Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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House votes against $1.25B for specialty hospital - Nagamootoo says cut not “willy nilly” Seeing no clear accountability on the part of the government, the opposition controlled National Assembly voted against the $1.25 billion the government was seeking to move ahead with construction of the Specialty Hospital.

Moses Nagamootoo of the Alliance For Change (AFC) said that his party could not in “good conscience” vote for the project because the government was offering contradictory explanations especially with regards to the amount of money that has been spent so far.

The government tried its best to stave off the cuts, but could not win by an opposition demand that the government “come clean.”

The government tried to use the Parliamentary rules to prevent the largest coalition bloc APNU from moving that the estimate be reduced to a single dollar. The Speaker agreed that the notice by APNU did not pass a full day as required by the rules.

However, Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC, who had tabled a notice to cut the budget since last Friday, was allowed to move his motion to reduce the estimates for the hospital to zero.

The motion was put to a vote and the opposition won

against the government 3332.

Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, said that works done on the site so far included site clearance, reinforce concrete culverts, drains, and rehabilitation of the eastern perimeter fence.

He said that $52.3 million was being spent on that.

However, Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson said she had visited the site and could not see evidence of those works.

Nagamootoo, who lives close to the site, said all he sees are piles of white sand that paints the imagery of a white elephant. He said last year what he saw were piles of earth that he called “the dirty dozen.”

Ramsaran sought to clarify that there were two contracts for the preparatory stage of the contract.

One of those was given to Bovell Construction. But the opposition said that too many conflicting figures were being given.

Nagamootoo said that they were told that the contract to Bovell was $29 million and now they were being told of a new figure of $52 million, and then there was also a sum of $100 million mentioned in the budget estimates.

As such, he said that the

Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran reacts to the budget cut.

AFC was in doubt as to the real figures and could not decide if to believe what the Minister was saying or what was on the books.

“Our concern is about the people’s purse,” Nagamootoo stated.

The Finance Minister then explained that the India Exim Bank, which is funding the Design, Build and Equip contract, has made an initial disbursement of US$3.6 million to Surendra Engineering.

Ramsaran said that that “mobilization” amount would have been awarded by the bank after they did their due diligence on Surendra.

Ramjattan asked if Surendra engineering has ever built a specialty hospital as against Fedders Lloyd, the other bidder.

Ramsaran said that he

believed the answer was in the position and could provide that information.

The Health Minister argued that “we need to move forward” because Surendra needed urgent response so that it could order the fabrication of steel structures and buy a certain type of piles.

With the geo-technical survey completed, Ramsaran said that the design phase is well advanced, and the Ministry of Health would now have to make certain pronouncements so that the company can design based on the results of the geotechnical survey.

The AFC had said it would not support the construction of the proposed Specialty Hospital due to the irregularities surrounding the award of the contract.

Judge to rule on Defence no case submission Justice Dawn Gregory is expected to rule today on a no case submission by defence Attorneys Murseline Bacchus and Perry Gosai in the Rosignol murder trial.

The trial is being conducted in the Berbice High court. On trial for murder is Ashton Lambert, 20, of McRae Street, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice. The matter is being heard by Justice Dawn Gregory and a mixed Jury.

Lambert is alleged to have killed Bharrat Thatpaul, 33, called “Sunil” a cane cutter and taxi driver of 192 Sheildstown, West Bank Berbice, on Tuesday February 22, 2011 following a misunderstanding.

When the matter continued on Tuesday the prosecution which is being led by Attorney-at-law Dionne Mc Cammon closed its case, but not before calling two more witnesses Detective Corporal Duke Jacques and Government Forensic Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh.

A caution statement

purportedly given by the accused was also tendered as evidence.

Jacques in his evidence outlined the part he played in the investigation. He said that he visited the scene and took evidence, arrested and charged the accused.

He arrived at the scene around 03:00hrs and observed the body which had a stab wound at the back.

Dr. Singh who performed the Post Mortem examination at the Georgetown Hospital stated that the cause of death was perforation on the lung and aorta due to a stab wound.

He detailed the kind of injuries Thatpaul sustained.

He concluded that the wound to the back was caused by a sharp pointed instrument such as a knife.

In the caution statement which was read by detective corporal Jacques, the accused stated, “I went to Rosignol Stelling and was sipping a beer when a long hair boy rush up to me and start cuss up. Ah tell he that I ain’t want no problem.

Then he pick up two beer bottle and go outside and break them and come back to me with the broken bottle. So I pull out a knife from me waist and give he one jook in he back and I drop the knife and jump on me bicycle and ride home” Earlier the judge had overruled some preliminary objections by the defence at the conclusion of a voir dire, the second in the matter.

Defence attorneys Murseline Bacchus and Perry Gosai constantly raised objections to a number of legal points, triggering legal argument in the absence of the jury. One such was done before the opening statement was read.

The defence in their no case submission had cited that there is not enough evidence for their client to answer.

They stated that the evidence of the prosecution star witness was not credible and that the state has led no evidence to negate the issue of self defence raised on the prosecution case.

In her opening address prosecutor Mc Cammon had told the court that on the day in question Thatpaul, Mohammed Razack and one “Popo” were drinking at various spots on the West Coast.

They eventually ended up at a Snackette on the Rosignol Stelling Road where an argument developed between Bharrat Thatpaul and another man during which time Bharrat was stabbed.

Thatpaul’s body was picked up and taken to the Fort Wellington hospital where it was pronounced dead on arrival.

The other witnesses to testify were Mohammed Razack who stated that on the day in question he and the other men started drinking since the afternoon at various spots on the West Coast Berbice until they ended up at a Snackette on the Rosignol stelling road where Thatpaul was stabbed.

He testified to seeing the accused Lambert committing the act.

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

Old habits die hard The noise has subsided. Following the presentation of the 2013 budget one section of the Parliamentary opposition, the Alliance For Change, submitted a motion that would allow his party to make amendments to the budget.

Last year, without a motion, the opposition proceeded to implement cuts to the budget and sparked a legal action that only led to a temporary ruling. But there was a caveat to the ruling. The Chief Justice said that he cannot enforce his ruling on the national assembly.

But there should not have been all this hullaballoo because every Member of Parliament should have been au fait with the Standing Orders and with what they are expected to do on behalf of the people. The National Assembly is authorized to amend the budget. The government admits this yet when the amendment was made last year there was a legal challenge.

Indeed the government announced that Guyana was treading uncharted territory by virtue of the decision that the opposition took. One year later and after intensive debate it turned out that Guyana was not in uncharted waters. Other parliaments have made amendments to their budgets. Therein lies the problem. The government is stuck in the belief that it has all the powers that it had when it had a parliamentary majority. It goes to show that when the opposition voiced objection no one on the government took notice because they all knew that objection or not, the government’s views and intentions would remain unchanged. This time around the opposition has the majority so in effect the deciding views and intentions that would prevail are those of the opposition. This is a bitter pill for the government to swallow and easily highlights the sharp political divisions in the country. Before making the uncharted comment, why didn’t the government do some research?

The Speaker of the House did and found that in 1994, in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, admittedly operating without a written Constitution that is supreme, an amendment to a budget resolution was carried by 319 to 311 votes.

“In Trinidad and Tobago, the relevant Standing Order (67) is identical to Guyana’s National Assembly’s Standing Order 76, and gives the House of Representatives the power to amend by way of a reduction.

In Australia, a country with a written Constitution and Westminster-styled parliamentary system, the Parliament, contrary to the opinion of some, has retained its amendment powers, where as recently, as 1995, a nominal amendment in the form of AU$250,000 reduction was made to Capital Expenditure. But why should the government object to amendments? The money is not the government’s and besides, like the government, the opposition has a duty to protect the interest of the people. If there are projects that appear to be overpriced then there must be queries. In the final analysis the people are the ones who pay.

Indeed, there are many unanswered questions about certain expenditures. We have seen money spent on projects that turned out to be little more than white elephants. The National Assembly has also seen reports by the Auditor General that the government actually paid for projects that it never got. If the opposition sees these things then it has a right to conclude that too much money was voted and therefore there should be a reduction.

So the National Assembly is firm in its decision that the opposition is not there to be a rubber stamp to approve anything brought by the government. There could be cuts unless the respective Ministries are prepared to answer questions about the allocations. So far they have.

But then again, as the Speaker said, the Minister of Finance, when reporting to the House, may either report that his Government accepts the amendments and go on to report to the House that the estimates have been approved, as amended, or he may indicate that he is withdrawing the Estimates entirely since his Government does not accept the amendments and see them as an indication of lack of confidence in the Government.

Will the Finance Minister opt for this course? We think not.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news

More thought and far more money need to be invested in education now DEAR EDITOR: Guyana is in urgent need of a “Marshall Plan” for the rescue of education.

In 1997, in a working paper: “Message from a true patriot: Education, Social Justice, Democracy, and Nation Building”, which was perused by both the Minister of Education, the late Dr Dale Bisnauth and his PS, Mr Hydar Ally, I noted the absence of any vision, or a sense of purpose, or overall strategy for the quality of education that has the potential to equip Guyanese with the values, and intellectual tools essential to undertake the challenges and seize the opportunities of the twenty-first century.

I also said that I was extremely doubtful as to whether the hopes and aspirations of most Guyanese youth will be realized, since it appeared that insufficient thought is being given to the function and purpose of education in Guyana and to its implementation in practice.

Today, some sixteen years later, not only is the government which has been in power since 1992 saying that Guyanese workers do not have the essential skills to build the Marriott hotel, and the GPL substations, but a former government Minister of Education, is reported to have said that more than half of the 18,000 students who leave school each year are functionally illiterate. This state of affairs threatens our yet-to-be-born democracy with still-birth.

Much, much more has got to be invested in the education of Guyanese in order to develop and transform individual potentials into a national pool of higher-order technical skills and creativity.

Members of the government need to be reminded that it was never the intention of the colonial authors of schooling in Guyana to educate and develop individuals, or make schooling relevant to the needs of the colony – then known as “British Guiana”.

As a result schooling in Guyana was always severely under-funded.

School buildings and compounds such as St Barnabas, Regent St.; Smith’s Church, Hadfield St.; St Ambrose, Third & Light Sts.; St Andrews, Stabroek Market Square; Comenius, Anira St.; Freeburg, Norton St.; Brickdam Secondary, Brickdam & Camp St;, St Margaret’s, Camp St.; Winfer Gardens, East St.; St Winifred’s, De Abreu & Garnett Sts.; Blankenburg, Cornelia Ida on the West Coast of Demerara, and the list can go on and on, are just like huge barns or storage bonds with little or no land space for students to play, or indulge in co-curricular activity, and are totally inadequate.

Since Guyana has vast tracts of unused land even within the Greater Georgetown area, we can begin to meet the needs of students, staff and curricula by constructing purpose-

built schools and compounds with adequate land space given the following reasons: 1) Play and other extracurricular activities are extremely essential in the development of psychomotor and social skills, healthy lifestyles, and child development generally; 2) Education research suggests that noise decreases learning by as much as 30%.

3) The close proximity of school buildings to noisy streets and roadways means that the teaching/learning process in many classrooms is not as effective as it might be due to noise pollution; 4) To facilitate the delivery of practical aspects of curricula – such as physical education and sports, workshops and agricultural plots.

5) When Guyana’s economic and social realities are taken into consideration, together with the need to leapfrog decades of underdevelopment, schools now have new and critical roles to play in the development of their respective communities.

Therefore, land for staff and student residences where necessary, and community activities should be made available; and, 6) Quality education is not a luxury that can be afforded only after development and modernization have occurred; it is an integral part, an inescapable and essential part of the development and modernizing processes. The

new and developing Leonora education and sports complex in Region 3 could serve as a model.

Further, current school practice is essentially the same as it was nearly two hundred years ago when it was used to keep our ancestors in bondage, and in servitude to support an imperial plantocracy.

Why are we still using a nineteenth century tool to do a modern and highly complex twenty-first century job?

Why are we still cultivating only an academic elite?

Would the academic elite have all of the higher-order technical skills that are necessary to design and build the Marriott, or the GPL substations, or to dam a river?

Guyana needs to garner and cultivate all the highorder technical potential that is eliminated by the so-called National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). The NGSA is an administrative device that is being used because of the scarcity of quality secondary school places.

It is an inequity. It is antieducational. Some twenty or more years ago the Caribbean Council of Ministers declared that the 11-plus examination was the greatest obstacle to education in the Caribbean. It is anti-working class. And it is anti-democratic.

What is needed is quality universal secondary education. This calls for a far greater investment in education on the part of the Continued on page 6

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

Mr. Ram seems bent on misleading the Guyanese public by exacerbating the facts DEAR EDITOR: Please allow me to respond to the article “Amaila Falls Hydro – A disaster in the making” which was written by Mr. Christopher Ram and published in the Stabroek News of March 29, 2013.

Mr. Ram continues on his campaign to denigrate the Government of Guyana by attempting to intensify the true costs of constructing the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.

He is grasping at straws in his endeavour to attribute all sorts of additional costs to the project based purely on speculation.

Mr. Ram lacks a sense of objectivity in his analysis, since what he has done was to nitpick selectively his source of information to arrive at his cost of construction of a 165 MW station at US$320 to US$360 million.

This works out to be an

average of US$1.9 to US$2.2 per Watt, which is at the lower end of the cost of constructing this type of plant with existing infrastructure.

A more realistic cost to construct a new hydroelectric plant is US$5 per Watt and a 165 MW plant works out to be US$825 million. This realistic estimate is US$15 million less than the proposed construction cost of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, which is US$840M. However, the cost of construction varies depending on location.

In the case of the location identified for the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, this requires a significant investment in infrastructure development works to access the site. An example of how vastly the cost for this type of plant varies, based on a study conducted in 2007 in Canada

by Hydro Review is explained

below.

The November 1, 2007 issue of Hydro Review states that Canada was pursuing more than 25 new Hydro projects totalling more than 2,500 MW at a cost of more than US$15.6 billion.

That is equivalent to US$6.24 per Watt and based on inflation and compounding over 5 years the cost would be US$6.81 per Watt. Thus if started today, the cost would be more than US$17.025 billion.

Extrapolating those values, the 165 MW Amaila Falls Hydro Project should cost US$1.123 billion.

Hydro Review examined 15 Hydro Projects across various Provinces in Canada.

The complexity of some of the projects allowed for only 10 to be summarized in the accompanying table: Continued on page 7

Is Adam Harris telegraphing a message to APNU and the AFC? DEAR EDITOR: Writing in the Kaieteur News on Sunday, March 31, 2013, Adam Harris in an article headlined “The days of protest may be over” stated; “.....the people of Guyana appear to have been beaten into submission”.

Harris went on to brand the Private Sector as “selfish” and he accused Trade Unionists of being what could be likened to Franz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth” Harris further went on to disparage the working people of Guyana by stating that they only “talk” and do not act. And even when they do such actions are “sporadic” and at best “negligent” Harris then concluded his article by saying that “protest is something of the past”.

And in a subtle but clearly agitational manner, Harris suggests that the political parties “are hard pressed to bring out their supporters to protest anything” But Harris does not stop there; indeed, in a provocative and journalistic slight (sic) of hand reflects how on one

occasion the “PNC brought the Government to its knees” He then wonders aloud whether this could ever happen again”. He then laments; “people have been beaten into submission”.

So Harris; while weeping over the “absence” of protest actions was at the same time encouraging it.

But Harris could not have been oblivious to protest actions which took place at Linden alone over a period of one month by Teachers, Bosai Workers, Nurses, Mothers in Black and the National Congress of Women.

Further, protest actions were initiated by workers at GPL. More recently Harris must know about the protest at Plaisance in connection with the location of the e-

governance transmission tower.

The question is two-fold; why would Harris be spreading such misinformation?

What is Harris’ agenda?

What Harris must acknowledge and recognise is the heightened political awareness of the Guyanese people who refuse to be drawn into protest actions that mean little or nothing to them and, as experience has shown, it is the AFC’s or APNU’s agitation that has led to misguided political protests.

Is it reasonable to surmise therefore that Harris is telegraphing a message to the APNU and AFC? Clement J. Rohee Minister

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Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

What I said was that we support shared governance but not shared government DEAR EDITOR: I would like to clarify something my former colleague, Dr Henry Jeffrey, says in his “Future notes” of Stabroek News of 2013-04-17.

I refer to the statement, “the prime minister is reported as saying in Parliament (during the budget debate) that the PPP does not support executive shared governance”.

What I said was that we

support shared governance but not shared government; that shared governance was not beyond us who offered critical support at a time when our state was in a difficult position, even whilst we (PPP) were being cheated (rigged elections) and abused; that we had been burnt, very recently, only last year when we reached agreement with the APNU on beginning the long- desired reform of the

provision of electricity in Linden, and all the events that followed; that in “Future notes” of a week earlier the social commentator and political-scientist, Dr Henry Jeffrey had remarked on the agreement between the PPP/ C and the PNC/R for the use of national ID cards during the 1997 elections.

The PNCR had gone to the courts protesting the outcome of that elections,

claiming that the elections had been rigged. The court did not find that the elections were rigged but vitiated the elections on the ground that the PPP/C and PNC/R agreed use of the national ID card was unconstitutional.

The PNC/R then used this ruling to strengthen their protests. I argued that shared government (at this time) would only transfer the dissension and contentions

in Parliament into the Cabinet room. The Government could be paralysed.

Further, I said that Mr. Hoyte, until he was worn down by opposite arguments in his party, maintained three fundamental criticisms of a PPP/C PNC/R shared government. (Thus, I did acknowledge that Mr Hoyte had changed his view by the time of his death).

Mr. Hoyte’s first concern was the danger, if shared government worked, of sliding into a dictatorship.

Indeed one could see intimations to such in the court ruling that the agreement between the PPP/ C and PNC/R for the use of the ID card in the 1997 elections was unconstitutional.

I went on to say that it was not that we of the PPP/C did not recognize our peculiar challenges arising from our history, in the way how our foreparents were thrown together here, nor have we not offered a position on working our way away from it.

I referred to our presentation in about 2004 “Building Trust for Political Cooperation.” This is the step by step way to work our way out of our particular boundaries of fears and insecurities.

I hold to a position I learnt from my former colleague Dr Henry Jeffrey: “Democracy requires two (or more) competing political parties each of which has earned the

respect of the broad masses, and each of which could form a government under which all believe that they can live”.

My view of our challenge and of the way forward, as I said in my budget presentation, is the creation of the perception and reality of a “Guyanese umbrella” under which we all live, aware of all our differences yet extending and accepting hands of assistance to and from each other; looking out for each other and ready to learn from and to teach each other.

My position has been that our troubles so far are largely not unexpected, when one thinks of the way our different foreparents were thrown together. There has been in Guyana an overlapping of the various differences amongst peoples, which lead to different political sentiments and membership in different political parties – race, religion, language, urbanrural and other regional differences.

The answer as I see it, is to keep the faith in the aspiration of our national motto, as we find and promote ways to increase socialization across our differences, so that we get to know each other more, have more shared experiences, and one day, unannounced and unheralded, we would find ourselves all Guyanese.

Samuel A.A. Hinds Prime Minister

From page 4 government. Not only must steps be taken now to provide an adequate number of quality secondary school places, but also to recruit adequate numbers of university-educated graduate teachers to staff these schools.

