Kaieteur News

Thursday Edition

Online readership yesterday 98,804

Price $80 February 14, 2013 - Vol. 6 No. 07 (VAT Inclusive) Online: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com

Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

Brassington dodges questions on Marriott tender process …political parties, trade unions, and youth groups to protest today Pensioner rescued from burning Alberttown home - four homeless

Driver plunges ambulance overboard with nurse

Marriott 'atrocity' must be stopped- GTUC

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Kaieteur News

Thursday February 14, 2013

Marriott ‘atrocity’ must be stopped - GTUC The construction of the Marriott hotel without any Guyanese workers is an “atrocity” that must be stopped, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) declared yesterday.

The GTUC said that the Marriott construction contract violates the constitution which guarantees Guyanese the right to work. As such, the GTUC is putting together a team of lawyers to correct what it sees as a breach of the constitution. .

“The constitution says you have a right to work; you can’t go and sign an agreement and say you are giving away my right to work in this country to somebody else,” the GTUC stated yesterday.

The GTUC intends to write to the Prime Minister and opposition political parties for there to be full disclosure of the details behind the Marriott project in the National Assembly. It also wants the National Assembly to note the fact that Article 22 of the Constitution guarantees “the right and the duty to work.”

“We will do everything within the confines of the law to put an end to this atrocity,” Norris Witter, President of the

GTUC said yesterday.

In late 2011, former President Bharrat Jagdeo officially turned the sod for the construction of the hotel with the promise that the project would create hundreds of jobs in the construction phase, and beyond, when it becomes operational.

“The citizens’ rights to work in the country are being violated and as such we need to mobilise,” added Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary of the GTUC. The government over the weekend said that it bargained with the Chinese contractor to lower its construction cost by US$9 million in exchange for freedom to choose its own workers, and so the Chinese workers were brought in.

“The government has lost the moral authority to govern,” the GTUC stated.

“When a government is taking taxpayers money to fund this project and at the same time denying taxpayers the right to be involved and benefit directly from their hard earned money, that is recolonisation,” Lewis charged.

“This abominable act is akin to the tactic of the

Winston Brassington Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Hotel Inc colonial masters who used the colonised (people) for their personal benefits and in the instance of a sovereign nation suggests there may be kickbacks involved,” Lewis declared.

The government also argued that employing a Chinese workforce was a better guarantee for construction at the rate the company would want.

According to the Trade Unions Congress, this is the

same as saying that Guyanese workers are lazy. It also gives the Chinese company the go ahead to employ foreign workers and flout the labour laws of this country.

The government also claimed that Guyanese lacked the required skills for the project. The GTUC said that this claim is misplaced and dishonest since Guyanese are the ones who built the infrastructure of Guyana, including the Guyana Pegasus, the seawall, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, “all of which were considered phenomenal feats at the time of their construction.”

The government’s claim that the language barrier was one of the reasons the Chinese firm hired Chinese workers makes no sense to the Trades Union Congress.

It said that any contract entered into force should have the criterion of language compatibility to cater for the Guyanese workforce, so there should be no excuse for shutting out local labour.

The only money so far being put into the Marriott project has come out of the public coffers - $2 billion of it has already been handed over to the contractors and there is no sign of the investors the government

President of the GTUC Norris Witter talks about.

Private investors are expected to contribute US$27 million, but even the low end of the operations is posing a headache for the government busy trying to prove that the project is feasible. Previously advertisements for investors in the restaurant, casino and nightclub have had no takers and the advertisement was again placed in editions of state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle.

The government has a special arrangement that guarantees the private investors that they would get their money back if the project folds.

The government is participating in the project by way of equity, in the sum of US$4 million. This is being committed through NICIL. The equity contribution determines the government’s strength in Atlantic Hotels Incorporated – the company created to see the project through. As it stands, the government is currently the sole shareholder in the company.

However, apart from the equity contribution, financing for the project would also come from “subordinate loan stocks” of US$15 million invested by NICIL. Adding the US$2 million, NICIL will end up spending in development costs for the project, including design and other preliminary studies altogether, US$21 million.

So, in total, the amount of money the government is pushing into the project is just about what it should cost in Guyana to complete the project, industry experts say.

The need for the additional US$40 million remains a mystery.

DO YOU KNOW THAT JAGDEO’S BEST FRIEND IS THE ONLY PERSON IN GUYANA TO OWN THREE MEDIA HOUSES ...

Radio, Television and Newspaper?

Dr. Bobby Ramroop

1) Channel 28 now TVG 28 2) A radio station - 89.5FM 3) Guyana Times newspaper

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Ambulance driven overboard with nurse The driver of an ambulance attached to the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital yesterday lost control of the vehicle and ended up in the trench at Banks DIH Limited around 14:00 hours.

The ambulance was heading to Georgetown at speed with a nurse as the only occupant when the incident occurred.

The driver whose only name was “Joe” is in police custody at the Ruimveldt Police Station while the nurse, Allison O’Neal, was up to press time yesterday being treated for injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

One man who claimed to have seen what happened said, that it was raining heavily when the ambulance’s driver attempted to overtake another vehicle

on the turn and ended up in the trench.

There are reports that passersby assisted the duo out of the trench.

The driver was immediately taken into police custody while the woman was taken to the hospital.

Health Minister, Bheri Ramsaran, when contacted said that he was informed about the incident and an investigation will be launched.

When asked whether yesterday’s incident would have an impact on transporting patients from the regional hospital to the city, he responded in the negative.

Ambulance drivers at Georgetown Public Hospital would be assisting the regional hospital.

The Minister added that it was very disgusting to hear that the ambulance was travelling at such a speed

The toppled ambulance

even though there were no patients.

It was only last Sunday

that an ambulance heading to the New Amsterdam Hospital struck and killed

a man as he was attempting to cross the road on the Rose Hall, Corentyne

Public Road. The dead man was identified only as “Milo.”

Govt. keeping automatic promotion in schools - Says consultations still underway The government is still holding consultations on the “No child left behind policy” and as such is not ready to abolish the system which sees children being promoted automatically.

According to Education Minister Priya Manickchand, recently, the “non repetition and automatic promotion” policy was introduced because research has shown that having a child repeat a class does not automatically translate into better performance.

Responding to a question posed by Parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon, in the National Assembly, the Minister said that research by the Ministry found that the students at risk of failing, would pass some of their

subjects but fail others.

As such, she said these students require special attention.

Once these students are identified early, remedial work by teachers and parents can start.

She said that having a child repeat a class generally places the burden of underperformance solely on the student and absolves the parents, teachers and school.

According to Manickchand, teachers sometimes do not complete the curriculum for a given term, so that the examination will cover material that was not taught in school. If the child fails in these circumstances, then it is not their fault but that of the system, the Minister stated.

Further, she said research

Minister Priya Manickchand shows that having a child repeat a class is directly linked to dropout rates. Findings in the secondary schools have shown among first repeaters approximately 65 per cent

would drop out of school and among second repeaters 90 per cent would drop out of school. This phenomenon is disproportionately affecting boys.

Manickchand posited that repetition places a psychological burden on the child that is left behind while their peers move ahead.

“The repeaters are often labeled as failures,” she stated.

Manickchand said these findings guided the Ministry of Education to adopt a more “enlightened” approach since 2010. This approach included replacing repetition with systematic and consistent remediation.

She said the policy emphasizes early diagnosis and intervention where teachers should consistently measure the competence levels of their students and

devise early intervention strategies to prevent problems.

She said that remediation will be done during the JulyAugust vacations and mandatory afterschool remediation programmes in all schools throughout the academic year have been implemented.

There is now early intervention to decrease the probability of failure, with the Ministry introducing several strategies for both primary and secondary levels, Minister Manickchand added.

The Ministry has been reorienting teachers towards adopting a more studentcentered, competency-based approach to education.

She said that approach will ensure early detection of problem students and measures would be put in

place to prevent them.

In addition, parentteacher conferences and consistent performance updates are now required of all schools to inform parents of their children’s performance; so any deficiencies could be collectively addressed.

“No longer should parents be informed at the end of the term that a student has failed. Imminent failure should be recognized, discussed and effectively addressed by all parties involved,” Manickchand stated.

As a result of these actions, the Ministry of Education in June last year started a series of consultations on this particular policy.

These consultations are ongoing and the feedback received will inform the future direction of this policy.

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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

Language is no barrier The issue on the lips of every right thinking Guyanese is the absence of Guyanese from the site of a major project.

This must be the first time in the history of the world that a multi-million-dollar construction project is underway and not a single citizen could set foot on that site. And it is not that the site is a foreign mission where certain technical details would need to be hidden from the rest of society.

The Chinese have an embassy in Guyana. They also have a commercial centre that is housed in two large buildings in the city. When the Chinese were building their embassy aback of the Botanical Gardens they employed Guyanese labour. That magnificent structure today contains sensitive equipment that one would expect every diplomatic mission to have.

When the United States decided to construct its embassy in Guyana again, it placed countless advertisements for Guyanese labour. And scores of Guyanese turned up for work. They remained on the job until the end of the construction.

When it was over the contractor recommended many of them for jobs elsewhere because he recognized their qualities and the fact that they had skills that were not at a premium.

So we come to the Marriott, a hotel that is being constructed on the shores of the Atlantic next door to the Pegasus. Many of us may see the Pegasus towering over the city without realizing that Guyanese labour was responsible for its creation.

Like the Marriott, a foreign constructing company was responsible for the construction, but that company did not have the gumption or the desire to bring in all the labourers it needed to undertake the construction. In any case, construction companies always find it so much cheaper to hire local labour.

So what is this about the Chinese contractor demanding that he employ only Chinese? We are not so sure that any contractor would be so presumptuous as to tell a sovereign country that is hiring him such poppycock. In the first instance, when the contractor placed his bid he could not know that he would be selected.

Having been selected the contractor would have been presented with conditions of work and a schedule for the completion.

The contract would not have included anything about labour force. For one, the Guyana Government would not have been as forward thinking as the government of Singapore was sixty years ago.

What is distressing is the dismissive nature of the government officials concerned with the project. Head of Atlantic Hotels Inc, Winston Brassington, the body established to manage the hotel, simply told the Stabroek News that he had said all he wanted to say on the nonemployment of Guyanese on the hotel project. Earlier, he has said that the fact that no Guyanese had gained employment was because the contractor had so decided.

If Brassington is to be believed, then the contractor claimed that Chinese would work faster and complete the project on schedule.

The contractor also claimed that the language problem would be another factor.

Is the contractor claiming that Guyanese are plodders or lazy workers who operate at a piece they choose, contrary to the wishes of the supervisor? Is he claiming that there are Chinese on the project who speak no English? Experts say that the spoken word is only one-tenth of human communication. The language barrier is most certainly a non-excuse.

When we were constructing the National Stadium at Providence we used an Indian contractor and Indian workers. There were also lots of Guyanese workers. The problems of language did not hinder the recruitment of locals.

We do not want to suggest that something is amiss with this contract. We also do not wish to believe that the contractor is holding Guyana to ransom and so our officials must do as he says. And above all, we do not wish to believe that the government is trying to boost the population figures by ensuring a large influx of Chinese.

Thursday February 14, 2013

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

This raping of the treasury is tantamount to treachery against the people DEAR EDITOR, Leon Trotsky reminded us that the “depth and strength of human character are defined by its moral reserves”.

Reading Dr. Singh’s statement in the Chronicle of Lies, one is flummoxed by this deceitful attempt to distort the truth by someone who ought to know better. Is this the core skill-set of Ministers these days; master blenders of the juiciest of untruths and misrepresentations?

While the Minister would want to submit himself to measuring the debt in US Dollar terms, he cannot disregard the right of the Guyanese people to know the Guyana dollar amount of the National Debt. After all, the people of Guyana do not earn US Dollar salaries, save and except for the fat cats in the regime.

The Minister’s statement on the debt issue just confirmed that the PPP is running cake shop operations at the Ministry of Finance which closely resembles “financial gangsterism”. It was the Greek philosopher Sophocles who said it is better to “fail with honour than succeed with fraud”.

Today, the honour within the halls of the Ministry of Finance has been vanquished and has yielded to perpetual negative notoriety. What a shame to professional accounting officers all over the world!

Was it an act of insurrection if the people are informed of the debt figure in Guyana dollars? If the Minister disputes these Guyana dollar figures, all he has to do is present an alternative number for scrutiny.

There is no need to dive into the gutter. Attacking Nagamootoo will not save the nation from the disgraceful burden and shame that we all have to carry as a people, since no organization of repute, be it the IMF or the World Bank, or even the ordinary man, can trust the integrity of the figures coming out of the Ministry of Finance.

vacated office! When all of this is considered, the Minister has been rendered into King Richard who stated “and thus I clothe my naked villany”. The wolf pack has been exposed!

Why “run-up” on public TV and try to defend the indefensible. It is a national shame and disgrace that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal have failed the people and most importantly, destroyed the visions of Cheddi Jagan, who was committed to a lean and clean administration.

What legacy is now left; just a handful of political billionaires, compliments of the taxpayers and a people in financial ruins.

average of G$40 billion per year.

If one is to look at 2012 vs. 1992 then the debt per each child born in Guyana went up to $543,440 in March 2012.

This means that as soon as a doctor cuts the umbilical cord, the Jagdeo /Ramotar / Singh group metaphorically turns up with an IOU certificate in the name of that child for $543,440. For those in the working class, this is more than one year’s wages.

But there is a method to all this borrowing and madness – Milk and Honey for the financial gangsters in Guyana.

We call on the AFC and

To date Ashni Singh has not disputed the fact that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal was responsible for the borrowing of G$93 billion more in debt than the PNC left us in 1992.

This revelation by Mr. Nagamootoo has forever buried the myth that the PNC borrowed more than the PPP. And we have not even considered all those pipeline debt that were lined up hurriedly before Jagdeo

Accompanying this letter, in table form, is a more comprehensive picture of the debt situation, compliments of the National Budget and the Bank of Guyana Quarterly Bulletin.

Why 2007? That was the year when Guyana had the lowest debt position under the PPP. The year 2007 exposes how much this cabal has borrowed over the last five years; G$202 billion at an

Civil Society to engage in a campaign of mass education of the people on the issue in every village, dam and street.

Walter Rodney did this in 1979 and ‘Fat Boy’ buckled then.

It is time for the new Fat Boy’s in Freedom House to buckle under people’s power. This raping of the treasury is tantamount to treachery against the people.

Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

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

Let us put an end to this march of folly DEAR EDITOR, I could not believe the statement as contained in a letter by Bramdeow Singh – Titled “the MMA/ADA canals should not be cleared by the use of herbicides” If this alleged use of herbicides or chemicals to clear the canals at MMA is true, then the Government authorities must first explain why this inappropriate method is being employed, and if so, put an immediate end to this harmful activity.

When this scheme was

designed and made operational I had some Ministerial responsibility for it at various levels and periods.

It was agreed then that these canals will be kept clear by using draglines mounted on pontoons - the grass, weeds and sludge, either to be carted away or put at designated spots along the banks of the canals.

Beyond this method, President Forbes Burnham proposed to introduce manatees (Sea Cows) in the

canals to take care of the aquatic growth.

These marine vegetation mammals are voracious consumers of grass and weeds.

This seemingly brilliant idea which would have cost much less was not pursued after many of the farmers admitted that even though in their interest they could not promise the Leader that the manatees would not be caught by their ‘kith and kin’ since manatee meat is extremely soft and delicious,

The next choice of Pope will be interesting DEAR EDITOR, The announcement of the resignation of Pope Benedict at month end sent shockwaves not only to the 1.2 billion Catholics, but the entire world, and as expected, there is what can be termed behind the scene lobbying for the top position in the Catholic Church.

Catholics in Latin America and Africa are contending that in the past only Europeans - Italians, Polish and German - have been dominating, and it was time for a change - time for a nonEuropean and maybe high time for a Latino or a black Pope.

We are living in a changing world where the one-time minority will soon be the majority. The United States of America now has a black President in Barack Obama, who is well accepted, since he was re-elected to serve another four years.

Fernando Reyes, a professional violinist, who prays daily at La Merced church in Santiago, Chile, said “since Latin American is a fortress for Christianity during these rough times, it would be healthy for us to get a Latin American pope”.

Two names are being discussed for possible consideration: Brazilian Cardinals João Bráz de Aviz, a 65-year-old who has earned praise as head of the Vatican’s office for religious congregations and Odilo Pedro Seherer, the 63-year-old archbishop of São Paulo.

The names of two Africans who have distinguished themselves in the Catholic fraternity have also been mentioned: Cardinal Peter Turkson, 64, of Ghana, is considered to be near the top of the short list of likely successors (British bookmakers offering odds on the next pope have already made Turkson their 3 to 1 favourite).

He was ordained a priest 30 years ago and was elevated to Cardinal in 2003, and is currently President of the Vatican Council of Justice of the Peace. The name of Cardinal Francis Arinze, 80, of Nigeria, has again come up.

He was in the running in 2005, but was side stepped.

Although it is felt that Europeans have been dominating and it was time for someone outside that continent to be chosen, this might be difficult because of

the makeup of the College of Cardinals, and according to Bernardo Barranco, an expert at Mexico’s Cenre for Religious Studies.

“From the get-go, I see it as difficult for a Latin American …because the college has not been “reEuropeanized” it has been “re-Italianized”.

However I hope that these religious leaders would not be biased in their selection and try to spread out their selection.”

Pope Benedict is the first Catholic leader to step down in 600 years.

He was uncompromising conservative on social and theological issues, fighting what he regarded as the increasing secularization of society. Despite his firm opposition to tolerance of homosexual acts, his eightyear reign saw gay marriage accepted in many countries.

He repeatedly apologized for the Catholic Church’s failure to root out child abuse by priests The Cardinals from around the world will begin arriving in Rome next month and it is hoped that the new pope would be elected before Easter.

Oscar Ramjeet

Creating the illusion of a solution DEAR EDITOR, Several years ago, I used this very forum to voice frustration over the daily traffic jam created at Montrose on the ECD highway by activities of the school, the Academy of Apex Education. Nothing has changed since. On school days, between roughly 8 and 8: 30 am, vehicular traffic heading towards Georgetown backs up for over a mile from the pedestrian crossing in front of the school. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to crawl through this zone when normally it should take a minute.

While we rightly take care of the safety of the children of Apex by stationing a traffic cop to control the flow of traffic, we are inconveniencing and delaying hundreds of other school children heading to schools in Georgetown, not to mention the hundreds of workers, minibus operators and others.

How quickly and effectively we solve these ordinary problems is an indication of our maturity as a nation. A traffic cop at the location has not solved the problem. The Apex children go back and forth across the

highway at will, causing traffic to be stopped too often. The Traffic Department may be actually complicit in creating the illusion of a solution. The remedy lies in the school introducing an earlier starting time in the mornings. I repeat my suggestion that the starting time should be between 7 to 7: 30 am, before the morning traffic peak.

I call on the the Apex school authorities and the police to get together to resolve this matter.

They must consider the interest and welfare of all affected citizens.

Sherwood Lowe

a rare delicacy.

For obvious reasons, the use of herbicides was a non-negotiable, apart from the valid points made in Mr. Singh’s letter about robbing labourers getting work and the harm and danger to the fish and marine life (a source of protein for residents) I’ve

caught huge, tasty Piranha in these canals - the weeds and vegetation destroyed by chemicals or herbicides then sink to the bottom of the canals, thus reducing their holding capacity, in other words, making these canals less deep, unless the contractors are required to remove the ‘dead’ weeds and

grasses – but my information is that this is not a requirement.

