Thursday Edition
Online readership yesterday 99,445
Price $80 February 28, 2013 - Vol. 6 No. 09 (VAT Inclusive) Online: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com
Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly
GPL workers on
countrywide
strike
- power supply will continue - Dindyal
High Court NDIA Auditor threatens Cash-strapped finds missing legal action over CGX owes Repsol juror in jail gratuity payment US$15million
Marriott investors…confirmed, only US$8M gap but still unnamed remains - Luncheon
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Kaieteur News
Thursday February 28, 2013
Berbice GPL employees go on strike ....residents fear blackouts Employees of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) began strike action yesterday across the country. The Berbice workers were among those on strike. The action came in response to a breakdown of talks between the National Association of Agricultural Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) and management of the power company. More than 100 employees have downed tools in Berbice. There is also the underlying fear if crucial staff from the two main generating facilities in Berbice—the Onverwagt and Canefield Power Stations— will shut off the machinery and plunge East and West Berbice into blackouts. Yesterday, linesmen, clerical and commercial staff, poles men and transmission and distribution staff in Berbice sat outside in front of an adjacent building to the GPL Commercial Office at Strand, New Amsterdam. One employee, who spoke under conditions of anonymity, stated that “all commercial, transmission, distribution—all taking strike action because of no increase in wages for 2012”. The
individual stated that the employees are not in agreement with the five per cent “all- inclusive” salary arrangement that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPL, Mr. Bharat Dindyal is offering. Dindyal is offering a five per cent increase, which includes a three per cent annual in- scale increment, a one per cent across-theboard increase and an annual performance incentive of one per cent. “But we don’t want that because when we were negotiating last year, we proposed 25 per cent acrossthe-board but then reduced it to eight per cent because of GPL’s financial problems”. The employee added that GPL was sent a 28- day ultimatum to review the plan or the workers would take industrial action. “We sent the ultimatum to the Ministry of Labour and met with the Minister last Friday at his office. He was supposed to get back to us on Monday but he never got back to us”. General Secretary of NAACIE, Kenneth Joseph, said that the workers are anxious to strike in a bid to force GPL to meet their
Some of the N/A Commercial office employees on sit- out yesterday
demands. The union wants GPL to respect the bargaining agreement and to pay a three percent increase to the workers for 2012 and 2013 retroactive from January 1 of 2012. They are also asking for the increment increase for 2012 and 2013 to be paid.
Responding to the threat of strike a few days ago, Dindyal said that there is no justification for strike. When asked how this strike would affect the company’s operations in the Ancient County, as well as in other parts of Guyana, the employee stated, “We are not
receiving payments; it would affect the company because no revenue is coming into the company—metering is on hold; disconnections are on hold—it has a great impact on GPL.” The strike action will continue until the employees hear something tangible from
the union and/or GPL’s CEO. When contacted yesterday, GPL’s Area Manager for Berbice, Mr. Ayube Bacchus comforted Berbicians that the generation staff members at the two power stations are working and [he] does not foresee blackouts as a result of the strike action.
DO YOU KNOW THAT JAGDEO’S BEST FRIEND IS THE ONLY PERSON IN GUYANA TO OWN THREE MEDIA HOUSES ... Radio, Television and Newspaper?
Dr. Bobby Ramroop
1) Channel 28 now TVG 28 2) A radio station - 89.5FM 3) Guyana Times newspaper
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Cash-strapped CGX owes Repsol US$15M CGX Energy, faced with a debt of US$15M to Repsol Exploración S.A. for the drilling of a well offshore Georgetown last year, yesterday announced that it has entered an agreement with GMP Securities L.P. (“GMP”) in connection with a proposed private placement of a minimum of Cdn$35M. The Canadian-based oil exploration company ran into financial problems last year after two offshore wells it drilled came up dry. CGX owned 100 per cent of the Corentyne block and 25 per cent of the well off Georgetown that was being drilled by Spanish-owned Repsol. CGX, as part of the plan to recover, also announced yesterday that it has also entered an agreement with Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (“Pacific Rubiales”), another Canadian company and a current shareholder, which could effectively give the latter up to 70 per cent control. There will be a shakeup of the directors and other CGX officers of the Company. However, the deal is subject to approval of the Canadian authorities…TSX Venture Exchange… and other customary closing conditions. According to CGX, approximately US$15M will be used to meet the company’s current default payment obligations owing to Repsol Exploración S.A. (“Repsol”), Tullow Guyana B.V. and YPF S.A. who were all partners of the Georgetown well. Up to Cdn$4M will be used to pay off officers, directors, employees and consultants of the company who are likely to be let go once Pacific Rubiales takes over. The balance will be used to, among other things, fund expenditures related to the company’s “oil and gas exploration activities and for
CGX which was involved in the drilling of two oil wells last year, is in financial trouble, the company admitted yesterday.
CGX’s Executive Chairman, Dr. Suresh Narine
general corporate purposes”, CGX said in its statement. According to the oil exploration company, on November 26, 2012, it received a default notice in respect of its shares in the joint account expenses for the Georgetown well in the amount of US$11.5M. On January 24, the company said it was advised by Repsol that the total default amount had increased to US$14.939M. CGX said it did not have enough cash to meet the debt. “The company has negotiated a stay of any enforcement proceedings until March 22, 2013. The company reports that the current default amount is significantly in excess of its cash on hand and, accordingly, the company currently has insufficient funds to satisfy this
obligation and other near term obligations.” CGX said that a special committee of four “independent directors” was constituted to consider the proposed private placement and Pacific Rubiales investment. The committee determined unanimously that the company was in “serious financial difficulty, the private placement to Pacific Rubiales is designed to improve the financial position of the Company, and the terms of the private placement are reasonable in the circumstances of the Company.” CGX said that it expects that further financing will be necessary to ensure that it can meet its ongoing obligations. However it warned: “The ability of the company to continue as a going concern is dependent on securing the
4 years jail for 2011 road death Gavin Barkoye was yesterday sentenced to four years eight months imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving. He was found guilty by Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrates’ court last Tuesday. Barkoye, 23, of 342 Cummings Street, Alberttown was charged for causing the death of Romalo Roach on October 14, 2011. Barkoye was the driver of the motor vehicle PKK 216 that struck down and killed Roach on North Road. Roach, 23, of Lot 52 Robb Street, Georgetown, was a mechanic by profession. On October 14, 2011, Barkoye was approaching North Road
The deceased Romalo Roach and Cummings Street when he failed to stop and collided with the motorcyclist, knocking him from his bike.
The rider became unconscious while the motorcycle burst into flames. The victim sustained a broken leg, head injuries and lost of a finger. He later succumbed to his injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Barkoye was represented by Attorney at Law Adrian Thompson. At the initial hearing he was placed on $300,000 bail. In his final submission, Police Prosecutor Vishnu Hunte said the damage shown on the defendant’s motor vehicle is consistent with him hitting the motorcyclist and not the motorcyclist losing control and slamming into his vehicle as he claimed.
additional required financing, either through issuing additional equity, debt instruments and/or payments associated with a joint venture farm-out. There can be no assurances that the Company will successfully
raise additional funds.” Current Executive Chairman, Dr. Suresh Narine, a Guyanese will become a nominee of Pacific Rubiales on the new CGX Board of Directors. CGX also said yesterday
that Pacific Rubiales intends for CGX to remain a public company after completion of the financing. CGX has licences to explore in the GuyanaSuriname Basin, an area in which the United States Geological Survey estimated a Pmean oil resource potential of 13.6 billion barrels in their Assessment of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of South America and the Caribbean, 2012.
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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
Some mistakes we made Guyana is selling the idea that the gold industry has gobbled up the bulk of the skilled people in the country. Indeed, the gold industry is perhaps one of the largest employers, ever since gold prices reached astronomical levels. But for more than a century even before gold prices were nothing to shout about Guyanese in general but the people from the Caribbean islands in particular were seeking the fabled El Dorado. It was they who opened up the many hinterland communities. There were the Amerindians there, they having fled from the coastal plains as the other people came. Communities like Bartica and Mahdia and Tumatumari and Kurupung and Issano all sprang up. Simultaneous with the development of these hinterland communities were constructions along coastal Guyana as those who were more inclined to cater for the less adventurous, the administrators and others of their ilk. The long and short of all this is that at no time was the pursuit of gold and other minerals in the hinterland capable of affecting infrastructural development along coastal Guyana. To further highlight this situation is the fact that the main players in the local gold industry are the foreigners. They are the Brazilians and the Nigerians and the Chinese who have infinitely more finance to facilitate exploration than the Guyanese. Because of local laws the Brazilians and the Nigerians must present themselves to be in partnership with Guyanese. The Chinese have come as a major investor in the gold industry and therefore do not need the local cover. They have their own labour force. For President Ramotar to tell the people in Miami that the problem with Guyana is that there are not enough locals to gain employment on the Marriott project is nothing short of peddling misinformation. He more than anyone else would know that almost each day people turn up for meetings with his Ministers and with other members of his political directorate complaining that they need jobs. These are people who have not been lured to the gold fields. But there is something that many people do not recognize and that is the rush to dub the protest against the non-employment of Guyanese as a case of racism. There has never been a case of any foreigner coming to Guyana and not using local labour. The National Convention Centre was a gift from the Chinese Government. Although it was built with total Chinese funding there was a drive to acquire local labour. And this stood Guyana in good stead. The supervisors on that project still talk about the competition between the Chinese and the Guyanese. It was healthy competition and both Chinese and Guyanese learned from each other. We move to the National Stadium at Providence. That was built with a loan from India and the contractor who won the bid was Indian. Again the contractor sought Guyanese labour and employed hundreds. Once more there was healthy competition. At no time was there the case of the Guyanese lagging on the job because they were not a bunch working on their own. They were forced to match skills with the foreigners and they did. We now know that the non employment of Guyanese has been seen as a gross mistake by the Chinese contractor. We also suspect that Guyana peddled to the Chinese the myth that there was no skilled labour to be had in Guyana. It is heartening to know that the protest action by sections of the society has not been in vain. The Chinese contractor, Shanghai Construction Group is now moving to employ local labour, something that could have been done in the first instance. There are other Chinese contractors in Guyana and none of them is making the mistake that Shanghai Construction Group made. China Harbour Engineering Company, t he company working on the airport expansion project, has already advertised for local labour. And the nation is going to need these groups of workers.
Thursday February 28, 2013
Letters... Where your views make the news Letters...
This PNC/APNU has not changed and will not change DEAR EDITOR, People are always watching the actions of political parties and making assessments that will shape their future voting behaviour. APNU is a party supported almost only by the second largest ethnic group (Africans) in a country strafed by ethnic politics. Africans are a distant second to the largest ethnic group (Indians) and by the next census will likely be third largest ethnic group after Indians and Mixed Races. The PNC/APNU hardly gets any crossover support from other ethnic groups. APNU cannot win an election without any substantial support from other ethnic groups, and that means Mixed Races and Amerindians, because Indians will not vote for APNU/PNC. Even worse, the PNC/APNU is always harassed by its past atrocities and its days of dictatorship. So, how should APNU have played its hand since November 2011? Tactfully, of course. But this is the PNC/ APNU, a party of blunders, mistakes, errors and miscalculations. A party that continues to exhibit reckless thinking, foolish decisionmaking, feeble awareness and a movement that seems intent on wasting the political capital it got from the November 28, 2011 election. The Rohee fiasco is now a dated issue in the minds of the Guyanese public caught
in their all-consuming bread and butter struggles. Many think the Chief Justice got it wrong, including myself, but his decision is the law until or unless it is appealed. Guyanese have moved on from this debacle. Trotman did the right thing in overturning the egregiously atrocious and demonstrably arrogant decision of the Deputy Speaker who blocked Rohee from speaking even after Trotman in respecting the ruling of the court allowed Rohee to speak. The PNC/APNU now comes out swinging against the same man it backed over Moses Nagamootoo for the Speakership. It did not like the fact that Trotman upheld the law. It assailed Trotman for doing the honourable thing and respecting the rule of law. It is screaming murder against a man who is giving validity to a judgement of the courts where the same PNC/APNU sent lawyers and acceded to its jurisdiction over this matter. This continued resistance over the Rohee matter is no longer about Rohee, it is now about the PNC and the undercurrent of philosophy that flows within that organization. Clearly, if the PNC is to condemn Trotman for his ruling on the basis that it is of ‘questionable legal soundness’, why the heck has the PNC not appealed the Chief Justice’s decision? What prevents the PNC/ APNU from challenging Trotman’s ruling in the same
courts where it lost on the Rohee issue? The PNC/APNU is lazy and is engaged in backward backdoor idiocy here. Why has the PNC/APNU not appealed the Chief Justice’s decision on Rohee? This is a party stacked with lawyers. It’s because the PNC is not about law and order or the legitimacy of the rule of law. The PNC is no different from the PPP. They are vindictive, vengeful and bitter. There is no sense of responsibility to the exercise of power. It must be used in a might is right manner, to subjugate rather than to advance the interest of the nation. The law of the land, the ruling of judges, the decisions of courts have no bearing on the PNC’s bullyism. It is easier to take the lazy and despotic route of absurdly and ignorantly overturning the decision of the judiciary. After the Linden inquiry defused the PNC and failed to give it any galvanising political ignition, the court/ Chief Justice’s decision offered the PNC an escape with some of its dignity intact. It could have quietly appealed the decision, demonstrating its respect for the judiciary and moved on with more important business. However, this willingness to throw egg on its own face is becoming an embarrassment to even those who back the PNC. By dragging this matter back into the spotlight with its condemnation of Trotman,
the very man they so zealously and jealously defended for the Speaker role, the PNC has only highlighted its vindictiveness, mercenary tendencies, ineptitude, willingness to sacrifice those who fail to back its idiocies, its failure to read the pulse of the people and its indolence. This course of action of trying to destroy its handpicked Speaker because he has the temerity to respect the ruling of the court tells the entire country the PNC will do exactly what it did for 28 years of thuggery, misery and mercilessness if it ever regains power. This party has not changed and will not change. It has a destructive orientation to power. It will destroy its own if they try to stop its dictatorial ways. It will act in a childish manner just for the sake of ruthless punishment of an individual, even when the court has disallowed it. Nothing about the PNC/APNU tells me it will respect the rule of law in Guyana if it wins power. That is a wakeup call for those Africans who genuinely believed this party was transformed and was a decent force for positive change and above the pettiness of retaliatory politics. APNU may try to force Trotman to resign. It would be the AFC’s moment of truth. It has to defend the Speaker and stand against the PNC/ APNU. Voters beware, the PPP and the PNC are two sides of the same coin. M. Maxwell
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news
Guyanese simply want changes in the way the PPP governs, not new elections or shared governance DEAR EDITOR, In your news item, “Early e l e c t i o n s , shared governance can break parliamentary impasse,” (Monday, February 25) former House Speaker, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, posited that the only solution to the present Parliamentary “tension and gridlock” is through early elections and, if the need arises, shared governance should be considered. First, how can he not know that the reason for the tension and gridlock is because the PPP regime under Bharrat Jagdeo, despite boasts of progress and development, not only failed in its performance, which led to the party’s loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time, but continues to fail to effect changes even under a new President in a new political dispensation? And when he further c l a i m e d t h a t G u y a n a ’s m i n o r i t y government appears to expect opposition support for its policies and in Parliament once it offers cooperation, what exactly is this ‘it’ to which he referred? If by ‘it’ he means the PPP regime, then he is sadly mistaken,
because this regime has demonstrated that it is dictatorial and will not cooperate with any party or person unless it has its own way and the last say. Take ‘pervasive corruption’, for example, which Mr. Ramkarran used in one of his columns that resulted in him parting ways with the PPP. When the parliamentary opposition tried earnestly to restore a sense of accountability, responsibility and transparency in the corrupt PPP regime, the regime put up all sorts of road blocks, as if to defend the corruption. The ‘tension a n d g r i d l o c k ’ Mr. Ramkarran is talking about, therefore, is traced right to the door of the PPP regime, so if he foolishly thinks that an unremorseful and unrepentant PPP regime will be better off calling early elections instead of changing its nasty ways, just so that the PPP could regain its parliamentary majority and end gridlock, then he has to be the latest in a line of selfcontradictory politicians. Worse still, he suggested that if the elections results do not reflect a change from the existing status quo that the next best step is for the parties
to consider shared governance. In one quantum leap, he went from self-contradictory to flat out self-delusional. Did he really think this concept through before hitting his keyboard? If he did, he would have known that the PPP had myriad opportunities since 1992 to engage in shared governance; even before corruption became pervasive corruption, but it squandered those opportunities because certain people had a personal agenda to enrich themselves at the expense of the state. Political entitlement opened the door for personal enrichment, and Guyanese did not like what they saw. But this ‘pervasive corruption’ did not start after Mr. Jagdeo became President; it started before he became President and simply grew from a bruise to a festering sore! And this is where the PPP will have a problem trying to consider shared governance: because of outstanding and ongoing acts of corruption that would require time for the thieves to complete the process of ripping off the state. Some so-called projects will need more than this current term to bear fruits for
Next year I plan to smash, not mash DEAR EDITOR, Selflessness is under assault. Across Guyana there is a rise in selfish, inconsiderate even truculent behaviour. Nowhere is it more noticeable and felt than on the roads of Georgetown. On Mash Day a friend kindly allowed me to park my vehicle on her bridge in Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park to avoid any cars from parking to block her entrance as happens every year at Mash time. So advised, so done. However, by the time I was ready to leave two cars had double parked to my right blocking any passage in the road at that point. After an abortive three-hour wait I was forced to abandon my car and take a taxi home. Finding a taxi was another herculean task but eventually I did. Obviously the two selfish drivers had left their cars almost in the centre of Eping Avenue about 100 yards from Vlissengen Road and joined the revelers. It was a boorish act they would
never have tried in New York or London. Had they done so, both cars would have been removed by tow trucks to a distant car pound, they would have been fined or had their vehicles clamped. Retrieving them would have cost each driver dearly. What bothered me most was the warped thought process that had gone in to this amazing self-centred, uncaring act. Both drivers had to know that they would be blocking traffic at that Western end of Eping Avenue until 2am or later Sunday morning. I doubt they arrived there drunk or drugged so their act was deliberate and churlish to an extreme, even hostile. The new aggressive society and too much exposure to self-serving political relations, it seems, are part of the process of dehumanizing Guyanese, weakening bonds of kinship and care and bringing less thoughtfulness. The point of selflessness is that it is specific to the parties to the relationship as parking
partners in Eping Avenue and should not be arbitrarily dissipated and devalued. Its very value is the glue that binds society together and produces clusters of caring citizens. Had I been trying to evacuate a sick or dying relative from the house where I was, I would have removed those two cars by brute force in a fit of ignorance matching that of the double parkers. What pains me most is that these two double parkers were relying on the civilized behaviour of the community of fellow parkers and counting on them not to descend into primitiveness or impulsive behaviour mimicking their own. They won this time and should be happy their Mash 2013 was peaceful and inexpensive. However, next year Mash I’m going Mediaeval. In the words of a popular seventies carnival road march calypso “I walk wid meh rope”. I will also carry a sledge hammer in my car as I plan to smash, not mash! F. Hamley Case
the crooks, so sharedgovernance has to be a back burner item. Therefore, it is clear to me that the corrupt PPP regime cannot afford to b e o n b o a r d i n shared governance with an Opposition that is demanding accountability when the regime is engaging in coverups. And that is why I find it absolutely ludicrous and downright preposterous for Mr. Ramkarran to charge that the “Opposition has other ideas” when the government tried to get it to cooperate on policies, because the truth is, the government wanted to continue business as usual and the Opposition said no. It was the main reason why the Opposition ended up having a parliamentary majority: because voters wanted to end the corruption in government. T o the Ramkarrans, Ramotars, Luncheons and Teixeiras in and out of Guyana: early elections will not be seen by
voters as an option to end gridlock. Early elections will be seen by voters as a sign that the government is determined not to change its dirty ways, because ever since November 28, 2011, the amount of information that has been emerging about the truly corrupt and uncaring nature of the PPP has definitely damaged the PPP much more than in pre-2011. There is also nothing major that the PPP and the Ramotar Administration can sell to the nation, and especially the traditional PPP support base, that things have changed from the Jagdeo era. So what makes anyone, especially Mr. Ramkarran, think early elections will benefit the PPP, including giving it a lead role in any shared governance arrangement? Mr. Ramkarran has to be aware that this is 2013 and not 1964 or even 1992, and that after Cheddi Jagan died in 1997, the PPP started its own slow march to the political cemetery when it eventually
allowed a little boy to try his hands at a big man’s job, only to watch as the little boy used his hands to help himself and his buddies! What I can say of Mr. Ramkarran is that given he publicly promised in early 2011 to tackle corruption if he became President and then wound up parting ways with the PPP because of a column on ‘pervasive corruption’, he gives me the impression that had he been t h e P P P ’s p r e s i d e n t i a l candidate he would have presided differently from Mr. Ramotar and we probably would have had a different type of national conversation. However, he has to be careful to stay on message and not wander off onto i s s u e s that don’t resonate with the majority of Guyanese, who merely want changes in government and not necessarily early elections, unless early elections will result in a complete change of government. Emile Mervin
Company takes such incidents of player dissatisfaction at agents’ sites very seriously. The matter has been investigated and the necessary sanctions have been applied to those responsible.
