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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Early elections, shared governance can break parliamentary impasse
Former PPPC stalwart Ralph Ramkarran believes that Guyana’s only solution to the present Parliamentary “tension and gridlock” is through early elections and, if the need arises, shared governance should be considered. His opinions were reflected in an online published article titled “Repairing Guyana’s broken system of governance” on his website called “The conversation tree.” The former Speaker of the National Assembly, who severed ties with the PPPC last year, admitted that having given thought to the specific challenges faced by Guyana, “I had supported the current system because it allowed the largest party to retain the presidency.” But Ramkarran noted that
he was of the opinion that if a situation such as the current one arose, a coalition government would have been the “natural” outcome. “Clearly I was wrong.” In his online article, Ramkarran stated that there is nothing inherently undemocratic about a minority government. He even went at lengths to point out that the Prime Minister Harper of Canada led two minority governments. Nevertheless, Ramkarran said that “minority governments do not last and are not expected to.” The veteran politician pointed out that Guyana’s minority government appears to expect opposition support for its policies and in Parliament once it offers cooperation. “But the Opposition has
- Ralph Ramkarran other ideas and the result, not unexpectedly, is heightened tension and gridlock which will continue for the life of the Government. The immediate solution can only be early elections and a coalition government if the same or similar results are obtained, as occurs in almost every other country in the world.” BROKEN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT Ramkarran said that while Guyana awaits reality of his propositions, “our broken system of government must be repaired.” The former speaker explained that Guyana has an executive presidency, answerable to neither parliament nor cabinet for executive decisions, is not bound by cabinet decisions, cannot be charged or sued, virtually cannot be impeached, controls the date for elections, can be elected by a minority and dominates the Parliament through the executive if his/her party or
list has a majority. “Where the president’s party does not have a majority and refuses to bring other forces in the government, chaos and gridlock prevail as at the present time.” He said that in a broad framework, “we need to have a prime minister as head of government from the political party obtaining the largest number of votes, answerable to and bound by both parliament and the cabinet, who is bound by the law as every citizen, who must have not only the support of the majority of the parliament but whose government must comprise on an equitable basis at least two political parties, the other political party having obtained the second largest number of votes. “Where the position outlined above is unachievable within a specified timeframe after elections because of disagreement, the government may be formed by
Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran any one or more political parties which can command the majority support of the parliament. “This system of government should be accompanied by substantial devolution of authority to regional and local government authorities, a strengthened judiciary and independently appointed and functioning constitutional bodies.” Since the 2011 elections, at which the People
Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/ C) enjoyed benefits of retaining executive government, there has been little progress in the National Assembly. This situation exists because even though the PPP/C gained the presidency; the joint parliamentary opposition—A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC)—enjoys a majority of voting members in the National Assembly. This instance marks the first time Guyana has seen a minority Government. A number of passed Bills still await the President’s assent including a bill passed in the House to repeal the benefits offered to Former Presidents. At the last sitting, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall emphatically said that he will advise the president not to assent to a passed Bill that seeks to amend the constitution so as to make a number of agencies, including the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) independent.
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Man dead, brother wounded in Mash night brawl By Romila Boodram A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death and his brother wounded after they were viciously attacked on Mashramani night, allegedly by a group of intoxicated men armed with broken bottles. Kumar Mohabir of Lot 7 Enterprise, East Coast Demerara (ECD), was stabbed several times about the body at around 19:45 hrs in the vicinity of Vlissengen Road and Thomas Lands. He succumbed at around 02:45 hrs yesterday at the Woodlands Hospital. His brother, 30-year-old Narendra Mohabir, also sustained multiple stab wounds, allegedly when he threw himself on his mortally wounded sibling to stop the brutal attack. He was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation but was not admitted.
- attacked by drunken mob with broken bottles
Dead: Kumar Mohabir The motive for the attack is still unclear. The younger sibling had operated a tent rental business at his home and Kaieteur News understands that the brawl occurred shortly after the victim had dismantled a tent. Kaieteur News understands that Kumar
Mohabir, his brother, Narendra, and three children left their home to collect a tent which they had rented to one of their neighbours for the Mashramani celebrations. The injured brother recalled that Kumar was about to buy juices for the children at a nearby bar when about seven men, who had been dancing and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, attacked him. “He left to go buy the juices and then I see a set of men over him stabbing him with broken bottles and punching him in his belly so I run and throw myself over him so he wouldn’t get anymore stabs,” Narendra Mohabir said.
APNU Parliamentarian accuses cops of selective profiling A Partnership of National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament and Attorney at Law James Bond has accused the police of “blatantly profiling and selectively targeting ordinary Guyanese”, in the wake of l a s t T h u r s d a y ’s r e c e nt arrests of several Tiger Bay residents. Bond stated that the “blatant profiling and selective targeting of ordinary Guyanese under the Rohee Security Plan or any other Plan that this inept Government and its Ministry of Home Affairs has foisted on the populace should not be condoned.” Police had arrested over 40 young men and seized a quantity of electrical, paint, hardware items, and motor cycles, which they said they suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. The exercise was reportedly conducted by CID ranks and others from the Tactical Services Unit. The men arrested were kept at the Brickdam Police station and were later released. Rosemary Lane, Tiger Bay residents were peeved over the activity saying that the police swooped and kicked down some of the doors of the small apartments and proceeded to search. They also said that the ranks failed to produce search warrants. According to Attorney, James Bond, “on the 21st of February a mere day after the 90th birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister and Executive President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana Linden Forbes
- following Tiger Bay raid
APNU Member of Parliament and Attorney at Law James Bond Sampson Burnham, legions of policemen cordoned off the Tiger Bay area and ordered all the males out of their dwelling places. “APNU was reliably informed that Senior Superintendent Errol Watts was in charge of the entire operation. In particular, plain clothes policemen in conjunction with other uniformed policemen conducted searches on the residents dwellings, their
person and also seized a number of their personal belongings.” He said that on visiting the Brickdam Police Station he contacted a senior police official and informed him that some of the residents were missing money, cellular phones and other personal effects in the wake of the searches by the policemen. “Policemen have been accused by residents of stealing from the residents under the guise of a raid.” “We would urge upon the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force to resist every temptation by this administration to descend into the abyss of lawlessness, cock-eyedness, high handedness and abusiveness. We cannot restrain our disgust at this latest attempt by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the PPPC Government to run roughshod over certain communities…such actions would not be condoned.” He further questioned if the actions by the police are related to the Home Affairs Minister’s much touted security plan.
“We don’t know what exactly happen but maybe he just mash somebody foot or something,” the relatives said. Some of the men reportedly hurled broken bottles during the approximately three- minute ordeal. “After they stabbing me, I start holler and people start come and a police come and the men run away,” the injured Mohabir recalled. Persons who were in the vicinity reportedly placed the wounded siblings in a vehicle and rushed them to the Woodlands Hospital, where Kumar later succumbed. Narendra Mohabir said that while he was receiving treatment, one of his attackers, who reportedly sustained some injury, attempted to seek treatment at the same hospital. “While the doctor was stitching my wound, I see him and after he see me, he run out and like he think I left so he come back later,” Mohabir said, adding that one of his friends who was at the hospital managed to take a
The injured brother Narendra Mohabir
photograph of the suspect. Mohabir said that he managed to record the licence number of a car that the suspect boarded. Mohabir, who is a minibus driver, said that he can positively identify the men who killed his bother. Members of the griefstricken family yesterday appealed for justice. “I am a mother and I have
lost my son and it hurts me and I want justice for my son’s death. He is young, he is not even married as yet and they took him from me,” the slain man’s mother, Nasmoon Mohabir, said. A report has been made at the Alberttown and Kitty Police Stations, but up to yesterday no arrests had been made.
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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
China’s Growth “Secret” While there may be quite a bit of disagreement in Guyana (especially among the politicians) about Chinese investment here, there is universal admiration for their economic success. We offer one perspective on the sources of that success in the hope that our sparring politicians might take heed and apply the lessons in our country. Actually, while its political system might be “different”, there is nothing new about the economic fundamentals used by the Chinese. They arose out of the “American system” of the 1820s and 1830s that eventually catapulted that country ahead of Britain the economic behemoth of that era. There were three key elements of the American System: infant industry tariffs, internal infrastructural improvements, and a sound system of national finance. These three elements are at the heart, explicitly or implicitly, of every variation of the investment-led development model adopted by number of countries in the last century – including Germany in the 1930s, the USSR in the early Cold War period, Brazil during the Brazilian miracle, South Korea after the Korean War, Japan before 1990, and China today, to name just the most important and obvious cases. Much as the case with our products, the Americans asked how could they compete given much higher British efficiency and productivity, which translated into much lower prices even with higher transportation costs,? They could do it the same way the British did to compete with the superior Dutch a century earlier. The US had to impose tariffs and other measures to raise the cost of foreign manufacturers sufficiently to allow their American counterparts to undersell them in the US market. In addition Americans had to acquire as much British technological expertise and capacity as possible (which usually occurred in the form of intellectual property theft). The idea that countries get rich under conditions of free trade, as is pushed today, has very little historical support, and it is far more likely that rich countries discover the benefits of free trade only after they get rich, while poor countries that embrace free trade too eagerly almost never get rich. Unless, like Haiti in the 18th century or Kuwait today, they are massive exporters of a very valuable commodity (sugar, in the case of Haiti, which was the richest country in the world per capita during a good part of the late 18th Century). But rather than just embrace protection I would add that there is one very important caveat. Many countries have protected their infant industries, and often for many decades, and yet very few have made the transition to developed country status. Understanding why protection “works” in some cases and not in others is very important. The difference between the countries that saw such rapid productivity growth behind infant industry protection that they were eventually able to compete on their own, and those that didn’t, has much to do with the structure of domestic competition. It is not enough to simply protect local industry from foreign competition. There must be a spur to domestic innovation, and this spur is most effective when competition leads to advances in productivity and management organisation. Countries that protect their domestic industry but allow their domestic markets to be captured and dominated by “national champions” will likely never develop in the way the United States did in the 19th Century. This that has happened with our protected chicken industry, which benefits from a 100% tariff protection but has only benefitted the few giant producers, while killing the multitude of small chicken farmers and steadily rising chicken prices. There is nothing wrong with protecting domestic industry, but the point is to create an incentive structure that forces increasing efficiency behind barriers of protection. The difficulty, of course, is that trade barriers and other forms of subsidy and protection can become highly addictive, and the beneficiaries, especially if they are national champions, can become politically very powerful. In that case they are likely to work actively both to maintain protection and to limit efficiency-enhancing domestic competition. (To be continued)
Monday February 25, 2013
Letters... Where your views make the news
Where is the commitment to bring an end to runaway squandermania in Government? DEAR EDITOR, The egregious corruption, cronyism, nepotism and social injustice under President Ramotar’s rule provided rich fodder for sound critiques. Yet, we held our pens, since we found it most difficult and uncomfortable to write anything negative about Mr. Ramotar; after all he is the President of our homeland. We have always chosen to speak of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal instead. But we can no longer hold our pens when the holder of the highest office in the land clearly does not even respect himself? His most recent statement in Miami on the Marriott Hotel issue proves that he lacks the ability and vision to lead this nation. President Donald Ramotar’s clumsy statements on the mistreatment of Guyanese workers at the Marriott Hotel Project were most disrespectful to the Office of the President and to the people of Guyana. His Excellency the President was caught in Miami saying “….I think it’s more like the opposition looking for an issue to try to make a fight, because a lot of Guyanese are being employed …..” What is wrong with this man? Is he for real? His comment clearly shows that he does not fully understand the severe impact the Marriott Hotel issue has on the workers and the people of Guyana. Again, we repeat, is the president for real? You be the judge! Does this sound like the
President of a country who is in tune with reality and with the human development issues of Guyana? Or does this sound like the voice of a creature of propaganda that represents the private economic interest of the Jagdeo cabal who are on a mission to privately own Guyana by using the taxpayer’s money to enrich themselves? Mr. Editor, public consumption of Kaieteur News does not allow us to use certain words to describe this covetous, scampish, greedy, corrupt, heartless, uncaring and anti-working class cabal. It boggles our minds to know that such contemptuous, deceitful and barefaced quacks exist on earth and moreso, in Guyana. Any student of politics will tell you that the role of the President is one of managing the public affairs of all the people in Guyana, irrespective of their race, ethnicity or political persuasion and not some of the people or friends and supporters of the PPP. The President is that singular person who is primarily responsible for carrying out the best strategic plans and policies that will lead to the robust development of the country and thus improve the lives of the poor and the working class. The Presidency is not about being the “shut tail boy” who answers to any group of economic gangsters or to the Jagdeoites. When His Excellency was on the campaign trail, many
of us knew he was not yet ready intellectually, experience-wise and politically for such huge responsibility because of his lack of experience and poor communication skills, but we were forever hopeful that he would have used his first year in office to embark on a very steep learning curve to bring Guyana back to the centre of prosperity. His failure to reduce crime and corruption, lower VAT, create jobs, especially for the youths, improve the economy, and end the power outages to name a few, speak to his weak leadership and poor management of the economy and the country. We
believe that if this trend continues, Mr. Ramotar would end up becoming the worst president of Guyana. Thus after more than a year, we are still stunned that he continues to choose the Jagdeo odious path rather than the Jagan considerate and moral path! March is coming again and these hypocrites will all run up to Babu John to preach on the virtues of Cheddi Jagan, but let it be known that these people are just wolves in sheep’s clothing, who continue to ignore Cde Cheddi’s message and philosophy in true Judas style. What they are doing Continued on page 6
A definite sick and insensitive cartoon DEAR EDITOR, I have worked in the Media from 1983 onwards as a writer, Illustrator and cartoonist and I must add that I have spent a significant period of my life as a young man in West Ruimveldt. I have had the responsibility of submitting my cartoons for the Sunday Newspapers for years and I have worked, quarreled and became enlightened by many editors including Frank Campbell, Claudette Earle, Adam Harris, Godfrey Wray, Rashid Osman and others and the context in which the Sunday Cartoon was constructed in this news paper Kaieteur News 23 Feb. 2013 defines its very conceptualization as having emerged from a definite sick and insensitive mind. This cartoon cannot be justified in the mood of rough satire, humour, editorial caricature or any other expression in the field. The responsibility lies with the artist. He or she needs therapy, to have used a tragedy in such a psychotic mode. I have functioned in the tense atmosphere of reaching press schedules and there is always room for editorial hic-cups. This Cartoon was deliberate and offensive and the Cartoonist owes the newspaper and the family of the deceased an apology, then he or she should proceed to acquire help for obviously, a very disturbing disposition. Name withheld
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news
IGNORANCE OR DISTORTION BY INTENT DEAR EDITOR, One would think that there’s a school of thought dedicated to historical and social distortion active n our national ethos when reading some letters in the media, perhaps it’s a result of an education and cultural system that has not addressed the topics of our differences which has failed and have fragmented into dogmas of bias and pure ignorance. The letter in Kaieture News, Monday Feb.11 by Devanand Bhagwan is such a case study. He commented on Freddy Kissoon’s reference to racist ideals and the racism of pigmentation as enforcing Indo-Euro Aryan myth supremacist ideals in popular culture.
