He and seven other Assistant Commissioners were each interviewed for the post.

The other ACPs are: Crime Chief Paul Williams; ACP – Operations, Clifton Hicken; Force’s Finance Officer, Nigel Hoppie; ‘A’ Division Commander (ag), Leslie James; substantive ‘A’ Division Commander Marlon Chapman, ‘B’ Division Commander Lyndon Alves; and for the first time ever, a female contender in ACP-Administration II, Maxine Graham.

(Ramona Luthi)

Some of the Venezuelan refugees in Region One

seemingly political and start looking at the situation in a humanitarian manner and so everyone should work hand in hand, cooperatively to resolve the issue,” Ashley said.

According to him, there are presently over 578 persons of the Warrau tribe, who are occupying spaces in more than five communities in the region.

He said while some villagers are very concerned about the wellbeing of the migrants, others maintain that they should not be encouraged in the country.

“Not only Toshaos but by citizens in general from many communities I would have visited, they are of the view that it should not be en-

not only concerned about their safety but their health.

Ashley stated that the views of these persons must be respected, since the recent influx continues to put a strain on the area.

The Chairman nevertheless informed that immigration personnel are on the ground to ensure that the migrants are registered. He asserted, “We also have immigration personnel who have been visiting the communities and registering (the migrants).

Most of them were granted a three-month stay in the country”.

A few days ago, Citizenship Minister Winston Felix announced that a plot of land in Mabaruma was

been procured and were to be dispatched.

Following calls by the Region One Chairman for Government and donor agencies to provide more assistance to Venezuelan refugees, the Administration on August 6 signalled its intention to construct several facilities to respond to the Venezuelan influx.

This was announced by Minister of State Joseph Harmon at his post-Cabinet briefing. A number of local businesses and Guyanese have provided food and clothing to the refugees.

Venezuelan refugees, mainly from the Warrau tribe, have been fleeing the economic and political turmoil in the Spanish-speaking country.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Guyana’s President meets... from page 3

judiciary or the autonomous commissions, like the Guyana Elections Commission, the Judicial Service Commission and so on. So, I think from the point of view of governance, we were able to explain that Guyana is a stable, well-governed state,” he said.

The Head of State said that Guyana’s ‘green’ agenda was also discussed and the team was impressed with Guyana’s commitment to protecting the environment.

“They were quite impressed with our environment [and] our commitment to the environment. We believe that climate change can have harmful effect and we’re taking measures to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. We can see that our coastal zones are being damaged partly as a result of global warming and we are committed to protecting our rivers, protecting our air quality, protecting our forests.

So, we’re able to explain and convince them of our commitment to protecting the environment even as we go more deeply into the extractive industries,” he noted.

President Granger noted that the two sides

also discussed areas of cooperation, which can be built and enhanced where needed, in areas such as security, energy and disaster response and preparedness.

He noted too that the Congressmen particularly have expressed interests in the energy sector and the possibility of access to cheap electricity for Guyanese and other stakeholders.

“We explained that we’re not wedded to one concept. Some areas may have solar, some areas may have hydro, some areas may have wind, some areas may have natural gas so we’re looking at a mix of energy sources and we’re confident that we’ll bring the tariff rate down to below US$0.15 cents per kilowatt hour. Maybe we’ll keep moving downwards and have cheap energy and this will be important to manufacturers.

So some of the questions were concerned with the possibility of cheap energy,” the President explained.

Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge and Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon were also present in the meeting, the MotP added.

‘We need justice’ …relatives of murdered Sisters Village pensioner seek answers after only 1 of 2 identified attackers arraigned

A

lmost two months after a Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara (WBD) pensioner was beaten and later died, his relatives are crying out for justice, questioning why Police only instituted a murder charge against one man, when at least two attackers were identified.

Seventy-one-yearold pensioner, Jerry Rambeer, was found lying in an unconscious state on July 1, 2018 at Back Street, Good Intent, WBD, but took his last breath on July 3 while receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Joseph Rameshwar of nearby village Belle Vue, is before the courts on allegations of murdering Rambeer between July 1 and 3, 2018.

According to relatives, a close relative of the murder accused was also identified as an attacker but they are confused as to why only one person was charged for the crime. The pensioner’s brother, Ricky Rambeer told Guyana

Deceased pensioner Jerry Rambeer

Times International on Wednesday that they were going to hire lawyers to fight their case but were reportedly advised to keep checking with Police as the file was reportedly sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for directions on whether or not the relative of the accuse would also be charged.

“No one man can’t beat me brother; he is a strong man. The Police prepare a file with state-

ments and witnesses; it gone to the DPP about five weeks now and up to today, the file can’t come back,” the younger brother claimed.

Rambeer said he asked the Police last week and they reportedly told him that the file was still with the DPP. Guyana Times International contacted Police on Wednesday to ascertain the position of the file but was referred to Divisional Commander Rishi Dass.

However, efforts to contact him were unsuccessful on Wednesday afternoon.

Rameshwar, 23, was arrested at an operation in Diamond, East Bank Demerara and reportedly confessed to hitting Rambeer to the head with a rolling pin during an argument.

They were all at a wedding house in La Retraite before then.

The DPP later advised that the suspect be charged with the capital offence of murder. According to Police information provided last month, when ranks arrived at the scene, they observed that Rambeer’s body had signs of marks of violence, and he had a gaping wound on his head.

As such, he was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital and admitted a patient, before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. However, at about 15:00h on July 3, 2018, the elderly man succumbed to his injuries.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

Proposal to rename CJIA Cops probing Public Infrastructure insensitive – Teixeira

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he Atlanta Chapter of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) party’s North American groups has moved a motion at the PNCR Congress that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Guyana’s main port of entry, be renamed the Burnham-Jagan-Timehri International Airport (BJTIA).

The motion, carried in the name of the Atlanta Chapter’s Chairwoman, Carol Trim-Bagot, suggests that the airport should be named after both of Guyana’s independence architects, particularly the late President Linden F S Burnham.

The motion is also claiming that the late PNCR leader Forbes Burnham was executive President and leader of the country at the time the airport was constructed. It noted that the former Timehri International Airport was named after Guyana’s indigenous peoples.

Further, the motion is saying that the idea of renaming the CJIA is to keep the importance of the two founding fathers. It stated Burnham’s commitment to the people of Guyana is equally important to the Guyanese community and the Caribbean.

The Atlanta Chapter’s motion has reportedly claimed that Burnham also played a major role in the political, social and economic development of Guyana, although the airport was renamed Cheddi Jagan International

Chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the PNCR’s North American Groups, Carol Trim-Bagot

Airport to honour the contribution of Jagan to Guyana.

A source close to the party told this newspaper that the motion was sent to a special committee for further consideration, but it may neither be passed in the current congress nor at the committee, as it did not receive popular support at the congress.

The source noted that top stalwarts of the party have already viewed the motion as one that could lead to much controversy in the country, and this is not something the party is looking to create, as renaming of the airport is not an important matter.

Laughable

Nevertheless, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, a long-serving PPP executive member, who offered her view on the issue, said the idea is laughable and insensitive on part of the PNCR party and its members.

Making it clear that she was speaking on her own personal behalf, and not on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Teixeira said if the PNCR Congress agrees to the proposal, only then would her party be able to officially make a statement on it. But she said that if such a decision were to be made, she does not believe it would get popular support from the Guyanese nation.

In March 1997, following the death of President Dr Cheddi Jagan, the then President, Samuel Hinds, decided to rename the airport in Jagan’s honour. The proposition to rename the airport was made in the Parliament (National Assembly) by then Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Vibert De Souza.

De Souza noted that it would be a fitting tribute to a man who had spent his life committed to the betterment of Amerindian people and fighting for the freedom and unity of all Guyanese. A plaque bearing the new name was unveiled on May 21, 1997 by then Prime Minister Janet Jagan.

The CJIA (airport) is currently undergoing modernisation and expansion at a cost of G$150 million. The runway is expected to be extended to about 10,500 feet, and the expansion is going to provide a new terminal building with a few boarding bridges, elevators and other additional amenities.

Jamaican woman, her husband and daughter killed in Italy bridge collapse (JAMAICA GLEANER)

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opes of finding Jamaican Dawna Munroe and her nine-year-old daughter Crystal were crushed last Friday when Italian authorities confirmed they were among the 43 people killed when a bridge they were driving across collapsed in Genoa, Italy.

Cristian Cecala, Munroe’s Italian husband and the father of her daughter, was also killed in the incident which also left 16 persons nursing injuries.

The three were among the last of the victims to be confirmed dead because of the time it took rescuers to uncover their vehicle from the rubble.

The family was en route to Livorno to take the ferry to the island of Elba, where they planned on vacationing, when the Morandi motorway collapsed. Munroe and her family were buried under concrete for three days.

Born in Sheffield, Westmoreland, Munroe and her daughter, then seven months old, moved to Italy in 2009. She met her husband while working in Negril.

“Our family is devastated. It is not pretty at all. I am not holding up well and my mom, who lives in the United States, had to be taken to the hospital this morning (Saturday),” one of Munroe’s younger sisters, Akeisha Lewis, told The Sunday Gleaner from her home in Toronto, Canada, yesterday.

The family had hopes of finding even one of the three alive, after reports surfaced that Cecala had sent a WhatsApp message advising his family that he was alive, but buried beneath the boulders.

“We hoped and we prayed they were alive,” Lewis lamented, adding that the last time she

Dawna Munroe (left) with her husband Cristian Cecala. (Jamaica Gleaner photo)

saw her sister was December 2017 during her wedding in Jamaica.

Communication Issues Two of Munroe’s sisters, Kimona Reid and Nicolee Munroe, and an aunt have since travelled to Italy to identify the bodies; however, Lewis said they have been having issues of communication owing to the language barrier.

The family wants to take back the bodies of Munroe and Crystal to Jamaica and is seeking guidance from the Jamaican Government on how to get this done.

The collapse of the bridge has caused a firestorm in Italy, with many families blaming the Government for faulty infrastructure work.

Yesterday, Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella demanded guarantees that all the nation’s roads are safe after he hugged and comforted mourners at a state funeral in the grieving port city.

Afterwards, Mattarella called the funeral, which took place on a day of national mourning, “a moment of grief, shared grief, by all of Italy”.

Ministry’s procurement breaches – SOCU

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he Parliamentary Opposition People’s Progressive Party has written to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), asking that the procurement breaches in relation to the award of consultancy contract for the feasibility study and design of the new Demerara River Bridge be investigated; and SOCU has responded, informing that the issue is engaging the attention of the Guyana Police Force.

Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira wrote to SOCU head Sydney James on August 15, requesting that the procurement breaches be investigated “with a view to instituting criminal charges against the Minister of Public Infrastructure, Minister David Patterson.” In a response dated August 16, James acknowledged receiving the correspondence, and said, “The matter is now engaging the attention of the Guyana Police Force.”

Additionally, he informed that Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine, and Police Legal Advisor, Retired Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh, have been informed of the request for an investigation.

Teixeira had, back in September, written the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), asking that that body investigate the selection and award of a G$146 million contract to Dutch consulting firm LievenseCSO for the feasibility study of the new Demerara River Bridge after it was revealed, and later confirmed by Minister Patterson, that the company was sole-sourced and had not even bid for the project.

In the Commission’s report to the Opposition, it highlighted the breaches in the Procurement Act. In response, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said Patterson would now have to justify his actions before Cabinet.

“It was not discussed at Cabinet [as yet], but certainly I expect the Minister of Public Infrastructure would address the matter, and that by the next Cabinet meeting, would bring to Cabinet a position on the issue that has been put into the public domain,” Harmon told reporters at his Post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday.

According to the PPC report, seen by this publication, some 23 companies had expressed an interest in providing consultancy services; 12 were shortlisted, and two managed to submit their proposals on time. However, Government failed to reach an agreement with either of the two companies in their negotiations, and as such, the tender was annulled.

Minister David Patterson

The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) then recommended that the Public Infrastructure Ministry (MPI) re-tender, but it did not, the PPC report said. It went on to note that the Permanent Secretary of the MPI then “informed the Public Procurement Commission that subsequent to annulment of the tender by MPI, [Dutch Company LievenseCSO] Engineering contracting BV submitted an unsolicited proposal to provide consultancy services for the Demerara River Bridge project.”

As such, the Commission added, Minister Patterson approached Cabinet on November 18, 2016, seeking consideration and approval to use funds from the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) to fund the feasibility study and to commence a contractual engagement with LievenseCSO as of January 1, 2017.

The Commission found that there was a breach when this request to Cabinet was made by the Minister and not through the NPTAB. The PPC also noted that Cabinet considered the memorandum submitted by the Minister, and in November 2016 approved a total sum of G$161,514,420 to be used from the DHBC to cover cost for the feasibility study for a new bridge across the Demerara River.

According to the PPC, General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Rawlston Adams, indicated that the DHBC Board was not a party to the decision to use these funds for this purpose as approved by Cabinet, and further stated that he had not signed the contract on behalf of the DHBC, but only because he was requested to do so by the Public Infrastructure Minister.

As a result of the findings of the probe, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has called for Minister Patterson to be charged with corruption.

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Businesses suffering due to constant ‘blackouts’ …Essequibo Chamber of Commerce calls for Govt to intervene

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he Essequibo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCI) is calling on the Government to immediately intervene and bring some relief to the residents of Region Two, (PomeroonSupenaam) especially the business sector, who are all suffering tremendously due to the failing

power company.

The ECCI President, Suean Seewnarayan on Wednesday said the region's commerce is collapsing due to the poor service offered by Guyana Power and Light (GPL).

She added that residents, especially the business sector, are in great danger of losing millions of dollars in cool storage

items.

Businesses are already dumping products and those who have standby generators are pumping thousands of dollars into fuel and maintenance costs.

The Chamber said it has noted Government’s silence on this very important issue. “No one is saying anything about

Essequibo Chamber of Commerce President, Suean Seewnarayan

the new power plant at Anna Regina which is far from completion and residents are losing confidence in the Government for not providing answers. If this power failure is not given immediate attention, the entire economy of the region will collapse,” the Chamber President noted.

