Guyana Times, Sunday, July 8, 2018

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Nationwide coverage from the best news team in Guyana guyanatimesgy.com

Issue No. 3617

THE BEACON OF TRUTH

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Leguan plantain chip factory sits as white elephant …residents blast Govt for failure to operationalise Page

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…“not in the business of making plantain chips” – Minister Gaskin

Jagdeo calls Govt out on Teen busted renewable energy with cocaine at …CANU swoops down - says unanswered questions remain plans CJIA on trafficking ring P11

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PRICE

$120 vat included

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Top Cop appointment

President to meet P9 Opposition Leader after Jamaica trip

Essequibians decry P17 increased power outages

President grants Lindo Creek CoI another P8 extension

Police Force’s best shine at 179th anniversary march

Almost 4 months later

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Wakenaam rice farmers still owed for Mexico shipment P18

As part of the Guyana Police Force’s 179th anniversary celebrations, the various branches within the organisation on Saturday morning participated in the annual route march. In photo, ranks from the Mounted Branch displayed their horses as they showed off their riding skills (Carl Croker photo)

Region 9 flooding

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Floodwaters remain high, Deep South still cut off …roads washed away

Forged import licence lands man in court P15 P17 Masked bandits hit barber shop

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3 Jagdeo calls Govt out on renewable energy plans news

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BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Sunday, July 8 – 13:00h-14:30h and Monday, July 9 – a night retraction at 01:00h and a day retraction from 14:30h-16:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on: Sunday, July 8 – 12:10h-13:40h and Monday, July 9 – 13:25h-14:15h.

- says unanswered questions remain Given the storage needs. I can understand during the day, but there are enormous storage needs and the capacity for this. And the need to replace batteries, whether it could become base load and what happens if for four days or so you have overcast conditions in the country and you have very little solar in the country. What happens then?”

FERRY SCHEDULE

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

WEATHER TODAY Thundery rain showers can be expected in the morning while light cloudy skies with sunny intervals can be expected in the afternoon. Partly cloudy skies are expected in the evening, with temperatures ranging between 21 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius.

Winds: South to East South-easterly and East North-easterly to North-easterly between 1.34 metres and 4.91 metres.

are questions that need to be answered,” Jagdeo declared.

Energy targets

A number of renewable energy farms and facilities form the thrust of Government's goals. In the case of solar energy, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson recently provided an update on a US$3.8 million solar farm.

ferred to President David Granger’s India visit a few months ago to attend the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Founding Conference and Solar Summit, saying Guyana is now a member of this alliance. He pointed out that a line of credit of approximately US$15 million will be available to Guyana.

While it has not yet been allocated, Patterson noted

High Tide: 12:22h reaching a maximum height of 2.34 metres.

Low Tide: 05:51h and 18:17h reaching minimum heights of 0.84 metre and 0.86 metre respectively.

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Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

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ith Government expressing goals such as 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, the parliamentary Opposition believes critical questions that would bring clarity on how Government intends to make Guyana's energy mix work, are not being answered.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo recently zeroed in on solar energy plans for Guyana. He noted that one crucial question with the Government's solar power initiatives involves using back-up energy generation.

But he said Government is caught in a policy vacuum, hence specifics like these are not being addressed.

“There is an entire policy vacuum now, because this is precisely what the Government is not doing.

So it goes off to Norway, it makes an announcement that we want 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

It then goes out to advertise for 50-megawatt gas fired power plant. That has disappeared now from the horizon, totally disappeared. A year has passed since they made that advertisement, no update about what is happening there,” he said.

“The President goes to India, talks about a solar state, they come back and want to see solar power replacing hydro now. They still have not answered the questions as to if this is possible.

A diagram showing how solar power is converted into electricity

According to Jagdeo, who conceptualised the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), this situation would then warrant extra back-up energy being introduced, as much as 100 megawatts if that was the wattage being generated by the solar power. Added to this, Jagdeo noted, was constant rhetoric about a green state economy but without discussions on how natural gas and oil would conflict with this ideal.

“You would then have to put in, if you get 80 megawatts, or 100 megawatts solar energy you may have to put in another 100 megawatts of back-up energy for that period when you don't have solar power, you'd have to switch over. These

The farm, to be funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), will be constructed at Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

The Minister had indicated that construction of this farm would be completed by the end of 2018.

He had also spoken of securing funding from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to establish photo-voltaic (PV) farms at Port Kaituma, Region One (Barima-Waini) at a cost of US$1.8 million; Kwakwani, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) to the tune of US$2.6 million; and Matthews Ridge, Region One at a cost of US$2 million.

Patterson also re-

that the idea is to provide funding to utility scale energy for Indigenous villages to the tune of four megawatts.

He revealed that the Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Ministry and the Communities Ministry will identify these villages.

Government has been heavily criticised for the Green State Development Strategy that has been touted as a blue print to developing a “green economy.” The Opposition has described the document as a hollow one.

But with Government recently getting the green light to access funds from Norway for its renewable energy initiatives, questions remain over exactly what policy document was presented.

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Views

Nail biting game!

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

Editorial

Whitewashing Caricom’s failure (Part 1)

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resh from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government (C-HOGS) meeting, President David Granger pronounced that the manifest failure of the regional body, founded 45 years ago, is not on account of its structure but its “bureaucracy”. Before rushing to judgement based on his perceptions over the last three years, he would have been better served if he had taken time to study the “Report of the Commission to Review Jamaica’s Relations within Caricom and CARIFORUM frameworks which was issued by that country since March 2017 and to which his colleague from Jamaica referred to on several occasions.

We will highlight that Report’s assessment on the issue raised by President Granger which are covered in Chapter 4, “Analysing Caricom’s performance against the goals and objectives enunciated in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and identifying the causes of the shortcomings.” The objectives are usefully summarised as set out in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas: improved standards of living and work; full employment of labour and other factors of production; accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence; expansion of trade and economic relations with third States; enhanced levels of international competitiveness; increased production and productivity; greater effectiveness in dealing with third states, groups of states and multilateral entities; functional cooperation in the provision of common services; functional cooperation for the advancement of social, cultural and technological development, especially in health, education, transportation and telecommunications.

The achievement of these objectives is to be built on the four “Pillars of Integration”: • economic integration; • foreign policy coordination; • human and social development through functional cooperation; and • security.”

In assessing the failure of Caricom to achieve those objectives, the Report noted: “At its regular meeting held in Antigua and Barbuda in July 2014, the Heads of Government received and adopted the “Strategic Plan for the Caribbean Community 2015-2019: Repositioning Caricom” that was commissioned in 2012. It is broader in scope and includes most of the tasks identified in the “Strategic Assessment….

Slate of Initiatives to Advance the CSME” document, some of the timelines of which had by then lapsed. The Strategic Plan is now in the third of its five year run.”

The Jamaican Report lays the blame squarely on the structure of Caricom which is centres all power with the Heads of Government and which is basically just a talk shop: “The proposals submitted by the Commission on the economy continue to languish for lack of decision or even serious consideration.

The immersion in inaction is palpable. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, addressing the 28th Intersessional Meeting of Heads of Government on February 16, 2017, reiterated his call for “the use of whatever powers at our disposal to work towards the speedy and effective implementation of matters we have long agreed upon”. He noted that many of these matters were still pending and the inability of the relevant bodies to meet and finalise them was proving a hindrance to progress. “We can and must do better,” he added.

Déjà vu! It is a lamentation that has been heard so often and for so long. Barbadian journalist Arthur Gray writing in 1985 made the sardonic observation that: “It is a pity that people can come together at such a high powered level, talk through their problems in a spirit of understanding and then walk away from those meetings without the slightest intention of carrying out the noble actions which they said they would.”

In conclusion, the Report concludes: “The Commission is of the view that the recurring failure of initiatives firmly agreed upon and which are vital to Caricom’s success is due not so much to inertia or the pressure of domestic issues but, rather, the reluctance on the part of member countries to embrace the challenges of the CSME mandate… Caricom leaders should now make a determination as to whether that time has passed, whether a window of opportunity for a single market and economy is still open and whether the appetite for it still exists.”

The fault, dear President Granger, lies in Caricom’s structure – specifically the Heads of Government.

World Cup 2018: Russia’s Ambassador to Guyana, Alexander Kurmaz on Saturday opened the doors of his home for the viewing of the nail biting game between Russia and Croatia (Carl Croker photo)

When will Ramjattan finally accept ministerial responsibility and resign? (Part 1) Dear Editor, As a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee for the Security Sector, I have been taking special interest in the performance (or lack thereof) of the Public Security Minister, the Honourable Khemraj Ramjattan.

Apart from his arrogance and total disdain for the People’s Progressive Party, Ramjattan is someone with whom you would want to have a beer. He is approachable, and is never afraid to speak his mind, which often gets him into trouble.

I honestly believe he wants to accomplish his goals in the security sector, but lacks the vision to so do.

He listens to the needs of the brave Police and Prison officers, and appears eager to fulfill those needs, but he is powerless to do so. While Ramjattan may be accessible and approachable as a person, as the Minister of Public Security, he is a complete failure.

This is a man who despises Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP so much that he allegedly demanded the security portfolio as part of the Cummingsburg Accord

with one goal in mind: to put the “corrupt” leaders of the PPP behind bars.

This would explain his focus on working with UK Security Expert Sam Sittlington and SOCU to prosecute Anil Nandlall, Ashni Singh and others, while neglecting the urgent need to do something to end the vicious cycle of crime that is destroying lives and commerce, prompting the UK Government to issue a particular travel advisory to its citizens.

While I can find no fault with the advisory, I wonder if the British Foreign Office is aware that security expert Sam Sittlington, whose services are paid for

by British taxpayers, is actively engaged in a political witch-hunt to prosecute high ranking PPP members, rather than going after the drug traffickers and money-launderers as he was employed to do. Perhaps it’s time the Foreign Office account for his actions.

In Guyana today, people no longer feel safe in their homes. Crime is running amok everywhere, raining terror on a population that is already stressed out

trying to make ends meet.

More and more families are being deprived of their valuables, communities are ravished, and businesses are left vulnerable.

In 2015, the APNU/AFC coalition campaigned on a platform to get rid of corruption and “reduce the high rate of armed robberies and murders.”

And immediately upon gaining office, this Government embarked upon a security recruitment drive, pulling several former high-ranking military and Police officers out of retirement to achieve this objective. They have failed miserably!

Since becoming Minister of Public Security, Ramjattan has brought the entire security sector into disrepute. In March 2016, seventeen (17) prisoners were burnt to death and 11 others injured in what was described as the worst prison riot in our history. Then in July 2017, during the blazing inferno of the Camp Street Prison, a Prison officer was murdered and 8 notorious hard-core criminals escaped, two of whom are believed to be still on the run. Since then, there have

been several more well-organised prison breaks.

Every day, reports of armed robberies, murders and domestic violence dominate the news. Prisoners, with the aid of some rogue Prison officers, are now openly defying authority.

At the New Amsterdam Prison, narcotics, alcohol and other contraband were recently discovered in the prison yard. And an inmate there flaunted the breakdown of authority in the Prison system by posting a photograph on Facebook with fellow inmates in a cell, cerebrating Mother’s Day with several bottles of high-end liquor. During a search of the Lusignan Prison, a quantity of illegal items were also found: Improvised weapons, cellphones, cellphone batteries, phone chargers, phone cards, cannabis, cannabis seeds and a cannabis plant.

Earlier, a cutlass and a knife were found outside of the north eastern fence of the holding bay of that Prison.

Sincerely, Harry Gill PPP Member of Parliament

Division of AFC members in Region 6

Dear Editor, It seems that some AFC members, infamously known as the ‘Three Musketeers’, are not satisfied with launching personal attacks on Mr Gobin Harbhajan within the confines of the chat group ‘Moving Guyana Forward’, but have now moved to the public domain for more political mileage and damage to his unblemished reputa-

tion.

The attack on Mr Harbhajan, in a letter titled, ‘PM Region 6 Office being used to fill out visa forms’, is without substance, and is a total fiction, since the PM’s Office is only used to attend to issues affecting the residents of Region 6.

It is widely known that the PM’s Representative is not linked to any form of

corruption or bribe-taking, unlike some of his AFC colleagues, who go about masquerading as the panacea for all social and economic ills, whether it’s street lights, street-building and repairs, GWI issues, GPL issues, gun licences, export permits, granting of contracts, etc. Of course there is a fee attached, whether it is money or in kind.

A few days ago, RDC Councillor Mr H. Yusuf exposed the activities of the ‘Musketeers’ in the press, so it can only be assumed that Mr Yusuf extracted his information from ‘Moving Guyana Forward’ and what transpired there. This irked the ‘Musketeers’ to such an extent that they decided to launch this personal attack. continued on page 5

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News

Border controversy

Caricom stands behind Guyana for judicial process to settle

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aribbean Community (Caricom) member states have expressed their support for the judicial process underway before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to settle the matter of the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.

This significant support for Guyana’s position was contained in a communique at the conclusion of the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caricom held in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

President David Granger attended the meeting along with Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge.

The Heads of Government “expressed support for the judicial process underway which was intended to bring a peaceful and definitive end to the long-standing controversy and which was in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.”

The communique noted that the Heads of Government had “received an update on the most recent developments between the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

Caricom’s Heads of State at the 39th Meeting of the Heads of Government in Montego Bay, Jamaica

“They noted that Guyana had filed its Application with the International Court of Justice on March 29, 2018, in accordance with the decision of the United Nations Secretary General, which was issued on January 30, 2018 to choose the International Court of Justice as the means that is now to be used for the settlement of the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela….

Heads of Government further noted that Venezuela had indicated its decision not to participate in the case and that in such a case, the rules of the Court provide for a full hearing of the case and a final judgement that is legally binding on both the participating and nonparticipating countries.

Heads of Government reiterated their firm and un-

swerving support for the maintenance and preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana,” the communique noted.

On March 29, Guyana filed an application requesting the World Court to confirm the legal validity and binding effect of the 1899 Arbitral Award regarding its boundary with Venezuela.

This application follows a decision by the UN Secretary General earlier this year in choosing the ICJ as the next means of resolving the controversy that arose as a result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between British Guiana and Venezuela was null and void.

According to Guyana’s application to the World Court, for more than 60

years Venezuela had consistently recognised and respected the validity of the binding force of the 1899 Award and the 1905 Map agreed by both sides in furtherance of the Award.

“Venezuela had only changed its position formally in 1962 as the United Kingdom was making final preparations for the independence of British Guiana and had threatened not to recognise the new State, or its boundaries, unless the United Kingdom agreed to set aside the 1899 Award and cede to Venezuela all of the territory West of the Essequibo River, amounting to some two-thirds of Guyana’s territory,” Guyana submitted in its application to the World Court.

The court document further noted that while Venezuela has never pro-

Division of AFC members...

On many occasions, Mr Harbhajan would have been the reason why certain crimes are being exposed, be it murder or rape or theft. He brought to light many other issues, such as the illegal parking on the road shoulders. This man was instrumental in the feeding, caring and eventual freeing of a cow calf which was illegally impounded for

months at the #51 Police Station. So, be it humans or animals, this man freely gives his service. There are no bribes involved.

Furthermore, Mr Harbhajan has created and maintained vital links to several ministers and their ministries and several Government departments, to resolve many issues affecting businessmen, the

farmers and the ordinary man. He treats everyone equally. Only recently, he was instrumental in creating the linkage for the ICT Hub in Black Bush Polder, and arranged for Minister Cathy Hughes to do the opening. This man is the face of the AFC in Region 6.

Now, it seems that instead of being honoured by his comrades, unadulterat-

from page 4

ed hate and jealousy have taken total control of their senses. I would like to advise Mr Harbhajan thus: Don’t worry about people who are not happy for you, they probably are not happy with themselves. Maybe it is time to change your association.

Yours sincerely, Lakhram Singh

duced any evidence to justify its belated repudiation of the 1899 Award, the neighbouring country has used it as an excuse to occupy territory awarded to Guyana in 1899, to inhibit Guyana’s economic development, and to violate Guyana’s sovereignty and sovereign rights.

The UN Secretary General’s authority to choose the ICJ as the means for resolving the controversy is rooted in the Geneva Agreement of 1966, negotiated just before Guyana attained independence.

On January 30, 2018, Secretary General Guterres

concluded that the Good Offices Process – which the parties had engaged in for almost 30 years, but failed to achieve a solution to the controversy – and chose the ICJ as the next means of settlement, for which Guyana has long been advocating.

United States oil giant ExxonMobil had announced back in May 2015 that it had found oil offshore Guyana.

Venezuela has staunchly been against oil exploration in Guyana’s Stabroek Block, where multiple oil deposits were found by ExxonMobil, and has since renewed claims to the Essequibo region.

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Ashley Anthony

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his Saturday, STEM Guyana held its annual robotics exhibition at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Since its formation in 2016, STEM Guyana has turned heads, perhaps most notably when Guyana’s first robotics team surged to a respectable tenth place (out of 165 teams) at the Global Robotics Challenge.

STEM education in Guyana, I believe, has a far way to go. I remember being in high school and entering numerous science fairs and seeing the same projects recycled over and over winning the prizes every year.

There was very little innovation, and very little encouragement to think bigger or to be inventive.

I loved competing in the science fairs, it was an amazing experience; a great way to bond with peers, and also a fun way to step out of the CSEC syllabus guidelines for Science and explore the topics in real life. But the projects themselves are most times unoriginal. Now, I don’t expect that every project submitted at a regional science fair would be ground-breaking research, but I just feel like it can become easy to hurriedly present a project simply because the school wants a project to

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Foundation

be done.

And that there, I think, is the problem: treating STEM activities as an obligation.

Children already see schooling as something they have to do, and because of that, some of the joy of learning is lost. Activities such as science fairs are supposed to encourage independent thinking, and are supposed to be a fun way for a child to voluntarily explore a topic of their interest. Whenever learning is driven by genuine interest, success -- be it in the form of understanding a new topic, solving a difficult problem, or even passing a test -- is much more meaningful, and comes a lot easier, as opposed to when one is told what to learn.

One of the reasons that I think STEM Guyana has done so well is because it, for the most part, attempts to create a non-pressure environment. The organisation hosts clubhouses, workshops, and even partners with STEM clubs within schools. Everyone, regardless of age or knowledge background, is encouraged to attend and try their hand at something; and I believe that, for young kids, this can be incredibly empowering.

When I was younger, and I thought about robotics, I had two main thoughts; the first being that robotics was incredibly complex and would probably take years of

studying before I could produce something remotely interesting, and the second being that robotics sounds really, really cool. It was as though the entire field was abstract. Having programmes like the ones that STEM Guyana facilitates helps to make robotics and careers in the STEM field seem much more attainable to Guyanese children. They take away some of the mystery surrounding the fields, and allow children to work hands-on, developing robots and writing bits of code.

This early exposure helps to foster a deeper and more appreciative understanding of STEM fields.

Whenever you tell people you’re in STEM fields, the automatic assumption is that you either study medicine or that you’re an engineer (most times mechanical or civil). Children can grow up feeling like these are their only options, and that is why I’m so glad that there are programmes that exist which show them otherwise.

Will every child who goes to a workshop or exhibition enter fields such as Computer Science or Robotics? No. But at least these events provide Guyanese children with the avenues to explore their interests, and to expand their ideas of what they think they can become.

A robotic garbage collector

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ifteen schools and science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) clubs were participants in this year’s National Robotic Exhibition on Saturday, and a number of innovative projects were on display at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

These clubs and other technological agencies across Guyana took the opportunity to showcase their robots which were built with a specific focus in mind: to eradicate some common problems in the environment and society.

