Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Friday January 11, 2013

Under-fire teacher repays Penny Bank funds Regional Education Officer of Region 6, Mrs Shafiran Bhajan, has revealed that the teacher implicated in a million-dollar Penny Bank scam at the Number 48 Primary School on the Corentyne, has repaid all of the money owed.

This disclosure was made at the Region 6 Administration’s first press conference for 2013 in the Regional Democratic Council Boardroom earlier this week.

“The teacher repaid the money that was requested of her by the authorities who conducted the audits. I was informed by the CID that the teacher was required to pay $585,000 and she paid this”, said Bhajan.

It was this newspaper that broke the story. Angry and frustrated parents had contacted Kaieteur News in November last year and broke their silence, demanding that the teacher pinpointed in the scam, pay back over $2M which their children, Grade 6 students, had invested in the penny-bank scheme over the prior year. The teacher was sent on leave.

Red flags were raised in early November after the children were due to have their savings and bank books returned to them, and none of it was forthcoming. Then the

questions started to flow.

Parents and guardians began to visit the school and seek answers but only promises were being made by the teacher in question, as well as the school’s administration.

As a result of the news article, an investigation was launched by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in ‘B’ Division.

The Ministry of Education, according to Bhajan, also launched an audit and investigation into the school’s penny bank fund and financial records. The teacher was found culpable of the act and was then mandated to repay all the monies she pilfered.

This newspaper understands that many parents were nervous about repayments since the fear was that the teacher in question had booked plane tickets to leave the country.

An irate parent whose child is supposed to collect $78,000, had told this newspaper in November, “I do not know what Miss [name of teacher] did with the students’ money. But several times, I asked for the money—up to graduation day I asked—she said we will get the money, and eventually I did not hear back

The Number 48 Primary School

anything until I heard she was on leave and booked ticket to leave the country and all the ledgers in the school for the children’s names to get their money was canceled and she held up the kids’ bank books before school closed.

I do not know what is going on! I do not know if we will get robbed because I heard she is leaving the country”.”This is unfair…I went to school and did penny- banking and this never happened”.

The teacher, the parent opined, should not be allowed to continue teaching in the system. The teacher also acted as Head teacher at the school at one time.

Kaieteur News understands that the teacher

had borrowed more than $1M from relatives just after the November publication and lodged it in the bank to appease the angry parents.

The incident resulted in the education authorities in

Region 6 initiating audits of financial records of other schools. There were several audits done — state audits, regional audits and co-op audits — and the Department of Education took steps to

ensure that such an incident does not recur, by requesting an audit of all the other co-op societies of other schools”.

No disciplinary action has been taken thus far on the errant teacher by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC). One of the charges laid out by the Charges and Penalties Documents of the TSC includes misappropriation of school funds and if found guilty, a teacher can be dismissed. Mrs Bhajan stated that reports were submitted by the police and education officials and the results are pending. “Reports were sent to the Chief Education Officer (CEO) but school has just reopened and I expect that events will unfold as the days go by”, she stated.

Gold bars seized in Puerto Rico - Investigators probe possible Curacao heist link

U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico have confiscated 11 gold bars sent by mail from Curacao, officials said Tuesday. Investigators are now probing whether the seized gold is from a recent heist on the Dutch Caribbean Island.

The gold bars were found in several courier packages at an airport in the Puerto Rican town of Aguadilla, said Jeffrey Quinones, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The bars weighed nearly 77 pounds and have an estimated value of US$1.7 million, said a report in the Miami Herald.

Inspectors noted that the packages that arrived in mid-December were “unusually heavy,” and flagged them for inspection before confiscating the bars as suspected contraband, Quinones said in a statement.

According to a local source, the gold is part of the stolen shipment in Curacao. The source said that investigators are now learning that some of the gold had been shipped to Puerto Rico earlier. The success of this shipment led to the shipping by FedEx of the larger shipment that was intercepted in the United States. That and the success of the first Puerto Rico shipment must have prompted this most recent shipment to Puerto Rice, the source said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ivan Ortiz said the source of the gold is under investigation. He declined to say whether officials suspect it came from the Nov. 30 heist in Curacao, in which gunmen disguised as

police stole 70 gold bars, worth an estimated $11.5 million from a fishing boat that had been used to transport it.

Curacao police spokesman Reginald Huggins said authorities there have six suspects in custody in the theft and have recovered some of the gold, though he declined to say how much. He said he was unaware of the seizure in Puerto Rico.

In late December, authorities in Curacao and the US have made some major breakthroughs in the investigations, arresting six suspects, including a prominent downtown jeweller, Giovani Regales.

56 gold bars have since been seized.

Curacao police had indicated that of seven persons arrested, one of them is from Bonaire, another Dutch Antillean island; three from Venezuela and the remainder from Curacao. It is believed that at least two of the gold bars were found at the jeweler’s business place.

It has been reported that the gang made contact with a US buyer and sent 30 bars via FedEx. However, the buyer, already notified of the stolen gold, alerted the US Customs and the bars were confiscated.

The November 30 heist by bandits dressed in police clothes on a Guyana-registered boat at a Curacao port, sparked an international investigation that spanned the US and Guyana.

It is believed that the boat left from Suriname.

The vessel was said to be registered to a Guyanese. The local address on the registration was reportedly false.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Still no sign of missing GEA employee There’s still no trace of missing Guyana Energy Authority (GEA) employee LeVoy Taljit. The 25-year-old mysteriously disappeared on the Sunday before Christmas and has not been seen since.

His motor vehicle, a Toyota Raum, was discovered on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway several days after the disappearance.

Police sources yesterday said that they are still actively pursuing the matter. Kaieteur News was told that they are still questioning some of Taljit’s friends and associates.

One associate, who reportedly had the missing man’s bank card and was believed to have withdrawn money from an account, was detained for 72 hours, but was released.

Phone records reveal that someone used Taljit’s mobile phone in the vicinity of Marudi, on the Soesdyke/ Linden Highway, a few days after he went missing. The individual also used Taljit’s phone to make a call to a land line.

Investigators believe that Taljit came to serious harm after being lured away from

Still missing: Levoy Taljit his home. He was last seen on December 23, 2012, wearing a burgundy tee shirt and faded blue jeans.

Haags Bosch landfill site…

Design delay prevents start of hazardous waste cell Head of the Solid Waste Management Programme, Gordon Gilkes, has stated that works on the specially designed cell at the Haags Bosch landfill site at Eccles will not be able to commence until the last quarter of this year.

Gilkes, who was responding to question about the status of the cell during a media briefing earlier this week, said they are still working on a possible design for the medical and hazardous waste cell.

According to Gilkes, originally in the loan agreement for the site, there was no allocation for the construction of the hazardous waste cell.

However, there was allocation for the study of a design for such a facility. Gilkes further pointed out that just over a year ago, after careful consideration, officials from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) decided to allocate part of the loan to the construction.

“Because the design was not completed we had a conceptual design, but the detailed design was not completed, and now we are trying to engage a consultant to do the conceptual design for the construction, but we will not be able to start before the end of August,” Gilkes explained.

He added that in the interim they had approached the IDB for funding for the operation of the hydroclave disposal system which was installed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). This piece of equipment, collects, sterilizes and shreds waste when placed into it As it is now, Gilkes said, biomedical and other hazardous waste, mainly from hospitals, are treated in the hydroclave, following which they are disposed of in the regular cells at Haags Bosch.

Also speaking on the issue of the hazardous waste

cell, Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill added that not only was the GPHC equipped with the hydroclave but they were also given a vehicle to collect waste from all the hospitals, including private ones.

Chief Executive Officer of GPHC, Michael Khan, acknowledged that the hospital has been collecting and processing waste from government hospitals. He noted that only recently they were approached by the Balwant Singh Hospital for assistance with processing the medical waste from that institution. Khan said they are awaiting requests from other private medical institutions but noted that this cannot be done free of charge.

The hydroclave is a double-walled cylindrical vessel which utilizes steam under pressure to sterilize hazardous healthcare waste.

It has been in operation at the GPHC compound since November 2011.

Two injured in Durban Street collision

A collision of two 4x4 vehicles at Louisa Row and Durban Street, Werk-en-Rust, just before midday yesterday, resulted in two motorcyclists being rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

The injured were treated and sent away.

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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

Different Democracies As the US continues to face daunting setbacks in its quest to ‘export’ democracy to the Middle East, it may want to take another look at its model. In his book “Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context” veteran sociologist Daniel A. Bell had challenged this “one size fits all” approach to normative governance.

He used the example of China to show, as summarised by the philosopher Charles Taylor “how profound differences of culture and value will give a different shape to the core institutions of modernity in different civilizations”. There is a lesson for us in Guyana, in this approach.

“Few, if any, Western liberal democratic theorists…have sought to learn from the traditions and experiences of East Asian societies,” Bell wrote. Their theories are presented as universally valid, and defenders of ‘Asian values’ are viewed as archaic or politically dangerous.

“There are morally legitimate alternatives to Westernstyle liberal democracy in the East Asian region,” the writer explains.

“If human rights, democracy and capitalism are to take root and produce beneficial outcomes in East Asia, they must be adjusted to contemporary East Asian political and economic realities and to the values of non-liberal East Asian political traditions such as Confucianism and Legalism.