What attracted my attention to Bhagwan’s commentary were his distorted arguments utilizing references to the Diaspora and continental Africans, as follows; the recent trend of ‘Bleaching’ was highlighted with intense detail, among Africans as if to negate the argument of advertising not using darker persons as argued by Freddie. These are separate topics. While in the same vein he ignored parallel trends that have been in practice for decades among Caucasians in trying to acquire the romantic ‘Tan’ of the dark and handsome hero in the romance novels, while in the popular culture of that same human variation ; the derogatory term ‘Dumb
Blonde’, is used to describe cousins across the street. Is Bhagwan merely trying to extract substance out of human social trivia? More important though, are the stockpile of stereotypes and distortions commonly used and intended to be absorbed as Historical and social fact, which lead to the racist prejudices that has become second nature in the mind set of Mr. Bhagwan for example; Ravi Dev’s mantra that had not Indians come to British Guiana that the colony would been a wasteland, when in fact every plantation , the majority of villages and townships were already in existence before Indentureship began, and Afro Caribbean, Africans,
Minister Gopaul does not have his fingers on the pulse of what is happening DEAR EDITOR, Old people say “moon does run till day ketch am”; I refer to Kaieteur News editorial of February 21, 2013 and a news item carried by Stabroek News on the same date. This is with reference to the Lamaha Gardens playground fiasco but more relevantly to the Paradise Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society where one man has been steadfast in pleading with the authorities to intervene to save Paradise Housing Scheme. I was present at two meetings - one where the Minister Gopaul attended and gave certain assurances with respect to a forensic audit of the Society’s affairs; and another where the Chief Coop Development Officer, Mr. Jabbar, displayed a degree of arrogance that was beyond belief promising that he would call a meeting within two
weeks to discuss a development agenda. Suffice it to say, that meeting was never called. It should be noted that this Society has been under the control of the CCDO since 2003, so there should be no surprise why this latest development has taken place. So why, may I ask, has the Minister’s undertaking not been honoured? The few details emerging in the Lamaha Gardens real estate deal suggest that the Minister Gopaul does not have his fingers on the pulse of what is happening in his Cooperatives Unit or he is being deliberately misled by his principal Cooperatives person. I say this because there is no other explanation that I can come up with for this inaction with regard to Paradise. I am inclined to argue that certain political considerations are at play but we can only wait and see how
the Lamaha Garden situation will play out because a few of my friends are taking long odds that a cover up and wrist slap will result after the GPSU’s land is returned. The people of Paradise deserve no less than a thorough review of the workings of their Cooperative Society in the same way that other groups have had their concerns addressed. People can’t just appear with not even two cents to rub together and suddenly flaunt ownership of cars, mansion and boutiques. There are already questions swirling about of millions of dollars unaccounted for and questionable land deals, but it is only God who can say when the authorities will get off their haunches and do something – anything for the benefit of the residents of Paradise Housing Scheme. Carmen Grandison
Europeans, Chinese also came as Indentured workers, contributing and enriching the Creole Culture of Guiana/ Guyana yet strange enough this did not occur to Dev. During the 2005 floods Vishnu Bisram in a letter on Feb, 3 2005 Stabroek News in response to Afro Guyanese allegations of discrimination declared, quote; “while AfroGuyanese are getting the bulk of the relief, I am told that some people who did not have three meals a day before the flooding now have many meals a day while supporters of the PPP were neglected. I was told that some people who did not have a mattress before the flood now sleep on a mattress.” Unquote: Only a state of mental illness could drive this kind of insipid reasoning and race hatred. Was Bisram in some macabre fit of delusion imposing the plight and grim reality of the oppressed Shudras of India which he most likely has a deep haunting subconscious historical memory off on AfroGuyanese? Bisram again travels down the irrational road of bigotry when he attempted to juxtapose on Jan 7, 2013 Stabroek News the use of the
Indian repatriation fund as a decision of the then PNC Government to build the National Cultural Centre as equivalent or poetic justice to Minister Frank Anthony’s decision to reconstruct Afro Guyanese history and redirect the 1823 martyrdom to the historically insignificant sea walls on this matter. Bisram obviously does not know or does not care that the post emancipation 1840’s onward taxation imposed on the young Afro Guyanese villages by the colonial authority to address drainage to their farm lands was redirected to assist in the programme of bringing Indentured labour. This resulted in the flooding in the villages and the forced abandonment of their lands and accustomed crops, thus the push to the gold fields and the public sector, and the culinary dependence on the imported food varieties of British Industry. The Cultural Centre is for the Nation including the Ind° Guyanese population who had no interest in returning to India, why is this still a topic of contention? simply, irrational racism.
Bhagwan moves onto Uganda, asserting that Uganda’s survival depended on the Asians who had migrated there during that Nation’s colonization by the British. The Dictator Idi Amin in his quarrel with the British [ former colonial rulers of Uganda from 1894-1962] over the sale of arms, decided that the Asian merchants planted during Uganda’s colonial past who had British Passports must give up their British status and become Ugandan citizens they refused and they were used as pawns and unlawfully deported to England, knowing that this was the then England of the Teddy Boys[ read Roy Shaw’s book]. Idi Amin came from the small Kakwa tribe and was insecure, he murdered and chased hundreds and thousands of other progressive tribal Africans out; On South Road in the late seventies a Ugandan Tailor practiced his trade and he sewed some tie-die shirts for me, he often spoke of his home land. Uganda [Land of the Ganda, the most populous Tribal group] is a geographic Continued on page 6
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news
Ignorance or distortion by... Fatal crimes in Guyana From page 5 construct of the colonization of Africa by Europe that divided and destroyed Kingdoms displaced tribes and set the stage for tribal wars once Colonization w a s o v e r, U g a n d a h a d encompassed several kingdoms i n c l u d ing Buganda of which I quote; John G. Jackson’s Introduction to African Civilizations “By the middle of the 18th century Buganda was the greatest state and the most advanced society in central Africa. The ruler of Buganda was called the Kabaka.” After Idi Amin’s brutal era was over Uganda’s leaders invited back all disenfranchised Ugandans, including its Asian population. Bhagwan implies contemptuously that “While some [Afro Guyanese no doubt] are asleep from their late night dance, they [Indians] get up early in the morning and feed themselves and families” now this is racism at its most idiotic manifestation, obviously Bhagwan doesn’t get out much to see who’s in the discos, I’ve got a friend on the East Coast who has a Boat that serves the CARICOM
route, he’s Indo-Guyanese and he requited his crew from a nearby Afro Guyanese village, because his countrymen informed him that they could not leave for the sea on Monday because it’s too near to Sunday[ Hangovers]. The lazy are equally distributed, what I must insert that since we’re dealing with separate cultural philosophies, it is noted that what applies as a means to an end and good business practices in one group is abhorred by the other side, it is not by coincidence that four of the former PPP President’s closest friends are now in prison Roger Khan, Bernard Kerrick , Sonny Ramdeo and Ed Ahmad. S i n c e t h e 1 8 8 0 ’s B h a g w a n ’s ‘ l a z y ’ A f r o Guyanese villagers as Port Knockers have pioneered and kept the mining industry alive, each village has paid a price of death to the rapids, cave- ins and malaria, up to recently. Now this Industry is a main contributor to the economy second possibly to the GRA. The same lazy Afro Guyanese public service whose contributions
including mine built the NIS and have borne the blunt of the taxes since Nathaniel Critchlow fought the labour wars 1905... you see them catching transportation in the late afternoon going home, and in time for work at the lowest wages in the morning, they are the foundation of this country and you have the temerity to address them sarcastically. It was concluded by the PPP pre elections 2011 that the young Afro Guyanese were a tribe mesmerized by popular culture shows dancing into the futureless doom of the PiedPiPer, they proved you wrong. I do hope that you’ve also read M. Maxwell Feb. 5 Kaieteur News ‘The struggle for dominance will destroy this nation’ presently all the asinine irrational racism is loudest from wan path ah de village, Rahul Bhattacharya wrote a novel on the secret thoughts of the Bhagwan’s of Guyana, it’s time to shed the Onumbie and replace the imagination with patriotism and the basic tenets of collective principles with a social conscience. Barrington Braithwaite
DEAR EDITOR, Regrettably another husband, father, brother and member of the Gold Mining Industry is robbed of his hard earned money, gold and jewellery and ultimately his life. Today, the crime is executed in his own home in the presence of his wife and three children. I ask, when will it stop? When will the laws in Guyana be appropriately exercised to curb heinous crimes and deter persons from getting involved in criminal activities? What will cause each and every law-
abiding, sane and mature individual to take a no nonsense stand by joining with Mr. Leroy Brummel – Commissioner of Police (ag) in the fight against the heartless criminals and all those who are harbouring them; instead of being over critical and crying foul when the criminals are killed in their act of robberies? The time is now when everyone, especially the businessmen and women including our politicians such as Honourable Oscar Clark must have the means and ability to protect themselves
and their investments by being completely supported and protected by the laws of Guyana. We all should note and take example from the Licensed Gold Dealers businesses and financial institutions in Georgetown, Guyana, who are spending billions of dollars to protect themselves and their investments. I pray that God Almighty will restore decency and peace to the Land of many waters. God Almighty, please have mercy on all of us. Sam Anderson
Where is the commitment to... From page 4 today is even worst that what Minister Gopaul did a few years ago when he burned Cheddi Jagan’s effigy in the streets. Where is the lean and clean Government? Where is the attack on the economic divide between the rich and the poor? Where are the plans to develop the country and help the poor and the working class? Where are the policies to end crime and corruption? Where is the commitment to bring an end to runaway squandermania in Government? Where are the checks and balances on the Cadillac lifestyle in this donkey cart economy? Where are the jobs for the people? Under his Excellency’s tenure to date, members of the club of economic gangsters are charging the taxpayers six times the real value for medical supplies and
it is no big thing for the President. Under his watch, members of the club of economic gangsters can bypass the people’s representative in Parliament and sign a contract worth G$12 billion with the Chinese company, Shanghai Construction Group to build the Marriott Hotel with foreign labour only and it is no big thing for the Minister of Labour. The Chinese have refused to employ Guyanese workers to build the Marriott Hotel and the GPL substation and it is no big thing for the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal. The Chinese have been given a licence to operate a TV station in Guyana but the people of Linden have to wait indefinitely for a TV licence and it is no big thing for the cabal. But to add salt to injury, His Excellency the President Donald Ramotar is kosher
with using taxpayers’ money to pay foreign Chinese workers in an atmosphere where the estimated local unemployment rate is 18%. The Head of State said “….part of the Contract we had a discount to allow the Chinese to come in…” The Head of Government went on to say “Many local employers are now asking us to allow them to bring in some labour….” Who in their right mind would give a Chinese company a contract to work in Guyana and allow them to discriminate against Guyanese workers; only the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal? It is clear to us from the evidence provided that this regime is selling out Guyana to foreigners and for Ms. Gail Teixiera to say that the Marriott Hotel issue is “stink of racism” shows some form of cerebral degeneration. Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news
Is this the Guyana you want your children to inherit? DEAR EDITOR, This awry democracy that the government boasts about so often is nothing more than a creeping fascism that is closing its grip on our liberties, rights, resources and our citizenship. There is a large gap in the professed ideals of democracy by government compared to the realities we experience and witness on a daily basis in our beloved Guyana. Government has failed, and continues to fail in bringing promise and practice into closer alignment. One such promise was the creation of hundreds of jobs for our Guyanese people who are greatly affected by high levels of unemployment with the building of the Marriott Hotel. When such promises are made to the people whose tax dollars are being used to bring into fruition such a project, and the government with the constitutional mandate to serve the interest of the people, fails to honour and deliver on a promise to its people, have the audacity to provide a nonsensical and ludicrous excuse to justify their doing, it speaks volume of the government’s position
on its interest of the wellbeing of its people. Sadly, the opposition too is heading in that direction. What is most troubling is the large gap and remoteness between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics. I am petrified and at the same time, flabbergasted by how government and opposition are so easily distracted by petty and trivial things. Their chronic avoidance of taking a more serious approach with the real issues that are affecting and plaguing our citizenry, such as large scale unemployment, crime, an unprecedented level of corruption, domestic violence, VAT, high cost of living, the gratuitous assaults on the poor, government’s cavalier spending of taxpayers’ monies and a broken education system that continues to fail our future work force, is evident. Their inability to build a working consensus to tackle the real people issues continues to denigrate this beautiful land of ours. These political gamesmanship and uncalled for egoistical battles of our elected representatives
continue to contribute to our country’s state of affairs. I am equally disappointed by the poor level of professional and parliamentary decorum that is slowly becoming a constant feature in t h e a u g u s t assembly of our parliament. It is time for the people of Guyana – all races, class and status – to take up that right to recall government and elected officials to their duty and their obligation, and above all, to exercise that right to share in the decisions of government – decisions
which shape our lives, everything that make one’s life worthwhile such as family, work, education, how we raise our children and how we rest our heads. We as Guyanese must be conscious and cognizant of the ever-present fact that it is the government of the day that shapes one’s life with the decisions ‘we’ as a people allow it to make. When as a people we fail to act and demand that these elected ‘servants’ carry out their respective constitutional mandate, it only empowers them to not
heed to the demands of the people. Government’s relentless pursuit to go ahead and build the Marriott hotel even in the face of resounding criticisms from the opposition and many in the media is testimony to this regard. It also leaves many to wonder what their hidden agendas are. The time has come; the time is now, for government and opposition members to individually and independently commit some time to seriously do some soul-searching or introspection and ask
themselves if this is the Guyana their ancestry would have died for? If this is the Guyana they would want their children to inherit? If the government, opposition and we as a people cannot rediscover our traditional virtues of hard work, co-operativeness, patriotism, and individual responsibility, then the dream and the essence of the words carved in our motto of “one people, one nation, one destiny”, would never be attained. It would be nothing more than a fleeting illusion. Jermaine Figueira
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Monday February 25, 2013
Historical review of Linden…
The “mining town’ celebrates one hundred years - Part Two By Enid Joaquin It was easy to see how Bauxite discovery and its mining had changed both the economic and physical landscape of Mackenzie, over the years. More money was circulating, and people were drawn to the area like bees to a honey pot. Bauxite had become “king”, and Demba would become the main employer of residents at Mackenzie, over a prolonged period. But at the beginning Demba had practically no employees, just a few geologists and mining engineers, who were exploring ways to ‘bring value’ to the bauxite deposits that lay dormant, covered by overburden at Mackenzie. However, by 1969, the company had employed almost five thousand persons on a permanent basis, while ‘other thousands’ were employed sporadically as the industry was built. The company’s first official sales record reportedly began in the year 1919,according to the Demba booklet, “Where did the Money go?” which showed
A section of the bauxite plant at Mackenzie, Linden
sales revenue of $30,000 for that year. Half a century later in 1969, revenues had reportedly jumped to $99M. Some $81 M, which represented a portion of Demba’s profits over its 50year history, would go to its owners, out of the $905 M total sales revenue. For that period, 19161969, the company would pay to the Guyana Government $116 M. in taxes. Of the total principal
exports of the country in 1969, which amounted to $259 M in total revenues, Demba alone had accrued $120.3 M; almost half of the country’s total revenues. SALES Only metal grade bauxite was shipped by Demba in 1919, but the company later diversified and expanded to cater to the needs of its buyers. So it was that by 1969, both alumina and calcined
bauxite had greatly exceeded the sale of metal grade bauxite. That year, Alumina accounted for 42 percent of total sales revenue, calcined bauxite 38 percent and metal grade 20 percent. Alumina accounting for the highest sales, was generally sold on the world market on long term contracts. Calcined bauxite, the second biggest seller, was reportedly sold to 30 countries at competitive rates,
which were negotiated by ALCAN. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? Between the period 1919 to 1969 wages/ salaries and other benefits to employees, would amount to $208 M. Supplies and services would account for $325mil and Plant investment $175M, which amounted to a sub total of $708M. The balance out of the total $905mil went to
Government-$116M and Demba’s owners, $81M. It is therefore easy to see how Mackenzie became known as the bread basket of the country, in those days. SETTLEMENTS PROLIFERATE Settlements such as Cockatara, Spieghtland, Kara Kara and Watooka were amongst the first, to be established on the Mackenzie shore, after bauxite mining (Continued on page 15)
Monday February 25, 2013
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THAT TWENTY ONE DAY PROTOCOL The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) was in high spirits after it reportedly discovered a quantity of narcotics secreted amongst some lumber destined for Europe. The GRA was ecstatic by the find claiming that it was the largest drug bust in Guyana’s history. That turned out not to be so as there were much larger busts unearthed in Guyana in the past. The euphoria seems destined to dip even more following a report by the Big Market paper that the container in which the drugs were allegedly found was on a city wharf for twenty one days prior to being searched. The GRA has confirmed that the container was at the wharf for three weeks days but explained that the delay was because the revenue agency had to go through the
protocol of contacting the shipper so that the container could have been opened and searched after certain observations had been made by the GRA. The Big Market paper seemed to be taken aback that it took so long for the GRA to search the container. The Big Market paper ought not to have been surprised. Instead, they should have complimented the GRA for taking ONLY twenty one days to have the container searched because from the complaints that are normally heard from businessmen two weeks would not be considered a long time when dealing with the GRA. In fact as one person recently noted it took him two hours just to get a parking outside the GRA office on Camp Street. So three weeks is not a long wait. Not at all.