Leading the exhibition was Guyana’s very own STEM team, which served as a pilot for upcoming inventors to gauge their interests into effective robotic creations.

These individuals were also given a chance to develop communicational and problem-solving skills, as well as foster involvement in collaborative projects.

A Rubix cube using sensors to detect the spectrum of colours

Present at Saturday’s activities was Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, who lauded the coordinators for their inputs into the exhibition, and said he believes technology is the way forward for Guyana.

Guyana Times caught up with some of the students as they showcased their robotic creations.

Members of the Volunteer Youth Corps (VYC) noted that this is their first year at the exhibition, and their robot was constructed by primary school students.

While the invention was a simple one, the students stated that they’re using the exhibit to gain ideas which can help to enhance their robot.

“We’re in the first and basic stage of robotics.

We’re dealing with primary school kids, and within one week the kids used four days to put together the robot. We’re now learning how to programme the robot,” said Lisa Khan.

Tyrique Wilson of the Belladrum STEM Club noted that this is a way to publicise their robot and entice more persons to join the club.

“We made a crane. We wanted to push how far we can go with the actual kit, and we decided to make a crane that is fully functional, and we created programmes for it,” he explained.

The St Rose’s High School also presented a device to water small gardens. It functioned by detecting the colour of the leaves of a plant, and supplying that plant with a suitable amount of water.

The most spectacular robot was created by the Three Miles Secondary at Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni). It was designed to solve a Rubix cube using sensors to detect the spectrum of colours.

In most instances, the robots were made from locally sourced and recycled materials, and took a maximum of one week to complete. This is one of the many initiatives which have been organised by STEM Guyana to advance the level of technology while providing training for youths.

news

Police Force’s best shine at 179th anniversary march

Police Commissioner (ag) David Ramnarine handing over the overall best winner prize to representatives from the TSU and Presidential Guards branches

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he various branches of the Guyana Police Force on Saturday morning brought out their best to participate in the annual route march which formed part of that organisation’s 179th anniversary celebrations.

The early morning activity saw ranks from the seven divisions and various branches of the Force proudly displaying their respective uniforms as they participated in the march.

The Tactical Services Unit (TSU), Presidential Guards, Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Traffic and Immigration; together with ranks from Force Headquarters, Felix Austin Training College, Mounted Branch, Canine Section, Scouts, Rural and Community Policing Groups, as well as divisional youth groups, were all impressively represented

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in the activity.

The parade commenced at the TSU Drill Square at Eve Leary at 06:00h, and proceeded through the streets of Georgetown, passing by the Public Security Ministry for Minister Khemraj Ramjattan to take the salute, before returning to the Police Headquarters Compound for the announcement of the winners.

Addressing the ranks at the TSU Drill Square, acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine noted that all the participants are winners, as he outlined that this year’s “route march” has seen the largest turnout ever, with over one thousand participants.

He also reminded the ranks of the importance of the Police Force. “The Guyana Police Force is probably the most important institution in this country; and so, with your dis-

cipline this morning, with your show this morning, with your commitment this morning, all Guyanese and those from afar who are here (at) this point in time should fell justifiably proud that there are men and women in uniform who will give of their best every day; who will make that special sacrifice,” the acting Top Cop posited.

Ramnarine charged ranks to maintain their integrity as they persevere in serving and protecting the state and its citizens.

The winners of awards were presented with trophies and cash prizes.

In the category of bestdressed civilian (female), the CID secured the top prize with a total of 281 points, while the Guyana Association of Women Police came in second place with 266 points.

The ‘E’ Division Scouts gained 272 points, while Headquarters Scouts gained 276 points, copping the top spot. The Neighbourhood Policing Group of ‘D’ Division scored 225 points, while ‘C’ Division Policing Group scored 225 points. The ‘B’ Division Policing Group emerged winner of that category with a total of 263 points.

The Immigration females won in the uniform category with a score of 289 points, while the Headquarters females came in second place with 280 points. The TSU #2 copped first place for males in the same category with 286 points.

The title of best dressed male unit was shared by the TSU #1 and the Presidential Guards, both

of which scored a total of 292 points. The prize for the best overall unit was shared between the TSU and Presidential Guards, which both received individual group trophy as well as

individual group cash prizes.

Additionally, prizes were awarded to the oldest and youngest participants of this year’s route march, as well as to the Military and Steel

Bands, both of which received cash prizes for their outstanding performance.

Saturday’s route march was the second activity of the Force’s month-long anniversary celebrations.

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President grants Lindo Creek CoI another extension

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resident David Granger has given the Justice Donald Trotman headed Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) several more weeks to complete its work.

The inquiry was established to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the murder of eight miners and to report its findings and recommendations to President David Granger.

In public documents seen

by Guyana Times, the retired Judge has now been granted until July 31, 2018, to complete his work. Before that, in April, the Judge was given no later than Tuesday, May 15, 2018, to complete his report.

Afterward, Justice Trotman was given no later than June 30 that get his work complete.

This is now the third extension Justice Trotman has be granted to complete the CoI.

Free enterprise…

A

Justice Donald Trotman

President David Granger

Following much public criticism of the CoI, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had said it felt the CoI was being geared to clear notorious mass killer Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins’ name from involvement in the incident.

However, the Government maintained that the Lindo Creek CoI is just the first of what they say would be a series of inquiries into the hundreds of killings which occurred during a crime wave in Guyana.

Concerns were also raised since the lone Commissioner was the father of Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman and the Commission’s Counsel was Patrice Henry, the brother of Education Minister Nicolette Henry.

The PPP had also expressed scepticism about participating and supporting the work of the Commission, as the Party believes commen-

tary from senior Government officials signalled that the CoI was designed to achieve a political outcome and to continue what it says is “witch-hunting” of Opposition personalities.

Sometime between June 12, 2008, and June 24, 2008, miners Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres were shot and killed, and their bodies burnt at the Upper Berbice River mining camp, which was being operated by Leonard Arokium. In June, relatives of the murdered miners held a memorial walk in honour of their loved ones.

Most of the relatives said they have completed application forms for assistance which was offered by President David Granger.

While some called for finances, others said they needed new homes and jobs for their children.

…and defending it

ppearing before the bi-partisan Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources, an Exxon management team, headed by its country director, became quite offended when asked by one PPP member to comment on perceptions that the oil giant might be financing local politicians. “Hogwash!” he exploded. Now you, dear readers, would know your Eyewitness is a die-hard free enterprise partisan.

So he doesn’t have much patience with those who thought the Exxon fella was rude!! Hey…do free enterprise proponents have to take brickbats and even flagellate themselves?? Lobbying politicians to look out for your company’s interest is as American as apple pie!!

The old crass days of funding political campaigns are over and in fact, only a couple of months ago, an article in the ultra liberal New York Times, described how modern businesses “make friends and influence politicians”.

In fact, the article, “Charitable Giving by Corporations Is Also About Getting,” made the point that political contributions are neither politically correct nor legal and corporations has to find new ways to get their point across in a world where business is reflexively made to be the bad guys. Because they’re portrayed a cold, calculating cash registers, businesses from Exxon to Bill Gates Microsoft have decided that donating to charities is the way to go!

In fact, both Gates and Exxon have spent billions to eradicate malaria in Africa. Mark Zukerberg has committed 90 per cent of Facebook’s profits to charitable causes. Politicians get votes by convincing voters they help improve their lives… and that they do this by taxing businesses to the max. But we know to our cost that these “tax and spend” governments – like the PNC’s – invariably direct their spending to their friends and cronies.

Do we have to be reminded about the bottom-house warehouse in Albouystown? The wood ants stadium at D’Urban Park? At least the corporate donations go directly into areas that have been identified as needing assistance to help ordinary folks. Now, of course, this is a form of lobbying and is meant to earn goodwill among a constituency that has been indoctrinated to see business as “robber barons” and worse. Nowadays, the approach is enshrined as “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR)!!”.

Now what is wrong with “ExxonMobil Foundation” donating US$10 million to Conservation International (CI) and UG to collaborate in initiatives such as the Guyana’s Green State Development Plan? It wasn’t done in secret, was it? CI now has to be even more vigilant about conservation matters where Exxon’s concerned so it doesn’t get panned!!

ExxonMobil’s country director, upon the advice of the Committee’s chair, withdrew the “hogwash” categorisation of his company’s CSR. But our lawmakers have to get off their 19th premises!

…or trade war

Well, if politics is war by other means, then trade is definitely one of those “means”. It’s therefore not a coincidence that what was unleashed by Donald Trump against China is described as a “trade war”. The funny thing is, one of the lessons on waging war that’s come down the ages is, you try to minimise the number of fronts you have to fight on. If you’re trying to split the enemy forces, that’s one thing…but when you take on different armies you’re splitting your own!! Hitler fighting the Allies in the West and the Russians is the East was only the last in a long line of ignominious failures of this strategy.

So it’s rather curious that Trump hasn’t only taken on China with this tariffs…but also some of his strongest allies such as Canada and the EU! We all know he wants to impress his rust-belt and farming voters…but the counter tariffs will soon start pinching all America.

Why win the battle but lose the war?

…and “Nancy story”

Now if there ever was a “nancy story”, it’s the one by the City Constabulary and the private security council that they heard nothing during the FIVE HOURS it took to burn through the iron safe of Seepersaud Maraj at the Stabroek Market!!

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

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SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Top Cop appointment

President to meet Opposition Leader after Jamaica trip sulted such bodies as appear to it to represent the majority of the members of the Police Force and any such body it deems fit.”

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has declined media requests to name his favoured nominee for the post, saying any decision to identify the person he believes is most suitable would be done following consultations and discussions with President Granger on the matter.

Jagdeo has said that only after the process winds up would he be at liberty to inform the nation of both

By Michael Younge

H

igh ranking sources at the Ministry of the Presidency confirmed on Saturday that President David Granger is preparing to meet Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo upon his return from the Caricom Heads of Government meeting.

When they meet, Ganger and Jagdeo will discuss the appointment of Guyana’s next Police Commissioner, and the two important service commissions which must be fully constituted before any decisive appointments are made with the Police and Public Service sectors.

“I am not sure whether a preliminary meeting will be held first, but what I do know is that the Head of State is desirous of meeting Mr Jagdeo to discuss a number of important constitutional appointments…the meeting may happen two weeks after the date of his return,” the source said.

This confirmation comes on the heels of statements made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who reminded the media on Thursday that the matter of a substantive appointment of a Police Commissioner -- after Seelall Persaud’s retirement back in April this year -- was still before President Granger.

Currently, Assistant Police Commissioner David Ramnarine is acting in the capacity of Guyana’s Police Commissioner. He has been interviewed as part of the

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and President David Granger

(Filed photo)

selection process.

The other seven Assistant Commissioners interviewed for the post are Crime Chief Paul Williams; ACP, Operations: Clifton Hicken; Force Finance Officer Nigel Hoppie; ‘A’ Division Commander (ag) Leslie James; substantive ‘A’ Division Commander Marlon Chapman, who is currently on leave; ‘B’ Division Commander Lyndon Alves; and ACP, Administration II: Maxine Graham, the first woman contender ever for the post of Police Commissioner.

However, on Thursday, Minister Harmon reminded that the Police Service Commission has first to be fully constituted before any selection could be made. He reminded the media that the National Assembly recently approved some of the names following consultations with key entities.

Retired Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe heads the list of persons recommended by the National Assembly’s Committee of Appointments for appointment to the Police Service Commission.

Retired Assistant Commissioner Clinton Conway and retired Woman Assistant Commissioners Vesta Adams and Claire Jarvis have also been recommended.

The nominations to the Police Service Commission were received from the Association of Former Members of the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Police Association. The selection process was conducted in accordance with Article 210 (1) (C) of the Constitution, which states: “four members appointed by the president upon nomination by the National Assembly after it has con-

his concerns and whom he would have chosen were it solely up to him.

The Opposition Leader also confirmed that his office is not in receipt of any official correspondence for a meeting with Granger on the matter, nor has he been duly informed that a meeting would be taking place anytime soon.

The Commission of Inquiry set up by the President and executed by former Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Slow had outlined several disciplinary actions to be taken against for-

mer Commissioner Seelall Persaud, among other senior officers who were interviewed by the Commission.

The COI was set up to investigate an alleged plot to kill the President.

The Opposition Leader has since indicated his belief that Slowe had “had an axe to grind”, and was acting on the basis of vendetta.

According to Jagdeo, if Granger were serious about an investigation into the alleged plot against him, “he should not have appointed Paul Slowe to head it, because Paul Slowe has bad blood with many people.”

10 news

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Region 9 flooding

Floodwaters remain high, Deep South still cut off Force ripe …roads washed away S

everal parts of Deep South Rupununi, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) continues to be cut off from central Lethem due to severe flooding in the region, which has washed away a number of roads. Additionally, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) said the water level continues to fluctuate, making it tough for them to assess the level of damage.

The flooding is as a result of the overtopping of several rivers, particularly the Takutu River, due to heavy rainfall in the region and over in neighbour-

and gums

tended by the region with support from the CDC. The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has also been providing support through a boat shuttle service for residents from 06:00h to 18:00h every day.

S

Deep South

Reports reaching this publication state that the Deep South Rupununi’s main access road en-route to Aishalton is partly washed away. However, vehicles are presently traversing on the back road through Karaudanawa to get to Aishalton so that they can

A section of the washed away road

uated and are being housed in the temporary shelters.

Nevertheless, a number of the residents have chosen to remain in their homes since the water continues to fluctuate.

Guyana Times was told that while residents in the some of the Indigenous communities may not be severely affected, their farmlands would have been affected.

Toshaos have since been tasked with the responsibility of assessing and producing the number of farmlands that were affected in their respective communities to the RDC. On Saturday, acting CDC Director, Major Kester Craig told this publication

Flooding in Tabatinga

Scenes from the flooded region

ing Brazil which resulted in overtopping of the Rio Brancho River. At present, 59 persons have been evacuated and placed in three shelters which were established, and they are being

access those communities.

In addition, residents who live in low-lying areas in close proximity to the Moco Moco and Tabatinga Creeks in the municipality of Lethem have been evac-

that the Commission is actively monitoring the situation in collaboration with the Regional Disaster Management Committee.

He added that they will continue providing relief supplies to those in the shelters.

On Friday, Minister of State Joseph Harmon led a team to the region to assess the situation. The Minister said the current weather patterns in the region and in Brazil will see the water rising and receding at frequent intervals; but with a coordinated approach, some semblance of order can exist. Minister Harmon noted that, overall, he is satisfied with the arrangements put in place, as the response

and preparation this year has far surpassed those that were in place last year.

The CDC, on Friday, carried in the supplies requested by the region, including water purification tablets, collapsible bottles, detergents and cleaning supplies, beddings and blankets, among other materials.

Minister Harmon noted that since the flooding is expected to be an annual occurrence, the Administration will work to fast track the construction of a bond for the CDC in the region, which would provide storage for materials in the event of a disaster.

atiricus was gloating, and he had no problem admitting it. After years of taking it on the chin – and below the belt! – from his friends at the Back Street Bar, about the KFC and its leaders: Nagga Man and Rum Jhaat, it was now payback time!! He couldn’t wait to wade into them about the brouhaha precipitated by one of their PPCEE young ‘uns throwing his hat into the ring to become their Presidential candidate.

“So what you guys have against young Ran-Son running for the Presidency?” Satiricus began as soon as he sat down - and before he even grabbed a beer.

“Who seh abee gat anyt’ing ‘gainst de bai?” asked Bungi.

“Well, your Leader slapped him down after he announced his candidacy!” replied Satiricus. ”Wha’ slap dong?” asked Cappo. “De Bass just seh abee party gat abee way fuh do t’ing.”

“But what’s wrong with the young man putting up his hand?” asked Satiricus. “Since Jagdesh can’t run.”

“Sato, the young man didn’t just put up his hand,” said Hari quietly. “He boasted that he ‘exudes integrity, passion and vision’, and that he has a family of his own!”

“Now, yuh know ‘e bin a show aff!” observed Bungi. “Da na de way abee a talk ‘bout abee self.”

“An’ ‘e t’row talk pan some a dem adda bais in ‘e party w’en he talk ‘bout family,” said Cappo.

“The bottom line,” said Hari, “is Ran-Son know about the party’s tradition to select candidates, and he insisted on doing things his way!”

“But what’s wrong about telling people about your strengths?” asked Satiricus. “’E fo’ce ripe, da wha’ me t’ink!” said Bungi. “Lil bai nah climb ladder fuh tu’n big man!”

“Yuh cyaan jus’ TALK ‘bout yuh strength,” said Cappo.

“Yuh gat fuh SHOW yuh strength!’

“In other words, Sato,” said Hari. “Our party insists you must have experience.”

“Yuh cyaan chew bone wid gum!” grinned Bungi. “Abee party guh decide who gat teet’ and who gat gum!!”

“An’ yuh need teet fuh fight de Pee-an-see!!” concluded Cappo. “Ran Son still gat ‘e baby gum!!”

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SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesGY.com

Teen busted with cocaine at CJIA

…CANU swoops down on trafficking ring

The democracy of pants

By Ryhaan Shah

T

here are many crises around the world demanding our attention, Syria’s and Palestine’s being among the most critical; but one that is as heart-wrenching yet gets less news coverage involves the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Over 700,000 Rohingya – the population of Guyana – crossed into Bangladesh following a violent military crackdown last August. “I am becoming more convinced that the crimes committed between 9th October 2016 and 25th August 2017 bear the hallmarks of genocide, and call in the strongest terms for accountability,” said Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar.

Overseeing the persecution is de jure head of state and Government, Aung San Suu Kyi. She is the State Counsellor of Myanmar and leader of the ruling National League for Democracy, and her evasive answers about the persecutions and violence, some committed by Buddhist monks, have been televised worldwide. There have been justifiable calls for her to be stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded.

For the Rohingya, the taste of freedom and democracy in Bangladesh means that the men can now wear pants. In Myanmar, they were restricted to wearing traditional sarongs.

It was an unofficial uniform that identified them as inferior, and Rohingya men in trousers could actually be arrested and fined. Now in refugee camps in Bangladesh, they can wear whatever they want, and pants have become the must-have status symbol and a sign of their new freedom.

The taste of democracy can come from such simple pleasures, but the future of democracy itself is being called into question following the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Un. And with the upcoming summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the question being posed is whether dictatorships and authoritarian regimes are becoming the new normal.

The question is critical, given that Trump is behaving more and more like an authoritarian as he launches frontal attacks on the American institutions – the legislative and judicial branches – that uphold the sanctity of the democratic principles that America likes to export to countries like ours. That leadership is in tatters, and the US’ Western allies are having to become less dependent on that traditionally strategic partnership.

While polls show continued Republican support for Trump, one US commentator has suggested that the numbers are relative, since he believes membership and support for the GOP are shrinking. How much Putin had to do with influencing the results of the US 2016 election is a question that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation might answer; but Putin, if he did meddle, as US intelligence agencies report, could not have been more accurate in determining just how deeply racism runs in the heart of America; and hence the attractiveness of Trump as a presidential candidate.

Trump’s America is one of hate and division; one that answers to the slogan: Make America White Again. Some US commentators drew parallels between Nazi detention camps and Trump’s recent crackdown on Central American citizens seeking asylum in the US, which ran to separating babies and children from their mothers and placing them in what looked like internment camps.

If Putin intended to expose the ugly underbelly of the world’s leading democracy, he has succeeded. But, in Guyana, we already know that ugliness first-hand. We also know that dictatorships are no new normal. They have always been a useful convenience to, ironically, safeguard Western freedoms and interests. For near on three decades, Guyana suffered through a PNC dictatorship created and supported by the US Government, which was intended to keep democracy safe for them even as our country was torn apart by terror, murder, and racist violence.

