Sunday, july 1, 2018

LOOK INSIDE !

Nationwide coverage from the best news team in Guyana

THE BEACON OF TRUTH

Fired Enmore sugar workers feel betrayed

by GAWU's leadership guyanatimesgy.com

Issue No. 3610

Sunday, July 1, 2018

...accuse union of not representing their interests ...call for new leadership Page 9

APNU/AFC has done “the very things it accused PPP of doing” – Jagdeo Leguan stelling on verge of collapse – residents Page 12

GuySuCo owes $1.4B in levies to Sugar Welfare Fund Page 11

PRICE

$120 vat included

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Volda P10 Lawrence joins race for PNCR chairmanship

Remedial works at Brickdam lock-ups finally completed P8

Law reform commission

P16

UK envoy notes potential to modernise legal landscape

Page 3

P13 Bandits invade poultry farmers' home ...beat husband, escape with over $600,000

…blast T&HD for unreliable ferry service

Page 7

Patientia residents decry increased crime spree

– pensioner, shop owners among victims

Police nab Onderneeming ganja farmer

P15

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SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesGY.com

3 Leguan stelling on verge of collapse – residents news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesGY.com

BRIDGE OPENINGS

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

Sunday, July 1 – 05:30h-07:00h and Monday, July 2 – 05:30h-07:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on: Sunday, July 1 – 06:00h-07:30h and Monday, July 2 – 06:45h-08:15h.

…also blast T&HD for unreliable ferry service

FERRY SCHEDULE

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

WEATHER TODAY Thundery showers can be expected throughout the day and into the evening, with temperatures ranging between 22 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius.

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

High Tide: 06:09h and 18:36h reaching maximum heights of 2.57 metres and 2.44 metres respectively.

Low Tide: 12:10h reaching a minimum height of 0.66 metre.

SATURDAY, June 30, 2018

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Taxi driver Kelvin

By Lakhram Bhagirat

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esidents on the Island of Leguan in the Essequibo River are calling on Government to urgently fix the ferry stelling since it is on the verge of collapse, warning that if emergency works are not executed immediately, then there is the potential for loss of lives since the stelling’s collapse is imminent.

Guyana Times visited the Island on Saturday where several residents, and even visitors, expressed their dissatisfaction with the state of the stelling.

The timber planks supporting the stelling are rotten and this has caused fear for residents since heavy vehicles traverse the stelling.

In addition, the decking is loose and uneven, with rails hanging on to literally nothing on certain sections on the ramp.

Outspoken resident, Hans Buer, said he raised the issue of the stelling with Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson on several occasions, which resulted in the Minister responding to him on social

with emergency repairs because anytime the stelling could collapse,” he said.

Buer noted that apart from that communication sometime late 2017 and a follow-up earlier 2018, they have heard nothing else from the Public Infrastructure Ministry.

However, he did say that Patterson pitched the idea of concrete posts for the stelling but they were told that would require additional funds which Government does not have at this time.

The residents said putting concrete posts and wood decking serves no purpose hence they are calling for a fully concrete stelling, noting that it would last longer with little to no repairs.

“Laden vehicles cannot use the lower ramp because it will fall out. The decking is unlevelled. You can fall.

When the boat come in at nights, it is horrible because

land for a number of years and the stelling is the main hub for passengers but its current state results in the island seeing a decline. He explained that despite the deplorable state of the facility, they are being forced by the security guards to pay for gate passes every time they use the ramp but no consideration is being given to the damage of their vehicles.

“The stelling been in this condition here for a good time and passengers all does walk right here and stump them foot and fall down all pon the stelling but the people them there don’t care,” the angry man said.

“This stelling bruck down here, heavy vehicle can’t come on yah. The lower ramp ah float away. It ah happen long. Watch down deh where the wood drop the stelling drop. Heavy vehicle can’t go on deh. We

One of the rotten support posts

the stelling has no lights, passengers fall over the little rails and some of the boards on the decking have holes,” Buer noted.

Buer told Guyana Times that in addition to lose decking and rotten posts, the lower ramp used to load

want a new stelling… this stelling is nah good,” another resident lamented.

Ferry service

For years, the issue of an unreliable ferry service has plagued the island but according to the residents,

Resident: Hans Buer

“The MV Malali comes and makes the morning service on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

For many people it is sad.

People can’t go in a speedboat when they sick because the (Leguan Cottage) Hospital doesn’t have everything. They can go only on Wednesday and when they want to go back so they have to wait for the 4pm (16:00h) steamer if it is going at that time. Sometimes it goes later because they have wait on the boats to come from Bartica,” Buer explained.

On Saturday, the MV Malali docked at the Leguan Stelling sometime around 11:15h and had, on board, at least two laden trucks that were still waiting to be offloaded at 15:30h when a Guyana Times news team was preparing to depart the island.

When enquires were made, this publication was told by the boat’s engineer, who was having a drink at a nearby Chinese restaurant, that the boat would leave the Island at approximately 17:00h when the tide rises so they can off/on-load laden vehicles.

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DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN PUBLICATION. PLEASE CALL THE HOTLINE FOR CONFIRMATION - TEL: 225-8902

The rotten support posts that residents say will collapse at anytime

The loose decking on the stelling

media promising to have it fixed. He said the stelling has been in that deplorable state for over one and a half years and is rapidly deteriorating but no system is being put in place to have it addressed.

“Minister Patterson messaged me (on Facebook) that the stelling will be repaired for about $150 million and it will come in the next budget (2019). They won’t do it this year. They tried last year

the issue has gotten worse over the last year since the MV Sandaka started encountering mechanical problems. The engine of the MV Sandaka was reportedly damaged a few months ago and emergency repairs were executed. However, it failed again a few days after and now the MV Malali is servicing Leguan. The MV Sandaka is docked at Mazaruni awaiting a new engine.

laden vehicles onto the ferry is in such a deplorable state that vehicles are unable to access it. Vehicles have to wait until the tide is high enough for them to access the high ramp to off/ on-load, which affects the business community since critical goods cannot be delivered in time and farmer’s produce perishes.

Taxi driver Kelvin (only name given), said he has been a taxi driver on the is-

A few hours after arriving in Georgetown, a resident of the island, Patricia Peters, informed this publication that they were informed that there would be no ferry leaving the island.

Residents say they are fed-up with the substandard treatment meted out to them and are demanding change in the management of the ferry system.

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guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018

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

Editorial

US restrictions on Muslims

L

ast Tuesday, the US Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s administration’s travel restrictions on citizens from five Muslim countries; and for good measure, N. Korea and Venezuela. The 5-4 split decision handed a victory to Trump to enforce one of his most controversial policies. The Court ruled that the president has the constitutional authority under US immigration laws to limit travel from the identified foreign countries over national security concerns, as his administration has argued.

Trump is now vindicated in his strategy of articulating an archetypal view of what has been called the “silent majority” in the closing decades of 20th century USA, following the victory of the conservative Ronald Reagan.

One of the objections of that “silent majority” was that the “Liberal establishment” had developed a superciliousness to their world view, viewing them as “unsophisticated yahoos”.

This was illustrated in the aftermath of the US elections and the subsequent “Women’s Protest against Trump”, when the establishment-dominated media harped on the factoid that the vast majority of white women who voted for him were “not college graduates”. In the American narrative, egalitarianism was supposed to be the most privileged virtue: one man (or woman), one vote.

But, from one perspective, the establishment’s scepticism of “the masses” -- which was earliest expressed

by Plato when he rejected democratic governance as “mob rule” -- was also shared by the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the American Republic, who were obviously all male, but also conservative land and slave owners. They introduced the “Electoral College” as a device to mediate the gullible “raw” votes of the people who would be enticed by “populist” demagogues. But ironically, the device served to elect Donald Trump, who seized the populist mantle even though he is a billionaire, a circumstance that sets him far above the masses economically. It is quite possible that, as an outsider to the political establishment, he resonates with the masses on issues.

And he certainly did on what he defined as the “Radical Islamist threat”. By and large, Americans are in general agreement that they face from “Islamist terrorists” an existential threat to their way of life. While some of the more liberal members of the establishment may make nuanced arguments that the terrorism may be “blowback” against US military actions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East -- all Islamic countries -- these do not resonate with the ordinary Americans, who, at the most mundane level, have seen at least a trillion dollars spent on new security features at airports.

One of the complaints made by the “silent majority” was that the radicalisation of Muslims in the US was being facilitated by new immigrants, who would have been exposed to more militant approaches in the conflicts in their homelands. From this perspective, one can understand then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s explanation of Trump’s initial Executive Order, halting all immigration from seven Islamic-majority countries, as a “necessary step” for dealing with people from countries that have “a propensity to do us harm”.

Arguments that there are countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which have produced far more radicals who have harmed the US than the blacklisted seven countries will not cut any ice with Trump or his base. He is shaking the tree to show he “means business” on the “Islamic Threat”.

In his Inauguration Speech, we heard him emphasis his promise in reference to Muslims: “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones — and unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.”

As we said in our editorial at the time, “The word ‘eradicate’ is very strong, and implies a total war that will take this battle even into the home - both within and without America.” This ban on Muslim immigrants, now reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, is just the beginning. We can expect that Muslims even from countries such as Guyana will be scrutinised.

Not to mention all Muslims living in the US.

This fisherman is tending to his seine in the mighty Essequibo River just off the island of Leguan. Fishing is just a hobby for some residents of the island, while others turn it into a profession (Photo by Dexter Ceres)

That National Dialogue on Domestic Violence (Part 2) Dear Editor, The Caribbean Voice is inviting the First Lady to become lead partner in the Lay Counsellor Training Programme to be launched next year. With the First Lady in charge, this programme can truly be national in scope, and result in gatekeepers being in all communities -- individuals who can proactively tackle all forms of abuse and suicide.

Also, The Caribbean Voice is considering a national campaign to address domestic/intimate partner violence and femicide. Elements of this

campaign are expected to include flyers (200,000 flyers) and posters (10,000), as well as focus groups across Guyana supported by the lay counsellor programme, our ongoing workshops, information dissemination and advocacy.

Again, with the First Lady as lead partner in this effort, tremendous success can be achieved.

We also urge the First Lady to include a module on mental health in all training programmes planned by her office. This would be more cost effective than separate men-

tal health training. Besides, given that upwards of 200,000 Guyanese suffer from one or more mental health-related issues; that both suicide and all forms of abuse have mental health components; and that hundreds of thousands of other Guyanese have to deal with loved ones who suffer from mental health issues, mental health training becomes a critical necessity.

The bottom line is that much of what we have had so far is rhetoric, pageantry, photo ops, and similar arid activities that waste scarce resourc-

es without impacting the issue in any fundamental way. So please, Madam First Lady, please do use this National Dialogue opportunity to start a process of concrete change.

As a woman, wife and mother, you can far better empathise with the plight of our women folk; and as the First Lady, you have the capacity and scope to transform talk into action; not piece-meal, selectively and ad hoc, but concertedly, nationally and continually.

Sincerely, The Caribbean Voice

Charles Ramson will make a great President of Guyana, but not now Dear Editor, When I first saw the video of my friend and colleague, Charles Ramson Jr declaring his intention to contest for the PPP Presidential Candidate, I was very disappointed in the choice of words used to justify his candidacy. But it was his response to the Leader of the Opposition, that certainly gave credence to the idiom that too much education is just as dangerous as too little.

Undoubtedly, Charles is young, ambitious, well-educated and has great potential.

It is these very qualities that Bharrat Jagdeo recognized in him, that made him one of the youngest Members of the National Assembly. Without the support of Bharrat Jagdeo, he could not have made it on his own.

So what has changed?

Ramson has a bone to pick with Jagdeo, Anil Nandall and Irfaan Ali. He wanted time-off from Parliament for one year to pursue studies in the United Kingdom in Oil and Gas while retaining his MP status. This request was denied because the PPP could not afford to reduce its voting powers in the National Assembly at a time when the National Budget and vital pieces of legislation were upcoming. He was subsequent-

ly replaced by the young, dynamic Vickram Bharrat.

In an email sent to me on May 21, 2018, Ramson wrote: “I know the feeling of giving your all in a team and others not pulling their weight and it’s being allowed to happen. Imagine how I felt when as an MP I gave my all to this and when I got a prestigious scholarship to study an area which we need for the country and will be beneficial to the team and asked for leave and so many “leaders” did not support the application. I had support from Luncheon and a couple others but Anil and BJ and Irfaan did not support. It’s disheartening and discouraging.”

Every politically astute person in Guyana knows that former PPP Ministers Anil Nandlall and Irfaan Ali are among others likely to contest the Party’s Presidential candidacy for the 2020 elections, and so this presents Ramson an opportunity to deny them this nomination in much the same way they denied him. Isn’t this vindictiveness, tit for tat?

In his recent response to Jagdeo, he mentioned having knowledge of persons making public announcements before going through a nomination process for the 2015 election, and disclosed, “But I would

like to point out that far worse has happened like persons being involved in corruption and no press conference has ever been held about it or disrespectful and childish comparisons being made.”

As a lawyer and upstanding citizen who wants to be President, did Ramson not feel it was his patriotic duty to report this “corruption” that he saw to the police or better yet, to SOCU? Now that Charles Ramson is writing for the Kaieteur News, it seems he has discovered the Freddie Kissoon syndrome: Criticize Jagdeo and get your face on the front page.

In his declaration speech, Ramson said Guyana needs young, fresh leadership. “We need credible leadership— leadership with integrity, passion and vision; leadership that puts the people first.” While both Anil Nandall and Irfaan Ali and others in the party fit the aforementioned description, they both have tremendous success and a well-documented track record in the sectors they were responsible for as Ministers in the previous government. Where is Ramson’s? In the past three years, it was Anil Nandlall, aided sometimes by Priya Manickchand and Adrian

Anamaya who defended cashcrop farmers and sugar workers and everyone whose constitutional rights were being violated by this APNU+AFC Administration.

With his 10 years’ experience as a lawyer and party member, Ramson has never volunteered his expertise to assist Nandlall with one of these cases. Is this the kind of leadership that puts people first?

Editor, behind that baby-face smile is a man who’s ego dangerously rivals that of our Prime Minister. In his letter in the Kaieteur News on June 29 captioned “Charles Ramson through the eyes of someone else”, Dr. Mark Devonish sums it up beautifully when he describes Ramson as “too arrogant, obnoxious and petty” to be President. He forgot to mention his bad attitude.

Charles, I’m sure, was spoilt rotten as a child. And although he has grown now, he still wants to get his own way.

I’m sure with time, Charles Ramson Jr will make a great President of Guyana, but not now, he has some maturing to do.

Sincerely, Harry Gill, PPP MP

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

Guyanese are in Can we be consistent? effect powerless Dear Editor, Reference is made to a letter from Hydar Ally titled “Term limits consistent with norms of good and accountable governance” regarding the Caribbean (CCJ) ruling in the so called third-term case.

But the issue before the CCJ was not whether there should be term limits; the issue was whether the people are sovereign over Parliament or whether Parliament is sovereign over the people. To make it even more simple to understand the issue, the case was whether term limits could be approved by Parliament or must be approved by the people.

The Guyana courts ruled that people are sovereign and must approve term limits in a referendum. The CCJ overturns that ruling granting sovereignty to the Parliament.

The matter could have been settled very easily by

holding a referendum rather than spending tens of millions of dollars on legal fees and other costs.

The people could have been empowered to decide the issue.

As experience around the world has shown – including Zimbabwe, to which Ally makes reference – that government must never be trusted. People should have ultimate power and not their governments or the Legislature (Parliament).

In countries where people are empowered, the countries do well. For comparison, in the US where hundreds of thousands of Diaspora Guyanese live, the US Supreme Court ruled in precedent setting cases that the people are sovereign.

The US Congress (Parliament) cannot make amendments to the Constitution on its own.

Many attempts to amend the Constitution by Congress failed.

The Supreme Court would have none of it with the peoples’ role.

The American people play a leading role to meddle with the Constitution.

In the US, the people can also directly amend the Constitution without any role from Congress or the President by holding conventions state wise (statewide) and nationally. Congress or the US Government cannot play any obstructionist role in preventing the people from amending their Constitution. For Guyana, Prliament towers over the people. Guyanese are in effect powerless.

Why can’t our Government allow Guyanese voters to decide on constitutional amendments or in altogether drafting a new Constitution that addressed our unique situation, including enshrining term limits?

Yours faithfully, Vishnu Bisram

Question for the American authorities

Dear Editor, The recent intimation by Justice Kennedy that he intends to vacate his position in the US Supreme Court has been met with a barrage of questions focusing on the ‘political leanings’ of his likely successor.

These questions imply that the resignation of Justice Kennedy provides Donald Trump, the current US President, the opportunity to select a replacement who obviously subscribes to the ‘political’ beliefs and ‘ideological’ leanings of the Republican party as opposed to the Democrat party.

To virtually ‘institutionalise’ such ‘political’ considerations in the selection processes for such a critical position is worrisome from several standpoints; not least of which is the fact that it goes against the universally acceptable core principles of ef-

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fective staff selection such as objective and relative knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience and competencies of the competing candidates.

If these are relevant and essential in all other staff selection processes, why are they ignored in the case of Judges, especially Judges of the highest court of the land?

I wonder what will be the

reaction from all and sundry if the selection of Judges in Guyana was to follow suit!

It would be interesting to have the comments of the American authorities on this apparent departure from universally acceptable staff selection processes.

Sincerely, Nowrang Persaud

Dear Editor, We’ve seen Chinese supermarkets opening all over Guyana, and many citizens have started to support them because they are selling cheaper than other supermarkets/shops. On closer investigation, I’ve discovered that the retail prices for beverages (alcohol/ non-alcohol) are similar to the shop/agent’s wholesale prices, and that you get to take the bottles away from the Chinese supermarkets for the same price, whilst you have to pay for the bottle at the wholesale shops.

I’ve also noticed that many people are now buying their rums/vodkas/whiskeys from these Chinese supermarkets because they are cheaper there. Such is competition, but I wonder how the Chinese are able to sell at such low prices, especially when the agents are selling at the prices recommended by their suppliers and the agents/wholesalers are claiming that to sell at anything lower would be selling at a loss for them.

I’ve gone to make purchases at different supermarkets operated by Chinese, and I have come to the conclusion that if you don’t check whatever you are purchasing, when you are ready to use it, you would suffer tremendous losses. I purchased a sealed bag of rice, and when I opened it at home, it was infested with rice weevils.

It should be noted that I’m in no way trying to discredit any particular place, because I’ve also experienced similar situations at local supermarkets operated and owned by Guyanese.

And upon checking my other purchases, I discov-

ered there were some bad onions, garlic and potatoes among the good ones.