On behalf of the Guyana Lottery Company, I would like to apologise to Katara Manik, and I would ask the writer to contact me at the earliest opportunity. Tracey Lewis General Manager
Lottery Company apologises to customer DEAR EDITOR,
I am writing in response to the letter in yesterday’s edition of the Kaieteur Newspaper (27 February 2013), under the heading “An abusive Lotto Agent”. The Guyana Lottery
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Kaieteur News
Thursday February 28, 2013
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Gov’t says Marriott investors confirmed … only US$8M gap remains—Luncheon The government has secured the key investors needed to fund the Marriott Hotel Project, Dr Roger Luncheon said yesterday, but no details have been revealed. The government has so far been pouring taxpayers’ money into the US$52 million project. In total US$27 million is expected to come from investors for the main property and another US$8 million for the casino, nightclub and restaurant. Dr Luncheon told Kaieteur News that the only gap in funding at the moment is the US$8 million. The rest of the money is coming out of the coffers, and when construction is completed, Marriott International is expected to bring in a management team to run the hotel. The financing structure
for the hotel locks in private investors for a return of their dollars but taxpayers’ money risk being washed away if the ambitious project fails. Finance and industry sources say the project is a high risk one, given that existing hotels are struggling to fill their rooms, but Government is pressing ahead and could end up putting US$21 million ($4.2 billion) into the project. The arrangement for financing includes “senior debt” syndicated by Republic Bank (Trinidad and Tobago) of US$27 million. A syndicated loan is one that is provided by a group of lenders and is structured, arranged and administered by one or several commercial banks or investment banks. In this case, the loan is being administered by the Republic
Bank (Trinidad and Tobago Limited) but the government has not named the other lenders. By agreeing to this type of loan arrangement, the government is agreeing for the investors who are part of the syndicate, to get back their investment first ahead of any other investor in the project. So, if in a scenario where the project fails and the value of the property depreciates to a value below what the investors have plugged, then the investors will get back their money, and there would be nothing to return to NICIL, meaning that taxpayers’ dollars would go down the drain. The Minister of Finance announced that the government will participate in the project, by way of equity, in the sum of US$4 million. This was committed by National Industrial Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the
Two charged with conspiracy in missing Guyanese case Cayman Island (CNS) - A 31-year-old man and a 29year-old woman have been charged with conspiracy to pervert or defeat the course of justice, in connection with a missing person’s case. Guyanese national, Hemerson Raymond Gonzalez, has been missing since December 11 when he disappeared while visiting friends in the Cayman Islands. Gonzalez, 31, was said to be a regular visitor to the jurisdiction and was staying at an address in Canyon Dawn Drive, Savannah. In the wake of his disappearance two women were arrested in January. One 25-year-old woman was arrested at that address on drug offences and a 19-yearold woman was arrested in Prospect on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the
Missing: Hemerson Raymond Gonzalez course of justice. A third person was arrested at Owen Roberts International Airport on January 11 but the police did not reveal the man’s age or the details of his arrest. It is
not clear if this is the same person that police have now charged. It is anticipated that they will appear in court on March 5. Meanwhile, Gonzalez has still not been found. He speaks with a Guyanese accent, is about 5’ 8" tall, with a dark brown complexion and curly black hair. He weighs about 180lbs, has a tattoo of a compass on his left forearm and other tattoos on the inside of his left wrist.When last seen he was wearing brown jeans, a t-shirt and blue low cut cloth shoes. At the time of his disappearance, police said that Gonzalez was feeling ill and had been suffering from severe vomiting. Checks with local hospitals at the time confirmed that he did not seek medical attention.
Car story takes a serious twist …jilted complainant wanted to embarrass couple A report that a forged authorization was used to uplift a car which was imported from Japan at a wharf has now taken a twist. On Saturday last, Vanetta Naipaul, of Better Hope, Essequibo visited this publication with a sad story. She claimed that she imported a car from Japan with the help of a friend, Kenrick Charles, who then backstabbed her. She accused the man and his girlfriend, Shanna Munroe, of forging
her signature and uplifting the car from the wharf. Since then it transpired that Naipaul merely wanted to embarrass Munroe because of her past relationship with Charles. She felt slighted after the relationship soured. Before Naipaul came to this publication, she had already gone to the police station with the couple. They were there on Thursday and again on Friday and the matter of the importation was resolved. This was confirmed
by the police. Charles and Munroe had deposited a sum of money with Naipaul for a vehicle which they never got. Then came the promise that they would get the car that came later. Naipaul never challenged possession. Since the publication this newspaper has failed to locate her. She cannot be reached on the telephone number she provided and other numbers have been disconnected. “If she wanted to embarrass me, she did,” said Munroe who was too embarrassed to even drive the car.
investment arm of the government which holds its assets. The equity contribution determines the government’s strength in Atlantic Hotels Incorporated – the company created to see the project through. As it stands, the government is currently the sole shareholder in the company. However, apart from the equity contribution, financing for the project is also coming from “subordinate loan stocks” of US$15 million invested by NICIL. Adding the US$2 million NICIL will end up spending in development costs for the project, including design and other preliminary studies altogether, NICIL will be putting US$21 million into the project. Apart from the “senior debt” and the money envisaged by NICIL, the government is looking for an investor or a group of investors who will put another US$8 million into the project. Once one or more private investors are selected, the party/parties will need to be
approved by Marriott and Republic Bank, given that the 67 per cent shareholder will be deemed to be the majority partner. The pessimism about the feasibility of the project stems from the fact that many of the country’s hotels concentrated in and around the capital and built for Cricket World Cup 2007, are operating on less than favourable occupancy rates. The Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had said that there was a market feasibility study conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group and one conducted in 2010 by an independent American firm which is being updated for 2012. The American firm was not named, nor was the study by Marriott released. He said that there is also a draft Environmental and Social Impact report which is awaiting final issuance by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “These documents are confidential at this time; however, the government is willing to have a closed door presentation that will allow
certain details of these documents to be made available under the condition of utmost confidentiality and discussed with key parliamentary opposition members without these documents being made public,” Dr. Singh previously said. The opposition has voted to halt public funding of the project and they say they want the so-called confidential documents released to the public. The government, under Atlantic Hotels Inc. has entered into a contract with S.C.G International of Trinidad (a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group, China) to construct the hotel. The Marriott Hotel group, through one of its subsidiaries will manage the hotel in accordance with standard Marriott rates per annum. The management fee would be a percentage of gross revenue with an incentive fee being a percentage of operating profit as well as other fees based on services.
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The construction of t h e H o p e / DochFour Canal the government is building to help drain water from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) is behind schedule, the government said yesterday. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said that there are delays on specific outputs, but he could not say what those are. The canal is being constructed at a cost of over $3.8 billion. Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, last December, said that he was concerned that critical aspects of the project may not be completed by the June 2013 deadline. The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) is utilizing its own machinery to dig the canal. On Wednesday, the government approved a further $80 million for fuel and lubricants and to repair and service excavators and other machines. However, for the NDIA to complete its work, it has to wait for the head regulator and the bridge to be completed. In addition, the sluice, which is being built by Contractor Courtney Benn, has to be constructed.
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The NDIA is currently shaping the dam and installing geotextile material in the canal and this is expected to be completed by the June 2013 deadline. BK International is responsible for the construction of the head regulator. The construction of the Public Road Bridge is the responsibility of DIPCON Engineering Services Ltd. The construction of the High level Outfall Sluice Structure at the Atlantic Ocean end (North of the Hope Secondary School) is the responsibility of Courtney Benn Contracting Services Ltd. The opposition has argued that the construction of the canal is unnecessary since desilting the Mahaica Creek and the four discharges currently used could do the job at times when the EDWC is at a dangerously high level and discharge is necessary. The Conservancy has been a source of grave concern recently, given usual periods of heavy rainfall. When the conservancy, which holds water to irrigate farmlands during the dry season, is overwhelmed, it threatens the integrity of the dam, which, if compromised
strengthen the institutional capacity for managing water and floodwater levels, and to guide interventions to reduce Guyana’s vulnerability to floods. The Conservancy system includes a reservoir, fronted by an earthen dam; drainage channels, used to release excess water from the reservoir during the rainy season; and a network of canals, used to provide
drinking water and irrigation during the dry seasons. Because of this system, farmers are able to realize two harvests of sugar cane and rice annually. The drainage relief structures were created to protect the EDWC dam from overtopping and collapsing during rainy seasons. As the sea level rises, the hydraulic head between the EDWC water control structures and sea outlets is significantly reduced. The smaller head reduces both the flow rate and discharge window available to discharge excess water
from the system. In addition, sea level rise has shortened the discharge window for the coastal plain. At present, flood control is managed on an emergency basis and control efforts are focused on responding to immediate needs rather than the development of long-term control strategies. This ad-hoc system of flood control is no longer effective and there are limitations on the ability to manage water levels in the coastal plain and prevent flooding and hence the need to better manage the Conservancy.
The government says it sees no need for the Parliamentary Privileges Committee which was set up to determine if the National Assembly has the powers to sanction a Member and if those sanctions could include stopping Minister Rohee from speaking. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday said that the government’s decision is in keeping with Friday’s ruling of Speaker Raphael Trotman that he would allow Rohee to participate fully in the business of the National Assembly. Eight months ago, the National Assembly moved a no-confidence motion against Rohee, and given his refusal to follow convention and resign, the opposition moved to have him barred from speaking. The Speaker had ruled that since the matter of speaking in the House is a privilege, he was sending the matter to the Privileges Committee. The Committee of Privileges has been set up to
determine what, if any, are the powers of the National Assembly to sanction a Member of Parliament, who is a Minister appointed by the President, for failing to resign following the adoption of a Motion of No-Confidence in him. If the Committee does conclude that the National Assembly can sanction a member, it would then have to determine what sanctions including, preventing the Minister from speaking, are available to the National Assembly. But given the latest ruling by the Speaker, Dr Luncheon said that it would be “contradictory” for the Committee to continue to meet and would be “inconsistent” with the ruling of the Speaker. The largest opposition coalition bloc APNU said that the Speaker’s ruling was premature, since the Privileges Committee has not yet made its findings known. The Committee has to present its report to the National Assembly. Given that the Speaker has ruled that he would allow
Rohee to speak, senior APNU member Deborah Backer asked what would happen if the Privileges Committee comes back and says Rohee cannot speak. And so, APNU is still looking to the Privileges Committee to complete its work. The seven-seat Alliance for Change (AFC) has said that it would respect the ruling of the Speaker, but has not said whether it would sit and listen to Rohee or if it would vote for the national security budget under Rohee. The Privileges Committee is chaired by the Speaker and has five members from the opposition and four members from the government side of the House. At the first meeting of the Committee on January 21, all parties agreed to await the final decision of the Chief Justice on the matter. Chang had made a provisional ruling saying that the National Assembly could not restrict Rohee from speaking, but he indicated that he could not dictate to the House what it should do. The Chief Justice’s final ruling is imminent.
- $80M more for fuel, repairing machines could cause widespread flooding on the heavily populated East Coast Demerara. In recent years, during the rainy season when the water built up in the Conservancy, the government has had cause to ease the water into the Mahaica and Mahaicony Rivers, flooding out the farming communities along the rivers. Some residents have had to abandon their homes and farmlands and have taken up housing offered by Food for the Poor. The World Bank, in 2007, approved what it called The Conservancy Adaptation Project, which overall costs, US$3.8 million. The project aims at strengthening the government’s and donor understanding of the EDWC system and coastal drainage patterns through the integration of advanced mapping and engineering analysis. The project also aims at implementing infrastructure investments to improve drainage performance, to
Thursday February 28, 2013
Gov’t sees no need for Privileges Committee on Rohee
Man accused of attempting to murder sibling Osafo Yarde appeared before Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday on an attempted murder charge. He was represented by Attorney at Law Dexter Todd, who asked the court
for bail as he claimed that the defendant and the injured party are brothers. Todd claimed that the victim gave the police a written statement saying that he did see his brother shoot at him. The lawyer also
claimed that the defendant’s brother did not wish to proceed against him. The prosecution made no objection to what the lawyer had to say. Yarde is charged for attempting to murder his brother on February 22 at Lodge, Housing Scheme. He allegedly discharged a loaded gun at Samuel Sealey. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. Magistrate Daly granted bail at 150,000 and ordered Yarde to return to court on March 7.