The trouble is that while Americans will have a fair chance to vote Trump out of office – if he is not impeached before 2020 – and America’s democratic institutions will eventually recover from his attacks, Guyana seems earmarked to suffer another round of PNC dictatorial rule in order to serve the energy interests of the West.

The violence faced by the Rohingya is no less racist than Trump’s brand, or that of the PNC against Indian Guyanese in particular. During the PNC’s previous dictatorship, everyone was deprived of the simple pleasure of, among other things, eating bread and roti, as imports -- including flour -- suffered the consequences of a ruined economy and severely depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Will a reminder of the loss of that simple pleasure work to galvanise the country to action against the imposition of another PNC dictatorship?

R

anks of the Customs AntiNarcotics Unit (CANU) arrested a 19-year-old female at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and took her to a city hospital where she excreted 44 cocaine-filled pellets.

Reports are the teen was a passenger on outgoing flight BW 526 destined for JFK International Airport in New York on Friday.

CANU ranks approached the teen after they suspected she was a drug mule.

After her arrest, the teen was escorted to a city hospital, where she was admitted. Having excreted the pellets, the young woman still remains a patient under observation as of Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, based on information obtained, CANU ranks swooped down on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) on Friday evening. During the exercise, they stumbled upon 279 suspected cocaine-filled pellets.

CANU ranks have arrested an

The suspected cocaine-filled pellets retrieved during the operation on the East Coast of Demerara

additional three persons while they are hunting another two suspects who remain at large. It was reported that one of the suspects still at large was at the ECD residence and when the ranks arrived, but managed to escape.

This bust comes less than a week after CANU ranks intercepted a 37-year-old cosmetologist, Natasha Blair, who was about to travel with her 11-month-old baby. The woman had ingested and inserted cocaine pellets.

12 news

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Leguan plantain chip factory sits as white elephant …residents blast Govt for failure to operationalise …“not in the business of making plantain chips” – Minister Gaskin

By Lakhram Bhagirat

T

he residents on the Island of Leguan in the Essequibo River are concerned about the future of the multimillion-dollar plantain chip factory, which is yet to become operational some two years after it was completed.

The project was started in 2015. However, since its completion in 2016 and several commitments towards operationalising the facility, the residents on the island of Leguan are yet to benefit.

The factory, which has the capacity to employ over 30 persons, is yet to be opened and residents are growing concerned as they expressed disappointment at Government’s apparent disinterest in the facility. During a recent visit to the island by Guyana Times, residents said the Business Ministry needs to provide answers about the facility.

Resident, Hans Buer, told this publication that they have received word that Government is considering selling the factory. He added that efforts to confirm whether this is the case proved futile since the Business Ministry does not respond to correspondences regarding the factory.

“The factory was never opened and they said yes they would open the factory last year. They will open it this year and the Ministry

The Leguan plantain chip factory

don’t answer my messages via email or Facebook. I know nothing,” he said.

“I hear they are going to sell out the building. If opened, that it can employ 2030 people and it is good for the people, but we hear nothing.

They have security guards but the factory is empty as it is,” Buer added.

Presently, while the building is completed, this publication observed that electricity is yet to be connected and residents indicated the building has no equipment for the functioning of the factory.

However, the regional administration is paying two persons to guard the unoccupied, empty building.

According to Government, the size of the property is 8625 square feet and includes machines such as slicing processors, blanching, dewatering, frying, de-oiling, seasoning and packaging equipment.

In 2016, the Business Ministry in a local newspa-

per advertisement invited interested investors to submit Expressions of Interest along with their business proposal for undertaking the factory. In addition, in May 2017, Permanent Secretary of the Business Ministry, Rajdai Jagernauth, told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that the factory would be operational by the end of June but that never came to fruition.

Plantain chips business

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has repeatedly accused the Government of running a “plantain chip economy”, positing that there is no vision for proper economic development. In response to those allegations, last year President David Granger said that if it has to start with plantain chips then so be it adding that small things could end up big.

“I know somebody who

started off producing fruit juices at Timehri and today those fruits juices are being bottled or boxed…it may start with plantain chips… small things could end up big,” Granger was quoted as saying.

However, when Guyana Times contacted Business Minister Dominic Gaskin, he related that the Ministry is not in the business of making plantain chips. Gaskin said they had previously advertised for persons or businesses who were interested in running the factory to indicate such, noting that they received one response.

“We got someone who was interested and there was some issues relating to the suitability of the equipment and the electricity supply and a number of things and then we finally got it resolved they said they were no longer interested. So we have to start all over again looking for someone to take it up and that is the sit-

uation as it stands,” he said.

When asked about whether the process has restarted, the Minister explained that there are some additional issues to be ironed out before they can proceed further on the project.

“The equipment (for the factory) was ordered since 2014, before our Government came into office. This equipment was ordered, and I don’t know really how the specifications were generated for the equipment, but it was delivered afterwards, and the equipment met the specifications of the contract.

However, apparently it looks like it is not the most suitable for what it is required for so we don’t want to advertise it again and run into the same problem. So we have to figure it out what to do with this, right now what is the problem,” Gaskin explained.

This project falls under the previous Administration’s Rural Enterprise Development programme, which commenced back in 2014. These projects initially comprised the construction of two call centres – one in Tuschen in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and one in Enmore in Region Four (DemeraraMahaica), and two chip factories, one in Leguan and one in the neighbouring island of Wakenaam. However, the Wakenaam factory was deemed unsuitable for a number of reasons.

The main economic activity on the island of Leguan

is farming, particularly rice, but since the announcement of the plantain chip factory, a number of farmer converted some of their property to facilitate the anticipated demand for the commodity. Ever since a number of farmers have been left with large plantain fields and not enough market.

However, some residents say the increased plantain production is nothing compared to the lack of job opportunities on the island. They said they have accepted the fact that there are only so many jobs that would be available on the roughly 12-square miles island, nothing that is the reason the factory is even more important to them.

“We got no jobs for the young people. They go to school here and write CXC and get all them subject but then them got to go to Parika or town (Georgetown) fuh look wuk. What sense that make because them can’t stay here and develop the island. Them got fuh move out. Government got to do something man,” resident Bharrat Narine said.

The man then explained that the proposed 30 jobs that the factory was expected to create would have been a step in the right direction towards improving the standard of living on the island, as well as increase its economic standing.

For now, the Leguan plantain chip factory sits idle, with no electricity, two security guards, and sheep grazing in the yard on overgrown grass.

13 Minibus slams into ECD man on pedestrian crossing news

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Politics for new presidential aspirants

W

ith the elimination of the presidential candidacy of the PPP’s Bharrat Jagdeo in the 2020 elections, the process for that party to name a successor has begun. It has already thrown the media into a tizzy of speculation as to who will be that person. Over in the PNC, while there has been no exogenous event like a CCJ ruling to remove the PNC’s incumbent President, David Granger, from consideration, a three-way race between three senior functionaries for the PNC’s Chairmanship suggests that Old Man Time may have whispered into Granger’s ear.

While the discussion – such as it has been – has centred on the relative “youthfulness” or “experience” of the candidates, I would like to suggest that we have been presented with the opportunity to introduce a criterion that few would Ravi Dev deny is necessary for a candidate from either side to be an effective president: a realistic and credible approach to address the ethnic insecurities in our country.

Across the globe, ethnic conflict has mushroomed to become the dominant political confrontation - often spilling over into violent confrontations. While many of these ethnic conflicts have an economic nexus, the intensity and persistence of the struggles indicate that there is something more fuelling these disputes.

Man needs to be “somebody”, and this imperative unleashes drives that go to the heart of ethnic conflict. Presidential candidates cannot just exploit the psychological aspects of political behaviour.

Luckily, our new politicians have jettisoned “class” as the aggregator of our “objective” interests, as was the wont of the Jagan and Burnham generation. Class fails to satisfy the affective emotional need of Man to belong to a wider collectivity, and in Guyana is subsumed in ethnicity, which, being simultaneously instrumental and expressive, accomplishes both tasks.

A person’s conception of self is formed, to a large extent, by the socialisation provided by his primary (read ethnic) contacts during his early years, as he attempts to satisfy the basic needs of affection and belonging. Psychologists tell us of the processes of externalisation, projection and displacement that the child deploys to both define himself and, just as importantly, others.

He projects and displaces much of what his group considers negative onto members of groups defined as “the other”. Thus, by the time the individual enters the wider world of economic and wider societal concerns as a young adult, the new influences are much more diffuse, with the class and other roles typically not as intense as the ethnic one.

On the other hand, his ethnic group is the home -- the womb -- to which he can always return, and from which he cannot be turned away. It is the only social grouping that accepts him for what he is, and not for what he does.

The need for self-esteem and self-worth in the individual is integrally connected with the esteem and worth of the group from which he comes, and is reflected in the recognition, attention, prestige and status the group has “earned”. If this is denied one’s group, the negative self-esteem results in the individual feeling debased, abandoned, and basically unwanted.

This reflection of the group’s ethnic identity in the individual’s identity has several consequences. The potential rage generated from these feelings if the individual or group is violated may be internally or externally directed. If it is felt that the ethnic group’s interest is threatened, the individual can be motivated to defend it at almost any cost, since to him it is also literally a matter of his own survival. It is for this reason that ethnic conflicts are so intense.

For the alienated group, active violence is seen as a defence of life: as Menachem Begin, once “terrorist” and later P.M. of Israel, said, “We fight, therefore we are.”

The political implications of the psychological aspects of ethnic conflict are several, but they all demand that our ethnic groups be treated equally. Firstly, the depth of the connection between the individual and his group must be accepted, and not dismissed by some “one-love” utopian exhortation. Economic justice alone is not going to solve the problem. The role of the Chief Executive, for instance, is a powerful symbol of groupworth in any society; any political solution must address the psychological need.

Additionally, Governmental policies on the whole must openly discuss the group-impact of their implementation: presidential candidates should promote the use of Ethnic Impact Statements in Guyana.

Surveillance footage showing Dexter Thomas on the pedestrian crossing at Mc Doom, Greater Georgetown just before he was struck by the minibus

D

exter Thomas of Lot 14 Haslington, East Coast Demerara was killed on a pedestrian crossing at Mc Doom, Greater Georgetown on Saturday at about 17:30h when a minibus struck him as he was crossing the public road.

Surveillance footage from a nearby house showed the 48-year-old pedestrian standing on the Mc Doom public road while three lanes of traffic were proceeding south. He then proceeded

to cross the road from east to west, and stopped at a concrete median.

At this juncture, minibus BWW 6110, being driven by Troy Arthur of Linden, was approaching from a southerly direction. Thomas then attempted to run across the road, and was hit by the left front side of the minibus.

The right side front of the minibus then collided with minibus BNN 3796, which was proceeding north on the western side of the road, as the

driver, Arthur, attempted to swerve to avoid hitting Thomas.

Unconscious and bleeding profusely, Thomas was picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

He died shortly after, while receiving medical attention.

His body has been transferred to the GPHC mortuary to await a post mortem examination.

Minibus driver Troy Arthur has been taken into Police custody.

14 news

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018| guyanatimesgy.com

Natural Resources Committee

State must lead way on local content blueprint – Govt MP

E

ExxonMobil representatives met with the Natural Resources Committee

xxonMobil's appearance before the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee on Friday saw the oil company being grilled about local content and corporate social responsibilities.

However, while the company has been doing work in this regard, it was a Government Member of Parliament who noted that the state must take the initiative on providing a local content framework.

ExxonMobil Country Manager Rod Henson related that, during the first quarter of 2018, Exxon used 227 local companies, with US$14.1 million going into the economy. He stressed that regardless of the size of the companies Exxon used, the services they provide are all important.

Henson also revealed that, in the first quarter, the company grew by 40 persons, of whom 28 were of Guyanese nationality. Henson noted that Exxon has hired several engineers of Guyanese nationality, including engi-

neering graduates from the University of Guyana and the University of the West Indies.

He revealed that they received additional training opportunities, and that their expertise would be used by the time first oil is produced in 2020.

In addition, Henson noted that those Exxon had hired are also being promoted after being afforded training opportunities. Here he cited examples of drivers who were promoted upwards into senior positions in the company's operations.

But when suggestions were fielded to Henson that Exxon had a role to play in helping Government to formulate local content legislation, Government Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira intervened.

Figueria noted that rather than Exxon providing a blueprint of what local content it would initiate, it’s the other way around. He pointed out that Government has the responsibility to lead the way on local content and laying out a frame work.

“With respect to asking (whether) Exxon has a local content (policy) that they are desirous of providing the Government, that (question) should be the other way around. Local content, of which Exxon will be implementing, should be heavily influenced by the Government,” Figueira said.

“The local content policy should be of an indigenous nature. It must reflect the Guyanese significant input on what it is we want... I don't believe you should lead the way on local content. I believe it is the other way around,” Figueira stressed.

Government has faced much criticism for the draft local content policy it released to the public, with the political opposition referring to it as hollow, and even civil society criticising it.

A criticism was that the document does not cater for issues such as how to avoid procurement fraud, conflict of interest and favouritism, among other (things).

Instead, the draft Local Content Policy framework

seeks to address the suite of opportunities that may arise, and the approaches to be taken in selecting and developing opportunities related to enhancing the capabilities of Guyanese nationals and businesses.

Since the criticisms first emerged, Government has been holding consultations with different representative bodies. And when ExxonMobil was granted a production license, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, asked the company to submit its Local Content Plan to the Government.

CLBD

Regarding the Center for Local Business Development (CLBD), Henson spoke about outreaches that the Center has done with the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) in a bid to extend their reach beyond Georgetown.

But questioning the rationale, Figueira referenced a particular instance when Exxon allegedly contracted a catering service from Trinidad, which then sub-contracted the work to a local company. The MP also probed how many contractors and sub-contractors were used, with Figueira noting that while companies may have been used and paid by Exxon, it is important that the money remains within the local economy.

Initially, Henson appeared confused, and explained that making this distinction does not matter.

Figueira, however, received support on this point from Committee Chairman Odinga Lumumba, with the end result being Henson promising to make this information available at a later date.

The issue of the company's corporate social responsibility was also raised, with Figueira noting that Exxon has spent millions in countries like Nigeria on such projects. In response, Henson revealed that the company gets thousands of requests from locals, including to construct buildings.

“We do this all over the world! Seventy per cent cent of our employees are Guyanese. It’s where we live. But it’s not our role to fix every problem. But it’s something that we want to do... to the degree that we can,” Henson explained.

“There's a lot of need here, and we recognise we can't meet all those needs.”

That being said, Henson went on to reel off all the social projects Exxon has engaged in, including in the areas of science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) and outfitting learning resources centres.

He made it clear that the company does see fulfilling requests from non-governmental organisations as part of their corporate responsibility.

Reporting Complaints about Pollution and Other Environmental Violations

Hello valued readers, As you are aware, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for ensuring the conservation, protection, and sustainable use of Guyana’s natural resources. However, as citizens of this beautiful land, you can also play an active part in environmental protection.

One such way is by identifying and reporting environmental violations to the EPA. As part of fulfilling its mandate, the EPA conducts investigations to address environmental complaints filed by public citizens. But how do you go about doing this? And what information are you required to give in this process? Read on to find the answers to these and other questions about the EPA’s complaint process.

Where, and to whom, can a complaint be reported?

If you are a witness to an act that you believe would have negative impacts on the environment, you may contact the EPA directly by simply making a phone call, sending us a letter or an e-mail, or by messaging us on Facebook or Instagram. You may even visit us if you wish! Any of the Agency’s Environmental Officers would be happy to assist you, since they are all trained to record any reported complaint that violates the Environmental Protection Act, Cap 20:05, Laws of Guyana.

Additionally, you may also report a complaint to these Officers while they are in the field. The EPA takes environmental pollution seriously, and works assiduously to ensure complaints are addressed in a timely manner.

What information will be needed?

When you contact the EPA to report a complaint, the Environmental Officer receiving that complaint would need to complete a special form based on the information you give. This information includes your name and contact information, which are needed in order for us to update you on any action taken regarding the complaint; the name (if known) and address of the polluter; and the location and nature of the pollution. It must be noted that all information given by the complainant is confidential, hence it would not be disclosed to anyone, especially the defaulter!

Does the EPA investigate all environmental violations?

While the Agency is mandated to ensure the effective management of the natural environment, and to take necessary steps to prevent and control pollution, there are other organisations that are responsible for investigating certain types of pollution and environmental issues. For instance, if you have witnessed the improper disposal of an animal carcass, or have an increased presence of mosquitos around your home, you should contact the local authority (NDC, RDC, Town Council, or the Public Health Department) of the community in which the violation occurred.

However, if you are unsure of whom to contact, the complaint can be reported to the EPA, and we would direct you to the relevant authority. The Officer would also record it, and follow-up with the organisation responsible for addressing the issue.

Now that you are aware of how to go about reporting a complaint concerning the environment, the EPA invites you to be more vigilant towards the environment. By doing this, you will allow the EPA to better ensure compliance with its regulations. Join us again next week as we explain the steps in investigating a complaint reported to the Agency.

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

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Taxi driver remanded for robbery under arms

Understanding Guyana’s FX market

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- In the context of a currency crisis

n light of the previous columns over the last three weeks, it is necessary to understand the domestic foreign exchange (FX) market. The Guyanese FX market is comprised of both bank and non-bank cambios, legally referred to as dealers in foreign currencies.

Another component of the FX market is money transfer activities. Citing the Bank of Guyana’s Annual Report for 2017, the total volume of foreign exchange transactions increased by 3.2 percent to US$7,149.3 million. Money transfer transactions were valued at US$278.5 million, reflecting a 48 percent increase from the 2016 level. There was a net purchase of US$50.2 million, which caused the Guyana dollar to remain stable against the U.S dollar at G$206.5.

The most dominant players in the FX market are the commercial banks. Between 2000 and 2007, the bank cambios accounted for 90 percent of all trading activities, while the non-bank participants accounted for the remaining FX trades (Khemraj and Pasha, 2014). Another important feature of the FX market is the practice of bank cambios to maintain large foreign currency balances: at the end of 2017, net commercial bank foreign assets stood at US$276.5 million.

Khemraj and Pasha (2014) further noted that the quantity of US dollars retained by commercial banks increased dramatically, and coincided with the growth in foreign investments. There was a notable sharp decline in the turnover ratio, which when taken together reflects the tendency of bank cambios to mobilise FX to engage in foreign investments abroad, rather than to resell.

This was precisely the case back in 2017, when there was a huge uproar at the time that there was a foreign currency shortage, when the commercial banks were claiming a shortage of foreign currency and, as a consequence, customers were placed on a waiting list to effect payments to suppliers abroad, and likewise for incoming transfers from abroad. One would recall that a number of different theories and assumptions were developed, including hoarding, among others, to the point where at one time the Minister of Finance threatened to close the retention accounts held by exporters to remedy the situation. It was at that time that this column was first started, and this was the first topical issue the author dealt with at the time in a series of articles addressing that particular matter.

To this end, it was shown that the net foreign assets held by commercial banks increased by US$4 million, or 1.6 percent, in 2016 in comparison to a decrease in 2015 by US$22.7 million. While a marginal increase was recorded in 2016, the composition of commercial banks’ net foreign holdings evidently changed quite significantly.

Commercial banks’ investment in foreign markets in 2015 was recorded at $204.3 million, reflecting an increase in foreign investments of US$6.3 million, or 3.1 percent. In 2016, however, commercial banks increased their level of foreign investments by a whopping US $43.6 million, or 21.3 percent. (See full article here: https://guyanatimesgy.com/ the-foreign-currency-fiasco-is-there-really-a-shortage/).