They say the longest rope has an end, let us Mr. President, put an end to this march of folly which seem to benefit only a chosen few while putting in peril the majority.

Hamilton Green, J.P.

An offensive headline DEAR EDITOR, I am simply appalled at the fact that KN published a letter from an anonymous group headlined RAJ SINGH DISHONEST - NO RESPECT FOR THE COURTS. The headline alone is abominable and the contents are so full of inaccuracies and reckless name-calling against myself and the Secretary of the GCB, Mr. Sanasie.

I would like to remind you that my business is that of an Insurance Broker which requires a tremendous amount of trust from my customers and

such a letter will seriously damage our character, reputation, integrity and standing in society, especially since there has been no factchecking regarding the contents and its crazy headline.

My letter which was published last Sunday was supported by the actual Orders of the Court which was physically given to your reporter, yet KN allowed and published a response from a group of persons who were not named and without any evidence to support their wild and reckless claims in their

letter.

I hereby demand that you forthwith supply me with the names of this group that penned this defamatory letter and which you so willingly published as I am currently seeking legal advice on the way forward in this matter.

Raj Singh EDITOR’S NOTE: I accept that the headline was offensive and further accept full responsibility for the publication. The letter came from a group that described itself as Guyana National Cricket Stakeholders.

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Kaieteur News

Thursday February 14, 2013

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

The Marriott is about a culture of greed, selfishness and willingness to pawn the Guyanese people DEAR EDITOR, Believe it or not, the Chinese workers building the Marriott are not the heart of the problem with the Marriott.

The problem goes deeper. It has to do with avarice, covetousness and a swinishness that has infected the PPP for the past 20 years and most glaringly since the Jagdeo ascension to power.

Winston Brassington and his PPP masters will defend the exclusive use of Chinese labour in construction of the Marriott not because Brassington realized he made a mistake and is taking the indefensible position on it.

Brassington and the PPP will defend this sickening disregard of the Guyanese working class because the PPP did not make a mistake, it intended to do it all along, and it has to defend this act simply because it is profiting personally from it.

The defence is all about the protection of self-interest and profit. This is not a case of a government making a good faith decision that ended up being a bad decision and is trying to wiggle out of it.

This is a case of a government that made a bad faith decision motivated by greed from the get-go and always intended to defend it. The Chinese marching into Guyana to build a hotel still shrouded in highly secretive deals is only a symptom of a disease that is rotting out the innards of the PPP. That disease is unmitigated greed without limits or concerns. Greed will cause people to risk other people’s lives, put them into economic servitude and punish them just so a handful could fill their eternal emptiness with stolen stuff.

Let us as a nation and people recognize this PPP greed that is sending this country to the slaughterhouse.

These are not the times of the PNC stealing to build a modest house or to build a fence or taking a small piece of land or taking a small bribe that is enough to buy a Chinese fried rice. This is not those days of a desperate fight for survival by many who corrupted to stay afloat.

This is now grand rape and

pillage.

These are not the times when an impoverished government refuses to cave in to the tempting offers of personal and political riches from cavorting with drug traffickers and cocaine barons because they realize it will destroy the very fabric of the nation.

These are the times of limitless greed and in times of limitless greed, anything goes.

In a country where the PPP has paid its faithful cadre magnificently, where ministers routinely get more than $500,000 per month plus lots of perks, where advisors to the President can draw monthly salaries nearing $1million and where contract workers performing mundane tasks reap staggering salaries, thievery from the public and people has actually taken off and launched itself into the stratosphere.

How could people get paid so much, the kind of monthly salaries that the working class can only dream about, but are so driven by greed and selfishness that

they are kicking down the treasury’s doors in such ferocious fashion? There is a battle of titanic and epic proportions going on within the PPP cabal to see who can outdo whom with material acquisitions.

In a party filled with the greedy, the race to the top is not about qualifications, service or intellectual pursuits, it is about money.

Behind all those titles are the mentalities of small-time hustlers, crooks and scamps.

The pursuit of wealth is not by pursuing wealth the traditional way.

No, this band of brigands frown upon and are disgusted by the traditional Guyanese.

Wealth is not to be secured by hard work, diligence, sacrifice and denial.

Wealth is to be acquired by stealing or by corruption.

Wealth is not something earned anymore. It is an entitlement. When one develops this mentality and believes he is a law unto himself, it is inevitable that the greed will have no limits.

The Marriott is but a symbol of the PPP disease

that has befallen this country.

The inclination to steal and corrupt and do wrong things overpowers its logic. As long as this cabal gets paid or profits personally, it has no problem selling and pawning this country off to the highest bidder.

They will defend the brutal dehumanization of the Guyanese working people.

They will defend foreign workers taking jobs for locals.

They have no problem with Guyanese desperate for a job living in fowl pens in foreign lands. They do not care about canecutters having to go to war for a pittance in order to feed their families.

The problem in this country with the PPP is greed.

Development is not driven by any genuine concern for the people or improvement of their lives. It is motivated by a chance to fill pockets and to fatten themselves on kickbacks, corruption payments and outright theft.

Let us look behind the Marriott and truly see what is at play because the Marriott experience will be repeated time and time again in this

country. The airport will be built by Chinese labour, the Amaila Falls hydro project will be built by Chinese labour and everything else the PPP touches will be nothing but daylight robbery.

They cannot help themselves. Thieves will always be thieves and scamps will always be vagabonds.

The few remaining decent ones among them will continue to be spineless.

The problem is unending greed.

That is what led to this debacle of a modern new hotel being built in this country and not one single Guyanese is working there.

Isn’t it tragic that even as the PPP’s own supporters leave these shores in droves every week, the PPP is bringing in labour to replace them and creating jobs for anyone but them.

This problem will not be stopped by the cabal. It is those who claim they support the PPP and who remain silent to these atrocities who will have to change the PPP. M. Maxwell

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 7

Banditry, failed policing force businessmen to contemplate migration

By Rabindra Rooplall Two businessmen are contemplating liquidating their assets and migrating after losing millions of dollars in cash, supplies and machinery over a prolonged period. They say that their decision has been helped by the apparent reluctance of the police to arrest and prosecute known suspects.

Business proprietors Muneshwer Persaud of Muneshwer’s Hardware store and Sarwant Tapsie of Kishan’s Aluminium Windows and doors showroom, both of Lot “E” Good Hope, East Coast Demerara who employ scores of people are frustrated with the robberies that are hurting their businesses.

Businessman Sarwant Tapsie, who is also a Canadian citizen, said that his frustration was peaked after another burglary in the wee hours of Monday night.

He explained that robbers on this occasion cut the grill work on the lower flat of his business workshop and carted of millions of dollars in valuables.

“They carried away my transformers, generators, drill guns, saws, window fittings and security DVR system that records footage from the cameras! I can’t even account for all of the items missing as yet in the 300-foot building, but what I know is missing is valued over $3M,” he lamented.

Adding that he operated his business in Good-Hope over a five-year period, Tapsie said being the proprietor of a business in Guyana takes lots of toughness because other than the constant banditry, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is a major humbug to speedy business transactions and actual evaluations.

“When you are a businessman, they (GRA) feel that they have a right to assess you and send you notifications to pay various

Sarwant Tapsie

Muneshwer Persaud

amounts of cash based on their belief amongst other harassments. These people don’t care if you make money or don’t make money, but once they know you own a business they find a way for you to keep paying them,” the businessman noted.

Another stressful fact he underscored was the snail’s pace at which the applications for gun licences are being processed. Tapsie said that in 2006 he applied for such a licence. “Every time I have a break-in then I remember that I applied for a gun licence; every time they thief is millions.”

“I am a permanent resident in Canada, why should I take this harassment in Guyana to create jobs for Guyanese and no help from the Government when it comes to bandits and frustration with GRA with containers taking months to be cleared?

“They always know that you fraud your invoice, and just find a way for you to pay.

Frustrate you as a businessman living in Guyana. I have another business in Barbados and from the time the document meets the customs broker in less than one hour we can get the documents out and nothing is different or strange in having the right one there

and the wrong one here.

Something is wrong with the systems here!”

He added that the present status of the country causes business proprietors who employ a large section of society, to become frustrated.

“The opposition is fighting on one hand, the government on the other, for power, but they forget those who have to put them there.”

Adding that over the years he lost over $25M in supplies, the businessman said that with a lackadaisical Police Force and politicians who only think about themselves Guyana has no major development to experience.

Muneshwar Persaud said that from January 13, to February 4, last, bandits have plagued his life even more.

He explained that on January 13, the bandits clipped several locks on the rear entrance to his business and carted off $2M in cash from a cabinet, 48 rolls of electrical cables from the upper flat, 11 brand name power saws, 21 boxes containing circuit breaker, and emptied the cash registers of $76,000 in change amongst other items.

Some of the thieves were caught on surveillance cameras; the businessman explained that the police reviewed the video. The men

Muneshwer’s Hardware store which was burglarized

Kishan’s Aluminium Windows and doors showroom which was burglarized were masked and had on gloves, but one of them had a known tattoo and the police had known suspects whom they could have apprehended, but to date no

arrests have been made.

Underscoring that on February 2, 2013 there was another break-in, he explained that the security guard was alerted and the bandits fled

the scene. However, two days later a suspect was identified by a resident in the area and the police were notified, but to date no arrests have been made.

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Thursday February 14, 2013

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The capitalists are threatened by China’s rise as an economic power The Americans have resorted to scare and alarmist tactics in response to the entry of Chinese telecommunications and communications companies into western markets. They feel threatened by China’s rise as a global power.

After a major Chinese firm, linked to the Chinese military acquired controlling interest in a US telecommunications entity, concerns were expressed about the possible effects this takeover could have on the national security of the United States.

With typical mimicry, the same concern was expressed locally when it was discovered that one of the major Chinese firms which has secured contracts in Guyana was also linked to the Chinese military. Alarm bells were sounded without anyone trying to understand that the military in China has financial interests in many companies and that this is a model that has been in existence for a very long time and one in fact we should be studying.

Then when two Chinese communications companies began to penetrate the US market and in other markets in which US companies had interests, there were claims that these companies could be used to spy on the United States. Things went as far as there being an investigation by a Senate Intelligence committee hearing.

The global rise of China as an economic power is

creating nervousness within the western capitalist system.

They are scared stiff about the competition they are receiving from Chinese firms and therefore they are resorting to their old tricks to restrict the access of Chinese firms into markets in which they have a presence.

Ironically, it is the Chinese adaptation of capitalist methods to their State-owned companies that have led to the expansion and success of Chinese firms. These firms are not just spreading but they are dominating markets. The capitalists have decided that this trend must be reversed.

Instead of trying to outcompete the Chinese, they are resorting to scare and alarmist tactics. Guyana has to be wary of the same old scare and alarmist tactics that is employed by capitalists in other parts of the world being used here to try to convince us that the presence of Chinese communications firms in Guyana is not in Guyana’s interest.

Recently, the state-owned Chinese firm was granted a frequency to broadcast in Guyana. The argument is now being made that it is not in Guyana’s public interest to have a channel in our finite broadcast spectrum handed to a foreign power. But what is it not in Guyana’s interest to have something other than western channels beamed here? The Russians have an

Dem boys seh ...

Love beat all today Today is Valentine’s Day and whole day yesterday dem had men running fuh mek up wid dem lady friend who had dem in de dog house because de man couldn’t give dem money after Christmas. Man buy dem woman all kind of fancy thing.

One man even buy he lady one side red and one side white shoes but de most thing that dem buy was chocolate.

Brazzy had money to buy a diamond brooch fuh a Chinee worker on de Marriott. Bharrat prefer to carry people to dinner because he don’t have to pay in any restaurant that he go.

One old lady watch how she grandson planning to buy and she put he to sit down, She tell he that Valentine died for love, Sampson died for love, Romeo died for love, Jack in de Titanic died for love and even Jesus died for love.

De boy watch he grandmother and tell she that he ain’t understand wha she trying to tell he. De old lady shake she head. Then she ask he wha he notice bout all de people who died for love. Then he ketch wha she mean. All de people who died for love was man.

Dem boys hear when de old lady tell he that he should wait before he spend he money. He should go to he girlfriend and ask she to name five women who died for love before he buy anything.

De result is that dem boys ain’t buying nutten, not even a salara although it got de red and white fuh de occasion.

One lady get she wish before Valentine’s Day. She sick and de ambulance bringing she from West Coast. De lady tell de man that de way he driving she gun dead but before she dead, he better give she some water.

Dem boys seh that de driver panic and grant de lady she wish. He drive overboard right by Banks DIH. De lady get water mix wid beer and rum.

Talk half and wish everybody Happy Valentine’s Day.

international channel that is seen on cable in Guyana.

CNN, an American newscast can be had twentyfour hours a day by cable subscribers. So what is so wrong with Guyanese having the option of seeing what the Chinese have to say?

The problem is not with granting a Chinese company a frequency. The problem is lack of clarity as how and when this license was issued.

This is related to the concern that there are local companies which have been waiting a long time for their licenses to be considered.

However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that State-owned Chinese television is operating a frequency in Guyana. It is in the public interest that this happens.

Even if it is Chinese propaganda, it at least offsets the propaganda of the

western networks, many of which try to portray China in a negative light. At least the Guyanese public will get to see things from a Chinese perspective and will be able to make up their own minds about the truth.

There is a large and growing Chinese community in Guyana and those persons are entitled to see news about their homeland. When Chinese programmes from the same State -owned Chinese company were aired each day on NCN, there were no complaints about the public interest being affected or about Chinese propaganda being aired using the State media.

There could not be any complaints because the same facilities were afforded on radio to the Voice of the America and the BBC and still are today. The BBC is owned by the British government

and the Voice of America broadcasts American government propaganda.

What Guyana needs is not just a liberalized communications spectrum but one that appeals to diverse interests and groups in the country, including the growing Chinese and Indian expatriate communities.

We have growing numbers of non-residents in Guyana and they should be allowed some means of watching their own programmes, in their own language. There is absolutely nothing wrong with frequencies and channels being dedicated to immigrant or minority communities.

This happens even in the West where there are channels dedicated to such communities.

There are also religious channels in the West. So what is so objectionable to there being a channel in Guyana that airs Chinese programmes. Is the

objections because it is Stateowned? Are there private Chinese television companies that will be willing to cater f o r t h e local Chinese community?

What is worrying is not the fact that the Chinese Stateowned TV is transmitting locally.

What is worrying are the circumstances surrounding the grant of this license considering that there was at one time a hold on the issuance of new licenses pending broadcast legislation and secondly, the fact that persons who had applied for broadcast licenses many years ago were recently told to reapply for their broadcast licenses.

The Chinese are not the issue; the issue is the process of granting broadcasting licenses.

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=== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ===

Guyana today and the words of Joshua Nkomo After the fallout between Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Mugabe turned on Nkomo with vengeance and brutality.

Nkomo made a statement that reverberates all over the postcolonial world today. He said that he was more persecuted by his fellow Zimbabwean, Mugabe, than by Ian Smith, the white man against whom he led a guerrilla war.

It was a profound reflection on the failure of revolutionary humanity that started with bestialities directed by the Bolshevik Party leaders in communist Russia in 1919 against their own comrades who dissented. Stalin killed more Russians in one year than the Tsar the Bolsheviks overthrew, killed in twenty years.

In Iran today, the number

of State-sponsored murders since the overthrow of the Shah in 1978 makes the Shah look like an Iranian hero.

Under Castro in Cuba, the chances of escaping jail were one in a million if found in possession of a Time magazine. This was the man the Cubans violently removed Baptista for.

After WW2, in the Third World, the office of the white colonial ruler became untenable. Facing anger from the masses led by the local educated classes, the white man was painted as the devil incarnate, an imperialist rapist, a hater of non-white civilization. Violence chased him out in many Third World states while in other colonies he packed his bags and left hurriedly.

Seventy-five years after the white man was scorned

and urged to leave the Third World, if a referendum was taken in 2013, a majority of the population in each postcolonial territory would give permission for the white man to return. In Jamaica, a poll found that citizens preferred the days when England was in control of the island.

It would be most fascinating to learn what the results would be of such a survey in Guyana in 2013. I spent some investigative time last year on one particular sugar estate. What I found was an unchanging country.

The estate workers literally hated their management staff whom they told me were more arrogant, and less mannerly than the colonial sugar bosses.

This was life on the sugar estate in 2013, some 75 years after the first local political

party was formed to kick the white man out of Guyana.

If science could make the dead come alive, all Guyanese would give their last cent to hear what Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan have to say about the Government of Guyana that signed a contract with a Chinese company to undertake a construction here and agreed that no Guyanese personnel would be employed.

Rewind the tape to 1947 when that first political party was founded. If the white man was building a soda factory and he brought only Englishmen to work and stipulated no locals would be employed, Her Majesty’s Government in London would have had to send troops to quell the ensuing riots and stop the fire that would have

engulfed the drinks factory.

Colonialism has come back with a vengeance.

The no-local policy at Marriott Hotel construction site must be the only one of its kind in the world. In a world raging out of control with a tempestuous reclamation of 19th century nationalism, no developed country allows foreigners to come in and take a job for which a local is available.

Leonard Craig, the current chairman of the People’s Parliament told me the Marriott enigma would be impossible in Germany where he lived.

I know in Canada that a nanny would only be given a work permit if there is no Canadian available for the job and the vacancy must be advertised.

In the US, there is a law that prevents the media landscape of the country to have more than fifty percent foreign ownership. The Marriott labour abomination is not the only evidence that colonialism has returned to Guyana. Permission has been given for the Chinese

Frederick Kissoon Government to operate a television channel while the people of Linden, through governmental policy, are not allowed to see the signals of other stations except NCN and Region Ten is yet to get approval to operate their own television station.

And while the Chinese enjoy their rising hegemony, memories of apartheid came alive at Timehri on Tuesday morning where bulldozers demolished the livelihood of dozens of vendors who were there for more than forty years.

The Guyanese postcolonial autocrats in 2010 abolished prescriptive rights by an Act of Parliament so if you were on the land for a hundred years, your right to it is gone. This is Guyana.

Pensioner rescued from burning house By: Romila Boodram and Leonard Gildarie Four persons are now homeless after a fire of so far; unknown origin completely destroyed their two-storey house located at Lot 78 First Street Alberttown, Georgetown a little after 08:00pm last night.

Homeless are Barbara Barker, 72, her brother Eric Barker, 70, his wife, Jeanette Barker and their nephew Devon Young. The fire started at the lower flat of the building.

According to information, Barbara Barker and her nephew, Devon Young, shared the upper flat of the now burnt out building while her brother and his wife occupied the lower flat.

At the scene last night, the occupants were all shocked and looked on helplessly as all their lifelong earnings went up in flames.

A traumatized Jeanette Barker who was visibly shivering, said that she was in her living room watching television when she saw smoke emerging from her front room.

“I don’t know what happened… When I see the fire coming out of the room I go to take a bucket and try to out the fire but it was too much,” the pensioner said.

The woman claimed that she could not remember what happened after that; but according to a resident, Dillon

- Four homeless Drakes, he smelt smoke and when he peeped out from his Lot 78 Alberttown home, he saw his friend, Devon Young throwing water at the lower flat of the building and shouting “Uncle Boop, Uncle Boop.” Uncle Boop is Eric Barker.

I thought that Uncle Boop get trapped in the building and I run over and kicked down the door and I see she (Jeanette Barker) now trying to get out of the building so I hold her and bring her out. When I reach outside the fire spread to the whole front,” the young hero explained.