Thursday February 28, 2013
The decision of NCN to restrict the playing of calypsos from this year’s National Calypso Competition was ill-thought out. There was no need for the action taken. All the songs that are now off the air were being played from since early in the month. And since the local “carnival” season is about to end, there would have been little harm in simply allowing the compositions to be played until the end of the month, by which time this particular genre of music would have been deemphasized. Instead, an edict was purportedly issued for the songs not to be aired. This has played right into the hands of the critics who will see it as a form of censorship and now have another issue upon which to create a ministorm. Any broadcaster, of course, has a right to exercise censorship over material that is unsuited for broadcast. But the moral authority to do so in this instance is questionable, considering some of the highly sexually suggestive soca songs that are being played on radio these days. It is one thing at a competition to sing a song that is defamatory in content. It is another thing for a rendition that is defamatory of others to be aired on public radio. Slanderous content must be restricted. One of the ways in which calypsonians avoid slander is
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to use an indirect approach to the subject of their songs. The art of the calypso is to treat with social commentary in such a way that the audience knows who the subject of the song is, but this subject is addressed through various devices that point to rather than directly identifies the persons being sung about. A great many devices are used to achieve this effect, but unfortunately not many of our calypsonians have mastered this art. Many of them continue to be uncreative in their compositions or fail to use the many devices that are part of the repertoire of the great calypsonians. One of the truly great calypsonians, the Mighty Sparrow mastered that art of indirect social commentary. One of his big hits was about the oldest profession in the world which became threatened when the Americans closed their base in his country. He composed a masterful selection called, “Jean and Dinah” which dealt with this issue in a way that has come to characterize the fine art of calypso songwriting. Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clemontina Round de corner posing Bet your life is something they selling But when you catch them broken, you can get it all for nothing Don’t make no row De yankee gone and Sparrow take over now
Dem boys seh...
Happy living nah long life Whenever Donald jump pun a plane and travel everybody know that is official business. But dem boys seh is not de business that people think. Is post dem other people posting he outside de country because dem got to get he out of de way to do whatever dem want to do. De first thing dem do a long time ago before Donald tun president was to set up dem own personal bank. Dem tek NICIL and change it from what it really should be into a personal bank. And it didn’t tek brains fuh do that. De whole thing start wid de Lotto funds. As fast as de money come in Jagdeo spend it. People still remember how he use to tek de Lotto funds and pay fuh cricket. When people think was government money was lotto money. Dem ain’t had no cricket fuh a long time and in any case, Hen See Hen use to collect ads and pay back some of de money. Then dem move to de money dem collect from de assets dem sell. Jagdeo set up de scheme and Brazzy was de clerk. That is how de money come out fuh build de Marriott. And that is why only two people signing fuh that money, Brazzy and de Nadir gyal. That money is not state funds because Jagdeo seh suh. When some people want a loan all dem got to do is go to Brazzy and he give dem de NICIL money. Now dem boys hear that dem get all de money fuh build de Marriott and none of de money ain’t come from foreign investors. But constant pressure does wear away stone. Dem boys now getting a chance fuh see wha really going on at de Marriott. Dem already know that de price wha Brazzy seh that de hotel cost is much less. But all who hustle now gun tek that same money fuh pay doctor. Is not accident mek nuff of dem getting sick. Is de man above putting he hand pun dem. Is true wha old people seh. Happy living nah long life. Talk half and get a big stretcher fuh Brazzy.
The Trinidadian calypsonians have become quite adept at this art form. When they have to comment on political matters, the really great calypsonians know how to make their points in a manner disguised to avoid direct mention of the subjects, but subtle enough for the audience to know who is being referred to. As a form of political satire, the way in which calypsonians treat with certain subjects goes to the heart of the craft. One of the best exponents of this art form is the Mighty Shadow who composed a song called “Snake in the Balisier”. It is about divisions within the PNM, once the ruling party in Trinidad and Tobago. A verse from this masterpiece of political satire goes as follows: Big snakes in the country, man they worse than mapepire When they making they racket, they dress up in nice jacket Some big fat macajuel
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drain out the oil in the oil well I don’t know how they found the key but hear they empty the Treasury. The symbol of the PNM is the balisier flower. This flower is found in Trinidad and according to Selwyn Ryan, it harbours one of the deadliest snakes in the country, the mapepire. Shadow used the imagery of the balisier and its association with deadly snakes to comment on the then divisions within the party. In this year’s calypso competition in Trinidad and Tobago there was a song about the People’s Partnership in which the composer uses the imagery of a leaking ship to comment on the problems and travails of the government. The song is entitled “Meh Pardna Ship Leaking”. This was a brilliant play on the pun of partnership. This art of political satire through the medium of the calypso has never been as sharp and creative in Guyana
as it is in Trinidad and Tobago. Indeed, much of the art seems to have departed from our calypsos. A great deal of what passes for local calypso would not pass auditions in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of our calypsos have been reduced to tasteless antigovernment bashing. Much of it is uninspiring and lacking in artistic content. Just how some of the selections in this year ’s final passed the audition segment is anyone’s guess. And this will stir, as it does each year, controversy over the results of the national calypso competition. A regular topic each year in calypso competitions in both Trinidad and Guyana is the judging of these competitions and come next year, some calypsonian will complain about this year’s results. It happens every year in one form or the other. The judges however have made their choice and it is for them to justify their decisions. However, there will be many who will question how it is
that “God nah Sleep” came in at first place. This song is the one that irritated the authorities. There is nothing overtly slanderous about the lyrics of this song, except that in one verse reference is made in negative terms about the face of a government official. But that is hardly reason to take it off the air There is nothing to be feared about this song. It is never going to capture the public’s imagination. As such the NCN overreacted in taking this and other calypsos off the air. This action was unnecessary, because quite honestly, only a few of this year’s calypsos are worth listening more than once.
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Kaieteur News
Thursday February 28, 2013
=== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ===
Why did Robeson Benn do it? If there was a time when the management of Kaieteur News would have been justified in removing me from the newspapers it would have been when there was a confrontation with Robeson Benn in the offices of this newspaper. I was the person who accosted Benn. I have no regrets and I would do it again. The newspaper didn’t ask me to quit and I never
enquired about its response. Mr. Benn walked in the office and headed for the direction of the Editor. He said to Mr. Adam Harris; “You didn’t ask me for a comment.” Mr. Benn was complaining about the reporting of the arrest of his son by the police. I was enraged when I heard that comment. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing from a Cabinet
Minister of a government that in my academic studies fitted the description of an elected dictatorship. I accosted Mr. Benn and told him about the kind of things his Ministry and the Government of Guyana was doing so he had no basis on which to complain that Kaieteur News had done a wrong to him and his son. Benn replied; “I was not
speaking to you.” That got me more enraged. By this time Dale Andrews asked me to cool down and Adam Harris ushered Benn into the office of the publisher Mr. Glenn Lall. I didn’t ask what transpired. I was not interested. People like Robeson Benn and others in the Cabinet should not be given any explanation from the media.
They do not deserve it. I was sitting in close physical proximity to Mark Benschop at my libel trial when I heard Priya Manickchand complain to Benschop that he had carried something on his web page that was unfavourable to her. I heard a tape in which Donald Ramotar in January 2011 telling Mark Benschop that there were postings on his web page that were unkind to Ramotar’s son. This was in reference to a car accident involving Ramotar’s son and my nephew. It never amazes the people of this country how these PPP leaders can feel irritated when things are said about them and feel for their own but are insensitive to the hurt their government heap on countless innocent Guyanese citizens everyday. Here we have the same Benn entering the NCN compound and demanding that a calypso critical of the PPP Government be taken off the air. This is the same man with whom I had a confrontation in the offices of Kaieteur News over his claim that the paper didn’t ask for his side. The Benn calypso thing has dimensions to it that needs analyzing. The focus so far is about the banning of the calypsos from NCN. The question pregnant with political ramifications is why did Benn feel that he could have done it. Robeson Benn heads a Ministry that is very distant from the jurisdiction over NCN. Three Ministries overlap with NCN. First there is a Ministry of Information. The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education can also claim to have a direct interest in NCN because of the content of NCN programmes. The Ministry of Foreign
Frederick Kissoon Affairs, Ministry of Works and Transport etc have no direct bearing on the operations of NCN. The state owned media has subject ministers of which Mr. Benn is not one. But then NCN has a head and NCN has a board that has a chairman. If Minister Benn heard that a calypso was being played that he found biased against the Government the most logical thing to do is as follows -. call the head or the chairman or the subject minister or the minister with a portfolio nearest to the subject minister. By what right the Minister of Works and Transport could march into NCN and demand that an item on the air be taken off? The logic in his thinking is that he is a Minister and he has the power to do what he wants. There could be no other explanation because he is not the subject Minister. One can read then into the thoughts of Benn that if he hears that a policeman is saying the wrong thing at a police conference, he can walk in and stop the lecturer. If he hears an education officer saying something in a school he could stop the officer by himself without contacting the Education Ministry. And it could stretch into everything that is connected to the State and the entire public realm because as a Minister, Benn feels that his power embraces the totality of State institutions. You call that the abuse of power.
Man found dead in East Canje house The badly decomposed body of a man in his late 40s was removed late yesterday afternoon from an old building in which he was staying. The odour emanating from the old structure located along the East Canje Public Road was becoming unbearable for passers-by and for the residents of Cumberland, who summoned the police to the scene shortly after 17:00 hrs yesterday. The man was known to many as ‘Dennis’. One person who resides not too far from the house stated that ‘Dennis’ was originally from Georgetown but had relatives
there. “He come to stay in Berbice and was living with a girl, but they separate and he started to live in that old house… He does beg around the village”, said the resident. The neighbours who reside opposite the house noted that Sunday was the last day they saw him under a nearby bus shed. Detectives arrived at the scene followed by curious onlookers, who fled as the body was being brought out in a white sheet, as the stench was unbearable. The body was taken to a morgue on the Corentyne.
Thursday February 28, 2013
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Police training must evolve with time … Commander Joseph tells new police officers By Leon Suseran The Police Commander of ‘B’ Division, Assistant Commissioner, Brian Joseph, has stated that police training needs to evolve and change with the times. He was addressing the 24 new police officers who graduated recently from the Felix Austin Police College (FAPC) ‘B’ Division, Adventure, Corentyne. “Like almost everything among us, police training is evolving; therefore we all need to make some serious adjustments to the way we do things. You have to be able to determine what participants already know and therefore what you can spend less or more time with.” He added that there are modern learning techniques that can be used more widely for training police officers. “We have to be able to understand and apply adult learning techniques such as problem-based learning, scenario-based exercises and role-playing, in addition to lectures”. The approach to learning, he stated, must be one that “contributes to the
development and modernization as reflected in the Guyana Police Force’s current engagement with Capita Symonds Consultant Group”. The Commander spoke of stains that affect public trust in police officers nationwide, such as corruption; [lack of] public trust, low morals; poor personal values of officers; lack of values of new officer, [lack of] honesty, abuse of rank, power and authority; poor work ethics of new recruits; and a lack of sense of responsibly, respect and loyalty”. Assistant Commissioner Joseph congratulated and thanked the Station Management Committee of FAPC for the work they have been doing and “let you know that the Force’s administration is supportive of all the activities and we will continue to support you in this area.” The diligence of hard work and commitment by the force, he stated, can assist in earning tremendous respect from Guyanese citizens. Inspector Yonette Stephens, who is also a
Commander Joseph stands on the dias, taking the salute classroom instructor, outlined that on January 15, 2012, some 30 young men from various regions across Guyana embarked on their police training, during which one rank left shortly after training to pursue another career, while five others left for “administrative reasons”. The training, she added, comprised of several modules such as Information Technology training; Drill and
Musketry; Police Duties (Theory & Practical); Traffic; Crime; and Micro Computer Studies. The ranks were also attending computer classes at the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC), where they gained skills in oral and written communication; problem- solving skills, etc. Training, she noted, was done in the areas of domestic violence as well as human
rights. A friend of the FAPC, Mr. Ali also facilitated FirstAid classes with the recruits. After formal training, the ranks were attached to the FAPC Georgetown where they were engaged in firearm training at the Tactical Services Unit and completed their live firing exercises. Some 99 per cent of the ranks gained 60 per cent and above. Constable 21676 Towler was adjudged Best
Classroom Student. Awards were also presented to the Best Students in several areas. Best Shot went to Const. 21637 Rohit; Best Drill, Const. 21659 McGarrell; Most Improved Student, Const. 21635 Grosvenor; Best I.T. Student, Const. 21672 Phillips; Best Classroom Student, Const. 21676 Towler; Runner- up Classroom Student, Const. 21672 Fraser.
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Kaieteur News
Thursday February 28, 2013
Thursday February 28, 2013
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Region Four Chairman lambastes Trotman over Rohee gag order ruling The Chairman of Guyana’s most populous region, Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica), Clement Corlette, has thrown his hat into the ring in the ongoing dispute surrounding the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly to allow Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee the right to speak in the National Assembly. Yesterday, the Regional Chairman described the Speaker’s ruling as being tantamount to mismanagement of the office of Speaker of Guyana’s Supreme Organ of Democratic power, in an apparent attempt to evade the
litigation-prone Attorney General. The Region Four Democratic Council is controlled by the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Corlette has been its Chairman for more than five years. APNU has already expressed its disappointment with the Speaker’s ruling. Corlette is of the view that Speaker Raphael Trotman has sacrificed the integrity of the office of Speaker in an effort to appease the Government as the minority. He is trying to mitigate the constant intrusion of the court into the business of the National Assembly at the behest of the
Government and by extension the legal arm of the executive, Corlette added. “As I understand the exercise of Democratic: Power or authority, any motion or policy order made at a lawful sitting of a statutory body is enforceable by the management of the given statutory body. For example, a motion or policy order approved at a statutory meeting or at a special meeting of a Municipal Council, a Regional Council or a Local Government Council is enforceable by the management of the organisation or agency,” he explained. He said that he finds it
Lifted Rohee gag…
Action was constitutionally just and right—Trotman Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, is satisfied that in permitting Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to have his say in the House of Parliament, he did what was constitutionally right against what may be politically correct. The Speaker said, “I have satisfied myself that I have done what is constitutionally correct. I took an oath to uphold the constitution of Guyana and not to subvert it. It may be considered the politically incorrect thing to do,” but Trotman said that he acknowledged that he may be committing political suicide. “And I understood that, but I prefer to know that I did what was constitutionally just and correct as against what is politically correct.” The Speaker charged that having had the benefit of research, advice, legal opinion and considering the ruling of the Chief Justice, “I thought I could not rightfully continue to keep a restraint,” on the Minister. According to the Speaker, he had taken it on himself in that, while the second motion against Rohee was pending, he would restrain the Minister from speaking. After seeking the relevant information on making a ruling, the Speaker said that he could no longer deny the Minister his constitutional right to speak. Trotman said that he decided not to wait until the court end of the Rohee matter, because of the relevant research information in his grasp, and since the case seems to be going on indefinitely. “I felt personally as Speaker that it would be an injustice for me to continue.”
House Speaker Raphael Trotman The Speaker reiterated that he had taken it up upon himself to have Rohee not speak because he was unsure. He said that he was not invited to stop the Minister; he took the decision personally so that he could satisfy himself that the “decision could hold no longer.” If the court rules otherwise in relation to the Rohee matter, Trotman said, “So be it. In my view the court made a ruling and an opinion on January 11, so I don’t think the court would change that opinion which has already been granted.” What Trotman said he is concerned about “Is whether or not the court has jurisdiction to continue to tell the Parliament what to do. I don’t believe that it does; but in terms of what the court’s opinion was on the right of a Minister to speak, I believe that opinion was given already.” Last Friday, Speaker Trotman ruled that the continuation of a restraint on Rohee to speak, and to present Bills, Motions, and Questions, will constitute a “serious derogation” of his rights – both as a Member of the National Assembly and as
a Minister of Government— hence the ‘gag order’ against Rohee was lifted. Last year the Home Affairs Minister, after a series of security fall outs, attracted a no confidence motion from opposition members in the National Assembly. A motion by APNU Leader, David Granger, and supported by the AFC, was tabled that Rohee should not speak on any matter relating to his Ministry. In registering firmly their grounds, the opposition after much debate, staged walkouts, premature adjournments of sittings, and court action. The matter was later sent to a Privileges Committee before the Speaker finally ruled; concluding the Rohee saga. While the Alliance for Change (AFC) has decided to respect the wishes of the Speaker, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has expressed disappointment at the ruling. At a press meeting Tuesday, Basil Williams,APNU’s Shadow Minister of LegalAffairs dubbed the Speaker’s actions as “unprecedented and undemocratic,” and does not bode well for the future conduct of the “people’s business” in the National Assembly. Williams said that the “Speaker ’s ruling was premature, and pre-empted the imminent decision of the Honourable Chief Justice, Mr. Ian Chang, in the matter of AG –v- David Granger and Raphael Trotman CM No. 94 of 2012, and the Committee of Privileges, to which the matter was sent. APNU also pronounced that the Speaker’s “ruling can be impugned on its legal soundness and factual inaccuracies,” because of the “mistaken belief that Chief Justice Chang” had ruled in favour of the Minister.