Needless to say the above measures will cost far more than the 2013 budget allocation.

When one considers the urgent need to raise standards in almost every sphere of

Guyanese activity, especially in the security (military and law enforcement), and health sectors, the added investment in education should be considered a small price to pay.

All Guyanese suffer from g o v e r n m e n t ’s continued failure to fulfill the educational obligations of a democracy. We are all victims of a school system that is actually in full retreat from the 1992 promise of “the return to democracy” Clarence O. Perry

More thought and far...

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Letters... Where your views make the news

We should not allow terrorists to control our lives DEAR EDITOR: I am not sure if any Guyanese ran in the Boston Marathon on Monday, but there are many avid fans among Guyanese, of the NY and Boston Marathons, with some even serving as volunteers in NY to aid runners.

Several Caribbean nationals ran in the Boston Marathon with one Trini barely escaping injury when the bomb exploded. The bomb wiped away the achievement of those who were nearing the finishing line.

It was a horrifying attack, according to a Trinidad athlete who has been living and studying for the past five years in Boston. I pray for the deceased and the speedy recovery of the other victims.

Every Guyanese, indeed everyone I spoke with, regardless of nationality, grieved for the victims of the bomb attacks on Monday. All eyes were on TV with saddened faces and teary eyes. How could someone attack people who were out to celebrate their patriotism in the state of Massachusetts and celebrate the achievers of the long distance run?

All of humanity must condemn the attack and show

compassion for the victims as well as express solidarity with the city of Boston, where several Guyanese are settled.

T&T Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar roundly condemned the attacks when she was in NY. I met Guyanese during my visits to Boston a few times, though not recently. It is a friendly city with historic buildings and magnificent architecture. The open vegetable and fruit markets attract a lot of Guyanese and other West Indians, and you tend to find them there on a weekend.

Boston is usually a safe place without incidents and people are very liberal. It welcomes people from all over the globe, with many immigrants from Guyana, India, China, Latin America and the Caribbean. It is very liberal like the rest of Massachusetts, the only state in the union that has a Black Governor and at one time chose a Black as a Senator. So acts of violence in Boston or other cities in the state are very shocking.

Those who perpetrated the terror attack on the athletes in the Boston Marathon must be found and brought to justice. When the news first broke, my teaching

colleagues and I thought it was an act of domestic terrorism while others felt it had ties to the Middle East.

As the investigation proceeded and we learnt of the type of improvised bombs used, we thought it was foreign terrorism because the same types were used in the Middle East and India.

However, authorities are now suggesting it could be an act of domestic terror and are seeking the public’s help.

People should cooperate in helping the authorities find the terrorists.

Because of the attack, organizers of other marathons, London, NY, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. plan to tighten security and change rules. While we should be on our guards and exercise greater caution of our surroundings, it is hoped that organizers will not make it difficult for people to volunteer or run in the marathon. Normal society must not be disrupted by terrorists. We should not allow terrorists to control our lives. People should continue to participate in marathons and other public events in these industrialized societies.

Otherwise, the terrorists would have won.

Vishnu Bisram

From page 5 While the costs vary from a low of US$1.7 with existing infrastructure to a high of US$6.5 per Watt for new plants across the different projects within Canada, the average construction cost based on 2007-dollar value is $4.8 per Watt. This offers an objective look of how the cost can vary depending on a number of contributing factors.

I do not have the space to get into the details here.

Suffice to say that the matrix provides some amount of details and a calculator can be used to work out the average cost.

Canada is a highly developed country with one of the strongest economies in recent times. It has a variety of highly developed transport infrastructure, thus ensuring easy access to the various locations. The Amaila Falls Hydro Project is a first for Guyana in terms of construction and production of power generation operation of this magnitude and is being done in the remote parts of Guyana, where the road network infrastructure is mostly at a primary stage or non-existent.

Guyana has the potential to produce over 5000 MW of Hydroelectric power and the Amaila Falls Hydro Project is

a stepping-stone to becoming energy independent.

Mr Ram further compared the cost of a hydrocarbonpowered plant at US$1. per Watt, but failed to mention that the run life costs as well as the maintenance costs are far greater than the installation cost of a hydrocarbon powered plant.

I agree that the accrued interest will inflate the construction cost, but maintenance of a renewable sourced energy is far less than that of a similar size hydrocarbon powered plant.

Guyana, through the Government of Guyana has embarked on a program to develop its renewable sources of energy to attain energy independence. This also enhances our concern for the environment for which we already have attained global acclamation (LCDS).

The Amaila Falls Hydro Project offers much more benefits in terms of developing our manufacturing sector and opens up the possibility of a light-rail overland means of transportation to access the interior locations in the future.

Mr. Ram seems to be more inclined to remain in the current rut of relying on the hydrocarbon powered plants, where we put ourselves at risk

by depending on oil and being saddled with a huge oil bill. This is wrong. Mr. Ram has been wrong before when he was discussing the PPP/ Civic Manifesto in Stabroek News dated October 26, 2011 in an article titled “A mixture of distortions, untruths and misrepresentations�.

In the case of the one laptop per family project, Mr. Ram commented that the Lenovo computer technology was not tested. I wish to state that Lenovo actually bought the computer division of IBM in 2005. The IBM computer technology is definitely tested and proven.

Lenovo is simply a new brand name appended to the IBM computer technology.

I find it extremely disappointing when people try to score cheap political points by merely speculating and not conducting the requisite research on the subject, they want to discuss.

It reflects a sad lack of patriotism when persons attempt to hold back the march of progress and a better future. Mr. Ram seems bent on misleading the Guyanese public by exacerbating the facts in his vile attempts to discredit the Government of Guyana in its pursuit of projects that will enrich the lives of Guyanese.

David Gopaul

Mr. Ram seems bent on misleading the ...

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Thursday April 18, 2013

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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DO TRAFFIC COPS MAKE A DIFFERENCE? A letter writer asked a question that has had me thinking hard, far more than I have ever done on any subject in recent times. That question should also have you thinking.

The letter writer – whose name I unfortunately cannot recall at this time – asked whether without traffic cops there would be any difference on the roads. Or to put it another way, what function do traffic cops serve in Guyana.

If these cops were to not be on the road, how much of a difference would be made?

I have to confess that I never quite considered the subject from that angle. And the more I think about it, the more I believe that the letter writer has a point about the general impact that our existing traffic cops make to safety on our roads.

The records would suggest that since the introduction of the zero tolerance campaign, there has been a sharp reduction in road fatalities. But how can we establish that this is not merely correlation and not a causation effect? How do we establish that this reduction was caused by the traffic campaign?

Anyone who uses our roadways would confirm that there is still a great deal of

reckless driving taking place.

There is still speeding? Road accidents are occurring but the numbers of fatalities are not as frightening as before.

So is the campaign working and that because of the zero tolerance campaign our roads are becoming safer? The jury is still out on this question.

If you ask the vast majority of public transport operators whether they think that traffic cops make a difference to road safety, I am certain there will be a divergence in the results.

What you will also find emerging from any such survey are a number of stories about the harassment to which public transport operators are subjected on our roadways.

I had one interesting experience on our roadways which tends to confirm what I believe to be the overriding perception that many have of traffic cops on our roadways.

I was returning home one day when I was stopped by a group of traffic cops, one of whom had a radar gun aimed in my direction. Since I was not travelling above the speed limit – which is ridiculous in any event – for that roadway, I was not worried.

What I wondered was why would I have been pulled over when I was going

Dem boys seh...

De government proppa fatten Barbie Old people always talk bout fattening bull fuh butcher but dem woulda never believe that Guyana got a way of fattening bull fuh demself.

If anything Barbie shoulda be a fat bull by now. He get so much fattening that if he didn’t have bad mind he woulda been so fat that he couldn’t walk. De government fatten he wid de Santa complex. Then he tek some of de money and build a bond fuh store medicine.

That was when de real fattening happen because every year he get billions of dollars just fuh keep de same drugs.

But was more than keeping. He was also suppose to buy de drugs and being smart, he do like wha nuff of he friends does do—send an account fuh drugs that he never buy.

When dem boys talk bout de high price Berry Berry tell dem to mind dem own business. De people in parliament decide fuh ask de same question and Berry Berry run to de same Barbie paper and give de reporter a news that he Berry Berry write. He excuse fuh continue fuh fattening Barbie was that he paying fuh quality and that he would never sacrifice quality fuh price.

But pressure mek dem had to cut back suh dem build dem own bond fuh keep dem own drugs but dem refuse to buy dem own drugs. If dem do that then Barbie ain’t got nutten to get.

But that was not de only fattener Barbie was getting.

Dem set up learning channel and dem pay Barbie $3.6 million every month. That is a government programme but dem couldn’t let de government channel do that. That woulda cut up de runnings. Suh dem give Barbie.

Old people always seh that too much of one thing ain’t good fuh nutten. Dem boys seh that de butcher sitting patiently in Uncle Sam waiting fuh Barbie. Dem jail always got space and if Guyana can’t lock up dem own scamps then Uncle Sam got to do it fuh de Guyanese people.

Is a good thing de people in parliament vote down de specialty hospital. Was more fattener fuh Barbie. He woulda get more money fuh provide drugs although de very people who was to run de hospital got more access to de same drugs.

Talk half and watch how dem scamps does fatten one another.

far slower than any of the other vehicles. A very friendly cop came over and said, “I see you pass here earlier with your face straight. How me and you living so?”

I really did not know what the hell he was referring to since I had not passed anywhere near there for hours. Clearly he was simply trying to make small talk, for what apparent reason I did not know.

I soon found out. “The boys out here in the sun.

They need some water,” the cop added I was waiting for him to suggest that I should leave a “freck” with him and his fellow officers. But he noticed

that I was serious and he simply sent me on my way saying, “I don’t know how me and you living so these days.”

I was tempted to inform him that I never saw him before and that I did not know him or care to know him, and couldn’t care less of his views about how we were living. But I said goodbye, conscious of the humiliation that these underpaid cops have to endure each day, having no doubt to do and say things which they would be ashamed to let their children know about. I felt for him having to humiliate himself on the job. However hard things are, no person with self-

respect should bring himself or herself to this level. It was sad indeed to see someone, who is supposed to uphold the law, having to humiliate himself in public like that.

I was also conscious that there are some very nice traffic cops on our roadways.

Not all traffic cops should be painted or tainted with the same brush. There are some of them who are extremely professional and who are more understanding than others who only see their positions of power as granting to them the right to harass motorists for their own personal gain on the roads.

These professional types would most likely give an

erring driver who has committed a non-dangerous infraction on the roads, a chance. They would send you off with a warning, rather than seeking to haul you down to the station. They make a difference because they show how a professional and considerate cop should behave.

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Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

Freddie Kissoon Column

“Thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason” There is no way in this world I would ever accept, both as a trained academic and as a practicing media operative, that when a country is experiencing social and political crises, the scholar must be careful not to pen theories that could cause upheaval. And that as a commentator, one must be sensitive and not write things that could engender anger. I don’t accept that and never

will.

Free speech carries responsibilities of which the most common example is that you cannot cry fire in a crowded cinema. All countries have laws to protect citizens from writers, be they scholars or commentators or journalists.

You cannot accuse a corporate chairman, openly, in print or on the airwaves, of pedophilia unless you have

concrete proof. You can destroy his life. If you have reasons to believe so you have to do more research and build your case.

I know that a young secretary of a Cabinet Minister in the Cheddi Jagan Government committed suicide because she couldn’t take the exploitation of her boss any longer. A week before she died she told me what he did with her passport.

I subtly hinted at it many times on my page here and the use of words was discreet and indirect. Governments and tourism officials would like to curtail the ideas of academia and the media when a country runs in deep sociological and political trouble. That is their attitude and the academics and media practitioners should defy and confront them.

I refused to accept the

jurisdiction of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) because it was my interpretation that its leadership’s design was to suppress ideas about the use of state power to discriminate against communities in this country. The ERC’s function was to make sure that race discrimination in official policy implementation was not openly discussed in society. For this reason, I find it bizarre that the Speaker of the National Assembly takes the position that he would not allow accusation of race bias in the House. That is a macabre ruling.

Cheddi Jagan as an opposition parliamentarian would never have accepted that and the opposition MPS should not adhere to Trotman’s edict.

I look back at my life and I am proud that I exposed the moral conspiracies of the ERC and terrible administration at UG. I know deep down in my heart that the era is gone at UG where its Council can at random terminate an academic’s contract without a complaint from the academic staff and/or an official hearing. I believe that a certain law case against me and the timing of its hearing were intended to stop me from analyzing social malignancy in Guyana but I will not resign.

Academics and the media have an obligation to write about a country’s tragedies.

They owe no obligation to ruling politicians, profitmakers, and tourism bosses.

We are at the stage in Guyana where dangerous trends are in motion that do not augur well for the future of this country and this columnist will not be deterred in saying so. In fact, I go in the direction of saying we are on the threshold of instability and it does not have to

Frederick Kissoon happen if men and women repossess the reason that have fled from them a long time ago in Guyana.

Take the Plaisance protest against the towers that were to be built for the Government’s e-governance project. The Government decided it will not pursue the Plaisance project anymore.

The protestors called me when the machines came to remove the humongous piles.

I responded immediately. The concern of the protesting villagers was the refilling of the large hole that was dug. I spoke at length with the officer in charge of the operation.

He was polite, friendly and listened attentively. This man told me in the clearest of language that he was specifically ordered to refill the hole. He said that it was a definite instruction. This government that we have in this country did not intend to refill the hole. Huge machines came, removed the logs and left. It is going on to two weeks and the hole is there with an invasion by the mosquito population.

How can any government be so sickening? How can any government be so pathologically petty minded?

It reminds me of the trench clearing incident outside my home.

There can only be one result from this kind of cruel act. The people of Plaisance will internalize their anger. It may even breed hate. But it will also bring national disaster. I feel this way and I will write about how I feel.

Period!

Police find truck with hidden AK-47 Eleven men were apprehended and transported to the Anna Regina Police Station after police at 70KM, a location off BuckhallBarama Company, found an AK-47 rifle in a truck that was heading into the Interior.

According to reports, police did a stop and search shortly before midnight, Tuesday night, and found the weapon in the truck. It was reportedly in a bag.

Twenty-two-year-old Joel Joseph, of Bartica, has since admitted to being the owner of the gun.

The police said that there were 12 matching rounds.

Joseph was traveling in a truck, which was headed for Melagie, a location in the interior.

Robberies are known to be prevalent in the interior locations.

However emphasis is not placed on checking bush trucks that frequent the interior.

An official at Barama Company said that the company is aware of reports of trucks entering the interior locations transporting people who are bent on staging robberies on miners.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Govt pays ‘Bobby’ Ramroop $3.6M every month to air Learning Channel TVG, owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, best friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, is being paid $3.6 million a month to put the Guyana Learning Channel on the air.

This was revealed yesterday in a written response by the Minister of Education Priya Manickchand to Parliamentarian Jaipaul Sharma.

Jagdeo is the one who had championed the setting up of the Learning Channel, which was launched in April 2011.

“The Guyana Learning Channel has the use of a teleport that was created at the time of its set-up since there was no other teleport capable of up-linking video signals in existence in Guyana before or since,” Manickchand said in response to questions raised

by Sharma.

According to the Minister, every wireless communication device utilizes electro-magnetic spectrum and the Learning Channel has minimized use of the electro-magnetic spectrum by reusing the same channel in different regions of the country such as Channel 3 in New Amsterdam, Lethem, Mabaruma and Ituni; and

Jaipaul Sharma

Minister Priya Manickchand

Channel 10 in Kwakwani, Orealla, Linden and Port Kaituma.

She said that for the Learning Channel to send the signal to the satellite, it would have had to set up a commensurate service that would have required an initial capital outlay of US$150,000 plus monthly recurring costs of over $4M in bandwidth rental and associated services.

Manickchand stated that the Learning Channel is using “the only teleport capable of up-linking videosignals in existence in Guyana.”

She added that because the Learning Channel’s bandwidth is bundled with

the bandwidth of TVG they are able to negotiate better rates from the satellite operators.

Access to the Learning Channel in Region One is in the areas of Mabaruma, Morawhanna, Hosororo, Port Kaituma and Arakaka.

Region Two is getting from Georgetown and not from Anna Regina due to a technical issue, the Minister said. She noted that soon other communities on the Essequibo Coast, including Santa Rosa, Saint Monica, Pomeroon, and dozens of other surrounding communities will be benefitting from the learning Channel.

Bartica from Moira Point, Saint Edwards Mission, Cuyuni area and mining camps are where the Learning Channel is broadcast in Regions Seven and Eight.

Access to the Learning Channel stretches across the coast, from Parika, Rosignol to New Amsterdam and up the Corentyne Coast to Skeldon and Black Bush Polder and other areas.

The Channel also reaches Linden and Kwakwani in Region Ten, Mahdia and its environs in Region Eight, Annai, Lethem, Nappi, Sand Creek, Aishalton and their environs in Region Nine.

The village of Orealla in the Berbice River would be able to receive the signal of the Learning Channel soon, as would be Karasabai and its environs in Region Nine and Ituni and its environs in Region Ten. Communities in valleys and outside signal reach will have dishes and receivers for direct satellite feed in community centres and learning resource centres.

Some such communities include Paramakatoi and lmbaimadai. Matthews Ridge will receive a transmitter for access by all in collaboration with the mining companies in that area, the Minister said.

Guyana needs results for its anti money laundering efforts - Pres. Ramotar Guyana needs to obtain results for the initiatives taken to arrest money laundering and other financial crimes, said President Donald Ramotar, during his address to participants of the opening ceremony of the Financial Crimes Stakeholders Meeting, yesterday.

The venue was the Grand Coastal Hotel, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara. He said that although his administration appreciates the contribution of a robustly functioning anti-money laundering action, there are still areas of deficiencies that need to be addressed.

He said that several evaluations have shown the extent to which Guyana has to go, to effectively transform its commitment to achieving results. And to do so, Ramotar said that Guyana in consultation with stakeholders has identified investigation and legislation as the two major areas for focus. According to Ramotar, in discussions with domestic security professionals, the government has adopted a series of actions destined to ramp up the national capacity to investigate money laundering and other financial crimes. However, there is very

little to show for the government’s boasts.

According to President Ramotar, the administration is awaiting the completion of matters regarding the 2013 national budget before tabling further legislation to deal with the issue of financial crimes. He welcomed the international support that Guyana has been getting, echoing sentiments made by United States ofAmerica Ambassador Brent Hardt, that “only by working in partnership and acting strategically to counter cross border criminal threats can we effectively target the common denominator, the leverage point that allows us to strike at the heart of all criminal organizations and illicit activities…money!”

According to Ambassador Hardt, money laundering and other financial crimes are a serious global threat. He told the meeting that jurisdictions flooded with illicit funds are vulnerable to the breakdown of the rule of law, the corruption of public officials and destabilization of their economies. He pointed to the development of new technologies that have exacerbated the challenges faced by the financial, law enforcement, supervisory, legal and

intelligence communities. “As a result, no economy is immune from the threat of financial criminal activity, and no nation can combat this threat alone,” Hardt said. The Ambassador referred to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has posited that criminals typically hide illicit proceeds in legal structures such as shell companies or foundations. These companies often undercut and undermine legitimate entities, making it harder for legitimate business to survive and prosper.

