Guyana Times Sunday April 28. 2019

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Nationwide coverage coverage from from the the best best news news team team in in Guyana Guyana Nationwide Issue No. 3901 guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON BEACON OF OF TRUTH TRUTH THE

Sunday, April 28, 2019

APNU/AFC's honouring of convicted anti-US terrorist betrays democracy See story on page 3

...motion in National Assembly not reflective of Guyanese beliefs ─ PPP

Bandits beat, rob Berbice businesswoman

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WHAT'S INSIDE:

Bartica Mayor accused of P8 raping make-up artist US commits to help Guyana realise its potential P12

Page 10

Speeding driver dies in ECD P17 accident

IATA has P13 overreached its authority – CJIA

...says body has no legitimacy to request info on fee increase

P14 $1.8B power plant commissioned at Anna Regina

Fire ravages Lethem ranch …wildlife among animals killed

Son, son-in-law of senior Region 9 official get millions worth of contracts Page 9

Page 2

Ministerial Code of Conduct ineffective – TIGI President

Page 7

…should outline penalties for transgressions

Man nabbed in hotel with over 80 cocaine P11 pellets

2

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SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

Fire ravages Lethem ranch …wildlife among animals killed

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everal acres of the Waikin Ranch at Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), were destroyed by a raging fire this week, which blazed for almost three days before it could be contained.

The ranch has boundaries from the main Rupununi trail, the Ireng River, the Brazil border and the west and Pirara River. It covers almost 33,000 acres of mostly rolling savannah plains and is a sanctuary to hundreds of wildlife.

Guyana Times under-

The aftermath of the fire

stands that the fire started on Wednesday and is sus-

pected to be arson.

It was finally contained

due to the combined efforts of several individuals in the area.

However, the aftermath saw a saddened scene with burnt trees and the carcasses of turtles, snakes, armadillos and mammals which could not survive the inferno or escape.

Some animals such as monkeys managed to climb to higher grounds and were saved.

On social media, officials at the ranch expressed distress at the long-term effect of this environmental disaster and reached out

Turtles and other animals died as a result of the fire

for donations of seedlings to replant the savannah.

These trees will be replanted during the rainy season.

During this dry season, there have been many bushfires which have also claimed the lives of animals. Earlier this month, the Guyana Fire Service had issued a warning to the public to desist from lighting fires in open spaces.

These fires have been prevailing as often as 18 times daily over the past three months.

Fire Prevention Officer, Andrew Holder had said,

“We are cognisant of the fact that we are experiencing currently a prolonged dry weather spell, however, not all of these bush fires can be attributed to the hot weather conditions…It is a prohibition, a complete no no and perpetrators will find themselves before the court…we are experiencing an unusual dry weather spell and as such, lighting fires in open spaces has severe consequences.

Consequently, we are imploring citizens to desist forthwith from lighting fires in open spaces”.

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SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

BRIDGE OPENINGS

The Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on: Sunday, April 28 – a night retraction at 01:00h and a day retraction from 13:00h-14:30h and Monday, April 29 – a night retraction at 01:30h and a day retraction from 14:30h-16:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Sunday, April 28 – 12:00h-13:30h and Monday, April 29 – 13:00h-14:30h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

APNU/AFC's honouring of convicted anti-US terrorist betrays democracy

...motion in National Assembly not reflective of Guyanese beliefs ‒ PPP

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

WEATHER TODAY Sunny intervals are expected during the day, followed by clear skies in the evening.

Temperatures will range between 21 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius.

Winds: East North-easterly to North-easterly between 2.23 metres and 4.91 metres.

High Tide: 11:43h reaching a maximum height of 2.06 metres.

Low Tide: 05:12h and 17:55h reaching minimum heights of 1.24 and 1.10 metres.

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Convicted terrorist Abdul Kadir

he use of the National Assembly, Guyana’s highest decision-making body, to honour the People’s National Congress (PNC) former Member of Parliament, who was convicted in the United States of plotting to blow up the John F Kennedy International Airport, is another act of betrayal of democracy and the rule of law.

This is according to the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) which in a stinging statement on Saturday evening said the move by Government to pass such a motion is clearly not reflective of the will of the people of Guyana.

“Guyanese are known as peaceful and law-abiding citizens, at home and abroad,” the PPP said.

The Party in condemning the motion that was passed in the National Assembly on April 26, stating that the People’s National Congress (PNC) has a” history of honouring and exonerating vi-

Junior Agriculture Minister Valarie Patterson

Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland

“The use of a Parliamentary Resolution is now an indelible stain on our people and national character that will not easily be forgiven or forgotten by those who have suffered at the hands of international terrorism” – PPP olent criminals.

Linden “Blackie” London whose reign of terror ended when he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement services of Guyana, was honoured by PNC leaders, who infamously draped Blackie’s coffin with Guyana’s national flag, the Golden Arrowhead. In addition, the five prison escapees who wreaked havoc and were responsible for murder, mayhem and an unprecedented crime wave, were dubbed ‘freedom fighters’ by many leaders of the PNC.” The Party added that the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry, during which the father of a sitting Minister was its lone Commissioner and the brother of anoth-

er Minister its legal counsel, was aimed at “exonerating” Rondell "Fineman" Rawlins.

All of these actions show a pattern of association and glorification of homegrown terrorists.

“The use of a Parliamentary Resolution is now an indelible stain on our people and national character that will not easily be forgiven or forgotten by those who have suffered at the hands of international terrorism,” the Party added.

In 2010, former Guyanese

President David Granger

parliamentarian Abdul Kadir was convicted and sentenced to life for plotting to blow up the JFK airport in the United States (US). Today, the coalition Government’s decision to pay tribute to him in the National Assembly is attracting much criticism.

On Friday, the convicted terrorist was lauded by the Guyana’s coalition Government – A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change – as a “great man, a stalwart; a bold and courageous man.”

At Friday’s sitting of the National Assembly, where the Opposition PPP was not present, controversial former Housing Minister, now Minister of Rural Agriculture, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood tabled a motion – Sympathy on the Death of Abdul Kadir, former Member of Parliament. turn to page 7

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guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019

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

Editorial

Equality in diversity

A

fter decades of focusing on an economistic notion of equality, there is still not an appreciation of the need for cultural equality also. So much for the politics of ‘identity’ and ‘recognition’ in Guyana.

There are some who posited that if we had (or have) economic equality among the various ethnic groups, our troubles would be over. But history has proven that man is not homo economicus, but more like homo culturalicus.

Part and parcel of the existent ‘power relations’ is who gets to define what is the national culture to which all groups have to genuflect.

And it is the differential incorporation of the various cultural groups in this equation that our policies on “multiculturalism” have to address. “Multiculturalism” demands that society presents a full range of prospects, membership, and respect to all its members, regardless of cultural and religious differences; while also creatively accommodating them in a fashion that is both morally persuasive and practically effective for the majority of society.

We have to start with the “Ministry of Culture”, which is now a subset of “Social Cohesion”. The name itself - Culture - suggests a singular, monolithic, overarching “culture” that is being promoted. We can do worse than begin by changing the name of this ministry forthwith to “Ministry of Multiculturalism”. Its mission would be much clearer.

While we have not bothered to come up with a programme on multiculturalism, there is the ritualistic incantation by the authorities that Guyana is “multi-ethnic”.

And while maintaining the “One People, One Nation, One Destiny” goal of the national motto, they just as ritualistically chant, “Unity in Diversity”.

The question is: how do we make this aspiration more concrete, when “Unity” is so ambiguous and amorphous?

How do we measure this ‘unity’? And how do we ensure that it does not become a stalking horse for assimilation through the back door – as in Britain, the US and Europe?

We suggest that our motto be “Unity in Diversity through Equality in Diversity”.

One definition of ‘multiculturalism’ suggests that it is ‘A systematic and comprehensive response to cultural and ethnic diversity with educational, linguistic, economic and social components and specific institutional mechanisms”.

This suggests areas in which we initially pursue equality.

Now, we want to emphasise that we are not emphasising any ‘separatist ideal’, in which each group lives in a hermetically sealed enclave; we are suggesting that the “equal treatment in culture’s imperative, if implemented and become real, would eliminate the barriers of hauteur and exclusion that set off their inevitable reactions of resistance.

We believe that when we deal with each other as equals, there would be the inevitable cross-cultural fertilisation (in all directions), and not one-way, which is seen as top down.

With the state out of the ‘culture’, it could engender and promote a feeling of “Guyanese-ness” among our people through the conscious construction of a democratic state; the creation of conditions wherein we are all treated as one, equally, by the state; equality of opportunity; human rights; encouragement of diversities; due process. Justice and fair play and rule of law may seem dry compared to the warmth of the blood ties of “nationhood”, but they can engender the unity of public purpose and the recognition of individual worth, wherein we can be proud of our common citizenship.

Citizenship of Guyana has to become something that has concrete meaning to all of us.

For Guyana then, our ethnicities would be defined outside our “Guyanese-ness”, and to be African Guyanese or Indian Guyanese would not be contradictory in any sense. The first part of our identity would be specific, while the latter would be universalistic. The “national” will now be a space where ethnically imagined communities can live and share. To be Guyanese would be to share moral precepts – norms, values and attitudes – rather than shared cultural experience and practice. A “good Guyanese” would be one who is loyal to this country and strives to practice the secular universalistic ideological values it extols.

Employees of Demerara Bank Limited, Head Office and Corporate Banking, on Saturday were seen planting flowering plants along the avenue on Camp Street, Georgetown as part of the bank’s tree planting exercise (Dexter Ceres photo)

US oil embargo will see Venezuela 'turn to China, Russia' for salvation

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he US oil embargo on Venezuela that comes into effect tomorrow will deepen the South American country’s economic crisis without necessarily forcing President Nicolás Maduro from power and force Caracas to turn to China and Russia for salvation.

Until now, US sanctions directly targeted the upper echelons of Maduro’s regime in the hope of weakening his grip on power in favour of a transition to Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó who in January declared himself acting Pesident. Then, Washington led more than 50 countries in endorsing his claim.

But these new sanctions will bite hard in a country that has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines.

Venezuela is almost entirely reliant on oil revenue, with 96 per cent of its income from crude and the US its single largest customer. Michael Shifter from Inter-American Dialogue says “there is certainly no guarantee that the petroleum embargo will result in the end of Maduro’s rule.”

But he added: “It may

China’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Li Baorong stands next to Venezuela’s Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami during the delivery of medicines and disposable medical supplies to the Government of Nicolás Maduro at Aeropuerto Internacional Simon Bolivar on March 29, 2019 in Caracas, Venezuela

contribute to the desperation that fuels street protests and that ultimately leads to the regime’s collapse.” Caracas is exporting 500,000 barrels a day to US companies, which accounted for three-quarters of its liquidity by the end of 2018.

The new sanctions not only ban US companies from buying Venezuelan crude but also all foreign entities from using the American banking system to purchase the black gold from Caracas.

It means China and Russia may have to be Venezuela’s “lifesavers,” specialist Luis Oliveros told AFP. US-based consultancy Rapidan Energy

Group says Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA’s production could temporarily fall by 200,000 barrels a day.

That would be a grave loss in production that has already crashed from a high of 3.2 million in 2008 to just 840,000 in March. “It will get even harder” for the Government to keep supplying heavily discounted fuel to its people, says Gorka Lalaguna, from consultants Ecoanalitica, which could lead to rising discontent.

In a bid to circumvent the sanctions, Caracas has turned to Chinese and Russian companies to act as intermediaries. “It’s using (Russians)

Rosneft and other companies to place its crude,” said Luis Oliveros. Rosneft denies the claims.

Venezuela had its eyes on India to try to make up its shortfall.

After the US measure was announced in January, PDVSA President Manuel Quevedo travelled to India with the goal of doubling the 300,000 barrels a day Venezuela sells to companies such as Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, which is part owned by Rosneft.

India has emerged as the “largest cash flow generating market” for Venezuela, according to the Washingtonbased Wilson Centre. Indian companies bought 22 per cent of Venezuela’s crude in 2017, behind only US (41 per cent) and Chinese (25 per cent) firms, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

However, Reliance told AFP last week it was reducing its imports of Venezuelan crude and suspending the export of diluents – which Caracas needs to refine its oil – due to the new sanctions.

India backing off leaves China and Russia as Venezuela’s main customers. (www.rte.ie)

Venezuela crisis: Security forces Venezuelan Government stranded in Colombia denounces regional OAS forum personnel ‒ more than a thousand members

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he Government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has staged a rally to celebrate its split with a key regional forum, the Organisation of American States.

Supporters of Maduro on Saturday attended the rally in the Venezuelan capital to denounce the 35-member OAS, whose council voted this month to recognise an envoy selected by Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó. A minority of countries voted

against the resolution.

In 2017, Maduro started a two-year process to abandon the OAS, but Guaidó this year asked the group to ignore the socialist leader and instead designate Gustavo Tarre as his own envoy.

The US and most other OAS member states recognise Guaidó as Venezuela's interim President, saying Maduro wasn't legitimately re-elected last year. Maduro says the OAS is violating Venezuela's sovereignty. (Fox News)

of Venezuela's security forces are in Colombia, waiting to join the fight against Nicolás Maduro

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t's not going according to plan for around a thousand military and security force personnel who defected from Venezuela.

They crossed the border into neighbouring Colombia two months ago, answering the Opposition's call to defect.

Venezuela's Opposition said that it was unprepared

for the numbers of military personnel that defected back in February and a struggling to come up with a plan to support them in the long term.

Meanwhile, the families of defectors have received death threats and have been forced to flee, as well, while the defectors wait for a call or an end to the political stalemate. (Al Jazeera)

guyanatimesgy.com

SunDAY, april 28, 2019

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

Utilising undemocratic manoeuvres Dear Editor, Recently, a type of political and legislative events has piercingly inundated the democratic environment of Guyana, a member of the Caricom Community and the Commonwealth group of countries.

The activities emerged from the necessary representation and efforts by the political Opposition – particularly Bharrat Jagdeo, against the perceived and obvious constitutional breaches – to free our citizens from the burgeoning choke invoked by the APNU/AFC Government since 2015.

The surreptitious cheating architects of the APNU/AFC’s main party, the PNC/R, have reacted to the people’s rebuff by utilising widely undemocratic

manoeuvers in an effort to clutch on to power.

The situation realises numerous unwanted threats and results in broader implications not only for Guyana’s internal and external relationships, but also for the region at large.

In fact, with the matter brought before the fledging for recognition Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the region’s premier Judicial institution itself is placed on trial, albeit acceptance or rejection of its rulings by other regional members.

There is no doubt that there is significant regional focus and interests in this regard, evidenced by the increasing volumes of commentary on the matter emerging from non-Guya-

nese observers.

The crux of the matter is to establish in the context of the Guyana Constitution, whether 33 votes obtained by the Opposition in the December 21, 2018, NoConfidence Motion (NCM), is sufficiently greater than the 32 obtained by the APNU/AFC Government to be carried.

This is given that the Leader of the Opposition duly followed the prescribed constitutionally approved approach, which the Speaker of Legislature pronounced as carried, as well as the Chief Justice of Guyana’s High Court.

Conflictingly, the ruling varied by two of three Judges of the Guyana Court of Appeal, making our Judiciary the

laughing stock in the Commonwealth judicial frame.

Understandably, the potential treatment by one of its core institutions would have informed of the apprehensive silence of the Caricom SecretaryGeneral on this another significant disruptive regional impediment.