Local knowledge is therefore essential for realistic and morally informed contributions to debates on political reform in the region, as well as for mutual learning and enrichment of political theories.”

In this way it is important to take note how Confucianism “facilitates and helps to maintain certain characteristic features of East Asian capitalism”, moderating capitalist individualism through social communitarian conscience and the paternalistic role of the State, a little like in continental Europe, it contributed towards making the Christian religion.

The key point, Bell noted, is that, if you want to hold a dialogue with (and understand) the Chinese ruling class, you need to put yourself in their minds, and know how they think.

Even if they are (post) communist – as several in the newly elected core are - very often they reason based on their own Confucian culture, which for example considers a war to be fair only if the people of the oppressed nation are forced to live in poverty. It is material poverty, not the “lack of freedom or democracy”, which justifies a war.

And in this way the different concept of human rights in China and in the West is resolved in a difference of priority: for the Chinese (and Asians) getting out of poverty is worth more than granting “freedom”, and in this way the lack of social freedom in China is less serious, for a Chinese person, than social inequality in the United States.

The perspective of Asian Values is not always understandable or appreciated by a Westerner.

The lack of interest of human rights is explained by the priority that is given to material well being, and the negation of the right to citizenship for “migrant workers” can seem cynical.

It is precisely on this last point, in Bell’s view, where Asian visions clash with liberal-democratic ones; with the latter which pays more attention to the formal level and the former which denies rights but concedes longer permissions and better opportunities for immigrants.

Bell reminded us how the concept of Western civilization is founded on the active concept of the Greeks, while the Confucian one is decisively more familistic and referred the political decisions to the “best”, to an elite.

It is on these bases where Bell’s proposal is founded, making the first step towards the democratization of China: “a bicameral legislature with a democratically elected lower house and an upper house composed of representatives selected on the basis of competitive examinations”, typical of the strict Confucian meritocratic system, because “whatever form of democracy takes root in East Asian societies will have ‘elitist’ characteristics”.

After all, Bell asks, how can the populist West give lessons on democracy to countries like China, in which the Confucian tradition has been teaching the cult of meritocracy for thousands of years?

Friday January 11, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news

MY WORKS, ACTIONS, AND DEEDS, ARE GOVERNED BY MY OWN CONVICTIONS DEAR EDITOR, I find it disturbing that as supposedly mature people we are not able to debate an issue of national significance without resorting to personal attacks and vilification of someone with whom there is difference of opinion. In Mr. Archer’s article entitled 1823 Monument and Ivor Thom, I noted his attacks on me as a person and his aspersions of my professional judgement.

However, I will not respond in kind. Rather I will utilize this space to counter some of the half-truths and distortions which Mr. Archer presented.

When I entered the competition to design a monument for the 1823 rebellion, one of the rules of the completion stated that each submission should be accompanied by a suggestion of a site for the monument. The Bachelors Adventure/Melanie neighbourhood was and is still my first choice.

However, when efforts were made to acquire an identified piece of land, a foundation for some sort of structure was hastily placed there.

At this point the committee decided to engage the general public in the selection of a site. As such an advertisement was placed in the newspapers asking for suggestions for a site for the monument.

Having received only one response, I personally engaged residents from the

Bachelors Adventure/ Melanie area to petition the government to erect the monument in their neighbourhood, because to me that was the epicenter of the struggle, but no one responded.

The placement of the 1823 monument has evoked strong sentiments and emotions as it rightly should. However, this should be informed by a clear understanding of the history behind the rebellion.

In Mr Archer’s opinion, the epicenter of the rebellion was at Parade Ground; history would suggest otherwise.

This rebellion started in Plantation Success and spread in both directions along the East Coast, reaching as far as Mahaica.

From all accounts, 10 to 15 slaves were killed at Dochfour, six at Good hope, six at Beehive, 40 at Elizabeth Hall and between 100 and 150 at Bachelors Adventure.

Trials were conducted at estates in Georgetown and along the East Coast where about 200 ‘rebels’ were tried, executed and beheaded, and their heads displayed on stakes along the East Coast and at Parade Ground.

Based on this historical evidence my question therefore is; what gives Parade Ground more prominence than any other location along the East Coast?

Just for an examination of precedence: the 1763 rebellion took place in Plantation Magdalenenburg in the

Berbice River. The monument commemorating this event stands in Georgetown, Demerara.

The Damon uprising took place in La Belle Alliance; he was hanged in front of Parliament Buildings in Georgetown; the commemorative monument is erected in Anna Regina.

In his article, Mr Archer also stated that “something must be fundamentally wrong if we as a people and our government entrust the selection of the site of a monument of such great national significance to a sculptor”. Mr Archer is evidently deficient in his knowledge of how the site was selected.

It was a committee decision of which I was a member; all of whom are descendants of the struggle; to use Mr. Archer’s term.

Speaking about descendents of the struggle, try researching Catharine Thom who lived through the 1823 rebellion and who was also one of three women among 80 men who were the original proprietors of Victoria village.

When designing public monuments the artist must bear in mind that monumental sculptures are large three dimensional art forms or masses; they occupy space and are enclosed by space and must be viewed from all angles.

In art there are the concepts of dominance and subordinance where the work must stand out, it must

dominate, and in order for this to happen the work must be in contrast with its surroundings to make it a point of interest.

The sculptor must be able to manipulate the elements of art so that the monument not only stands out but is also in harmony with its surroundings taking into consideration the existing edifices and structures.

However, it should not be too dominating nor be over powered by those existing elements or structures. A case in point; can you envisage the 1763 monument as it is, being located on the island at the head of North Road and Vlissingen Road?

Well, that was its intended location. However, the massiveness of the piece would have been out of proportion with its surroundings. It would not have been easily viewable, not aesthetically pleasing, and the message would have been missed.

I want it to be perfectly clear that I am a trained professional sculptor and when designing the 1823 monument neither Parade Ground nor the proposed site were considerations.

However, when I was asked by the committee for my professional opinion on a number sites, having looked at the suitability of them all I suggested the site at the sea wall.

This was strictly a professional opinion devoid Continued on page 7

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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

Will history judge Mr. Jagdeo, as a crook?

DEAR EDITOR, Our first own dictator of Guyana, Mr. L.F.S. Burnham, dutifully followed the script that was almost universally embraced by tyrants in their grab for total power. In then Guyana , not only were local opponents perceived as “Enemies of the State’ pulverized, but so were even friends and former colleagues whose loyalties were now deemed questionable.

This brilliant lawyer and orator trampled upon human rights and controlled the judiciary, media, education, police, army, civil service jobs and promotion etc. In fact he was the arbiter of life or death for many.

This deified person changed the constitution to be the chosen ‘President for Life,’ and as a legal safeguard made himself, ‘The Comrade Leader,’ immune from any prosecution, should his government fall. He was the law and above the law, and decided which and how the laws were to be interpreted and applied.

The President Burnham and his PNC New Nation presided over a dying nation.

Yet the PNC to its eternal shame has never apologized to this nation for this destruction of so many lives.

Guyanese have not forgiven the PNC for allowing one man and his faithful to subjugate this nation into total tyranny.

What Mr. Burnham failed to do, as other dictators did, was to accumulate sizeable foreign assets or stash cash

in overseas accounts. (The news in Guyana was that, according to Ebony Magazine, he was the third richest ‘black man’ in the world. I tried to find this article, but never found it. So far there is no evidence after Burnham’s death that he and his family accumulated wealth anywhere.

His widow, Ms. Viola Burnham, had obtained a few acres of state land on short leases that expired in 1992.

The land was used to raise buffaloes which Ms. Burnham sold off over the years to earn a living. Their children held ordinary state jobs even when Mr. Burnham was alive.

They too like so many ordinary Guyanese migrated and struggled to educate themselves, worked at regular jobs and lived in very ordinary circumstances.

Mr. Burnham’s failure to accumulate wealth seems rather uncharacteristic for one so brilliant and who enjoyed the good life – according to his love of Western/European lifestyles and tastes. This failure was because the economy totally tumbled with no foreign exchange being available to purchase basic necessities at home. There were reports of gold being shipped in diplomatic bags.

But these would never have large enough to support any affluent lifestyle overseas. The people of Linden like others in the country rebelled.

DEAR EDITOR, I am following a story of several allegations against five young men, one of whom I know personally, and know that the charges against him are untrue and unjust.

In one of the proceedings, the Magistrate was very disturbed by one of the police witnesses who was clearly lying on one of the accused.

As the matter proceeded, and to everyone’s surprise, the magistrate threatened to discharge the case against them, but also stated that the police can immediately rearrest them and re-charge them, and they will have to go through the trial again; that is, without new evidence.

These same men were discharged on other charges in another court.

Four months later, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) sent and ordered the Magistrate to indict them to face a High Court trial.

No new evidence was found.

The Magistrate expressed her dissatisfaction,

but stated that she had orders from the DPP which she had to follow, or would face the consequences.

On behalf of myself and thousands of other Guyanese who share the same views about our unfair judicial system, we would love to hear the views and advice of some of our country’s brilliant minds, e.g.Judges, Magistrates, lawyers and our Attorney General, the AFC and APNU, and anyone else with the knowledge of the laws of Guyana, to kindly shed some light on these few questions: -Is the position of the Director of Public Prosecution higher than that of a Magistrate?