That three-week delay may turn out however to be fatal to the prosecution’s case. And what the GRA may have felt should have been the greatest drug bust may turn out to be a bungled investigation. This past week global attention was riveted on the murder charge instituted against the double amputee Oscar Pistorius who ran at the London Olympics using artificial limbs. Pistorius has been charged for the murder of his girlfriend. His defense lawyers went to work on the lead detective in the case, digging up details of his background, so much so that now he has been taken off the investigation and an internal probe has been launched as to how in the first place he was allowed to investigate the murder. The lead witness’s testimony came
Dem boys seh
Luncheon mouth slip Mash come and gone but some people still wondering wha happen mek de government let de cat out de bag bout de future plans fuh de Marriott. All de time de same government was telling de nation that de hotel was to give Guyana a proper hotel fuh when dem foreigner come. Jagdeo claim how dem other hotel don’t have class and how some of dem stink. What he didn’t tell people was who was really building de Marriott. He talk bout foreign investors but he get Brazzy fuh seh that dem can’t name anybody because dem got to wait till de deal finalise. Well is almost a year and de hotel
under construction and dem still can’t name de private investors. Luncheon get ketch because he believe that dem government did announce de investors. That is why he tell dem reporters that de government only building de hotel as a means of helping and when it done and everybody mek sure that it wukking, de same government gun hand it over to de private investors. But from de inception dem boys know that Jagdeo friends was de ones who was putting money in de hotel. Some even seh that Jagdeo and all putting money in de hotel. Suh when Luncheon tell dem reporters that de
government gun hand over de hotel to dem private people he was really talking about handing over de hotel to Jagdeo friends and perhaps Jagdeo heself. Now that is de thing. Dem boys want to know is how much money Jagdeo and he friends got. Dem know that dem same kavakamites hate Badal fuh buying de Pegasus because dem did want to buy de hotel fuh demself. After de story buss out nuff people start fuh whisper among demself. Couple of dem cuss Luncheon fuh talking out of turn. De one thing is that dem can’t knock he off and he got more to talk. Talk half and wait fuh more disclosures.
Elderly man missing
Family members of 62year-old Yacoob Alli, called Yacoob Musahid, are pleading for information about his whereabouts. He has been missing from his Lot 124 Old Road Vreed-enhoop, West Coast Demerara home for almost two weeks. The missing man’s daughter told Kaieteur News that she has made several checks around his village, as well as hospitals and mortuaries on the West Coast of Demerara and in Georgetown. The distraught woman explained that her stepmother passed away last December and that her father has been depressed every since. She added that she spoke to her father almost every day since his wife’s death, and that he never mentioned anything about having to
THE MISSING: Yacoob Alli aka Yacoob Musahid leave home. “I don’t know where he gone, but I talk to him just the night before and he didn’t say that he had to leave home, so I don’t know what happened,” the weeping woman said.
She added that a few neighbours said that they saw the elderly man locking up his home and leaving. When the daughter got there, she saw that the place was fully secured. “Even though I know that he lock up and left, I need to know where he gone… right now that man ain’t emotionally stable, and I am scared”. She added that she wants her father to know that his family loves him and they want him to return. The woman is calling on the public to help her in finding her father. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to make contact with the nearest police station, or his family on telephone numbers 592-622-1166 or 592-671-4902.
under so much rigorous cross- examination that at one stage it looked as if the prosecutor’s case was in serious problems. The GRA’s case may end in up in dire straits because there is no way that any defense counsel is going to let easily pass the fact that the container in which the drugs were found was left on a city wharf twenty one days after the GRA decided that it needed to be checked. This admission is oxygen to any defense team. This twenty one day delay can turn out to be problematic in establishing possession, an element that is critical to success of the prosecution‘s case. Already there are reports that some of the suspects have been released on bail. If this matter goes to court, it is obvious what will be some of the questions that are going to be asked. The defense counsel will claim that their clients cannot take responsibility for the contents of a container which was out of their possession for three weeks prior to being examined. They will claim that the container could have been tampered with during that period. And the GRA will have to establish just what were the security measures in place to safeguard the container during that period. The question will also be asked as to why it would take
three weeks for the container to be opened? If this is the time to activate the protocols necessary then something is seriously wrong with the GRA systems and there needs to be internal review of this situation because what we are sitting on is a highly embarrassing situation that has international ramifications. International antinarcotics agencies, particularly those in Europe are going to be following closely the developments in this case and it would be a tragedy if the case collapses on the issue of the time it took to have the container examined.
When it comes to the prosecution of narcotic cases, there is always a learning curve. You learn based on experience. Everything does not always go right. It is hoped that with such a big shipment however, and particularly with Guyana’s reputation on the line that this case can still be salvaged through diligent investigation that can link someone or some group of persons with the actual drugs found in the container.
Toddler drowns in bucket of water A one-year-old boy drowned in a bucket of water at around 13:00 hrs yesterday after he was reportedly left in the care of a 14-year-old aunt. Akeem Peters, of Lot 192 Pike Street, North Sophia reportedly fell into a five-gallon bucket of water while his aunt was asleep. Kaieteur News understands that the mother, who has four children, left home at around noon yesterday to collect money from the father of one of the children. She left Akeem in the care of the 14-year-old aunt. After the woman left, the teen and little Akeem reportedly went to sleep. But unknown to the aunt, the toddler awoke and wandered into the kitchen. It is believed that the child was playing with a roll of toilet tissue which fell into a bucket of water. A relative surmised that Akeem was attempting to retrieve the roll of tissue when he fell into the bucket. Up to late yesterday evening police were still questioning the mother and her teenage sister.
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Monday February 25, 2013
Monday February 25, 2013
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Monday February 25, 2013
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The “mining town’ celebrates one hundred... (From page 8) began. A guest house was built at Watooka, and was named the Watooka Club. It was built to accommodate the ‘industrial customers’ and shareholders of the Company who sojourned there while on business. The influx of these visitors greatly increased with the demand for aluminum increasing significantly after the beginning of world war two. Houses were also built by the company at Watooka, and later Fairs Rust, Noigtdacht, and Richmond Hill for its white expatriate staff. These communities became the preserve of this elite group, as locals were strictly forbidden, unless one was a constable, gardener or a maid. The Watooka club later had a swimming pool added and the company acquired two white motor launchesthe Dorbecee and Polaris to cater for the recreational and business needs of the expatriates, as well as distinguished guest who visited the facility. Demba also built wooden range houses, which were referred to as logies, for the local staff in the ‘village’ at Mackenzie, and a few zinc houses at Retrieve. Several zinc houses were also built at Silvertown Wismar, for its workers, on that shore. The community derived its name from the silver zinc sheets used to construct the houses. Meanwhile other people were also building elsewhere, like the people at Canvas City, on Wismar, whose dwellings were built primarily of canvas. Continued population growth saw other communities being established at Blue Berry and Wismar Hill on Wismar and Spieghtland and Kara Kara at Mackenzie. Around this time (early 1920’s) the population at Mackenzie had grown to 6000, while Wismar/
Christianburg was 17,000. An increased population of course necessitated the building of a hospital, which saw the opening of the old Mackenzie Hospital in the year 1925. The recreation Hall at Mackenzie was constructed that same year. Famous for dances in those days, the building presently houses the Linden Museum. Development of the community would escalate between the years 1939 to 1961, with the opening of Christ the King Church, Crescent Cinema, the Wismar Market, installation of a pure water plant and the opening of the Public Free Library and Mackenzie Sports Club. There was also the commencement of a Self-help Housing scheme at Wismar. Completed in 1959, it was reportedly the largest selfhelp scheme to be established in British Guyana, at the time. The Christianburg Primary School, the first school to be established in the area was also rebuilt that very year, and the Wismar/Christianburg Electricity Supply Cooperative Society formed to service residents on the West Bank. The Cooperative still exists to this day, but has diversified and thus changed its name to the Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society LTD. It is presently considered the best managed in the country. Even more development would occur between the years 1961- 1971, but the single event that would dwarf all others during this period would be the opening up of the Alumina Plant at Spieghtland. ALUMINADAY “Alumina Day has made history!” screamed the bold headline on the front page of the Demba Digest of Friday March 31st 1961. It was indeed an historic day, which saw hundreds flocking the brand new Alumina Plant for its official
A range house, or logie that was built in the early days by DEMBA opening by Dr. Cheddi Jagan. An article in the said digest captioned “The Alumina Venture” noted that the 1,700 men who labored for four and a quarter years to build the facility, did “a stupendous and splendid job!” The article further pointed out, “Where there was a swampy waste, they have erected a vast and complex plant that is producing Alumina for Aluminum smelters in Canada, Norway and other parts of the world”. Built with a capital investment tab of $65M, the venture was described as the “Biggest single industrial undertaking in the history of British Guiana.” For Demba, which was considered one of the most important subsidiaries in the Aluminum Group of Companies, it was a ‘monumental leap’. It was described as the greatest day in the then 45-year history of the Company.
The “Digest” further elaborated, ‘Success (of the Alumina venture) will be invaluable to the people of British Guiana, coming at a time when the country is on the threshold of industrial revolution”. It posited that the product (Alumina) would put ‘solid cash’ into the country’s coffers. The Alumina Plant was constructed using workers from Sprostons Construction Ltd and Demba. It was indeed a monumental challenge as 420,000 square yards of swamp and bush had to be converted to a solid foundation, to accommodate the huge silos and equipment that would become the plant. One thousand men reportedly worked for six weeks, to do the initial clearing of the site, before bulldozers could gain access to remove the huge trees. After the clearing was
complete, and the land was drained and compacted, “bauxitic” rock was used for the construction of seven miles of access road. A temporary wharf, which would soon be replaced with a permanent one, facilitated the movement of equipment from ships, to the site. The permanent wharf, which was later constructed, and stands to this day, ostensibly required five hundred green heart piles to secure its foundations. Additionally, thousands of piles would be used on the plant site itself. Forty eight miles of piles were reportedly driven into the ground, and it was noted that upon completion, the Alumina Plant extended and contained more steel below ground, than above! The pipelines used would be about 36 miles long or the distance from Mackenzie to Ituni, if they were laid out ‘end to end’. The electrical cables
meanwhile would cover a distance of about ninety miles. A million cubic feet of reinforced concrete slabs, was utilized as bases for the numerous steel tanks, which are the “dominant features” of this colossal Plant. The Alumnina Plant, which as stated earlier helped to significantly augment the country’s treasury, and considerably raised the economic fortunes of Mackenzie, would also play a major role in its eventual economic nosedive, after its closure years later. But during its heyday, Mackenzie prospered as never before, and no one would have envisaged the tumultuous times that lay ahead as the stability of the community was fractured by the volcanic political climate of the early 1960’s, that eventually exploded with two debacles that would remain etched in the memories of residents for decades to come.