According to Seewnarayan, millions of dollars have already been lost due to damages of equipment and other electrical household items. She added that two houses suddenly burst into flames and burnt completely as a result of suspected electrical fire.

“When are the authorities going to act?

When it's too late? The Essequibo Chamber of Commerce and Industry is calling on the

Government to immediately come to the rescue of GPL Anna Regina and give the region's economy a chance to survive,” Seewnarayan noted.

Last week, GPL had said that it will rush a generator into the region

by Monday.

The power company on Saturday last had admitted that the region has been experiencing frequent service interruptions since August 13 as a result of two of its units – the Number 3 and Number 8 – with an aggregate capacity of 2.8 MWs becoming inoperable, due to major mechanical and electrical issues respectively.

“On Monday, August 13, and Thursday, August 16, two of GPL’s units – the Number 3 and Number 8 – with an aggregate capacity of

2.8 MWs became inoperable due to major mechanical and electrical issues respectively. Since the Number 5 Unit with a capacity of 1.4 MWs was unavailable due to a major overhaul, only two units totalling three MWs are currently in operation,” GPL had said.

GPL has since noted that normalcy in electric flow is expected to return

by Monday, but according to residents, this has not yet happened.

Just recently, a single mother struggling to make ends meet for her family was forced to dump over G$200,000 worth of meat and fish owing to GPL’s faulty service.

Eresha Prashad, of La Belle Alliance, Essequibo Coast, a meat and fish vendor at the Anna Regina Market, said she stocked her freezer as she prepared for the busy weekend about two weeks ago.

The single mother is laying the blame for her losses at the feet of GPL. Residents have since called on the power company to educate customers on the cycle change and how it can affect appliances which are not compatible. (Mohanlall Seulall)

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Guyana records another domestic violence death …relatives express shock in fatal stabbing of East La Penitence woman the couple’s home, and reported the crime. He was the one who led the Police to the body, and he has since been taken into custody to assist with investigations.

Bristol’s aunt, Yvonne Morris, told Guyana Times International she had last seen the couple at sometime between 10:00h and 10:30h, when they both visited her home at different intervals. She said that Murdered: Shenece Lawrence although her nephew was not a violent perrocky relationson, the duo had had ship spanning a turbulent relationship, over half a de- with constant intense arcade came to an end on guments being featured.

Sunday when a 34-year“She used to live with old security guard fatally him, and one morning he stabbed his reputed wife came and said that she is at their Freeman Street, not there anymore; that East La Penitence home. she gone. But they went Dead is 24-year- to church (last) Sunday, old Shenece Lawrence. and I don’t know what is According to the Police, the problem. This mornthe incident occurred at ing (Wednesday) she about 11:30h. Lawrence’s came and asked me for body was discovered in him, and I told her he their Lot 272, Freeman (had been) by me and he Street home with a knife went home back; and she stuck in the neck. gave me a number to call After committing the him, and when I called, act, Lawrence’s reput- the phone went to voiceed husband, Guyana Oil mail. He called back, and Company (GuyOil) se- he asked where she is, curity guard Jermaine and I said she gone,” the Bristol, walked into the woman related.

East La Penitence Police Morris said she later Station, located just a learnt from her grandstone’s throw away from

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children that Lawrence did not leave the area, but had rather ventured to the Freeman Street home, and while she was there the incident occurred.

“Next thing I know, about an hour after, my grandchildren called me and said, ‘Look Jermaine and a vanload of Police in the yard,’ and I try to find out what happened, and then I hear that Shenece dead. I don’t know what went wrong; I don’t know,” Morris informed.

The woman said her nephew informed her that Lawrence had left the home sometime on Thursday last, but did not give a reason as to why she had so done.

She said the couple had been together for over five years, but has no children together. They recently moved into the area after moving from Lawrence’s mother’s home in Broad Street, Georgetown.

“After he done do what he do, he went to Police station and hand himself in. I don’t know what make he do that, or what get in to he; but he was not violent at all.

They used to have their arguments and so, but I never know he hit she,” the woman said amidst

sobs.

At the scene, a large crowd of neighbours and passersby gathered with the common comment being disbelief that Bristol would do such a thing.

When Lawrence’s mother, Nicola Lawrence, arrived on the scene, she immediately fell to the ground and had to be lifted away. A few minutes later, the undertakers arrived, and Lawrence’s brother, Ryan Lawrence, was asked to identify the body; but as he ventured into the yard and saw the condition of his sister, the man fled the scene immediately.

Lawrence’s body was removed, and is now at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour awaiting a post mortem examination.

Over at the Lawrence home in Broad Street, Georgetown, this publication spoke to one of the dead woman’s brothers, and he explained that Bristol was “stupidy”, since the duo would fight ever so often. He described his sister as a “good girl”, and expressed disbelief at Bristol’s actions.

Meanwhile, neighbours recounted one incident in which Bristol and Lawrence had been at a hotel in the city and he had begun to abuse her,

resulting in her fleeing the location stark naked.

That incident was reported to the Police, but it is unclear whether the matter had been investi-

to move back home; but she maintained that the couple had not been fully separated as yet.

First Lady Sandra Granger had in March

Shenece Lawrence’s mother, Nicola Lawrence, being consoled by her brother, Ryan Lawrence

gated.

Lawrence left Bristol’s home on Thursday and moved back to her mother’s, but according to her mother, her daughter only slept by her.

“She came back on Thursday and would sleep and change and go to her work. She worked at the Hicksville Hotel,” she said.

The distraught woman said she is aware that the duo had issues, and she said her daughter had informed her that she was planning

said that instances of domestic violence had increased some 14.2 per cent in the past six years, and had added that this societal scourge has become banal in Guyana.

According to the First Lady, reported incidents of domestic violence by an intimate or previously intimate partner had risen from 74.8 per cent in 2011 to 89 per cent in 2017, with females accounting for an upward 80 per cent of the victims.

(Lakhram Bhagirat)

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‘Hoping to see again’ …Linden girl returns home after successful treatment in Cuba

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ollowing successful treatment overseas, three-yearold Lindener Crystal John has returned home and has now been deemed cancer free.

John, who travelled to receive treatment in Cuba for Neuroblastoma and retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye) has successfully conducted radio and chemotherapy during her five-month stay.

Her parents LaShawn and Ivan John are now keeping hope alive that she will soon be able to see again. John’s mother recently indicated that she is doing well except for some complaints of burning in her eyes.

“She aint getting no pains, all she crying out is that it burning. That means that she getting some kind of sensitivity to the light. Everything else is ok. We trying to teach her how to move around, walk, eat.

Remember she has to learn everything again.

So we getting there,” her mother pointed out.

The three-year-old is slated to return to Cuba early next year for follow-up treatment as her parents continue to hope for the best.

“There is still hope because if he (specialist) say he want to see her back in January and know what more he can

do for her means there is still hope,” her mother said. “We didn’t do the surgery because the tumor wasn’t on the optic nerve, it was just beneath the eye rim so it reduced in size and the chemotherapy killed it,” she continued.

John, of Amelia’s Ward, Mackenzie, Linden, was diagnosed with the life-threatening disease Retinablastoma when she was just eight months old, which resulted in the removal of her left eye. She later began losing vision in her right eye after the tumor returned. This prompted urgent medical attention and an outpouring of monetary assistance from the public and nonprofit organisations. Despite her challenges, the three-year old is scheduled to begin school come September.

(Utamu Belle)

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Real estate agent charged with Guyana’s Natural Resources Minister and team meet with threatening Minister’s life

Accused: Nigel Reid

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real estate agent was on Tuesday morning brought before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts charged for reportedly threatening the Junior Minister of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs, Valarie Garrido-Lowe after behaving disorderly at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs.

Nigel Reid, 47, of Prince and Laing Streets, Georgetown was represented by Attorney-

at-Law, Tiffany Durant.

He denied that on August 7, at the Ministry’s Office located on 251-252 Cummings Street, Georgetown he behaved in a disorderly manner in a public place whereby a breach of peace was occasioned.

According to Attorney Durant, her client was seeking justice for a rape victim which is proving difficult. She noted that his outburst was as a result of frustration on the

part of the defendant.

However, Police Prosecutor, Deniro Jones in disclosing the facts of the case, told the Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan that Reid visited the Ministry and requested to speak with the Minister but after not being able to meet with the Minister he became enraged and hurled profanities, while behaving in a disorderly manner, prompting the Minister to have him escorted from the building.

At around 13:15h the said day, Reid allegedly placed a call to the said Ministry’s secretary threatening to kill the Minister.

As such, he was arrested and later charged with the offence.

Reid was however granted bail in the sum of G$10,000, was ordered to stay 50 feet away from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs and to make weekly reports at the Alberttown Police Station.

He was also placed on a bond to be on good behaviour until the completion of the trial into the matter.

Autopsy to be conducted on teen 9 days after death …mother frets over delay

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Alva Smith

post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted on 16-year-old, Akisha Smith on Friday after the teen suddenly passed away in her sleep on August 15.

The mother of the teen, Alva Smith of Phase Two, Onderneeming Sand Pit, Essequibo Coast, Region Two, made a call on Wednesday for the body of her daughter to be released for burial since she succumbed eight days ago.

According to reports, the now dead girl who suffers from frequent seizures was discovered dead in her bed at about 07:30h on the day in question by her mother who attempted to wake her.

As such, the Police were called in and the body was taken to the funeral home. According to the woman, on August 20, she visited the Suddie Police Station to enquire about the post-mortem, but it was only then that the ranks reportedly informed the pathologist in Georgetown.

She said she overheard the pathologist telling the rank that, had he been informed earlier, the post-mortem would have already been done.

According to the mother, she became worried about the state of her daughter’s body, since there has been constant power outages in the region.

The woman has said she is very poor, and it is her daughter’s grandparents who will be taking care of funeral expenses.

According to the woman, for religious purposes, the family is hoping to bury the teen before the nine-night service.

However, a visit was paid by the family to the Commander who informed them that the pathologist (name unknown) would be venturing to the region on Friday to conduct the long awaited autopsy.

As such, the teen is expected to be laid to rest on Saturday.

high-level US delegation

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Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and team in discussion with the US delegation

inister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman headed a delegation of Natural Resources officials during a meeting with Congressmen and military officials of the United States.

The meeting was held on Wednesday, August 22, at the Ministry of Natural Resources office on Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown.

According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release, the 25-member US delegation is in Guyana on a familiarisation visit.

The media was not invited to any planned events for the visit.

The team includes nine Congressmen, including Chairman Bob Goodlatte, military and other officials.

US Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, was also part of the US delegation during the meeting.

Minister Trotman’s delegation included Head of Planning at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC),

Pradeepa Bholnath, Coordinator of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI), Dr Rudy Jadoopat and Chairman of the Board at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Stanley Ming.

Discussions between the teams are expected to include developments in Guyana’s newest extractive sector, oil and gas.

ExxonMobil is a publicly traded company in the United States and is part of the three-company partnership that is developing the Liza Field in the Stabroek Block offshore for first oil in 2020.

The US had also supported and provided grant funding for Guyana’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) bid for candidacy.

Last week, Minister of State Joseph Harmon had said that the team’s visit signals the growing confidence in the relationship between the two countries.

5-year-old American child, raft captain feared drowned in Jamaica (JAMAICA OBSERVER)

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five-year-old American boy who was vacationing in Jamaica, and a local raft captain were feared drowned in the Martha Brae River in Trelawny yesterday afternoon.

The rafter has been identified as Llewellyn Reid, also known as “Bagga Jagga” of a Trelawny address, while the boy is Jace Jones of a Massachusetts, USA, address.

The Jamaica Observer was told that about 1:30 pm Reid was navigating a raft down the river with three siblings, ages ranging from five to nine, and another child, when the five-year-old fell off the raft.

Reid jumped into the water to save the child but got into difficulties and is feared to have drowned.

The other children were eventually rescued from the raft after it drifted to a section of the river bank.

Divers from the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard called off a search for the two late yesterday evening.

The five-year-old and his two older siblings were visiting relatives on the island when they went to the popular attraction.

A large crowd gathered along the river bank after news of the tragedy

Five-year-old Jace Jones, who fell off a raft into the Martha Brae River yesterday, is feared drowned.

broke yesterday afternoon.

Family members and friends of the boy, whose parents are Jamaican, were too overwhelmed with grief to speak with the Observer.

The three siblings, who arrived in the island last week, were expected to leave on Thursday.

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Teachers in Guyana ready to take to streets over demands for increased pay

By Shemuel Fanfair

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eachers on Monday expressed great frustration over their current wages and are demanding that union members let their voices be heard on the streets come September 3; the day public schools are scheduled to reopen. This call was made at a meeting held at the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) headquarters in Woolford Avenue, Thomas Lands, Georgetown, where Union executives reiterated their position that the August 27 strike action remains in place. Members heard that teachers on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam); Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and in Linden, Region 10 (Upper DemeraraBerbice) are ready to shut down schools when the opening day arrives.

“Come September 3, 2018, we teachers need to be somewhere because the Ministry’s education officials will go out and do their regular follow-up exercises,” one male teacher remarked during the meeting with hundreds of teachers on Monday.

“Are we going to turn up to school and not teach

The Guyana Teachers' Union, Woolford Avenue headquarters was packed to capacity where many teachers called for mass protests (Shemuel Fanfair photo)

or is there a place that we can go and picket and say what we have to say and come out in our numbers and be heard,” another queried of her colleagues.

As the session continued, a female shouted that her fellow teachers should gather on the school opening date: “I want us to get our placards and decide where are going and go!” she exclaimed.

The teachers came out in a large contingent at the GTU meeting and stridently expressed that they are fully on board with the strike action.