Editor, I’ve only recently observed that certain places were being raided, expired and spoilt items confiscated, and people were getting charged. Apart from the wholesale places, the Stabroek Market was also raided, and the next day, items similar to those seized were back on sale at the market. Many of these sellers claim ignorance of the condition of the items they put up for sale, but the truth of the matter is that they are fully aware of the condition of those items; however, opportunity exists for them to make a huge profit at the threat of people’s health, and they take the opportunity. Many of these items enter this country under the approval of the Customs, the Food and Drugs Administration and other relevant bodies responsible because someone ‘inside’ had taken a ‘small change’.

As for weights and measurements, that culture of shortchanging people is very much prevalent all over the country to date. The last time the Bureau of Statistics raided the Stabroek Market, they found a tremendous amount of discrepancies.

Many of these places would have the approved scales/ weights but still shortchange you in your purchase; you are not getting what you paid for. That’s the culture of many Guyanese.

Could that stop? No, because many of those sellers would have ‘contacts,’ and when a raid is about to take place, the contacts would tip-off the culprits. Many of these employees would

‘pass by’ and collect a small ‘change’ just to allow the lawlessness to continue. The ‘shakedown’ is very prevalent in Stabroek Market.

Finally, Editor, I’ve also talked about our farmers lacing the vegetables with chemicals and putting them for sale. These chemicals are supposed to be used on the plants/vegetables at {based on the type} least seven to fifteen days before picking.

I am almost 100% certain that this is not being practised by the farmers.

As usual, most Guyanese would do their shopping for the coming week on weekends, and many would store their vegetables (or certain types) in a fridge. Many, including myself, would notice that these vegetables would start to melt, get ripe, or spoil two days after.

This is a direct result of the chemicals being used and the way they were administered.

Now, I’ve a friend on the FB list who works at NAREI, and I’ve asked her about the procedure and if there are any tools that could be used to visit the market and test the vegetables for traces of chemicals.

To date, I am awaiting an answer. I’m of the view that raids should be conducted on the farmers when they are selling, and their produce should be tested, because majority of buyers are being shortchanged and the vegetables have chemicals which are dangerous to our health. We can’t use half of what we purchase three to four days after. Where are we heading, and what are we paying for?

Sincerely, Sahadeo Bates

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Foundation

National

Grade Six Ashley Anthony

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he results are out again; and, yet again, students in the top one percent are being glorified.

This system is -- personally, I believe -- incredibly damaging for our students. It affects their self-esteem, social development, and mental health.

National Grade Six Assessment examinations are part of our culture. They have been around forever, and are seen as a sort of rite of passage. Common Entrance, as it is colloquially called, is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences a young Guyanese child can have. There is this idea that the system truly works on merit, and that the best and brightest, or those who work the hardest, will get placed at either Queen’s College or Bishops’.

People seem to turn a blind eye to the privilege that often surrounds many of the children who do make it into those schools. Many of them have parents who can afford to send them to private schools and/or private lessons; who feed and clothe them consistently; who can afford to give them all the most current textbooks and a personal computer. This can be evidenced by the top regional perform-

guyanatimesgy.com

examinations

ers. If these kids were really taking this examination on equal footing, you would expect that at least one person from each region would place in the top 1%; yet, invariably every year, that top 1% is dominated by kids from Region 4 and Region 10, where educational resources are best.

This system further increases the socio-economic divide that exists among the rich and poor, as top schools are often privy to better teachers, better equipment, and better facilities. Of course there are some who would manage to overcome the odds and make it into the top one or two percent, but they are not proof that the system works. If anything, what they are is a story of resilience; of the ability to prosper despite the system, and not because of it.

In terms of the self-esteem, and mental health of the students, at the age of eleven, we force children to become obsessed with studying. They are subjected to months, if not years, of preparation for an exam that they are told will make or break their future. Some parents even go so far as to tell their young children that if they don’t study and perform well at these examinations, they will be forced to take up menial jobs. Both narratives threaten their children and belittle the

honest livelihoods of others.

We place so much emphasis on the results of these examinations that a young child can begin to conflate their self worth with a particular school. And this doesn’t change after the examinations are finished. The children at Queen’s College and Bishops’ are constantly told that they are the best of the best, the brightest; and they are conditioned to believe this. Is it any wonder that they then continue to perform accordingly at CSEC and CAPE examinations?

So I can only wonder what about everyone else -the other ninety-eight percent. What are they told in schools? I would like to imagine that the teachers of those schools would tell them that they, too, are bright; but would you believe your teachers if they told you one thing and society told you something else?

I wish it weren’t this way. Is our secondary education really “universal”? Is every school on equal footing? We decide what quality of secondary education a child should receive for the next seven years based on the marks they get when they’re eleven. This hardly seems fair to me; and I can only hope that, in the future, more emphasis is placed on junior schools, so that those students can also fully develop their potential.

Religious community’s support enlisted to safeguard children’s rights

T

Some of the children who attended the prayer and breakfast held at the Marriott Hotel

he Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) on Saturday enlisted the support of the religious community in Guyana for the protection of children’s rights in Guyana.

Representatives of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Rastafarian and Indigenous faiths all recited their respective prayers at Saturday morning’s RCC’s ‘prayer and breakfast’ held at the Marriott Hotel.

The objective of the exercise was to mobilise and enlist the support of the religious community in protecting and advancing the rights and interests of Guyanese children, especially those who may be deemed vulnerable and those who come into contact with the law.

The RCC, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, hosted the

event for the second consecutive year, themed “Helping our children to find the right path”. This theme is cited as a keen component of the RCC’s mission and philosophy in engaging the children of Guyana.

As part of this process, the RCC has engaged the children of Annandale Secondary, Buxton Secondary, President’s College, Skeldon Line Path Secondary, the Sophia Holding Centre and those the penal system views as young offenders at the Timehri Prison.

Social Protection Minister Amna Ally, in her address to the stakeholders, children and other personnel said “The Juvenile Justice Bill which was recently passed in the National Assembly has put Guyana on the path towards finally having a juve-

nile system that is rational, fair, and effective in accordance with our international treaty obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and one that would improve synergy among department, agencies and Ministries responsible for juvenile justice.”

According to the Minister, efforts have to be made to keep juveniles from coming into contact with the law and if they do come into contact, then rehabilitation methods must be employed from the time they are arrested.

Although the Bill will still hold young offenders accountable for their actions, it will also protect them from harm and increase their chances of having a better life and manage the risk they pose to themselves and to society.

“The Ministry of Social Protection stands ready to cater for the needs of children who are predisposed to delinquency but under the age of criminal responsibility,” Minister Ally added. “I see this event as an opportunity to highlight and examine not merely what we might do or what we ought to do but what we can do,” the Minister is quoted by the Department of Public Information as saying.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s wife, Sita Nagamootoo, in her address noted that the event was meant to raise the consciousness about the condition of children who come into contact and conflict with the law.

“This Juvenile Justice Act places the well-being of juveniles and the best interest of children as paramount when the courts make a decision on punishment. The law encourages and facilities juveniles to have a meaningful life in their communities through rehabilitation, education and reintegration,” she said.

Over 100 persons were in attendance, inclusive of social workers and sociologists, child behaviourists, teachers, members of faith-based organisations, and children from across Guyana.

7 Patientia residents decry increased crime spree news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

- pensioner, shop owners among victims

later charged in connection with the Super Bet robbery.

Unemployment

Meanwhile, many in the area have linked the robber-

R

Residents of Patientia, WBD are calling for a return of streets lights in their community

esidents of communities along the lower West Bank of Demerara are living in much discomfort as they are frustrated over the increase of crime in their communities.

During a recent visit to the nearby village of Patientia, Guyana Times met with upset residents who called on the ToevlugtPatientia Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to ensure that street lights in the community are reinstalled. Their concerns were registered following a string of recent robberies in which some of persons were attacked by bandits armed with guns.

“To me, them got to put de lights them; some of the girls who coming late from work might get rob because you got nuff boys does pull people bag,” a male resident and retired sugar worker told this newspaper.

The lights were recently removed by the Guyana

Albert Vieira, a retired sugar worker

Power and Light (GPL) as the company opted to install smart meters with the aim of reducing electricity theft and unauthorised connections. However, the lack of lit roads is upsetting to Patientia residents, who indicated that increasing night time robberies are only adding to other robberies they said are occurring during the day.

According to informa-

tion obtained, one of three recent robbery attacks was committed at Fourth Street, Patientia Housing Scheme on a female pensioner in her 70s.

Reports were that three bandits broke into the woman’s home in the wee hours and robbed her. Residents expressed worry over business places that have been attacked in recent weeks.

These included the Super Bet gaming facility at the front section of the community and Dawa’s shop at the back street where a husband and wife duo was attacked.

According to information disclosed, several men went to Dawa’s shop during the day purporting to be officers of a tax collecting body. They later reportedly robbed the shop owner and his wife while being armed with guns. D Division (West Bank Demerara-East Bank Essequibo) Commander Rishi Dass told Guyana Times on Friday that one suspect was arrested and

ies to a lack of employment opportunities compounded with the Wales Estate’s closure.

Retired sugar worker Albert Vieira told this

newspaper that many young men in the area are sitting around in the community because they are unable to find jobs. turn to page 14

8 news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesGY.com

Remedial works at Brickdam lock-ups finally completed

F

ollowing prolonged delays to remedial works on the Brickdram Police Station’s lock-ups, the facility is finally completed, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan said on Friday.

“I understand the Brickdam lock-ups here has been completed and it’s a handing over exercise that we are waiting on,” the Minister told reporters during a press conference when he was asked for an update on the works at the facility.

Ramjattan had previously described the prolonged delays of the remedial works as an embarrassment.

“That has been a major embarrassment for me because the monies were there and construction works (were done but) the design of it is a problem,” he had stated back in February.

The condition of the Brickdam lock-ups has come in for much scrutiny and criticisms over the years. This resulted in the city’s main detention facility undergoing a major overhaul back in 2009, when some $14.4 million was expended to rehabilitate the once smelly and unsightly facility that was once referred to as a ‘dungeon, horrible’ by a Commission of Inquiry several years prior.

However, because of the design flaws of those renovations, more monies had to be pumped back into the proj-

Prolonged remedial works at the Brickdam lock-ups were finally completed

ect to correct the flaws, which had to do with air ventilation.

Ramjattan had previously explained that with any prison systems, the construction has to be of a specific design, especially as it relates to air circulation. But the contractor had indicated that with the monies allocated for the initial project, he could have only done works in accordance to the flawed design.

“You have to have a perfect design that will aerate if you’re not going to make it air conditioned and there was some problems with that initial design… It was done to specifications; but when it was done to specifications, we can’t put prisoners in there, we gonna kill them. So now we have to have remedial works,” he had stated.

Nevertheless, monies were allocated in the 2016 Budget to carry out the remedial works on the facility but there were some issues regarding the tendering pro-

cess, which further detailed the process.

The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) had found that the three contractors who tendered for the project were non-responsive.

As such, the flawed tenders went back to the Evaluation Committee, which then returned them to the respective bidders with indications of where they were they were “non-responsive”. However, only one of the three bidders re-tendered and was awarded the contract months later.

Meanwhile, acting Top Cop David Ramnarine, back in 2016 had lamented that the facility was a “travesty” to law enforcement efforts in A Division (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara), saying that it is affecting the work of the Police in that Division.

“The burden of shifting serious crimes suspects to other lock-ups on a daily basis is one we have been bearing with

tremendous patience of the years. I wish to take this opportunity to urge the officials concerned to spare no efforts to realise this much needed facility in the capital city of Georgetown,” Ramnarine had implored.

The scope of works of phase one of the initial contract entailed fumigating the lock-ups environment, demolition and alteration to metal doors, rehabilitation of the existing steel grills and door framings, rehabilitation of the enquiries area and redoing of defective concrete works which were followed by a process of plastering.

There was also the demolition of exiting plumbing works and restoration of plumbing to each of the 15 cells that were rehabilitated, as well as constructing a concrete reservoir and concrete trestle, which supports six new water tanks, and tiling of the floors and walls of the lockups.

The latter phase included the installation of 15 penal style toilets for each cell at a cost of US$700 each.

There was also the fabrication and installation of 42 metal bunks and rehabilitation of the holding area grill and construction of seating accommodation. It also entailed the tiling and painting of the enquiries staff area, including toilet and bath and painting of the general facility.

Prognosticating…

O

…from rum

ver recent decades, DDL has earned a well-deserved reputation as a wellrun Guyanese corporation in the liquor industry - where very high standards had been set by Banks DIH under Peter D’Aguiar. D’Aguiar, of course, famously made a foray into public life and politics based on an uncompromising anticommunist stance, and ended up with his UF party helping to usher in the PNC into power in 1964.

Things didn’t end very well, and maybe that’s why D’Aguiar’s successors at Banks have since been comparatively low-keyed in the public arena.

DDL, on the other hand, became private only in the 1990s, as the sugar estates -- each with their own distilleries – consolidated, and then there was one. Yesu Persaud, DDL’s first Chairman, became famously articulate on public matters even as he expanded and diversified DDL. He even made a foray into politics with GUARD during the “fight for free and fair elections” era.

Now, your Eyewitness is of the firm opinion that business execs should speak their minds publicly – and not only through their associations, such as the Private Sector Commission. Capitalism, or Private Enterprise as it was rebranded, was always driven by individuals who could rise about the herd. There were Rockefeller and Vanderbilt in the 19th century and more recently, there have been Stephen Jobs and Bill Gates; reticent they were not!! Businessmen have to know the public.

But with Yesu Persaud’s retirement in 2014, his successor, Komal Samaroo, appeared ready to replicate the earlier withdrawal of Banks’ Execs from public commentary in defence of what politician after politician have bigged up as “the engine of growth”. Even as the engine sputtered here!! So your Eyewitness was pleasantly surprised when he saw a report in the Chronic that Samaroo declared there was “too much negative energy… saturating national discourse at a time when Guyana’s future has never been better.”

What made his comment even more newsworthy was that, at the same time, DDL announced it was importing molasses from Nicaragua to produce its major product – rum!!

Any ordinary business exec would’ve been questioning why the sugar factories were shut down – not because 5700 workers were thrown onto the streets, of course, but about screwing their molasses customers royally!

…the future of boys

Seems -- like Dickens prognosticated two centuries ago -- it was “the best of times; it was the worst of times”. In the midst of news that one tyke had actually scored – for the very first time -- a perfect score in the NGSA, came two downers.

First: that while scores on English rose marginally, Math plunged precipitately. Whatever happened to those specialists the Ministry of Education had hired a few years ago to fix the Math jinx??

Then came the even more shocking news that after all the agony of preparing for the NGSA, kids were dropping out of secondary school even faster than flies! 47% boys and 57% girls from the 14,000 plus annual cohort who usually write the NGSA will not complete high school!! Now it doesn’t take a soothsayer to tell us that this is unacceptable.

So, what’s Minister Henry gonna do ‘bout it?

…on “improper purposes”

The CCJ will be explaining, in their soon-to-beannounced judgement, how you can know when cross-dressing is done “for an improper purpose” -- which is ILLEGAL. When they hang out near St George’s Cathedral??

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

news

9

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Fired Enmore sugar workers feel betrayed by GAWU’s leadership ...accuse union of not representing their interests ...calls for new leadership

T

he decision by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) to mount a legal challenge against the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) 50 per cent severance payment to several categories of sugar workers is not sitting well with several former employees, who feel their union is improperly representing their causes. As such, the disgruntled workers are of the view that new leadership is needed as they feel they are being neglected.

Guyana Times met with several former workers who were attached to the East Demerara (Enmore) Estate on Friday. They related that the Union acted “too rash” when it opted to pursue court action. They believe GAWU should have waited at least six months to see if Government would pay the balance. According to the workers, GAWU is now acting when the Union should have taken a firm position from the inception of talks about closing the sugar estates.

Former Enmore Field Secretary, Rampersaud Prashad, told this publication that since workers got severance, GAWU has held only one meeting with them.

He accused the Union of not looking into their interests.

“This decision which was made here was a oneman decision by Komal

Chand. It’s time for him to go and rest, he’s too old; give Seepaul Narine a chance.

We worried about this action in court. GAWU doesn’t have resources like before – where will they find the money to pay lawyers,” Prashad expressed on Friday.

“This matter might get delayed and if you send this to the High Court, then you gone Appeal Court and no decision not come out, you have to go to the Caribbean Court (of Justice) so it will be long and drawn out,” the former worker and past Union representative noted.

Legal documents of GAWU’s civil suit released

Rampersaud Prashad

Ravi Persaud

paid in full under a supplementary budgetary provision of $1.931 billion in an effort to provide severance packages to the fired work-

ey would be stalled for several months or even years once the court calls up the case for hearing. Lusignan, East Coast Demerara resi-

Some of the dismissed Enmore estate workers

on Wednesday showed 4283 workers were attached to the Skeldon, Rose Hall and the East Demerara Sugar Estates; these workers are calling for their full severance payments. Earlier this year, sugar workers whose severance packages were $500,000 or less were

ers. However, workers earning more than that specified amount were paid half of their severance and do date, Government still owes workers the money which is at the centre of the civil suit.

In response, former employees said on Friday that they fear their mon-

dent and former estate employee, “Muslin” said he was displeased with receiving half-severance pay. He said his last few years of service saw fewer payments than previous times and observed that his calculation was unfair. The man, who assists in looking after his grand-

GAWU President Komal Chand

Muslin

children, says GAWU was wrong to pursue the court action.

“GAWU should [have] never carry Government to court but Government said in six months, abbe would get the next set of money. No sugar worker didn’t know anything. Komal [Chand] supposed to be fired for this what he do; he never say he would take the matter to court; that’s wrong what he do,” the 53-year-old grandfather of three observed.

He expressed much distress over not getting work due to his age. He added that he feels neglected by both Government and his union.

Another former worker, Ravi Singh, who received all of his termination benefits added that with Government’s move to capitalise on the oil and gas sector, ex-sugar workers should be given some priority to work in the new industry as they were displaced.

Noting he is facing chal-

lenges sending his four children to school, he too chimed in saying the Union should have waited before taking the matter to court, adding that the action was a bad decision. When questioned about union leadership, he echoed the call for a new GAWU leader.

“I think it’s time for him to step down and given somebody else a chance but frankly speaking, I think [the court case] is politics.

Everything has a process and you should wait your turn. Look what happened at Wales, that’s a perfect example because when you taking somebody to court, you have to wait until its finished and God knows when that will finish,” Singh pointed out.