This level of increase in foreign investments in effect reduced the availability of foreign currency held by commercial banks to accommodate international trade emanating from the domestic market. This was highlighted in the first article under this column, published on April 23, 2017, wherein it was concluded that there was evidence that the Guyanese dollar had depreciated against the U.S currency and the simple demand and supply dynamics can explain this. Of key note, however, one of the main causes for this was the dramatic increase of foreign investments by the local commercial banks, mirroring the behaviours of investment banking during the latter part of 2016. Albeit this move was arguably quite logical, as the commercial banks found foreign investments more lucrative at a time when the domestic economy was experiencing a decline in economic activities amidst a sea of uncertainties and instabilities inherent within the environment that they operate.

(This discussion will be continued next week).

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

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taxi driver was remanded to prison

by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan after he appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts for armed robbery.

Harry James, of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, denied the charge when it was read to him on Friday.

It was alleged that on July 3, 2018, while in the vicinity of Alliance, Canal Number Two, Wes Bank Demerara, and while being in the company of others and

armed with a gun, he robbed businessman Rabindra Sumdhat of $792,000 along with a quantity of gold jewellery.

According to the facts presented to the court, on July 3, at about 02:00h Sumdhat was sleeping in a hammock under a shed in his yard when he was confronted by two men armed with handguns. The gunmen demanded that he hand over all his valuables.

The bandits then took the businessman inside his

house and relieved him of cash and other valuable items.

It was further alleged that Sumdhat was gun-butted by the gun-toting bandits but was able to disarm one of the men during the process. One of the gunmen fired two shots in the air.

Two live 9mm rounds were found at the scene and an unlicensed .9mm pistol allegedly taken from one of the two armed suspects during a struggle with the businessman. The men fled

in a waiting vehicle.

However, Police were able to apprehend the men at Leonora, West Coast Demerara.

The men along with the driver were arrested and taken to the Police station where the motor car was impounded.

However, only the taxi driver has been charged so far, as investigations continue. The case was transferred to the Wales Magistrate’s Court and will continue on July 12.

Police still to find suspect in domino competition killing

Deceased: Former Wales worker, John Choong

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he suspect wanted in connection with the Father’s Day killing of 38-year-old John Choong, remains at large.

Guyana Times learnt on Saturday that Police searches garnered no results as the

Forged import licence lands man in court

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forty-seven-year-old man found himself before Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, slapped with two counts of forgery.

Mohamed Abid Haniff denied both of the charges.

It is alleged that on March 26, 2018, at Camp Street, Georgetown, with intent to defraud a customs officer at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), he forged an import licence, in favour of Dhanram Satrohan, a person trading as Ghanhi’s Sales and Investment, purporting to show that the same was issued by the Business Ministry.

It was also alleged that on the same day, at Camp Street, Georgetown with intent to defraud, Mohamed Haniff forged an import licence, purporting to show that same was issued by the Business Ministry.

Prosecutor Sanj Singh made no objection to bail being granted but asked that conditions be attached. Bail was granted in the sum of $100,000 and the matter will continue on July 13.

young man remains on the run. Relatives, who continue to check with Police for updates on the investigation, remain hopeful that the suspect will be found.

Choong, a former resident of Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara, and a father of three, sustained head injuries during an altercation with the suspect at a dominoes competition on Father’s Day and died two days later while receiving treatment at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.

After the man’s demise, the suspect, who was said to be in his early 20s, went into hiding, fearing that he

would be incarcerated for the man’s death. The deceased was an employee at the Wales Sugar Estate up to 2017 but later took up employment as a hire car operator to provide for his family. His spouse is a housewife.

Choong, who often played dominoes at Sideline Dam, Sisters Village on weekends with other men in the area, was killed while being engaged in his favourite pastime. Reports were that sometime after midnight on June 16, 2018, he and the suspect got into an argument and then a scuffle.

The now dead man was reportedly pushed into a nearby drain where he hit

his head.

It was further reported that Choong received 10 stiches to his head before being dischargeded from the West Demerara Regional Hospital on June 17, 2018.

He, however, went back to the Hospital on June 18 to clean the wound. On June 19, when he revisited the medical facility, he was admitted and succumbed one day later. A post-mortem proved that he died as a result of cerebral haemorrhage. This newspaper reported that the late Choong and the suspect had settled the matter before Choong’s wound became septic.

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SUnDAY, july 8, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Essequibians decry increased power outages O nce again, residents living along the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam) have been plagued with a series of nonstop power outages which have affected persons throughout the region; and according to these residents, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is incapable of ending their woes.

Guyana Times was told on Saturday that while the utility company is trying to bring the electricity situation under control, only two of the five standby generators at the Anna Regina Power Station are up and running. As such, engineers are appointed to work on a 24-hour shift.

It was related that residents have been affected by this issue, which is a major inconvenience.

Additionally, the business community in the region is complaining about the significant losses which are incurred, since frozen items thaw and spoil. Further, this publication was told that there is a heavy cost

Masked bandits hit barber shop

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wo armed and masked bandits pounced on a barber shop on Friday evening, robbing one of the workers and a customer of their belongings before escaping. The incident occurred at about 22:45h at the “Perfect You Barber Shop” located at Lot 1919 D’Urban and Haley Streets, Worthmanville, Georgetown.

The victims have been identified as 32-year-old William Bayley, a barber of Lane Avenue, Georgetown; and Lawrence Payne, a 19-year-old footballer of Albouystown, Georgetown.

According to Police reports, the victims were inside the barber shop when two men wearing masks entered, one brandishing a black handgun and the other an ice pick. The gunman pointed the weapon at Bayley, who became fearful and handed over his cellular phone valued $75,000.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator who was armed with the ice pick approached Payne and took his book bag valued $8500, containing his football pegs valued $17,500 and his cellular phone valued $120,000.

After taking possession of the items, the bandits then ran off in the southern direction on Haley Street and made good their escape.

The matter was reported and several persons in the area were questioned but no useful information was gathered. Checks were also made for CCTV cameras in the area.

Nevertheless, further investigations are in progress.

The generators at the plant

attached to running individual standby generators and the high fuel prices are adding to the burden of residents as well as the wider business community.

Promised generators

Amid these concerns raised, calls were also mounted for the supply of new generators, which

were promised by the Government to be installed before the end of this year.

Residents are hoping that the site would be completed in time for the installation so as to ease their ongoing distress.

In response to the calls, a statement issued by the power station on the Essequibo Coast revealed

The site for the installation of the new generators

that two of their standby generators suddenly went down and they were forced to put a load shedding arrangement in place.

Additionally, a backup generator which arrived on Friday developed technical problems, but residents were assured that the engineering department was working beyond the call of

duty to restore a stable flow of electricity.

In the past months, episodes of blackout and prolonged power outages have become one of the usual scenarios in many communities and regions at large.

Apart from Region Two, numerous pleas were also made by its neighbouring Region Three (Essequibo

Islands-West Demerara) for a stable supply of electricity. In one instance, the power supply to the community of Canal Number Two was cut for almost 12 hours.

“We always getting blackout, sometimes more than two time every week and it does last the whole day. The last time it cut off at seven and they come till in the night to put it on back after more than five reports,” one resident said.

Meanwhile, in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), a few months ago, prolonged periods of blackouts forced Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to host his weekly press conference outdoors.

At that time, he blasted the Government, noting that here is an obvious lack of shortand long-term solutions to address GPL’s inefficiencies.

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Almost four months later

Wakenaam rice farmers still owed for Mexico shipment

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ice farmers who live and operate on Wakenaam Island in the Essequibo River are still to be paid, almost four months after they had sold paddy in March to a miller who converted their product into rice. This comes against complaints that they continue to face difficulties in trying to repay loans taken to acquire fertiliser, fuel, and equipment.

According to information recently disclosed, those farmers, along with others on the Essequibo Coast, are still owed millions in total, after millers had bought their produce in March.

Withholding such payments to farmers for more than 42 days, as Guyana Times has been reporting, violates the Rice Factories (Amendment) Act of 2009, which says that farmers should not wait longer than the mandatory 42 days before being paid for their paddy. According to the Act, the manufacturer (miller) is required to pay the paddy producer (the farmer) half the amount upfront, and the

Filed photo: Agriculture Minister Noel Holder (third from right) and GRDB’s Nizam Hassan (second from right) meeting with officials from Panama

rest within two weeks of receiving that farmer’s paddy.

On Saturday, Guyana Times was told that a popular Essequibo miller who owes several of the Wakenaam farmers promised to pay off the money owed on Friday last, since a Mexico-bound ship laden with rice recently departed Guyana’s shores.

However, according to farmers, the miller pushed back the date again to next Friday.

Efforts by this newspaper to contact that miller were unsuccessful, as calls were forwarded to voicemail.

Millers are holding out that the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), a Government entity, owes them over $2 billion in outstanding payments from the Panama deal dating back to 2017. However, Head of the GRDB, Nizam Hassan, has since claimed that the GRDB is not responsible for payment delays from buyers in Panama.

In fact, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder said recently that “millers should desist from using the farmers as a bank.”

However, while denouncing responsibility for the shipment, it was Minister Holder and Hassan who met the Panamanian Institute of Agricultural Marketing on March 18, 2016, when a commitment was announced for the increased quota of rice from Guyana.

“Our Government is extremely pleased that you (Panama) are happy with the services we (GRDB) have been supplying since the commencement of our relationship… I would like to assure you that the GRDB will continue to provide the same excellent and professional service to your Government,” Minister Holder had said following that meeting.

The Guyana Rice Millers Association (GRMA) has al-

ways maintained the position that millers are signing agreements with the GRDB, which has a Government-toGovernment arrangement with Panama; and, as such, GRDB has an obligation to pay millers. GRMA Head, Leekha Rambrich, observed last month that GRDB was violating laws that govern the sector, with particular focus on its delayed payments to millers under the Panama deal.

He posited that with the signing of the Panama contract, the GRDB “is committing itself to a six-month payment plan”, whereby rice would be obtained and payments would come six months after. The official contended that this would be tantamount to withholding pay-

ments from farmers.

“Where will millers get money to pay the farmers from? Why is it (that) the minister doesn’t let the GRDB pay the millers, so they could pay the farmers?

GRDB is the exporter, and they are buying the rice from millers, and they are setting precedent and breaking the law. You cannot sign agreements to pay millers after six months; the minister is contradicting himself,” Rambrich told Guyana Times in June.

Millers have outlined that they have been operating in overdraft. Information disclosed is that banks requested a payment schedule in which millers outlined how they would repay funds they had borrowed. Reports are that the GRDB had promised to pay millers since September last year, but revised the payment deadline to April 30, 2018.

An industry insider told this newspaper that the GRDB had been in discussions with Minister Holder for him to release funds to pay the millers, as the GRDB reportedly has reserves in its coffers; and it was disclosed that the GRDB has been disbursing small percentages of the payments in the weeks after reports had surfaced in the media.

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England beat Sweden to reach first World Cup semi-final in 28 years A

t the final whistle, the victorious players converged on one another. It took a few seconds for them to gather their breath and then, finally, they could join the party that was already under way behind the goal to their right. England had booked their place in a World Cup semi-final and this kind of euphoria has been so long coming – more than a quarter of a century since the last occasion – it was probably just inevitable they would soon be dancing on the pitch as well as in the stands.

If we were to be picky, a legitimate argument could be made that England will need to play with more finesse if they are to harbour serious ambitions of winning this competition.

They will have to pass the ball more efficiently and maybe, in possession, show a touch more arrogance, in the manner of a side that really believes they are the elite and this is where they belong. France, for example. Or Belgium.

For now, however, Gareth Southgate and his players are fully entitled to cherish these moments bearing in mind the last time it happened Bobby Robson was manager and Spitting Image’s puppet of the England coach was a senile worrier called Rubbisho. Turin, 1990, with the penalties, Gazza’s tears and all that, is written into England’s history. This time, maybe there will be a happier ending.

But the real glory will only be attainable in Moscow next Sunday and, on this evidence, they should not hold any fears about meeting Russia or Croatia in Wednesday’s semi-final.

Why not be confident, after all, when England have now scored as many goals, 11, as Sir Alf Ramsey’s in 1966? Eight of them, astonishingly, have come from set-plays, the latest being the header from Harry Maguire to swing this game in England’s favour. Some might even argue they are too reliant on scoring this way. For that, show them the tape of Dele Alli’s goal or the other occasions when they threatened to add others.

England played stodgily at times, particularly in the first half, but it was a controlled performance overall and, importantly, the four players who would have missed the semi-final

had they received another booking remained out of the referee’s notebook. Southgate’s team will be at full strength on Wednesday.

Anything, as he says, is possible.

At this point, as is becoming the norm, it is probably worth noting the now-familiar reminder from England’s manager that it is still not time to get too carried away. Not yet, anyway. Equally, Southgate also made the point that his team can play considerably better than they did for long spells of their latest victory. Early on it was disconcerting to see the way his team struggled, the way passes were misplaced and the suspicion, however briefly it passed, that the occasion had got to a couple of his players.

In their previous matches, England had been so quick to set the tempo, passing the ball incisively and making it clear very quickly that they would be happy to take the game to their opponents. That was not the case here. Ultimately, though, that sluggish start will quickly be forgotten and once they had taken the lead, half an hour in, there were only fleeting moments when England looked in any danger.

Until that point, it had been a laboured performance. But then England won their first corner. No other player in the World Cup has won more aerial challenges than Maguire and it was strange, to say the least, that Sweden had designated Emil Forsberg to

mark him. Maguire had a seven-inch advantage and made it count. It was a mismatch, the ball thudded off Maguire’s forehead, powered in to the right of the Swedish goalkeeper, Robin Olsen, and England had scored from a corner for the fourth time in this tournament.

Sweden will reflect on the save that Jordan Pickford made from Marcus Berg’s header at the start of the second half and, though he was needed only sporadically, this was another splendid performance from England’s goalkeeper, showing again that he can handle the big occasion.

Pickford pulled off another brilliant save at 2-0, when Viktor Claesson had the chance to change the complexion of the match. It was England’s first clean sheet of the tournament and there was never a concerted spell when Sweden – willing but limited opponents – managed to pin them back.

Instead, it might have been an even more straightforward victory if some of England’s better chances had fallen to Kane rather

than Raheem Sterling. His first one-on-one with Olsen ended in a late offside flag, though the England player was not to know that. The second would have made it 2-0 at the interval and, though it was largely inconsequential in the end, this is the stage of the competition when Southgate desperately needs his front players to have ice in their veins. For all his many qualities, Sterling turns to slush too often and as long as that is case he will struggle to improve an England record that has now stretched to two goals from 42 appearances.

No big deal, though. Sterling played his part, always looking to create mischief, and the way he stretches defences makes up in part for his erratic finishing. As for Kane, another goal from England’s leading scorer would have meant him outscoring Paolo Rossi when he won the Golden Boot in 1982, Gary Lineker when he did the same in 1986 and Toto Schillaci in 1990. As it was, Kane worked hard without getting many opportunities to add to his total and, strangely, that is one of the areas where England need to improve. Penalties and corners aside, Kane’s teammates are not creating enough chances for their principal scorer.

If that can be put right, England should be reasonably confident against anyone. For now, however, this is not a time to be too critical. Jordan Henderson had a fine match and England were largely untroubled once they had their second goal. For that one, Kieran Trippier’s pass gave Jesse Lingard the chance to clip the ball over from the right. Alli was at the far post to head the ball in and, half an hour later, the players in red were behind that goal, dancing in front of the England fans, daring to believe. (The Guardian)

O’Connor collapses trying to make weight for title fight D

anny O’Connor has pulled out of his first world title fight after collapsing attempting to make the 10-stone weight limit.

O’Connor, 33, was due to fight fellow American Jose Ramirez for the WBC light-welterweight belt on Saturday.

The WBC confirmed he was taken to hospital suffering “dehydration symptoms”, while his promoter said he thought his kidneys had “shut down”.

O’Connor said he “let the idea of being a world champion cloud my judgement”.

Promoter Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing said his fighter, who has won 30 of his 33 professional bouts - 11 by knockout - “collapsed leaving the sauna” while attempting to cut a “perfectly normal” two pounds.

O’Connor posted an image of himself in hospital on social media, saying: “Heartbreaking to be rushed to the hospital and deemed medically unfit to fight.

“Nothing is more important than my health.”

“He was rushed to the hospital and admitted suspecting his kidneys may have shut down,” DeGuardia added in another social media post.

“It pains us to show these photos of Danny but his team and wife agreed that it was important to show the harsh realities of this sport and how hard fighters work to make weight and to what lengths they push themselves.”

Saturday’s bout was due to take place in Fresno, California.

Ramirez, unbeaten in his 22 professional fights, was set to make the first defence of his world title having beaten compatriot Amir Imam in March. (BBC Sport)

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Croatia book World Cup semi-final with England

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roatia thought they had won this World Cup quarter-final epic before they actually did. Domagoj Vida will not rate his extra-time header as the most powerful of his career but it was surely the most precious.

When he connected with Luka Modric’s corner, the ball had a long way to travel. It got there in the end. The substitute Vedran Corluka had a nibble after it had bounced while another replacement, Russia’s Fedor Smolov, was on the scene. The upshot was that the goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, saw it late and it squeezed into the far corner.

Game over? Not at all. Russia had other ideas. This team, written off before the start of the tournament, do not know when they are beaten and the scenes that greeted Mário Fernandes’s late equaliser were astonishing.

After the right-back had directed his free header past Danijel Subasic, there was the explosion of noise and all of Russia’s substitutes sprinted over to celebrate with him behind the goal. The drama was unremitting and it crackled throughout the penalty shootout.

Both of these nations had gone through the drama from 12 yards in the last 16. They had been through the mill only days previously.

It was Croatia who held their nerve and when Ivan Rakitic – just as he had done against Denmark – rolled home the winning kick, their joy knew no bounds. At last, they have emulated the glory boys from France 98, who reached the semi-finals, and it is they who will meet England in the last four on Wednesday.

Poor Russia. They gave everything in a performance of intensity and no little offensive intent but this time, the shootout gods were against them. Their villains were the

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substitute Smolov and, cruelly, Fernandes. At least, this country will have fond memories of a heroic run.

Croatia believed they had the superior quality, that it was up to them to set the tone and it was certainly a statement of intent from the manager, Zlatko Dalic, to leave out the defensive midfielder Marcelo Brozovic and start with an extra attacking player, Andrej Kramaric. Dalic’s two central midfielders were Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic. The lineup was as close to all-out attack as could have been imagined.

Yet Russia did not start like the team that had bolted the door against Spain in the last 16. Far from it. As expected, Stanislav Cherchesov had reverted to a back four but what was surprising was how Aleksandr Golovin, the No 10, was asked to push up like a second striker at times. Russia pressed high, with Artem Dzyuba, the muscular centre-forward, a focal point and battering ram.

The energy crackled. It was remarkable to see the home nation’s slickness and directness.

Croatia looked a little spooked in the opening minutes and they endured a couple of wobbles, one of which featured a loose clearing header from Sime Vrsaljko. Dzyuba sized up the volley only for Dejan Lovren to block.

It was an action-packed opening and, if the atmosphere did not begin at fever pitch, it nonetheless pulsed. Weirdly, amid the intensity, the home support sent a Mexican wave rippling around the ground on 15 minutes. It was fired by pure exuberance.

By then, Croatia might have been ahead.

Ante Rebic, the powerful winger, won possession on the byline and then a corner. From it, he rose to meet Lovren’s flick and it really was

Croatia’s players celebrate winning the penalty shootout

a free header. He sent it high. Croatia would lament a better opportunity on 11 minutes.