Notwithstanding, the CCJ has certainly signalled a very keen intent to see that justice prevails, given the prioritisation of this important NCM case, and other related matters. President Adrian Saunders recently said that the CCJ would consolidate the three extremely important cases and treat them as urgent while identifying May 9 and 10, 2019, for the hearings.

The response by the CCJ is acceptably intuitive although it is obvious that the Guyana Opposition would have preferred an earlier date given the deliberate internal delays by the Guyana Elections Commission.

Related also, is the fact that the Opposition premised the NCM on the increasing sufferings of the citizens due to the APNU/ AFC Government’s breach of contract to the people; incessantly perpetuated fraud by its officials, wanton uncontrolled crime and the continued irreparable damage of the economy, for which the Constitution provides a halting mechanism. Concurrently, there has been clear democratic statements of rejection by an overwhelming ma-

jority of citizens, over the two Local Government Elections held since 2015.

The hybrid suppression of Guyana by the PNC/R and the imbalanced GECOM Commission orchestrated by President Granger’s unilateral appointment of the openly biased Chairman James Patterson has no place in our democracy and must never be allowed to have a grounding.

In fact, no amount of ‘political manoeuvrings’ and procrastination by Vincent Alexander and his two PNC Guyana Election Commissioners must be allowed to keep this Illegal APNU/AFC regime in Government.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

GFC staff restructuring meeting ends abruptly Dear Editor, It is often said that your first response is your truest response and is most reflective of your innermost genuine thought on the question at hand. Often times it is the most revealing of one’s true intention and a reflection and insight into one’s true motivation.

This could not be more true of what took place on Friday, April 26, 2019, at the Guyana Forestry Commission’s meeting on the restructuring of the GFC by the Restructuring Committee’s Convener, Clayton Hall.

The meeting on Friday was planned to put the GFC’s staff members’ minds at ease that the restructuring is well-intended and aimed at positive outcomes.

Opening remarks and general platitudes were extended to the staff and the questions and answers segment began.

Several GFC staff asked questions that were of high concern on the minds of staff: would the monitoring division and resources management divisions be merged as pre-empted by Hall’s early submission of his desired structure of the GFC? Would staff be dismissed and left hopeless and helpless?

What would happen

to the families of these staff? Is it a witch-hunting exercise aimed at getting rid of specific persons?

Is the Committee experienced in Human Resources Management to undertake a task such as this?

And finally, how were the members of the task force chosen and is there a clear term of reference for the Committee’s work?

Hall was stunned by the candour of the probing questions and the persistence with which staff pressed for answers?

He was totally unprepared for those questions, clearly did not previously consider possible responses, and had to rely on his instincts to respond.

What we saw because of him relying on his instincts, was the most striking degree of unprofessional conduct of Hall as the Convener of the GFC Restructuring Committee and the Chair of the meeting. He was condescending, offensive and outright shameful.

In his worst moment, he referred to the GFC staff as ignorant, incompetent and in his words, “not bright”.

Dr Singh, a true professional, requested that he retract his statement and staff were on the verge of walking out.

The Commissioner also requested that he withdraw

his statement and apologise to the staff. He refused.

The situation was all around bad - embarrassing for the other members of the Restructuring Committee, offensive to staff who felt belittled and a shameful display of those with power and influence willing to use it in ways that disgrace our esteemed Minister as well as the Government of Guyana.

As one searches for some modicum of positiveness, the only item that emerges is that Hall has been unmasked to show him as he truly is - a man with a hidden motive to make changes within GFC to weed out all the current staff who apparently, at least according to him, are dunces, and bring in persons whom he handpicks.

This was the big reveal at

the meeting on Friday and was witnessed by 230 staff members of the Commission and several Board members.

What a disgrace that what could have been, and perhaps intended by some members of the Restructuring Committee, to be transparent and fair to GFC staff, turned out to be a full-on diatribe on the intelligence level of 230 progressive, talented and hardworking young people.

This was his instinctive response and a true reflection of his motivations for the restructuring of the GFC. Today, I hang my head in shame that we have come to this point at GFC; that with one sweeping statement by Hall, all current GFC staff fall in the category of stupid, and the most hurtful

irony of it all is that the future of these same staff are in the hands of Convener Clayton Hall.

Hall has brought embarrassment to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the honourable Minister Trotman, whom he represents.

He has shown his true colours as a partisan political operative who has motives that will not serve the GFC well, not on this restructuring process nor on any process in the future.

His judgement is not objective; he is not fair-minded nor is he open-minded.

If the Ministry of Natural Resources is well-intend-

ed on this restructuring process, they will consider forthwith, a more logical and transparent route to the restructuring, in resting this important activity to the GFC Board as the main body that oversees the Commission.

There is no other choice following the travesty of Friday and the poor reflection that Hall’s misstatements have on our esteemed subject Minister.

Staff are again calling on the Minister to put on hold the work of this Committee or have it led by someone else.

Sincerely, Concerned staff

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sUNday, april 28, 2019

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Foundation

For the school supply list: 25 ways to promote effort, attitude and respect

By Mary Ryerse

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ouldn’t it be cool if, especially this time of year, families and schools spent as much time thinking and talking about what students bring to the classroom from within (things like attitude, effort and respect) as those they carry in their backpacks (notebooks, devices, completed forms, crayons, passwords, etc.).

We’ve done a lot of thinking about student ownership and motivation, and how approaches such as project-based learning and place-based education can encourage student engagement.

It sounds pretty simple: see the good, work hard and be nice.

Let go of things you can’t control, focus on things you can.

In practice, most of us need reminders on how to best implement the ideas (at least, I do!). The particular ideas included focus primarily on how parents can promote powerful learning (check out the Smart Parents book, which right now you can download for free). Most ideas listed are appropriate for teachers to use in the classroom as well. When it comes down to it, it’s about training kids how to think about learning and themselves.

Parents and teachers can do a lot of things on a daily basis to encourage positive mindsets.

Whether talking about motivation, social-emotional skills (SEL), employability, non-cognitive skills or character strengths, student development is maximized when these concepts are reinforced at home and school.

As parents send kids back-to-school and teachers welcome students into their classrooms, there is naturally a heavy emphasis on logistics – school supplies, clothes, devices, locker combinations and schedules. This blog offers tips to also equip young people with very important mindsets as they head off to school.

One of the great things about attitude, effort and respect is that they all focus on what we can control (such as mindset) as opposed to what we cannot control (such as circumstances).

Positive attitudes toward learning, toward oneself, and towards others all matter. According to Steve Wilkinson, Hall-ofFame tennis coach and author (and the person who taught me and thousands of others these important life lessons), “It starts with attitude. No matter what the circumstance may be, we have the choice to be positive. Once our attitude is set, we position ourselves to give full effort in a positive direction.” * Encourage students to think of the new year as a fresh start. * Replace “What did you do at school?” with “What were two positive things that happened today?” * Post quotes connecting attitude and learning: “Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done instead of saying it can’t be done.” (Bo Bennett) * Then, encourage them to use technology, ideas and experiments to figure out how something can be done. * Recognise positive attitude. Use words like grit and perseverance (see more from Duckworth and Tough) * Unlock the benefits of a good attitude by showing gratitude and thanking your children. Send a positive text. * Model an attitude of a love for learning. Let your kids see you enjoy reading. * Say “I appreciate your good attitude” instead of just “good job.” * Rest is key to attitude. Ensure everyone gets an appropriate amount of sleep each night.

Attitude

* Ask “what can this become?” instead of “will it always be this way?” A good attitude sees possibilities.

Effort

Full effort is at the heart of Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset, encouraging people to “believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.” * Say things like “Give it your best” or “This may take a few tries.” * Ask “What was something you did today where you felt proud of how hard you tried?” * Use digital tools to maximize productivity and build ownership in learning. * Reinforce effort and process (not just outcomes) — “I noticed you’ve been preparing for that presentation for three nights and I bet you feel ready. Not sure what your grade will be, but I know you’ve worked hard at it.” * Leverage the fun built-in to apps that use gaming to motivate learning. * Recognise and build upon strengths. When kids are affirmed for what they CAN do, it can help when they face something more challenging. * Set students up for success with a regular time and place to do homework. * Likewise, establish guidelines for technology use. Use your phone to find information, not to socially text during homework time. * Make it easy to work hard and make sure they have tools to succeed. Digital tools are awesome and so are simple supplies. I have a friend who “decorates” her front hall table with a candy jar full of Post-it Notes, colourful flash cards, highlighters, device chargers, and other supplies–all are welcome to grab and use.

Respect

Treating others and oneself with respect changes communities and improves learning. * Encourage students to look each teacher in the eye and shake hands. * Be kind to others – be the first to reach out to new kids, include others. * Find the good in everyone you meet. * Think of how attitude influences respect. According to Clay Christensen, “If your attitude is such that you can only learn from some people, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.” * Use names like “scholar,” “student,” and “learner” as you talk with your child. Have fun with it “Scholar Simon…” * Give your children/students your undivided attention–spend time with them and be there. * Celebrate each others’ accomplishments in simple ways (i.e., special treat, verbal acknowledgment).

Some of these tips may not seem all that new–for example, setting a time and place for homework. However, when such practices are coupled with a statement such as, “We want you to have the best chance to succeed with the effort you are putting in…” the growth mindset is reinforced.

It can be fun when our kids show full effort and “succeed” – get picked for the right team, land a role in the play. It’s easy to feel proud and praise what they did along the way.

It’s more challenging – but even more important – to emphasise things like effort and attitude when things don’t go our way: when a test is failed, a concept not understood, a shot missed, an injury occurred, a learning disability is diagnosed or a relationship is strained with a friend. While those may not be things commonly posted on social media, times of challenge or suffering can provide opportunities to practice these mindsets.

A great acronym to remember these is EAR (Effort-AttitudeRespect). Just like a third base coach might tug on the ear to have a runner steal home, parents can tug on their ears as a friendly reminder. Or, switch it up and go with ARE and ask, “How ARE you choosing to live today?”

As I think of all the things we expect of ourselves as parents, especially as it relates to education–making and supporting the best possible decisions about where to go to school, monitoring daily homework, creating experiences to raise “well-rounded” individuals and more – it can feel daunting. However, by focusing first and foremost on the things we can control, it helps keep life in context. (www.gettingsmart.com)

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SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Ministerial Code of Conduct ineffective – TIGI President …should outline penalties for transgressions

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he Ministerial Code of Conduct, which was finalised in 2017 and was intended to hold Ministers to a certain standard while in office, seems not to have lived up to expectations. This is according to Transparency International of Guyana Inc Head, Dr Troy Thomas.

Dr Thomas was at the time making an appearance on the Globespan 24/7 live show in New York on Saturday, titled “Integrity in politics”. The anti-corruption advocate pointed to the recent accusations of conflict of interests levelled at Government Ministers.

According to Dr Thomas, the shortcomings of the code are evident.

“One of the biggest issues with the revised code of conduct is that it does not articulate a penalty. So I’m not sure it’s worth the paper it’s printed on. It has several things in it. But if you breach them, then what?

We don’t know and I think that needs to be articulated very clearly in there,” Dr Thomas said.

“When they released the draft initially, it did not have anything about resolving the conflict through the Integrity Commission, that’s something we had argued for. It was in the revised version.”

But Dr Thomas noted that also in the revised version were provisions for the conflicted person to take measures to resolve their problems themselves.

According to the anti-cor-

TIGI Head, Dr Troy Thomas

ruption advocate, these are things that should be determined by the Commission.

“The impunity is one of the greatest problems. So far, nobody has been convicted of all the things we found out… so far, there’s more of an incentive to take the risk and enrich yourself than do the right thing and remain poor,” Dr Thomas said.

The code of conduct is made up of 11 Articles.

Article One prohibits public officials from taking bribes, while Article Two focuses on discrimination. Article Three prohibits public officials from accepting “any gift, benefit or advantage from anyone, [except] personal gifts from a relative or friend”. This provision, it states, does not apply to gifts received on behalf of the State.

Article Five states: “No

public [official] shall use his or her official influence in support of any scheme or in furtherance of any contract or proposed contract or other matter in regard to which he or she has an interest”.

Article Six has provisions for ensuring confidentiality. It prohibits public officials from disclosing any information that is classified as privileged or confidential, to any unauthorised person. Article Seven prohibits officials from using public property such as money, equipment, supplies or services for unapproved purposes.

Article Nine prohibits public officials from accepting “lavish or frequent entertainment” from any person or entity that the Government has or may have dealings with. This, the Article notes, includes invitations to sporting events and concerts.

Article 10 prohibits officials from using their office in an improper manner for personal gain, while the final Article forbids anyone in public life from having outside employment “except with the written consent of the relevant authority”.

Conflict

Earlier this month, it was revealed that former Minister of Housing, Valarie Patterson-Yearwood’s husband, Godfrey Yearwood, was awarded a contract to build homes for a project spearheaded by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA); an

agency which she had responsibility over as Housing Minister.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had disclosed at a press conference earlier this month that the construction worker went to him after he had exhausted efforts to collect his payments from the Minister’s husband.

According to the Opposition Leader, the man had written President Granger four times over the past year for the Head of State’s intervention but only got acknowledgement responses.

Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing

and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Lelon Saul had revealed that he was aware of this issue of non-payment.

“A complaint was lodged at the Ministry, I think it was sometime last year, and we would have called in both parties and we advised them to settle the issue,” Saul told reporters earlier this month.

Further, the CH&PA Head had also noted that the award of the contract to the Minister’s husband for works under a Ministry she was heading was a clear conflict of interest even if the contract was awarded through a competitive bidding process.

“If the contractor in question is the spouse of the Minister, certainly it would be a conflict of interest,” he posited.

To this end, the CH&PA Head called for a review of the awarding process so that there is no reoccurrence of such a situation.

It is a call that was echoed by other sections of society, including Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. There have also been revelations that Videomega Productions, the multi-media company owned by Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes, received multiple contracts from the Government.

APNU/AFC’s honouring of...

The motion states: “Be it resolved that this National Assembly records its deep regret on the death of Mr Abdul Kadir on 28th June, 2018, and pays tribute to his dedicated service to the Parliament of Guyana as a Member of Parliament, where he served in the Eighth Parliament, from 17th April, 2001 to 2nd May, 2006, and to the people of Guyana.

It was tabled in the absence of the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) - Members of Parliament, who all boycotted the sitting as the Government’s very legality is to be decided on by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which is hearing No confidence related cases

next month.

The motion, which was eventually carried in the absence of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition.

In a Daily Mail article written last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was quoted as saying that Kadir and his co-conspirators “believed their attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the New York economy, as well as the loss of numerous lives.”

An NBC news article had quoted Russel DeFreitas, one of the suspects, as saying that the airport was targeted due to its symbolism.

According to the article, DeFreitas and his co-conspirators were motivated by

from page 3

hatred against the United States and Israel.

Meanwhile, New York Times coverage of Kadir’s trial in the US had reported prosecutors as saying that the terror suspects were planning to cause a catastrophe that would have overshadowed the terror attack against the World Trade center in 2001 that killed thousands.

Kadir, a former People’s National Congress (PNC) Member of Parliament and Mayor of Linden, died back in June 2018 in a penitentiary in the United States of America, where he had been serving a life sentence for plotting a 2007 terror attack at the John F Kennedy International Airport, New York.