The ambassador noted that the Caribbean is a primary destination for illicit funds and shell companies. “In fact, the United Nations reports that the Caribbean is the “most important destination for the laundering of cocaine-related income.”

“Criminal enterprises are motivated by financial gain. To successfully disrupt narcotrafficking and other criminal enterprises and prosecute perpetrators, an effective anti-money laundering/ financial crimes regime is essential.

“Likewise, terrorist organizations find it much more difficult to operate if they can’t move their money. By disabling the capacity of

criminal and terrorist organizations to launder the proceeds of crime and access their ill-gotten gains, we can ensure that crime doesn’t pay,” the Ambassador stated.

According to Ambassador Hardt, in recent years, American experts alone have shared their experience and knowledge with over 100 countries. It is hoped that these collective efforts will, over time, build capacity in jurisdictions where it is lacking. “Our deliberations will be further enriched by representatives from the United Kingdom’s Caribbean Criminal Assets Recovery Program (CCARP). CCARP is likewise actively engaged with the Government of Guyana in boosting capacity to conduct financial crimes investigations. It is currently developing its action plan with the Government and providing funds and expertise to draft legislative amendments that will bring Guyana into compliance with Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) standards.

The Government of Canada will also be providing assistance to Guyana’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under its Deployment for Democratic Development (DDD) Program,” the US Ambassador revealed.

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Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Dark days loom if GPL allocation slashed - Dindyal Any cut to the budgetary allocation for 2013 to the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) Inc has severe implications for the provision of an efficient supply of electricity to the Company’s 164,000 customers warns the GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal.

The cautionary remark was made in light of public statements of intentions to reduce the government’s proposed $11.20 B. budgetary allocation for 2013.

According to Mr. Dindyal, reduction of the sums intended for GPL, will significantly hinder GPL’s ongoing infrastructural development projects. He noted that at present, the Institution has several major projects being executed simultaneously under a loan agreement between the Government of Guyana and China Exim Bank for the construction of, among other facilities, seven new substations which are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

At present, three of these sub stations have been completed and in service

providing a much improved quality of electricity supply to customers on West Coast Demerara.

However, there are others, on East Coast Demerara, which are currently under construction along with almost 100 kilometers of 69 KV transmission lines.

In highlighting the implications of the proposed cuts, Dindyal stated, “If the projects are not completed this year, we foresee serious problems in GPL’s ability to deliver services to supply the increase demand for electricity in Demerara and Berbice.

“The equipment is here and the construction work is in progress but if we do not have the finances to pay the contractors, works would have to be halted. As a result, GPL would experience serious network challenges in East Demerara and Berbice and would be forced to resort to statutory load shedding to ensure the network capacity is not exceeded during peak demand hours.”

Over the years, GPL has worked assiduously to ensure that its customers are not subject to frequent tariff

increases ‘while we are allowed through our Licence to apply tariff increases, the company will forego $28B in tariff increases to the end of this year, cushioning the impact of the volatile fuel prices internationally, Dindyal stated.

He also confirmed that apart from major infrastructural setbacks that would be experienced; a number of other small projects, including metering for new customers, would be severely affected. “We would have to stop taking new customers sometime this year because we do not have the money to buy new meters.”

As a state owned entity, the budgetary allocation to GPL’s customers are intended to help the Company foot its ever increasing fuel bill which is expected to be over $24.7B this year. Capital allocations also finance upgrades and expansion of the utility company to meet the growing electricity demands of the country.

From 1992 to present, the peak demand of the Demerara system has increased from about 33 MW to 87 MW.

Computer for Sparendaam police

The working environment for ranks at the Sparendaam Police Station has been made much more comfortable with a timely donation from the Sparendaam Station Management Committee.

At a simple ceremony yesterday, Chairman of the

Committee, Basil Roberts, handed over a desk top computer, two electric fans and a water dispenser to the police station.

Deputy Commander, Stephen Mansell, who received the articles, expressed appreciation to the

group, adding that they will cert a i n l y e n h a n c e t h e comfort of the ranks who work there. In photo: Roberts officially hands over the items to Superintendent Mansell in the presence of ranks and other committee members

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GCAA to re-examine engine of crashed aircraft The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) will be re-examining the engine of the crashed twin-engine Piper Aztec aircraft in order to gather more information for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States of America.

This was revealed by Paula Mc Adam, GCAA’s Director, Aviation Safety Regulation during a telephone interview.

According to Mc Adam, discussions are still ongoing so she cannot divulge too much information on the illfated twin-engine Piper Aztec that crashed into a Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara house, Saturday last.

Mc Adam related that the scorched parts of the aircraft will be stored there until they

are ready to be transported to the NTSB. Apparently, GCAA is waiting on additional information from NTSB including a shipping address to send the remains overseas.

She stated that GCAA has already conducted an initial investigation into the crash but owing to a request from the NTSB for additional information, another investigation has been launched. Specific interest is being placed on the aircraft’s engine which was believed to have failed causing the crash.

The pilot reportedly ignored warnings that the aircraft was unfit for further flying. Kaieteur News was reliably informed that the aircraft engines had showed signs of malfunction two days before Saturday’s tragedy.

This confirms reports that the aircraft which was in Guyana a week ago, had carried out prior missions along the Amaila Falls road.

On Saturday, the American registered aircraft, with registration number N27FT that was on a technical survey mission for the Amaila Falls project, crashed into a Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara house just after taking off from the Ogle International Airport.

The American pilot, Pierre Angiel and his passenger, Canadian Scientist Nick Dmitriev perished in the crash.

Their charred remains were removed from the crash site Saturday evening. The remnants of the aircraft are being stored at Air Services Limited bond at La Bonne Intention.

Man found dead with gunshot wound to head The police have said that they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of farmer Bilaal Peters, 33, of Madewini, Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

According to the police the man’s body was found in his home about 15:15 hours on Tuesday with a gunshot wound to his head. A .32 revolver with four live rounds a spent shell was recovered at the scene.

This publication was told that it is believed that the man may have committed suicide after a heated argument with his wife.

Sources close to the investigation revealed that earlier in the day the man’s wife left the home and went to the city. Sometime later she telephoned her husband and told him that she was on her way home. When the woman reached home an argument

ensued over money.

The woman reportedly told persons that her husband went into a room in the house and she heard what sounded like a gunshot and she found him lying on the ground.

The police were informed and the body removed. There are also reports that the man was first seen with the gun about a year ago but it is not clear if Peters was licensed to carry the gun.

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Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

Berbice residents tell politicians as they protest deplorable road A section of the Protestors on Brickdam yesterday

In their quest for a proper public road, scores of East Bank Berbice residents paraded with placards on Brickdam and Avenue of the Republic, to attract the attention and consideration of politicians as parliament convened on Tuesday.

The residents recently staged a few picketing exercises in Berbice, but they did not receive the desired response. The decision was

therefore taken to move the protest to the city, close to where the highest meeting of the land is held-- Parliament Building.

Among the protesters were mothers, young children and angry motorists whose cars have sustained much damage over the years, due to the many large potholes that have taken over the 25mile roadway. According to them, their plight for a

permanent fixture on the road has been ongoing for many decades.

The East Bank Berbice Public Road is the main access road to the recently established Glasgow housing scheme, several schools, the farming area of Mara and other far-flung agrarian-based areas. It caters for more than 3,000 residents living along East Bank Berbice. No one seems to remember the road

ever being in a decent condition, they said.

“We brought the protest to Parliament Building because we can no longer tolerate this nonsense. Every year we protest, they come and patch it up, but then soon after, it gone back to square one,” one of the protesters said on Tuesday.

They all maintained that “the golden days” of mere potholes are gone and that motorists are now faced with the difficult challenge of maneuvering their vehicles out of the many “fish ponds” that now exist.

One mother and grandmother, Sandra Griffith, told Kaieteur News that the condition of the road has over the years affected the attendance of school children to their respective schools.

“Countless times my grandchildren and so does go out properly to go to school and would come home crying after falling in one of the potholes or after a vehicle splash water on them. And this is not no small holes; these are ponds,” the woman said. The woman added that even the car fares have been raised significantly to the detriment of the poorer class families who struggle to make ends meet.

“Children now have to pay a whole $200 to get to their school which is not that far away. This is not right, and it definitely is not fair. We

want to let these parliamentarians in there hear our cries,” Griffith added.

A few of the female protestors said that the car rides which are usually bumpy would cause them serious back and abdominal pains. The road takes hours to traverse, and at least five expectant mothers had to deliver their babies while in traffic, as vehicles can only drive at a “slow” speed. One of them is now a grown woman. Chairman of the East Bank Berbice Hire Car Association, Maxwell Semple, said that the residents of East Bank Berbice do not want anymore remedial works to be done. He added that these “patch work” which amounts to millions of dollars, are simply a waste of taxpayers’ money. “We don’t want any more patch work. It doesn’t make any sense. If they do the right thing, we will not have to suffer, and taxpayers’ money will not be going to waste,” Semple said.

The man also said that vehicle owners have been finding it especially difficult, as the road is a “vehicle destroyer”. Meanwhile, Mohamed Ali, a member of the East Bank Berbice Hire Car Association, explained that their grievances have become unbearable, and that they, the people of East Bank Berbice, will no longer be listening to fake promises.

“We have traveled at a

great sacrifice, so that we can come here to represent, and bring to the attention of the politicians who we believe are watching us from inside (Parliament Building),” Ali said.

The man added that the East Bank Berbice residents have left no stone unturned and no option left unexplored as it relates to having this matter resolved.

He said that assistance was sought from leaders of the Oppositions- Khemraj Ramjattan, David Granger, and even Robert Corbin, the former leader of the PNC/R. The man said that despite seeking assistance from these persons in “positions”, nothing has been done.

Ali said that the people are also dissatisfied with the opposition parties whom they believe have failed them, since they know of the condition of the road and the struggles that the residents face on a daily basis, and yet they have done nothing to assist them, except highlighting their satisfaction via the media.

Nonetheless, after a few minutes into the protest, the Berbicians were joined by both the Alliance for Change (AFC)’s Khemraj Ramjattan and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s David Granger who promised that before they day’s parliament session was over, the matter would be brought up for discussion. The residents told this publication that President Donald Ramotar had promised last year that accommodations for proper fixtures on the road will be made in this year’s National Budget. However, this was not done, and yet another promise was made for such a project to be included in next year’s National Budget.

The residents are demanding a guarantee, as they are “fed up” with false promises”.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 15

Jamaica demands millions, auctioning cable frequencies As the Guyana Government continues to face questions over embarrassing disclosures that it gave itself and close friends several licences to build radio and cable television services countrywide, at least one Caribbean country has publicly indicated that it is preparing to auction some of these limited resources.

Jamaica’s Spectrum Management Authority, similar to that of Guyana’s National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU), has said it will be selling to the highest bidders two 700megahertz (MHz) band licences to improve Internet penetration in that country.

It will highlight how valuable Jamaica considers its spectrum, a resource that is jealously guarded worldwide by Governments because of the power of radio, TV and the internet.

Potential investors will have to make a deposit of between US$2.7M ($540M) to US$3M ($6M), depending on the band they are going after, just to be considered for the bid, according to the Jamaican Observer yesterday.

The report disclosed that the authority will require a bank guarantee or bond in the amount of 50 per cent of the proposed purchase price. The more expensive licence will cost at least US$5M more.

Aside from the US$85M that the Jamaican government hopes to get from the sale this year, the Government also

wants to see spending on ICT infrastructure increased from the US$80M spent annually now, while boosting commercial activity and education through information technology.

“This is in keeping with global trends and is consistent with the policy objectives of the Government to promote increased competition and also to provide all Jamaicans with access to ubiquitous communications connections,” the spectrum authority said in the statement.

Bids will have to include a business plan, which details the percentage population coverage after each year of expected rollout as well as the anticipated capital expenditure.

The spectrum being sold allows for the provision of 4G technology, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a highly effective nextgeneration mobile technology that allows delivery of data, Internet applications, video streaming, mobile TV and m u s i c d o w n l o a ds and streaming to mobile devices in higher definition than is possible with existing 3G technologies and at speeds that rival current domestic fixed broadband connections.

The issue of limited spectrum has also been a cause of much concern in Guyana after former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, used his executive powers to

grant several persons, including his party’s newspaper, The Mirror, five frequencies to broadcast across the country.

Representing Mirror is Dharamkumar Seeraj, a PPP Parliamentarian.

This was days before his Presidential term was due to end in November 2011 when General Elections were held.

The move has widely been seen as carefully planned by Jadgeo and the ruling party to control the airwaves of Guyana. Jagdeo also granted five frequencies to his personal friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi “Bobby” Ramroop and another five to Omkar Lochan, Permanent Secretary of Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud. Persaud happens to be the nephew-in-law of Jagdeo.

The former President did not stop there. He also granted two television cable licences to close associates-Brian Yong and Vishook Persaud. Persaud is the son of the late former G o v e r n m e n t Parliamentarian and A g r i c u l t u r e M i n i s t e r, Reepu Persaud, while Yong was a candidate for the ruling party during the 2011 elections.

Reportedly, the 2.5 Gigahertz band to Persaud and Yong are capable of offering other services, including catering to smartphones and the popular tablets computers. Radios and telephone services could

also be offered using this band.

There have been several protests by local media houses which had applications in for radio licences but were inexplicably sidelined when Jagdeo made his decision. There are indications that no procedures were followed and that the former President merely used his executive powers, knowing he had days left in office.

The Donald Ramotar administration, hard pressed to recall the licences, has defended Jagdeo, saying he did nothing wrong. They were silent on accusations that one businessman Maxwell Thom- was granted a licence although he was facing financial problems in 2011. One of the criteria was for the applicant to show that he/she has the finances.

Both Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, two independent newspapers, were sidelined by Jagdeo.

They and others are now being asked to submit fresh applications.

The Opposition has since expressed worry over the developments especially in light of the fact that frequencies are a limited resource which could very well place them at an unfair advantage because of political coverage in a particular direction.

Local and regional media bodies have since condemned the allocations of the licences.

Radio and television licences have been a sore issue between the Opposition and Government with an agreement brokered in early 2000 for no new ones until reforms in the broadcasting

legislations. This was passed in the National Assembly during 2011.

Jagdeo did not wait on the mandated Broadcast Authority to handle the licence despite the new law.

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Kaieteur News

Bird-brained Guyanese caged by Judge Dora for smuggling “twa-twa” birds New York (New York Daily News) - A bird-brained smuggler nabbed at Kennedy Airport with nine singing finches from Guyana hidden up his sleeve was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison.

The Guyanese, Marlon Hariram, intended to sell the birds — worth more than US$5,000 — in Queens, where they compete in high-stakes singing contests.

It was his fourth arrest for trying to bring the protected birds into the U.S. without a proper license.

Seven finches perished last fall in federal custody and the freeze-dried corpses are being stored in a U.S. Fish and

Marlon Hariram Wildlife evidence room, according to papers filed in

Brooklyn Federal Court. The surviving pair will be donated to a zoo or nature preserve.

Hariram, 31, asked Judge Dora Irizarry to delay his surrender so he could complete a vocational training course, and then decided he was ready to do his jail time immediately.

“You need to wake up and smell the reality,” Irizarry said.

“I don’t know what kind of fairy tale land you’re living in!”

Judge Irizarry is the same judge who sentenced drug lord, Roger Khan, and is handling the case of Edul Ahmad, another Guyanese who is accused in a mortgage fraud scheme and is set to be sentenced.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Increasing reports of teachers being assaulted is worrying- GTU From last year Guyana has seen an increase in the number of teachers being assaulted by their students.

This was according to President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Colin Bynoe, who described this as a dangerously worrying trend. Bynoe, during an interview with Kaieteur News yesterday, expressed his dissatisfaction at the fact that cases of teachers being assaulted by students are being prolonged, while just a mere claim of a teacher assaulting a student would result in that teachers being brought almost immediately before the Teaching Service Commission.

He described the process of teachers getting justice in this regard, as being “too long and drawn out”.

Bynoe explained that a formally reported case of a teacher being assaulted would see the Regional Education Office carrying out a series of investigations, after which it would be decided on whether or not the matter should be brought before the courts where it would be further prolonged.

GTU’s President pointed out the fiasco of a Corentyne, Berbice Teacher suffering a miscarriage after being physically abused by a relative of one of her students. Although the incident occurred during January 2012, it is still to be

President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Colin Bynoe resolved in the courts.

Bynoe noted that teachers are becoming more and more afraid of aggressive students. He maintained that no student should retaliate against any teacher, and that if this continues, it will only pave the way for other students to physically act out against their teachers. “They are becoming more emboldened,” he said.

He noted that there are cases where students would be on the streets “boasting and bragging” about beating their teacher. Such cases, he said, would diminish teachers’ motivation, something that is very worrying, taking into consideration that teachers mold the existence of every

other career.

Bynoe noted that while such incidents occur in all parts of the country at the various schools, there are certain institutions that can be pinpointed for the rampant reports in this regard.

He said that just as the law emphasizes the rights of children, considerations need to be taken to address the safety of teachers in the system at a higher level.

The man said that the situation of teachers fearing their students is becoming out of hand. If it is not addressed soon, and effectively, it would lead to a bad situation where a breakdown between students and teachers would occur. This would most likely result in a decline of the educational values in future generations. Just recently, eight fourth form students of Wisburg Secondary School in Linden were expelled after a planned attack was carried out on their teacher. As the teacher walked into her classroom a trap saw a piece of furniture landing on her head. The woman was rushed to the Linden Hospital Complex to seek medical attention for head injuries, after which she was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for further treatments.

Investigations were carried out by both the Region Ten Education Department and the police.

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Amerindian Affairs budget...

Buying an “ambulance” does not mean an actual ambulance—Sukhai The estimates in the 2013 National Budget for the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs were yesterday approved without any undue problems.

However, the Minister, Pauline Sukhai was asked to answer several questions that seemed not to add up. Chief among them was the request for monies to buy an “ambulance.”

Questioned by Parliamentarian Dr. George Norton about which community would use the ambulance, the Minister went on a long explanation to say that, what was being bought was not an actual ambulance, but what would most likely be a pickup.

Minister Sukhai said her Ministry does not buy ambulances, but helps with emergencies. So the reference to “ambulance” in the estimates speaks about “ambulatory care” and that does not mean an actual “ambulance”, she explained.

The Minister finally agreed that the reference to “ambulance” would be incorrect.

Another Parliamentarian asked about the ATV being bought for Paramakatoi, and whether it is for the health centre which is in critical need of “any” form of transportation. The Minister said the ATV is for general use.

On the touchy issue of

Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai land demarcation, Parliamentarian Dawn Hastings asked about the remote community of Kambaru.

She first asked the Minister whether titles

Ganja-smoking Lieutenant to be charged for mining camp robbery Almost four months after an investigation was launched into an illegal raid on a mining camp in the Cuyuni district, the Guyana Police Force is getting ready to institute criminal charges against two ranks from the Guyana Defence Force.

A statement from army headquarters, Camp Ayanganna, the GDF said that it has handed over Lieutenant Madainey Humphrey and Lance Corporal Felix Frank to the Guyana Police Force.

The two, who were implicated in an alleged robbery attempt at the Julian Ross Landing in January, are to be charged with robbery under arms.

