Guyana Times Sunday December 15, 2019

Nationwide coverage coverage from from the the best best news news team team in in Guyana Guyana Nationwide Issue No. 4138 guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON BEACON OF OF TRUTH TRUTH THE

Sunday, December 15, 2019

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“Never thought I would see hunger return to Guyana” – Jagdeo Page 3

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WHAT'S INSIDE:

Region 2 remains P14 under floodwater

…as pump installation delayed …recommendations ignored – Chairman

Interpersonal violence a P7 public security concern – Granger

…says many depending on PPP to take back country, resume growth

…admits Guyana has highest rates of femicide in Caribbean

Gunmen invade Berbice supermarket ...shoot owner, escape with car

See story on page 19

Policeman drowns during boat mishap in Berbice River Caretaker Govt has no right to sign oil lifting contract months before elections – Opposition Miss Jamaica crowned Miss World 2019

Page 19

Page 16

Thieves raid Tuschen P10 home while owner went Christmas shopping

Page 17

H2H 'new' 20,000 registrants

Page 7

Dead person, previously registered persons on list

Guyana urged to intensify climate P16 change fight

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SUnDAY, December 15, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Sunday, December 15 – 05:30h – 07:00h and Monday, December 16 – 08:30h – 10:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Sunday, December 15 – 06:35h – 08:05h and Monday, December 16 – 07:20h – 08:50h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

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

WEATHER TODAY Sunshine with partly cloudy skies and light afternoon showers are expected during the day. There will be light rain showers at night.

Temperatures should range between 22 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius.

Winds: North North-Easterly to East SouthEasterly between 1.78 metres and 4.02 metres.

High Tide: 06:30h and 18:44h reaching a maximum height of 2.56 metres and 2.67 metres.

Low Tide: 24:01h and 12:16h reaching minimum heights of 0.48 metre and 0.69 metre.

saturday, DECember 14, 2019

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“Never thought I would see hunger return to Guyana” ꟷ Jagdeo

…says many depending on PPP to take back country, resume growth

O

pposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Saturday told the Guyanese diaspora in Queens, New York (NY), that he never thought he would see hunger returning to Guyana and committed that the People’s Progressive Party will work assiduously to ensure that it returns to office at the March 2020 polls to resume economic growth of the country.

“People in the sugar belt, who in the past had a job, now can’t even feed their family. I never thought that we will see the day when hunger returns to Guyana, where people can’t feed their families. They don’t have enough monies to buy food for their families and they’re taking their kids out of school. This is happening in many parts of the country but particularly in the sugar belt of Guyana because people don’t have a social safety net,” Jagdeo told the gathering at a luncheon organised by the Association of Concerned Guyanese (USA Chapter).

He noted that the “unconscionable” APNU/AFC Government, without needing to, went ahead to shut down several estates and sent home more than seven thousand sugar workers, leaving the industry that once carried Guyana’s economy with only three estates.

According to the Opposition Leader, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), while it may not be financially feasible, has economic feasibility and so, instead of undertaking a transitional arrangement to keep the industry viable, the coalition “vindictively” chose to close those estates, leaving many in despair.

Jagdeo posited that the struggle in Guyana is intensifying because of the continued mismanagement by the Government in many of

the sectors.

“We’re just about under 80 days away from elections and we have [to] win these elections. They are crucial for the sake of our people… So many people in our country now are dependent on the People’s Progressive Party to take back the country and resume the growth path we had start on, and to resume the development that they experienced [under PPP],” he stated.

On this note, the Opposition Leader disclosed that he has been working on building a core of young professionals within the PPP to not only run the country for the next five years but for many decades to come. He underscored the importance of having diversity and inclusivity in the party’s leadership so that all of Guyana is represented.

In fact, Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the PPP, pointed out that the party’s philosophy has always been to fight for all of Guyana. It is for this reason, he contended, that the PPP had longevity in the office, governing for more than 20 years.

“That’s why we lasted for 23 years in office and because they’ve been so partisan in managing Guyana, when the next elections come they’ll be out. So this [is] crucial but it is not only people from our base who’re depending on us. People who voted for APNU, now they’re coming to us in droves because they too are losing jobs because of the inept Government. They’ve had a chance to compare PPP with PNC (People’s National Congress) and they find us attractive. They are people who’ve never supported the PPP and so many of them too are hopeful for a PPP victory. Many of them, like in Georgetown, are working to get rid of this Government,

people who all their lives have been PNC,” he said.

Jagdeo outlined that while PPP has traditionally been considered an Indobased party with strong Amerindian support, the party has been working very hard to expand its membership to include AfroGuyanese as well.

“Cheddi Jagan set up the PPP to fight for the independence of Guyana and for the upliftment of all Guyanese, not just Indo-Guyanese but all Guyanese and that’s the essential nature of the party… We’ve consistently open up to people of every race, every religion and class because that’s what we are.

We’re not like the others, race-based or religion-based party, we’re a national party and that is why the PPP is so viable and will always remain viable and will always look out for all of Guyana,” he stressed.

The Opposition Leader went on to point out that when the PPP moved from two seats in Georgetown at the last Local Government Elections (LGE) in November 2018 to seven seats, it came as a shock to everyone including the PNC-led coalition because this has traditionally been their stronghold.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo addressing the Guyanese Diaspora in Queens, New York on Saturday

“We’ve been working hard outside our strongholds,” he stated.

Further, Jagdeo added that they will continue to work to attract more unconventional support and are even sharing excerpts of the party’s manifesto in those areas so that people can learn about the PPP’s vision and what they’re working on for the future of Guyana.

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SUnDAY, DECEMBER 15, 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

Foreign Affairs fiasco

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he dust is still settling on the incendiary intervention caretaker President Granger lobbed into the country’s Foreign Affairs establishment last week with his extensive firings of Ambassadors and removal of its Director-General. But it is already clear that the damage inflicted comes at a critical juncture of our history.

The rationale offered by the caretaker – that he is seeking to replace long-serving diplomats with younger, career personnel – does not withstand scrutiny, since his hand-picked Ambassador to Cuba is quite long in the tooth and is not a career diplomat. He is, however, an old colleague going back to the 1970s when they were both protégés of Forbes Burnham. Two of the changes are particularly troubling: the first is the removal of one of our more experienced diplomats, Cheryl Miles, from her posting in Caracas, at a time when the threshold issue of jurisdiction on the latter’s border controversy is being decided at the World Court.

The second is the peremptory removal of the DirectorGeneral of the entire Foreign Service, Ms Audrey JardineWaddell, on the patently ridiculous excuse of the position becoming redundant by replacing it with a “Permanent Secretary”. If the rationale was bureaucratic efficiency, in which the latter would oversee the domestic operations of the Foreign Service as permanent secretaries do in other Ministries, who then, would undertake the responsibility of coordinating the operations of our overseas representatives?

Will this now fall directly to the subject Minister, Dr Karen Cummings, who was parachuted into her position, sans any foreign affairs experience, when the “dual-citizen” Court Ruling disqualified her predecessor Carl Greenidge?

This is the most likely scenario since it dovetails with reports as to why Director-General Jardine-Waddell was removed in the first place. It appears that Cummings supported the intense lobbying of our Ambassador to the UN, Michael Ten-Pow, to secure the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China, but Jardine-Waddell baulked and informed caretaker President Granger.

While her memo has not been released, it is not difficult to discern her reasons for opposing Ten-Pow’s move, which would catapult him into a very visible position in the UN system. Firstly, while the latter may claim extensive “experience” at the UN, it was not as a diplomat dealing with substantive national issues, but as in a nondescript, administrative position in translation services. Secondly, and more pertinently, the almost US$1M annual costs to Guyana would also only benefit selected individuals at the Foreign Service like Troy Torrington, who heads the Multilateral and Global Affairs Department and “members of the Diaspora” — read overseas PNC loyalists – who would be called in to attend to the needs of the Chairmanship of G77. Ultimately, Waddell’s question would have been “how would Guyana benefit directly?”

Frankly, G77 is an anachronistic talk shop for the old “third world” that presumably gains ontological security in a shared identity of victimhood vis-a-vis the developed countries, as they hold out a begging bowl. Formed in 1964 as “the trade union” of developing nations to lobby for economic and developmental aid – in contradistinction to the Non-Aligned Movement which took the lead in political matters— from the original 77 members, it has grown to an unwieldy 133 countries (plus China) that boasts about being the largest bloc in the UN system.

But its achievements have been spotty starting with their unrealised New International Economic Order (NIEO). As with the Palestinian chairmanship in 2019, it typically only serves to buttress political leaders’ domestic profiles.

It is also alleged that to quiet Venezuelan opposition to Guyana’s bid to lead G77, Guyana acquiesced to the former’s quid pro quo that they abstain on the vote on the UNCLOS and, going ahead, does not lobby G77 on the border controversy. But even without this modus vivendi, G77’s consensual decision-making gives Venezuela a veto.

The only reason for this betrayal is that caretaker Granger gets an opportunity to preen on Jan 15, when Guyana is installed as Chair of G77.

Children attending the SOL Christmas village hosted at the National Cultural Centre tarmac on Saturday take a moment to admire a model of an oil platform on display (Dexter Ceres photo)

First oil ahead

Will we hit a boom and boom or a boom and bust?

Dear Editor, I am writing this letter to outline a few concerns that I have as we move to close 2019 and move into 2020. 2020 for Guyana will be a watershed moment in Guyanese history as 2020 brings with it ‘First Oil.’ This moment in our history will either go as the moment our nation took a major step towards becoming a developed nation or as the moment our nation fell into the resource curse trap as many other nations have such as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Venezuela. In essence, we can either push our economy into a boom and boom period or fall victim to a boom and a bust. I think that working in our favour is the fact that there are many who wish us well, and in doing so are pushing the conversation in their own way to help us, these groups include the Diaspora of Guyanese abroad, the international community and our brothers and sisters in our region; however, we ourselves must band together to overcome internal divisions especially ethnic divisions and complete the work needed truly take advantage of the resource that we are about to exploit. Let’s take stock of the current situation - we have Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) signed with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission that is now housed under the Ministry of Natural Resources, we have a Department of Energy housed under the Ministry of the Presidency and we have a Natural Resources Fund. We have also done some capacity building in our Guyana Revenue Authority, Environmental Protection Agency and Maritime Administration Department.

Comparing this to Ghana, we see that Petroleum exploration and production activities are regulated by a number

of laws in Ghana: — The Petroleum Commission Act, 2011 (Act 821) (‘Petroleum Commission Act’); — The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Law, 1983 (PNDCL 64) (‘GNPC Law’); — Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Law, 1984 (PNDCL 84) (‘Petroleum Exploration Law’); — The Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2013 (LI 2204) (‘Local Content Law’); — Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815) (‘PRMA Act’); — Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 893) (‘Amended PRMA Act’); — Environmental Assessment Regulations, 1999 (LI 1652) (‘Environmental Regulations’); and — Petroleum Income Tax Act, 1987 (PNDCL 188). Similarly in the Government, regulatory and/or oversight bodies principally responsible for regulating oil and gas activities are the Minister of Petroleum (the ‘Minister’) provides the overall policy direction in the management of oil resources in Ghana; the Attorney General, under the Ministry of Justice, assists the Minister in the negotiation and drafting of petroleum agreements (the ‘Petroleum Agreement’) and the required laws and regulations regulating the oil and gas sector; the Petroleum Commission (the ‘Commission’) regulates and manages the utilisation of petroleum resources in Ghana, it also coordinates the policies put in place by the Minister, in regulating the utilisation of petroleum resources, the Commission has the authority to make regulations, issue permits and carry out necessary inspections and audits related to the activities of petroleum companies operating in the upstream and midstream sectors; the Environmental Protection Agency (the

‘EPA’) is responsible for enforcement of Ghana’s environmental laws, the EPA ensures that exploration and development of oil and gas is undertaken in an environmentally friendly manner; the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (the ‘GNPC’) is responsible for the development, production and disposal of petroleum; the GNPC is required to ensure that Ghana obtains the greatest possible benefits from the development of petroleum resources, the GNPC participates in petroleum operations on behalf of Ghana with contractors under the Petroleum Agreements; the National Petroleum Authority (the ‘NPA’) is also given a broad mandate to regulate, oversee and monitor activities in the downstream petroleum industry. In particular, it sets prices and supervises the bulk storage and transportation of petroleum products. (I should note that the content on Ghana was taken from the fact sheet put together by Bob Palmer, Partner at CMS Cameron McKenna LLP which I came across while searching online). Clearly just using Ghana as an example, we have a high volume of work ahead of us to put in responsible management of our oil and gas sector. The risks of not doing this can be found in Equatorial Guinea.

I recently read an old article from Human Rights Watch, which I would encourage every Guyanese to read, titled “How Equatorial Guinea turned corruption into an art form.” In the article, it starts out by stating that Equatorial Guinea has the highest per capita GDP in Africa but then goes on to say that it went from one of the poorest countries in Africa to one of the richest, but still the lives of the ordinary citizens have not been transformed. The researcher that the article’s author

was interviewing actually found some alarming trends - despite its oil wealth, the trend in Equatorial Guinea’s Health and Education sectors were that vaccinations and school enrollment rates had decreased over the past 20 years since the country found oil. It should be noted that unless new reserves are found, the country’s oil reserves will run out in 2035. What went wrong? The article goes on to say that money was siphoned off in infrastructural projects, for instance, the country has five major airports and on one tiny island of just 5000 people, Annobon, the Government built a US$112 million seaport, but the island has no high school. I shared the information about Ghana and Equatorial Guinea to say that we as Guyanese need to let go of our divisions and work together to ask for the appropriate legislation to govern the sector, as well as increased capacity in our Ministries and agencies minus the missteps such as the lack of a Local Content Legislation, the Petroleum Commission Bill which placed too much power in the hands of the subject Minister or the Natural Resources Fund legislation that needs more national buy-in. We need to put the resources into our Revenue Authority and our Auditor General’s department so that when the bills for exploration costs come in they have resources to audit and give the nation the con?dence it seeks. If and only if we build the regulatory capacity to manage this oil and gas sector will we experience the boom and boom period that we should bene?t from, otherwise a boom and bust period synonymous with the resource curse awaits us.

Sincerely, Nicholas Deygoo Businessman

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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

Use of truncated, unverified H2H Registration data highly questionable Dear Editor, GECOM’s consideration of the use of selected data from the ‘truncated unverified’ House to House (H2H) Registration is unacceptable. Aside from the legally binding obligations related to the update of the list using the Claims and Objections approach, many other strong justifications are evident. These points to the continuous frivolous approach and excuses to effect delays by the abusive Granger-led fallen APNU/ AFC Government.

It is widely known that Government Commissioners at GECOM have continued to press for the use of the data, although it is obvious that they have a clear awareness of the surreptitious initiation and biased conduct of the H2H. The GECOM Secretariat has acquiesced and as required, moved to test the new list against the National Register of Registrants (NRR). The cross-matching of the bio-data from persons GECOM claims to have registered during this highly prejudicial exercise realised shocking and appalling results. Sixty thousand questionable names did not match providing reasons for limitless questions.

The new Chairperson, Justice retired Claudette Singh needs to have hands of steel as she moves to steady a seriously troubled GECOM towards the delivery of demanded free and fair elections. She has to deal with the inherited consequences of the unauthorised ‘back-dated order’ of the clearly unfit former Chairman Patterson, to conduct the H2H Registration, which Keith Lowenfield recklessly imposed on our people.

We now witness the unnecessary accommodation at meetings of the Commission addressing issues of a list riddled with factual inaccuracies including persons who could not have been found at stated addresses, and persons at those addresses who are unaware of the identities of some of these persons, misspelling of names and erroneous biographic data.

GECOM reported that they registered some three hundred and seventy thousand persons before the Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh halted the unacceptable H2H. This was to give way for the legitimate Claims and Objections in lieu of the necessity for expedience, given the fact that the No-Confidence Motion was ruled as properly passed by the Caribbean Court of Justice and that the Constitution had to

be upheld. As required, GECOM extracted the Preliminary Voters’ List from the National Register of Registrants and after careful scrutiny by the PNC and PPP scrutineers, it was expected that GECOM would have already put out the Revised List of Electors.

When will we have the RLE? The big anomaly is that with the data from the “truncated” H2H, sixty thousand “hits” exist that are considered as duplicates and this is indeed very serious. GECOM informed the public that GEMALTO, the International Digital Security Company, revealed that 60,000 forms did not, “attract the hit”; this means that that they were new names not the on the National Register of Registrants Database, (NRRDB).

Subsequently, GECOM is trying to inform the public that they found seventeen thousand (17,000) names that were not accepted to be on the database. GECOM is not trustworthy and this nation must not accept GECOM’s findings. Further, GECOM is trying to hoodwink the nation by telling our people that twenty-three thousand names were persons under 18, while the remaining twenty thousand (20,000) would be checked.