-Is a Magistrate’s final decision not respected and acknowledged?

-Can the police recharge someone for the same offence without any new evidence, after that person or persons are discharged by the Magistrate?

We are looking forward for some early answers.

Mrs. A. Khan

A case of perverted justice?

The country needed a statesman, the PPP in its wisdom offered Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo and must likewise take the credit or blame for his actions.

Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo of the PPP exceeded the worst excesses of Mr. L.F.S. Burnham of the PNC. This resident dictator, generously armed with the constitutional and legal tools created by his idol (Mr. Burnham) which his mentor Dr. C. B Jagan failed to change in 1992 and should rightfully be called the Dr. Jagan’s PPP constitution,

continued the emasculation of the long oppressed people.

Mr. Bharrat’s absolute control even in petty matters made his power felt and the ‘follow the leader’conditioned and intellectdeficient PPP succumbed and fell.

Moreover, Mr. Jagdeo astutely avoided the personal failures of Mr. Burnham, in that he has accumulated local assets likely far exceeding his total accumulated public incomes. (Guyanese wait for a forensic audit.) It could therefore be concluded that

Mr. B. Jagdeo made some exceptionally wise investments in Guyana and/ or overseas that Guyanese are not aware of.

Would His Excellency Mr. Jagdeo or his faithful followers kindly let the Guyanese people know where he invested his monies, even while in office? There is no such evidence of wise economic stewardships by His Excellency Mr. Jagdeo with the assets of the nation – since the working-classes are still suffering and praying for deliverance.

Mr. Burnham’s strategy was to nationalize anything ‘big’ and put his faithful in charge; whereas, Mr. Jagdeo’s was/is to outsource and award contracts to local and foreign gangsters or those who are willing to make secret deals at a price.

These members of Mr. Jagdeo’s nobility are given generous government contracts with little public oversight and further contracts are offered to correct the deficiencies/ neglects of the first contracts.

Continued on page 7

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Kaieteur News

Friday January 11, 2013

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

The genesis of the garbage problem DEAR EDITOR, To understand and resolve the current Garbage situation in Georgetown we have to go back two years ago when the garbage was collected by private contractors. For garbage collection purpose the Mayor and City Council divided Georgetown into ten sections.

All section were contracted out to Private Waste Collection Contractors Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers.

In some sections garbage was collected daily (such as

the Commercial zone), some twice per week such as Queenstown, Alberttown, North and South Cummingsburg, Kingston and Thomas Lands, and the other sections garbage was collected once per week.

The system was working near perfect since even if there was a problem with the contractor equipment the garbage would have been collected next day. In the event the contractor did not perform, his payment would have been cut.

Then two things

happened together – (a) the disposal point moved to the Landfill Site at Haags Bosch at the back of Eccles, East Bank Demerara and (b) Mayor and City Council without much thought and analysis took back two of the most challenging sections (one each) from private contractors – Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers which included areas such as Queenstown, Alberttown, Kingston, North and South Cummingsburg, and Eve Leary The contractor working the Commercial Zone used to collect waste after the close of business (say starting about 5pm daily) found that he could no longer do so since the Landfill closes at 5pm.

The contractor thereafter started to collect the waste much earlier so that he could catch the landfill before closure. The situation here is that waste thrown out by businesses after the early collection by the contractor now ended up on the street.

Things that went wrong regarding the Mayor and City Council: The city council has over the years been suffering from financial difficulties in paying the garbage

Contractors. The period of City Council owing the Contractors became longer and thus amounts owing contractors were greater.

The amount of monies owing to contractors (many times as presented in the media – with little or no consideration for the length of time the monies were outstanding) seem alarming to a number of persons within the council most of whom were not fully appreciative of the dynamics of running large fleet of vehicles and moreso highly sophisticated vehicles such as garbage trucks with numerous pneumatic and electronic controls.

A number of nontechnical Senior Officers of the Council pressed for acquisition and running of its own fleet of vehicles. There were a number of lessons the council could have learn but did not pay heed - the big buses, Ministry of Public Works acquired two garbage trucks and could not maintain them fully functional on the road, Ministry of Agriculture recently acquired a fleet of excavators but contracted out the operation and maintenance of them, most

government agencies tend to contract out their maintenance.

So the M&CC ran into maintenance problems.

Residential garbage was collected twice per week. The first sign of failure came when the Council due to maintenance problems with its garbage trucks changed to once per week waste collection. There was not much thought in this movement since business activities had increased in these areas but the council was going in the opposite direction of reducing the waste collection frequency the result was an increase of waste on the street.

4. As council grappled with its maintenance problems the other areas taken back from the contractors were also affected and piles of garbage started to appear on Mandela Avenue and in places such as West Ruimveldt, La Penitence, East Ruimveldt, Costello Housing Scheme, etc).

The solution rests in the following measures: I. The Landfill could open a special section to accept the night waste to cater for the

Commercial Zone Waste.

The Mayor and City Council should immediately hand back to the Contractors these two sections (moreso the section that includes Queenstown, Alberttown, Kingston, North and South Cummingsburg).

The council should use its fleet of vehicles to concentrate on street cleaning and as standby in the event of strike or industrial actions by contractors to maintain critical areas.

Mayor and City Council can use its vehicles for minimal tasks and help in enhancing the streets and city in general and at the same time give its technical staff time to build up they technical competence which would better serve them over the next five years if they should then decide to be more adventurous and decide to take a section or two.

By stepping back to the position council was a couple years ago with private contractors, working in the two largest sections of the city, our garbage situation in Georgetown would be resolved within four weeks.

Basil Britton

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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

Essequibo Cricket officials must ensure proper elections DEAREDITOR, It has been brought to my attention that the Annual General Meeting of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) is scheduled to be held on Sunday.

I have also been reliably informed that this is a move to remove Prince Holder as the President and replace him with Fizul Bacchus.

This move is being orchestrated by the court injuncted Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Anand Sanasie who many Cricket officials in Essequibo have accused of interfering in the internal affairs of the Essequibo Cricket Board thereby creating much confusion and disharmony.

Since he ousted Harnarine Tiwari as president of the West Demerara Cricket Association, Sanasie has earned a reputation for improperly imposing his presence in various elections of cricket boards, associations and clubs including the Georgetown

Cricket Association, the Essequibo Cricket Board and the East Bank Cricket Association where he appeared as the Returning Officer.

For reasons best known to himself, Sanasie’s interest in cricket is only to be in charge. In my view he is completely hopeless at cricket administration and for the six years he headed the West Demerara Cricket Association, he did nothing to promote or develop the game in that important area.

No cricket is played in West Demerara and the few remaining grounds, except Uitvlugt, are in a sorry state. Remarkably, one club on West Demerara, the New Acqualine Cricket Club, has applied to the Georgetown Cricket Association for membership. That club, like many others in West Demerara, has fallen away because of the disastrous administration of cricket by Sanasie and his gang.

Essequibians must reject any

attempt by Sanasie to be a part of the elections especially as the Returning Officer, a position for which he manipulates proceedings. As Sanasie was reported to be in Essequibo actively campaigning for Fizul Bacchus and making promises to appoint persons as manager (s) of the national team (s), official of the ECB must caution him to stay out of the affairs of Essequibo Cricket. He should not be at the Annual General Meeting of the ECB. It is well known that in many cricket elections there is a “money for vote” arrangement and a serious change was made a few months ago that some persons in Essequibo accepted money to boycott elections for the GCB Executive.

Maybe the Regional Office in Essequibo together with the Ministry of Sport can ensure there is a no trickery in the upcoming elections of the ECB. Rafiq Ishmail Anna Regina

From page 4 of anything emotional or political on my part.

To support his argument, the learned gentleman, Mr Archer, cited the Martin Luther King memorial that is located at his MLK’s birth place on Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia.

However it was Martin Luther King’s family and not the US government who decided where his final resting place would be.

With the passage of time when the government was ready to honor his sacrifice and give him his rightful place in history a monument was erected in the nation’s capital in Washington DC and not in the South, the epicenter on the civil rights struggle.

Mr Archer stated that my interest seems to be having my work properly displayed, enjoying a wide range of visibility.

I must give him full credit for this

observation. As a visual artist and monumental sculptor that is my goal; a monument tells a story, it immortalizes a particular event in history. Therefore public viewing is necessary.

Mr Archer desires the same for himself. His many articles are not confined to his personal journal but rather are published in media that are exposed to wide readership.

In 2007 a group approached me to design a monument to depict the story of slavery with the proposed site being a plot of land they acquired near the seawall. What I find intriguing is that some members of this very group who are in the forefront of the call for Parade Ground to be the site the 1823 monument, did not see it fit then to erect their intended monument at Parade Ground even though the emotional attachment and historical significance of Parade Ground was the same then as it

is now.

In conclusion, I appreciate the public debate which had developed around this issue.

However it would have been more useful if it had occurred earlier when suggestions for a location were being canvassed.

A number of people have judged me, some of whom do not even know me, but the people whose opinion matter most to me know that my contribution to the cause and struggle of black people and to the development of Guyana as a whole goes far beyond writing a few articles for daily periodicals.

If I had not a mind of my own I would have been all that you want me to be; all that you expect me to be; but sir, my works, actions, and deeds, are governed by my own convictions and are not the product of groupthink. I am sorry if they are not consistent with yours.