8 news Bartica Mayor accused of raping make-up artist A SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

Bartician make-up artist, Arian Dahlia Richmond, has taken to social media to highlight an alleged rape incident, which she claims took place when she was a teenager contesting in a beauty pageant.

The young woman took to her Facebook page and detailed the alleged rape and named Mayor of Bartica, Gifford Marshall as her rapist.

In the post, which has since gone viral, the makeup artist states, “On the night Gifford Marshall raped me, he told me of an instance he stepped into the Bartica’s Police Station and aiding the release of (name withheld) after he was accused of beating and raping a girl who decided to leave the relationship”.

In her social media post, the young woman accused the Mayor of being “a strategic politician so he said this to ensure I knew the extent of his power”.

“I wasn’t surprised when he posted he’ll launch an investigation knowing fully well he is one of the perpetrators,” the young woman posted on her Facebook account on Friday morning.

She went on to say that during August 2018, the Bartica Town Council offered a space to facilitate 60+ students at Bartica’s Youth Camp and a parttime job for her to “uplift the image of the council”.

“Here I was stripped of

Bartica Mayor Gifford Marshall

Arian Dahlia Richmond

“I have since brought this allegation to the attention of my attorney and the Police, it is now engaging their attention.

I categorically deny any such allegation.

Many thanks to all of you for your prayers and support” – Mayor Gifford Marshall my self-worth by the constant sexual and verbal abuse meted. Power drunk men will do anything to maintain their image and they do this by manipulation.

Many are under the guise that I’m the only person that was harmed but the other girls and boys have been strategically stripped of their confidence so how can they speak their truth?” the young lady posted.

In a previous post on her

Facebook page, Richmond also pointed out why she did not make a police report at the time of the alleged rape and other forms of harassment.

“I have not highlighted names, made a report, nor accepted interviews because I fear for my safety. Albeit, it is not an easy task to bear your truth especially in a small country and even smaller town where there is a constant fight between good and evil, may integrity pre-

vail.”

M e a n w h i l e , Commander of F Division (Interior locations), Kevin Adonis when contacted told this publication that there is no report of Richmond’s alleged rape.

He confirmed that he personally contacted Crime Chief and Deputy Police Commissioner, Lyndon Alves to enquire whether the said allegation of rape was reported to any other police station in the country.

However, Commander Adonis stated that after multiple checks, it was clear that Richmond is yet to make an official report to the police.

“Social media can be good and it can be bad but if you were raped, it does not matter how long ago it occurred, you can still make a report. In fact, you don’t have to go to a police station near you, you can go to any police station and make that report there, it’s your right.

It will be investigated,” the Commander said.

On Saturday, the Crime Chief told this publication that the Police Force is yet to receive a report from the alleged rape victim about her allegation.

Independent probe

Meanwhile, former Deputy Mayor of Bartica, Kamal Persaud, who worked directly with Mayor Marshall, told this newspaper that an independent investigation into such an allegation needs to be done immediately.

“I am calling for a full investigation into this matter because it is not a light allegation being made, it is an allegation of rape, and, therefore, it is only fair to have an independent investigation to bring closure and justice in this situation.

I also support Dahlia for coming forward since doing so, and even going to social media as her medium to publicise it, takes courage. This is unfortunate and I understand how the Mayor would feel as well, but only an independent probe can ascertain what really transpired and if the story is true or false,” the former Deputy Mayor said.

Denial

Meanwhile, Mayor Marshall took to his Facebook page on Saturday morning acknowledging the rape allegation made against him that has gone viral on social media.

“I have since brought this allegation to the attention of my attorney and the police, it is now engaging their attention. I categorically deny any such allegation. Many thanks to all of you for your prayers and support,” Marshall’s post read.

PNC signalling…

A

…terrorists as heroes

pril 26 will go down as a day of infamy in the history of Guyana. It was the day when the PNC and its cohorts in the AFC – acting as the GOVERNMENT OF GUYANA - voted unanimously in our National Assembly to acclaim Abdul Kadir, a convicted terrorist AGAINST THE USA, as a “great man, a stalwart, a bold and courageous man.”

They did this in the absence of the PPP MPs, who had stayed away from the sitting as they awaited the ruling of the CCJ on whether 33 wasn’t greater than 32.

In case you, dear reader, have forgotten about Kadir’s notorious act, which brought dishonour and opprobrium upon our country, the man was cold-blooded enough to plot to blow up fuel tanks at JFK Airport in NY in 2007. This was a mind-boggling act of savagery that could’ve resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans, to surpass the carnage wrought by those terrorists who had brought down the World Trade Center Towers.

Kadir and his accomplices were thwarted only because the FBI had infiltrated his terrorist cell and had recorded them callously planning their attack on one of the busiest airports in the US and, indeed, the world.

With his subsequent conviction, Kadir placed Guyana on the US watch list as a haven for terrorists who’ve defined the US as their mortal enemy. And now the PNC-Government has given an official seal of approval to Kadir’s cowardly planned attack on US civilians!!

What in the world is going on in the collective minds of the PNC?? It’s one thing for them to approve of the actions of the 2002 Mash Day terrorists, who holed up in Buxton to wage war against the PPP Government by attacking innocent Guyanese citizens in neighbouring villages. They could justify that bunch as “Freedom Fighters” for their traditional constituency, since those killed were mostly Policemen and citizens from the “PPP’s constituency”.

But what will they say to the US?? They can’t even blame them for staging a coup in 1964, since that CIA operation had thrown out the PPP and ensconced them into Government -- where they rigged themselves in office for the next 28 years!!

No…what the PNC has done, instead of creating jobs Lindeners, they have placate the radicals there - with an eye to the next elections - is to tell a world that just witnessed tit-for-tat terrorist actions in New Zealand and Sri Lanka that Guyana is not only a haven for terrorists, but they’ll get official recognition!!

The PPP has rightfully denounced this act of treason against the Guyanese state and World Peace. Your Eyewitness hopes other law-abiding countries - not just the US - will follow suit.

…rewards for ministerial corruption

Well, you don’t have to believe your Eyewitness’s exposition from yesterday on the hypocrisy of the PNC’s game of musical chairs, which purported to address the tsunami of corruption sweeping over their administration. Here it is, straight from the mouth of one of the horses: Minister Valerie Yearwood, formerly from Housing, whose husband received a number of contracts from the CH&PA -- which falls under her bailiwick -- had this to say about Granger’s “shakeup”, which included her.

“It isn’t [a demotion]. What is the demotion? My salary is not affected, [nor are] my allowances; nothing is affected.” She insisted it was actually a “promotion”!!

Well, she’s absolutely correct on that score!! After all, she’ll now be controlling all agricultural development in rural areas with a focus on “youths” – read, “PNC youths”! In this way, she now gets a larger budget, from which she can hand out grants and “aid” for projects that traditionally are hotbeds of corruption.

How many times haven’t the PNC launched these same kinds of programmes? Remember the co-ops from the 1970s??

…stagnation

The latest IDB Report is a standing indictment on the PNC’s economic programme (such as it is!) for growth.

Once again, they insisted, “The energy sector hinders private sector development.”

Yet no Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project!!

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

news

9

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Son, son-in-law of senior Region 9 official get millions worth of contracts

The Region Nine administration has previously been flagged by the Audit Office for procurement violations

T

he award of a number of contracts by the Regional Tender Board in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) has raised eyebrows, particularly as the recipient of these contracts are close relatives of a high-ranking regional official.

According to documents seen by Guyana Times, the recipient of one such contract is the son of the senior regional official. According to the documents seen, he was awarded a $4 million contract through selective tendering for the construction of sanitary blocks at the Kumu Nursery School in Region Nine.

Another contract was awarded to the same individual was for maintenance work to the Lethem Sub Treasury Office, to the tune of $489,000.

This contract was also awarded by selective tendering, a case in which the contractor has been invited to tender for a project.

Meanwhile, another contractor was the recipient of a $2.1 million contract to carry out repairs on the Baitoon Primary school sanitary block. The contractor, who is reportedly the official’s sonin-law, was awarded this contract through selective tendering.

Documents also show

that he received an even larger contract worth $6.1 million to carry out repairs at the health post at Shea Village, also in Region Nine.

This would come at a time when there are rising calls for a policy that will guard against conflicts of interest to be created. Observers have criticised the Ministerial Code of Conduct for lacking teeth and distinct penalties.

Meanwhile, the Integrity Commission has complained previously about not having investigators.

Region Nine

Region Nine has long been a hot button region when its administration is called upon to answer for procurement violations at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly. The Audit Office of Guyana has previously red flagged the region.

According to the Auditor General’s 2016 report, a sum of $73.871 million was budgeted for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies under the Health Services Programme for 2016. It stated that amounts totalling $63.871 million were expended as at December 31, 2016.

“Included in the amount of $63.871 million are two

Business Ministry calls for persons to report stolen scrap metal

T

he Scrap Metal Unit (SMU) of the Business Ministry has called on the general populace to report any cases of stolen metal, which would have occurred over the past week.

The notice, which was published in the daily newspapers, stated that a detailed description of the items stolen must be reported and will be shared to the scrap metal dealers. All information can be sent to the Sophia Exhibition Centre, Dennis Street, Greater Georgetown.

Scrap metal is easy to sell and somewhat untraceable since it can be converted to other products.

Back in January, it was announced that legislation to

monitor the trade was in the final stage and would be presented to the National Assembly.

The ban was temporarily lifted in February 2017, after it was imposed in June 2015.

Former Business Minister Dominic Gaskin revealed in September last year that Government would be reopening the trade of scrap metal for three-month stints at a time until the relevant legislation was tabled.

In June 2018, he had said that the new legislation was taken to Cabinet and approved at that level.

The next step, he had noted, would have been to approach the National Assembly. turn to page 16

inter-departmental warrants (IDW) valued $58 million (and) issued in August and November 2016 in the sums of $48 million and $10 million respectively to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to purchase drugs and medical supplies on behalf of the regional administration.

With respect to the warrant of $48 million, the regional administration received a financial return indicating that the full amount was expended.

However, although drugs and medical supplies were received by the regional administration, the cost was not stated on the documentation that accompanied the deliveries”, the report detailed.

“As a result, it could not be determined whether the full value was received for the sum warranted to MoPH – 902. With respect to the warrant of $10 million, the regional administration received a ‘nil’ financial return

indicating that the amount was unexpended, as such, the Appropriation Account was credited with the unspent amount of $10 million.”

The Audit Office had recommended that the regional

administration put systems in place to reconcile supplies received by the respective health facilities with the drugs’ list initially submitted. It had also advised that the region obtain the

cost of the drugs and medical supplies from the MoPH, so as to reconcile the value of the drugs and medical supplies received with that of the sum warranted to the Ministry.

10 news

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Bandits beat, rob Berbice businesswoman

A

54-year-old businesswoman has been left traumatised and is now nursing wounds to her body after she was beaten by one of the three armed gunmen who invaded her business premises.

Reports are that Yassodra Singh of Lot 21 East Canefield, East Canje, Berbice, was in her grocery shop, which is situated at the lower flat of her two-storied home, when men pounced on her at about 08:45h. At the time of the incident, the woman’s nine and 10-yearold grandchildren were with her and witnessed the robbery.

Guyana Times was told that the lone male entered the Andrew Singh Grocery shop under the pretext of purchasing chicken feed.

Speaking with this publication, the woman relat-

Businesswoman, Yassodra Singh

ed that as she was weighing the chicken feed, the man asked her for a bottle of water.

She said she immediately went to get the water but as she got to the door, she was pushed to the ground by

the man, who by then was masked and brandishing a handgun.

“He tell me pass up the money and the gold. By this time a next one come in and go and start tumble up the whole shop. He jock off the apron from me,” the woman related.

She related that the apron had in excess of $50,000.

However, although she complied with their demands, the man, who had initially posed as a customer, proceeded to choke her and then dealt several kicks about her body.

“Me still lie down on the floor and then he tell the other one to carry me upstairs because they ain’t get nothing yet. And I tell them that I ain’t get more money or gold upstairs.”

According to Singh, she

Andrew Singh Grocery located at East Canefield, East Canje, Berbice, which was robbed

was then dragged up the stairs which lead to the upper flat.

However, her maid, on realising what was happening, dashed to the door leading to the upper flat and locked herself inside the house.

The maid then climbed through a window at the front of the house and jumped onto a shed and made it into the neighbour’s yard where she raised an alarm.

“By the time she doing that, one of them run and come outside and sit down in the hammock with my two grandchildren and ask them where the money is.

My grandson tell them look the bucket with the money down there because he tell them that if they don’t talk he gon shoot them,” Singh related.

According to her, the bucket contained over $140,000 along with close to $50,000 worth of phone cards.

The bandits then made their escape and boarded an awaiting white motorcar.

Eyewitnesses said that after the alarm was raised, they immediately called the Reliance Police Station.

“Two times I call the Reliance Police Station and I didn’t get no response and

then I call Central Police Station in New Amsterdam and they answer,” a neighbour related.

According to the source, there was a quick response from Central Police Station.

“Afterwards the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] from New Amsterdam and then the patrol from Reliance come.”

The Reliance Police Station is situated less than one mile away from Andrew Singh’s Grocery. Earlier this month, another businesswoman from East Canje, Berbice, was robbed.

On April 13 last, three men, armed with guns and a cutlass, barged into Indra’s Grocery, Beer Garden and Super Bet business on Galaxy Street, Canefield, East Canje, Berbice.

The armed trio ordered the customers to lie on the floor while they emptied their pockets of cash and valuables.

They then went to the home of the business owners and took cash and jewellery.

They then stole a car key from a customer in the shop and escaped with the vehicle. Police recovered the vehicle at the Edinburgh Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice.

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SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

$1.8B power plant commissioned at Anna Regina

Privations, arrivals and departures

W

ith “Indian Arrival Day” some two weeks away, and against a background of 7000 mostly Indian Guyanese fired sugar workers struggling to survive at Wales, Rose Hall, and Skeldon, we revisit the devastating conditions that brought Indians here as immigrants.

Sadly, after the depredations of the PNC -- starting from the 1970s -- had worked to replicate those conditions, a second migration of Indian Guyanese to the Caribbean, Suriname, Venezuela, the US, Canada and elsewhere was initiated; and this has again become intensified.

Deteriorating conditions in Venezuela have forced several thousand Indian Guyanese persons and their children to return, and they have added to the struggle for survival in the rural areas.

Most of the 19th century immigrants - some 90 per cent - originated in the Bhojpuri belt of the United Provinces (now Ravi Dev Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), while the remainder came from the Madras Presidency. The question arises as to why these persons left their country when their customs forbade “crossing the “Black Waters” (Kala Pani)”, which made them lose their place in the community. The short answer is: it was ultimately a matter of life and death, and they chose life, tenuous as that would become.

While “indentured labour” might today be seen as a transitory passage of commercialised human labour from African chattel slavery to the so-called “free labour” of today, the conditions that herded Indians into that option were man-made. The sugar planters had no faith that free Africans would sell their labour at a rate to make sugar profitable. They therefore actively sought a new supply that would guarantee such cheap labour on demand. But where would such rates exist that could not attract freed slaves but yet be a “pull factor” for indentureship? The answer was British India.

The story begins in 1757, when the troops of the British East India Company captured Bengal from the Moguls and completed their inexorable conquest of the legendarily rich India within 50 years. Less than a decade later, between 1768 and 1771, from Bengal and Bihar - from where most Guyanese immigrants originated - more than 10 million persons, one third of the population, died from a “famine”. Why? Two reasons.

