AFC 'strips' protesting to new low
Two contestants for the Talented Teen pageant enjoy a 'ride' in brilliant sunshine on Saturday, as part of a parade held around Georgetown (Marceano Narine)
AFC 'strips' protesting to new low
T“intoxicated” Councillor ‘peels off’ clothes in front protestors — Police
he Guyana Police Force (GPF) has denied that police officers stripped Alliance For Change (AFC) Region Two Councillor Naithram, pointing out that the AFC representative was drunk and exposed himself after he was taken from their custody by a group of protestors.
The action occurred during a protest on Friday night after the Police stepped in to maintain control, after residents burned tyres on the road, demanding that millers settle their outstanding debts to them.
Naithram, the Chairman of the Essequibo Paddy Farmers’ Association, and leader of the protest, started the demonstration fully clothed, but reportedly did a “bare all” even before the demonstrations ended.
Guyana Times was unable to solicit a comment from the AFC Councillor who was held by the Police, but party leader Khemraj Ramjattan said he was working to have his comrade released.
The Police in a release said on June 30, the
Essequibo Paddy Farmers’ Association applied for approval to hold a protest march on July 4, commencing at 09:30h.
The protest was expected to he held at the Bush Lot New Market, following which a meeting would have been held at the Anna Regina High Bridge.
Imbibing Approval was subsequently given by Police.
The protest march commenced at 10: 00h, and proceeded peacefully with about 200 persons, mostly farmers.
At the conclusion of the protest march and meeting, about 12: 30h, most of the persons left, but some remained and began imbibing, the Police said.
Around 17:15h on Friday, those who were imbibing and some others including Naithram, boarded their motor vehicles, including tractors and trailers, and proceeded to drive along the middle of the main roadway in the vicinity of the villages of Reliance and Land of Plenty, Essequibo Coast, at a very slow rate.
This action, the Police said resulted in a back-up of traffic as other motor vehicles could not pass, and they continued their action despite efforts by Police to get them to drive on the left hand side of the road.
“On reaching a short distance before the Land of Plenty Bridge, at about 1800h, the men continued breaching the laws by proceeding to block the entire roadway with the use of their motor vehicles that included tractors and trailers and to set fire to tyres and other debris that were thrown on the
roadway. A utility pole was also used to block the roadway.
“By this time, the crowd had increased to over 400 persons and efforts by the Police to get them to remove the vehicles from across the roadway proved futile. Missiles comprising bricks, bottles and other articles
from the Police. During this incident, his clothing was torn and several Police ranks were thrown into a nearby trench.
“Naithram then stood among the protestors and stripped himself, and several persons took his photograph. He then left the area and later returned dressed in
ed. They have been released from police custody.
Two tractors, four trailers, two motor cars and two motorcycles that were among the vehicles used to block the roadway have been seized by the Police.
Police cleared the blockage on the roadway about 10:00h on Saturday and traf-
were thrown at Police ranks in their attempt to remove the burning obstacles on the roadway, causing them to cease their efforts,” the Police said.
According to the Police, the Guyana Fire Service at Anna Regina could not reach the scene, owing to the blocking of the road.
No avail
The release explained that the Police continued to appeal to the residents, but to no avail.
“The Police then arrested Naithram, who was leading the protest, at which stage a number of other persons surged forward and accosted the ranks and took him away
a change of clothing.
“The Guyana Police Force emphatically reiterates that Naithram was not stripped by Police ranks. He took off his own clothing after he had been taken away from the custody of the Police by other protestors,” the release said.
At around 22: 45h, the Police once more appealed to the protestors, informing them that they were in breach of the law, but they steadfastly refused to remove, saying that they will only do so if President Donald Ramotar comes to address their concerns.
The Police then used tear smoke to clear the unruly crowd and 19 men, including Naithram, were arrest-
fic began to flow freely.
The Police said a member in a motor vehicle who was caught up in the congestion caused by the blocking of the road, was assaulted by a number of protestors. He was later treated at the Suddie Hospital.
The Police are continuing to monitor the situation.
“The Guyana Police Force recognises the rights of citizens to peaceful protest, but when such protests degenerate into a set of unlawful activities that infringe on the rights of other citizens, the Police will, of necessity, have to take the appropriate action in order to maintain law and order,” the release said.
Teen charged for larceny
An 18-year-old young man was granted $150,000 bail on a charge of larceny, when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Friday.
Antonio Maraj, of Lot 25 Public Road, Agricola, pleaded not guilty to the charge. According to the charge, as read by Prosecutor
Bharrat Mangru, on Monday, June 30 at Shell Road, Agricola, the defendant stole from Hemwattie Persaud a handbag along with $30,000 in local currency and US$50, among other items contained in the bag which amounted to a total value of $135,000. The accused was represented by Attorney Paul
Fung-A-Fat ,who made an application for bail; however, the Prosecutor unsuccessfully objected to bail on the grounds of the seriousness and prevalence of the offence. He also said that the defendant and Virtual Complainant are known to each other and if bail is granted, the defendant might tamper with the witness.
Rice farmers on Friday set tyres on fire to protest non-payment by millers
AFC Councillor Naithram
Weather: Heavy showers can be expected in the morning with light showers in the afternoon and early evening hours. Temperatures are expected to range between 23 degrees and 28 degrees Celsius.
Winds: East North-easterly between 3.11 metres and 4.03 metres per second.
High Tide: 09:53h and 22:24h reaching maximum heights of 2.31 metres and 2.32 metres respectively.
Low Tide: 03:22h and 15:49h reaching minimum heights of 0.91 metre and 0.92 metre respectively.
Guyana 2012 Census…
Low fertility rate can torpedo development
By Svetlana MarShall
The local population has changed little over the past three decades, and with the low fertility rate as indicated in the recent census, Guyana might be at risk of experiencing a slowdown in national development.
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Winston Churchill, once said “People would always want to have children,” but while this school of thought remains factual, there has been a major shift in the fertility rate; a matter that has evoked concerns among policymakers across the globe.
the economy can be affected.
Speaking with Guyana Times on Friday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said he is unaware of an immigration policy that would lead to the population returning to favourable heights. “We have pretty much of an open door in terms of visa,” he told this newspaper. While there are visa policies in place, Dr Luncheon was unable to indicate whether a strategic system is in place to increase the population.
The world’s population is at an all-time high; surpassing 7 billion people, but it is no secret that over the past three decades the fertility rates have plummeted in parts of China, Europe and North America, with South America being no exception. The number of children born to women during the course of their child-bearing years has fallen to unprecedentedly low levels.
The global Total Fertility Rate (TFR) moved from a high of five children per woman in 1950 to a low of 2.5 in 2011. According to the United Nations (2011) projection, a further drop is expected by 2050, moving from 2.5 to a replacement level of 2.2.
In Guyana, the situation is no different. According to the United Nations Population Division, the fertility rate of Guyanese women reached a maximum value of 6.47 in 1960, but the number of births per woman has fallen significantly since then. In 2011, the country recorded a fertility rate of 2.23 children per wom-
an. However, a revised version of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision indicated that the average number of children to a woman in 2013 was 2.5, signalling a slight increase.
Wide-ranging impact
But a declining fertility rate will not only impact the country’s population status, which is currently on the decline, moving from 751,223 in 2002 to 747,884 persons on Census Day, September 15, 2012. Such a decline would also affect the country’s economy, due to a shortfall in the labour market. It has been widely argued that a stagnant or declining population could result in the shrinking of many national economies.
In a report compiled by Klaus Prettner, David E Bloom and Holger Strulik under the caption, “Declining fertility and economic wellbeing: do education and head ride to the rescue?” the scholars who hail from the universities of Harvard and Cambridge, pointed out that economists are creating a nexus between the implications of an aging population and declining fertility.
“One major concern is that when larger and older cohorts retire, while smaller and younger cohorts enter the labour market, the support ratio will decline and fewer and fewer workers will have to produce the output which is consumed by all the individuals in the economy,” the report stated. It is opined that China’s economy can shrink within years, thereby losing the race to India. According to reports, while India’s Gross Domestic Product is less than a quarter of China’s, the growth of the Chinese economy can experience a decline in years to come, due to its one-child-perfamily policy. Already, the size of the Chinese workforce is dwindling.
Open door
Here in Guyana under the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, the country has recorded eight consecutive years of economic growth. In 2013, the country recorded a 5.2 per cent growth in the economy but critics say, if the requisite policies are not implemented to prevent further decline in the number of persons living in the country, the growth of
While the Opposition Leader David Granger did not offer a solution to the decline in the country’s population, as he referenced the just released Population and Housing Census 2012 Preliminary Report on Guyana, he told the press on Friday that the “results indicate that there are very serious social, political and economic problems in Guyana”. According to Dr Luncheon, migration is one of the main contributing factors to the declining population, as he alluded to a report published by the this newspaper that more than 4000 Guyanese are leaving for the United States permanently every year. Since 2004, the US has issued 46,540 immigration visas to Guyanese with 4572 issued last year. “It is disturbing that a country like ours is exporting people at such a fast rate,” he posited.
Leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), David Granger, said the decline, coupled with the high migration rate, signals the weakness in governance, positing that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has failed to prevent depletion of the country’s population.
Opposition Leader David Granger
Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon
Sunday Times Editor: Tajeram Mohabir
Tel: 225-5128, 231-0397, 226-9921, 226-2102, 223-7230 or 223-7231. Fax: 225-5134
Mailing address: 238 Camp & Quamina Streets, Georgetown
Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, sales@guyanatimesgy.com, letters@guyanatimesgy.com
Editorial
The banality of PNC’s evil
As the Rodney Commission of Inquiry unfolds, the context in which the killing of the great historian occurred is proving as riveting as the heinous act itself. A new generation that has experienced democratic rule over only the last two decades is being exposed to what it meant to live under a totalitarian regime.
The scholar Hanna Arendt, who was one of the pioneering students of totalitarianism, concluded that totalitarian governments had fabricated what she called “the crisis of our century”. Such states manufactured a “world of the dying, in which men are taught they are superfluous through a way of life in which punishment is meted out without connection with crime, in which exploitation is practised without profit, and where work is performed without product . . . a place where senselessness is produced daily anew.”
In Guyana under the PNC, punishment was not only meted out without any crime being committed, but that punishment was inflicted by groups and individuals that were not even part of the state apparatus for “law and order”. We heard of how it became “normal” for the House of Israel (HoI) to violently break up political meetings. In one, a priest, Father Darke, was actually stabbed to death by a HoI operative. What was the crime? From whence did the House of Israel get its power. The answer, of course, is - from the dictator himself, Forbes Burnham. More than Louis XIV, he could declare, “I am the state”.
Arendt’s characteristic of “exploitation without profits” was exemplified in the expropriation of the economy and the militarisation of the society where almost everyone was working for the state - even as the economy collapsed and Guyana reverted to the Stone Age. Work was “performed without product” and life fulfilled the Hobbesian pre-state characteristics of being “mean, brutish and short”.
But Arendt in her explication of the concrete totalitarian monstrosity of the Nazi state from which she fled to the US, summarised in a phrase what we are gleaning from the Rodney CoI as being the essence of the people behind the totalitarian terror: “the banality of evil”. Two decades after the fall of the Third Reich, she came to this conclusion while witnessing the trial of one of the bureaucrats - Albert Eichmann - who personally executed Hitler’s plan to murder millions of Jews.
Contrary to her own expectations, Eichmann “in the flesh” appeared to be more a clown than a monstera “thoughtless,” “terrifyingly normal” person. It was Eichmann’s “thoughtlessness”—the absence of thinking— that enabled him to commit monstrous acts. He simply did what the leader said had to be done. Eichmann’s thoughtlessness exemplified “the fearsome, word-and thought-defying banality of evil.”
While they are yet to take the stand, in the Guyanese context, with the passing of HoI’s Rabbi Washington, the now Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton, along with the former head of the Guyana Defence Force, David Granger, exemplify this “banality of evil” that Arendt describes.
Listen to how they speak - in nothing but stock phrases and cliches, which proves the absence of thinking. What the leader says must be done, is done. These are not people who reflected on the difference between “doing evil” and “doing their jobs”. Granger, for instance, still insists that the soldiers that shot the civilians protecting ballot boxes on the Corentyne Coast, were “just doing their job”. Green has never blushed at orchestrating the denial of Rodney’s appointment at UG.
The role of ideology, in which the supremacy of the Leader is stressed, survives in Granger and his cohorts’ loyalty in protecting the “legacy” of the “Founder Leader”. What the present generation must know is that the “ordinariness” of the present successors to Burnham should not blind them to the reality that it is precisely this ordinariness that creates the “banality of evil”. And teaches the “superfluity of life”, that Rodney’s could be snuffed out with impunity.
All ethnic groups have contributed to the development of Guyana
Dear Editor,
This is in response to Barrington Braithwaite misconstruing my character and correcting his misunderstanding of the caste system that was not published. The problem with Braithwaite and his acolytes is, whenever an Indian responds to their asinine comments about Indians, they (Braithwaite and acolytes) describe the respondents as racists. But when the Braitwhaite groups make deliberate offensive, racist comments about other groups (like Indians, Chinese and Portuguese) they don’t see themselves as racists.
It is people like Braithwaite who are contributing to animosity among the races in Guyana by raising obscure issues exposing their racist nature. Leave the races, Indians and Africans, to live together! Braithwaite consistently makes the most atrocious social commentary on Indians, Chinese (just read how he denigrates Chinese) and Portuguese; and I wont be surprised if he holds the same feelings about Amerindians.
He won’t find me making derogatory comments about any ethnic group. All ethnic groups have contributed to the development of Guyana and all have a respected civilization and social system with their own unique features. We should not condemn people’s culture.
Braithwaite cherry picks statements quoting what he thinks his readers would want to read to support a discredited argument. It is a despicable and deceitful strategy to win over support. It is not based on facts or ev-
idence. He uses emotionally violent language against Indians and is shocked that an Indian like myself, or Sultan Mohammed, is standing up to his racist rants. People remember Braithwaite well cheering Burnham ordering Indian girls to go to national service and to ban foods and religious paraphernalia used by Indians. That is not racism!