Ian Ivor Thom MS

MY WORKS, ACTIONS, AND DEEDS, ARE GOVERNED...

Will history judge Mr. Jagdeo, as ...

From page 5 The fleecing of Guyanese is rampant, as seen in one the earliest scenarios at UG with regards to the renovation of the Biology labs with European Union (EU) funding. This was never addressed.

In addition, these individuals or their companies are given monopolies on the import of certain products, e.g., basic medicine) so that these individuals and their companies control local prices. This is another way to fleece the locals who are an already oppressed people.

These recent arrivals are given advantages and privileges that are denied to honest local businesses that have been working here in

Guyana throughout the years.

If the locals complained they are belittled publicly, irrespective of age or stature.

Another example is that respectable businesses such as Stabroek News and Kaieteur News have been denied radio and or television licenses despite years of responsible journalism and public service. UG students and the Linden community still cannot get their own radio and or television licenses; wherwas, the American naturalized friends of President Jagdeo get preferential treatments – they have TV and Radio licenses. Mr. Jagdeo’s largesse does not come free. Everything has a price and is negotiable.

Our Elders taught us that we can tell a man by his friends, if those chosen to

serve Mr. Jagdeo locally are of questionable character and several of his overseas rich friends are before the foreign courts for basically theft, then what must we conclude of Mr Jagdeo with his unseemly acquisition of personal wealth?

The people have not forgotten the deeds of Mr. Burnham, his executioners and PNC. Likewise, the people will not forget the deeds of Mr. Jagdeo and his loyal henchmen (including those with academic titles), his unprincipled PPP and the new nobility.

Will the PPP do the right thing and apologize to Guyana for the transgressions of their leader, Mr. Jagdeo and his enablers?

Seelochan Beharry

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Friday January 11, 2013

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When the power is gone, all that remains is your deeds “Ah just hope that when he leaves office, he can enjoy what he has helped to destroy.”

Oh, sorry, just in case somebody thought I was referring to someone in Guyana, I was in fact referring then to former President George W. Bush who served two terms as the President of the United States of America.

George Bush left America in crisis. This is the same country to which he had to return as a civilian for the remainder of his life.

Life is not easy for him in a country where thousands have lost their jobs and are facing hard times. Moments after he returned to his home State, ridicule was thrown in his face. Well, not literally, but rather at an effigy at which boots were pelted in bidding farewell to the former Commander in Chief.

The advice that his successor, Barack Obama, gave to those leaders around the world who blame America for their problems, could equally be applied to his homeland and to other countries to whom he may not have been referring.

Obama said that the leaders of those countries should realize that their people will judge them by what they build and not by what they destroy. George W. Bush went back to civilian life to live in an economy which he helped to destroy; he has gone back to reflect on a world that he left in tatters following his ill-advised excursions into Iraq and Afghanistan and his misguided Middle East policy.

Bush still however has the

consolation of knowing that there is still a segment of the American population, a significant number, who felt that his policies were correct and who will offer him their support. He is enjoying a great deal of benefits and status and will have a coterie of friends to whom he can turn.

But what about politicians in small societies like Guyana, who when they leave office have little to look forward to? Yes, many of these politicians have found that the return to civilian life is lonely and desolate, and often they are disregarded in the streets of Guyana.

In our own country, we have seen how the mighty have fallen and been left isolated by their supporters and friends upon losing power.

I have seen an instance of one powerful figure in the Burnham administration being stripped of all power and being forced on one occasion to have to run out of this country.

I have seen political leaders when they are in power being surrounded by friends and well wishers that would do anything to retain the friendship of these leaders. But when these leaders no longer have power, I have seen their friends vanish like ninjas.

When you are on top of the world, the whole world knows you. When your power recedes then is when you know your true friends.

There will be many who will court your friendship when you have power, but when your power is gone, they too will disappear and if

Dem boys seh...

That TV deal got problems If people think that butcher is people who only does wuk in slaughter house dem lie.

De other day a man dead and dem had to rush in de pathologist to de North West fuh do de post mortem. When de doctor land de people notice that he didn’t have he bag wid he. That is when everybody know that something was wrang.

But dem shut dem mouth.

De pathologist decide fuh do he wuk and people want know how. Is when he ask fuh a carpenter saw that people know that dem gun see a butchering. When he done saw open de man and he do he checking he had to sew back de man.

Dem boys nearly dead. De man break up two umbrella, tek de bones and stitch up de body. That is when dem boys know that a butcher and a doctor can shake hands.

Other people can shake hands too. Dem boys seh that nuff people shaking hands when is time fuh buy drugs fuh de hospital.

De boss man at de hospital shake hands wid Bar Bee and hand over de money. After couple years Bar Bee shake hands wid de hospital people and hand over de drugs.

Dem had some hand shaking when Bar Bee decide to buy de TV from Toe Knee. Well dem boys know that dem got to watch dem mouth but dem still can’t understand how de same year dem had short supply of drugs to de hospital is de same year Bar Bee buy de TV station.

One man seh that nuff things coulda cause that ,but it just strange.

Talk half and wait fuh de tek ups.

pressured they will sing like a canary.

True friends are hard to find. Too much friendship is based on self-interest, not itself a bad thing, but such friendships do not last and often disappear after the interests would have been satisfied.

This is why I have always advised those with power to choose your friends carefully and treat everyone with kindness.

But more

importantly, do not unwillingly make enemies; do not trample on the rights of others; do not treat people with indifference and scorn; do not wr o n g a n y o n e , because one day you too shall have to return to civilian life.

And, especially in small societies like ours, the powerful who find themselves powerless often end up being helpless and lonely.

I have known many a person in Guyana who used to walk the streets with an air of pomp and superiority. I have seen many of them run away from Guyana because they could not face what they did to this country and the many persons whom they treated unjustly.

So do good, build and not destroy, forgive rather than punish, be fair and considerate. If you do these things, the world to which you

return when you retire will be a better place because you would have helped to make it so.

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=== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ===

Zero Dark Thirty and that house On Tuesday night, I saw the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” about the search for Osama Bin Laden. Even if this movie doesn’t get elegant reviews it will draw fantastic bucks, because most people around the world will want to know how the Americans found Bin Laden.

Based on graphic factual accounts told to the screenwriter and director by the real agents themselves, the hero of the story is a young CIA agent sent to Pakistan to help in the pursuit.

Up to the point where President Obama gave his stamp on the raid, the Americans had no proof whatsoever that Bin Laden lived in the building. So why did the Americans go in anyway? In the movie, the CIA station boss flew off the handle as the young agent pestered him about Bin Laden in the house. In a rage, he asked her if the Americans are going to grab Bin Laden based on logical deduction (his words).

He said that she didn’t supply any evidence whatsoever that Bin Laden dwelled in the house she had pinpointed, even though

there was 24-hour high tech surveillance.

The agent answered yes because that was all she had – logical deduction. She was even bold enough to tell the CIA boss at a high level meeting that she was a hundred percent sure when all the top CIA specialists around the table went for sixty percent. In the end, the American Government accepted her position of logical deduction.

What actually happened is that she concluded through logical deduction that Bin Laden had to be there based on all the information she gathered from detainees and human spy efforts. She told her superiors that all the information she gathered over the years pointed to that compound.

Logical deduction as a methodology in arriving at truth may be given a worldwide boost through this film. Logical deduction is very essential to research both in the social and natural sciences. Using logical deduction, we can conclude that some ministers of the current PPP Government are wealthy.

Three weeks ago, two members of the People’s

Parliament, Leonard Craig and Tyron Talbot, went to Pradoville 2 to film a house owned by a female Cabinet Minister. They then put up the photos on Facebook. I am not on Facebook, so they emailed it to me This is a majestic structure that, though smaller than Mr. Jagdeo’s edifice, is definitely more fancy and palatial. Here is where logical deduction comes in. These mansions tend to spring up not when the person is in private occupation or even in the public service, but kind of soon after they enter the Cabinet. And the tale goes back soon after the PPP came to power.

One person comically referred to as ‘Killaman,’ built an expensive concrete fence around his home for which Mrs. Jagan expressed disgust.

That was early in 1995, yet this same man climbed to greater heights in Government during the time that Mrs. Jagan controlled the affairs of the PPP and the Government of Guyana.

The next year (1996), a female Cabinet member put up a swashbuckling construction in Pradoville One. Questions about it were

the subject of Tony Vieira’s Evening News. This one, Mrs. Jagan turned her back on because the interior of the home had imported marble from Italy.

The then President of the Rice Producers’ Association, Fazil Ali (now deceased) told me that the PPP made a fuss about money his organization owed Dr. Hughley Hanoman for fertilizers supplied, but did nothing about this mansion in Pradoville One. Ali told me this in the presence of a female relative who today serves the PPP government in a top position.

On my parents’ grave I swear that this relative also

discussed the issue with me on her bottom verandah. She cannot deny that!

The Kaieteur News featured recently on the front page another mansion on the West Coast. There is also the illuminated swimming pool at a home near to Starlite drivein cinema. So where does logical deduction fit in here?

In all these examples above, the owners built their expensive structures after they entered the Cabinet.