Former employee “Prescott” also told this publication that he is not doing as well as he had anticipated. Another worker said GAWU is now waking up from its slumber. turn to page 15

10 news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Volda Lawrence joins race for PNCR chairmanship

Caricom blues

S

Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence

L

ongstanding party stalwart and Public Health Minister, Volda Lawrence, will be contesting for the People’s

Minister of State Joseph Harmon

National Congress Reform’s (PNCR’s) chairmanship post at the upcoming congress in August.

This was announced on

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams

Saturday by party activist and Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, on his Facebook page: “…Minister of Public Health, Hon. Volda Ann Lawrence, has officially announced she is contesting the post of Chairman of the PNCR,” Jones posted on his social media handle.

Efforts by Guyana Times to contact for comment Public Health Minister Lawrence, who is also a party executive, proved futile.

Lawrence had, in 2012, contested for the leadership of the party alongside then Opposition Leader and now President, David Granger, and current Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge.

This time, she will be running alongside two other party executives: current PNCR Chairman and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, who is also the Attorney General; and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who also recently announced his intention to contest for the party chairmanship post.

Harmon announced his candidacy in a short statement on June 21. He said the PNC holds its Congress

biennially, at which time all positions of leadership (inclusive of Party Leader and Central Executives) are up for voting.

“That is the democracy which we practise: so every member of the Party can aspire to the highest office in our party. And like many others, I am a member of the Party of long standing, and therefore have indicated that it is my desire and my interest in putting myself up as a candidate for the chairmanship of the Party,” Harmon said.

This was announced days after the PNC had held its second General Council Meeting for the year, on June 16.

Back in April, Williams had hinted that he may run again for the chairmanship post. “I am servant of the PNC and a servant of my party. They know me. I have been working steadily throughout the years, and me and my comrades… So we don’t think that’s an issue,” he stated.

Williams had, at the last PNCR Congress, in 2016, contested the position of Chairman unopposed.

atiricus was pleased with Burnt Ham and his enthusiasm for CariCon if for nothing else than that he had the smarts and people sense to create CariCon Day, and then have it observed on the first Monday of every July!! If we couldn’t get the four-day weekend of the Americans, then a threeday weekend would do quite nicely, thank you!! He was still smiling as he ambled to the back of the Back Street Bar. “Eh, Eh!! Bai Sato!! Like you get some good news fuh abee, or wha”?” smiled Bungi, and Satiricus eased into his seat.

“Damn right I have!” enthused Satiricus as he picked up his beer. “Have you fellas forgotten that tomorrow is CariCon Day?” “All me know, ah wan halliday!” said Cappo. “Me na know ‘bout CariCon.” “But what exactly do you have against CariCon?” asked Satiricus.

“Well, for one, we’re helping to pay for all those uppity folks at their Secretariat!” said Hari quietly but firmly. “Do you have any idea about the salaries they make?”

“Me na know dem salary,” said Bungi. “But me know dem na even piss pan abee Guyanese!”

“Da beca’se dem ah get mo’ money dan even Grain Ja,” said Cappo. “An’ tax free!”

“But even Nagga Man don’t get tax free,” said Satiricus in surprise. “Maybe he should take a job at CariCon?” “But tell me something, Sato,” said Hari. “Now that you mention Nagga Man, what does KFC think about CariCon?” “Well, we are one Caribbean people, you know,” said Satiricus. “One love!! Just like us in Guyana!!”

“Waan love?” asked Cappo. “Yuh eva’ bin to Barbados?”

“But that was in the past, Cappo,” replied Satiricus.

“You know they’re now broke, don’t you? And they’ll all be coming to Guyana!!”

“Den de Guvment should buil’ wan ‘Bajan Bench’ at de new Airport right away!!” smiled Bungi.

“But seriously, fellas,” said Hari. “If CariCon can straighten out the WI Cricket Board, they would have earned their super salaries!!”

news

11

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesGY.com

GuySuCo owes $1.4B in levies to Sugar Welfare Fund

– concerns raised over company’s ability to meet payments been associated with the sugar industry for decades now, this is a magnificent improvement, and we cannot help but wonder whether it is grounded in reality,” the Assistant General Secretary of the Union, Aslim Singh, noted.

In his 2018 Budget speech, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said the Special

Why blame Trump?

By Ryhaan Shah

T

he liberal left in the US are raising a hue and cry about the policies and actions being taken by President Donald Trump. They are condemning them as being contrary to American values and principles, and there have been protests across the US aimed at pressuring Trump to change direction.

Trump’s Supreme Court voted for his travel ban, which effectively makes it difficult for Muslims to enter the US. This followed on the heels of the Trump-created crisis at the US/Mexican border, when the president actually followed through on regulations that allowed for families entering the US to be separated – children from parents -- as a deterrent to illegal immigration. Previous presidents never enforced that policy, but the regulation was always there; it took a Trump to enforce it.

Trump promotes himself as a strongman to his conservative base, and lambasts those previous presidents for being weak on immigration issues. His authoritarian moves go over well with ultra-conservative Republicans even as he forges alliances with dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jung Un. These are the leaders he admires. He views dialogue and diplomacy as weaknesses, and the liberal left continue to decry what they see as Trump’s blatant ignorance of the way democracy works, and his lack of understanding about what it means to be the leader of the free world.

But America voted for Trump. They voted for a buffoon, bully and bigot because some were simply fed up with the way Washington worked, or not worked, and wanted to give an outsider a chance; but most were heeding his campaign calls for strong borders, which painted Mexicans as rapists and criminals, and they cheered on his assaults against just about every minority group: women, Muslims, the disabled, which lay outside of his white conservative base.

The loudest dog whistle was his stance on immigration aimed at barring non-white and Muslim people from what he has called “shit-hole” countries from entering the US. Trump ignores the fact that the West amassed its wealth by invading, occupying and exploiting those very countries, and that their colonisation was done from a position of superiority that was shaded not only by the colour of the invaders’ skin, but also from the crusading angle of their supposedly superior God. When US Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended Trump’s immigration policy by using the Bible, he was not out of order. The Europeans and Americans had done the same to justify slavery. Why blame Trump when he simply personifies the white supremacist racism on which Western democracy was built? What seems clear is that that racism never went away, and the authoritarianism that Trump effects publicly had always simmered under the veneer of democratic values that claimed to respect diversity and promised equality for everyone.

Trump has ripped away that veneer, and his autocratic behaviour is in perfect step with Britain and Europe, where the conservative right is also pushing for anti-immigration policies using a similar Trumpian pretext of border security.

A closer look at many of the global conflicts that result in migration and refugee crises often show the imperialist hand still at work. Who, for instance, are Israel’s allies as it continues to invade and occupy Palestinian territory?

Here, in Guyana, thousands fled from the 1960s onwards, when the US and UK colluded to place a brutal PNC dictator in power, and cared nothing about the consequences for the people and our country.

Guyana was simply a dispensable pawn that was used to protect their “democracy”; and it appears that another round of that dictatorial rule is to be inflicted on our country, and again to serve foreign interests.

Trump is giving Americans a taste of the damage and chaos that the US has imposed on other countries through their creation and support for authoritarian regimes. If accepted as a lesson learned, his presidency could help shift US foreign policy towards working to establish peaceful and constructive solutions for global problems.

Just think how quickly our country would attain peace and prosperity if powerful international players used their diplomatic clout to bring the major political parties to the table to thrash out and find solutions for the egregious issues of race and ethnicity that continue to divide us, rather than playing one side against the other? But then a prosperous Guyana would not be so easily manipulated to serve their interests.

No lessons will be learned from Trump’s excesses, despite the hue and cry. What he has exposed are the racism and authoritarian tendencies that lie at the very heart of America.

T

The 2016 SILWF report

he Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWF) was intended to be financed in part from levies on every tonne of sugar exported; but as of 2016, over $1.4 billion in levies have been owed by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). This is contained in the SILWF Committee’s Annual Report for 2016, which was recently laid in the National Assembly.

According to that report, GuySuCo owes the committee a total of $1.488 billion.

Of that amount, $1.404 billion minus interest is attributed to outstanding levies.

According to the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Act, interest is calculated at six per cent per annum for payments exceeding the 90-day requirement.

In addition, the sugar corporation owes $83.7 million in loan remittances to the SILWF, which, among other things, has been providing housing loans to sugar workers at concessional rates.

SILWF’s official mandate includes improving housing, roads and social and public health conditions for sugar workers. Besides its interest-free loans, it has been involved in allocating house lots, conveying Certificates of Title, and providing workers with water subsidies.

The report shows that for 2016, a total of $8.388 million in loans was repaid. This includes $8 million in payments made to the SILWFC’s Duke and Barrack Streets, Georgetown office, and $386,400 in loan remittances from GuySuCo. Can GuySuCo repay?

Sources have expressed concern as to whether GuySuCo would ever be able to clear these massive arrears to the Fund, considering the dramatic downturn in sugar production and export over the past few years.

In 2016, the operations of the LBI Estate were amalgamated with those of the Enmore Estate.

Government also has plans to privatise the Skeldon Estate and close down the Rose Hall and Enmore estates. The only ones slated to remain open are the Blairmont, Uitvlugt and Albion estates.

Sugar output in Guyana fell by nearly a quarter from last year, with close to 140,000 metric tonnes being produced in 2017. This was the lowest output in over two decades, and has been one of the factors blamed for Guyana’s unfortunate balance of payments situation. And while the Government is eyeing a sugar

production target of 115,447 tonnes, industry stakeholders are unconvinced that this could be achieved.

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), for instance, had contended that the sugar production target for 2018 is unrealistic, since only three estates would remain operational. This, they said, is because the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is expected to fall behind its 2017 production target, which is expected to be the lowest in 27 years.

“The budget tells us that sugar production will reach 115,447 tonnes next year from the three estates that will remain under GuySuCo’s management. This year, those three estates have produced aggregately 88,116 tonnes sugar…and therefore are budgeted to record a 31 per cent improvement in 2018.

“For the GAWU, which has

Purposes Unit (SPU) is tasked with examining and articulating the way forward with respect to the divestment of the Skeldon, Rose Hall, and East Demerara estates. He noted that the SPU would also work to reconfigure operations to guarantee economic viability at the Uitvlugt, Albion and Blairmont estates.

12 news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

APNU/AFC has done very things it accused PPP of doing – Jagdeo

T

he irony that the People’s Progressive Party has had to resort to the courts to get the coalition Government to pay over monies into the Consolidated Fund, after being accused of that very practice when in office, is not lost on PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo.

During a recent press conference, Jagdeo zeroed in on the recent writings of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who, in his column, accused the PPP of not paying public monies into the Consolidated Fund. But Jagdeo was not amused with the current legal

fight to get the Government to pay into the Fund the US$18 million signing bonus it received from ExxonMobil.

“Imagine, he’s saying nonpayment of public monies into the Consolidated Fund. They said that about the GGMC. They said that in NFMU, the housing fund, etc. (They said) those were slush funds, (and that) we didn’t pay it over.

They did audits there; nothing came out of the audits. They recognise they (the funds) were all legally there, they refused to transfer them,” Jagdeo detailed.

“This is the only

Government since -- a very long time -- that we have to go to court now to get them to pay the US$18 million that they kept in secret, to pay it into the Consolidated Fund.

We had to go to court for that.

The other time (we had to do this) was in the 80s, when they used to export the gold from Guyana,” Jagdeo detailed.

Explaining the manoeuvres that were once employed in the 1980s to bypass the Consolidated Fund, Jagdeo related that, armed with an overdraft, the then Government would export

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

gold and bank the proceeds in Canada rather than place same into the Consolidated Fund.

“Then the Office of the President used to give directions to the manager over there to release funds to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bypassing the Consolidated Fund. If you go back to the early audit reports, you will find that,” the former President explained.

Besides the signing bonus, which has been the subject of court battles, Government was only last year accused of using the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) as a slush fund to make land purchases from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).

Referring to the reports, Opposition Parliamentarian

Juan Edghill had questioned why the money was coming from the CH&PA, rather than the Government or the Consolidated Fund. He had noted that the law requires excess monies from agencies to be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

In the 10th Parliament, the PPPC was accused of holding monies in extra- budgetary agencies. And those monies were even referred to by (the AFC) as slush funds.

One of those agencies was the Central Housing and Planning Authority.

“And the (APNU/AFC campaign) promise was (that) all these monies would be transferred to the Consolidated Fund,” Edghill had stated. “I am shocked that the CH&PA has $2 billion in an account.

Why is this money not com-

ing from Central Government and the Consolidated Fund?”

According to Edghill, the Permanent Secretary of the Communities Ministry, Emil McGarrell, had provided assurances that monies in the CH&PA Fund would be transferred to Ccentral Government’s Consolidated Fund.

“If you accuse the PPPC of all of these bad things and violations, I don’t expect the Godfearing, righteous, sincere APNU/AFC Government to be doing this,” Edghill said as he brandished the headlines. “I am judging them by their own standards.

“We are happy that GuySuCo is getting money, but we are very concerned about the process that is being used to get this money to GuySuCo. This is criminal behavior,” Edghill had warned.

During a post-Cabinet press conference, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, revealed that the cash-strapped GuySuCo would receive the money as payment for its land.

This comes after an emergency cabinet meeting had been held earlier this week between GuySuCo officials and the Government.

All that Harmon revealed about the source of the cash was that the CH&PA, with assistance from the Finance Ministry, would be making the purchase.

13 Bandits invade poultry farmers’ home news

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

…terrorise family, escape with $200,000

Professionalise the Police Force

I

n the last two weeks, I looked at the composition of our disciplined forces from the perspective of our Ethnic Security Dilemmas. It is a political perspective. One can, of course, look at those forces (or any other phenomena) from any other number of angles, but we have to ask, “What is the objective of the examination?” The objective of my analysis and comments was to confront our most fundamental structural problem and bring stability with justice in Guyana.

The scholar Cynthia Enloe, who taught at UG for a while, focusing on the phenomenon of ethnic conflict in the seventies, advised: “The resolution of inter-ethnic conflict demands that armies and Police Forces be examined not as neutral instruments that cope with problems, but as potential causes of the problems as well.”

The fundamental cause of our endemic conflict has Ravi Dev been a political one based on the ethnic cleavages in our society. While each state institution has to confront and deal with the area of national concern for which it was organised, we should not lose sight of the relation of the institution to the underlying political conflict. State institutions are, by definition, institutions through which the power of the state is exercised, and are inevitably flashpoints for social struggle.

Enloe went on to state, “Any lasting resolution of ethnic conflict may require that the distribution of political authority and influence in the society be basically reordered; and that, as part of that reordering, the Police and military be ethnically reconstituted at the top and the bottom. Resolution of interethnic conflict will be tenuous if the security that is achieved is merely state security, and not security for each of the state’s resident communities.”

Few objective analysts would argue that our Police Force has served the interests of our people positively over its history, beginning in 1839. The problem lies not necessarily with the individuals who comprise the Force (even though any organisation will have its share of bad apples), but with the nature of the Force itself. The Police Force was constituted as a “force” to pacify first the newly-freed African slaves, and then the Indentured Indians. Its organisation, modus operandi and ethos were all geared towards keeping the natives “in their place”.

What has changed in those areas since independence?

The reality is that most Guyanese look at the Force through ethnic lenses, and only complain when their group is facing the fire – literally. From the beginning, ROAR called for the disciplined forces to be professionalised. Our early calls, made in the late eighties, were interpreted as partisan and anti-PNC, since the forces had by then been made appendages to that regime. Our specific calls for the forces to be professionalised by “streamlining them, decentralising them and balancing them” after the January 12th ethnic riots were again seen in that light, even though events had, unfortunately, unfolded in accordance with the predictions of our analysis. Most focused only on the “balancing” recommendation – disregarding the wider recommendations for professionalisation – many of which have been incorporated in later official (domestic and foreign) recommendations. When Indian businessmen were being picked off with impunity during 1998 (some thirty in a one-year span of 1998-1999), Indians cried foul. After the Police Target Squad became judge, jury and hangmen soon after, and began targeting young Africans for execution, Africans cried foul, and an “African Guyanese Armed Resistance” was organised.

It is now clear there were two reactions to the last response – both of which betrayed a total lack of confidence in the Police Force. There was firstly the response organised by Indian businessmen, which very quickly moved from defensive protection to offensive protection. Secondly, it is also clear to me that the Government, unable to motivate the Force to carry out their duties professionally, also resorted to hired guns to deal with the “resistance”, which by then had taken on and taken out the Target Squad.

Our central contention, however, is that we cannot only focus on the tasks of the Police, and ignore its fundamental flaws that impact on our major ethnic security dilemmas. This goes to the very survival of our state. The Disciplined Forces Commission, in which David Granger -- now President -- was a Commissioner, recommended in 2004 that the Forces be made more representative. A friend asked why the PPP didn’t fix matters.

I think that, contrary to Ramkarran’s recent protestations, they were paralysed by the “anticipated reactions” of the entrenched status quo.

T

he Seabra family of Lot 613 Kuru-Kururu village on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway has been left traumatised following an encounter with armed bandits who invaded their home at about 01:30h on Saturday.

Poultry farmers Andrew and Rebekah Seabra had secured their two-storey home before going to bed on Friday evening at about 23:00h. The 30-year-old Rebecca was however awakened by a noise at about 01:30h, and saw in her bedroom three masked men, one armed with a shotgun and another with a cutlass. The men demanded money and threatened to shoot her.

Rebecca was placed to lie on the floor with her 11-month-old baby while the men assaulted her 36-year-old husband, Andrew, with a cutlass, in the process injuring his left hand and upper left body.

Andrew’s mother, Jupaty Shamlall, a 53-year-old pensioner who lives with the couple, was

Injured: Andrew Seabra

also physically assaulted by the bandits.

The ordeal lasted for about 10 minutes, before the bandits made

good their escape with $200,000 in cash; a laptop valued $100,000; one iPhone 6 valued $70,000; one Samsung J2 Prime cellular phone valued $35,000; one Blue Logic cellular phone valued $7,000, and one generator valued $185,000.

The matter was subsequently reported to the Police, and upon examination of the crime scene, it was revealed that the men had gained entry through the western window on the upper flat, and had exited through the southern window on the lower flat.

Andrew Seabra was taken to seek medical attention for the injuries he had sustained, and is currently hospitalised in a stable condition at a private institution.

The area was combed for the perpetrators, CCTV cameras were examined and persons were questioned, but the ranks came up empty-handed. The scene was also dusted for fingerprints, but none was found.

Investigations are nevertheless ongoing.

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Top Cop appointment PAY ATTENTION TO “soon” – Ramjattan PUBLIC NOTICES

F

ollowing last week’s approval of the nominees for the much-anticipated Police Service Commission (PSC), Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has assured that the appointment of a new Commissioner of Police is imminent.