Vrsaljko crossed low and Mario Mandzukic, having found space, fluffed the finish.

Denis Cheryshev has seemingly come from nowhere at this World Cup. A late inclusion in Cherchesov’s squad, he was pressed into the lineup when Alan Dzagoev injured his hamstring in the opening tie against Saudi Arabia. Everybody knows him now and he illuminated this tie with a beautiful opening goal. Cheryshev picked up possession, evaded Rakitic and swapped passes with Dzyuba before surging on. Modric jumped into a slide tackle but Cheryshev slalomed away from him and, from a position to the left of centre, 25 yards out, he unfurled a left-foot curler that began its journey outside Danijel Subasic’s right-hand post. It would whip back inside it and the home crowd could revel in another pinch-me moment. Subasic did not even dive.

Croatia were rattled. Lovren and Ivan Strinic collected yellow cards. Yet they found the equaliser before the interval, which felt like a case of perfect timing. The move started when Mário Fernandes, the Russia rightback, committed to a header upfield and did not win it. His team were stretched, with Ilya Kutepov, the right centre-half, forced to come across.

Dalic’s team worked the ball smartly up the flank, from Strinic to Ivan Perisic to

hris Froome’s problems multiplied in the Vendée on Saturday when he tumbled into a field during the climactic moments of the opening stage. Froome may have negotiated his way through the hostile buildup to his participation in this year’s race but once the racing started he could not stay upright on the fast run-in to Fontenay-le-Comte.

In a frenzied finale to the opening stage when the peloton fought for space on narrow roads, the defending champion edged too close to the verge, lost control and fell heavily on his right side, starting yet another Grand Tour with a fall, as was also the case in May’s Giro Fernando Gaviria celebrates as he crosses the finish line d’Italia.

Froome, the right side of his white that left him cut adrift from the main field. Bernal’s fellow jersey shredded, chased hard to catch the field but, along Colombian Nairo Quintana also had a torrid time, breaking with his fellow Briton Adam Yates and Australia’s Richie both his wheels and being left to fend for himself by his allPorte, lost just over a minute to the stage winner, Fernando star Movistar team.

Gaviria, and 51 seconds to other contenders, including his With his team car nowhere to be seen, Quintana’s wheel teammate Geraint Thomas, the 2017 runner-up, Rigoberto changes took an age and cost him well over a minute to the Uran, and the 2014 Tour champion, Vincenzo Nibali. co-leaders, Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde, who sur“I’m just grateful I’m not injured,” Froome said. “There vived the chaos to finish with the front group. After one were a lot of crashes out there but that’s part of the game stage, Quintana’s hopes of overall victory look to be recedunfortunately.” ing.

Froome said much the same after his heavy crash in Ahead, a select group of the peloton’s best sprinters Jerusalem at the start of this year’s Giro, which he went fought for the stage win with the Tour debutant Gaviria, of on to win, but with Monday’s crucial team time trial and the Quickstep team, taking Colombia’s first sprint stage win the following weekend’s cobbled stage to Roubaix looming from Peter Sagan. Mark Cavendish, chasing Eddy Merckx’s on the horizon, it is a less than ideal start to his Tour. record of 34 Tour stage wins, was out of contention, having In 2014, Froome crashed in the opening week and start- lost position inside the final 5km. ed the cobbled stage hampered by broken bones in both “There’s probably 10 teams that want to be in the front,” hands. In driving rain, he was forced to abandon the race said Cavendish’s key lead-out man Mark Renshaw. “There’s even before reaching the dreaded cobbled roads of what is only 10 spots in the front so there’s only 10 riders who can known as the Hell of the North. be there. We just missed the position today.”

Worse for Team Sky, his climbing teammate Egan After a week dominated by the polemics surroundBernal also fell victim to a crash in the last 10km of racing, ing Froome, the first stage rolled away from the Ile de

Mandzukic and, when he crossed, Kramaric arrived to guide a header past Igor Akinfeev.

Briefly, there was the sound of silence. Croatia had wanted control in midfield and it proved elusive in the first half but they began to get it after the interval. They stroked the ball this way and that, probing for the opening, and Modric’s influence grew, although clear-cut chances would prove difficult to come by.

Cherchesov had urged the crowd after Kramaric’s equaliser to keep the noise levels up, which they did, and it became a gripping spectacle. As Croatia pushed, the home support chanted their team’s name. They tried to keep their opponents out through sheer force of will. Croatia advertised the next goal and only the width of an upright denied them.

The chance was presented on the hour when two red shirts challenged each other following Kramaric’s cross and when the ball broke to Perisic he shot against the inside of the far post. It would fizz across goal and away.

Dalic introduced Brozovic for Perisic in a bid to tighten the grip on midfield, which released Modric and Rakitic to play a little higher, but Russia flickered, with the substitute Alexsandr Erokhin heading over.

Subasic felt his hamstring towards the end of normal time, which was a brief drama as Dalic had used three substitutes, but he would continue. Croatia could be thankful as he would save from Smolov. (The Guardian)

Noirmoutier in a tense atmosphere.

Although Froome was cheered by some, he was cat-called by others who yelled “doper, doper” while some fans held placards saying “Cheater Go Home” and “Froome=Armstrong”.

Even before the race began, rider security and the hostility directed towards Froome had become a pressing issue. But Froome’s sports director, Nicolas Portal, insisted that neither his team leader nor his team would change their strategy or tactics because of intimidation.

“I am never going to ask Chris ‘please stay in the bunch’, because it is too dangerous, especially if it is a moment for him to win the Tour,” Portal said. “That is why we have to have a constructive relationship with the UCI and race organiser, so we can avoid this kind of situation.”

But the focus of attention has now moved from Froome’s salbutamol levels to the credibility of Wada’s testing procedures, with the UCI president, David Lappartient, among those to call for a review by Wada.

“The test doesn’t seem to be strong enough, to be honest, and I think that Wada will have to review it,” Lappartient told the Observer. “But I fully understand the feelings from the fans.

“Froome was guilty for some of them, so they think it’s the fault of the UCI. But that’s not the reality at all, because the Froome case does not constitute an anti-doping rule violation.”

Lappartient denied he was the source of the original leak, as some within the Tour convoy have suggested. “There is no truth in that, but I know who said that and I know who has an advantage in saying that,” the Frenchman said. “The reality is that it didn’t come from me or from the UCI. What could be the advantage for me to have a big crisis like this?”

(The Guardian)

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sports WI A DRAW

Shaw 188, Samarth 137 chart India A revival I

ndia A turned a 250-run deficit into a 359run lead to give West Indies A a scare in the four-day game at Kent county cricket ground in Beckenham, before they had to settle for a draw. India’s bowlers reduced West Indies to 188 for 6 in the chase but Raymon Reifer followed his 52 in the first innings with a stubborn 11 not out of 74 balls to deny India.

When Rahkeem Cornwall was dismissed - trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem - India A needed three wickets in 6.1 overs to pull off a coup. Reifer and Jomel Warrican then soaked up 31 balls to hold off India.

The first day was also as dramatic with India tumbling to 133 all out in 42.1 overs, with seamers Chemar Holder and Sherman Lewis claiming four wickets each for West Indies A. At stumps on the first day, West Indies moved to a 15-run lead with seven wickets in the shed.

Sunil Ambris, who had made his Test debut against New Zealand last year, made 128 off 165 balls to swell the lead to 250.

Ankit Rajpoot, who had toured South Africa as a net bowler earlier this year, was the

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pick of the bowlers for India with 4 for 76.

Out for a first-ball duck in the first innings, Prithvi Shaw, who already had five first-class centuries coming into the game, led a strong response with 188 off 169 balls, including 28 fours and two six- India A – 133 & 609-6d es. He had put on 181 for Windies A 1st the opening stand with Innings - 383 Mayank Agarwal, who West Indies A 2nd contributed 68 off 82 Innings (target: 360 runs) JD Campbell c Vihari balls.

Agarwal’s Karnataka b Rajpoot 44 team-mates R Samarth C Hemraj b Saini 0 SSJ Brooks (c) b Yadav 9 (137) and Karun Nair J Blackwood c †Bharat (93), in the running for b Nadeem 61 a Test spot for England, SW Ambris b Yadav 42 then propelled India to DC Thomas † c 609 for 6 before they de- Shaw b Saini 22 clared. But just as India RA Reifer not out 11 threatened a come-from- RRS Cornwall lbw behind victory, West b Nadeem 40 Indies’ tail found an es- JA Warrican not out 4 Extras 12 (b 1, lb 10, nb 1) cape route.

SCOREBOARD

TOTAL 245-7 (76

Overs, RR: 3.22) Yet to bat: S Lewis, CK Holder Fall of wickets: 1-0 (C Hemraj, 1.1 ov), 2-28 (SSJ Brooks, 11.2 ov), 3-77 (JD Campbell, 23.1 ov), 4-143 (J Blackwood, 38.5 ov), 5-188 (SW Ambris, 51.2 ov), 6-188 (DC Thomas, 52.1 ov), 7-236 (RRS Cornwall, 70.5 ov) BOWLING: AS Rajpoot (11-5-21-1), NA Saini (144-41-2), S Nadeem (26-681-2), J Yadav (21-4-732), V Shankar (4-0-18-0) Result: Match Drawn

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ourth seed Alexander Zverev has been knocked out of Wimbledon in the third round after a five-set defeat by qualifier Ernests Gulbis.

German Zverev led by two sets to one but lost 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 5-7 6-3 6-0.

The defeat means Zverev, 21, has still only reached one Grand Slam quarter-final, despite being regarded as one of the world’s best young players.

Elsewhere, Japan’s Kei Nishikori knocked Australian 15th seed Nick Kyrgios out in straight sets.

Nishikori, who has never made it past round four at Wimbledon, won 6-1 7-6 (7-3) 6-4.

The 24th seed won the first set in just 16 minutes before the match became more competitive but Nishikori won on his fourth match point. Earlier, Juan Martin del Potro progressed to the fourth round for the first time since 2013.

The fifth seed won 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 against Benoit Paire, who repeatedly argued with the umpire during sets two and three. It is the fourth time Argentine Del Potro has reached the fourth round but the first since being sidelined for over two years after wrist surgeries.

Only Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are ahead of Zverev in the world rankings but he has once again failed at Grand Slam level.

The German has won eight ATP titles including three Masters crowns - the biggest regular tournaments after the four Grand Slams - but the only time he has progressed past the last 16 in 13 appearances at majors was at the French Open last month.

Zverev broke Gulbis when the Latvian was serving for the third set and then won three consecutive games to move two sets to one in front, at which point the momentum was with the German.

But in the following two sets Gulbis lifted his game, while Zverev’s dropped, and the world number 138 won the match in a decider lasting just 22 minutes. Gulbis, who has a career-high ranking of 10 in the world, will play Nishikori in the fourth round.

Djokovic beats Kyle Edmund

British number one Kyle Edmund is out of Wimbledon after three-time champion Novak Djokovic fought back to win their third-round match.

Serbian Djokovic, seeded 12th, regained control after 23-year-old Edmund made an encouraging start, going on to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 on Centre Court.

The 21st seed’s exit means there are no British players left in the singles.

Former world number one Djokovic, 31, will play Russian Karen Khachanov in the last 16 on Monday.

“I thought it was a high-quality tennis match,” said Djokovic.

“It was very, very, very intense. Just a couple points here and there.”

Edmund had only won one maindraw match at Wimbledon going into this year’s tournament, but carried the nation’s hopes in the men’s draw after Andy Murray pulled out on the eve of the tournament.

Two routine wins over qualifiers Alex Bolt and Bradley Klahn - players ranked outside the top 150 - raised hopes he could cause a shock against Djokovic.

The Yorkshireman earned his maiden win over Djokovic at the Madrid Open in May, victory which he said would give him belief when they met again in SW19.

However, that win was on the clay and over three sets - this match proved a different proposition as Djokovic showed he remains one of the biggest threats in the draw.

It is the first time since 2007 a British singles player has not made the second week at Wimbledon.

Halep out!

Top seed Simona Halep described her attitude as “unprofessional” as she was knocked out of Wimbledon in the third round after an epic three-set battle with Hsieh Su-wei.

The Taiwanese world number 48’s serve was broken seven times and she saved a match point before winning 3-6 6-4 7-5.

It means Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova is the only top-10 player remaining in the women’s singles draw. It is the first time Hsieh, 32, has reached the last 16 of the singles.

The 2013 doubles champion will now play Dominika Cibulkova after the Slovak beat 15th seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-2 6-2. (BBC Sport)

22

guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018

GTT supports Malteenoes Cricket Academy – National Coaches to be

complemented by NSC Coaches

G

uyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) recently joined the growing list of sponsors to have come on board the Malteenoes Summer Cricket Camp, which bowls off on July 23.

On Friday, at the company’s head office in Brickdam Georgetown, GTT joined the list of companies and business entities supporting this year’s two-week Malteenoes Cricket Academy. Under the slogan ‘More Love’, the telephone giant provided water bottles for every student of the Academy, as well as for the coaches.

Students between the ages of 6 and 18 years old will be divided into two groups, and will participate in action lasting from 09:00h to 15:00h. Lunch will be provided from 12:00h-13:00h daily.

The Academy will include classroom sessions and field work, which will provide the recipients with tools to become Cricketers, Umpires, Scorers, Journalists and Broadcasters.

Facilitators will talk on Education, Social Skills, Health and Hygiene, Etiquette, Child Protection, Law and History of Cricket, Umpiring and Scoring, while the Director of Sports, Christopher Jones, will provide two National Sports Commission (NSC) Coaches, in addition to those who conduct sessions at the Academy.

National Youth Coach Orin Bailey is full time coach, while sessions will be conducted by National Head Coach Esuan Crandon. Fast bowling sessions will be conducted by former Malteenoes and West Indies Test pacer, Colin Stuart. Spin bowling sessions will be done by former Test off-spinner Clyde Butts, while several other coaches would also be involved.

Registration fee is $3,000, and forms can be uplifted at the Club. The deadline for registration is July 20.

GTT’s Marketing Executive, Tashandra Inniss, (right) hands over the water bottles to Deborah McNichol

Lewis Hamilton takes British Grand Prix pole

L

ewis Hamilton won a thrilling battle for pole position at the British Grand Prix, snatching top spot from title rival Sebastian Vettel on his last lap.

The Mercedes driver trailed Vettel by 0.057

seconds after the first top-10 shootout runs at sunny Silverstone but saved his best for last.

Hamilton improved by 0.1secs on his final lap, showing massive commitment through the super-fast corners.And with Vettel failing

to improve, the world champion took pole by 0.044secs.

The crowd chanted Hamilton’s name as he did his interview immediately after qualifying, and he sounded overcome with emotion as he recalled his record sixth pole position at the British Grand Prix.

“I gave it everything I could,” he said. “It was so close. The Ferraris pulled something out and I was just praying I could do it for you guys.”

He shoots, he scores? can Hamilton take a record sixth victory at Silverstone on Sunday?

Vettel, struggling with a pain in his neck, said: “I was down a bit on the straights.

It was so close. Happy with second, it gives us chances in the race.” He added that his neck had been “fine” in qualifying and he was “not worried” about the race, because “you go a bit slower than in qualifying”. Vettel came close to being beaten by his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who set the fastest first sector on his final lap but ended up just 0.054secs off the lead Ferrari.

Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas took third, 0.325secs off the pace, ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Mercedes had been expected to dominate at Silverstone, a track where Hamilton has won for the last four years and which tends to suit the characteristics of their car.

But Ferrari have been strong from the start of the weekend, helped by an upgraded floor on the car aimed at improving its aerodynamic downforce. Vettel missed the end of final practice because of a crick in the neck, and needed to spend time with his physio before qualifying.

He was still in discomfort but it was not showing in the car, as he set the pace in first qualifying, was just behind Hamilton in the second session and pulled out a blistering lap at the start of Q3.

Hamilton fans rejoice... can he round a perfect weekend for British sport?

He said he did not know where he had gained the time, “maybe Turn 13,” he said, indicating the critical second righthander in the sweeping Becketts section, which defines speed on to the long Hangar Straight. And the middle sector, where

Becketts sits, was where he was fastest of all, while Raikkonen was quickest in the first and last sectors.

“It is such a tricky circuit to position the car in the right places,” Hamilton said, “It took everything for me to get it. The fans were there and I could see them and I really wanted to get it, and maybe even give a boost to England.

They won’t be watching, obviously, because they’re playing, but you know what I mean start it off. “Ferrari have picked up the pace this weekend but I am in the best place I can be and I am excited for a close grand prix tomorrow.”

Although Hamilton improved in the first sector on his final lap, Raikkonen was actually fastest both there and in the final sector. But Hamilton’s pace in the fast corners of Copse and Becketts was critical.

Hamilton’s pole was a record sixth at the British Grand Prix, beating the record he shared with 1960s legend and two-time champion Jim Clark. And now he has his sights set on another record in the race - victory would be his sixth, moving him one clear of the win record for this race he shares with Clark and four-time champion Alain Prost. (BBC Sport)

23 Chase, Buxton advance after thrilling encounters T guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, july 8, 2018

he Ministry of Education Ground on Carifest Avenue in Georgetown was a hive of activity on Saturday afternoon when eight secondary school boys’ teams competed in the quarter-final round of the ExxonMobil/Petra Under-14 Football league.

Playing on a field made slushy because of the recent inclement weather, many of the players found it rather difficult to get their scoring underway, and this factor proved to be the source of entertainment in the high energy encounters.

When Marian Academy came up against St. John’s College, the Marian boys knew they were up for a challenge, and as such played harder than they have ever done in the tournament. Unfortunately, St. John’s got the better of them, netting two goals early on in each segment of the game.

Being played on the other half of the ground at the same time was North Ruimveldt Multilateral versus Tucville Secondary, a match-up that was always set to be a thriller. With the score standing at 1-1 for most of the game,

BOYS QUARTER-FINALS

Goal scorers St John’s College Goal scorer St John’s Dequan Bovell in 6th Shem Jovis in the 35th North Ruimveldt Multilateral Yannick Northon Orlando Sickie Tucville Secondary Odoyo Harris Chase Academy 5, vs Vergenoegen 3 Sean Cato (2) Brandon Solomon

Jaheel Alcindor Kevin Mullin Vergenogen Secondary Timothy Duggin Clinton Jones Nashawn Livan Buxton Tyrice Dennis (3) Olashi Primo Samuel Garnett Akiem Gaime Dolphin Secondary Jaquan Cole

Quarter-final action in the ExxonMobil U-14 Schools Competition on Saturday at the Ministry of Education Ground, Carifesta Avenue

both teams put on their best performance in order to gain the advantage over the opponent. In the end, it was North Ruimveldt Multilateral who got the better of their opponent, ending the game on 2-1.

The second round of quarter-final matches brought even more entertainment, with some of the more experienced teams slated to take the field.

Buxton got their scoring underway as early as the 12th minute, with another goal some 4 minutes later. The ever improving Buxton team were in the driver’s seat by then, and never gave the Dolphin Secondary team a chance to gather themselves properly.

Large and in charge, Buxton netted some six goals to secure their place in the semi-final round.

However, the encounter to witness was the one between Chase’s Academy and Vergenoegen Secondary. Both teams came into the quarter-finals with large wins to their name,

hence each one of the 22 players was confident that their team would come out victorious. The slushy fields proved to be a challenge for the fast paced Chase’s team, and saw their deficit of a goal down at half time a feat that has never been achieved by another team since the tournament’s inception.

In a shocking twist, Chase found the back of the net near the end of their allotted time, to level the scores 2-2 and send the game into extra time.