The other occupant, Barbara Barker, recalled sitting in her living room thinking about the good old days when she smelt smoke. “I call my brother’s phone and I didn’t hear anybody answer and is peep I go to peep out and I see the big flames coming up so I hurry to get out.”

The elderly woman said by the time she reached downstairs, she saw the youth fetching her sister-in-law, who appeared lost in thoughts, out of the burning building.

The building was located at the back of a lot and this posed some problems for the firemen. However, they did an excellent job and prevented the blaze from spreading.

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Teachers paying Brassington dodges questions on Marriott tender process $38,000 for netbooks Winston Brassington, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), has avoided questions regarding the tender process that led to Shanghai Construction Group being awarded the contract to build the Marriott Hotel in Guyana. One of the contract conditions shuns the employment of Guyanese in the construction phase.

AHI is a governmentowned company established to manage the US$60M Marriott Hotel project which is being funded by taxpayers’ money. Brassington recently claimed that the project would now cost US$51M. Yesterday, when Kaieteur News approached Brassington to ascertain details of the preparation of tender documents

and the tender process in general for the project, he said he had “no comment”. He also had “no comment” about whether the contractor would be engaged to review the employment clause of the agreement in light of the public outcry of no Guyanese being employed during this construction phase. Brassington was however quick to express his concerns about this publication’s objectivity on the Marriott project. On Friday, Winston Brassington, in an interview with the State’s news agency, had said that the use of a mostly Chinese labour force to construct the multi-million-dollar Marriott Hotel was just one of several conditionalities necessary for the facility’s efficient and

speedy construction.

Brassington claimed that Government got a reduction of US$9 million in the bid price

by Shanghai Construction Group under the condition that it could have control over whom it hires.

Initially, the price was

US$65M. In defending the contractor’s decision to hire Chinese nationals, Brassington said that the company indicated that “(it) had examined the level of skills available for the project as well as the levels of productivity.”

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has planned a massive protest in front of the Marriott Construction site today between 09:00 hrs to 12:00 hrs. APNU’s Member of Parliament Joe Harmon said that political parties, youth groups, Trade Unions and members of the public will protest the signing away of Guyanese rights in front of Marriott. He noted that the rate of unemployment of youths in Guyana is at its highest and the signing away of Guyanese rights to be part of the project which Guyanese taxpayers are funding is disrespectful.

Catholics began the forty- day period of fasting and praying, referred to as Lent yesterday with the commemoration of Ash Wednesday. Churches were packed for the regular Ash Wednesday prayers and services, as well as the act of having the cross prepared from the burnt palm branches from the last Palm Sunday, placed on the foreheads of many. Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Georgetown, Monsignor Terrence Montrose, said that Lent is a special time of preparation for Easter when the Church welcomes the newly- baptized and new members.

“This 40 days and 40 nights is set aside for fasting, praying, and alms-giving. At the end of that, we will sing the Gloria, on Easter Saturday night when all things will become new; when new members will be baptized and

accepted; when we will light our candles again to remind us who we were— lights of Christ in our world today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today”, he noted.

Ash Wednesday dates back to the days leading to the crucifixion some 2000 years ago. “In the Old Testament, for example, it’s a sign of repentance...submission to God. People used to sit in the ashes and throw it over their bodies, as a sign of nothingness...asking God’s forgiveness. That tradition has come down even today.

Every Ash Wednesday, we throw ashes on ourselves as a sign that we are sorry for our sins and we ask God to help us to overcome our sins.”

“We recognize that we are not great people. In the old days, Kings and everybody else used to put on sackcloth and throw ashes on themselves, as a sign of

repentance”.

Monsignor Montrose said that Lent is about making sacrifices. “All during Lent, we do sacrifices, we say special prayers, we do special works and so on, all the time, praying and asking God to help us to overcome all those sins we have that prevent us from becoming who He truly is”.

He urged Christians to find some time to pray during the day and make small sacrifices to get closer to God. “Each of us is asked to find some time during the day to pray; to make some time to pray. During Lent, the church will be opened at 6 o’ clock and will be closed in the evening, but we will have Mass at midday every day during Lent. “ He urged those observing Lent to harness their bodies and desires during the penitential season so that they can become stronger

when Lent is over.

“I remember years ago, I had a young friend who used to drink a lot of beers but every Lent, he gave it up completely— every Lent, he gave up— 40 days and 40 nights no beers! But I was always appalled that at Easter Sunday, he drank for the rest of the time he was fasting; that’s not the idea. The idea is that we go through these exercises and we are able to harness our desires, harness our cravings, harness our bodies”, he added.

Lent comes at a time this year when the Spiritual Head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign on February 28, due to health reasons, much to the shock and surprise to many Catholics around the world.

A new pope is however expected to usher in Easter with the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

…political parties, trade unions, and youth groups to protest today

Winston Brassington

Christians usher in Lent

A batch of trainee teachers was asked to pay $38,000 for netbooks they received, the Education Minister has clarified.

Parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon said, she believed that the teachers would be entitled to free netbooks as part of an arrangement under the One Laptop Per Family programme.

However, Education Minister Priya Manickchand has pointed out that a batch of students of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) in 2011 paid $38,000 for netbook computers as per an agreement between the Government of Guyana and the World Bank.

The netbooks were handed out under an arrangement between the World Bank and the Guyana Government under the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project (GITEP).

The project is aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of quality teacher education.

Minister Manickchand quoted page 25 of the project’s operational manual which states, that the cost will

be shared for the procurement of the netbooks for the first year by- Distance Education (DE) students and DE tutors and lecturers at CPCE and the University of Guyana.

Tota Mangar, head of GITEP, explained that under the arrangements with the World Bank, the teachers had to pay half of the cost of the netbooks.

Minister Manickchand said that in September 2011, upon payment of the agreed sum of $38,000, students who entered the college received their netbooks; while staff members paid $40,000.

Additionally, Government made available netbooks for the 2010-2012 batch of students who graduated from the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) programme.

In this regard, a total of 219 netbooks were provided free of cost, she stated.

Thus far, 165 teachers have uplifted their netbooks.

The two remaining centers in Georgetown and Linden, which are slated to receive 11 and 43 respectively, have been notified but to date, have not collected theirs.

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Georgetown woman Several new mining stations to jailed, fined $2.7M be established across country Alana Angel, 22, of Lot 39 Arapaima Avenue, Guyhoc Park, who was intercepted on October 5, last with 458 grams of cocaine and half a gram of cannabis in her luggage, was on Tuesday sentenced to three years in jail and fined a total of $2.7M by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo after she was found guilty in the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court.

She was fined an additional $6,000 or three weeks in jail on the marijuana charge.

The case for the prosecution was that on the day in question Angel was intercepted during a road block at Palmyra, not far from the Berbice River Bridge, East Coast Berbice while she was a passenger of motorcar PPP7192 which was heading to the Corentyne.

A number of other persons were in the car .The passengers, along with their possessions, were subsequently searched and the illegal substance was unearthed in the defendant’s

bag.

Police reportedly unearthed the cocaine from one of two bags that Angel had hidden between her legs.

The woman had told investigators that she had boarded the car driven by one Buju at the Berbice Car Park in Georgetown at around 06:05 hrs. She was heading to No 53 Village, Corentyne.

There were four persons in the back seat. She had a black plastic bag containing her shoes and a hand bag containing her clothes and other belongings.

The drugs, 458 grams of cocaine and half a gram of cannabis were found in one of the bags.

After the substances were found, the woman was escorted to the Central Police Station and charged. She pleaded not guilty.

She had made an unsuccessful appeal in the High Court for bail.

Attorneys- at- Law James Bond and Charrandass Persaud had previously appeared on her behalf.

Government is building several new stations across the country to better manage its mining districts.

As Guyana continues to cash in on high gold prices, Government says that it is constructing 11 new mining stations across the country.

Additionally, it has acquired 15 mobile camps for monitoring officers and will be deploying these.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, its mining agency, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), is currently expanding its monitoring and

compliance of mining operations in the various mining districts to complement the rapid growth of the mining sector.

The new mining camps and living quarters will be constructed in the mining districts of Lethem, Bartica, Aranka Aremu, Arau/ Eteringbang, Eclipse Falls, Kamwatta and Kaburi.

The Ministry also said that it will be increasing the number of monitoring and compliance staff on the ground.

“Further, 15 mobile mining camps have been acquired and deployments have already commenced to areas such as Issano and various parts of the Northwest District, while areas such as Arrow, Cuyuni River and Olive Creek and Mazaruni among others are being targeted to boost monitoring and compliance.”

Over the years, a shortage of resources, including personnel and equipment, had made it difficult for GGMC to effectively monitor

the hinterland’s gold districts, leading to smuggling, under-declaration and host of other infringements.

Natural resources management of the country, including mining and forestry, has now been placed under one Ministry…the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Last year, gold mining activities saw export earnings for that sector racking up US$700M as world prices remain high.

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City Hall and Town Clerk go head to AFC wants Marriott feasibility study to be made public head over Mash vending lot allocations While the nation gears for the annual Mashramani celebrations, City Hall and its acting Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, are bumping heads over the issuance, allocation and sale of vending lots for the festival. City Hall has accused the Town Clerk of deliberately avoiding the decisions of the Council which she is supposed to be executing.

Kaieteur News was told that at City Hall’s Georgetown Municipality’s statutory meeting held on January 9, a decision was taken that the Social Development Committee headed by Patricia Chase-Greene, was supposed to identify, allocate and sell to persons requesting vending lots for the Mash.

The Committee was tasked with identifying the lots at the Merriman Mall and other Council-designated areas for persons desirous of

doing business for Mash. It was said that it is customary for the Council to allow the SDC to manage the sale of such spots.

However, the acting Town Clerk, instead of implementing the Council’s wishes, “has taken it up upon herself to ignore the decisions and is in fact managing the area herself.”

Several memoranda from Mayor, Hamilton Green and from Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase- Greene, have been sent to the Clerk on the matter, but according to City Hall, she has refused to comply and acknowledge the decision of the Council.

The Clerk has started the allocation process without the Council’s consent.

It was explained to the newspaper that, “Once the Council makes a decision, it is final and every officer, especially the Town Clerk,

should abide.”

It was also said that, “A two-thirds majority vote or until six months after a decision is made, the Council cannot overturn its own decision. Yet the Town Clerk has ignored that Council’s rulings.”

The City Hall officer said that the Town Clerk has no right or authority to act the way she does, the officer added. “She is in direct violation of her duties.”

Sooba has offered no explanation for her actions, the Council officer said.

At the Council’s statutory meeting held on Monday, the Town Clerk faced immense heat when Councilors descended on her for what they said was her blatant disregard for executing decisions made at the duly constituted Georgetown Municipality’s statutory meetings.

Construction commences in April on $1.7B Linden water systems - GWI Works on the Linden Water Supply Rehabilitation Programme (LWSRP) will begin within two months as Universal Earth Movers Incorporated (UEM Inc) whom the contract was awarded to, started mobilizing its materials and equipment, according to Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI.) The water utility signed a $1.7 billion contract last year for the construction of two water treatment plants, booster stations and storage facilities.

Director of Capital Investment and planning of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) Ramchand Jailall says that staff members of UEM Inc to which the contracts were

awarded have arrived in Guyana and are currently mobilizing its materials and equipment.

GWI signed two contracts in September last for the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Linden water distribution system.

It includes the construction of two new water treatment plants at Amelia’s Ward and Wisroc, as well as booster stations, reservoirs, and the installation of transmission mains.

It will also include the rehabilitation of the distribution system and replacing leaking pipelines and service connections.

According to GWI,

through the combination of the new treatment facilities and the reduction of leaks as well as an upgrade of the distribution system, Linden customers will experience improved water quality as well as higher levels of service.

Over the next five years, GWI will undertake a series of large-scale civil works which will include the construction of two new water treatment plants at Amelia’s Ward and Wisroc, as well as booster stations, reservoirs, and the installation of transmission mains; as well as the rehabilitation of the distribution system, including replacing leaking pipelines and service connections.

- Nigel Hughes says country going back to colonisation Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman Nigel Hughes yesterday called on the government to make public the Marriott feasibility study which dictated that the country needs more hotel rooms.

“We do not believe it was driven by data which suggested the need to build the hotel,” Hughes said yesterday.

Hughes said that there needs to be data to drive the necessity of projects like the Marriott.

“I am unaware of any destination in the world, where you build a hotel and hope people would come,” Hughes stated.

The government has said that its feasibility study is favourable for the project, but is refusing to make the document public, saying it would reveal it to the opposition parliamentary parties behind closed doors.

However, Hughes said that if the document is available it should be made public so Guyanese can examine it since it is taxpayers’ money that is being used in the project.

“The best thing is to share it with the country; don’t share it with me behind

closed doors,” Hughes declared.

He said that foreigners would be employed from the ground to the top, since with the lack of hospitality training schools in Guyana, it is unlikely that Marriott management would employ a significant number of locals in management positions.

Hughes said that most of the Guyanese who would be employed would end up being gardeners and cleaners and other low end jobs.

He said that data does not suggest that there is a huge amount of airlift to Guyana to necessitate additional rooms, and further, the majority of

genuine tourists who come to Guyana do not come to Georgetown but go into the interior.

His comments came as he further denounced the fact that the government negotiated a construction contract that bars Guyanese from employment.

Hughes suggested that the government is pursuing a policy that paints Guyana as being worse off than the colonial days.

In those times, he said that the owners and managerial classes were foreign and the workforce was local. But now, he said with the Marriott project, all classes of workers are foreign.

“The multi-lingual negotiators the government chose to negotiate with China, obviously thought it was not in the best interest of the country that any Guyanese be permitted to work at that site because they are not qualified to do so,” Hughes stated yesterday.

He said that there is nothing in terms of aesthetics or engineering that is beyond Guyanese engineers or other construction personnel, so it is “unbelievable” that the government would suggest Guyana lacks the skills.

Underwriters (AICPCU) programme and graduated last December.

She is now eligible to use the prestigious Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.

Ms. Rahman also holds Associateships in Insurance Services (AIS), Personal Insurance (API) and General Insurance (AINS) from the American Institute for CPCU and is expected to soon complete her studies in Risk Management (ARM).

The CPCU designation is

facilitated by the American Institute for CPCU and is considered the premier general insurance designation in the United States. It is designed to ensure a thorough understanding and application of the principles, laws and regulations, claims processes, financial markets and ethics governing the insurance industry both in the US and internationally.

To date, only four people in Guyana hold this coveted qualification. Two of them are employed by RSIB.

Nigel Hughes

Selma Rahman boosts Raj Singh Insurance Brokers with professional qualification Raj Singh Insurance Brokers and Risk Management Consultants Inc. (RSIB) is bent on developing the most professional team to adequately service its valued customers. RSIB is managed by a team of experienced and qualified professionals, headed by insurance expert, RAJ SINGH. The company’s Business Development Manager, Ms. Selma Rahman, recently completed her studies in the American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty

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Army contributes to youth development - President Young people are faced with many challenges and some are lured into a life of drugs, crime and other antisocial activities, and the army is an institution which can contribute to the youths’ development in society, according to Commander in Chief and President Donald Ramotar.

The President shared these sentiments at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Commissioning Parade for the graduates of the Standard Officers’ Course at Camp Ayanganna, yesterday. The event was scheduled to be held in the drill square; however, this was interrupted by rainy weather that caused the event to be relocated in the gym.

At the ceremony, Ensign Godwin Cameron who was the best student collected the Sword of Honour from Commander in Chief, Donald Ramotar.

The best student noted that the Standard Officers Course afforded him the opportunity to appreciate and understand the qualities of a leader as well as the great responsibilities that come with leadership. “The course in its entirety had many challenges; however I braved each challenge and this has

Best student Ensign Godwin Cameron receives the Sword of Honour from Commander in Chief Donald Ramotar. made me a stronger individual both physically and mentally.”

In attendance were members of the Diplomatic Corps and special invitees amongst army personnel.

President Ramotar further said that the army must help law officers in all aspects of

maintaining law and order especially in the fight against narco-trafficking.

Adding that Government is building human resources to cope with the rapidly changing technology, Ramotar said avenues are also being looked at to place the University of Guyana online

which will be made available for persons in remote district areas, as well as for persons who are unable to attend.

“I am urging officers of the army to constantly keep upgrading themselves, they must always be ready and prepared to learn, this is important for security as

well.” Underscoring that there is a constant need to always obtain the trust of the public at all times, the Head of State said that when this is gained it will make the work of the army successful in many aspects, and as such that would be indispensible for the army.

Chief of Staff, Commodore Gary Best said the event signals the ceremonial change for the officers from civilian status to military status and this simply means their lives are now ordered and programmed for the purpose of defence duties.

Secondly, it heralds the beginning of a professional career that could last for as many as 33 years if their personal life goals coincide with the organizations.

“You are never going to be the same person that you were, even after you leave the Guyana Defence Force in years to come. Our mark, the military stamp that has been embedded in you and is a permanent one and one recognizable throughout our country as well as in any part of the world.”

“This parade mirrors our Commander in Chief’s vision for the Joint Services as it reflects his thoughts with regards to joint

comprehensive training of its officers. This, I believe is a good thing for us as it leads to commonality of our training, which is intended to offer flexibility to face the challenges of the present security environment. You are being elevated at a time when new and evolving threats are surfacing on the landscape and your training has been tailored to adequately respond to those challenges.”

Commodore Best said that the officers’ missions will be broadened to encompass environmental security, economic security and defence of democratic values.

However, as commissioned officers you will lead men and women for a number of years.

“You must therefore understand the environment in which you operate. You must understand economics, politics, management, government finance, international relations, and of course you must master your military skills. As officers you must have knowledge about these factors that impact your command and leadership.

“Strive to grow in this profession of arms so that you can effectively deal with the challenges that would attempt to botch your career.”

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GGMC peeved at $600M construction tab Management of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is livid with Cabinet for ordering it to spend more than $100M to buy the defective High Street building that was originally slated for the Labour and Human Services Ministry, and forcing it to spend at least US3M to make the building habitable for its 300-plus staff.

Sources said yesterday that the Agency is even more upset because it has just spent millions on a new building in its Brickdam compound that would have taken care of overcrowded offices and cramped conditions under which staffers now work. At the said time, the Agency is planning to hire more field staff to monitor the interior, adding to its current level of 125.

Added to their financial burdens, the GGMC may be left with hefty utility bills as discussion on the issue of internet, water, telephones and electricity payments has not occurred. GGMC might also have to knock their stomach since the charge to repair the unfinished High Street building has been estimated at a whopping $600M. The Mining Agency will also have to complete and remedy the serious

The building at Princes and High Streets

engineering defects that come with the new location.

Kaieteur News was told that load testing will have to be performed at the High Street location since the Agency is concerned about capacity capabilities in accommodating staff, machinery and visitors. The publication was told that while capacity should be at 50 pounds per square inch, the location may only accommodate 35 pounds.

Kaieteur News was also told that while all this is occurring, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment might be moving

a small contingent to occupy two floors at the GGMC Brickdam location.

The High Street building has however had its share of potential owners. Initially, the multi-million dollar building where the old Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) headquarters was located on Princes and High Streets was designated for the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

There was however a change of plans to accommodate the Ministry of Health after a tragic fire destroyed that Ministry some years ago. It was later

reported that the building would instead, facilitate other government departments but this too, proved to be an unexecuted initiative.

The unfinished building currently requires substantial repairs to its interior and exterior.

There are still windows and doors to be installed.

Ceiling and other interior repairs such as cubicles, and other work spaces are undone. When Kaieteur News visited the location yesterday, labourers were preparing for the commencement of construction works by

putting materials in place.