Ramjattan explained during a press engagement on Friday that the President was awaiting the appointment of the PSC, since he is required by the Constitution to have meaningful consultations with the Chairman, as well as with the Opposition Leader in terms of appointing a new Top Cop. “That is why we are trying to get the Police Service Commission reconstituted and then thereafter, the President would meaningfully consult with the Commission members or the Chairman and then the Leader of the Opposition, and then he would have to make a decision based on all those considerations… bt expect the appointment soon,” Ramjattan said.

Further asked whether this appointment will be done within the Guyana Police Force’s anniversary month (July), the Public Security Minister said, “sometimes we politicians misspeak, and it might not happen but the fact

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan

that it has now gone through the process of coming out of Parliament, those names from the appointments committee, I am certain it will be constituted quickly and then the President will move on to have his meaningful consultations.”

Moreover, when questioned about the scores if the Force’s eight Assistant Commissioners of Police who were interviewed for the post at the helm of the country’s premier law enforcement agency, the Public Security Minister opted not to divulge any details, saying that it is a confidential matter and that “You’re get-

ting into an arena you’re not supposed to get into.”

Former Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud, went off into retirement back in February and ACP-Administrate, David Ramnarine, has been the acting Top Cop ever since.

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

Once the new PSC members are sworn-in and a chairman is selected, the process will move forward in appointing a new Top Cop. On Monday last, the National Assembly approved the nominations of rtired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe; retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Clinton Conway; retired Woman Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vesta Adams, and retired Woman Assistant

Commissioner of Police, Claire Jarvis, as new members of the PSC, which had expired since last September.

However, prior to the approval, Opposition Members of Parliament had expressed concerns over the fact that there were no civilian nominees on the Commission.

Meanwhile, the reconstitution of the PSC comes after there has been calls for the process to be fast-tracked, especially since there were no promotions of senior officers last year, which caused uneasiness amongst ranks.

Before the life of the Commission had expired, President Granger in July 2017, had ordered that the body put the promotion of senior ranks on hold.

He subsequently justified his decision and despite a court order stating that the Government had acted unconstitutionally, maintained he had had good cause for stopping the promotions.

Last November, during a High Court ruling on the halting of promotion of personnel so listed, Chief Justice (acting) Roxane George established that the President did breach the Constitution when he issued a directive to halt promotions.

Patientia residents decry...

For the ones who happen to secure employment, this is not on a consistent basis and the former worker stressed the need for jobs in the area.

“When this estate used to run, all dem boys had work,” he noted, adding that petty theft is also increasing.

His comments were

shared by a mother of three who told this newspaper that some persons are so desperate that they would steal clothes from clothing lines

from page 7

from residents’ yards.

“Now you can’t even leave your bicycle around. If you turn, it would get thief.

Before when the estate was around, you could leave you bike all around and nobody would take it,” she highlighted.

The woman who was waiting for transportation added that many males with limited education – who had been able to secure work from the estate – are finding difficulty in securing employment since some jobs require some level of writing skills. It was explained that this setback is contributing to a “liming” culture, which some suspect may have elements of criminality.

Local Pandit and Justice of the Peace, Chandreeca Persaud, also expressed concern over the crime issue.

He related that he has been engaging in talks with the Patientia NDC Chairman on ensuring that there are lights in his community. He said too that the Police should continue to ensure that there are patrols in the area as he has been seeing recently.

The Wales Estate ended operations in December 2016 and to date; some workers have not been paid their severance. When the closure was announced, many employees opted against taking up work at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara out of concern that crime would increase in the Wales area. They also suggested that the community would be a “ghost town”.

(Shemuel Fanfair)

D

o you have an interest in major projects taking place in your community? Do you want to be able to share your thoughts and opinions about a developmental project? If so, then you definitely need to look out for the public notices published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Importance of Public Notices

People and communities play an important role in environmental management; that is why the EPA publishes public notices to alert them of upcoming projects. These public notices not only allow you to become aware of developmental projects, but also provide you with the opportunity to have a say.

The Environmental Protection Act, Cap. 20:05, Laws of Guyana, requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish notices on different categories of projects, to ensure that there is maximum public involvement. The comments and concerns raised through public participation can provide valuable information on impacts, solutions and alternatives, which can be used to make wise decisions on proposed developments in our country. Also, the EPA is mandated to take public feedback into consideration when making decisions on whether or not ‘environmental authorisation’ will be granted for a particular project.

When and Where are Public Notices Published?

Public Notices are published in the newspapers to inform citizens: • Whether or not a project is exempted from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), or it is required to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment.

• Also when an EIA is completed and available for public review.

Additionally, recognising the great reach of social media, the EPA also uploads Public Notices on its Facebook and Instagram Pages – so check us out to be in the know of what developments are being proposed in your neck of the woods.

Get Involved!

How can you participate? Here is a list of ways that you can be part of the EIA process: • Appeal: After the EPA publishes its decision on whether or not an EIA is needed for a project, you have 30 days to lodge an appeal with the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB).

• Project Summary: Before any EIA commences, the Agency publishes a notice and makes available a project summary to members of the public.

• Written Submissions: Members of the public have 28 days from the date of publication to make written submissions to the EPA, setting out those questions and matters they require to be answered or considered in the EIA. Scoping: The Agency may also conduct sector and public scoping • meetings at its discretion during the 28-day public notice period for EIArequired projects. You can share your thoughts and concerns at these meetings.

• Comment on the EIA: After the EIA is completed, the Agency publishes another notice in the newspapers, and citizens have 60 days to submit comments for consideration by the EPA. Since the purpose of public notices is to give the public opportunity to participate in the decision-making on environmental management process, it is your responsibility to make use of these opportunities. To ensure that you do not miss out on these opportunities, make it a practice to: • Read the daily newspapers, follow the EPA on social media, check our website regularly, and look out for public notices.

• Give your feedback on a developmental project whenever you are able to attend scoping meetings, and let your voice be heard.

Remember, your participation will ensure that your ideas help to shape the development of Guyana!

Upcoming Public Scoping Meetings

The following is a schedule of public sensitisation meetings for the presentation of the main findings of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study on the Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) Liza Phase 2 development project.

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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SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

Symptoms of a currency crisis? (Part 3)

Police nab Essequibo Coast ganja farmer

I

n last week’s column, it was highlighted that the exchange rate against the United States dollar has depreciated by almost 5 percent from G$204 – US$1 in 2012 to G$214– US$1 at the end of the first quarter of 2018 by using the average market rates for the said period. Put differently, the cost of US$1dollar has increased by $10 Guyanese dollars in just over seven years. This means that in 2012, total imported goods for that year of US$1,996 million would have cost local importers G$407.18 billion, and that same amount of imported goods at today’s exchange rate would cost G$427.14 billion – effectively $20 billion more costly or expensive. In other words, it cost $20 billion more to import the same amount of goods that would have been imported just over seven years ago.

On the export side of the equation, in 2012, exports were recorded at US$1,394 million or G$284.38 billion in foreign exchange earnings. Re-worked at today’s exchange rate for the same amount of export earnings give rise to G$298.3 billion, representing a variance of $14 billion. Normally, when the domestic currency depreciates, imports become more expensive, thus causing imported goods to decline, and exports become cheaper in the foreign markets – which naturally necessitates an increase in exports as demand increases. Applying this basic economic theory to the real numbers over this period, one can observe that this is exactly what happened: wherein, in 2012, imports stood at US$1,996 million, and fell to US$1,632.1 million, or by US$363.9 million, at the end of 2017; while exports, which stood at US$1,394 million in 2012, increased to US$1,424.7 million, or by US$30.7 million, at the end of 2017.

It is therefore unfortunate, considering the acknowledged fact that with the massive restructuring of the sugar industry, inter alia, the closing down of a number of sugar estates, Guyana is thus poised to lose significant amounts of foreign exchange from the exportation of sugar, which was once one of the higher earners of foreign exchange in the export commodities basket – of more than US$70 million annually. This is in addition to other traditional sectors and export commodities underperforming; and also, in a previous column which dealt with the recent fish ban imposed by the United States on certain species of fish to that market, all of these developments combined have compounded the issue of declining international reserves held by the Central Bank -- by 38.5 percent, or in monetary terms, US$318.4 million, over the last seven years.

On the external debt front, at the end of the first quarter of 2018, the total stock of foreign currency-(US$)-denominated debt stood at US$1.265 billion. It would be prudent, for the sake of this article, to include the US$35 million World Bank loan and the US$900 million line of credit that was approved by the Islamic Development Bank (I stand corrected if I missed any).

Though the Government is yet to access funds through this line of credit, it was nonetheless approved for specific projects to be accessed between now and 2020. It is therefore possible that total external debt could reach or surpass US$2 billion, which would significantly push up the debt-GDP ratio to more than 60%. It could also be deduced that this timing is strategic on the part of the Government, given that oil revenues are expected to start flowing in 2020.

Notwithstanding, one has to consider what can go wrong from now until 2020, amidst all of these developments highlighted herein. Will the potential oil revenue come in time to correct a currency crisis, should such an event occur in two years’ time? What will it cost the economy, and how will it impact the livelihoods of its people? These developments are certainly cause for concern for policymakers as a matter of high importance and urgency, to guard against a potential currency crisis should this current economic scenario continue to worsen – that is, along this same trajectory.

Taken together, these symptoms of a deteriorating foreign reserve, loss of foreign exchange vis-à-vis earnings from export commodities such as fish and shrimp, sugar among other traditional export commodities, a fall in remittances, lack of foreign direct investment, there has notably been no new foreign direct investment in the country over the last three years or so; and a rising stock of external debt necessitate an increase in demand for foreign exchange for debt servicing; companies with parent companies abroad will also buy up the already depleting stock of foreign exchange in the domestic market to repatriate profits to their home country or parent companies, then importers need foreign exchange to pay for imported goods. All of these together can ultimately lead to a shortage of foreign currency, which then translates into a depreciation of the domestic currency, which then eats away the value of savings of householders, investments for businesses and firms, and the list goes on. In fact, to conclude this article, these are definitely symptoms of a currency crisis; and a currency crisis can trigger a banking crisis, which can also trigger an economic crisis. On this concluding note, next week the author shall delve into these other dimensions in an in-depth manner in perhaps another series of forthcoming articles.

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

The ganja farms being destroyed

P

olice ‘G’ Division ranks (Essequibo Coast and Islands) have arrested a 29-year-old man after stumbling upon several ganja farms along with two camps in the Onderneeming Backlands of Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam).

The bust was made at about 16:45h on Friday, when a party of Policemen on foot patrol in the

The bottle with the ammunition

Onderneeming Backlands in search of a wanted man observed a camp with a group of men therein. The ranks approached the men, but came under fire. The suspects then fled into the nearby bushes, but were pursued by the ranks, during which the 29-year-old resident of Onderneeming was apprehended.

The officers also ob-

served that there were two camps with about 15 kilograms of dried cannabis and a quantity of groceries, kitchen utensils, two hammocks, and clothing therein. A bottle containing two live cartridges and five .38 spent shells was also found in one of the camps.

The camps were surrounded by six fields -about 8 1/4 acres -- of marijuana plants, approx-

imately 11,700 in total, ranging in height from six inches to seven feet. There was also a nursery with about 700 seedlings therein.

Everything was photographed before the camps and their contents were destroyed by fire. The 29-yearold suspect remains in custody assisting with ongoing investigations

Dismissed Enmore sugar workers...

“They now waking up.

GAWU shoulda take a strong stance from the beginning. This what they now doing gon put the severance in limbo,” the former sugar worker stated.

In the legal documents, it was outlined that the dismissed workers were to receive their redundancy allowance/severance payment no later than December 29, 2017, which was in keeping with the letter of Section 21 of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (TESPA). The legal team is led by Attorney Anil Nandlall.

The attorneys are seeking an order from the court to direct the Respondents – GuySuCo and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) – their officers, servants and agents, to “pay forthwith to the said four thousand, two hundred and eighty employees of GuySuCo and members of the Applicant, all severance or redundancy payments or allowances due, owing and payable under the provisions of TESPA. They are also seeking costs. The matter comes up for hearing on July 20, at 13:45h, before Justice Fidella CorbinLincoln at the High Court.

Apart from Nandlall, Manoj Narayan, Sasha S MahadeoNarayan, Rajendra Jaigobin and Anuradha Deodasingh are all representing the applicants in this case.

The issue of 50 per cent severance came in a presidential address to the National Assembly read

by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo at the January 10, 2018, sitting of the National Assembly. The coa-

lition Government closed all, but the Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt estates which were not in keeping with a Commission of Inquiry

(CoI) into the industry that recommended no closures.

However, Government has long held out that the “re-organising” of the sugar indus-

from page 9

try was necessary since billions of taxpayers’ dollars have been expended to aid the ailing sector.

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Law reform commission

UK envoy notes potential to modernise legal landscape

T

he proposed establishment of the law reform commission (LRC) is being lauded by the British High Commissioner, who is of the view that it should have a broad enough mandate to effectively modernise Guyana’s

laws.

Commissioner Greg Quinn made these comments during an interview with Guyana Times on Friday. The United Kingdom has a sister agency with a similar mandate and Quinn noted that the com-

mission’s establishment in Guyana has much potential.

“The important thing is laws… constantly have to change because it needs to reflect what the situation is of the day. So I think a reform commission would look across

all the legal space, the way the law reform commission in the UK is doing.”

“It has the potential to be helpful and bring your legal basics into the 21st century so that it is relevant today and not relevant to whenever the law might have originally been drafted… because the world would not be the same as when the law was drafted.”

The High Commissioner acknowledged that there are a lot of laws currently in place which are by nature symbolic of the pre-independence period of Guyana’s history.

“So I think there were similar laws to what we had in the UK and we probably amended (them because) this might have worked then but it’s not relevant now. So what do we need to do to make it relevant is what’s important and that is exactly what the law reform commission should be doing,” he related.

Final stages Earlier last week, in response to questions by Opposition Member of Parliament Anil Nandlall regarding the status of the law reform commission, Attorney General Basil Williams had indicated that the Commission is “in its final stage of readiness.”

Nandlall had questioned, among other things, whether the law reform commission – which is expected to undertake the reform and development of laws applicable to Guyana – is functioning; who the appointed commissioners are; the remuneration packages for these persons or if they had not been appointed, what the anticipated remuneration package is.

He had also requested information on whether the

UK High Commissioner Greg Quinn

commission is provided with staff, and for the Minister to identify the positions and salaries of these persons, what the address of the law reform commission is and if its building is being rented. He also requested that a copy of that rental agreement be provided.

As such, by way of written response on Monday during the National Assembly, Attorney General Williams said “the Law Reform Commission is in its final stage of readiness. Persons have been interviewed for the position of commissioners.

Some staff for the commission have been hired. The law reform commission building is ready.”

Moreover, Williams noted that while no commissioners have been hired, interviews were conducted for potential persons on June 19 and 20, 2018. The Minister also asserted that “no remuneration package has been approved.”

In providing a list of persons who have already been hired by the commission, Williams disclosed that the law reform commission now has one legal officer, who is being paid a gross salary of $700,000; two legal clerks, being paid $150,000 each (gross); three typists being

paid $130,000 each (gross); two office assistants being paid $100,000 each (gross); one cleaner being paid $75,000 (gross); and one driver being paid $120,000 (gross).

He also noted that the commission is being housed at Lot 59 Robb Street, Bourda, Georgetown. According to the rental agreement, the building is being rented from Michael and Michelle Warton at a cost of $850,000 per month for a period of one year (since December 1, 2017 to November 30, 2018).

In January 2016, Government had approached the National Assembly, passed the Law Reform Commission Act No 4 of 2016 and appropriated millions for the commission’s establishment. However, the commission was not established.

In a notice published in the local newspapers earlier this year, the Legal Affairs Ministry had solicited applications from eligible candidates to sit on the Commission, which will be tasked with reviewing many of Guyana’s laws inherited from colonial times.

According to the ministry, the Commission’s Terms of Reference will include “keeping under review the laws of Guyana with a view to its systematic development and reform, including in particular the modification of any branch of the law, the elimination of anomalies, the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments.”

The Ministry also noted that the commissioners, who will be employed on a full-time basis, will be focused on reducing separate enactments; simplifying and modernising the laws of Guyana.

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SUnDAY, july 1, 2018 | guyanatimesgy.com

New Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel appointed

T

he Attorney General’s Chambers has announced the promotion of Joann Bond to the position of Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel.

Bond, who joined the Drafting Division in 2010, had functioned in the position of Parliamentary Counsel, Senior Parliamentary Counsel and Principal

New Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Joann Bond

Parliamentary Counsel since her employment.

In 2014, she was awarded a Chevening Scholarship to pursue studies in London, United Kingdom, and is the holder of an LLM in Advanced Legislative Studies from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), University of London. She is also a gradu-

ate of the Hugh Wooding Law School where she obtained her Legal Education Certificate (LEC) in 2009, and the University of Guyana where she received her Bachelors of Law Degree (LLB).

In addition to her main duties of drafting primary

and subsidiary legislation, she will also give technical support to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing Committee and the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy.

She is a trained Caribbean

Action Task Force (CFATF) Legal Assessor, is currently engaged in the mutual evaluation process of the Turks and Caicos Islands and also the Chairperson of the Bid Protest Committee and a member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

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Resident education officer needed along Berbice River – Education Committee Chairman

R

egion 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Education Committee Chairman, Denise Belgrave has continued calls for a resident education officer to be stationed at SubRegion 2 (communities along the Berbice River).

Belgrave, who also serves as Chairman of the region’s Welfare Committee continued her plea during the hosting of this month’s statutory meeting of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), noting that calls were being made by the Committee since 2015.

She noted that she was not in full support of officers being rotated, as is presently the case, since it was her belief that it would not give a true and proper reflection of what is happening in those schools. While there is presently an officer stationed within the sub-region, she

Education Committee Chairman Denise Belgrave

said it came as a surprise to her since she was unfamiliar with the officer. These issues, she noted, were discussed at the Committee’s last meeting. “We need that to be looked at and we need a resident officer. I think it’s time. We’ve been asking for

that since 2015, and we need a resident officer in SubRegion 2. Not somebody who goes for one week and comes out,” Belgrave told members of the Council. She added that the Committee would have also discussed the system of rotation for officers in Sub-Region 2.

Additionally, speaking of other issues surrounding schools in Region 10, the Education Committee Chairman noted that there are complaints from head teachers regarding the quantity of “stocks” which are received on a quarterly basis, as she pointed out that there’s a shortage. She said during discussions, at a head teachers meeting, it was decided that there is need for supplies to be given by the RDC on a monthly basis instead of quarterly.