This is a serious matter and no sample survey must be tolerated as every name has to be properly verified to the satisfaction of all parties. We are now hearing that GECOM does not want to be a part of the rechecking of the 20,000 apparent new names, which justifies the suspicion of significant malfeasance. This is nonsense and with all the untrustworthy people who did that unverified H2H, it is time for GECOM to put aside the truncated H2H Registration data and move the process with what we have.

On another front, the Guyana Court of Appeal commenced the hearing of the appeal filed by the Attorney General against Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George’s decision in the H2H Registration in the legal challenge filed by Christopher Ram. In this regard, the Chief Justice essentially ruled among others that GECOM could not remove persons properly registered which could not be ‘willy-nilly,’ outside the proper constitutionally abridged procedures under Section 159.

As expected, the Attorney General was at his best in proffering irrelevant, erroneous and frivolous arguments to the Court. Among the arguments put forward,

were the following: 1. That GECOM, the Government and the international community are anxiously awaiting the ruling of the Court in this matter because it is this ruling, which will direct GECOM to resume the H2H Registration exercise and to order GECOM to use the data generated from the completed exercise to prepare the Official List of Electors (OLE) for the next elections; 2. That the Court must take into account “that the whole world knows that the current list being used by GECOM is bloated”; 3. That the current list being used by GECOM excludes tens of thousands of young people, who were registered for the first time under the House-to-House registration exercise, which was aborted and tens of thousands more are to be registered; 4. That the ruling of the Chief Justice (ag) permits overseas voting, which was abolished in Guyana.

While not being a legal luminary, it is quite simple for the ordinary mind to recognise that it is GECOM that aborted the H2H Registration exercise and not Chief Justice (ag) George. Additionally, that the compilation of the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), the Revised List of Electors (RLE) and the Official List of Electors (OLE) is not a function of the Court. One can, therefore, clearly rationalise the preposterously imbued nature of this appeal, which seeks to reverse everything that GECOM has done thus far to advance the electoral process; and runs counter to the President’s Proclamation that elections will be held on March 2, 2020.

It was noteworthy that the Appeal Court agreed and upheld the arguments of Mr Nandlall against the frivolity that the PNC continues to advance and direct at a high cost to taxpayers through all of the agents. It is expected that the appeal is now confined to whether the Chief Justice (ag) was wrong in her pronouncement that names should not be removed from the NRR, except in accordance with the Constitution.

Cognisance has to be taken of the overwhelming cost taxpayers bare at the imposition of a desperate time-wasting agenda, which is now turning out to be a recipe for widespread civil unrest.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

Unchecked “cabal of Ministers” who did their own thing Dear Editor, I am pleased for the United Kingdom. They now have a strong Government with the prospect of being in power for the full term and which will allow them to do progressive things for their people. That is great news for their economy and their people. These elections were about Brexit and the overwhelming majority of the British people are sick and tired of how long this issue was allowed to drag on because of political squabbling.

Mr Boris Johnson came in as an outsider and the people decided to give him a full mandate to do what he said he would do because he was consistent in his messages. But more so, the people heard Jeremy Corbyn and they found him to be speaking from two sides of his mouth on Brexit, despite the people giving a clear mandate to Westminster to leave the EU. So the people decided to send a strong signal as to who is the real boss. They do not want people of verbal waffle and rhetoric like Jeremy Corbyn in power and they certainly do not want politicians in place who are not listening to them.

These elections in the United Kingdom have many lessons for Guyana but I shall just deal with two of them today as follows: The role of the Brexit Party – Many Labour supporters who could not bring themselves to vote for the Conservatives but wanted to leave Europe, voted for the Brexit Party while the Conservatives’ base held strong. This act destroyed the Labour Party fortunes while keeping the Conservatives intact. Elections are about numbers and nothing else and sometimes 1 + 1 is equal to 3 in politics. It was the Brexit Party that got too many Labour

voters to cross-over to them and this caused the Labour Party to lose vital marginal seats to the Conservatives. The lesson that was reinforced here is that elections are all about the marginal voters.

Meanwhile, in Guyana, the PPP/C must pay more attention to the marginal votes. The PPP/C has to make sure that the entire nation is aware that a vote against the Cup is a vote for the Palm Tree. It is as simple as that! Many of these third forces were formed in Congress Place as PNCR fronts; set up by the PNCR, for the PNCR, and to help the PNCR win power again using smoke and mirror tactics as developed in the Bahamas by two PNCR leaders. Again a vote against the PPP/C is a vote for the PNCR. So my message is simply this – beware of most of these small parties. Even with all their sweet messages, many of them are being funded by the PNCR and are on a leash tied to Congress Place. Such a situation will only be contributing to the destruction of democracy by helping the undemocratic forces in the PNCR who continue to deny this nation free and fair elections in violation of the Constitution.

After 4 years and 5 months of underperformance on the human development front, it is clear that the PNCR totally deserves their place on the Opposition benches after March 2020. My final wish is, let the people speak!

2. The lack of policy leadership and competence in the PNCR – The last 12 months exposed how ill-equipped and incompetent Mr David Granger is on the big issues.

He has proven that he does not have what it takes to unequivocally confront the major anxieties of the people.

Unfortunately, he was ill

for most of the time and because of this major determinant, he was unavailable to the people. In his absence, his deputy was not empowered to act because no one in the Cabinet had much respect or trusted his decision-making capabilities because of what the PNCR did to him post-May 2015. Mr Granger reshaped Mr Moses Nagamootoo’s image from a firebrand politician before 2015 into an opportunistic “rubber stamp”. What Mr Granger left in his absence was an unchecked “cabal of Ministers” who did their own thing like wild horses on the prairie. Many of them made it up as they went along without any coordination on the major policy issues. So in the absence of Mr Granger, the Government floated from one crisis to another as indecision became the order of the day. As indecision expanded, corruption in the Government also expanded as senior officials pounced on the opportunity that such an unchecked environment provided. That is why you can have a former Minister who was allowed to move from a shared accommodation with her family in a $15 million house to one that cost over $150 million within 2 years.

This was what team Granger came to represent for the people - incompetence and corruption.

This is what the Guyanese people are seeing and many have already made up their minds based on the above factors and so many more. The destiny of this nation is what it is and Mr Granger must be a man and accept his faith because the voice and the will of the people are all that matters today.

Dear Editor, The unusual request for a face-to-face meeting with those interested in selling Guyana’s oil and Granger’s minions is a brazen attempt to foster corruption. Brokers do not need to sit in a room with Ministers to offer and agree on terms. The offer of bribes and kickbacks by way of phone, text or otherwise recordable media is foolhardy and can only be done safely in hushed whispers face-to-face. There can be no other reason for the demand for a meeting with brokers in Guyana. None!

Contrary to local news reports, it was not Bloomberg that broke the news of this attempt at an unusual arrangement, Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo informed the media of this during his weekly press conference on Thursday, December 12, 2019. I recognise that the lo-

cal press is hampered in following up on information provided by the Opposition by the unavailability of anyone in Government to ask questions.

If you cannot reach them, you cannot question them. The entire APNU/AFC cabal is mimicking the strategy adopted

by David Granger, a perverse game of ‘hide and seek’ played on the national stage.

Editor, the representatives of the company that secures this bid should be forewarned that any contract they sign with the caretaker Government is not worth the paper and may indeed be very costly to their reputation and bottom line very shortly.

I do not expect any reputable firm to engage in this most unsavoury process outlined by the Granger Administration for the sale of three million barrels of profit oil. Guyanese are not without knowledge or

means to pursue any firm that engages in any form of corruption. Take warning; the world has become a small place for the corrupt.

The Guyanese populace has been very patient with the obduracy of Mr Granger; he would be foolish to think that this will extend to his attempt to engage in corrupt practice with our national patrimony. On the off-chance that I am wrongly imputing motives to Mr Granger, he needs to demonstrate that he is not a crook or senile and step in and put a stop to this weekend’s meetings. The redemptive effect of staving off this blatant attempt at corruption by his minions may well be the salve Granger’s soul during his remaining years. We are in a period of advent; repent!

Regards, Sase Singh

Unusual request for a face-to-face meeting

Respectfully, Robin Singh

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Foundation

Tips for holiday parenting:

Letting joy win over stress ...4 tips to help moms and dads find joy in the holidays

By Kevin D Arnold, PhD

P

arents face holidays each year with varying degrees of stress. We know the routines that organise life will diminish as schools close, bedtimes grow later, and children beg for toys. The strategies parents use to manage stress will become less effective because the world will change around us. Parents will experience stress not only from the holidays but also from the need to change and adapt.

Much of the stress parents feel results from trying to stick to routines for normal days during the topsy-turvy holidays. The comfort of those patterns of daily life draw parents into a spider web of false hope: If we can fit life's demands into the "normal" way of life, then all will be calm.

So many parents try to place the round peg of the irregular-

ity of the holidays into the square hole of regularity. Each year parents try again to make the holidays work based on non-holiday patterns.

To paraphrase Einstein, "The definition of insane is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different outcomes." Based on that idea, parents become insane over the holidays. And, they drive their children crazy too -- trying to make their children act as if no holiday uproar exists. Parents do this to try and reduce stress, but in the end increase tension without realising. Our goal is worthwhile, but the methods are ineffective.

Here are four tips to help moms and dads find joy in the holidays:

Leave the rule book at home

When parents travel to spend the holidays, they some-

times try to use "home" rules for parenting. But, children and parents both experience very different demands than when at home. Grandparents want to stay up and talk to the little ones. Aunts and uncles spoil children with candy and attention. What parents find inappropriate at home becomes "cute" to others. Parents can find joy by leaving the rule book at home. Relax and allow the laughter and smiles from your children to become more important than keeping order.

Be flexible with schedules

The holidays push parents to be in two places at once.

Schools hold holiday events, churches encourage families to attend special services, and offices hold parties for grownups only. These time demands place parents in a position where they must pick and choose. If we are flexible about how we prioritise our time during the holidays, we can release our expectations to please everyone. Instead, joy comes when we go with the flow, and adopt a "do our best" attitude.

Parents find happiness, at the end of the day, in the smiling faces of their families.

Pay close attention once per day

Parents find themselves scattered over the holidays.

Sometimes we forget that children need our time more than ever when things become hectic. We can give the gift of attention every day, without paying a penny to a toy store.

Parents will find joy in the way a child's eyes light up during the 15 to 30 minutes set aside to read together or play a simple board game. Those few minutes lay the foundation of connection to children, and show love more than any Lego set or teddy bear.

Give the gift of acceptance

So many parents become overwhelmed in the chaos of the holidays, often asking their children "What do you think you're doing?" Children stutter to answer a question for which no real answer exists. As a psychologist, I often recommend these strategies to manage the confusion of "holiday cheer".

Change the way you think about the busyness of holidays: "chaos" becomes "unstructured" or "out of control" becomes "child-like fun". Parents win the stress war when their thoughts use neutral or happier words to describe holidays.

Accept the reality of holiday cheer: functioning (rather than stressing) during the holidays means accepting the variability of every moment. Part of the definition of holidays includes replacing routines with the joy of the unexpected. Try saying "If I accept that holidays are not predictable, then I can live in the joy of each moment as it unfolds."

Parents find holiday joy by staying in the present.

Acceptance of childhood excitement: parenting during holidays requires embracing childhood enthusiasm. Parents sometimes must rein in their children when excitement becomes uncontrolled behaviour.

Parents manage these moments best when they accept the inevitability of such moments, so that we see our job to help children regain their self-control. Parents find joy in sending accepting messages that validate children as overly-excited (rather than being "bad"), and empathise with a child's feeling of raw energy. Parents help calm children through validation, so that limit setting becomes a lesson not a punishment.

Holidays combine remembrance of landmark events with good cheer. Whether children are playing with spinning wooden tops or other holiday toys, the joy of the holidays bursts forth from a child playing. Parents can find that same joy by throwing off the mundane routines of everyday life, and instead live inside the smiles and laughter of each moment.

The best gift is found in each present moment. (psychologytoday.com)

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SUnDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

H2H ‘new’ 20,000 registrants

Dead person, previously registered persons on list A s the People’s P r o g r e s s i v e Party continues to scrutinise the list of “new” registrants in the scrapped House-to-House Registration, names of persons who were previously registered and others who are dead are on that list.

In two instances of previously registered persons, former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Retired Justice Cecil Kennard is listed as a ‘new’ registrant with his occupation being Chancellor.

However, Justice Kennard retired many years ago and a search of the 2015 Official List of Electors and the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) showed that he was on that list. In another instance, former Member of Parliament and Attorneyat-Law Jai Lall Kissoon is listed as a ‘new’ registrant.

A perusal of the 2015 OLE and the PLE also shows that he is already registered.

Additionally, the brother of a former Guyana Revenue Authority official, who died in 2007 is listed as a ‘new’ registrant.

Addressing the issue at a luncheon in New York on Saturday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said that the party has found that thousands of persons who are listed as “new” registrants are already on the PLE.

“Just to show how things evolve, I left Guyana Friday morning under the impression that we will have 20556 persons, who they claimed are new registrants that GECOM will [carry out the] verification of those persons before they’re added to the voters’ list or the NRR from which they will extract the OLE…By the time I’m driving to the airport, it changed.

So Lowenfield [Keith] called Zulfikar [Mustapha] that the PPP will have to do the verification, not GECOM. And so that can result now in 20000 names being added to the voters’ list who are unverified…To get it down to 20,000 was another fight…

We managed to get the numbers down from 37000 to 20000 after they did the fingerprint cross-matching…

We found 50 per cent of the new people already in [the] list… they just found former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Cecil Kennard is now on the list of new registrants.

He’s already on the PLE but part of the 20,000 new registrants,” the Opposition Leader said.

On Friday, despite discovering significant inaccuracies in the House-toHouse (H2H) data that was cross-matched overseas, GECOM made a decision to move ahead with including some 20,000 names onto the voters’ list without ver-

ifying them. However, the Commission has now placed the onus on the Opposition – People’s Progressive Party – to verify the new registrants.

Some 370,000 registrations obtained during the scrapped H2H exercise were sent overseas to be crossmatched with the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRD) in order to filter out the duplicates.

However, it was recently reported that international digital security company, Gemalto, indicated that some 37,300 were new registrants who are eligible for voting, that is, they are above the age of 18.

But an internal check conducted by GECOM showed that approximately 17,000 of those “new registrants” were already on the voters’ list and some even voted in the past.

The remaining 20,000 “new names” were up for further verification. Earlier this week, it was reported that the Governmentnominated Commissioners were pushing to have a sample survey done from a sample size of 10 per cent from the 20,000 to verify these new names before they go on the voters’ list – a process which the PPP Opposition had objected to.

In a statement on Friday, PPP Executive and for-

mer Attorney General Anil Nandlall indicated that the Elections Commission will not be verifying the names.

“Today [Friday], GECOM has decided that it will do no verification; that the PPP scrutineers alone will have to do the field verification checks in respect of these new intended registrants and that GECOM officials will only work in the offices. This is totally unacceptable,” Nandlall contended.

He noted that this de-

cision by the Commission can only be viewed as retrograde and has the potential of impugning the integrity of the Official List of Electors (OLE) and by extension, the entire General and Regional Elections set for March 2, 2020.

“I can understand why the Government Commissioners may not want a 100 per cent verification exercise, because if this data is padded and fraudulent then the verifi-

cation exercise will unmask it. However, the law mandates that not a single name must eventuate unto the OLE without verification.

GECOM has an unconditional duty to ensure compliance with this legal requirement. Nothing short will suffice,” the former Attorney General asserted.

On August 27, GECOM announced that the controversial House-to-House Registration process would be halted on August 31.

Interpersonal violence a public security concern ꟷ Granger …admits Guyana has highest rates of femicide in Caribbean

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xpressing concern over the prevalence of interpersonal violence in schools, homes and communities, President David Granger on Saturday declared the scourge a public security concern.

The President was at the time addressing attendees at the Guyana Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, which was held at the Central SeventhDay Adventist Church on Church Street. Saturday marked their centennial celebration and with the theme being the family, Granger noted that interpersonal violence was eroding family life.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, we regarded domestic violence as a private matter.

A man beating his wife or a wife beating her husband was regarded as a family affair. And school fights were dismissed with the old cliché, boys will be boys. Some of the mothers beating the teachers.

Things have changed. Interpersonal violence has now become a public security concern”.

“It is one of the most vicious crimes in the country. It happens at wedding parties, in the hinterland, mining camps. We seem to have people who cannot re-

President David Granger

solve their differences in discussion. Some of them grew up in villages (where) they went home to see daddy beating mommy. They go to school, teachers beating children. So they believe if they have a problem, they have to beat somebody”.

Granger also referred to child sexual abuse and incest as a form of violence against children. He also lamented Guyana’s relatively high rates of femicide and suicide, citing reports such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Domestic violence has resulted in discord, in division, and sometimes in death within families.

Domestic violence involv-

ing intimate partners and spouses increased by 14 per cent, between 2011 and 2017. Females accounted for more than 80 per cent of all domestic violence victims”.