Another engagement with teachers was held at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, on Monday afternoon. GTU President

Mark Lyte, surrounded by executives, held on to the 40 per cent increase teachers are asking for and said Government’s G$700 million ball-park figure would account for 2018 only. He said too that the GTU wants a 20162020 deal which comes despite Government’s position that it could only give what it can afford.

“We have not heard from the President, but we are still hoping to hear from [him] because he said, ‘I’m going to put a task force together’… the task force recommended on top of the 2015 salary, 40 per cent; not any ballpark figure,” the union President expressed.

The teachers shouted a unified “no!” when

President Lyte asked them if they could be replaced by substitutes.

This was in reference to Education Minister Nicolette Henry indicating that arrangements are in place should the strike situations become extensive. She cited an Internal Standard Operational Procedure (SoP), which speaks to measures Government would implement if teachers are absent, such as temporary workers to fill the gaps. However, one union representative, Stacy Benjamin questioned if such a move would be practical since teachers would often dive into their own pockets to fund classroom materials and towards meals for

those who are in need.

Some of the teachers while supporting the strike, expressed fear of victimisation and salary cuts but Lyte later on told reporters that he was set to meet with an attorney in this regard as the union seeks to solidify its legal standing. One teacher suggested that the union files a High Court injunction to prevent Government from cutting salaries as they have a “right to strike”.

A popular teacher, “Sir Mars”, in exuberant and vociferous fashion, said he is prepared to “go to the end” to advocate for the teachers’ cause. Mars concurred with Government coalition partner, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) when it said last week that the Administration going against teachers was tantalum to “political suicide”.

Another teacher asked what would happen if the matter goes to arbitration, but the Union representatives pointed out that if this stage is not successful, the matter will be taken to a tribunal. Former Education Minister, Dr Henry Jeffrey told this newspaper on Saturday that the

GTU should request arbitration to help bring the matter to a possible conclusion. Government and the GTU have been talking for three years but those talks broke down last week.

Lyte had noted that the GTU outright rejected Government’s request for teachers to agree to a debunching payoff of G$200 million for 2018/19. He said the Union similarly rejected the G$700 million cap that was placed on salary increases; Government also wants the clothing allowance to remains at G$8000, a figure which Lyte said was given in 2011. He said too that for Whitley Council Leave, teachers still have to wait four years before getting their one month off even though the GTU appealed for three years.

The Union has 7000 members but the union President at the time when reporters questioned him on Monday could not confirm if the Union could pay the teachers’ salaries if Government were to make deductions for absenteeism. The GTU has however invited non-unionised members to take part in the industrial action.

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Debate rages over cash payout to Guyanese families

…Jagdeo maintains US$5000 per household unrealistic

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s the conversation and debates continue in relation to how the revenues from oil should be spent, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has opined that Guyanese are being fed false hopes.

Warning citizens not to be fooled by the proposal being touted that every household would get US$5,000 annually, he has described this as far from becoming a reality.

A former President himself, Jagdeo noted that the debate has now shifted from whether there are enough resources to fund such a proposal to how much should be given out.

“I am so unhappy that we have shifted… the debate to how much we are giving out, rather than whether we have money to give out from 2020,” Jagdeo stated.

Warning that this is just another false hope being peddled with the probable intention of garnering political support, Jagdeo has said that monies accumulated from oil alone cannot deliver on that promise.

He explained that if 200,000 households were to benefit from US$5,000 annually, that totals

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

some US$1 billion, but Guyana will receive less than that.

“That is over 300 percent of what we are collecting.

How could US$1 billion be 2 to 5 percent of total revenue? And that is in the newspaper and nobody challenges it,” he declared.

“It is just like people are just saying these weird things and (they pass) off for analysis and good economics; and there is a whole debate surrounding it. Just look at the numbers!” he admonished.

Jagdeo reminded that, given the expenses to be repaid to ExxonMobil for oil production, along with

the need to service the Natural Resource Fund, there will be no money to give out.

He noted that it could take as much as five years before Guyana starts to see major earnings when oil production starts in 2020. This is based on projections that 75 percent of revenues would cover most of the cost of production, including a US$460 million pre-contract cost.

“That’s why most people believe we are not getting big bucks until 2025. That’s when you start getting more money, not 2020! I pointed this out already,” he stated.

Jagdeo noted also that, in the early years,

Guyana is projected to collect some US$300 million.

He is in favour of conditional cash transfers as a means of improving the livelihoods of Guyanese, as opposed to simply distributing money when oil revenues begin to flow.

“I support conditional transfers. We’ve done that before, and we need to help poor people,” he said.

Asked to elaborate on the Opposition’s utilisation of conditional cash transfers while in Government, Jagdeo referred to a G$50 million partnership with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Limited (GBTI) on the Women of Worth (WoW) programme. This, he said, was an initiative through which single-parent women could receive interest-free loans.

He suggested that as a means of introducing concessional transfers, pensioners could also be given a tiny amount every month, to enable them to get tested for diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, to reduce the cost burden on the health sector.

The Opposition Leader has put forward

Professor Clive Thomas

other issues he had with the idea of cash transfers, and recommended that portions of the oil revenue be injected into education and job creation.

He said, “What about the years when oil prices sink so low…for long periods, like it has happened in some countries, and people….think they’ll get this money all the time? We have to help them create jobs, we have to help them with education.”

He continued: “So why not put the money into paying for scholarships? We take G$100 million or G$50 million and we put it to help our kids who do well go to the best universities

around the world; and upgrade our university to a topnotch university with a global standard by bringing in new lecturers. That sort of thing would help us in the long run.”

Jagdeo’s comments have resulted directly from the proposal made

by Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member Professor Clive Thomas that the Government should make annual cash transfers to every household when it begins to receive its net inflow of revenue from oil production.

Alliance for Change (AFC) Leader Raphael Trotman has not outcontinued on page 24

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GuySuCo gets G$2B for operational expenses

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Albion Estate

he Special Purpose Unit (SPU) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) has announced that almost G$2 billion has been disbursed to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for operational expenses of its three estates (Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt).

The SPU has said the release of these funds is in keeping with the plans of the coalition Government to make the industry viable and to safeguard the future of the more than 11,000 workers.

The SPU’s statement comes after GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Harold Davis, Jr, told sections of the media that GuySuCo is slated to receive proceeds from the initial G$17 billion the SPU has secured from the G$30 billion bond facility.

Davis claims that GuySuCo had requested a substantial amount to advance its strategic plans, but monies

received so far have catered only for wages and fuel expenses; and no other monies have been received.

The SPU said on Sunday that the monies from the bond facility will be used to purchase equipment for production of plantation white

— Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales.

Through local financing arranged by the Republic Bank Limited, NICIL has managed to successfully negotiate a bond facility for G$30 billion, with significant input from the Finance Ministry.

The NICIL has requested G$17 billion in the first tranche. “We

bursed in United States dollars (USD).

With support from the Government by means of a sovereign guarantee, SPU Head, Colvin Heath-London, has been able to secure this funding spoken about. The benefit is a 4.75 per cent rate of return, which represents a tax-free bond.

NICIL, through its SPU, took control of

estates. However, the memo tells a different story, as it has stated explicitly that the G$30 billion agreed to would instead go to long-term projects.

Jagdeo has also said that when spending of the G$30 billion bond begins, it will substantially increase the demand for foreign currency and put pressure on the counBlairmont Estate

Minister of Finance and stakeholders,” the SPU has said.

GuySuCo is yet to complete its procurement process for the mentioned capital items.

Therefore, SPU has said, GuySuCo is not in a position to draw down on additional secured funds.

Uitvlugt Estate

sugar, including the purchase of nine tractors, and to address the co-generation plants’ operational expenses.

“The monies obtained from the bond facility were not obtained to facilitate the payment of debt, as was ventilated time and again by the

Earlier this year, the NICIL was mandated to seek financing for the downsized Corporation, targeting retooling, diversification and improved agriculture.

This was being pursued even as work was being done to privatise and divest the four estates

will receive the remainder on request. It was structured in this manner for it not to incur unnecessary costs,” the statement added.

GuySuCo must submit its applications for financing to the SPU, and those are to be vetted to make sure they meet the approved criteria of the bond holders before financing is disbursed.

Two disbursements have thus far been made, one for G$880 million and another for G$1.1 billion.

The SPU has said it must be noted that half of the bond amount would be provided for in local currency, while the remainder would be dis-

the Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales estates when Government decided to close operations earlier this year in order to maintain the viability of the sugar industry.

Guyana’s Opposition Leader, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, has raised several concerns over the issuance of the multi-billion-dollar bond.

An economist by training, Jagdeo has said the general perception was that Government was raising G$30 billion to spend on GuySuCo, on the remaining three

try’s reserves. He has said that from all indications, there has been an unbelievable shortage of currency at the Central Bank, and utilising this bond will contribute to this shortage.

Since announcement of the bond, concerns have been raised about Government’s vision for the industry and the genuineness of its actions thus far, since that very G$30 billion could have gone into restructuring the industry while keeping all of the estates open and GuySuCo’s workforce employed and engaged.

Ex-Cop arrested for threatening to shoot wife Debate rages...

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of the illegal firearm with ammunition.

The suspect is presently awaiting decision of his re-instatement following the discharging of the charges with regards to the shooting of the teen.

robbers.

During the interrogation, Paul and the then 15-year-old teen had a scuffle during which Griffith allegedly attempted to relieve the Policeman of his weapon. It was then a shot was

That decision rests solely with the Police Service Commission, the Police Force stated in a release to the media.

It was reported that on April 30, 2014, the teenager was at a friend’s home when a sister of the ex-Policeman was robbed just outside the house. Soon after, several Police ranks appeared at his East La Penitence Squatting area home to question him on the identities of the

fired, and the young man was struck.

The injured teen was placed into a Police van and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital. The matter was reported and Paul was placed under close arrest. He was subsequently charged. Those charges were later discharged.

Meanwhile, with the present issue at hand, investigations are ongoing.

Cadet Officer Frenz Paul

hree months after charges were dropped against former Cadet Officer Frenz Paul for shooting 15-year-old Alex Griffith during a game of Russian roulette over four years ago, he is back in hot water after he allegedly threatened to shoot his wife with an unlicensed firearm.

Based on reports received, the ex-Police was arrested on Monday morning by Police ranks attached to the Ruimveldt Police Station after his reputed wife made a report against him.

A source told Guyana Times International that Paul cocked the gun and placed it to the

woman’s head during an argument in the wee hours of Monday.

Upon making the report, a team of Police ranks went to the couple’s Second Street, Alexander Village, Georgetown home and conducted a search during which a .32 pistol with 13 live rounds were found with a single bullet in the breech.

The officer was subsequently held at the Georgetown Public Hospital where he sought medical attention for an injured right hand. He told investigators that during the fracas, he struck the hand to a concrete wall. He also reportedly admitted ownership

from page 23

rightly rejected the proposal, but has said it is possible for such a plan to be structured so that Guyanese receive benefits.

“We want to ensure that our young people have educational grants.

We want to ensure the people who receive cash transfers are registered in our tax system and have paid taxes; and not (now) turning up (to) say, ‘I am here to collect’,” Trotman suggested.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan has also stated that the monies could be used to improve various sectors in education, health, youth, and small business development.

“I would rather hear more debate about using our resources to create opportunities for people, so that they themselves could have lasting incomes as opposed to short-term incomes,” he said.

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“M

ake the orphan come close to you, be nice to him, wipe his head and feed him from your food. This will cause your heart to be soft and your needs to be fulfilled,” Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) commanded. It is that command that gives the Ally-Rahaman family the drive to still operate the Shaheed Boys and Girls Orphanage under the Guyana United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman banner.

The Home was founded in 1937 by Yakoob Ally to address the needs of children in abused homes and on the streets. He felt that it is his duty as a Muslim to

ensure that these children in need are given the guidance that they deserve. The Home’s vision is “to realize the full potential of our children and to ensure that they will be able to reintegrate in their community as healthy, happy, responsible and independent children and adults.”

According to Ally’s relatives, the name Shaheed came about after a man bearing that name donated a plot of land and a building at Oleander Gardens, East Coast Demerara which now houses the Girls Orphanage. The Boys are being housed at Alexander Street, Kitty.

After Ally died, his

The Shaheed Boys Orphanage

brother Abdool Rahaman took over the Orphanages and to date his children are running it. His daughter, Raheema Rahaman serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Treasurer of the Home and according to her, the vision remains the same.

She said that it is their mission to meet the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of the children in their care. They achieve this by providing the children with a safe space, love, guidance and access to a comprehensive education. Currently, there are 30 children in their care.

“We are more than just

an orphanage. We are an alternative home to these children because we treat them as our own. We have children coming from all over the country and from all kinds of situations. I would personally have one on one sessions with them and make sure that they know they are being loved and everything is okay. It is our duty as humans to make sure that they are taken care of and it is one of the principles of Islam,” Rahaman says.

The children are referred to the Home by the Child Care and Protection Agency and are mostly from the streets or rescued from abusive households.

When the children are handed over to the Home, they are evaluated by a Social Worker and would receive counselling to deal with their issues. They are exposed to a number of activities which includes martial arts classes, swimming, cricket and their schooling is mandatory.

“We used to send them to a Private School but they would come back and say that the children treat them differently and so on. So we started to send

Raheema Rahaman

them to the Government Schools and since then we have had very little complaints. I would take them on trips and so on because to me they are like my children.”

For Rahaman, serving these children is just a way of her attaining peace with herself. She says that it is her duty to do that and one she has no qualms about fulfilling. She explains that all children, no matter their religion prior to coming into the Home, are exposed to the teachings of Islam.

It is a mandatory requirement and if a child refuses then alternative arrangements would be made for their housing.

As like many nonprofit organisations, Rahaman explains that funding can be a little stressful. She

says that most of the funding comes from the Muslim community during the month of Ramadan and they would have to “stretch to make ends meet” after.

Additionally, she notes that her immediate family would also chip in to make the children as comfortable as possible.

For now the children at the home are living the most comfortable lives.