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Monday February 25, 2013
Wismar farmer losing crops to accouri invasion A Block 22, Wismar farmer is waging what he fears may be a losing battle to save his crops from a relentless army of elusive, four-legged thieves. Owen De Souza, who cultivates mainly root crops on his ten-acre farm, is being outwitted and outnumbered by scores of accouris, also called agoutis, which have been devouring his produce. The prolific farmer has been cultivating in a valley as
surrounding hillsides resembled a lush green carpet with all the vegetables he was cultivating. Now there he only cultivates dasheen, eddoes, plantains bananas and coconuts; but even those, the animals seem bent on destroying. The hillsides are now barren, with only the undulating terrain indicating the beds that were once lush with vegetables. “The accouri (agouti) here
“The accouri (agouti) here are college educated, they don’t eat the wild eddoes and so on anymore, they eat eddoes, dasheen and dried coconuts, but their favorite is cassava and sweet potatoes..” - Owen De Souza well as the surrounding hillsides for the past 23 years. But the animals have wreaked so much havoc with his crops, that he no longer produces cash crops, which has severely restricted his earning power. This he notes is really a sad state of affairs, considering all the emphasis that the Government places on agriculture. Distraught, De Souza recalls the days when the
are college educated, they don’t eat the wild eddoes and so on anymore, they eat eddoes, dasheen and dried coconuts, but their favorite is cassava and sweet potatoes.’ In fact, some members of a rampaging rodent clan could be seen roaming boldly on Mr. De Souza’s farm, even as he spoke with Kaieteur News. EIGHTAND FIFTEEN POUND EDDOES During a brief tour of his
vast farm, De Souza dug out a huge eddo which weighed at least twelve pounds and a dasheen which weighed about four pounds, from the valley where he cultivates them. He proudly declared that he uses no artificial fertilizer, but the provisions grow to massive proportions because of the swampland where they’re cultivated. Yet De Souza is not happy as he has been battling the four legged thieves for years now. Voicing his frustration, he said that he has applied for a firearm, for several years now to rid his farm of the accouri menace, but is yet to get a positive response. According to him, he is being given the ‘royal runaround’. So he continues to suffer the devastating effects of the animals plundering his farm to their hearts’ content. He is even more saddened by the fact that he chose to return to Guyana with his family because of his love of the land. De Souza was somehow able to convince his wife Louise, who had already lived in North America for more than two decades, to return home to Guyana with him, so
The De Souzas in front of their farm
they could do what he loves best- farming. Once back home they created an oasis out of what was once a jungle. They embarked on a mission to help feed the nation, by plugging millions into their farming project. Soon the De Souzas had 700 coconut trees, two hundred sour-sop plants, 200 pear trees, ground provisions and numerous plantain and banana suckers under cultivation. Other crops such as cherries were cultivated on a smaller scale.
The family has produced pears so prolifically over the years, that De Souza is known to his many customers as “ pear man”. Out of his vast resources De Souza was able to send a truck and minibus load of provisions to help feed residents on the East Coast of Demerara during the devastating 2005 floods. He is therefore appealing to those in authority to assist him urgently in acquiring a firearm, to rid his farm of the amour invasion.
“This thing is really frustrating, and it’s not me alone- a lot of people in this area suffering this amour menace. These animals just eating out people crops, and a few persons get so fed up, they just chucked everything and went into the interior, a few of them even got malaria and died!” Mr. De Souza said that he is presently at his wits end, but even so he’s not prepared to give up farming, as it is his life. (Enid Joaquin)
Another miner has been murdered in the increasingly violence-prone interior. Police said that George Cardario, 51, of Middle Mazaruni, died at around 03:30 hrs yesterday after he was stabbed in the abdomen during an argument with another man. The suspect has been arrested and is in police custody assisting with the investigations. Meanwhile, police are still investigating the shooting on
Saturday of 26-year-old Christopher Mann at Arakaka, North West District. Mann, an administrator of Gold Mines Corporation and of Bon Fin, Brazil, was reportedly wounded when two men invaded the camp and demanded gold. A scuffle reportedly ensued during which he was shot. Police said the robbers also relieved an armed security guard of a .38 revolver and six rounds of
ammunition. The injured man was taken to the Matthews Ridge Hospital before being transported to a city hospital. Yesterday, a sister of the wounded man said that he is in a stable condition but declined further comment. Last Wednesday, dredge operator Gavin Mc Neil was shot dead at his Mc Doom, East Bank Demerara home by a group of young bandits who also terrorized and robbed his family.
Another miner slain in violence-prone interior
Monday February 25, 2013
When I was a schoolboy we used to bet “Lent”. Betting Lent meant that if you were heard singing a calypso you could be “tapped” (an open palmed blow to the back of the head near the nape of the neck) with impunity. Ash Wednesday or the day after Trinidad’s two-day street carnival is the start of the Lenten season and in looking back I cannot remember my head not resounding from innumerable taps every Ash Wednesday. My love for calypsos caused it. How can any calypso lover after hearing “Jean and Dinah” or some other hit for days on end suddenly disconnect from the melody at midnight on Carnival Tuesday? I remember much later the Mighty Duke arguing with me on a television show that I hosted, “Calypso is not mango or orange. Calypso cannot have a season. Calypso should be played throughout the year, especially on Ash Wednesday when it is still current.” Custom and the Catholic Church created the calypso “season” and the strictures that went with Lent. In my case I was prepared to give up meat (which we had only on Sundays anyway) but giving up calypso was painful although much less so than its alternative. This is why one of my friends twittered me on Ash Wednesday saying that it is now difficult to decide what to give up seeing how high the Pope, Benedict XVI, had set the bar. Of course his sudden resignation prompted some interesting speculation, especially from the Late Night comedians. Conan O’Brien, set the bar almost as high with, “The Vatican said that as soon as the Pope resigns, he will no longer be infallible. The Vatican said it’s the same thing that happened to Oprah. Jay Leno’s take on it was, “As you know, the Pope is resigning. He said he feels there’s just no room for advancement. It’s a dead-end job.” Jimmy Fallon put it into context, “Tomorrow is the first day of Lent, when Catholics begin fasting for 40
Kaieteur News
days. Some Catholics will give up chocolate, some Catholics will give up alcohol, and one Catholic is giving up ‘being Pope.” Leno made the link with other current events. “The Pope said he was stepping down at age 85 because he could no longer handle the job physically. To which Lance Armstrong said, ‘I’ve got some stuff that can help you with that.’” Then the Almighty got into the act or so some people assumed when there was a thunderstorm in Rome and lightning struck the top of St Peter’s Basilica. Conan O’Brien quipped, “The Vatican was struck by lightning after the Pope announced he was retiring. That really happened. Sounds like someone’s not handling the breakup well.” This would have remained an isolated incident in the unfolding papal drama were it not for the meteor that hit Russia on Friday February 15, 2013. Immediately a connection was made. The resignation of the Pope was the signal for apocalypse now. Media reports said that the fall of such a large meteor estimated as weighing dozens of tonnes was extremely rare, while the number of casualties as a consequence of its burning up around a heavilyinhabited area was unprecedented. Stephanie Pappas of Live Science wrote, “Y2K? A bust. Judgment Day 2011? As quiet as a mouse. The Mayan apocalypse? Certainly not now. As they have throughout history, failed doomsday predictions come and go. But with the Pope resigning, an asteroid whizzing near the planet on Friday, Feb. 15, and a completely unrelated space rock exploding over Russia, it seems a good time to ask: What’s next?” Even Shakespeare has been brought into the mix. Julius Caesar (Act Two Scene Two) links disturbances on earth with rumblings and tumblings in the atmosphere. Calpurnia says, “When beggars die there are no comets seen./The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” In Richard II (Act Two Scene 4) the
Captain says, “The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d / And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; / The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth / And lean-look’d prophets whisper fearful change; / Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap, / The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, / The other to enjoy by rage and war: / These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.” Well, the meteor has come and it is now time to look at the bay trees or smell the Limacol. According to Ms.
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Pappas, in 1595 a Benedictine monk published a series of prophecies he claimed came straight from the pen of a 12thcentury archbishop, Saint Malachy, and dealt with the long line of Popes still to come…Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) is said to match the 110th phrase on the list, “from the labour of the sun,” because he was born and entombed on days when there were solar eclipses. That makes Benedict XVI number 111, “the glory of the olive.” A monastic order founded by the saint from whom Benedict took his name has a branch known as the Olivetans,
though Benedict himself is not one of them… Line 112 reads, “In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.” This means that Benedict’s successor may be the last of the Popes and his election will be the final act in the human comedy. In the
meantime, it is said, Benedict XVI will retire to his country estate in Germany where he plans to put a few Papal bulls and a few Holstein cows together and let nature take its course. No horsemeat for him. *Tony Deyal was last seen enjoying the Jay Leno jibe, “The Pope said that at age 85 he cannot physically go on. Meanwhile, Hugh Hefner is going to be 87 and he just married a 26-year-old. So much for that celibate lifestyle!”
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Monday February 25, 2013
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
Zimbabwe says it has found funds for a referendum HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s broke coalition government says it has raised enough money privately to pay for a referendum on a new constitution scheduled March 16. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the vote, just three weeks away, “will not be stopped because of lack of money,” the state yesterday Mail newspaper reported. Chinamasa said the financing was “sourced locally” from commercial and business interests after the United Nations and possible outside donors weren’t given enough time to contribute. The referendum date was announced a week ago. The state election commission says it needs $85 million for the vote ahead of national elections later in the year to end the nation’s shaky coalition between President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition formed after the violent and disputed elections in 2008. All coalition leaders have called for a ‘Yes’ vote on the new constitution. Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the United Nations cited bureaucratic procedures preventing it from providing referendum money, adding “we submitted our budgets a bit late,” the Sunday Mail reported. “I think they are going to fund the actual election but
this time (for the referendum) we are going it alone,” the paper quoted Biti saying. Biti is the third ranking official in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party. Presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to be held around July. Rights and democracy groups have called for a postponement of the referendum to give voters more time to study the 160page draft constitution first published last Monday. They insist a hasty vote will not produce a credible outcome. Vice President Joice Mujuru said Saturday no Western observers will be allowed into the country to monitor either of the upcoming polls. Only African and regional observers will be permitted as election monitors, she said while addressing a state funeral in Harare, in the absence of Mugabe, who was on an official trip to West Africa. Western nations hostile to Mugabe sought to infiltrate the country as monitors to influence the outcome of voting in their favor, Mujuru said. “Let us be wary of foreign interference in our internal politics,” she said. Mugabe expelled a European Union observer mission during elections in 2002 that the European monitors alleged were marred
Robert Mugabe by violence and vote rigging. Western donors give the bulk of pledges to United Nations appeals for funds to help member states. The official election commission says that in a departure from usual election practice the voters’ lists will not be used in the March 16 referendum. Voters aged 18 and above can cast their ballots in any of 9,000 polling states across the country using only valid national identity cards. That procedure would mean a larger voter turnout within the time constraints up to referendum, it says. In previous parliament and presidential elections, glaring errors in the voters’ lists, including registered voters who have long since died or have moved to other districts, were blamed for vote rigging and fraud.
Clegg on defensive as sexual harassment claims batter party LONDON (Reuters) Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday denied covering up allegations of sexual misconduct by a former senior member of his Liberal Democrat party, already floundering in opinion polls. Allegations of sexual impropriety by former party chief executive Chris Rennard threaten to engulf Clegg and further undermine the Lib Dems, the junior member of Britain’s coalition government. The latest furore comes at a bad time for the party, after the resignation of cabinet minister Chris Huhne this month who admitted he had asked his then wife to accept a penalty for a 2003 speeding offence he had committed. A local election to replace Huhne is to be held Thursday. Rennard, the mastermind behind the party’s election strategy before quitting in 2009, was accused in a report by
Nick Clegg Britain’s Channel 4 television channel on Thursday of inappropriately touching female party members and activists several years ago. The report has since triggered a flurry of similar allegations in the British media. Lawyers for Rennard, a member of parliament’s upper house, said after the Channel 4 report that he was “deeply shocked by and
strongly disputes” the allegations made against him. Media reports have since then accused Clegg of knowing of the allegations long ago but not investigating them. “I am angry and outraged at the suggestion that I would not have acted if these allegations had been put to me,” Clegg said late yesterday, rejecting suggestions of a “cover up”. He said was made aware of “indirect and nonspecific concerns” about Rennard in 2008, and had acted on them, but there was a limit to how far the party could take the matter given sources of the concerns were indirect and anonymous. The Lib Dems have announced two internal inquiries since more detail has come to light, one into how the party handled the allegations, and another into the allegations themselves. Clegg said they would reveal the truth of what happened.
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Syrian opposition says captures former nuclear site AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels have captured the site of a suspected nuclear reactor near the Euphrates River which Israeli warplanes destroyed six years ago, opposition sources in eastern Syria said yesterday. Al-Kubar site, around 60 km (35 miles) west of the city of Deir al-Zor, became a focus of international attention when Israel raided it in 2007. The United States said the complex was a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor geared to making weapons-grade plutonium. Omar Abu Laila a spokesman for the Eastern Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army said the only building rebels found at the site was a hangar containing at least one Scud missile. “It appears that the site was turned into a Scud launch base. Whatever structures it had have been buried,” he said, adding that three army helicopters airlifted the last loyalist troops before opposition fighters overran the area on Friday. The Syrian military, which razed the site after the Israeli raid, said the complex was a regular military facility but refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency unrestrained access, after the agency said the complex could have been a nuclear site. The U.N. investigation appears to have died down since the national revolt against Preident Bashar al-Assad broke out in 2011, with the armed opposition increasingly capturing military sites in rural areas and on the edges of cities. U.N. inspectors examined the site in June 2008 but Syrian authorities has barred them access since.
Abu Laila said Scuds appear to have been fired from Kubar at rebel-held areas in the province of Homs to the west. The complex, he said, had command and control links with loyalist troops in the city of Deir al-Zor, where Assad’s forces have been on the retreat and are now based mainly in and around the airport in the south of the city. Footage showed fighters inspecting the site and one large missile inside a hangar. One fighter pointed to what he said were explosives placed under the missile to destroy it before attacking forces got to it. Abu Hamza, a commander in the Jafaar alTayyar brigade, said in a YouTube video taken at Kubar that various rebel groups, including the al Qaeda linked al-Nusra front, took part the operation and that U.N. inspectors were welcome to come and survey the site. In the last few months, opposition fighters have captured large swathes of the province of Deir al-Zor, a Sunni Muslim desert oil producing region that borders Iraq, including most of a highway along Euphrates leading to Kubar. The province is far from the Assad’s main military supply bases on the coast and in Damascus. Long-time alliances between Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Islam, and Sunni tribes in Deir al-Zor have also largely collapsed since the revolt. But Assad’s forces remain entrenched in the south of the city of Deir al-Zor and armed convoys guarded by helicopters still reach the city from the city of Palmyra to the southwest, according to opposition sources.