Firstly, the farmers who supplied the bulk of the population with foodstuff were forced by the British into producing cash crops for export, even while they were forced to pay onerous taxes at the threat of death and violence. Remember “Lagaan”?

We quote the words of then British Governor Warren Hastings, who boasted to the Home Office: “Notwithstanding the loss of at least one-third of the inhabitants of the province, and the consequent decrease of the cultivation, the nett collections of the year 1771 exceeded even those of I768… It was naturally to be expected that the diminution of the revenue should have kept an equal pace with the other consequences of so great a calamity. That it did not was owing to its being violently kept up to its former standard.”

The cash crops the farmers were forced to grow included cotton, opium, indigo; and as described above, this was simply to keep paying off the extortionate demands of the British, who exported rice and wheat even during the famines. Millions were also thrown out of work when the British forbade Indian weavers from producing cotton yarn and the cotton fabrics that had enthralled Europe. Henceforth, only cotton woven

by British looms could be sold in India! From where were the weavers to get the money to buy food, much less clothes?

Incidentally, Britain became the largest drug dealers up to the present, where the opium – up to 800 tons annually – was shipped to China so that the British could buy Chinese tea for their ”cuppa”, sweetened by our sugar.

Between the Bengal famine of 1768 and the end of Indentureship in 1917, conservatively, over 54 million Indians perished from famine. In the book “Late Victorian Holocausts” (2001), Mike Davis describes how Viceroy Lord Lytton insisted that wheat be exported to England. In 1877 and 1878, at the height of the famine, when 10.3 million persons perished, grain merchants exported a record 800,000 tons of wheat and 1.9 million tons of rice. As the peasants began to starve, officials were ordered “to discourage relief works in every possible way”.

And this is why the upsurge of indentured Indians correlated with the British-induced famines in India. And the closure of sugar estates by the PNC Government has history repeating itself today, as farce.

T

he long overdue 5.4-megawatt power station was commissioned on Saturday morning at Anna Regina, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

Three of the Caterpillar generators will be stationed permanently at the powerhouse on standby in case of emergency or servicing, thus avoiding long periods of power outages. The new generators were in operation since December 2018 as part of a testing period and were handed over on Saturday after approval.

The new power plant was commissioned by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who urged engineers of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to take good care of the equipment.

He noted that the three generators have a life span of over 20 years and with a capacity of 5.4 megawatts, they will be able to supply the entire Essequibo Coast at peak hours with kilowatts to spare.

Meanwhile, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson told residents that they will now receive a more stable and reliable flow of electricity.

Patterson added that the foundation for a fourth generator is already in place and that Government will soon be importing another generator to take care of the growing needs in the region.

In 2017 and 2018, residents living along the Essequibo Coast were plagued with a series of nonstop power outages, which have affected persons throughout the region. At the time, residents had said that they had lost faith in the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) which they said was incapable of ending their woes.

In 2018, only two of the five standby generators at the Anna Regina Power Station were up and running. As such, engineers are appointed to work on a 24hour shift.

It was related that residents have been affected by this issue, which is a major inconvenience. Additionally, the business community in

The new power plant at Anna Regina

the region had complained about the significant losses which are incurred, since frozen items thaw and spoil.

Further, this publication was told at the time that there was a heavy cost attached to running individual standby generators and the high fuel prices were adding to the burden of residents as well as the wider business community.

In August 2018, the Essequibo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCI) had called on Government to intervene to alleviate the blackout situation since residents, especially the business sector, expressed their fear of losing millions of dollars in cool storage items.

ECCI President, Suean Seewnarayan had told

Guyana Times that the commerce in the region was collapsing due to the poor service offered by GPL. She revealed that businesses were dumping products and those who have standby generators are pumping thousands of dollars into fuel and maintenance costs.

The Chamber had said Government was silent on the very important issue.

12 NEWS

SUnDAY, APRIL 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

US commits to help Guyana realise its potential …Ambassador lauds collaboration on security front

N

ewly appointed United States Ambassador, SarahAnn Lynch, said her country is committed to helping Guyana realise its full potential, especially with the impending oil and gas industry.

During a welcome reception at her residence on Friday evening, Ambassador Lynch noted that it is clear that all of Guyana wants to be part of the tremendous opportunities that await the country in the near future.

“We all have a lot of important work to do – each in our own way – and, I want you to know that the United States will work hard to continue to be a key partner of Guyana’s to help it realise its potential both in Guyana and the region – our collective neighbourhood,” she stated.

To this end, the US Diplomat told stakeholders gathered at the reception that she will continue to work to ensure Guyana’s development.

“We will continue to partner with the Government and all relevant actors on the prosperity front – to help

this country create an enabling environment where trade and investment will abound and the country and all of its citizens will thrive,” she posited.

Moreover, Ambassador Lynch further pledged her country’s continued support to Guyana, especially in the security sector, which can see favourable results through collaboration. In fact, she noted that the recent extradition of US fugitive, Troy Thomas, is evidence of this.

“We will continue to partner with Guyana on the important security front. This past week US and Guyanese security collaboration made history as we worked together on the highly successful extradition of the alleged murderer; the first extradition in well over a decade. We will continue to partner on the governance front to adhere to the rule of law and to strengthen institutions, both governmental and non-governmental to become more transparent and accountable,” the US envoy said.

Thomas fled to Guyana after allegedly murdering

US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch addressing the gathering at her welcome reception on Friday

Keith Frank, 20, a Guyanese who was shot and killed on December 11, 2011, at Richmond Hill, New York.

He has also been accused of inflicting injuries upon Dr Katherine Maloney.

Since 2012, authorities in the US had issued a wanted bulletin for the murder suspect. As such, in 2018, US Attorney General and Secretary of State sent an extradition request to the Guyana Government, which

was served to the Foreign Affairs Ministry by the country’s Embassy here.

As a result of the request, Thomas was apprehended by the Guyana Police Force last year and was kept in custody at the Lusignan Prison. In committing Thomas for extradition, a Georgetown Magistrate, among other things, ruled that she believed the fugitive was Troy Thomas, although he insisted that his name was Marvin Williams.

However, Thomas moved to the High Court to further block his extradition.

He challenged, among other things, his “illegal” confine-

Extradited criminal: Troy Thomas

ment and argued in an affidavit that he is being unlawfully detained and subjected to legal processes unsupported by any legal basis or foundation.

Thomas applied to the court for leave to issue a writ of habeas corpus, directing the Commissioner of Police to show cause why he should not be immediately released.

However, High Court Judge, Justice Navindra Singh dismissed the application by the prisoner. He ruled on April 4, 2019, that there is sufficient evidence against Thomas to warrant his extradition to the US.

In addition, Thomas was ordered to pay $450,000 in court costs.

The extradition took effect on Wednesday after Thomas did not appeal the High Court ruling.

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan explained to Guyana Times that because there was no appeal within the stipulated timeframe, he gave the order for the US fugitive to be handed over to authorities there.

After being taken back to the US, Thomas was charged with second degree murder on Thursday in a US Court.

NEWS

13

SUnDAY, APRIL 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

IATA has overreached its authority – CJIA

…says body has no legitimacy to request info on fee increase

T

he Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation (CJIAC) has lashed out at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), saying that it has overreached its authority by wanting the airport to justify the need for the increases.

The Cheddi Jagan International Airport announced that effective from April 1, 2019, there will be an increase in its Government-mandated airport security fees and the introduction of an airport passenger’s service charge.

According to Caribbean Airlines, one of the international companies operating out of CJIA, this new development would see the fees/charges for a round trip raised to US$35, an equivalent of $7315. Departing passengers will be required to pay US$17 while arriving passengers will pay US$15, payable in Guyana Dollars at the prevailing foreign exchange rate.

The CJIA had explained that these increases are to support improvements at the airport. With $2 billion budgeted in capital works for 2019/2020 to improve the services offered to passengers and airport stakeholders, a larger terminal and passenger boarding bridges created a significant increase in operational cost inclusive of power con-

sumption.

IATA criticisms

However, days later, IATA criticised the management of CJIA for refusing to hold talks about the adverse impact of the increases on both the passengers and the airline, while asking for an explanation as to how the fees and charges have been calculated.

But according to the CJIAC in a lengthy statement on Saturday, “IATA in seeking to have CJIAC justify the increases to them have sought to exercise a regulatory function it does not have. In so doing, IATA has overreached its authority”.

Insisting that the in-

creases were in accordance with the Public Corporations Act, the CJIAC Order, relevant International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommendations, and the Air Carrier Agreements between the airport and the airlines, the CJIAC posited that IATA is unaware of laws and agreements by which the airport is bound.

No legal obligation

According to the airport corporation, despite not

having any legal obligation to engage IATA, it has responded to many queries raised by IATA and even met with its representatives in Canada back in February.

Further, the CJIAC posited that the global air transport body has no legitimacy in asking the airport for the presentation it made to its Board or line Ministry for the increase of fees so that they could better understand the reason for the fee increase.

“IATA, without any cloak or shroud of legitimacy, is demanding that CJIAC make what can only be characterised as an airport fee application filing to them, providing full justification and explanation of the basis on which the fees have been determined,” the Timehri-based airport asserted.

The CJIAC went on to point out that as a public corporation, it is prohibited at the penalty of law from,

among other things, providing information to entities for the purpose of certifying the basis on which the corporation determined the fees it would charge. Much less, it added, in this case where there is no legal relationship between IATA and CJIAC. “CJIAC would like to assure the travelling public that there is no legal requirement for it to make an application to IATA for the introduction or increase in airport fees. Further, there is no legal requirement that CJIAC provide the information requested by IATA. This notwithstanding, CJIAC has engaged with IATA as a matter of courtesy on numerous occasions,” the airport corporation stated.

According to CJIAC, it has met and discussed with the airlines operating out of the Timehri Airport, the proposed fee increases since October 2018, where most

airlines indicated they preferred having the fees included in the ticket price.

However, the airport explained that not all airlines plying the Guyana route are IATA members and those non-IATA airlines make their own arrangements that have airport fees collected and paid over to the CJIAC. “As far as CJIAC is aware, Caribbean Airlines is the only IATA member that is presently collecting the new fees from the travelling public. The other airlines seem to have taken a different approach,” it stated.

The airport corporation went on to outline that in keeping with the provisions of the terms and conditions of the Air Carrier Agreements between the airport and the airlines, it gave the airlines two months’ notice of the fee increases and more than a month later, Caribbean Airlines respond-

ed to its letter making a series of demands of the airport including a demand for A Caribbean Duty Free Lounge, a Club Caribbean Lounge and designated customer service centres, where refreshments can be offered during delayed flights, or early morning or late night services. CAL also requested that the fee implementation be delayed to July 1, 2019, a date more than five months after the notification of increases in January 2019.

According to the CJIAC, this is not the first time there are airport fees and charges increases and there was never any objection or interference by IATA during previous instances. “The Airport does not know what agenda IATA is adopting, but it is inconsistent with the laws of Guyana, the Air Carrier Agreements and ICAO recommendations in cases where there are valid Air Carrier Agreements. turn to page 14

14 news

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019| guyanatimesgy.com

Man nabbed in hotel with over 80 cocaine pellets

EPA- Joining the celebration for Occupational Safety and Health Month 2019

…gun, ammo found

A

man was nabbed with in excess of 80 cocaine pellets while inside of an East Coast Demerara (ECD) hotel on Saturday.

The pellets weighed 900 grams.

According to a source, the pellets were intended to be swallowed by another person, who was to board an international flight that was leaving Guyana later in the day.

Guyana Times understands that after the man was nabbed, he led investigators to the ECD residence of another male. Ranks then swooped down on the house

and a search revealed an unlicensed firearm, along with ammunition.

As a result, two other persons were also taken into custody as Police launched a search for another suspect.

The man, who is yet to be arrested by the Police, is believed to be the mastermind behind the cocaine pellets that were intended to be smuggled.

Meanwhile, ranks of the Guyana Police Force's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) are continuing their investigations into the matters.

Staff during the vaccination drive

The cocaine pellets that were found in the hotel room

IATA has overreached its...

It appears that IATA intends to interfere with the contractual relations between CJIAC and its customer airlines including those which are not IATA members,” it noted.

CJIAC further contended that had IATA acted with the

alacrity and competence it usually displays, the fee codes could have been fully implemented by April 1, 2019.

Unilateral measure

Last week, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has

slammed the unilateral measure and the downgraded specifications of the airport expansion project.

The former President criticised the fact that these new charges were sprung on passengers without any consultation.

from page 13

“At the Airport now there is confusion if you call, long delays.

These charges were sprung upon us, without any consultation with the airlines or anyone else. And what are we paying back for?”

Staff engaged in the mental health talk

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n the workplace, health and safety are paramount to the well-being of the employees and the employer. Many hazards are present in today's work environments, and it is the employer's role, as well as the employees’ responsibility, to be safe from these hazards. In Guyana, April is designated Occupational Safety and Health Month. The 28th day of this month is set aside as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. In Guyana, the Ministry of Social Protection, Department of Labour, is the lead agency in this regard.

Further, inclusive of an annual Awareness Walk, this year, a number of activities have been organised to raise awareness on the benefits of improved occupational safety and health (OSH) mechanisms in the workplace. The EPA executed activities as part of OSH Month celebrations, including a mental health talk and vaccination drive.

Work-life balance Organisations play a crucial role in ensuring workers’ health and safety are protected. In this regard, the Environmental Protection Agency took a proactive approach to organising sessions to help engender a health and safety-literate and conscious population. A mental health talk was conducted by Psychologist from the Ministry of Public Health, Mental Health Unit, Mosa Hutson-Prince. Mrs. Hutson-Prince delivered to a packed staff audience her presentation focusing on creating a balance between work and personal life.

Some of the recommendations given to staff to help achieve this balance included: • Inculcating positive and healthy lifestyle habits both at work and at home; and • Engaging in regular exercise, healthy eating habits, and practising effective communication.

She also posited that even though mental health professionals are highly trained to offer advice and support to individuals, it is up to the individual to take the necessary measures to protect and maintain their mental health.

Vaccination drive Additionally, a vaccination drive was also carried out at the Agency’s Ganges Street, Sophia Office. Healthcare providers from the Ministry of Public Health -- Campbellville Health Centre -- facilitated this initiative. This service was well received by staff from the EPA and the Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission, since a large portion of the staff had accessed such services more than 15 years ago. Staff were able to benefit from vaccines against tetanus, measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), the hepatitis ‘B’ virus and yellow fever. Head of the visiting team, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer Ms. Nalini Das-Sutton, highlighted the importance of vaccination as a means of eradicating many infectious diseases; and, more importantly, as a preventative healthcare measure to protect public health. Nurse Das-Sutton also explained that even if you had received the vaccines you needed as a child, the protection from some vaccines can wear off, and you may also be at risk for other diseases due to your job, lifestyle, travel, or health conditions.

Each year, the International Labour Organization (ILO), main advocate of the observances, selects a theme, which we embrace to signify the cut-and-thrust of safety initiatives within the realm of work. This year, that theme is: “Safety and health and the future of work”, which highlights the ILO centenary anniversary and discussions on the future of work. Particularly, the world day this year looks back on 100 years of work in improving occupational safety and health, and looks to the future for continuing these efforts through major changes such as technology; demographics; and sustainable development, including climate change and changes in work organisation.