Clement Corlette difficult to accept that the Speaker of the National assembly is attempting to portray a position that the National Assembly’s rules or standing orders have no provision to enforce a decision by motion or policy order against a member of the National Assembly, moreover, a member of the Government side of the House. “Mr. Trotman, I believe, exposed his inadequacies of leadership when he revealed that he consulted with officials from other parliaments. He referred to England which was the last of the oppressive masters to have ruled over our people. “He also mentioned
having contacted the Australian Parliament. To obtain information on what obtains in the Parliament of the former colonel power is most retrograde and insulting to the people of Guyana,” Corlette said. He added that advice from foreign Parliaments cannot assist Guyana because the Guyana National Assembly is fractious and partisan with the PPC/C MPs only displaying arrogance and contempt for the Opposition Members of Parliament. This, he said, is a clear indication that experience from other Parliaments, particularly the British, will not be relevant to Guyana, since the history of Guyana is different from the history of England. “The fact that the majority of the Members of Parliament voted to register no confidence in a Minister of the government who exercises a specific portfolio, is an indication that the Minister should no longer be tasked with the responsibility of the portfolio. “ Moreover, since the Government seats in the National Assembly are less than the Opposition, it is the duty of the Government to
work for the respect and cooperation of the opposition to resolve differences,” Corlette stated. According to him, the government seems resolved to use the High Court as an unsanctioned House of Lords (an upper parliament) in an effort to overrule decisions of the elected National Assembly. “The Speaker is the Leader and Guardian of the powers and integrity of the Parliament/National Assembly. His ruling on matters of decisions made is pivotal to give substance and to have enforcement pursued. If the Speaker should choose to contradict a decision of the House as made by the majority he would be failing in his duty as Speaker. The House as it is referred to at times, would be unworthy of the confidence of the general public that elected the members as their representatives,” the Region Four Chairman declared. “If the National Assembly cannot enforce its motion against Minister Clement Rohee, then the entire rules of Parliament lack substance and empowerment. If that is so the Parliament would be a waste of time and meaningless,” he added.
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Kaieteur News
Thursday February 28, 2013
Girl, 13, allegedly molested by senior police officer’s son A mother of three is concerned that justice has been denied her 13-year-old daughter since a man who reportedly molested the child is the son of a top police official. Yesterday, the woman said that not only is it her belief that the police have been slow to take action in such a sensitive matter, but “the police keep saying that they have to investigate the matter even though it happened over two months ago.” The incident, the woman related, occurred at a home in Soesdyke East Bank Demerara on the night of December 23, last. She said that her daughter, a form two student, had gone to spend a few days at the home of a paternal aunt since school was closed. It was at this very residence that the incident occurred. The evidently distraught woman said that she first learnt that something troubling had happened to her daughter following a very eerie conversation with her sister-in-law the next day. “She called me but I was in a bank at the time so I couldn’t talk. When I got back to work I returned the call and told them to come down to my work place,” the woman noted. The woman said that when the aunt arrived with her daughter she took them to the back of the building in which she works and a horrifying tale of sexual molestation was related to her. It is alleged that the son of the senior police officer, who is the sister-in-law’s husband, not only fondled the teenager’s breast but also her private parts as she lay down to sleep. Earlier the same day the aunt and her husband had engaged in some activities which left her feeling tired. As a result, the aunt had asked the 13-year-old to assist her
husband to hang some blinds on the night in question. After completing the chore, the teenager decided to prepare for bed which was in fact a mattress on the floor in the single bedroom of the house. The aunt had earlier retired to bed with her two daughters. The teenager alleged that soon after taking her place on the mattress around 22:00 hours her aunt’s husband joined her there and proceeded to ask her if she was aware that his wife (the aunt) and her maternal uncle had a relationship. Insisting that she had no such knowledge, the teenager said that she informed the man to inquire of his wife if such a relationship did exist. The teenager related that she subsequently fell into a doze, and it was at this point that her aunt’s husband placed his feet on her, a motion which jolted her awake. It is alleged by the teenager that she pushed the man’s foot off, but he repeated the act. “He then took his hand and push it in her pants and she jumped up and looked at him because she didn’t expect him to do it....” related the woman. This prompted the teenager to venture to a section of the mattress which was closer to the bed her aunt was sleeping on even as she opted to cover herself with a sheet. “He pulled the sheet off of her and pushed his hand in her top and squeezed her breasts...” the woman said her daughter related. As a result the flustered teenager decided to find a place on the bed with her aunt, an act which was allegedly copied by the prowling man. “He started telling her don’t say anything...he tried to scare her and she said she cried whole night.” Although the teenager said nothing the following morning it was clear enough to her aunt that something was amiss. As such the aunt began questioning her about what was bothering her. The entire
- but police yet to investigate, says mother ordeal was eventually related to the aunt who then started a verbal battle with her husband. After the matter was reported to the teenager’s mother later the same day, the matter was reported to the Timehri police station and officers there advised them to head to the Brickdam police station instead. “I went to Brickdam with them and they took a statement and everything...I kept going and going back for days and
they keep telling me how they have to type out this thing...and how they have to investigate...This is a clear case of child molestation...” The woman said that it was only two weeks ago that she received a call from an officer at the police station who invited her to sign the statement. “They take like a whole month to type this statement...I feel they are doing this because is this big police man son involved...”
She said too that she had been informed that the matter has not even gained the attention of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution. “I feel we are not getting justice because of the status of this man’s father,” said the woman who added that an attempt has been made by the man’s family to offer financial compensation to quiet the matter. “One of his sisters was telling us they want to compensate us because they don’t want to tarnish the father repetition and how they don’t want it to go out in the public. They are saying it would damage the
father’s career and all of that....but I can’t think about their father’s career when my child has been violated,” stressed the concerned woman. The woman said that her teenage daughter has even been coerced by her aunt to forgive the man since she has reconciled with her husband and has been treating the matter as a non-issue. “She make up back with she husband but my daughter still suffering mentally,” proclaimed the woman yesterday who related that her daughter is still very disturbed about the ordeal.
TB in prisons a serious public health concern – Health Minister As part of the efforts to promote health and human rights of prisoners, measures must be put in place to address the problem of overcrowding even as living conditions are improved. This is the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) if the impact of tuberculosis is to be reduced in the prisons system. This recommendation has been fully embraced by the local health sector and was recently deliberated on when the Ministry of Health convened a meeting to discuss the health and human rights of prisoners. According to Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, “TB is one area that must be addressed and neglecting to provide quality services to prisoners can very well upset some of the achievements of our anti-TB programmes and some of the efforts of Dr (Jeetendra) Mohanlall.” He explained that a very enlightened approach will also “bring us to the conclusion that this will help us fight diseases in the wider
society as public health interventions that are needed.” Attempts to solicit comments from senior prison officials yesterday about the implementation of needful measures in the local prisons systems to address TB were futile but according to WHO, the priority strategy must be the widespread implementation of the Stop TB Strategy. This is particularly needful to address TB/HIV co-infection and Multi-drug resistant (MDR)-TB in the incarcerated population. According to WHO, every prisoner should have unrestricted access to the correct diagnosis and treatment of TB. It has been noted, too, that delays in the detection and treatment of TB cases must be minimised to reduce further transmission of infection and pressures to self-treat TB even as unregulated, erratic treatment of TB in prisons is ended. Addressing this issue too requires that urgent action is taken to integrate prison and
civilian TB services to ensure treatment completion for prisoners released during treatment, WHO recommends. According to Minister Ramsaran, efforts by the local health sector to examine the health and human rights situation in Guyana are unfolding against a significant historic background whereby efforts are being made within the security sector to undertake progressive reform. This reform, according to him, is certainly not occurring now and is in fact one that is embraced by the ruling administration. He added that the Ministry of Home Affairs has since sought to make public advertisements for the suitable applicants to fill the position of prison doctors. And according to the Health Minister, “I can tell you that Mr (Clement) Rohee (Minister of Home Affairs) has been actively approaching my Ministry to provide doctors from our pool.” However, the Home Affairs Ministry has in its
budget a line item which caters to the employment of doctors, Dr Ramsaran noted. He said that the Ministry is also working with its partners such as the Pan American Health Organisation to ensure that the health care of prisoners, particularly as it relates to TB is addressed. According to WHO, prisons act as a reservoir for TB, pumping the disease into the civilian community through staff, visitors and inadequately treated former inmates. In essence, “TB does not respect prison walls,” thus improving its control in prisons benefits the community at large,” WHO has stated. It was highlighted too that “community TB control efforts cannot afford to ignore prison TB” since prisoners have the right to at least the same level of medical care as that of the general community. As a result WHO has asserted that “drawing attention and resources to the problem of TB in prisons is likely to lead an overall improvement in prison condition, the health of inmates and human rights.”
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- GPL power supply will continue
GPL workers protest in Duke Street Office Hundreds of Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) employees represented by National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) yesterday commenced strike action against a five percent all inclusive package being offered by the power company. General Secretary of NAACIE, Kenneth Joseph speaking to workers from commercial to technical personnel, outside GPL’s main branch on Main Street, Georgetown, said that strike action will continue until the state-owned power company satisfies the demands of the Union. He said that workers with NAACIE membership at all the stations will also be striking. The Guyana Public Service Union has since lent in support to NAACIE’s cause. Its members will not be carrying out tasks that are done by NAACIE’s staff, Joseph said. He said that the strike action could result in power outage and advised that Guyanese stock-up on candles and kerosene. However, GPL’s Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal, who was called an “iron eagle” by his employees as they protested his Duke Street, Kingston, Office, said power supply will not be affected. He said that in Demerara, some 90 percent of electricity is provided by contractors including Wartsila. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) provides a large section of Berbice with electricity. However, he was unsure if electricity would be negatively impacted in Essequibo. Dindyal added that customers desirous of
paying their bills, or purchasing credit token for prepaid meters, may do so at any of their collection agencies— the commercial banks, post office, Bill Express and Sure Pay. According to the NAACIE leader, Joseph, a request was made for an eight percent across the board increase for all categories of NAACIE workers employed with GPL. Initially, the Union had requested a 25 percent across the board increase but that amount was reduced after considering the company’s financial position, Joseph stated. Joseph found the offered increase insulting. GPL is offering a one percent performance increment and a three percent annual automatic rate increase. The three percent annual automatic rate increase is part of an agreement package between the Union and GPL signed in 2001. According to Joseph, that would amount to the five percent all inclusive package and reflects the five percent wages and salary increases Government gives to public servants annually. He added that increases in wages and salaries should mirror the country’s inflation rate and in Guyana’s case in 2011 the inflation rate was 4.5 percent, as such, a one percent wage increase is unacceptable. He is confident that GPL would meet the demands of the Union since it was granted $11B in loans from a commercial bank. He made the deduction that if the company could access such a huge loan it therefore shows that it has the capacity to repay it. Joseph further stressed that GPL is selling electricity at the maximum cost to citizens. He said that the provision of electricity and customer
service is done by the workers. He believes that the workers should be adequately rewarded for their services provided to the company and nation at large. The scores of workers who began their protest at Main Street and marched to the CEO’s office in Duke Street also shared that sentiment. Amidst the protestors were two pregnant women. There they voiced their disapproval at the package being offered by GPL. “No money…No work,” “What about the US$13,800 paid to the CEO”, “Stick to our agreement,” “Total Disrespect for workers” were among the many slogans on placards held by the disgruntled workers. In a press statement, GPL stated, “Given its precarious financial position, the company feels that the Union is being unreasonable in its
Employees protest GPL main branch on Main Street
Kenneth Joseph addresses GPL workers demands. Any further increases in salaries may very well have to be funded via tariff increases or government subsidies. “The company recognizes the burden the relatively high tariffs place on its customers and do not feel justified, even though it has the ability, in increasing tariffs just to fund increases in employment
costs.” Justifying its package, the power company said that it took into consideration its financial status and the ability to pay the increase; ability to sustain the increases in the future, and relative remuneration of GPL staff to national levels. GPL claims that it continues to be beleaguered by high oil prices. As a result, the company suffered significant financial losses, amounting to almost $5B in 2012. And, losses are projected to continue in 2013. GPL is also challenged by depleting cash resources to the extent that it has to resort to Government for significant subsidies in order to sustain operations. “Employees in the NAACIE category cost GPL almost $1.5 billion annually in remuneration, which is the highest non-fuel expenditure in the company. They enjoy
an average annual remuneration of $1.7 million per employee, which ranks amongst the highest, if not the highest, in the country for employees in the same category,” the release said. Nonetheless, employees were still offered a five percent increase in keeping with the status quo over the last five years. But, the Union rejected GPL’s offer for 2012 and requested the intervention of the Labour Minister. The release stated, “The request was granted and the company expected that this would have defused the Union’s ultimatum to take industrial action. Unfortunately for all, and despite the Minister’s intervention, it appears that the Union insisted on taking industrial action. The company has not been informed by the Union of such action, but staff members are on strike today.”
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NDIA Auditor threatens legal action over gratuity payment The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) could face legal action over its refusal to pay one of its Internal Auditors his gratuity in keeping with a mutually agreed contract. The Internal Auditor, who had incurred the wrath of the NDIA management for penning a damning report on the entity’s operations, has t h r o u g h h i s a t t o r n e y, written to the NDIA demanding his gratuity that was owed to him since last October. The Auditor was sent on administrative leave following the publication of a leaked report in which he recommended the dismissal of NDIA boss Lionel Wordsworth and Senior Section Engineer Anil Chowbay. This was after he had unearthed what was
described as massive conflict of interest on the part of both senior officials. That report on fuel consumption and equipment operations and maintenance, was conducted between May and September and was completed and submitted to the Chairman of the NDIA Board of Directors on September 26 and carbon copied to President Donald Ramotar It had subsequently engaged the attention of Auditor General Deodat Sharma, who in a preliminary report, had also recommended the dismissal of the Senior Section Engineer, after concurring with the initial findings, that Chowbay was in a conflict position. According to the NDIA audit report SSE Chowbay did not declare a conflict of interest and continued to
prepare contract documents, certify payments for his uncle, one Kaydar Persaud, who was carrying out work for the entity. This newspaper understands that Persaud is the contractor for NDIA works totaling $19M. The engineer’s brother, Keshav Chowbay, is also an Engineer working with his uncle, the contractor. The audit found that all the Bill of Quantities were prepared by and requests for payment verified and certified by the NDIA Senior Engineer for all contracts awarded to his uncle. “This situation presents a conflict of interest and a great risk of the SSE’s primary interest being unduly influenced by a secondary interest,” the report stated. It however deferred the evaluation of the Bill of Quantities/Engineers Estimates for possible corruption and financial gain to the Contract Audit for a more detailed test. The report recommended that Chowbay should cease all functions relating to excavators including preparation of scope of works, bill of quantities and verification of payments. It further advised that he should be written to for not
declaring a conflict of interest. But the matter took on controversial nature when instead of taking action on the A u d i t o r ’s recommendations, the NDIA Board of Directors decided to discipline the auditor by sending him off on indefinite leave. H o w e v e r, h e s t i l l receives his monthly salary, a situation which Kaieteur
News understands will continue up to when his contract ends in April. According to a source the Auditor had applied to his employers for his gratuity which was due in October after six months of his one year contract had expired. This is in keeping with the contract he signed with the NDIA. To date the entity has refused to pay, prompting the
Auditor to engage the services of his attorney, Khemraj Ramjattan. “The (NDIA) has no grounds to deny him his gratuity,” a source in the Ministry of Agriculture, which has oversight responsibility for the NDIA said. Meanwhile, there are reports that Senior Section Engineer Chowbay will not have his contract renewed when it ends in April.