Braithwaite’s original complaint was about a scholarship ad that would benefit an Indo-Guyanese. Out of two dozen scholarships given out by the Indian government open to all races, one would be set aside for an Indo-Guyanese. Braithwaite feels none should be set aside for any Indian.
A sovereign state decides who will benefit from its scholarship. Braithwaite can establish a scholarship fund and set up his own criteria – no one stops him. As others would attest, I have lobbied the Indian government to increase scholarships to Guyanese of all ethnicities.
Instead of spending valuable time attacking the Indian government, Indian social system and myself, Braithwaite should lobby African countries to give Guyanese scholarships. If each African country matches the number of scholarships given by India, Guyanese would benefit from thousands of scholarships annually.
Many Guyanese would rush to apply for scholarships to study in Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, or in the areas controlled by Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Braithwaite attacked India and Indians for the caste system. Braithwaite
has a very narrow understanding of the concept of caste. The social system is not confined only to India where it is outlawed, though still practised. It exists in almost every society including in Japan, Italy, Australia, Indonesia, etc. Chinese are stuck in such a system in The Philippines, Indonesia and other Asian countries. Koreans are stuck in an oppressive caste system in Japan.
Ethnic groups are stuck in social systems in America. Sudanese can’t move up their status in Morocco and neither can Bengalis in Italy. Much as been written on the caste system in America. The Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and other prominent Black leaders, as well as academics, have described America as having a caste system because poor Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and even poor Whites find it difficult to get out of traditional jobs and povertystricken neighbourhoods.
Many, many generations live in the same neighbourhoods (often in dangerous public housing) and perform the same menial tasks to eke out a living. Some have gotten out but most can’t move out of the oppressive system.
Braithwaite himself has a caste mentality about Indians in his view of them; he has nothing good to say about Indo-Guyanese or Indians in the diaspora, writing condignly and condescendingly about Indians. He, like former Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder, tells Indians to return to India – that is a hold-over 1840s mentality.
Braithwaite takes one of my quotes out of context but
does not say how it is racist in nature. The quote does not malign or stereotype any ethnic group. It simply quoted sources for one of my commentaries relating to the flood of 2005 in response to letters from people like Braithwaite that the affected people were not being helped.
Indians contributed significantly flood relief efforts, preparing meals for the affected. I sent my hardearned money and materials for the affected. As others would attest, I helped mandirs with their collection of materials and foods and helped ship dozens of barrels for the affected.
Was that done out of racism when few Indians were actual beneficiaries? What did Braithwaite contribute to the flood victims – zilch, nada! Yet he has the audacity to use epithets and brand others, when in fact the racist epithet describes himself.
Braithwaite needs to get off his problem – the mentality of anti-Indian stereotype of the 1840s and allow Indians, Africans and other groups to live in harmony and to build a better society for all of us.
Stop harping on one scholarship being given to an Indian. What about the 23 other scholarships being given to non-Indians? Unlike Braithwaite, other Guyanese are contented with the scholarships and look forward to getting a first-rate education in India. I would like to further my education. Can Braithwaite get me a scholarship to study in Africa?
Yours truly, Vishnu Bisram
Muslim youths pray atop motorcycle taxis during the fasting month of Ramadan in front of Al-Satie Mosque in Baseco, Tondo city, metro Manila (Reuters)
PPP is the only party that never failed to win a majority in democratic elections
Dear Editor,
The PPP has noted with interest commentaries in the press which are suggestive that the Party is afraid of facing the electorate because of uncertainty over the outcome.
The fact is that the PPP, as the oldest and largest political party in Guyana, has never been afraid of elections. Indeed, the records will show that it was the PPP that championed the cause of the right to vote in Guyana in the early 1950s and was successful in winning a landslide victory in the 1953 elections when it captured 18 out of 24 seats.
A similar victory was scored in the elections of 1957 despite attempts by Forbes Burnham and other vested interests to divide the PPP and, for that matter, the Guyanese people along ethnic lines.
The PPP continued to win elections in 1961, but through constitutional fiddling, the Party was engineered out of office in the 1964 elections by the British Government and even though the Party won the plurality, it was denied the opportunity to form the Government in preference to the combined PNC/ UF coalition.
It was in that election that Dr Jagan made the famous statement “Cheated, not defeated”, which was to repeat itself for four successive elections until democracy was finally restored on October 5, 1992.
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the PPP has always been at the receiving end during the assault on democracy during the 28 years of PNC dictatorial rule and had always been in the forefront of the struggle for a return to democratic rule in Guyana.
To say or imply, therefore, that the PPP is afraid of facing the electorate betrays at best a complete
lack of understanding of the historical role played by the Party in defence of democracy and at worse, an act of intellectual dishonesty to tamper with the truth.
The truth is that the PPP is the only Party in Guyana that never failed to win a majority or the plurality in all democratic elections since its formation in 1950. It has always embraced the cause of the working people whether in or out of office and, in the process, has earned the respect of the broad spectrum of the Guyanese people.
It would appear that history is repeating itself with the AFC now playing the role of the United Force as the junior partner in an alliance that has as its common objective the removal of the PPP from office at any or all cost.
It is clear that the lessons of that period are completely lost to the AFC which continue to play the role of handmaiden and faithful concubine to the APNU. Like the United Force of the 1960s, the AFC runs the risk of being sidelined and kicked out from whatever marriage of convenience it may enter into with the APNU.
What is clearly emerging is that there are irreconcilable tensions developing in both the APNU and the AFC camps with an increasing number of their members and supporters drifting away from them or in a state of complacency.
In the case of the AFC, many of their supporters in the previous elections have now lost faith in the leadership of that party which is perceived as promoting its own self-interests or being overtly subservient to the APNU.
The Granger-led APNU has alienated a significant number of PNC ‘die-hards’ by identifying himself with a group of military and quasi-military men who
have little or no connection with the rank-and-file members and supporters. Harmon, a military clone of Granger, has now assumed the role as official spokesman of APNU and the PNC, pushing in the backwater the more sober minds in the PNC-APNU alliance.
This estrangement is playing out in several of the PNC strongholds, particularly in the mining town of Linden where party stalwarts are being sidelined and put before ‘disciplinary’ committee while political cronies and ‘Johnny Come Lately’ are put in the political limelight. The rank-andfile have now grown tired of the infighting that is taking place in the PNC and are now drifting away from that party in significant numbers.
The PPP, for its part, is working tirelessly on the ground and in the trenches to keep abreast with the mood and concerns of its membership and supporters and, for that matter, the Guyanese people as a whole.
As a political party, the PPP is aware that it is not a perfect organisation and that mistakes were made which may have turned away some supporters and friends, but the Party is now in the process of reaching out to all with the aim of bringing back to the fold all those who, for whatever reasons, may have broken ranks.
The PPP is not, and has never been, an electioneering party but is always battle ready and prepared to confront any challenges it has faced from time to time. It has always risen to the occasion and feels confident by virtue of its glorious history and track record of triumph over backwardness and reaction.
PPP/C Freedom House
but don’t
Opposition elements protecting their
own interest
Dear Editor,
Not surprising, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of PNC/APNU, retired Army Brigadier, David Granger, has joined with his AFC counterpart in denouncing the speech made by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Priya Manickchand during the US independence celebration at the home of the United States Ambassador, Brent Hardt.
He called on President Donald Ramotar to disassociate his Administration from these remarks and to issue an unconditional apology to Ambassador Hardt and the people of the United States of America.
It is obvious that Mr Granger either did not hear that speech, or he is deliberating spinning this to gain political advantage. There is nothing vulgar and useless about the truth.
Founding Leader of the PNC, Forbes Burnham would have been ashamed of Granger for allowing the American Ambassador to interfere with our internal affairs, and to disrespect our Head of State and country without closing ranks behind the Administration to give him the send-off he deserved.
Burnham and Cheddi Jagan fought too hard for Guyana’s independence to allow foreign intervention to divide us as a people.
While it is true that the Minister was booed and heckled during the delivery of her speech, the ringleaders who instigated the chaos, calling for the Ambassador to revoke the Minister’s US visa, included a wellknown provocateur and opponents of the Government. If Forbes Burnham had delivered this same speech to the American Ambassador, they would have been cheering him on. Hypocrisy to say the least!
Minister Manickchand was asked to deliver the Government of Guyana’s official response to a meddling diplomat in the presence of
persons experienced in the art of protesting and heckling.
What other response could have been expected from a gathering that included the likes of Mark Benschop and AFC Executive Member, Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes?
Surely, it was in the interest of the Opposition to make the government look bad. But it is a sad day indeed when our leading politicians and their sycophants compromise our democracy and the integrity of the principles our Founding Fathers fought for, to suck up to foreign intervention for fear of losing their visas, or being denied one.
Respectfully, Dan Rahim
Dear Editor,
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with hopes for another result.
Countless times we’ve seen air carriers come and go; but not before they flood the market with alarmingly cheap fares. Why do the consumers get carried away with the fly-by-night operations whose promises of cheap flights eventually cause us to lose our money?
Those who run to the cheap airfares and false promises have basically done this before. We, the people, are the losers. We, the people, are the one who are getting fooled by the same people with lies and their false promises. These
lies under the pretence of competition and tourism were the same slogans that were pronounced before.
Again, by the definition of Insanity, if we continue to support these fly-by-night operations, we’ll get the same results!
Regards, Christopher
Persaud
You can send your letters with pictures to: Guyana Times, 238 Camp & Quamina Streets, Georgetown, Guyana or letters@guyanatimesgy.com
Page Foundation
Anu Dev
Tomorrow is the first Monday of July, the day we’ve set aside to celebrate Caribbean Unity! Last year I admitted to having some mixed feelings about what exactly it is that I should be dancing in the streets about, given that at the time Caribbean Airlines had been appointed our National Flag Carrier and yet was milking the Guyanese public for all we had (not exactly a step forward toward improving Caribbean unity, that).
But this year, our skies are positively chock- full of planes - and the law of supply and demand are pushing those fares so low, Guyana might be emptied this “summer”.
And then again, having spent a year on the Joyce Gibson Inniss Hall of Residence among students from most of our Caribbean neighbours, I got a better perspective of how and why a unified Caribbean could be possible. And necessary.The thing is, we have so much in common, us and them.
There’s so much overlap
Happy CARICOM Day 2014!
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” – J.K. Rowling, Har ry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
with the food we cook, the music we listen to and the slangs we use. It was incredible to see that all of the kids from the different islands had a version of curry that they cooked- I must’ve seen at least five different ways of cooking curries. Naturally, the Guyanese way is the best way, but hey, I just might be just a tad biased. It was interesting to find out the dif ferent names that different countries have for the same thing. For example, what we call “gold en-apple”, Trinidadians call ‘pommecy there’ and “bora” becomes “bodi”. There was definitely some detailed descriptions and gesturing going on as we sought to get across some concept without being able to use the name that we normally referred to it as. But not too much. Much of our first week was about getting to know the person as an individual and also getting to know about them culturally - literally “where they’re com-
ing from”. Knowing a little more about their way of doing things and their outlook on things really went a far way in understanding them. For example, for someone who didn’t take the time to understand Bahamian culture, they might be surprised at their bluntness. But in truth, they just believe in telling things as they are- something I’ve very much come to respect. Really, I’d prefer for my friends to tell me directly if I have something stuck in my teeth or if whatever I’m saying isn’t making sense, rather than allowing me to look silly!
We had to get used to each other’s accents and ways of pronouncing words. It took me forever to realise that I need to mentally add in the letter ‘R’ to whatever words Trinidadians are saying since “Barney” becomes “Ba’ney” and “corner” becomes “co’nah”. I’ve become much more adept at doing that…I think. I’ve managed to significantly cut down on the time I spend looking
at the other person with a dumbfounded expression on my face ,trying to process and interpret exactly what was said to me.
We all learnt so much about each other’s culture and I began to really understand the whole concept of Caribbean unity on not just an intellectual level, but on an emotional level. I mean, I always used to get emotional supporting our West Indian cricket team, alternating between weeping tears of joy and tears of anguish, but this past year I’ve managed to make personal connections with persons from the different Caribbean countries.
So even if our leaders can’t get it together to work with each other to build a better Caribbean, at least us, the common person can put aside everything to work together even in a competitive environment such as Med School. Last year was such a wonderful experience. I met so many diverse, interesting, kind and genuine persons. If I had the last year to do over, I wouldn’t change a thing (okay, maybe I would try harder to track down the Bravo brothers, but that’s about it).
Happy CARICOM Day!
BY LYNN MARGOLIES
Alternatively, encouraging teens to think and advocate for themselves, make their own choices, and experience natural consequences of their decisions fosters the development of identity, values, responsibility, and competence.
Excessive worry about teens’ success can also lead parents to be over involved and intrusive in areas where teens should make their own choices. Failing to be vigilant, set effective limits and help in areas where they are vulnerable leads to compromised judgment and impulse control.
Psychological effects of perfectionism and performance pressure
The darker side of our culture of performance and perfectionism, and its manifestations in families, is well documented. It is associated with depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, lying, eating disorders, recklessness, emptiness, self-doubt and self-reproach, cutting, and suicide.
In competitive and affluent cultures, similar to impoverished ones, according to teen ratings, drug users who have delinquent behaviour are the most popular and admired. Research supports the link between dangerous risk-taking stress and constraint in teens. Teens seek relief through emotional or literal escape in the form of self-destructive behaviour, suicidal fantasies and suicide, or secret acting out and rebellion through drinking, drugs, promiscuity, and bullying.
Teens who are too good to be true
The scariest manifestation of this culture of perfectionism occurs with teens who are in trouble, but fool us by appearing happy and being “successful.” They hide behind a false self – an unconscious adaptation designed to secure love and admiration, compartmentalising negative feelings and parts of the self that would create conflict or disapproval.
The psychological makeup of such teens is fragile. They are easily disappointed in themselves for any imperfections, believing they shouldn’t need help. Secretly sinking under the weight of constant pressure to be “amazing” to avoid falling into despair and shame, they feel trapped but cannot come forward. Even contemplating disappointing their parents activates a sense of their world crumbling. These teens say, “I would rather die than disappoint my parents.” (psychcentral.com)
SUDOKU
Here is last Saturday's Sudoku which was not published due to error in print. Guyana Times sincerely apologies for any inconvenience
Amid calls by the Opposition on passing a no-confidence motion against the Government, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is appealing to political policymakers to engage in constructive dialogue on issues affecting the economy and social development.