In response, the Regional Chairman asked the

Regional Clerk of Council Orrin Gordon to look into the situation. “We need to have a standard distribution time system,” Morian pointed out. Belgrave also spoke of the issue surrounding proper accommodation for

teachers as she stressed the need for the improvement of accommodation for teachers who travel from Linden to work in riverine areas. “... because if they are not comfortable, they wouldn’t be able to give of their best. We

want that to be looked into very seriously,” Belgrave stated. In relation to welfare, she said the Committee is presently in discussion to have the home for abused women and children constructed in Linden.

A Division hosts annual Youth Expo

M

Some of the items at the exhibit

ain Street, Georgetown, was set abuzz on Saturday as the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) A Division (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara) hosted its annual Youth Expo for the third consecutive year.

The Expo, which was held under the theme “Developing the nation’s youth through cohesion, motivation and skill training,” featured youths from A Division, who presented the craft, homemade food items, jewellery and clothing which they cre-

ated.

According to the Committee Relations Officer of A Division, Inspector Blair McGregor, this annual activity is organised to involve children from ages eight to 17 in constructive activities. Apart from this initiative, the children are also assisted in other areas to improve their studies, sports and talents.

“This is our annual Youth Expo that we have for the youths where we’ve been having them with different activities. We’re trying to reform the minds of the chil-

dren and reform the children as a whole from a negative to a positive perspective.”

She added, “It’s for about four to five hours just to put the stuff on exhibit so that the general public can see what these kids have been doing over a period of time and maybe bring recognition to them because most of the work was done by them.”

Some of the groups that participated in this year’s exhibition hailed from Mocha, Tiger Bay, North Ruimveldt and East Ruimveldt.

Cassie Douglas of the Mocha Rising Stars Group related, “We’re displaying handmade items such as earrings, breakfast settings, bags, vases and ornaments.”

Meanwhile, Matthew Evans of the Tiger Bay Trendsetters Group explained, “I am showcasing the different varieties of stuff that was made by the children. For example, we have the table mats, mango achar, pepper sauce and plantain chips. All of these items are delicious and we’re just showing a little part of the skills we have.”

Over the years, the division has also been working with youths from ages 18 to 28 in life skill training programmes such as cosmetology and, welding and fabrication, photography and machinery operation.

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Mbappé doubles up in France’s rollercoaster victory over Argentina D reams can endure only so long before they are overwhelmed by reality – and there are few realities quite so brutally uncompromising as the pace and finishing of Kylian Mbappé, who scored twice and won a penalty in France’s 4-3 win.

After a grim trudge through the group stage, France, finally, are off and running and looking like potential champions. They will meet Uruguay in the last eight. Lionel Messi, for all the hopes freighting his slight frame, will not be winning the World Cup this time.

Quite how Argentina have ended up as this strange botch-job of parts that do not quite fit together, bound by nothing more than the magic of Messi, is a question that cannot straightforwardly be answered. But the fact is they are and, as such, they were never likely to survive a meeting with a side that looked into their eyes and were not cowed by their self-romanticising will to Lionel Messi and his teammates look dejected progress. after the match That will, though, remains ferociously strong. It was embodied by Javier Mascherano who, at 34, announced his international retirement after the game. As Jorge Sampaoli kept reiterating, Argentina fought and fought and fought. Until the midpoint of the second half, when France opened up a two-goal lead, the game was underpinned by the ques-

tion of how Didier Deschamps’ team did not already have it won.

There had been talk of Argentina conjuring a repeat of 1990 when defeat by Cameroon inspired a defiant spirit that carried them to the final and, in some of their cruder challenges, it felt they might be following that template rather too closely. But the difference between then and now is that team could actually defend; this side can merely struggle.

The deployment of Messi as a false nine as Sampaoli – or whichever cabal of senior players picks the side these days – opted for a fourth different formation in four games, served only to deny the wide men a target when they got the ball in crossing positions. Certainly it did nothing to add a defensive stability. “We tried many different tactics, surrounding him, creating situations for Messi,” said Sampaoli. “We tried to use everything we had to allow him to do what he can do. Sometimes we managed to do so, sometimes we didn’t.”

Well, perhaps. It is all very well to play, as the coach promised they would, with a knife between their teeth, but only if you can actually catch your opponents to use it. Argentina’s lack of pace is a problem that will never easily be resolved, and certainly not by playing the sort of high line they attempted early on. Perhaps Deschamps’ France have become a fluent attacking unit; perhaps Argentina just made them appear so.

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SUnDAY, july 1, 2018

INTERNATIONAL – WC PORTUGAL VS URUGUAY

Cavani sends Uruguay to last 8 as Portugal bow out C ristiano Ronaldo walked Edison Cavani out of this game, helping the Uruguayan to the touchline, but not before the Uruguayan had put Portugal out of the World Cup. Cavani departed with 20 minutes remaining, slowly making his way around the edge of the pitch, a lost look on his face. His two goals, both of them superb, took Uruguay through to the quarter-finals but it appears unlikely he will be with them when they face France in Nizhy Novgorod on Friday. Twenty minutes later, it was Ronaldo wearing that look: his World Cup is over, too.

As the final seconds ticket away, Portugal threw everything they could at this, the goalkeeper Rui Patricio sent forward and almost heading goalwards, the Portugese bench leaping with every tackle and tumbled, calling for the VAR to rescue them. In the end, it could not. Cavani had gone, sadly, but his two goals brought delight to a resilient Uruguay. Not long before he departed he had put them 2-1 up; not long into the first half he had put them 1-0 up. In between time, Pepe had equalised. But it was Cavani’s goals that were decisive – and something special.

The goal was astonishing, genuinely breathtaking: brutal in its beauty, beautiful in its brutality – a 100-yard onetwo taking them from halfway line to byline, the ball twice smashed high, hard and with incredible precision diagonally from one side of the pitch to the other and back again before it flew into the net.

It had started with Rodrigo Betancur, neatly turning in the middle of midfield, the play spread to the right wing

for Cavani. His strike partner Luis Suárez was almost the entire width of the pitch away, but while they can be distanced, they came together once again. Born a month apart in Salto, population 104,000, Suárez left for Montevideo at seven and they didn’t know each other. At 19, though, they met in the U20 national team and have played together almost ever since, 207 Uruguay caps between them. Here, they found each other too.

Cavani drove a long diagonal across towards the left for Suárez that could be heard from the stands. Suárez controlled, ran at Ricardo, cut inside and, from beyond the top corner of the box, bent a vicious, superb ball in a fast, long arc to the far post where Cavani was running in. The replay suggested it might have hit Cavani on the shoulder or perhaps even the face, but the result was perfect, the ball rocketing in at the near post. Uruguay had a lead to defend and while 87 minutes remained defending is something they do rather well, the first team in five World Cups to progress from the group without conceding.

Edinson Cavani heads in Luis Suárez’s cross to open the scoring. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters It had started well for Uruguay, despite the fact the first two attempts on goal had been Portugal’s, Bernardo Silva heading over and Ronaldo shooting sharply. It had also started in a way that might have been predicted, Cavani unlucky to be penalised as he turned Pepe on the halfway line and then Godin pushing over the Portugal defender while they waited for a corner. The ball not yet in play, that one was free. Others would be too, the referee seemingly reluctant to pull out cards.

Next, Fonte headed and Ronaldo had a shot blocked, yet Uruguay appeared reasonably comfortable. There were crosses in, but mostly they were just headed out again. And if Godin and Giménez didn’t get to them, Fernando Muslera did, a steadying presence advanc-

ing from his line. There was sharpness when they sprung too, Betancur offering clarity, Cáceres overlapping on the right, Suárez looking quicker now. Before this match he said that he felt better physically than in the opening match, adding with a grin: “Although that doesn’t take much.”

He was not feeling too good when Guerreiro crashed into his back and he crumpled to the floor – holding his head – and Portugal attacked regardless. That came to nothing but a corner in the end, just as the final opportunity of the half did, when Godin’s wild hoof, up and up and away beyond the first tier, finally dropped in the area and Cavani – whose control had already impressed from a speared 60yard Muslera clearance – brought it down inside the area, but scuffed his shot past the near post to close a half of one incredible goal and not a huge amount more.

This game was soon reopened, though. Ronaldo scrambled it Bernardo Silva whose ball in was flicked back to Adrien Silva whose shot was blocked. From the corner, taken short and eventually delivered by Guerreiro, Pepe leapt behind Ronaldo and Godin to head in the equaliser.

Having conceded their first goal in 2018, Uruguay were under pressure now, that comfort gone, unable to get out until a long ball released them and put them ahead once more. The ball, thumped up the pitch by Muslera, dropped near the Portugal area and Betancur was first to it, controlling and laying it to Cavani who curled a wonderful shot, first time into the far corner. Soon, though, he was departing – and Uruguay had 20 minutes to resist.

It was not going to be easy. Bernardo Silva offered a little more subtlety to what had previously been a more frontal attack; his run on one side drew a corner and then, on the other side, Matias Vecino stood firm as Ronaldo dribbled into the area. There was tiredness, a little space too, nerves, Uruguay occasionally even being caught ahead of the ball, losing the ball in unusually compromising positions. When Carlos Sanchez gave up possession, Quaresma’s curling cross with the outside of his foot just evaded Ronaldo’s leap.

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sports

21

Georgetown Football Association... DISSOLVED!

T

he Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has taken the painful, self-imposed but constitutionally obligatory step of appointing an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to manage the affairs of the Georgetown Football Association, effective June 29, 2018 until new elections are conducted in accordance with the Constitution of the Georgetown Football Association.

This action became neces-

Mbappé doubles up...

Mbappé’s pace terrified Argentina, provoking the 13th-minute penalty from which Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring. There was something of the Brazilian Ronaldo about his surge, a comparison acknowledged

by Deschamps. “Ronaldo was very, very quick,” he said.

“But I think Kylian is even quicker.”

Quite why Argentina had tried to play so high, against such pace, with such slow defenders, was mystifying but that divergence between Sampaoli’s instincts and his resources is an issue he has never quite reconciled. He was reluctant to accept the excuse but it cannot help that he took over the side only last June. “We adapted to necessity, maybe,” said the coach, speaking of his reign as a whole, “rather than having a clear identity. We had a clear need, and we had to win. That was our main goal, so that was maybe stronger than our football concept.”

Yet for all their flaws, Argentina were level at halftime, Ángel Di María scoring with a 30-yard drive.

Having scored one brilliant goal, Argentina, as they had against Nigeria, then added a second with the least implausible body part available to them, as Messi’s ball back into the middle was deflected in by the left foot of Gabriel Mercado. Could they cling on? They could not, and did not even come close.

It took only nine minutes for Benjamin Pavard to conjure a goal the equal of Di María’s, cuffing a volley from the edge of the box into the top corner. Then it was Mbappé’s time, with two goals in four minutes around the midpoint of the half, a neat turn and finish and then a slick breakaway. At 19 he is already a wonderfully efficient footballer, the first teenager to score two goals in a World Cup knockout tie since Pelé in 1958.

Yet still Argentina were not quite finished, Sergio Agüero heading in a late third. From the grave, the hand thrust up through the soil but it got no further.

Argentina, at last, were done.

France have been criticised for their ungainliness and caution, for being too much about substance and not enough about style. On the day Deschamps became the longest serving manager in France’s history, he could perhaps reflect that a little planning and a little stodge goes a lot further than a slow and shambolic defence and a nostalgic faith in a bastard spirit.

sary following the GFA’s inability to resolve the many challenges it faced over the last two and a half years; challenges which have resulted in stultification of football programmes and initiatives.

Those management challenges have been exacerbated by the GFA’s inability, in violation of Article 29 [1] of its Constitution, to convene its Annual General Meeting in April of 2017, despite the many interventions by the GFF to provide management guidance.

The GFF has therefore been left with no option other than to indicate to the GFA that it is “revoking the mandate entrusted to the

members of the Executive Committee of the Georgetown Football Association”; and the appointment of the IMC has been taken in conformity with the guidelines and provisions of Article 2 Para. [d] & [e], Article 13. Para. [a], and Article 82 of the GFF Constitution, as well as Article 8 Para. 2 of the FIFA Statutes.

In communicating its decision to the GFA, the GFF informed that it could “no longer exercise reasonable confidence in the ability of the GFA Executive Committee members to continue holding the various offices to which they were duly elected.”

They were also instructed to “reconcile and return all financial and material assets that are the legal property of the GFF.” The membership of the IMC will be announced in due course.

22

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018

Guyana storms into CBC finals

G

uyana’s National the Guyanese favour by Basketball men’s the halftime buzzer. team are gearBut the likes of caping to bring the CBC title tain Stanton Rose, Ray home following a magnifiVictor and Anthony Moe cent undefeated run during ensured that Guyana their Caribbean Basketball maintain a slim lead Championships’ (CBC) ahead of their Barbadian playoffs. counterparts. Victor had Having never previousanother great night, ly achieved such a feat, the racking up some 25 Guyanese are confident of points, which consisted of their chances of winning three 3-pointers. An agthe competition. They had gressive Moe added 17 their hands full, so to speak, points to Guyana’s total. contending with a formidaAnd despite feeling the ble Barbados team in the pressure from the Bajan semi-finals on Friday evedefense, Captain Rose ning, but their 2-1 victory also managed to score in Stanton Rose over Barbados in a friendthe double figures. ly series at the Sir Garfield With commendable Sobers Sports Complex prior to the beginning contributions coming from the rest of the of this tournament proved to be a great confi- team, Guyana surged to 76 by the final buzzdence booster for these representatives of the er, just 5 points ahead of Barbados. With the Golden Arrowhead. match ending in Guyana’s favour, the ecGuyana started out hot in the first quar- static national team will advance to the final ter, leading Barbados 32-15 by the end of the against Antigua and Barbuda. first ten minutes. However, although the local Should Guyana win at the finals, it would boys continued their match-winning momen- be the best outing they have ever had at the tum, the Bajans had also seemingly found CBC tournament. Their best performance their momentum, and they closed Guyana’s yet came in 1994, when they won silver in 17-point lead to statistics that read 45-41 in this tournament.

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Win and a draw for Women’s Hockey team T

Shebiki Baptiste

he Guyana Women’s Hockey team got their tri-nation Hockey series off to a positive start with a win against the Trinidadian national team. Playing at the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Complex in Wildey, Barbados, Guyana faced off with the home team just a few hours after their arrival in the land of the flying fish, and then returned to the artificial surface later that evening to play Trinidad and Tobago.

The tri-nation series acts as a warm up tournament for the bigger Central American and Caribbean Games slated for the latter half of July.

The inclement weather in Barbados did not deter the beginning of the high energy match-up between Guyana and Barbados. The game got off to a rocky beginning for the Guyanese ladies as they expectedly strugMarzana Fiedtkou about to take a shot at the goal gled to adjust to the unfamiliar artificial pitch. After a patch of scrappy defensive play, Guyana conceded a penalty corner to Barbados giving them their first real scoring opportunity. The corner was well defended by Guyana who launched a swift counterattack catching the Bajan defenders in mid-pitch. Three Guyanese strikers bore down on the Bajan goalkeeper and finished off a few well-timed passes with striker Shebiki Baptiste walking the ball into the empty goal in the 13th minute of the game. The goal by Barbados was the final one of the match leaving the scores leveled at 1-1 at full time.

Later, in the afternoon game against the twin island republic, Trinidad and Tobago, was intense from the beginning to end with both teams running hard and trying to maintain possession of the ball.

It was lucky minute number 13 once again when Guyana would find success off the stick of midfield player and 2017 National Sportswoman of the Year, Marzana Fiedtkou, from a penalty corner.

Guyana held firm for the rest of the match despite feeling the tiredness of their travel the previous evening and the effort of the earlier match with the final whistle seeing them secure a 1-0 victory.

23

guyanatimesgy.com

SUnDAY, july 1, 2018

2018 Rainforest Waters Senior National Squash Championships

Top seeds up the ante ahead of finals Alex Arjoon

T

he 2018 Rainforest Waters Senior National Squash Championships continued on Friday night at the Georgetown Club courts with Jason-Ray Khalil, Alex Arjoon and Nyron Joseph starring in the Men’s Open.

The action saw players contesting in four quarter-final matches aside from the

Men’s Open. Those were: the lone remaining Women’s Quarter-final match, the Men’s Veterans, Men’s Plate, and Women’s Plate.

The top four seeds in the Men’s Open draw all progressed in straight games to the semi-finals, which are scheduled for tonight; but in the match of the night, Khalil managed to overcome a testing challenge from top junior player Shomari Wiltshire.

First on court was No 2 seed Richard Chin, who defeated Robert Fernandes in straight games 11- 6, 116, 11- 5. Defending champion Arjoon was next on court against former Junior Caribbean champion Damian Da Silva. Arjoon won the first

game 11-4, and then took an even closer second game, 118. He closed out the match with an emphatic 11-1 win in the third game.

Then Khalil was next on

court against Wiltshire, winning the first game 11-6. The second game went back and forth, with Wiltshire having two game balls: at 10-9 and again at 12-11; but Khalil

Results of the matches played on Friday evening were as follows:

Men’s Open

Alex Arjoon beat Damian Da Silva 11-4, 11-8, 11-1 Richard Chin beat Robert Fernandes 11-6, 11- 6, 11-5 Jason-Ray Khalil beat Shomari Wiltshire 11-6, 14-12, 11-2 Nyron Joseph beat Regan Pollard 11-6, 11-5, 11 -6

Women’s Open

Abosaide Cadogan defeated Sarah Lewis 11-3, 11-6, 11-3

Men’s Plate

Samuel Ince-Carvalhal beat Joshua Abdool 11- 9, 11-3, 11-5 Jonathan Antczak beat Gianni Carpenter 11-6, 11-4, 11-8

Women’s Plate

Kirsten Gomes beat Madison Fernandes 12-10, 7-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11- 8

Men’s Veterans Over 35

Garfield Wiltshire defeated Tony Farnum 11-4, 11-5, 11-2 Brian Yong beat Lloyd Fung-A-Fat 11-6, 11-3, 11-4

eventually prevailed 14-12.

The furious pace of the second game took its toll on both players, but more so on Wilshire, as his opponent easily won the third game 112. The battle between former national champions Nyron Joseph and Regan Pollard was comfortably won in straight games by Joseph 116, 11-5, 11-6.

In the last of the Women’s Quarter-final matches, top junior players Abosaide Cadogan and Sarah Lewis were pitted against each other, but Abosaide easily won the match 11-3, 11-6, 11-3.

The match-up in the Men’s Semi-finals will see Arjoon taking on Khalil, while No 2 seed Richard Chin comes up

JasonRay Khalil

against Nyron Joseph.