“Then we have femicide, the killing of a woman or girl and Guyana has one of the highest rates of femicide in the Caribbean, according to the ECLAC study. And suicide is a social ill, a form of violence, self-inflicted.

And this has had a deleterious effect on families”.

The event that Granger attended saw a number of religious leaders within the church also addressing the issue of family life. The President was also presented with various literature on the topic, while a plaque was unveiled commemorating the centennial.

Interpersonal violence has taken on a national prominence of recent because of high profile cases that have made their way into the public discussion through social media.

In one case, a male Richard Ishmael student was caught on video brutally assaulting a female student.

In another case, a teacher was violently assaulted, allegedly by the parent of one of her students, in retaliation for the purport-

ed abuse of the child while in school. It subsequently

emerged that that parent was fingered in the beating

of another woman at her husband’s workplace.

8 NEWS

SUnDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Alleged child rapist placed on $150,000 bail …relatives of raped teen who raped accused charged

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he 28-year-old miner, who allegedly forced a child to have anal sex with him, and was hours later brutally beaten and reportedly raped by her relatives, made his first court appearance on Thursday and released on $150,000 bail.

The Third Avenue, Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) appeared before Magistrate Crystal Lambert at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court after he was slapped with a charge of raping of a child under 16 years.

When the charge was read the man denied the offence and was subsequently placed on bail. The case will continue on December 27.

Meanwhile, the two female relatives of the teen who was raped, who reportedly physically assaulted, stripped, and then forced the wooden handle of a hammer inside of The Third Avenue, Bartica resident’s anus, in retaliation of his rape against their 15-year-old relative, were also hauled before the Court on Thursday.

The mother of the child, along with her older daughter, appeared before Magistrate Lambert to each answer to

the charges of felonious wounding and rape committed against the 28-yearold miner. Both women denied the charges.

They were released on $60,000 bail each for the wounding charge and $150,000 bail each for the rape charge.

The cases will continue on December 27.

On December 4, tables turned on the Third Avenue, Bartica man after the sister of the underage female with whom he allegedly forcefully had anal sex teamed up with her mother to teach him a lesson.

He is the boyfriend of the young girl’s sister and is said to usually visit their home in Bartica, on a regular basis.

Reports are that in the wee hours of December 3, the alleged rapist was at the home with the 15-year-old girl consuming alcohol.

The teenager, who ended up sitting at the edge of her bed at some point, became intoxicated and it was then the miner reportedly took advantage of her. He reportedly took off her clothing and performed anal sex on her despite her objections.

Hours after the incident, the teen made contact with her mother and after notifying the woman about what occurred.

After a beating, the suspect allegedly confessed to having sex with the 15-year-old but claimed he had “oral” sex with the girl and not anal sex.

The woman and her older daughter allegedly teamed up to rip his clothes off and allegedly forcefully insert the wooden part of the hammer (handle) into his anus.

Elections…

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…biases

ecause of the explosion of “open space” offices, technology companies now make glorified “horse blinders” to only allow approved info to be processed by office workers. But long before that, folks in modern societies had “ideological blinders” that literally made them see only what their ideology allowed them to see. Others – bereft of those blinders – were literally spouting nonsense!!

And this brings your Eyewitness to the wailing Jeremiahs raising their hands to the heavens – waiting for it to fall – because Boris Johnson’s “posh” Tories captured all those “labour” constituencies!! They’re echoing the reaction to Trump’s victory in 2016 when he changed all those “blue” states to “red”!! The folks now experiencing apoplexy still have their ideological blinders in place – economism – which insists that only the cleavage of class matters when people vote.

The fact of the matter is – as your Eyewitness has been pointing out for the longest while – making economic status the alpha and omega of political decision-making was always flawed. It was simply a concession to Karl Marx’s vituperations in 19th century Europe. Marx ignored that “nationalism” as a ground of decision-making was only made moot in a Europe that had transmuted its “ethnic” question into “national” ones because of the forced formation of “homogenous” states.

Even the liberals that dominated subsequent western discourse in Europe and the US – supposedly in opposition to Marxist ideas – accepted the economistic premise. And they adopted a holier-than-thou attitude to the rest of the populace who insisted that they felt alienated culturally more than economically. The liberal snobs, however, dismissed them as “country bumkins”, “yahoos”, and (in England) “chavs”. What did they know??

Well, they now have leaders like Trump and Johnson who aren’t intimidated by the “redneck” labels – and have, instead, embraced them. As to whether they REALLY believe what they say is irrelevant. The “identity” chickens are coming home to roost – and they’re clucking something fierce!! Like most identities, this one needed an “other” – those who are not in the “fold”, and onto whom all the problems and contradictions in the present can be on loaded.

In England and the US, it’s the immigrants of all colours – who aren’t REALLY “British” or “American”. And that’s why the “working class” in the rustbelt in Ohio and Pennsylvania and the manufacturing towns in Northern England have deserted the Dems for the Republicans and the Labour party for the Tories – all agreeing that their problems lie with them “furriners”!! The Brits and Americans now appreciate what it is to be “ethnic groups” – but not the downside politically.

And Guyana?? Having dealt with the ethnic question since the sixties, we have the answer!!

Which is to accept (PPP’s) competence rather than (PNC’s) ethnicity to run the country. …and voters’ lists To paraphrase Henry II, your Eyewitness cries, “Will no one rid me on this turbulent voters’ list”?? How much can GECOM stretch out this process?? Just when one thought the matter had been finally put to rest with the unclaimed IDs being placed on a “supplementary list” and the H2H 20,000 unmatched names being verified with a joint field exercise, comes news that GECOM’s decided to have the verification done only by the PPP in the field. GECOM will “work in their offices”!!

Now, what kind of confounded nonsense is this??

Sounds like the Chair petulantly told the PPP: “You want 100% checking, YOU go out and check, then!!” But it’s not as simple as that, is it?? For instance, let’s say a PPP scrutineer goes to a home, isn’t chased out but asks for a birth certificate to confirm qualification, and is refused. Do they have to wait for “GECOM in their office”?

And will the PNC accept the PPP’s sole-checking?

Grounds for post-election protests!! …and Venezuelans Your Eyewitness read that the US is supplying funds for helping Venezuelan migrants. Now, this is being funnelled through the Government’s (mainly Felix’s) apparatus.

Who’s checking their voters’ registration bona fides?

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

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SUnDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

10 news

SUnDAY, december 15, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

Thieves raid Tuschen home while owner went Christmas shopping

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Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) home was broken into and robbed on Friday after the occupant left to do Christmas shopping in Georgetown.

Based on information provided, the incident occurred after 10:30h.

Owner of the house, Jeanne Persaud told Guyana Times that she locked the doors to both flats of the house before leaving for Georgetown. She related that at about three hours later, she returned to find the gate opened with the

padlock broken.

According to her, this immediately raised suspicion and she quickly ran to inspect the property. It was then that she found that the panes of a window on the lower storey were removed, where it is believed that the suspect/s gained entry.

“As soon as I came out the car, the gate was locked but the padlock wasn’t on.

When I see now, the padlock was on the ground and it look as though someone smash it. So I just leave the bags right outside and run inside to see what happen.

The front door was closed but the window on the side, they take out the louvers,” the woman explained.

The woman said she quickly unlocked the front door and went inside, where every part of the house was ransacked. The perpetrators used a stairway after entering the house to access the bedrooms on the upper flat, which were also searched.

They managed to escape with a laptop, smartphone, a quantity of gold jewellery and cash. The cell phone is valued at $97,000.

Meanwhile, a backpack

was also missing and some clothes from a wardrobe.

Other losses were still being assessed.

“The steps is inside the house, so they go up and tumble through the wardrobe and the basket of clothes and so. Well I had the jewellery in a container in there (the wardrobe) and they take it. It had like $23,000 in a purse and they take the purse and everything. My son phone was there and some of his clothes they take with his laptop that was in the bag,” she recounted.

State to deliver the good life

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e hope with the official launch of the campaigns, the major parties will make their position clear on the role of government in the development of the economy. Do we continue with the neo-liberal “nightwatchman” state we accepted with the IMF’s Washington Consensus in 1989? Or do we accept the latter’s changed position of the present, where they took heed of the collapse of the model in 2008 and proposed the more interventionary state model from the Far-Eastern example of Japan, South Korea et al?

With the imminent coming of oil revenues, this is a key question that must be answered so we do not keep on confusing Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that would guide the market to deliver the “goods” that society needs, with “no hands”. With selfinterest, if not greed as a Ravi Dev human constant, this has contributed greatly to the debilitations that some, unfortunately, see as inevitable by-products of “capitalism”.

But we cannot ignore the reality that somehow our methods of socialisation keep on throwing up individuals who are only driven by their id and greed. As one early US commentator Madison noted, not long after Smith, in an analogous context (politics): “If men were angels, we would not need governments”. In addition to the demons of the id, we recognise also that none of the institutions that we design around our values will ever work perfectly (hence, imperfect socialisations to begin with) so we create macro-institutions to deal with these exigencies. And so in matters economic, from early in the day, markets have been regulated so as to mitigate the inevitable excesses precipitated by greed, “imperfect markets” or for “infant industry” protection etc.

As mentioned above, there has been a stubborn insistence in some quarters that Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” meant “no hand” in the workings of the much-abused term, “free markets”. But they speak from both sides of their mouths.

Take, for instance, the creation and issuance of money which is regarded as the sine qua non for the creation of markets in the modern sense of the term. These have been regulated, by definition, from the earliest days by the institutions that issued them in the first place and later by governments. One can’t very well have everyone creating money and expect markets to function. The problem is that those who ritually invoke the ethereal “free market” do so only when the regulation in question hinders their efforts to make excess profits over what other regulations allow them to make in the first place.

Take banking, for instance. Government regulations all over the world allow banks to create money out of thin air by a multiple over and above the amount that is deposited.

Thus, they make money coming and going – once by paying lower interests to depositors than borrowers (doubledigit figures in Guyana!)— and then by lending the excess money created through the magic of regulation. Yet, these bankers in the developed economies complained when they were prohibited from investing depositors’ money in speculative vehicles and then had the regulations repealed.

After making trillions of dollars of profits – which the bank operators pocketed – when their greed-fueled speculative bubbles inevitably collapsed, they were defined as “too big to fail” and bailed out at the tax-payers’ expense. In a perfect demonstration of the workings of the id-greed imperative, bankers expect profits to be privatised but losses socialised.

Karl Marx’s early critique of Capitalism was remarkable for its prescience in highlighting several of its inherent contradictions but the attempts to institutionalise his insights failed miserably in our own lifetime. Marx ironically confused epistemology (the theory of knowledge) with ontology (what actually is) and was too idealistic about man and his greed. To paraphrase Churchill’s aphorism about democracy, capitalism is evidently the worst type of economic system – excepting for all others that have been tried and failed.

We cannot give up on socialising ourselves into becoming more sensitive and responsive to the overall societal good – if for nothing else that society is simply a collection of us, the individuals. But in the meantime, our governments have to get back to regulating and making appropriate market interventions to deliver the good life for all. What say the political parties?

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14 NEWS

SUnDAY, december 15, 2019| guyanatimesgy.com

Region 2 remains under floodwater ...as pump installation delayed ...recommendations ignored – Chairman

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ommunities along some four months ago to have say that despite the heavy the Essequibo Coast, an alternative pump installed rainfall, he believes that the Region Two (Pomeroon- in preparation for the rainy water levels would not have Supenaam), remain under season. However, those rec- been a major issue had there floodwaters and residents are ommendations were not fol- been a timely supply of fuel to enable the pumps to be put complaining about the lack of lowed.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been into operation. He said that maintenance along with the absence of proper systems to requesting to NDIA, for more this is a system which was not deal with heavy rainfall expe- than four months now, that adopted by the relevant bodrienced during the rainy sea- they install an alternative ies.

“In the absence of that syspump to cater for the upcomson.

Regional Chairman, Devanand Ramdatt told Guyana Times that he is concerned as there is currently a setback in the installation of a new pump at Devonshire Castle and that the project, which was started a while back, is expected to be completed until January 2020.

“So my concern is that there is a delay A flooded area on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two in the installation of a pump at Devonshire Castle, ing rainy season – December- tem being adopted by the reso a new pump is to be in- January. Unfortunately, that gional administration, the adstalled at Devonshire Castle. recommendation was not ad- ministrative arm of the region That is a project that started opted and this was raised at which is by the REO, because sometime back. The estimated the level of the NDIA Board… at the level of the RDC we’ve time for completion of the in- so that in itself, presently I always been recommending stallation of that pump should think they’re doing some test- that that be the approach, be January. It’s a new pump, ing of a pump and they’re that we have timely supply of a big pump that is to be in- trying to fix the pump that I fuel for the pump, so that in think should’ve been in place the event of any rainfall while stalled,” Ramdatt said.

He stated that he made more than two weeks ago,” the tide is up, that the pump several recommendations to the Regional Chairman ex- can [be] put into operation,” he stated. the National Drainage and plained.

He disclosed that when Ramdatt also went on to Irrigation Authority (NDIA)

the heavy rainfall was experienced, many of the pumps were not operational as a result of inadequate fuel supply. This, he explained, created major complications, which contributed to the situation becoming exacerbated.

Residents of Anna Regina expressed frustration over the slow drainage system, which they said is as a result of the pump and koker being unable to work simultaneously to drain the water off in an effective and timely manner.

It was reported that the pump, when in operation, throws the water into the koker outlet which causes it to choke. Thus, even in cases of emergency, the systems can only function one at a time.

Residents are demanding an investigation into the lack of maintenance and absence of a proper plan to ensure a drainage system is in place to deal with emergencies: “If we cannot take care of rain, can we take care of the mighty ocean if it comes to us?” one concerned resident questioned.

The Regional Chairman added that there is adequate budgetary allocation in the system which can rectify this issue. He stated that recommendations have always been made at the level of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), however, the support from the Clerk of the Council to implement such decisions is lacking.

It has been reported that the high levels of floodwaters are affecting both residential and cultivation areas in the region. Some of the communities affected include Queenstown, Good Hope, Adventure, Anna Regina, Richmond, Lima, Hampton Court, Sparta, Devonshire Castle and Charity.

Efforts to contact the Regional Executive Officer proved futile. Meanwhile, the Civil Defence Commission posted on its Facebook page that the Rapid Damage Assessment Teams have been deployed to support regions Two and Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).

Cleanup hampers were also distributed.

EPA snowman made from cardboard boxes

Make your holidays green and clean

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he festive season is here! It’s the time of the year many people look forward to for many reasons: extra money, gifts, vacation, parties, shopping, family gatherings etc; however, it is, unfortunately, the most wasteful time of the year. This the time when persons get rid of items they no longer want in pursuit of new stuff. As you would imagine, the festive season has huge environmental impacts, not only in terms of solid waste but water and energy wastage as well.

With all the cleaning, washing and lighting up, many persons are bound to incur high water and electricity bills. However, it doesn’t have to be that wasteful. Prudent planning and wise use of resources can go a far way in not only saving you some much-needed cash for the new year but also reducing the negative environmental impacts.

Smart tips for a clean and healthy holiday season

Some ways we can make small changes but have a big impact: Have a budget Carefully assess your needs and make a budget. Weigh your needs versus your wants and prioritise based on the amount of money you have to spend. Remember, you don’t need to buy everything in this one month. Make your shopping list and stick to it; avoid impulse shopping at all cost.

Get creative! This is a good time to get creative and make some of your own Christmas décor and gifts. The EPA would have provided tips on upcycling techniques in the past but there is also YouTube where you can learn to make attractive decorations. CD’s, cardboards, mason jars, glass and plastic bottles and many other items around the home can be creatively transformed.

Look for energy-efficient lights and if you can, use automatic timers to turn on and off This will help you to conserve energy and most of all, save you some needed cash for after the holidays. Also, remember only to plug in your lights when you are home, never leave them unattended. It also reduces the risk of fires.

Choose reusable over disposal Planning parties, family gatherings or holiday dinners? Choose elegant reusable items; there is nothing classier than great tableware. You will not only reduce waste but have durable items to last all year through.

Choose live plants over artificial ones Live plants look exquisite and they not only beautify your yard and space but also help to purify the air. Once you invest in plants and take care of them, you don’t have to purchase more next year.

Keep it simple One thoughtful gift is better than six wrapped packages of unwanted gifts. Plan ahead.

Give the gift of experience Music lessons, gift voucher, lessons for a new hobby, a massage, a trip to a resort or one of Guyana’s Protected Areas. This is perfect for friends who want to try something new and the best part is you don’t have to wrap the gift.

Give a monetary donation to a local charity and environmental club in your community so they can execute projects that would enhance the community.

Make gift-giving a bit fun this year, don’t wrap gifts Hide them and give the recipient clues. Make the search a treasure hunt.

Donate Give used items in good condition such as books, clothing and equipment to persons in need or charitable organisations instead of throwing them out. This will go a far way in reducing waste.