They have their chores outlined and must complete that but they are quite often rewarded with trips to the creek and various parts of the country, many of those trips includes Rahaman or Auntie Dolly as they call her driving them and even joining in the fun with them.

(Sunday Times Magazine)

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Shaking up…

W

…the political tree

ith the demise of the AFC, another third foot is about to be dropped in the political arena. The outspoken exVice Chairman of the National Toshaos Council, Lenox Shuman, has finally given a date for the launch of the second Indigenous political party.

Let us not forget that, try as it might to shake its original name – the Guyana Amerindian Party – by changing it to “Guyana Action Party”, it remained to the end an Indigenous Peoples’ party in the eyes of Guyanese.

And it’s important that Shulman reflects on why both the AFC – which insisted it was the vehicle for “change” in the Guyanese political morass — and the GAP have both disappeared. And have no doubt about this: they HAVE disappeared. Although, like when you have an amputated extremity you still get a feeling it’s still there, leaders like Ramjattan and Allicock still “get that feeling” about their party. It’s called the “Phantom Limb” effect in the first instance, and your Eyewitness suggests that the latter be called the “Phantom Party” effect.

The phenomenon is worse when a dead meat party suffers from the “Phantom Party” effect!!

First of all, Shulman should have no guilt about forming an “ethnic” party. If, for the past sixty years, both the PPP, PNC and every other party in Guyana did their darndest to be “multi-racial” yet remained ‘ethnic”, surely there must be a good reason for this!! And the reason is that there’s nothing in and of itself bad about “ethnic” parties.

The problem pops up when the ethnic parties pretend they’re national and represent ALL the peoples of our land. Like President Granger just declared at the PNC’s Biennial Congress!

With the AFC — notwithstanding Ramjattan’s protestations — they got mostly African votes in their electoral first foray in 2006, because that community was fed up with Corbin and wanted to try another leader – Trotman. In 2011, the tables were turned, with the PPP getting stale and the PNC revitalised as APNU. Shulman should be happy with the two, or at most three seats, he might capture from his Indigenous base. But he has to stay the course with his commitment to “non-coalescing” with bigger parties.

Once again, your Eyewitness has to repeat his earlier advice to Shulman: Resist spending all your time and resources trying to woo “other ethnics” into your party. It’s a waste of time, and doesn’t do anything for your people in the end. Stay in the centre, and negotiate with the Government of the day to improve the lot of Indigenous peoples.

And know that there will be a continuous pressure to buy or steal your MPs by the aforesaid Government! …the PNC (not Guinness) Bar Just after jumping on their high horse and denying they were imbibing high-end liquor to their gills at the expense of us poor taxpayers, during Parliamentary lunch breaks, the PNC MPs and Ministers became so sloshed at the Georgetown Club after their Biennial Congress that they became embroiled in a multi-vehicle smash-up outside the Club!! So, dear reader, if you’re wondering how such a smash-up could occur within feet of the Club’s premises, then (thank goodness) you don’t know enough about the disorienting effects of driving under the influence (DUI)!!

Only recently, President Granger lashed out at ordinary PNC members at an Emancipation function for hanging out at “Guinness Bars”. They’d be pissing away their money. Your Eyewitness guesses that it’s OK for upper rank PNCites to hang out at the Georgetown Club and at the Parliamentary Dining Room and get sloshed. After all, it’s no strain on THEIR wallets – it’s all on us, baby!!

But if Policemen have to pay for their crashed cars, what about sloshed MPs?? …Lusignan Prison Used to be the Camp Street Jail was always in the news! But right now Lusignan and its seizures of contraband have seized the moment.

So, was the garlic found in the latest bust to be used for warding off vampires?

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32 fEATURE

T

he grand finale of the Guyanese Folk Festival will take the shape of a Family Fun Day billed for September 2, at Pacplex Poolside Complex, Brooklyn, New York.

The Festival – which commended on July 2 with the 10th Annual Caribbean Heritage Summer Workshop which offers children between the ages of six and 14 an integrated curriculum – uses the arts to study and showcase themes in Caribbean heritage.

At the workshop, a kids’ costume was assembled and titled “Spirit of Our Festivals” and it showcases Guyana’s national festivals such as Mashramani, Diwali, Masquerade, and the Dragon Dance.

The costume band will perform at the Folk Festival’s inaugural Kids’ Costume Band Parade, scheduled for 11:00h on the day of the Fun Day. On August 29, there will be an award ceremony at the Brooklyn Borough Hall,

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

where the achievements young Guyanese are recognised. At the award ceremony, a dance production done by the Classique Dance troupe titled “Home” will be featured.

The final event however, is the Family Fun Day. This new venue will allow Guyanese in the Diaspora to showcase a larger range of creative expressions across the day.

The Children’s Village will open at 11:00h with the Kids’ Costume Band Parade, featuring costumes created by the 2018 Caribbean Heritage Workshops series.

In addition, several events will be organised for children and their families, including a workshop on bodypainting by Steve Douglas of Bravo Arts. This will be followed by the stage show which starts at 17:00h.

Among the confirmed musical performers are Flantis and the Ninja Band, Young Bill Rogers, Gavin Mendonca, Adrian Dutchin, Randy Ramdin and Recklëz Tassa Group, as

well as the GCA’s Kwe Kwe Ensemble.

The Classique Dance Company NYC and Friends will premiere four new choreographies during the 2018 season.

“Tribes of Guyana,” “Ethnic Vibration,” and “It’s a Caribbean Thing” will be proudly performed at the stage show.

There are new faces this year from Guyana who are behind the 2018 Folk Festival season. Among them are Clinton Duncan, Mwanza Glenn and Paul Charles.

These three Guyana-based artists are among Guyana’s leading festival artists and their impact is already evident in the Caribbean Heritage Summer Workshop series.

Among the other new faces is Steve Douglas of Bravo Arts. He will use body painting and special effects makeup techniques to bring to life characters such as “Ole Higue” and “Masacura Man”.

He will also use Henna to showcase the sacred Andinkra symbols from West Africa

at Kwe Kwe Night. Henna art/Mehindi is popular in some Guyanese Hindu weddings.

Roger “Young Bill Rogers” Hinds, the recipient of GCA 2018 Exemplary Award, will give his first Guyana Folk Festival performance. The multi-timed National Calypso, Soca, and Chutney Monarch is expected to perform his own repertoire and pay tribute to his father’s pioneering recording session with the RCA Bluebird label in New Jersey in 1935.

With that recording session, Bill Rogers Snr became the first Guyanese recording artist.

Another first visit will be Gavin Mendonca, fresh from the 2018 World of Music, Art and Dance (WOMAD) Festival in the UK, where he performed his unique style of music: Creole Rock. His recent album “Creole Rock: The Beginning” is a celebration of Guyana’s folk songs.

feature 33

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Preserving our literary heritage

by

Petamber Persaud

A

Survey of Guyanese History is written from the perspective of one man, however, this does not diminish the extent, depth and validity of the work because the perspective of this one man encompasses an impressive and extensive array of research and writing, teaching and preaching experiences going all the way back to when Winston McGowan came into this world at a historic time during the early years of WWII, going on to attend the best schools –Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School and Queen’s College - in Georgetown, Guyana, stretching his imagination and his thirst for knowledge by entering the University College of the West Indies where he gained a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Special Honours, extending his search for answers to England where he secured a doctorate degree in West African History from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and most importantly returning home to serve his country which he did (and continues to do even in retirement) with distinction by first joining the Department of History at the University of Guyana, serving in various capacities until he retired in August 2008 during which time plus a few more years wherein he occupied the Walter Rodney Chair in History for many years, crowned with the prestigious title Emeritus Professor, entrusted with the careers of emerging academics/historians as he served in the capacity of External Examiner for

President David Granger and Dr Winston McGowan at the launching of his book

Doctoral dissertations at the University of Waterloo and as Examiner for the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate in History, honoured by his country with two national awards, the Arrow of Achievement (A.A.) and the Cacique Crown of Honour (C.C.H.), and launched his magna opus under the patronage of a sitting Head of State, President Granger – historian and man of letters.

Furthermore, according to historian Dr. James Rose writing the foreword of the book ‘[t]he process of historical writing involves investigation and analysis of competing ideas, facts and purported facts to create coherent narratives that explain “what hap-

pened” and “why or how it happened” and modern historical writing is not shy on drawing upon the social sciences... to explain historical events’.

The book runs into almost 500 pages, perhaps significant of the number of years since Columbus sojourned in this part of the New World that we are writing our own history. The number of pages matters to both the reader and the writer. For the reader, it may take quite a few sittings to weed through a few sections of the text. But for the writer, it had taken a number of years to put together; in fact, A Survey of Guyanese History, constitutes a life’s work, a man’s life’s work

which ought to be afforded due regards and full respect in order to fulfil the expectation of the author that ‘this collection of essays will be of benefit not only to the general public, but also especially to teachers and students of Guyanese and Caribbean History. If that hope is realised, the collection will be a useful addition to the existing body of knowledge on this subject’. That number of pages is divided into eleven sections which are further subdivided into short essays and long papers of which many are ‘original works, many in areas previously unattended’ (James Rose), all designed for easier access, comprehension and appreciation, intent on

the sharing of knowledge.

The quality of the work is even more impressive than its quantity evident in the first two essays of the book ‘Guyana, 200 years ago’ and ‘Guyana, 100 years ago’ which set the tone for the collection, evident in the acknowledgement of previous studies from which the author benefited but he gingerly pointed out that none of the essays is ‘merely a synthesis of previously available information’, evident in questioning previous text sometimes running counter to previous ‘facts’, evident in providing a very useful section to each essay labelled ‘For further reading’, evident in the extensive bibliography, a very handy index, and the use of primary source material especial in the essays on fishing, cricket and church history.

There are more than a hundred and one relevant uncovered gems to take away from this book but the reader is encouraged to polish those gems for his or her self.

The quality of the work is even more impressive than its quantity as the author in the first sentence of his preface declared that [t]his is not a General History of Guyana’ and in the following sentence lamented ‘the lack of an authoritative modern general text still remains a major deficiency in the growing historiography’ of Guyana, goading those change makers and those in authority to action.

(Copies are available from Guyenterprise and Austin’s) Responses to this author please telephone 226-0065 of email: oraltradition2002@ yahoo.com (Sunday Times Magazine)

34 FEATURE

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T

here are quite a few things children need in order to properly develop into adults and among those things are a roof over their heads, food and, most importantly, love. However, not all children are fortunate to have those necessities and many find themselves in unsavoury situations but the Joshua House Children Centre has been providing a safe space for those children to develop for a number of years.

The mission of the home is to rescue children who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances; these include children whose parents are unable to look after them, street children, abused children, and orphans. Moral and religious principles form the foundation for overall development; therefore, these principles are taught to the children in the care of the House.

The Joshua House Children Centre was established in 1977 by Barbara Burrows, daughter of a well-known Guyanese artist, ER Burrows. After residing in England for many years, she returned to

Prince Harry with the children of The Joshua House Children Centre

Guyana as a missionary in 1970.During the course of their work, members of her group sought to have a place for their children to stay when they had to be out in the field.

Money was accumulated and the present building at Thomas Street, Georgetown was purchased.

As missionaries visited various parts of the country, they rescued children whom they met in unfortunate conditions.

Over a period after all of the missionary children had left, the residence was converted into a home for needy children in 1977.

The Children’s Home was then taken care of by the

church. However, as the number of children grew, the Unification Church could no longer support it financially.

The period of 19781985 saw a metamorphosis of the building and surroundings from a three-storied family house in the midst of dense vegetation into a two-flat structure on a double lot.

In 1983, the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF) of New York adopted Joshua House after doing some filming and renovation work. The

present building was realised in 1986 mainly through a grant by the IRFF and generous public assistance.

According to the House’s Facebook page, during the years, many youngsters came in and out of its doors; at one time, the Centre housed over 60 children and eight adults. Children in need came from as far as Linden, West Berbice, and Matthews Ridge.

The children in the home’s care are exposed to a number of activities as well as schooling. There

Children on a trip to Kaieteur Falls

are volunteers who would visit from time to time to engage the children in art and craft, sports and other activities. Additionally, the children are all part of the public education system with some of them excelling despite the adversities they face.

During the holiday season, the children are quite often treated to meals, trips, and toys from various organisations as well as private persons.

The Home is mainly run off donations from the public and organisations.

(Sunday Times Magazine)

FEATURE 35

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I

t was the great humanitarian Mother Theresa, who famously said: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love”, and it is on that premise that the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage was founded. The idea of doing small things to improve the lives of those in gloom, particularly children, has always been at the fore of Pandit Prem Gangadin and when he moved to Canada, the Orphanage materialised.

The doors of the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage were opened on August 21, 2005 in the compound of the Vedic Mandir, Prabhu Sharan Drive, North Scheme, Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara. One of the main objectives of the home is to ensure the children in its care reach their optimum potential through a comprehensive education and social curriculum.

“We are a home ideal for unprivileged children.

This home provides love, care, compassion, respect and a safe environment. The children learn to live in love, empathy to help each other also help to build self-confidence and self-esteem.

When our children step out into the outside world as an adult, they possess the relevant knowledge, skills, atti-

tudes and divine values to live in dignity a balanced life for the best of both the material and spiritual world, being worthy citizens with a sense of social responsibility. So they can make the world a better place,” Administrator Indira Dowlat said.

Currently, the home has 30 children in its care and those children are mostly from abusive households. The children are placed in the home’s care after the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) remove them from the care of their abusive parents or guardians.

Dowlat said the children were a joy to care for, but explained that there was a dark side because of the struggles they would have gone through. She notes that when the children come into their care they would, more than often, lash out and have anger issues, which they view as a defence mechanism. The home would work closely with those children in order to bring their behaviour to some sort of normalcy.

The home provides counselling to the children, but as of late there has been a challenge in getting a counsellor to meet with the children.

“One of the major challenges is the lack of a social worker. Because

The Children of the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage

we have so many children from all backgrounds and from all situations there are a lot of challenges dealing with them. We try our best; in the past we had a social worker from the Agency (CC&PA) coming to meet with the children, but now that don’t happen and we really need that especially here,” Dowlat noted.