The business representative body in a release said: “We do not subscribe to the notion that premature General Elections is the solution to our current political impasse.
“General elections are costly, time-consuming exercises which should preferably be conducted at the time when they are constitutionally due. The parliamentary parties must therefore make every effort to find ways to discuss, negotiate and, reach some level of consensus on the issues critical to this nation’s growth and development.
"The citizens of Guyana deserve no less an effort. This process of negotiation and agreement occurs in many comparative jurisdictions and it is therefore up to our political leaders to demonstrate resolve and maturity that leads to win-win outcomes.”
tutional reform seem to have fallen off the map.
“The chamber looks forward to a new level of political cooperation that ensures a prosperous and sustainable economic and social infrastructure,” the business representative body said.
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) on Monday had warned about the implications of political instability that would ensue should there be a snap election.
“It will be very unfortunate if such a motion is passed, as it would signal political instability to our foreign investors, financiers, customers and suppliers. This will further increase the political risk premium added to the cost of capital when overseas funding is sought by private entities and can negatively impact our economy,” the PSC said in a statement.
According to the PSC, for progress to be made, the political culture should consist of dialogue and compromise on issues of national interest and development.
“Top 10” list of food-borne parasites released
A“Top 10” list identifying the food-borne parasites of greatest global concern was released on Friday and new guidelines are being developed to control them.
The parasites affect the health of millions of people every year, infecting muscle tissues and organs, causing epilepsy, anaphylactic shock, amoebic dysentery and other problems. Some can live on in our bodies for decades.
Despite their huge social costs and global impacts, information is generally lacking regarding just where these parasites come from, how they live in the human body, and – most importantly – how they make us sick.
where they can be found.
The top 10 are: Taenia solium (pork tapeworm) in pork; echinococcus granulosus (hydatid worm or dog tapeworm) in fresh produce; echinococcus multilocularis (a type of tapeworm) in fresh produce; toxoplasma gondii (protozoa) in meat from small ruminants, pork, beef, game meat (red meat and organs); cryptosporidium spp(protozoa) in fresh produce, fruit juice, milk; entamoeba histolytica (protozoa) in fresh produce; trichinella spiralis (pork worm) in pork; opisthorchiidae (family of flatworms) in freshwater fish; ascaris spp. (small intestinal roundworms) in fresh produce; and trypanosoma cruzi (protozoa) in fruit juices
Dangerous driving accused further remanded GCCI against 'snap elections'
gional body responded, followed by an assessment and analysis by 21 experts on the impact of food-borne parasites.
From this work, an initial list of 93 parasites was developed. The list was then narrowed down to the 24 most damaging parasites based on the following criteria: 1) number of global illnesses, 2) global distribution 3) acute morbidity 4) chronic morbidity and 5) economic impact.
What next?
The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene is now developing new guidelines for the control of these parasites. FAO and WHO are supporting the process by providing scientific and technical information.
The aim is to develop new standards for the global food trade that will help countries control the presence of these parasites in the food chain.
“Obviously this top 10 is a more general, global perspective and does not necessarily reflect parasite rankings at a national level where each country may have more precise information,” said Renata Clarke, head of food safety and quality at FAO.
“But considering the problems they cause, these parasites do not get the attention they deserve. We hope that by releasing a top 10 ranking we can increase awareness among policy makers, the media and the general public about this major public health issue,” she added.
The GCCI said discussions on elections should instead be directed and concentrated at the hosting of Local Government Elections (LGE).
“In this regard, we echo the sentiments of the Private Sector Commission that the absence of LGE has made (and continues) to make it difficult for our businesses to operate. We also note that all discussions about consti-
However, the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) and Blue Caps are of the opinion that early general elections might just be the solution to the issues that are plaguing Guyana’s 10th Parliament and affecting some major developmental projects.
Meanwhile several representatives from the business community associated with the GCCI and PSC have said they are not on board with the statements issued by the two entities.
As a first step in tackling the problem, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) are initially focusing on the 10 food borne parasites with the greatest global impact. The rankings contained in the FAO-WHO report, “Multicriteria-based ranking for risk management of food-borne parasites”, are based on the parasites’ burden on human health and other factors, and includes information on
Twenty-eight-year-old
Jermaine Carrol ,who is accused of running over a sixyear-old lad, was on Friday further remanded to prison when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. This occurred after the Prosecutor failed to pres-
The list and supporting report were developed following a request by the global food standards body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), for FAO and WHO to review the current status of knowledge on parasites in food and their public health and trade impacts.
The FAO’s food safety and quality unit and WHO responded by jointly organising a global call for information on the problem.
Twenty-two nations and one re-
ent the case jacket; the case will be resumed on July 9.
It was alleged that June 12, on Freeman Street, East La Penitence, the maintenance worker attached to Church’s Chicken drove, in a manner dangerous to the public, motor car PPP 5831 thereby causing the
The FAO-WHO report lists a number of ways to reduce the risk of parasitic infections. For farmers, it advises the use of organic fertilizer, particularly on produce, should be closely monitored to ensure it is composted properly and all fecal matter is removed. Water quality must also be closely monitored. For consumers, it advises that all meat should be well cooked and only clean water should be used to wash and prepare vegetables.
death of six-year-old Joseph Quallis.
The vehicle reportedly crashed into a fence and pinned the child, who resided at East La Penitence. Quallis was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he subsequently succumbed to injuries sustained in the accident.
A laboratory technician works to identify a worm pest
Linden Technical Committee moves to promulgate electricity manual
The Technical Committee established by the Region 10 Democratic Council (RDC) last year, to look into prolonged, unscheduled electricity disruptions in the mining town, is now moving towards adaptation and public awareness of the Linden electricity manual.
The committee met on Tuesday in the boardroom of the RDC to discuss plans for advancement with the move to have the manual implemented in the community.
Region 10 Chairman Sharma Solomon received the first draft of the manual, which was handed over by the Technical Committee, headed by Linmine Secretariat Chairman Horace James, in February of this year.
Members of the committee include representatives of bauxite mining company Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Inc (BMGGI), the community’s main electricity supplier; the Linden Electricity Company Incorporated (LECI), which is responsible for electricity supply at Mackenzie; the Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Limited (LUSCSL), which is responsible for the supply at Wismar; the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI); and the RDC and the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC).
The electricity disruption manual was devised by these key electricity stakeholders in
the community distribution system, had set out to reduce and prevent prolonged blackouts in Linden, in addition to improving an emergency preparedness response on dealing with the issue.
The committee had also set out to create an effective communication system to properly inform key stakeholders and members of the community on causes and estimated periods of prolonged electricity disruption.
Additionally, the manual seeks to advise the public on what is expected to be done in instances of scheduled and unexpected blackouts. Unscheduled blackouts in the community, which have lasted for over 12 hours in some instances in recent years, prompted the decision
and led to the formation of the committee.
According to information summarised in the manual, the community “has no emergency preparedness and response to deal with prolong blackouts” and “the Electricity Generating System is old and below what is required for adequate, continuous, safe and reliable power”.
The manual states: “The transmission and distribution system is in need of upgrading, hence, the area is prone to frequent and prolonged electricity disruption.”
BMGGI Senior Personnel Officer Trudel Marks, indicated at the meeting that she is concerned about effective communication with residents during major blackouts.
Text-blasting
In response, Solomon said copies of the manual will be sent to the two major telecommunication system providers in the country, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and Digicel, in an effort to ensure that text-blasting is used to communicate information with residents during blackouts. It was noted at the meeting that residents’ involvement in the effectiveness of what is set out to be done in the manual is of major im-
portance. Additionally, it was decided that in the instance of a blackout in the community, the management and key members of LECI and LUSCSL must be informed by the power plant within 10 minutes or immediately.
Within half an hour, the RDC and InterimManagement Committee Chairman must be informed along with key stakeholders. The committee further decided that after two hours, the Minister responsible for energy should also be informed.
Speaking at the meeting, James said a written report must be submitted to the committee by BMGGI, LUSCSL and LECI after a major blackout or power outage lasting over 24 hours.
It must be submitted within 48 hours of the blackout, according to the committee. The report, according to the Technical Committee, should also include causes, measures taken, amount of residents affected by the outage and water disruption and reports of any unusual cases reported during the disruption of electricity.
James added that no area in Linden must be out of electricity for more than 16 hours. Institutions such as the LHC and water treatment plants should be given priority in the distribution of available power and the principles guiding restoration of electricity, the committee decided.
James indicated that the electricity system on the Wismar shore needs to be upgraded. LUSCSL Manager Esme Yangapatty, said the company is in the process of purchasing two reclosers to facilitate the upgrade, however, she noted this is currently posing some difficulty.
She said LUSCSL has already budgeted to facilitate the purchase which is estimated to the tune of $7 million. She stressed that the Wismar area is more prone to prolonged and constant blackouts due to the issue. The committee said it will work with residents in ensuring that trees which pose a threat to power lines are cut down or trimmed and will look at areas more prone to lightning strikes.
Eyew tness
Make my day!!!
...show me your motion!
Well, Pressie’s in a feisty mood. Good for him!! He’s obviously tired of being used as a punching bag by the Opposition. And to make his point visually, he’s so slimmed down, no one in his right mind gonna see HIM as a punching bag. Pressie’s down to fighting weight - fighting on the hustings or wherever.
So in the inimitable words of Clint Eastwood, with slotted eyes and all, Pressie dared the Opposition wankers, Granger and Ramjattan, to show him their (no confidence) motion - “make my day!!!” They’ve been going on...and on...and on about passing their motion so the President will have to call “snap elections”. But it’s as clear as dayclean that it’s all about one more way to blackmail the government to get into government through the back door. Just another way to beat down the (government’s) back door.
And Pressie’s letting them know, in no uncertain words - he don’t play that game!! Suggesting that Granger and Ramjattan are two “little brown girls in the ring”, Pressie demanded they put up or shut up and get on with the motion. Never thinking that Pressie would go down this road - because they mistakenly assumed he was a “lame duck” president - the Opposition leaders have been backed into a corner. It’s “put up or shut up” time!!!
We’ll see “who’s maaan”!! The AFC, in threatening the “no-confidence” motion, is re-using the tactIc they used on the APNU to sucker the latter into supporting the Linden conflagration. All that did for APNU was to pi55 off Indian cross-over votes they need if they’re ever to get their dirty big hands on power again. Legally, that is. And to create local warlords in Vanessa Kissoon and Solomon Sharma, who’ve gotten too big for their breeches.
Because he’s seen as a wimp, Granger had to take the bait. But as he said on Friday, his party will have to “study” the motion, when drafted by the AFC. Who does Granger think he’s fooling? What’s to “study” about the motion?? With all he’s been moaning and groaning about the PPP’s “illegality” in spending etc...all he has to do is to follow the AFC down this “motion road” and Pressie will have to call elections.
But he isn’t going to do this, is he??? The Opposition has so debilitated itself on a whole menu of measuresincluding the AML/CFT Bill - they know they’re dead in the water as far as any elections go.
So won’t they please make Pressie’s day? And show him their motion?
...on rice protests
The AFC’s also playing with fire on the Essequibo Coast with rice farmers. Not just literally with the burning of tyres by their naked Regional Organiser in that neck of the woods, but figuratively with the entire industry. Point of the matter is the AFC’s pushing Burnham’s communist line that the government must nationalise the rice industry.
How else can they justify blaming the government for millers not paying them for paddy?? Does the fella that sells farmers fertiliser, or rents them land, demand the government get them their money when farmers don’t pay?? You bet your life they don’t: they take legal action. The government has passed a host of laws that facilitate these actions? Why don’t farmers band together and sue?? Why don’t Ramjattan - he’s a lawyer, no?- represent them?
But the GRDB has even volunteered to pick up their legal tab - with no takers. As in Linden, the AFC’s like a vulture encouraging the death of the rice industry - just so they can feed on the discontent of farmers.
...”feral blast”
Some say the GTimes’ picture of Minister Manickchand, illustrating her rebuttal to the US Ambassador, was too “fierce”. But if even the good Dr Luncheon says it was a “feral blast” how else to represent her? Go girl!!!
Region 10 Chairman Sharma Solomon
Children are silent victims of domestic violence
By Gomattie GanGadin
Domestic violence is rapidly becoming one of the epidemics taking over not just Guyana,
her mother, she would not have been here today.
Harrow “As a young child, as soon as my dad started yell-
but other countries in the Region. While many question what is going wrong, and have been taking pity and expressing sympathy to the victims, children who have been witnessing the horrors played out before them seem to be forgotten.
The tragic reality is that anytime a mother is abused by her partner, the children are also affected in both overt and subtle ways. What hurts the mother hurts the child.
When a mother is abused and the children are witnesses, they may begin to feel guilty that they cannot protect her or believe that they are the cause of the strife. They may themselves be abused, or neglected while the mother attempts to deal with the trauma.
The rate of child abuse is 6-15 times higher in families where the mother is abused.
Children get hurt when they see their parents being verbally or physically abused. They may feel confusion, stress, fear, shame, or think that they caused the problem. Children grow up learning that it is okay to hurt other people or let other people hurt them. A third of all children who see their mothers beaten develop emotional problems. Boys who see their fathers beat their mothers are 10 times more likely to be abusive in their adult intimate relationships.
Guyana Times recognised that there was a voice which was not being heard. We often hear about the female victim and the perpetrator, but we have never heard the child’s voice and what it is like growing up in a home where abuse is a tradition, a ritual; an everyday occurrence. We spoke to a once broken young lady who comes from a home which was fraught with domestic violence, but is now on a path of recovery and ambition.
Gabie (assumed name to protect her identity) related that growing up in such a home was no easy task and had it not been for the desire to help her mother and those in similar circumstances as
and tell myself, ‘I have to do this for me, for mom, for us’ and I would just continue doing my work,” the young lady said.
Graduating with passes in six subjects, taken at the sitting of Caribbean
Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), Gomat related that she immediately found a job and moved out of the home with her siblings.
However, her mother refused to move, but was later
forced to do so after the fear of losing her life grew.