President to receive COI report today President Donald Ramotar is scheduled to receive a completed report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Linden shooting. Three people were shot to death ostensibly by the police last July. The report would be handed over at 10:00 hours today by members of the Commission which is headed by Jamaican Justice Lensley Wolfe O.J. Other Commissioners are Mr. K.D. Knight S.C; Trinidadian jurist Ms. Dana Seetahal S.C; Guyana’s former Court of Appeal Judge, Claudette Singh, CCH and former Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Kennard. The report is expected to encompass the testimonies of victims with regards to the compensation aspect of the inquiry. It is also expected that the report would highlight changes and recommendations pertaining to the Police Force and its operations as ranks of the state agency. In addition to killing three the police were also accused of injuring several others during protest action against the hike in electricity rates in the Mining Town.
The Commissioners were sworn in to hear the facts relating to the shooting incidents and the procedures by which the Police Force acted and at the same time, assess the circumstances under which the shooting took place. Lawyer for the Guyana Police Force, Peter Hugh, said at the Commission of Inquiry, that the state was not responsible for compensation to any of the Linden protesters who were injured or killed on July 18, since he argued that there is no evidence to prove that the lawmen shot at the group. The lawyers defended that the evidence presented is purely circumstantial, and ballistics tests proved that the protesters were killed and injured with a caliber of ammunition that is not used by police. He added that police were most times following standard operating procedures and when they didn’t it can be justified, taking into consideration the protesters’ hostile behaviour towards them. Apart from that, the lawyers said the police had a duty to disperse the gathering
and the leaders of the Linden protest should be held responsible for condoning the illegal act. However, Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes, who represented the families of the deceased,( Lyndon Lewis, Ron Sommerset and Shemroy Bouyea), said that there is compelling evidence to prove that the police shot the three men and injured about 20 other Lindeners. He added that the deceased and injured persons were all shot with 00 buckshot pellets. The lawyer had stated that the pellets could only have been discharged from a shotgun and not a handgun or rifle. Hughes said that that eliminated the possibility of either a concealed weapon or sniper being present. Hughes said also that there were around several hundred persons present at the time of the shooting and the only persons who were seen with shotguns were three police officers. He said that a shotgun is at least three feet in length and if it were in the possession of anyone other than the police ranks, it would have been clearly visible at the time of the shooting.
A post mortem examination conducted yesterday on the body of one year-old Akeem Peters who was reportedly discovered lying head down in a bucket of water in his 192 Pike Street, North Sophia home, confirmed the suspicions of many who immediately opined that the child died of drowning. It was reported that on Sunday last, the toddler was left in the care of his 14-year-
old aunt, while his mother left the village at around noon to go collect child support money from the father of her three older children. Peters reportedly fell into a five-gallon bucket of water while his teenaged aunt was asleep. Kaieteur News was told by a relative that after the mother of four left, the teen and little Akeem 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. After being interrogated, both the woman and her sister were later released from police custody. It is unclear at this point if either of the females could or would be charged.
The 40-year-old motorcyclist who collided with a car in the vicinity of Bel Air, East Coast Demerara, at the Railway Embankment and Conversation Tree on Tuesday, is hospitalized in a critical condition in the High Dependency-Unit at the
Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Injured is Curtis George of Newtown. According to reports, around 18:30 hrs, George, who was reportedly not wearing a helmet was riding his Honda CBR at a rapid rate when he
crashed into a car, PPP 4786. George was picked up and carried to the GPHC in an unconscious state. Up to press time yesterday, his condition was listed as critical. The driver of the car is not in police custody.
PM confirms Sophia toddler died of drowning
Motorcyclist hospitalized
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US Ambassador visits with St Francis Community Developers
Mr Foster, Ambassador Harte, Regional Vice chairman Jagroop, and Mayor Claude Henry Samuel Whyte United States Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt, on Monday, visited a number of community development projects underway in East Berbice. The visit to the region was organized by one of Guyana’s leading None Governmental Organizations (NGO) based in Berbice, the St. Francis Community Developers, and its collaborating partners. During the tour, the Ambassador expressed admiration at the number of activities being coordinated by the SFCD and its collaborating partners, some of which are a number of
smaller NGOs. President/ founder is Alex Foster. The SFCD is leading the way in setting up, organizing and collaborating with NGOs to help fight poverty and c o m m u n i t y underdevelopment through a number of initiatives. The ambassador first met with groups from The New Amsterdam/ Canje/East Bank Berbice areas — about 18 NGOs. There were representatives from The Brick Layers group of New Amsterdam, The New Amsterdam Lions Club, Edinburg Community Group, Light Town Seventh day Adventist church, the Berbice disabled People’s network, Revival Awareness
and Perpetuation of African Culture (RAPAC), Berbice Pensioners’ Association, Berbice Cancer Society, Youths making a change group, Methodist Church and the Guyana prison Service. The meeting took place at the All Saints Presbyterian Development Centre at Princess Elizabeth and Vryheid road in New Amsterdam. The Ambassador paid keen attention to the events and even interacted with some of the representatives. He and his team took the opportunity to explain what their respective groups are doing and sought further assistance from the US Government.
Ambassador Hardt said that his Government will see how it can work with the various groups “We will look for opportunities to support. And whenever the opportunity arises we will be there to support. The New Amsterdam prison was presented with a 25-inch Television Set and six straight stitch sewing machines compliments of the Food for the Poor Organization (FFP) which was represented by Its Senior Project manager Ms Andrea Benjamin and Mr. Foster who is its Berbice representative. Also in attendance were the Mayor of New Amsterdam, Claude Henry, and Regional Vice Chairman Bhopaul Jagroop.
Thursday February 28, 2013
N/A Multilateral students drink alcohol on school tour to GT
...future tours suspended until further notice All school tours and field trips in Region Six have been suspended until further notice. This announcement was made by the Region Six Education Officer, Shafiran Bhajan, during a recent meeting with head teachers of the region. The decision came in the wake of two incidents, one whereby students of the New Amsterdam Multilateral Senior Secondary School were found to be imbibing during a tour to Georgetown last week, proving that the students were left on their own, unsupervised at some point or points on the tour. The other involved students of a Corentyne Primary School who visited the Office of the President and complained to the President and his staff about the school not having adequate furniture, school- feeding biscuits as well as textbooks. Office of the President allegedly subsequently telephoned the school and made inquiries as to whether the students’ allegations had any credence, to which it was found out to have. As a result, no school would be allowed to go on tour or any field trip. According to reliable information, the teacher at the N/ A Multilateral has been
suspended after which she will be transferred to another secondary school in the town. All of the students involved in that incident have also been suspended. Many teachers across the region are not pleased with the decision to halt all tours and field trips. February has always been traditionally known as the month in which students visit various parts of Guyana during field trips and tours, in celebration of Mash and Black History Month; in March, there are Commonwealth Day tours. The grim faces displayed by many students who received the news that their tours were cancelled and monies returned proved that there was a lot of disappointment and sadness. Many are of the view that the school culpable in this matter should have been dealt with, rather than the entire region feeling the ramifications, but as one teacher put it, ‘Peter pay for Paul and Paul pay for all’. Acting Minister of Education, Dr. Frank Anthony, visited the Region yesterday to meet with several schools and teachers about issues affecting the system.
Patrick Persaud, the absent juror who failed to show up in the Berbice High court on Tuesday thus stalling the proceedings in Justice Brassington Reynolds’s court, was in jail. Justice Reynolds was hearing a matter of wounding with the intent to murder, and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, maim, disfigure or disable. The police went in search of him and was told that he was jailed earlier in the day. Patrick Persaud, 37, of Cotton Tree village, West
Coast Berbice, is a cane harvester at the Blairmont Estate. He was in arrears of affiliation fees and was picked up on Monday afternoon after a report was made to the Blairmont Police station that a warrant was out for his arrest. He was taken to the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s court on Tuesday and appeared before Magistrate Roby Benn when he was sentenced to three months in jail. The implication for the High Court trial is devastating.
Juror in jail while High Court waits
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Rousseff says Brazil must shape up and compete
Dilma Rousseff BRASILIA (Reuters) President Dilma Rousseff said
yesterday that Brazil must cut its high business costs to become more competitive and vowed to keep inflation in check as the world’s sixthlargest economy shifts into higher gear this year. Rousseff, who has struggled to put the oncebooming Brazilian economy back on to a path of solid growth, said 2013 will be a year of major infrastructure investments in roads, railways, ports and airports to try to stop bottlenecks from holding the economy back.
Brazilian priest investigated for alleged abuse SAO PAULO (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest is being investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of three young girls in his parish in southeastern Brazil, police said yesterday. A police spokeswoman said Father Emilson Soares Correa is under investigation for committing the alleged abuse in Niteroi, a city across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro. She declined to be identified in accordance with department policy. The Archdiocese of Niteroi said on its website it was conducting its own investigation and that Correa has been temporarily suspended from his priestly duties. The spokeswoman said one of the girls, now a 19-year-old woman, claims the abuse started when she was 13. She told police Correa gave her “expensive gifts and paid for repairs that had to be done in her home,” the spokeswoman said. She said that last year the woman and a 15-year-old friend videotaped a man they said was the priest having
sexual intercourse with them. The woman’s father gave her the camera to film an encounter and use the tape as evidence, she added. Part of the video aired by the Globo TV network showed a man identified as the priest naked from the waist up, kissing and embracing the woman and her friend. The priest’s attorney, Roberto Vitagliano, told Globo TV that the woman’s father tried to use the tape to “blackmail Correa but when he refused to pay money for it he took it to the police.” The spokeswoman said the father is being investigated for alleged extortion. Correa is also being investigated for allegedly sexually fondling the woman’s now 10-year-old sister three years ago. “When questioned, he acknowledged he maintained consensual sexual relations with the woman and her 15year-old friend, but denied he committed any kind of abuse with the 10-year-old girl,” the spokeswoman said.
BRITAIN AGREES NO VAT FOR TCI The UK Government has agreed that VAT will not be implemented in the TCI at this time. The TCI Government and opposition have clearly stated their opposition to the implementation of VAT. It remains Her Majesty’s Government’s (HMG) view that VAT would provide a more stable, fairer and broader based system of revenue for TCI than that which is currently in place. However, Premier, Dr. Rufus Ewing, told the media that the decision is a victory for the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
She said Brazil has no choice but to become more competitive and to reduce the costs of doing business and will proceed with such actions as opening up the country’s crowded ports to private initiative despite opposition from labor unions. “Brazil has an unnecessary cost with its ports. We have to open up to competition because the ports are part of the so-called Brazil Cost,” she said at a meeting of government
officials and some of the country’s top business leaders in Brasilia. “Our country has to change, and change in the direction of greater competitiveness,” she said. Brazil’s oil industry will take a big step towards tapping the large potential of its sub-salt-level offshore oil reserves with auctions scheduled for November, she said. Brazil’s sub-salt offshore fields are believed to contain
as much as 100 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply all U.S. needs for 14 years. Output from the fields is expected to continue to expand to more than 6 million barrels a day by 2020, making Brazil one of the world’s major oil producers. The world economy should improve this year and help Brazil grow, Rousseff said, pointing to China’s “soft landing” as a reason for diminished fears of crisis in many countries. Brazil’s economy only
grew by about 1 percent last year, despite a barrage of tax breaks and other government stimulus measures. Most economists expect a rebound in the second half of this year as the effects of those incentives start to kick in. Rousseff vowed continued commitment to the main pillars of the economic strategy that has given Brazil financial stability for over a decade: inflation targeting, fiscal discipline and a flexible exchange rate.
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Pressure mounts on T&T Prime Minister to dismiss National Security Minister PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - CMC – Pressure mounted on Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar yesterday to dismiss her National Security Minister Austin “Jack” Warner over the existence of “an illegal Flying Squad” operating in Trinidad and Tobago. Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, in a radio broadcast, disputed statements by Prime Minister Persad Bissessar that she did not know of the existence of the squad questioning whether as chairman of the National Security Council (NSC) she wanted the country to believe that the “illegal Flying Squad” was operating without the knowledge of law enforcement authorities. “Is she really telling us that as head of the Security Council she knew nothing about it,” Maharaj asked in his statement, adding “this is a blatant untruth”. On her return from attending the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Inter-Sessional summit in Haiti last week, Prime Minister Bissessar said she had absolutely no knowledge of the existence of the squad within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service adding the matter had also never been discussed at the NSC which she chairs. Persad Bissessar said that there have been headlines “suggesting that some persons may have erroneously perceived a sanctioning of the infamous Flying Squad of the past. “I have already directed the Minister of National Security to prepare a full report on this matter for the attention of the National Security Council and myself as Chairman of the Council. “What I can categorically state at this time is this matter of any ‘New” Flying Squad was never discussed with me or brought to the National Security Council,” she said, adding “any such initiative as a revival or creation of any such police unit must be reviewed by the NSC and
must be fully considered and endorsed by the Commissioner of Police who is himself a member of the Council”. Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley had called on her to shed light on whether or not her administration had given the backing to the establishment of the unit amid allegations by former Flying Squad member, retired police inspector Mervyn Cordner, that he had been approached by National Security Minister Austin “Jack” Warner to reestablish the unit. Warner has consistently denied Cordner’s claim. The director of the National Security Operations Centre (NSOC) Garvin Heerah, whom Cordner claim was his contact person, is also distancing himself from the matter. Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams has also denied knowledge of the unit. But speaking at a public meeting on Tuesday night, Rowley called on Prime Minister Persad Bissessar to
Kamla Persad Bissessar and Austin “Jack” Warner dismiss Warner, warning of plans to mobilise public support to get “rid of him. “It is a very worrying situation where the prime minister is afraid to fire the minister because the prime minister fears the minister will fire the prime minister,” Rowley said, adding that “when you cannot trust the words of the prime minister it is time to go to the polls and elect a government you can trust”. Maharaj too felt that the coalition People’s Partnership government “needs to get a fresh mandate” since it has lost “the moral authority to government Trinidad and Tobago”. The former attorney
general said had Prime Minister Persad Bissessar truly wanted a report on the issue she could have received it “within hours” and not have to wait “days” given the fact that information about the squad had been in the public domain since July 2012. “If the prime minister did not know about the illegal flying squad…she had the powers to get information within hours,” Maharaj said, adding, “the silence of the prime minister would lead any reasonable person to conclude that she did know”. He said the statement by Prime Minister Persad Bissessar that she had ordered a report from Warner
was nothing more “than to buy time and to come up with a public relations plan. “This is a cover up. This is Kamlagate,” Maharaj said making reference to the “Watergate” incident in the United States that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Maharaj, who made it clear that he has no intention of seeking political power here, recalled that on assuming office in May 2010, the coalition government had gone about disbanding the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) claiming its establishment by the then Patrick Manning government (Continued on page 21)
National Security Minister says crime severely affecting Jamaica economy WASHINGTON - CMC – Jamaica’s Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, says crime has severely affected his country’s economic growth. Delivering the third lecture in the “Jamaica 50 lecture” series under the theme, “National Security in Jamaica since Independence” at the Silver Spring Civic Center, Bunting said crime has affected Jamaica’s competiveness, “as we have been falling in terms of the world economic forum competitiveness index, and it affects investor confidence”. He said as a result of economic constraints, there have not been sufficient funds to spend on social services and to combat crime. The Jamaica government has also indicated that criminals have used globalization and technological advances to engage in criminal activities. “We are a transitioning society; and, in many ways, we look at the first world to be our examples and
Peter Bunting benchmark in terms of human rights,” Bunting said, noting that the Jamaica police were under pressure to keep crime under control. But at the same time he noted “we should bear in mind that we are policing in a completely different environment than in the first world”. Bunting said that, over the last few years, Jamaica has made major strides in reducing the flow of drugs in the island and that in 2001, an estimated 21 per cent of cocaine that ended up in the US market came through the Caribbean. A year later the figure was
reduced to nearly five per cent with Jamaica only accounting for about 1.5 per cent, Bunting said, noting that the growth of gangs and organized criminal organizations have resulted from many decades of being a major transit country. Bunting said one of his goals is to reduce crime to first world levels by 2017, from 40 in 100,000 to 12 in 100,000. “If this is to be attained, we have to do things radically, we can’t get there incrementally,” he said, adding that the Portia Simpson Miller administration plans to increase the number of police and military personnel by 5,000 over the next four to five years and to add 500 new motor vehicles in the system during the same period. The lecture series, the brain-child of Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Stephen Vasciannie, was attended by the Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, and Director Public Prosecution, Paul Llewellyn, the government statement said.