Apart from tackling the emotional issues of the children, the home also ensures that they are exposed to a solid education. While the

younger children would attend public schools, the older children attend one of the most prestigious private schools – the Saraswati Vidya Niketan on scholarships.

So far they would have seen past children excelling at their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, gaining as many as 15 passes.

The home, like most, runs on public donations.

Dowlat said that there was usually one annual fundraiser by the Prabhu Sharan Organisation in

Canada to supplement donations.

Dowlat has been at the helm of the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage for over eight years, and issued a call for more volunteers like herself. She says service to those in need has always been a big part of her life and sees her volunteer work with the home as just one part of giving back.

“Personally, it is a feeling of satisfaction knowing I can make a difference without any comparison of ethnicity, culture, religion and

political ties. To do so with no strings attached makes me feel great and that feeling is beyond comparison.”

For now the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage continues to work with the children in its care to get the best possible result from each one of them. The interest and effort are being placed in them because the mission of the home is to ensure every child gets the tools to position themselves to be the best they can be. (Sunday Times Magazine)

Some T&T patients relocated after minor quake damage to hospital (Trinidad Guardian)

T

uesday’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake forced the Ministry of Health to move patients out of the Central Block of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital after it suffered minor damage.

The shifting of patients will allow the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) to undertake remedial works to damaged areas of the hospital, Udecott chairman Noel Garcia said yesterday.

Despite this, Garcia said engineers had

found the building sound after an examination following Tuesday’s shake-up.

“What our engineers found was that the building is structurally safe. There was some cracking…there was a separation of the ramp between the operating theatre and the Central Block, there was some damage to the kitchen on the fourth floor,” Garcia said in a telephone interview, but noted the engineers had confirmed there was “no immediate danger” with the Central Block.

“We want to give some level of comfort and safety to the health-

care staff and public who were terrified and petrified because the building swayed and rocked with the violent earthquake. There was this prediction it would have collapsed.”

He said three structural reports were undertaken by PAHO, Aron Bush and Liam and Partners on the Central Block, which had outlined that there were structural deficiencies anVd warned that if a major earthquake had taken place the hospital would have collapsed.

But he said despite these reports the hospiCONTINUED ON PAGE 39

An attendant wheels out a patient from the Central Block of the Port-ofSpain General Hospital during yesterday’s mass patient relocation, after the building was deemed unsafe following Tuesday’s earthquake.

36 FEATURE

“O

ur religion teaches us that service to man is service to God. Also service teaches us humility and it teaches one to love and respect God’s creation. I have always loved service and giving back, because it teaches you to see divinity in everything,” says Swami Shivashankarananda of the Guyana Sevashram

Sangha.

S w a m i Shivashankarananda has been with the Sevashram Sangha since 1994, dedicating most of his life to the service of others. He said that even before becoming a member of the Sangha, he had always been fond of serving others. Swami Shivashankarananda is responsible for the operation of the Cove and

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

John Ashram on the East Coast of Demerara and said that there are a number of persons who volunteer at the Ashram and are dedicated to serving humanity.

“I loved to share especially to those in need. I feel elated, satisfied, so happy. The experience is beyond explanation. The peace I get I cannot explain. We have shared, because it helps society

Swami Shivashankarananda

when we can reach out to our brothers who have nothing, because it brings in togetherness and unity and peace, happiness. It helps to develop one another when we can share a little.”

T h e Ashram has two m a j o r roles: the educational aspect, which is being fulfilled through the Cove and John Hindu College, and the seva aspect. Seva translates to service and according to the Swami, service is at the foundation of everything they do.

“We have selfless workers who give service to the organisation, and we have the school and we have a very extensive programme. Our organ-

isations stands for seva, which is service and we reach out to people on different grounds, not only from the religious but humanitarianly. We do hampers, we do medical outreaches and education also. We are committed to serving the people despite religion or class. Everyone is treated equally,” he said.

According to the Swami, sharing while expecting something in return is a recipe for disaster. He says that when we are in the position to share, it basically means that God has given you enough and that you should share that gift.

“Sharing teaches you to see divinity in everything and when you are able to serve, it helps you to be humble and gives you an opportunity to reach out. You must share everything you have. When you are prepared to share, that... it is very sacred. Service teaches us to share whatever we have, because whatever you get, that is a gift and you have to be prepared to share some of that. You will get more in return.”

S w a m i Shivashankarananda says our blessings increase infinitively when we provide our services to those in need and hence he advises the practice of seva to better humanity.

He encourages people to come to the Cove and John Ashram and learn how they can better serve their fellow human beings.

In 1955, Guru Swami Purnanandaji Maharaj came to Guyana to establish the Guyana Sevashram Sangha. The Cove and John Ashram has since become a pilgrimage site for a number of Hindus especially on the occasion of Maha Shivraatri. The Hindu College is also attached to the organisation as they seek to provide a comprehensive curriculum to benefit all their students.

S w a m i Shivashankarananda encourages all to visit the Ashram and be engaged, despite religion because service to humanity transcends all boundaries.

(Sunday Times Magazine)

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Guyanese fans in full support of their team

... Scenes from the match in Florida

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

fEATURE 39

F

or Miranda Thakur-Deen education is a prized possession and to be in a position to aid someone to realise his or her full potential makes her extremely satisfied.

Miranda hails from the island of Wakenaam in the Essequibo River and credits her humble beginnings to the success she has achieved.

She remembers growing up in poverty and having to walk long distances to school as well as not having the luxury of a television in the home. It is those struggles coupled with the push of her parents that led Miranda to appreciate the very little things one takes for granted.

For most of her adult life Miranda has been giving back to her community in whatever way she could have afforded, but in 2008, those efforts intensified.

In 2008, Miranda, along with her husband

With the children in Wakenaam

and siblings, ventured into the mining industry and saw some amount of success. They then began intensifying their charitable efforts on the island of Wakenaam. It started with providing Christmas presents to

the children on the island and then graduated to awarding top performers with educational grants and scholarships.

“About eight years back, we decided to go back to the primary schools and we decided

Miranda Thakur-Deen (right) with First Lady Sandra Granger (centre) and GACF’s Public Relations Officer, Sophia Dolphin

to buy a bicycle for the top student. We then bought a laptop for the top students and that is where we started and because we were fortunate we continued doing it. That is where I was inspired to start a foundation. In 2015, I asked friends who shared the same vision if we could open a foundation and there it was we birthed Give Another Chance Foundation [GACF],” she said.

GACF is committed to helping provide basic education from preschool to university and health care to underprivileged children in rural and urban communities.

It is the belief of the organisation whether you are addressing healthcare, poverty, population control, unemployment or human rights, there is no better place to start, than in the corridors of education.

According to the GACF Facebook page, the vision is to provide children and young

adults with the building blocks for a better future.

“Our main aim is to provide them with the necessary resources and tools to ensure that every child is given the chance to evolve into a productive citizen.”

Miranda says that it is her humble beginnings that she credits much of her work to. She stressed that the GACF was not only working in Wakenaam, as it has been assisting the community of Baramita in Region One (BarimaWaini) ever since they started mining in that area. Additionally, they have expanded their services to almost every community in the country.

“I want to give people a chance to excel and give them the hope they need to push forward.

We believe that a proper education is the key to addressing a number of issues in our communities.”

Currently, the GACF

has been giving out a number of educational grants and back-toschool backpacks and is even paying the tuition fees for a student at the University of Guyana.

Miranda says she hopes to provide three yearly scholarships to the University of Guyana among other assistance.

The GACF has persons from various disciplines on staff in order to tackle issues in a number of areas to better equip communities to find long-term solutions to poverty through innovative education and livelihood projects, which empower an individual to earn a livelihood. Its goal is to increase awareness on a range of issues – from health care to appropriate social behaviour to understanding one’s rights, and in the process help persons become better citizens.

Miranda says that the Foundation’s Board of Directors is committed to the financial, operational, and intellectual vitality of the organisation.

The Foundation works on self-reliance projects where its education programmes focus not just on access, but on attainment – ensuring vulnerable children have the right infrastructure, resources, teaching and parental support in order to have a quality education so that they go on to lead productive, happy lives.

This is complemented by the Foundation’s livelihood programmes that work to create secure incomes. The organisation also helps to improve agricultural practices and market awareness in farming communities. (Sunday Times Magazine)

Some T&T patients relocated after minor ...

FROM PAGE 35

tal remained standing with little damage.

He said going forward, Udecott proposed to do remedial works on the Central Block’s five floors.

The five-storey building was built in 1952 and houses 400 beds.

Garcia could not say when works would begin, as Udecott’s engineers were coming up with its designs and scope of works.

“It should begin soon and it would not take very long. We are not talking millions of dollars in work, you

know. It makes no sense throwing good money after bad. We are not going to do retrofitting works.”

Garcia said tenders for the Central Block had gone out, stating that three or four firms have signalled their intention to submit.

“They are in the process of designing because it is a design-build. We feel somewhere in late October early November we should award a contract to start construction of this Central Block,” Garcia said.

Health Minister

Terrence Deyalsingh also said while there is no emergency with the building, out of an abundance of caution and to protect the safety of employees and patients at the hospital “we are in fact moving some patients from the upper floors come down to other facilities within the health care system.”

Deyalsingh could not say how many patients would be shifted, as this responsibility lay in the hands of the chief medical officer in conjunction with the medical chief of staff.

“They will make those decisions as to who is to be moved and where they are to be moved.”

However, a Ministry of Health source said yesterday that approximately 100 patients were likely to be temporarily shifted to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope and the Caura Hospital in the interim.

The source said some patients bolted from the hospital on Tuesday and yesterday when the earthquake and aftershock struck.

Operations throughout the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) will resume fully from today, the T&T Guardian was told.

Speaking yesterday, an NCRHA official, who wished not to be named, said as a result of the earthquake, they cancelled all clinics and re-directed all clinical staff to the Accident and Emergency Department at the Eric Williams MedicalSciences Complex in Mount Hope.

“All non-essen-

tial staff at the Administrative Building were sent home, however, all inspections are done and normalcy will be returned tomorrow (today),” the NCRHA official said.

All out-patients who were scheduled for respective clinics yesterday and who were deemed to be priority or critical were asked to return as doctors on duty promised to “double up.”

Other out-patients were asked to also visit their respective clinics for the re-scheduling of their clinic dates.

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fEATURE 41

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Dr Ian Jagan

T

he Jagan Dental Centre proudly welcomes back to its team, Dr Ian Jagan, after completing his masters degree in Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics from the Dr D.Y.Patil School of Dentistry in Navi Mumbai, India.

At twenty-six Dr Ian Jagan is currently the only certified, registered and permanently residing endodontist in Guyana and is the youngest dental specialist in Guyana's history.

This field of dentistry specialises in the saving teeth through treatment and procedures relating to the internal structures of the tooth that is root canal therapy and other such procedures.

Dr Ian Jagan is among the third generation of dental professionals in his family, his grandfather was a dental technician, his father Dr Clive Jagan is an estab-

moments that I knew I wanted to pursue a career where my service would help others. For me there was no alternative option, my goal was to become a dentist."

Dr Ian obtained his Primary education at Mae's Under 12, School of the Nations and ABC Academy after which he successfully gained admission to St Joseph’s High School which he attended from 20032008. He then moved to Canada and completed his 12th grade studies and at the age of seventeen, he was admitted to the Dr D.Y. Patil School of Dentistry and moved to India. Moving half way across the world and away from the comforts of home was not easy, but studying in India had become a family tradition, his father and both of his brothers completed their dental studies there.

"The experience was

2019 with the gold medal award for his outstanding performance in both the theoretical and practical components of the program.

Dr Ian credits his success thus far to his parents and siblings, "they have been my pillars of support through every goal I have set for myself. My mentors at university gave me the guidance and exposure I needed to build my confidence in the field and excel and my friends made India feel like my home away from home."

While Dr Ian knows that hard work is critical for success, he strongly believes in a balance, work hard, play hard. The young dentist values spending quality time with his family and friends and is passionate about cricket. He was a member of the Georgetown Cricket Club and participated in numerous universi-

Dr Ian Jagan (right) with his father Dr Clive Jagan ( second left) and brothers Dr Shane Jagan (left) and Dr Kyle Jagan (second right)

lished dentist with over forty years of experience, and his two older brothers are also dentists; Dr Shane Jagan is a general dentist and Dr Kyle Jagan specialises in dental implants and laser dentistry. Together with their father, they own and operate The Jagan Dental Centre, a state of the art dental facility at the corner of Lamaha and Light Streets.

When asked why he pursued a career in dentistry, Dr Ian noted that he was always fascinated with dentistry because of his father. As a young boy he would visit his father's clinic and would enjoy watching him work and interact with patients.

"I would beam with pride when people came up to my dad and thanked him for helping them and it was in those

like no other" he said, "to be immersed in the culture was both beautiful and humbling and to study alongside my brothers was most rewarding, it has strengthened our bond as brothers and as colleagues."

In 2014, Dr Ian graduated with a Bachelor ’s Degree in Dental Surgery, returned to Guyana, and joined his father and brothers in the family practice. It was during this time that he observed the need for quality endodontic treatment and with encouragement from family and friends he decided to specialize in endodontics.

In 2015, he returned to the Dr D.Y.Patil School of Dentistry to pursue his master’s degree in Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics and will be graduating in March

ty tournaments while in India.

"Cricket has taught me how to learn from both my losses and victories and the importance of teamwork."

He is keen on applying these very principles as he joins his brothers at their family practice, "at the Jagan Dental Centre we recognise the value of working as a team together with our patients to ensure long term optimal oral health."