“One night my dad went right off his tree. He belted my mum, and ripped the phone off the wall so we couldn’t ring Police. My brother witnessed this and came to get me. I went looking for mum and told her, ‘I can’t do this anymore, it’s time to leave.’ I made her stay at my house and I told my father he has to leave, this is wrong.”
ing when he was drunk, I was locked in my bedroom in the dark, crying while my dad belted my mum. I could hear everything – the yelling, the crying. As I got older, I would get my little brother and sister, hide them in my room to protect their innocent minds from what was happening. As I got older, I would run out of my room to help my mum. Sometimes I would get hit while trying to protect her. I thought it was because of us. I hated going to school -I couldn’t concentrate. Who could be bothered with it – everyone sitting up nicely doing their work and me pretending I wasn’t worried about going home to protect my mum and siblings again. I even contemplated suicide, but I said to myself that I needed to be strong for my mother and it is that strength that has me here today,” the impressionable young lady said.
But being strong came with a price, she said, stating that in order to be strong and cope with her surroundings, she began taking drugs.
“I felt heaps of different emotions. I was scared, angry, guilty, shameful and jealous of everyone I knew that I didn’t have to go through this, but at the same time, I wasn’t aware of how wrong our lives were. I took drugs and I got drunk at every chance I could. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop my dad from hitting us. I was too scared to leave home and too scared to stay. I kept all friends at a distance, and I avoided having anyone over to my house,” Gabie related.
Education is salvation
Realising that education was the only way to escape from the prison of domestic violence, even in the midst of the fights, she decided to quit drinking and smoking and began studying; doing her homework and ensuring that she never missed a class at school.
“Sometimes I’m doing my homework and I hear the screams, but I’m helpless, so I sit there and cry
The tragic reality is that anytime a mother is abused by her partner, the children are also affected in both overt and subtle ways
AFC protest leaders were “intoxicated”
– RDC embarrassed by Councillor’s conduct, publicity stunt
By Michael younge
The key leaders of the Alliance For Change’s (AFC) protest which was executed on Friday in Region Two were under the influence of alcohol when they decided to burn tyres and place blockades on the roadways.
This is the position of Regional Chairman for Region Two Parmanand Persaud, who spoke with this newspaper on Saturday afternoon. Persaud said that the leaders of the protest, which was organised to lobby for rice farmers to receive payments from millers, were imbibing along the protest route.
“They were drinking at the High Bridge. Lots of people saw them and they were under the influence of alcohol,” Persaud confirmed.
He could not confirm whether the alcohol was used as a means of attracting greater support for the march or whether the men who were part of the protest actually bought it themselves.
“I cannot confirm at this time,” he said.
Asked whether he was concerned about reports that AFC Councillor Naithram was stripped na-
ked and searched by Police Officers during the protest on Friday, the Regional Chairman responded in the negative.
He said that the Councillor stripped himself twice during the AFC protest as a means of avoiding being arrested by Police after the tyres were lit and blockades placed on the roads.
Persaud said that the Councillor’s behaviour has brought shame and disgrace to the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and should
be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
He said several members of the Regional Council have already expressed concerns over the actions of the AFC and its Councillor on Friday.
“I can tell you that when we meet on Tuesday for our usual meeting, the issue will not go down well,” Persaud said.
He said that he was contemplating taking some form of action against the Councillor were he to be charged by the Police for the role he played in the events that disturbed the tranquillity of the region.
The Regional Chairman has already advised that things have returned to normalcy following the politically motivated exercise.
But Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader Khemraj Ramjattan is maintaining that the Councillor was stripped by the Police.
Ramjattan said that he was busy trying to secure bail for the Councillor and 19 other persons who were arrested following the protest exercise.
Attempts to get his response to allegations that Naithram and other AFC “frontmen” in the region were involved, proved futile on Saturday afternoon.
Next General Election results will be different – Granger
Opposition Leader David Granger on Friday dismissed the views expressed by the former Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran, that Guyana’s next General Election would yield a similar result as in the 2011 election.
Unlike the view shared by the columnist, Granger said the election resuls are very much likely to be different.
In his Conversation Tree column, Ramkarran posited that given the status quo of the financial system and its effect on the Guyanese populace, the country could very well find itself with a repeat of the 2011 General Election results, where the combined Opposition walked away with a one-seat majority.
But Granger, at the coalition’s press conference on Friday, insisted that there is no possibility of such results as the APNU has been hearing from the ordinary man.
“Look at my own engagement in the diaspora, because just the other day, I was in Dundee in Mahaicony and people are listening to what APNU has to say because they feel quite fed up with the way things are going around the country,” Granger told reporters.
Wussies
Satiricus was a sucker for sacrifice. “Why!” he whimpered, as he wiped away a tear from his eye. “This is what makes us human”. He was reading about the courageous W-US-S Ambassador Bent Heart. The fella’s country W-US-S, was reeling from their economic meltdown - 10 times the population of Guyana out of jobs! - but yet here was Bent Heart, taking time to educate Guyanese about “democracy”.
And yet this Minister Manic had cussed him out. Was there no gratitude in this world no more??Satiricus sniffed some more and decided to seek comfort at the back street bar. “Hey Sato, why so glum, chum??” cried out Hari, as he spied Satiricus. The fellas had obviously been around for a while: the table was a forest of beer bottles.
“Man, how Manic could cuss out Bent Heart after W-US-S did so much for us??” Satiricus asked as he received his beer.
“Yeah, right,” nodded Suresh. “Why Manic bring up old time story like how W-US-S throw out Jugun and bring in Burnt Ham?”
“Damn right!!” exclaimed Satiricus. “I know W-US-S destroy the country when they support Burnt Ham - but we got to look at the bright side.”
“I was being sarcastic, Sato,” pointed out Suresh sourly. “What bright side?”
“OK...OK...So they help Burnt Ham bruk up the country. But if that didn’t happen, everybody wouldn’t have left. And I wouldn’t be getting US dollars every month!!”
Satiricus old buddy, Cappo the canecutter, looked at Satiricus in amazement. “Yuh mean fuh tell me, just because you collect some freks like wan beggah, is all right W-US-S bruk abee up fuh 28 year??”
“All right, maybe Manic got a right to tell off Bent Heart,” conceded Satiricus. “But she don’t know time and place??”
“What time and what place??” demanded Kuldeep.
“Well is the W-US-S birthday party and was at Bent Heart House,” answered Satiricus.
“Let me tell you something, Sato,” said Teacher Samad, who’s been listening quietly.
“The W-US-S birthday should remind everybody that you shouldn’t take any sh*t from even the biggest country.”
“That’s right, chap,” chimed in Hari. “The founders of W-US-S told the King of England to take his taxes and shove it where the sun don’t shine!!”
“But today, all W-US-SES, including Bent Heart, are behaving like wussies to small countries like Guyana,” said Kuldeep, shaking his head.
“And all ah dem who falla de W-US-SE and boo Manic ah de biggest wussies!!!” chortled Cappa.
“So maybe we should give Manic a medal??” suggested Satiricus quietly.
Former PPP Executive Ralph Ramkarran
Region Two Chairman Parmanand Persaud
One dead, another critical in Cove and John accident
Afather of four is dead while his brother, an overseas guest, is critical following a two-vehicle collision at Cove and John, East Coast Demerara on Saturday afternoon.
Sebastian Frank, 33, of Lot 8 Middle Walk, Victoria, East Coast Demerara died while receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital and his brother, Selwyn Carryl, 36, is battling for his life in the High Dependency Unit of the medical institution.
A third man, the driver of the minibus was also admitted with possible broken limbs.
According to information received, Frank and his brother were travelling in motor car PJJ 867, which was heading in an eastern direction when it collided head-on with a minibus bearing registration number BSS 3854.
Frank, an engineer, was reportedly the driver of the car.
As the news spread about the accident, relatives of the dead man stormed the
and ended up in the wrong lane.
While talking to media operatives, he received the news of his brother’s passing and whisked away to comfort his mother.
At the home of the dead man, relatives and friends were shocked upon receiving the heart-rending news. After a few minutes, Debbie Wilson, the mother of the dead man exited a car and was heard saying: “Today is my day… Lord please give me faith.”
She nevertheless found the courage to speak to the media. She explained that after receiving the news of the accident, she went to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she saw her US-based son lying on a bed and soon afterwards, she was approached by a doctor who informed her that Frank did not make it.
Wilson said she does not know the circumstances surrounding the accident, but she knew that her son ended up in the lane of the bus, hence, causing the collision.
The distressed woman related that her son left home about 08:00h for the city to complete business transactions.
She broke down in tears when asked to describe her son and the life he lived, but not before praising him as a decent and well mannered individual.
At the scene, an eyewitness Stevon Layne said he was attending to his
Georgetown Public Hospital.
His brother, Sheldon Wilson told media operatives that he received the news of the devastating accident about 13:30h, and immediately rushed to the hospital where he saw his eldest brother Selwyn, lying on a stretcher and was crying out for pains.
Sad news
He said that based on information he received from persons at the scene, his brother might have lost control of the vehicle
GT&T to clear land line backlog in 2015 – CEO
As Guyana’s housing development booms, there is need for infrastructural development and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is leading the way by committing itself to provide the best land line services.
Next year, clearing of backlogged requests is set to intensify.
Over the past five years, the telephone giant admitted, quite a number of new housing schemes have been developed, and more so, requests for land line services have been overwhelming.
Speaking at the launch of the e-billing service on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Radha Khrishna Sharma explained that as new housing schemes are established, the demand for GT&T services has grown.
On this note, while the company is overwhelmed with the requests, Sharma said it would require huge capital investments, and the issue of economic feasibility has to be taken into account.
Of recent, he said GT&T has started an exercise
whereby it is going through all requests to clear the backlog so that it can plan for 2015.
Subsidised
Responding to a question of fees attached to the land line services, he said the fees that the company charges do not bear any significant cost to the total cost of the services.
“The reality is that land line fees that we charge are heavily subsidized. We will revisit the fees structure soon, but we want to give
these services at the lowest possible price to our customers,” he added. He reiterated that there is a cost to everything when providing a service to the public.
However, while emphasis is placed on new services such as Mobile Money and E-billing among others, there seems to be less focus in getting the best service for smart phones.
On this issue, Sharma noted that “If we could have the appropriate spectrum so that we could introduce the 3G and 4G technology, it is then we can see mobile smart phones having its [sic] full usage.”
Criticised
Recently, Sharma criticised the Government’s inaction regarding the distribution of 3G and 4G concessions, claiming that it has been pursuing additional spectrum frequencies for advanced mobile data services for the last four years.
He said GT&T had first applied to the Government for the frequencies in 2010, noting that the inauguration
of the Suriname/Guyana submarine cable would provide ample bandwidth to support the technology. According to Sharma, the proposal presented to the Government included field test data, economic analysis and plans for a rollout, but was largely ignored by the State.
“GT&T and parent company, Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) in September 2013, again formally submitted an updated request for spectrum allocation to the Government. While discussions are ongoing and we must respect the confidentiality and integrity of the said process, suffice to say that our plan was adjusted and updated based on growth and changes in the industry and market over a three-year period.”
Pointing to the Government’s e-governance deployment, which prominently features state-owned 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, Sharma called for spectrum policies to be transparent, marketbased and designed to support national development.
business when he heard a crashing sound, and upon lifting his head, he saw the bus and car “kissing”.
He assisted in taking the injured men out of the car and claimed that they were crying out for pains in the chest.
Doctors are closely monitoring Carryl’s condition; he has been slipping in and out of consciousness. The dead man leaves to mourn his mother, wife and four children.
Chief Executive Officer, Radha Krishna Sharma
The car that was driven by Sebastian Frank
The minibus involved in the accident
Dead: Sebastian Frank
Sterling Products awards sterling NGSA performers
Sterling Products Limited (SPL), in its ongoing efforts to improve employer/employee relations, has awarded the children of eight staff members who performed outstandingly at the 2014 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
The company held its annual bursary award for employees’ children on Thursday at the SPL boardroom in their Providence, East Bank Demerara head office.
Present at the event were SPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramsay Ali; managers of the company; representatives of the Clerical and Commercial Workers’ Union (CCWU); Deputy Chief Education Officer Doodmattie Singh; awardees and their parents.
Addressing the reception, Ali said the company has always been committed to helping employees. SPL,
he said, has been trying over the years to look at different ways and means by which workers can be motivated. He pointed out that the company has been promoting parenting, family values and education.
SPL boasts a literacy programme whereby employees in the factories and elsewhere are encouraged to improve their English and Mathematics skills. The pension funds and other social programmes are positively impacting relationships between SPL and its workforce. One such way of helping employees is by awarding the successes of their children in the NGSA examinations which has become an annual tradition.
Speaking to the awardees, Ali said: “Sterling is very pleased that we can assist you…. We are very proud of you guys, you have achieved something and now you can move on to a different level
of education. There is always a place here, a preference will be given to the employees children when there is time for employment and they have the qualifications; there is always a place at Sterling for you. Well done and congratulations.”
A family CCWU General Secretary Ann Anderson, in her remarks said: “Sterling is a company that gets into your business; it is more like a family. Sterling goes further, they decide to look after the children of their workers and not many companies do this. If my history and recollection prove me right, they are one of the companies that offer the highest value in a bursary award at least under the CCWU. I am standing here and looking at future doctors, lawyers, CEO of Sterling and even a trade unionist! I want you to value what is being offered to you. Now
this is a new stage, it[is] as though you are starting over, it is harder, you will be dealing with a different group of children, now you are mixing with the best of the best and all of you did well.”
The Deputy Chief Education Officer, in urging the children to remain focused and to steer clear of bad influences, said: “I want to ask you to continue school, do not drop out, go up to CXC. You heard from the Chief Executive Officer that you will be the first that Sterling Products Limited will offer a job; they will give you preference amongst all other graduates from other secondary schools. I want to urge you to remain in school, do like what you did in primary school: complete all your assignments, read and complete secondary education.”
Singh, reminding them of the need to be responsible and to take care of them-
Bursary Award in the 2005 NGSE exams, Richard Leo Jr, commented that nine years ago, he was sitting in the very chair the current awardees are and now the company has taken him on as an intern after he went through secondary school and into the University of Guyana, where he will soon be graduating with a Degree in Economics.