It is alleged that in early January this year the two were among five heavily armed soldiers who went into a Cuyuni mining district at an area called Devil’s Hole, where they relieved a group of Brazilian miners of raw gold

after getting high on the marijuana.

The ranks had allegedly assaulted several persons on the Julian Ross Landing, relieving small-time drug dealers of their marijuana, which they consumed openly before raiding a mining camp several miles away.

Prior to the move to hand over the two ranks to the police, the GDF had charged Lieutenant Humphrey for breaching the Force’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and commenced court martial proceedings against him. The court martial has been adjourned to facilitate his hand over to the police.

Lance Corporal Frank was also charged by the GDF for breaches to its SOPs. He was tried by Appropriate Superior Authority Orders in accordance with the Force’s regulations.

In the aftermath of the

alleged criminal acts, the army had assured that “…any GDF ranks found culpable of this dastardly act will face the full brunt of Court Martial Proceedings or the Civil Law. Further, the Guyana Defence Force intends to ask for the maximum penalty for anyone found guilty.”

Chief of staff Gary Best had also assured eyewitnesses that coming forward to identify the alleged wrongdoers could not lead to any form of retribution.

He had indicated that bringing the soldiers to justice will send a signal to other ranks in the Guyana Defence Force that such behaviour has serious consequences and that there was no way it would be allowed to continue.

He made it clear that the Joint Services stand ready to work with the mining community to make their operational environment safe and peaceful.

granted can be revoked. The Minister said that titles are absolute. Hastings then asked why the title of Kambaru was revoked.

The Minister said the title was not revoked, but held for investigation. Sukhai added there is funding this year to certify that the Kambaru land is “cleared” and hopefully the matter will be resolved The Minister was then asked about the identity of the person in charge of the land, whether miners or the people, since the title was being held for investigation. Sukhai said that under the Amerindian Act the Minister would cause an investigation to be done and says under what grounds the community would be established through titling.

She did not answer the question about who is in charge of the village.

The sum of $77.9 million has been allocated to the Land Titling and Demarcation Programme, with a view to completing the titling of all eligible villages by the end of the year.

Minister Sukhai was asked questions on other spending. For example, she said that no more than $1.5 million is given to Amerindian Villages for rehabilitation works to village offices.

Regarding how villages can access the Amerindian Development Fund ($392 million this year), she said that requests are made at the National Toshao’s Council Meeting.

Parliamentarian Jaipaul Sharma wanted to know how many funerals are catered for in the Ministry’s estimate to spend $1.8 million to assist with funerals.

The Speaker said it would be hard to project how many people would die.

The Minister responded that actual assistance for one funeral is $30,000 which doesn’t cover the entire cost.

In the budget for Amerindian Development, some $350 million has been set aside to be used for the implementation of scores of Community Development Plans.

Under the Hinterland Scholarship Programme $66 million has been allocated to the benefit of 388 students. A sum of $200 million has been allocated to support an Amerindian youth entrepreneurship and apprenticeship scheme, and a further $500 million has been allocated to roll out the One Laptop Per Family Programme in Amerindian villages.

Additional works to G/T Magistrates’ Court to begin shortly Court proceedings will be relocated to the original Georgetown Magistrates’ Court once the building is powered by electricity and all courtrooms are fully air conditioned. The duration and cost to complete those additional works are unknown at the moment.

This is according to Evadney Mangar, Project Coordinator of the Justice Sector Modernization Programme under the Supreme Court.

The tasks at hand include purchasing and installing a transformer to accommodate the new electrical load, installing air conditioning units in every courtroom and additional construction works such as building a car park.

Mangar said that evaluations of bids for the additional works have been sent to the Inter-American

Development Bank for approval.

The Bank is expected to provide a response by the end of this week.

Upon selection of contractors the contracts will have the costs and durations of the various aspects of the project.

These will be the third set of works to be executed to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court under the Justice Sector Modernization Programme under the Supreme Court. The second set of works started in January and were recently concluded to a tune of $20M. According to Manger, those include erection of an independent walkway for Magistrates, construction of outside toilet facilities for visitors to the court, electrical works and ensuring adequate water supply. They were executed by PD Contracting

Services.

The same construction firm was responsible for executing the first set of works. The contractor renovated and rehabilitated the Court for $88M; expanded the building to accommodate four additional courtrooms, increasing the number to nine.

When those works were completed the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, had identified more works to be done to enhance the Court further.

He had noted that the Court could have been occupied but the noise would have disrupted proceedings.

As such, Government continued to rent the building at Middle Street to house the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

To date, that building is still being rented by Government.

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Venezuela opposition fears crackdown, U.S. wavers on Maduro CARACAS (Reuters) Venezuela’s opposition leaders feared persecution over post-election protests while the U.S. government backed their calls for a recount and said yesterday it was still deciding if it would recognize President-elect Nicolas Maduro.

The razor-thin victory by Maduro in Sunday’s presidential vote has been rejected by his rival, Henrique Capriles, who is alleging thousands of irregularities at polling centers and wants a full audit of the ballots.

Seven people have died in opposition-led protests, and the government has vowed legal action against Capriles and others whom they accuse of stirring violence against its backers.

Washington said it had not decided whether to recognize Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who was picked as successor by the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

“We think there ought to be a recount,” Secretary of State John Kerry told U.S. lawmakers. “Obviously, if there are huge irregularities, we are going to have serious questions about the viability of that government ... I’m not sure that’s over yet.”

There was no immediate response from Maduro’s administration, but on Tuesday a senior ‘Chavista’

official, Diosdado Cabello, had cautioned the United States to “hold its tongue” and not meddle in Venezuelan affairs.

During Chavez’s 14-year tenure, Venezuela was the U.S. government’s main irritant in Latin America and the former soldier frequently invoked “imperialist” plots against him.

Maduro has taken a similarly hard line in public, despite some hopes in both countries for a rapprochement.

The latest instability in the OPEC nation with the

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - CMC – Trinidad and Tobago is hoping to sign a partial scope agreement with Guatemala that the government said would allow for favourable and preferential access to the market in that central American country.

A government statement said that a Trinidad and Tobago delegation consisting of various stakeholders including the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association; and Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce is now engaged in the final leg of the negotiations on the accord.

It said the agenda for the meeting which ends Wednesday includes “outstanding trade issues, rules of origin and investment issues arising from the previous negotiations held in Guatemala City” in October last year.

“The successful completion of negotiations

for this Agreement will see Trinidad and Tobago benefitting from more favourable/preferential access with a reduction or removal of tariffs/custom duties into the Guatemala market for a range of products including canned chicken sausage, peanut butter, groundnuts, pepper sauce, lubricating grease, clay tiles, building bricks, co-axial cable, automatic circuit breakers and steelband instruments.”

The statement said that most of the energy and energy products already receive duty free status and that Guatemala will have access to Trinidad and Tobago market for products including certain flowers, fresh fruits, decorative candles, tableware and textiles.

The statement said that apart from the partial scope agreement, the two countries have already concluded negotiations on agreements for cooperation in tourism and culture.

Nicolas Maduro

Trinidad seeking to sign partial scope agreement with Guatemala

world’s largest oil reserves has sent Venezuelan bond prices tumbling.

The unrest, just weeks after Chavez’s death from cancer, has laid bare the deep polarization of a country split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions, and left its 29 million people on edge.

Capriles has accused the government of ordering gangs to attack his supporters and even his official residence in Miranda state, where he is the governor.

“Anything that happens to me in the official residence at Los Teques is the

Henrique Capriles responsibility of Nicolas Maduro!” he said.

Dozens of government supporters gathered peacefully outside the building yesterday, chanting “Capriles is a murderer!” and “Fascist!”, watched by troops.

Though demanding legal action against his opposition rival, Maduro nevertheless said he would be protected.

“I am a man of peace and of my word. I ordered (state intelligence agency) Sebin to maintain protection of the excandidate of the right wing,” he said via Twitter.

Another prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo

Lopez, said there was a plan to arrest him on charges of destabilization.

Capriles had planned to lead a march on the National Electoral Council headquarters in Caracas yesterday, but Maduro banned it. Capriles later called it off, saying the government had plotted to start trouble and then blame him.

“To all my followers ... this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,” the opposition leader said. “It is doing me harm.”

Monday’s scenes of opposition supporters attacking ruling Socialist

Party offices, governmentrun clinics and people celebrating Maduro’s victory were damaging to Capriles’ cause, which he casts as one of democracy versus autocracy.

Evoking the emotive memory of a 2002 putsch against Chavez, which lasted only 48 hours but led to a radicalization of the government and a discrediting of Venezuela’s opposition, Maduro has accused Capriles’ camp of planning another coup d’etat.

About 135 people were arrested and more than 60 hurt during Monday’s clashes, officials said, including one woman whom a mob tried to burn alive. Tuesday’s protests were much quieter, with thousands of Capriles’ followers holding peaceful rallies outside Electoral Council (CNE) offices around the country.

The most successful and charismatic leader the opposition has had since Chavez took office in 1999, the 40-year-old Capriles says the government is responsible for the violence because it denied reasonable requests for a full recount.

Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent, according to the electoral authority. He is due to be formally sworn in tomorrow.

Maduro campaigned on a promise to continue his late Continued on page 20

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Jamaica Govt. seeking to reduce high import bill KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – The Jamaica government says it intends to significantly reduce the island’s food import bill, which stands at a staggering one billion (US) dollars.

Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Roger Clarke said the intention is to reduce the bill to US$700 in the short to medium term. “We have targeted some 8,000 acres of government lands that we intend to put into the hands of farmers and we are committed to putting in the

basic infrastructure to help to get those lands into production.

“We will be working on irrigation systems, we will be helping with extension services and whatever else that can be done …we are going to do it,” he told farmers and other stakeholders at the annual Montpelier Agricultural and Industrial Show in St. James, west of here.

Clarke said that thousands of acres of idle lands are available for

production, and the Portia Simpson Miller government is determined to reduce the import bill, while putting money into the pockets of farmers.

“The Ministry of Agriculture is targeting, between the short and medium term, to reduce that importation bill by at least US$300 million and I think we can do it,” he said, citing statistics to show that the importation of foods has been showing a steady decline, as farmers have increased

production in many areas.

“In terms of ginger, which we can be proud of, we imported 101,000 pounds in 2011. Last year 53,000 pounds came in, but we exported one million pounds.

“When it comes to pork, we never had one imported leg of ham in this country last year … every pound of ham that was eaten last year was produced by our Jamaican farmers,” he added.

Clarke said the task at hand is for the country to continue to produce more of

what is consumed, adding “we are going to produce as we have never produced before, because that is the only way we are going to survive”.

Clarke said what he saw at the show was evidence that agricultural sector is thriving and paid tribute to farmers whom he said “are the ones who are feeding us now and who will continue to feed us way into the future”.

Roger Clarke

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s Supreme Court president said yesterday there is no legal basis for holding a vote-byvote recount that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is demanding for the disputed presidential election.

It was the latest indication that the governing system left behind by Hugo Chavez when he died of cancer last month has no intention of agreeing to Capriles’ request.

He claims Sunday’s election was stolen from him.

Capriles has not formally filed a request for a recount with the National Electoral Council, which on Monday ratified Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s anointed successor, as the winner. The council says Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote to Capriles’ 49 percent.

Judge Luisa Estela Morales, the Supreme Court chief, said Venezuela’s voting system is so automated that a manual count doesn’t exist.

Technically, however, a recount is possible as paper receipts are issued for every vote cast and can be checked against tallies done by each

voting machine, voter registries and centralized records.

“This presumed instigation to a manual count has angered many Venezuelans,” said Morales, whose court, like all of Venezuela’s national government institutions, is packed with Chavista loyalists. What was unusual about her statement is that it was impromptu, unrelated to any specific court case.

Morales is the same judge who issued a controversial decision three days after Chavez’s March 5 death saying that Maduro effectively became president at the moment of his mentor’s passing.

That enabled Maduro to be sworn in the same day as acting president.

Analysts say Capriles has few options, given Maduro’s solid hold on all the levers of power, including the loyalty of the military high command.

On Tuesday, Capriles canceled a big protest march he had called for Wednesday after Maduro responded by telling his backers to take to the streets, too.

From page 19 boss’s hardline socialist policies. He had a big lead in polls but that evaporated in the final days and the result was much closer than his team had expected.

Capriles says he is sure he won and that his team has evidence of 3,200 irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers. Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles had an extra 300,000 to 400,000 votes not shown in the official tally.

The CNE has refused to hold a recount, saying an audit of ballots from 54 percent of the polling centers, in a widely respected electronic voting system, had already been done.

Maduro initially said he was open to a recount but has changed his position. He has called on his supporters to

demonstrate all week, culminating in a big rally in Caracas tomorrow to coincide with his inauguration ceremony.

Maduro’s narrow victory has raised doubts about whether the disparate alliance that formed around Chavez can hold together without him.

The opposition is also a wide-ranging coalition of parties from right to left on the political spectrum.

Maduro jumped on Capriles’ cancellation of Wednesday’s march, saying his rival had started to backpedal.

“No matter how much they retreat, they’ll have to face justice sooner rather than later,” Maduro said, blaming Capriles directly for the bloodshed. “Don’t disguise yourself as a pacifist. You were the one who sent the people to the streets.”

Venezuela high court chief: No basis for recount

Venezuela opposition...

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Company files lawsuit US senate passes sweeping plan to legalise Caribbean immigrants against Warner Former vice president of the International Football Federation (FIFA), Austin “Jack” Warner is due to appear in court on September 25 after a company filed a lawsuit claiming that it is owed money for work done during the 2010 FIFA Under17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad.

Imamuddin Baksh the managing director of Graphix Advantage Ltd, claims that Warner, who is also the National Security Minister of Trinidad, in his capacity as special advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), failed to pay the TT$1.2 million owed.

Baksh has also filed the legal suit against the TTFF. When the matter was called in the San Fernando Supreme Court, on Tuesday, Warner did not make an appearance and Justice Frank Seepersad ordered that he be in court when the case is next heard on September 25.

The judge also ordered

Austin “Jack” Warner that all parties file witness statements by July 19.

In his suit, Baksh is claiming that sometime around August 25, 2010, when Warner was then Works Minister, he (Baksh) was instructed to print and install signage at the stadiums to be used for the Under 17 Women’s World Cup, with the assurance of payment.

Baksh claimed that in September, he printed large quantities of banners and posters, and installed them at various stadiums.

He claimed that delivery notes for the signage were

duly signed by authorised servants or agents of the TTFF and Warner, and the invoices totalled $1.3 million.

Baksh said that on November 10 of that year, he was paid a sum of TT$98,555 by a cheque drawn on an account in the name of LOC South Africa 2010 Ltd. The sum represented the amount claimed by one invoice for 59 banners, according to the lawsuit.

Baksh alleged in court documents that when paid the sum, he asked Warner about the identity of the LOC South Africa 2010 Ltd and Warner told Baksh that he (Warner) was the LOC and was responsible for all payments.

Subsequently, according to the lawsuit, Baksh made numerous requests for the balance of the money owed, but was told by Warner that he had no more money and that Baksh should write off the debt.

Both Warner and the TTFF have responded in signed affidavits, denying the claims made by Baksh. (CBC)

WASHINGTON – CMC A bipartisan group of United States senators on Tuesday passed a sweeping immigration bill that seeks to legalise the status of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, including Caribbean nationals, residing in the US. The bill is also aimed at re-orienting future immigration by bringing Caribbean and other nationals to the United States based increasingly on the job skills and personal assets they can offer.

The bill, by four Democrats and four Republicans, is the most ambitious effort in at least 26 years to repair, update and reshape the American immigration system.

But immigration advocates say the part of the bill expected to draw the most controversy is a 13-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants who have been living in the US illegally.

In an effort to make that proposal acceptable to Republicans who fear it could unleash a new wave of illegal

immigration, the senators placed a series of conditions, or triggers, along the pathway, that would require the US Department of Homeland Security to spend as much as US$6.5 billion over 10 years to increase enforcement and extend fencing along the Southwest border.

According to the bill, the border security programmes would have to be fully operational before any immigrant, who had been in the US illegally, would be able to apply for permanency, or green card, the first step toward becoming American citizens.

The bill includes a long list of “disqualifiers” that prevent Caribbean and other immigrants from becoming legal residents if they have any felony convictions or at least three misdemeanor convictions.

Illegal immigrants also

would not be able to upgrade their status if they were ever convicted of a criminal offense under foreign law, voted unlawfully in the United States or are determined by the federal government to be a criminal or national security or public health threat.

“There are serious civil rights concerns,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Immigrants’ Rights Project.

But Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that wrote the legislation, said the bill strikes the right balance.

“If the ACLU drew up their bill, it wouldn’t pass the Senate.

We’ve made it clear, if you commit a serious crime, you shouldn’t be on the path to citizenship,” he said.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Rift over Mandela companies deepens

Nelson Mandela JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A granddaughter of Nelson Mandela has harshly criticized a longtime associate of the former president and anti-apartheid leader, in an escalation of a dispute over funds linked to one of the world’s most revered figures.

Tukwini Mandela accused lawyer George Bizos of insulting her mother, slandering the Mandela

family name and spreading “blatant lies and innuendo” in a bitter rift over control of two companies linked to 94year-old Mandela. The main purpose of the companies is to channel funds from the sale of handprint artwork by Mandela for the benefit of his family.

“Please have the decency to behave as an elder if you care for my grandfather and his name, which catapulted you into undeserved stardom,” Tukwini Mandela wrote in an open letter that was emailed to The Associated Press on Tuesday. She urged Bizos, a stalwart of the struggle for equal rights in South Africa, to act in a manner “befitting of your status” in society.

In a statement sent to AP, Bizos said he had not been disrespectful to Nelson Mandela or his family.

“I have been a close friend and supporter of the family for over six decades,” he said.

He added that he would leave

it to a court to decide on issues raised in a legal case brought against him and several associates by Makaziwe Mandela, Tukwini’s mother.The disagreement comes as Nelson Mandela, who last appeared in public in 2010, receives medical care at his Johannesburg home after several hospital visits in recent months. He is seen globally as a symbol of reconciliation and sacrifice after spending 27 years in prison during racist white rule and then leading South Africa’s transition to democratic, all-race elections in 1994.

The dispute over the funds troubles many South Africans for whom corruption, high crime rates and economic inequality have tainted the new South Africa. Mandela was South Africa’s first black president and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Makaziwe Mandela and

Kuwaiti police teargas opposition protest KUWAIT (Reuters) Kuwaiti police fired teargas late yesterday to disperse thousands of people protesting against the conviction of a prominent opposition politician for insulting the country’s ruler, witnesses said.

Musallam al-Barrak, an outspoken former member of parliament, was sentenced to five years in jail on Monday for comments he made in a speech last year, when he urged Kuwait’s emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to avoid “autocratic rule”.

Barrak’s supporters have staged several rallies since the start of the case which has exposed deep political tensions between opposition figures and the government, headed by a prime minister picked by the emir.

The OPEC member state has avoided the sort of mass unrest seen in other Arab

countries.

But it has been beset by political turmoil. Investment projects and political reforms have been held up by a longrunning power struggle between the appointed government and a series of elected parliaments.

Barrak has yet to be taken into custody since the ruling.