The GGMC is however peeved at the cost that they will have to bear in repairing and completing construction works which the initial contractor had left undone.

The High Street building has however been standing unoccupied for at least two years now.

In a release from the Natural Resource Ministry, it was said that efforts are ongoing to strengthen the human resources and technical capacity of the GGMC, coupled with the need for additional staff and services resulting in several

components of the Commission such as the laboratory, library and other support services which will be relocated to the 44 High Street building.

The release said that the, “Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), an agency of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment is currently expanding its monitoring and compliance of mining operations in the various mining districts to complement the rapid growth of the mining sector.�

As a result, they said, a Technical Evaluating Committee is currently reviewing bids for the design and rehabilitation of the said High Street building to accommodate upgraded laboratories, cartographic section, and library.

The release said that the GGMC has also completed the rehabilitation of two buildings at Upper Brickdam, one which is the stores to house spares and other supplies and the other, the administrative building which will accommodate staff of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, which provides support and guidance to the Commission.

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ISA Islamic school donates to toddler infected with deadly bacterium

After learning about the condition of little Safiyah Mohamed, the children of the ISA Islamic School located on East Street in Georgetown came up with the initiative to help. These students were able to raise $65,000 which was on Friday last, handed over to the child’s mother, Chandroutie Seepersaud. She expressed sincere gratitude to the children whose assistance, she said, will go a far way in helping to save her daughter’s life. Seepersaud had initially told Kaieteur News that the child started exhibiting signs that something was wrong with her right foot soon after she turned one year old.

“She just started limping and getting a hot, hot fever; when I bathe she and rub her right foot she would cry and try to pull away. I realise something wrong but I didn’t really know is what happen,” the woman told Kaieteur News. It was as a result of this that the child’s uncle tried to anoint the toddler’s foot to ascertain whether she had sustained an injury. By this time the child’s upper thigh was already swollen.

The now 18-month-old child was then taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where an x-ray of her right leg was done. While nothing was found to be wrong with

Students of the ISA Islamic School handing over the money they were able to raise, to little Safiyah and her mother, Chandroutie Seepersaud any of her bones, Seepersaud said that the attending doctor there concluded that the child might have had an infection of some sort. Little Safiyah was then administered an antibiotic suspension.

During a subsequent visit to

the hospital, another x-ray was done and an internal abscess was detected by the attending doctor.

“Right away he transfer she to the public hospital for more medical attention.”

Seepersaud recalled that just

after little Safiyah was examined at the Georgetown Public Hospital, she was rushed to the operating theatre for a surgical procedure to the upper portion of the child’s thigh to remove the destructive bacterium.

Seepersaud explained that

after a few days, another doctor’s examination revealed that “everything didn’t clean”.

This called for another surgical procedure. This operation asserted that the child had an incurable bacterium. According to reports, the child’s illness has been linked to a situation referred to as Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

This is a bacterium which is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. MRSA is said to be especially troublesome in hospitals, prisons, schools, and nursing homes, where patients with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of infection.

Young Safiyah’s condition has been continuously deteriorating.

It has reached to such an extent that she is unable to eat and would only breastfeed. “One, one time she would take PediaSure but she wasn’t eating too much.

If she eat a little piece a bread that was plenty because she wasn’t taking nothing more…”

The young child has been

receiving constant treatment to help reduce the impact of the bacterium which was beginning to spread to the child’s private parts. So severe was the condition by last December that doctors at the public hospital made the suggestion to Seepersaud that she contemplate having the child’s right leg amputated to prevent the bacterium from spreading. The bacterium has literally started eating away at her flesh and has already consumed her right hip bone.

Doctors have indicated the need for little Safiyah to undertake a bone marrow transplant. But first, there is a need to treat the bacterium and control it.

Safiyah is currently required to take two injections twice daily.

These are being administered at home by a nurse from St Joseph Mercy Hospital.

The family’s finances have been drained. Seepersaud is therefore pleading to organizations and members of the public to assist her in her fight to give her daughter a second chance at a normal life.

Those desirous of rendering assistance can contact Seepersaud or one of her relatives on telephone numbers 265-5971, 681-5967, or 678-3671. Monies can also be added to the family’s Republic Bank account number2470672.

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CARIBBEAN CELEBRATES SIGNS OF TOURISM REBOUND SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The number of people traveling to the Caribbean is bouncing back to prerecession levels, with visitors from Canada and the U.S. giving a boost to a region struggling to recover from a global economic crisis, a top tourism official said yesterday.

About 25 million tourists visited the Caribbean last year, a more than 5 percent increase from 2011.

It’s a growth rate that outpaced the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by 4 percent, said Beverly Nicholson-Doty, chairwoman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization.

“All the signs suggest Caribbean tourism is rallying,” said NicholsonDoty. “The region as a whole has regained ground lost in the heat of the global economic depression.”

The Caribbean also saw its largest number of stayover visitors in five years, with the region’s overall hotel occupancy increasing by more than 7 percent and total room revenues up by nearly 9 percent.

And tourists spent big while visiting the Caribbean

last year, dropping more than $27 billion, a more than 3 percent increase from 2011.

The numbers mark a return to pre-recession levels, Nicholson-Doty said.

The U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands fared the best, reporting a nearly 7 percent jump in tourists.

From January to August last year alone, more than 1.1 million people visited Puerto Rico, mostly from the U.S. mainland.

Recent visitors include James Trucksess, a 46-yearold extermination business owner from North Brunswick, New Jersey.

He flew again to Puerto Rico this week to escape the crippling snowstorm that recently hit the northeast U.S. coast.

“It’s nice, it’s warm and there’s a lot of history,” he said as he strolled near a historic fort with a cigar in one hand and a cup of coffee in another. “I come here pretty much for the history and the food as well.”

Coming in second for visitor arrivals was the Dutch Caribbean, reporting a 5.6 percent increase from 2011 thanks to a surge in business from South America. The

Trinidad rattled by second earthquake within three day period PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - CMC – An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.1 rattled Trinidad during the early hours of yesterday, the Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies (UWI) said.

The quake, the second within a three-day period, occurred at 2.43 am (local time) and was located north of the Paria Peninsular.

The Seismic Unit said that it had a depth of four kilometres and was felt in the capital Port of Spain and surrounding areas.

There were no reports of injuries or damages from the quake that was located 10.75°N and 61.47°W. Over the weekend, an earthquake with a magnitude was 4.9 rocked the oil rich twin island republic.

Fly Jamaica takes off Thursday morning Jamaica Observer Kingston, Jamaica — New local airline Fly Jamaica is scheduled have its inaugural flight this morning.

The announcement, which comes after its first commercial flight was delayed nearly three weeks ago, was made on the airline’s Facebook page. The flight leave the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston at 6:15am and arrive at the John F Kennedy terminal in New York, US at

about 10:00am.

Initially the airline’s first flight was for January 25 but was postponed because of “booking issues on its website”.

“Technical problems threatened the scheduled launch of the site; the effect of which resulted in persons being unable to complete bookings”, the airline said last month.

The airline employs 80 people and operates a single Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

most popular islands were Curacao and Aruba, just north of Venezuela.

The bulk of tourists visiting the Caribbean come from the U.S., a number that increased by more than 4 percent last year, on par with pre-recession levels five years ago.

Canada also remained one of the Caribbean’s largest markets, with tourists from that country increasing by nearly 6 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, the number of

visitors from the United Kingdom dropped by 10 percent to 1 million last year, with tourism officials blaming weak European economies and high airfares coupled with a controversial air passenger duty.

Cruise ship tourism was flat across the Caribbean for the last three years. Some islands suffered more than others, with Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica and the British Virgin Islands seeing a

double-digit percentage drop in cruise ship passenger arrivals last year.

A slight increase is cruise ship tourism is expected next year after Disney Cruise Lines begins departing from the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, generating an estimated $5 million in revenue from the four departures scheduled in 2014.

Those cruise ships will stop for the first time at the eastern Caribbean island of Grenada, which saw a nearly

22 percent drop in cruise ship passengers in 2012.

Caribbean governments are counting on cruise ship passengers like 40-year-old Jenna Balagus of Winnipeg, Canada, who arrived for the first time in Puerto Rico on Wednesday but hopes to return for an extended stay.

“Puerto Rico has a unique culture,” she said as she watched her husband play with their three sons in a shaded public plaza. “I’d like to see more of it.”

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Venezuela devalues currency amid dollar shortage

Jorge Giordani CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s currency devaluation took effect yesterday amid questions about how the government can get a grip on 22-percent inflation and satisfy growing demand for dollars to pay for imported goods.

Some economists predict that the devaluation won’t solve problems such as a dearth of dollars for imports and shortages of some staple foods.

The country’s fifth devaluation in a decade established a new government-set rate of 6.30 bolivars to the dollar, replacing the previous rate of 4.30 bolivars. Venezuela also has a flourishing black market in which bolivars are being traded for more than three times the new official rate.

Economist Jose Guerra said he still doubts that the Central Bank and government currency agency will be able

to meet heavy demand for dollars, especially now that officials have eliminated a state-run bond trading system that had provided dollars at a second-tier rate.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who has taken on additional authority during the past two months while President Hugo Chavez has been away in Cuba for cancer treatment, has said the government has enough dollars from oil earnings to meet all the needs of the economy.

But Planning and Finance Minister Jorge Giordani has said that dollars will go toward “priority” goods, leading some economists to conclude that the government seems to be stiffening its currency exchange controls.

Venezuela’s government has maintained strict currency controls since 2003.

Under the controls, people and businesses must apply to a government currency agency to receive dollars at the government-set official rate to import goods, pay for travel or cover other obligations.

Giordani said at a news

conference Wednesday that a new entity being created by the government, called the Superior Body for the Optimization of the Exchange System, will be in charge of overseeing the distribution of dollars for priority imports.

The government typically has favored companies importing food, medicines and other basic goods.

Government officials haven’t provided details about how they plan to meet the demands of importers and other businesses for dollars that used to be provided through the government-run bond market.

Sporadic shortages of some basic foods such as sugar, flour, cornmeal and cooking oil have worsened during the past few months while the government has been making available fewer dollars at the fixed exchange rate.

Amid heavy demand for foreign currency, economists estimate the black market has recently been satifying about 12 percent of the demand for dollars in the country.

Many Venezuelans have turned to buying cars,

appliances and other goods to try to protect the value of their money as the country’s inflation has eroded the value of their savings.

But Ronald Balza, an economics professor at Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas, said he doesn’t expect much of an additional buying boom by consumers after the devaluation because the measure had been widely expected for months and many Venezuelans had already been buying large numbers of appliances and electronic items since late last year to try to convert their bolivars into goods that would hold their value.

The devaluation should further drive up inflation, but the effect won’t be immediate because the government allowed for some previously approved dollar transactions to be completed at the previous rate for imports of food, construction supplies and other goods, Balza said in a telephone interview.

Guerra, an economics professor at Central University of Venezuela, also predicted that the devaluation

is likely to push inflation to 25 percent this year, following 20 percent inflation during 2012.

Industry Minister Ricardo Menendez, however, said the devaluation shouldn’t increase inflation. He said the government will step up inspections of businesses that receive dollars at the official rate to make sure they aren’t engaging in price speculation.

The government has announced similar measures after previous devaluations and also maintains price controls on many foods and other items.

Guerra and other analysts say the black market has increasingly become a headache for the government because that unofficial exchange rate has become an indicator of consumer prices for many goods.

The devaluation is expected to help the government reduce its budget deficit. But Balza said the government’s still faces a “complicated situation” and that the devaluation isn’t sufficient to fully deal with its budget woes.

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Parliament gives nod to restructured super-bond BELMOPAN, Belize CMC – Parliament has given the nod to the terms of a restructured one billion dollar (One Belize dollar = US$0.49 cents) super-bond even as opposition legislators complained of the “arrogant and reckless” position of the government and being kept in the dark over the new initiative.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who last December said that an agreement had been reached with the creditors, told Parliament the new maturity date for the super-bond is 2038, “nine years more than the current maturity under the superbond which expires in 2029”.

He said that the new bonds have a maturity trajectory of 25 years and a second “key” feature is a 10

per cent principal haircut off the top.

“So immediately, approximately BDZ$108 million is written off the current super-bond indebtedness,” he said, adding that the initial interest rate coupon is for five per cent lasting for four and a half year, stepping up then to 6.78 per cent for the remaining life of the new bonds.

“Therefore the new initial interest rate represents a 25 per cent reduction compared to the current 8.5 per cent.

There is a grace period of six years before principal repayments commence, even though the bond holders in exchange for the substantial relief argued for earlier principal payments,” Barrow said.

He told legislators that the

government was able to “hold the line and 2019 continues to be the year when principal payments begin”.

In December, bondholders had rejected an offer from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country on the restructuring of the superbond and said they were consulting with their lawyers on legal action.

Belize, which said it could not afford to meet rising interest payments on the bond, shocked bondholders with an earlier suggestion that they take a haircut of up to 45 per cent. The government told Parliament on Tuesday that the restructured deal also includes the capitalization of the interest that had accrued from partial coupon payments in 2012.

“This actually amounts to

Task force recommends review of entry visas for visitors to the region BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (CUOPM) — The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Aviation Task Force, jointly chaired by the CTO Chairman, Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty of the US Virgin Islands and CTO past Chairman Ricky Skerritt, Minister of International Transport of St. Kitts and Nevis has recommended a review of visa regimes in member countries in order to improve the visitor experience.

The task force, a highly focused committee established to facilitate air transportation into and throughout the Caribbean and to enhance airlift, is to recommend to its membership a system similar to the Europe’s Schengen visa programme where visitors who are cleared at the initial port of entry can continue travelling seamlessly throughout most of the European Union.

A statement issued from Bridgetown, Barbados, said the decision came out of a recent meeting of the CTO Aviation Task Force held at the Royal Antiguan Hotel in St John’s, Antigua to review issues affecting intra-regional travel and make recommendations for increasing consumer demand.

The group agreed that full clearance at the first port of entry was necessary to ensure an improved cross

regional experience by visitors. It was agreed that the sub-regional grouping, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, (OECS) should be used as a model for such a single visa regime. The OECS is in the process of establishing a single economic space and is expected to implement full clearance at the first point of entry into the sub-group. The CTO Aviation Task Force agreed that this best practice would be reviewed after its implementation for possible replication across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region and beyond.

In addition to a single visa regime, the Task Force is recommending a standardized entry and exit card– otherwise called immigration or ED card - across the Caribbean.

This,would help reduce airlines’ costs and improve customer service at Caribbean airports. Again, the OECS, which is expected to introduce the use of one common ED card, will be used as a model.

Other recommendations

include an analysis of the impact of taxes and fees on the cost of regional air travel and a more holistic approach towards air travel revenue; including a possible ticket tax rebate when a traveller starts and ends the journey in another destination of the same domestic space.

The task force also identified an urgent need to end secondary screening for intra-regional passengers who are in transit since the current practice diminishes the overall travellers’ experience.

Also on the Aviation Task Force agenda were issues related to the CARICOM Multilateral Air Services Agreement, open skies, and other regulations and restrictions facing airlines serving the Caribbean.

The Antigua meeting was attended by senior representatives of air and seaport authorities, regional airlines, regulatory bodies, aviation consultants, policymakers and tourism professionals from CTO member countries and the international community.

BDZ$76.4 million and had we not, as part of restructuring, been able to secure the capitalization of the interest…if we had not been able to secure the capitalization of this 76.7 million dollars in interest, we would have had to pay that sum in cash in September 2012 and of February 20th 2013,” Prime Minister Barrow said.

The government said the restructuring exercise was expected to cost about BDZ$16 million, but it will now pay only three million dollars to close the deal.

“We will pay only US$1.5 million of the creditor committee expenses. Those expenses have been pegged by the credit committee as being in the range of eight million Belize dollars and the argument was that since we were the ones triggering the restructuring, we should pay all of the credit committee costs.

“We refused to do that and we were able to in fact get the committee to accept US$1.5 million. The rest of the credit committee costs will

Dean Barrow

have to be borne by the shareholders themselves’.

But even as the government outlined the new terms, Opposition Leader Francis Fonseca said that the administration could have secured a better deal had it taken the opposition into its confidence.

He said the opposition was registering “our very strong objections to and disapproval of the manner in which the government and the Prime Minister in

particular, has managed this entire debt restructuring exercise.

“Their approach has been secretive, it has been arrogant, it has been reckless and it has been divisive. Absolutely no information has been shared at any point during this process with any member of the opposition,” he said, adding “in fact the Prime Minister publicly boasted that he would not be sharing any information with the opposition”.

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GOP faults Obama speech for liberalism, hostility WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans said yesterday that President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was full of well-worn liberal ideas and campaignstyle hostility, and did little to ease partisan tensions over major issues.

“An opportunity to bring together the country instead became another retread of lip service and liberalism,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He said Obama offered little more than “gimmicks and tax hikes” in a “pedestrian liberal boilerplate that any Democratic lawmaker could have given at any time in recent history.”

Obama used the primetime speech Tuesday to call for action on a broad agenda that included the economy, guns, immigration, taxes and climate change.

He offered new initiatives on preschool programs, voting, manufacturing, and research and development.

He said he wanted to raise the minimum wage and lower energy use.

“It is our unfinished task to make sure that this

government works on behalf of the many and not just the few,” the president said.

During a visit Wednesday to Asheville, N.C., Obama promoted his ideas on creating jobs and closing the income gap between the wealthiest and middle-income Americans. The president used a retrofitted former Volvo plant to make a case for proposals designed to encourage companies that have operated overseas to bring back jobs to the U.S. “We’re seeing this trend of what we call insourcing, not just outsourcing,” Obama said. “And the reason is because America has got outstanding workers. We’re starting to produce more homegrown energy, which is driving down our energy costs. And, obviously, we’ve still got the biggest market in the world. And if we try to improve our infrastructure a little bit more, then we’re going to be even that much more competitive.”

Obama wants to spend money on public works, on neighborhood renovations, on helping communities that have lost job major

employers, and on encouraging businesses, universities and the government to work together on new manufacturing technologies.

“I need Congress to take up these initiatives, because we’ve come too far and we’ve worked too hard to turn back now,” Obama said.

His remarks didn’t seem to budge Republicans who control the House and hold enough votes to stall legislation in the Senate. They believe government helps best by getting out of the way.

The House Budget Committee chairman, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, said Obama’s leadership style stands in the way of bipartisan efforts to resolve problems such as the ballooning deficit.

“He seems to always be in campaign mode, where he treats people in the other party as enemies rather than partners,” Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee last year, told “CBS This Morning.”

Ryan was asked if he supported House Speaker John Boehner’s assertion that

President Barack Obama speaks to workers and guests at the Linamar Corporation plant in Arden, N.C., yesterday, as he travels after delivering his State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) he didn’t believe Obama “has the guts” to stand up to liberals in his own party on spending cuts.

“That’s why the congressman makes remarks like that,” Ryan said of Boehner, R-Ohio.

The morning-after comments came as Obama embarked on a three-state trip to sell voters on the programs he outlined. Republican critics have said the president should stay home and focus his attention on dealing directly with Congress.

Obama told a national audience that he was determined to intervene to right income inequality and aid the middle class.

He called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation with a

pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, as well as far-reaching gun control measures and a climate bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He threatened to go around Congress with executive actions on climate change if lawmakers fail to act.

But Obama cannot count on willing partners on those issues, any one of which could tie Congress in knots for months with no guarantee of success.

The president spent relatively little time on the looming fiscal crises confronting the nation: the deep automatic spending cuts to take effect March 1, followed by the government running out of money to fund federal agencies March 27.