“You will meet a lot of new people and have a lot of experiences, but I urge you all to continue your education,” he said, adding: “It is now time to move forward, Sterling is already helping your parents which is very good. You will go out to face some challenges, be focused and put yourself in the direction[in] you wish to be successful.”
selves, added: “I urge you to take good care of yourselves, you owe it to your parents, to Sterling Products Limited who will now partner with you, who has been partnering with your parents for your education for a long time.
Intern
You owe it to your community and Guyana at large – take care of yourselves, be the best that you can be. You need to pay attention to health and good nutrition. I am saying this to you because this is the stage where children will say: ‘I don’t want home food anymore, I want fast food’ – you need to pay attention to your nutrition, eat your fruits and vegetables because CXC is far more demanding than National Grade Six Assessments. Do not drop out of school, focus on good nutrition, and choose your friends wisely.”
Past recipient of the SPL
Gratitude was expressed by Rachel Seecharran on behalf of the awardees. “I am very happy to be an awardee and to be sitting around people who went through the same experiences that I did and who will be going through another experience in the future,” young Seecharran said before wishing all her fellow awardees good success in life and a better future.
“Make the best of everything you have been given by your parents, by your education – everything. Make the best out of everything,” she concluded.
Awarded this year were Fiyaad Hack with 518 marks; Taruna Singh with 505 marks; Rachel Seecharran with 486 marks; Natasha Shaw with 452 marks; Nadia Singh with 440 marks; Clayton Harry with 425 marks; Ryan Peters with 400 marks; and Alicia Mohitram with 326 marks.
Each child was presented with a monetary award of $50,000.
SPL Managers and other officials with the awardees and their parents
Simply the
Someone needs to point out to our University of Guyana big boys, precisely what the word “consultation” means. Call Dr Joyce Jonas, who had symbolised quality at UG for decades, and she will tell you.
Consultation is NOT making a decision in a locked room and then announcing that decision after the fact to people who are directly affected by that decision. This is the mere passing along of information. Consultation occurs prior to final decisions.
The UG big wigs descended on the Berbice Campus to tell, they say “consult”, Berbicians that there will be a tuition increase from $127,000 to $200,000 per year. It was nice of them to come and tell us, but it is all so condescending as usual. To their credit, they sought to justify this increase. To their discredit, it was all very shallow and unconvincing.
These are the justifications for the increase:
1. “If students want to demand a higher quality of service and education from the University, then the only option is to raise the fees.”
In terms of student demands, this has been very muted at UGBC. Every now and then, an individual student would be courageous enough to kick up a stink at the recent precipitous decline in quality at UGBC in all ways. They pay a steep price for speaking out. At any rate,
Truth
This “consultation” thing
we all know that “quality” is never associated with UG.
2. “UG has had a “human face” to its students by not asking for an increase for decades.”
First, this is untrue, but the untruth may be a consequence of ignorance. In fact, UG has insisted on this increase several times at the University Council. From 2008, this demand was made several times. To the credit of former Council members, especially those that were pro-government, they refused to permit any increase. I agreed with this NO INCREASE position at the Council.
Secondly, UG has never had a “human face” to students or anyone else in Guyana, especially not to taxpayers. As Director of UGBC, I met more parents in one day than the Senior Administrator at Turkeyen had met in five years! UGBC had a “human face”. Not UG.
3. Implicitly, UG will increase tuition because they “allowing you, the students, to pay your tuition fee two weeks before exams....and to let you go and write exams and pay for the other exam after you have written it.”
To say this, would suggest this is the rule rather than the exception. It has been my experience that a massive percentage of students pay their tuition on time. If they don’t, there is a monetary penalty! At any rate, this does
Rohee slams AFC for manipulating Essequibo rice farmers
not justify a tuition increase. At best, it would justify an increase in the penalty for late payment of tuition.
4. “Government subvention is not sufficient, so there must be an increase in tuition.”
UG has not functioned well for decades, and one wonders why the taxpayer should throw more money at a failed enterprise. My position has been that we could hold the same subvention and the same tuition at UGBC for the next five years and still continue the developments and improvements that Berbice saw from 2008-2012. UGBC, like Turkeyen, was in serious deficit from 200?-2008.
I was placed in charge of UGBC in late 2008. From 2009 onward, we actually had a surplus!! A surplus,
even though we created new computer centres, put up a new building; gave our lecturers air-conditioned offices and high-speed connectivity; a 400 per cent increase in enrolment; better qualified lecturers and a much better library.
If the place is run efficiently, there would be no need for increases in tuition fees or subventions for five years. Oh, can someone tell us why the private sector treats the place like a colony of intellectual lepers and money-grabbers? And why have we not engaged the diaspora the way we at UGBC did from 2008-2012?
The people there who were not convinced are right. The case for an increase in tuition fees has not been made to convince the people who are going to pay that increase, or the people who pay taxes to have the place keep its doors open. They pay for the place to keep the doors open, but the doors are closed to them. It is as if the government gets money by magic!
MY POSITION IS THAT UG -and especially UGBC- DOES NOT NEED TO RAISE TUITION FEES!!!!
But the current ViceChancellor is right about one thing: we should not “focus on what we earn…raise the bar”. Easy to say – however, preaching is easy when you getting the bucks!
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has strongly condemned the Alliance For Change (AFC) for manipulating the plight and grievance of rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast, by encouraging them to block the public road there.
The Minister in a statement said the Ministry has advised and warned time and again that peaceful protest cannot mean blocking of public roads, thus preventing the right of others to proceed without let or hindrance.
“Public safety and security must be for all Guyanese and any attempt by a few to inhibit the peaceful and orderly life of law- abiding citizens will not be tolerated.
“The Ministry has noted that over the past weeks, representatives of the AFC have been frequenting the Essequibo Coast encouraging their political activists embedded in the rice- farming community to engage in unlawful acts to disrupt the peace and good order on the Essequibo Coast,” the statement said.
The Minister said he has reasons to believe that the protest was politically motivated and orchestrated by the AFC.
Rohee pointed out that the action of the AFC is similar to the politically orchestrated protest by the AFC at Agricola and Linden, which resulted in pain rather the
gain for the protestors, while the AFC leaders were comfortably ensconced in the comfort of their homes and never seen at the scene of the unlawful protests.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs wishes to remind that blocking of public roads and bridges is unlawful and persons found engaging in such acts will be prosecuted according to the law.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs supports peaceful protest by Guyanese citizens and their respective organisations; however, it will not condone the degeneration of peaceful protest into unlawful behaviour that affects the lives and well-being of others who do not support any such unlawful activities,” Rohee said.
Professor Daizal Samad
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
Rice farmers expected to be paid soon – Dr Ramsammy
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, on Saturday said during the past week, there were two meetings which resulted in an amicable agreement between millers and farmers with respect to payment for paddy.
However, he said some of the farmers were motivated by political elements, pointing to Naithram, an Alliance For Change (AFC) Councillor, who led the protest.
The Minister urged the farmers to continue dialogue, promising to persist in working with farmers and millers. He expressed the hope that much of the debt would be reduced soon.
Dr Ramsammy was at the time responding to a protest by Essequibo rice farmers over late payments which turned ugly last night. The Police were forced to use tear gas on the crowd that hurled bottles and other missiles at the ranks, and burnt tyres on the main road at Land of Plenty, Essequibo Coast.
comply with the Rice Millers Act, which states that within 42 days farmers must have their payments.
The Agriculture Minister urged farmers that if they wanted to protest, then they should do so peacefully and not by blocking roads and hindering others from going about their business.
He also urged rice millers to make timely payments to farmers, and farmers to make sure that a growing industry can move seamlessly forward as he pointed to the growth of the industry in terms of efficiency and the new rice yields which have boosted production.
For the first crop in 2014, over 400,000 tonnes of rice was produced and sold to the millers at a cost of $23.3 billion. Of this amount, $19.9 billion was paid by the end of last week.
The Minister explained that there is constant work to ensure that millers pay farmers 100 per cent for each crop before the next crop comes in. Millers are being urged to
Minister Ramsammy pointed out that in the past, millers had owed payments to farmers for more than a year, but through working with them, by the beginning of 2014, all debts for 2013 had been paid off.
Minister Ramsammy also pointed to the increased production records over the past three years. In 2013, close to 400,000 tonnes of rice was exported and more than 100,000 will be added to this for 2014.
At least 19 persons, who were allegedly involved in the protest, are in Police custody as an assessment of the situation continues, acting Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud said.
Younge’s take
Crossing the line
he knee-jerk reaction by some stakeholders in Guyana to Priya Manickchand’s presentation at a US Embassy function to mark its 238th Independence is surprising but understandable.
Manickchand, who was acting Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, accused US Ambassador D Brent Hardt of exhibiting double standards while meddling in the domestic affairs of Guyana with a clear political agenda.
Manickchand also made her Government’s position clear that it will not be intimidated by the US and any other developed state for that matter, especially when they lack the moral authority to do so given their own track records.
What is the hue and cry about? Has the Minister said something that was never said before by Guyana’s Executive President Donald Ramotar? Was the Minister expected to give a cosmetic presentation with a smile and turn a blind eye to the Ambassador’s attacks and directives to a sovereign Government? Did the Minister “cross the line” and exercise power which the constitution does not afford her?
Surely, Manickchand’s critics did not expect a different response from an audience infiltrated with US sympathisers, Opposition personalities and media provocateurs. If they had it their way, they would have gauged her and muzzled the Government, reducing it to a “rubber stamp” while depriving it of the opportunity to speak freely and frankly; an opportunity which the US Ambassador has arguably enjoyed without restraint since his appointment back in 2011.
Additionally, it is highly doubtful that Manickchand could have been forced to make that speech as some would like the public to believe.
Forget the messenger, time and place. No sceptic seems to be addressing whether there is any truth and irrationalities in Manickchand’s presentation. Those who have listened attentively to her utterances are in full support and do not share the myopic and opportunistic view that they were intended to embarrass the diplomat and bring ridicule to Guyana.
It will not take an Einstein to understand why the spin doctors are berating Manickchand for her frank and exact comments. They hold the view that the US is a “sacred cow” and no one should dare object to its policies or challenge the actions of those in its employ. There is also, a long-held fear by some in Guyana that the US will move to sanction any country that dares to question the characteristics of its brand of democracy.
Well, the Guyana Government appears to hold a different view and will not retreat if it feels that any country, be it developed or developing, has overstepped its boundary. Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon; Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Manickchand should be commended for the candid statements they made in the public domain that expose the loopholes in certain US policies and the manner in which some of its diplomats treat democratically elected Governments and officials of small island developing states.
No one is against the US and no one is against building a stronger and more inclusive society. The disagreement arises as to how this should be done.
Democracy is about diversity and articulating a difference of opinion on matters of urgent public importance.
The Government must be allowed to say how it feels about the conduct of diplomats and their work in any tone it sees fit and at any forum it wishes. It is sovereign, and like the US owes no state an apology for sharing its perspective on their internal affairs.
Over the last few years, US/Guyana relations have indeed been strained and tense. It is a fact that key principals in the AFC/APNU Opposition alliance feel that the posture of the US Ambassador has not aided in improving the relations between the two partners since his appointment. While they will say this behind closed doors and in the halls of parliament, they dare not appear sympathetic to the Government in the public domain. This would mean that they are supporting the Government and there shall be none of that.
Therefore, Manickchand has done what others refuse and fear to do. The Ambassador’s own assertions after her speech is testimony that the message was received.
Agriculture Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy
Components of LEAD Project in limbo
By Michael younge
Two components of the US Leadership and Democracy Project (LEAD) appear to be in limbo even as D Brent Hardt’s tenure as US Ambassador to Guyana came to end this week amidst controversy and tension.
Hardt was scheduled to depart these shores today after presenting the Government with the credentials of his successor.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, said the US LEAD Project received the approval of the Government, but not in its entirety.
The two components of the project that were not finalised and agreed upon dealt with women and youth strengthening and participation in national activities, and support for political parties.
Government has already agreed to what Dr Luncheon called the “nuts and bolts” of the project which dealt with strengthening the National Assembly, and civic education and support for Local Government Elections.
The outgoing Ambassador told Guyana Times during an exclusive interview on June 27, that he was hoping to wrap up all aspects of the project before leaving. He also indicated that his departure depended on achieving closure on the outstanding matters.
Find collective solutions, says Caricom Secretary General
EDiscussions
This newspaper understands that discussions are continuing with a view to ironing out Cabinet’s other concerns.
Following the controversy over the project, Ambassador Hardt and Dr Luncheon had made a joint announcement to members of the media at the Office of the President, that the project, which had been in the pipeline since 2009, would be put on hold.
The Guyana Government had publicly chastised the US for pursuing the LEAD Project despite its strong objections. The Government had posited that the project’s design and implementation were unacceptable and that the action taken by the US Ambassador was a clear departure from protocol and conventions governing interstate relations, and deserved full condemnation.
On Saturday, several senior Government functionaries declined to say definitively whether agreement has been reached on all the aspects of the project. Calls to Government’s focal point person on the project, Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, went unanswered.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Hardt said that he is delighted to have served in Guyana and has had a memorable tenure here.
He expressed appreciation to the Government of Guyana, the US Embassy staff, the Opposition political parties and other key stakeholders who have collaborated with the US on various fronts.
Hardt said relations between Guyana and the US remain strong and friendly, and expressed the view that during his tenure, he worked tirelessly to advance the interests of Guyanese civil society organisations, while supporting the overall democratisation and development processes here.
“The good work we have been able to do over the last few years will continue and I know that we have a wonderful partner here in Guyana. I thank the Government... and the people for their willingness to partner with us to advance our common values for a safe and prosperous democratic country,” he noted.
ven as the present cohort of Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders re turned to the place where political lead ers in 1965 defined the integration ideals, Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque on Tuesday stressed the urgency of find ing solutions to the economic conditions that threatened to erode gains the com munity has made.
LaRocque made this appeal at the historic Dickenson Bay, Antigua and Barbuda, the ven ue of the 35th meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom, urging political leaders of this day to find collective solutions to the serious challenges the Region faces.