Chase quickly got ahead, but Vergenoegen soon replied with a goal of their own to level the score once again. Urged on their coach, the Chase boys found it in themselves to produce two more goals, which would ensure that they remain undefeated in the tournament.

St. John’s College, North Ruimveldt Multilateral, Buxton and Chase’s Academy will meet in the semi-final round on Saturday, 14th instant, at the same venue.

McKay dominates Malta Blues boss returns for Supreme Programme pre-season training C

W

arren McKay continues to impress on the cycling circuit for 2018, adding yet another win to his tally just two weeks after claiming the Veteran Road Race National Title.

McKay sprinted away with the spoils of the Veterans’ U-50 and the Feature 35-lap event of the ninth annual Malta Supreme Multi-Race programme.

In inclement weather, McKay won the main event in one hour, 13 minutes and 12 seconds, leading Christopher Griffith and Romello Crawford onto the podium.

National Senior Road Race Champion Cortis Dey, Deeraj Garbarran and Paul DeNobrega filled out the top six rewarding positions.

After DeNobrega led a four-man break in the third lap, McKay and the rest of the peloton worked to reconnect, eventually wheeling in the leaders in the 29th lap.

From there, the top six separated from the pack.

They teamed up to stretch their advantage, but team work was thrown out the window with about 150m to the finish line.

Jaheim Henry (BMX 9-12 and 12-14), Ian Jackson (veteran O-50), David Hicks (12-14 Boys and Girls and Juveniles), Mario King (Mountain Bike) and Jessica Mohabir (BMX 6-9) were also in the winner’s row for the Hassan Mohamed-organised fixture.

Warren McKay

helsea boss Antonio Conte returned to pre-season training on Saturday, despite speculation over his future at Stamford Bridge.

Blues players not involved in World Cup duty have two days of tests at the club’s Cobham training ground before full training restarts.

It is understood Conte held meetings and, unless the situation changes, will fulfil the final year of his contract.

The Italian’s future has been the subject of intense rumour for months.

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri has held talks about replacing Conte but he remains contracted to the Italian club, who have already appointed Carlo Ancelotti to be their new coach.

Conte, 48, also has a clause in his contract that guarantees him a pay-off, thought to be

£9m, for the final year of his deal.

This would be reduced if the former Italy and Juventus coach got another job, but most of the vacancies he would be interested in have now been filled.

Conte won the Premier League in his first season at the club in 2017, followed by the FA Cup in May of this year.

Chelsea’s first pre-season game is in Australia, against Perth Glory on 23 July. (BBC Sport)

SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2018

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

guyanatimesgy.com

McKay dominates Malta Supreme Programme Pg 23

Following the ninth staging of the Malta Supreme Multi-Race Programme, the top performing participants took a photo op at the National Park Inner Circuit

England beat Sweden to reach first World Cup semi-final in 28 years Pg 19

Dele Alli scores England’s second goal in their World Cup quarter-final victory against Sweden at the Samara Arena

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JULY 8, 2018

A survivor's story:

“I feel free...

Page 2

FREE DISTRIBUTION

and its

impact

Page 10

2 Sunday Times Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 8 , 2018

Domestic Violence

A survivor's story

cause “I had six children and how you can take six children and go live by yourself”.

The couple’s life progressed and they constructed a small house on a plot of land that belonged to Lionel’s mother where they

was yesterday explaining that after a time, Lionel started to “trip out” and would always find her and threaten to kill her. However, she never reported the beatings and threats to the Police, because she always thought he would mend his ways and they would go back to being the family they once were.

“One time he chopped me pon me hand. But everyone been saying that he was a good man because they would get him to do anything for a little money. So people are saying that he was good, but towards me he was abusive.

He was a good person, but the drugs in him made him a different person.”

For Ann, the 28 years she spent with Lionel felt as though they were seven lifetimes that ended when she left him. But he still fol-

increasing as the days progressed and on June 21, 2018, Ann saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but refused to follow it.

“I went out and the afternoon when I came home and he start abusing me and he start the fight-

lived together until 2016 when the abuse intensified and Ann decided to leave. She got a place to rent within the same Babu Jaan Village in Port Mourant and continued life.

Jogging her memory, Ann says she remembers everything like it

lowed her and the threats were intensifying, so she decided to get the Police involved and he was charged several times. He was even placed on a bond to keep the peace which he violated by continuing to threaten Ann or beating her. The threats of murder were

ing and my daughter came in and tried to part. He try to buss meh neck, meh throat and me get away and then he run behind me and after that he came back and burn the house down. After he see people start to come, he run through the bush…because people were not

By Lakhram Bhagirat

F

or almost a decade, Omawattie Alvin or Ann as she loves to be called was the subject of constant physical and verbal violence at the hands of her then husband. But one day she said enough was just enough and left the relationship with her two children in tow. A few years later, she would meet the sweetest man possible. He fathered her four other children and treated her the way she wanted to be treated, but little did she know the future would be worse than what she had to endure with her then ex-husband.

Ann met Lionel Thomas in the early 90s and she said for the first few years they led a peaceful and happy life, but everything took a turn downhill around 1997 when he got involved in drugs. She explained that he first started smoking marijuana and then graduated to crack cocaine. At the time, the couple had been rearing cattle and gradually the animals began disappearing and the abuse started.

At first, it was the constant pestering and demand for money to purchase drugs, but late 1997 the physical violence started. Many times while Ann toiled in the market as a fish vendor, Lionel would just show up and begin assaulting her while taking away whatever money she had earned.

“He get this demanding way that you got to give him what he wants and he does beat me like bad in front them children and thing. You know many nights me does have to go away by my friend or his sister to hide from the licks,” she recounted.

Ann, 47, spoke to the Sunday Magazine on Wednesday, the day after Lionel’s funeral, and she said despite his constant abuse and addiction, he was a wonderful man.

She remembers hiding from the beatings, but refusing to leave, be-

Ann

Lionel Thomas

paying attention to he. They were paying attention to me, because I was bleeding and my daughter was crying out because she is pregnant and so, and they take we to the hospital,” she detailed.

Ann would receive four stitches to her neck while her pregnant daughter would receive two.

Fearful for her life, after the incident Ann went into hiding while Police looked for Lionel. They later found him hanging from a tree.

Now Ann spends her days trying to rebuild her life. She is looking for a plot of land to relocate the house she built with Lionel since some of his family members are now blaming her for his death.

With the exception of Lionel’s eldest sister, all other members of Lionel’s family were silent during the years of abuse and now that he is dead, they are out to get Ann. “I feel bad because I know that I am free and he can’t do me anything, but my children them are without a father because of his stupidness. His behaviour now leave his children them without a father.

I feel a way about that, because at least he could have moved on with his life. He didn’t want to move on with his life and now his family is blaming me. I knew him very well and if he had catch me after this, he would kill me and kill heself; that was his intention and he always tell me that.”

She attended his funeral on Tuesday despite some objections from his family because they would have spent almost three decades together.

At the end of our chat, I asked Ann whether she still loved Lionel or had any feelings for him. Her gasp was audible as she thought about the answer to give me and after some time, she said she had no feelings for him. The love was lost when the abuse started and any residual feelings died when he did.

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JULY 8 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine

3

Losing a mother

By Lakhram Bhagirat

E

“

very night them children does wake up and call fuh mommy and start cry.

Them accustomed to me so I does get up and give them the tea and put them back to sleep, because that is what she use to do when she was alive and them custom to that,” says Jacklyn Henry when I asked how her grandchildren are coping after their mother’s death.

Jacklyn’s daughter, Tovanie Simmons, was fatally stabbed by her ex-husband at approximately 23:20h on June 21, 2018. She is survived by four children: eightyear-old Marcia Lyte, six-yearold Marica Lyte and four-year-old twins Malique and Miles Lyte.

Jacklyn explains that her daughter and son-in-law, Imran Lyte, had a very good relationship and she never knew Imran to be an abusive person. She related that he was always nice to her and would go out of his way to provide for his family. Jacklyn said over the years she would occasionally stay with the couple whenever she visited from neighbouring Suriname where she lived and her daughter never complained of being abused nor did she witness any such act.

Prior to June 21, Imran confronted Tovanie about having her

friends laugh at his new girlfriend and then they became involved in a physical altercation after which her sister intervened. Subsequently, her was passing and became involved resulting in Imran stabbing him and escaping. Imran’s relatives pleaded with Tovanie not to involve the Police in the incident citing his financial position at that time.

On the fateful day, Imran visited Tovanie’s Limlair Village, Corentyne home to discuss a misunderstanding between him and her brother, but then became involved in an intense argument with the 28-year-old. This resulted in him whipping out a knife from his pants waist and stabbing her several times. Jacklyn was there when the incident occurred and she screamed for help and her daughter barely managed to run out of the house, jumped from the veranda, and ran about 200 metres east before she fell to the ground.

Imran then ran behind Tovanie and slit her throat before fleeing the scene to hide out in the backdam area of the village. She was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She sustained 12 stab wounds to her neck, left breast, back, left hip, left forearm, right chest and chin, collectively.

According to Jacklyn, what

Imran did next was an act of cowardice: he consumed Gramoxone and died a few days later while receiving medical treatment.

After her daughter’s life was taken, Jacklyn was forced to move into the home to take care of the four children. The young children have not been able to process properly what transpired and would ever so often look for their mother.

Her grandmother has tried her best to explain to them that their mother is gone and could never come back to them, but there is only so much that they understand at that tender age.

“Me daughter is now gone and them mother gone. I is the only body them got right now and I got to stand up for them. I does try tell them what happen so they can understand. The two big one them understand what happen, but the two boys does ask and then in the night is when I does got to worry when them does get up and cry. It does hurt me to know that they have to grow up without she and I am old too, so I don’t know what will happen when I gone from here. I does worry real bad,” Jacklyn tells me.

The children asking questions constantly interrupted our chat but that did not bother either of us.

Jacklyn is patient with her grandchildren and she treats them like

fragile possessions. The love they have for her is evident, but you can feel the sense of loss whenever Jacklyn speaks.

The children cannot articulate what and how they feel about losing their mother and subsequently their father, but it is fair to say growing up will be a battle for them. I cannot even begin to imagine how they feel and I think no one ever will be able to.

A few days before their father died, he requested that they all visited him in the hospital, but Jacklyn told me that she initially refused to allow them to meet him because of the anger she felt towards him, but she was eventually persuaded to send them. Her sister facilitated the visit and Imran held his children and begged their forgiveness for making them orphans. He cried bitterly, Jacklyn says, but the children did not understand what he meant when he told them “daddy is going to join mommy now, me going away for good.”

Imran would die the following day.

When I asked Jacklyn if she forgave Imran, she paused, inhaled, exhaled deeply, sighed and then said yes.

“I done forgive he long time. He was a good bai and I don’t know what make he do this, but I forgive

he. Let he soul rest and only God can judge he. I am sad he do what he do but I forgive he, I forgive he.”

For now, the primary focus is getting the children settled. In addition, Jacklyn is preparing the twins for nursery school which they will be starting in September.

4

Sunday Times Magazine

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JULY 8 , 2018

Intimate partner violence

“I

t is the end of it (the relationship) because numerous times he hit me. I got black and blue in my hands. I got slap to my mouth, burst up and I keep forgiving him. How long am I going to keep forgiving him? At this moment, I could see that he wanted to kill me. If it was not for my father and brother, I would be dead by now.”

By Lakhram Bhagirat

“I

stayed because everyone deserves a second chance and try. I know there is something bothering him, making he do this, so I tried talking to him and eventually I does get what’s bothering him and I told him that he can’t be hitting me.” That is what 22-year-old Zennell Persaud-Joseph told me one day after her boyfriend had severely beaten her.

Zennell is mother to a six-year-old and like many

women, she knew her relationship with Mark Anthony was toxic, but she loved him and enjoyed the time they spent together. Zennell began a relationship with Mark about nine months ago after she and her husband mutually separated.

At first, like any other relationship, Mark was a caring and understanding partner but after a few months, things began getting worse.

He became extremely possessive and jealous. Zennell explained that after her marriage ended, she moved

Zennell Persaud-Joseph and her boyfriend Mark Anthony

back to her parents’ Foulis, East Coast Demerara home, which is a stone’s throw away from where Mark lives. She currently works as a sales girl in Georgetown.

The couple would normally have heated arguments over petty things such as text messages or her having conversations with other people. The first instance of physical violence was a few months into their relationship while having drinks at a bar. Zennell was sitting on a stool when Mark started an argument which resulted in him kicking her to the side of her stomach in the crowded bar. The other instance was when they were hanging out with friends at a bar-be-que when he dealt her several slaps for no apparent reason.

“People knew that I was actually in this abusive relationship and people keep telling me Zennell you should get out because this is not healthy for you. I told him that he can’t be hitting me because since I am small I am travelling with a headache and he knew of my head injury,” she said.

As time progressed, so did the level of violence in their relationship, but Zennell stayed because she felt that she could change Mark. She wanted to show him that she was faithful and loved only him but the jealousy clouded that judgement and on Caricom Day this year, she saw him at his worst.

Recounting the day’s events, Zennell said earlier in the day she was out at the Enmore seawalls on a fishing trip with her friend’s family and would have in-

formed Mark of her whereabouts while he was on a drinking spree. At some point, one of her co-workers and her husband from La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara visited her and after that, she left with them to celebrate the couple’s anniversary.

When she returned home later in the evening, Mark began accusing her of being unfaithful while verbally abusing her and they got into an intense argument.

Later in the night, he called her and continued his abuse rant but she disconnected the phone after which he sent her a message asking her to visit his home. She left the house without informing anyone and after arriving at Mark’s, she was told to leave.

“So I turned my back and took three steps and from behind he came and start hitting me and start accusing me of being unfaithful. While he keep talking he keep hitting me constantly. One cuff after the next till I fell on the ground and he stomp me in my head. He kicked me and he keep hitting me. He start thumping me down the road right through, start pushing me, eventually he hit me behind my head again and I fell and when I fell it is like if I lose consciousness and when I do catch back myself, he was still hitting me and I start bleeding from my mouth and nose. He was hoisting me and lashing me down, that was when I was unconscious.”

Zennell says Mark was taking her to the friend she had gone fishing with to verify her story and while walk-

ing over there, he was repeatedly hitting her while she screamed in pain and begged for mercy. Eventually someone saw what was happening and informed her parents after which her father and brother rushed to the scene. However, Mark saw them approaching and quickly made good his escape.

“Eventually I went to my friend and cried and told her what happened and we took a taxi and went to Enmore Police Station and they gave me a medical. I was at the Georgetown Public Hospital doing my medical whole night and I came home like 6:30 this morning because I had to go through X-rays and blood tests,” Zennell recounts.

On Tuesday morning, she revisited the Police station where she gave a detailed statement and was sent away by officers. She had been receiving threats from Mark throughout the day but the Police did nothing and it was only after she got into contact with a senior official did the ranks at the Enmore Police Station act on the report.

“It is the end of it (the relationship) because numerous times he hit me. I go black and blue in my hands. I got slap my mouth, burst up and I keep forgiving him. How long am I going to keep forgiving him? At this moment, I could see that he wanted to kill me. If it was not for my father and brother, I would be dead by now.”

Zennell is advising all women who are in abusive relationships to ensure that they remove themselves before it is too late.

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JULY 8 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 5

A grandmother's story

A

Mala Mahabir

“

fter they saw everything on the news and then the newspaper too, he know that his mother died. But I still sit him down and I talked to him and explain things to him. Now I have him with me and I have to be strong for him. I can’t breakdown every time I miss her because he will be affected too,” says Mala Mahabir.

Mala’s 25-year-old step-

daughter, Simone Hackett, was brutally murdered by her reputed husband Clevaughn Hamilton on April 16, 2016 leaving behind their then three-yearold son Clevaughn Jr. According to information, sometime around 20:30hrs he called Hackett out of her 2968 ‘C’ Field Sophia home to collect a package for their son’s birthday and then he showed up. He told investigators that an argument ensued and while they were at a dark spot, he choked her from behind and began stabbing her. He then dumped her body in a trench between Third and Fourth streets, Cummings Lodge where Simone’s body was later discovered in a decomposed state.

He then fled to Mahdia where he was apprehended and charged for the crime.

The duo were separated for over a year prior to the murder after he would have repeatedly abused her.

Mala told the Sunday Magazine that losing Simone was hard on the family but her son took it

A grown Clevaughn Jr

the worse. Despite him not fully understanding the circumstances surrounding his mother’s death he does miss her dearly.

Clevaughn Jr. is now in the care of his grandmother and grandfather. Mala says that right now they have to be strong since he is growing up and would usually ask questions they are unable to provide answers to.

Since his mother’s death, Clevaughn would have developed some medical complications that are being dealt with.

“So far one time we went home with the papers and we didn’t notice the article in the papers and when he saw the article and pictures he took in and started to panic. He get an asthma attack and since then he travelling with that. We are trying our best to give him the best life he can get. We want him to remember her but not be sad about it. Should be so happy to see how big he grow,” Mala said.

Clevaughn Jr. just finished the Budding Roses Nursery School and is preparing to start Primary in September. His grandmother describes him as a fun and smart child. However, she could not contain her sadness when remembering Simone whom she raised from the age of 10.

“At times your emotion take hold of you but as I said you have to let the emotion go because you cannot keep breaking down in

Simone and Clevaughn Jr

front of him. We was close.

I take care of her since she was about 10. She lived with me and I don’t tell people I have step children she is my daughter because she grow with me and she lived with me till prior to her death.”

Mala is leaving no stones unturned to ensure her grandson has the best life and explains that he is at-

tending Private Schools since it was his mother’s desire for him to have the best education. In addition, to help deal with the psychological trauma Clevaughn Jr. is receiving counselling and therapy.

“The hurt never goes away but you got to deal with it one day at a time,” she said.

6 Sunday Times Magazine

JULY 8 , 2018

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Domestic Violence – A child's perspective

By Lakhram Bhagirat

I

have known Ricky (not real name) for over two decades and we are great friends.

When I first approached him with the idea of sharing how violence in the home affects the children, he was more than willing to assist, but his mother was not that enthusiastic.

So in order to preserve her identity, we have changed Ricky’s name and this is his story.

“She would scream while we watched helplessly as he would cuff and kick her about her body. It became a norm because we expected it every Saturday night when he came home drunk. But it got worse as the years went on and the number of us increased. It was bad and I try to bury those memories,” Ricky tells me during our chat.

Ricky is now almost 30 and he says the scars caused by witnessing his mother being abused runs deep. Now he battles his inner demons, finding it hard to love anyone; much less have a relationship, get married or even have children of his own.

Taking me back to his younger days, Ricky said he would pray that his mother does everything right and that his father would not notice if she slips up, especially on a Saturday. Being the middle child, Ricky was often neglected by his father and there was only so much his mother could have offered.

His mother met his father when she was only 19 years old and he was 22. They quickly fell in love and could not wait to be married so they eloped and within the first year, they had their first child and shortly after came the second one. His father was not an educated man and his mother was forced to drop out of school because of poverty but she had the potential to do exceptional things if the opportunity was there.

His father worked as a gardener for a number of years and shortly after Ricky was conceived, his father’s life started to go downhill.

He became hooked on drugs and the abuse intensified. The number of children also increased by two.

Ricky says he would still ask his mother why she stayed and the answer remains the same to this day. “I had to stay. I never wuk a day in my life and I had five children, so where I coulda tek them and go? I stayed with he because I had to depend on he,” she would say and that was exactly what she told me when I asked her.