In the Women’s semis, Mary Fung-A-Fat will play Abosaide Cadogan, while Ashley Khalil will battle Taylor Fernandes. The Finals, meanwhile, are set for Sunday, commencing at 11:00h.

Global T20 Canada…

Winnipeg Hawks dust aside Montreal Tigers

W

innipeg Hawks tamed Montreal Tigers by a convincing 46-run win on Friday at the Maple Leaf venue in King City, Toronto in the second round of the 2018 inaugural Global T20 Canada competition.

Led by genuine all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, Winnipeg Hawks batted first at the invitation of Montreal Tigers, and were able to rattle up 203-4 from their allocation of 20 overs.

Tigers, in response, could only roar erratically, and were dismissed for 157 in the penultimate over of their allotted 20 overs.

Bravo also starred with the ball to help restrict the opposition. He snared three wickets for 24 runs from three medium-paced overs; while Canada’s player and leg-spinner Junaid Siddique claimed three wickets from 3.5 overs, but conceded 35 runs. Talented USA fast-bowler Ali Khan took two wickets for 18 runs from his impressive four-over spell in a supportive role.

Tigers’ chase began very perilously, with them losing hard-hitting West Indies batsman Dwayne Smith, caught at the boundary area when the score was just one; but Sunil Narine and Moises Henriques put up a fighting 57-run second-wicket stand, both batsmen showing good aggression, although they fell in quick succession. Henriques made 23, while Narine contributed 20.

Ashley Nurse played some attractive shots, but was brilliantly caught by David Warner at long-on to canny leg-spinner Siddique. George Worker also made 26, while Rayan Pathan hit a cameo 26.

Earlier, Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan ace pacer, started proceedings by removing Warner, bowled comprehensively for 1. However, a partnership of 69 between opener Lendl Simmons and Ben McDermott provided great resistance on a deceptive surface bathed in glorious sunshine.

Simmons, who was dropped on 15, went on to score 36, while McDermott impressed with a top-score of 68 from 46 deliveries, laced with seven fours and a six, before he was taken off medium-pacer Kevin Cooper.

Darren Bravo, the elegant Trinidad and Tobago batsman, began his innings quite slowly, but gradually got into aggressive mode, thumping five gigantic sixes around the sward. He made 54, and featured in some valuable partnerships during

SCOREBOARD Winnipeg Hawks Innings (20 overs maximum) BATSMEN LMP Simmons b Worker 36 DA Warner b Malinga 1 BR McDermott † c Henriques b Cooper 68 DM Bravo b Malinga 54 DA Miller not out 35 DJ Bravo (c) not out 5 Extras 4 (nb 2, w 2) TOTAL 203-4 (20 Overs, RR: 10.15) Did not bat: RR Emrit, Ali Khan, T Webster, Junaid Siddiqui, M Deyal Fall of wickets: 1-6 (DA Warner, 1.1 ov), 2-75 (LMP Simmons, 7.4 ov), 3-151 (DM Bravo, 15.2 ov), 4-168 (BR McDermott, 17.2 ov) BOWLING: PM Siddle (4-0-51-0), SL Malinga (4-0-19-2), SP Narine (4-0-35-0), KK Cooper (3-0-45-1), GH Worker (1-0-6-1), DR Smith (1-0-10-0), AR Nurse (3-0-37-0) Montreal Tigers Innings (target: 204 runs from 20 overs) BATSMEN DR Smith c Warner b Ali Khan 0 SP Narine c Ali Khan b DJ Bravo 20

MC Henriques b Junaid Siddiqui 23 GH Worker b Emrit 26 Sikandar Raza c Simmons b Ali Khan 30 D Ramdin † c Emrit b DJ Bravo 0 R Pathan run out (Warner) 20 AR Nurse c Warner b Junaid Siddiqui 26 KK Cooper c Warner b DJ Bravo 0 PM Siddle not out 2 SL Malinga (c) st †McDermott b Junaid Siddiqui 0 Extras 10 (lb 3, w 7) TOTAL 157 all out (18.5 Overs, RR: 8.33) Fall of wickets: 1-0 (DR Smith, 0.2 ov), 1-25 (SP Narine), 2-57 (MC Henriques, 8.3 ov), 3-98 (GH Worker, 11.2 ov), 4-102 (Sikandar Raza, 12.3 ov), 5-102 (SP Narine, 13.1 ov), 6-102 (D Ramdin, 13.4 ov), 7-135 (R Pathan, 16.5 ov), 8-142 (KK Cooper, 17.5 ov), 9-156 (AR Nurse, 18.3 ov), 10157 (SL Malinga, 18.5 ov) BOWLING: Ali Khan (4-0-18-2), RR Emrit (4-0-43-1), DJ Bravo (4-0-24-3), M Deyal (2-0-19-0), Junaid Siddiqui (3.5-0-35-3), T Webster (1-0-15-0)

his stay in the middle.

South African David Miller, a world-class T20 batsman, being in phenomenal form, once again spanked several delightful shots with great confidence, to contribute 35.

Malinga captured two wickets for 19 runs from his four tidy

overs.

At the presentation ceremony just after the game, McDermott was given the player-of-the-match award for his innings. The tournament continues on Saturday with two matches at the same facility. (Ravi Madholall)

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

SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2018

guyanatimesgy.com

Cavani sends Uruguay to last 8 as Portugal bow out Pg 20

Guyana storms Mbappé doubles up in France’s rollercoaster victory over Argentina into CBC finals Pg 22

Pg 19

Pg 19

Kylian Mbappé celebrates scoring his first goal to put France ahead of Argentina for the second time

Stanton Rose

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

JULY 1, 2018

Star Times Bollywood:

Page 14

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas to get engaged next month?

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Agriculture

2 Sunday Times Magazine

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JULY 1 , 2018

Feature

F

or many countrywomen, rearing a few fowls or sheep in the yard comes as second nature since they know the value of subsistence farming but not much of them ventures into the business on a large or even medium

scale basis as Anita Sammy did. Anita made it her business in order to supplement the income of her husband and ensure that her family gets the best life possible.

Anita, a Bath Settlement West Coast Berbice native, met her husband Louis

Isaacs at the age of 20 and since the duo got together, she has been rearing livestock and poultry.

The mother of four now lives with her family at Tempe where her husband farms and she looks after the animals.

While growing up, Anita was always the shiest among her six siblings.

She explains that it was this level of coyness that attracted her husband to her, which let to them ultimately eloping and starting a family together. At first, Louis was a labourer and would “shy paddy” or do other forms of work to take care of the family but as time progressed he was able to rent a plot of land where he farms rice now.

Anita never imagined she would love having animals around the house as much as she does now but this love was not always there since she got into the business of livestock and poultry as a means of supplementing her husband’s income.

“Since me take he (Louis) was working labourer and so and all the time I used to mine like cow, duck, fowl, goat and so. Because of how

plant the lil rice sometimes it doesn’t work out.

work does be that is how me start the business. This village (Tempe) the only thing you can do is plant rice or rear stock so he does plant and me does rear,” a smiling Anita told the Sunday Magazine.

Looking back to her formative years, the 48 year old said while growing up her own father did not have a stable job and after he died her mother took up the role of taking care of the family. Taking inspiration for her mother, Anita says she wants to be there to assist her husband and ensure that their family have the best life possible.

Anita now has over 30 sheep, a number of goats, several heads of cows along with ducks, fowls and broiler chickens. This she said is able to supplement the income of her husband when they suffer a “bad crop”.

“Sometime when you

Sometimes the weather nah good, the crop bad and the rent ah raise and that is just some of the problem and that is why me does mine the lil chicken and stock,” she says.

However, life has not been without challenges for Anita and her family as she recalls how a number of her cows, sheep and goats die whenever it rains. Because of the lack of proper infrastructure within the area, the animals suffer.

“When the rain falling the flood does gone with them. Lots of them does dead out. Until now the place ah flood and the animal them a dead out. With this rain nuff of the sheep get die out because of mud and the road and so on,” she says.

Anita plans to continue rearing animals for as long as she is able to since it has now moved from a necessity to a hobby. She enjoys caring for her chickens while interacting with the cows and sheep.

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 1 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine

3

Feature

“B

ees should not be killed. They should be protected and cared for because without them we would have no fruits, flower and honey among other things. That is what we need the people to know because of how important they are,” says beekeeper Janice Fraser.

The 62-year old has been a pioneer in the local apiculture sector, often imparting her knowledge and wealth of experience to younger generation beekeepers. Janice, a one-time Foreign Service Officer, explains that while on overseas assignment her

interests in a lot of things developed and beekeeping was one of them.

Being a “town girl” all her life, prior to moving Brazil, had limited Janice’s knowledge of certain agricultural practices and she became immediately fazed with the art of beekeeping. This resulted in her dedicating her weekends towards learning the trade from some of the masters in the industry.

“When I met this apiculture I never knew before how bees were kept and all of that and when I went in with it I just went in for curiosity sake. I recognize that

from this little box, you can get so many products and I started to pursue it from then,” she said.

She explains after she finished the training workshop in 1993, she got her hand on a few hives and began her journey into the world of bee keeping. Following the end of her assignment, Janice returned home with a new passion and hunger to get into the apiculture sector but was sadden to know that it virtually did not exist.

“When I returned home, I immediately started to check the sector out and found that there was no organization or anyone that I could get into immediate contact with. In 2008, I met a man name Rajkumar and then my journey started. The first time was when I got a call to remove a hive from a school compound and from there I never looked back,” Janice recounts.

Janice says it irks her that a lot of people are now in the bee-keeping industry just for the money adding that it harms the bees since those persons are not patient enough to wait for the right time to extract products from the hives.

Janice Fraser

Additionally, the term “honey is money” is another misconception she says.

The veteran beekeeper explains that honey is actually the cheapest product from the hive since one

can extract other products such as pollen, wax, royal jelly and propolis, which are much costly. But noted that the need for those products, within the local framework, is not there.

Propolis or bee glue is a viscous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other tress and is probably the most expensive product from the hive. It fetches a price of approximately $15USD per ounce and depending on the weather, number of bees and size of hive one can extract

at least one pound propolis per week.

The beekeeper cautions that the rule of thumb is that one can only extract one product at a time from the hive and if this rule is not followed then there can be dire consequences.

Currently Janice tends to her approximate 15 hives along the East Coast of Demerara. She boasts that her hives have approximately 80,000 bees each and that plans are in the pipeline to expand her investment with an additional 100 hives.

Janice recently acquired a plot of land in the Rock Stone/Anarika area where she plans to facilitate her expansion. For now she is well known within the sector and notes that her honey “Forever loving you honey” is sold out even before she is finished extracting. (Photos provided by Forever Sweet Apiary)

4

Sunday Times Magazine

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JULY 1 , 2018

Feature

T

he international development community has recognized that agriculture is an engine of growth and poverty reduction in countries where it is the main occupation of the poor. But the agricultural sector in many developing countries is underperforming, in part because women, who represent a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy through their roles as farmers, labourers and entrepreneurs, almost everywhere face more severe constraints than men in access to productive resources.

Efforts by national governments and the international community to achieve their goals for agricultural development, economic growth and food security will be strengthened and accelerated if they build on the contributions that women make and take steps to alleviate these constraints.

Women make essential contributions to the agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. Their roles vary considerably between and within regions and are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are transforming the agricultural sector.

Rural women often manage complex households and pursue multiple livelihood strategies.

Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. Many of

these activities are not defined as “economically active employment” in national accounts but they are essential to the wellbeing of rural households.

Women make important contributions to the agricultural and rural economies of all regions of the world. However, the exact contribution both in terms of magnitude and of its nature is often difficult to assess and shows a high degree of variation across countries and regions.

Women in the agricultural labour force Two types of data can contribute to measuring the contribution of women in the agricultural labour force: statistics on the share of women in the economically active population in agriculture and time use surveys, which document the time spent by men and women in different activities.

Economically active population in agriculture Data on the economically active population in agriculture are available for many countries, and provide the most comprehensive measure of the participation of women in agriculture. In this measure, an individual is reported as being in the agricultural labour force if he or she reports that agriculture is his or her main economic activity.

However, these data may underestimate female participation in agriculture for reasons discussed below, and caution is advised in interpreting changes over time because improvements in data collection may be responsible for some of the observed changes.

Women’s contribution to agri-

cultural production Women play a significant role in the agricultural labour force and in agricultural activities, although to a varying degree. Consequently, their contribution to agricultural output is undoubtedly extremely significant, although difficult to quantify with any accuracy. It

has often been claimed that women produce 60-80 percent of food.

However, assigning contributions to agricultural outputs by gender is problematic because in most agricultural households both men and women are involved in crop production. It can be attempted to allocate output by gender

by assuming that specific crops are grown by women and others by men and then aggregating the value of women’s and men’s crops to determine the share grown by women. (Excerpts from FAO’s Role of

Women in Agriculture working paper)

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Sunday Times Magazine 5

Feature

W

hen we think about planting rice the scene of men large tractors hauling plows through large flooded fields preparing the land for men to “throw” paddy and manure to ensure a successful crop. The vision never entails seeing a woman in the field because of the misconception that it is a man’s world but for 62-year old Kussilla Jugdeo it is the only world she knows.

Kussilla, the daughter of a rice farmer, said growing up she always enjoyed being in the field with her father and cherished those moments. By being in the fields, Kussilla learned at an early age the ticks and trade of the rice sector, which only fueled her drive to be just like her father.

“I grew up in a rice farming family and I was well acquainted to the rice business and I know everything. I like being in the business but sometimes it gets to you,” she said.

Kussilla later got married and it was no surprise that her husband is also a rice farmers. She now lives at Mora Point, Mahaicony Creek and farms approximately 150 acres while her husband has his separate plot. However, she ex-

plains that at first it was only her husband who farmed while she stayed at home and took on the role of the traditional housewife and mother.

During the years, she would give birth to three children and after that, she decided to enter into the farming world so as to supplement the household income. She first started very small with the assistance of her husband and knowledge gained from earlier she began her journey.

At first, it was challenging for her since she would have to take care of the home as well as be in the fields ensuring that everything was being done to her liking. Over the years, as her children aged Kussilla began expanding her fields and even got her children involved.

With the help of the Small Business Development Finance Trust, Kussilla’s field has expanded to over the 150 acres and creates employment within her community. However, like every rice farmer the challenges faced by her are many and ranges from infrastructure to weather.

“The dam does give we some trouble but that is not all. With

the weather and so all of that we foes got to worry about. If the rain fall too much and the (rice) beg get too much flood then it will dead out and if we don’t get enough water then they will dead out too.

But when the weather is good then it is good crop,” Kussilla explains.

For Kussilla “rice farming is in my blood” and she does not take that lightly and invests every ounce of herself to ensure she succeed every crop. When asked about being a woman in the industry, she laughs and states that at no point she felt strange or even targeted.

“It is not strange at all for me.

I feel like it was what I was made for because I am comfortable here.

I am not here just for the money

but to show that once you put your mind to something, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or woman just know what you want and go for it,” she advises.

For Kussilla everyone should do what they love because it is only then they would be successful and comfortable.

6 Sunday Times Magazine

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JULY 1 , 2018

Feature

By Lakhram Bhagirat

T

he loss of a parent, particularly the sole breadwinner for the family, is a big blow and it often means the other has to step up, take the mantle and carry the family forward which is exactly what Indera Thakurdin did when her husband, Calvin, died over two years ago.

Indera is the mother of two children and lives in Jacklow, Pomeroon. Her husband died suddenly in January of 2016 leaving her to care for their two children. Both of Indera’s children would have performed outstandingly at their examinations. Her eldest child was 2013’s top Hinterland student at CSEC. She initially gained a place at Queens College when she wrote the NSGA but because of distance attended the Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary where she secured 13 grade ones and two grade twos.

Just last year, Indera’s son secured a place at the St Joseph’s High School but like his sister, he is currently attending the Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary.

Indera explained that while every parent wishes to have

their children attend the best schools sometimes it is not possible because of circumstances.

Touching on her own childhood, Indera explains that the Pomeroon is the only home she knew and wants it to remain that way because of the serenity and overall quietness of the place. Everyone in the Pomeroon is involved in some part of the agriculture sector whether it is fishing, cash crop or permanent crop so it is like the right of passage that she married a farmer.

The couple cultivated “permanent crops” like avocados, plantain and citrus but would ever so often venture into cash crop planting pumpkin and various ground provisions. After her husband’s death, Indera had to step up, pick up from where he left off and that is exactly what she did. She immediately took charge of their farm and began cultivating a manageable plot.

“My farm is five acres cultivated. As a woman, I try to maintain a small farm. My husband died in January 2016 and from since then I took over from where he left off. This farm here is the only income I have to sup-

port my son who is in school. My daughter just completed her first degree in Economics at UG and she is now working too, but she is in Georgetown,” Indera said.

Being around farming all her life and even assisting her parents earlier, Indera said taking over the farm after Calvin’s demise was not too strenuous since she used her knowledge to maximize yields and ensure the farm was well taken care of. Now she has some labourers working with her, but that does not mean she sits by and orders them around, rather she works with them “foot by foot”.

This, she says, allows her to know the ins and outs of her crop so that she can share that knowledge with other women if they choose to get into the sector.

But like every sector, there are challenges faced by the farmers in the Pomeroon and it often results in them losing millions of dollars in produce and crops. One of the pressing issue is that of the “dry limb disease” that affects citrus plants. Indera explains that the officers at

the National Agricultural Research Extension Institute (NAREI) are

aware of the disease and samples were taken to be tested but no response as

yet.

“We have dry limb disease on the oranges and NAREI people come in and they check it and they took samples and they haven’t gotten anything as yet. This going on for years and it wipe out more of the oranges. There isn’t no treatment and what you have to do is get the workers to chop the dry part out and hope the tree don’t die,” she said.

Additionally, market for the produce is something that troubles her. But for Indera it is not such a big issue since she is a wholesaler.

Her advice to any woman desirous of entering the sector is for them to be prepared to work hard and get dirty. She notes that drive is the key to succeeding and the drive to provide for her family has been her driving force all the while.

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JULY 1 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 7

Literary Corner

G

uyanese Dr. L o m a r s h Roopnarine is professor of Caribbean and Latin American history at Jackson State University and has he has written articles in many regional and international journals that focus on the Caribbean and Latin America. His recent book, Indian Caribbean: Migration and Identity in the diaspora has land-

ed him the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis award.

According to the Caribbean Studies Association, the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Award was established to honor the memory of distinguished Caribbeanists Gordon K. Lewis and Sybil Lewis.

It is granted to the best book about the Caribbean published over the previous three-year period in

Country View What might you see as you go on your way On a walk through the country on any spring day?