We return to that house (in the caption of this article the words, “that house” do not refer to where Bin Laden lived, but the home in Pradoville 2); an AFC

Frederick Kissoon executive (if I am asked to name him if this house scandal spreads, I will) told me that the home is being sold with an asking price of one million American dollars. I will refrain from further comments, but refer readers to the methodology of logical deduction.

More interns on board at GPHC

The interns pose during orientation As strides are being made to ensure Guyana is equipped with an adequate amount of doctors to meet the specific health care needs of the country’s populace, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) yesterday oriented medical students to an internship being offered.

The budding doctors, who have just completed their sixth year of study in the medical field, have so far registered to make use of the programme. However, Chief Executive Officer, Michael Khan, noted that more may be coming on board. Khan told media operatives yesterday

that completion of the internship and submission of the final paper will result in participants becoming registered as General Medical Officers.

The internship is intended to last for one year.

Interns were said to have signed their contracts yesterday.

Khan, in brief remarks offered to participants, urged them to adopt good work ethics, including good manners and attitudes towards patients seeking medical attention at the GPHC. He also advised that interns stay away from the “doctor’s handwriting” as failure to

analyze information given by doctors has over the years been a stumbling block for the hospital.

Interns were also briefed on their conditions of internship, involvement of nursing, and services offered at the laboratory. Importance of documentation was also a topic of delivery as well as the role of occupational health and safety and the medical intern. Participants were introduced to the various Heads of Department of the GPHC as they were taken on a “walk through” of the hospital to signal the programme’s official commencement.

A former employee of the Iskcon Hari Krishna Mandir is a suspect in the murder of watchman Jagdat Ramcharran, whose bound and gagged corpse was found at the Corentyne, Berbice site last Monday.

Kaieteur News understands that the detained man had also worked at the mandir as a watchman.

It is unclear why police have deemed him to be a suspect.

A source said that investigators have also questioned a number of other people, but have made no

headway in the matter.

Ramcharran, 61, called ‘Ronald’ of Bloomfield, Corentyne, was found dead at around 03:00 hrs by a worshipper. It is believed that the killers used a strip of cloth to strangle the watchman. A post mortem conducted on Wednesday revealed that death was due to ligature strangulation. According to information, the worshipper arrived at the temple for his usual devotion. He found the gate locked and no one came to greet him as was customary. After making several calls and getting no response, he scaled the fence

and found the watchman lying motionless on the ground with his hand and feet bound. The man immediately informed a senior member of the temple.

A bell, a pair of goldcoloured slippers, and a tape recorder were reportedly missing from the premises, which was in disarray.

The thieves had apparently entered the mandir by cutting and wrenching open a grilled window. They also wrenched open the door to the prayer centre.

Ramcharran had worked at the mandir for about three years.

Former guard among suspects in Mandir watchman’s murder

Friday January 11, 2013

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Mining industry encouraging flight operations - GCAA Director Although the operations of two international aircraft services – EZjet and RedJet – folded during the past year, a number of prospective operators have signalled their intent to join flight operating activities here.

At least this is according to Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Zulficar Mohamed. He was at the time giving an update on the performance of the aviation sector during the past year even as he highlighted plans for this year at a Public Works Ministry press conference

last week.

As it relates to international flight operations, Mohamed told a gathering of media operatives that Fly Jamaica has indicated its interest, while in the local flight market, a number of nationals have been applying to operate aircraft.

Speaking to the number of locals applying to operate, Mohamed said “it may be as a result of the mining industry development and other developments in the interior.”

With the vibrant interest being exhibited, the Director General is optimistic that this

year will prove to be a very productive one in terms of aircraft operations.

During the past year, he said, there was an 11 per cent increase in terms of aircraft operations. However he noted that a 30 per cent increase was recorded in the area of international overflights.

It was highlighted that over-flights are responsible for the bulk of the revenue that was earned.

“Most of our revenue comes from the international over-flight operations and it is good to say we have had

Taxi driver freed on murder charge Taxi driver, Vincent Dennis Vandenburgh, 27, called ‘Wilder’ who had given the court multiple addresses including Tucber Park, Coburg Street and Philadelphia Street, all in New Amsterdam, walked out of the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court yesterday a free man, after the murder charge he was facing was discharged.

Vandenburgh was on trial for allegedly killing Lord Edwards, called Junior, or Rastaman, of Edinburgh Village, East Bank Berbice, and formerly of King Street, New Amsterdam, at Edinburgh in 2010.

The man, who was in hiding after the incident, had given himself up at the Central Police Station in the company of his lawyer, Mursaline Bacchus.

Edwards, 43, was found dead lying in a pool of blood in a yard not too far from where he resided.

Edwards allegedly had an altercation earlier in the morning with a taxi driver who had taken his car to a workshop in the village. An argument had ensued between the two men during which time Edwards allegedly went into his yard, picked up a piece of metal, and charged the driver who allegedly sought refuge in the mechanic shop.

It is understood that the driver also had a knife and after a while the argument ended. It is understood that subsequently Edwards was attacked by a group of men who entered his yard and slashed, stabbed and severely beat him.

The victim is said to have suffered injuries to his neck, forehead, chest, rib cage and other parts of his body. A post mortem examination performed on the body by Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan at the New Amsterdam hospital

gave the cause of death as shock and haemorrhage due to multiple injuries.

According to a source, Vanderburgh was picked out during an Identification parade as one of the persons who was seen entering and leaving the victim’s yard.

In his no case submissions, attorney at law Mursaline Bacchus had stated that there was no case for his client to answer. He said that there was insufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case against his client.

He added that during the entire preliminary i n q u i r y, i n w h i c h t h e prosecution called 11 witnesses, including four police officers, no one gave evidence that they saw his client do anything to the now dead Edwards.

The prosecution case was conducted by Corporal Orin Joseph.

After months of delay, government yesterday said that two critical Bills designed to open up the telecommunications sector will finally be debated in Parliament for approval by the end of the first quarter.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is charged with overseeing the telecoms sector, in moving yesterday to again postpone the debate, said that government is attempting to reach an agreement so as to prevent any conflict when the matter “actually reaches” the National Assembly.

The Telecommunications Bill 2012 and Public Utilities Commission (Amendment) Bill 2012, have been lingering in the National Assembly since August and government has been postponing the debate while

holding consultations with the two local telephone companies, Digicel (Guyana) and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).

GT&T has a monopoly on landline and international calls and Digicel has long been complaining it is being forced to route its international calls through GT&T, creating an unfair advantage.

Shortly before the 2011 General Elections, government at the last minute pulled the two Bills from the

National Assembly.

This was after GT&T, 80% of which is owned by A t l a n t i c Te l e - N e t w o r k ( AT N ) o f t h e U S , acknowledged that it has a monopoly and was prepared to negotiate about the impending liberalisation.

Government has said that a number of companies are poised to enter the sector and the under-development is heavily affecting Guyana’s thrust. Hinds admitted that the matter is a very difficult and challenging one.

Monopoly-breaking telecoms legislation postponed again

an increase during 2012 of 20.25 per cent in our revenue while our expenditure went up by 6.2 per cent,” he informed.

Turning his attention to airport infrastructure, Mohamed said that capital projects from last year are still ongoing, even as he disclosed that Government has already budgeted for the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast System (ADS-B).

“They have also included the category one which is required, because it not only involves the acquisition of the requisite staffing, but we have to review our regulations as well as the Act and put other systems in place. We are looking forward to 2013 in terms of getting that done, but it is not going to be done within a year. It is probably going to take longer, but we are hoping to start the process.”

In relation to aviation security, Mohamed said that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport as well as the Ogle Airport have been

scrutinised, with close attention being paid in the past year to stakeholders, among them LIAT, Delta and Caribbean Airlines among other handling service entities.

“We have found them to be compliant, although there were some minor issues, but all of those would have been resolved,” he added.

Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) has since been designated the local flag carrier by the Government, a status which according to Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, is not an exclusive right. He explained that the status could be granted to more than one airline, even as he disclosed that CAL was among others that had requested flag carrier status.

“CAL in spite of all the criticisms and the quarrels about their high prices and changes in scheduling has seen solid performance in terms of airlift to Guyana over the years and we belong to a Caribbean Community. We don’t have a direct investment

GCAA Director General, Zulficar Mohamed in the airline at this time, but Guyanese represent a significant portion of the CAL airlift,” said the Minister, who stressed that Caribbean Airlines has proven to be an enduring airline although “they had their problems over the years.”

According to the Minister, with the flag carrier status, the airline’s operation is expected to become more efficient and cost effective to passengers.

The development comes even as the plans are being streamlined to celebrate 100 years of aviation in Guyana.

Commemorative activities, according to Mohamed, are set to commence in the last week of March.

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Nat’l Assembly roasts Govt. over $2B additional funds - but gives divided approval Despite heavy grilling yesterday in the National Assembly, the government yesterday managed to receive approval for $2B it wanted as additional monies for its work in 2012, some of which is still incomplete.

Financial Paper 6 of 2012 was for a total of $2B - $500M for the Ministry of Agriculture to meet expenditure associated with flood management and $1.5B by the Ministry and Housing and Water for development of new housing schemes and improvements to existing ones.

The $500M was first up for debate, but it was only approved after the Alliance For Change (AFC) sided with government, in a divided vote, despite heavy criticisms and questions about the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).

According to Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, government needed the money to boost its fleet of excavators and bulldozers to help with the problems caused by weather, of which Guyana is suffering from one extreme to another.