Dr Ian is eager to start building his dental career in Guyana and to-

gether with his brothers and team at the Jagan Dental Centre, is committed to providing and maintaining modern high quality dental services. Dr Ian is grateful for the opportunity to contribute towards the development of dental health in Guyana and

hopes to not only provide dental services but to share his knowledge and skills with students pursuing dentistry as a career. He hopes to oneday leave a mark on his patients and the dental profession much like his father has done. (Sunday Times Magazine)

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44 news

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Bux appointed Guyana’s representative to CSA F

ormer franchise holder of Miss India/ Guyana Pageant, Umadevi Bux, was officially appointed the Guyana Representative for the Caribbean and Americas Commonwealth Students’ Association working group.

Bux is also the Regional Coordinator, Policy and Advocacy for the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador Network and brings a wide array of knowledge and skills set to the above mentioned focus areas for Guyana via the International Commonwealth Youth Network.

The Commonwealth Students’ Association is the joining of student organisations within the Commonwealth. Their role is to be an independent advocate for students and brings students’ perspectives into the policy decision-making processes of the Commonwealth.

The CSA will amplify the voice of students and seek to enhance the role of students in the Commonwealth and in policy matters that affect their lives. The CSA will be the official platform for student associations and organisations in the

Moving…

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Commonwealth and beyond.

During her twoyear service with the Commonwealth Students’ Association, Bux will seek

to advocate for better education policies in both private and State educational institutions for students across all regions in Guyana.

She will also be working alongside the CSA to lobby for student’s rights; Government and Private Sector involvement in the education sector and set up a working national student association. This will involve stakeholders to ensure positive impacts are made within the education sector for all parties involved.

Presently, Bux is the cofounder of Give Foundation Guyana, a non-profit organisation geared at bringing primary healthcare and assistance in any way possible to the less fortunate.

This organisation was founded in 2015 after over 10 years working with youth, both professionally and voluntarily. She began her professional experience as a teacher in 2006 at the Zeeburg Secondary School on the West Coast Demerara in Guyana, South America.

Bux served six years teaching English Language and English Literature.

She was also a Journalist working with a leading national newspaper, Guyana Times.

She currently chairs the GIVE Foundation Guyana as the Founder/ President, has sat as a member of the National Youth Parliament in 2011, where she served as the Youth Human Services Minster, wining the best analytical and reasoning debater award.

Bux is currently pursuing a Medical Degree in General Medicine at the Texila American University in Guyana, South America.

…up the PNC ladder?

fter a marathon counting exercise of just 828 votes, which took almost 8 hours, Volda Lawrence was elected Chairman of the PNC/R. While it may seem your Eyewitness is a “male chauvinist pig” for calling Ms Volda a “Chairman”, he’s only going by the designation in the PNC’s Constitution. Maybe Lawrence, as the first female Chairman, can initiate steps to make the position more gender neutral.

Obviously, even though the Constitution was revised in 2009, it doesn’t appear up to then that a woman might become “chairman”.

But what exactly does the Chairman do, to generate such a spirited fight for the position?

Under Rule 20, “FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES OF THE CHAIRMAN”, the PNC Constitution declares a bit sketchily: (1) “The Chairman shall preside over, and be responsible for, the conduct of the meetings of Congress, General Council and Central Executive Committee, and may (be assigned) other duties by the Central Executive Committee. (2) The Chairman shall also represent the Leader on such occasions and at such functions as the Leader may direct.”

That doesn’t seem to warrant any big sturm and drang, does it? But it all becomes clear when one looks at Rule 19 (1), which stipulates: “If the office of Leader becomes vacant due to death, incapacity, resignation or other circumstance, the Chairman shall assume the functions of the Leader for the time being.”

With Granger just reminding us he’s seventythree (remember him giving away 73 bicycles for his last birthday?)…biblical-minded persons like Volda in the PNC would know he’s now exceeded his “three score and ten” allotment.

But the PNC elections were interesting for other reasons than whether Granger might be kicking the bucket anytime soon – and thus raising the question of succession. There was the stinging rebuff of Attorney General Basil Williams, who received a measly 183 votes as opposed to 346 for Lawrence and 287 for Joe Harmon! Williams had used his bully pulpit to flaunt his “bully” credentials, which he obviously thought made his a “real” PNCite.

Was Lawrence’s trouncing of him suggesting her less confrontational approach was more acceptable to the delegates? They remembered her implicit reprimand to “I is” Broomes’s Basil Williams-like bullyism?

Personally, your Eyewitness had placed his bets on Joe Harmon, who appears to be quite a pragmatic fella – a useful quality in a fractured society like Guyana! But he was “doublebanked”!!

However, at long last women — always the backbone of the PNC — are insisting on some recognition for their critical party work. The first Vice-Chairman was also a woman – who trounced old-time, rough-and-tumble PNCite Aubrey Norton.

Sadly, the male leader remains constitutionally paramount over all!! Next time? …to Florida

Your Eyewitness saw Andre Russel express frustration over the Tallawahs “home games” scheduled in Florida. He complained it felt like playing in Guyana!!

But with 300,000 Jamaicans in South Florida, why not bring them out to the ball game??

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46 Feature

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asked some persons

The delay

S

atiricus was stumped. He just couldn’t figure out what caused the delay in the counting of the 800odd (very odd!!) votes at the Pee an’ See Kongress. As a KFC member who was joined at the hip to the Pee an’ See in the Government, he had some skin in the game. And as such, he knew he’d have some explaining to do to the fellas at the Back Street Bar, where he was headed.

By the time he took his seat, he’d called his leader Rum Jhaat.

“Sato, ole fr’en!!” said Cappo enthusiastically, as Satiricus took a swig of his beer. “Suh tell abee ‘bout the Pee an’ See countin’ na?”

“Yes! Like dem run outa finga fuh count, or wha?” chimed in Bungi. “Me does count fine s’rim’s mo’ fas’ dan dem count vote!!”

“Listen fellas, this was real democracy in action!!” said Satiricus. “You know they say, ‘democracy is one man one vote’?”

“Yes,” said Hari, leaning forward with interest.

“Well, the Pee an’ See went further than that,” said Satiricus. “Every delegate counted the vote! One man, one count!!”

“Beca’se none a dem na trus’ matie,

right?” asked Cappo. “All a dem know how dem a rig!!”

“No boy! Remember how the PPCEE called for ‘counting at the places of poll’ to increase accuracy of the polls?” asked Satiricus. “This is every voter counting!

Real democracy, boy!!”

“Wha’ me t’ink, dem army bai mussee seize de ballat an’ count dem ten time fuh mek sure dem fr’en lose!” suggested Bungi.

“Sato, maybe the ballot counters were in that ‘drunk and disorderly’ crash at the Georgetown Club,” said Hari with a smile. “And were still too drunk to count!”

“Yes, na gi’e abee dis ‘demacracy” crap!” said Cappo. “Me see Rum Jhaat bin deh. Wha’ r’ally happen?”

“All right…all right,” conceded Satiricus. “I’ll tell you what happened.”

Everyone leaned forward as Satiricus continued.

“The army boys DID seize the ballots,” admitted Satiricus. “But they were no match for those Pee an’ See women who beat the sh*t out of them in a six-hour battle!!”

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Naipaul and being West Indian

47

By Ravi Dev

Earthquakes…

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…galore t used to be said that Guyana – unlike its West Indian neighbours – didn’t suffer from natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. God figured the “unnatural” disaster called “Burnham” was enough of an infliction on us!! But of recent, even though Granger’s vowed to continue Burnham’s legacy, it looks like he can’t measure up to his mentor, since there’s been a number of seismic events in the land recently.

We can start with the tremor felt across the land with the outcome of the PNC Biennial Congress.

Here it was, most folks assumed it was a straight fight between Lil Joe and the moustachioed AG Basil Williams. One of them, the smart money said, would be a shoo in to become the Chairman of the PNC. But when the dust had settled after it took seven hours to count of 800 ballots, Volda Lawrence had whupped both favourites. What did this portend for politics?

Would Basil Williams go quietly into the night, to sulk over his legal defeats by his bete noir Nandlall and now the cruellest cut of all, his political rejection by his PNC compadres? Would he turn his defeat into a victory by claiming he fell on his sword for Lawrence so the PNC wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Army clique? But with an Army man in the driver’s seat, he might’ve just written his own pink slip, no? Would that Army man, do a Desmond Hoyte and now purge the PNC to his image? Seismic questions!!

Then there’s the tremor that left folks from Point Playa to Crabwood Creek and from Georgetown to Gunns Strip “all shook up” – literally and figuratively! As the ground started moving and houses started swaying it looked like Martin Carter’s poem “Black Friday” being acted out in Georgetown: “Were some who ran one way./ Were some who ran another way./ Were some who did not run at all./ Were some who will not run again…/ And I have seen some creatures rise from holes/ and claw a triumph like a citizen,/ and reign until the tide!”

Carter, of course, was describing the reaction of the good folks of Georgetown to the riots and arson when the downtown area was practically razed to the ground in the 1962 opening act to remove the PPP from office. Was the physical tremor a portent of what’s in store for 2020?

But some feel there’s another tremor on the way – an “aftershock” – the teachers strike threatened for this week. Your Eyewitness still believes this tectonic event ain’t gonna happen.

Why would the army types further alienate a subset of the constituency they need to maintain control? Naah! …and Nagamootoo’s ideological hypocrisy Nagamootoo has always boasted about his “fifty years in the PPP”, where he served faithfully under Cheddi Jagan. As a member of the declared “communist party” since 1969, Nagamootoo was one of the most hardline in his espousal of the Communist line. He routinely marched against US “imperialism” in Vietnam and other parts of the world.

So it was more than a bit disorienting – but not surprising – to read his last Chronic column where he practically split himself into two riding two horses simultaneously. He tried to ingratiate, himself with the coming delegation of US Congressmen by condemning locals he claimed were denouncing America as “a blood-sucking empire descending on Guyana.” But he couldn’t resist asserting that after 1964, Guyana “was subsequently converted into a laboratory for every conceivable ideological stratagem of American imperialism, which has since been well documented.”

He claims the US has now “changed”. But what he denounces as “imperialism” was simply defence of US strategic interests.

So he’ll denounce the US as “imperialists” if they were to intervene to protect those interests again? …on class Back in the day, the ruling class would pass “sumptuary” laws which forbid the lower classes dressing or consuming like their “betters”.

Wiil Granger follow up his denunciation of “Guinness Bars” with such a law??

T

his is excerpted from my response to a black WI intellectual, Abu Bakr, in 2001, soon after VS Naipaul accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“In his letter captioned “Naipaul has become the stubborn incarnation of the worst of a past generation”, Bakr fulminates about Naipaul’s “maledictions” and sneers that the latter’s Nobel was greeted with “disgust”; that he is “intellectually inadequate” and a “good minor talent” to whom the Caribbean had just wished “good riddance”.

Mr Bakr opined that, coming “after Garvey, or CLR James or Jean Price Mars and Aime Cesaire”, Naipaul could not possibly be “offering any original insights” in his critique of Caribbean society. He allowed that while “we were offered hope and redemption” by the aforementioned gentlemen, Naipaul cynically proposed “deliverance…in flight”.

Now, it’s of more than passing interest that Mr. Bakr chose those particular four Caribbean pioneers, whose social commentaries he deemed so profound and all-encompassing as to have preempted any modification or elaboration — much less refutation — by one such as Naipaul.

Each of these stalwarts was focused throughout their lives on the definition and

deliverance of the souls of African folk: Garvey with his “Back to Africa Movement”; James struggling with his Trotskyite/Black Power oxymoron, and Mars and Cesaire with “Negritude”.

Whether through a lapse of omission or a sin of commission, one finds in their emancipatory musings nary a concern for the other peoples inhabiting our winsome islands.

Where was the Indian content, say, in the message of “redemption and hope” for “us”? Not so coincidentally, all of these “giants” are now being deconstructed for their exclusivist and essentialist formulations. Even Cesaire has come under severe fire from his fellow Martiniquean and young lion Chamoiseau for (among other transgressions) ignoring Indians (yes, Martinique has Indians from India) in his Negritude notes of blood and soul. And more to the point, isn’t this what Naipaul bitterly protested in The Middle Passage (1962), when he quoted the Jamaican writer John Hearne to reject “the sentimental camaraderie of skin which provides the cheap thrill of being African”? But, of course, Naipaul is unqualified and incapable of “offering any original insights”.

As he mentioned in his Nobel speech, Naipaul is not enamoured of giving lectures,

but in 1975 (seventy-five years after the first Pan African Conference), he delivered one to the First Conference of East Indians in the Caribbean. He warned Indians against any easy essentialism: “I don’t think there is any magic in any racial inheritance” and “the problems of the Indians are no different from the problems of everybody else here. I don’t think it is possible for any one here, of any community, to seek the camouflage of some larger cultural entity, because that again is only a form of ‘dropping out’”. Wasn’t the retreat into Negritude a form of “flight”? One can always create hope, but how lasting has been the redemption?

While Naipaul has spoken candidly of his desire to escape from Trinidad because it did not provide the environment to sustain what he wanted to be since he was ten — a full time writer — he has never advocated “flight” for anyone else. He proposed we create our own culture, and not live in a borrowed one which forces us to play the “Bongo Man” role. In 1962 he had advocated the devolution of real responsibility to the people in positions and their measurement by the standard of efficiency, “to bring political organisation to the picaroon society”. We still have not heeded that advice, and

we are still paying the price in cons and scams.

In the 1975 lecture mentioned above, Naipaul emphasised that we have to “arrive at some understanding of all the strands of our upbringing. And we have so many strands here, on this island in the New World. We have to acknowledge them all.” He quotes Mommsen, the German historian of republican Rome: “The history of every nation… is a vast system of incorporation.” Naipaul’s “we” incorporated all the peoples of the Caribbean, not just one master race.

In his Nobel speech, Naipaul returned to this point in explicitly acknowledging he travelled to Africa, to India, to the non-Arab Muslim world, and South America to better “understand… all the strands of our upbringing.”

Sadly, most AfricanCaribbean persons still have not accepted this point. Witness the PNM’s skit on the “disrobing” of a saried woman.