He made clear he will continue

to press for the rich to pay more in taxes, a position Republicans have rejected.

Republicans made clear they’re in little mood to cooperate.

“In the last election, voters chose divided government which offers a mandate only to work together to find common ground,” Boehner said in a statement. “The president, instead, appears to have chosen a go-it-alone approach to pursue his liberal agenda.”

Obama did reiterate his willingness to tackle entitlement changes, particularly on Medicare, though he has ruled out increasing the eligibility age for the popular benefit program for seniors.

Senate Republicans cast doubt on broad immigration bill (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama intensifies pressure for wide-ranging immigration reforms, some Republicans in the Congress yesterday made clear that a less ambitious, piecemeal approach might be more realistic for 2013.

Lawmakers are divided over how to update the nation’s immigration laws while also dealing with the 11 million undocumented foreigners living in the United States. Also complicating the passage of legislation this year is both parties’ efforts to woo Hispanic votes in the 2014 congressional elections.

In a State of the Union address the Democratic president delivered to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Obama declared, “Send me a comprehensive

immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.”

Obama’s top immigration official, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to reinforce the administration’s position.

“Our immigration system is not just broken, it is hurting our country.... and the way to fix it is with comprehensive immigration reform,” Napolitano said.

But conservative Republicans, who mainly questioned Napolitano on what they see as inadequate border security measures, made their case for more limited legislation.

“We might be better dealing with discrete problems” that have

bipartisan support rather than “massive immigration reform,” Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama told Napolitano.

Sessions’ comment echoed several Republicans in the House of Representatives suggested last week at an immigration hearing before that chamber’s Judiciary panel.

Republicans note that there is bipartisan support for luring more high-tech workers - mathematicians, engineers, computer specialists and others - from places like India and China. They also see broad backing in Congress for toughening verification of the legal status of workers employed by U.S. companies and improving the overall visa system that controls the (Continued on page 24)

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Syrian troops bombard rebel posts around capital AMMAN (Reuters) President Bashar al-Assad’s forces bombarded the southeast of Damascus with air strikes and artillery yesterday to try and dislodge rebel fighters who have gained a foothold in the Syrian capital, opposition activists said.

A Middle East diplomat following the military situation described battles in and around Damascus as a “major engagement”, with fighting going back and forth

between the two sides.

“The opposition is hitting Damascus from a multiple of directions and the regime is trying to stop it,” he said.

Jets bombed Jobar, a neighborhood adjacent to the main Abbasid Square, and the suburb of Daraya on the highway to Jordan to the south, sources in the capital said.

The two areas are part of interconnected Sunni Muslim districts in and around Damascus that have been at

the forefront of the 22-month uprising against four decades of family rule by Assad and his father.

Rebels entered Jobar last week after breaching the army’s defense lines at the ring road and overrunning several army and pro-Assad militia positions in the district.

The road, a supply line for elite army units dug in in the center of the city, separates the capital from the mostly rebel-held expanse of Sunni towns and suburbs

Frustrated Turkey still wants EU entry, but maybe not euro

Egemen Bagis LONDON (Reuters) Turkey is committed to joining the European Union despite mounting frustration over decades of talks on the issue, but has little appetite for adopting the euro currency, a senior Turkish official said yesterday.

In a speech in London, Turkey’s chief negotiator on EU accession said it was time the EU made up its mind on whether Turkey can join the 27-member bloc, and said it should be allowed in even if some countries object.

Talks on Turkish integration into Europe originally began in 1963, but the intractable dispute over the divided island of Cyprus - an EU member that Turkey does not recognize - have blocked talks on several policy issues candidate states must conclude before entry.

“We want to be in the EU, but the EU has to make a decision. The decision to start the negotiation process with Turkey was a unanimous decision, and only a unanimous decision can put an end to this process,” Egemen Bagis, EU affairs minister and senior member of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, said.

“If there’s one principle of the EU I would like to criticize it’s the unanimity principle ...

One single member country, the Greek Cypriots, can block the opening of the energy

chapter,” he said, accusing Cyprus of holding the EU “hostage”.

The island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greekinspired coup.

Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan has said the delay was “unforgivable”, warning that the EU would lose Turkey, a mostly Muslim and largely conservative country, if it was not granted membership by 2023.

Enthusiasm among the Turkish public for EU membership is waning given the bloc’s economic woes, particularly the sovereign debt crisis hitting some members of the currency union, but Bagis was confident any referendum would pass.

“If there was a vote today I could easily get a yes vote ... on membership of the EU, but I’m not so sure about joining the euro zone,” Bagis said.

That could pose problems for accession given that joining the euro zone single currency bloc is a condition for entry.

However, Bagis said economic circumstances and opposition to the euro and could change by the time accession is agreed.

Formal talks to join the EU have stalled since they were launched in 2005, and Turkey has completed only one of the 35 chapters need for entry.

On Tuesday, France said it was ready to unblock membership talks on one of the chapters, in contrast to its position under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said Turkey did not form part of Europe.

Bagis said France’s change of heart was “better late than never”, and lambasted “narrow minded” politicians who have objected to accession, citing discrimination and

Islamophobia.

Some EU countries express concern about Turkey’s handling of human rights, freedom of expression and treatment of minorities.

Turkey says it is addressing those concerns, and on Wednesday drafted changes to its penal code [ID:nL5N0BD3D9].

Bagis dismissed concerns about mass Turkish emigration to other EU countries after accession, saying that Turkey’s growing economic clout meant that it instead was at risk from immigration from other EU states.

“Of course, every nation has their pride. So does mine.

And no country has been kept in the waiting room for 54 years. Sometimes our reactions might seem emotional, but believe me if anyone else was in our shoes ...,” he said, referring to when Turkey applied for association with the then European Economic Community.

Turkey, a long-time NATO member, has seen its diplomatic influence rise alongside its economic prosperity. The Islamistrooted AK Party says Turkey has jumped to 16th largest economy in the world from 26th since it came to power in 2002.

Turkey’s stock is particularly high in the Middle East, where it is seen as a model for a prosperous Islamic democracy, and has won admiration for its tough stance on Israel.

Bagis touted Turkey’s sway in the Middle East as a major boon for Europe should it be allowed to join the EU. “The EU is the grandest peace project in the history of mankind ... Turkey, being the most eastern part of the West, and the most Western part of the East, can turn this continental project into a global peace project,” he said.

A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon to target a regime helicopter in the Aleppo district of Salaheddine. REUTERS/Aref Hretani known as eastern Ghouta.

“By being all over Jobar, the rebels are at striking distance in Damascus, but the big question is whether they will be able to hold it,” said an opposition activist from the Damascus Media Centre opposition monitoring group, To the southwest, near the main highway to Jordan, heavy bombardment was reported on the suburb of Daraya, where the army advanced in the last few days, breaking a two-month rebel hold.

The rebels remain entrenched in the south of the district near the main highway leading to Jordan, said Abu Hamza, a member of the Daraya Local Council, which has been administering the suburb since it was taken over by the opposition.

“Daraya is being hit with cluster bombs, vacuum bombs and rockets and we are receiving people for treatment from suffocation in the field hospital,’ he said.

“The fighting is fierce on

the edge of the town and in the area where regime forces managed to make incursions,” he added.

Daraya is part of Muaddamiya, a heavily populated working class Sunni Muslim district, one of multiple Sunni neighborhoods on the edge of the capital that have been at the forefront of the 22month uprising.

The ruling elite is dominated by members of Assad’s family, belonging to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Core Alawite forces from the Republican Guards and the Fourth Division, under the command of Assad’s feared brother Maher, have been shelling Sunni areas of the capital and suburbs from the Qasioun Mountain in the center of the city and surrounding hills and also from the Mezze Military airport located near the highway to Beirut to the west.

The rebel strategy appears to target cutting the

troops’ supply lines, which pass through the ring road and the suburb of Adra to the north east.

The army and a plethora of security forces remain entrenched in fortress-like bases in Damascus and the provincial capitals, where their advantages in air power and heavy weaponry have kept the opposition from taking over the major cities.

The head of the state arms exporter said yesterday Russia is still delivering weapons to Syria and will continue to do so.

The Syrian uprising is the bloodiest of the Arab revolts that toppled four autocrats in Libya, Egypt, Tunis and Yemen. The war has deepened the Middle East’s Shi’iteSunni divide.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday the death toll in Syria is likely approaching 70,000 with civilians paying the price for the U.N. Security Council’s lack of action to end the war.

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Thursday February 14, 2013

Ovation for Pope Benedict at final public mass VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A capacity crowd in St Peter’s Basilica gave Pope Benedict a thunderous standing ovation yesterday at an emotional last public Mass before he resigns at the end of the month.

“Thank you. Now, let’s return to prayer,” the 85-yearold pontiff said, bringing an end to several minutes of applause that clearly moved him. In an unusual gesture, bishops took off their mitres in a sign of respect and a few of them wept.

One of the priests at the altar, which according to tradition rests above the tomb of St Peter, took out a handkerchief to dry his tears.

The Mass was moved to St Peter’s from a venue in Rome so more people could attend. Hundreds of others waited outside.

Hours earlier in the Vatican’s modern audience hall, a visibly moved Benedict tried to assure his worldwide flock, saying he was confident his decision to step down would not hurt the Church.

The Vatican, meanwhile,

announced that a conclave to elect his successor would start sometime between March 15 and March 20, in keeping with Church rules about the timing of such gatherings after the papal see becomes vacant.

“Continue to pray for me, for the Church and for the future pope,” he said in unscripted remarks at the start of his weekly general audience, his first public appearance since his shock decision on Monday that he will step down on February 28.

It was the first time Benedict, 85, who will retire to a convent inside the Vatican, exchanging the splendor of his 16th century Apostolic Palace for a sober modern residence, had uttered the words “future pope” in public.

Church officials are still so stunned by the move that the Vatican experts have yet to decide what his title will be and whether he will continue to wear the white of a pope, the red of a cardinal or the black of an ordinary priest.

His voice sounded strong

at the audience but he was clearly moved and his eyes appeared to be watering as he reacted to the thunderous applause in the Vatican’s vast audience hall, packed with more than 8,000 people.

In brief remarks in Italian that mirrored those he read in Latin to stunned cardinals on Monday he appeared to try to calm Catholics’ fears of the unknown.

He message was that God would continue to guide the Church.

“I took this decision in full freedom for the good of the Church after praying for a long time and examining my conscience before God,” he said.

He said he was “well aware of the gravity of such an act,” but also aware that he no longer had the strength required to run the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church, which has been beset by a string of scandals both in Rome and round the world.

Benedict said he was sustained by the “certainty that the Church belongs to Christ, who will never stop

Pope Benedict XVI attends Ash Wednesday mass at the Vatican yesterday.

REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi guiding it and caring for it” and suggested that the faithful should also feel comforted by this.

He said that he had “felt almost physically” the affection and kindness he had received since he announced the decision.

When Benedict resigned on Monday, the Vatican spokesman said the pontiff did not fear schism in the Church after his resignation.

Some 115 cardinals under the age of 80 will be eligible to enter a secret conclave to elect his successor.

Cardinals around the world have already begun informal consultations by phone and email to construct a profile of the man they think would be best suited to lead the Church in a period of continuing crisis.

The conservative Benedict has appointed more than half of the cardinals who will elect his successor so it is unlikely the new man will tamper with any teachings such as the ban on artificial

birth control or women priests.

But many in the Church have been calling for the election of someone who they say will be a better listener to other opinions in the Church.

The likelihood that the next pope would be a younger man and perhaps a nonItalian, was increasing, particularly because of the many mishaps caused by Benedict’s mostly Italian top aides.

Benedict has been faulted for putting too much power in the hands of his friend, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Critics of Bertone, effectively the Vatican’s chief administrator, said he should have prevented some papal mishaps and bureaucratic blunders.

“These scandals, these miscommunications, in many cases were caused by Pope Benedict’s own top aides and I think a lot of Catholics around the world think that he was perhaps ill-served by

some of the cardinals here,” said John Thavis, author of a new book, The Vatican Diaries.

Benedict’s papacy was rocked by crises over sex abuse of children by priests in Europe and the United States, most of which preceded his time in office but came to light during it.

His reign also saw Muslim anger after he compared Islam with violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church’s business dealings, his butler was accused of leaking his private papers.

“When cardinals arrive here for the conclave ... they are going to have this on their mind, they’re going to take a good hard look at how Pope Benedict was served, and I think many of them feel that the burden of the papacy that finally weighed so heavy on Benedict was caused in part by some of this in-fighting (among his administration),” Thavis told Reuters.

Senate Republicans cast doubt...

From page 22 number of immigrants.

But most divisive is the emotional question of what to do about the millions of people who entered the United States illegally since 1986, when Congress last reformed immigration laws, and have been otherwise lawabiding residents.

Republicans have urged Obama first to improve border security and deal with people overstaying their visas before addressing the question of providing a path to citizenship for undocumented residents.

“I do not believe that the border is secure and I still believe we have a long, long way to go,” said Senator John

Cornyn of Texas, the secondranking Republican in the Senate.

Nonetheless, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont vowed to advance an immigration reform bill through his panel and leading Democrats have vowed to oppose narrow bills that do not help the 11 million undocumented.

Two of the committee’s Republican members, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona, are part of a bipartisan group that has unveiled a comprehensive plan.

Democrats are hoping that a strong, bipartisan vote in the Judiciary panel would

propel passage in the full Senate of a comprehensive bill and improve chances for action this year in the Republican-controlled House.

Trying to soothe Republican fears that legalizing the undocumented merely would encourage a flood of new illegal immigrants, Napolitano said: “Immigration enforcement now is light years away from what it was in 1986.

You can see it by the numbers.” She said the previously 3,000-member border patrol force is now at 21,000 and a few miles of chain-link fence has grown to 655 miles of “fence infrastructure.”

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Russia plans $25-$30 billion oil-for-loans deal with China LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rosneft is seeking to borrow up to $30 billion from China in exchange for possibly doubling oil supplies, making Beijing the largest consumer of Russian oil and further diverting supplies away from Europe.

Four industry sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that Rosneft was in talks with Chinese state firm CNPC about the borrowing, which would echo a $25 billion deal the two companies clinched last decade.

Rosneft said it was not currently in talks about obtaining a loan from China but declined to comment when asked whether it may enter in negotiations at a later date. In the previous deal, Rosneft and Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft borrowed money to help Rosneft acquire the assets of nationalized oil producer YUKOS while agreeing to build a pipeline to supply China with 300,000 barrels per day for 15 years.

This time, Rosneft wants to borrow money as it is close to completing a $55 billion acquisition of rival TNK-BP

to become the world’s largest listed oil producer.

Russia’s leading oil company, controlled by the Kremlin, is considering ultimately doubling supplies to China, sources said.

“It can be a combination of delivery options. The strategic line is to increase supplies to China,” one source familiar with the situation said.

“The reason why China is willing to lend is simple. They sit on over 3 trillion of dollars in reserves and are looking to diversify their investments,” he added, referring to China’s foreign exchange reserves of $3.3 trillion.

Rosneft and CNPC declined comment.

The first loan-for-supply deal between the two companies connected directly for the first time the world’s largest energy producer and consumer.

It came after a number of energy disputes between Russia and its neighbors which cut gas and oil supplies to Europe several times, drawing criticism and calls from the European Union for diversification away from

Russian energy resources.

Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated by saying Moscow would divert more energy to Asia.

Since then Russia has been steadily increasing crude exports to Asia at the expense of deliveries to Europe with flows due to amount to around 15 percent of Russian oil exports this year via pipelines to China and to the Pacific coast.

Should deliveries to China double, the share of Russian exports to Asia will amount to over a fifth of overall exports by the world’s largest oil producer and the second largest exporter after Saudi Arabia.

Energy relations between Moscow and Beijing have been, however, complicated in the past by disputes over oil shipping tariffs along the existing pipeline.

They were ultimately resolved after Russia agreed to apply a discount on supplies. The head of Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev, said this week that deliveries to China would rise over time.

“We are neighbors and we need to develop ties, especially given that China

has a crazy oil deficit,” he told business daily Kommersant.

Sources said it would take time before a final deal was reached and differences over various delivery options were resolved.

Finding the needed oil resources will also be challenging as Russia is several years away from a fresh increase in output in East Siberia, the region closest to China.

“They don’t know where they can source the oil and the route issue is a significant one,” one of the sources said.

The first source said discussions centered around doubling capacity of the existing pipeline to China by building a parallel link.

Volumes could be also topped up with deliveries from the Pacific port of Kozmino.

“Building a parallel link is certainly not nearly as expensive as building the first one from scratch,” he said.

A second source said a second link might be an overly expensive option and Russia could opt to increase the throughput capacity of the existing pipeline by adding pumping stations.

A third industry source said China was ready to lend as long as Rosneft agreed to ship more oil via Kazakhstan’s existing pipeline to China, which would soon be short of volumes due to depletion of some Kazakh fields.

“These discussions are under way on a working level,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said yesterday when asked about possible deliveries though Kazakhstan.

However, Transneft fiercely opposes the plan as it would cut its transport

earnings.

Whatever the approach, funding is a pressing issue for Rosneft.

It needs to borrow up to $40 billion to complete the TNK-BP acquisition. It has managed to cover its most immediate needs by lining up a syndicated loan as well as a $10 billion financing from traders Vitol and Glencore.

But it also needs dozens of billions of dollars to launch new huge fields in Russia’s Arctic and funds to finance a $25 billion refinery modernization program.

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Thursday February 14, 2013

Muslim cleric sues for false arrest, state offers no defence The Attorney General and the government have offered no form of defence in the Phillip Simon and Akbar Muhammad detention case.

Simon was arrested in May 2011, while looking for lawyers to represent Nation of Islam’s Abdul Akbar Muhammad, who had been detained on drug trafficking and terrorism allegations.

At the time, Muhammad was in Guyana to lecture in Buxton on the slave trade.

The two were subsequently released without charges and are now seeking substantial damages from the Attorney General and the Government of Guyana.

On Tuesday the AG Chambers had to lead their defence, but did not put forward any witnesses. The case was closed and Chief Justice Ian Chang’s decision is pending.

Last week Canada-based Guyanese, Phillip Simon, testified about being detained under horrendous conditions in the Brickdam Police Station lockups after being accused of participating in international terrorism and drug trafficking.

Simon is being represented

by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes.

Testifying in the High Court Simon stated that he is employed in the field of

electrical maintenance and resides at Morning Star, Montreal, Canada. He said that he arrived in Guyana on Monday, May 16, 2011 and had invited Mr. Akbar, who had lectured in Canada on the slave trade, to conduct a similar lecture in Guyana.

Simon stated that The Nation of Islam representative conducted a short lecture at a school in Buxton. He had two lectures scheduled for airing on Channel 9. Simon said, “On the 19th I was in my hotel located in Kitty and I went looking for lawyers for Minister Akbar Mohamed, who had been arrested.”

He said that after failing to find an attorney he spoke with a Government Minister on the phone. Following that, he went to CID Headquarters, where he was met by two police ranks. Simon testified that he was asked by a policeman about an individual named ‘Perreira’ and about his connections to ‘Perreira’.

“I told him (the policeman) I don’t know him, I met him before and I was trying to contact him for Mr. Akbar because he (‘Perreira’) would lead him (Akbar) to the Muslim community.

“They never asked me questions about terrorist

activities. They never asked me about any circumstance in which I was involved in acts of terrorism. They never asked me about any drug trafficking.