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Pope gives final Sunday blessing before resigning VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI bestowed his final Sunday blessing of his pontificate on a cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square, explaining that his waning years and energy made him better suited to the life of private prayer he soon will spend in a secluded monastery than as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. On Thursday evening, the 85-year-old German-born theologian will become the first pope to have resigned from the papacy in 600 years. Yesterday’s appearance from his studio window overlooking the vast square was his next-to-last appointment with the public of his nearly eight-year papacy. Tens of thousands of faithful and other admirers have already asked the Vatican for a seat in the square for his last general audience Wednesday. Perhaps emotionally buoyed by the warm welcome, thunderous applause and the many banners reading “Grazie” (Thanks) held up in the crowd estimated by police to number 100,000, Benedict looked relaxed and sounded
energized, in sharp contrast to his apparent frailty and weariness of recent months. In a strong and clear voice, Benedict told the pilgrims, tourists and Romans in the square that God had called him to dedicate himself “even more to prayer and meditation,” which he will do in a monastery being renovated for him on the grounds behind Vatican City’s ancient walls. “But this doesn’t mean abandoning the church,” he said, as many in the crowd looked sad at his approaching departure. “On the contrary, if God asks me, this is because I can continue to serve it (the church) with the same dedication and the same love which I have tried to do so until now, but in a way more suitable to my age and to my strength.” The phrase “tried to” was the pope’s adlibbed addition to his prepared text. Benedict smiled in pleasure at the crowd after an aide parted the white curtain at his window and he gazed at the people packing the square, craning their head for a look at him. Giving greetings in several languages, he
Pope Benedict XVI gratefully acknowledged what he said was an outpouring of “gratitude, affection and closeness in prayer” since he stunned the church and its 1.2 billion members on Feb. 11 with his decision to renounce his papacy and retreat into a world of contemplation. “Prayer is not isolating oneself from the world and its contradictions,” Benedict told the crowd. He said he had heard God’s call to prayer, “which gives breath to our spiritual life” in a special way “at this moment of my life.” Heavy rain had been
forecast for Rome, and some drizzle dampened the square earlier in the morning. But when Benedict appeared, to the peal of church bells as the clock struck noon, blue sky crept through the clouds. “We thank God for the sun he has given us,” the pope said. Even as the cheering continued and shouts of “Long live the pope” went up in Italian and Spanish, the pontiff simply turned away from his window and stepped back down into the apartment, which he will leave Thursday, taking a helicopter to the Vatican summer residence in the hills outside Rome while he waits for the monastery to be ready. A child in the crowd held up a sign on a yellow placard, written in Italian, “You are not alone, I’m with you.” No date has yet been set
for the start of the conclave of cardinals, who will vote in secret to elect Benedict’s successor. “Now there will be two popes,” said the Rev. Vilmar Pavesi, a Portuguese priest who was among the throngs in the square. “There will be the pope of Rome, the elected pope, and there will be the bishop emeritus of Rome, who will live the life of a monk inside the Vatican walls.” One Italian in the crowd seemed to be doing a little campaigning, hoisting a sign which mentioned the names of two Italian cardinals considered by observers to be potential contenders in the selection of the next pontiff. Flags in the crowd represented many nations, with a large number from Brazil. The cardinals in the conclave will have to decide whether it’s time to look outside of Europe for a pope.
The papacy was considered the realm of Italian prelates for centuries, until a Pole, John Paul II, was elected as pontiff in 1978, to be followed in 2005 by the German-born Benedict. Crucially, Italian prelates have continued to run the behind-the-scenes machinery of the church’s governance, and cardinals will likely be deciding what role the Italians might have played in a series of scandals clouding the central bureaucracy, including allegations of corruption and power-grabbing. Benedict has not made any direct comment on details of the scandals. In one of his last papal tweets, Benedict wrote Sunday in English: “In these momentous days, I ask you to pray for me and for the church, trusting as always in divine providence.”
Gloomy Italians vote in election crucial for euro zone (Reuters) - Italy voted yesterday in one of the most unpredictable elections in years, with many voters expressing rage against a discredited elite and doubt that a government will emerge strong enough to combat a severe economic crisis. “I am pessimistic. Nothing will change,” said Luciana Li Mandri, 37, as she cast a ballot in the Sicilian capital Palermo on the first of two days of voting that continues on Monday. “The usual thieves will be in government.” Her gloom reflected the mood across Italy, where many voters said they thought the new administration would not last long, just the opposite of what Italy needs to combat the longest slump in 20 years, mounting unemployment and a huge public debt. The election is being closely watched by investors whose memories are fresh of a debt crisis which forced out scandal-plagued conservative premier Silvio Berlusconi 15 months ago and saw him replaced by economics professor Mario Monti. “I’m not confident that the government that emerges from the election will be able to solve any of our problems,” said Attilio Bianchetti, a 55year-old building tradesman in Milan. Underlining his disilluion with the established parties, he voted for the 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo. An iconclastic, 64-year-
Silvio Berlusconi
Mario Monti
old Genoese, Grillo has screamed himself hoarse with obscenity-laced attacks on politicians that have channelled the anger of Italians, especially a frustrated young generation hit by record unemployment. “He’s the only real new element in a political landscape where we’ve been seeing the same faces for too long,” said Vincenzo Cannizzaro, 48, in Palermo. Opinion polls give the centre-left coalition of Pier Luigi Bersani a narrow lead but the result has been thrown open by the prospect of a huge protest vote against Monti’s painful austerity measures and rage at a wave of corruption scandals. A weak government could usher in new instability in the euro zone’s third largest economy and cause another crisis of confidence in the European Union’s single currency. Television tycoon Berlusconi, showing off unrivalled media skills and
displaying extraordinary energy for a man of 76, has increased uncertainty over the past couple of months by halving the gap between his centre-right and Bersani. “I am pessimistic. There is such political fragmentation that we will again have the problem of ungovernability” said Marta, a lawyer voting in Rome who did not want to give her family name. “I fear the new government won’t last long.” Another Roman voter, lab technician Manila Luce, 34, said: “I am voting Grillo and I hope a lot of people do. Because it’s the only way to show how sick to the back teeth we are with the old parties.” Voting continues until 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) and resumes today at 7 a.m. Exit polls will be published shortly after polls close at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT) today. Full official results are expected by early tomorrow. Several bare-breasted women protested against Continued on page 21
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Republicans, Democrats brace for impact of March 1 cuts WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - With five days left before $85 billion is slashed from U.S. government budgets, governors and lawmakers from both parties said the White House and Congress should pull out the stops to avert indiscriminate cuts. Republicans, who are seeking spending cuts, urged President Barack Obama to apply what’s known as the “sequester” in a more careful way, rather than slashing budgets across the board. The White House has issued dire warnings about the impact the cuts will have, including mass temporary layoffs or “furloughs” in the military, a slowdown in air traffic, and shutdowns for daycare programs and meatprocessing plants. “They’ve rolled out this great political theater about how cutting less than 3 percent of the federal budget is going to cause all these awful consequences,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Here’s his chance to say, ‘Here’s how we can do it better,’” Jindal said, suggesting Congress and the White House give departments the ability to cut spending on less essential services. Congress returns on Monday after a week-long
recess and unless lawmakers reach a deal with the White House to postpone the sequester cuts, they will take effect on March 1. Obama has urged Congress to buy more time for a broad budget deal with a short-term measure that boosts revenues by ending some tax breaks for the wealthy. Senate Democrats have put forward a plan that focuses on those tax loopholes. This week, Republicans are expected to propose alternatives. “I think this notion of giving the President the discretion to make the spending cuts - I think that’s a cop-out. So I will be urging my colleagues to have an alternative and for us to present one,” said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Governors, in Washington this week for an annual meeting, are concerned about the impact of the cuts on jobs and the economy at the state level. On average, government programs subject to the cuts provide 6.6 percent of states’ revenues, according to Pew Center on the States. Obama is slated to speak to the group at 7:10 p.m. EST (0010 GMT Monday) at a White House dinner on Sunday night. An analysis by Wells
U.S. President Barack Obama talks against automatic budget cuts scheduled to take effect this week, while in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex in Washington February 19, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing Fargo Securities Economics Group last week found that under sequestration, states close to the nation’s capital and in the South will be hardest hit. White House officials have said the sequester law does not allow the administration to be flexible in applying the cuts. “We don’t have any ability with dumb cuts like this to figure out what the right thing to do is,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on “Face the Nation.” “There are literally teachers now who are given pink slips, who are given
Gloomy Italians vote in election... From page 20 Berlusconi when he voted in Milan. They were bundled away by police. The four-time premier, known for offcolour jokes and a constant target of feminists, is on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute during “bunga bunga” parties at his villa. Most experts expect a coalition between Bersani and Monti to form the next administration, but whatever government emerges will have to try to reverse years of failure to revitalise one of the most sluggish economies in the developed world. The widespread despair over the state of the country, where a series of corruption scandals has highlighted the stark divide between a privileged political elite and millions of ordinary Italians struggling to make ends meet, has left deep scars. “It’s our fault, Italian citizens. It’s our closed mentality. We’re just not Europeans,” said voter Li Mandri in Palermo. “We’re all about getting favours when we study, getting a protected job when we work,” she said. “That’s the way we are and we can only be represented by people like that as well.” Even if Bersani wins as expected, Analysts are divided over whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can force through sweeping economic reforms. His centre-left is expected to have firm control of the lower house, thanks to rules that give a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally. But a much closer battle will be fought for the Senate which is elected on a regional basis and which has equal law making powers to
the chamber. Berlusconi has clawed back suppport by promising to repeal Monti’s hated new housing tax, the IMU, and to refund the money. He relentlessly attacked what he called the “Germano-centric” policies of the former European Union commissioner. Think-tank consultant Mario, 60, said on his way to vote in Bologna that Bersani’s Democratic Party was the only group serious enough to repair the economy: “They’re not perfect,” he said. “But they’ve got the organisation and the union backing that will help them push through structural reforms.” Despite Berlusconi’s success, Grillo has tapped into the same public frustration as the conservative tycoon and pollsters say his 5Star Movement of political novices could overtake the centre-right to take second place in the vote. Rivals have branded Grillo a threat to democracy - a vivid image in a country ruled by fascists for two decades until World War Two. Several voters who spoke to Reuters said Grillo was not the answer because of his lack of concrete policies and the inexperience of those who will sit in parliament for 5-Star. “Grillo is a populist and populism doesn’t work in a democracy,” said retired notary Pasquale Lebanon, 76, as he voted for Bersani’s Democratic Party in Milan. “I’m very worried. There seems to be no way out from a political point of view, or for being able to govern,” said Calogero Giallanza, a 45-year-old musician in Rome as he also voted for Bersani. “There’s bound to be a mess in the Senate because, as far as I can see the 5-Star Movement is unstoppable.”
notices that they can’t come back this fall,” Duncan said. In recent weeks, the White House has staged a series of events to illustrate how the cuts will affect American jobs, and has focused on pinning the blame for the looming cuts on Congressional Republicans. Republicans have fought back by saying the sequester
mechanism - part of a 2011 law designed to force Congress to reach a deficit reduction deal - was Obama’s idea. On Sunday, the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward waded into that fight, saying White House officials including Jack Lew Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary proposed the sequester. In an opinion piece, Woodward said Obama was “moving the goal posts” by insisting on new tax revenue as part of an alternative to the sequester cuts. “His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made” in 2011, said Woodward, who wrote a book about the deal called “The Price of Politics.” But an administration official said Obama had always said that he would push to replace the sequester cuts with a mix of spending cuts and tax revenue. “The sequester was understood by all parties to be an enforcement
mechanism that would be mutually odious enough to bring both parties back to the table to negotiate a ‘Grand Bargain’ with both entitlement savings and revenues to replace it,” said the official, on condition of anonymity. Rhetoric aside, there has been almost no negotiation between the White House and Congress on the March 1 cuts, although Obama phoned Republican leaders last week to discuss the issue. “The president should be calling us over somewhere, Camp David, the White House, somewhere, and sitting down and trying to avert these cuts,” said Republican Senator John McCain on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel agreed that Congress should seek “smart” cuts, rather than across-the-board reductions. “I think Congress should sit down and avoid the sequester,” Engel said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And if the sequester kicks in, for a week or so, we should then fix it so it doesn’t become a permanent thing,” Engel said.
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Egypt’s vote won’t calm turbulent streets CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s streets are turning into a daily forum for airing a range of social discontents from labor conditions to fuel shortages and the casualties of myriad clashes over the past two years. Parliamentary elections called over the weekend by the Islamist president hold out little hope for plucking the country out of the turmoil. If anything, the race is likely to fuel more unrest and push Egypt closer to economic collapse. “The street has a life of its own and it has little to do with elections. It is about people wanting to make a living or make ends meet,” said Emad Gad, a prominent analyst and a former lawmaker. Islamist President Mohammed Morsi called for parliamentary elections to start in late April and be held over four stages ending in June. He was obliged under the constitution to set the date for the vote by Saturday. His decree brought a sharp reaction from Egypt’s key opposition leader, Nobel Peace Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, who said they
would be a “recipe for disaster” given the polarization of the country and eroding state authority. On Saturday, ElBaradei dropped a bombshell when he called for a boycott of the vote. An effective boycott by the opposition or widespread fraud would call the election’s legitimacy into question. But in all likelihood, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its ultraconservative Salafi allies will fare well in the vote. The Brotherhood has dominated every election in the two years since the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The mostly secular and liberal opposition will likely trail as they did in the last election for parliament’s lawmaking, lower house in late 2011 and early 2012 — a pattern consistent with every nationwide election postMubarak. President Morsi’s Brotherhood-dominated administration has been unable to curb the street protests, strikes and crime that have defined Egypt in the two years since the uprising. In fact, the unrest has only grown more intense,
more effective and has spread around the country in the nearly eight months that Morsi has been in office. On any given day, a diverse variety of protesters across much of the troubled nation press demands of all sorts or voice opposition to Morsi and the Brotherhood. Thousands of brick workers blocked railroad tracks from a city south of Cairo for a second successive day to protest rising prices of industrial fuel oil, crippling transportation around the country of 85 million. The rise resulted from the government’s decision last week to lift subsidies on some fuel prices. It is part of a reform program aimed at securing a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile there are ample signs that Egypt’s economy is deteriorating steadily. Foreign reserves have dropped by nearly two thirds since Mubarak’s departure, the key tourism sector is in a deep slump and the local currency has fallen nearly 10 percent against the dollar in
In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 file photo, Egyptian Ultras, hard-core soccer fans, chant anti-president Mohammed Morsi slogans while attending a rally in front of the provincial government headquarters, unseen, in Port Said, Egypt. (Photo/Nasser Nasser, File) the last two months. Khaled el-Hawari, a marketing executive in one of the brick factories, said industrial fuel oil prices increased by 50 percent, threatening the business and the livelihoods of hundreds of workers who could be laid off. “No one is listening to us or responding,” he said. “We plan to protest outside the Cabinet next.” In the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, hundreds of quarry workers stormed the local government building, forcing staff to flee. The workers are demanding permanent employment in the factory. They chanted against the recently appointed local governor, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the coastal city of Port Said, a general strike entered its second week on Sunday. The city has practically come to a halt as thousands of workers from the main industrial area joined the strike. Calls for a civil strike in line with the one in Port Said have spread around Egypt. A group of protesters blocked the entrance to a major administrative building in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, stopping citizens from entering and prompting small scuffles. But Port Said is emerging as a prime example of how the popular discontent is evolving into sustained antigovernment action. There are even calls in Port Said for secession which, while not realistic, indicate the depth of anger. Activists there are demanding retribution for more than 40 residents killed there last month, allegedly by police. The killings took place amid a wave of anger that swept the city after a Cairo
court passed death sentences against 21 people, mostly from Port Said, for their part in Egypt’s worst soccer disaster on Feb. 1 2012. Morsi’s supporters say that delaying elections, protesting and boycotting are affecting Egypt’s ability to lure foreign investors and tourists again as the economy deteriorates. Lack of confidence in law enforcement has reached a point where villagers sometimes hunt down alleged killers, lynch them and burn their bodies with police unable or unwilling to intervene. With violent crime on the rise, rights groups accuse police under Morsi of falling back to the brutal methods and impunity of the Mubarak days. The opposition, which led the uprising against Mubarak, is showing signs of disarray. Another emphatic Islamist victory, especially if enough opposition groups do not heed ElBardei’s boycott call, is likely to deal a body blow to the National Salvation Front — the main opposition coalition. In short, there is no end in sight to the growing popular discontent with Morsi’s rule and the Brotherhood, who are accused by opponents of monopolizing power. Already, ElBaradei’s call for a boycott has sown divisions with his movement, with some of its leading figures saying the former director of the U.N. nuclear agency spoke prematurely and without sufficient consultation with other leaders. Others said they would heed the boycott call. Ahmed Maher, the leader of the opposition April 6 youth group, said if the entire opposition does not join the boycott, it would be a “gift”
to the Brotherhood and would accord legitimacy to a Brotherhood-dominated parliament. A successful boycott, he added in a statement, must be accompanied with a “parallel” parliament and a shadow government for it to be effective. Significantly, some activists say that with international monitoring of the upcoming elections to prevent widespread fraud, the Brotherhood and their Salafi allies may not get the comfortable win they are hoping for. “Entire cities and provinces have turned against the Brotherhood,” said activist Ahmed Badawi. “This is a good time to defeat the Brotherhood because the economic crisis is hurting people’s lives and they are angry.” But Gad, the former lawmaker, pointed out that staggering the elections over a two-month period would only benefit the Brotherhood, which had gained valuable election expertise when it had for years under Mubarak fielded candidates in parliamentary elections as independents. “They have their election pros who will now be put to work in all four stages to ensure their supporters go out and vote while orchestrating soft fraud which, if widespread, can alter the results,” said Gad. The Brotherhood has been repeatedly accused of influencing voters at polling centers, campaigning on voting day in violation of the law and taking advantage of the relatively high percentage of illiteracy among voters. Some also accuse the Brotherhood of buying votes, exploiting the country’s widespread poverty.