Free food and drinks

S

atiricus was agog at the grog the Opposition Leader claimed was being consumed in the Parliament. Not that Satiricus had anything against drinking liquour in Parliament during debates.

Personally, he found his tongue was always lubricated when he imbibed at the Back Street Bar to make him much more eloquent than he normally was!

“So why your leader Jagdesh against our MPs drinking in Parliament when they have their meals?” Satiricus asked the fellas after he’d joined them at the back table. “’E na ‘gainst de drinking,” said Bungi. “’E ‘gainst dat de likka free!”

“What’s wrong with having a drink or two with your meal?” demanded Satiricus indignantly. “We always do that.”

“A drink or two?” mimicked Cappo sarcastically. “W’en dem rum sucka fram yuh KFC done, dem cyaan even walk back to dem seat in Parliament!!”

“I think the point the Opposition Leader was making was he didn’t mind the drinking, but the MPs should pay for drinks,”

observed Hari in his usual quiet way.

“C’mon fellas,” said Satiricus. “That’s being petty, isn’t it?”

“Petty? Petty?!” asked Bungi, his voice rising. “Dem fellas only drink Grey Goose, Chivas and Janny Wa’ker!”

“An’ dem drink am like watah!” said Cappo. “Wha’ mek yuh t’ink Rum Jhaat na mek de vote fuh gi’e tax free to ev’ry Tam, Dick an’ Harrylall?”

“I still think it’s petty!” insisted Satiricus doggedly.

“Budday!” said Hari. “A G$700,000 food and drinks bill for every sitting – with most of it drinks – isn’t chicken feed, you know!”

“An’ chicken feed na suh cheap!” smiled Bungi.

“Wid all de drinkin’ in Parliment,” observed Cappo, “now me know wha’ mek dem ah call am “sitting”! Dem cyaan stan’ up!!”

“Well, maybe some of them need a few drinks to get them to speak freely,” said Satiricus. “What about that?”

“Let them do what Jagdesh suggested,” said Hari, with finality. “Buy their own drinks like we do at our Back Street Parliament!!”

48 Bollywood

Anushka Sharma blows kisses to Virat Kohli as he scores his 23rd test century

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nushka Sharma is a proud wife as husband and Indian skipper Virat Kohli has crossed another milestone in his cricketing career. On Monday, as Kohli scored his 23rd test century and took India towards victory against England at Trent Bridge, the Bollywood actor was caught applauding and cheering him on. She even blew kisses to him and was visibly brimming with pride. As the camera moved to Virat, he reciprocated his wife’s love with flying kisses.

Anushka has been accompanying Virat from the beginning of his England tour. The Sui Dhaaga actor has often been spotted at England’s cricket grounds as well as at the picturesque locales of the foreign land. She has been a constant support to her husband and doesn’t shy away from professing her love for him publicly.

Recently, she became a victim of trolling on social media as photos of her with the Indian captain Kohli and

V

eteran actor Anupam Kher met American singer Lenny Kravitz and he said loved talking to him about music, movies and the magic of India. Anupam shared a photograph of himself with Kravitz and described his meet as “wonderful”.

“It was wonderful to meet Lenny

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

the Indian cricket team at the High Commission of India in London went viral. Clearing her stance, Anushka told the media at the trailer launch of her upcoming film Sui Dhaaga, “Clarification has been made by whoever had to make it. This was a trolling activity. I don’t react to trolls, I don’t give attention to them. Whatever happened, has happened within the guidelines. Whatever will happen will always happen within the guidelines.

This is a topic of absolutely no substance.”

After Sui Dhaaga, Anushka will be back on the silver screen with Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif in Aanand L Rai’s Zero. Also, if reports are to be believed, the actor will make her first TV appearance with husband Kohli on Karan Johar’s popular talk show Koffee With Karan 6. The show will premiere on October 21 on Star World at 9 pm. (Indian Express)

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he passing away of English Vinglish actor Sujata Kumar has left a void in her sister and actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi’s life. While sharing the sad news, she had written, “Life can never be the same again …”.

On Monday, in an interaction with Mumbai Mirror, Suchitra opened up about her ‘elder sister, mother and best friend’. She said, “My sister practical-

Sujata, last seen as Sridevi’s elder sister in English Vinglish, was diagnosed with cancer in August 2006. In her TEDx Talk on the topic ‘How to filter emotional pollutants from your life’, the 53-year-old had mentioned how being diagnosed with cancer was “nature’s slap across her face”.

Remembering her sister, Suchitra said, “She (Sujata) was a trained hyp-

ly raised me and was my best friend.

She loved unconditionally and gave so much to everyone in her orbit that she would often run out of energy herself.

But I never imagined that she would one day no longer be a part of my life; it’s unbearable to even think about.”

Adding to it, she recalled, “Over the years, I took her goodness for granted but like she would tell me, “Be bindaas,” I was just that. I will miss her quiet wisdom as much as her raucous laughter.”

notherapist and an alternate healer as well. ‘All people need is love and acceptance. Human beings don’t give each other enough of that,’ she would often rue. All her family and close friends called her Suzie. For me, she was my Suzie Puzie. I will miss her forever.”

Sujata Kumar was a well-known name in both television and film industry. She acted in films like Raanjhanaa, Guzaarish, Gori Tere Pyaar Mein, Salaam-E-Ishq and others. (Indian Express)

coming American drama series New Amsterdam.

Inspired by Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in the US, the series follows the brilliant and charming doctor Max Goodwin played by Ryan Eggold, the institution’s newest medical director who sets out to tear up the

K

Kravitz. Loved talking to him about music, movies and magic of India.

Have invited him to come to our country and entertain us with his great music. Joy of music, great conversations,” he captioned the image.

Kravitz is known for songs like Fly away, I Belong to You, American Woman and Stillness of Heart.

The actor is currently in New York, where he is shooting for his up-

bureaucracy and provide exceptional care.

On the Bollywood front, Anupam Kher will soon be seen in The Accidental Prime Minister slated to release on December 21. The film also stars Akshaye Khanna as Sanjaya Baru, Suzanne Bernert as Sonia Gandhi, Aahana Kumra as Priyanka Gandhi and Arjun Mathur as Rahul Gandhi. (Indian Express)

ajol starrer Helicopter Eela’s latest song titled “Yaadon Ki Almari” is all about reminding us of our own growing up years.

Directed by Pradeep Sarkar, the movie also stars National Award-winning actor Riddhi Sen as Kajol’s onscreen teenage son.

The video of “Yaadon Ki Almari” features Kajol crooning the upbeat song in a recording studio. It also has Kajol talking about unfulfilled dreams and the importance of living them in time. Complete with suggestions of college, dance and torn jeans, its lyrics

are enough to make anyone nostalgic.

The track has been composed by Amit Trivedi and has Palomi Ghosh making her singing debut in Bollywood.

In Helicopter Eela, Kajol plays an aspiring singer and single mother who goes back to college, with an attempt to stay connected with her son. The film’s first song “Mumma Ki Parchai” explained the relationship dynamics between a mother and a son, and had Kajol nailing the over-protective mother act.

Helicopter Eela will release on September 7, 2018. (Indian Express)

WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

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ollywood star S c a r l e t t Johansson has become the bestpaid female actor in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Scarlett, 33, made USD 40.5 million in pretax earnings from June 1, 2017, to June 1, 2018, quadrupling her income from the previous year.

S h e played B l a c k Widow in this year’s hit Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War and will return to the role in the 2019 installment from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios.

Avengers: Infinity War has become one of the highest grossing films of all times. The MCU superhero film had Scarlett aka Black Widow teaming up with Captain America, Black Panther, Hulk, Winter Soldier, Thor, Vision, Scarlet Witch and the Guardians of the Galaxy, to fight the mighty Thanos and stop him from acquiring all the six infinity stones. Black Widow is one of the few superheroes who managed to survive Thanos’ snap, which left half of

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ctor Rosamund Pike has revealed she refused to strip during an audition for a James Bond film, but still secured the part.

The 39-year-old Oscar-nominated actor made her Hollywood debut as Miranda Frost opposite Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in 2002’s Die Another Day, and was just 21 when she auditioned for the role.

Pike was asked by producers to strip to her underwear during casting, something that she flatly refused to do. It was a reaction the filmmakers admired, giving her the part on the spot.

“My first audition was for a Bond film and I remember them saying I was to drop my dress and appear in my u n -

the universe into ashes.

Scarlett beat out Angelina Jolie, who ranked second with USD 28 million thanks mainly to her upfront pay for Maleficent 2.

Jennifer Aniston came in third with USD 19.5 million, making the bulk of her profits from Emirates airlines, Smartwater, and Aveeno promotions, Forbes reports.

Jennifer Lawrence, 28, was fourth on the list with c o n tinued earnings from her role in the “X-Men” series and an endorsement contract with fashion brand Christian Dior. Her USD 18 million income was USD 6 million less than the prior year.

Reese Witherspoon, 42, is at number five with USD 16.5 million. The rest of the top 10 were Mila Kunis, Cate Blanchett, Melissa McCarthy and Gal Gadot. The combined earnings of the top 10 women this year is USD 186 million.

Last year’s highest-paid actress, Emma Stone, was not part of the top 10. (Indian Express)

derwear,” the actor told Amazon’s Audible Sessions this week.

“On the day, I don’t know how I got the resolve and strength of mind, but I just thought ‘if they’re going to see me in my underwear, they better give me the job’. So, I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to take off a dress in the audition for this tape to be sent around Los Angeles and to be judged on that’.”

She said she was told by producers to wear a sexy dress which she would have to then “drop”, and was handed “three pieces of string” to wear underneath on the day.

Pike said that she picked one of her mother’s evening gowns to wear, and the costume designer was so flummoxed he “didn’t know what to say”.

The actor said she still got the role and she never once felt “uncomfortable” on set, affirming that producer Barbara Broccoli was “way ahead of the #MeToo movement”.

“I look back over my experience on the Bond film and think, my goodness (the producer) Barbara Broccoli was way ahead of all this #MeToo movement,” she added.

(Indian Express)

Hollywood 49

Who is Priyanka Chopra’s fiance Nick Jonas?

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t’s confirmed. Bollywood star and Hollywood’s newest sensation Priyanka Chopra is engaged to American singer Nick Jonas. The two stars have taken the internet by storm with their many photos together. The couple had first grabbed eyeballs after they had made their appearance on the Met Gala red carpet in 2017.

Obviously, following the reports, there has been a surge in interest in knowing more about Nick Jonas.

For the uninitiated, Nick Jonas is an American singing sensation who first shot to fame after he formed a music band with his brothers Joe and Kevin, collectively called the Jonas brothers.

While the first album of the band called “It’s About Time” was not a big hit with the audience, their second album called “Jonas Brothers” caught everyone’s attention. During the same time, they had reached a wider viewership thanks to the Disney channel, where they appeared in television films like Camp Rock, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam and series Jonas Brothers: Living

the Dream and Jonas.

The brothers owing to some creative differences took a break and later reunited for a while. However, they parted ways to pursue their solo careers.

Nick Jonas released his solo self-titled album in 2014 in a collaboration with record company Island Groups. Jonas is also the co-founder of the record company called Safehouse Records.

Jonas’ 2016 album “Last Year Was Complicated” was quite the sensation and marked his presence as a solo music artist to look out for in the music scene.

The rumours about Chopra and Jonas started gaining momentum after US Weekly quoted a source confirming that the two are involved romantically with each other. “They are dating and it’s brand new. It’s a good match and they are both interested in each other,” said the source.

Priyanka and Nick recently shared the news of their engagement on their respective Instagram handles (Indian Express)

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

Hero Caribbean Premier League 2018…

Tridents hold off rampant Tallawahs T

he Jamaica Tallawahs left Florida heart-broken and winless as they lost by two runs Wednesday evening against the Barbados Tridents, in the 14th fixture of this year’s Hero Caribbean Premier League

(CPL).

After two consecutive losses at the Central Broward Stadium, in Lauderhill, the Tallwahs looked on course to break the streak but made a mess of an entertaining run chase in the final over.

Johnson Charles top scored for the Tallawahs with 42

Tridents amassed 156 – 6 which in the end proved too much for the opposition that fell short at 154 – 3.

The chase began with Johnson Charles and Glen Phillips seeing off Mohammed Irfan and Ashley Nurse in the first two overs to take Tallawahs to 11 – 0, but with the captain Jason Holder putting himself on to bowl the third, he found himself quite unlucky.

Johnson picked up five consecutive fours from Holder in an eventful string of deliveries, but Holder’s luck wasn’t all bad as he finished with a dot ball. He made no mistake of trying another over in the match.

Charles (42) and Phillips (36) continued the onslaught until the former was caught behind by Pooran off Steve Smith, who easily broke the 80run opening stand. Smith

then claimed the wicket of Phillips four balls later.

Kennar Lewis put 17 on the board but became Irfan first victim, nicking

one to Pooran. Tallawahs were now 100-3 from 12.5 overs.

Of course, the five earlier dropped catches by the Tridents could have changed the course of the game on several occasions but it just was not their night in the field.

With 57 from 43 needed to seal the deal, the Tallawahs chance of victory remained high with the experience of Ross Taylor and destructive force of David Miller at the crease.

They of course navigated the challenge cautiously and executed their job beautifully up until the final over that was bowled

by Raymon Reifer. The leftarm medium bowler presented a tight and full line which cost only six runs, to win a final over battle.

Earlier in the night, the Tridents were the first up to bat, and had a decent start going at nearly 10 runs per over, when Dwayne Smith was run out for 18 and the score dialed to 36 – 1, one ball short of the fifth over.

Hashim Amla (15) followed two balls later when he lobbed a catch to Adam Zampa at cover and now the two new batsmen were Martin Guptil and Steve Smith. Guptil was the next

to make the highlight reel when Oshane Thomas bowled him with a full and fast delivery, dipping inwards. He departed without scoring and Tallwahs were certainly on top with the score reading 39 – 3, with the eighth over approaching.