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Pastor claims Latin American assassins operating in Trinidad and Tobago P O R T- O F - S PA I N , Trinidad - CMC – A pastor with the Seventh Day Adventist Church is claiming that Latin American assassins are operating in Trinidad and Tobago and called for an all out war on crime. “We have Latin American assassins in this country. We have Colombians in this society, hired by the godfathers who have the art of slicing heads and legs, training secondary school students to do the same thing in this society,” Pastor Clive Dottin said at the funeral for police sergeant Hayden Manwaring, who was shot and killed by bandits last week. Dottin said that local criminals were being governed by international crime syndicates which were now teaching secondary school students how to kill and steal. “Let me tell you, the criminals, the local mafia and their international bosses, some have managed to compromise our security and are directing murders in the country,” Dottin said, adding that Manwaring was fighting against this matter when he was shot and killed. “This officer did not go
out of his way to harass criminals and to be a bully. He did not operate that way at all. He operated with class and dignity so that the very ones he had a warrant to arrest were the very ones he tried to reform. “Officer Manwaring put country before self. That is why he had this outstanding influence on us and his death must not go in vain,” Dottin said, warning “’we are not going to win the battle against crime without integrity. “While people argue about whether we should have a buying squad, a dying squad and a flying squad, Hayden was a member of the patriotic squad. “If Hayden’s death has not touched you individuals who bleed with corruption, nothing else will touch you. Here is a man who could have chosen to go for a bulletproof vest, here is a man who could have chosen to wait for backup forces but he felt lives were in danger and he sacrificed his life.” Acting Commissioner of Police, Stephen Williams, who spoke at the funeral in San Fernando, south of here on Tuesday, said that public assistance is needed in order
to deal with the upsurge of criminal activities here. So far 76 people have been murdered here this year and Williams acknowledged that crime was too much for police to combat alone. “As the violence continues to increase in the month of February, everyone is pointing fingers at the Police Service to make that difference. “Trinidad and Tobago, all the citizens in this land, need to recognise that we cannot sit back and ask the Police Service to make the difference. All of us must also seek out to make a difference as our country is hurting and everyone of us will feel the hurt and pain as young men continue to lose focus and appreciation for their brothers and sisters in the land.” Meanwhile, Independent Senator Helen Drayton has said she supports the establishment of a “Flying Squad” within the Police Service to help deal with the crime situation. Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Drayton added her voice to the ongoing controversy surrounding reports that the “Flying Squad” which had been
Pressure mounts on... From page 20 was illegal. He said that the government since coming to office had been engaged in several controversial matters that had enraged the population and the existence of the “illegal Flying Squad” was the latest. “There is anger and resentment by the population to tell the public the truth,”
he said, adding “clearly she believes the public can be easily fooled”. Both Rowley and Maharaj likened the Flying Squad to the dreaded Mongoose Gang in Grenada and the Tonton Macoute in Haiti and called on the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) to conduct independent investigations
into the matter. PSC director Gillian Lucky said that a probe had already started to determine whether there had been breaches of the police regulations. She said that her findings would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard and did not dismiss suggestions that Prime Minister Persad Bissessar could also be quizzed.
utilised by law enforcement agencies in the 1980’s, had been secretly revived by the coalition People’s Partnership government. Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has distanced herself from the allegation and has called on National Security Minister Austin “Jack” Warner to submit a report on the matter. Both Warner and Williams have also denied the existence of the Flying Squad. “I do not hesitate to say that I would be very comfortable as a citizen to know that there is a police Flying Squad given the terrain of our country and the number of bodies that are turning up daily,” Drayton told legislators, adding that “a properly established Flying Squad, competently staffed and accounted for is probably a very good strategy in the fight against crime”. But she asked, “How do citizens deal mentally and emotionally with the stench that surrounds mysterious
flying apparatus? Until there is clarification and hopefully there would be credible clarification, it remains a phantom anti-crime machinery that no one in authority knows about. “Yet the police and authorities keep on asking the public to assist them with crime, asking the public to have confidence in the police and the security forces and that is what we are confronted with.” She said there were serious issues in the public domain surrounding the integrity of national security governance and it is this more than anything else that worries citizens, “since we are relying on the hierarchy of National Security to ensure performance at the operational level and to ensure that such performance is in keeping with the principles of democracy” Drayton also noted that the gardener of the Minister of National Security had been murdered and the population told that the criminals
Pastor Clive Dottin believed he was an informant. “Whether that was the case or not..., at the very same time those remarks were made and in the wake of the murder of Sergeant (Manwaring, the police chief was pleading with the public to give them information on crime. “Now if people feel they will be murdered if they inform the police of what they see and what they hear, then why should they (give information)? “How could they have confidence that they would be protected? Citizens’ confidence and willingness to do their duty in the fight against crime is directly linked with the performance and the perception of performance of the police and security forces,” Drayton added.
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Thursday February 28, 2013
Rosa Parks statue unveiled at Capitol
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio applaud at the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, yesterday on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and congressional leaders unveiled a full-length statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol yesterday, paying tribute to a figure
whose name became synonymous with courage in the face of injustice. Parks becomes the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. A bust
of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, sits in the Capitol Visitors Center. Obama said that with the installation of the statue, Parks, who died in 2005, has
taken her rightful place among those who have shaped the course of U.S. history. He said her presence in Capitol would serve to “remind us no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires.” Obama and House Speaker John Boehner jointly led the unveiling, standing with the statue between them as they grasped and pulled in opposite directions on the braided cord that held the covering. Congressional leaders in the House and Senate joined Parks’ niece in tugging on the cord. “We do well by placing a statue of her here,” Obama said, “but we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction.” The statue portrays Parks seated, wearing a hat and clutching her trademark purse — “a permanent reminder of the cause she embodied,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The several hundred lawmakers, family and congressional staff who gathered for the ceremony in the vaulted hall rose to their feet and whooped as Boehner opened the ceremony. “Here in the hall, she casts an unlikely silhouette — unassuming in a lineup of proud stares, challenging all
of us once more to look up and to draw strength from stillness,” said Boehner, ROhio. Parks is famous for her 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Alabama to a white man, but there’s plenty about the rest of her experiences that she deliberately withheld from her family. While Parks and her husband, Raymond, were childless, her brother, the late Sylvester McCauley, had 13 children. They decided Parks’ nieces and nephews didn’t need to know the horrible details surrounding her civil rights activism, said Rhea McCauley, Parks’ niece. “They didn’t talk about the lynchings and the Jim Crow laws,” said McCauley, 61, of Orlando, Fla. “They didn’t talk about that stuff to us kids. Everyone wanted to forget about it and sweep it under the rug.” He said more than 50 of Parks’ relatives traveled to Washington for the ceremony. In a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala. She was arrested, touching off a bus boycott that stretched over a year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Parks had “moved the world when
she refused to move her seat.” Jeanne Theoharis, author of the new biography “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” said Parks was very much a full-fledged civil rights activist, yet her contributions have not been treated like those of other movement leaders, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “Rosa Parks is typically honored as a woman of courage, but that honor focuses on the one act she made on the bus on Dec. 5, 1955,” said Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College-City University of New York. “That courage, that night was the product of decades of political work before that and continued ... decades after” in Detroit, she said. Parks died Oct. 24, 2005, at age 92. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor on Feb. 4, which would have been her 100th birthday. Parks was raised by her mother and grandparents who taught her that part of being respected was to demand respect, said Theoharis, who spent six years researching and writing the Parks biography. She was an educated woman who recalled seeing her grandfather sitting on the porch steps with a gun during the height of white violence (Continued on page 25)
Sudan cuts off hand, foot of man convicted of robbery - activists (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities cut off a hand and foot of a man convicted of armed robbery, rights groups said yesterday, the first such punishment under Islamic law in Sudan for almost 30 years. It followed a pledge by President Omar Hassan alBashir to implement a “100 percent” Islamic constitution as a result of the secession in 2011 of the mainly nonMuslim south of Sudan. Sharia (Islamic law) was first introduced in the vast northeast African country in 1983 and Bashir began to expand its application after he took power in a 1989 Islamist coup. Floggings are common for drinking alcohol but amputations of the right hand and left feet - among the most draconian punishments allowed in Sudan - had not been meted out since the mid1980s, according to local rights activists. But on February 14, doctors at al-Ribat police hospital in Khartoum
amputated the right hand and left foot of 30-year old Adam al-Muthna under a court order, Human Rights Watch and three other groups said in a statement, citing reliable sources. “Cross amputation is a form of state-sponsored torture,” said Vincent Iacopino, senior medical adviser at U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, which issued the statement with New York-based HRW as well as British rights groups REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies. The al-Sudani daily said a state court had convicted Muthna of firing on a car with an assault rifle in the Sharaf area in March 2006 to force it to stop and then stole 1,000 Sudanese pounds (150 pounds) from its passengers. It said Sudan’s constitutional court upheld the conviction. Officials at the justice ministry, the judiciary headquarters in Khartoum and the constitutional court
all declined to comment on the amputation. Kamal al-Jazouli, a Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist, said the government apparently wanted to intimidate people with the amputation at a time of dissent over galloping inflation and corruption. “They want to instil fear in people. How can you punish a thief in such a draconian way in a poor country like Sudan?” A group of doctors organised in the opposition group “Change Now” also denounced the amputation. “Hospitals and medical institutions are there to treat people and not to execute such rulings,” it said in a statement. Last year, Sudanese courts sentenced two women for adultery to stoning, another sentence allowed under sharia. Both women were later freed after appeal courts overturned the rulings, according to Fahima Hashim, a women’s rights activist.
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Iran upbeat on nuclear talks, West still wary ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran was upbeat yesterday after talks with world powers about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again, but Western officials said it had yet to take concrete steps to ease their fears of a secret weapons program. The United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany offered to ease sanctions slightly in return for Iran curbing its most sensitive work, but had made clear they expected no breakthrough in the talks in Kazakhstan, the first in eight months. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the talks had been “useful” and that a serious engagement by Iran could lead to a comprehensive deal in a decade-old dispute that has threatened to trigger a new Middle East war. Iran’s foreign minister said in Vienna he was “very confident” a deal could be reached and its chief negotiator said he believed the Almaty meeting could be a “turning point”. The two sides agreed to hold expert-level talks in
Istanbul on March 18 to discuss the offer, and return to Almaty for political discussions on April 5-6, when Western diplomats made clear they wanted to see substantive movement by Iran. “Iran knows what it needs to do, the president has made clear his determination to implement his policy that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Kerry said in Paris. A senior U.S. official in Almaty added: “What we care about at the end is concrete results.” Israel, assumed to be the Middle East’s only nucleararmed power, was watching the talks closely. It has strongly hinted it might attack Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to ensure that it cannot build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such aim. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said economic sanctions were failing and urged the international community to threaten Iran with military action. Western officials said the
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili gestures during talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in Almaty yesterday. REUTERS/ Shamil Zhumatov offer presented by the six powers included an easing of a ban on trade in gold and other precious metals, and a relaxation of an import embargo on Iranian petrochemical products. They gave no further
details. In exchange, a senior U.S. official said, Iran would among other things have to suspend uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent at its Fordow underground facility and
“constrain the ability to quickly resume operations there”. This appeared to be a softening of a previous demand that Iran ship out its entire stockpile of highergrade enriched uranium, which it says it needs to produce medical isotopes. Iran says it has a sovereign right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and wants to fuel nuclear power plants so that it can export more oil. But 20-percent purity is far higher than that needed for nuclear power, and rings alarm bells abroad because it is only a short technical step away from weapons-grade. Iran’s growing stockpile of 20-percent-enriched uranium is already more than half-way to a “red line” that Israel has made clear it would consider sufficient for a bomb. The U.S. official said the latest proposal would “significantly restrict the accumulation of near-20percent enriched uranium in Iran, while enabling the Iranians to produce sufficient fuel” for their Tehran medical
reactor. Iran had previously indicated that 20-percent enrichment was up for negotiation if it received the fuel from abroad instead. Chief negotiator Saeed Jalili suggested Iran could discuss the issue, although he appeared to rule out shutting down Fordow. He said the powers had not made that specific demand. Western officials were aware that the closeness of Iran’s presidential election in June is raising political tensions in Tehran and made rapid progress unlikely. One diplomat in Almaty said the Iranians appeared to be suggesting at the negotiations that they were opening new avenues, but that it was not clear if this was really the case. “Everyone is saying Iran was more positive and portrayed the talks as a win,” said Iran expert Dina Esfandiary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “I reckon the reason for that is that they are saving face internally while buying time with the West until after the elections.”
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Obama, top lawmakers to meet Friday on budget cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House conceded yesterday that efforts to avoid automatic budget cuts are unlikely to succeed before they kick in and is initiating new talks with congressional leaders to confront seemingly intractable tax-and-spend issues. President Barack Obama will meet at the White House tomorrow with House and Senate leaders of both parties several hours after the deadline for averting the cuts, known in Washington-speak as a “sequester,” has passed. This would put the White House and Congress essentially in the position of looking past the cuts to the next looming fiscal showdown: A March 27 deadline to continue government operations or force a government shutdown. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House talks, arranged Tuesday, are designed to be a “constructive discussion” about how to keep the cuts from having harmful consequences. Obama has been calling for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to achieve deficit reduction goals. The White House has warned that the $85 billion in cuts could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms and meat inspections. The cuts would slash domestic and defense spending, leading to forced unpaid days off for hundreds of thousands of government workers. The impact won’t be immediate. Federal workers would be notified next week that they will have to take up to a day every week off without pay, but the
furloughs won’t start for a month due to notification requirements. That will give negotiators some breathing room to keep working on a deal. The Senate planned to vote on a Democratic stop gap measure today that would forestall the automatic cuts through the end of the year. It would replace them with longer-term cuts to the Pentagon and cash payments to farmers, and by installing a minimum 30 percent tax rate on income exceeding $1 million. But Republicans oppose tax increases and will likely block the measure. Carney argued that such opposition would mean the cuts, known as a sequester in budget terms, would be the responsibility of Republicans. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday’s session will focus on ways to reduce government spending, but he also said he will not back down on his opposition to any new revenues. McConnell, along with House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, will attend meeting at the White House. “We can either secure those reductions more intelligently, or we can do it the president’s way with across-the board cuts. But one thing Americans simply will not accept is another tax increase to replace spending reductions we already agreed to,” said McConnell, R-Ky. Carney said Obama also spoke briefly with congressional leaders Wednesday ahead of a ceremony in the Capitol to
unveil a statue of civil rights heroine Rosa Parks. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner jointly led the unveiling, standing with the statue between them as they grasped and pulled in opposite directions on the braided cord that held the covering. With the cuts now imminent, the administration continued its campaign Wednesday to cast them in dire terms. Education Secretary Arne Duncan appeared in the White House briefing room to detail what he described as bad choices in reducing assistance to schools and early childhood programs. “The only choice I can make would be to hurt fewer poor children and help more special needs kids, or do the opposite,” Duncan said. “It’s a no-win proposition.” He said the first to feel the pinch will be school districts in and around military bases and Native American reservations, entities which receive direct federal aid to make up for lower local property taxes. Duncan’s remarks came a day after the Department of Homeland Security announced that the forced cuts had prompted the federal immigration enforcement agency to start releasing illegal immigrants being held in immigrant jails across the country. Carney on Wednesday said the decision was made by career immigration and customs enforcement officials, without input from the White House. Friday’s meeting reflects a move to jumpstart negotiations after weeks of inaction on cuts that both parties have said could inflict
major damage to government programs, the military and the economy at large. No serious talks to avert the cuts have been under way, and Friday’s meeting will be the first faceto-face discussion between Obama and Republican leaders this year. Republicans were considering offering a measure that would give Obama authority to propose a rewrite to the 2013 budget to redistribute the cuts. Obama would be unable to cut defense by more than the $43 billion reduction that the Pentagon currently faces, and would also be unable to raise taxes to undo the cuts. The GOP plan would allow the Obama proposal to go into effect unless Congress passed a resolution to overturn them. The idea is that money could be transferred from
Barack Obama
lower-priority accounts to accounts funding air traffic control or meat inspection. But the White House says that such moves would only offer slight relief. At the same time, however, it could take pressure off of Congress to address the sequester. In the House, where
Republicans in the last Congress passed legislation to replace the cuts, Boehner has said it’s now up to Obama and the Senate to figure a way out. The Senate never took up the House-passed bills, which expired when the new Congress was seated in January.