Dispose of your waste properly! After you would have cleaned or acquired new items for your home, office or store, ensure you don’t throw huge piles of garbage, boxes etc on the parapet or in front of your office or business. Please dispose of your waste properly.

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.

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16 news Guyana urged to intensify climate change fight SUnDAY, december 15, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

…after universal periodic review from UN

By Jarryl Bryan

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ith its low-lying coast containing an abundance of agriculture, sometimes all that stands between Guyana’s food security and the fury of the ocean is the seawall.

And after a review of the situation, the United Nations has urged Guyana to intensify its climate change fight.

This is contained in the publication Climate change and human rights: contributions by and for Latin America and the Caribbean, released recently by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

According to the publication, Guyana was one of only a few countries in the region to not make any climate change recommendations.

Cuba and Haiti top the list for the number of recommendations they made and received.

Guyana did receive one recommendation and it was a crucial one. According to the publication, Guyana should “continue and intensify programmes aimed at mitigating climate change negative impacts on food security and environment, and share the experience gained in this field with interested countries”.

The publication also tied climate change and en-

ergy with gender equality. According to ECLAC, Guyana should review its climate change and energy policies, especially those related to the oil and gas sector, in order to develop a disaster risk reduction strategy.

ECLAC noted that this strategy should consider the negative effects of climate change on gender equality and the lives of women and their families. This, it was noted, should especially focus on those in the danger zones, that is, areas below sea level.

“The Committee also recommended that Guyana include a gender assessment in all environmental impact assessments and establish a mechanism to monitor the implementation of those assessments and to guarantee that rural and Amerindian women can fully contribute to the development of the country,” the report states.

According to ECLAC, this should include them being able to “give their free, prior and informed consent before any development, business, agro-industrial or extractive projects affecting their traditional lands and resources are initiated, whether carried out by national or foreign enterprises, (and to ensure they) can take advantage of adequate benefit-sharing agreements

and are provided with adequate alternative livelihood”.

The organisation’s recommendations to Guyana come after the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is done every four and a half years on the basis of a national report from the country being reviewed. Also taken into account during the review were contributions from the UN and information presented by relevant stakeholders including civil society.

Over the past few months, the country has had to deal with climate change close up after flooding in Mahaica in October saw more than 300 acres of rice being destroyed and hundreds of acres being put under threat of destruction by salt water. In addition, livestock was destroyed and properties sustained damages.

Besides the destruction of acres of the rice crop itself caused by the water, it had been reported that the flooded land was no longer suitable for rice production since the soil composition had become too salty.

In the case of the sea defence at Dantzig, Mahaica, salt water from the ocean flowed onto the land when it was breached. Residents reported that the water

impacted livestock, rice fields and vegetable farms.

Persons in residential areas were also affected.

Checks by this publication on the affected areas weeks after several villages were first inundated re-

vealed that persons were still losing livestock and the area is plagued by mosquitoes.

Policeman drowns during boat mishap in Berbice River

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Police Corporal died on Saturday morning after falling into the Berbice River.

Dead is 43-year-old Chakumba Scipio, who was attached to Central Police Station in New Amsterdam and of Angoy’s Avenue, also in the same town.

Reports are the incident occurred at about 09:30h when a group of Police ranks were on their way to conduct investigations into several reports of theft in communities along the Berbice River.

According to the police report, the team, under the command of a Chief Inspector, left New Amsterdam en route to Sand Hills in a police vessel, which was captained by the now dead rank, who was a certified coxswain.

While in the vicinity of Bermine, the boat suddenly began to sway, resulting in Scipio falling overboard and going underwater.

Despite efforts to rescue Scipio, ranks found his body

hours later with the help of the Coast Guards.

The officer’s grieving brother, Cleveland Scipio, told reporters that he was at work when he received information about the incident.

“They told me that he fell off the boat. I went down by the New Amsterdam Ferry Stelling and some of his colleagues told me what happened,” he related.

According to the grieving brother, Scipio did not want to be a part of Saturday’s trip.

“We spoke up to Friday night and he told me that he did not want to go on this trip. However, he is a police officer and that is his job, when duty calls, they gotta do what they gotta do,” the brother noted.

Corporal Scipio was described as a “superdad” to his three children, whom he had been taking care of alone after his wife died several years ago. He had also

Dead: Chakumba Scipio

been supporting his only brother after their parents passed away.

The body of the 43-yearold rank is presently at the Arokium Funeral Parlour awaiting a post-mortem examination. Meanwhile, the police have launched an investigation into the incident. Scipio, who joined the GPF in 1999, was the divisional electrician and coxswain.

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SUnDAY, december 15, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Caretaker Govt has no right to sign oil lifting contract months before elections – Opposition …warns that attempts to bind Guyana in long-term contract will be reviewed

The Consolidated Fund, central bank financing and public debt

O

ver the past few years, several commentators, observers and analysts alike have been paying attention the overdraft balance on the Government Deposit Accounts held at the central bank. It is indeed an interesting monetary theme worthy of deeper examination and academic research to explain and simulate the macroeconomic implications. As mentioned last week, this author together with two other co-authors have taken up the mandate to examine the deeper implications of these outturns which will be done in a series of separate articles and then will be put together into a complete research paper eventually.

What is the Consolidated Fund?

Establishment of official Consolidated Fund The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act states that “all public moneys received by the Government shall be credited fully and promptly to the Consolidated Fund, except – (a) Moneys credited to an Extra-budgetary Fund as stipulated in the enabling legislation establishing that fund (b) Moneys credited to a Deposit Fund (c) As stipulated in the Constitution Public moneys at the credit of the Consolidated Fund shall be kept in an account styled as the “Official Consolidated Fund Account” at the Bank of Guyana but may include deposits of public moneys held at any other bank as the Minister may direct.

The Consolidated Fund shall be managed by the Minister or by an official in the Ministry to whom the Minister has delegated that responsibility.

It is subject to any other law, resources allocated from any Extra-budgetary Fund for the purpose of financing Government social or economic development projects shall be included in the relevant investment plan and programmes of expenditure contained in the annual budget and such resources shall be processed through the Consolidated Fund.

The Minister may establish one or more Deposit Funds into which public moneys shall be paid pending repayment or payment for the purpose for which the moneys were deposited.

On the establishment of a Deposit Fund, the Minister shall notify the National Assembly of the Deposit Fund and shall specify— (a) The source or sources of the moneys in the Deposit Fund (b) The purpose or purposes for which moneys may be expended from the Deposit Fund (c) The banking arrangements for the Deposit Fund (d) The intended investment strategy for the moneys deposited in the Deposit Fund Each Deposit Fund shall be managed and operated by the Ministry.

The key distinction between the Consolidated Fund and the Deposit Accounts are that: (1) there are in effect more than a single deposit fund established for the purpose of receiving monies for different purposes as the Minister may so direct.

(This means that the signing bonus transaction would appear to be lawful; however, the Minister was legally bounded to report this, according to the Act, to the National Assembly and for the purpose thereto). While, the Consolidated Fund is operated more or less like the checking account of the Govt held at the central bank for the purpose of financing Government social or economic development projects shall be included in the relevant investment plan and programmes of expenditure contained in the annual budget and such resources shall be processed through the Consolidated Fund.

According to the Auditor General report, a new Consolidated Fund was established in 2004. The old Consolidated Fund Bank Account was not reconciled since February 1988. A cash book was reconstructed for the period 1989 to 2003 in order to aid the reconciliation of this account. However, despite attempts by the Accountant General’s Department to reconcile the monthly transactions on the account from January 1994, a proper reconciliation was still not done. In addition, the old Consolidated Fund continued to be overdrawn over the years. At the end of 1992, the overdraft on this account was $26.823 billion, compared with an overdraft of $44.434 billion at the end of 2003, a net increase of $17.611 billion. At the end of 2004, the overdraft of the old Fund was $45.550 billion. It should be noted that there was no activity in this account during the years 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. However, there were movements in the account during the years 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2014, with a closing overdraft of $46.776 billion as at 31 December 2017 (Audit report, 2017).

Ministry’s Response: The reconciliation of the old Consolidated Account has posed new challenges. Ministry of Finance explained that a request has been made for data from the Bank of Guyana from the year 1992. However, it appears that the Bank has difficulty in accessing the data from its records. In the absence of this data, the reconciliation exercise seems futile. There are also gaps in the accounting records of the Accountant General’s Department that will impede the smooth flow of a reconciliation process in the conventional manner (Audit report, 2017).

Next week the author shall examine the Consolidated Funds balances for the period 1995 – 2017.

By: J.C. Bhagwandin, M.Sc. Email: jbbankingadvice@gmail.com (The Author is an experienced Macro-finance and Research Analyst; and a Senior Lecturer of BBA / MBA programs at Texila American University, University of Bedfordshire and the Association of Business Executives (ABE) programs in Guyana. The discussions and analyses presented are exclusively his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper nor the institutions he is affiliated with.)

A

mid revelations that the Government invited various companies to come and pitch proposals to buy Guyana’s oil, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has warned that any attempts to tie the country into a long-term agreement now will be reversed if his party gets into Government.

Jagdeo was at the time speaking at his weekly press conference and his comments came after a Bloomberg article revealed that companies from the United States, Switzerland and England would be paying Guyana a visit to vie for the opportunity to sell Guyana’s oil.

“They are busy trying (to procure companies),” Jagdeo revealed. “They called a company, asking if they can put in a proposal to lift our share of profit oil. But they don’t really want that company”.

“They want to say they consulted widely because behind the scenes, they are working on a deal to tie up a long-term contract for the lifting of our share of the oil.

And we’re never going to accept that”.

Jagdeo suggested that with Guyana less than 80 days away from elections, Government can use ExxonMobil on an interim basis to market Guyana’s

share of oil, rather than sign a binding contract at a time when Government should only be engaged in routine functions until elections.

“That’s why we argued that if, as the Department of Energy claimed, that our share of the profit oil will come in March of so, then why not allow Exxon to sell for one or two months, until after the elections and put the money in an account.

And then you have an open and transparent way of selling our oil through a bidding process”.

“And every company that comes, comes with a track record. And they have to bid for who will sell our oil and what price. So while all of this smoke screening is going on, they are tying up corrupt transactions behind the scene. If they stick us with a long-term contract, we’ll be in trouble”.

Jagdeo said that the coalition government was even worse than a caretaker government, it was, in fact, an illegal one. While the High Court had declined to pronounce the Government illegal, Jagdeo noted that the Government had no legal mandate.

“Maybe liabilities if we break the contract. But we are arguing, they have no right to sign any contract.

Because they’ve not just become a caretaker government, they are an illegal government. They could just say the holding arrangement is that anything would piggyback on Exxon, we would check the quantity of oil and leave it at a technical level”.

Guyana’s profit-sharing arrangement with ExxonMobil is for 50 per cent of profit oil. But with Exxon reclaiming its investment costs as cost oil, it means Guyana will initially get 12.5 per cent of profit.

Originally scheduled for 2020, first oil production has been moved up to sometime this month. It is understood that the initial crude lifts will be one million barrels.

With Guyana already agreeing for the first lift to go to Exxon due to “impurities”, Guyana is not expected to get its share until February to March.

When it comes to the system governing the crude lifting, which simply means the oil is loaded onto the vessel for transport, Energy Department Head Dr Mark Bynoe had revealed in November that the crude lifting agreement was near completion. He had also laid down timelines for first oil and lifting of the crude.

“The Department has signed a contract with a

crude marketing specialist, and a commercial specialist, who will be assisting the Department’s preparations for first oil. The Department is working to conclude a similar contract with a petroleum accounting specialist and a contract administrating specialist”.

“The crude lifting agreement is being finalised and has advanced significantly.

The CLA is expected to be completed in the new week and Government will be a signatory as a lifter of crude, along with the Stabroek co-venturers”.

According to Bynoe, their agreement will be based on the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators Crude Lifting Agreement. He explained that it will be customised to reflect the reality of Guyana’s sector.

But with the Government having fallen to a NoConfidence Motion since December 2018, and the three months’ constitutional deadline for holding elections having long since lapsed, Guyana is long overdue for elections.

Elections are now due on March 2, 2020, and the Opposition wants to ensure the Government does not carry on as though it’s business as usual.

Traffic Chief recommends removal of minibus parks from central GT

A

ll minibus parks which are located in the centre of the capital city may soon be relocated to the Railway Embankment near Lamaha Street, east of Camp Street, Georgetown, if Government gives the ‘green light’ to this recommendation made by the Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Chief, Linden Isles.

Isles, during a radio programme with the media on Friday, stated that his recommendation is contained in a paper that was already dispatched to the Ministry of the Presidency about traffic-related matters in the country.

He explained that should the Administration concede to such a move, the the Stabroek Market area, which currently caters for hundreds of minibuses plying various routes, would now become a central dropoff point for buses.

When those minibuses offload their passengers, their drivers will be required to go the Lamaha Railway Embankment bus terminal.

“The amount of buses that is registered in each of the parks is far more than the pace and the capacity than the park could hold so we will always have overcrowding at all the bus parks…I personally have done a paper and it was sent

and go,” he had said.

Under the proposed arrangement, passengers who are waiting at Stabroek Market area would be tak-

Traffic Chief, Superintendent Linden Isles

to the Office of the President, recommending that all the bus parks be removed from Central Georgetown,” Isles said.

According to the Traffic Chief, if the minibus parks no longer exist around the Stabroek Market Square, there will be a reduction of crimes that are usually reported in that area.

Also, it would ensure that persons who visit the market to shop or conduct other forms of businesses would be in a more comfortable public atmosphere to do so.

“It’s a choke-point.

Everything is just crammed into that area and we find we have robbery; we have this because persons are liming there, persons are there waiting so if that is removed from there, people will get to go and do their business and move around

en to the Lamaha Street Railway Embankment Bus Terminal by buses that are dropping off passengers there.

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SUnDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

DDL anticipates TOPCO’s expanded Emergency repairs on plant commissioning by mid-2020 Leguan Stelling completed …as $4B injected into project

D

emerara Distillers Limited (DDL) is expected to commission its Tropical Orchard Products Company’s (TOPCO) expanded plant by mid-2020. The project is designed to process and package increased volumes of existing products including cherry, passion fruit, carambola and guava juices as well as new ones including mango, pineapple, citrus and vegetable juices as well as produce pasteurised milk, initially from reconstituted milk and eventually from milk supplied by local dairy farmers.

To meet its goal, some $4 million is expected to be injected into the expansion process by DDL. This was according to the company’s Executive Chairman, Komal Samaroo, as he is of the view that the agriculture sector must be developed to include value-added processing of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and milk.

The main components of the expansion project are the installation of a one-ton per hour fruit processing line and a 1L Tetra Pak Juice and Milk packaging line.

Last week, an update on the project’s progress was shared with representatives of several Government Ministries and agencies.

Discussions also focused on the role all stakeholders must play to ensure the success of the project and the benefits to be accrued.

This project is expected to benefit farmers through a guarantee that their supply of fruits to TOPCO is secure, with stability of prices in spite of market demand/supply conditions as well as the potential to increase their cultivation of target fruits (cherry, guava, passion fruit, and carambola) to increase supply to TOPCO as well as supply additional fruits and vegetables.

This is in addition to the

ability to collaborate with a network of technical and financial agriculture support agencies, as part of the holistic market-driven approach to developing partnerships with local fruits and dairy farmers This week, a meeting with TOPCO and the Agriculture Ministry’s Planning Unit will be held to further advance the collaborative efforts of this project.

In 2016, Government had stopped the contract with DDL to supply juice to the National School Feeding Programme.

Instead, Caribbean International Distribution Inc (CIDI), a subsidiary of Rudisa Beverages Company of Suriname, was awarded the contract.

However, DDL challenged the decision and in 2017 it won its protest after the Bid Protest Committee (BPC) ruled that the criteria as stipulated by the tender documents were not adhered to by the Evaluating Committee.

T

he Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) has announced the reopening of the Leguan Stelling to the public and traffic, following the completion of emergency works.

According to T&HD, the contractor, S Maraj Contracting Services, carried out two days of corrective works on the section of the stelling which collapsed on December 10. General Manager of T&HD, Marcelene Merchant had previously informed that rehabilitation works at one section of the stelling was already ongoing at the time of the partial collapse of the other. This resulted in a halt of operations in the best interest of the travelling public and attention was placed on the section that needed immediate emergency works.

A section of the rehabilitated Leguan Stelling

Meanwhile, Junior Minister within the Public Infrastructure Ministry, Jaipaul Sharma had blamed the delayed start of repairs on the aged structure on a number of setbacks which were not unidentified. As such, works only recommenced about two

months ago, over one year since the contract was awarded.

This newspaper has previously reported that the stelling, which is inconveniencing residents in the area, is the main exit and entry point onto the island.

Months later

Relatives of sexually molested 9-year-old still awaiting justice

…accused rapist on station bail

M

ore than two months have passed since a man allegedly sexually molested his nine-yearold female relative in the mining town of Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), and the alleged paedophile is yet to face the court.