However, Shai Hope and Smith’s staged a massive recovery as they featured in a 103-run fourthwicket partnership that took the Bajan side to 142 before the next wicket fell.

Smith’s mastery took him to 63 from 44 deliveries while Hope had 43 after facing 35 balls. The Australian, adjudged manof-the-match for his performance, struck five boundaries while Hope hit only two. However, both batsmen slammed three sixes each and ironically were both dismissed by Dre Russ.

Nicholas Pooran contributed a run-a-ball 7 while the skipper Jason Holder was run out on the final ball in his team’s scramble for runs in the 20th over.

Russell ended with 2 – 32 while Samuel Badree had 1 – 19 and Thomas 1 -27.

SCOREBOARD Barbados Tridents Innings (20 overs maximum) DR Smith run out (Powell) 18 HM Amla c Zampa b Badree 15 MJ Guptill b Thomas 0 SPD Smith hit wicket b Russell 63 SD Hope b Russell 43 N Pooran † not out 7 JO Holder (c) run out (†Phillips) 0 Extras: (b 1, lb 4, w 5) 10 Total: (6 Wickets, 20 Overs, RR: 7.8) 156 Did not bat: RA Reifer, Wahab Riaz, AR Nurse, Mohammad Irfan Fall of wickets: 1-36 (DR Smith, 4.5 ov), 2-37 (HM Amla, 5.1 ov), 3-39 (MJ Guptill, 6.3 ov), 4-142 (SD Hope, 17.5 ov), 5-155 (SPD Smith, 19.4 ov), 6-156 (JO Holder, 19.6 ov) Bowling: Imad Wasim 4-038-0, S Badree 4-0-19-1, A Zampa 4-0-35-0, O Thomas 4-0-27-1, AD Russell 4-0-32-2

Jamaica Tallawahs Innings (target: 157 runs from 20 overs) GD Phillips † c †Pooran b SPD Smith 36 J Charles c Guptill b SPD Smith 42 K Lewis c †Pooran b Mohammad Irfan 17 LRPL Taylor not out 26 DA Miller not out 25 Extras: (lb 3, w 5) 8 Total: (3 Wickets, 20 Overs, RR: 7.7) 154 Did not bat: AD Russell (c), R Powell, Imad Wasim, S Badree, A Zampa, O Thomas Fall of wickets: 1-80 J Charles, 9.1 ov, 2-82 GD Phillips, 9.5 ov, 3-100 K Lewis, 12.5 ov Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 4-0-30-1, AR Nurse 4-0-18-0, JO Holder 1-0-20-0, RA Reifer 4-0-39-0, Wahab Riaz 4-025-0, SPD Smith 3-0-19-2

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018| guyanatimeSinternational.com

Scores of overseas-based Guyanese expected to return for second leg of CPL ‘home’ games

…as competition gets hotter

T

he ‘Biggest Party in Sport’ will get bigger for Guyanese cricket fans, both at home and abroad as for the first time in the six-year history of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) play-off matches will be hosted in Guyana. Guyana Times International understands that several fans in New York, Toronto and London and from other destinations have already booked their place and will be part of the action at Providence.

As the competition gets hotter and the time winds down to the date for the two play-offs, tickets for those matches are now on sale. Described as a reward for the amazing crowd support that is showcased over the previous five editions of CPL at the Providence stadium, cricket fans can now book their spot at any of the two matchups by visiting the closest ticket office or purchase online at CPLT20.com.

There is no doubt that Guyanese fans will be eagerly anticipating the two encounters and with the Guyana Amazon

Warriors currently sitting at the top of the points table, Guyanese cricket lovers are expectant that their home team will be featured in one of those matches on September 11 and 12.

As promised by CPL Chief Operations Officer Pete Russell, when the

introduction of the playoff to Guyana was made, ticket prices for the playoffs remain affordable, so that fans across the diaspora can enjoy the ‘Biggest Party in Sport.’ Those prices will match the home games with the Red and Green stands costing G$5,000,

G$3,000 for the Orange stand and G$2,500 for the Grass mound.

Hero CPL CEO Damien O’ Donohoe spoke extensively on the release of the tickets stating, “The support that we have over the years from the Guyanese government

and the Guyanese public has been outstanding.

The games in Guyana have an atmosphere like nowhere else on earth.

This is the biggest sports event of the year and I urge fans to get their tickets early and not be left disappointed. There were so many fans who

Points Table 2018

missed the home games as the tickets sold out so fast. We also have a few surprises up our sleeve for the Playoffs… so make sure to follow us.”

Fans are being urged to pick up their tickets before they are all sold out at the CPL offices at 238 Camp and Quamina Streets, Lot 19 Princess Elizabeth Road, Queenstown New Amsterdam and Imam Bacchus and Sons General Store at Affiance Essequibo Coast in order to be a part of history as play-off matches as Cricket Played Louder heads to Providence.

The play-offs will see the top four teams after the league stage of CPL battling for places in the September 16 final in Trinidad. On September 11, the top two teams on the points table will meet with the winner going straight to the final while on September 12 the third and fourth place teams will clash with the winner qualifying to play the loser of Play-off one while the loser will be eliminated.

Both play-offs will begin at 18:00h.

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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 26, 2018 | guyanatimeSinternational.com

Persaud, Gonsalves, Scott Senior CAREBACO championship shine at Goodwill meet kicks off in Suriname

F

– T&T take top honours

A

fter a three-day weekend in and out of the pool, three of Guyana’s most talented young swimmers have proven that they are always up for a challenge.

Eleven-year-old Aleka Persaud, 12-year-old Ethan Gonsalves, and 17-year-old Daniel Scott rose to the occasion during the three-day meet, each finishing as one of the best, if not the very best, in their respective age groups.

The ever-improving Persaud took home 6 gold medals, won in the 100M freestyle (1.03.13), 200M IM (2.36.50), 50M freestyle (27.95), 50M fly (30.63), 200M freestyle (2.20.33), and the 100M fly (1.09.17). She also copped silver in the 100M breaststroke (1.23.21 100) to finish at the pinnacle of the 11-12 age group with 71 points.

Ethan Gonsalves, in similar fashion, also finished atop his 11-12 age group with 62 points. He walked away with gold in the 100M freestyle (1.01.18) and 200M freestyle (2.12.92).

Additionally, he copped silver in the 200M IM (2.32.46), 100M breaststroke (1.21.14), 100M fly (1.09.03), and produced bronze medal performances in the 100M backstroke (1.14.19) and 50M freestyle (28.23).

Swimming in the 15-17 category, Daniel Scott copped gold in the 100M freestyle (54.96), silver in the 50M fly (27.71), 200M freestyle (1.59.94) and bronze in the 200M IM (2.20.05) and 100M fly (1.01.15). His performance landed him in second place of his age group.

Their efforts were backed by a gold medal from Shareefah Lewis in the 50M backstroke (40.29) and a silver from Patrice Mahaica in the 50M backstroke (34.02).

Despite not being able to repeat

Aleka Persaud

their third place performance from last year, the Guyanese team managed to finish in fourth place out of eight teams, registering 553 points in the process.

Team Trinidad and Tobago took the top spot for 2018 with a marvellous track record. With their swimmers placing in almost every race, the twin island republic finished on 1,351 points to take home the overall gold.

They were closely followed by hosts Barbados with 1,032 points, and Bahamas finished off the podium with 670 points.

A 36-member team departed Guyana last Thursday to attend the annual event in Barbados, from August 17-19. The Goodwill Meet is open to only a handful of Caribbean countries, and is seen as a developmental meet for young swimmers. Owing to that fact, when swimmers have competed at the CARIFTA level, they are no longer eligible for participation in the Goodwill Games. For this reason, star swimmer Leon Seaton Jnr was unable to compete this time around.

West Indies to play India in Florida in 2019 W

est Indies are planning to host India in Florida next July, immediately after the 2019 World Cup, as part of a long-term strategy to play a minimum of two T20Is in North America every year until 2022.

“There’s full board support as part of our strategic plan over the next five years to bring regular games into the Americas,” Cricket West Indies CEO Jonny Grave told ESPNcricinfo during the Caribbean Premier League matches in Florida. “So not always talking about USA, we’re talking about Canada and other parts to try to grow the sport. The whole ICC strategic plan is around growing the game and we’re huge advocates of Associate cricket.

“We want to grow the game. We’re big advocates of playing in the Olympics even though one might argue that’s quite complicated because effectively we’d be playing as the separate sovereign countries of the West Indies – but we don’t have a problem with that.”

Since the USA Cricket Board is yet to be fully ratified, Grave said CWI will seek the ICC’s permission directly to host the matches. They are expected to be primetime affairs, starting as late as 9pm in Florida in order to accommodate Indian television market, while also ensuring the comfort of the people coming to the stadium. The T20Is between India and West Indies from two years ago were played at 10.30 am under heat that Grave felt was “unbearable”.

“That would be our aim,” Grave said.

“Clearly we have to discuss that with sponsors and broadcast partners, but realisti-

cally when you’re playing India in the Caribbean you have to play either very late at night or very early in the day. If you’re playing India, the passion of the India fans, they’ll turn up whether you play at 11am or 9pm at night.”

England are touring the Caribbean from January to March 2019 and sources in Florida suggest they may also play some T20Is at Central Broward stadium.

Grave, however, wasn’t very keen on relocating these matches.

“England fans love coming to the Caribbean,” he said. “Even though we have a big England tour of three Test matches, five ODIs and three T20Is, that would be a big decision to take matches out of the region, whereas the traveling India fan is [coming from the USA] and it’s a growing market so it’s less of a risk to our region to have the England games in the Caribbean and the India matches [in Florida].”

ollowing a perfect outing at the junior championship this past weekend, a few of Guyana’s senior badminton players have shown remarkable grit as the senior championships opened on Monday.

Being hosted in Paramaribo, Suriname, that country’s Director of Sport, Mitchell Kisoor, and the President of the Surinamese Olympic Association, Mr Ramon TJONA-FAT, w e r e p r e s ent at the auspicious o p e n ing ceremony, before the players from around t h e Caribbean took to the courts.

The Guyanese

9, 21-11.

Over in the women’s singles, Priyanna continued on her winning streak defeating Imani Mangroe of Suriname: 18-21, 21-7, 21-13.

In round two of the men’s singles, Darell Carpenay was knocked out of contention by Gilmar Jones of Suriname: 21-7, 21-6. On the other hand, in an unfortunate pairing, the Guyanese males remaining in the running were pitted against each other in their round two matchup.

Narayan Ramdhani got the better of Jonathan Mangra 2117, 21-11.

In the first mixed doubles round, the Ramdhani sibling paired up to hand a loss to Gilmar Jones & Rugshaar Ishaak of Suriname: 24-22, 11-21, 17-21.

Priyanna Ramdhani

contingent consisting of Narayan Ramdhani, Jonathan Mangra, Darrell Carpenay, Akili Haynes, Tyrese Jeffrey, and recently crowned Junior Champion Priyanna Ramdhani, got off to a flying start in the first round.

Narayan Ramdhani cruised to a victory over Amir Mahabir of Trinidad and Tobago in straight sets, 21-6 and 21-2. Jonathan Mangra followed suit in straight sets with a win over Denzel Sweet of Suriname 21-11 and 21-10.

Darrell Carpenay later defeated Jai Luo of Suriname: 21-13, 19-21, 21-13.

However, Akili Haynes did not have the same fortune, losing to Mitchel Wongsodikromo of Suriname: 21-8, 21-6 and Tyrese Jeffrey overpowered

by Kevin Yao Lin Zou of Suriname: 21-

India will start their 2019 tour with T20Is at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, before travelling to the Caribbean to play ODIs and Tests.

According to the FTP, New Zealand (2020), South Africa (2020) and Pakistan (2021) are also scheduled to play in the USA while India will visit again in 2022.

Bangladesh have already come and gone.

The PCB and CWI had tentatively agreed to play T20Is in Florida after the West Indies toured Pakistan this past April, but Grave said finding a window outside the FTP has been difficult. When asked if a tri-series in Florida would be possible involving Pakistan and India, he said that playing that many matches at the same venue could be problematic.

Mid-week games scheduled in Lauderhill have had notoriously poor attendance. When Sri Lanka and New Zealand played the first T20Is on US soil

Narayan will continue his quest for the men’s singles title with a matchup against Robert Mann of Luxembourg, whilst his younger sister plays Monyata Riviera of Barbados in the Women’s singles.

In the men’s doubles Akili Haynes and Tyrese Jeffery will team up against Shae Michael Martin and Dakeil Jonathan of Barbados. Narayan Ramdhani and Jonathan Mangra will face off with Jia Luo and Alain Toney of Suriname in the same category.

Later on, the Ramdhani pair will enter the second round of the mixed doubles against Suriname’s Soren Opti and Mary-Ann Zhong. in May 2010, the series, originally scheduled for three games, was reduced to a two-match weekend only affair since only 200 tickets were sold for a fixture on a Thursday. However, Grave indicated that in the future West Indies would be open to playing T20Is against Canada or USA on weekdays as build-up to matches against Full Member sides on weekends.

Meanwhile, CWI extended an annual invitation for USA and Canada to play in the Regional Super50 competition, which begins in October, with Grave also hoping the women’s teams from both countries would be open to playing domestic cricket in the West Indies.

“We’re not here to make a fast buck, that’s probably the bottom line,” he said.

“This isn’t just about economics. This is a five-year plan and in five years we think we can start to make a difference to support USA and Canada and that’s just the next two best teams in the Americas.

“We want to develop cricket in the whole region, but the next two sides have the ability to break into the 16-team T20 World Cup. Through CPL, playing in our Under-19 tournament, the Super50 and making sure this stadium maintains its status as an international ground can only help USA Cricket. We’ve been pretty vocal and been big advocates about how good the quality of the cricket was in the World Cup Qualifiers and how we need to expand the game and not shrink the game.”

CWI had also played a part in helping Canada run their Global T20 tournament in June and July. (ESPNCricinfo)

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