You can share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment”, C/O ECEA Programme, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, GEORGETOWN, or email us at: eit.epaguyana@gmail. com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

15 Errant business owners paying owed taxes – M&CC’s PRO F news

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Current political situation: Nailing the unemployment lie (Part 2)

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his is a continuation from the contentions put forward last week on this subject matter. On the other suggestion put forward, the one having to do with farming, opportunities exist in the supply of fruits etc., and indeed those are good initiatives; but as far as this author is aware (and I stand corrected), no lands were transferred to the ownership of these workers, as was promised to them, to get into farming of other crops. This notwithstanding, while the idea sounds ambitious, in practice there are some completely different peculiarities altogether.

Again, hypothetically, if a few thousands of these people do get into farming, who will they sell to? The process to convert cane lands into alternative agricultural lands would attract a financial cost which sugar workers and farmers would certainly not be able to bear. Consideration must be given to what other crops will be planted. There is excessive production of the common provisions and cash crops, and lack of export market for these produce is another concern.

In addition, without value-added mechanisms in place, excessive production would ultimately lead to wastage and depressed pricing.

There is also the other initiative of training with new skills, such as carpentry, plumbing, and so on; as the sacked workers themselves said – speaking to the press not too long ago – how much work will they get as carpenters, and how often?

Most of the homes already have plumbing. Ironically, too, the administration of the day has squashed the housing drive that was pioneered under the previous administration, which had seen thousands of homes being built and the development of huge housing schemes and other such like developments across the country – a time when there was virtually a housing or construction boom.

So it is very ironic that there is no substantive policy to fuel a construction boom in which carpenters and other tradesmen could have a steady flow of work, and ultimately income to support their livelihoods.

In the most basic sense, demand side policies versus supply side policies in the context of GuySuCo’s fiasco is such that, in order for there to be sustained and increasing demand for goods and services in an economy, the consumers need to have the spending power. More disposable income drives a demand which in turn propels economic growth.

On the supply side of things, if people don’t have the spending power, how will businesses get sales? Sales will fall, which could also lead to unemployment. If someone decides to invest $500,000 into a business, selling clothing or any other commodity or venture, if people don’t have money to spend and support that business/investment, then it will simply fail.

That being said, advising the sacked sugar workers to take their severance and invest in a business is totally nonsensical.

Who will buy? Who have the power to buy?

This author understands that the sugar workers were also advised to invest in stocks; meaning, shares in companies on the local stock exchange. Again, this is hilarious. If one were to invest one million dollars in shares, first of all, companies are not necessarily obligated to pay dividends; that depends on the financial state and strategic plans of the company; and return on that would be very minimal or insignificant, bearing in mind that dividends are paid only once or twice a year. People invest in those kinds of investments only when they have excess cash or liquidity. This means that they have a steady flow of monthly income to maintain their normal lifestyles, pay their bills, travel, go on a vacation, party, have properties and vehicles, enjoy a good quality of life, could afford to send their children to school and university, and still have excess cash; which would more or less be in a savings account.

It is those savings - referred to as excess cash - that are usually invested in company shares and other financial instruments in the financial markets.

And last, but not least, this retrenchment will cost the economy approximately $10 billion in income distribution annually, which in turn is utilised for consumer spending.

Consumer spending fuels economic growth; sustains the livelihoods of businesses, such as retailers, the fisher man, the taxi driver, hire car drivers, minibus operators, the vendors on the streets, the village shops, and the wider retail and distribution sector, in addition to spending in their own village economies; and the list goes on.

And this is how approximately 40,000 plus dependents are affected adversely in ways that will have far-reaching implications for the economy. Unemployment will increase, poverty will be on the rise, and social and economic hardships will be activated for a wide cross-section of the Guyanese people, and by extension the economy.

(For comments, questions and responses on articles featured in this column, readers can reach the author at jbinsights@outlook.com).

ollowing an announcement by the Mayor of Georgetown that over 140 businesses in Georgetown owed taxes to City Hall, several of these errant business persons have since settled their accounts with the Mayor and City Council.

This is according to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Debra Lewis. She told Guyana Times on Saturday that the Council has embarked on a campaign and has been engaging the Private Sector on the issue.

Several business owners have also enquired about the possibly of setting up payment plans to reduce the taxes owed to the Council.

“As it relates to rates even as the information is out there, persons are coming in and if it’s not to pay the rates they are seeking information as to how they can liquidate their accounts in this regard,” she explained.

Lewis noted that the M&CC looks forward to a

growing partnership with the Private Sector.

She nevertheless reminded that some $8 billion is collectively owed by those business owners.

Earlier this month, Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine called a press conference where he disclosed that just about 144 business proprietors have failed to pay taxes which attributes to the build-up of garbage in Georgetown.

“There is only one trac-

tor we have at this moment to remove all those skip bins and that tractor is currently down; however, we can do better but only if we get the resources from the taxpayers then we would be able to have two more tractors. There is a list with 144 business entities that due us tax and if these taxes can be paid up to the City Council, we will get the additional tractors so that we will be able to do a better job… they owe us billions, these high-

end businesses,” he said.

President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Nicholas Boyer, in response said he is cognisant of the fact that some businesses in the city may run away from paying their taxes; however, he believes that direct appeals should be made to those establishments, rather than label every organisation with the same title.

“Before you got to that stage of just calling out high-end businesses and so those comments may start to create a more contentious atmosphere… we understand why he is doing it because he may feel like these businesses have not been paying taxes over such and such a period so maybe he feels frustration,” Boyer explained.

He added that the Chamber could have played the part of a mediator between those errant businesses and City Hall and seized the opportunity to encourage businesses to pay up their dues to M&CC.

16 news

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Sugar worker critical after struck down by fire truck

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Guyana Sugar C o r p o r a t i o n (GuySuCo) worker is now in a critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital after he was run over by a fire truck attached to the Albion Sugar

Estate.

Injured is Ganishwar Roberts, 51, a labourer attached to the central workshop.

Reports are that on Friday morning, Roberts was sweeping the workshop when the incident occurred.

At the time, the estate’s fire truck was in the workshop.

The driver reportedly got into the vehicle and reversed onto Roberts. The rear wheels rolled over him and he was stuck in a crouching position for about two minutes before other employers

pulled him out.

He was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital and was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Hospital.

The driver, who was arrested and later released from police custody, claimed that Roberts had earphones on and did not hear when he was tooting the vehicle’s horns.

However, colleagues of the injured man said he did not have earphones and was never seen with one.

The father of two reportedly suffered two broken shoulders, several broken ribs and a damaged right lung.

Injured: Ganishwar Roberts

His condition is listed as critical.

Meanwhile, the GuySuCo remains silent on the issue

and management told this newspaper that they were not aware of such an incident. (Andrew Carmichael)

Business Ministry calls for...

Government had approved a restart of the scrap metal trade in Guyana during February 2017 after closing down the industry one year prior to that.

The main reason for this was to allow exporters to ship out the existing stock over a limited period of three months, to ensure that there was no pile-up of these materials.

However, in April 2018, after several months of delays, Government decided to reopen the trade to facilitate the clearance of some

of the accumulated scrap metal across the country.

While a date for the full resumption of the trade had not been announced, Gaskin had told Guyana Times that the date depended on several important factors.

According to Gaskin, there is a software-based system that was specially designed to help the Ministry monitor and regulate the trade once it resumed, creating a level playing field for all.

Gaskin said the resumption of the trade

from page 9

would give the Ministry the opportunity to test the system to ensure that it was working and would also help to clear some of the accumulated scrap metal that has been legitimately acquired from some of the exporters or dealers’ yards.

It was after a forensic audit conducted by the SMU that Government had removed the responsibility for the trade from the Central Housing and Planning Authority to the Business Ministry.

news

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SUnDAY, april 28, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Speeding driver dies 22,000 children killed at work globally per annum – ILO in ECD accident

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31-year-old office assistant of a mining company is now dead after he reportedly lost control of the vehicle he was driving on Friday night along the Rupert Craig Highway, East Coast Demerara.

Dead is Videsh Lakeram Singh of Kitty, Georgetown, while his friend, Rakesh Ramsaroop, a customer service representative at Qualfon Communications, is nursing injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Reports are Singh was speeding at about 23:00h on Friday evening in the vicinity of Liliendaal, ECD,

Dead: Videsh Lakeram Singh

when he lost control of motorcar PLL 4706.

According to the police, Singh’s vehicle was proceeding east along the northern lane of the north-

ern carriageway at a fast rate of speed and while negotiating a turn, he lost control of the motorcar.

The vehicle veered north into a nearby drain and toppled several times before coming to a halt.

Reports are public-spirited persons rushed them to the GPHC. However, Singh was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital while his friend was admitted. According to the police, Ramsaroop, who hails from Nonpariel, Railway Embankment, ECD, remains hospitalised.

An investigation has been launched.

GFC’s restructuring

Staff accuse convener of unprofessionalism, throwing insults

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ollowing an announcement earlier this month that the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) needs to be restructured in order to uphold the national objective of moving towards a “green” economy and the consequent realignment of critical agencies of State, a meeting was held with some 230 employees on Friday.

However, as the meeting got underway, things went south as staff of the GFC felt disrespected by what they described as arrogant and unprofessional behaviour of the Restructuring Task Force’s convener, Clayton Hall. The staff are now calling for the Government to either halt the restructuring or replace the convener.

Speaking with this publication, several employees said that the meeting was convened to “put the minds of staff members at ease” as they were uneasy as to what the Government restructuring had meant. One employee said that several questions were posed concerning issues such as the merging of the Monitoring Division and Resources Management Division as well as the dismissal of staff members.

In a letter to the editor, a staff stated that questions were also asked pertaining to whether the restructuring process was a “witch-hunting exercise” aimed at removing specific individuals from the GFC and if the task force, which Hall heads, is experienced in Human Resources Management to undertake a task such as this, among other questions.

However, according to a staff member, Hall was “unprepared for those questions” and responded instinctively, which was deemed as the “most striking degree of unprofessional conduct”.

“He was condescending, offensive and outright shame-

Clayton Hall

ful. In his worst moment, he referred to the GFC staff as ignorant, incompetent and in his words, ‘not bright’”.

Staff members of the GFC are now contending that if the Natural Resources Ministry is well-intended on this restructuring process, they will consider forthwith, “a more logical and transparent route to the restructuring, in resting this important activity to the GFC Board as the main body that oversees the Commission”.

According to a senior source at the GFC, several phone calls were made to members of the Board between Friday and Saturday by various staff members, who voiced their complaints about the conduct of the meeting.

In light of this, the Board is expected to convene a special meeting soon to address these issues and pronounce on the way forward.

Several calls by this publication to Hall went unanswered.

The Task Force was established jointly between the Natural Resources Ministry and the Board of Directors of the GFC to address the reorganising and restructuring of the Commission.

According to the Ministry earlier this month, the Task Force will include the techni-

cal and administrative talent and personnel of the Natural Resources Ministry, the Board, and the Commission, who will examine the structure and functioning of the GFC to make recommendations to Minister Trotman.

He, in turn, is mandated to present a report to Cabinet.

The establishment of the Task Force comes at a time when the GFC is lacking adequate financing to sustain itself. Only recently, reports surfaced that several employees were not paid and a number of financial difficulties are being experienced at the once striving entity.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo recently called out the coalition Government for the “bankrupting of institutions”.

“This Government has been bankrupting institutions. At the Guyana Forestry Commission, they are unable to pay staff due to lack of funds. Now they want to restructure it and they are putting a senior AFC official [Clayton Hall] to lead the restructuring process at a technical agency,” the Opposition Leader said.

He noted that he suspected there are other motives behind the restructuring but added that the “staff needs to be paid and they have to stop bleeding the GFC. This Government is totally hopeless. Not only this is going to happen but almost everything is going to be bankrupt.

They just need a little more time”.

…Guyana making strides in combatting issue of child labour despite high rate

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espite the advances that countries like Guyana have made over the years in eliminating child labour, this issue is still one of major concern. Here in Guyana, about nine per cent of children between the ages of five and 14 are involved in some form of child labour.

This is according to UNICEF representative in Guyana, Sylvie Fouet, who during the launch of the Child Labour Policy on Friday stated that it is public knowledge that many children in Guyana are engaged in child labour for various reasons.

“We know that there are victims of child labour. So it’s not a theory, it’s reality in Guyana. And child labour in Guyana, the rate in Guyana is a little higher than average in Latin American and Caribbean countries. It’s about nine per cent, much with the global trend, one out of every 10. Now we are talking about children not even 14-18, we are talking below 14 and this is very important to be mindful.”

Fouet noted that her agency has provided Guyana with $7.1 million to support a work programme from 2017 to 2021 that targets this worrying issue.

Meanwhile, representative from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Claudia Coenjaerts pointed out that Guyana has made strides in tackling this global issue but there is still a lot of work to be done towards the elimination of child labour by 2025.

“Guyana was one of the first countries in 2014 to sign up to a regional initiative

around Latin America and the Caribbean, free of child labour. Right now we have grown from 23 to 30 countries, seven more Caribbean member states joined. The policy produced with support from UNICEF now provides really a coherent framework and its implementation [is] going to be very important,” she stated.

Additionally, representative of the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry (CAGI), Earl Morris explained that statistics reveal that over 152 million children worldwide are engaged in child labour.

“Sixty-four million girls and eight million boys are in absolute terms in hazardous jobs that place them directly in the line of danger. The children concerned should be at school, being educated and preparing themselves for the future so that they can take care of themselves and those around them and make meaningful contributions to their countries. By entering the labour market permanent, these children are deprived of many things,” Morris explained.

According to the ILO, child labour occurs in almost all sectors, yet 7 out of every 10 of these children are working in agriculture.

However, not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive.

“This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.”

The ILO website states that the term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

“It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.”

In the category of hazardous child labour, which is the worst form of child labour globally, millions of children are working in dangerous conditions in a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, as well as in hotels, bars, restaurants, markets, and domestic service.

Worldwide, the ILO estimates that some 22,000 children are killed at work every year. The numbers of those injured or made ill because of their work are not known.

18

sunDAY, APRIL 28, 2018

guyanatimesgy.com

Around the World

Caricom leaders to meet Sri Lanka: 15 dead in gun battle with bombing suspects in Trinidad next week

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he bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce firefight at a home on the east coast of Sri Lanka after suicide bombers targeted approaching security forces.

A police spokesman on Saturday said three suspected suicide attackers were among the 15 dead in the shootout, which came six days after the killing of 253 people on Easter Sunday.

The three men set off explosives, also killing three women, inside what was believed to a safe-house near the eastern town of Kalmunai on Friday night.

The town is to the south of Batticaloa, a site of one of last Sunday’s blasts that targeted three churches and four luxury hotels.

Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said as troops headed towards the home, three explosions were triggered and gunfire began.

“Troops retaliated and raided the safe-house where a large cache of explosives had been stored,” he said in a statement.

He said the fighters were suspected members of the domestic group, National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), which has been blamed for last Sunday’s attacks.

Police spokesman Ruwan

Sri Lanka’s security personnel hold up an ISIL flag discovered in a safe-house in the eastern town of Kalmunai

Gunasekara said bomb-making materials, “suicide kits”, 150 sticks of blasting gelatin, and tens of thousands of small metal balls were found.