They never asked me about any circumstances in which I was alleged to be involved in drug trafficking.

“They never confronted me with any person who accused me of being involved in terrorism or trafficking in Narcotics. They never presented me with any document that implicated me in terrorism or any trafficking.

They never questioned me about any activities that surrounded terrorism or trafficking.”

According to Simon, the police ranks said that they were waiting for a call “before they release us… if the call did not come by seven they would take us to Brickdam.”

He said that they (himself, Akbar and another man, Tyrone Seymour) were eventually informed that they would be taken to CID Headquarters.

Simon stated that Tyrone Seymour is a barber and that he had often visited the man’s barber shop. He said that he had asked Seymour for Perreira’s number and had made several calls to ‘Perreira’ after getting the number.

According to Simon,

Seymour came to CID Headquarters on the afternoon of May 19, 2011, to bring him a book and was subsequently arrested.

Simon testified that he also spoke to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud. He said that Persaud questioned him about the Nation of Islam.

Before the date of his arrest he said that he visited the US about five times per year to visit the Nation of Islam in Chicago. I was never stopped. After May 20, 2011, “when I was released, I first attempted to go to the US. I was detained by the immigration authority concerning the matter I had in Guyana concerning the drug trafficking and terrorism.

They told me they would let me in, but I needed to get the matter cleared up,” Simon

testified.

Simon told the court that he contacted Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon. He said they had two conversations about the incident and “he asked what it would take for the matter to go away.”

Simon told the court that he returned to Guyana in February 2012 but was unable to make contact with Dr. Luncheon. He said that he never received an apology for his arrest or detention and never received any compensation or offer of compensation from the Guyana Police Force.

Noting that he was claiming damages for wrongful arrest, imprisonment and consequential loss, Simon stated that he felt “awful and

degraded to be put in a condition like that.”

Also testifying in the matter was Tyrone Seymour, a barber of Lot 4 Cove and John, East Coast Demerara.

He said that around 14:00 hrs on May 19, 2011, He visited CID Headquarters after Simon called him to deliver a book for him.

On arrival at CID Headquarters, a detective asked for his name and address. Seymour said that the detective then told him to sit on a bench and later told him that he was a suspect in terrorism.

“I was 28 years old at the time. I was never arrested for any criminal offence or accused of terrorism.”

Seymour said he was placed next to Mr. Simon and Mr. Muhammad in the same cell.

Bush Lot West Coast Berbice murder

Accused to know fate today as both prosecution, defence close case The accused in the Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice murder trial is expected to know his fate today. Both the prosecution and defence closed their case on Tuesday.

When the matter continues today both are expected to present their closing arguments to the mixed jury before Justice Brassington Reynolds sums up the case for the jury.

On trial for murder is Ramesh Sahadeo called “Bado”, 45, of Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice, who is accused of murdering 17year-old Darshanan Ramanan called “Tato” of the Bush Lot Housing Scheme on September 20, 2009 at Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice.

When the trial continued on Tuesday four more witnesses were called, among them Dr. Vivekananda Brijmohan, Superintendent of police Steven Mansell, and two eyewitnesses Vishal Dayaram and Sahadeo Jailall.

In court, Government Pathologist, Dr. Vivekananda Brijmohan, who was led in his testimony by State Prosecutor Attorney-at-law Dionne Mc Cammon, gave the cause of death as shock and hemorrhage due to an incised wound to the neck.

Superintendent Stephen Mansel testified that on the day in question he was stationed at the Fort Wellington Police station. He conducted the investigation and subsequently arrested the accused. The two eyewitnesses Vishal Dayaram and Sahadeo Jailall recounted that on the day in question they had witnessed the accused inflicting the wound to the neck of the deceased.

They had stated that this

was after an argument had ensued between the two men.

Sahadeo was armed with the cutlass while Ramanan was armed with a brick.

Earlier, after the state closed its case the accused opted to give an unsworn statement from the docks.

This was after he was told of the three options he had by Justice Reynolds. The accused stated that around 14:30 hrs on the day in question he left home to visit a friend named ‘Sweets’.

He continued that about half an hour after, he left ‘Sweets’s home and went for a walk further in the village.

He continued that whilst walking down Middle Dam he encountered three men. One of whom was Ramanan. He said that as he was about to pass. He accidently touched Ramanan who told him that “I don’t want no “Leper” man touch me.” He continued that they got into an argument and then a scramble as they fought he fell. He said that he subsequently got up and ran away after he heard one of the men telling Ramanan to bore and chop him. He went home and told his mother that

some boys want to kill him.”

He was subsequently arrested by the police and charged for the crime.

The former tractor operator of Bush Lot, West Berbice is accused of murdering the teenager following a misunderstanding.

Reports are that Ramanan was at the corner of the street while the defendant was passing and an argument ensued between them. It is alleged that Sahadeo dealt Ramanan a single chop to his neck and calmly walked away.

Ramanan was reportedly seen running frantically up and down the street a few times before collapsing to the ground, bleeding profusely.

He died before receiving medical attention. The police subsequently arrived at the scene. The defendant was later arrested and charged.

Testifying earlier were the mother of the deceased, Ceelena Ramanan, Daneshwar Persaud and Detective Corporal Dwayne Harvey. The accused is being represented by stateappointed attorney at law Raymond Ally.

Thursday February 14, 2013

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Thursday February 14, 2013

How the phrase ‘From Your Valentine’ was coined As businesses capitalise on the occasion of Saint Valentine’s Day which is highly anticipated by many and set to be observed the world over today (February 14), there is a small corner of the world where the true meaning of the day is expressed in actual words.

While it is common knowledge that the day is intended to express love in various ways mainly through the exchange of gifts, the National Library has for years been seeking to highlight the importance of the day in a very amorous way – in fact, in sheer words sprinkled with a touch of expressive ideas.

Mounted on the lower flat of the library is a display which showcases touching poems and messages which accentuate the importance of the occasion. In an attempt to give an answer to the question “What is Valentine’s Day?” National Library staffers were able to enlighten the reading public that Valentine’s Day is the traditional day on which lovers in certain cultures let each other know about their love commonly by sending cards, candy and flowers.

The history of the day can be traced back to an obscure Catholic Church feast day said to be in honour of Saint

Valentine. The day’s association with romantic love arrived after the high middle ages during which the concept of romantic love was formulated.

According to Chief Librarian, Gillian Thompson, although this year’s exhibit was downplayed compared to previous years, the undertaking has been an annual feature created by the library’s staffers.

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is premised on an age-old story which suggests that long ago, as early as the 4th century B.C., the Romans engaged in a pagan annual young man’s rite of passage to the god, Lupercus.

Willing, young and single women would put their names in a big bowl. Bachelors would eagerly draw a name out of the bowl and be matched with the woman picked. They would stay a couple for the year for mutual fun, enjoyment and entertainment, including sex.

That ritual was repeated the next year.

The church leaders were determined to put an end to that pagan, ‘un-Christian’ practice and sought a ‘lover’ saint to replace the god Lupercus. In their mind, a bishop by the name of

Valentine Day

Valentine, who had been martyred some 200 years before, became the most likely candidate.

That most likely candidate, Bishop Valentine had enraged Emperor Claudius II aka the Mad Emperor. Claudius needed good soldiers and felt that married men made poor soldiers as they regularly placed their priority on their families and were unwilling to

leave their families for battle.

Claudius abolished marriage consequently.

Bishop Valentine secretly invited the lovers to his place and married them. When Claudius learned about that, he was furious and had him arrested. Initially, Claudius tried to convert Valentine to the Roman gods as he was impressed with Valentine’s conviction. True to his conviction, Valentine

stubbornly refused and was executed unceremoniously.

According to the legend, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer while awaiting execution.

Valentine signed a message to her “From Your Valentine” before his death.

Till this day, that phrase has become so popular around the world. It is still currently used worldwide around Valentine’s Day.

The church leaders felt that Valentine would be the most ideal candidate to replace the god, Lupercus.

Pope Gelasius outlawed the pagan annual young man’s rite which was held in the middle of February. To mitigate the impact of that new law and to satisfy the Romans’ love for lottery games, he replaced that with a new lottery game.

Instead of putting the names of willing single women into the bowl, names of saints were put in. Both men and women would draw out the names of the saints.

They were then expected to emulate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn.

The spiritual overseer of the new rite was its patron saint, Valentine. Initially, most Roman males were obviously disappointed with the new lottery but with the passage of time, the pagan festival was forgotten and in its place was the now highly popular Saint Valentine’s Day. The phrase coined by St Valentine, “From Your Valentine” remains highly popularly and is regularly used today. ( S o u r c e : P a n a t i ’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, 1 st Edition, 1987, Harper & Row, New York)

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

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$16M Timehri market tarmac incomplete - Vendors forced to occupy market, no compensation for demolished stalls Despite the $16M Timehri Market Tarmac being incomplete the Public Works Ministry on Saturday last, demolished roadside stalls that were said to be encumbering the State’s reserves. Vendors who were able to enclose stalls allotted are open for business on the tarmac.

The market was relocated to facilitate the expansion of the Timehri Public Road from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to the Timehri Police Station into four-lane. The project started in August 2011 and vendors were knowledgeable that they had to relocate.

According to a vendor, Lorenzo Persaud, who operates a tailoring establishment, about three months ago a notice to

dismantle his stalls was served to him. He was awarded a stall on the new market facility and is displeased with its size. He believes that he was purposefully given a small stall because of his objection to the relocation.

The man related that he had several stalls on the roadside market and was erecting a two-storey stall when the Ministry demolished structures. His building materials worth about $200,000 have been destroyed.

Persaud has not moved onto the market tarmac and is still operating on the roadside in a makeshift stall with his main tool--a sewing machine.

He is adamant that vendors should be compensated for the stalls

Incomplete $16M Timehri Market Tarmac destroyed since they had to finance the construction of their own stalls on the tarmac.

Meanwhile, Radha Samaroo, a vendor, is already occupying the stall allotted to her on the tarmac. She is displeased with the manner in

Protests begin against absent Guyanese in Marriott construction

One of the protesters with Mark Benchop Guyanese are now beginning to protest the recent move by the government to support the Chinese Construction Company, Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), responsible for the Construction of the $US60M Marriott Hotel, in not hiring any local workers.

The people came out in their numbers yesterday to highlight their concerns over what they described as an “unfair” and “disrespectful” move made by the government to agree to the conditions of the Chinese construction company of not hiring local workers.

The protest was organized by Social activist, Mark Benschop outside Office of the President.

During the protest yesterday, protesters questioned the reason why the government sidelined the

local workers and allowed the Chinese to “call the shots.”

“Are the Guyanese not capable of working? Can you go to China or Japan as a Guyanese and get a job?

Why is the Government allowing the Chinese to do as they please?” a protestor, Shonnet Adams, questioned.

The woman, who hails from Agricola, said that there are many unemployed youths in her village who are desperately in need of jobs but are not getting because of the lack of jobs in the country. “There are people who have the qualifications and are not getting jobs here.

The President promised the Lindeners 2000 jobs; today not one job was offered to the Citizens. They were all offered to the Chinese,” the woman added.

The government had boasted that the project, which is costing some US$60

million, would create hundreds of jobs but months into construction there are no Guyanese workers at the site after repeated visits.

Chief Executive Officer for Atlantic Hotels Incorporated, Winston Brassington, came out in defence of the Chinese construction company and said that the use of a mostly Chinese labour force to construct the hotel was one of the conditions by the construction company to “control whom they employ.”

Benschop said that Guyanese were not even given the lowest job in the construction of the Marriott Hotel. “We respect foreign investors and they should respect our rights but if the Chinese are going to say they will only hire their people then there won’t be any respect there.” The 160-room hotel and entertainment complex is expected by February 2014.

which the demolition exercise occurred and the incompleteness of the tarmac.

Samaroo said that about a week ago a man informed vendors that “either we break our stalls and save materials or Government demolish the structures and destroy the materials”. As such, vendors had commenced dismantling their stalls. She said on Saturday when the demolition team arrived her stall was already being dismantled but the team still destroyed her materials.

The woman expressed surprise that the Ministry said

it spent $16M on the market tarmac and it is incomplete.

She pointed out that the mesh fencing is undone with the front open to the public and there is no proper bridge to enter the tarmac.

Currently, vehicles are using a resident’s pathway to access the tarmac.

The washroom facility which is aback the stalls is yet to be completed. During a tour of the tarmac it was observed that the sanitary block was built to facilitate two toilets. Though, vendors are occupying the tarmac and labourers are on site, one of

the washroom doors is closed and the other is without door, toilet bowl and cistern.

Samaroo noted that the stalls are without water and electricity. In addition, the drainage for the tarmac is now being erected and the crusherrun surface of the tarmac is wearing.

She said that many vendors are yet to build their stalls but do not have the finances.

The Ministry only erected the shed with a roof and no walls. Vendors were tasked with enclosing their stalls.

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Non-graduate science programme Another chased and nabbed aims to address shortfall of teachers with cocaine in Berbice In its quest to address the shortage of science teachers in the public education sector, the Ministry of Education has introduced a programme to ramp-up its quota of qualified teachers in this regard.

This move, according to the Ministry’s Science Coordinator, Petal PunalallJettoo, comes in recognition of the fact that the most important resources are the qualified science teachers.

“As a country we are short of teachers... even as a Region we are short”.

She said that the challenge is not unique to the Region, as it obtains internationally, even in developed countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. She noted that there is a global demand, “so our science teachers will get the pull to go elsewhere where salaries are much better than here.”

With a view to dealing with this challenge, PunalallJettoo said that the Ministry had strategically started looking at the data from the University of Guyana and the Cyril Potter College of Education, where it was observed that sufficient graduate teachers in science are not being produced.

Moreover, moves were made to introduce a non-

graduate programme for science teachers within the school system who were willing to teach science.

The programme is so designed that the Caribbean Examinations Council’s syllabi for Chemistry, Physics and Biology are used, whereby they are divided into modules and “we teach the teachers the same content at a higher level and they experiment so that they can go back and teach the children the required content.”

This undertaking, according to Punalall-Jettoo, was of utmost importance “because waiting for us to be supplied with graduate teachers, we will be losing a lot of our children in that period. So this is the initiative taken by the Ministry to help to solve the problem of a lack of science teachers.”

According to the Science Coordinator, with the advent of technology, there are many ideas that can be explored in terms of connecting classrooms, even with international consultants, which allow for easy access to skills and knowledge.

As such she noted that science today is not merely limited to the walls of the classroom.

“It is really giving us solutions with respect to

Science Coordinator, Petal Punalall-Jettoo, displays the Chemistry portfolio used by teachers of the non-graduate programme. where we can go as a country in terms of the Science Education Programme.”

The non-graduate programme, which spans a period of 18 months, was kicked into gear in 2009 and

an initial batch has since graduated and bolstered the Science-teaching capacity of the education sector.

A second batch has since commenced the programme in Regions Two and Six.

The protesters

The monument will be erected in recognition of the historic 1823 Demerara slave rebellion, in which enslaved Africans working on sugar plantations revolted and were killed.

On Tuesday, a member from ACDA questioned the reason for the government placing the monument on the

as Balgobin.

The man and the bottle which contained a whitish substance were taken into custody. The substance was tested and weighed and found to be nine grams of cocaine.

Balgobin was charged and appeared on Wednesday at the Reliance Magistrate’s court before Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo charged with possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

In court he pleaded not g u i l t y.

Prosecutor Sergeant Phillip Sheriff appeared for the State and asked that bail be refused and that the statutes should apply.

Balgobin was refused bail and will return to court on March 13, 2013.

More than 30 persons from Moruca in the North West District who worked for the Bureau of Statistics during the national census have not been paid.

John Torres, a farmer, who worked as an enumerator, told Kaieteur News that no one from the Bureau of Statistics has contacted them regarding the payments. From his calculation, Torres said that he is owed an estimated $100,000, and a similar amount is owed to the other 31 workers.

Contacted yesterday, a senior official of the Bureau of Statistics said that the payments are being prepared, but she could not give a definitive date when the workers would be paid. She said they would receive their money “soon.”

The Moruca census workers, like those who were hired around the country, started working in September, and most of them would have wrapped up their work midDecember last year.

Moruca Census workers still without pay

Umana Yana attracts protest over 1823 Monument site

A group of persons from the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) along with newspaper columnist, Freddie Kissoon, yesterday staged a protest in front of the Umana Yana, Kingston, against the government’s decision to place the 1823 monument at the seawall.

Marlon Balgobin, 36, a known character of Victoria Street, Cumberland, East Canje, Berbice is the latest alleged drug dealer to be nabbed by police in Berbice; in their fight against drug dealers in the ancient county.

On Tuesday the police, acting on information, moved in at a house situated at Victoria Street Cumberland Berbice.

On arrival at the premises they noticed a man hastily exiting the house and running out of the yard with a bottle in his hands. The police gave chase and the man discarded the bottle in some bushes.

The police picked up the bottle and continued to give chase where they subsequently apprehended the man who was identified

seawall which has nothing to do with the seawall.

“They have decided to put the monument at the seawall, but the place that is more suitable is the Parade Ground because that is the execution ground; that is where the leaders of the 1823 revolts w e r e k i l l e d , ” A C D A’s

member, Penda Guyan said.

According to Clementine Marshall, another member from ACDA, “The 1823 monument has nothing to do with the seawall.”

The persons are demanding that the monument be placed at the Parade ground.

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Thursday February 14, 2013

DTV CHANNEL 8 07:55 hrs. Sign On 08:00 hrs. DTV’s Festival of Biblical Movie for the Lenten Season: “In the Beginning” 11:00 hrs. Roseanne 12:00 hrs. The View 13:00 hrs. Prime News 13:30 hrs. The Young and the Restless 14:30 hrs. The Bold and the Beautiful 15:00 hrs. The Talk 16:00 hrs. Without a Trace 18:00 hrs. World News 18:30 hrs. The Wayans Bros 19:00 hrs. Greetings and Announcements 21:00 hrs. The Big Bang Theory 21:30 hrs. Two and a Half

Kaieteur News

Man 22:00 hrs. Person of Interest (New Episode) 23:00 hrs. Elementary (New Episode) 00:00 hrs. Sign Off NCN CHANNEL 11 05:00 hrs – Inspiration 06:00 hrs – NCN Late Edition News(r/b) 06:30 hrs – BBC 07:00 hrs – Guyana Today 08:00 hrs – Feature 09:00 hrs – Stop the Suffering 10:00 hrs – Finance Minister Press Conference (r/b) 11:00 hrs – History 12:00 hrs – CNN 12:30 hrs – NCN Newsbreak 12:35 hrs – Caribbean

Passport (r/b) 13:00 hrs – Movie – The Big Soldier 14:00 hrs – NCN Newsbreak 15:00 hrs – Children’s Mash 16:00 hrs – NCN Newsbreak 16:05 hrs – Children’s Mash continued 16:30 hrs – Georgetown Children’s Mash 2013 17:00 hrs – Anderson 18:00 hrs – NCN News Magazine – Live 18:30 hrs – Farming Today 19:00 hrs – Al Jazeera 19:30 hrs – NIS & YOU 20:00 hrs – 3d/daily millions/ play de dream/lotto draw 20:05 hrs – NCN Newsbreak 21:10 hrs – Reflections – The Media in Guyana – P2 (r/b)

Thursday February 14, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) It’s easy to be in touch with your inner world now that the Moon is visiting your sign, but it’s not so simple to say what’s on your mind while in the presence of others. You may grow restless if you feel constrained by current circumstances.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) You might be overly pushy today when sharing something you would normally keep to yourself.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Although you may be excited about an upcoming event, remember that others might not share your enthusiasm.