The male relative, who is in his 60s reportedly sexually molested the child twice during her weekend visit to her paternal relatives in the month of September.

Police Commander of Region 10, Superintendent Hugh Winter, when contacted on Saturday, confirmed that the file in relation to this matter was dispatched to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) but that

it has not been returned to him to date.

However, he is hopeful that the advice on the way forward is communicated to the police soon.

Reports are that the child left her residence on September 27 (Friday) to spend the weekend with relatives in the mining town and returned home on September 29 (Sunday) in a withdrawn state.

The little girl then told her maternal aunt and other relatives about what transpired during her brief vacation with her relatives.

“She said that she loves her aunty but that she cannot go back there [at their home].

She said that the uncle, her

aunty’s husband, is a wicked man, she kept saying he is a wicked man when we asked her why she did not want to go back. Then she started telling us one by one what happened to her,” the grandmother had previously told this publication.

The elderly woman had explained that the man took her granddaughter along with his two grandchildren to “Blue Water Lake” and a creek in “Buck Town” between Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon under the pretence of teaching the young children to swim.

However, he allegedly touched the child’s private parts inappropriately despite the child telling him to stop.

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news

SUnDAY, december 15, 2019 | guyanatimesGY.com

Gunmen invade Berbice supermarket …shoot owner, escape with car

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ver six gunmen on Saturday evening invaded a Berbice supermarket, firing shots indiscriminately as they demanded cash and valuables. Reports are the incident occurred at about 19:30h at Chennick and Sons Supermarket and Western Union outlet of Betsy Ground, East Canje, Berbice.

Owner of the supermarket, Doodnauth Moses was gun-butted and also shot.

However, his injuries are not life-threatening. This newspaper was told that about eight masked men, one armed with a handgun and the others armed with assault rifles, stormed the supermarket, while several customers were shopping. Eyewitnesses told this newspaper that about 15 to 20 shots were fired by the gunmen. When this publication arrived at the scene, family members of the injured businessman

Chennick and Sons Supermarket and Western Union outlet of Betsy Ground, East Canje, Berbice

said that they are unsure about how much cash and other valuables the gunmen escaped with but know for sure that they went away with the businessman’s car. Customers who were in the supermarket were also robbed. The entire attack, this newspaper was told, lasted for about six minutes, during which time Moses’ nephew was also injured. Witnesses said

that the bandits arrived in an old model white Allion motorcar. As the gunmen left, they demanded the key to the businessman’s car. The car was shortly afterwards found abandoned at New Forest - about four miles away from the scene of the robbery. Police were summoned to the scene and gave chase but the bandits managed to evade them and escaped.

Argentina's new Govt increases export taxes

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rgentina raised farm export taxes, the country’s main source of foreign exchange, with a decree on Saturday aimed at increasing government revenue ahead of restructuring talks on about $100 billion in sovereign bonds and loans.

With the cash-strapped government facing significant debt maturities in 2020, farmers had been expecting an increase in export taxes on crops such as soybeans,

wheat and corn. Growers, already harried by high financing costs in the inflation-racked country, where the benchmark interest rate is at 63%, had been dreading the expected increase in grains export taxes.

“Given the serious situation that public finances are going through, urgent adoption is necessary to meet, at least partially, budget expenditures with new resources,” the decree stated.

Reuters contacted repre-

sentatives of the ministries of economy and agriculture to obtain details of the measure, but the officials declined to comment on the technicalities of the decree, which said the tax on corn and wheat of 4 pesos per export dollar would no longer be in effect.

The government office that registers grains exports will be closed on Monday while the new tax structure is put in place. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Security cameras to be installed at 17 new locations …including Stabroek Market, Berbice Bridge

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nother batch of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras will be installed at critical locations in a bid to fight the high crime rate while monitoring suspicious activities.

The Public Telecommunications Ministry has informed that 17 technologically advanced monitoring systems will be placed at key areas across the coastal region. This is a collaboration between the Joint Services and the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), bringing the total number to 119 cameras – all of which are omnidirectional.

Head of the NDMA, Floyd Levi has said that the programme is being improved under the Safe City Solutions project with assistance from the Chinese Government. This project, pegged at US$37M, is also being carried out with aid from technology supplier, Huawei Technologies.

Through the country’s National Broadband Strategy, it was started and funded by the China Exim (Export-Import) bank.

In Region Five (MahaicaBerbice), the Berbice River Bridge will be equipped with the device, while another will be placed at the Palmyra Junction. The Mahaicony Bridge, Fort Wellington, the Magistrates’ Courts, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and Skeldon Market in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) will also receive cameras.

Others will be placed

Stabroek Market

at Enmore-Haslington, the Stabroek Market and the Soesdyke junction in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Parika in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Anna Regina and Charity in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

In July, a multimillion-dollar CCTV command centre was activated to monitor criminals, suspects, and vehicles involved in crimes.

Levi had stated then that this centre, which is located near the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, has been dubbed the National Emergency and Response Command Centre. It was housed there pending the approval of the Cabinet for works on the construction of a brand new building to house the operations.

While it was introduced to bolster safety, there is still a startling increase in criminal acts. Statistics for 2019 showed that there was a 35 per cent increase in murder, 27 per cent increase in robbery under arms, sev-

en per cent increase in robbery with violence, 31 per cent increase in larceny and seven per cent increase in burglary.

Commissioner of Police, Leslie James had downplayed the surging crime rate by insisting that he is not “bothered” – an act which was condemned by trade unions and other bodies. The crime rate was addressed by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who stated, “This is bizarre for a country like ours. The President doesn’t say anything. He says he’s addressing the crime situation. The (Public Security) Minister has gone quiet on the matter and the Police are coming up with these stats and we’re led to believe that crime is down. This is something that requires immediate attention…They’re not paying any attention to the functions that they get paid to carry out and they have no policy to address this rampant crime situation that is wreaking havoc”.

North Korea conducts “crucial test” — State media

Miss Jamaica crowned N Miss World 2019

J

amaica’s Toni-Ann Singh was crowned as Miss World 2019 on Saturday and said she wanted to use her title to work for “sustainable change” for women and their children.

Asked about the value of beauty contests in today’s world of #MeToo and the drive for equality and respect for women, the 23-year-old graduate of Florida State University said beauty for her was the least important aspect of her achievement.

“I want to make a change that’s sustainable. So if we’re talking women... it needs to be something that will make sure that their children and their children’s children have a different value of life,” an overjoyed Singh told reporters after winning the title in London.

Singh did not specify

Miss World 2019 Toni-Ann Singh

what kind of change she had in mind.

“It’s OK to celebrate things like beauty and attributes like strength and those things. But this is so much more,” she said as she hugged her proud parents, Jahrine and Bradshaw.

Describing herself as a “changed woman” after the

experience of taking part in the Miss World competition, Singh added: “There’s no way I could chalk it up to just being about beauty, because that’s the last on the list, honestly.”

Singh, who sang a version of the late singer Whitney Houston’s “I have nothing” in the competition, received her crown from last year’s winner, Vanessa Ponce of Mexico.

Jamaicans attending the event hailed Singh’s win as a triumph also for their Caribbean island nation.

“The fact that Miss World is won by a black person is very, very significant to us because it represents a lot in terms of our culture, in terms of how far the world has moved on,” said audience member Christine McDermott, who lives in London. (Reuters)

orth Korea has conducted another "crucial test" at its Sohae satellite launch site, state media reported Saturday, as nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington remain stalled with a deadline approaching.

The announcement comes a day before US Special Envoy on North Korea Stephen Biegun is set to arrive in Seoul for a three-day visit, and after the United States tested a medium-range ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.

"Another crucial test was successfully conducted at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground from 22:41h to 22:48h on December 13," a spokesman for the North's National Academy of Defence Science said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

The "research successes" will be "applied to further bolstering up the reliable strategic nuclear deterrent"

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had agreed to shutter the Sohae site during a summit last year with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang as part of trust-building measures

of North Korea, the spokesman added.

The statement did not provide further details on the test.

Sohae, on North Korea's northwest coast, is ostensibly a facility designed for putting satellites into orbit.

But Pyongyang has carried out several rocket launches there that were condemned by the US and others as disguised longrange ballistic missile tests.

The North is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council

resolutions, and rocket engines can be easily repurposed for use in missiles.

Frustrated by the lack of sanctions relief after three summits with President Donald Trump, North Korea has vowed an ominous "Christmas gift" if the US does not come up with concessions by the end of the year.

Some analysts have suggested the North may be referring to an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

(AFP)

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sunDAY, december 15, 2019

Youth Enhancement 10/10 Cricket set for today ꟷ 8 teams to battle

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he fourth edition of the Youth Enhancement 10/10 Cricket tournament is set for staging today at the Number 56 Village Community Centre Ground on the Corentyne Coast in East Berbice.

Organiser Gobin Harbhajan, the Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) Prime Minister’s Regional Representative and a Regional Councillor, says the Youth Enhancement initiative has been a success since its inaugural staging in May of this year. He explained that businesspersons and other individuals throughout the East Berbice/ Corentyne Region have been approaching him to contribute or collaborate in his drive to help youths and adults.

This tournament seeks to get persons involved in sports at a competitive level, and to ensure that persons are engaged in constructive activities in preparing for competitions.

The first edition was staged in May, the second in August, and the third in November.

Eight teams will be competing in this 10/10 softball cricket competition. They are Grill Master, May Flower, Unstoppable, Turbo United, Number 55 Village, Number 57 Village, Number 58 Village, Number 59 Village and Crabwood Creek.

At stake are both cash and trophies for the top four teams. Grill Master are the defending champions.

Harbhajan says he was asked to have this tournament at this time of the year since organisers have not, at this time of the year,

been forthcoming with other traditional sporting events on the Corentyne.

“People look forward to things that they can actually participate in. I have always been open to any assistance. It’s not about one community, I would be happy to see other individuals in other communities follow my footsteps and be leaders.

“What I found over the years is that we have too many people complaining. I believe that if one can use their energy to criticize, they can turn their negative into positive and become a role model. One such family who reached out to join me in this tournament is Mr and Mrs Lalsaran and Family (Shirley’s Supermarket), who took their time to assist me in organizing this event.”

Some of the other sponsors on board are Shamie Rampersaud of USA, Mr and Mrs Bancedar (Videsh of Canada), Kamlawattie Jaipersaud of Canada, Nand Persaud and Company, among others.

Harbhajan says he has noticed that the figures as they relate to suicide on the Corentyne are relatively high. He is of the view that many persons have idle time on their hands.

“They need to get themselves involved in activities other than alcohol-drinking and illegal drugs’ use. Making a start and taking the lead will help the youths to use their spare time to do something constructive,” he said.

“My objective is, as the Prime Minister Rep and Regional Counsellor, to do some-

thing about the situation, because too many youth and adults have idle time, and we have so many abandoned playgrounds all over. So, I want to invest my time into the Number 56 Village Community Ground as a start,” he explained.

He added that since the staging of the first tournament in May, several villagers have

been asking for a repeat, and also the business community has contacted him, indicating their intention to support similar initiatives. “They have been encouraging me to continue with my drive, and they are willing to sponsor trophies and so on, to ensure that the idea grows and becomes successful,” Harbhajan explained.

Drayton’s Chess Club & Scholastic Centre officially launched W

hen this publication last met with FIDE Master Anthony Drayton, he was in the early stages of planning a summer programme under the name Drayton’s Chess Club and Scholastic Centre.

With the passage of time, the idea has become reality, and Drayton has indicated that the club has been opened and has been doing well in its first week.

Classes are being held at the Presidential Suite of the National Stadium at Providence on Thursdays from 16:30 hrs to 18:30 hrs, and on Saturdays from 10:00 hrs to 12:00 hrs (noon). Students are being taught the basics in chess, chess theory, chess strategy, the analytical process, and end games.

The classes, geared to cause advancement in players’ abilities, feature monthly packages as follows: Beginners $12,000; Intermediates $15,000 and Advanced $20,000. Persons can, however, opt to pay $3000 per session.

Drayton told this publication: “One step at a time… if it’s very successful, I plan

to make it a countrywide project that will cover all 10 regions. I want to see it produce top players to complete internationally and finally produce medals for Guyana in chess. The club will undoubtedly force me to get even stronger, (in order) to produce even stronger players.”

Being the only Guyanese player with a ranking above 2000, Anthony Drayton’s 2007 FIDE ranking is impressive among the many chess players in Guyana. By his FIDE ratings, Drayton is Guyana’s top player, and he has the highest ELO rating

of 2030.

He attained the title of Candidate Master at the Chess Olympiad of 2014 Open, and the title of FIDE Master at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in 2018.

This FIDE Master, national instructor, national champion and national coach will also be hosting free classes at the club for at least once a week.

“These classes will be mostly for persons or kids who

want to learn how to play chess, from moving the pieces to mastering the opening.

Chess tactics, strategies, and all the other stuff will come if they want to learn more about it,” he has said.

Interested individuals desiring further information are invited to check out the club’s Facebook pageDrayton’s Chess Club and Scholastic Centre; their email- anthonydrayton99@yahoo.com, or call 613-2083 or Davion Mars at mars_philosophy@yahoo.com or 658-4032.

Table tennis returns to Berbice T

he Berbice Table Tennis SubAssociation has been resurrected, and weekly sessions are being held at the New Amsterdam Prison Officers Sports Club in Penitentiary Walk.

Sessions are being held from 17:30h to 22:00h during the week, and from 10:00h to 20:00h on Saturday. All former and current players are invited to attend.

Over the past days, some 25 persons have attended these sessions, and immense focus is being placed on novices, juniors and females.

This programme has been given the blessings of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) from whom racquets, balls and nets have been donated. The coordinator of this event is Region 6 Sports Officer Mr Godwyn Allicock.

National Coach Linden Johnson is expected to grace the event with his presence on Saturday, December 21.

A Berbice Open tournament is tentatively set for January 2020.

sunday, december 15, 2019

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guyanatimesgy.com

Youth Basketball Guyana Titan Bowl X…

Kwakwani thrash Plaisance in highlight action of the night T

he second night of play in the Youth Basketball Guyana Titan Bowl X competition ongoing at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall featured a total of six matches, with notable wins being achieved by St Stanislaus College, Marian Academy, Arima Secondary, Bishops’ High and Kwakwani Secondary in the under-16 and girls’ categories.

In the first game, St Stanislaus College easily defeated Queen’s College 40-27 in the girls’ category. The QC side never had a chance, as Saints extended their lead through the effortless scoring of Leana Benons, who produced 18 points, 7 rebounds and 6 steals.

In a losing effort, Naiomi Barkoye produced 14 points and 16 rebounds for QC. In the final girls’ game of the night, Marian Academy made light work of Kwakwani Secondary, defeating them 39-23. The back-and-forth encounter saw Shania Sears, with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 6 steals, and Atalia Rose, with 11 points and 13 rebounds, leading the way for

Marian Academy.

Aaliya Singh scored 9 points and 5 rebounds for Kwakwani.

In this same under-16 category, Arima Secondary flipped the script on President’s College, whom they whipped 40-17. The Arima side were able to keep their opponents at bay, and only Kemal Mentore, with 8 points and 5 rebounds, scored in a losing effort for President’s College.

Kevon Phillips, with 11 points and 8 rebounds, and Kasim English, with 8 points and 4 rebounds, were able to make maximum use of the time and bag a win for Arima.

Marian Academy registered a 42-34 win over St Stanislaus to add valuable points to their tally. Jether Harris was able to score an all-time high of 28 points and 23 rebounds, being supported by Dwayne Best with 10 points.

Scoring for Saints in a losing effort was Mustapha Kadir, with 16 points and 27 rebounds; and Brandon

Part of the action on night two

McKoy, with 7 points.

The Bishops’ High/ St Roses clash was a thriller from the getgo, a mere point separating them in the final analysis. Bishops’ just managed

to defeat the Roses 35-34 for the win, gratitude due to Keron Bacchus, who contributed 20 points and 12 rebounds. Scoring for the Roses in a losing effort was Chris Perez, with 20 points and 6 rebounds.

In the final U16 match, Kwakwani Secondary administered a 68-5 thrash-

ing on Plaisance Secondary.

Clint Adolph, with 14 points and 6 rebounds, and Elijah David, with 15 points and 6 rebounds, top-scored for Kwakwani.

Ishmail Chapman, with 3 points, was the main scorer for Plaisance.

Roy Fredericks T10 Cup set for today at Blairmont

PMTC One-Day Horse Meet…

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Some of Guyana’s top race horses will be on show in this grand one-day event at Port Mourant (Brandon Corlette photo)

E

ight exciting horse-racing events are slated to be run off today: Sunday, December 15, at the Port Mourant Turf Club (PMTC) on the Corentyne Coast in East Berbice as a grand, one-day horse race meet is staged from 10:00h.