Suicide bomb vests often are packed with such balls to increase the shrapnel in the explosion, making them even deadlier.

The wife and a daughter of the suspected mastermind of Easter Sunday’s suicide attacks were among the wounded in the gun battle.

“Yes, the wife and daughter were injured in the attack,” said Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya, sister of the alleged ringleader Mohamed Zahran. “I was asked to come to identify them but I am not sure I can go, “ she told Reuters news agency.

Police officials also said the injured were believed to be Zahran’s relatives. Police on Friday confirmed Zahran died in the suicide bombing

at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Major-General Aruna Jayasekera, eastern commander of the Sri Lanka Army, vowed to hunt down anyone linked to the attacks.

“This won’t stop so we won’t stop either,” he said.

Reporting from the capital Colombo, Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi said the operation by security forces was one of many conducted across the island over the past week.

The government said nine homegrown, well-educated suicide bombers carried out the Easter Sunday attacks, eight of whom had been identified. One was a woman.

Police said on Friday they were trying to track down about 70 people they believe have links with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings. (Al Jazeera)

21 Venezuelans missing after boat sinks in Caribbean

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t least 21 Venezuelans were missing after their boat sank on the way to the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

The boat, the “Jhonnaly Jose”, was carrying at least 25 people from the Venezuelan coastal town of Guiria when it capsized in the early hours of Wednesday, UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told a reg-

ular U.N. briefing in Geneva.

“This tragic incident highlights the extreme risks of sea journeys and other irregular cross-border movements undertaken by refugees and migrants. It also underscores the desperation of those forced to flee their homes and the extraordinary difficulties faced on their journey,” he said.

Over 3 million Venezuelans have fled the South American country

since 2014 due to widespread shortages of food and medicine and deteriorating law and order. Four of the 25 aboard the boat were rescued by the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard after a search and rescue effort carried out jointly with Venezuelan counterparts, and then taken back to Venezuela, Baloch said.

Trinidad and Tobago is situated about 70 km (45 miles) from Venezuela’s northern coastal state of Sucre. (Reuters)

Cuba refused to accept murder suspect

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ver five tense minutes caught on a video camera secretly installed in a Miami parking garage, a one-time member of a notorious Latin gang methodically preps and hides his handgun, then chats with his friend before pulling the weapon. His victim begs for his life, at times with the two men face to face, before the shooter once known as Psycho blasts away at close range.

Brutal video evidence aside, it might rank as a typical South Florida murder except that accused gunman, David Paneque, was supposed to have been deported nearly two years ago. But im-

migration authorities had to release him to the streets.

The reason: Paneque is Cuban. Even under renewed diplomatic relations established under former President Barack Obama, the island accepts back relatively few of its criminal citizens.

Deportations to Cuba have risen under the aggressive policies pursued by President Donald Trump but still number only in the hundreds.

“Where are they going to send me? Cuba doesn’t want me,” Paneque joked during questioning by Miami-Dade police just before his latest arrest. “They don’t want me here. They don’t want me

there.”

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office on Wednesday formally charged Paneque, 29, with the murder of Leandro Lopez. Police say the motive of the murder remains unclear.

Paneque, who remains jailed while awaiting trial, pleaded not guilty. His attorney declined to comment.

The Miami murder case could add to a national immigration debate that has become highly politicized, with the White House elevating border walls and crackdowns on illegal immigration into a signature policy. (Miami Herald)

aribbean Community (Caricom) leaders will meet in Trinidad and Tobago early next month to discuss security issues within the 15-member regional integration movement.

Antigua, Haiti, Jamaica and Suriname will be not be represented by their leaders.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, who is the chairman of Security Council for Caricom and Law Enforcement (CONSLE), will chair the 19th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community on Security on May 3.

A government statement said that the one-day meeting will focus on recommitted efforts of the various stakeholders for implementing the Regional Security Framework.

“The overall purpose of the Nineteenth Special Meeting on Security is to fos-

ter mutual knowledge, analysis, debate and exchange of ideas and experiences on security related matters in attempts to better contribute to the safety and security of member states at the regional level.

“These issues include but are not limited to trans-national crime, terrorism, cybercrime, narco – and gun trafficking, trafficking in persons, intelligence cooperation between member states and the Region’s capability to analyse, predict and respond proactively to organized criminal networks.”

The meeting here comes amidst concerns at the rising criminal activities in the region including gun violence and high murder rates.

The statement noted that the Caricom leaders will also review a rapid response mechanism to include the development of investigative teams to assist member states with intelligence-led

operations and legal teams to assist in the strengthening of prosecution capabilities of perpetrators of transnational organized crime.

It said there will also be discussions regarding the standardized vetting of security personnel as part of strengthening of the security mechanisms in member states, considerations for the current status of legal security instruments including the “Protocol Amending the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to incorporate the CONSLE as an Organ of the Community and IMPACS as an Institution of the Community as well as discussions on advantages of ballistic information networks to be used by the region.

The Caribbean leaders will also discuss recommendations of key studies and fora involving youth in crime. (CMC)

World Bank launches programme to improve clean cooling in C’bean

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he World Bank has launched a new programme to accelerate the uptake of sustainable cooling solutions, including air conditioning, refrigeration and cold chain in the Caribbean.

The Washington-based financial institution said the programme will provide technical assistance to ensure that efficient cooling is included in its new investment projects and mobilise further financing.

“Globally, demand for cooling is increasing, mainly driven by growing populations, urbanisation and rising income levels in developing countries. Further exacerbating the issue, rising tempera-

tures will increase demand for cooling appliances, which not only use large amounts of energy, but also leak refrigerants that contribute to global warming.”

By 2050, the World Bank said energy use for cooling is projected to triple. It also estimates that by that year the demand for cooling in countries in the tropics and subtropics such as India, China, Brazil, and Indonesia will grow five-fold, which will put pressure on already strained energy systems and hamper efforts to curb climate change.

“Sustainable cooling is a fundamental part of the energy transition,” said Rohit Khanna, Manager of the Energy Sector Management

Assistance Programme (ESMAP) at the World Bank.

“Meeting the growing demand for cooling services without compromising climate change goals will require substantial investments in energy efficient cooling solutions that are affordable and accessible to developing countries. This is exactly what the new programme is set to do and as such, it will underpin the World Bank’s longer-term strategy on sustainable cooling.”

The World Bank said by 2050 work hours lost due to excessive heat could result in six per cent of lost gross domestic product (GDP) annually in the worst affected regions. (CMC)

Brexit drives support for Scottish independence

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upport for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom has risen to its highest point in the past four years, largely driven by voters who want to remain in the European Union, according to a poll published on Saturday.

As the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) meets for its twoday spring conference, the YouGov poll showed support for secession had risen to 49 percent from 45 percent at the last YouGov poll carried out for The Times in June 2018.

The SNP is preparing a new independence push after it was defeated in a 2014 referendum by concerns over the economy. Their proposal for an independent Scotland to continue using the pound in a currency union with

Britain was perceived as a particular weakness.

On Saturday the SNP leadership proposed that if the country voted for independence it should use Britain’s pound until a Scottish currency meeting six economic tests could be introduced. Delegates rejected that in favor of a more pressing timeframe and formulation urging preparations to introduce a new currency “as soon as practicable after Independence Day,” preserving the six economic tests.

Scots rejected independence by 45-55 percent in a 2014 referendum. Then the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, but among its four nations Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay, feeding political tension.

Britain is mired in political chaos and it is still unclear when or even if it will leave the EU. YouGov also found that 53 percent of Scots thought there should not be another referendum on independence within the next five years.

Scotland’s First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is pushing for one before 2021, when the current Scottish parliamentary terms ends.

YouGov polled 1029 adults in Scotland following a new guideline on independence set out by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday. (Reuters) Caption: A Scottish flag flies next to British Union Jack flag outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain, April 24, 2019. (Reuters/Russell Cheyne)

sunDAY, april 28, 2019

Georgetown reign supreme in Forrester strives DCB U-19 tournament to play cricket at

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e o r g e t o w n have thrashed East Bank Demerara to claim the 2019 DCB Under-19 InterAssociation Championship title in a match played at the Wales Community Centre Ground on the West Bank of Demerara.

And East Coast Demerara have humbled West Demerara by 6 wickets in one of the matches thereof.

The Georgetown team captain receiving the Again taking advan- winner’s trophy from Richard Jodah Pradesh Ballkishun tage of a good batting scored 52 and out from 43.5 of their allotted claimed 2 for 15 surface, Georgetown amassed 207 all out, with Alphius Bookie 50 overs.

Tajanath Tadunath top-scoring with 59, while Joel Spooner contribscored 21 and Satesh Basdeo 15, while both uted 50 and Nkosi Beaton 24.

Aaron Beharry and Jamal Michael collected Saieed Persaud and Josgua Rahaman got 13 3 for 21 and 3 for 24 respectively, while Shadrock each.

Andrew Samaroo was the most instrumental Baicon took 2 for 24.

In reply, East Bank Demerara, who had won bowler, grabbing 4 for 25. He was well supported the toss and elected to field, struggled to reach by Pradesh Ballkishun and Himnauth Dindyal, their victory target, and fell short by 162, as they who claimed 2 for 15 and 3 for 21 respectively.

In reply, East Coast Demerara blazed their finished on 45 all out off 24 of their allotted 50 overs. Mavindra Dindyal was the lone batsman way to victory in just 28.2 overs, with Pradesh Ballkishun hitting a four to close East Coast to score in the double-figures: 15.

Dequan Bamfield was the most destructive innings on 124 for 4. Pradesh Ballkishun top bowler, claiming 4 for 20, while Daniel Mootoo scored with 52, while Andrew Samaroo made 33.

Bowling for West Demerara, Daniel Roberts and Joel Spooner grabbed 2 for 7 and 2 for zero collected 2 for 21, while Dev Seepersaud and respectively.

Sachin Balgobin each took one wicket.

Georgetown won the match by 162 runs.

East Coast Demerara won the match by 6 Meanwhile, over at Lusignan, West Demerara won the toss and decided to bat, scoring 120 all wickets.

its highest level

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Winston Forrester playing a drive in his knock of 62 in the NBS 2nd Division Finals against Everest

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ince returning to Guyana after completing his stint in the USA, Winston Forrester has continued to produce stellar knocks at the top of the cricketing order; and has even proven to be valuable with his right-arm off-spin.

He has pulled together a string of half-centuries in representing the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), and has even played an outstanding knock of 62 to help GCC defeat Everest in the finals of the NBS 2nd Division 40Over competition.

Speaking with Guyana Times Sport, Forrester was asked how his cricket has been for the 2018/2019 season.

He responded, “Well, it’s been very good so far. I’ve been able to get some good scores, and contributed to my club’s (GCC) successful start to the cricket season. However, I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t been able to get to 3 figures in any of the recent games. I’ve had some really great opportunities, but I failed to push on.

“Nevertheless, I’m still confident that it will come soon. I’m working hard with my personal trainer Orlando Guirola on my fitness; and at the club, we’re working hard with our coach Reon King to try and dominate this season.”

Forrester further related to this publication that he has a few more weeks remaining before he departs to the US for the 2019 season of cricket.

Despite having to return to the US, he said, his goal is to help GCC win as many games as possible before leaving. In so doing, his confidence will be high going into the US season of cricket, he explained.

He also disclosed that he is looking to top the charts with runs in the US league, and to aid his new team, the Atlantis Cricket Club, to a successful season in both the 50-Over and T20 tournaments.

Forrester has declared that he continues to strive, despite excelling at the top of his level. He explained that he works hard to play cricket at the highest level. In this season, he has scored more than 280 runs in the 6 games he has played, and has had, against MSC, a high score of 88, inclusive of 3 half-centuries.

Tottenham “stressed and fatigued” after loss T

ottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino said his side were suffering from “stress and fatigue” after they slipped to defeat at home to West Ham in the Premier League.

Michail Antonio’s superb second-half strike was enough to inflict Spurs’ first loss after five games in their new stadium.

Spurs face Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday, their eighth game in April.

“The stress and the fatigue arrived. We are competing with circumstances that are not the best,” Pochettino said.

“We arrived for this game in a different condition, and that was an important factor in the second half. It was really tough today.

“We cannot say now we were thinking about Tuesday. We wanted to win the three points to be in our position and arrive to the Champions League game in a very good mood and way, but it wasn’t (to be), and now we need to move on.”

Third-placed Spurs had won all four of their games since moving into Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this month.

Antonio’s goal in the 67th minute was the first they had conceded at home since moving into their new stadium, and it means they are not yet certain of finishing in the top four and securing Champions League football next season.

Victory ended a run of four games without a win for West Ham, who remain 11th in the table with two games to play this season.

They finished strongly, with Antonio and defender Issa Diop forcing Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris into saves in the closing stages, although West Ham’s Fabian Balbuena cleared a Vincent Janssen header off the line in stoppage time.

Spurs lack spark

Spurs’ prolonged wait to play in their rebuilt home was worth the wait before West Ham’s visit, with three league wins and a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the first leg of their epic Champions League quarter-final.

But there had been signs of strain when they struggled to overcome relegation-threatened Brighton in their previous match.

Pochettino made four changes to the side that played Brighton, but after a good start, his players appeared to run out of steam.

Son Heung-min’s low strike forced West Ham keeper Lucasz Fabianski into a save at his near post, while a Lucas Moura shot zipped across the face of goal before halftime.

Christian Eriksen also forced Fabianski into action, this time with his feet, but West Ham were happy to counter-attack from the

outset.

“We did not manage the ball properly,” Pochettino said. “It was a difficult game, but in the second half we conceded a lot of space for them to counter-attack.

“The first half was good, but we lost the ball too easily in the second half.”

West Ham were the better side after the break, and the game was deep into stoppage time when substitute Janssen almost earned Spurs a point.

With Spurs playing 24 hours before Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United all of whom are vying for a place in the top four - Pochettino said, “It is a fight, it is a race, with two games to play. We knew that before.”

Rare road trip joy for Hammers

With just 16 points taken since their league campaign’s halfway point before this

game, West Ham’s season was in danger of petering out.

Having earned only one point from their past eight away trips, the signs were not promising for an improvement.

But after a first half in which Fabianski was the busier of the two keepers, West Ham looked the likelier to score after half-time.

“We were a complete team, defending together without the ball,” manager Manuel Pellegrini said.

“This is a transition season. We have demonstrated in big games that we can do it, but we must mentally convince ourselves that we can do better.”

Marko Arnautovic touched the ball only seven times in the first half, but a superb piece of control to give Ryan Fredericks a shooting chance early on signalled a better second-half display from the striker and his team-mates.

Arnautovic set up the game’s decisive moment, chipping the ball from the right into the path of Antonio, who controlled it with his chest before firing past Lloris from a tight angle.

“Arnautovic was very good,” said Pellegrini. “He made a brilliant pass for Antonio’s goal. It has been a difficult season, but I am sure that we will recover the player that he could be.

There was also the unlikely sight of Diop’s long gallop through the middle of the pitch for a shot that lacked enough power to worry Lloris.