Special forces entered his guest house and a neighboring home yesterday but failed to find him, witnesses said.

Barrak, who gave a speech at the gathering yesterday evening, has said he did not insult the emir.

Thousands of men packed the guest house and surrounding gardens to listen to the political addresses as supporters fired guns into the air. Riot police stepped in as the supporters started taking to the streets.

Barrak’s legal team has

filed an appeal against his conviction, his lawyer Mohammed Abdulqader alJassem said.

“The court decided not to listen to any kind of defense and this is against all of Kuwait’s rules,” he said on the sidelines of the gathering.

Kuwait, a U.S. ally across the Gulf from Wa s h i n g t o n ’s main regional adversary Iran, said Barrak was given a transparent and fair hearing. The government has said it supports freedom of speech but must apply the law in such cases.

Kuwaitis staged large street protests and the opposition boycotted a parliamentary election last year after the emir changed the electoral law. The current parliament, voted in during the last election, is seen as more pro-government.

her sister Zenani have launched a court case against Bizos and other associates of Nelson Mandela, alleging they should not remain directors of Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings because they were not properly appointed. The case also alleges that the trio has neglected its duties at the helm of the companies.

Earlier this week, The Star newspaper quoted 84-yearold Bizos, who defended Mandela during the apartheid years, as saying Makaziwe Mandela’s goal was to take some company money, estimated to be $1.3 million, without providing details of how it would be used.

“This woman wanted to take over the money, not for any specific purpose, and distribute it to members of the family,” he said. “That is contrary to the provisions of the trust. Therefore we refused to give her the money.”

Norton Rose, a Johannesburg law firm

representing Bizos in the dispute with Mandela’s daughters, said Bizos’ position will be outlined in papers likely to be filed in court in mid-May. In an interview last week with South Africa’s Talk Radio 702, Norton Rose director Michael Hart said Nelson Mandela gave “explicit instructions” for Bizos and two associates, lawyer Bally Chuene and Tokyo Sexwale, a businessman and politician, to oversee the disputed companies. They have done so “without any charge or remuneration,” he said.

In the letter, Tukwini Mandela said her mother is a “highly educated and a c c o m p l i s h e d businesswoman in her own right,” and that Bizos’ reported comments showed a lack of respect for Nelson Mandela and his advocacy on behalf of women.

“I doubt you would ever refer to the women in your life as ‘this woman,’” Tukwini Mandela wrote.

“You and your peddlers of

falsehood have spent the whole of last week casting aspersions on my family, spreading blatant lies and innuendo, hoping that a trial through the media will deter us from defending our name and legacy,” she wrote.

Tukwini Mandela is the marketing director of House of Mandela, a winemaking company.

Two other granddaughters of Mandela are starring in a U.S. television reality show titled “Being Mandela.”

Bizos, who was born in Greece, defended Mandela during the Rivonia trial in 1960s that led to the African National Congress leader’s conviction on sabotage charges and a sentence of life imprisonment.

Bizos works at the Legal Resources Center, a human rights group in South Africa.

He has recently crossexamined the national police commissioner and other witnesses before a panel investigating the shooting deaths of 34 striking miners by police last year.

Son of Senegal’s ex-president charged with corruption

(Reuters) - Senegalese prosecutors yesterday formally charged Karim Wade, the son of the West African nation’s former president, with corruption and ordered him to be detained without bail, his lawyer told Reuters.

Wade, who was the most powerful figure in his father Abdoulaye Wade’s government, was arrested this week on suspicion of illegally amassing $1.4 billion (918.3 million pounds) in assets via a network of shadowy holding companies.

“He has just been charged and will be detained,” Demba Cire Bathily, Wade’s lawyer, told Reuters.

The case brought has highlighted efforts by President Macky Sall, who

Karim Wade defeated Abdoulaye Wade in a tense election last year, to crack down on corruption in the poor West African state.

Karim Wade simultaneously held the post of minister for infrastructure, international cooperation, energy and air transportation,

with a total budget equivalent to one-third of state expenditure.

Prosecutors have accused Wade of having taken stakes in large sectors of the economy, including firms involved in managing Dakar ’s port, providing services at the current airport and building a second one outside the capital.

Prosecutors say the former minister has been linked to these firms through a complex web of offshore companies based in locations including Panama, the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg.

Wade’s lawyers have accused the new administration of a political witch hunt and claim they can lawfully account for all of his assets.

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Iraq executes 21 men convicted of terrorism BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has executed 21 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges and links to al-Qaeda, the Justice Ministry said yesterday, setting off fresh criticism from a human rights expert over Baghdad’s insistence on enforcing capital punishment.

The prisoners were executed by hanging in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

All the convicts were Iraqi al-Qaeda operatives who were involved in bombings, car bomb attacks and assassinations, the statement said.

The hangings brought the number of prisoners executed in Iraq so far this year to 50, according to Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim. The latest group was the biggest this year, Ibrahim added.

According to the London-based Amnesty International, Iraq ranked fourth among the top five executioners in the world in 2011, after China, Iran, Saudi

Arabia and the U.S. Last year Iraq executed 129 people, triggering concerns among rights groups over whether defendants had received fair trials.

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, coalition officials suspended Iraq’s death penalty, but it was reinstated in 2004 by Iraq’s transitional government.

Since 2005, Iraq’s government has executed 422 people, including women and foreigners convicted on terrorism charges.

Erin Evers, a Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the number of those executed and the timing of the latest announcement were cause for concern. On Saturday, Iraqis vote in local elections, the country’s first vote since the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces in December 2011.

The country has seen intensifying violence in recent weeks, some of it directly related to the elections, in an apparent attempt by insurgent to derail the voting.

On Monday, at least 55 people

were killed in a wave of bombings and other killings across the country.

“The fact that this they announced this huge number (of executions) just after the attacks and just before elections is raising questions about what their motives are,” Evers told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Nine people were killed and 32 were wounded in four separate attacks in Iraq yesterday.

In one attack, gunmen in two SUVs opened fire early in the morning on a military checkpoint in Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing two soldiers and wounding five, a police officer said. Another police officer said a parked car bomb went off shortly afterward in another part of Abu Ghraib, killing two civilians and wounding six people.

Around noon, a parked car bomb exploded in a commercial area in Baghdad’s western neighborhood of Jihad, killing three civilians and wounding 12. In a

Coalition behind immigration bill may be fragile WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - The eight senators who crafted comprehensive legislation to overhaul the immigration system went to great lengths to balance the competing priorities of dozens of interest groups in an 844-page bill introduced yesterday in hopes it would improve the chances for passage of the bill.

The courting of immigrants rights groups, farmers, the Chamber of Commerce, the tech industry and the AFL-CIO labor organization has paid off so far, with many of these players issuing positive initial statements about the bill.

But many of the favorable comments have been accompanied by caveats and “yes, but” statements that illustrate the vulnerability of the bill, which must survive months of legislative scrutiny.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, for example, praised the legislation in a press release but also promised that he would “work to correct” unspecified details that could cause “unintended, but serious harm to immigrant workers and the broader labor market.”

Also praising the bill, with qualifications, was Thomas Donohue, president of the Chamber of Commerce, the business lobby. Donohue

Richard Trumka called the senators’ work a “critical step toward a final law that will work for our economy and for our society” adding that the chamber will continue to push for its own changes to the legislation.

America’s Voice, the most prominent advocacy organization backing reform, called the proposal a “breakthrough” but also said it too would seek improvements, including cutting back on border enforcement provisions and granting recognition to samesex spouses applying for family visas.

The bill, sponsored by four Republicans and four Democrats dubbed the “Gang of Eight,” was conceived as a pathway to legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. That is controversial enough, particularly among Republicans in the U.S.

House of Representatives.

But it also creates an entirely new system designed to increase the flow of foreign workers for agriculture, construction and low-skilled jobs and to boost the supply of educated employees for America’s tech sector. These provisions are coupled with protections, many objectionable to industry, intended to meet organized labor’s concerns about cheap labor competing with U.S. citizens.

The intricate balancing act is as much a vulnerability as a strength. As the various groups and their lobbyists vie for small tweaks to the language, the changes taken together could cause the bill to unravel, as similar measures have in the past.

Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank that supports immigration reform, said her biggest fear is the “death by a thousand cuts” that befell 2007 immigration legislation.

“I’m hopeful that advocates of reform don’t want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good this time,” she said. “And if the gang can hold together, despite pressure from the right and the left, and stay strong to fend off alterations to the core compromises in the bill, I think they can get this thing across the finish line.”

Civilians gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in the east Baghdad neighborhood of Kamaliya, Iraq, Monday. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed) Baghdad southeastern suburb, a Sunni lawmaker escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy. Three of his guards were wounded.

In the western Anbar province, police said a bomb attached to a car exploded in a parking lot near the main Sunni protest area on a

highway near the provincial capital, Ramadi, killing two people and wounding six others.

Members of Iraq’s Sunni minority have been staging weekly rallies to protest perceived second class treatment by the Shiite-led government.

After sunset, police said

gunmen assassinated a judge, Maarouf Ahmed, in a drive-by shooting in the western city of Fallujah.

Medical officials confirmed the causalities in yesterday’s attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

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Thursday April 18, 2013

Britain bids farewell to “Iron Lady” Thatcher at grand funeral LONDON (Reuters) Britain gave Margaret Thatcher its grandest political funeral in half a century yesterday as her flag-draped coffin was borne through central London on a horsedrawn gun carriage, though a few boos were a reminder of her divisive rule and legacy.

In an event comparable to Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965, the Queen joined top British and foreign politicians past and present to pay her final respects to the “Iron Lady” who - for better or for ill - transformed the country.

Thousands of supporters lined the streets of London as Thatcher’s casket made its final journey from the center of British political power in Westminster to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Honored with a gun salute from the Tower of London every minute and the silencing of the bells of Big Ben, military bandsmen played Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin.

More than 700 military personnel and thousands of police provided security.

Thatcher, who ruled Britain from 1979-1990, died after suffering a stroke on April 8. She was the country’s first and only woman premier, its longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, and won three consecutive general elections.

She sought to arrest Britain’s post-war decline by smashing the trade unions and privatizing Britain’s national assets, while boosting home ownership and the services sector.

More than 20 years later, her supporters view her as a modernizing champion of freedom, while her foes accuse her of destroying communities and of ushering in an era of greed.

As a bell mournfully tolled, a party of soldiers and sailors carried her casket on their shoulders into St Paul’s Cathedral.

Beneath its giant painted dome - the same place where Horatio Nelson’s funeral was held and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married - more than 2,000 mourners then heard a

somber service filled with hymns and reflective readings.

“After the storm of a life lived in the heat of political controversy, there is a great calm,” the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, told mourners. “There is an important place for debating policies and legacy ... but here and today is neither the time nor the place.”

In death, as in life, Thatcher polarizes opinion.

While the vast majority of onlookers clapped her cortege as a mark of respect and threw blue roses into its path, some chanted “Ding dong the witch is dead” and about two dozen opponents turned their backs on the procession.

One man held up a placard reading “Boo!” and some shouted “scum”. In contrast, Britain’s finance minister George Osborne had to wipe away his tears during the funeral service.

The Bishop of London brought smiles to the faces of former leader Tony Blair, Prime Minister David Cameron’s

The coffin arrives for the funeral service of former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, at St Paul’s Cathedral, central London. (AP Photo/Gareth Fuller, pool) wife Samantha and other mourners when he recounted a story about her telling him not to eat duck pate because it was fattening.

Cameron and Amanda, Thatcher ’s 19-year-old granddaughter, read from the New Testament while patriotic hymns echoed around the imposing 300year-old cathedral.

Two heads of state, 11 serving prime ministers and 17 foreign ministers looked on. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also attended. The music included Thatcher’s favorite hymns, among them “I Vow to Thee My Country”.

British military bandsmen played Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin to accompany the grandest funeral for a British politician

since that of Thatcher’s hero, Churchill, in 1965.

Polls have shown that many Britons are unhappy that the estimated 10-millionpound ($15 million) bill for the ceremonial funeral is being picked up by the taxpayer at a time of austerity and spending cuts. But Cameron dismissed such criticism.

“She was the first woman prime minister, she served for longer in the job than anyone for 150 years, she achieved some extraordinary things in her life,” Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, said.

“What is happening today is absolutely fitting and right,” the prime minister added.

People gathered along the funeral procession route early in the morning with placards

that reflected a range of views.

“You gave millions of us hope, freedom, ambition,” one read. Another said: “Over 10 million pounds of our money for a Tory funeral.” Tory is another word for Conservative.

“This country was pretty well down on its knees in the ’70s,” said Roger Johnson, among the admirers lining the pavement in central London.

“Margaret Thatcher came along and sorted everything out. Her legacy is that she put the word ‘great’ back into Great Britain,” he said.

There were notable absences. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan, the widow of Thatcher’s great U.S. friend and ally Ronald Reagan, were too frail to attend.

Ricin is indicated in letters to Obama, senator WASHINGTON (AP) — In a capital city on edge, letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator tested positive for poisonous ricin in preliminary checks, and authorities chased a stream of reports yesterday of other suspicious-looking items sent to senators in Washington and beyond.

Two of the cases outside Washington, reported on a day when many people were already jittery after the Boston bombings, were declared false alarms.

Authorities waited for more definitive results on others.

An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said the letters to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., were postmarked Memphis, Tenn.

Both letters said: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” Both were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”

Those letters were

intercepted before reaching the White House or Senate.

Obama was briefed on the situation Tuesday night, a White House spokesman said. The FBI said yesterday that more testing was underway. Preliminary field tests can often show false positives for ricin.

As authorities scurried to investigate three questionable packages discovered in Senate office buildings, reports of suspicious mail or packages also came in from at least three senators’ offices in their home states.

Sen. Carl Levin said a staff member at his Saginaw, Mich., office would spend the night in a hospital as a precaution after discovering a suspicious letter. The staff member had no symptoms, Levin said in a statement. He expected to learn preliminary results of tests on the letter by Thursday.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said suspicious letters at his Phoenix office had been cleared with nothing

dangerous found. A package at Sen. John Cornyn’s Dallasarea office also was declared harmless, a fire department spokesman said.

All the activity came as tensions were high in Washington and across the country following Monday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. The FBI said there was no indication of a connection between the letters and the bombing. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the marathon.

Capitol Police swiftly ramped up security, and lawmakers and staff were cautioned away from some parts of the Hill complex. After hours of jangled nerves, officials signaled it was safe to move throughout the area and people settled back to normal, if watchful, activity.

There was no immediate information from police about the contents of the suspicious packages.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Thursday April 18, 2013

Financial boost at UG could attract qualified lecturers - Urling The fact that Guyana is part of a global village must be taken into consideration even when the issue of tertiary education is considered. This is the conviction of President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Clinton Urling.

He was at the time commenting on the quality of lecturers at the University of Guyana. He noted that “from what I have heard the quality is poor with a few exceptions, and the exceptions are persons who basically want to give back to Guyana and they serve pro bono here...they receive some money but basically it is pro bono,” said Urling.

He speculated that there are a number of persons who graduate with a first degree

and opt to lecture; a state of affairs he claims does not obtain at most universities.

“That simply doesn’t happen at some Universities and we are talking about the quality of the entire programme of the University,” said Urling as he spoke of the need for improvement of the quality of education at the local tertiary institution. He said that at most universities it is required that lecturers have at least a Master’s Degree and not a First Degree.

Moreover, the quality of lecturers, Urling said, must be seen as a matter of concern and therefore must be addressed through increased funding; which he believes must be plugged into the university perhaps through increased tuition fees, to

attract better qualified lecturers. He conjectured that adequately qualified persons would not choose to return to the university to lecture. “I am an academic by heart, not by profession, but if I had to choose I wouldn’t go to the University of Guyana; I wouldn’t do it based on them paying me $100,000 a month, or whatever it is, when we live in a global village. That is something that we need also to take into perspective.”

According to Urling, highly qualified individuals would more than likely prefer to offer their services at institutions such as the University of the West Indies where they would be paid a salary that could afford them a better living standard.

Urling’s view about the improvement of the quality of

education was in fact on par with that of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, who had publicly disclosed that “if you want quality degrees you will pay for it; nobody gets quality for free! If students can’t pay for it somebody got to pay for it; either the private sector or scholarships, somebody got to pay for it.”

He was at the time seeking to justify plans in the pipelines to increase tuition costs at the tertiary institution even as he alluded to the need for qualified lecturers who would have attained Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees.

“Somebody has to pay them for that. If you don’t want to pay them for that then you will get low quality

teachers. How can you get a good lawyer to come and teach law in this university?

You have to pay that person to stop all practices and come and teach here. If you want a good medical doctor to teach here you have to pay that person to stop all private practices...and somebody got to pay for it,” he asserted.

He proposed a hike in tuition fees as the way forward even as efforts are also made to improve the facilities and services all of which he noted cost money.

According to Professor Opadeyi, money should not be raised through begging but rather through the services that are being sold.

“What are the services that we are selling at this university? We are selling education...we are selling a certificate. For the Vice

GCCI’s President, Clinton Urling Chancellor to sign that this person has a BSc it means that the Vice Chancellor has received the cheque for the work that was put in to get that degree,” said the Vice Chancellor as he reiterated the need for a hike in fees.

Woman allegedly douses partner with hot porridge A woman found herself in hot water yesterday at the Providence Magistrate’s Court, after she allegedly doused her paramour with a pot of hot porridge.

The woman, 22-year-old Carmella Walker, of 354 Eighth Avenue, Diamond, was told by Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty that she was charged with maliciously wounding Royston English.

To the charge Walker pleaded not guilty.

On the day in question English, who shares the home with Walker, left the house and came home a bit late. When he returned the couple had a heated exchange that led to English assaulting the accused. Sometime later the court was told that Walker doused English with a pot of hot porridge.

Walker was placed on $50,000 bail and ordered to return to court on July 17.

Also at the court, yesterday, a man was granted bail having been charged with

careless driving. Zulficar Hussein is accused of driving his motor lorry GMM 6483 in a careless manner on the Farm, East Bank Demerara Public Road.

The court was told that on April 9, last, Hussein who hails from Ravendra Street, Annandale, drove his vehicle without due care and attention and without reasonable consideration for other persons.

On the day in question about 14:30 hours, he was the driver of his lorry which was stationary on the eastern lane of the Farm Public Road, facing North.

The court was told that Hussein made a sudden attempt to cross over on the western side of the road to proceed north and in so doing, the front right of his vehicle collided with the right side rear of another vehicle PJJ 6159. Hussein pleaded not guilty and was placed on $20,000 bail and will return to court on July 17.

Warring brothers in cutlass fight Rakesh Danpaul, a/k” Chubbie, 26, of Maria’s Lodge, Essequibo Coast, is in a serious condition at the Suddie Public Hospital after he sustained chops to his hand and abdomen.

He and one of his two brothers were reportedly involved in a cutlass fight.

According to reports, Danpaul and his brother, who has since surrendered to the police, were involved in a heated argument at their Maria’s Lodge residence, yesterday morning.

According to a neighbour, Danpaul’s brother, who is in police custody resides at Sand Pit and was visiting his mother at Maria’s Lodge.

The woman said that Danpaul’s mother asked his brother to go to the pharmacy. That was when Danpaul, who was intoxicated, attacked his brother who retaliated by arming himself with a cutlass and similarly chopping Danpaul about the body.