The vulnerabilities of the small economies of Caricom and the lingering effects of the global economic and financial crises have combined to impede the Region’s ability to compete internationally and have resulted in “stubbornly low” growth rates, LaRocque told the opening ceremony of the four-day conference.
Strengthening the call for urgent collective action, the Secretary General said that heavy debt burdens and falling fiscal revenues, leave Caricom Governments “with precious little room to manoeuvre” in the face of what he
described as a “misleading criterion” of per capita income, applied by international financial institutions, to graduate Caricom countries from access to “much needed” concessionary development financing.
“Never before in recent history have so many of our member states faced such challenges at the same time for such a protracted period,” he said, adding an important footnote that neither the economic and financial crises nor the causes of climate change, another major challenge, originated in the Region.
Adding an element of hope in the face of those trials however, he said that as formidable as the challenges were, the community’s
history clearly showed that it has never been daunt-
“It is now, in this period of acute economic stress faced by our Region, that the spirit of unity which brings us together in all forms of adversity, is infusing our actions as we seek to build the community’s resilience to withstand the shocks, whether they are economic, social or climatic,” LaRocque stated.
He said that the Region was looking to consolidate and reposition the integration process in an ever-changing environment, as he welcomed Gaston Browne, the new Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda to the helm of the conference of Heads of Government of Caricom.
“Our initial exchanges have demonstrated to me quite clearly your personal commitment to the advancement of integration which is in keeping with your country’s prominent historical role in the pursuit of Caribbean unity,” he told the new chairman, adding his commendations to Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, for his stewardship over the past six months. (Caribbean News Now)
US Ambassador to Guyana, D Brent Hardt
Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque addressing Heads of Government in Antigua
Granger criticised over handling of Kissoon/Clarke spat
– amidst looming leadership challenge
People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader David Granger has been heavily criticised by the party’s mem-
bership for the manner in which he is handling the fallout between Oscar Clarke and Vanessa Kissoon as allegations of favouritism and injustice mount.
Kissoon, who is the party’s Region 10 representative and a parliamentarian for the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), is being accused of displaying indiscipline and disrespect to Clarke, who is the PNCR General Secretary.
She was suspended from the party following an altercation over the usage of its facilities in Linden and the handing over of keys.
Kissoon has since claimed that she was assaulted by Clarke and was never given any hearing by the party before being sanctioned. While
Granger is pouring cold water on the matter and barely addressing it, tempers are flaring at Linden and division is running deep in the party’s membership there.
He reported on Friday that he was still to appoint a Disciplinary Committee to investigate the incident, take statements and make recommendations on the way forward.
Norton
This newspaper understands Aubrey Norton is contemplating running for the leadership of the party and the word is he is likely to get lots of support from those who feel jolted by Granger’s attempts to militarise the party’s Executive and sideline key stalwarts. There are also concerns about the stalemate in Parliament and the failure of APNU to create any real change under the new dispensation.
When contacted, Norton did not deny or confirm that he has an interest in running for the leadership of the party, but instead said that he would have to be nominated first. He said that stage of the process has not even commenced.
Granger is also bound to face a challenge from Carl Greenidge, who secured the second highest amount of votes when he ran against him at the primaries back in 2011.
On Saturday, the party’s leaders in Linden slammed Granger’s decision to suspend Kissoon, saying it was unfair, unjust and reeks of favouritism.
Imposition
“Clarke was asking for the key to the party office here (in Linden). Kissoon does not have the key. The General Secretary came up here to introduce Sandra Adams as the new Co-ordinator and he bought a lock, and the party members were so vocal that they said to him he cannot put a lock on the party office. If he should do that, they said they would take it off and he went away with his lock that he purchased,” a party Executive told Guyana Times, speaking on condition
of anonymity. The party member further related that subsequent
to that, Kissoon went to Congress to deliver her party membership forms when she was confronted by Clarke, and the two had the dispute. The member related that party members in Region 10 are against Adams being “imposed” as party Co-ordinator, which they allege is the source of the problem.
In an invited comment, another party member Maurice Butters said meetings were held to discuss the decision against Kissoon. He said party members have expressed disappointment with the decision.
“We would have had two meetings where they would have expressed concern that she was firstly not given the opportunity to be heard before the decision was taken. The party Constitution clearly states that a Disciplinary Committee must be established to which all such matters [must] be referred.
Based on the meeting we conducted yesterday (Friday), it was noted that it appears as if there were ulterior motives (behind Kissoon’s suspension) and the people expressed the view that the attack on Kissoon is an attack on the people she represents,” he said.
Meanwhile, Councillor attached to the Region 10 Democratic Council, Gregory Parkinson, echoed similar sentiments, relating that the decision to suspend Kissoon alone over the incident is unjust
Unfair
He added: “I’m just disappointed that justice seems to be one-sided in the system. In my Industrial Relations perspective, I know that any time there’s a dispute, you don’t only sanction one or identify one to be sanctioned, you identify both parties. In this incident Kissoon said she was assaulted.
I’m not hearing what she might have done to the other person or any other allegation, but in any investigation, both persons should have been removed, both persons should have been suspended pending the investigation. I don’t know why the party took this position, but I hope that it’s not from the perspective that Clarke is a senior operative. Miss Kissoon should have had respect for him and it should go both ways.”
Linden resident Brenda Bowman said she is totally against the decision and has lost hope in the party. “I think Mr Granger is downright disrespectful to Kissoon. I think he should review the problem between both parties and then make a decision. Both of them should have been suspended. I just want Mr Granger to know that Region 10 doesn’t trust him anymore. He’s playing politics with people’s lives in Linden and the country on the whole. I think he needs to get a grip of himself,” she said.
RDC Councillor Mayfield Greene has also objected to Granger’s actions.
Walter Rodney CoI: Bringing out the truth of a dark era
When opportunity shows up for a new way of being, of thinking, of developing, it creates a path to build a new future.
Such a golden opportunity presents itself in the Presidential Commission that President Donald Ramotar convened to probe the mysterious assassination of global Guyanese scholar, Dr Walter Rodney.
Witnesses show up at the Commission’s hearings to contribute to the healing the Guyanese nation seeks in the probe, after waiting 34 years for this opportunity. Yet, not everyone welcomes such an opportunity, with a few disgruntled, disquieted complainers criticising the historic Commission as wasting taxpayers’ money, or as a plot to boost the ruling party, or as a way of criticising the People’s National Congress (PNC). Lacking rationality, these critics ignore the concept of historical justice, the plea of the family of Dr Rodney, including his widow, Dr Patricia Rodney, for closure and answers to his brutal assassination, and the idea of national healing that stems from introspecting and probing historical crimes.
Although the PNC wants the Commission to go away, because the ugly spotlight falls on the party with unflattering scrutiny, the Guyanese nation now holds an historic opportunity to heal a deep wound on its national psyche.
Probing the past, the Commission is very much about the future of Guyana.
Giving testimony during last week’s hearings, Dr Nigel Westmaas noted how important Dr Rodney’s role was in the 1978 to 1980 period of Guyana’s history. Dr Rodney sought to overcome the biggest obstacle that continues today to stymie Guyana’s development. Dr Rodney galvanised Guyanese, motivating and inspiring the nation to see themselves in a new light.
Multi-ethnic healing
Dr Westmaas last week told the Commission that Dr Rodney’s role in securing multi-ethnic togetherness in the nation had developed a new way of being for the nation. Guyanese were together, as one people, one nation.
But then on June 13, 1980, a bomb exploded in Georgetown, the loud echo shattering that new, fragile ground that lay fertile and
ready to develop into the kind of fruit that would achieve the Guyana Dream, the nation’s stunning potential.
Guyana started out as an independent nation as the breadbasket of the
Caribbean, as a leader in the Caribbean free trade initiative (Caricom), and as a champion of Third World concerns at the Commonwealth and the United Nations.
Rich with natural resources, fertile agricultural land and a vast deposit of minerals, along with strong signs of oil, the country promised much. Its highly literate citizenry, garden capital city, wondrous architecture and vast fertile landmass lay open for a great nation to develop.
But then the political split between Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham happened in the 1950s, and the 1960s saw fiery racial riots, with McKenzie purged of one ethnic group, becoming homogeneous, lacking the multi-racial ethnicities that define the rest of the country.
By 1968, with a coalition Government formed of a shaky partnership between the PNC under Forbes Burnham and the United Force of Peter d’Aguiar, the country was starting to face real internal tensions.
The PNC used massive election rigging in 1968 to snatch full Government, isolating the UF, forcing the party to play a token third party role in Parliament. This perpetuated the feeling among the elite Portuguese and British residents of the newly independent country that the PNC would marginalise their community. Then, in 1969, something profound changed the dynamics of the country.
An insurrection took place in the Rupununi, involving families aligned to the UF and its constituency.
The PNC sent in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to quell the insurrection, defeating the ill-prepared ranchers, with many fleeing the country to Canada, the US, Brazil and Venezuela.
By the 1973 elections, when the PNC employed blatant rigging of the national elections, the country was seeing nationalisation of private businesses, and the State seizing many private properties in Georgetown, converting these to State properties. The Portuguese and British class that had settled in the new nation fled, many today living in North America.
PNC General Secretary Oscar Clarke
Aubrey Norton
Dr Walter Rodney
Dr Nigel Westmaas
Region One leaders urged to practise good governance – at
Regional Toshaos Conference
Amerindian leaders of the more than 77 villages and communities in Region One, (BarimaWaini) who participated in the Regional Toshaos Conference in the Mabaruma sub-district on Saturday, were urged by Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai to practise good governance in order to ensure continued development in their respective villages/communities.
The Regional Toshaos Conference which is held in anticipation of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Meeting was held at the Mabaruma Primary School, where Amerindian leaders had the opportunity to address issues affecting their respective communities.
This event, which was held under the theme, “Moving towards community enhanced management”, allowed for interaction on community issues with representatives from the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC)
and other agencies. Region One is one of the
executed in their respective communities.
She pointed out the importance of community development, noting that the Government is the largest partner as it relates to progress, followed by the Regional Democratic Council which makes representation on their behalf.
As elected leaders, Minister Sukhai said, the Toshaos are expected to lead and to provide that guidance that will result in the changes that are needed at the community level.
Speaking on the cutting of the Ministry’s budget, the Amerindian Affairs Minister told the leaders that they
Fund (ADF) under which the provision for the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP), and the National Secure Livelihoods Programme were catered for.
Minister Sukhai assured the CSOs gathered at the event that Government will be returning to Parliament on July 10 to seek funds in order that their stipends could be paid.
Meanwhile, affected were the construction of village offices and multi-purpose buildings, purchase of sport gear, musical instruments, drip irrigation systems, tractors and implements and support for other projects and pro-
largest populated regions, and as such, it brings to focus Government’s strong interventions in the most profound way to ensure the continued development of the residents and their communities.
Good governance
Minister Sukhai called on the leaders to collaborate and work with their people to ensure projects are effectively
must not let the Opposition’s denial of funds challenge them, as she urged them to, “keep your foot strongly on the ground, keep your head high”.
The indigenous population has been denied development as a result of the cut of the $1.1 billion allocated to the Amerindian Affairs Ministry’s capital budget.
This sum covered the Amerindian Development
Next General Election results will be...
And while Guyanese are expressing their concerns, Granger said they are also listening to what APNU has to say. “Constitutional change is desirable in the middle and long-term, but right now, People in East and West Berbice are complaining about the bridge toll, all of the neighbourhoods have problems with solid-waste management, with streetlights and drainage and irrigation. And there are great levels of distress and dissatisfaction in various parts of this country.”
Confident
Granger said that he is confident that should an election be called now, the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) would not gain a majority. “I don’t agree with Mr Ramkarran, I believe the ground is shifting from under the PPP. It is clear that they are the ones that are afraid of the election. Because they realise that popular opinion is changing. The election results are likely to be very different when we call elections,” he said confidently.
gramme, an initiative which aims to build micro- enterprises to generate income.
The Community Development Programme (CDP) which started in 2009 and was implemented in 2013 saw eight villages from Region One benefiting from the first phase. Manawarin’s venture was a cassava farm, Kamwatta
number of trained health workers spread out at various health centres and health huts.
More doctors have also been stationed at the Regional Hospitals, while construction of the state-of-the-art hospital in Port Kaituma is under way.
Three new schools will be built across the region and
and Three Brothers, aquaculture; Waikarebi, logging; Barabina, poultry rearing; Hobadeia, ginger farming; Four Miles, apiculture and Baramita, a village shop.
grammes including eco-tourism, and youth development and empowerment, which speak to the focus of ensuring secure indigenous livelihoods by developing the capacity and capability of the youths.
Regional development
During the period 2010 to 2013, the sum of $189.5 million was invested in 57 villages and communities under the presidential grant pro-
Capital investment includes the provision of ecotourism grants, while numerous villages also benefited from boats, tractors, and pickups. Communities will benefit from computer hubs shortly.
Roads continue to be a major concern in the region with the major influx of vehicles into some communities. The roads will be done in Port Kaituma and Matthews Ridge, among others.
As it relates to health, more training has been conducted and a substantial
two will be extended, making it possible for more than 300 students to access education.
Regional Chairman, Paul Pierre told the leaders gathered that he hopes that at the end of the event, community leaders will execute better leadership qualities as they strive to ensure the betterment of their peoples and enhancement of their respective communities.
“We are the ones that were chosen by your people and you are the ones to guide your people, especially the youths whom we must guide to the path of continued development. You must ensure that our youths are involved in every aspect of community development,” Pierre urged.
Children are silent victims...
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee had earlier this week defended the administration’s position on the issue, pointing out that the party has been covering all grounds and was optimistic that major success will be had.
The optimism, he had said, is grounded in the work being carried out by the party. The feedback the party has been receiving, especially in areas where it had suffered losses, has been overwhelming, he said. He noted that “we have been doing some targeting. Our work is more concentrated and more results-oriented,” although the work is not being done at the expense of routine political work.
Rohee pointed out that the PPP is not an electioneering party and although it is set to fight the election, it has not become lethargic in that regard. According to him, members are always on the ground working painstakingly.
“We are set to fight [the] election, yes, but we don’t go to sleep after election and then wake up after the election bell is rung. We are always on the ground,” he said.