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
Cuba parliament gathers, will select president HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s parliament reconvened yesterday with new membership and was expected to name Raul Castro to a new five-year-term as president. All were watching whether younger politicians might be tapped for other top leadership posts, providing hints of a possible future successor. Castro fueled speculation on Friday when he talked of his possible retirement and suggested he has plans to resign at some point. It was unclear whether the 81-yearold leader was joking, but he promised his speech would be “interesting.” If a fresh face is named as one of his top deputies, it could indicate that his administration is settling on who might carry the country forward when those who fought in the 1959 revolution can no longer do so. Raul Castro turns 82 this year and would be 86 when a new term ends. His top two lieutenants are also in their 80s. “This National Assembly is important because it formally is going to govern the fate of the country for the next five years, which will be decisive for changing personnel — what I call the intergenerational transition,” said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban economist and analyst who lectures at the University of Denver. “The intergenerational transition cannot be put off any longer.” The 612 legislators were sworn in during the morning and then picked economist Esteban Lazo as the National Assembly’s first new chief in 20 years. Lazo, who turns 69 on Tuesday, is a vice president and member of the Communist Party’s ruling political bureau. Parliament meets only twice a year and generally passes legislation
Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro (R) and his brother Cuba’s President Raul Castro talk during the opening session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate) unanimously without visible debate. Ricardo Alarcon, who had been the body’s president for two decades, was not on the ballot this year. The assembly will also nominate the Council of State, Cuba’s maximum governing body, which is made up of the president, a first vice president, five vicepresidents, a secretary and 23 other members. The president also oversees the Council of Ministers, or Cabinet. Castro has spoken in the past of implementing twoterm limits for public officials up to and including the president, as well as the importance of grooming new leaders to take over from his graying generation. “Raul Castro has said they’re behind. He has set the task of promoting people from the younger generation into the leadership, but so far hasn’t put them into the toplevel leadership,” said Philip Peters, a longtime Cuba analyst at the Virginia-based Lexington Institute think tank. “So we will see on Sunday if this is what they
do.” This would be Castro’s second full term after formally assuming the presidency in 2008. He took over provisionally in 2006 when his elder brother, Fidel, was stricken with a lifethreatening intestinal illness. President Castro is about halfway through a program of key social and economic reforms that have already seen the expansion of private business activity, legalized home and car sales, an easing of restrictions on foreign travel and the handover of fallow state land to independent farmers. Cuban state media said both Castros received a standing ovation when they arrived at a Havana convention center for Sunday’s parliamentary gathering. The brothers sat next to each other at the assembly, along with first vice president Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. Foreign media were not invited to the early parts of the gathering, but were promised access to its closing moments.
Crime Crisis calls for drastic action Trinidad Guardian - T&T is facing a national crisis as the murder rate continues to soar. There were 70 murders in the last 52 days of this year, with 13 of those being killed within a week — from February 15 to 22. Saying that the crime situation was a concern to him, retired Chief of Defence Staff Brig Carl Alfonso said T&T was now “facing a national crisis.” “The thing (crime) has gotten out of hand. It seems to be getting worse. More
drastic action has to be taken. Clearly the fight now has to be taken to them (criminals)...” It is no secret that crime, Alfonso said, was being fuelled by gang warfare, drugs and guns. “There seems to be too many illegal weapons on the streets and we must deal with that in a more forceful way.” Alfonso said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s call on Friday for an increase in police and army patrols on the streets to bring a sense of comfort to citizens was a step
in the right direction. He was confident that once these two enforcement agencies worked together crime can decrease. Alfonso said one way to combat the criminals was to identify crime “hotspots.” He also said that leaders of the police and army would have to come up with a crimefighting strategy. However, he said, if we can get help from crime-fighting experts from outside, without surrendering our sovereignty, we should embrace it.
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US Supreme Court declines to block deportation of legal Caribbean immigrants WASHINGTON - CMC – The US Supreme Court has declined to block the deportation of thousands of Caribbean and other immigrants who over two years ago were not warned by their lawyers that, when they pleaded guilty to serious crimes, they would be targeted for deportation. The law calls for mandatory deportation for Caribbean and other immigrants, including lawful permanent residents, who have an “aggravated felony” on their record. In a 7-2 decision, the justices refused to apply the ruling retroactively to cases of immigrants who had unintentionally pleaded guilty before 2010. The ruling came in the case of Roselva Chaidez, a Chicago woman who was born in Mexico and has been a lawful permanent US resident since 1977. Chaidez has three children and two grandchildren, all of whom are US citizens.
US prosecutors said that, in 2003, Chaidez agreed to plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud for her minor role in an insurance fraud. According to court documents, Chaidez’s son and several others had staged an auto accident, and that Chaidez received US$1,200 from an insurance company for a false claim of injury. The court sentenced Chaidez to probation and ordered her to repay US$22,000, the total amount of the insurance fraud. Court documents reveal that Chaidez completed her sentence and had paid her restitution by 2004. Chaidez said, when she later applied to become a naturalized US citizen, she denied having been convicted of a crime. But only then, she said she learned that pleading guilty to mail fraud involving more than US$10,000 meant that she was subject to deportation. Charles Roth, a lawyer for
Roselva Chaidez the National Immigrant Justice Centre, said “it is now in the hands of the Obama administration and the US Congress to keep this family together, as well as hundreds of others who at least deserve consideration of whether a run-in with the law enforcement more than a decade ago outweighs the good they have since contributed to our society.”
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
US denies plans to remove Cuba from terror list Miami Herald - A newspaper report that top State Department officials believe Cuba should be removed from the U.S. list of countries that support terrorism drew denials last week from the department and the White House. The Boston Globe had reported that “high-level U.S. diplomats” have concluded Cuba should be taken off the terror list, which would allow Secretary of State John Kerry to “remove a major obstacle to restoring relations” with the island. Interviews with “top administration officials and members of Congress indicate there is a growing consensus in policy and intelligence circles that Cuba’s support for terrorist groups has been terminated,” the Globe added. The report also noted that Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has long favored improving relations with Havana, met in recent days “with officials to review the Cuba policy.” But the report carefully added that U.S officials
“emphasized that there has not been a formal assessment concluding that Cuba should be removed from the terrorism list. On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland responded: “I saw that report. Let me say firmly here it is incorrect. This department has no current plans to remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list.” “We review this every year, and at the current moment we — when the last review was done in 2012 — didn’t see cause to remove them. We’ll obviously look at it again this year, but as I said, we don’t have any plans at the moment,” she added. White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “We have no changes in our approach or policy to Cuba to announce or under consideration that I’m aware of.” Policy makers in Washington are not currently discussing Cuba and the terror list, but that does not mean that down the road the situation will not change, a
knowledgeable government official told El Nuevo Herald. Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the U.S. Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee in Washington, said removing the island from the list would amount to a “scandalous” concession to the communist government. Claver-Carone wrote in his blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, that the Globe story notes the George W. Bush administration delisted North Korea in 2008, an irony “because apparently that has worked wonders in tempering the North Korean regime’s criminal behavior.” The newspaper quotes one unidentified “senior administration official with direct knowledge of Cuba policy” as saying “there is a pretty clear case” that the island doesn’t meet the standard for the terror list anymore. The State Department’s 2012 terrorism report listed Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan. For Cuba, it noted the government’s links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) and Spain’s Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA). There was no indication that Cuba “provided weapons or paramilitary training” to ETA or FARC, the report said. But it said “current and former members’’ of ETA lived in Cuba. “One of them, José Ignacio Echarte, is a fugitive from Spanish law and was also believed to have ties to the [FARC],’’ the report said. “Reports suggested that the Cuban government was trying to distance itself from ETA members living on the island by employing tactics such as not providing services including travel documents to some of them,” it added. “Press reporting indicated that the Cuban government provided medical care and political assistance to the FARC.” Havana authorities also “continued to permit fugitives wanted in the United States to reside in Cuba and also provided support such as housing, food ration books,
and medical care for these individuals,” according to the 2012 report. Cuba also has “strategic deficiencies” when it comes to efforts to crack down on terrorism financing and other money laundering, the State Department added. The Castro government has been on the terror list since it was created in 1982, largely because Cuba trained and armed guerrilla movements from virtually every Latin American nation in the 1960s and 1970s. The Globe report came after a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation that included Massachusetts Rep. James P. McGovern, a Democrat, returned from Cuba Wednesday following talks with President Raúl Castro on how to improve relations. McGovern said Cuban officials are “agitated” by their inclusion on the terror list and raised the issue during the talks, according to The Globe. The key stumbling block to Obama administration gestures toward Havana
Victoria Nuland currently is the detention of Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen serving a 15- year prison sentence in Cuba for delivering illegal communications equipment to Cuban Jews under a U.S. government pro-democracy program. Cuba has all but openly offered to free Gross in exchange for five Cuban intelligence agents convicted in a Miami trial. Four are serving long sentences in U.S. prisons and one has been released on probation, which must be served in the United States.
Monday February 25, 2013
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National Debt Exchange ‘Clear visitors at first port’ offer extended Jamaica Gleaner - The Government has paid out some US$10.3 million and J$2.2 billion to persons whose bonds matured Saturday. This was disclosed by the head of the Debt Management Unit in the Ministry of Finance, Pamela McLaren. The payment comes as the Government is reporting that it has received support from more than 97 per cent of bondholders. McLaren said the disbursement was part of sums due in principal payments. She said the Government
has decided to extend the National Debt Exchange (NDX) programme by a week so as to allow bondholders more time to participate. The deadline is now 2 0’clock Thursday, February 28. Under the NDX, the 12.5 per cent fixed-rate Jamaica dollar bond will be exchanged for a new fixed-rate bond paying interest of 7.25 per cent and maturing in 2016. Additionally, the maturing 6.75 per cent US-denominated bond will be exchanged for a new bond paying interest of 5.25 per cent and maturing in 2020.
The finance ministry is expressing optimism that the Government will receive full participation from bondholders. The last debt exchange had a success rate of 99.7 per cent. The successful implementation of the new debt-exchange programme is a critical factor in the Government’s quest to ink a deal with the IMF. The Government has already reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF and the board is expected to consider Jamaica’s letter of intent in March.
Russia to partially write off Cuba’s US $25 billion debt Miami Herald - Moscow will forgive part of Cuba’s $25 billion Soviet-era debt and restructure the rest as part of agreements that include Havana getting Russian jetliners worth $650 million, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said Friday. Manturov told journalists in Havana that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Ricardo Cabrisas, vice president of the Council of Ministers, had initialed the debt agreement and the details would be worked out by the end of the year. He did indicate how much would be written off and how much would be restructured but said the restructuring would be spread out over the next 10 years. Manturov said the agreement was initialed in front of visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Cuban President Raúl Castro. Russia has claimed it is the legal holder of all debts to the former Soviet Union and put Cuba’s debt at $25 billion, although most of it is in difficult-to-calculate Gold Rubles. The Soviets created the currency for its international trade. Cuba previously made few efforts to settle its Soviet debt, and in the 1990s, Fidel Castro even argued that Moscow’s aid was “junk” and that Russia might even owe his country money for the environmental damages it caused on the island. Manturov also reported that Russian and Cuban authorities had agreed that Havana would obtain eight Russian-made commercial jetliners worth $650 million.
…Moscow officials visiting Havana say the rest will be rescheduled over 10 years
Cuban President Raul Castro (R) and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are pictured during a visit to the Soviet Soldier Monument in Havana, Friday. ADALBERTO ROQUE / Getty Images There were conflicting reports on whether Cuba would buy or lease the aircraft. Ilyushin Finance and Cuban Aviation Corp. signed an option agreement on the delivery of three Antonov An158, three Il-96-400s jetliners capable of carrying 350 passengers and two smaller TU-204SM. News reports from Havana also mention at least seven agreements covering trade, tourism, education, nuclear medicine, the environment, telecommunications and space — including satellite navigation, space probes and space medicine. The Soviet Union was Cuba’s main source of financial and political support from the mid 1960s to the early 1990s, when the collapse of communism and dissolution
of the Soviet bloc plunged the island into poverty and hunger. Fidel Castro regularly criticized former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and distanced himself from Moscow, but bilateral relations began warming up again in 2005 as Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to expand political and commercial links to Latin America. Russian firms are now exploring for oil off Cuba’s northern coast. Medvedev arrived in Havana from Brazil Thursday for his second visit to Cuba. He visited Havana in 2008 when he was president of Russia. Raúl Castro visited Moscow last July during a trip that also took him to China y Vietnam.
Barbados Nation - The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Aviation Task Force has recommended that regional countries consider implementing a single visa regime and a tax rebate for visitors moving throughout multiple Caribbean destinations. The Task Force – a committee established to facilitate air transportation into and throughout the Caribbean and to enhance airlift – has suggested a system similar to 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. The decision came out of a recent meeting of the CTO Aviation Task Force, held at the Royal Antiguan Hotel in 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 crossregional 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,” a statement from the CTO said. “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 recommended 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,” the CTO said.