However, everything came to an abrupt end

alternative family in his head where the parents about one year after Ricky’s youngest sibling was are loving and life is good. born. Their father emptied the house, took everyHe is now grown and afraid to start a family of thing and moved back home with his mother. When his own because he cannot get over the psychologihe left, Ricky’s mother was forced to immediately cal trauma.

He is in therapy. He wants to be a fabegin job hunting to take care of the children and ther and a good husband. she did exactly that. To this day she is there for “I am broken in ways that are hard to mend but them financially and emotionally whenever they I am trying real hard to fix myself. I will be fixed need her. and life will be better,” he assured me.

I asked Ricky to give me one good memory he had with his father and after a long pause he began to say “I remember one time, it was my birthday and it was a Sunday so he drink up good the night before and come home and cuss up and fight up but the next day he called all my cousins to celebrate my birthday. My mother wanted to be happy for me but she was sad because she knew we had no money to cook anything nice or even bake a cake. She told him that and by that time, he was already drunk again so he took the kero stove and throw it out the window and she had cooked pumpkin and rice, he took that and throw it away. The You've got that look again cussing started. She cried silently. I It is a sure thing ... there will be pain was shattered and I cried not beI try to make things calm, quiet and fast cause I wanted a cake but because You try to justify, lie and buck pass I knew what was coming next.”

Please don't put me in a box Ricky said after that incident his father left home and came It doesn't hurt anymore, that's just how it goes back later even more drunk.

I can cope; survive as long as the world never knows This heightened drunk state Keep my cards to my chest and my true feelings very near forced the mother and her chilBut you are getting more powerful, your greatest weapon; my fear dren to flee the house through Please don't put me in a box a window, so as to protect the children and herself from the A moment of clarity, I'm not protecting them, like I think impending beating.

My greatest failing, my babies, I begin to sink When I asked Ricky how this Do to me what you can; they are my reason to fight affected him, he smiled. He told Tear up all the carpets, there's no where left to put this out of sight me that to this day his single But, please don't put me in a box status tells so much about him.

He related that he knows nothing There are agencies a plenty desperate to stand by our side about a relationship and certainly They promise to make a difference; there will be a change of tide lost faith in the institution of marStop, shock horror there is a pigeon hole on reserve riage.

Wasn't expecting that, a real ball with a curve “Quite often the children of doWhy are you putting me in a box? mestic violence is not so much talked about. Because I am a male, society I have rights, and a voice, how loud must I be before I am heard does not expect me to be affected but I This is all mixed up, not me, the system; crazy and disturbed slipped into depression. I lost faith in love Now it's you with that look again and I am lonely but society doesn’t care And I've got shame, isolation and even more pain about that,” he said.

Why are you putting me in a box?

Ricky says he was able to battle with the violence but engrossing himself in his books which saw him excelling academically. He also created an

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 8 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 7

Literary Corner

Preserving our literary heritage by

Petamber Persaud

(Extract of interview with Oliver Hinckson, December 24, 2007, Georgetown, Guyana.

Hinckson won the Casa de las Americas Literary Prize in 1978 for his first novel Enemy Within. It was reported in the local press that Hinckson passed away recently.)

P

P: You are now part of a group of significant Guyanese writers who have won the Casa de las America Literary Prize; writers like John Agard, N. D. Williams, Fred D’Aguiar and recently Mark McWatt. How does it feel to be part of that distinguished body of writers?

OH: You mentioned some dignified names. I was always impressed with Mc Watt and his writing. But when I got a letter three months after winning the prize from Jan Carew and he was fulsome in praise; to my mind I couldn’t ask for greater glorification.

Jan Carew is the doyen of literature after C. L. R. James whom I consider the greatest Caribbean writer ever, but it is an honour to be amongst these guys – it has taken a long time. In fact, Carew’s letter has encouraged me to keep on writing but I got caught up in business. However, I still managed to finish three books.

PP: By what means were you informed of winning the prize?

OH: In actuality I was on the run from the … government [of the day]; I’m not casting any aspersions on the [……Government] or whatever but that’s how it was – I was on the run. Having come out of the army from the Intelligence Corps, some people might have been paranoid; they felt that a few other ex-officers and I might be a threat. So I had some serious problems with them and I had to evade/take evasive action so to speak. During my sojourn, if you could call it that, the runners from the Cuban Embassy came with a telegram written in Spanish and gave it to my mother who got it to me very quickly.

Through my basic knowledge of Portuguese, I was able then to interpret…. especially the word, ‘premio’ which means prize.

PP: What was the feeling then - you said you were on the run, your thriller/espionage book a prize winner… on the run and you got this wonderful news, what did you make of the moment?

OH: That is the best and most profound I had heard in the longest while. As a matter of fact, that was what convinced me to give myself up in 1978. I was on the run for two years, and I decided based on what Jan Carew had told me – that is…. he sees some future in this whole thing; it means I have potential as a writer, it was convincing enough. So I said let me get

this matter off my back.

The moment was euphoric of course. But it is nice to win anything; I am telling you even if you go to the fair and win a bottle of rum, it feels good.

PP: Since the book, Enemy Within, won the prize, almost thirty years [ago]….

What are the factors responsible for bringing this book to publication a whole generation later, and I am stressing this particular length of time?

OH: Well, let me do this in reverse. The fact that it has come out after thirty years does have some nuances in a scenario that kept this book suppressed so long. The Cubans did write and say they would publish this book but then they were some political implications and they said I have written a book and submitted under my son’s name which is Kacey and they used that as a reason or pretext to say they can’t publish the book.

I then submitted to Longmans Publishers of England and they did write me a letter saying that they were impressed with it – they particularly mentioned that the characters breathed a sense of life and so on, and that the book was full of description. They did write and say they would publish it.

Two weeks after that, again, I got a letter saying they couldn’t do it. They did not specify any reason. I clearly remember Longmans saying that; it was a personal interview, I went up to England in 1981 and the editor told me personally she was going to publish it in the African and Pacific and Caribbean Series first and then go worldwide.

I was crushed when I came back down to Guyana and got this notification saying everything is off.

PP: You said you were crushed. Do you think there was something in the book… let me extend this question and rephrase it? This is a first book and many first novels tend to be autobiographical; could it be that that is what caused the publishing houses to shy away from publishing it?

OH: No doubt you have read the book and many others have read the book which was issued in America over the Labour Day weekend but there is nothing political in the book. As a matter of fact that formula is factual, it was discovered by laboratory analysts at the Linden mine and I read that article in the newspaper and I said, wow, at a time like this when Guyana needed a boost with its economy, this is 1978, the IDB was turning the screws on …. Government [of the day] and we were suffering the impact of the hike in oil prices, nothing there political. A lot of the intrigue in the book is based on the fact that

I worked in the intelligence service. And you know every writer is influenced by some previous writer.

PP: And whom were you influenced by?

OH: Alistair McLean was my favourite writer; in fact he had a strong influence on me particularly because I wanted to move away from the Caribbean style of writing where you harp on the nigger yard and the stand pipe and so on. You hardly have Caribbean writers doing spy thrillers.

PP: Not many names to mention here but Guyanese Christopher Nicole is one

and the two of us have put together a marketing strategy on how to get it on the shelves of the big houses abroad especially Random House.

PP: Which is an excellent move on your part - marketing. Which is what is needed by local writers apart from a few other things like good editorial advice and writers workshops. This cannot be overemphasised, marketing, marketing, marketing – we need to market ourselves as writers and our product also.

So I am delighted with this move by you and your daughter to market the book and hope emerging writers take

such writer with an amazing output – over eighty novels! Michelle Fitzpatrick – two slim volumes, Godfrey Wray – one down and one on its way. So Enemy Within would be a pioneering effort in a genre of writing still to be fully explored by our writers.

Where do see yourself, where do you see this book, this type of writing going in the near future?

OH: Well, you know, we tend to judge whenever it’s a sportsman, an athlete, or whatever by past performance. Everyone who has read the book so far including the esteemed Jan Carew and the prolix praises heaped on the book gave me a lot of hope that I can pull it off. I also have evidence from Penguin Books where they said there were many good points in the book especially the live characterisations and the pacing of the work.

I did marketing at UG, my daughter has an MBA

note.

Let’s look at the novel of mystery and intrigue. For me it was smooth, too smooth, very slick….

OH: Too slick? First of all, as I said before, this book was written while I was on the run and it was written in six weeks. Now it was almost twice this size and Longman Publishers of England said it was too long to be a thriller. So immediately I learnt something that thrillers should not be too long. And when you look at the size of Earl Stanley Gardner, James Hadley Chase and Alistair McLean – they are basically 140 pages or so; quick, fast, nasty and over with.

In terms of the book being too slick it is because you were convinced by the characters.

PP: And numerous descriptions of local scenery which slowed down the action but also added to the intrigue.

Now which is the real ti-

Notice to Readers

tle: Enemy Within on the cover or The Enemy Within on the title page?

OH: Enemy Within…the first time I heard this phrase was in a speech by John F. Kennedy....

PP: I asked this because ‘the’ is a definite article, pointing your finger to a particular object/subject.

Now with Enemy Within as Godfrey Wray mentioned, points to many things. Were you writing as the conscience of the nation?

OH: That question speaks a lot…can be quite revealing.

If you are on the run during the [.... government] of the day, everybody, everybody fancies himself to be a KGB agent and everybody is out to get you. There were massive posters of me all over the country, police stations, ferry stellings etc. It was a new phenomenon in this country, and in my sight, to be singled out in this era when the maximum leader had everybody under his control; you know he was a populist leader, very charismatic and everybody seemed to want to please him. He was also paranoid about army men and at the time there were many coups in Africa, leaders who had visited this country were overthrown. Then there was the Rodney phenomenon and the WPA giving the government blows left, right and centre; massive rallies, great support from every quarter… take all of that into account, there was an enemy in every hole.

PP: This book, Enemy Within surfacing some thirty years ago shows what could happen in a Guyana that is somewhat laidback, complacent, where everything in the society seem nice and rosy, at least on the surface, where things are brewing below the surface that the masses may not be privy to….

OH: Professor Lear Matthews who is at New York University wrote a little critique on the book and those were his exact sentiments. He saw it from that perspective that here it was in a society… as you said, laidback, the enemy was outside there willing to do whatever it took to usurp the sovereignty of this state and the economic potential of this state – those were his exact sentiments.

PP: I noticed with many first books, like many first achievements, you have dedicated this book to your mother - ‘All that I am I owe to her. Everything I have I owe to her’. Of course, I’d like you to expand on the impact your mother has on your life and writing.

OH: Any man, any child, any boy will tell you his mom is the greatest person on the face of the earth. And I honestly feel this having passed through so many unsavoury

Oliver Hinckson

experiences with people. We grew up in a one-parent family, I was the last child. One incident my mother use to recall was her hurrying with me down to St. Mary’s School to write the government county scholarship, in those days there were only 15 scholarships offered to the whole country. So there were thousands of 10-year olds and 11year olds hoping to make the mark to QC, Saints, Rose’s or Bishops. At that time you had Sacred Heart in Main Street and St Mary’s with Mr. Arokium and Mr. Walcott respectively, those two gentlemen were the greatest teachers arguably in the history of this country…. nobody can refute that. And every year they produced the county scholarship winners and I was fortunate to be one of the fifteen.

And having been a Catholic all the days of my life, having attended Sacred Heart and having been an altar boy and choir boy, Saints follows and I have no regrets, it taught me how to mix and mingle PP: The Jesuits [are] celebrating 150 of service in Guyana OH: Fantastic Jesuits, all of them with a Masters degree …so it was like going to a mini-university and unto this day I honour and adore Fr. Scanell because with my second term I was granted another scholarship, a Wm. Fogarty’s Scholarship, so I went through there [Saints] on two scholarships having been a very poor boy, you know and the Jesuits made life easy for me; I love them, that’s all I can say. And I love my mother and cherish those memories.

PP: Now to the future; I like the name of one of the two titles you’d be publishing in 2008: Cry Havoc OH: And Let slip the dogs of War PP: What is Cry Havoc made of?

OH: Cry Havoc encapsulates all that has happened from 2002 to 2007 in Guyana especially after the jail break and the massacre that followed… the political overtone… it’s action packed, it’s over 400 pages. I have the emery cloth and the sandpaper out polishing it up.

PP: In this season of good will and with Janus coming, I am looking forward to see how you deal with that period of our history, still awfully fresh in our minds.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

If you have a poem and/or short story you would like to publish on our Literary Corner page, please email to timessundaymag@gmail.com. Kindly include your correct name and a contact number in your email. If you have any questions, please call 223-7230 or 223-7231.

8 Sunday Times Magazine Travel and Tourism

A

lot of us must have heard about the village of Kwakwani but because of its remoteness and the hassle of getting there, we would have never visited. So come and let us explore Kwakwani together and discover all it has to offer.

Kwakwani is home to more than 4000 people and located along the bank of the Berbice River. The main economic activities within the village are mining and logging, since it is one of the many gateways to the interior of Guyana. Kwakwani can be accessed by both water and land through Linden in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). The village is located some 100 kilometres south of Linden. The other way to get to Kwakwani would be from New Amsterdam via the Berbice River, but mainly bauxite transporters use this route, according to residents.

The approximately three hours bus ride to the village is one that awakens the sense of adventure in you as you pass through the old bauxite mines and come into contact with the lush green forests. The sounds of birds chirping or water flowing from natural wells make it all the more enjoyable.

When you enter the village, the warmth and hospitality afforded to you is a testament to the type of people that coexist in Kwakwani. Since mining and logging are the main economic activities, there are certain ills associated with the community. Kwakwani has its fair share of problems in the form of bad roads, drug and substance abuse as well as teenage pregnancies. But according to the residents they are banding together as a community to address the social ills and calling on those in authority to address infrastructural and other issues.

Kwakwani has a lot of creeks and pools ideal for liming and enjoying family time. In addition, the village has its own schools and hospital to tend to its residents. However, like the patients of every other remote hospital, residents would have to travel to Linden or Georgetown for specialised care.

So if you are up for an adventure, get a crew, hop on a bus, and enjoy the bumpy ride to Kwakwani. (photos by Rayston Downer)

JULY 8 , 2018

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Sunday Times Magazine

9

10 Sunday Times Magazine

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Local talent

W

hile it was not always a bed of roses for us while growing up and we would have had our fair share of challenges, for Kelvin Fortune he prayed for the good days since the bad ones were far outnumbering the good ones. Kelvin is almost 30 and is now about to share part of his story with the world, through his movie “Choices.”

As the name suggest, the movie is all about living with the consequences of our choices and how they affect the lives of, not only us, but also those around us. The movie is about a young man (Timothy) who is living a hard life with his single mother. He dreams of becoming an optician and while working with an optical company, he meets and falls in love with a young woman.

Like many youths, Timothy is head over heels but his mother disapproves because she knows of the girl’s character. The girl usually sleeps with men for money and material things but Timothy feels it is different with him and pursues her. After some time, the girl gets pregnant for Timothy and later discovers

s h e is HIV positive but was living with Timothy at the time.

What happens next will be revealed when “Choices” is released.

L i k e T i m o t h y , Kelvin says some of the events in the m o v ie are depictions of what occurred in his earlier life and the lessons he learned.

At the tender age of six, Kelvin saw his family ripped to shreds when his father walked out and according to him, things only went downhill from there.

His siblings would move on to live with his grandmother and aunts but he remained with his mother Patricia.

He felt as though she needed someone to be there with her so he remained and it was the beginning of an unstable childhood for him. He attended the Smyth Street Nursery and later Ketley Primary School but because of the effects of his family life, his education suffered. He, despite having the potential, did not push himself.

“Everyone knows Kelvin was a bright child growing

up but was faced with many difficult and painful challenges in life. Kelvin grew up in a family full of drama, disagreements and separation. His life was never stable around his family due to many personal problems around each other,” Kelvin says.

While preparing to sit the National Grade Six Assessment (the Common Entrance Examination), Kelvin got the shock of his

life when he found out his mother was diagnosed with both cancer and HIV. Being young, he could not comprehend with the severity of his mother’s illness but knew her days were numbered.

“While I was going to school I would have to help bathe my mother, cook for her and wash her clothes while my siblings and other family lived a happy and normal life.”

In 2001, his mother collapsed in the apartment where they lived. Blood was gushing from her mouth and it was at that point Kelvin said he knew his mother were dying. On March 15, 2001, his mother passed on and though expected, the loss hit Kelvin harder than expected.

“While trying to cope with my mother's death and still pursue my education, I still was trying to understand the continuous dispute and confusion among my family. My family was lack of love, kindness and understanding towards me,” Kelvin recounts.

Kelvin has a passion for entertaining people and making them laugh. He loves writing poems, short films, songs, drama and is into overall youth development.

His love for drama is what got him into the business, which led to him writing his first movie script.

For those who are thinking whether they should follow their passion or not, Kelvin advises them to forge full force ahead and realise their full potential.

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Sunday Times Magazine 11

Home & Cooking

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igger is not always better, especially when we’re talking kitchens. Small kitchens are usually more efficient workspaces than large ones. Space and good design aren’t exclusive to a large kitchen — all you need are some good small kitchen decorating ideas that keep your small space organized, functional and beautiful.

We’ve put together some small-kitchen decorating ideas that tackle the following issues with good design solutions. The three most common small-kitchen complaints are clutter, lack of counter space and a dark kitchen.

Ingredients

1-12 oz package Breakfast Sausage Links 4 semi ripe plantains, 1 red onion, sliced 1 red pepper, cut into squares 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tsp olive oil About 10 sprigs thyme ½ tsp black pepper ½-3/4 tsp salt 1 tsp chipotle seasoning (salt free) 2 scallion, finely chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel plantains, then cut into half-length wise then cut in piece into half lengthwise. Cut into small cubes.

Place cube plantains, red onion, red bell pepper, garlic, thyme, black pepper, salt, chipotle seasoning into a bowl and coat with olive oil and toss. Place into a 13×9 baking pan and place sausages on top.

Place into preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the sausages are cooked.

Remove from oven and garnish with chopped scallion. (Jehann Can Cook Blog)

Ingredients

1-15 oz can chickpeas (about 1 ½ cup cooked chickpeas) 2-5 oz can tuna in water 1 tsp crushed garlic ¼ cup diced red bell pepper 1/3 cup diced onions Zest of 1 lemon 1 wiri wiri pepper finely chopped (any hot pepper will do) 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp salt 1 tsp lemon juice ½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs 1 egg Oil to fry

Clutter

Clutter is usually a side effect of not having enough storage. Often, more storage isn’t the solution — simplifying and decluttering your kitchen is. Go through your cabinets and drawers (especially the back) and donate or toss anything that you haven’t used for a while. Ask yourself if you really need a cherry-pitting tool or an egg slicer. Once you’ve cleared the cabinets, clear the counters by storing the items that cause visual clutter.

and egg and mix well.

To form the patties, use a ¼ cup measuring cup to scoop out each patty and press to form a circle about ½ inch in thickness. In a frying pan over medium heat, add oil (about ½ in deep). When oil is hot fry patties on both sides until golden brown. When the edges become brown, flip to the other side and fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and place on a sheet lined with paper towel. Serve warm.

(Jehann Can Cook Blog)

Lack of Counter Space

You’ve reclaimed some counter space, but do you still feel like it’s not enough?

That’s a common issue. We have ideas for maximizing (and even adding) more counter space to your small kitchen, including a trick for turning your sink into a cutting board.