But there was also excellent work from Balbuena off the line in injury time, and a superb tackle in the area by Fredericks on Ben Davies, to help West Ham earn only their third away win of the season. (BBC Sport)

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guyanatimesGY.com

sunDAY, april 28, 2019

Compulsory for Roach, Gabriel to transfer Test form into ODI format

Oshane Thomas

– Russell, Thomas injury-prone Kemar Roach

By Brandon Corlette

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Shannon Gabriel

emar Roach and Shannon Gabriel have, in recent times, been consistent performers at the Test level, and currently sit in the top 15 of the Test bowling rankings; where Roach is ranked number 11 and Gabriel number 14. These premier fast bowlers have earned selection to the World Cup squad through their Test performances, but will they be effective in the One Day International (ODI) format?

Chairman of Selectors, Robert Haynes, in announcing the World Cup squad, said the selectors are confident that any bowling combination provided by the West Indies in a given game is capable of providing a serious challenge to the opposition in any conditions.

The 30-year-old Roach will be making his third appearance at the Cricket World Cup, while the

30-year-old Gabriel will be making his debut at the global showpiece. Roach has played in 80 ODIs, has taken 114 wickets, and has a solid bowling average of 29.05, with a best bowling figure of 6-27 against the Netherlands; but this occurred in the ICC Cricket World Cup in February 2011. His three five-wicket hauls in this format come at an economy rate of exactly 5.

Inexperienced in the white-ball format, Shannon Gabriel has only 18 ODI matches to his name. The Trinidad and Tobago quickie has taken 23 wickets at a bowling average of 34, with a best bowling figure of 3-17.

Neither Roach nor Gabriel had stellar performances in the ODI Series against England, unlike the big Jamaican Oshane Thomas. This 22-year-old fast bowling sensation, who still has fitness issues, harvested nine wickets in the four matches he played in the ODI Series against England in the Caribbean, even picking up a 5-21. In the nine matches he played in his blooming ODI career, he has taken 15 wickets. His economy rate of 7.22 stands on the higher side, while he has a bowling average

of 27.53.

The fourth front-line fast bowler in the World Cup squad, Sheldon Cottrell, will be making a second appearance at the Cricket World Cup. As the lone left-handed fast bowler in the set-up, Cottrell has played in 10 matches and has 15 wickets under his belt. He has an economy rate of 6.21 and a bowling average of 26.8.

The leading ODI wicket-taker in the squad is Jason Holder, captain of the West Indies Team. He has snared 119 wickets in the 90 matches he has played; and has a bowling average of 33.05, a best bowling figure of 5-27, and an economy rate of 5.54.

Holder remains an important asset to the team, showing in recent times that he is capable of batting.

Carlos Brathwaite and Andre Russell are the other seam bowlers in the World Cup squad, but Head Coach Floyd Reifer has disclosed that Russell will play as a batting all-rounder.

Like Oshane Thomas, Russell is injury prone, and the West Indies coaching staff will have to monitor the big Jamaican during the World Cup playoffs. Russell has played for the West

Indies in 52 ODI matches, and has taken 65 wickets. He is seen as an experienced campaigner in the team, since he would be making his second appearance at the World Cup. Last, but not least, is the surprise World Cup pick Carlos Brathwaite.

The Bajan all-rounder has taken 31 wickets in his 33 matches, and has a bowling average of 43.61. His best bowling performance of 5-27 came against a depleted Papa New Guinea (PNG) team in the World Cup qualifiers.

At some point in the World Cup, Brathwaite will be called upon to bowl, as he sits in the squad of 15 that includes seven seam bowling options.

Each of these bowlers will have to click for the West Indies to win a possible third ICC 50-Over World Cup. West Indies will meet Pakistan in their opening match on May 31, 2019.

Livingstone, Samson, Unadkat keep Royals’ play-off hopes alive Liam Livingstone made full use of his promotion up the order

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ajasthan Royals came into this match - their last at home this season with their IPL 2019 campaign hanging by a thread and their needing to win all runs their remaining games to be in contention Rajasthan Royals celebrate for the playoffs. But thanks to an electric outing in the field from Jaydev Unadkat, seemed almost a formality. He was gifted a 78-run opening stand between Ajinkya five of them off the first ball of the innings, Rahane and Liam Livingstone, and a nerve- having tried to leave Varun Aaron but failless 48 not out from Sanju Samson, they ing to withdraw his bat in time, to unintenwere able to keep their hopes alive with a tionally dab the ball behind point, where the clinical seven-wicket win over Sunrisers fielder swooped and shied to add four overthrows to a quick single.

Hyderabad in Jaipur.

Helped by Royals’ early sloppiness in the Royals weathered a bruising consecutive fifty from Manish Pandey, and over- field, with 20 extra runs coming from miscame some scrappiness in the field as they fields and overthrows through the course of held Sunrisers to 160 for 8 when Sunrisers the match, Sunrisers ended the Powerplay had reached 121 for 3 with five overs to go at a reasonably healthy 51 for 1; but Warner in their innings. Unadkat’s efforts were key, never got going on a slowish track. He was and he took 2 for 26 to go with his three yet to score a boundary when he aimed a wild slash at the first ball of the 13th over, catches.

Livingstone, opening for the first time in bowled by Oshane Thomas, and thus prethe IPL, launched the chase with gusto, hit- sented a swirling chance that was snaffled ting three sixes in his 44 off 26 balls; and by a diving Steven Smith. Smith jarred his Samson then held his composure to finish right elbow completing the catch, and the physio ran out to add an extra layer of strapthe job.

Rajasthan’s win did not only keep their ping to his arm afterwards, but he said in campaign alive, but also ensured that the post-match presentation that it was only Chennai Super Kings are the first team precautionary. guaranteed a playoff spot in the competiPandey drives it forward tion.

While a slightly sluggish track played its part in Warner’s struggles, Pandey Warner goes boundary-free David Warner came into this match with showed that there were still runs to be had.

295 runs in his last five innings and a chance He picked up where he left off after his 49to claim an IPL record. Twice before has ball 83 against Chennai Super Kings last someone struck five fifties in a row; Virender Tuesday, and literally went hard from Sehwag achieved the feat in 2012, and Jos the first ball he faced tonight. He swiped Buttler matched him last year. Warner has a full-blooded drive off Shreyas Gopal to been in such unbeatable touch that yet more get going with a four straight away, and crunched seven more in the next eight overs

ping chances of varying difficulty. Shrugging off the untidiness of those around him in the field, Unadkat held three catches all on his own - two tumbling efforts in the outfield and one brilliant caught-and-bowled as he got some major hang time on a leap to pluck a one-handed return catch from Deepak Hooda out of the air.

Liam Livingstone, I presume

Livingstone has spent the last two weeks warming the to race to fifty from just 27 bench, but Ben Stokes and Jofra deliveries. Though Warner Archer’s return to England for didn’t reach the boundary, national duty opened up a pohe did at least do the job sition for him in Royals’ playof handing much of the ing XI, and he made the chance strike to Pandey as the count with a recognisably bulltwo shared a 75-run secish 44 that set up the chase. ond-wicket stand.

Livingstone had a more-than-capable ally in Rahane, and toOut twice off one ball gether they bested Rashid in a Pandey cruised into key moment in the game, crackthe 60s with his ninth four ing a six each to take 16 runs in the 15th over, but was from his first over. Livingstone then dismissed by some Oshane Thomas picked up brilliance by Samson be- two wickets to break the back slammed 20 runs off his own bat in Siddarth Kaul’s first over hind the stumps. Pandey of the SRH middle-order as Royals raced through the aimed a late dab at a Powerplay at ten an over. By the Gopal leg-break, but was over-balanced time Rashid finally broke through, the job into the stroke and lifted his back foot, with Samson waiting for just the right moment was already half done and the required rate to whip the bails off and stump him. As it was a manageable 7.54. turned out, Pandey had also feathered an Turner finally breaks his duck edge as the ball passed him, so he would After a 55-run stand between Samson have been out anyway on review.

Pandey’s fall sparked a chaotic finale to and Smith put Royals within touching disthe innings, as, in the space of 31 deliveries, tance of a vital win, Ashton Turner walked Royals surged to strip Sunrisers back, with to the crease with five ducks in a row on his six wickets for just 34 runs. Poised at 121 back and a potentially awkward 13 from 18 for 2, Sunrisers stumbled to 160 for 8, with needed. He managed to get a bit of willow Rashid Khan’s four and a six off the last two on an indipper from Bhuvneshwar Kumar balls being the only boundaries hit by any- first-up to get off the mark and draw ironic applause from his team-mates in the one in the last five overs.

This helped to add a modicum of respect- dug-out. Even Bhuvneshwar was smiling, ability to their effort, but Royals dropped though Turner kept a straight face. Samson almost as many chances as they held, as then put the finishing touches on the chase, their early fielding woes returned with swatting his fourth four to end the match Samson, Gopal and Varun Aaron all drop- unbeaten on 48.

sunday, APRIL 28, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

21

CARIFTA athletes hailed as Guyanese ambassadors M

– Minister Norton supports CARIFTA 2021 bid

inister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport, Dr. George Norton, was full of praise for some forty local athletes who last Thursday were honoured for their brilliant performances in Track and Field, Swimming and Chess at the 2019 edition of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games.

The momentous occasion was fitting for the teenage Guyanese athletes, who had worked day and night in preparing themselves for the Games, and had returned to Guyana with 15 medals as the fruits of their labour.

One piece of jargon that was often used at the event was ‘ambassador’, as top officials spoke to the conduct and achievement of the local athletes.

In his lengthy remarks, the Minister spoke to the level and quality of the Games, and noted that the athletes have marked their names in history even if they didn’t medal.

“The CARIFTA Championships (are) the Caribbean’s most prestigious sports meet. To even be named a competitor at these Games is a major accomplishment,” Norton said.

Relaying how he had spent the Easter weekend, Minister Norton explained that he was glued to his phone as he watched the Games live, and was cheering as though he were there

The track and field contingent copped 10 medals

in the flesh.

“I have been shouting. I have been cheering. I have been applauding my Guyanese athletes as they participated. And I can tell you that those three days had me really hooked,” he said.

Norton praised the athletes’ performances, taking their high medal count into consideration.

“Guyana’s participation at this year’s CARIFTA Games has been nothing but spectacular. This year, our team most definitely exceeded my expectations by bringing home a total of 15 medals,” he has said.

Dr. Norton went on to specifically address the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) President Aubrey Hutson’s successful bid to host the 2021 CARIFTA Games on these local

shores. He said he believes a local crowd would be the driving force behind the increased successes of the Guyanese contingent.

“I am certain that those athletes, especially the distance runners, if they had the backing of a home crowd behind them, there was no Jamaican that could have passed them. I’m looking forward to 2021, when we can really shout for them to hear,” Minister Norton said.

Citing the ongoing construction of two more synthetic tracks, at Linden and Berbice -- which are expected to be completed by the end of 2019 -- the Minister not only pledged his efforts, but also those of the Government in ensuring that local athletes have facilities that are up to standard with those in other Caribbean countries.

“Having recognised the potential of our athletes, the Government is working assiduously towards providing you with state-of-the-art sports facilities. We want to ensure that your practice here at home is no different from the competition fields in other countries,” Norton promised.

Each athlete at the event was presented with a special NSC Medal for their services.

While 2021 is the year for the Track and Field event in Guyana, the CARIFTA Junior Chess Championships will be hosted in Guyana next year (2020). (Jemima Holmes)

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...final squad yet to be announced

he U-19 Inter-County tournaand Gevon Schultz. ment is expected to bowl off on Former Berbice U-17 playTuesday, April 30, 2019, and ers Chanderpaul Govindhan the Berbice players have continued and Fawaz Gafoor are the exto prepare for the event with a host of pected gloves men in the squad. trial matches and training sessions.

Nigel Deodat and Kevin Umrao A 14-member squad is expectare the left-arm spinners, while ed to travel to Demerara to particiMelvin Singh, Aaron Beharry pate in the U-19 Inter-County tourand off-spinning all-rounder Seon nament, which will be played in the Glasgow are among the spin op3-Day format followed by the Onetions.

Day format.

Chris Harry, Nicholas Berbice are the defending chamLawson, Leon Swamy, Gevon pions of both titles, having won them Schultz and Kevlon Anderson are under the captaincy of Kevin Sinclair among the seamers in the squad. in 2018.

The 20 players shortThe 2019 squad looks a powerful listed reads as follows: Alex opposition, with Guyana U-19 playAlgoo, Junior Sinclair, Kevlon ers Alex Algoo, Kevlon Anderson, Anderson, Leon Swammy, Junior Sinclair and Kevin Umrao Aaron Beharry, Melvin Singh, included. Anderson and Umrao are Berbice U-19 players enjoying a moment during a trial match at Albion (Brandon Corlette Carl Gilgeous, Fawaz Gafoor, also West Indies U-19 selectees.

Deonauth Persaud, Kevin photo) The promising players Nigel Umrao, Chanderpaul Govindhan, rience, and the boys from the Ancient dominance at this level. Dynamic duo Deodat, Leon Swammy, Gevon Schultz Nicholas Lawson, Chris Harry, Gevon County will look to defend their title Junior Sinclair and Alex Algoo are the and Garfield Benjamin are among the Schultz, Garfield Benjamin, Nigel successfully with these star players. first preference openers. The middle other players with Regional experiDeodat, Jetendra Outar, Shamar The Berbice batting attack will order will feature Garfield Benjamin ence at the youth level for Guyana.

Angel, Seon Glasgow and Dorasammy be led by Windies selectee Kevlon and Kevlon Anderson, while the Most of the players in the shortlisted Mahadeo. (Brandon Corlette) Anderson, a right-handed class-act all-rounder spots are secured by the 20-man squad have inter-county expewho will be looking to continue his Tucber Park duo of Leon Swammy

Buxton, Charlestown A crowned champions in ABSAA-KFDA Tournament

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he Alex Bunbury Sports and Academics Academy (ABSAA) and the Kingston Football Development Academy (KFDA), formerly Kingston Grass Roots Soccer Academy, culminated their Easter Indoor Boys and Girls Community Football Festival at the National Gymnasium with Buxton and Charlestown ‘A’ claiming the U-11 and U-15 titles respectively.

Some of the participants of the tournament Six games had highlightthe match end at 1-1. Guyhoc defeated KDFA ed the robin-robin competition in the U-11 tour- 2-1, but managed to end their last match against nament, the first of which saw Buxton Stars domi- Buxton 0-0 at the end of play. The match was closenating KDFA 2-0, as Jarmarie Phyll led his side to ly contested, as Buxton and East Ville were tied on victory with two back-to-back goals. points at one stage of the night. In the end it was In match number 2, East Ville comfortably de- the Buxton side that flooded the field, as they won feated Guyhoc 1-0, thanks to the efforts of Jamal via a single goal differential. East Ville settled for Fraser. In the third match, East Ville were unable second, while Guyhoc came in third. to score any goals against KDFA, thus the match While in the Under-15 division, the other four ended in a stalemate. In the other fixtures, Buxton preliminary matches continued with KDFA drawStars and East Ville each registered a goal to have ing with Charlestown ‘B’ 1-1; Buxton Stars defeating

Tucville ‘B’ 2-0, and Tucville ‘B’ defeating Charlestown ‘A’ 1-0. East Ville and Mahaica ended in a stalemate as neither team was able to score at the end of fulltime.

The winners of Groups ‘A’ and ‘B’ then advanced to the semifinals, which saw KDFA defeating Tucville ‘B’ 2-1 via penalty shootout. In semifinal 2, Charlestown ‘A’ overcame Buxton 1-0 to book their spot in the finals against KDFA. In the finals, Charlestown ‘A’ won 1-0 via lone goal from Carlos Agard, which was just enough to stop KDFA and give Charlestown the win.