The main event of the meet, the B & Lower race over a distance of 1600 metres, carries a winner’s purse of $600,000, and all of the country’s top horses are reportedly in contention.

‘Big gun’ names expected to participate in this meet are Don’t Over Look, Jus Call Me Bass, Vera’s Finally, Storm Bird, Lucky

Star, TNT, Golden Blue Ecko, Not This Time, Justify the Heat, and newly imported mounts Santa Cruz Lady and Golden Dancer.

It is anticipated that equine reputations will either be established or broken at the end of this meet.

In the race for two-year-old maiden Guyana-bred horses, which will be run over a distance of 1000 metres, the winner thereof is set to receive a purse of $240,000.

In the H & Lower (nonwinners’ 2019) race, over a distance of 1000 metres, the winner is set to receive $300,000.

The G3 & Lower race will

be run over a distance of 1600 metres for a winner’s purse of $300,000.

The L Class race will be run over 1500 metres for a winner’s purse of $120,000; while the L Non-Winners’ race is over a distance of 1300 metres for a winner’s purse of $100,000.

The J & Lower race for 2-year -old, Guyana-bred horses will be run over 1300 metres for a winner’s purse of $240,000; while the race for K Class horses will be run over a distance of 1200 metres for a winner’s purse of $140,000.

Admission to the event is $1500 for adults and $500 for children, payable at the gate.

espite the onset of inclement weather, the Roy Fredericks T10 Cricket Cup for 2019, known as “Infinity War”, will be staged today at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground on the West Bank of Berbice.

Activities commence from 9:00h, and admission to the event is without charge.

Seven teams will battle for supremacy in this exciting activity. They are D’ Edward Sports Club, Number 5 Cricket Club, Blairmont Blazers, Cotton Tree Die Hards, Young Warriors, Achievers, and Black Bush Polder.

Because rainfall on the eastern shores of Berbice is intense, the matches set for this weekend have been postponed until December 29.

The two big matches that were slated for this weekend are the Busta

Champion of Champions 40-over final and the Ivan Madray T20 final, in which Berbice cricketing giants Albion and Rose Hall Town are featured.

The Busta final was slated for play at the ‘Area H’ Ground, while the Ivan Madray final was set to be played at the Number 69 ground, Upper Corentyne. In addition to the Ivan Madray and Busta finals, the Under-17 matches have also been put on hold.

Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Simon Naidu has informed that these matches have been rescheduled for Sunday December 29.

No cricket will be featured in the upcoming weekend, as the BCB Annual General Meeting is slated for December 22.

22

guyanatimesgy.comom

SUnDAY, december 15, 2019

Guyana Jaguars 2019 year in review…

‘Hot and cold year’ for Guyana Jaguars

By Brandon Corlette

I

n early March 2019, Guyana Jaguars were certain of obtaining a fifth successive Regional 4-Day title; and it became a reality. Conversely, Guyana Jaguars were uncertain of their performance in the recently concluded R e g i o n a l S u p e r 5 0 tournament; and they suffered elimination by the hands of the United States of America (USA).

Thus their search for a Super50 title continues.

In addition to the mixed results they obtained across the 4-Day and Super50 formats, 2019 has been a year wherein the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has been placed under

the microscope. Head Coach Esuan Crandon had been in the West Indies coaching set-up, and is now out; while Jaguars Assistant Coach Rayon Griffith has cemented his place as fielding coach in the West Indies coaching staff.

Jaguars

physiotherapist Neil Barry has made great strides in his field, progressing to the West Indies A set-up that was coached by Crandon.

Revisiting the year, the first Christopher Barnwell in 2019 scored the most Super50 runs for Jaguars

Keemo Paul leading the Jaguars off the field

match the Jaguars played in 2019 was from January 4-7 in Bridgetown, Barbados, against a team packed with Bajans who play for the West Indies.

Their domination of the 4-Day format continued when Chandrapaul Hemraj and Anthony Bramble racked up big centuries against six West Indies bowlers, representing Barbados Pride. Jaguars went on to win that match by six

Roston Chase brings balance to ODI team ꟷ Pollard R

oston Chase’s presence in the ODI team gives West Indies more balance, according to skipper Kieron Pollard. Chase, who is a key member in the Test team, has recently been integrated into the ODI XI as well, post the World Cup. In the recently concluded series against Afghanistan, Chase made a telling contribution with both bat and ball in all three games, and was even named “the player of the series”.

Considering Chase’s prowess with the bat, West Indies can now afford to play an extra batsman if needed, stressed Pollard ahead of the first ODI against India in Chennai.

“I think he brings balance to the whole team,” Pollard said. “He’s first of all a Test batsman - he has Test hundreds - and that in itself is a great asset for us.

“Having a guy who bats in the middle order in Test cricket coming in and in One-Day cricket can do any role -- given that he can bowl as well -- it gives an opportunity to play an extra bowler, or an extra all-rounder, or an extra batsman. So he has been very valuable for us.

“We saw his talents, and we’re trying to exploit what he can give for himself, as he can be up there in terms of being the No.1 all-rounder in the world. He has come in [as] a left-field selection, but that’s something that has worked for us,” Pollard explained.

Pleased with the 3-0 win over Afghanistan, Pollard wants his side to continue the good work and keep improving. He has, however, admitted that the fortunes of West Indies cricket will not see a U-turn overnight.

“What is important is that we come with a clear mission and plan on how to approach 50over cricket,” he said. “We need to be clear on how to play the game, and we need to get guys who are responsible and accountable for those things.

“It’s a process that we are going through, the results might not show straightaway. Yes, we won 3-0 against Afghanistan, (but) we are coming up against better opponents. There are things we are working on internally; and hopefully, the results will take effect in time to come. It’s not going to happen overnight, obviously, but we are willing to work,” he explained.

Pollard has backed the West Indies assistant coach’s words on the young batsmen having to take inspiration from Indian skipper Virat Kohli in order to reach the next level, and has challenged the batting group to do the hard work to see results.

“It’s about you being able to realise your potential, and you’re watching other guys who’ve

Kieron Pollard

done it or who’re consistently doing it,” he observed. “The way they go about doing their stuff and the way they train - physically and mentally and the amount of time they invest in their cricket careers is going to make the difference. These guys who’re successful…we, as cricketers who want to be destined to be great, need to try to emulate (them).

“For the younger games in our team, it’s a matter of changing training habits and being more focused in what you want to do and what you want to achieve. And (you need to) put in more into your game.

“I’m not saying the guys haven’t done it; they’ve done it. We, as individuals, see how guys work hard and the results doesn’t reflect.

Sometimes we need to do the extra, and that’s something we’ve spoken about with this bunch of guys we have.

“But these guys are really, really putting in hard work behind the scenes at the end of the day. Wait and see, and the results will show. But have patience, and they’re doing what (they) need to (do to) succeed at the international level,” he explained.

The 32-year-old was also delighted with Dwayne Bravo’s decision to come out of retirement to play T20Is for West Indies again, but he emphasised the need to stay in the present and focus on 50-over cricket.

“As players, (we are) happy to have Bravo coming back into the fold, and he has categorically stated that it’s for T20 cricket,” Pollard noted.

“Tomorrow we have an important game, an ODI series coming up, which is more important right now than World T20. The India T20 series is over.

I’m happy as captain that a guy of that calibre is available for selection. Players in the dressing room are happy as well.

“But, as we speak right now, we are more focused on the job at hand; which is that 50-over game tomorrow.” (cricbuzz)

wickets, and ended the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional 4-Day season with seven wins and three defeats, having scored 154.2 points.

Breakthrough year for Shepherd Wearing the whites while representing the Jaguars in the 4-Day season, the boys from Berbice, Romario Shepherd, Veerasammy Permaul and Anthony Bramble, each enjoyed a dream season.

In the 2018-2019 season, Shepherd bagged 37 wickets, the most by a fast-bowler in the Caribbean. Presently representing West Indies in India, 2019 has been a breakthrough year for Shepherd.

From success with Jaguars to West Indies A and Guyana Amazon Warriors, Shepherd is arguably the cricketer of the year. What stood out for Shepherd in the 4-Day season was his high fitness level. He played all ten 4-Day matches and ended with 37 wickets at an average of 20.13 and a best bowling figure of 5-24.

One of the main reasons for this level of fitness is the Academy process that enables players to train from Monday through Thursday, and maintain a high level of fitness.

Bramble who was harshly treated by West Indies selectors,

Romario Shepherd speaking to Brandon Corlette during a Jaguars practice session (Jemima Holmes photo)

ended the 4-Day season with 580 runs. He was followed by Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who scored 542 runs. Skipper Leon Johnson’s 480 runs was the next best.

Expectedly, Permaul dominated the Regional circuit with 42 wickets.

For West Indies’ representation in 2019, only a few Jaguars players made the cut, despite the franchise success.

Shepherd, Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Raymon Reifer and Devandra Bishoo were the Jaguars players who played across formats for West Indies in 2019. The talented trio of Rutherford, Paul and Hetmyer went on to represent teams in international franchise cricket.

Foo returns, Jags fall at Super50 Some new and familiar faces made the Guyana Jaguars Super50 squad for the Colonial Medical Insurance Regional Super50 Cup. One notable pick was Jonathan Foo, who made 333 runs in the Cricket Guyana

Inc. SBF Petroleum 50-overs Franchise league for the championship team Lower Corentyne. Foo made his opportunity count, finishing the Super50 Cup with 334 runs for Jaguars.

The mature Christopher Barnwell, who racked up 351 runs, was the leading player for Jaguars in an unsuccessful Super50 season. Jaguars lost four matches and recorded a similar number of wins, and still continue their search for a Super50 title, having been so engaged since 2005.

In the Super50 bowling department, Permaul continued his dominance at the Regional level with 11 wickets, while Ramaal Lewis and Raymon Reifer each had 10 wickets in the Super50 season.

Despite Jaguars’ disappointment in the Super50, the future looks good with the likes of Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd leading the West Indies Emerging Players to the Super50 title. Jaguars will be seeking to extend their dominance when the Regional 4-Day season bowls off in January 2020.

GTA embarks on “Play Tennis” course

T

A glimpse of one of the sessions during the course

he Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) recently hosted a four-day ‘Play Tennis’ course that was geared at better educating those who teach the sport.

The course, which commenced on December 11th and concluded on December 14th, 2019, was aimed at additionally equipping tennis coaches, potential tennis coaches, and teachers with the theoretic and practical skills required for training juniors for tennis.

Held at the National Racquet Centre, this course consisted of both on-court and theoretical teachings, and was facilitated by International Tennis Federation Expert Mr. Damien Applewhaite, who has been coaching for the past 19 years.

Applewhaite has been the first ITF Level 3 coach in the English-speaking Caribbean, and has been an ITF Team Coach of the COTECC Underp-16 team.

guyanatimesgy.com

sunDAY, december 15, 2019

23

KFC Goodwill Tournament…

Annai, Lodge register exhilarating opening wins Story and photos by Jemima Holmes

I

t rained goals at the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Training Facility at Providence as Annai Secondary and Lodge Secondary both secured opening wins in the KFC Goodwill Tournament which kicked off on Saturday afternoon.

Blessed with brilliant sunshine after a week of inclement weather, an official march past ceremony preceded the football action.

There, President of the Guyana Football Federation, Wayne Forde, while charging the secondary school students to remain disciplined throughout the event, also took opportunity to highlight the importance of corporate involvement in the sport.

“I want to ask each and every one of the players that are here to ensure, in their conduct on and off the field, that discipline is the watch word,” Forde urged the student athletes.

“I want to make one last emphasis, and that is on the value of corporate support for football. I never spare any opportunity to remind Guyana that unless we have corporate partners that are coming on board and are helping us to grow and develop the game, our task would be that much more challenging,” the GFF boss went on to state.

Meanwhile, after expressing gratitude to the tournament’s sponsors, Petra’s CoDirector Troy Mendonca, in the same breath, shared the vision that the organizing body has for the tournament years down the road.

“Our dream, our ambition for this tournament, is (that), in a few years to come, we have several teams from within the Caribbean region coming here to match skills with the best teams we have in this country,” Mendonca explained.

When it finally got down to the real busi-

GFF President Wayne Forde addressing the students

The Annai goalscorers

ness, Annandale Secondary got a taste of their own bitter medicine when Region Nine’s Annai Secondary handed them a 9-1 trashing.

After controlling possession, and registering two goals in the first half, from Junior Rodrigues (7th) and Italo Benjamin (24th), Annai Secondary were fiercer in the second half, netting goal after goal and punishing the Annandale custodian.

Rodrigues and Benjamin each completed their brace, in the 64th and 54th minutes respectively, while Raul Swan (52nd) and Brimley Moses (78th) each contributed a goal.

The Annai captain led from the front in hammering a hat trick (57th, 67th, 69th) against the lacklustre Annandale side. It

wasn’t all bad for the East Coast team, as Colin Henriques scored a consolation goal in the 72nd minute.

In the second fixture of the day, Marian Academy held out for a while in the first half of play; but once Lodge Secondary had found the back of the net, it was all over, as they romped to a 6-1 victory.

The Guyoil/Tradewind Tankers champions had looked frustrated with the seemingly impenetrable Marian defense remaining impenetrable in the first 20 minutes of play.

But in a turn of events, it was hat-trick day for the winning captain, as Dorwin George netted goals in the 25th and 30th minutes to take some of the pressure off his team.

Earl Grant punctuated George’s scoring with a goal of his own, scored in the 27th minute to push the score to 3-0 by the half.

Retaliating early in the second half, Marian Academy’s Daniel Lowe netted in the 49th; but, to their dismay, this would be Marian’s only goal of the game.

Curt Edwards (61st) and Shemroy Mayers (69th) each contributed a goal, while George completed his hat trick in the 69th for the 6-1 victory.

The KFC Goodwill tournament will continue tomorrow (Monday) at the same Providence venue, when Lodge Secondary takes on Waramadong Secondary, and Shiva boys feature in their first game against Annai Secondary.

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

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

KFC Goodwill Tournament…

Pg 23

Annai, Lodge register exhilarating opening wins

Pg 22

Roston Chase brings balance to ODI team ꟷ Pollard

Youth Basketball Guyana Titan Bowl X…

Pg 21

Kwakwani thrash Plaisance in highlight action of the night

GUYANA TIMES - www.guyanatimesgy.com, email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, NEWS HOTLINE: 231-8063 EDITORIAL: 223-7230, 223-7231, 231-0544, 225-7761 SPORT: sport@guyanatimesgy.com SALES AND MARKETING: 231-8064 - lezas@guyanatimesgy.com - PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GUYANA TIMES INC.

December 15, 2019

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2 Sunday Times Magazine

december 15, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

Feature

By Lakhram Bhagirat

C

hristmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and it is a time we use to reflect on the year we have had, along with focusing on family and giving to charity. It is a season that brings together people across boundaries as they all part take in the festivities. It is also a time w h e r e c h i l dren are at their happiest and filled with anticipation as t h e y w a i t to see what presents they find

u n der the tree on Christmas morning.

Every part of the world has their unique spin on Christmas and how they celebrate the season. But the common factor is that the season focuses on family and charity. In Guyana, you know Christmas is around the corner when you hear the boom-boom boxes blasting “A rich man for Christmas” and grapes and apples being sold at giveaway prices.

You know it is Christmas when the pavements, particularly along Regent Street, Georgetown, are lined with new appliances as well as roadside vendors galore. The Christmas season is the busiest season for businesses, research has proved.

Every country has their own Christmas tradition, but I say, without bias, a truly Guyanese is the best Christmas. Nowhere else in the world will you wake up on a Christmas morning to the intense aroma of the pepperpot reheating on the stove, with freshly baked bread to accompany the succulent meaty dish, and don’t forget the ginger beer. That tall glass of beige goodness with ice cubes floating brings together the entire dish.

In Guyana, Christmas is our version of Thanksgiving since it is food centred.

Some people start their Christmas cooking weeks before December 25.

However, the traditional Guyanese Christmas does not start without the remodelling of the house and extravagant spending.

“We are breaking away more from the traditional Christmas, because I remember as a little girl what it was like. We had very little, but we always made

it the best. We used make Christmas trees going in the back and cutting one of the bush and decrate it with paper decorations. was a time where friends came togethand the Kool-Aid was enough for many of us,” Patricia Ramdass remembers.

She tells me that they would anticipate Christmas because it was the time when they would don their best pieces of clothing and eat lavishly. It was a time where they would dance past their bedtime and be merry with their friends. For her, that is what Christmas really is. It is a time for friends and family to come together and have the best time of their lives.

Speaking to the more traditional aspects of Christmas, Susanna King tells me Christmas is a time to go to church and commit to being a better person. The 69-year-old said that now people were more focused on decorating their houses and overspending, adding that takes away from the true meaning of Christmas.

“In Guyana, Christmas means that you get to eat pepperpot and bread, and garlic pork.