America must not “dictate” to world, new defense chief says WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary yesterday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to “dictate” to the world. Addressing Pentagon employees shortly after a small, closed-door swearingin ceremony, Hagel spoke optimistically, if vaguely, about global challenges ahead and the importance of American leadership abroad. “We can’t dictate to the world. But we must engage the world. We must lead with our allies,” Hagel said in what appeared to be unscripted remarks. “No nation, as great as America is, can do any of this alone.” He also plainly acknowledged the prospect of looming automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester, saying flatly: “That’s a reality. We need to figure this out. You are doing that.” “We need to deal with this reality,” he added, as hopes dim in Washington that Congress might act in time to forestall $46 billion in Pentagon cuts, due to kick in on March 1. Hagel, a former two-term Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, broke from his party during the administration of George W. Bush to become a fierce critic of the Iraq war. Many Republicans opposed to Hagel’s nomination scorned him over
Chuck Hagel Iraq and raised questions about whether he was sufficiently supportive of Israel, tough enough on Iran or truly committed to maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent. The 58-41 Senate vote to confirm him late on Tuesday was the closest vote ever to approve a defense secretary, with only four Republicans supporting him. Hagel did not acknowledge any Republican criticisms or reveal any personal concerns about working with Congress during his remarks on Wednesday. But he did articulate his views about the need for caution when America flexes its muscle abroad. “We have great power and how we apply our power is particularly important,” Hagel said. “That engagement in the world should be done wisely. And the resources that we employ on behalf of our country and our allies should always be applied wisely.” Hagel’s views of war and
the limits of American military power were shaped in part by his experiences in Vietnam, where he fought as an infantryman alongside his brother and was awarded two Purple Hearts, the medal given to troops wounded in battle. Hagel still carries the shrapnel from one of his injuries and he is the first Vietnam veteran to lead the Pentagon. Introducing Hagel in the Pentagon auditorium, an Army infantryman with two tours in Afghanistan said Hagel “knows the very real cost of war” and was guided by principals to use force only when necessary. Among his first tasks, Hagel will start weighing in on crucial decisions about the Afghan war, notably the size and scope of the American force that President Barack Obama will leave behind in the country once NATO declares its combat mission over at the end of 2014. Leaving fewer troops than U.S. commanders recommend could create tension with the military, and become a lightening-rod issue with Republicans. Hagel’s predecessor, former defense secretary Leon Panetta, discussed with NATO allies in Brussels last week keeping a NATO force of between 8,000 and 12,000 troops. A senior NATO official said last month that the United States expects other NATO allies to contribute between a third and half the number of troops Washington provides.
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US to bolster support for Syria rebels, Kerry says
John Kerry PARIS (AP) — The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria’s rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday. Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Assad, and Kerry’s comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. “We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve,” Kerry said. “We need to
help them to deliver basic services and to protect the legitimate institutions of the state.” The Obama administration is concerned about military equipment falling into the hands of radical Islamists who have become a significant factor in the Syrian conflict and could then use that materiel for terrorist attacks or strikes on Israel. But they’re equally fearful that Syrians tired of constant instability will lose faith in an opposition that can do little to improve their daily lives. Assad “needs to know that he can’t shoot his way out of this, and we need to convince him of that, and I think the opposition needs more help in order to do that,” Kerry said. A decision whether to vastly increase the size and scope of assistance to Assad’s foes is expected by Thursday when Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome that leaders of the opposition Syrian National Coalition have been persuaded to attend, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the shift in strategy has not yet been finalized and still needs to be coordinated with European nations, notably
Rosa Parks statue... From page 22 against blacks in post-World War I Alabama. After she married Raymond Parks, she joined him in his work in trying to help nine young black men, ages 12 to 19, who were accused of raping two white women in 1931. The nine were later convicted by an all-white jury in Scottsboro, Ala., part of a long legal odyssey for the socalled Scottsboro Boys. In the 1940s, Parks joined the NAACP and was elected secretary of its Montgomery, Ala., branch, working with civil rights activist Edgar Nixon to fight barriers to voting for blacks and investigate sexual violence against women, Theoharis said. Just five months before refusing to give up her seat, Parks attended Highlander Folk School, which trained community organizers on issues of poverty but had begun turning its attention to civil rights. After the bus boycott, Parks and her husband lost their jobs and were
threatened. They left for Detroit, where Parks was an activist against the war in Vietnam and worked on poverty, housing and racial justice issues, Theoharis said. Theoharis said that while she considers the 9foot-statue of Parks in the Capitol an “incredible honor” for Parks, “I worry about putting this history in the past when the actual Rosa Parks was working on and calling on us to continue to work on racial injustice.” Parks has been honored previously in Washington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, both during the Clinton administration. But McCauley said the Statuary Hall honor is different. “The medal you could take it, put it on a mantel,” McCauley said. “But her being in the hall itself is permanent and children will be able to tour the (Capitol) and look up and see my aunt’s face.”
Britain. France, Syria’s former colonial ruler, has been among the strongest supporters of the rebels, and French President Francois Hollande was the first Western leader to recognize their leadership. “We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Basher al-Assad has to quit,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Officials in Washington
said the United States was leaning toward providing tens of millions of dollars more in non-lethal assistance to the opposition, including vetted members of the Free Syrian Army who had not been receiving direct U.S. assistance. So far, assistance has been limited to funding for communications and other logistical equipment, a formalized liaison office and an invitation to opposition
coalition leader Mouaz alKhatib to visit the United States in the coming weeks. It could be expanded to include pre-packaged meals and medical supplies. The officials stressed, however, that the administration did not envision American military training for the rebels nor U.S. provision of combat items such as body armor that the British are advocating. Syria’s rebels get most of
their arsenal from capturing government bases, but they also are believed to receive help from Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Kerry, who spent summers in France as a child and speaks the language fluently, chatted in French with Hollande and opened his public remarks in the language. “Now I have to speak in English or they won’t let me go back home,” he said.
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Thursday February 28, 2013
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Guides are subjected to change without notice
Thursday February 28, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Although you may have a lot going on with other people today, make time to retreat from all the noise so you can contemplate the beautiful mysteries of the universe. Sit back and imagine the most idyllic setting for your life, and then put yourself right in the middle of this fantasy. TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) You may be feeling unsure of your role at work today; even if you recently believed everything was rock solid. It is as if someone took away your map and guiding compass when you weren’t looking. GEMINI (May 21–June 20) If you have sudden urges now to help others at work, remember that you’re not the only one who has something special to offer. Although you can see things from your point of view, it’s useful to expand your vision and move beyond your narrow perspective. CANCER (June 21–July 22) You need to rise above your feelings today, even if you’re being pulled into the depths of your subconscious. Although you may want to uncover the source of your current confusion, you can be distracted along the way. LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) You may grow anxious if you believe that someone is trying to control you in some way. But your fear might be based on the realization that you don’t have all the answers today. Instead of acting with false bravado or using smooth words to impress others, be honest and show your vulnerability. VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) You might experience disillusionment if you set an acquaintance or friend up on a pedestal. Although you may have been lost in admiration, negative personality traits cannot be swept under the rug forever. Denial only prolongs the inevitable now.
LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Perhaps you should be concerned about your own job and the pressing issues at work, but your mind is on helping everyone else now. You are tempted to go out of your way today to rescue those less fortunate than you. SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) You are imagining various ways to enjoy yourself today with the sweet VenusNeptune conjunction playing out in your 5th House of Fun and Games. You are either in love or dreaming about it. Both ways, your daydreams feel so close you may not be able to tell if they’re fantasies or real events. SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) A complex emotional issue at home probably isn’t as complicated as it currently seems. It’s just that you are even more of a visionary now than usual, but your perspective is missing the depth and detail that’s needed to make an intelligent decision. CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) L i g h t h e a r t e d conversations with close friends might give rise to misunderstandings today, unless you pay careful attention to everything that is said — both by you and them. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) You feel extra confident today as you set new goals at work, giving you a chance to demonstrate your real worth to yourself and others. Although social interactions can be a real ego-booster, they could also reflect your current lack of clarity. PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) You can use your sweet demeanor to help you get what you want today with the dreamy Venus-Neptune conjunction falling in your 1st House of Personality. You are being given an opportunity to lift your own spirits with your imagination, but you also have a chance to be a shining example to others now.
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Thursday February 28, 2013
LINDEN’S FINAL BASKETBALL TEAM TO SURFACE TODAY Linden’s final representative basketball team for the much-anticipated and long awaited clash against Georgetown Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will surface today after a meeting last night to choose the likely players. Secretary at the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), Joseph Chapman told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that the association will be meeting to further reduce the squad it
had shortlisted last week to the team that will represent them. Georgetown has already named its team for one of the biggest local basketball clashes in quite some time; the game is an initiative of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) to jump off its 2013 Season, which it hopes will be major. The likely players that will compete for Linden will include Steve Neils Jr., Shane
Marvin Hartman
Marlon Pollydore
Steve Neils Jnr
Shane Webster
Webster, Neil Marks, Marvin Hartman, Orin Rose, Chris Williams, Marlon Pollydore, Allister Webster, Harold Adams, Quincy Jones, Marl Louis, Keon Cameron and Orlando Glasgow. Neils captained the last national senior basketball team that played in Bahamas at the Caribbean Basketball C o n f e d e r a t i o n Championships and has Hartman, Marks and Quincy
Jones as the only other senior players on the team. Like Georgetown, the Linden team has a youthful mix that should make the game a balanced and competitive clash. The initiative forms part of both new president’s, Michael Singh in the Garden City and Haslyn Graham in the Mining Town, vision to have the sport played at a high level in both towns.
BVA makes donation to Corentyne Comprehensive High School
Corentyne Comprehensive High School, female volleyball team captain collects the donation from the BVA President Gregory Rambarran The Berbice Volleyball Association last Friday presented a volleyball and net to the female volleyball team of the Corentyne Comprehensive High School of Port Mourant, Berbice. The donation was handed over by BVA President Gregory Rambarran to the captain of the team in the presence of the teachers, other students, BVA officials and well wishers. This was f o l l o w i n g their outstanding performance
and victory in the Mashramani Schools’ competition which was held earlier. Handing over the equipment, Rambarran said it was a promise the BVA had made to the school’s physical education teacher last month. He urged the female players to make good use of the materials. The players expressed their gratitude for the donation and promised to “keep the ball flying.”
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
Blairmont Cricket Club holds Annual General Meeting and Election
The new Blairmont Cricket Club executive with President Shabeer Baksh sitting centre. Businessman Shabeer Baksh was re-elected once again unopposed to serve as president for another year when the Blairmont Cricket Club (BCC) club held their Annual General Meeting at the Club’s Blairmont West Bank Berbice headquarters. Apart from Baksh retaining his position a number of changes were made to the executive body. Baksh who is also an executive member of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) will be assisted by Angad Ganesh as first vice-president and Nanrandranauth Boodram as the second vice-president. The secretary is Ricardo Bachan, while Shizad Ali will occupy the treasurer’s position with Kevon Jawahir serving as the assistant secretary /treasurer. The elected executive will meet today 28th February 2013 to appoint three other executives and form committees to mandate the club’s business. The Committees expected to be formed are Discipline Committee, Selection, Finance and a Special Event
Committee. The club, which was once very active, was resuscitated on 26 May 2010 and has since been moving from strength to strength. Since its resuscitation the club’s administration has been very active with its many programmes on and off the field. In summarizing, Baksh stated that 2012 has been another progressive year for the club. He mentioned that although cricket has been unstable in Guyana during the year the club has stayed focused on its aims and objectives to create opportunities for youngsters and prepare them for elevation to higher heights. During the year also there were several coaching sessions, food sales, cricket summer academy and outreach charity programmes which helped to boost and rebuild the image of the club. The club participated in all Cricket competitions run under the auspices of the Berbice Cricket Board, had representatives in the Berbice teams in all the age groups including Under-15, Under-
17, Under-19 and Under-21 levels. Presently the club is awaiting its participation in all respective junior level quarterfinals which are on hold because of the rainy weather in Berbice. The BCCC has won the Berbice Cricket Board Under-21 tournament, the Western Berbice Association Under-23 tournament, while the first division team qualified for the playoffs in the Carib Beer 20/ 20 competition topping their zone. In addition the first division team won three of its four matches in the Telenec 50 overs 2012 competition which is ongoing. The club wishes to express special thanks to Banks DIH, Universal DVD and Solutions, Berbice Cricket Board, Sterling Products, Baksh Travel Service, Basil and Son’s CD and DVD Store and Chowramottoo Construction and the various media houses for the support and cooperation given during the year. The executives will be striving for added success in 2013.
From page 33 this time around including newly elected president of the GSA David Fernandes. For this format, players are ranked by their skills level and the stronger players are given negative points or handicaps, while the relatively weaker players have point advantages for the 15point games in the two bestof-three format. On night one, eleven matches were played and some of the country’s top players such as Ashley DeGroot, Mary Fung-A-Fat and Benjamin Mekdeci secured wins in spite of their handicaps. Mekdeci overcame Lydia Fraser in straight games 16/14, 15/13 even though she possessed an 11-point head start. Two of Guyana’s player who competed at the Women’s world Squash Open last December, Ashley DeGroot and Mary Fung-A-
Fat stopped their respective opponents who both possessed +10 advantages. DeGroot (0) defeated Pablio Mundini 15/13, 15/8, while Fung-A-Fat (-2) the reigning Caribbean under 19 champion, dispatched Dwayne Yan (+10) 15/13, 5/15, 15/11. Lloyd Fung-A-Fat (+6) also made his way into the second round after eliminating Avinash Odit (+7) 15/13, 15/ 12, in an evenly matched, keenly contested encounter. GSA president Fernandes (+10), who was the 2010 runner up at this tournament, defeated Lee Fung-A-Fat (9/ 15, 15/12, 13/15). The tournament, which concluded this Sunday, continued yesterday with matches in the main draw as well as the plate round for the players who were unsuccessful in their first round encounters. Tuesday’s results: (-2) Mary Fung-A-Fat defeated (+10) Dwayne Yan
15/13, 5/15, 15/11 Jonathon Antczak(+6) defeated (+5) Mehdi Ramdhani 15/11, 15/9 Benjamin Mekdeci (0) defeated (+11) Lydia Fraser 16/14, 15/13 Joven Benn defeated (+8) Alysa Xavier (2/15, 16/14, 15/ 13) Nicholas Narain defeated (+12) Mahendra Khusial 16/ 14, 15/13 Ingram Edwards (+4) defeated by (+12) Kiev Chesney 15/13, 15/13 Antonio Joseph (+12) defeated (+6) Alec Mellville 11/15, 15/ 13, 13/15 Lloyd Fung-A-Fat (+6) defeated (+7) Avinash Odit 15/13, 15/12 Taylor Fernandes (+9) Hapoei Yang (+10) 15/13, 15/9 David Fernandes (+10) defeated (+8) Lee Fung-A-Fat (9/15, 15/12, 13/15) Ashley DeGroot (0) defeated (+7) Pablio Munduni 15/13, 15/8
GSA/Bounty Farm Mash...
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Dr Hunte gets LICA support WICB - St. John’s Antigua - Members of Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) have voted, in majority, to support sitting president Dr Julian Hunte, in next month’s general elections slated for March 27. This is according to LICA President Gregory Shillingford who said the decision was taken to support Dr Hunte following discussions at a recent general meeting of LICA. “The meeting’s position was to support Mr Hunte and his running mate because based on the discussions in the meeting they thought that he was the best fit and proper person to support for president. We didn’t look at any presentation from Mr Hunte; we discussed his leadership and the achievements of the board during his period as leader of the WICB and it is on that basis that the d e c i s i o n was made,” he said. “The Leeward Islands are aware, through the board’s strategic plans, what are the things being undertaken. We see the results of West Indies
Dr. Julian Hunte cricket in various forms and it was a majority decision,” Shillingford added. Dr Hunte will be challenged by Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron of Jamaica during the meeting to be held in Barbados, while Joel Gardner and Emmanuel Nanthan will contest the vice president spot. Shillingford, for the first time since last month’s LICA meeting, spoke on an attempt to move a vote of no confidence against him by Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association President Zorol
Barthley. “The reports come from third party sources and not from me, but I am the incumbent president and I need to, throughout the year, determine whether my members are desirous of having me serve another term. I have to determine what are my personal goals and commitment. I need to consult with my family and generally this requires thought. It’s not just an off-the-cuff thing,” he said. The former West Indies CEO did not deny or confirm reports that he will not be contesting LICA elections slated for later this year. “The motion did not get a seconder so there was no motion at all because the members indicated through their action what they thought of the motion and it was not supported and I respect their wishes,” Shillingford said. LICA consists of six members who will each send two representatives to the WICB meeting. Each representative is allowed to cast a single vote during the elections.
Thursday February 28, 2013
Banks Premium Beer/Unique Entertainment Futsal Classic...