Participation certificates will be given to all players, and trophies will be given to winning teams at a later date.

Some of the entities on board are Pet Shop, Namilco, NSC, Trophy Stall, GFF and ABSAA.

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guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, april 28, 2019

Marvan Prashad dominate GCA U-19 competition ...tournament hailed a success by Roger Harper

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MVP/best batsman Marvan Prashad

n the recently concluded Georgetown Cricket Association’s (GCA’s) American Youth Cricket Premier League (AYCPL), Marvan Prashad, the lad from Blairmont, West Bank Berbice, topped the overall batting charts.

Representing the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO) in the competition, Prashad emerged from the encounter as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

The elegant right-hander accumulated the most runs in the tournament’s Zone stage, and recorded the highest individual score. His 287 runs were of superior quality, and he had a batting average of 59 in his dream season.

A former Guyana U-15 player and a prospective Guyana U-17 player in 2019, Prashad scored 165 runs against the Gandhi Youth Organization (GYO), held 13 catches in the tournament, and

engineered one run-out.

For his great success in this tournament, Prashad received numerous prizes, including medals and cricketing gear.

Meanwhile, in the zone stage of the tournament, the best bowling figures were recorded by Ntini Permaul from the Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC), who had 7-24.

The off-spinning bowling performance of nine-star hero Ezekiel Wilson of the DCC came in the semis, while the awards were given based on Zone performances.

Akeem Clarke from Transport Sports Club (TSC) had the most wickets in the zone stage -- 15 at an average of 11.3. The best fielder in the tournament was also the man declared Man of the Final, Tamesh Persaud, who had 14 dismissals (13 catches and one run out) for the New York Tri-State team.

Zone ‘B’ MVP was Devon Allen of TSC, who recorded 274 runs, with six catches, two stumpings and one run-

RAN South Zone Men’s XV final...

Green Machine go down to Guadeloupe 19-5

Team Guadeloupe posing with the Green Machine after the match

By Timothy Jaikarran

T

he action continued in the RAN (Rugby Americas North) South Zone Men’s XV final with Guyana battling Guadeloupe at the Athletic Track Rugby Ground at the National Park in Georgetown.

Players from both sides could be seen running their drills as each team prepared for the fight of their life. Guyana had not faced Guadeloupe since 1999, but were hopeful that their new strategy of play would give them the desired result.

In a matter of minutes after the game commenced, Guadeloupe were the first to receive the opportunity of the game, but their hopes were dashed as Guyana defended their territory.

Guyana pulled the ball down shortly after, and Guadeloupe were awarded a penalty kick, which was missed, thus giving Guyana a chance at the 22-metre line.

Both teams battled arduously, but the score remained 0-0 at the end of the first ten minutes. As time progressed and each team continued fighting for the early-point advantage, Guyana gave away yet another penalty, but conditions proved difficult for the Frenchman, and the second penalty was yet another flop.

In the 26th minute, with the score still at 0-0, Guadeloupe were about to score when the Guyana number 12, Rickford Cummings, received a yellow card for high-tackling Pierre Brun and received a 10-minute suspension. Things took a turn for Guadeloupe, and they booked their first points to lead by 5-0, as Pierre Brun scored his first try of the game.

Thabut Berthomieu then capitalised on his conversion to register yet another two points. The unexpected occurred, as Guadeloupe’s number 7, Victor Jung, made Guyana’s defense look feeble when he bypassed every player to take the score

to 12-0.

Just as half-time approached, Guadeloupe managed to score 2 points off a conversion, compliments of Thibaut Berthomieu, to further dent Guyana’s hopes and place Guadeloupe in the leaders’ position with the score at 14-0.

At the beginning of the second half, Guyana needed to pull off a simple comeback as they were only 14 points behind. With the climate to their advantage, the Green Machine needed to show their true colours by going beyond their limit.

Five minutes into play, Guyana upped the ante and started to play aggressive rugby, and Cloyd Prowell came extremely close to giving Guyana their first points.

Hugo Delabroy then dented the hopes of the Green Machine when he caused the score to move up to 19-0 in favour of Guadeloupe. While Guyana fought hard Guadeloupe ran through their defenses with ease.

But after minutes of trying to break Guadeloupe’s defence, Guyana finally found a proverbial ram in the thicket in the form of number 22, Oneil Charles, who muscled his way to take the score to 5-19 in the final five minutes of play.

For the Green Machine, the only thing that could have been done was to play out the game, as they were set for their 6th defeat in a row.

In the end, Guyana lost 19-5 to Guadeloupe.

Despite so losing, they arguably played a better game that what they had played in the past.

Guadeloupe will now play Bermuda for overall championship honours as well as the right to play the loser of the Mexico versus Cayman Islands showdown in the latter half of the year.

This will allow the victorious team promotion into the Americas Challenge Championships.

The Green Machine will now have to focus their attention towards the RAN 7 in the Cayman Islands, during the first week of July, 2019.

out.

At the presentation ceremony, GCA President Roger Harper hailed the tournament as a success, and expressed delight at the NY Tri-State team for the way they played in the tournament.

He also congratulated the makeshift DCC team. “That is what club cricket is all about. When players move on to a higher representation…”

Harper stated. The GCA boss was addressing the likes of Ashmead Nedd and Sachin Singh, who had been called up for West Indies U-19 training camp duties, while the others were engaged in the DCB inter-association.

The winning team of the tournament, NY Tri-State, received a trophy and cheque worth Gy$75,000, among medals. DCC, the runners-up team that showed some spirit, received medals, a trophy and a cheque for Gy$50,000.

At conclusion of the presentation, the NY Tri-State team showed their

GCA President Roger Harper

appreciation by giving back to the GCA. The NY Tri-State team gave their first place prize, along with their individual awards, to the GCA in what they described as a small token of appreciation.

Other match officials were rewarded with medals of appreciation for the hard work they had put in throughout the final. (Brandon Corlette)

Hamilton Green 9-a-Side InterWard Cup concludes May 5 – teams urged to be at venue by 15:00hrs

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ollowing the postponement of the final on April 28 due to circumstances beyond the Organisers control, fans can now turn their attention to the new date which is May 5 (Indian Arrival Day) for the conclusion of the Hamilton Green Cup Inter Ward/Village 9-a-side Knockout Football Tournament, at the Den Amstel ground, West Coast Demerara.

Action starts at 16:00hrs with round of 16 play, before the quarter- finals, semi-finals and final are played and Coordinator Lennox Arthur, the former National Football player and Coach, is asking all teams to be at the venue by 15:00hrs to ensure that there is a prompt start to the day’s proceedings.

The opening salvo of round of 16 action will see Timehri vs Mahaicony, Soesdyke vs Liliendaal, Mocha vs. Charlestown, Pouderoyen vs.

Bagotsville, Goed Fortuin vs. De Kinderen, Sophia vs. Bourda Blues, Den Amstel Back Street vs. Zeelugt and Uitvlugt vs. Vreed-en-Hoop.

Teams will be battling for a chance to claim the John Fernandes $300,000 first prize and Prime Minister trophy along with hampers from Ricks and Sari. The second placed team will take away the Courtney Benn sponsored $100,000, third $60,000 put up by Techno mills and fourth $40,000 donated by Ready Mix along with the respective trophies. All the trophies have been sponsored by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.

Also at stake are the individual rewards for the Most Goals, who will take home a Dinette Chair from China Trading, while runner-up will be presented with a Lazy Boy chair from AH&L Kissoon, along with the Best Goalkeeper who will claim the Minister of Natural Resources trophy.

Among the sponsors so far are Techno mills, Ready mix, Sataur Gafoor, E.C Veira, BEV Enterprises, BK International, IPA, New Thriving, Ricks and Sari, E-Networks, Star Computers, NAMILCO, Cummings Electrical, National Sports Commission, Star Entertainment, Alfro Alphonso, the Guyana Police Force, GuyOil, Minister of State, Prime Minister and Ministry of Legal Affairs.

Arthur expressed gratitude to all the business entities that have supported the tournament which is being staged in recognition of former Mayor of Georgetown and Prime Minister of Guyana, Hamilton Green’s contribution to the development of this country.

With the involvement of some of the country’s top players, representing their respective villages/wards, the event is playing its part in aiding Social Cohesion among the citizenry.

Among some of the players on show are Deon Alfred, Trayon Bobb, Tyrone Khan, Jamal Harvey, Sheldon Toney, Ruel Charter, Leroy Halley and Kenroy D’Aguiar. Uitvlugt’s Trayon Bobb leads the goalscoring category with fpour goals and he is followed by Bourda Blues Adran Aaron, while three players are tied on two goals apiece.

Meanwhile, teams are being reminded that four substitutions are permitted in this format which will see the games being run for 30 minutes broken into two halves of 15. The tournament will be played in the knockout format, with winners advancing to the next round. Sudden death penalties will be used to separate the sides in the event of a draw at the end of full time.

The no offside rule is also in effect.

All other rules will come under the dictates of FIFA.

guyanatimesgy.com

sunDAY, april 28, 2019

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CPL OPCO Guyana Inc to construct permanent headquarters …for CPL and the Guyana Amazon Warriors

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s the 2019 Edition of the Caribbean Premier League draws closer and in anticipation of another year of exciting cricket, a new state of the art facility will be constructed on Camp Street, Georgetown, to accommodate the locally based CPL Franchise, the Guyana Amazon Warriors and a CPL OPCO Administrative Office.

The building is expected to be the permanent home of the Guyana Amazon Warriors and will also accommodate the CPL Ticketing Office, a Guyana Amazon Warriors Merchandise Outlet, a CPL OPCO Administrative Office and a “Hall of Fame”.

The highlight of the building is expected to be the “Hall of Fame” showcasing a history of the CPL and the Guyana Amazon Warriors from the inception of the CPL in 2013 to present and will be updated on a continuous basis.

Chief Operating Officer of the CPL, Pete Russell, was full in praise for the Guyana Amazon Warriors Franchise and for the support of the Guyanese public for CPL. He commented “This is a wonderful initiative that shows how far the Amazon Warriors have come in the last 6 years.

The team has become a big part of the sporting landscape in Guyana and has already created its own history with a number of memorable performances over the years. For CPL we are delighted that fans will be able to re-live some of the best CPL highlights from previous years by visiting this new facility.

At a press conference at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown last Thursday Russell told local journalists that the Guyana Amazon Warriors will be unveiling a project within the next few days. The project he said, is a testimony of the success of CPL and the Guyana Amazon Warriors over the six years.

The venue will also be able to accommodate parking for approximately 50 vehicles for persons who will be conducting business at the CPL OPCO Office and visiting the Hall of Fame.

The seventh edition of the exciting Caribbean Premier League will bowl off on September 4 in Trinidad and Tobago and will run until October 12, 2019. Trinbago Knight Riders are the defending champions.

Pete Russell addressing the local media at the Guyana Marriott last Thursday

East Bank kick starts Intra-Association KFC Cup “I know every team wants to be a winner but I want to encourage you all to not just focus on winning but to have fun as you take part in this tournament,” Rampersaud encouraged.

The teams involved in the East Bank version of the KFC Independence Cup are Kuru Kuru Wariors FC, Timhehri Panthers

FC, Friendship Allstars FC, Agricola Red Triangle, Grove Hi Tech, Soesdyke Falcons FC, Herstelling Raiders FC, Diamond United FC and Samatta Point FC. The first game of the tournament was a battle between Timehri Panthers FC and Agricola Red Triangle.

The Association Games

are expected to conclude on May 20, while the National Competition where all the Association winner will meet is expected to begin on May 31st and the curtains will come down on June 9.

The first place team will walk away with $500,000, whilst second and third will settle $300,000 and $200,000 respectively.

Flying Ace Cycle race pedals off today in New Amsterdam A glimpse of the action between Timehri Panthers and Agricola Red Triangle

GFF President Wayne Forde and KFC Training Manager, Charissa Rampersaud

W

ith the intent to identify young football talent, especially in preparation for the CONCACAF Olympic Under 23 qualifiers, the Inaugural KFC Independence Cup kicked off on Saturday afternoon with much pomp and splendor.

Nine teams from the East Bank Football Association donned their club colors and banners in the blistering afternoon sun on Saturday, as the KFC Independence Cup got off to a start. The EBFA is the first association to kick off their Intra Association tournament and will soon be followed

be the other regional member associations throughout the country as they seek to crown champion, before all the winners take on each other in the National inter association tournament.

Present at the kick off and march pass ceremony was Guyana Football Federation President Wayne Forde who detailed the vision of the tournament.

“We believe that the KFC- GFF Independence Cup is a unique platform that will help most of you to contribute your energy towards something that is positive, something that is

fulfilling and uplifting,” he said.

The GFF Boss also had some other words of encouragement for the young players.

“The best lessons in life comes through adversity, so while we know and we hope that every one of you would want to emerge as the East Bank association champion, only one team will do that.

It is important that the other teams enjoys the experience, have fun and cherish every moment that the 90 minutes hold,” Forde stated.

Meanwhile, KFC Training Manager Charissa Rampersaud expressed the company’s eagerness to be a part of developmental program, stating “We are so committed to helping in the development of our youth and teaming up with the GFF is one of the many ways that we are able to do so. I’m very, very, proud that KFC is a part of this tournament, we look forward to seeing all these teams having fun as the vie for the championship.”

She went on to encouraged the players involved to make the most of their time on the field.

─ only Berbice cyclists allowed to race

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n honor of Mayor Winifred Haywood, the Flying Ace Cycle Club (FACC) under the leadership of Randolph Roberts, has organized its second annual 10 lap cycle race that will commence today, Sunday April 28 from 13:00h local time.

The best cyclists from Berbice will transform the Town New Amsterdam into their playfield when they start the race at Rainbow Bar and Beer Garden on Republic Road Charles Place.

The cyclists will move North into Vryheid and turn west into Vryheid Street, south to the main road and left to Philadelphia street and onto the Republic Road. After 10 laps of exciting pedaling, the race around the New Amsterdam will conclude at its starting point at the Rainbow Bar. Speaking to this publication on the eve of the cycling event, Roberts disclosed that the top five cyclists will be awarded immediately after the race at the presentation ceremony, where the winner will receive the Mayor’s lien. the top veteran and the first three juveniles. There will also be eight prime point prizes up for grabs. A number of sponsors

One of Berbice’s top cyclists, Romello Crawford, will be absent from this race due to overseas duties

from Berbice have come together to make this cycling event possible.

He noted that this race is only opened to Berbice cyclists; the ancient county will witness the likes of top cyclists Andre “Padlock” Green and Balram Narine, while Romello Crawford will miss this event due to overseas duty.

This is the third year of the race but it will be second year in the honor of Mayor Winifred Haywood. At 13:00h local time the race will commence and the Mayor of New Amsterdam, the Councilors, among other members will be present to assist in the presentation ceremony.

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

SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

CPL OPCO Guyana Inc to construct permanent headquarters Pg 23

…for CPL and the Guyana Amazon Warriors

CARIFTA athletes hailed as Guyanese ambassadors Green Machine go down Ran South Zone Men’s XV final...

– Minister Norton supports CARIFTA 2021 bid Pg 21

Gold medalist Anish Gibbons received her medal from Minister George Norton

to Guadeloupe 19-5

Green Machine suffered their 6th consecutive defeat, going down to Guadeloupe 19-5

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