It is when we get a black cake and nice time. But it is a time where we have to remember the true meaning of the holiday and go to church and pray. We have to pray that God takes care of our sins and guides us to the path of success. We have to embrace family and charity. We need that and that is what the traditional Guyanese Christmas is,” she said.

So however you celebrate Christmas, make time out for your family and ensure that you give something to charity.

t o b y o I t e r

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine

3

Feature

“W

hen I g i v e someone a card, it is not just a card.

It is art. It is unique in such a way that it becomes part of your home.

It becomes something that you can put in your home. You can put it on your mantle or you can make it an ornament. My cards are not just something you read and then put away, I make them in such a way that they should be displayed,” says Natasha Profeiro.

Natasha has been making handcrafted greeting cards for a number of years now and has cemented herself as one of the go-to creators in Guyana. If you have had the chance to receive a card made by Natasha, then you know that it ups the card game.

Born in Venezuela of Guyanese heritage, Natasha moved to the North-West District in Region One (BarimaWaini) when she was nine. Her grandfather had just passed away and her father had to return to Guyana to take over the family business.

Not knowing one word of English, Natasha’s life was changed when she came to Guyana. She had to overcome the language barrier, but she persisted. At the age of 13, she moved from the NorthWest District to Georgetown, but because of her difficulty understanding the English language, Natasha did not really pursue schooling.

A few years after moving to the city, she began babysitting and it was then she decided that she needed to be more serious about h e r education. She sent

herself back to school and later began a career as a Spanish teacher at School of the Nations in Berbice.

“Teaching was never something I really wanted to do. I tried many things and it just never fitted. I lost interest very quickly and one day I woke up and came with the idea of making handmade greeting cards. The first thing I did was to buy some cardboard and I used to cut them with a knife on a glass table and I made some cards. My friends and family bought,” she said.

After she made the first set of cards, Natasha was encouraged to pursue her newest venture so she made the necessary investments and began her journey. She bought a machine to help her cut and shape cardstock she would use to create her masterpieces.

Her work began to speak for itself and from there, it started to spiral to greater heights.

“ I love Christmas, so at first, I started with just Christmas cards, but then I started to make wedding invitations and all kinds of cards. Everything I made handmade after that. Anything you think I can do, I do. I have always been a crafty person and as a kid, I would always make cards with paper.

“Christmas is the only holiday I prepare for and when I started making cards, I didn’t focus on birthdays and anniversaries so I later branched off into those a r -

eas.”

So, if you are looking for a special kind of card for any occasion, particularly for the holiday season, be sure to ensure that it is from Natasha. She does not disappoint.

4

Sunday Times Magazine

decemner 15,2019

Feature

L

ooking for unique and personalised gifts for your loved ones this Christmas?

Be sure to check out Niche Guyana and Concept

3D. Established by 25-year-old Czerda Frank, these businesses incorporate modern technology and a touch of traditional charm.

home décor and household items, basically, almost anything from your wildest imagination.

According to Czerda, Concept 3D was created with the aim of pioneering 3D printing and other modern methods of digital fabrication in Guyana.

Czerda Frank

Niche Guyana

Niche Guyana is a small business that focuses on bringing high-quality, handcrafted wooden and leather goods to everyday consumers.

"Our products are aesthetically pleasing and designed with the relationship between form and function in mind," Czerda told Sunday Times Magazine With Niche Guyana, you are bound to find a unique gift item from cutting board and photo frames to poster boards, coaster sets, and custom plaques.

Niche Guyana also offers leather goods like wallets, pouches, keyrings and notebooks.

Moreover, you can get these gifts laser engraved with a special message for your loved ones.

"They are customised specifically to each customer and can be engraved with any personal message that the giver might wish to convey.

“There’s no better way to show your appreciation for someone than by presenting them with something made just for them," Czerda expressed.

Concept 3D

Concept 3D offers 3D modelling and printing services.

With these services, customers can get phone cases, fashion pieces, custom jewellery, toys, figurines, office accessories,

“Our products are great Christmas gifts because they epitomise customisation and personal fabrication. With our technology, you can create endless possibilities. 3D printing makes it possible to create just about anything that you can imagine, including the perfect Christmas gift,” he expressed.

About Czerda Frank

Czerda Frank has a background in engineering and an inclination for entrepreneurship.

As an engineer, he was exposed to 3D modelling while studying abroad, and upon his return to Guyana, he pitched the idea to potential business partners.

After noticing the gap in the market locally, he decided to research the technology and its feasibility before eventually starting Concept 3D in mid-2017.

The establishment of Niche Guyana came afterwards.

Apart from being an engineer, Czerda is also excellent when it comes to woodworking.

“I’ve always liked modern, unique, well-made craft items and had a hard time finding those in Guyana. I picked up woodworking and leather craft as hobbies to be able to make some of those items for myself, friends and family, and it eventually grew into the business that it is now,” Czerda explained.

Niche Gguyana and Concept 3D can be contacted on 615-0001

guyanatimesgy.com

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine 5

Feature

A

lta Das has the ability to create masterpieces from something as simple as paper. She can turn a simple piece of paper into something that is unique, because she simply has the knack for creating. Her creativity knows no bounds and she is not afraid to share her masterpieces with the world.

Alta has always been a creative person and that was nurtured by her mother, who is a teacher. While growing up, she would observe her mother making creative teaching aids for her classroom and young Alta would be so intrigued. In her household, creativity was encouraged and she blossomed from there.

A few years ago, she embarked on what can be considered a life-changing venture. One that she had not planned. She started her own business – Kraftify.

Kraftify was started as a result of a project she had to complete while a Medical Technology student at the University

of Guyana.

“A friend and I were in a group project at the university, and she and I made a large collage with different types of materials and some paper. We decided to put more paper work into it and we did some research and we came up with origami and quilling, and we put some of those in the project. I started to do background on paper craft, and she and I decided to come together and we started a craft business.

We started to make some giant paper flowers, wall pieces, paper jewellery and different sort of paper craft.

“From there we tried lots of techniques before we started and eventually we decided to branch off. We went to various exhibitions and we grew.

While she and I no longer work together, I still continued to do the business. It was tough because I had to start from scratch. I invested a lot of money.”

For Alta, one of the major challenges was sourcing the right materials and equipment to support her venture.

Now she is able to make a wide variety of pieces based on her clients’ requests. She makes wall pieces, jewellery, cards and a whole host of other items. So, for this holiday season personalise your gifts with something from Kraftify.

6 Sunday Times Magazine

december 15, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

Feature

Preserving our literary heritage by Petamber Persaud

The way that mine you've stirred.

A Friend's Greeting I'd like to be the sort of friend That you have been to me; I'd like to be the help that you've been Always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you Each minute of the day As you have meant, old friend of mine, To me along the way.

I'd like to do the big things And the splendid things for you, To brush the gray out of your skies And leave them only blue; I'd like to say the kindly things That I so oft have heard, And feel that I could rouse your soul

I'd like to give back the joy That you have given me, Yet that were wishing you a need I hope will never be; I'd like to make you feel As rich as I, who travel on Undaunted in the darkest hours With you to lean upon.

I'm wishing at this Christmas time That I could but repay A portion of the gladness That you've strewn along the way; And could I have one wish this year, This only would it be: I'd like to be the sort of friend That you have been to me.

By Edgar Guest

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine 7

Feature

A

rt itself has the ability to bridge barriers. It has the power to unite or divide depending on the perspective of those admiring it. Art is even more unique in the sense that it has the power to display our commonality as opposed to what differentiates.

The Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA), in collaboration with EQUAL Guyana, is now using the arts to bring awareness to the issues facing those considered as vulnerable groups.

On Human Rights Day, which also signals the end of the 16 Days of Activism, the two organisations hosted an art exhibition, which highlighted the issues faced by the vulnerable communities.

At the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, at Moray House, EQUAL Guyana’s Managing Director Anil Persaud told <<<Sunday Times Magazine>>> that the exhibition was one that was timely since it was raising awareness at a time when Guyana needed it.

“The exhibition is timely and really important because it is raising awareness. The arts have been ignored for a long time, especially in the human rights arena and the social services arena, and it really plays a big role because art breaks boundaries, it breaks barriers. It goes across languag-

es, races, and religions and that’s especially important for us,” Persaud said.

The exhibition saw 16 pieces with 15 themes displayed. Each piece spoke to a different taboo in Guyanese society.

EQUAL Guyana’s aim is to shift from the traditional management system which perpetuates economic gain with financial roots, to a more people-centred approach in which persons are the root of the project and humanity is recognised as a commonality. EQUAL Guyana seeks to break negative cycles by truly taking the wants and needs of the community into consideration and ensuring that people are the core of the project.

EQUAL seeks to give back to persons their humanity, which was stripped from them because of the intrinsic forms of stigma and discrimination that have prevailed for many years.

EQUAL Guyana is a project created by the people, for the people, returning humanity to social services and serving communities with honesty, trust and transparency.

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until December 10, Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as an organising strategy by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

8 Sunday Times Magazine

demember 15, 2019

Feature

I

n Guyana, the wildlife is literally at your doorstep in most parts of the country. The country takes its moniker of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Land of the Giantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; seriously and offers you the rare privilege to share the space with a staggering number of birds (900+ species), mammals (225+ species), fish (1000+ species) and amphibians (814+species). Extraordinary surprises and superlatives lie around every bend â&#x20AC;&#x201C; largest rodent (capybara) and largest scaled freshwater fish (arapaima) are just two of them.

The tropical rainforest canopies and massive savannahs offer the chance to see jaguars, giant anteaters, giant river otters, stealthy caimans and unusual animals like tapirs, labbas, agoutis, armadillos and saki, spider and howler monkeys. Tracking the animals is one of the most exhilarating experiences as you walk along nature trails or silently glide down rivers on canoes, eyes glued to the thick foliage. Amongst the many natural treasures of Guyana, wildlife takes top spot. (Guyana Tourism Authority)

guyanatimesgy.com

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine

9

Health

K

Overview awasaki disease causes swelling (inflammation) in the walls of medium-sized arteries throughout the body. It primarily affects children. The inflammation tends to affect the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle.

Kawasaki disease is sometimes called mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome because it also affects glands that swell during an infection (lymph nodes), skin, and the mucous membranes inside the mouth, nose and throat.

Signs of Kawasaki disease, such as a high fever and peeling skin, can be frightening. The good news is that Kawasaki disease is usually treatable, and most children recover from Kawasaki disease without serious problems.

Symptoms Kawasaki disease signs and symptoms usually appear in three phases.

1st phase Signs and symptoms of the first phase may include: • A fever that is often is higher than 102.2 F (39 C) and lasts more than three days • Extremely red eyes without a thick discharge • A rash on the main part of the body and in the genital area • Red, dry, cracked lips and an extremely red, swollen tongue • Swollen, red skin on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet • Swollen lymph nodes in the neck and perhaps elsewhere • Irritability

2nd phase In the second phase of the disease, your child may develop: • Peeling of the skin on the hands and feet, especially the tips of the fingers and

toes, often in large sheets • Joint pain • Diarrhea • Vomiting • Abdominal pain 3rd phase

In the third phase of the disease, signs and symptoms slowly go away unless complications develop. It may be as long as eight weeks before energy levels seem normal again.

When to see a doctor If your child has a fever that lasts more than three days, contact your child's doctor. Also, see your child's doctor if your child has a fever along with four or more of the following signs and symptoms: • Redness in both eyes • A very red, swollen tongue • Redness of the palms or soles • Skin peeling • A rash • Swollen lymph nodes Treating Kawasaki disease within 10 days of when it began may greatly reduce the chances of lasting damage.

Causes No one knows what causes Kawasaki disease, but scientists don't believe the disease is contagious from person to person. A number of theories link the disease to bacteria, viruses or other environmental factors, but none has been proved. Certain genes may make your child more likely to get Kawasaki disease.

Risk factors Three things are known to increase your child's risk of developing Kawasaki disease.

• Age. Children under 5 years old are most at risk of Kawasaki disease.

• Sex. Boys are slightly more likely than girls are to develop Kawasaki dis

ease.

• Ethnicity. Children of Asian or Pacific Island descent, such as Japanese

or Korean, have higher rates of Kawasaki disease.

Complications Kawasaki disease is a leading cause of acquired heart disease in children. However, with

effective treatment, o n l y a few children have lasting damage.

Heart complications include: • Inflammation of blood vessels, usually the coronary arteries, that supply blood to the heart • Inflammation of the heart muscle • Heart valve problems Any of these complications can damage your child's heart.

Inflammation of the coronary arteries can lead to weakening and bulging of the artery wall (aneurysm). Aneurysms increase the risk of blood clots, which could lead to a heart attack or cause life-threatening internal bleeding.

For a very small percentage of children who develop coronary artery problems, Kawasaki disease can cause death, even with treatment.

Diagnosis There's no specific test available to diagnose Kawasaki disease.

Diagnosis involves ruling out other diseases that cause similar signs and symptoms, including: • Scarlet fever, which is caused by streptococcal bacteria and results in fever, rash, chills and sore throat • Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis • Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a disorder of the mucous membranes • Toxic shock syndrome • Measles • Certain tick-borne illnesses, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever The doctor will do a physical examination and order blood and urine tests to help in the diagnosis. Tests may include: • Blood tests. Blood tests help rule out other diseases and check your child's blood cell count. A high white blood cell count and the presence of anemia and

inflammation are signs of Kawasaki disease.

Testing for a substance called B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) that's released when the heart is under stress may be helpful in diagnosing Kawasaki disease. However, more research is needed to confirm this finding.

• Electrocardiogram. Electrodes are attached to the skin to measure the

electrical impulses of your child's heartbeat. Kawasaki disease can cause

heart rhythm problems.

• Echocardiogram. This test uses ultrasound images to show how well the heart

is working and can help identify problems with the coronary arteries.

Treatment To reduce the risk of complications, your child's doctor will want to begin treatment for Kawasaki disease as soon as possible, preferably while your child still has a fever.

10 Sunday Times Magazine Fashion

N

ot sure how to tackle the office Christmas party dress code? We have rounded up some party perfect looks to inspire your wardrobe.

Whether you're heading somewhere fancy or it's a low-key occasion, we have all the sequins, festive red and LBD inspiration you could ask for.

december 15, 2019

guyanatimesgy.com

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine 11

Recipes

Decorating ideas for the most festive Christmas ever

You know what makes the best time of year even better? Decking out your house with Christmas decorations that set the mood. Get every inch of your house into the holiday spirit with these creative and festive decorating ideas for spaces big and small. Whether you prefer traditional decor or something a bit more out there, we guarantee you'll find something you want to recreate on this list.

Color Play

Opt for non-traditional colors. Instead of the typical red-and-green palette, mix metals with retro elements, like the pair of little gold votive lamps.

Drape a plaid blanket over a white table to add color and creativity with basically zero work involved.

Swap out Your Tablecloth

Make a Creative Advent Calendar Turn a kitchen garland into a advent calendar.

Attach a ribbon across it and then hang little tin containers labeled with the day of the month and fill them with treats. Now that's our kind of giving tree.

Greens on Greens

Layer pine, spruce, and juniper for a fuller garland. Birch twigs, winterberry, and silvery pinecones add sparkle.

Classic Always Scores

It doesn't get more timeless than a fir trimmed with an angel topper, red ribbon, and classic ornaments.

Choose Colorful Gift Wrap

What's under your tree counts just as much as what's on it. For a classic theme, choose red, white, and blue paper and bows.

12 Sunday Times Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

december 15, 2019

Puzzles

ACROSS 1 6 11 15 20 21 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 33 34 35 37 39 41 42 43 44 46 50 51 52 53 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 72 73 74 75 76 79 80 84 85 86 87 88 91 92 93

Gaiters Ready to swing (2 wds.)

A bad thing to jump 10 to 1, e.g.

Oil or vinegar holder Steal or fix eggs Bit of holly Horse -Bill tack-on Davis of "Evening Shade" Comic-strip queen Office furnishings "The Real Slim Shady" rapper "Fatha" of jazz Singles Ms. Lauder "... we come a- -- ..."

Crowning point Endorser's need Fabric meas.

Rounded handles Q-tip Zest Get word of Mama bear, in Baja Polite cough Free ticket Lose brightness Weighs anchor Race by, as clouds Popeye's pal Use a spatula UCLA athletes Tubular pasta Candy-stripers Retainer -- lily Playing-card spots Jennifer of "Selena" Rococo Sharpen a cheddar Pleads humbly Less polluted Zinfandel or merlot Reddish-purple plants Bagpipers' garb Gave comfort Roll tightly Imposing residence Fringe benefit SFO posting Extra helping Regions Fabricated Deflect a blow

95 96 97 98 99 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 wds.)

109 111 112 114 117 118 119 124 126 128 130 131 132 134 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

MD employer Swindles Peril at sea Jamaican music Fifi's friend Nut holders Travel choice Perfumed pouches Cartoonist -- Kelly Night flyers Dandelion, to many Tilly or Ryan What the suspicious smell (2 Barbecue pit need Mr. Lugosi Addresses the moon California fort AOL note Mongolian desert Yule trees (2 wds.)