Danpaul, whose injuries are said to be severe has been admitted to the Suddie Public Hospital where doctors have performed emergency surgery.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Health Minister assures better management of pharmaceuticals “I inherited that,” said Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran as he alluded to moves by the Health Ministry in the past to pay the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation to store its (Health Ministry) drugs.

However the Minister insisted last evening that this practice is expected to be a thing of the past following the March 8, 2013 commissioning of the Ministry’s bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara.

The new bond, the Minister said, is a fairly modern facility and will offer the capacity to accommodate its entire stock of drugs and medical supply that would have been purchased. He was optimistic that this move, along with other measures such as the introduction of the National Treatment Guidelines.

These guidelines will see doctors and other practitioners ordering in a particular fashion since according to him there have been continuous complaints that “sometimes doctors deviate from a particular pattern. This would cause a scamper to procure drugs to suit a particular taste and that could lead to some issues with inventory.”

With the new bond in place the Minister said that the Health Ministry will be able to stave off the instances in the past when drugs would have expired while in stock.

He further explained that the state of affairs that

obtained in the past would have seen drugs being ordered in one instance and stored in a bond which although was physically owned by the New GPC, was “as I understood, under the control of the Ministry of Health. So in other words the products there were no longer the property of the New GPC.” He explained that the challenge that had confronted the Ministry during that time was in fact a matter of management of resources.

He said that he had repeatedly made reference to the importance of economy of savings “because I am convinced if we manage that major part of inventory we would avoid some of the embarrassment (as contained in the Auditor General Reports) although we can comment on that because sometimes those sums look huge.

Based on the Auditor General’s Report substantial amounts of the Ministry of Health’s drugs had expired while stored in the New GPC’s bonds.

Minister Ramsaran admitted last evening that there is a dire need for the Health Ministry to better manage its resources regardless of “whose bond it is in…”

The Health Minister’s extensive deliberation were channeled from a line of questions from A Partnership of National Unity (APNU’)’s

point man on Finance, Carl Greenidge, when the consideration of the 2013 national budgetary allocation continued.

Greenidge was at the time tasked with thoroughly interrogating the Minister of plans for the $1.8 billion allocated for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

He, in questioning the Minister, also turned his attention to the fact that in the past, total upfront payments were made to the New GPC at the beginning of the year or soon after the readin g o f t h e n a t i o n a l budget for the storage of drugs was indicative of s o me of the managerial problems faced by the Ministry.

But according to Minister Ramsaran with moves such as the introduction of the national treatment guidelines coupled with regular updating along with the publishing and upgrading of the National Essential Drug list and continued training “hopefully we will avoid some degree of loss of drugs…”

Leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, also was keen on targeting the drugs and medical supplies for the GPHC and sought to question whether the process of single sourcing or competitive bidding would be used during procurement.

To this, the Minister assured that competitive bidding would be used.

49 percent increase in survivor grants- NIS annual report During the year 2011, survivors’ pension was awarded to some 848 persons by the National Insurance Scheme. This was according to the scheme’s 2011 annual report. It was explained that the recipients included some 718 widows who had qualified because they were 45 years and over. A further award was given to 125 widows who had children of the deceased in their care. Five orphans were also given benefits.

Additionally, 41 awards of annuity payments were shared among 48 other dependents. The recipients were children of the deceased insured persons.

According to the report the age analysis of the recipients of the survivor’s pension shows that the ages of the widows who had children of the deceased in their care ranged from 22 to 62 years. The average age was 43 years.

It was further reported that age range of widows who were 45 years and over was 45 years to 95 years old. The

ages of the orphans ranged from nine to 15 years old, the report stated.

According to the report, the widows who had children of the deceased in their care had 231 children among them.

The ages of the children ranged from one year to 18 years and the average age was approximately 13 years.

It was further stated that the widows who qualified for the pension because they had children of the deceased in their care received an average monthly pension of $11,269.

Widows who qualified because they were 45 years of age and over, received an average monthly pension of $10,107, while the orphans received an average monthly pension of $5,003.

In the area of survivor’s

grant, some 73 were awarded during 2011. The awards were made in respect of 72 men and one woman who are deceased insured persons. The ages of the deceased ranged from 26 years to 75 years.

Additionally some 32 annuity payments were shared among other dependents of the deceased insured persons which include 28 children and four relatives. A total of 48 children were included in the benefits payment. Their ages ranged from two years to 18 years.

Further the amount paid out as grants ranged from $251,000 to $805,595. The average amount paid was $112,686. The report further stated that there was a 49 percent increase in survivor’s grants.

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Thursday April 18, 2013

Radio licences protest moves to Diplomatic forum Protest against former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s granting of radio and cable licences shifted gear yesterday when it moved to the East Coast of Demerara in an attempt to highlight the issue before members of the Diplomatic Community.

The protestors, among whom were Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall, Capitol News’s Enrico Woolford and Channel Nine’s Charles Griffith, moved to the Grand Coastal Hotel where President Donald Ramotar was meeting members of the Diplomatic Community at the Financial Crimes Stakeholder Meeting.

The protest certainly got the attention of those attending the meeting as well as scores of commuters traversing the main East Coast Demerara carriageway.

The issue is likely to be raised at the upcoming forum to commemorate World Press Freedom Day next month.

In an invited comment on the issue during the protest, President Ramotar urged that those protesting should take their grouse to the independent authority on broadcasting that was

Protestors outside the Grand Coastal Hotel yesterday.

established to deal with the matter.

However, head of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, Bibi Shadick, had stated that the body has no mandate or legal power to revoke broadcast licences, unless the Authority has good reason.

Addressing the National Assembly recently, Shadick said that she would not be bullied by protests calling for the revocation of licences issued by former President Bharrat Jagdeo the very month he left office.

“The Board of the Guyana National Broadcast Authority has never discussed the revocation of any licences and is not authorised to revoke any licence by law, except for cause, and no such cause has been brought to us,” she said.

Leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, had informed that during the recent tripartite budget talks, the joint Parliamentary Opposition sought, as a priority, to address the issues of the unfair

distribution of radio licences, but got an unfavourable response from President Donald Ramotar.

According to Ramjattan, even though the radio licence issue was second on a list of 11 demands, the President unequivocally dismissed any possibilities for the distributed licences to be revoked.

He said that the President’s position was backed by his two advisors: Gail Teixeira and

“ s t r o n g m a n ” D r. R o g e r Luncheon.

Ramjattan noted that all that was said by the government at the tripartite meeting summed up to a concrete position that “they (the government) are not going to rescind anything.”

The AFC leader opined that Ramotar’s position to leave everything as it is, is simply a perpetuation of the deception that Jagdeo portrayed.

Ramjattan stated that at the meeting, the President said that the licences were

granted on meritorious grounds.

He hinted at court action, adding that the opposition plans to address the issue in the National Assembly a s w e l l . “ We c a n n o t c o n d o n e t h i s … We a r e going to constantly harangue them to revoke and redistribute those licences,” Ramjattan stated.

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall reiterated his position that he will not rest until the matter is resolved amicably.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Administrative glitch causes “ruckus” at Buxton Health Centre

The Buxton Health Center Several persons seeking medical care at the Buxton Health Centre were forced to take their problems elsewhere, after the only Pharmacist attached to the institution “packed her bag and left the building” in protest of suspended payment last Tuesday.

Reports reaching this newspaper suggest that the “fairly new” assistant Pharmacist, Nicole John, received a telephone call from an official at the Regional Office earlier that morning, informing that her presence at

the facility was “somewhat illegitimate” and thus her salary was being withheld.

“All we know is that she pack up she bag and she lef cause dem tell she that they wouldn’t pay she fuh de wuk she do at de health centre” one villager commented.

At the center, several elderly persons were still waiting to receive their health checks, prescriptions and medication, evidently unaware of the absence of the pharmacist. Some, who inquired about the delay, were reportedly told to take their

problems elsewhere. “(Tuesday) is when people affected by chronic diseases come from the various communities to receive treatment.”

The health centre at Buxton caters for general health needs of persons living in at least five communities along the East Coast terrain. The villages include Annandale, Friendship, Tapestry and Bladen Hall.

John had been reportedly transferred from Region Five to the Buxton health post several weeks ago where she

Some in the waiting area of the Buxton Health Centre had been working in the capacity of Assistant Pharmacist. Kaieteur News understands that John had “assumed the position without notification or approval” from the relevant authorities at the Region Four executive office.

Region Four’s executive officer, Deolall Rooplall, stated that the issue is currently being sorted out.

The REO claimed that he is unaware of the issue as he was on leave at the time when the woman assumed the position at the health centre.

“I am now engaged in talks with the REO of Region Five to bring clarity to the issue.”

According to the REO, John had requested a transfer from a Region Five health post but was denied since “there was no vacancy.”

However, Rooplall says that while he was on leave, John “assumed the position of Assistant Pharmacist of Buxton Health Centre through the encouragement of the Regional Health Officer,” after the substantive Pharmacist had been

dismissed for negligence in performing his duties.

Ms. John will be paid but she will possibly have to return to her old job in Region Five. The office there is authorized to handle her payment” Rooplall said that a suitable alternative arrangement will be made to cover the opening at the Buxton Health Centre.

“At the interim, the responsibility will have be shared with another pharmacist from a nearby health facility.”

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Thursday April 18, 2013

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Bodies dumped at Le Repentir Cemetery

The bodies dumped at the cemetery For the past two weeks, there was a foul stench emanating from Le Repentir Cemetery and upon checking, it was discovered that the scent was coming from two decomposed bodies that were dumped there by the Lyken Funeral Home.

The bodies were placed in two separate boxes. Workers at the Cemetery said that the first one was dumped there about two weeks ago while

the second was taken there on Sunday last.

On one of the boxes, there was “McKenzie” written on it while the other had nothing.

When Kaieteur News visited the Cemetery yesterday, it was observed that only bones remained in one of the boxes while worms covered the other body.

“We are working there and it is smelling terrible,”

one worker said.

Gordon Lyken, Managing Director of Lyken Funeral Home when contacted said that whenever families of the dead don’t identify them, then it’s customary for them (the funeral home) to leave the bodies at the cemetery until the police are ready to bury them (bodies).

When asked as to how long the bodies will be there for, Lyken said he has no idea.

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Enterprise Primary School needs urgent involvement of relevant authorities - PTA The Parent Teacher Association, P.T.A of the Enterprise Primary School is requesting the intervention of the authorities at the Ministry of Education as they list the ongoing problems at the institution.

Heading the P.T.A is Neirpaul Purai.

Purai is of the view that the various issues facing the school have been ignored by the authorities over the years.

“We raised the issues with the Regional Education Officer but to date nothing has been done about the insanitary condition of washroom, the lack of furniture, the unsafe electrical wiring and the lack of electricity at the school that contributes to the stealing at nights.”

According to Purai, those at the District level seem unconcerned with general maintenance of the school.”

“I’ve had many meetings with officials at the Ministry of Education to address these problems but we have received no aid from them, Right now the toilets are in a terrible condition; the school

needs repairs, there are windows missing and many times no furniture for teachers and students.”

The school accommodates approximately 874 students, at both primary and secondary level.

However, Purai says that the Secondary School quarters is currently without electricity.

“It has been without electricity since its construction and we have appealing to the REO to get the problem sorted out.”

This issue coupled with the absence of security officers at night, Purai said, has contributed to the constant breakage of the school.

“We can only afford to pay one security guard that looks over the school during the day but in the night; there no security for the building.

Recently two persons were robbed in broad daylight in the school yard and just a few

nights ago, bandits broke into the building and stole a quantity of school supplies, this problem is unbearable.”

There is also a problem with the punctuality and attendance of the teachers, Purai said.

“In a school that has at least 34 teachers sometimes nine are missing at a time and we can’t go on like this because the children are suffering. When they are not late, they are absent.”

Te a c h e r s h a v e b e e n requesting and collecting money from parents without the notification and approval of the PTA. This, Purai said, shows blatant disrespect for the P TA a s a legitimate organisation within the school system.

Purai says that as a concerned parent, he is calling for the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Education.

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Kaieteur News

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Thursday April 18, 2013

21:30hrs - Focus on GRA 22:00hrs - English Movie: Apocalpse 23:00hrs - News update 22:30hrs - English Movie: Apocalpse continues Sign off NTN CHANNEL 18/ CABLE 69 0500h - Sign on with the Mahamrtunjaya Mantra 0510h - Meditation 0530h - Queenstown Masjid Presents Quran This Morning 0600h - R. Gossai General Store Presents Krishna Bhajans 0615h - Jettoo’s Lumber Yard Presents Krishna Bhajans 0630h - Muneshwar Limited Presents Krishna Bhajans 0645h - Double Standard Taxi Presents Krishna Bhajans 0700h - RRT Enterprise

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by CIOG 2100h -Indian Soap - Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke 2200h - Indian Soap - Rab Se Sohna Isshq 2230h - Indian Soap - Pavitra Rishta 2300h - Indian Soap Badalte Rishton Ki Dastaan 2330h - Sign Off

Guides are subjected to change without notice

Thursday April 18, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19): The excitement begins to smooth out today, but this isn’t a permanent shift of energy. Although calmer sailing may be part of your immediate forecast, the fiery Leo Moon still energizes you because she harmonizes with assertive Aries.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20): You wish you could reveal your innermost desires today as Venus in your sensual sign aligns with idealistic Neptune.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20): It’s not your thoughts that matter the most today ... but what’s in your heart.

Nevertheless, you still might need to hear those magical words of acknowledgment from someone special.

CANCER (June 21–July 22): You continue to be highly motivated in your career and are driven to figure out your life purpose. You’re easier to get along with if you are in touch with your imagination today because it’s an important source of your happiness.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22): You may be pleasantly surprised by how a close friend or partner responds when you express your feelings now. This isn’t about accommodating others by saying what you think they want to hear; just share e x a c t l y w h a t ’s i n y o u r heart.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21): You may focus your intense feelings on a single person or one particular situation if you obsess about a specific goal. into your future.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21): By midday you’re ready to trot, even if you’re still stuck in the starting gate. You may try to make the most of your precious time, but you really don’t want to wait much longer.

CAPRICORN(Dec.22–Jan.19): You can overcome your sense of self-limitation by ignoring the facts for a while today, especially since your current resistance stems from childhood fears.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22): You may not understand what others are trying to tell you today. And, if they are judging you harshly, you probably won’t even hear a word they say.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18): It’s difficult to contain your enthusiasm these days since it feels like anything is possible. In fact, you’re so excitable now that it’s nearly impossible to focus on the work in front of you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22): Someone might be working against you, but it’s difficult to get to the source of the apparent negativity.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20): It’s tricky to find the right starting point today ... making your day somewhat complicated to manage.

Thursday April 18, 2013

GFF Super League...

Defending champions Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United have continued to cement their position atop the standings and seems headed for another successful defence of their title when the Guyana Football Federation Super League competition continued last weekend around Guyana.

Like Alpha, there were wins for Den Amstel Porknockers, Uitvlugt Warriors and BK Int. Western Tigers.

The lone draw of the latest second round matches was recorded in the clash between Pele and BV Triumph United which ended 1-1.

Alpha took care of home

Kaieteur News

Alpha, Den Amstel, Uitvlugt & Western Tigers in winners’ row

team Rosignol United 2-0 at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground. Den Amstel Porknockers edged host Milerock 2-1 at the Wisburg Ground in the Bauxite Mining Town of Linden.

It was a unfruitful afternoon for the home teams as Amelia’s Ward Panthers also lost to Uitvlugt Warriors 4-2. BK Int. Western Tigers needled Buxton United Sports Club in the feature

game at the GFC Ground, the first was the drawn affair.

Five more matches will be contested this Sunday as second round play continues.

BV Triumph United will be at home to Alpha United from 16:00hrs in the lone fixture at that venue.

Another double header is fixed for the Wisburg Ground in Linden, Amelia’s Ward will take on Western Tigers in opening play from 14:00hrs with the main event between Milerock and Uitvlugt Warriors.

At Blairmont, West Coast Berbice, Rosignol United will entertain Buxton United from 16:00hrs, while the lone game at the GFC Ground brings together Pele and Den Amstel Porknockers from 17:00hrs.

Linden Secondary Schools Under-19 Basketball c/ship

Campbell’s 44 points helps Wisburg to blow out New Silvercity Linden Foundation beat Mackenzie High Aubrey Campbell dunked his way to an impressive 44 points as he quarterbacked Wisburg Secondary to perhaps their first ever win ever when they blew away New Silvercity Secondary by 50 points, winning 80-30 on the second day of the Linden Secondary Schools Under-19 Basketball Championship which continued at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court.

It was the second day running where an individual score would have been recorded for what may be a scoring record in this dominant win by Wisburg, as Akeem Powers gave adequate support, scoring 19 points and Taquille Saunders 17 for the winning Wisburg side who were leading at half time 42-12.

Andie Carr with 12 points was the best player for New

Silvercity Secondary, while teammate Wayne Wilson added seven in that loss.

In the other game on Tuesday four time champions Mackenzie High School lost their opening game as they were beaten by Linden Foundation Secondary 24-14 following a 16-6 half time score in favour of the winners.

Mackenzie High had climbed back into contention as they trailed 16-14 at one stage in the second half, but they lost their way and were soundly beaten by a 10 point margin in the end.

The tournament, which is organized this year by the Linden Amateur Basketball Association, will continue this afternoon as Mackenzie High play Wisburg in the first game at 2:30pm and the second at 4:00pm is between Linden Foundation Secondary and Linden Technical Institute.

Tomorrow the tournament will continue when Christianburg/ Wismar Secondary take on Wisburg and that game will be followed by the New Silvercity Secondary versus Mackenzie High match.

Page 33

Punwa wins GDA tourney in Berbice

Top performers and Draughts officials take a photo op at the conclusion of the tournament.

Vinay Punwa of Tagore Memorial High amassed 33 points to win the Guyana Draughts Association (GDA) tournament which was contested last Saturday at the Corentyne Comprehensive High School in Berbice.

Minroy Punwa and Abdusalam Hussain from the said school were tied in second place with 22 points each, but a tie-breaker saw Punwa taking second spot and Hussain third.

A release from the Guyana Draughts Association stated that a request was made late last year from schools in the Corentyne for the GDA to visit them and explore their skills in the game which was fulfilled last Saturday. President of the GDA Mr. Jairam told the participants that as soon as they can attain a high level on the 8X8 board, he would introduce them to the international Draughts

played on the 10 X 10 board. “When you can master this format only then you would be involved in the Guyana\ Suriname exchange programme. This is a mind game between two persons, the game can be fun at an amateur or professional level, this would depend on the individual,” added Jairam. Mr. Jairam said he would try to involve the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sports to have an annual Inter-School Draughts competition in the area.

The competition was played on a round robin basis; trophies donated by the National Sports Commission were presented to the top finishers, while Jairam presented a prize to the winning school teacher. The competition was coordinated by Vishal Narine.

Schools that are interested in Draughts can contact with the Association on 614-6671.