Other recommendations included 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 started and ended 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 were in transit since the practice diminished the 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.
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Monday February 25, 2013
DTV CHANNEL 8 08:55hrs. Sign On 09:00hrs. This Morning 10:00hrs. Live! With Kelly and Michael 11:00hrs. Roseanne 12:00hrs. The View 13:00hrs. World News 13:30hrs. The Young and the Restless 14:30hrs. The Bold and the
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Beautiful 15:00hrs. The Talk 16:00hrs. Chain Reaction 17:00hrs. Family Feud 18:00hrs. GYSM – One Pulse (LIVE) 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Channel 8 News 20:30hrs. DTV’s Festival of Biblical Movies for the
Lenten Season: “Moses” 00:00hrs. Sign Off NCN CHANNEL 11 05:00h – Inspiration 05:30h – Newtown Gospel 06:00h – NCN News (R/B) 06:30h – BBC 07:00h – Guyana Today 08:00h – Weekly Digest 08:30h – Feature
Monday February 25, 2013 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Today, you should believe your own eyes and ears, not what someone else tells you to believe. Do not let a bunch of agitators stir up trouble between you and your buddies -- the shocking news they have in store for you just might not be true, and you should remember that. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Just like email attachments often contain viruses that make your computer sick, some of the attachments in your life could be making you sick! So today, let go of one of the vices or people in your life that is keeping you in less than optimal health. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): If you think you don't have enough time to attend to the details or errands that this day demands, then you have to reorganize your day to make time. Things have been left alone for too long, and they require your attention -- you cannot put them off any longer. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Your skills at chatting up new, attractive people are stronger than ever! While your communication skills are this sharp, you should try to get out there and get more social! ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Going with the flow is a much better tactic for today than swimming against the current! Do not be impulsive or combative, and try to let other people call the shots. It's not that you shouldn't exert your opinions or do what you want to do, it's just that you should not do it if it will be putting you on a different course than everyone else is on. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22): Sometimes you don't realize what a great day you're having until it's almost over! Today you have to live in the moment, and soak up every moment of 'good times' as it
happens. ********************* LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): It's going to become quite obvious today that someone who's been full of great ideas is also full of empty promises. They are doing nothing at all to build on their plans or follow through with what they told you there were going to do, and they show no sign of changing any time soon. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): Going to a party is a lot more fun than planning an event, but organization is required if you want this thing to go off without a hitch. Put more time into the next party or event you are throwing together. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): It's time to get real and admit that there are certain things that are beyond your control. Stop hitting your head up against that brick wall and tell yourself you can try again at a later date, when things are more in your favor. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Try not to take things too seriously today, despite your surroundings. Even though you might be feeling a growing sense of responsibility for something, you don't have to feel like it is a burden -- it's an honor. So lighten up and feel free to even make a few jokes about your situation. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): Not everyone around you will be able to agree on the right way to go about doing things today, but luckily you should find all this disagreement rather inspiring! ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 M a rc h 2 0 ) : You have a strong critical eye right now, which makes you excellent for detecting foul play or hot air. Use this valuable skill today to make sure that no one you love is being taken advantage of.
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09:00h – Stop the Suffering 09:30h – Cartoons 10:00h – Documentary 11:00h – History 12:00h – CNN 12:30h – NCN Newsbreak 12:35h – Movie 16:00h – NCN Newsbreak 17:00h – Anderson 18:00h – NCN News Magazine – Live 18:30h – Pulse Beat 19:00h – Al Jazeera 19:30h – GRA In Focus 20:00h – 3d/daily millions/play de dream/lotto draw 20:05h – NCN Newsbreak 20:10h – GINA Presents 21:05h – We Linkin 21:35h – Excellence Dazzell Show 22:05h – NCN Late Edition News 22:35h – Caribbean Newsline 23:00h – Movie
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Independent and Enterprising women…
Monica Higgins turned her creative talents into a thriving business Monica Higgins is one of those naturally talented persons, with a strong artistic and creative inclination, who sort of just stumbled on her business idea. Presently involved in fabric painting, tie-dyeing and other designing of clothing and soft home furnishings for the past fifteen years, Monica proudly asserts that she was
More of Monica’s handiwork
not formally taught the basic principles of any of these art forms, but plunged headlong into the business of fabric design and home furnishings, after she quite accidently discovered that she had a natural gift for such pursuits. “My mother lives overseas, and she would send these little tubes of fabric paint, but at the time I didn’t even know they were fabric
paint; I just had them knocking around, but the good thing is I never threw them away. I would merely sweep them up when they sometimes fell on the floor, and gather them up under a table. “But then months after, out of curiosity, I decided to take a closer look at the tubes, and then is when I discovered they were fabric
paint. So I got a little excited after reading the instructions, and decided to experiment.” That was the beginning of a whole new world for the erstwhile housewife, who soon morphed into an enterprising and independent Businesswoman. Monica became a prolific fabric painter, who later began to sell her handiwork. She also started experimenting with tiedyeing, and would employ persons to sew various garments which she then hand painted or tie-dyed. At first the response was not so good Monica said, as fabric painting was not so popular; but later business improved after people began to appreciate what she was doing. By then her name had become a household word synonymous with her craft. Monica said that she gets a lot of inspiration from flowers and other natural things. “I look at these things and I incorporate them into my designs- transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary,” she declared proudly during our recent interview. And she has taken her business a step further by teaching persons the art of fabric painting and tie dyeing. She concluded her last class in December. To help her in the latter pursuit, she has enrolled at the Burrows’ School of Art, where she has been a student for the past few months. There she is perfecting her
Monica displays her creations
craft by learning the finer points. Monica is presently preparing to exhibit some of her handiwork in Atlanta Georgia in March, at the Guyana Trade and Tourism Expo. This was made possible through the collaborative efforts of Go-Invest and the Guyana Art and Craft Association. She has already participated in exhibitions at Guyexpo and at a trade fair in Trinidad. Her business really took off after the exhibition, she points out, although she had seen some improvement in her sales subsequent to her participation at the first ever
Linden Town Day. She acknowledges that business in Linden could be challenging sometimes, but she continues to persevere. Presently a member of the Guyana Arts and Craft Association, her dream is to expand her business, by opening an outlet in Georgetown, as the Linden market is not as lucrative as it once was. “Business presently is mostly seasonal- you know around Christmas time, or for Emancipation when people want clothing that reflects a certain theme, they would come and place orders or buy whatever they like out of my collection.”(Enid Joaquin)
Sawmill cocaine bust…
CANU detains fourth suspect, forklift operator rearrested Customs Anti- narcotics Unit (CANU) ranks have detained a fourth suspect and have re-arrested a forklift operator who was initially in custody following last Tuesday’s massive cocaine bust at a Soesdyke sawmill. So far, three individuals have been identified as being of major interest to the case. These were Dutch national, Edgar Boesenach, of Coralita Avenue, Bel Air, a Guyanese, Raymond Ghani, local manager at the Soesdyke sawmill. A second Guyanese man was also identified. CANU has now detained a truck driver following reports that he assisted in transportation of the cocaine. A forklift operator who is alleged to have packed the drug filled logs which were found in the container
destined for the Netherlands, was rearrested when one of the suspects implicated him. CANU sources said that the forklift operator appeared to have a fair knowledge about the operation. Other persons of interest are being made to report to the drug ranks as investigations continue. The Dutch national and the Guyanese were arrested on the same day that CANU unearthed 360 kilograms of cocaine in hollowed-out timber which was due to be shipped to Europe. Sources say investigators had been eyeing the timber company implicated in the bust for some time, since there were irregularities in the way they function. The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) also said that CANU had
suspicions about the scanning anomalies that were discovered and thus opted to drill one of the logs. They said the Guyana Forestry Commission had already given the containers which were on the wharf some clearance to be shipped, but the GRA insisted that the lumber be checked again. The GFC however said that it too noticed irregularities about the Soesdyke-based timber company. In fact, two weeks prior to the drug bust, they said that the sawmill was closed down, because the company allegedly engaged in four illegal shipments. Investigators however believe that insiders played roles in allowing the drugs to pass on the other few suspected occasions.
Monday February 25, 2013
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Monday February 25, 2013
Campbelle ton in vain as Stiff competition in Mashramani Sri Lanka down West Indies Darts Classic competition Sherwin Greene and Jamal Holligan dominated the Luck of the Draw 501 Doubles after defeating Bholonauth Ramdial and Shabana Ali 2-1, to take the $10,000 first prize when action in the Mashramani Darts Classic Competition got underway at the Clerico Commercial Workers’ Union (CCWU), Quamina Street, Friday evening last. The losing pair won the $6,000 second prize. The two pairs of finalists had earlier prevailed over Anil Lachman and Francis Correia and Sudesh Fitzgerald &
Lalchand Rambharose, 2-0 and 2-1 respectively and those losers collected $3,000. Anil Lachhman, Lalchand Rambharose and Bholonauth Ramdial then joined forces and won the team 701 competition 2-1 and the $30,000 top prize that went with it. The trio defeated Nicholas Seetaram, Colin France and Ricardo Madhoo, who eventually won the second place prize of $21,000. The 3rd place playoff saw Anthony Bissoondyal, Jean De Souza and Shondell Hyles
winning the $9,000 on offer after they had defeated Sudesh Fitzgerald, Sherwin Greene and Rosetta Herallall 2-0. It was not all smooth sailing for Bissoondyal, De Souza and Hyles since they had earlier surrendered the semi-finals to Fitzgerald, Greene and Herallall, 2-0. Meanwhile, players were in a somber mood and observed a minute silence in observance of the untimely death of former national player, Ronald Amyan, the exhusband of National Women’s Champion, Hemwattie Amyan, who died by drowning while visiting relatives in neighboring Suriname, February 17 last. The deceased last competed in the 2012 National Championships in November and represented the East Coast Demerara. His son, Christopher, another prolific player, had progressed to the finals of the men’s singles competition. Activities were set to conclude yesterday with singles competition.
Shemaine Campbelle ESPNcricinfo - Despite West Indies’ Shemaine Campbelle scoring 105 after an early collapse, Sri Lanka leveled the three-match series at 1-1, chasing down West Indies’ total of 180 in Dambulla. West Indies elected to bat, but had a horror start as Udeshika Prabodhani took
three quick wickets to help reduce West Indies to 7 for 4 and then 23 for 5. From there Deandra Dottin and Shemaine Campbelle put together a 45run stand to try and steady the ship, before Dottin was dismissed. A further 110 runs were added with Anisa Mohammed before
Campbelle was finally out f o r 1 0 5 . We s t I n d i e s finished on 180, with Prabodhani and Sripali Weerakkody claiming three wickets each. Sri Lanka’s chase started in ominous fashion, as opener Chamari Polgampola was dismissed with no runs as yet scored. Chamari Atapattu and Deepika Rasangika then put on 40 runs, before two wickets fell in the same over to leave Sri Lanka at a precarious 40 for 3. A 60-run partnership between Shashikala Siriwardene and Dilani Manodara for the fifth wicket though helped Sri Lanka regain control of the match, and they completed the chase inside of 46 overs. Scores: Sri Lanka Women 184 for 6 (Rasangika 55, Manodara 38*) beat West Indies Women 180 for 8 (Campbelle 105, Weerakkody 3-19, Prabodhani 3-35) by four wickets.
Mahendra Dhoni hits double century BBC Sport - Captain Mahendra Dhoni hit an imperious unbeaten maiden double Test century as India closed day three of the first Test with Australia 135 ahead at 515-8. India resumed 198 behind on 182-3 with the large crowd hoping Sachin Tendulkar would score the 29 more he needed to reach his 52nd Test century. But he added only 10 and it was Dhoni who dominated with 206 from 243 balls, featuring 22 fours and five sixes. He shared 128 in 26 overs for the fifth wicket with Virat Kohli, who made 107. The 31-year-old skipper is close to two records, the highest score by an Indian captain, currently the 217 Tendulkar made against New Zealand, and the highest score by a wicketkeeper, which is 232 by England coach and former Zimbabwe batsman Andy Flower. It was a magnificent innings, particularly as his team had scored only 14 runs in the opening 11 overs and lost Tendulkar to a sharply turning delivery from Nathan Lyon that gripped in the increasingly prominent rough areas and bowled the maestro between bat and pad for 81 as he drove. Dhoni twice hit Lyon for two fours in an over, and using his powerful wrists and fearsome bat speed to full effect, dispatched left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc for three boundaries in five balls. Kohli reached his second
MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli tore the Australian attack to shreds in the first 45 minutes after lunch. (BCCI) successive Test century, the fourth of his blossoming career, with a neat clip off his pads to the square-leg fence and his captain continued the counter-attack with some savage treatment of debutant seamer Moises Henriques, hoisting him over extra cover for six and two balls later walking down the wicket to smash him dismissively over mid-on. Lyon ended the partnership, of which Dhoni contributed 72, when Kohli tried to launch over the top and was superbly caught by Starc at mid-on. Wickets continued to fall but Dhoni kept the
scoreboard operators busy, with two fours in an over from Australia’s new fast bowling hope James Pattinson and two sixes in four balls off Lyon. Dhoni had made five centuries prior to this match, his 74th Test, with 148 against Pakistan in only his sixth innings in 2006 his previous highest. His 206 runs were from a total of 319 scored on day three, and in a ninthwicket stand of 109, partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar has made 16 thus far. Scores: India 515 for 8 (Dhoni 206*, Kohli 107, Tendulkar 81, Pattinson 489) lead Australia 380 by 135 runs.
Monday February 25, 2013
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22nd R&R Int. 40-Mile Cycle Road Race
Greaves remains man to beat with another well crafted win Alonzo Greaves continues to be the standard bearer in the cycling arena when he notched up his 5th win of the season, the 22nd annual R&R International 40Mile Road Race held of the West Demerara, yesterday. The Roraima Bikers Club member stopped the clock at One Hour 41 Minutes 58 Seconds in another exciting sprint home but yet again, Greaves has proven that he is the best sprinter around in the Land of Many Waters. Trailing him {Greaves} to the line were Geron Williams, National Road Race Champion Orville Hinds, 2013 Junior Sportsman Paul DeNobrega, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams and Jude Bentley in that order to close off the top six positions which all attracted prizes.