He said that government had managed to reduce it costs by 60% now, not having to depend as much on private contractors.

NDIA has currently 61 excavators, eight bulldozers and 11 pontoons, but it was pointed out that these are not enough.

APNU’s Carl Greenidge was not convinced, insisting that the supplementary monies were supposed to be emergency in nature and a case was not made out to support this.

Another APNU MP, Jaipaul Sharma, was highly critical of the motives of the Ministry to want $500M, especially as he believes that according to his calculations, only $40M is needed.

Leader of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, also questioned why the government did not wait and ask for the money in the Budget which is to be tabled in the National Assembly shortly.

The matter was voted only after a lengthy debate and approved.

Meanwhile, in his arguments for the $1.5B,

Housing Minister Irfaan Ali said that the monies were already transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority arm.

This immediately elicited a buzz from the Opposition.

Minister Ali noted that following the budget cuts by the Opposition last year, critical works were affected, including paving of the main access road to Uitvlugt and paving at roads at La Parfait Harmonie, Anna Catherina and Tuschen, in the West Demerara area, among other works.

However, the fact that tenders are still to go out on some of the contracts, prompted the Opposition to query whether the works were emergency in nature to warrant the Housing Ministry to request the $1.5B. Sharma was also puzzled how 12 days before the end of 2012, the Ministry wanted money.

AFC’s Moses Nagamootoo, too, believed the Ministry wanted to mislead the National Assembly. He insisted that

House approves motion to debate former Presidents Benefits Bill

By Abena Rockcliffe The Bill that seeks to repeal the benefits given to former Presidents of Guyana was yesterday read for the first time despite the government side stating its non-support of the bill and definite intention to debate same.

The Bill stands in the name of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s parliamentarian, Carl Greenidge, who yesterday said in the National Assembly that the Act intituled Former Presidents (Benefits and other Facilities) Act 2009 has given “unlimited” benefits to former Presidents while the resources of the state are unlimited.

H o w e v e r, the government’s position is that the Bill that was intituled ‘Former Presidents (benefits and other facilities) bill 2012Bill No. 29/2012 is unacceptable because it violates Standing Order 26 H which stated that for a motion to be admissible it shall not relate to matters which have been referred by the National Assembly to a committee for consideration.

Government’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira supported the position that the Bill was in violation of Standing Order 26

H because as she stated, former presidents’ benefits have been sent to the special select committee which was set up last year.

Further, she stated that the Bill in the name of Greenidge undermines the works of the Special Select Committee.

The Chief Whip said that the Bill is “extremely vindictive” and includes level of small mindedness and referred to its futuristic passing as a breach of good faith.

Teixeira told the house that seeking to pass a Bill in relation to an issue that has already been sent to the special select committee is a waste of each other’s time; and noted that if it is continued “the government will not be part of the masquerade.”

With that she signaled the government’s non support of the special select committee should the Bill be passed.

“If the opposition believes that it has no space for the Special Select Committee the government will no longer be involved, to further waste our time.”

Teixeira pronounced that the passing of the Bill is not the right way to deal with the issue of benefits of former presidents.

“The government opposes the motion to read

this bill for the first time….

Should it be passed, we deserve the right to debate it and will.”

However, Greenidge sought to debunk Teixeira’s arguments and said that he was successful in convincing Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman that passing of the Bill does not violate Standing Order 26 H. The Member of Parliament told the National Assembly that the Special Select Committee has a function to look at two statutes hence standing order 26 was of no relevance.

The Bill, if passed, will completely erase the law in 2009 which sought to provide unlimited benefits for all former presidents of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

Yesterday the National Assembly approved the first reading of the Bill by a vote of 33 to 29.

The Act passed in 2009 ensured lifelong financial prosperity of all former presidents.

It has generated numerous debates and has been deemed a robbery of the people of Guyana.

Parliament is now set to debate the Bill to remove those unlimited benefits even as the government has stated its objection.

Compromise time! Housing Minister Irfaan Ali, and Opposition Leader David Granger, during a break in a heated National Assembly yesterday. his party would back any moves to develop 8,000 houselots as was said by Minister Ali. He warned that government cannot come to the National Assembly for monies already spent.

The issue became so heated that there was a feeling that the Opposition was preparing to vote against the money.

However, the recess came and House Speaker Raphael

Trotman signaled his intention to meet with the three parties.

After the recess, following the meeting, the matter was approved unopposed.

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Deported South African drug mule sent back to Guyana - administrative bungling cited Convicted South African drug mule Cheryll Nosia Kwitshanna was happy to be on her way home after completing her three-year prison term in Guyana last Friday.

But her happiness soon turned to despair when she was turned back at Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and sent back to Guyana, where she is currently languishing in the lock-ups at the East La Penitence Police Station.

Her current plight is a result of some administrative bungling; but who is to be blamed, remains the burning question.

Kaieteur News learnt of the woman’s case after she was returned to local police custody, and placed into the lock-ups, an undesirable

situation for a foreign national who would have spent three years in the harsh Guyana penal system.

Prison authorities, referred all queries to the Central Immigration Department, which in turn pointed this newspaper to the airline responsible for Kwitshanna’s flight back to her homeland, Caribbean Airlines Limited.

It was only then that the reality facing Kwishanna and her relatives began to sink in; the 4,000 pounds/sterling that they had spent for her airline ticket is now lost, and there is no telling when the Guyana government, who is responsible for her deportation, will oblige with another fare.

But one may be asking, just what led to the South African woman’s return to Guyana?

In 2009, Kwitshanna, a South African by birth who was living in the United Kingdom, was nabbed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, with a quantity of narcotics.

She is one of more than 6 0 0 S o uth African drug mules and drug traffickers languishing in foreign jails.

Almost half of these are in jails in South America.

Kwitshanna was charged with trafficking in narcotics and was found guilty by Magistrate Priya Beharry, who sentenced her to three years’ imprisonment and ordered that she be deported upon

Judiciary, Parliament no longer dependent on Govt.

The Opposition last evening defeated Government in a debate to have a number of independent institutions receive monies directly from the Consolidated Fund, instead of depending on government for approval.

The successful piloting of the private member’s motion by Carl Greenidge, Shadow Minister of Finance of A Partnership For National Unity (APNU), would mean that the current practice by government to handle the budget can no longer happen.

The Opposition has been arguing that the bodies could not effectively be independent, if they are “depending” on Government to approve funding.

The institutions include the Guyana Elections

Commission, Office of the Auditor General, Judicial Service Commission, Teaching Service Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, the Judiciary, Parliament Office and the soon-to-be Public Procurement Commission.

Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, in allowing the debate, made it clear that he had concerns over the motion, noting it was the first of its kind in about 20-30 years in the National Assembly.

Dominica had a similar case and the Speaker said he will be using that to guide him when a number of amendments are made.

Under the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003, there is a schedule of bodies

that benefits from funding.

Greenidge, in his motion, was arguing the independent institutions should never have been included in the list and instead should be drawing from Central Government account…the Consolidated Fund.

He said that while the Guyana National Newspaper Limited, Lethem Power Company, NICIL, National Communications Network, Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Guyana Lands and Survey Commission and Guyana Revenue Authority, are not listed, yet they are receiving the monies.

According to Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, the motion by Greenidge was flawed and misleading. He had urged that it be withdrawn.

completion of the sentence.

K w i t s h a n n a ’s t i m e expired at the beginning of this year and she was subsequently released on January 3rd.

Her relatives must have been eager for her to return home, for they had her ticket ready and waiting.

Immediately upon her release, she was handed over to local immigration officials for them to effect the deportation.

Just as her family was eager to have her return home, so too were the Guyanese officials to d e p o r t h e r, a s s h e w a s escorted to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and placed on a Caribbean Airlines flight bound for Trinidad en route to London, England, where she had arrived in Guyana from, almost four years ago.

Her troubles started when she arrived in Trinidad.

British Embassy officials there recognized that Kwitshanna, although she lived in England for a number of years, had lost her temporary residence status to return there and was therefore not permitted to enter the United Kingdom.

It was explained that she had an indefinite stay to remain in England which she forfeited, since she had been out of the UK for such an extended period, in this case more than three years.

“You hardly deport a person to a country other than their country of birth,” a source who is close to the case told this newspaper.

But didn’t the local authorities ascertain to which country Kwitshanna should be deported?

From all indications, the local agencies involved in the entire process seem to be shifting the blame.

“We release all foreign prisoners into Immigration custody,” a senior prison official told Kaieteur News.

One officer at Central Immigration referred this newspaper to the airline when contacted.

An airline official in an interview with Kaieteur News said that Immigration officials did not present any documentation that Kwithshanna was being deported.

The official explained that upon arrival in Trinidad they were informed that the woman was no longer eligible to

enter England and they were advised that she should be sent to South Africa.

But since she was not booked to travel to South Africa, the only other option they had was to return her to Guyana.

What about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Shouldn’t they have been contacted for advice on how to proceed?

This certainly was not done.

An official at that Ministry advised that both the Prison and Immigration authorities should have been putting measures in place one month prior to the deportation of a prisoner to ensure there are no hiccups whenever the time arrives for such a process to be effected.