New Era Russians, Hard Knocks to contest final - Top Class battles Silver Bullets for 3rd place
The football pundits had their hand on the pulse from the opening round of the tournament, where it was predicted that there was a possibility of a classic final. When the four remaining teams met last Thursday at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hardcourt where twenty eight other teams were disposed of, it was a night of excitement and determination. In the first semifinal encounter, the New Era Russians (NER) came up against Silver Bullets (SB). The game was evenlypaced until Travis ‘Chicken’ Waterton broke the deadlock with a powerful left foot just before halftime. When the game resumed a determined Silver Bullets stepped up the tempo and was rewarded with an equaliser. The game seemed to open until NER regained the lead and quieted the SB fans. A free kick caught NER custodian Odel Allicock off guard and the SB team celebrated their second goal and seemed prepared to carry the fight being the underdogs. As the time ticked the NER camp appeared a worry one, however, less than
a minute before the final whistle a scorching half volley by Travis Waterton made it 3-2 and duly completed his hat-trick. The second semifinal was the highly anticipated clash between Top Class (TC) and Hard Knocks (HK) 1. This game was filled with fireworks from the beginning. TC had been deemed the sleeping giant of the tournament, while Team HK was always a force to be reckoned with. HK capitalised on a lapse in the defence of TC and fired in the first goal amidst wild celebrations from the players and fans alike. The tenacity showed by team TC paid off when Shawn Easton fired in a powerful shot to level the game, making it a tie at half time. On the resumption, team HK looked a bit agitated and seemed to change their approach. They were eventually given some amount of comfort when they took the lead with about 3 minutes remaining in the game. By now their fans were ecstatic. TC took a time out to plan their counter attack and this paid off after a penalty was
awarded and converted, this forced the game into extra time. The results did not change at extra time and penalty kicks had to be the deciding factor. Regular penalty kicks were not enough for the sharpshooters of both teams and it took a miss by team TC and a score by team HK in sudden death shootout to decide the winner. The two finalists will battle for the top prize of $500, 000, while the loser walks away with $300,000. In the playoff for third place, Silverbullets and Top Class square off for the $150,000 prize. There will also be a prize for the tournament’s trophy MVP and a trophy and $50US for the most spectacular goal of the night. Banks DIH under the Premium Beer brand has lots of giveaways all night, while there will be other gate prizes for lucky fans. Other sponsors for the tournament are; Star Party Rentals, Bolo Variety Store, Toms Beverage, B Harry Hardware and Lumber Yard ,Barber Ronnie from NJ and Corporate Supplies.
Caroline Wozniacki loses to Qiang Wang in Malaysian Open BBC Sport - Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki suffered a shock defeat against China’s Qiang Wang in the opening round of the Malaysian Open. Wozniacki, now 10th in the world, but the top seed for this tournament, lost 6-2 6-7 (1-7) 1-6 in Kuala Lumpur. The 22-year-old Dane had a match point in the second set before losing the set on a tie-break. But qualifier Wang, 21, the world number 186, claimed the biggest win of her career to
move into the next round. “I tried my best but I just didn’t have the energy. I didn’t take my opportunities,” said Wozniacki, who was feeling unwell and had to call for a medical time out at the end of the second set. Wang, who had never beaten a top 10 player before, added: “I tried to make her run more to take advantage of her illness and it paid off. “This is the best win of my career and it will give me more confidence.”
Golfers to line up for Mings Products tourney Saturday Golfers will tee off this Saturday in the Annual Mings Products and Services Medal Play tournament on Saturday at the Lusignan Golf Club. Most of the country’s leading golfers will be vying for top honours in the oneday tournament with several attractive prizes up for grabs. Ardent golfer Colin Ming, Managing Director of Mings Products and Services will be in action in the much anticipated tournament looking to capture the coveted title.
Also expected to be featured in the lineup are reigning Guyana Open champion Avinash Persaud, last weekend’s winner Gavin Todd, Carlos Adams, Dave Mohamed, Mohanlall Dinnanauth, Imran Khan, Brian Hackett, William Walker, Maurice Solomon, Kishan Bacchus, Robert Hanoman, Clifford Reis, Chatterpaul Deo, Muntaz Haniff, Fazil Deo, Troy Cadogan, Mark Lashley, Jerome Khan, Munaff Arjune, Mike
Guyadin, Christine Sukhram, Patrick Prashad, Andre Cummings, Ayube Ali, Ronald Bulkan, Sookram Deosarran and Brian Glasford. Prizes will be awarded to the top three players with the best net scores as well as Nearest to the Pin and Best Gross. Secretary of the Lusignan golf Club Dave Mohamed said that the course is in top shape for this weekend’s action. Tee off is at 12:00 hours and players are asked to assemble by 11:45 hours.
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
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US-based Guyanese track star signs with Clemson Iana Amsterdam
(NJ.com/Star Ledger): The multi-talented United
States-based Guyanese track and field star, Iana
Safety is #1 Priority... From page 34 Suits and other safety equipment. D&C Promotions was also approached to assist with the purchasing of the proposed suits. This and other ventures, Bradford noted, is a collaborative effort with the organisers of the Lake Mainstay Regatta.
It was also disclosed that one of the races at this year’s event would be named in memory of the late Orin Belle who was a regular competitor. Efforts will be made to have races start on time on both days. To this end, competitors will be urged and encouraged to make a special effort to be on time.
Amsterdam of Newark Tech, one of the top long and triple jumpers in the nation, signed to attend the University of Clemson her Coach, Eddie Greene said. Amsterdam, who also visited Georgia and the University of Miami, is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation in both the triple jump (40-3) and the long jump (196), and is No. 2 in the U.S. in the 55 hurdles (7.94). Amsterdam also won the 55 dash at the Essex County Championships.
Thursday February 28, 2013
Milo/Petra Organisation Under-20 Schools Football Competition...
Tucville, Charlestown share lead heading into final phase of prelims After a short break for the Mashramani celebrations, play in the Milo / Petra Organisation Under-20 Schools Football Competition resumes over the weekend with the final round of matches in the round robin stage, at the Ministry of Education ground, Carifesta Avenue. On Saturday, Lodge Secondary take on Dolphin at 12:00 hrs and that will be followed by the clash between Guyana Educational Trust College and David Rose from 13:50 hrs, while the final game of the day pits St. Winefride against Carmel Secondary at 15:45 hrs. The following day’s action will see Brickdam Secondary against North Ruimveldt at 12:00 hrs followed by the encounter between New Campbellville and Richard
Action in this year’s Milo U-20 Schools Football Competition. Ishmael from 13:50 hrs with Central High taking on Sophia Special School at 15:45 hrs. According to a release from the Organisers, the top two teams from each group will proceed to the Round of 16 along with the four best third place finishers.
Eight teams will be eliminated after this weekend’s final round of action. Meanwhile, the points standing heading into the final weekend of action in the preliminary phase are as follows:
Windwards hunt first inning honours against Guyana The Windward Islands fought for first innings honours against Guyana to begin with on the opening day of the third round of matches in the WICB’s Regional 4-Day Championship. At Arnos Vale Complex: Windwards trail Guyana by 27 runs with six wickets standing. GUYANA sent into bat were 151 all out with Assad Fudadin 55, Rajindra Chandrika 25 and Leon Johnson 23 being the
principal scorers. Shane Shillingford 4-40, Liam Sebastien 3-21 and Delorn Johnson 3-43 led the Windwards bowling. In reply WINDWARD ISLANDS reached 124 for four; Keddy Lesporis 39 and Devon Smith 38 led the batting so far. Devendra Bishoo picked up 2-24 bowling for Guyana. Meanwhile, at 3W’s Oval: Barbados led CCC by 61 runs with all ten wickets intact.
COMBINED CAMPUSES & COLLEGES 109 all out (Kyle Corbin 26, Shacaya Thomas 21; Chris Jordan 7-43, Ashley Nurse 2-30). BARBADOS 170 without loss (Kirk Edwards 93 not out, Kraigg Brathwaite 55 not out). At Warner Park: TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 254 for eight (Adrian Barath 58, Yannick Ottley 58, Stephen Katwaroo 54 not out; Quinton Boatswain 4-75, Gavin Tonge 2-52) vs LEEWARD ISLANDS.
Thursday February 28, 2013
Kaieteur News
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Uitvlugt confident of GFF Super League overthrowing Slingerz FC First round nears end Their presence seemed to have sent created a stir through the sport of football, most notably on the West Demerara where they’re based, but for Uitvlugt United, Slingerz FC is just like any other club they would face. The two sides will collide in tomorrow’s semi-finals at the Den Amstel Ground when action in the Stag Beer West Side Mashramani Championship Cup continues. “Slingerz FC is just like every other club we’ve faced,” said Uitvlugt team coach Herrif-Roy Simon who has been at the helm of the team’s coaching staff since 2009. “We don’t have a fear for them just like we don’t for any other team in Guyana. I know we have a good team, a pretty young side at that and so we are heading into the game with much confidence,” Simon said. Simon said that his team led by Captain Jamaal Harvey, have lost a few players to Slingerz FC during the later formation, but nonetheless, his present crop of players will do just enough to get them into Sunday’s finals, where they will have a chance to contest for the $500,000 first prize. “Having lost Orvil and Seon Bobb along with Kester Alberts, it did hurt us a bit because those guys had played an important part for Uitvlugt over the years, but im impressed with this bunch of players I have right now. But I think it will be a great game on Friday and I hope plenty people come out to see the games as well,” said Simon. The Uitvlugt coach is also of the opinion that with the putting together of Slingerz FC, the “…level of football would be raised on the west side and more competitions will be played. I know the club
Jamaal Harvey Uitvlugt United Captain
Dwayne Jacobs Slingerz FC Captain
Gordon ‘Ultimate Warrior’ Braithwaite Slingerz FC Coach would want to be number one, but they have plenty of work to do to get there because we are here as well.” Meanwhile, though they did get past Beavers by a 1 – 0 margin, Slingerz FC coach Gordon ‘Ultimate Warrior’ Braithwaite was not so impressed by his team’s
showing but did how ever said that they are not here to lose. The tournament is organised by the newly formed club, with sponsorship from Stag Beer, Digicel and Hopkinson Mining, so losing is not an option. “We are going to win this tournament but I know its not going to be a walk in the park,” Braithwaite said to group of reporters after his side’s first game. Braithwaite is of the opinion that his well composed unit feels as though they are superior than the other teams on the West Demerara district and fears that a loss could crush their egos. “Our approach to the game is wrong at the moment. I want the guys to win games, not beat up teams. We are a young club though we have experienced players, as a unit, we haven’t been together long enough to say we are number one, we haven’t won anything as yet, which makes this tournament important to us,” said the Slingerz FC Coach. A former national stalwart in his own right, the coach known more popularly as the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ stated that, “When you have a team like this, clubs are going to come hard at you and well prepared as well, so im hoping my players can see things from this perspective.” Braithwaite also pointed out that, “…we will lose a few games here and there cause we’re just like any other club but all in all, I think in time to come we will achieve that number one club status, but like I said, it will not be easy and the sooner my players realize this, it will be better for me.” The other semi-final game brings together Den Amstel and Seawall United and action kicks off at 19:00 hours.
GSA/Bounty Farm Mash handicap tournament underway The Guyana Squash Association (GSA) in collaboration with Bounty Farm and its number one corporate sponsor Digicel, served off the Bounty Farm Mash Handicap Tournament Tuesday night at the Georgetown Club’s Squash Facility. The tournament, which is one of the largest squash tournaments each year, has attracted some 40 competitors (Continued on page 29)
Ashley DeGroot
Benjamin Mekdeci
- matches set for Friday and Sunday Five matches are left to complete the first round of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) 2012/2013 Super League which is interestingly poised. Current leaders Western Tigers are on 17 points with one game in hand and that is against defending champions Alpha United on 13 points (3rd in the standings) but with three games to play including the Western Tigers clash which is slated for this
Sunday at the GFC Ground from 17:00hrs. On Friday, the GFC Ground will host a double header from 18:00hrs when Pele (4th in the standings) will lock horns with Amelia’s Ward Panthers (7th in the standings). The feature game from 20:00hrs brings together Alpha United and the Ancient County’s BCC Rosignol United (8th in the standings). The remaining two first
round games are set for Wednesday next at the same venue when Uitvlugt Warriors comes up against BV Triumph United in the opening salvo, the main event pits Alpha United against Den Amstel Porknockers. In a recent game, Amelia’s Ward Panthers needled Den Amstel. Meanwhile, the second round will commence on Sunday March 10.
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Thursday February 28, 2013
GTC/PM Red, CCHS take male and female inter school Volleyball titles in Berbice
GTC/PM captain collects the winning trophy from BVA President Gregory Rambarran Guysuco Training Centre/ Port Mourant (GTC/PM) continued their winning ways when they won the male edition of the Berbice Volleyball Association (BVA) Mashramani volleyball competition played last Friday at the Berbice High School’s hard court in New Amsterdam. The competition targeted secondary schools in the New Amsterdam/Canje and Lower Corentyne education districts. The Training centre team known as the GTC/PM Red, which is made up of first year students of the learning institution, defeated Berbice
High School B in the final 3021 to cop the title. Earlier in the female final, Corentyne Comprehensive High School defeated a Combined Girls team 25-9, 25-9. The preliminary rounds were played on a round robin basis and results of the matches were -Berbice High School A defeated Corentyne Comprehensive High School, 30-11; GuySuCo Training Centre Red defeated Berbice High School B 30-20; GuySuCo Training Centre Blue defeated Berbice High School A, 30-25; Berbice High School B defeated Corentyne Comprehensive High School,
30-15; GuySuCo Training Centre Red defeated GuySuCo Training Center Blue, 30-16; GuySuCo Training Centre Red defeated Corentyne Comprehensive High School 30-17 and Berbice High School B defeated Berbice High School A 32-30 in a tense game. The presentation ceremony was held immediately after the final. BVA President Gregory Rambarran assisted in handing over the prizes and also thanked all the participants and urged them to continue to work on improving their basic skills.
Safety is #1 Priority - Bartica Regatta Committee Chairman - race to be named in memory of Orin Belle By Franklin Wilson With plans at an advanced stage for this year’s edition of the annual Bartica Easter Regatta (March 31 & April 1), a collaborative effort between the Bartica Regatta Committee and D&C Promotions, Regional Chairman and Head of the Regatta Committee, Gordon Bradford is assuring all that safety is and will be their number one priority. Bradford made it clear at a recent press conference to launch this year’s activity at the Pegasus Hotel. In divulging information on measures that will be put in place to ensure the safety of all, Bradford took time out to remember and pay tribute to the late Powerboat Racer Orin Montgomery Belle who died as a result of a tragic accident at the Lake Mainstay Regatta on August 12, 2012. “We have always paid heed to safety and at our regatta we’ve always had a medical team on standby, we’ve always had the hospital on alert and an
Gordon Bradford aircraft on standby as well; so if there’s an accident we can call on them and they will be there in the nick of time. Fortunately, we‘ve never had an accident.” Chairman Gordon also noted that the Coast Guards, Maritime and Police are also always a part of the plan and are there to implement. “We also have life guards in boats that traverse the circuit area. But when it comes to safety we can never be 100% because when an
accident happens, no matter how you are prepared, it takes you by surprise.” Bradford also reported that the committee would have met with the Tourism Authority already and that meeting also included the Lake Mainstay Committee. It was also noted that shortly, legislation will be passed that will make it mandatory for certain safety measures to be in place at regatta’s. Safety Suits “We’re also looking at the possibility of importing safety suits which would make it even safer for the racers. Even if they come into contact with a propeller it wouldn’t cut through the suit. I must say that God has been with us throughout our regattas and we’ve never had a fatal accident.” His Excellency President Donald Ramoutar has been engaged according to Bradford with a view of seeking a waiver on duties that are associated with the importation of the Safety (Continued on page 32)
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Ramchand aiming for overall title O GMR&SC International Drag Meet...
verall champion driver in last April Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) Drag Race Meet which was held at the South Dakota Anand Ramchand Circuit Anand Ramchand speaking with poses with two of Kaieteur Sport yesterday via telephone his four machines. expressed confidence of doing well, at this Sunday’s International event. Ramchand told this newspaper that he will once again be vying for the overall title and have decided to compete in four different categories with a similar amount of machines which he also disclosed could very well be a first in local drag racing. The local speedster will be thundering down the Circuit in a Toyota Supra in Category D, a Mitsubishi Evo 4 in Category E, a Toyota Starlet in Category C and a Toyota AE81 in Category B. He added that his team of mechanics has rebuilt the engines and installed some new parts as work continues on the four cars. The head mechanic was due to arrive last evening from Miami to oversee the fine tuning of the machines. At the April Meet, Ramchand successfully raced in the Toyota Supra and the Toyota AE81 cars, competing in the C and D categories, to capture the coveted overall trophy. The Meet will see competitors from Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago compete against the Guyanese in what is anticipated to be an exciting day of racing.
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