He said too that APNU has promised to establish a Government of National Unity. Granger reported that the coalition already has five parties and is now seeking to extend the area of cooperation by bringing in other interest groups and deepening its commitment to democracy. “Many other persons are coming because it is a partnership that listens. APNU listens to the people in all communities.”
The young lady revealed that after years of attempting to hide the emotional scars and not being able to have an intimate relationship, she began to confide in a friend who referred her to a counsellor to seek help. Through regular counselling sessions, she has been able to achieve some successes in her life, which she has been sharing while outlining her advice for the young people who are going through a similar circumstance.
Different life
“I’m now 25 years old, I have a wonderful job, I work with the children and I’m furthering my education in social work. It’s a rewarding job and field, being able to assist the children in living with and leaving domestic violence. I love life – I have a gorgeous husband and son with another baby on the way. I believe if I can come from the lowest place possible to achieving my goals and believing that life really is a good thing, then it is possible for other young people too. Seek help from some-
one you trust or a professional. There are people out there who care even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. It’s okay to feel the way you feel because of the situation you are in, but do not let it consume you. If you want to make it then it’s a fight you must try to win,” she encouraged.
The only answer to this problem is to treat domestic violence for what it is -- a crime.
“We must fight the societal values that reinforce the stereotypes that encourage men to act aggressively and use violence to solve problems; that women are weak and submissive and should accept male dominance as the norm.
Children must be taught at an early age non-violent conflict resolution,” a now happy Gabie said.
Based on interviews with children in battered women’s shelters, 85 per cent of children had stayed twice with friends or relatives because of the violence, and 75 per cent over the age of 15 had run away at least twice.
Children who grow up with abuse are expected to keep the family secret, sometimes not even talking to each other about the abuse.
Pain
Children from abusive homes can look fine to the outside world, but inside they are in terrible pain. Their families are chaotic and crazy. They may blame themselves for the abuse, thinking if they had not done or said a particular thing, the abuse would not have occurred. They may also become angry at their siblings or their mother for triggering the abuse. They may feel rage, embarrassment, and humiliation.
Children of abuse feel isolated and vulnerable. They are starved for attention, affection and approval. Because mom is struggling to survive, she is often not present for her children. Because dad is so consumed with controlling everyone, he also is not present for his children. These children become physically, emotionally and psychologically abandoned.
Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai addressing Amerindian leaders at the Regional Toshaos Conference at the Mabaruma Primary School, Region One
Toshao Basil Cornelius of Santa Rosa makes a point
Amerindian leaders gathered at the event
Lloyd continues to serve as Limacol Brand Ambassador
In a cricket career spanning 23 years, Clive
Hubert Lloyd was involved in numerous partnerships and played many match-winning knocks on his way to becoming not only one of the world’s finest batsmen, but one of the most successful Test captains of all times.
Post-retirement, the affable Lloyd, fondly called the ‘Super Cat’, is still ‘batting’ well, but building a different kind of partnership, aliging himself with another partner of world class quality, the Limacol brand.
The 69-year-old former West Indies captain and winner of the first two Cricket World Cups in 1975 and 1979 recently renewed his contract as Limacol Brand Ambassador for the exciting Limacol Caribbean
Premier League, the second edition of which is set to run from July 11 to August 16.
According to Lloyd, the long association with Limacol is a result of a courtship that incidentally started during his playing days, way back in the eighties.
“I have an affinity with Limacol going way back into the 1980s because I did an advertisement for them way down in Queensland, Australia, so it’s not a case that they’re new to me or I’m new to them,” the bespectacled former cricketer mentioned.
He added, “I told people before that whenever we came to Guyana, especially the Test team, a bottle of Limacol was always given to them and it was part of the water cart.”
Quizzed on his role as
Limacol Brand Ambassador, Lloyd said it is based on promoting the Limacol brand to the world.
“It’s part of giving the Limacol brand that kind of lift…I don’t think they need it, because it is well known, but that’s my role to basically promote the brand,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Lloyd was optimistic about the success of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League 2014 and the Guyana Amazon Warriors chances, having finished runner-up to Jamaica Tallawahs in the final last year.
“The Limacol CPL is a very good tournament, as it proved last year. A lot of people attended the games and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We narrowly missed out in the final, but
I’m hoping that we can go one better and with the tournament because we have a very good team,” Lloyd concluded
Brilliant career
Lloyd’s final record as captain was remarkable, including a run of 26 Tests without defeat, and 11 successive wins. He also became the first West Indian to win 100 Test caps.
His 110 Tests yielded 7,515 runs with 19 hundreds, including a careerbest of 242* at an average of 46.67, while he ammassed 31,232 runs from 490 FirstClass matches with 79 centuries.
Having been a schoolboy athletics champion, he became a brilliant cover fielder before knee problems forced a move to the slips, where he
Amazon Warriors edge Guyana Select Team in thriller
By Rajiv Bisnauth
The Guyana Amazon
Warriors maintained a decent bowling effort throughout to edge a Guyana Select Team by five runs on Saturday in the first of two practice games at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
Chasing a target of 137 on an unpredictable wicket, the eventual losers failed to settle down against a disciplined bowling line-up, falling short at 131-6 from their 20 overs.
Andrew Lyght Jr top scored with 37 and Shemroy Barrington (17) added 46 for the first wicket.
However, apart from the duo, Anthony Bramble (32), Ricardo Adams (15) and Chris Pattadin (10*) were the other batsmen with any meaningful contributions.
Fast bowler Ronsford Beaton claimed 2-34 to be the most penetrative bowler for the Warriors. Navin Stewart, Robin Bacchus and Akshaya Persaud all snapped up a wicket apiece.
Batting first, the Warriors put up a fighting score of 136-7, riding on important contributions from Shimron Hetmeyer (37) and Trinidadian Stewart (32).
The Warriors openers Trevon Griffith and Hetmeyer, who is part of the preparatory camp and one of
six Under-19 players, gave a flying start to the innings, getting 39 off the first four overs. However, the introduction of left-arm spinner Ricardo Adams in the fifth over saw the demise of Griffith for 18.
Newcomer Robin Bacchus and Hetmeyer featured in a 38-run second wicket partnership to take the game away from their opponents somewhat, before the latter was removed by Adams (2-20), to be the most penetrative bowler for the Guyana Select Team.
Bacchus also contributed 18 runs to the total, but Steven Jacobs (03), Chanderpaul Hemraj (09) and Veerasammy Permaul (05) all failed to make an impact.
Keon Joseph (2-36), Raun Johnson (1-30), Amir Khan (1-15) and Shemroy Barrington (1-6) were the other successful bowlers.
The game is the first of two and is part of the Warriors preparations for this year’s Limacol Caribbean Premier League T20 Tournament, beginning from July 11.
New Zealander Martin Guptill and Guyanese Leon Johnson were not part of the Warriors line-up on Saturday. However, both players will feature in today’s second game.
The final practice game will commence at 14:00h this afternoon and admission to the National Stadium is free. Meanwhile, manager Omar Khan confirmed last evening that Pakistan Mohammad Hafeez will arrive this evening and will join the team on Monday.
pouched many of his 90 Test catches.
After his retirement, Lloyd worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Health in Guyana, but still remained involved in cricket. He has coached and commentated on the game, as well as managing the Guyana team.
A promising career as ICC Match Official (he officiated in both semi-final and final of the 1996 World Cup) was put on hold to take on the management of the West Indies team after their disappointments in the World Cup.
It was a frustrating period for Lloyd, whose hands were tied by the decision not to appoint him as a full selector (although he was a selector while on tour), and whose responsibilities be-
came increasingly administrative. He resigned at the end of the 1999 tour of New Zealand after a three-year period that coincided with a decline in the fortunes of West Indies cricket.
With that experience behind him, he resumed his duties as an ICC Match Referee - a position he occupied with great presence and no little humour to earn the respect and confidence of the players. They knew he understood the game as well as anyone and that he held the good of the game in the highest regard at all times.
In 2008 Lloyd was appointed the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee after Sunil Gavaskar stepped down to pursue his role as a media columnist and commentator.
Cavendish crashes as Kittel wins first stage
Mark Cavendish was taken to hospital after crashing near the end of the Tour de France’s opening stage in Yorkshire.
The Briton injured his right shoulder after colliding with Simon Gerrans during the sprint finish in Harrogate, which was won by Marcel Kittel.
Cavendish’s Omega Pharma - Quick-Step teammate Mark Renshaw said: “He’s not in great shape. Hopefully he’ll be OK.”
German Kittel raced clear to win the stage from Slovakia’s Peter Sagan and Lithuania’s Ramunas Navardauskas.
However, the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of people lining the finishing straight in Harrogate were focused on Cavendish.
The Manxman spent several minutes on the floor before being helped back on to his bike and he gingerly rode over the finish line.
Sport)
The Guyana Amazon Warriors players warming down after the game on Saturday (Photo: Carl Croker)
The crash involving Mark Cavendish (left) and Simon Gerrans (centre)
West Indies v New Zealand, 1st T20, Roseau…
West Indies go down in rain-hit contest SCORE BOARD
West
Dominica’s inaugural Twenty20 international was a damp affair, with an ever-present drizzle dousing the intensity of the contest that New Zealand claimed to ensure at least a share of the spoils in the two-match series. There was only one stoppage, which made it an 18-overs a-side rubber, but persistent showers greased both ball and outfield, nullifying West Indies’ potent spin attack to facilitate a largely clinical chase.
West Indies were 22-2 in five overs when play was interrupted, and the hosts were unable to achieve the desired acceleration after the resumption and at the end of the innings. Chasing a below-par target, New Zealand suffered no such problems and were always ahead of
the game. When the umpires finally decided that rain and poor light had made conditions unfit to continue after 15 overs, New Zealand were 12 runs ahead of the D/L equation.
The New Zealand newball attack backed Brendon McCullum’s decision to bowl, striking in successive overs to reduce West Indies to 10-2 in the third. Lendl Simmons was lbw to one from Boult that bent in to hit pad before bat, and Dwayne Smith dragged Southee’s short ball from outside off to deep backward square leg. Darren Bravo and Andre Fletcher had just come together when rain forced the players off for 90 minutes. (Cricinfo)
The groundsmen had their work cut out during the first T20 in Dominica
Higuain sends Argentina to semi-finals
Argentina reached their first World Cup semi-final since finishing as runnersup in 1990 with victory over Belgium in Brasilia.
Gonzalo Higuain scored the only goal at Estadio Nacional, a thunderous
early volley that ended his run of six international games without a goal.
But Belgium’s so-called golden generation were undone by another quicksilver Lionel Messi performance.
The two-time champions again failed to reach their fluid best, and it is significant that all five of their wins at this World Cup have been by a single goal.
Belgium went out with something of a whimper, lacking cohesion, creativity and precision and only threatening late on when they played one long ball after another towards Marouane Fellaini.
But on the day he equalled Diego Maradona’s haul of 91 caps for Argentina, Messi
stood apart, with a performance of majesty that propelled his side into the last four.
At times, he was balletic, at others he was bold. He played 40-yard passes with the precision of a master craftsman and pirouetted away from danger time and again.
Sharper to the ball, more urgent in possession, Argentina started the quicker of the sides.
With Brazil striker Neymar confined to a wheelchair, there was a sense the tournament needed one of its superstars to produce a performance to remember. Messi did not disappoint. (BBC Sport)
Sub Krul wins shootout for Dutch
Tim Krul emerged as the unlikeliest of heroes as the Netherlands edged Costa Rica on penalties to book a FIFA World Cup semifinal against Argentina. The Newcastle United goalkeeper spent 120 goalless minutes on the bench, before Louis van Gaal brought him on in the nick of time for a penalty shootout. Krul responded by saving two spot-kicks to send the <<Oranje>> to Sao Paulo.
The match began with Arjen Robben seeing lots of the ball – and looking threatening every time it arrived at his feet. Costa Rica nevertheless did a solid job of halting his electric darts, but when the 30-year-old drew two opponents towards him and
spread play to Dirk Kuyt, the Dutch did create a big chance. Kuyt slipped it to Memphis Depay, who faked the shot and played a deceptive reverse pass to Robin van Persie. The Manchester United striker took and touch and unleshed a firm shot from inside the area, but Keylor Navas was equal to it. Van Persie turned creator just before the halfhour, but Navas did brilliantly to block a firm Depay strike with his leg. Navas then made a fine one-handed save to push a Wesley Sneijder free-kick, behind, before the Costa Rica No1 was alert to race from his line and smother the ball at the feet of Robin van Persie to ensure the sides went in at the break at deadlock. (FIFA)
neymar says world champion dream not over
Brazil forward Neymar said his dream of being a world champion is not over, despite being ruled out for the rest of the World Cup because of a back injury.
The 22-year-old fractured a vertebra in his spine after being kneed in the back by Juan Zuniga during Brazil’s 2-1 quarter-final victory over Colombia.
The Barcelona player said his dream was “interrupted... but it continues”.
He added: “I’m certain my team-mates will do everything so my dream, which is to be a champion, comes true.”
The hosts’ victory over Colombia set up a semi-final clash with Germany,
but their progression was marred by Neymar’s injury.
Neymar, speaking in a video released by the Brazilian Soccer Federation, added: “My dream was also to play in a World Cup final, but this time it didn’t work out.
“I am sure they will win this Cup and be champions, and I will be with them, and all Brazilians will soon be celebrating all of that.
“It’s a very difficult moment, I have no words to translate what is going through my head and my heart, I’d just like to say I will be back as quickly as possible, when you least expect it, I’ll be back.” (BBC Sport)
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Warne’s hand broken as MCC win lord’s bicentenary game
Shane Warne had his hand broken by a Brett Lee beamer as the MCC beat the Rest of the World by seven wickets in a Lord’s bicentenary celebration match.
Rest of the World captain Warne was hit by his former Australia team-mate in the final over of his side’s 2937, in which India’s Yuvraj Singh struck 132.
Aaron Finch led the MCC reply, blasting 181 from 145 balls.
Sachin Tendulkar made 44 and Brian Lara 23 before Finch finished the match with a six with 25 balls to spare.