But the blame is also being placed on Kwitshanna’s relatives who provided her ticket. It was explained that they too should have checked to ascertain if her status in England was valid for her to return there before purchasing the ticket.

For now, Cheryll Kwitshanna remains a guest of the state. But for how long?

That’s a question only the government can answer.

Govt pays over $50M in rent for temporary court …to revert to original facility next month After paying over $50m in rental for the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court to be alternatively housed at Lot 92 Middle Street, Georgetown, Government is hoping to end its tenancy this February.

This is according to Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill, who said that Government began renting the premises in March 2011 at US$11,000 (G$2.2M) per month.

This accumulated to more than the reported “just under $50M” the landlord paid for the building from the failed Globe Trust Company.

Rental of the building could have ended several months ago when expansion and rehabilitaton works had ended at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court building located at Avenue of the Republic and Brickdam.

However, additional works were requested by the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh.

According to Evadney Mangar, Project Coordinator of the Justice Sector Modernization Programme under the Supreme Court, while construction works were being carried out,

pertinent works were not catered for.

For instance, walkways needed to be raised to avoid court users from walking in flood water.

Justice Singh, last August, had told Kaieteur News that the Magistrates’ Court could be occupied in its present state, if there were no other alternatives, but the environment would be very uncomfortable for Magistrates and court users.

However, some persons believe that the temporary building being occupied is inappropriate for a Court.

There have been complaints that the building is not suitable to house a Court since it lacks adequate seating in and out of courtrooms and ventilation is poor.

There is no backup generator so when there is no electricity, windows and doors within the Court have to be opened to let in light.

Sometimes there is no running water. The toilet facilities are oftentimes unhygienic.

Nonetheless, Government continued to conduct court proceedings at the rented premises.

For several months no

construction works were executed on the Magistrates’ Court because of negotiations with the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) that provided the loan for the Justice Sector Modernization Programme.

Edghill believes that after reviewing the Chancellor’s request and negotiating with the IDB the sum of $20M was slated for the works.

Edghill stated that the contractor, PD Contracting Services, who renovated the building, has commenced constructing certain specific features.

The contractor is tasked with constructing independent walkways for Magistrates; rehabilitating public sanitary facilities; executing electrical works; and ensuring adequate water pressure is available for the building.

These works will complement the already completed works.

According to Mangar, the contractor had expanded the building to accommodate four additional courtrooms increasing the number to nine.

Those works cost $69M. Moreover, the old building was rehabilitated to a tune of $19M.

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Venezuela’s sick Chavez misses own inauguration bash CARACAS (Reuters) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez remained on his sickbed in Cuba yesterday while thousands of supporters rallied in his honor on the day he should have been sworn in for a new sixyear term in the South American OPEC nation.

The postponement of the inauguration, a first in Venezuelan history, has laid bare the gravity of Chavez’s condition after complications from a fourth cancer operation in his pelvic area.

It has also left his chosen heir, Vice President Nicolas Maduro - a former bus driver who shares his boss’s radical socialist views - in charge of day-to-day government until there is clarity over whether Chavez will recover.

The president, whose legendary energy and garrulous dominance of the airwaves had often made him seem omnipresent in Venezuela since taking power in 1999, has not been seen in public nor heard from since his surgery on December 11.

“Only God knows what will happen,” William Medina, a 49-year-old worker, told Reuters amid crowds of redclad supporters milling around the presidential palace, many waving banners and posters bearing their

Supporters of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez chant slogans at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, yesterday, yesterday. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) hero’s face.

“But we are ready to take on what he taught us, because each one of us is a Chavez.

We are ready to continue with socialism, because that is the only way to save planet Earth.”

Venezuela’s 29 million people are anxiously watching what could be the last chapter in the extraordinary life of Chavez, who grew up in a rural shack and went on to become one

of the world’s best-known and most controversial heads of state.

The saga also has huge implications for the likes of Cuba and other leftist allies in Latin America that have benefited for years from Chavez’s subsidized oil and other largesse.

A clutch of foreign friends, including the presidents of Uruguay, Bolivia, Haiti and Nicaragua, attended yesterday’s events

Brazil’s WTO candidate to focus on consensus

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s candidate to head the World Trade Organization said yesterday that if he’s selected he’ll focus on restarting long-stalled global talks to lower trade barriers.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital, Brasilia, Roberto Azevedo said he’d strive to build consensus between developed and developing countries in hopes of resuming the so-called Doha Round of talks that began in 2001 but have not reached agreement. The unwillingness of developing powerhouses Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa to cede to U.S. demands for greater market access has been widely cited as one of the main stumbling blocks to the negotiations.

“The impasse in Doha Round negotiations has resulted in serious and concrete differences among the member states,” said Azevedo, a 55-year-old who has served as Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO. “Therefore, it’s fundamental that the future director general be able to move easily among

Roberto Azevedo the different groups of countries, regardless of their level of development, without imposing views on anyone and trying to forge all possible consensuses.”

Azevedo stressed that Brazil is known for its soft diplomatic touch and its ability to nudge opposing sides into sitting down together and said that he personally has demonstrated a similar capacity for consensus building during his tenure as WTO ambassador. He also emphasized that his insider knowledge of the workings of the WTO would prove an

asset, were he to be selected.

In his bid to replace the WTO’s outgoing director general, Pascal Lamy of France, Azevedo is up against seven other candidates from countries including South Korea, Jordan, Kenya and Ghana.

Two other Latin American contenders, from Mexico and Costa Rica, are also in the running, prompting some observers to speculate about whether the regional vote might be split between the three candidates.

At Thursday’s news conference, Azevedo brushed aside that possibility. He stressed that another regional powerhouse, Brazil’s neighbor to the south, Argentina, has already come out in support of his candidacy.

The final phase of the selection process runs from April 1-May 31.

Brazil, along with other fast-growing developing nations, is looking to take on bigger roles in major global financial and trade decisions, primarily within institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the WTO.

in Caracas despite Chavez’s absence.

“We have to express our solidarity at this enormously difficult time for a man who remembered my people, who did not turn his back,” said Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, referring to Chavez’s aid policies around Latin America.

“You hardly see that sort of solidarity anywhere in the world ... Chavez’s mark is a deep one, and let’s hope he can overcome illness,” the former leftist guerrilla told Telesur, a TV network set up

by Chavez to counter Western media influence.

The Miraflores palace, the focus of yesterday’s rally, has been the scene of some of the biggest dramas of Chavez’s rule, from protests in 2002 and a coup that toppled him briefly, to speeches after election wins and emotional returns from previous cancer treatments in Havana.

Venezuela’s opposition leaders are furious at what they see as a Cuban-inspired manipulation of the constitution by Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly, and other Chavez allies aimed at preventing the naming of a caretaker president due to Chavez’s absence yesterday.

Henrique Capriles, who lost October’s presidential election to Chavez, said the opposition had no plans to risk violence by encouraging supporters to hold a counterdemonstration.

“Who wins from a conflict

scenario?” he asked. “They win, the pseudo-leaders who are not the owners of the country.”

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas advised American citizens in Venezuela to exercise caution during the next few days.

A top Venezuelan military officer told state TV the borders were being reinforced and security forces were patrolling to bring people “a sense of peace and tranquility.”

With government updates short on details, little is known about Chavez’s actual medical condition and rumors are flying.

The government’s version is that Chavez suffered complications including a severe lung infection after the latest surgery. But speculation is rife on Twitter that he may be on life support or at risk of major organ failure.

He has undergone four operations, as well as weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in his pelvic area in June 2011.

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Chávez-type strength key to PetroCaribe Jamaica Gleaner - With speculations rife over whether Venezuela would continue the PetroCaribe arrangement if Hugo Chávez is replaced as president, Jamaica’s energy minister says willpower such as the ailing leader’s is a necessary ingredient to the survival of the deal.

“I think there is commitment on the part of the administration (to continue it), but because there was opposition domestically. It does require a strength of character that President Chávez has to see it through, cause it what it will,” Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell told The Gleaner Wednesday.

Chávez, 58, was due to be sworn in for a fourth term today.

However, his inauguration has been postponed due to his ill health. First diagnosed with cancer in June 2011, Chávez was re-elected last October by a significant margin over Henrique Capriles.

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, who was named by Chávez as his preferred successor before the president travelled to Cuba

Phillip Paulwell last month for more cancer surgery, is now in charge of the Venezuelan government.

Wednesday, Paulwell said “PetroCaribe is absolutely essential to Jamaica” and reiterated the Government’s “support and prayers for his (Chávez’s) full and speedy recovery”.

The energy minister was due to meet with Venezuela’s ambassador to Jamaica last evening. He said it would be insensitive to raise the issue of the preservation of the PetroCaribe agreement at this stage.

“They are really hurting, their preoccupation now is not the benefits that we are

deriving, but rather to see the restoration of full health to their president,” Paulwell said.

Under the PetroCaribe arrangement, Jamaica pays Venezuela only 60 per cent of the cost of the oil it receives.

The remainder is set aside as a loan, which is payable over 20 years at an interest rate of one per cent.

The Government last October estimated that there would be a US$600-million annual impact on Jamaica’s balance of payments if Venezuela discontinued its deferred financing arrangement of the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation agreement at that time. Jamaica is currently exploring a barter system as part of a move to honour its debt obligations when they become due.