Page 34

Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

RAJASTHAN THRASH MUMBAI TO GO TOP Ajinkya Rahane anchored the innings with an unbeaten 68 © BCCI

ESPNcricinfo - This match was billed as a clash of the legends, with three of cricket’s greatest run-getters - Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar featuring, and there was the added draw of Sreesanth and

Harbhajan Singh facing off days after Sreesanth’s barrage of tweets re-opened the Slapgate controversy from the first season of the IPL. To dash the dreams of the marketing men, the three legends played 12 deliveries

in all, and Sreesanth was rested from the game as Rajasthan Royals wanted to ensure they didn’t overwork him soon after a long lay-off.

Still, the fans at the Sawai Man Singh stadium were treated to one of the joys of the IPL, watching journeymen cricketers take their chance in the limelight as Royals brushed away their underdog tag to go top of the table after demolishing the high-profile Mumbai Indians. Dishant Yagnik made the most of being promoted to No. 3 to ensure the momentum wasn’t lost after Shane Watson’s high-octane start, the unheralded offspinner Ajit Chandila can tell his grandkids he’s the first bowler to have dismissed both Tendulkar and Ponting in the same match, and the underrated Siddharth Trivedi virtually ended the chase by getting the dangerous Rohit Sharma in a wicket maiden.

This was a night on which almost everything went right for Royals. Their Twenty20 superstar Watson took apart Mumbai’s main threat, Lasith Malinga, to lead Royals to 58 after six overs. The trouble for

Royals has been that they have struggled to kick on once Watson departs - this time in the eight over - but Dravid decided to demote himself and gave Yagnik a go.

Yagnik had shown in the limited chances he has got that he is not short on confidence, and loves to try unorthodox strokes. He began with a streaky four past the keeper, but then became far more assured as he thrashed Kieron Pollard over midwicket for six, and drilled several boundaries to point before falling for a 24-ball 34 while attempting a reversesweep.

Ajinkya Rahane was at the other end when Watson

and Yagnik were going ballistic, and though he too played some big hits in the Powerplay, he couldn’t find the boundary easily after that.

He wisely decided to turn the strike over to the powerhitters, anchoring the innings with his typically orthodox strokes. He hit three fours in the final over after an extended dry spell in the second half of the innings, but the real acceleration came from Twenty20 expert Brad Hodge, who slammed a 15-ball 27.

Mumbai had to chase 180 to win, and against the innocuous Chandila and leftarm spinner Ankeet Chavan, they lost Tendulkar and

Ponting cheaply. Tendulkar top-edged a sweep and Ponting lobbed back a return catch, and when Trivedi had Rohit holing out to midwicket in the seventh over, Mumbai were virtually out of it. Pollard was promoted but he was done in by an inswinger from Stuart Binny in the eighth over, after which Mumbai were only looking to limit the margin of defeat.

They didn’t do too well on that front either, slumping to their biggest loss in terms of runs.

Scores: Rajasthan Royals 179 (Rahane 68*, Yagnik 34) beat Mumbai Indians 92 (Karthik 30, Faulkner 3-16) by 87 runs.

::: Letters to the Sports Editor :::

Surprised at the William Blackman article DEAR EDITOR, It was with great surprise that I read in last Sunday’s edition of the Kaieteur News, an article involving a particular individual namely, Mr. William Blackman, airing his personal views of that of the Judo Association of Guyana, and I am most appalled by the fact that the reporter of the article did not engage any Judo club nor the Judo Association for information on these matters.

Please allow me to explain now to you and the public what has transpired in the Judo Association of Guyana over the last few months: in late 2012 both of the two known active Judo clubs in Guyana (whose membership add up to roughly 29 and 26

respectively) decided that they will no longer recognise the then executive of JAG due to malpractices and general bad all around management of Judo in Guyana, this action then lead to the GOA getting involved, the GOA then helped to facilitate a few general meetings to help decide the best way forward for Judo in Guyana, after attending to some of the key problems within the association via the general meetings.

It was decided that the JAG would hold a general meeting specifically for the purpose of electing a new executive, that meeting came off, having a full quorum and with representation of all of the three financial clubs at the time (March 24th 2013) Mr.

Blackman himself being an observer and a signed witness to the proceedings.

So, Mr. Editor, with a new executive installed and only 3 weeks into its stint, I fail to see what is the use of Mr. Blackman’s rants is he miffed that he was not afforded a place in the new executive? Is he afraid of the fact that he is still indebted to the association? I can’t say personally but I do know that this action has been deemed totally unbecoming of him, a known senior ranking Judoka and I wouldn’t be surprised if JAG institutes some sort of disciplinary action against him.

Bruce Fraser 2nd Dan, Instructor Rising Sun Judo and JiuJitsu club

The Shiv-Naim controversy DEAR EDITOR, In following the perceived battle between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Nain Chan, I am forced to admit that the media war is now taking over sports, having already entrenched itself in politics and personality. For now, it seems that it is Shiv and another section of the media versus Naim and Kaieteur News.

Dear Editor, when an Annalisa Ally refers to a ‘rather despicable letter published recently in where else but the Kaieteur News,’ I want to know where else can a Shiv letter be published but in the other media house, for sure.

The gist so far is that Shiv did not accuse Naim, but his letter led to an opinion. Naim rebutted, clearing his name, but also exposed a few things about Shiv, which he, Shiv must now clear up. I assume that we would take each man’s word.

As for the embarrassing exposure (from Naim) that Shiv did not want a composite with Colin Croft, I think that Shiv was out of place.

Annalisa must learn her cricket. Colin Croft is considered a great West Indian fast bowler, and definitely Guyana’s greatest.

Tony Becca and Cricinfo have him in their top ten. And Geoff Boycott explained that at his peak, he was never comfortable against Colin. As for the Annalisa’s reference to Colin Croft’s visits to South Africa, Alvin Kallicharran went on both tours too (1982/83 and 1983/84). Also, just like the betrayal by Alvin Kallicharran in 1978 with the Packer controversy, Shiv emulated with the 2005 series against South Africa, taking captaincy and letting down on the fight for players’ right. He later wanted these same buddies to canvas for him.

Where Croft is concerned too, he can speak for himself at any given forum. Maybe it is time that this icon, this great Chanderpaul, calls a press conference and explains what is really obtaining.

Cricket fan, Rafeek Kandasammy.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 35

GCB/Limacol Cup… DF&GIC U-19 Inter Demerara and Berbice take first innings points Zone starts today The Berbice Cricket Board Under-19 Inter Zone tournament sponsored by the Diamond Fire & General Insurance Company (DFGIC) I set to bowl off today at two venues in Berbice. The matches will conclude tomorrow with the first innings for all teams restricted to 65 overs.

West Berbice and New Amsterdam/Canje would clash at the Bush Lot Ground, West Coast, Berbice while Lower and Upper Corentyne battles at the No. 69 Ground.

All matches starts at 09.30hrs and concludes at 17:00hrs. The teams would be outfitted with coloured T/ shirts by the sponsor.

Teams: Lower Corentyne - Shawn Pereira (Captain), Gudakesh Motie (Vice Captain) Sharaz Ramcharran, Arif Chan, Balchan Baldeo, Shailendra Shameer, Daniel Lewis, Brandon Persaud, David Latchaya, Nicholas Cameron, Manoj Pooranauth, Askay Homraj, Avinash Wazib, Shivnarine Srikissoon.

West Berbice - Quacy McPherson (Captain), Grisean Grant, Nick

Ramsaroop (Vice Captain) Darius Nedd, Kareem Mentore, Aviskar Sewkarran, Ridwan Ramjohn, Kevin Jawahir, Parmanand Ramdhan, Derick Narine Jnr, Paul Depnarine, Dellon Joseph, Rennison Mitchell and Daniel Harrinarine.

Upper Corentyne Parmanand Narine (Captain), Viendra Gooniah (Vice Captain), Deon Esau, Thameshwar Kumar, Kamesh Sugrim, Mohamed Deochand, Permashwar Chatterpaul, Edeson Williams, Arnold Autar, Davindra Budhoo, Deraj Bramdit, Nicholas Seenarine, Quacy Burnett, Aslam Bakash, Yusuf Nicholson. Alim Haniff (Coach) and Chatterpaul Lionel (Manager).

New Amsterdam/Canje Shimron Hetmyer, Leon Andrews, Clifton Lindie, Edon Schultz, Martin Singh, Shimroy Mc Kenzie, Quesi Mickle, Nial Smith, Romario Shepherd, Daniel Thuesday, Joseph Giddings, Jerome Andrews, Kassim Khan, Suresh Dhanai, Roydon Phil, Karamchand Ramnarine, Gavin Moriah, Jaleel Jaffar and Christophe Bahadur.

DCB calls on Georgetown, East Coast to submit lists for Hand-in-Hand Competition The Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) is calling on the Presidents, Competition Committee Chairpersons of Georgetown and East Coast Associations to submit their list of players for Hand-inHand Second Division 40Over Knockout Competition.

The DCB will be running off the 2013 edition of the competition very shortly. So far West Demerara and East Bank have submitted their list.

Those that are desirous of participating in the competition are required to submit the names of their players on or before Friday April 26, 2013; all lists must have the players’ full name.

The lists can be sent to the Administrator of DCB in care of the GCB Secretariat, Regent Road, Bourda.

The Competitions Committee will issue the playing conditions for this Competition soon.

New administration...

From page 37 enlightening on how the new executive extracts pertinent information from the old regime that has dodged the media despite copious calls for them to be transparent.

The Mexico story must not be laid to rest and nothing less than a comprehensive disclosure should be insisted on by the new Body. It could very well characterize the Matthiasled administration as well as determine whether or not there is a new dispensation as touted by stakeholders.

GSCL launches 12/12...

From page 39 while the man-of-the-Series will receive a 3 piece suite, Black and Decker Oven and one Hamilton Beach juice extractor.

Dilo Enterprise, DC Promotions, Five Star Minerals, El Dorado Trading and Ryan and Reuben Mahadeo (all out of Bartica), Star Party Rentals, Regal Stationery and Computer Supplies, Romain Car Wash, Bank of Baroda, Ravi Sarwan and Trophy Stall are some of the sponsors on board with this tournament.

Part of the action between Berbice and the President’s XI yesterday at Bourda.

Demerara and Berbice took first innings points from Essequibo and the President’s XI respectively, when the first day of their second round matches in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/ Limacol Inter County U-15 Two-Day Competition ended yesterday.

At the Wales Community Centre ground, Essequibo decided to bat after winning the toss and were routed for 66. Mark Williams top scored with 16, while Randy Rooplall made 15 as left arm spinner Ashmead Nedd captured three wickets from 9.4 overs, and Sagar Hathairamani claimed 2-18 from eight overs.

In their turn at the crease, Demerara scored 149/9 to take an 83 run lead. Ronaldo Mohamed continued his fine form in the tournament with a top score of 35.

He got support from Stephan Campbell with 29 and Joel McAlister 22. Bowling for Essequibo, Christopher Latchman, Redell Reddy and Sachin Persaud took two wickets apiece.

Essequibo were wobbling at 45/5 in 24 overs at stumps, batting a second time. Mark Williams was unbeaten on 20.

Timothy McAlmont and Kelvin Shewpersaud finished the day with two wickets each.

At the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, P r e s i d e n t ’s X I s h o w e d strong resilience in their s e c o n d innings after conceding the first to Berbice by 26 runs.

Batting first, President’s XI were given a solid start of 53 by Raymond Perez and Darshan Persaud, but when Perez was run out for 39, the rest of the batting crumbled and the President’s XI were eventually bowled out for 99 in 31.5 overs. Perez faced 55

balls and stroked three fours in his innings, while his opening partner Darshan Persaud made 17. In the bowling department, Joshua Gobin grabbed 3-22 from eight overs and Sylus Tyndall 2-21.

In reply, Berbice reached 125/9 in their allotted 44 overs. Opener Adrian

Suloway slammed an attractive 42 which included four boundaries. Joshua Harrichand 14, Joel Seetaram 12 and Matthew 11 were the other batsmen that reached double figures as Richie Lucknauth, Vickram Talmakund and Asif Ally captured two wickets each.

In their second innings,

the President’s XI were 68-1 in 27 overs when stumps were drawn; they are 32 runs ahead. Perez is not out on 44 which included three fours.

Darshan Persaud was the batsman to be dismissed for 11.

Both matches continue tomorrow at 10:00 hours.

(Zaheer Mohamed)

Page 36

NBS 2nd Div 40 overs...

This year’s edition of the New Building Society (NBS) Second Division 40 over cricket competition continued recently with encouraging individual performances.

Wahmeshwar Sobhai slammed 85 (11x4 3x6), Outram Emandin 76 (4x4 5x6) and Samuel Sanicharra 64 (10x4 1x6) to guide Betsy Ground Triple Star, to an imposing 316 for 9 in their allotted 35 overs against Goed Bananen Land who, not to be undone, gave a good chase but fell short by 36 runs with Sobhai coming back to take 3 for 53 with his off spinners.

After Rainbow Generation of Seafield posted 163 in 30 overs against Achievers, their medium pacer Julian Fraser took 6 for 15 from 6 overs and together with his fellow medium pacer Chris Clarkson’s 3 for 26 from 4 overs, bowled out Achievers for 82 in reply.

Hopetown United did well to bowl out No. 28 Warriors Boss for 124 but when it was

Kaieteur News

Sobhai, Emandin, Sanicharra hit 50s, Fraser grabs 6-15

Samuel Sanicharra

Outram Emandin

their turn, they were undermined by pacer turned off spinner Jeremy Cambridge, who grabbed 5 for 14 from 4 overs to lose by a nerve racking 2 runs.

Chandradath Roopnarine of Fyrish was the other batsman to score a half century in the latest round of matches.

Scores from those matches: At Goed Bananen Land Betsy Ground Triple Star beat Goed Bananen Land by 36 runs. Betsy Ground Triple Star 316 for 9 in 35 overs; Wahmeshwar Sobhai 85, Outram Emandin 76, Samuel

Sanicharra 64 and Imran Hosain 3 for 73.

Goed Bananen Land 280 in 34.1 overs; Imran Herinandom 49, Doodnauth Arjune 47, Anthony Arjune 43, Imran Yussuf 37, Wahmeshwar Sobhai 3 for 53, Outram Emandin 2 for 43 and Avinash Khandai 2 for 45.

At Seafield - Rainbow Generation got past Achievers by 81 runs.

Rainbow Generation 163 in 30 overs; Tyson Carmichael 37, Peter Grant 33 and Grisean Grant 4 for 23. Achievers 82 in 26 overs; Julian Fraser 6 for 15 and Chris Clarkson 3 for 26.

At Hopetown - No. 28 Warriors Boss beat squeezed past Hopetown United by 2 runs. No. 28 Warriors Boss 124 in 29.5 overs; Dwayne Duke 34, Dwayne McKenzie 25, Derick Crandon 3 for 22 and Steffon Adams 2 for 10.

Hopetown United 122 in 23.5 overs; Jeremy Cambridge 5 for 14, Kevin Gilkes 2 for 16 and Dwayne Duke 2 for 20.

At Albion Front - Fyrish thumped Jai Hind by 87 runs.

Fyrish 256 for 7 in 35 overs; Chandradath Roopnarine 69,

DCB Hand-in-Hand 40 Overs 2nd Division Tourney to start shortly The Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) will be running off the 2013 Hand-in-Hand Second Division 40-Over Knockout Competition very shortly.

All area boards, Associations and committees are required to submit their list of registered clubs/teams and players that are desirous of participating in the aforesaid competition on or before Friday April 26, 2013. The Competitions Committee will issue the playing conditions very soon.

Please be advised that all lists must have the players’ full name. Same can be sent to the Administrator of DCB in care of the GCB Secretariat, Regent Road, Bourda.

Yuvindra Chinapen 46, Munilall Shiwdyal 40 not out, Javed Mohamed 30 and Ravi Mangali 4 for 48. Jai Hind 168 in 28 overs; Joshua Ramsammy 49, Veerapen Moonsammy 39, Munilall Shiwdyal 4 for 29, Aishnarine Shrikissoon 2 for 36 and Imran Ally 2 for 20.

At Kortheberaadt Kortheberaadt Seventh Day Adventist humbled Flying Star by 8 wickets. Flying Star 54 in 16 overs; Mark Sampson 3 for 8, Carl Campbell 3 for 20 and Andy Ramkissoon 2 for 5. Kortheberaadt Seventh Day Adventist 55 for 2 in 5 overs.

At Sisters - East Bank defeated Sisters by 43 runs.

East Bank 258 in 34 overs; Gary Solomon 48, Shawn Yadram 38, Erd Yadram 32, Lakeram Balkumar 3 for 43, Gordon Sam 2 for 15 and Collis Sam 2 for 48. Sisters 215 in 35 overs; Leon DeCunha 44, Matthew Maltay 35, Lakeram Balkumar 31, Gary Solomon 2 for 16, Ralph Chakalall 2 for 16 and Alvin LaFleur 2 for 33.

At Shieldstown Shieldstown trounced No. 3 by 7 wickets. No. 3 11 for 9 in 30 overs; Andrew Tageram 28, Aftor Gani 3 for 15 and Zulfiqar Bux 2 for 16.

Shieldstown 114 for 3 in 16.5 overs; Heeralall Bridgelall 48 and Dharamdeo Misir 2 for 23.

At No. 70 - No. 70 Young Star beat Springlands by 2 wickets. Springlands 73 in 29.3 overs; Thameshwar Ramoutar 2 for 1 and Omesh Kumar 2 for 10. No. 70 Young Star 75 for 8 in 15.1 overs; Teekaram Narine 3 for 9, Errol Byass 2 for 10 and Akram Razack 2 for 14.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Hugh Ross visits Essequibo schools Hugh Ross during his address to the students at Essequibo.

Students attending both the Anna Regina Secondary School and the Johanna Cecilia Secondary on the Essequibo Coast, played host to Mr. Universe Masters champion, Hugh Ross, on Tuesday.

Ross was accompanied by senior representatives of Banks DIH. Ross’s visit to the Schools was aimed at initiating more interest on “Health and fitness” among the youngsters.

Students upon seeing Mr. Ross in person, most for the very first time, screamed in delight as he displayed his abs.

Ross, who is the ‘ambassador for the brand Malta’, a product of Banks DIH, told students that self discipline, consistency and determination are some of the basic personal value of life in which they should adopt in order to emerge into

successful youths. “Nothing good comes easily,” he noted.

The Mr. Universe Masters 2010 also encouraged students not to give up on their dreams, despite of setbacks, he admonished that each hurdle could be overcome once persistence is upheld.

The team from Banks DIH comprised of Muniram Singh, Essequibo Branch Manager and Mr. Clayton McKenzie, Non-Alcoholic Malta Manager, of Banks DIH, Georgetown.

Ross also took the opportunity to take out photographs with students and teachers of both Secondary Schools.

It was the first occasion for both students and teachers of the schools to have been graced with the presence of Guyana’s local celebrity, Mr. Universe Masters, Hugh Ross.

(Yannason Duncan)

Berbice leads points table as second round starts Defending champions, Berbice, leads the points table after Round One of the GCB/ Limacol Inter-County Under15 Two Day competition.

According to the playing condition for this competition, 12 points are awarded for an outright win, six points for the team that wins first innings in a drawn match, three for the team that lost first innings in a drawn match, and four for the team that won first innings but end up losing the match, and three to the team that loses the match but tie on first innings.

In addition to the result of the match, each wicket taken by a fast bowler gives his team .5 bonus points.