There's an old car tire without the rim, Filled with flowers to the brim.

A bottle tree glistens in the sun, And kids chunk rocks at it just for fun.

A rusty pump stands waiting still For thirsty ones to get their fill.

Someone's hound dog saunters by And gives no notice 'Til you catch his eye.

A rooster struts across the yard, Catching him would be awfully hard.

A pickup truck putters down a dirt road The back is filled with a sumptuos load.

A tractor sits quietly in a farmer's field .

For sometime later to harvest a yield, There are cows in the pasture That graze and chew; While horses trot proudly for all to view.

A turtle creeps across the road And in the grass there hides a small toad.

Wild flowers sprout along every path, Their sheer numbers defy any math.

Muscadines ripen on winding vines And could possibly become Someone's tasty sweet wine.

There's never a lack of quaint things to see, And just imagine,.. all this for free.

By Patricia Neely-Dorsey

Spanish, English, French or Dutch. The nominated book should approach the chosen subject or aspect of Caribbean life conditions and situations from an interdisciplinary perspective, and should clearly show to have regional impact.

Dr. Roopnarine’s field of study is interdisciplinary, drawing on methods and concepts in history, sociology, economics and environmental science to understand labor migration, resistance, human rights, identity as well as environment policy challenges in the Caribbean. For the past fifteen years, his research has focused on the movement of Asian contract/peasant workers to the Caribbean and their plantation experience with regard to their adaptation to structural dominance.

Additionally, his research examines social identity of and among East Indian, African and Hispanic Caribbean ethnic groups and is particularly interested in exploring alternative ways in analyzing social identity in the Caribbean. Dr. Roopnarine believes that identity is negotiated and shaped by geography, history, political leadership, migration and globalization which is not totally physical or permanent but also imaginative, incorporating issues of ethnicity, resistance, human rights, among other fac-

tors.

The former Guyana Times columnist's book, Indian Caribbean: Migration and Identity, tells a distinct story of Indians in the Caribbean-one concentrated not only on archival records and institutions, but also on the

Notice to Readers

voices of the people and the ways in which they define themselves and the world around them. Through oral history and ethnography, Dr. Roopnarine explores previously marginalized Indians in the Caribbean and their distinct social dynamics and histories, including the French Caribbean and other islands with smaller South Asian populations.

He pursues a comparative approach with inclusive themes that cut across the Caribbean.

In 1833, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire led to the import of exploited South Asian indentured workers in the Caribbean. Today India bears little relevance to most of these Caribbean Indians. Yet, Caribbean Indians have developed an in-between status, shaped

by South Asian customs such as religion, music, folklore, migration, new identities, and Bollywood films.

They do not seem akin to Indians in India, nor are they like Caribbean Creoles, or mixed-race Caribbeans. Instead, they have merged India and the Caribbean to produce a distinct, dynamic local entity.

The book does not neglect the arrival of nonindentured Indians in the Caribbean since the early 1900s. These people came to the Caribbean with-

out an indentured contract or after indentured emancipation but have formed significant communities in Barbados, the US Virgin Islands, and Jamaica. Drawing upon over twenty-five years of research in the Caribbean and North America, Dr. Roopnarine contributes a thorough analysis of the Indo-Caribbean, among the first to look at the entire Indian diaspora across the Caribbean.

The book also addresses the under-researched theme of Indian migration and identity formation in the Caribbean. The reason for this declaration is that Caribbean migration studies tend to focus on the larger and more visible ethnic groups, as well as on a few specific islands.

The result is that we know very little of Indian migration since settlement in the Caribbean, and how this migration has shaped Indian identity.

We also know very little of the challenges Indians face in order to migrate their respective communities, and their migratory experience in their new environment.

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

JULY 1 , 2018

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Travel and Tourism

L

ast Sunday several media operatives were treated to the ultimate experience by the EPIC Savannah Drive team. The EPIC Savannah Drive, whose aim is to push the frontiers of local adventure tourism by providing an atmosphere where adventure meets adrenaline, returns today and last Sunday’s event was to display what is in store for the participants.

Shane D’Andrade founded the event and according to him the drive will be passing through four communities this year, namely Yarrowkabra, Laluni, Swan and Pakuri ( St. Cuthbert’s Mission).

This year marks the fifth annual Epic Savannah Drive and second year of collaboration with the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA). Mud drag racing, an obstacle course and archery are some of the organised side attractions but the communities themselves have an opportunity to showcase their craft products and cuisine.

The founder highlighted also that 40 per cent of the money garnered from registration will be divided among the four communities for sport development. This is yet another initiative being fostered through the drive to promote community development.

Though the drive

will be one for the adventurers at heart to let their adrenaline run free, D’Andrade assured that the organising team will be taking all necessary precautions. There will be tour guides, mechanics, security and medical personnel accompanying the group.

In the coming months, the Savannah drive crew will also be organising more trips to out-of-town and indigenous communities, particularly in September in observance of Indigenous People’s Heritage Month.

Archery in Swan Village

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JULY 1 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine

9

10 Sunday Times Magazine

JULY 1 , 2018

guyanatimesgy.com

Feature

By Lakhram Bhagirat

N

elsion Nurse, a name you must have heard while watching the live broadcasts of the annual Mashramani Costume and Float Parade since he is more than often responsible for the extravagant pieces on display. However, Nelsion is not only a costume designer rather he is involved in every aspect of the fashion industry.

Nevertheless, according to Nelsion he never had his eyes set on being a part of the creative industry rather he has and still does have his eyes on a career in veterinary medicine. His love for animals, have over the years, led him to have non-traditional pets such as snakes, caimans and tarantulas.

Nelsion’s first job was at a Pet Store but because of his love for costume designing, he was forced to leave that job and enter into an industry where his place was uncertain.

The 30 year old recalls his childhood in Albertown, Georgetown as one that was spent mostly indoors since he was never fond of sports or outdoor games.

His mother being a seamstress and a single parent meant that Nelsion and his siblings spent their August vacations tacking buttons on orders or hemming.

“How I got involved in fashion/ creative thing is normally during the August holiday my mom was a single parent and she was a seamstress so during august while everyone was outside we had to be indoors helping with sewing.

I did that during my school days a n d I am grateful for that because that is what trickled the little creativity in me.”

While a student at the S t John’s College,

Nelsion was further introduced to the creative industry when he was asked to design a costume for the Headstart Nursery School in 2001. He was just a second former at that time and did not even know his piece would be part of a competition but was pleasantly surprised when he

was awarded third place.

Two years later would see him copping the top award and since then he has been dominating costumedesigning scene copping most of the two awards.

“A lot of people said that (leaving a steady job) was making a mistake. But I can look back now based on the progress I have made I don’t have any regrets,” he said.

With a solid background in costume designing, Nelsion’s transition into the world of high fashion was imminent.

He recalls that not being satisfied with the way pants were made in the Dominican Republic, while being a missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, led him into the world of high fashion.

After returning home in 2009, Nelsion met with local fashion designer Sonia Noel who urged him to be a part of the Guyana Fashion Week and he did.

He launched his first collection called “Patches” and not only won the hearts of the fashion savvy but also copped most promising young designer award.

“Beauty is in simplicity and for me I am all about making creative yet simple designs,” he noted.

Like everyone in the fashion industry, Nelsion feels that not much is being done to further develop the industry.

“Everything I do have a story. I love using white and most times my

designs are not extravagant because I believe that beauty is in simplicity. I would say that I am a more of a realistic designer because most times people would make haute couture and with our culture and climate, it is not realistic.”

Nelsion has taken a break from the industry and is now focused on fur-

ther developing his brand “Nandre’s Kreation” which focuses on not only fashion but also interior decorating as well. Nevertheless, you can expect a comeback fashion show from Nelsion by the end of 2018

or early 2019.

"To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it and a little more dance to it,” according to Nelsion.

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Sunday Times Magazine 11

Home & Cooking

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 2 hours Total time: 2 hours 15 mins Serves: 6 Ingredients 5 lb whole chicken ½ cup soy sauce ½ cup water 3 tbsp brown sugar Instructions 1. In a bowl small bowl, add soy sauce, water, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, chili flakes, star anise, 5 spice powder, garlic, orange peel, ginger and scallion and mix to combine.

Set aside.

2. Place the whole chicken on a cutting board and with a sharp knife cut along the back bone of the chicken, starting at the tail end. Once the back bone has been cut all the way through, spread the chicken open. Now press the knife down the center of the breast bone cutting all the way through. You should now half two halves.

3. Place the half in a large ziplock bag and add marinade. Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Place chicken skin side up and all of the marinade in a large baking dish. Cover tightly with foil then place into preheated oven. Bake covered for 1 ½ hours.

6. After 1 ½ hour, turn the oven up to 425 and bake chicken uncovered for 30

2 tbsp hoisin sauce ½ tsp chili flakes 1 star anise ¼ tsp 5 spice powder 4 cloves garlic, crushed 3 slices of ginger 3 scallions, finely chopped 2 pieces of orange peel 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water

Declutter your home

The single most important objective in creating feng shui is allowing for the flow of good energy, or chi, throughout your home. Chi brings good health, wealth and luck.

Decluttering must be thorough—simply hiding your stuff will not cut it. Items under the furniture, overloaded bookcases and closets, and outdated or broken items all affect chi flow. Keep only the items you love—or ones that have special meaning—and discard or donate the old and unused.

F

eng shui is an ancient Chinese art. The words literally mean, “wind-water,” and are associated with good luck, and good health. Most people will say that a home that has been “feng shui’d” feels more peaceful and harmonious.

To increase the amount of good vibes in your home, follow these five easy feng shui home decor tips for a lucky, prosperous year.

minutes basting every 5 minutes.

7. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 2 tbsp of water and pour into baking dish. Stir carefully to combine.

8. Now continue to cook the chicken and baste every 2-3 minutes with thickened sauce.

9. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving. (Jehan Can Cook blog)

Go for Yin and Yang

Add more of your favorite colors to activate the energy associated with them

Colors play a very important role in feng shui; add them through wall art, decorative objects or paint. Here is a general list of what each color activates: Red: luck and wealth; Orange: happiness and fun; Yellow: mental stimulation, power; Green: peace, balance, healing; Blue: calmness, communication, spirituality; Purple: wealth, high spirituality; White: cleansing and purity; Black: power, especially when paired with red; and Brown: nurturing.

Add plants

Airflow is important in feng shui, but the air must be pure. Plants filter the air, creating a healthier, cleaner environment. Plants also attract vibrant chi energy due to their life force. As long as the plants are kept healthy, you are attracting good energy.

Some plants are better for feng shui than others are. In fact, some plants, like cactus, are considered bad feng shui, because they lack the need for water (water is like wealth), or they are spiky and “unfriendly.”

Here is a list of some of the best (and luckiest) plants you can invite into your space. Most of these plants are low-maintenance, and do very well indoors: lucky bamboo, peace lily, palm and English ivy.

Feng shui followers believe that everything is composed of two opposing but connected forces: Yin (feminine) and Yang (masculine).

It is the balance of forces such as dark and light, or night and day; one cannot exist without the other.

When decorating, create balance by applying this concept to your home.

These are just the basics of feng shui; there is much more to the art and science, including directions, numbers, elements and more. Getting started with these five tips should be a good start; you should feel the difference in your space in no time!

12 Sunday Times Magazine

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Puzzles

ACROSS

1 Sled dog command

5 Hitter's stat (2 wds.)

10 Looks closely

14 Not clean

19 -- de Mayo

20 Time traveler -- McFly

21 Legal wrongs

23 Condor's abode

24 Suit coat feature

25 Of bees 26 Knickknack 27 Mortgages 28 Revises

30 Lays off work

32 Hitchhiker's place

33 Orphan of comics

34 Narrowly describe

36 Went fast

38 Kind of canyon

40 Dangerous curve

41 Reunion attendee

42 Upper story

43 Safari country

45 Contented murmurs

49 Edible seed

50 Na+ and Cl 51 "Runaway Bride" groom 52 Raid

56 Burst into flower

58 -- de vivre

59 Doctorate exams

60 Meditation guide

61 Caught some rays

62 Bunkhouse items

63 Vatican virtue

64 Koan discipline

65 Rolex rival

66 LEM lander 67 Dissolves

68 Tabloid shocker

71 TLC providers 72 Full-strength

73 Panmunjom site

74 Lock up

75 Cameos (2 wds.)

78 Beyond zealous

79 Hibachi dish

83 Big Band et al.

84 Iris center 85 Protrudes

86 -- out (relax)

87 Turn into bone

90 Ski slope bump 91 Puts

92 UFO passenger

94 Aunt or bro.

95 Harbor suspicions

96 Soy product

97 Inferior, slangily

98 Muses' father 100 Trite

101 Eric the Red's son

102 Dynamite pro

103 Gumbo ingredient

104 Grew older

105 Paddock youngster

106 -- and hiss

107 Like autumn leaves

108 Go slowly

110 Cow's bellow

111 "Nick of Time" singer

113 Suffix for "hero"

116 Mrs. Lennon

117 Holding a grudge 118 Ornery

123 Sleuths' clues

125 Tex. neighbor

127 Interprets tea leaves

129 Salad green

130 Gold brick

131 Cuts calories 133 Fields

135 Horned fiend

136 Actor's whisper

137 Girder material

138 Alabama town

139 Vote in

140 Interior look 141 Agile

142 Secret rendezvous

143 Take 10

DOWN

1 Biscayne Bay city

2 Dismantle a tent 3 Tableau

4 Keep a grip (2 wds.)

5 GP group

6 Bland pudding

7 Harness part

8 "I could -- -- unfold . . ."

9 Newcastle upon - 10 Handy abbr.

11 "Sure!" (2 wds.)

12 Blew it

13 Cook in a wok

14 Star system

15 Jockey's brake

16 Castle that danced

17 Skimpy skirts

18 Oui and ja

19 Show approval 22 Glumly

29 Made catty remarks 31 Sparkled

35 Pay attention

37 Conditions 39 Singles

42 Hi's comic-strip wife

43 Romantic poet

44 HS math

45 Soak up 46 Graduates

47 Straightforward

48 Nightclub number

50 Scintilla

51 The fabulous Garbo

53 Greek liqueur

54 Assayers' samples

55 Fix a piano

57 Drop -- -- line

58 Mr. Canseco

59 Stopped a squeak

62 Train units

63 Grave risk 66 Acorns

67 Exxon mergee

68 Listener's need

69 Seneca's dozen

70 Tissue layer

72 Request earnestly

73 On the fritz

74 Hangar occupants

76 Canadian prov.

77 Playful bark

78 Scrum game

79 "Swan Lake" garb

80 Drive a Cessna

81

82

84

85

87

88

89

90

91

92 93

95

96

Zoo employee

97 Attire 99 Pouch Shrug off

100 "Slither" actor Butter quantity

101 Closer to sea level Mutt's crony Ricelike pasta

102 Give off steam Go in search of 105 Remote Disparaging remark 106 Fragrant firs Gourmet mushroom 109 Team list Muddy up

110 Stiff straw hat Gleeful shout 111 Insolently Reduced 112 Gentle Snoopy's favorite trees?

113 Epic by Homer Mallard cousin

114 Taste or smell

115 Hocus-pocus

117 Lie dormant

118 Showing more skin

119 "Rumour Has It" singer

120 Uses a springboard

121 Remove a renter

122 Shoulder muscle

124 Long-gone bird

126 Beavers' young

128 Toward sunrise 132 Cunning

134 Plopped down See Solution on Pg 13

KATHLEEN SAXE

WORD GAME TODAY'S WORD – ATELIER (ATELIER: at-'l-YAY: A workshop or studio.)

Average mark 30 words Time limit 35 minutes

Can you find 41 or more

aerie alee alert alit alter arete tail tale

tare teal tear tier tile tire trail tree

trial earl eater elate elite lair late later

words in ATELIER? leer liar lira lire liter irate rail rale

rate real reel relate relit retail retie rile

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.

ANTIMONY ARSENIC BARIUM BISMUTH BORON

CADMIUM GERMANIUM GALLIUM INDIUM MOLYBDENUM

RHODIUM OSMIUM RUTHENIUM TANTALUM CESIUM

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JULY 1 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 13

Tech

S

amsung could be making a Galaxy S10 for everyone. The Korean tech giant may launch three different models of its next Galaxy S flagship, according to Korean news outlet ETNews.

Each Galaxy S10 variant could have a different rear camera setup, according to the report, with the most high-end model getting three rear cameras.

This could potentially give the triple-camera S10 new camera functions or better photo-taking abilities than the single-camera Galaxy S9 or dual-camera Galaxy S9 Plus.

The three Galaxy S10 devices are reportedly nicknamed "Beyond 0", "Beyond 1" and "Beyond 2." ETNews says that Beyond 0 will have a 5.8-inch display and one rear camera, Beyond 1 will have a 5.8-inch dis-

A

T&T has agreed to pay a $5.25 million fine to settle an investigation into a pair of nationwide 911 outages that occurred in early 2017. The Federal Communications Commission said the first outage, on March 8th, lasted about five hours and affected 12,600 callers.

The second, on May 1st, lasted 47 minutes and resulted in 2,600 failed 911 calls.

“Such preventable outages are unacceptable,”

play and two rear cameras, while Beyond 2 will be 6.2-inches and have three rear cameras. Although the report doesn't share prices, it says that the Galaxy S10 lineup will cater to both entry-level buyers and people looking for top-of-the-line specs.

This three-tier phone release is pretty similar to the Huawei P20 series. Earlier this year Huawei released the Huawei P20, Huawei P20 Pro and Huawei P20 Lite. The Huawei P20 Pro also has three rear c a m eras,

which helps with low-light pictures, zooming and portrait mode effects.

The ETNews report, which was spotted by Android Authority, also echoes earlier rumors about the Galaxy S10 getting an in-display fingerprint reader and Samsung releasing a foldable phone in the near future. (CNET)

the FCC wrote in a statement announcing the settlement.

“Robust and reliable 911 service is a national priority, as repeatedly expressed by both Congress and the Commission.”

In addition to the fines, AT&T is also required to make changes to help minimize issues should an outage happen again and to make sure it informs the proper parties about such outages. The FCC says AT&T failed to “quickly,

clearly, and fully notify” the affected 911 call centers.

The outages impacted people on AT&T’s network using Voice over LTE, which many modern phones will default to if the service is supported. AT&T had been making network changes on those days, and they apparently went awry, preventing 911 calls from being routed to call centers.

“Providing access to emergency 911 services is critically important, and to that end we cooperated with the FCC in their review,” an AT&T spokesperson said in a statement. “These events resulted from planned network changes that inadvertently interfered with the routing of 911 calls. We’ve taken steps to prevent this from happening again.”