Your current tendency is to try even harder to get a positive response if they don’t offer the support you expect.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Your drive for success may have you up at the crack of dawn today as if there might not be sufficient time to accomplish all the tasks on your list. But your eagerness could fade when you realize that everything will require extra effort.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) You’re ready to fly away as a yearning for an exotic adventure beckons you to go somewhere special.

Unfortunately, it may not be that simple, unless you can make it a lunchtime getaway.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Something might be bothering you today, but it’s difficult to put your finger on exactly what it is. You’re excited because you think you have found a brilliant solution to an ongoing problem, but the answer slips away before you can grab hold of it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) The independent Aries Moon in your 7th House of Companions encourages you to reassert your needs within a professional or personal relationship. Go ahead and express what you want without blaming anyone else or you might run the risk of losing ground rather than gaining it.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) This is an excellent day to concentrate on the details of unfinished business and to efficiently handle mundane matters.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) You might wish that today was a play day, even if there are many things on your todo list. Nevertheless, your optimism could turn even the most tedious chore into a pleasurable activity.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) Be careful how you express your displeasure at home today, for the tiniest annoyance could quickly escalate into something bigger. A dramatic display of your anger is ill advised, for others might overreact to whatever you say now.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) If you aren’t careful about how much you try to accomplish today, you might end up exhausting yourself.

You are easily encouraged to begin a new project before considering the impact it could have on your current workload.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Awareness of what you have to offer others today may come in a sudden burst of inspiration, but your realization is more than just some passing fantasy.

22:00 hrs – NCN News Late Edition 22:35 hrs – Caribbean Newsline 23:00 hrs – Movie

Guides are subjected to change without notice

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Bolt’s court appearance: Olympic legend will play in celebrity basketball game

Usain Bolt strikes his famous pose at a Manchester United game (Ian Hodgson)

Daily Mail - Usain Bolt has a court date - but don’t be alarmed, the world’s fastest man is merely swapping his spikes for trainers to play in a special celebrity basketball match ahead of the 62nd NBA AllStar Game.

The two-time Olympic 100 metres and 200m champion who one said he could play football for Manchester United - will be the star in a special ‘Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity game’ with NBAAllStars James Harden of the Houston Rockets and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder acting as West

Williams, Sharapova cruise into third round in Qatar

Serena Williams of U.S returns the ball to Daria Gavrilova of Russia during their women’s match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha February 12, 2013. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad (Reuters) - Serena Williams began her campaign to return to world number one at the Qatar Open by beating Russian Daria Gavrilova while Maria Sharapova, among the American’s rivals for top spot, also progressed on Tuesday.

Second-seed Williams, who will reclaim the number one position if she reaches the semi-finals, enjoyed a 6-2 6-1 second-round win against the 160th-ranked Gavrilova.

The 15-times grand slam winner has not topped the rankings since October 2010, but is close to returning to the pinnacle having claimed last year’s Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles. Williams, who has now won 57 of her last 60 matches, broke Gavrilova in the sixth game of the first set and then raced away with the match in 54 minutes.

Question marks hung over

the world number two’s fitness heading into the event after she lost in the Australian Open quarter-final last month while suffering with back and ankle injuries.

“Mostly I’ve just been trying to play smoothly and avoid problems, and just do the things I’ve been working on,” Williams said on the WTA website (www.wtatennis.com).

“Physically I’m feeling better, and hopefully I can stay on that level. Let’s go onto the next round now.”

Third-ranked Sharapova broke serve in the first game against France’s Caroline Garcia before cruising to a 63 6-2 win in one hour and 16 minutes. It was a rematch of their tussle at the French Open two years ago when the Russian found herself 6-3 4-1 down before rallying for a three-set victory.

“I had a really tough

match against her in our previous encounter, so I really wanted to start better this time, as opposed to the way I started against her last time,” Sharapova said.

“I think she’s an up-andcomer who is still making that transition from the juniors to the pros. It’s one of the toughest things getting your feet on the ground with the game itself but I think we will be seeing her for many more years.”

French Open champion Sharapova also has a slim chance of returning to the top spot but needs to win the tournament and hope Williams falls short of the last four and current world number one Victoria Azarenka fails to reach the final.

Belarussian Azarenka was down to get her campaign underway with a second round match against Romina Oprandi yesterday.

and East team coaches respectively.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN at midnight on Friday.

That match will be followed by the top Rookies and Sophomores – the best first year and second year players - compete in the ‘BBVA Rising Stars Challenge’.

The two teams will be captained by NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Players include rookie sensation Damien Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers; Anthony Davis, the first pick in the 2012 NBA Draft and dazzling Spanish pointguard Ricky Rubio.

Saturday night brings the 2013 Sprite Slam Dunk where the league’s top dunkers take to the court. Previous winners include Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant.

This year’s contests will feature six dunkers competing in a two-round competition and will include defending

Champion Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz. All-Star Saturday Night will feature performances by British pop sensation Ellie Goulding, American Idol Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips, and recently reunited pop punk band Fall Out Boy. Activities get underway at 1am GMT and the evening is set to be broadcast live on

ESPN UK. The 62nd NBA All-Star Game takes place on Sunday, and will be on Sky Sports and ESPN at 1am.

The NBA’s showpiece event sees the star players in the Eastern Conference take on the stars of the Western Conference and will reach fans in more than 215 countries and territories in more than 47 languages.

Centuries for Ajib...

From page 41 At Rose Hall in Canje, Celebrity Times beat Canefield by 104 runs.

Celebrity Times 213 in 30 overs with Wahied Edwards 44, Leon Sunthgolam 2 for 37, Mohan Balgobin 2 for 38.

Canefield 109 in 28 overs with Wahied Edwards 3 for 13, Totaram Seenanan 3 for 27, Sean Jhetto 2 for 15. At No. 48, No. 48 Challengers beat Leeds/No. 51 Young Star by 4 wickets. Leeds/No.51 Young Star 140 in 25.1 overs with Ewart Williams 35, Balram Persaud 3 for 19, Bodanauth Kalimootoo 3 for 7, Joseph

Brijbilas 2 for 27, Rayon Ameir 2 for 32.

No. 48 Challengers 141 in 15.4 overs with Parmeshwar Badrinarine 42, Dellon Harvey 4 for 25. At Cotton Tree, Sundown beat Cotton Tree Die Hard by 5 runs.

Sundown 148 in 27.4 overs with Permaul Singh 42, Imran Allie 28, Krishna Shewtahal 3 for 13, Waqar Hassan 3 for 15, Abzal Haroon 2 for 29.

Cotton Tree Die hard 143 in 23.3 overs with Pooran Persaud 41, Sohail Saffie 3 for 23, Permaul Singh 2 for 12, Akram Rahaman 2 for 35.

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WEST INDIES GIRLS HOLD THEIR NERVE FOR FINAL SPOT ESPNcricinfo - A spirited West Indies women stormed into their first World Cup final with a massive win over fivetime champions Australia in their last Super Six match at the MIG Ground in Mumbai.

The margin of victory - eight runs - was not massive but the result put defending champions England and last edition’s runners-up New Zealand out of contention for a place in the final. The win is also West Indies’ first against Australia, who had been unbeaten in this World Cup. Defending 164, the odds were against West Indies as Australia were comfortably placed at 130 for 4 and needed 35 runs from more than 11 overs. But three quick wickets, of Alex Blackwell, Jodie Fields and Julie Hunter, in the space of 14 balls turned the match on its head. West Indies, led by Shanel Daley and Stafanie Taylor, lifted their bowling and fielding, taking the last six wickets, which included three runouts, for 26 runs.

It looked like Australia would cruise to victory when Blackwell and Fields had

stabilised the innings from 89 for 4. West Indies had not given up and once Blackwell was given lbw in Taylor’s third spell, they went for the kill. Five balls later, in the last Powerplay over, Fields took the risk of going over mid-off but handed an easy catch to Juliana Nero. And before the new batsman, Julie Hunter, could get a grasp of the situation, she was run out by an accurate throw from Anisa Mohammed.

With 34 to win off nine overs, Daley had an over left and Taylor had two. Aguilleira decided to go with Taylor and she targeted the inexperienced Renee Chappell, who fell to another lbw decision. Erin Osborne scored two consecutive boundaries and brought the equation to 14 from 22. A misfield in the next over gave her four more runs and Australia a chance to breathe.

However, if bowling was not working, West Indies did it with their fielding. Confusion between Osborne and Megan Schutt and another accurate throw reduced Australia to 156 for 9. Now Daley had the

ball and when Osborne tried to scoop her over the keeper, it took an edge and ballooned into Aguillera’s gloves to seal the victory for West Indies.

What followed were scenes and steps the West Indies players would not have rehearsed for. It was the longest walk back for Osborne and Ferling, and the West Indies players were sprinting all over the ground in the sun.

When West Indies had chosen to bat, Australia’s pace attack didn’t let them breathe much. The opening bowlers had been effective in every match; the highest opening partnership against them being 11 and West Indies were not treated differently.

Their first wicket fell on 17.

While Julie Hunter kept the run rate in check with her precision, Schutt struck twice in her first spell from the other end when she had Juliana Nero edging to the wicketkeeper and trapped Shemaine Campbelle lbw for a duck. Natasha McLean, meanwhile, found boundaries through the covers.

There was no sign of

Taylor until then as Kyshona Knight joined McLean and Australia replied with their first bowling change, introducing Holly Ferling. She trapped McLean, who had done the bulk of the scoring, in her first over - a maiden.

Taylor came in at No. 5 but Ferling’s fiery spell had just begun. She struck twice in three overs and was dominating with her pace and bounce. Ferling and Schutt made sure only one West Indies batsman out of their top six scored in double digits.

West Indies were reeling at 59 for 5 in the 19th over and their only hope of putting up a respectable score was Deandra Dottin. At No. 7, she did not seem perturbed by the

fall of wickets, unleashing three boundaries in her first five balls to ease the nerves a little bit. Lisa Sthalekar took the next wicket, of Aguilleira, who had supported Dottin in a 27-run partnership. Schutt returned for her second spell and struck with the wicket of Shanel Daley, who played-on to her second ball.

The fall of wickets was halted by Dottin and 17-year old Shaquana Quintyne.

While Dottin kept the score ticking, Quintyne made sure she rotated the strike and did not play any reckless shots.

Dottin’s two fours through the off-side in the 29th over brought up the team’s hundred, and she soon brought up her 50 from 54

balls.

When the Powerplay started in the 36th over, all eyes were on Dottin. After a powerful four off the first ball she faced, she came down the track to Osborne, missed the ball completely and was bowled. Australia would have restricted West Indies to under 150 had it not been for Quintyne and Anisa Mohammed, and the 15 wides bowled conceded. Tremayne Smartt struck two boundaries at the end before she was caught at point, which ended the West Indies innings.

Scores: West Indies 164 (Dottin 60, Ferling 3-27, Schutt 3-50) beat Australia 156 (Blackwell 45, Daley 322) by eight runs.

GABBFF plans hectic 2013 - muscles off with fund-raising schedule bachelor auction & BBQ on March 30 The recently elected Executive of the Guyana Amateur Body Building & Fitness Federation (GABBFF) has outlined a hectic programme of activities for this year commencing with a fund raising bachelors auction and bar-b-que on March 30 at the Poolside of Olympic House, High Street.

President, Keavon Bess, who was re-elected for a second term on February 3 at Olympic House said that his federation will be working with all stakeholders to ensure that the sport continues its

upward climb.

It was disclosed that the federation will be introducing some new initiatives to the bodybuilding scene in Guyana one of which will be a schools boy’s competition possibly in May but discussions are still ongoing in this regard.

The Novice (Mr. & Miss Physique) show which attracted record numbers last year at a sold out Theatre Guild, will take place in April this year but this time, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall,

MSC AGM set for March 7 The Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on March 7, 2012 at 18:30hrs at the Club’s Premises, 17 Thomas Road, Thomas Lands, Georgetown.

The items on the agenda are Reading of the Notice convening the meeting, Confirmation of AGM Minutes, Presentation of the President’s 2012 Report,

Auditors’ Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2012, Election of the 2013/2014 Executive, Appointment of an Auditor and Consideration of any business or motion of which due notice shall be given.

All members are reminded that only those in good financial standing will be eligible to vote and /or stand for office.

Positive Vibes FC 7-a-aide tourney pushed back The Positive Vibes Football Club organised 7-a-side football tournament which was scheduled to get underway on Saturday at the Paradise Playfield has been pushed back and will now get underway on Sunday March 3.

The reason for the rescheduling according to a release from the club, is the current Banks DIH sponsored Guinness Greatest of the Streets Futsal competition, the final is set for this Saturday at the Buxton Playfield.

The organisers have apologised for any inconvenience the rescheduling might have caused but is urging teams to continue their preparations for what is anticipated to be an exciting competition.

Keavon Bess the venue where the Senior competition was held last year.

Barbadian Steven Bells will be the guest poser and he will be accompanied by his personal trainer.

Apart from a vigorous sponsorship campaign, the federation will also be visiting gyms around Guyana to interface with members and to share the vision of the body with them. Seniors will be held in July at a venue and date to be decided.

The federation will also be working towards sending a team to the CAC championships in September as well as the annual Darcey Beckles show in Barbados set for October.

Meanwhile, the other members of the GABBFF Executive are, Hugh Ross (Vice President), Melissa Sookram (Treasurer), Kalvin Homer (Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer), Videsh Sookram (Organising Secretary).

The six Committee Members are Compton Bobb, Kirk Jardine, Larry DaCosta, Franklyn Brisport-Luke, Azam Bacchus and Melroy Grant.

Thursday February 14, 2013

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Unique Entertainment/Banks Premium Beer Futsal Classic...

Organisers anticipating exciting climax

New Era Russians. The Amelia’s Ward based team that is a sleeping giant in the tournament It started with 32 teams all having the same hope of cashing in on the $500,000 first prize. But as the story goes, only eight remain though the hopes and aspirations have all escalated, resembling reality.

That’s the tale of the Unique Entertainment/Banks Premium Beer Futsal Classic which has taken the town of Linden by storm.

The event will conclude on Sunday February 17 with the organisers anticipating an exciting climax to what have been the most talked about sporting event in the mining community.

Many hearts have been broken, some even coupled with tears while the leading candidates and tournament favourites are still around with

their popularity getting bigger.

One such team is Hard Knocks ‘A’. Though it’s two of them, in the competition it’s the team that’s led by crafty John Waldron that have developed a reputation of being the team to beat.

Their 19 goals scored on the tournament’s opening night is yet to be emulated while their rock solid defence led by Randy Small is yet to be penetrated.

Another team that’s poised on getting to the finals, unless they’re miraculously overpowered before doing so is New Era Russians; the team led by Travis ‘Chicken’ Waterton and hails from the A m e l i a ’s Wa r d community.

Waterton and Goalkeeper

Odel Allicock have led their team, winning in convincing manner in the process.

When the tournament continues on Friday, Silver Bullets will collide with Young Spartans in the opening game, the Russians and Weis-de-Boss will do battle in the second, while Top Class faces Hard Knocks two and Hard Knock ‘A’ and Phoenix rounds off the four match night.

The semi-finals and finals will be played on February 17.

Meanwhile, the organisers expressed their heartfelt thanks to the teams for displaying a highly competitive nature in making the event a success.

According to one member of the Unique Entertainment, it’s the players who are

LeBron James sets new shooting mark before home crowd

Portland Trail Blazers’ Aleksandar Pavlovic (L) defends as Miami Heat’s LeBron James shoots in the first half of their NBA basketball game in Miami, Florida February 12, 2013.

REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity

(Reuters) - LeBron James’ red-hot shooting hit record level on Tuesday as he became the first NBA player ever to score 30 points while shooting 60 percent in six straight games. James tallied 30 points, nine assists and six rebounds to lead the Miami Heat to a 117-104 victory over Portland Trail Blazers on a night he reached unparalleled efficiency in front of his home crowd.

The three-time league MVP made 11 of his 15 shots and is shooting an incredible 71 percent from the field over his last six games.

Only Adrian Dantley and Moses Malone had previously achieved the 30-point, 60percent mark in five consecutive contests.

“I’m at a loss for words,” James told reporters. “I know how many unbelievable players who came through the ranks. For me to be in the record books by myself with such a stat - any stat - it’s big time.”

James’ latest performance helped the Heat (35-14) seize a three-game lead atop the Eastern Conference.

Hard Knocks ‘A’ certainly the team to beat. responsible for bring out the mammoth crowd that they have been enjoying so far.

“I think we can’t stop thanking the players and the people of Linden for the

support shown to the tournament. I think the level of play as well has been overwhelming and one could only imagine what will happen this weekend,” he said.

This is Unique Entertainment’s first venture into organising a sporting event, since they are more common around the entertainment spectrum.

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Wilson appointed to CFU Caribbean Premier League Marketing & Media Committee to contract 90 players Franklin Wilson

President (ag) of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Franklin Wilson has been appointed to the Marketing and Media Committee of the Caribbean Football Union and will serve until the Union’s elections in 2016.

The Committee will be chaired by Cheney Joseph of Grenada who is also a Vice President of the CFU. The other members of the committee are Egbert Lacle (Aruba), Neil Cochrane (Antigua & Barbuda), Canover Watson (Cayman Islands), Hector Martinez

(Puerto Rico) and Stanley Jacobs (St. Kitts-Nevis).

According to the CFU, the committee will be guided by its Terms of Reference the CFU Executive Committee Policies and the CFU Statutes (2012 Edition) and is expected to make a significant contribution to the transformation of the CFU that begun in December 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland and culminated with the election of a new Executive in May 2012 in Budapest, Hungary.

The Marketing & Media Committee is a Standing Committee of the CFU.

CFU General Secretary Damien Hughes said that he has every confidence that the committee will bring added value to the administration of football, and in particular, in the area in which it has been appointed to serve.

The goal of the Committee shall be to raise the professional, financial and visual profile, image and identity of the CFU through the effective use of the region’s media and the mutually beneficial relationships fostered between and among the CFU, government, civil society and the private sector.

Members of the committee will also provide support for CFU marketing events and initiatives; and act as football ambassadors for CFU at Union and Confederation levels. Wilson also served as a member of the CFU Normalisation Committee and is a member of the FIFA Development Committee.

Diane Ferreira-James was appointed to the CFU Referees Committee.

ESPNcricinfo - The Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the inaugural edition of which is set to begin on July 29, will include six franchises with 90 contracted players in all.

Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Kieron Pollard have been named ‘franchise players’.

Each of these icon players will turn out for one of the six teams, which are likely to be from Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

This was announced by the WICB, alongside Verus International - the Barbados and USA-based company that is funding the Twenty20 league - during a press conference in St James on Tuesday. The CPL agreement between Verus International and the West Indies board stands for a minimum of 20 years.

This tournament, the WICB reaffirmed, will replace the existing Caribbean T20 as region’s domestic Twenty20 competition.

The financial benefits that the league will offer the players are a big positive, WICB president Julian Hunte said: “The WICB is elated with the agreement, which will allow for regional retainer contracts for a broad pool of players. These contracts will be funded by the CPL to the tune of US$360,000 annually.

This significant investment will truly allow for

cricketers in the Caribbean to pursue their profession as professionals.”