The match was played to mark 200 years of cricket at the current Lord’s ground, the third to take the name of businessman Thomas Lord, who founded the original Lord’s venue in 1787.
“It was a great day and a fantastic atmosphere,” said leg-spinner Warne, who took 708 Test wickets.
“I haven’t seen Binga [Lee] for a while, so it was nice of him to say hello and put me out for six weeks. He didn’t mean it, it’s just one of those things that happens.”
Warne arrived at the crease after Yuvraj rescued the Rest of the World from 68-5, a collapse induced by Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal’s 4-9.
Ajmal’s victims included former England batsman Kevin Pietersen, who was stumped for 10 and the subject of derogatory comments from his ex-captain Andrew Strauss, for which Strauss has apologised.
With Ajmal’s brilliance threatening the spectacle, he was withdrawn, allowing Yuvraj to rebuild with stands of 131 with Paul Collingwood (40) and 84 with Peter Siddle (33 not out).
When Yuvraj fell to the bowling of MCC captain Tendulkar, Warne came to the crease and suffered the blow that would prevent him from taking the field in
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the second innings, with the 44-year-old appearing on the dressing-room balcony with his hand in plaster.
Without him, the Rest of the World were punished by Australian Finch, who added 107 for the first wicket with Tendulkar, then 67 for the second with Lara.
When Lara edged Collingwood behind, the former England all-rounder bowled Rahul Dravid with the next delivery.
West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul survived the hat-trick ball
and supported Finch in an unbroken stand of 122.
MCC: Sachin Tendulkar, Aaron Finch, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Read, Daniel Vettori, Brett Lee, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shaun Tait.
Rest of the World: Adam Gilchrist, Virender Sehwag, Tamim Iqbal, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh, Shahid Afridi, Paul Collingwood, Peter Siddle, Tino Best, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan.
SCOREBOARD
Rest of the World Innings
Gilchrist st Read b Ajmal 29
Sehwag b Lee 22
Iqbal lbw b Ajmal 1 Pietersen st Read b Ajmal 10
Singh c&b Tendulkar 132
Shahid Afridi b Ajmal 0 Collingwood c Dravid b Lee 40
Siddle not out 33 Warne not out 3
Extras (1-nb, 16-w, 4-b, 2-lb) 23
Total (for 7 wickets; 50 overs) 293
Bowling: Lee 10-0-55-2, Gul 2-016-0, Tait 10-0-58-0, Ajmal 100-45-4, Vettori 10-0-47-0, Finch 4-0-33-0, Tendulkar 4-0-33-1
Fall of wickets: 54 (Sehwag),
54 (Gilchrist), 59 (Iqbal), 68 (Pietersen), 68 (Shahid Afridi), 199 (Collingwood), 283 (Singh) MCC Innings Finch not out 181 Tendulkar b Muralitharan 44 Lara c Gilchrist b Collingwood 23 Dravid b Collingwood 0 Chanderpaul not out 37
Extras (1-nb, 6-w, 4-lb) 11
Total (for 3 wickets; 45.5 overs) 296
Bowling: Siddle 8-2-45-0, Best 8-0-63-0, Collingwood 7-025-2, Muralitharan 10-0-55-1, Shahid Afridi 5-1-29-0, Singh 5.5-0-46-0, Pietersen 2-0-29-0 Fall of wickets: 107 (Tendulkar), 174 (Lara), 174 (Dravid)
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Kvitova thrashes Bouchard in Wimbledon final
Petra Kvitova swept past Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard with a stunning performance of controlled power to win her second Wimbledon title. The Czech sixth seed reclaimed the title she first won in 2011 with a 6-3 6-0 victory in 55 minutes. It is the 24-year-old’s sec-
ond major title and will see her move up to fourth in the world rankings.
Bouchard, 20, had made history by becoming the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final.
She had won junior Wimbledon just two years ago and was one win from taking the senior title in only her sixth Grand Slam
tournament, but came up against a player in remarkable form.
The only thing that might have troubled a rampant Kvitova was the weather, but early rain cleared and the roof was opened long enough for the final before being brought across for the trophy presentation. (BBC Sport)
Aaron Finch was in imperious form at Lord’s
Petra Kvitova became the 24th woman in the Open era to win multiple major titles
Success for UG as Kwakwani lads embarrass MHS
By TreisTon Joseph
Basketball
Youth
Guyana (YBG) held all its Conference finals on Friday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall where the best teams in each region were crowned.
The tournament sponsored by Digicel, Beharry Group of Companies and Banks DIH saw the University of Guyana putting on a fantastic comeback effort to wrestle the East Coast title away from President’s College with a 64-54 win.
Jonathan Pooran, who was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the East Coast final, led the way with a stellar offensive output of 22 points as he carved his way into the paint time and time again for easy buckets at the rim. Pooran also collected seven rebounds while dishing two assists in the game winning performance.
Meanwhile, Kwakwani Secondary School embarrassed Mackenzie High School (MHS), trouncing them 59-20 in the Region Ten final.
MHS simply could not
buy a bucket throughout the course of the game as none of their players ever got rolling offensively. Stanton Rose had an MVP performance with 14 points, five assists, six rebounds and five steals.
In the Georgetown final, Marian Academy was able to prevail over a shorthanded Bishops High School in a low scoring affair that ended 37-27. Bishops played without their star player Marvin Durant, who was ejected in the semi-final, and therefore had to miss his next game, which incidentally was the final.
Durant watched from the stand as his team fought and loss, while Judah Stephney put on a stellar performance to gain the MVP award with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
In the Berbice final, New Amsterdam Multilateral prevailed over J.C. Chandersingh 46-38 to win the Ancient County title. Ramone Fodgenay top scored with 12 points while adding eight rebounds, four assists and four steals for MVP honours.
Meanwhile, as the Conference finals have ended, all the top schools in the
various conferences will now clash in the National School Basketball Festival (NSBF), which is set to begin this evening.
New Amsterdam Multilateral will face MHS, while President’s College will go up against St Roses High School in Under-19 clashes. The other game will be an Under-14 showdown between Marian Academy and St Roses, which will begin just after the opening ceremony at 18:00h.
RSTC/IBTS horse race meet on today
The long awaited Rising Sun Turf Club (RSTC)/ Inshan Bacchus Trucking Service (IBTS) grand horse race meet, which was initially scheduled for last Sunday at the club’s track at Arima Park, West Coast Berbice, will be staged today, according to organiser Fazil Habibulla.
The meet was postponed due to the inclement weather which had left the venue in a soggy state, giving the authorities no alternative but to reschedule the event.
The activity will attract some of the country’s top thoroughbreds who will be competing for millions in cash and trophies from noon.
Eight highly anticipated races are carded for the day, with the feature event being the D1 and Lower fetching the highest first prize of one million dollars and will cover a distance of 1500m.
The winner of the F1 and Lower event at a distance of 1400m is guaranteed $500,000, while the Twoyear-old Guyana and West Indian- bred cash prize is set at $300,000 at a distance of 600m.
Other races on the agenda are the G3 and Lower (1000m/$400,000 first prize), I1 and Lower (1000m/$250,000 first prize), J and Lower (1000m/$200,000 first prize) and H1 and Lower (1000m/$400,000 first prize).
According to information reaching this publication, all systems are in place for a highly competitive day of racing, featuring the leading horses, jockeys and stables. All rules of the Guyana Horse Racing Authority will be rigidly enforced during the day’s proceedings. (Rajiv Bisnauth)
The main supporting race is for Three-year-old Guyana and West Indies- bred animals competing at 1400m for a top prize of $600,000.
The University of Guyana players pose with Permanent Secretary in the Sport Ministry, Alfred King, after receiving the winner’s trophy
Flashback! Part of the action in a previous meet held at the Rising Sun Turf Club
Guyana has played a pivotal role in WI cricket, says Lloyd
By Rajiv Bisnauth
Cricket legend Clive Lloyd believes the recent actions by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), to deny Guyana from hosting the third Test match involving West Indies and New Zealand, was not good for the Guyanese cricket loving public.
This, he said, is against the backdrop of Guyana playing a pivotal role in the development of the game in the region, since West Indies gained Test status in 1928.
“We have been around. This is not a country that has involved in West Indies cricket for a couple of years; we have been around for much longer than that," he said.
"So the point is, I don’t like the disrespect that was shown to Guyana and that is my main concern.
"If we are working as a group and if it’s Caricom then you just can’t move a Test match without informing the rest of the West Indies why it was done,” Lloyd, who was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1971, disclosed.
Lloyd is the first West Indian cricketer to play 100 Test matches. He went on to play 110 Test matches, scoring 19 centuries and 39 halfcenturies.
He reflected that apart from the number of Guyanese, who have contributed to West Indies cricket, seven have led the West Indies and for that reason, Guyana has made an even more significant contribution to the region.
The West Indies won
Clive Lloyd
their first Test match under the captaincy of Guyanese Maurice Fernandes. Rohan Kanhai took a rebuilding team from Gary Sobers and defeated England in England.
Clive Lloyd took over the captaincy from Kanhai and he was indeed the most successful.
During the Kerry Packer turmoil, Guyanese Alvin Kallicharran was the Captain of the West Indies. Carl Hooper was another outstanding captain, followed by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Guyanese Timur Mohamed, Roger Harper, Andre Percival, Narsingh Deonarine, Leon Johnson and Steven Jacobs have also led the West Indies at the Under-19 level.
Only recently, another West Indies icon Basil Butcher labelled the WICB’s decision as a ‘backward step’, adding that the game is the only element that transcends cultural differences and brings people together.
The Test match was slat-
ed for the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, from June 26-30, but the WICB’s decision came in the wake of the passing of the Cricket Administration Bill, which is seen as handing over the local cricket administration from an independent body to the Guyana government, and which, in the board’s view, goes against the ICC’s tenets of minimising government interference in the running of cricket.
The Bill had received the vote of the Government and the main Opposition party, A Partnership For National Unity (APNU).
The legislation paves the way for the GCB to be established as a corporate body, and provides for audited financial reports to be submitted to Parliament, as well as to the National Sports Commission (NSC).
The Bill also creates a position of Ombudsman–appointed by the Minister of Sport – who will be responsible for the verifying and registering of clubs with the view of enhancing the transparency of elections.
DeGroot stops Fernandes’ momentum
Number two seed Ashley DeGroot looked in tremendous form on Friday evening when the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) in collaboration with Digicel National Senior Squash Championships continued at the Georgetown Club, Camp Street.
While the set points went the distance DeGroot’s superiority was clearly visible as she overcame a testing Taylor Fernandes in three straight sets that went 11-8, 11-9 and 11-7 to make it to the semi-final round of the tournament.
Under-19 champion Akeila Wiltshire continued her great 2014 form with a win over Kathy Ten-Pow in three straight sets that finished 11-9, 11-2 and 11-6.
National Junior Under-17 champion Larissa Wiltshire also displayed her skill with a win over the number three seed Victoria Arjoon creating one of the tournament’s major upsets with a 3-1 win.
The smaller Wiltshire fought hard to win the first set point 11-9 while battling had for the second set point that also ended at 11-9. Arjoon, not willing to go down without a fight, displayed her experience with a crucial third set 11-8 victory to keep her in the match.
However, the Under-17 champion, sensing some fatigue in Arjoon, capitalised and closed out the match with an 11-4 set point win. The final quarter-final match between Mary Fung-A-Fat and Alysa Xavier had to be rescheduled due to a minor injury to Fung-A-Fat.
Meanwhile, in the Men’s quarter-final round, threetime Junior Caribbean Champion, Nyron Joseph, stamped his name on the competition by defeating for-
mer national champion and number four seed Regan Pollard 3-1.
Joseph displayed his skill with a variety of shots to win the first set 11-8 as Pollard answered in the second set with an 11-7 win. Joseph then switched gears and dominated Pollard with an 11-1 and 11-4 set wins to close out the match.
Overseas-based former Caribbean champion Richard Chin seems like the man to beat as he easily breezed pass Nicholas Narain winning in straight games 11-8, 11-0 and 11-5, while current national champion Alex Arjoon looked equally impressive against Deje Dias, winning straight games 11-2, 11-2, 11-4.
In the last quarter-final match, Jason Ray Khalil took care of business by defeating Ben Mekdeci 3-0.
Mekdeci would make Khalil work to win his first set that ended 11-9, but was unable to sustain his energy level against Khalil and fell easily in the following sets: 11-3, 11-0.
Former Caribbean Junior Champion Andrea King was pushed to the limit in the Women’s Open Plate by 2014 Under-15 champion Rebecca Low, but eventually won 3-2. King took the first set at 11-9, while Low and King produced one of the best set points as Low won 17-15.
King regained her composure after the long second set to win the third set 11-8 before Low dragged out the fourth set again to win 13-11. However, the fifth set ended with King prevailing easily with an 11-5 win to end the entertaining match.
Wilkinson wins malta supreme cycling
race on today
Akeem Wilkinson won the feature 35-lap School Boys and Invitational race on Saturday when the third annual Banks Malta Supreme 11-race programme was staged at the inner cicuit of the National Park.
Wilkinson clocked one hour, 17 minutes, 24.94 seconds to win ahead of Warren “40” McKay, followed by Alonzo Ambrose, Paul Choo Wee Nam, Michael Anthony and Stephen Fernandes in that order.
Wilkinson, McKay, Ambrose and Choo Wee Nam shared the eight prime prizes on offer, claiming two each.
Other winners on the day include Adrian Sharma (BMX Boys Open),
Sherwin Sampson (BMX Boys 6-9 and 9-12), Keon Thomas (Mountain Bikes), Monty Parris (Veterans O-60), Linden Blackman (Veterans O-50), Shameer Baksh (Veterans U-50) and Jaleel Jackson (12-14 Boys and Girls).
The riders will be in action again today when the fifth annual 50-mile Caricom Day road race, sponsored by Geddes Grant (Guyana) Limited, under its Seven Seas Multivitamin and Dr. Chase Nerve Food products is staged on the West Demerara roadways.
The race will start in front of the Wales Police Station at 08:00 hours, proceed to Bushy Park, Parika, before retuning to Schoonard for the finish.
The top performers of the respective categories pose with their trophies and Banks Malta Supreme
Basil Butcher
Ashley De Groot
Flashback!