Berbice 180 runs victory

over Essequibo gave them a total of 15 points; twelve plus three from fast bowlers, Sylus Tyndall (five) and Rameshwar Somwaru (one).

Demerara gained six points for taking first innings points from the GCB President XI; Kelvin Shewpersaud (four wickets) and Colin Barlow (two wickets) added three bonus points to take the tally to nine points. President XI totaled 3.5 points; Skipper Vickram Talmakund was the lone fast bowler to take a wicket.

Essequibo registered three points which are bonus points from their captain and fast bowler Christopher Latchman who took a total of six wickets in the match.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 37

‘Screw’ Richmond Memorial Schools Football Competition

Matthias and Persaud for CFU Christianburg –Wismar & CONCACAF Congresses

cruise past Harmony 4-1 - Linden Foundation suspended for one year Tournament organisers, on Monday, withdrew Linden Foundation Secondary School from further participation in this year’s Edward ‘Screw’ Richmond Memorial Schools Football Competition due to the nonattendance of the senior team to scheduled matches a trend the Organisers claimed has dated back to March 22, 2012. The school now sees itself out of active participation in the tournament for at least one year.

Meanwhile, the lone game of the day saw Christianburg-Wismar Secondary draw closer to a fifth consecutive semifinal berth with an emphatic 4-1 win over one- time champions

Harmony Secondary School. Here are the results: Game 1 Harmony Secondary School 1 – 4 Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School Scorers Marmarlaque Davidson (C.W.S.S.) – 9th Min., 60th Min. Yonnick Simon (C.W.S.S.) – 21st Min. Jashawn Moore (C.W.S.S.) – 25th Min. Julian Fortune (H.S.S.) – 54th Min. With most teams playing half of their allotted games, the points standing are as follows:

Kurd Johnson of Harmony Secondary School heads all scorers with 7 goals, in the race for the Fantasia Comfort Zone Taxi Service ‘Most Goals’ award. Also in the hunt are Marmarlaque Davidson (C.W.S.S) on 4 goals and Kristoff Stanton (N.S.S.S) on 3.

Play in this year’s tournament continues

tomorrow with two matches, at the Wisburg School Ground. In the opening game, Linden Technical Institute face Marcia Craig’s Educational Institute, while Mackenzie High School battle unbeaten New Silvercity Secondary.

Starting time is 14:30 hrs.

New administration must pressure former regime to disclose Mexico proceeds

By Rawle Welch The year 2013 will be remembered as the time this country’s football experienced a change in fortune that not even the most optimistic of individuals could have envisaged and full credit must go to, first, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) and, second, the FIFA / CONCACAF team that came and granted a stay of execution to the aggrieved members that created much disquiet within the local governing body.

It was the GFA that displayed the fortitude to challenge the GFF’s legitimacy to withhold its voting rights by taking the governing body to Court that eventually brought about a visit from FIFA / CONCACAF. The decisions to not penalise any member, the staging of a free and fair election of office bearers of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) largest affiliate the GFA and to hold its own Electoral Congress, pointed to the beginning of a new dispensation which was evidently manifested on Friday, April 12 when the

fraternity was able to wrestle free from the hegemonic rule that had released a gigantic silhouette over the sport for over two decades.

That night in the Savannah Suite of the Pegasus Hotel, after some amount of anxiety during the voting process, all those connected with the sport jumped with euphoria and was able to embrace in public the newly elected President Christopher Matthias without the fear of reprisal or neglect.

The cash for votes scandal that prompted the retirement of Jack Warner and suspension of Colin Klass in addition to the visit of the high ranking team, severely weakened the previously impregnable administrative backline of the GFF. The new President now has the unenviable task of restructuring a Federation whose ingrained policies hindered development, while the task to lighten the monstrous debt left by the past administration must be a preoccupation of him and his team.

Matthias as he has shown in the past seems receptive to consensus positions as

demonstrated by his nomination to vie for the Presidency.

However, in his attempt to be inclusive, he must guard against those who might be bent on undermining the work of the new executive, while he must also act fearlessly to rid the Federation of remnants of the old establishment that governed by instilling fear into those who opposed its policies.

It is also imperative that he initiate a full probe into the Mexico fiasco and the GOAL Project and this investigation must be guided by FIFA and CONCACAF. A full examination of the accounts by a reputable firm must be undertaken to ascertain whether there was financial misconduct and if any the extent of such indiscretion.

Matthias’ presence at tomorrow’s CONCACAF / CFU Ordinary Congresses is deemed crucial to his stewardship since he has promised to seek guidance on the way forward from the respective Bodies.

His responses on return could prove to be (Continued on page 35)

New President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Christopher Matthias, along with Vice President Ivan Persaud, will represent Guyana at the XXXVI CFU Ordinary Congress to be held today, April 18, at Palacio Bolivar in the Cancillería General de la República in Panama City, Panama.

The two officials will also represent Guyana at the XXVIII CONCACAF Ordinary Congress set for Friday (tomorrow) also in Panama City.

Apart from the CFU Congress today, Matthias and Persaud will join their other colleagues to attend a Sports Integrity – Match F i x i n g Wo r k s h o p a n d attend the CONCACAF Hall of Fame Ceremony where four notable contributors to the sport will be inducted into its Hall of Fame later in the evening.

Ariel Alvarado (Panama), Jesus Martinez (Mexico), Lincoln Sutherland (Jamaica) and Joseph Ursulet (Martinique), representing each of CONCACAF’s three

Christopher Matthias

Ivan Persaud

geographic regions, will join 29 previous inductees in the esteemed body.

“It is imperative that we celebrate the achievements of those who give of themselves selflessly and tirelessly to provide opportunity for millions to participate in and enjoy our great sport,” said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb. “I congratulate and thank Ariel, Jesus, Lincoln and Joseph for everything they have done, and continue to do, in football.”

The CONCACAF Hall of Fame honours those who have played significant roles

in developing and advancing the sport in the confederation.

Matthias will also meet with the FIFA Development Officer with responsibility for this Region, Jamaican Howard McIntosh to discuss the continuation and completion of Phase One of Guyana’s GOAL Project.

Guyana recently benefitted from an additional US$500,000 under the FIFA Less Privileged Countries Initiative.

During Matthias’ absence, Vice President Raulston Adams will be President (ag).

Page 38

Kaieteur News

Inter Secondary School U-13 football starts in Berbice After two days of play in the fourth edition of the Trinidad and Guyana Sports Club and Outreach Programme (TGSCOP) U-13 Inter Secondary School Football Competition, which began on Monday for school in the NA/ Canje district, disqualification, walkover and upsets have featured on the days played so far.

The competition which is being held at the All Saints Scott Church ground in New Amsterdam and staged in collaboration with the Hearts Of Oak Masters Football Club, has eight school participating.

In play on Monday, the competition begun with a shocker when defending champions Vryman’s Erven Secondary School (VESS) had their game taken away after winning the opening game against School of the Nations (SON) 2-0. It was later learnt that they played overage players.

Another shocker was the no show of the once consistent Tutorial Academy

Secondary School (TASS) for their match against Overwinning Secondary (OSS) who were eventually given the walkover.

Canje Secondary School (CSS) then took the opportunity to continue the unusual trend by upsetting powerhouse Berbice High School with a 4-0 drubbing.

Dwayne Austin was the man responsible for the CSS good showing by blasting in a hat-trick, while Teon George hit home one.

The final encounter of the four games card saw Berbice Educational Institute (BEI) scoring early off the boot of Troy Monroe to hold off a spirited New Amsterdam Multilateral School (NAMS) to gain a 1-0 victory in a close encounter.

Play on Tuesday saw NAMS swamping BHS 5-0 with Chad Henry and Joshua Hinds banging home two, while Ronaldo Cassiano netted 1.

In the second game, VESS, given a life line in the

Part of the action between BEI and NAMS competition, registered a 1-0 victory over OSS with Toshawn Morris being the man on target.

TASS who were for some strange reason absent on the first day showed up to blank SON 2-0 with their goals coming off the boot of Laurence Reid and Joshua Butts.

Canje Secondary (CSS) continued their good form in the competition with a 2-0 win over BEI. Scoring for CSS

were Dwayne Alien and Drevaun Pyle.

Play continued yesterday with the final rounds of first round matches. The final and third place play off are set for tomorrow.

This is the fourth year of the competition which is being coordinated by former national player Neil ‘Grizzly’ Humphrey, assisted by Nigel ‘Busit’ Felix, Kenrick Bowry and Randy ‘Blades’ Sears.

(Samuel Whyte)

Thursday April 18, 2013

NAMILCO/Bakewell T20 Champion of Champions Tourney delayed RHTY&SC issues release citing admin tug-o-war The administrative battle among local cricket Administrators continues seemingly with no near end in sight. The egotistic battle is threatening to affect the inaugural NAMILCO/ Bakewell Twenty20 Champion of Champions tournament in the Ancient County of Berbice.

Following is statement issued by the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, the organizers of the tournament: “The Management of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) would like to inform the general cricketing public that the start of the NAMILCO/ Bakewell 20/20 tournament has been delayed and as such it would not be starting on Sunday 21st, April 2013 as was announced.

The Club has been caught in the middle of the tug-of-war that has become the norm in Guyana’s cricket where personal power, personality clashes and settlement of scores are more important than the development and

playing of cricket.

The RHTY&SC has sought the permission of the Guyana Cricket Board to host the tournament but it has not been granted on the basis of some legal matters between the GCB and the Berbice Cricket Board.

The RHTY&SC is therefore appealing to the WICB and is hopeful of a positive response.

This situation can only be described as sickening as cricket is being destroyed on grounds totally unrelated to the game. The RHTY&SC has informed the official sponsors of the tournament and they have been very understanding and we thank them for their cooperation.

The RHTY&SC would inform the general public of the new date for the start of the tournament as soon as permission is granted. We would remain committed to its motto: “In Pursuit of Excellence” and would always place the development of youths, sports and education at the top of its agenda”.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 39

GSCL launches 12/12 tournament Opening ceremony set for Everest this Saturday This weekend, the Camp Road based Everest Cricket Club will be buzzing with activity, when the Georgetown Softball Cricket League (GSCL) in collaboration with their budding list of sponsors, host their inaugural 12/12 cricket tournament from 09:30hrs.

This tournament was yesterday afternoon launched at the Guyana National Industrial Corporation Sports Club, where GSCL President Seewchan and president of its parent body the Guyana Softball League (GSL) Halim Khan expressed pleasure at having the tournament played.

“It is indeed an honour for us to be launching this tournament for the first time, after having it in the pipelines for over two years but could not make it materialize, due to the numerous tournaments that were being played and sanctioned by the GSL,” said Seewchan.

The GSCL president said it was the initiative of the captains, players and fans,

which prompted the GSCL to organize the tournament and with the kind compliments of their list of sponsors, it is being made a reality.

“The GSCL with the support and blessings of the GSL intend to make this tournament an international one soon and weather permitting, we are hoping to complete this tournament within the stipulated time frame, using daylight, with the GSCL supplying all teams with t-shirts,” stated Seewchan.

In his brief remarks, Khan applauded the GSCL for organizing and commencing the tournament in such a professional manner, adding that the 12 teams who are competing should be branded “Super 12” for future tournaments.

“You should name the 12 teams in this tournament “Super 12” for future tournaments, since they will be doing battle to decide who is the best in such a tournament that promises to be an exciting one,” added Khan.

He called on the players

to respect the decision of the umpires at all times, since the GSL do not wish to see any unnecessary protests being filed, especially if the player in question is wrong, adding that no player would be allowed to play for another team, after their original team has been eliminated.

Meanwhile, the 12 competing teams were placed in a four groups of three, from which the draw for Saturday and Sunday’s matches along with the semifinals was held.

Group A consists of Memorex, Herstelling and Smith XI, Group B is made up of Speed Boat, Recharge and Farm XI, Trophy Stall, Hill Foot Vipers and Universal DVD Titans comprise Group C, with Cotton Field Wild Oats, Bartica Challengers and Regal XI competing out of Group D. For Saturday’s matches which follows the opening ceremony for which Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony is expected to deliver the opening remarks, Speed Boat will oppose Recharge, with

Kwakwani Sports Club for city visit and tourneys this weekend Kwakwani Sports Club under the leadership of Aubrey Gobin will be hosted by the National Sports Commission this weekend, Saturday 20 and Sunday 21, April, 2013. A sixty man contingent from the mining town will play against teams from the National Sports Commission in Football, Volleyball, Dominoes and Cricket (male hardball and female softball).

The teams from Kwakwani will arrive in Georgetown on Saturday at around 08:00hrs.

The Director of Sport, Mr. Neil Kumar will address the Opening Ceremony after which the first set of activities (Volleyball, Dominoes and Football) will commence from 10:00hrs.

On Sunday, the activities will switch to the Lusignan Community Centre Ground where a T/20 Cricket Match (male) and a 10/10 Match (female) will be contested.

The visiting contingent will leave for Kwakwani on Sunday afternoon.

This visit is the result of a request by Mr. Gobin to the Director of Sport who immediately accepted and encouraged the National Sports Commission to make the arrangements.

The aim of the activity is to encourage and support teams from outside of Georgetown to visit and play against opponents at a higher level and play at better facilities.

The Kwakwani teams comprise of:-

The National Sports Commission teams will comprise of:-

Congratulations to you sir! President of the Guyana Softball league Halim Khan (2nd left) gives the confirmation handshake to president of the Georgetown Softball Cricket League Seewchan in the presence from left Samuel Kingston, Ian John and Rafman Ally.

Farm XI playing the winner and loser of that contest in that order in a group B fixture.

Teams competing out of group D will complete the day’s action which will have Universal DVD Titans taking on Regal XI in the first encounter, with Hillfoot Vipers taking on the loser of the opening match followed by a

contest against the winner.

For Sunday’s action, Memorex playing out of Group A, will oppose Herstelling in the opening encounter, with Smith XI taking on the loser of the first encounter, before they tackle the winner, while in group D, Bartica Challengers will oppose Regal XI in the first

match, with Cotton Field Wild Oats taking on the winner and loser respectively.

At stake in the competition is $600,000 and a trophy for the winner, the loser will receive $200,000 and a trophy, the best batsman and bowler $5,000 and a trophy each, (Continued on page 35)

Page 40

Carib Beer T20 Cup Final...

A well crafted and determined unbeaten 49 from former national Under-19 opening batsman, Kandasammy Surujnarine, led Albion Community Centre to a tense six wicket victory over arch rivals Rose Hall Town Gizmos & Gadgets with five balls remaining in the final of the 2012 Carib Beer Twenty20 cricket tournament, organised by the Berbice Cricket Board.

Surujnarine shared in three crucial partnerships with Sewnarine Chattergoon, Jonathan Foo and skipper Veerasammy Permaul to steer his team home.

Watched by a large and colourful crowd at the Albion Community Centre ground, Rose Hall Town Gizmos & Gadgets rattled up 134 for 6 off their 20 overs; West Indies Test player Assad Fudadin top scoring with an attractive 54 off 45 balls (4x4 2x6).

He {Fudadin}and former national Under-19 opening batsman Dominique Rikhi added 62 for the first wicket before Rikhi was caught off Gudakesh Motie for 37 off 32

Kaieteur News

Thursday April 18, 2013

ALBION TROUNCE RHT GIZMOS & GADGETS TO WIN TITLE; BERMINE IS 3RD balls (6x4 1x6). Skipper Delbert Hicks supported with an unbeaten 20 and Renwick Batson 10. Bowling for Albion, Veerasammy Permaul took 2 for 20 and Devendra Bishoo 2 for 25.

In response, Albion Community Centre raced to 33 without loss in 3.2 overs before former Test player Sewnarine Chattergoon was caught by Ravi Narine off pacer Clinton Pestano for an attacking 30 (4x4 1x6).

Fellow Test player Narsingh Deonarine was then caught behind by Jason Sinclair for a duck off Pestano, Albion were 38 for 2. Surujnarine and the hard hitting Foo then added 37 for the 3rd wicket before Foo was caught by Fudadin off offspinner Shailendra Shameer for 20 at 73 for3 in the 11th over.

The lucky Surujnarine, who was dropped by Fudadin with his score on 12, then joined forces with Permaul to add 56 for the 4th wicket before Permaul was run out for 27 at 129 for 4 in the 19th over.

Albion Community Centre Cricket Team winner of Carib Beer 20/20 Cup Devendra Bishoo 3* then carried Albion home with Surujnarine, who was later named man-of-the-final.

Pestano ended with 2 for 31 from his 4 overs.

Earlier in the day, Bermine crushed West Berbice by 9 wickets to take the third place.

West Berbice were restricted to 95 for 8 off their 20 overs;

Steffon Adams top scored with 30 and Brendon Bess 16.

Bowling for Bermine, Romario Shepherd claimed 2 for 7 from 4 overs.

Bermine in reply raced to 98 for 1 in 12 overs, Shepherd returned with the bat to blast an unbeaten 54 (5x4 2x6) and received support from Joemal La Fleur 16 and Trinson

Bynoe 14 not out.

BCB First Vice President Anil Beharry said the tournament turned out to be a resounding success, while expressing appreciation for the high standard of play witnessed in the finals.

President Keith Foster expressed gratitude to the Management of Ansa Mc Al

for their investment in Berbice cricket, expressing the hope that the tournament would continue in the future.

Representative of Ansa Mc Al thanked the BCB for its organising skills and the promotion of the tournament.

The winning team received $60,000 and runner up $30,000.

Thursday April 18, 2013

Kaieteur News

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t r o Sp

DDL renews partnership D with amateur boxing

emerara Distillers Limited (DDL) has once again thrown its support behind the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) ahead of three countrywide Under-16 boxing competitions, which are scheduled for later this year.

During a simple ceremony at DSL Cash and Carry at Ruimveldt yesterday morning, Marketing Executive Larry Wills handed over a cheque for an unrevealed amount to President of the GBA, Steve Ninvalle.

Also present was Technical Director of the association, Terrence Poole.

The first event will be held on June 29 and 30 in Georgetown, followed by Berbice on August 15 and 16 and lastly at a venue in Bartica, Linden or West Demerara on December 21 and 22 . According to President Ninvalle, the GBA is happy to once again welcome DDL, through its Pepsi and Gatorade brands, after forming a coalition last year.

Ninvalle, who is also the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Sport Ministry, said the fact that DDL has renewed its sponsorship is a clear indication of the company’s commitment towards the expansion of boxing. Speaking on behalf of DDL, Wills said the move to continue supporting amateur boxing was a simple one since the company was satisfied with what transpired at the Under-16 competitions in 2012. He added that the entity is pleased to aid in the promotion of young talents, as it is a firm supporter of youth development.

As part of its sponsorship package, DDL will supply Gatorade and Pepsi to rehydrate the boxers, while also providing branded outfits to the young pugilists.

Poole informed that each event is likely to attract approximately 60 boxers with participation expected from the Forgotten Youth Foundation gym, Harpy Eagle, Guyana Defence Force, Caryll’s gym, Rose Hall Jammers, Essequibo gym, Pocket Rocket gym and Young Achievers. th

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GBA president Steve Ninvalle (left) receives the sponsorship cheque from DDL’s Marketing Executive, Larry Wills, in the presence of Technical Director of the GBA, Terrence Poole.

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