Instructions

Strain water from tuna making sure to remove excess water by pressing it with the back of a spoon through a strainer. Strain water from chickpeas and mash with a potato masher. The chickpeas should still have some texture and not mashed into a paste. Add strained tuna, garlic, bell pepper, onion, wiri wiri pepper, chopped parsley, lemon zest, black pepper, salt, lemon juice, breadcrumbs

A Dark Kitchen

Dark rooms feel smaller, so brighten up your walls with a fresh coat of paint in a light shade. If you love your rich, dark cabinets, add different types of lighting. Use undercabinet lighting to brighten the work area and accent your cabinets. Good lighting makes a kitchen look bigger, regardless of color.

Hideaway Furniture

Additional Shelving

Find places to add shelving for additional storage. A row of narrow shelves, added to a kitchen island, can be perfect for cookbooks. Look for additional places including corners, or over a counter.

Try a creative approach to maximize the functionality of your small kitchen.

Find ways to create a multipurpose space with practical furniture items that are useful but can be easily stored out of the way.

12 Sunday Times Magazine

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Puzzles

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ACROSS Juice, so to speak Twenty percent Krishna's land Loose Quiver Yucca kin Let know about (2 wds.)

Kate's sitcom friend Refuge From Machu Picchu Fairylike Iffy attempts Still exist Fortune-teller's deck Pricey fur Stockholm carrier Last letter Yellow jacket Bolshoi rival Swerves Nook or cranny Concur Tony or Oscar "In" crowd Hi-fi rigs Fresh growth Skipped town Touche provoker Explorer Henry -Sandbar Mr. Dangerfield 45 or 78 Drew to a close Drink noisily Goose eggs 1998 BP acquisition Aloha token Hits "send" Internet hookup Aftershock Let loose Humerus neighbor Fixes Han or Ming Mr. Spock's father Comfy-cozy Popped Foul-smelling gases 2.2-pound units Thank you, in Kyoto Wrestling style Disclose Birds that mew Last number Harley, to some Estimate Ms. Simon Forks over Soft purple Terrier threat Not lukewarm

106 Ballerina painter

107 Command

108 Sherpa's sighting

110 Employee IDs

111 Mystiques

112 They're classified (2 wds.)

113 Starbucks order

115 More mellow

116 Mr. Magoo's nephew

117 Fill the lungs

120 Limerick starter

122 "Tosca," e.g.

124 Pro - 128 Elephant's quarters 129 Rate

131 Whisper on stage

133 Equip again

135 Home page addr.

136 More competent

138 Cowboy's stray

140 Imported cheese

142 Diameter halves

144 Coeur d'-Mortarboard wearers

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146 Viper

147 Come together

148 Entered data

149 Everglades wader

150 Tractor pioneer

151 Wolfed down

DOWN 1 "Bah!"

2 "Pal Joey" penner 3 Makes bye-bye

4 Get by

5 Ripped apart

6 Pixies

7 Disregard

8 Ipso - 9 Dam-building grp.

10 Many layers

11 Growler

12 Canceled

13 Postpone

14 Grandson, perhaps

15 Jillian and Miller

16 Long low hound

17 Mi. above sea level

18 Potter's finish

19 Mocking comments

20 Toady's answers

31 Rubber city

33 Take advantage of

35 Hitch -- -

38 Do a grammar task

40 Noxious fumes

42 Once in a while

44 Middling grade

46 Rock shop curiosity

48 Decorate gifts

50 Hubble component

KATHLEEN SAXE

WORD GAME TODAY'S WORD -- INDELIBLY (INDELIBLY: in-DEL-ib-lee: With permanence or non-erasability.)

Average mark 26 words Time limit 40 minutes Can you find 37 or more words in INDELIBLY?

idle idly idyll illy inly deli dell deny diel dill dine dyne lend

libel lied lien lily lindy line liny bell belly bend bide bile bill

billy bind bine bled blend blind blindly blini byline yell yield

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

51 52 53 54 55 57 58 59 61 62 63 66 67 69 72 73 74 76 78 79 81 82

Closet nicety

Radio dial

Rabbitt or Murphy Gridiron coach Don -- Links warnings

Teen events

Orlando attraction Atlanta campus

Go stealthily

"Angie Baby" singer Tales

Car deals

Districts

Lamb and ham

Fresco Written reminders Innsbruck locale

Slalom runs

Pitcher of fame

"The Black Tulip" author "Witness" extras

Mountainous

83 84 85 86 87 88 90 91 92 94 95 96 99 100 102 105 106 107 109 111 112 114

Fillets a fish Humid Toughen up Turn away Waldheim and Cobain Prima donnas Kirk's lieutenant Relocated Curved moldings Deep-red gem The barber of Seville Make changes to Do horoscopes "Pretty Woman" lead Understudy Helena rival Tricked The One-L Lama Stevedores' grp.

Most blithe Battle Lord Tennyson

115 Dwell

116 Gardener, at times

117 Angler -- Walton

118 Lofty

119 Like an old sock 121 Snert's master

123 Straitlaced person

125 Look at the books 126 Banal 127 Non-earthling

130 Slight advantage

132 "By Jove!"

134 For real

137 Vane dir.

139 Assoc.

141 Lyric poem

143 Wheel buy (2 wds.)

See Solution on Pg 13

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Sunday Times Magazine 13

Tech

F

P

okemon games have been consistently popular. Still, the latest entrant to the franchise has had an impressive performance even by those high standards.

The mobile version of Pokemon Quest launched last week and it has already racked up roughly $3 million in revenue, according to Sensor Tower, an app intelligence company. The game has also been installed 3.5 million times on mobile de-

W

e are still a f e w weeks away from the August 9th unveiling for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9, but details have begun to trickle out about one of the biggest changes reportedly coming to the iconic S-Pen stylus: Bluetooth, spotted by Droid Life in the Note 9’s FCC filing.

The filing just confirms that the new S-Pen will have Bluetooth functionality in some way, but people have speculated on Twitter that Samsung will be using it as a multi-purpose Bluetooth button. If that is the case, the button could let users do things like start and

vices, Sensor Tower reported.

About 56 percent of the revenue came from Apple's App Store, while Google Play generated the rest, Sensor Tower said. Roughly 31 percent of the users are in Japan, 25 percent in the US and 12 percent in South Korea.

Pokemon Company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pokemon Company announced the game for

Nintendo Switch in May. The company said the game was a simplified, Minecraftlike experience. It added the game would be "free to start," meaning it's free to download and play with inapp purchases are available.

Pokemon Quest was developed by Game Freak, featuring simple touchscreen controls. In addition to the App Store and Google Play, it's available on the Nintendo eShop. (CNet)

stop timers, control music, take photos, or even possibly answer or hang up on calls. It is also easy to imagine Samsung giving the Bluetoothequipped stylus other features, like a Tileesque location option for tracking the pen in case you lose it (or using the pen to find your phone by triggering an alert or a noise.)

We will presumably find out the extent of the S-Pen’s new abilities come August, when Samsung formally announces the Note 9. In the meantime, it is exciting to see that Samsung is continuing to explore all the possibilities when it comes to making its accessories more useful. (The Verge)

ne of China's biggest technology companies has declared it has begun mass production of a selfdriving bus. Baidu made the announcement after building its 100th Apolong vehicle at its factory in the country's southeastern Fujian province.

It said the vehicles would initially be put to commercial use within Chinese cities but added it was also targeting foreign markets. The company is one of several competing to sell "level-4 autonomy" buses.

The classification - set by the transport engineering body SAE International - refers to highly automated driving systems that can cope with most driving conditions, even if a human fails to respond appropriately to a request to intervene.

It is one step below the maximum level-5 tier, which extends to all driving scenar-

Crossword Solution

acebook's algorithms have ruled that parts of the US Declaration of Independence are hate speech and removed excerpts of them posted to the platform.

In the run-up to Independence Day, a US community paper based in Texas had been posting small daily chunks of the historic document on its Facebook page.

At issue was a part of it that referred to "merciless Indian savages".

Facebook later apologised and allowed the posting.

The Liberty County Vindicator - which is currently unavailable in the EU - had been sharing excerpts from America's founding document to its Facebook page in an attempt to encourage historical

literacy among its readers.

Part 10 did not appear, with the paper receiving a notice from Facebook saying the post went against its standards on hate speech.

Editor Casey Stinnett wrote afterwards of the offending paragraph: "Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson written it as 'Native Americans at a challenging stage of cultural development' that would have been better.

"Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans."

The newspaper later confirmed that Facebook had had a change of heart and apologised.

"It looks like we made a

O

M

icrosoft may be working on a Movies & TV app for iOS and Android, anonymous sources told Windows Central.

Last October, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 mobile was effectively dead, and began making versions of its best Windows 10 apps for iOS and Android. Since then, Microsoft has promoted apps like its web brows-

ios, including dirt roads and unusual weather conditions.

Baidu's chief executive, Robin Li, detailed its plans at the company's annual artificial intelligence developer conference in Beijing.

The Apolong bus can seat up to 14 people, and has been developed with a local vehicle manufacturer. It has no driver's seat, steering wheel or pedals. It runs on electric power and can travel up to 100km

(62 miles) after a two-hour charge, at up to 70km/h.

Baidu envisages it being used for "last-mile" drop-offs within enclosed areas, such as airports and tourist sites. The company said partners would soon put it to use in Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan and other Chinese cities. It added that a deal with Japan's Softbank Group could also bring the vehicle to Tokyo's roads.

In a separate Japanese-

er Edge and the Microsoft Launcher, but left out apps like Movies & TV, which is only available on PC, Xbox, and Windows 10 Mobile browsers.

If the app were to arrive

on iOS and Android, it could compete against the likes of iTunes, Google Play Movies & TV, and other platforms. iTunes, in particular, has already demonstrated its popularity among Windows

mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn't go against our community standards," the company told the Vindicator.

"We want to apologise and let you know that we've restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action."

In a blogpost, assistant editor of political magazine Reason Christian Britschgi said the decision demonstrated the problem with automated searches for hate speech.

"A robot trained to spot politically incorrect language isn't smart enough to detect when that language is part of a historically significant document," he said. (BBC)

language press release, Softbank said it intended to start using 10 Apolongs for "demonstration tests" within Japan by early 2019.

Softbank's self-drive subsidiary, SB Drive, had previously bought several self-drive shuttle buses from a rival operation - the French start-up Navya. It demonstrated their use in level-3 mode - where a human is expected to take control if required - at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in February.

Navya's self-drive buses have also been put to use by others at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and the streets of Las Vegas.

Other companies, including France's Easymile, Australia's Intellibus and South Korea's KT, have developed autonomous buses of their own. (BBC)

fans: before it arrived in Microsoft’s Windows Store in April, it was one of the most searched for apps that wasn’t available in the store.

Still, the sources told Window Central not to expect the iOS app and Android app version of Movies & TV anytime soon, as work is supposedly in progress. (The Verge)

14 Sunday Times Magazine

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Bollywood/Hollywood

O T

he news about Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre suffering from high-grade cancer left her friends and fans shocked on Wednesday.

Releasing a statement, the actor revealed, “Sometimes when you least expect it, life throws you a curveball.

I have recently been diagnosed with high-grade cancer that has metastasized, which we frankly did not see coming.” As soon as Sonali tweeted about her medical condition, love and best wishes started pouring in for the Sarfarosh actor. Seeing the love and considering the actor’s fighter attitude, Sonali’s sister-inlaw Shrishti Arya is positive that she will be cured soon.

“Sonali is a fighter. She

C

ardi B is going after the ex-manager who sued her for $10 million ... and claims he was way too controlling of her career and her personal life ... including her relationship with Offset.

Cardi filed her countersuit Thursday in federal court, and in the docs she says Shaft set up a management deal with her that she considers far too one-sided.

According to the suit, Shaft got a 20% commission, but tried to bag even more dough off her Sony music publishing deal. Cardi says he demanded 50% of that deal!

She claims Shaft also tried to control every aspect of her life -- putting "barriers between her and people

H

will definitely prevail. She has a lot of positive energy. She will be back. We are all very grateful for the outpouring of love,” Shrishti said during an interview with Spotboye.com. In the interaction, Shrishti also mentioned how it was as sudden and shocking for her family as it was for the fans of the actor. She said, “Yes, it happened suddenly. Aisi sab baatein suddenly hi hoti hain.”

Sonali in her statement also mentioned, “There is no better way to tackle this than to take swift and immediate action. And so, as advised by my doctors, I am currently undergoing a course of treatment in New York. We remain optimistic and I am determined to fight

every step of the way. What has helped has been the immense outpouring of love and support I’ve received over the past few days, for which I am very grateful.”

The actor is in New York with husband Goldie Behl and is undergoing treatment. She was visited by Akshay Kumar recently and was showered with a lot of blessings from her industry friends like Farah Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi and others.

Sonali was last seen judging TV reality show India’s Best Dramebaaz and her last appearance on the silver screen was in 2013 release Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara. (Indian Express)

n Thursday, Jennifer Lopez shared an image during the holiday to Instagram. And the shot, taken in New York's Hamptons area, was eye popping for two reasons.

Not only did the World Of Dance star show off her figure in a hot pink bathing suit, but she also flashed a ring on her wedding finger that may or may not be from beau of over one year, Alex Rodriguez.

The star captioned the image, 'It’s the lil quiet moments that matter the most.'

She had on a hat and smiled at the former baseball pro as they took in a beach day.

The star often wears her own bling, but it was interesting that she had this ring on her wedding finger. The media savvy veteran must have known what a stir it would cause. Lopez has addressed the possibility of marry Alex over and over. Earlier this year, the Shades Of Blue actress released a song about putting a ring on it.

But she argued in an interview that was just a song and she is in no rush to wed

again. Her last husband is crooner Marc Anthony with whom she has twins Max and Emme, 10. She was also been married to Ojani Noa from 1997 until 1998 and then Cris Judd from 2001 until 2003.

In a recent interview with GMA, Lopez addressed engagement rumors to Alex.

“We have to take our time. I've made plenty of mistakes in my past,” she said.

“We're mature. We're grownups. We're going to take our time and take things at our own pace. Our life right now

is incredibly wonderfully.

Between our kids and our work, we're truly blessed.

We don't need anything more right now.”

The couple have been seemingly inseparable since going public with their relationship back in February 2017. Just days ago, Alex and Jennifer were spotted at the CC Sabathia's Celebrity Softball Game at Yankees Stadium, a fundraiser for A-Rod's PitCCh In Foundation.

Netflix series amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

In the clip, Wright dons a blue dress and stares directly into the camera before saying, 'Happy Independence Day … to me,' hearkening her character as the commanderin-chief, with the hashtag #MyTurn.

In the show's storyline, Claire replaced Spacey’s character Frank Underwood as the president at the conclusion of the program's fifth season, as he had a scheme to hold on to his power. But production on the political drama was suspended, and Spacey was fired early last November amid more than a dozen men stepping forward to accuse the Oscar-winning actor of sexual misconduct.

Those allegations began with actor Anthony Rapp, who said he was 14 when Spacey, then 26, made aggressive advances on him in 1986.

The show's sixth season will feature eight episodes, with series regulars Jayne Atkinson, Derek Cecil,

Patricia Clarkson, Michael Kelly, Boris McGiver and Constance Zimmer all slated to return.

Veteran entertainers Greg Kinnear and Diane Lane are also slated to join the cast of the series.

Last December, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos announced that the program was returning for a final frame in a move that saved 370 cast and crew jobs, along with 2,000 people in Baltimore who have been employed by the show during filming in the Charm City.

He said of the show at the New York-based Global Media and Communications Conference, 'It will not involve Kevin Spacey. It will star Robin Wright. And we’re really excited about bringing some closure to the show for fans.'

Spacey's ouster from the network was a costly one, as the company told Newsweek that getting rid of the embattled actor cost about $39 million in the form of abandoned projects, including a Gore Vidal biopic he starred in.

Sues Him for $15 Million

close to her in an effort to maintain complete control over her." In the suit, she says that bled over into her dating life, with Shaft telling her "who she should and should not see romantically."

ere’s a new feather on Priyanka Chopra’s decorated hat. The Quantico actor has crossed the 25 million followers mark on Instagram, leaving behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amitabh Bachchan on the photo-sharing platform.

Modi has 13.5 million followers, while Big B has a score of 9.5 million. Priyanka, 35, is also ahead of Virat Kohli (22.7 million), Shah Rukh Khan (13.3 million), Salman Khan (17.3 million), Aamir Khan (1.2 million) and Deepika Padukone (24.9 million).

Fondly called as the “Desi girl”, Priyanka thanked her fans for

As we reported, Shaft sued Cardi back in April claiming he made her a star and she cut him off financially.

Cardi's suing Shaft for more than $15 million.

(TMZ)

showering her with so much of love.

“25 million strong… Thank you for the love… Love you right back,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories on Thursday. A former Miss World, Priyanka carved her niche in Hindi cinema world before making inroads into Hollywood, beginning by launching a singing career and then landing the lead role in American television show Quantico.

The show gave her global popularity, which

R

obin Wright will reprise her role as Claire Underwood in House of Cards - this time as the president of the United States - in a teaser for the show's sixth season. This season will mark the first without Kevin Spacey after the actor's exodus from the

also led her to bag the villain’s role in Baywatch and also a part in A Kid Like Jake. Now she is keeping the paparazzi busy as she is rumoured to be in a relationship with pop singer Nick Jonas, who has a following of 15.5 million on Instagram.

Priyanka is an ardent user of digital platforms and uses social media to stay connected with her fans and followers. On the acting front, Priyanka will soon be seen sharing screen space with Salman in the upcoming film Bharat, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.

Priyanka will be teaming up with Salman on the big screen after a gap of 11 years, after their last appearance in God Tussi Great Ho in 2008. Bharat is an official adaptation of a 2014 South Korean film Ode To My Father. (Indian Express)

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JULY 8 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 15

16 Sunday Times Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 8 , 2018

Fun Times

Archie

ARIES (March 21April 19)

Your involvement in a project that is geared to environmental or humanrights issues will bring you in contact with people who can help you find new ways to use your attributes.

Romance is highlighted.

You’ll face opposition if TAURUS you are too open regarding (April 20- your opinions. You are best May 20) off listening, assessing and choosing to bypass an argument that offers absolutely no beneficial results.

Getting involved in world GEMINI issues is admirable, but don’t (MAY 28- mess with authority figures, June 20) rules or regulations. Choose to stay close to home and to nurture important relationships.

Make your actions count.

Don’t talk when you can pitch (June 21- in and make things hapJuly 22) pen. You will be enlightened by the people you encounter along the way. Use your skills diversely.

CANCER

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Dilbert

Peanuts

Avoid making an emotional decision that could be costly or lead to a dispute with a loved one. Channel your energy into love and peace.

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

Travel mentally or physically to learn something major. Let your imagination wander and do your best to make your dreams come true. Change looks promising.

LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

Get up and get moving.

You can accomplish a lot if you set goals. Love and romance will enhance your life and fend off any negativity that may be festering.

Concentrate on doing your SCORPIO (Oct. 24- own thing and on not letting Nov. 22) anyone with bad habits lead you down the wrong path. Don’t waste your time arguing or giving in to erratic or pushy people.

SAGITTARIUS Your charm will help you (Nov. 23- sway any opponents over to Dec. 21) your way of thinking. A little adventure can be fun, but don’t go overboard. Live within your means.

Calvin and Hobbes

Stick close to home and do CAPRICORN a little fixing up or entertain(Dec. 22- ing. The changes you make Jan. 19) will help stabilize your current situation. The work you put in will be appreciated by loved ones.

Keep your emotions unAQUARIUS der control. Someone will (Jan. 20- push you if you question Feb. 19) the persuasive tactics being used. Time alone will help you put things in perspective.

Investing in yourself or PISCES (Feb. 20- something you want to purMar. 20) sue looks promising, as long as you don’t go into debt. A joint venture will go well if you lay down some ground rules first.