Thin material Shepard or Ladd Darling, in Dijon Kind of skiing In-box filler Hawaii's -- Loa Enoch or Eve Eucalyptus muncher Ms. Zellweger Crept Nerve, in combos Bygone anesthetic Clink glasses Movie-lot locales Stood wide open -- Island Red Metal fastener -- donna German imports High-school kids Lightning flash GI mail drop Electronics giant Sinks Breezing through You, formerly Cubs org.

Poise Ms. Cara of "Fame"" Lo-cal Gerbil or chipmunk Chest-beaters Crotchety Peeved

KATHLEEN SAXE

WORD GAME TODAY'S WORD -- LAETRILE (LAETRILE: LAY-ih-tril: A cancer-treating drug of unproved effectiveness.)

Average mark 40 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 53 or more words in LAETRILE? TODAY'S WORD -- LAETRILE lair late later leer liar lilt lira lire liter literal aerie alee alert alit alter arete

atelier earl eater elate elite tail tale tall taller tare teal tear tell teller tier tile

till tiller tire trail tree trial trill rail rale rate real reel relate relit retail retell

retie rile rill rite irate

RULES OF THE GAME: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of "s," such as "bats" or "dies," are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a "d" or an "s" may not be used. For example, if "bake" is used, "baked" or "bakes" are not allowed, but "bake" and "baking" are admissible. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

19 23 wds.)

30 32 36 38 40 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 51 52 54 55 56 58 59 60 63 64 67 68

Dromedary pit stops Service station fixtures (2 Nonadults Was a lumberjack Deficit Engine part Catch sight of Feng -Morticia's mate -- the wall Wheel cover Cause to steam?

Talisman Muddy the waters Doesn't hesitate Halloween quaff A, in code Cut calories Touche provoker -- -- shoestring Dainty swallows Wetnaps, e.g.

Changes direction Major artery Ring out Slow times

69 70 71 73 74 75 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 85 86 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 96 (2 wds.)

97 98 100

Sound piggish TLC providers Opposite of "paleo" Ptarmigan Heaps Got threadbare Pilot's sighting Wimple sporter "Lola" band Grant, as land -- -than-life Misprints Least humid Battery units Grow tiresome Bernard -- of CNN Avenging Mrs. Peel Spring Belly dance clackers Motel staffer Delt neighbor -- Khan It may be Orange or Rose Earth, poetically Roomy sleeve And so forth

101 102 103 106 107 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 118 119 120 121 122 123 125 127 129 133 135

Glamorous wraps Curio Works as a tailor Dew glistener "Tartuffe" author Diner fare Baby's headgear Flat broke (2 wds.)

Passenger train car In plain view Star-crossed lover Goddess of the hunt Dial Cleveland exurb Bubbles Oregon neighbor Miffed Narrow squeak Rumors, perhaps Aberdeen kids Install a door Come-ons Nonverbal OK See Solution on page 14

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December 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine 13

Tech

Y

ouTube announced an expansion of its anti-harassment policy that will ban video creators from insulting one another on the basis of their race, gender expression, or sexual orientation — even if the person they are insulting is a popular creator, celebrity, politician, or other public figure.

The new policy comes several months after YouTube was criticized for declining to remove videos posted by right-wing commentator Steven Crowder in which he repeatedly called Vox video host Carlos Maza a “lispy queer,” among other things. In the face of strong public outrage, YouTube said it would reconsider all of its harassment policies.

The review was initially intended to focus on videos in which one creator targets another, like what happened in the Crowder case. But the update goes further, making four core changes to YouTube’s policy.

One, the policy expands the types of threats that are now banned. Historically, YouTube has banned direct threats like “I’m going to kill you.” Now, more veiled and implied threats will be banned as well.

That means no brandishing a weapon while discussing someone, or altering a violent video game to put someone else’s face on a murder victim.

Two, the policy now bans targeted harassment campaigns. In an interview, the company said that harassment on YouTube often doesn’t come down to a single insult. Instead, it’s a sustained effort over many videos. Under the new policy, YouTube will now take a more holistic view of what a creator is saying on their channel. Even if individual videos don’t necessarily cross the line, if they still contribute to the persecution of another person or creator, they’re eligible for removal.

This expansion of the policy directly addresses an omission that contributed to Crowder’s harassment campaign, which Maza illustrated with a viral supercut of the times Crowder had targeted him. At the time, YouTube said that because Crowder’s insults came within the context of longer videos about many other subjects, it would be unfair to remove them. The new policy should make it harder for other bad actors to use YouTube the way Crowder did.

Three, the policy now bans insults on the basis of a protected class, such as race, gender expression, or sexual orientation. So: no more “lispy queer” slurs. The policy applies to all individuals, whether they are creators or not, and even if they are public figures, where social networks have historically tolerated much more offensive speech.

Finally, YouTube is expanding a program that uses machine learning to identify potentially offensive comments and stick them into a holding pen where creators can decide whether they want the comment to appear under their videos. The feature has been turned on by default for most creators since earlier this year.

“We remain committed to our openness as a platform and to ensuring that spirited debate and a vigorous exchange of ideas continue to thrive here,” said Matt Halprin, YouTube’s vice president of trust and safety, in a blog post. “However, we will not tolerate harassment and we believe the steps outlined below will contribute to our mission by making YouTube a better place for anyone to share their story or opinion.” (The Verge)

G

oogle is rolled out Chrome version 79 on Wednesday, and it includes a number of password protection improvements. The biggest addition is that Chrome will now warn you when your password has been stolen as part of a data breach. Google has been warning about reused passwords in a separate browser extension or in its password checkup tool, but the company is now baking this directly into Chrome to provide warnings as you log in to sites on the web.

You can control this new functionality in the sync settings in Chrome, and Google is using strongly hashed and encrypted copies of passwords to match them using multiple layers of encryption. This allows Google to securely match passwords using a technique called private set intersection with blinding.

Alongside password warnings, Google is also improving its phishing protection with a real-time option. Google has been using a list of phishing sites that updates every 30 minutes, but the company found that fraudsters have been quickly switching domains or hiding from Google’s crawlers. This new real-time protection should generate warnings for 30 percent more cases of phishing.

Google is also improving Chrome multiple profiles support. If you use multiple profiles in Chrome or you share your PC with others, Chrome now has a better visual indicator of what profile is currently being used so you can ensure passwords are being saved to the correct profile. (The Verge)

F

acebook executives told US Attorney General William Barr that the company would not provide law enforcement with investigative access to its encrypted messaging products ahead of a senate hearing on encryption on Tuesday.

In a letter, WhatsApp and Messenger heads Will Cathcart and Stan Chudnovsky, respectively, said that any “backdoor” access into Facebook’s products created for law enforcement could be used by bad actors for nefarious purposes. For this reason, Facebook denied Barr’s request to make its products more accessible.

“The ‘backdoor’ access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers and repressive regimes, creating a way for them to enter our systems and leaving every person on our platforms more vulnerable to real-life harm,” the Facebook executives wrote. “People’s private messages would be less secure and the real winners would be anyone seeking to take advantage of that weakened security. That is not something we are prepared to do.”

Earlier this year, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would pivot heavily into end-to-end encrypted messaging. The underlying infrastructure of its three messaging products — Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — would be tied together and made more private.

In October, the Justice Department took issue with Facebook over this privacy announcement, suggesting that the company’s plan would benefit criminals, primarily sex traffickers and pedophiles.

“Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes,” Barr said.

Facebook’s Tuesday letter was sent in response to Barr’s October inquiry and came ahead of a Senate Judiciary hearing on encryption. In his opening statement, Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Apple and Facebook representatives that he appreciates “the fact that people cannot hack into my phone,” but encrypted devices and messaging create a “safe haven” for criminals and child exploitation.

At the hearing, Facebook’s director of messaging privacy, Jay Sullivan, told senators that the company thinks “it is critical that American companies lead in the area of secure and encrypted messaging,” because, if not, companies originating in foreign countries would provide the same services. If so, Sullivan suggests, those companies would be further out of reach and uncooperative with US law enforcement officials. Facebook and other big tech companies have repeatedly made similar statements regarding foreign governments, primarily China, when arguing against broader regulatory threats involving data privacy and content moderation. (The Verge)

A

dobe announced its December updates to its photography apps and among the most significant is the ability to direct import photos on Lightroom for iOS and iPadOS. iOS and iPadOS 13.2 now allows raw files to be directly imported into Lightroom from cameras and memory cards. Previously, importing photos to Lightroom required transferring photos to the iPad camera roll first, then Lightroom, and then deleting the photos from the camera roll after to save space. Now, users will be able to bypass the iOS camera roll entirely, and imports can happen in a single step.

It’s a long-awaited feature users have asked for since Lightroom for iOS was released, but delayed until the iPad could support external storage connectivity. Earlier this year, Apple introduced a workaround via a Siri Shortcut that could import photos from the camera roll and then delete them from the camera roll, but today’s update finally makes the feature official. iOS and iPadOS devices will also get an advanced export feature that Android and ChromeOS devices got in November. It give users the ability to export multiple photos as original, DNG, JPEG, and TIF files, in addition to more options to customize metadata, watermarks, file names, output sharpening, and color space.

As part of today’s update, users will also be able to add photos to shared Lightroom albums via web, desktop, and mobile. (The Verge)

14 Sunday Times Magazine

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decEMBER 15, 2019

Bollyollywood

S

hahid Kapoor’s Kabir Singh was the most searched film of 2019, Google India has announced as part of its year in review feature. The Bollywood hit was followed

by Marvel superhero movie Avengers: Endgame.

Kabir Singh defied poor reviews and multiple controversies to emerge as a box office success. The film made Rs 380 crore worldwide. Endgame, meanwhile, is the year’s highestgrossing film in India and worldwide, having made over Rs 450 crore in India and a record-breaking $2.798 billion worldwide.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, three out of the top five most

searched films of the year happen to be Hollywood imports. Kabir Singh and Endgame were followed by Joker, Captain Marvel and Super 30.

Joker made over a billion dollars worldwide,

as did Captain Marvel.

Super 30 marked Hrithik Roshan’s return to box office success. He followed it up with the action spectacle War, which took the number eight spot on the Google India list.

At the number six position was Akshay Kumar’s Mission Mangal; number seven went to Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt’s Oscar entry Gully Boy. Another Akshay film, Housefull 4, took the ninth spot. The list was rounded off by Uri: The Surgical Strike.

In general news queries, searches were dominated by the Lok Sabha Elections, Chandrayaan 2, and Article 370. (Hindustan Times)

R

ani Mukerji on Wednesday said that her upcoming crimedrama Mardaani 2 would release without promotional songs as the film strives to deliver a strong social message about crimes against women.

"We wanted to protect the sanctity of our message and not do any marketing gimmicks like shoot a promotional song just to get more conversions and more eyeballs. We felt this would be counterproductive to what we wanted to achieve," said Mukerji during a press conference.

"When at one hand we are trying to deliver a powerful message, we couldn't have recorded and shot a music video because that would have diluted the intent of the film," the actor added.

T

ime on Wednesday named the young climate activist Greta Thunberg as its person of the year, in a nod to the next generation’s surging prominence in worldwide efforts to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

It was an irony, perhaps, that the designation, announced on television on NBC’s “Today” program and online, is a ritual marketing stunt that is one of the last vestiges of an era when weekly print magazines were a major force in the news cycle.

Ms. Thunberg’s rise started in August 2018, when she skipped school to protest climate change outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, where she grew up. Since then, she has become an international fixture, speaking before the United Nations and meeting with numerous heads of state as well as the pope.

Beyond that, Ms. Thunberg, 16, became a leading face of a movement that has inspired millions of other children in at least

100 countries to argue passionately for action against climate change.

Ms. Thunberg is also known for outwardly expressing her anger and dismay with adults who are not, shall we say, on the same page.

“Adults keep saying, ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope,’” Ms. Thunberg said in January at the World Economic Forum.

“But I don’t want your hope.

I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”

After the announcement, some of those adults used social media to question whether there were more important public figures with greater impact this year.

Her actions have also spoken loudly. She started Fridays for Future, in which thousands of children partake in local or global strikes.

In September, the teenager arrived in New York after a 15-day sail across

the Atlantic on an emissions-free yacht ahead of her speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. She set sail again in November for Spain after the talks were relocated.

“I decided to sail to highlight the fact that you can’t live sustainably in today’s society,” Ms. Thunberg said told The Times by phone before leaving the country.

“You have to go to the extreme.”

The annual Time designation dates back to the 1920s, and some selections have proven controversial in past years. (New York Times)

you were all shouting at each other."

Later in the show, Styles notes, "Kendall, we've been friends for a while," to which Jenner simply agrees.

"I heard when we first met you were a fan of One Direction," he adds, grinning, before showing an old promotional photo of Jenner holding up a One Direction sign.

"This photo haunts me! To this day, this photo haunts me. Someone asked me to do

this photo and I wasn't really sure what it was for," Jenner claims, but Styles, fellow guest Tracee Ellis Ross, and the crowd doesn't believe her.

Styles' guest hosting gig, which he has done for his pal, James Corden, in the past, was a big success. He even manages to fit in a short "Carpool Karaoke" segment, which includes him poking fun at his eccentric fashion and belting out the lyrics to his new song, "Watermelon Sugar."

S According to the makers of the film, they wish to communicate about the serious issue and do not wish promotional songs to cause any disturbance during the film.

The thriller will see Rani in a race against time to

capture a brutal serial rapist who systematically targets women. Rani plays the role of the fearless and committed Superintendent of Police, Shivani Shivaji Roy in Mardaani 2. (Hindustan Times)

eems there's something to the speculation! Kendall Jenner and Harry Styles have never officially confirmed their rumored romance, but on Tuesday's The Late Late Show, which Styles guest hosts, the 24-year-old model asks the questions fans want answered.

The pair kick things off with a game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts," with Jenner outright asking the 25-year-old singer, "Dying to know this. Which songs from your last album were about me?"

Styles initially begins to reply, "So I'd say track... ummm," before slicing into some cod sperm and taking a bite to avoid answering the question.

The two stars were rumored to be dating in 2016, and at the time, a source close to Jenner told ET that she was the first one to make a move in St. Barts on New Year's Eve. "Do I think they're dating? Yes," Jenner's older sister, Khloe Kardashian, exclusively told ET's Kevin Frazier of the pair at the time. "I don't know if they're like boyfriendgirlfriend. Nowadays, I don't know. People are weird with stuff. So, I don't know their title. But I mean, they were in St. Barts together hanging out. So, to me, that's dating."

During the "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" game, Styles also avoids ranking the solo careers of his One Direction bandmates, and immediately bites into a scorpion instead.

Another funny moment is when Styles admits to watching an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, quipping, "It was was the one where you were eating the salads in the kitchen and then

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december 15, 2019

Sunday Times Magazine 15

16 Sunday Times Magazine

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decEMBER 15, 2019

Fun Times

Archie

ARIES (March 21April 19)

Appeal to those who understand what you are trying to achieve. The insight offered will help you make your next move.

Share your feelings with a loved one.

Fix up your place for yearTAURUS end festivities. A change will (April 20- improve the atmosphere in May 20) your home and bring you closer to loved ones. A positive attitude will promote good results.

Gather facts. If you act GEMINI on an assumption, you will (MAY 28- make a mistake. Discuss June 20) your thoughts and find out where you stand. Be smart regarding money matters.

Timing is everything. If you CANCER act too quickly or too slowly, you (June 21- will miss the mark. Let your inJuly 22) tuition guide you to the right moment in time and take action.

Romance is featured.

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Dilbert

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

Say what's on your mind and accept the response you receive. Sometimes it takes a wakeup call to make a positive move. Now is not the time to follow, it's time to lead.

It's up to you to start the ball rolling if you want something to happen. Romance is in the stars, and making a suggestive gesture will help the process.

Intelligence, kindness LIBRA and compassion will help you (Sept. 23overcome any negativity you Oct. 23) face. If you don't like something, change it. Keep your promises.

Peanuts

Changes have to be made SCORPIO (Oct. 24- for the right reasons. An Nov. 22) emotional move isn't likely to turn out the way you expect.

Take time, readjust your thoughts and choose what's best for you.

Emotional growth will SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23- encourage decisions that Dec. 21) will help you adjust how you handle your life, money and health. Positive change requires letting go of what no longer works for you.

Calvin and Hobbes

Make changes for the CAPRICORN right reasons. Motivation, (Dec. 22- coupled with desire and exJan. 19) perience, will help you do better. Do what's best for you, not what someone else pushes you to do.

Question your motives, AQUARIUS find your passion and head (Jan. 20- in a direction that brings you Feb. 19) joy. Life is about living, not just surviving. Express your feelings and make a move.

PISCES How you present what (Feb. 20- you want to do will affect Mar. 20) the response you receive.

Pay attention to detail and make your request crystalclear.