The icon players will not necessarily represent their country in the league. Dirk Hall, managing director of Verus International, said this was to ensure better balance: “The CPL has chosen the top six T20 players in the region based on their stats and performances in this format of the game. Doing it this way ensures that each team is bolstered by a talented, top West Indian player, and that there is balance and fairness across the board on all six teams.” The CPL is also looking to rope in six international ‘franchise players’, one for each franchise. Every franchise will contract 15 players in all, with a maximum of four overseas signings. Of the regional players, at least six must be from the franchise country (in the case of St Lucia, locals will include players from the Windwards Islands and the in case of Antigua, players from the Leeward Islands) and four must be under-23 players.

Apart from the appointed icon players, the rest of the squads will be assembled via a draft system, the working details of which are as yet unknown. The WICB confirmed that the tournament’s schedule has been drawn up so that the dates do not clash with any other West Indies international or domestic tournaments, or the IPL. All contracted players will be under an obligation to turn out for their franchises in the tournament. The inaugural edition will include 30 group matches, followed by an eliminator and a final. Each of the franchises will play the other five on a home and away basis during the group stage. The 2014 edition of the CPL is scheduled to be played between July 5 and August 10, while the 2015 tournament will run from June 21 to July 26.

Exciting matches envisaged as tournament continues

Guyana Beach Football Association League Cup...

Three exciting quarterfinal matches are slated to be contested when action continues this evening in the Guyana Beach Football Association (GBFA)/Banks DIH League Cup tournament at the Bayroc Sand Reserve Ground, Linden.

The preliminary round is ended and the teams will be cognizant of the fact that losers will have to walk the plank as the knockout stage commences. The opening encounter will see Eagles coming up against Blueberry Hill with the former team entering as the favourites.

Denzil Warde, scorer of one of the fastest goal of the tournament (2.30secs), will lead the Blueberry Hillside while national selectee, Deron Smith and Vowhayne Hamilton will spearhead the Eagles’ challenge.

Game two will see Winners colliding with the youthful Silvertown All Stars and fans could be assured of an entertaining clash. Charles Harvey has shown his ability in earlier matches and will lead Winners’ challenge with

support from Steve Brewley.

Their opponents, Silvertown, have had a rocky start to the campaign but recovered remarkably after making crucial adjustments. They pose a credible lineup of youthful players with Marmarlaque Davidson who, at 16years is the youngest player to be selected for national duties at this format.

Then there is the consistent Mark Hope, who is expected to lend valuable support.

The final match will pit the skills of Alikyu SC against Wisroc. The former team is relatively new to this format but its brilliance on the field belies this fact. They have ousted much vaunted ‘Cool Runnings’ despite that team’s formidable lineup which included leading goal scorer, the dependable, Claude Dennis.

Wisroc also boast a formidable lineup in national players Deshawn Joseph and Colric Beckles but they will need to draw on all their experience to take out Alikyu whose lineup includes several formidable stars including Odel Allicock, Claude

Bennie and Andel Norville.

Shattas should have played Timehri this evening but that game has been pushed back to Saturday after the latter team encountered problems with their travel arrangements.

This game can go either way as both teams field competent players.

Timehri will be led by the Steele brothers, Orin and Michael, with support from Ryan Scott while Shattas will rely heavily on the prolific Colwyn David with support from Joshawn Freeman.

The tournament is providing valuable practice for the players following selection of a national team by the GBFA for possible participation at the impending World Cup Qualifiers scheduled for Nassau Bahamas May 15-19 next.

General Coordinator (GBFA), Rollin Tappin told Kaieteur Sport that selectors are paying keen interest in the development of the players even as they await word from the GFF for ratification of the list.

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

Georgetown Softball League...

Ishmeal, Reddy, Deosarran hit half centuries in latest action Shafik Ishmael, Ryan Reddy and S. Deosarran slammed half centuries as play in the Georgetown Softball League cricket competition continued last Sunday at the Everest Cricket Club ground.

In the open category, Ishmael stroked 63 and got support from Buddhan Baksh 47 as Herstelling posted 1471 after the game was reduced to 10 overs, batting first against Accomplishment XI who were bowled out for 50 in 7.3 overs in reply. R. Lochan made 18 as Nathan Narine took 3-6 to help his team won the game by 98 runs.

Challengers XI overcame Trade Man XI by 88 runs.

Challengers took first strike and scored 134-4 in 12 overs.

Shan Boodram 37 and Zaheer Persaud 34 were their leading batsmen, while Reaz Khan snared 3-6. Trade Man XI responded with 46-7 in 12 overs with Rafman Khan scoring 18; Mark Fung grabbed 3-10.

Success Warriors got the better of LBI Top Gun by 6 wickets. LBI batted first and mustered 88-8 in 12 overs with K. Persaud scoring with 15, Extras contributed 21 as Satesh Ramsarran captured 317. Success Warriors then replied with 89-4 in 7.4 overs.

Robindra Jaikeshan led with 32, while K. Persaud took 2-

13.

Farm XI defeated Herstelling by 16 runs. Farm XI took first turn at the crease and rattled up 102-5 in 12 overs. Ryan Reddy slammed 61 not out and Abdool Saddik assisted with 23; Nathan Narine picked up 2- 12.

Herstelling in reply were bundled out for 86 in 12 overs with Imtiaz Mohamed scoring 20; Patrick Khan claimed 315.

Farm XI triumphed over Princess XI by 38 runs. Farm XI scored 138-5 in 12 overs, taking first strike. Patrick Khan 31 and Lennox Mark 29 were their principal scorers; Vishal Beharry took 2-10 for Princess XI who were bowled out for 100 in 9.3 overs in response. Nawass Karim made 22 and Navin Beharry got 20 while Rawle Reid and John Singh bagged 2 wickets apiece.

Speed Boat XI knocked over Trophy Stall by 4 wickets. Trophy Stall took first turn at the crease and managed 91-6 in 12 overs with S. Deosarran scoring 54, while Imran Hamid claimed 2-11.

Speed Boat XI replied with 936 in 9.2 overs. Greg Singh made 26 and Wazir Hussain 20. Randy Kittwarru had 2-25 and K. Ramnauth 2-14.

In the Masters category, Frontline went down to Park Rangers by 3 wickets.

Frontline scored 151-7 in their

allotted 20 overs batting first.

Dennis Mangru top the batting with 41while Extras contributed a healthy 38 as Ron Ramnauth snared 3-21 and Rickey Persaud 2-28.

Park Rangers reached their target in 19.2 overs for the loss of 7 wickets finishing on 153. Extras played an important part in their victory with 43 while Eon Abel made 22. Dennis Mangru and Rudy Rodrigues captured 3 and 2 wickets respectively.

The competition continues on Sunday with Wolf Warriors facing LBI Top Gun, Regal taking on Success Warriors, Wolf Warriors playing Young Guns, Farm versus Trade Man XI, Herstelling entertaining Challengers XI, Farm XI clashing with Superior Woods, Herstelling coming up against Princess XI and Regal doing battle with Better Hope in the Male Open.

Regal will play Super Star, Bedi Masters XI will take on Park Rangers, Success Masters clashing with Savage Masters and Everest trading their skills with Frontline Masters in the over 35 matches.

Trophy Stall Angels and Lady Jags will face off, Well Woman will meet Lioness, Trophy Stall Angels will play Regal and Mikes Well Woman face Lady Jags in the female games.

CONCACAF President Webb extends sympathy - on passing of Prof. Aubrey Bishop & Winston DeHaarte

Jeffrey Webb President of CONCACAF Jeffrey Webb has extended condolences to the football fraternity in Guyana on the passing of Professor Aubrey Bishop and Winston DeHaarte who both served Guyana’s football with distinction during their respective lifetime.

Following is the full context of the letter addressed to Guyana Football Federation President (ag), Franklin Wilson.

Dear President Wilson, On behalf of the CONCACAF family, we extend our sympathy for the recent departure of former Guyana Football Association President Professor Aubrey Fitz Ronald Bishop and former British Guiana and Guyana National player, Winston DeHaarte.

Their impressive service and contribution to football in Guyana has laid a strong foundation that should be further expanded to promote the development of the game guided by precepts of integrity and transparency.

We are proud that their legacy and involvement in the world of sports have been valued at a national level.

We express our sincere condolences to the family and relatives of both Professor Bishop and DeHaarte.

Page 39

Page 40

Kaieteur News

Thursday February 14, 2013

Victoria Azarenka beats Romina Oprandi at Qatar Open Victoria Azarenka returned to action following her Australian Open triumph with a swift win over Switzerland’s Romina Oprandi at the Qatar Open.

Azarenka, the top seed and defending champion, won 6-2 6-3 as she looks to hold on to her world number one status.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both have an opportunity to end the week with the top ranking.

Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki were among the other winners in Doha on Wednesday.

Fourth seed Radwanska beat Anastasia Rodionova 63 6-2, seventh seed Kvitova led 6-4 when Ekaterina Makarova retired, and 10th seed Wozniacki saw off Sorana Cirstea 7-6 (9-7) 6-0.

But Sloane Stephens, the American teenager who beat title favourite Williams at the

Australian Open, suffered a bruising loss to Czech Klara Zakopalova, who goes through to meet Sharapova.

Sixteenth seed Stephens served for the match twice and failed to convert four match points before eventually going down 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5).

“Today was a tough match,’’ Stephens said of the gusty wind. “The conditions were tough but Klara played

well. Now I just need to regroup and keep working on my game and get ready for Dubai.’”

Azarenka next faces Christina McHale, the world number 44 from the United States, after working her way into form against Oprandi. “It was a little bit of a slow start, and I had to adjust. I couldn’t go for my shots, and I had to be a bit more patient,” said Azarenka.

“She’s tricky and plays so

many different balls that you don’t know what to expect. I had to focus more and move my feet more.”

In Rotterdam, world number two Roger Federer crushed Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja 6-3 6-1 in just 57

minutes in his first match since Australia.

“I’ve been here and preparing for a few days, but matches are always different than training,” said the Swiss.

“The ball flies a bit and you have to be prepared.”

Georgetown b/ball team go into preparation tonight - ahead of March 2 showdown with Linden Georgetown’s senior basketball team go into preparation tonight ahead of its March 2 showdown against Linden.

The duel was originally scheduled for this weekend, but has been put to March 2 to give the teams more time to prepare for the epic battle.

The Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) had earlier this week named its squad, and should also be stepping up its preparation. Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) yesterday released its squad that will commence practice tonight.

The GABA squad includes: Travis Burnette, Royston Siland, Stephon Gillis (Pacesetters); Morty Williams, Drumson McCullay, Hodayah Stewart (Republic Bank Nets); Shelroy Thomas, Dave Causway (Colts), Marlon Chesney (Guardians); Ryan Gullen, Ryan Stephney, Jermaine Slater, Rodwell Fortune, Tyrone Hamid, Akeem Kanhai (Ravens).

The Georgetown Coaches are Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan (Pacesetters) and Darcel Harris (Ravens) for the battle against Linden. Practice starts tonight at 7pm at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and will continue ahead of the March 2 game at the Sports Hall.

::: Letter to the Sports Editor :::

Spectators’ behaviour at cricket matches DEAR EDITOR, I witnessed a Twenty\20 cricket game at the Wakenaam Community Centre ground last Sunday between Sans Souci Jaguars and Sans Souci Sports Club which the former won handsomely. The behaviour of a number of fans especially those supporting Sans Souci took the spotlight away from the cricketers.

After the game a fan was herd abusing one of the umpires after they were involved in an argument; he then dealt the official one blow

to his face. I would like to remind those involved that there is no place for violence in the game, be it on or off the field.

This type of behaviour is uncalled for at cricket venues and authorities must do something to stop it since a number of players from the said club were also involved in arguments after the game.

Players must also be reminded that it takes discipline to be successful in not only cricket but in any sport.

Concerned fan

Thursday February 14, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 41

2013 New Building Society Second Division 40-Over Cricket Competition...

Centuries for Ajib, Bhoj and Heeralall - 6 wicket hauls and hat-tick for Baldeo and Khan The 2013 New Building Society Second Division 40Over Cricket Competition organised by the Berbice Cricket Board for teams in the Ancient County continued with some outstanding performances. Opening batsman Kader Ajib slammed 122 the highest score in the competition so far and which included 12 fours and 4 sixes to help his team, No. 72 Cut and Load, rattled up 248 for 8 in 30 overs in their rain affected match against No. 72 All Star. The latter team nevertheless gave good chase and with their opening batsman Mahendra Bhoj scoring 102 with 9 fours and 8 sixes and Parmeshwar Chatterpaul 50 with 1 four, the two them together putting on 139 for the 3rd wicket to put them in good stead, when both of them departed, no other batsman stepped up and All Star could only reach 209 for 8 in their 30 overs.

Jaipaul Heeralall made 100 N.O with 5 fours and 9 sixes and Devendra Lalsa 50 with 6

fours and 1 six to pace D’Edward Warriors who were then bundled out for 75 in response.

Offspinner Balchan Baldeo took 6 for 21 from 8 overs including a hat-trick to help Albion Community Centre bowl out No. 1 Road for 104. He then opened Albion’s innings to score 22 N.O which together with 63 from former Guyana Under-19 opening batsman Kandasammy Surujnarine saw them to a 10-wicket victory in just 8.4 overs. Left arm pacer Kassim Khan also had a hat-trick in his 6 for 13 from 6 overs for Young Warriors in their 5 wicket win over West Canje.

In scores from the matches played: At No. 72, No. 72 Cut and Load beat No. 72 All Star by 39 runs. No. 72 Cut and Load 248 for 8 in 30 overs with Kader Ajib 122, Michael Singh 42, Nityalall Durgalall 3 for 41, Deolall Deochan 2 for 37. No. 72 All Star 209 for 8 in 30 overs with Mahendra Bhoj

102, Parmeshwar Chatterpaul 50, Devanand Chatterpaul 3 for 18, Kader Ajib 2 for 43, Darshanand Jairam 2 for 44.

At D’Edward, D’Edward beat D’Edward Warriors by 194 runs. D’Edward 269 for 6 in 35 overs with Jaipaul Heeralall 100 N.O; Devendra Lalsa 50, Derick Narine-Lalsa Jnr 40, Eon Abel 32.

D’Edward Warriors 75 in 23.4 overs with Kevon Jawahir 4 for 20, Navin Rampersaud 3 for 21, Derick Narine-Lalsa Jnr 2 for 15. At Albion, Albion Community Centre beat No. 1 Road by 10 wickets. No. 1 Road 103 in 31.3 overs with Vijay Seecharran 32, Balchand Baldeo 6 for 21, Tribhuwan Jagdeo 2 for 13, Orvin Mangru 2 for 19.

Albion Community Centre 104 without loss in 8.4 overs with Kandasammy Surujnarine 63 N.O. At Lochaber in West Canje, Young Warriors beat West Canje by 5 wickets. West Canje 124 in 25.1 overs with Raymond Mohamed 30, Ryan Mohamed 25, Kassim Khan 6

Ansa McAl Mackeson hands over second prize for Linden B/ball tourney

Mackeson Brand representative Jamaal Douglas hands over the second place trophy and cash to New Era Entertainment’s Winston Fraser, while Kenrick Noel (first from left) and Aubrey Major Jr. looks on.

Ansa McAl trading under their Mackeson brand T u e s d a y, d e l i v e r e d a s promised to New Era Entertainment, when the distribution company handed over the second prize of $100,000 and a trophy to the organisers of the Cell Smart Super-8 basketball tournament in Linden.

The tournament, which bounces off on March 9 at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court, is also held in conjunction of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) and

carries a $200,000 first prize and third prize $75,000.

At the simple presentation, done by Mackeson’s brand representative Jamaal Douglas, the company promised that part from the contribution to the tournament, fans can also look forward to massive givea-ways.

He added that Ansa McAl is pleased to be part of the event which helps to keep the spirit of the sport of basketball alive in Linden while sighting that they are also committed in aiding in other events within the

discipline.

New Era’s Winston Fraser, who collected the prize, stated that they are more than happy to have Mackeson and Ansa McAl on board, since the company is very supportive of their venture.

According to Fraser, they are highly anticipating the start of the tournament and also thanked Corporate Guyana, especially the other businesses in Linden who has so far come on board in helping to make the event a major success.

for 13.

Young Warriors 126 for 5 in 14 overs with Mortimer Fraser 47, Sanjay Khan 31; Edoo Wahab 3 for 14.

At No. 43, Young Adventurers beat No. 43 Scorpion by 4 wickets. No. 43 Scorpion 64 in 13 overs with Komal Joseph 4 for 7, Bisnauth Jhappan 3 for 10, Brentnol Bourne 2 for 12, Akbar Azeez 2 for 14. Young Adventurers 65 for 6 in 17 overs with Yacoob Danroop 3 for 12, Balram Samaroo 2 for 13.

At Edinburgh, Edinburgh beat Overwinning Bible church by 8 wickets.

Overwinning Bible Church 124 in 19 overs with Denny David 3 for 21, Yudrunauth Seepersaud 3 for 26, Edon Daniels 2 for 24; Compton Hope 2 for 34.

Edinburgh 126 for 2 in 23 overs with Yudrunauth Seepersaud 39, Robin Seebarran 34, Denny David 25 N.O. (Continued on page 35)

Mahendra Bhoj

Jaipaul Heeralall

Parmeshwar Chatterpaul

Kader Ajib

t r o Sp

West Indies stroll to T20 victory over Australia

Kieron Pollard backed up his knock of 26 with three middle-order wickets (Getty Images)

B

RISBANE (Reuters) Johnson Charles smacked a half-century and West Indies tore through Australia’s batsmen with slow bowling to win their Twenty20 match by 27 runs in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Charles, coming off his maiden one-day international century, struck 57 off 35 balls to propel the tourists to an imposing first innings total of 191 after captain Darren Sammy won the toss and elected to bat at the Gabba.

Australia’s Adam Voges blasted

a swashbuckling 51 off 33 balls to give them hope of hauling in the total, but paceman Kieron Pollard and spinner Sunil Narine combined for five quick wickets to make sure the hosts’ chase came to a crashing halt.

The emphatic victory against a second-string Australia side ensured West Indies finished their tour Down Under on a high, having dismally surrendered the preceding oneday series 5-0.

“Obviously, it’s a bit too late ...

We a r e w o r l d ( Tw e n t y 2 0 ) champions so we had to play like

Adam Voges plays the cut (Getty Images).

that,” man-of-the-match Pollard said in a televised interview after rattling through Australia’s middle order to take 3-30.

“We had a good score on the board and we just had to try to defend it.”

Australia brought a depleted lineup to the Gabba, with a number of first-choice players having headed to India early to prepare for a four-test series.

The rawness showed as Charles, Darren Bravo (32) and Pollard (26) flayed the Australian pacemen to drive West Indies past 100 within the

Opener Johnson Charles scored a quick half-century (Getty Images).

1 2 t h o v e r, b e f o r e S a m m y chipped in with a useful sevenball cameo of 20 late in the innings.

After the early loss of opener Aaron Finch for four, Australia appeared to be sailing toward victory before sharp work by wicketkeeper Devon Thomas saw Shaun Marsh (21) and Voges run out in three balls.

The run-outs proved a turning point, as spinner Narine soon coaxed a miscued sweep shot from captain George Bailey, the top edge well caught by a lunging Narsingh Deonarine.

Pollard then used the slower ball to devastating effect to have wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, debutant Ben Rohrer and all rounder James Faulkner all caught slogging.

Paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile belted a couple of late sixes in an unbeaten 16 but it was all just entertainment for the crowd as We s t I n d i e s c l o s e d o u t a comfortable victory.

Scores: West Indies 6 for 191 (Charles 57, Faulkner 3-28) beat Australia 8 for 164 (Voges 51, Pollard 3-30, Narine 2-19) by 27 runs.

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