Claiming the top veteran position in a very encouraging performance was Stephen Fernandes who was with the leading pack from the village of La Jalousie on the upward journey but in the end he did not have enough gas left in the tank for the sprint home; nonetheless, Fernandes’ performance on the day was commendable. Of note too was Bentley’s 6th place, for a rider who does not train as the others do, it tells a story. Bentley did not only place 6th but he captured two of the six sprint prizes on offer, with one each to Marlon Williams, DeNobrega, Hinds and Fernandes. Raul Leal took the top spot in the junior category with the Linden duo of Akeem Arthur and Michael Anthony,
second and third. Naiomi Singh was the leading female. Raymond ‘Steely’ Newton was the second best veteran with Ian ‘Deaf Boy’ Jackson, third. This year has pedaled off at a hectic pace for Guyana’s riders and there will be no let up at least not for the next month with a number of events carded, three road races and two National Park Meets. On Sunday next, the Ancient County of Berbice will take centre stage when the 16th annual Cheddi Jagan Memorial race is contested, starting at New Amsterdam and sponsored by BK International. The best riders in the land will again be in contention and another mouth watering showdown is anticipated. (Franklin Wilson)
Alonzo Greaves (left) receiving his prize from race organizer, Hassan Mohamed M.S.
Category winners and others pose with the race organiser and other officials.
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Todd wins ECI Engineering Mash Golf tourney Gavin Todd emerged winner of the ECI Engineering Services Mash D a y G o l f To u r n a m e n t played Saturday at Lusignan golf Club. Todd defied an early rainy start to shoot net 62 to claim victory ahead of 35 other golfers who took part in the Medal Play tournament. Imran Khan secured
second spot with net 66, while LGC Secretary David Mohamed placed third with net 68. Mohamed edged out Colin Ming for third position after both players ended on net 68. The Best Gross prize was won by Khan who edged Mohanlall “Santo” Dinnanauth. Club Captain Mohamed expressed gratitude to ECI
Engineering for sponsoring the tournament to coincide with Guyana’s 43rd Republic Anniversary. He reinstated how important it was for local businesses to support golf which he regarded as a fast growing sport in Guyana. The ECI Engineering representative said that his company was happy to be a part of sporting the
tournament and also promised to continue supporting the tournament even bigger in the future. Meanwhile, golfers will be back on the course this weekend for the Ming’s Products and Services Annual Tournament. Tee off is at 12:00 hours and players are requested to assemble at the venue by 11:45 hours for the start.
Winner Gavin Todd (centre), Imran Khan and David Mohamed with representatives of ECI Engineering Services at the Presentation Ceremony.
Monday February 25, 2013
Mo Farah beats Gebremariam at New Orleans half-marathon BBC Sport - Britain’s Mo Farah edged out Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam in a dramatic finish to win the New Orleans half-marathon. The pair left the rest of the field trailing, and it was Farah who grabbed the glory as a sprint finish gave him victory in one hour and one minute. Farah, 29, also beat Gebremariam on his halfmarathon debut in New York two years ago. Scott Overall finished seventh in 1:04:52, while Helen Clitheroe was fourth in the women’s race in 1:11:47. “I was working pretty hard,” admitted Farah, who actually ran faster in New York, but that time of 60 minutes and 23 seconds was not officially ratified due to the gradient on the course. “It was an effort. I was really pushing it. It was definitely a fast course and had good guys pushing the pace. With about 200 metres left I just kicked it in.” Farah, 29, plans to run half of this year ’s London Marathon before taking on the full distance in 2014. “It’s not going to be easy, I’m going to have to train for
Mo Farah it,” he added. “It is going to be a completely different ball game. “Today does not necessarily mean that I am going to be amazing at it, I’ve got to go out there and do it. It is definitely going to be a longer race and going to be exciting. I am quite excited.” However, the major target for the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion in 2013 is to repeat his London 2012 success at August’s World Championships in Moscow.
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
Abbott’s nine wickets help S. Africa to sweep PRETORIA (Reuters) Debutant Kyle Abbott took nine wickets as South Africa completed a 3-0 series sweep over Pakistan with a crushing innings and 18 run victory in the third and final cricket test at Centurion on Sunday. Pakistan were bowled out for 235 in their second innings, having managed 156 in their first in reply to South Africa’s 409. The win, completed in three days, made Graeme Smith the first captain to claim 50 test wins. “It has been a very special summer at home with some incredible milestones for myself and the team,” Smith told reporters. “To be able to achieve something today in winning 50 tests with a special group of cricketers is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.” Abbott, who had come in for the injured Jacques Kallis, was the pick of the South African seamers on a helpful wicket, recording match figures of nine for 68. The 25-year-old took the scalps of Imran Farhat (43) and Ehsan Adil (12) to add to his seven wickets from the first innings. “My knowledge of Kyle was limited going into the test match so it was fantastic to see him bowl as well as he did,” Smith said. “He bowled at a good, solid pace, hit the deck hard, got the ball in the right areas. He asked a lot of questions.” Starting the day on 14 for one, Pakistan showed some fighting spirit losing only Younus Khan (11), who played a thick edge off Dale Steyn to Smith at first slip, in the morning session. The tourists began to implode after lunch. Azhar Ali
The victorious South African team poses with the trophy. (Getty Images) (27) and Farhat put on 54 for the third wicket before the former ran himself out in calamitous fashion. BULLET THROW Farhat worked the ball to fine leg and after running one, Ali turned for a second at the wicketkeeper’s end. He was always struggling against the bullet throw of Steyn from the boundary and in the end was well short. Pakistan lost two more wickets with the score on 107. Abbott picked up his eighth of the match when Farhat (43) slashed at a wide delivery and was caught by wicketkeeper AB de Villiers. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq (5) became Rory Kleinveldt’s first wicket of the game when he got a thin edge to a ball. Kleinveldt took a second when Asad Shafiq (6) scooped a delivery to Vernon Philander at mid-off.
Saeed Ajmal (31) and Sarfraz Ahmed put on 69 for the seventh wicket, but the former was trapped lbw by Steyn to end the resistance. Sarfraz (40) followed soon afterwards when he topedged Steyn to Dean Elgar at third man and Ehsan Adil tried to pull Abbott but only succeeded in ballooning the ball to Kleinveldt at mid-on. The final pair of Mohammad Irfan (6 not out) and Rahat Ali (22) hung around for another 33 runs before Rahat was lbw to Robin Peterson to end the match. South Africa won the first test in Johannesburg by 211 runs and completed a fourwicket victory in the second in Cape Town. “This is the best team I have played in as a South African cricketer, we have all our bases covered,” Smith
said. “Part of that is the maturity and professionalism with which they approach every match. If you are even 10 percent off in your game it can affect the result, but the guys gave it everything again.” Pakistan captain Misbah said his team lacked consistency. “Full credit to the South Africans for the way they played in this series, their batting, bowling and fielding was better,” Misbah said. “We had an opportunity to win the second test in Cape Town with two hundreds and 10 wickets for Saeed Ajmal, but a batting collapse hurt us there. It has been the story of our series.” Scores: South Africa 409 (De Villiers 121, Amla 92, Philander 74, Rahat 6-127) beat Pakistan 156 (Abbott 7-29) and 235 (Steyn 4-80) by an innings and 18 runs.
Sarwan ushers Windies to series victory From back page two in the 19th over. With no addition to the score two balls later, captain Brendan Taylor pushed forward and was adjudged lbw to leave Zimbabwe in a spot of bother. Ervine and Masakadza then transformed the innings with a superb partnership of 110 for the fourth wicket, to haul Zimbabwe back into the contest. From the outset, Ervine looked to get after the bowling and reeled off six fours and three sixes while Masakadza mixed caution with aggression. When Masakadza skied an off-side catch to Narine off Bravo in the 41st over, the foundation was laid for a final assault and the Zimbabweans responded to gather 85 runs from the last nine overs. This came
through some lofty blows from Ervine and Malcolm Wallter, whose 26 came from 16 balls and included a four and two sixes. Sarwan and Powell then put on a patient 111 for the first wicket, with Zimbabwe twice missing out on opportunities to break the partnership. Powell was let off on five in the second over when Kyle Jarvis mis-judged a catch on the ropes at deep square leg off debutant seamer Tendai Chatara, and again on 11 in the fourth over when Sibanda pulled off a stunning catch at short cover only for replays to show that Chatara had overstepped. Zimbabwe paid for their indiscretions as the lefthander proceeded to strike four fours and two sixes in a measured stand with Sarwan
off 154 balls. Sarwan, with just 19 runs from four innings since his recall to the side last month following an 18-month spell on the sidelines, paced his innings nicely. He twice dispatched Chatara to the boundary in the sixth over, first with a superb cover drive and then a controlled pull, before settling down to post his half-century off 81 balls in the 28th over. The right-hander had a slice of luck when 53, surviving a run out appeal that would have gone against him had it been referred, but kept his head down to reach his landmark in the 40th over. He moved to 99 with a six off seamer Jarvis before taking a single down the ground a ball later. The Windies’ only stumble came when Powell and Darren Bravo perished in
the space of three deliveries in the 2 6 t h o v e r, b o t h caught at the wicket off Masakadza. However, Sarwan put on 108 off 104 balls for the third wicket with Deonarine and a further 55 off 34 balls for the fourth wicket with Pollard. The left-handed Deonarine struck one four and a six off 49 balls before he was run out by Prosper Utseya in the 44th over. At that stage, West Indies still required eight an over but Pollard settled any concerns with a savage 20-ball knock decorated by four fours and two sixes. Scores: West Indies 274 for 3 (Sarwan 120*, Powell 57) beat Zimbabwe 273 for 8 (Ervine 80, Masakadza 60, Sibanda 51, Dwayne Bravo 6-43) by seven wickets.
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Kaieteur News
Monday February 25, 2013
Man City win to keep title hopes alive
Yaya Toure (centre) celebrates after opening the scoring (below) at the Etihad Stadium. (Ian Hodgson) BBC Sport - ASuperb second-half goals from Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez helped Manchester City to a hard-fought win over Chelsea and reduced the gap to Manchester United at the top of the Premier League to 12 points. City were rewarded for a more attacking approach in the second period, after a first half in which they missed countless chances, Jack Rodwell and Sergio Aguero both going close to scoring for the hosts. They had almost paid for their wastefulness when Frank Lampard had a glorious opportunity to register his 200th Chelsea goal, but his penalty was saved by Joe Hart seven minutes after the break. Eleven minutes later City were finally in front when Yaya Toure kept his composure in the box to steer an angled shot into the bottom corner from 10 yards. Tevez made the game safe with a blistering shot from 20 yards five minutes from time. Lampard was replaced by Victor Moses after a quiet afternoon for the 34-year-old
England midfielder that largely typified Chelsea’s attacking performance, their play only becoming more expansive once they had fallen behind. They have now lost their last four games at the Etihad and trail second-placed City by seven points with 11 games to go. More importantly, they can now be overtaken by fourth-placed Tottenham, who face West Ham on Monday. The champions’ hopes of retaining their Premier League title still look slim, but this was the perfect response to the loss at Southampton in their last league outing. Manager Roberto Mancini’s name was sung throughout by the home supporters, and although there have been some signs the Italian is feeling the pressure of being so far behind Manchester United, the atmosphere was buoyant throughout a freezing afternoon. The City boss has said goals are the difference between his and Sir Alex Ferguson’s side this season, and before this encounter he
demanded that his side begin at a tempo that would bring them an early breakthrough. Yaya Toure seemed to have got the message, having a shot saved by Petr Cech within 42 seconds, and for much of the first period it was City who showed the greater attacking endeavour. Rodwell, making his first start since September, returned to bolster the midfield and could have had a hat-trick by halftime. But the best chance fell to Aguero, who attempted to round Cech when he was one on one, only to run the ball out of play. Cech also did superbly to stop Matija Nastasic’s point-blank header. Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Team Man Utd Man City Chelsea Tottenham Arsenal Everton West Brom Liverpool Swansea Stoke
Chelsea offered little threat and failed to exploit gaps down City’s wings. Demba Ba looked dangerous against Kolo Toure, but the visitors’ midfield struggled to keep possession well enough to feed the Senegalese striker. The picture changed dramatically almost immediately after the break. Branislav Ivanovic picked out Ba, and the former Newcastle striker took a touch before being brought down by the onrushing Hart, who was not even booked for the foul when he might have been lucky to stay on the field. Reprieved by the referee, Hart then redeemed himself with his team-mates as he dived low to his right to save well from Lampard’s strike. The impressive Rodwell immediately made way for another striker in Tevez and the game opened up as a result. Aguero was played through twice but could not take either chance, leaving Yaya Toure - so often the man for the big occasion - to finally make the breakthrough. Silva collected the ball close to the goal-line and played it back for Toure, who skipped round two challenges before curling the ball into the bottom corner. After that, Chelsea at last looked the more likely team to score as Rafael Benitez brought on Moses and Oscar, but Tevez settled matters with his first goal in nine league games. Played 27 27 27 26 27 27 27 27 27 27
GD Points 33 68 26 56 25 49 14 48 22 47 7 42 2 40 15 39 4 37 -6 33
Windwards and T&T win latest Regional Super50 Championship matches BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Windward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago recorded victories in the third round of the Regional Super50 Championship on Sunday. At Arnos Vale: Windwards beat Guyana by seven wickets. Guyana made 198 for eight off 50 overs with Trevon Griffith 54, Leon Johnson 52 and Chris Barnwell 35. Bowling for the Windwards Dalton Polius took 2-15 and Nelon Pascal 2-35. In reply the Windwards reached 199 for three off 46.5 overs with Devon Smith 110 not out, Keddy Lesporis 41 and Andre Fletcher 25 saw them home. Steven Jacobs was the best bowler for the Guyanese with 1-24. At Warner Park: T&T won by three wickets Scores: LEEWARD ISLANDS 238 for six off 50 overs (Devon Thomas 69, Tonito Willett 51 not out, Jahmar Hamilton 49, Sylvester Joseph 21; Samuel Badree 3-23, Shannon Gabriel 2-53). TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 239 for seven off 48.3 overs (Justin Guillen 72, Lendl Simmons 48, Yannick Ottley 47 not out; Anthony Martin 3-24).
Kimetto takes Tokyo record as Kenyans sweep podium (Reuters) - Dennis Kimetto claimed his first marathon victory in only his second race over the distance when the Kenyan won the Tokyo Marathon in a race record time on Sunday. The 29-year-old finished in a time of two hours, six minutes and 50 seconds to smash Swiss Viktor Rothlin’s 2008 record by 33 seconds but still outside his target of 2:04. Last year ’s winner Michael Kipyego finished eight seconds behind Kimetto in the runners-up spot with Bernard Kipyego completing the Kenyan clean sweep of the podium. It was the first time the Tokyo race had featured as a World Marathon Major with
Kimetto’s victory putting him top of the standings in the six legged contest that takes place over two years with events in Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Home runners Kazuhiro Maeda (fourth) and Takayuki Matsumiya (ninth) prevented a Kenya-Ethiopia domination of the top 10. In the women’s race, Ethiopian Aberu Kebede followed up her Berlin marathon success by taking the title with a time of 2:25:34. Her compatriot Yeshi Esayias finished second almost 30 seconds back with 40-year-old Irina Mikitenko of Germany, the World Marathon Majors champion in 2008 and 2009, taking third.
Monday February 25, 2013
Kaieteur News
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