This is a really small fine for AT&T to pay (the company brought in $38 billion in just its last reported quarter, before it added in all of Time Warner), but it’s meant to be a reminder of how critical 911 service is — there’s no time when an outage is acceptable. And while outages are going to happen now and then, there’s a chain of events that are supposed to take place to make sure that they’re mitigated, and AT&T apparently didn’t follow those, leading to today’s fine.

Crossword Solution

(The Verge)

14 Sunday Times Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 1 , 2018

Bollywood/Hollywood

C

ardi B and Offset are already married, and documents show they actually tied the knot MONTHS ago -- which explains why he's now calling her his "wife" in public.

We did some digging and found out they got a marriage certificate in Fulton County, GA on Sept. 20, 2017. For you single folks ... the marriage certificate is filed with the court AFTER a couple does the deed as proof the marriage really happened.

When Migos won Best Group Sunday at the BET Awards, Offset said excitedly, "I thank my wife. You should thank yours." The secret marriage puts a new perspective on their big public engagement. You'll recall, Offset got down on one knee back in October during their performance in Philly.

Turns out ... Offset and Cardi are a true showbiz couple 'cause that was all for show. Now, we know they were already husband and wife for a month at that point.

After the reports, Cardi B took to twitter where she confirmed the wedding.

E

"There are so many moments that I share with the world and then there are moments that I want to keep for myself! Getting married was one of those moments!

Our relationship was so new breaking up and making up and we had a lot of growing up to do but we was so in love we didn't want to lose each other, was one morning in September we woke up and decided to get married. We found someone to

marry us, and she did, just the two of us and my cousin.

I said I do, with no dress no make up and no ring! I appreciate and love my husband so much for still wanting for me have that special moment that every girl dreams of when he got down on his knee and put a ring on my finger and he did that for me!!”

The duo are expecting their first child. (TMZ)

ver since Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas made their first appearance together at MET gala, there have been reports about how the celebrities are dating. And now according to latest reports, the rumoured couple are set to get engaged next month.

According to a report

by Filmfare, Nick and Priyanka made their India trip so that the former could meet Priyanka’s family and loved ones. The couple will reportedly get engaged by the last week of July or in early August.

Nick and Priyanka are currently in India, and are enjoying their time here.

The stars are presently holidaying in Goa with PC’s close friends and family.

F A

few reports today suggested that after Race 3’s success at the box office, Salman Khan is set to star in yet another hit franchise. It seems Aditya Chopra’s much-anticipated film Dhoom 4 will feature Salman in the lead.

According to reports, the makers have been discussing the project with the star for quite some time now.

J

oe Jackson, the music manager and father of 11, died early Wednesday morning, TMZ reports. He was 89.

The Jackson family patriarch had been battling terminal pancreatic cancer and was “not doing well” as of late, a source previously told PEOPLE. Grandsons Randy Jackson Jr. and Taj Jackson confirmed the news in tweets Wednesday

However, it was finalised only after Race 3’s release.

Dhoom 4 will, reportedly, be helmed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, who has helmed the previous Dhoom films and is currently busy shooting Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khanstarrer Thugs Of Hindostan. There is also speculation that Ranveer Singh will also come on board the project.

An insider also stated that Katrina Kaif has been approached to play the female lead in Dhoom 4. If Katrina and Salman come together in the fourth installment of Dhoom, it will be their sixth film together.

Let’s wait and watch when the makers will finally announce the cast of Dhoom 4. (Indian Express)

afternoon, writing, “RIP to the king that made everything possible! I love you grandpa” and “Joe was loved by the entire family and our hearts are in pain. Let us grieve.”

Prince Michael Jackson, grandson of Joe and son of Michael, captioned a photo on Instagram. “This man is and always will be an example or sheer willpower and dedication.

He didn’t choose the path that

was the easiest but he choose the path that was best for his family,” he wrote.

“You taught me to take pride in the Jackson name and what it really means, you taught me dedication in the face of adversity and most of all you showed me strength and fearlessness. There is and never will be someone like you. Fly free and until we meet again The Hawk.” (People.com)

ellow Spice Girls fans and loved ones, it’s with a somewhat excited but cautious heart that I bring you the latest Spice Girls reunion tour headline.

You have every right to be fully freaking out right now since the news comes from an actual Spice Girl, Mel B, who dropped by The Today Show on Wednesday and basically told Hoda Kotb that things really are happening.

“I’m the only one that keeps on saying we’re going to be performing, which we are gonna be performing,” she said. “Finally, they’ve

A

Priyanka Chopra’s cousin and Namaste England actor Parineeti Chopra took to Instagram to share with her

fans about all the fun she has been having with the Quantico star and her rumoured beau. (Indian Express)

got it together. Yes.” When Hoda brought up the fact that Victoria Beckham keeps on shutting down the reunion rumors, Mel B fired back: “She’s always saying that. Stop it.

We are touring. Should I have really said that out loud? Yes, we are going to be doing performances together for sure.”

Yes, this is all very good news, and I hope it all comes true. But as Mel B points out, she really has been talking about a Spice Girls reunion “for years.” This year alone, Cosmopolitan.com devoted at least 10 posts to all the headlines surrounding the re-

union, including one that had them performing at the Royal Wedding. That never happened.

In fact, Victoria was the only Spice Girl who got an actual invitation (along with huz David Beckham).

According to Mel B, she had other things to worry about instead of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s nuptials. “I got divorced and I had to go to court,” Mel told Hoda. “Real-life problems.”

(FWIW, Mel B is a big fan of Meghan and Harry. She predicts they’ll have “gorgeous babies.”) (Cosmopolitan)

ctor John Abraham who is all set to show his patriotic streak again with his forthcoming film 'Satyameva Jayate' has said his film is unfiltered and hardcore commercial film. John Abraham was interacting with media at the trailer launch along with his co-actors Manoj Bajpayee, Aisha Sharma, Amruta Khanvilkar, director Milap Zaveri, producers Bhushan Kumar and Nikhil Advani on Thursday in Mumbai.

In 'Satyamva Jayate', John features as a vigilante taking out the rotten apples of the police department who are corrupt in nature.

Talking about nature of the film, John said, "This film deals with patriotism and corruption but I think this is a unfiltered, hardcore commercial film.

"We were very clear while shooting of the film that we want to make very commercial film. This film has everything in it. It's a full plate which has action, music and drama therefore; I hope audience will have good time while watching this movie."

John is working with Manoj Bajpayee for the second time after working together in 'Shootout at Wadala' and sharing his experience working with Manoj, John said: "When you are sharing the screen space with Manoj Bajpayee that time you learn a lot.

"He is an institution in acting and his niceness is his humility. He is one of the greatest actors that we have in Hindi cinema and sharing screen time with him is very special so, for people like me, it's like watching a film when you are watching Manoj Bajpayee."

'Satyameva Jayate' is written and directed by Milap Milan Zaveri and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Nikkhil Advani , Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani.

The movie featuring John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee, Amruta Khanvilkar and Aisha Sharma in lead roles is releasing on 15 August, 2018.

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 1 , 2018

Sunday Times Magazine 15

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

UNIFORM VOUCHER 2018

LIST OF BUSINESS PLACES WHERE ONE CAN PURCHASE SCHOOL ITEMS WITH THE SCHOOL UNIFORM VOUCHER SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 2 1. Rajendra K. Ramkumar – 40 Windsor Castle 2. G. Deodat – Gopi’s Enterprise – 369 Hampton Court, Essequibo 3. Mohamed R. Ramjohn – R & R Fashion – Supernaam Market, Essequibo 4. Manraj Rambaran – Lima Essequibo Coast 5. Dalchand Variety Store – 7 Anna Regina, Essequibo 6. Cinderella Designs – Anna Regina Post Office Compound 7. Shackelia Henry – 4 Aurora Essequibo 8. Lalchan’s Puja & Variety Store 9. Krishna & Son Enterprise – Charity, Essequibo Coast 10. Kozy Nook Family Store -2 Soesdyke 11. Iman Bacchus & Sons Ltd – Affiance Essequibo Coast 12. Poorandai Sukhu, Pyaar Style Fashion - 284 Zeelugt Old Road, East Bank, Essequibo, Guyana.

13. Lalldeo Bukhan, Bukhan & Son General Store & Supermarket – 252-254 Parika East Bank Essequibo

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SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 3 Bibi Sherina Yussuf – Parika Market, WCD Savers Choice Bargain Centre – 97 MetenMeer-Zorg, WCD Charmine’s Clothing – Parika Market Robal Nebar – 44 Wine Bush, - Leonora Market Vickram Singh Garment Manufacturing – 6 South Section Canal # 2 WBD Vedo’s Variety Store – S. Stelling Road, Vreed-en-Hoop Bibi Nandlall – Stall 11 Hydronie Market, Parika, EBE Tularam Ramkissoon General Store – Belle Plaine Wakennaam A & S Geneeral Store – H’ New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop Pyaar Style Fashion – 284 Zeelugt Old Road, East Bank Essequibo Payless Variety Store- 28 Stelling Road, Vreed En Hoop Indrani’s Fashion – 15 First Avenue Bartica Essequibo River S. Motilall Variety Shop – 11 Fair Field Essequibo Nalene S. Lall – N.S. Lall General Store 1 Anna Regina Tularam Ramkissoon General Store – 124 Belle Plaine, Wakenaam Essequibo Island Laikat Alli, Z. Laikat Alli & Sons Family Store- 50 Cotton Field Essequibo Coast

SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 4 1. P. Datt Variety Store, Beezie Enmore

2. M. Khan – 80 L B I, Housing Scheme 3. DAT General Store – 64 Good Hope, E C D 4. Bibi Clothes Stall - # 19 & 20 Plaisance Market 5. Giftland Office Max- Turkeyen 6. Ellen Mahase – 61-62 Blossom Scheme, Enmore 7. Edwin’s Grocery & Haberdashery – 19 Lusignan, East Coast Demerara 8. Kids’ Outlet – 165 Lusignan Public Road East Coast Demerara 9. Gaitree’s Boutique – Stall #32 Annadale Market East coast Demerara 10. Primo Sewing Establishment – 23 Company Road Buxton, East coast Demerara 11. T.M’s Collection Boutique – Stall No. 331, Lusignan Market ECD 12. Danraj Harold – Danny Tailor Shop – 490 Phase 1, Good Hope, East Coast Demerara 13. N.Y Apparell and Boutique – A Belmonte.

Mahaica 14. G. Hamid Grocery – 692 Eighteenth Street, Foulis ECD 15. Mohandai Boodhoo - DAT General Store 52,53 &72 Mon Repos Market ECD 16. Janice Bobb – 887 Caneville Grove ECD 17. Tulsidai Mansah

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SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 5 NJ’s Stationery & Gift Centre – 176 Public Road, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice Audrey General Store – 461 Ithaca Village, WBB A & S Wholesale & Retail General Store – 178 A, Rosignol West Bank Berbice Double G General Store – 17 Farm Mahaicony Razeena In Style Fashion Store – 262 Rosignol W.C Berbice Natasha Singh – Lot 11 Section C Bush Lot West Coast Berbice Singh – 348 Priyadharshanie Bathsettlement West Coast Berbice Mohamed Mursalin – 272 Rosignol Village West Coast Berbice Phulmuttie Boodhoo, A&S Supermarket, 178 “A” Rosignol West Bank Berbice Jasmatie Singh, Variety Store – Lot 15 C, Bush Lot Village, West Coast Berbice Vickram Singh Vickram Singh Garment & Manufacturing , 6 South Section Canal No. Polder, West Bank Demerara SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 6 B & L Trading – Tacama Berbice River J. Singh Variety Store – 19 Bush Lot, WCB Jodha Haberdashery Stalls – 79 Municipality Market Corriverton, Berbice Ramcharran & Satranee Garment Shop 7 South Public Road, Rose Hall R. Singh & Sons Auto Sales & Business Enterprise #78 Village Corriverton Jameel Uddin General Store - #71 Village,

Corentyne 7. Adrian Hansraj – 7 ‘A’ D’ Edward Village, Berbice 8. Gordon’s Stationery – 14 Pitt Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice 9. Joshua Bissoon – Bissoon’s Business Enterprise – Corriverton Market, 10. Sunita Garment Corner – 79 Municipal Market 11. Judith April Business Enterprise – 79 Municipal Market Corriverton 12. Judith April – Stalls 804,805,825 and 826 Corriverton Town Market 13. Payless Variety Store- Pitt Street ,New Amsterdam 14. Gajadhar Singh Store – 12 Main and Chapel Street N A Berbice 15. Hardyal and Daughter True Value Store – 14 Pitt Street N A Berbice 16. Jameel Uddin General Store – 71 Village Corentyne Berbice & Lot 28 A No. 57 Village Berbice 17. Judith Angela April – Judith April Business Enterprise, Stall No 823 ½ No. 79 Munipal Market, Corriverton, Corentyne, Berbice

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SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN REGION # 10 Boutique, 68-69 Denise & Jevons Mackenzie Arcade Levoy’s Variety Store, 86 Mackenzie Market Mayfil Green Variety Store, Mackenzie Market Vashti Fordyce, Stall #0554 Wismar Market Romain Hodgson Shoe World, Stalls # 0-71 Mackenzie Market Winnie’s Exotic Clothing, Stall 01165, Mackenzie Lola’s Variety Store, Stall 1132, Mackenzie Ann Leitch, 84 Mackenzie Market Phyllis Corner, Stall #4 Mackenzie Market Triple ‘A’ Stationery & Book Centre, Booth #6 Chevon Variety Store, Stall #36 Mackenzie Arcade Jevon & Denise – 65&66 Mackenzie, Arcade, Linden Performance Auto Spares and General Store – 273 Green Heart street, Linden Tunde’s Fabric and Accessories – Stall #1 Ituni Market, Ituni District Upper Demerara UNISTOP Stall - 67 & 68 Wismar Market Linden Amber Variety Store - 130 Ituni Housing Scheme Upper Demerara Kozy Nook Family Store - 2 Soesdyke East Bank Demerara Marcia Bourne, Bourne Variety Store 1620 Kusand Avenue, Ituni District, SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN Georgetown 1. Ashmin’s Trading Company

Limited, High Street 2. Guyana Stores Limited, Water Street 3. Janice Variety Stall, Bourda Market 4. Milton Brandford, COLOUR 70 E Robb Street, Lacytown 5. Payless Variety Store, 42 Wellington Street 6. Foot Step Mall, Regent & Camp Streets 7. The Family Store, Robb & Savage Streets (GPO Building) 8. Ravina & Avinash Complex, Water Street 9. Aniroud Stationery, Croal Street 10. Gift land Office Max 11. METRO, Croal Street & Quamina Street 12. Bhagwan’s Store, 18 A Water Street 13. Shoppers Paradise, 104 Regent Street 14. City Centre, 17 A Water Street 15. Singh’s Electronics, 136 Regent Street, Lacytown 16. Ann & Sons, Bourda Market 17. Christine’s Fashion & Variety Store 18. William Fogarty Limited, Water Street 19. Janice Babb - Stall #8,9 Bourda Market 20. G&D Business Enterprise – Stall #6 Stabroek market 21. Shamdas Kirpalani – 6A Water Street and 107 Regent Street. G/town 22. K.D. Vaswani – 109 Regent, Lacytown G/town 23. Brassonic LTD – 42 Water Street G/Town 24. Alicia’s Variety – Stall #95, 99102 Bourda Market 25. Gobin’s Variety & Gambio, 96 Regent Street. Lacytown 26. Chow General Store – 307 Independence LaPenitence 27. Balaji Trading – 124 King Street, Lacytown Georgetown 28. C & M Children & Men Outfit fashion 131 Regent Street 29. R. Sookraj & Sons – 104 Regent Street, G/town 30. Muneshwers Limited – 4547 Water Street. G/town 31. William Fogarty Limited – 34-37 Water Street P.O #10320, Georgetown 32. Dianne Christina Jennings, Dianne Variety Store - Vendor Arcade Regent Street.

33. Alim Sham- 97 Regent, Lacytown Georgetown.

34. Marion Shepherd, Marion’s Me Stop Shop - 49-50 Bourda Market Bourda G/Town 35. Gaitry Sewnauth – Stall No. E. Section 1 LaPenitence Market G/Town 36. Kamieal Dinool – S & K Dinool – Stall No 142 Robbstown, Vendor Arcade , Regent Street 37. Mahagony Visions Inc. - 128 A Carmicheal Georgetown SCHOOL UNIFORM AGENCIES IN Bartica 1. Indrani’s Fashion, 15 First Avenue Bartica

16 Sunday Times Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

JULY 1 , 2018

Fun Times

Archie

ARIES (March 21April 19)

Participate in events that are conducive to meeting interesting people and making a difference to a cause you feel compelled to help. Your input will lead to popularity. Romance is featured.

Your changing mind and TAURUS inconsistent behavior will (April 20- raise issues with the people May 20) close to you. Listen to their advice, but do what you feel most comfortable doing.

Taking a day trip or getGEMINI ting together with friends or (MAY 28- relatives will bring about an June 20) unexpected change. Proceed with caution and patience to avoid a delay or mishap.

Look for a way to expand your creative skills. Practice (June 21- makes perfect, and with the July 22) right setting and encouragement, you’ll thrive. Make the changes necessary to achieve your dreams.

CANCER

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Dilbert

Peanuts

If you take a moment to recall past mistakes, it will help you avoid making a hasty decision that could complicate your life. Refrain from getting involved in excessive pastimes.

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

A change of location or interacting with people different from you will lead to questions and plans that will help you build a brighter future. A new beginning will re-energize you.

LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

Discussing your plans with a loved one will help you eliminate any problems moving forward. Add incentive and romance to the mix, but remember to stick to a strict budget.

Don’t hide out, or you may SCORPIO (Oct. 24- lose ground. You are best off Nov. 22) standing up for your rights and facing whatever opposition comes your way before matters escalate.

SAGITTARIUS Pick up information that (Nov. 23- will help you qualify for someDec. 21) thing you want to pursue.

Physical changes will enhance your looks and attract compliments. Make love and romance priorities.

Calvin and Hobbes

You can make improveCAPRICORN ments at home, but make sure (Dec. 22- you have the approval of anyJan. 19) one affected by your decisions.

Avoid unpredictable people and situations. De-clutter your life.

Partnerships will need AQUARIUS special attention. Be frank (Jan. 20- about your feelings. Being Feb. 19) accommodating will help, but don’t put up with unacceptable behavior.

Look for alternative PISCES (Feb. 20- means and methods to help Mar. 20) someone who needs it. Your kindness and concern will help you get something you want.