“We are looking to take advantage of the trade compensation mechanism, which will enable Jamaica to repay its debt (with) goods and services from Jamaica,” Paulwell said. “We are looking at a number of commodities that we can trade to offset and to pay down the debt.”

Friday January 11, 2013

Grenada Parliament dissolved; general elections within 90 days ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada - CMC - Prime Minister Tillman Thomas Wednesday night announced that he had asked Governor General Sir Caryle Glean to dissolve Parliament paving the way for a general election in Grenada within 90 days.

In a brief radio and television address, Thomas did not name the date for the general election that was constitutionally due by October this year, but widely expected before that month.

“I wish to advise that today I advised his Excellency the Governor General to dissolve the Parliament of Grenada. This act paves the way for the setting of an election date within the next 90 days”.

He said he would be announcing the election date “shortly” in order to give all nationals who are eligible to vote an opportunity to be registered.

“All such persons who are yet to register are urged to do so now,” he said.

Prime Minister Thomas said that said since July 2012, the Parliament “has been customarily prorogued” and that “along the same time there were a few resignations from government and many were pondering the government’s options given the prevailing circumstances and the election time frame our country is in.”

He said in order to “responsibly and effectively hold a free and fair general election, the election machinery must be in place and ready to facilitate it and conduct such.

“Given the need to ensure that all Grenadians 18 years and

over who are registered to vote to exercise their hard earned franchise and against the background of a new voter registration system my government’s focus was on ensuring that the new system was properly put in place”.

He told Grenadians that if an election had been called before the new voter registration system had been put in place, the old system with its many problems would have had to be used.

“As a result the isolated calls for an early election before the new system was put in place were in my view irresponsible, self serving and not in the best interest of all Grenadians.”

Thomas said that every national must be given an opportunity to “participate in a free and fair process of choosing a government” adding “in my view much progress has been made with our electoral preparation”.

He said many people had responded to the calls to

ensure that they were registered to vote adding “this has contributed significantly to our state of readiness”.

Prime Minister Thomas led his NDC to an 11-4 victory in the 2008 general election, but has since seen the strength of the party dwindle in the Parliament as government ministers have either been fired or tendered their resignation.

On Sunday, the NDC will hold its first public rally for 2013 at the Sauteurs Bus Terminal in St Patrick, north of here, while the main opposition New National Party (NNP) will be meeting in St David, south east of the island. “We will be presenting candidates for all 15 constituencies,” NDC general secretary Bernard Isaac said.

During a radio and television broadcast on Tuesday night, NNP leader and former prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell said 2013 promises to be a “defining moment in our history.

“It is a historic opportunity, if seized properly that can lay the foundation of a long overdue Grenadian renaissance. Our nation stands at the cross roads, where our collective decisions will determine whether we either slip further, or we halt the slide and return to building on the gains of the last two decades,” he added.

There is mounting speculation that Prime Minister Thomas will use Sunday’s NDC rally to announce the date for the election.

Jamaica Gleaner - The People’s National Party has promised to update the nation on critical matters affecting the economy, including the status of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), at the end of its 3-day Cabinet Retreat which is now underway.

Party Chairman Robert

Pickersgill has acknowledged that the PNP is aware of the concerns related to the ongoing negotiations with the IMF. He said the Cabinet Retreat will be used to review the state of those discussions and the pre and post action requirements related to an agreement.

Meanwhile, the PNP

chairman has also sought to assure that the government’s team of negotiators is seeking to get the best deal which will positively benefit citizens and the economy.

However, he said regardless of the negotiations with the IMF, Jamaica must own and direct its economic growth and development.

Tillman Thomas

Govt. to provide update on IMF talks after retreat

National strike looming in Barbados Barbados Nation - A national strike, which could see thousands of workers on the streets, is now looming following LIME’s decision not to withdraw dismissal letters to 97 employees.

A last-ditch effort mediated by Minister of Labour Esther Byer-Suckoo at the Ministry of Labour’s offices in Warrens, St Michael, failed last night to bring a resolution between the telecommunications company and the island’s

largest trade union, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).

Emerging from over four hours of intense negotiations, general secretary of the BWU, Sir Roy Trotman, said the union would go ahead with plans to l a u n c h a n i s l a nd-wide shutdown after the talks broke down yesterday.

“We are now going to advise my council to take industrial action against Cable

& Wireless. The council will decide when that will be,” said the union boss. “I am very disappointed with Cable & Wireless and the Barbados Employers’ Confederation and with the w a y t h a t employers are deciding that they don’t respect . . . the rights of workers in Barbados,” he said, before h e a d i n g t o t h e u n i o n ’s Solidarity House headquarters for the meeting with the executive council.

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Kaieteur News

Jamaica heading for economic crisis without IMF deal Jamaica Observer Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President Christopher Zacca says Jamaica will be diving deep into an economic crisis if the country continues to be without an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.

What’s more, Zacca figures that the longer it takes to seal a deal, the closer the country will get to falling over its own fiscal cliff.

“Any person [who] suggests that a Plan B without the IMF, at this point, is a viable alternative for our country is not thinking straight,” said Zacca at a Lions Club of Kingston luncheon Wednesday. “Such a train of th o u g h t r i s k s plunging us into the abyss and significantly hurting all of us — most of all, the most vulnerable of us, the poor, the marginalised, and the aged.”

The head of Jamaica’s most powerful private sector lobby group said that the measures needed to satisfy the multilateral lending agency were the same ones needed to fix the economy, which has been mired by a massive, growing debt and decades of very little growth.

And even while he dubbed the IMF deal as a crucial first step for economic reform, Zacca said there was more at stake in the near term; chief among them being a dramatic fall in business and consumer confidence, possible loss of financing from international development partners, further reduction in the country’s

foreign currency reserves needed to pay for imports, and, not least of all, a potentially steeper slide in the Jamaican dollar accompanied by higher inflation.

“Domestic nominal interest rates would obviously rise in response to the higher inflation and currency depreciation, depressing domestic production activity, reducing the growth of investment, and increasing the likelihood of job losses,” Zacca said, while speaking at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston. “And, finally a downward spiral of our financial system and economy would occur, leading to a widespread collapse in our economy and much increased poverty.”

The Government is already struggling to close a fiscal deficit, which is expected to come in at $53 billion (which is almost the amount needed to maintain the police force and deliver health care in Jamaica) over the 12 months ending March 31.

Wi t h p u b l i c d e b t totalling over $1.7 trillion, every percentage point increase in the interest rate translates into another $17 billion a year that the Government will have to find to pay its creditors.

Interest rates started to move upwards towards the end of 2012, when the average yields for treasury bills rose, with the 91-day instrument seeing the rate climb as high as 1.3 percentage points over two months.

Moreover, the lack of a clear IMF agreement, or at the

least a final letter of intent to be taken to the multilateral lending agency’s board, may further push up interest rates and lead to an even weaker dollar, when the Government has to find US$320 million ($30 billion) in hard currency to pay its creditors, along with a more staggering $88 billion in local currency, come February 24.

Zacca, whose organisation’s membership has criticised the Government for not disclosing more details on the “sticking points” in the IMF negotiations, charged the Cabinet with clearly presenting its plan and projected timelines after its retreat, which starts today, is completed on the weekend.

More specifically, he wants to know how public sector wages, pension and tax reforms, as well as measures targeting reduction in bureaucracy and improving the social safety net will be approached.

What comes after, is another thing.

“So, let us assume that we get an IMF agreement, and our leaders outline the plan,” said Zacca. “Politics-as-usual and its attendant divisiveness and paralysis needs to be put aside when it comes to the three or four critical issues such as our debt, crime and education.

“We need a new consensus that brings us together as Jamaicans, to stop us from following each other like lemmings over the cliff and into the abyss,” he added.

WASHINGTON D.C., United States - CMC – A new study has found that last year the Obama administration spent more on immigration enforcement affecting the Caribbean and other countries than on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies.

The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, in its 182report said the US government spent nearly US$18 billion on immigration enforcement.

It pointed out that immigration control has become “the federal government’s highest criminal law enforcement priority,” based on the vast resources devoted to monitoring illegal Caribbean and other immigrants and to detaining and deporting them.

“The ‘enforcement first’ policy that has been advocated by many in Congress and the public as a precondition for considering broader immigration reform has de facto become the nation’s singular immigration policy.” The report also said the two main immigration enforcement agencies under the US Department of Homeland Security have referred more cases to the courts for prosecution than all of the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies combined.

These include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The report said total spending on those agencies was US$14 billion, compared

to US$18 billion on immigration enforcement.

It was also revealed that deportations have “increased dramatically” as a result of massive increases in spending, with more Caribbean and other immigrants removed in expedited proceedings that do not involve any formal proceeding before an immigration judge.

The budget for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has increased by 87 percent since 2005, to nearly US$6 billion, and the number of illegal immigrants that ICE detains annually increased to 429,247 in 2011.

Last month, ICE said it deported 410,000 immigrants in 2012, giving President Barack Obama the record for the highest number of deportations during his term.

Study reveals that US spent billions on Caribbean immigration enforcement

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UK requests extradition of former TCI Premier PROVIDENCIALS, Turks and Caicos Islands CMC – The United Kingdom has made a request for the extradition of former Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick who is being held in a Brazilian jail following after his December arrest in the South American nation on an international warrant.

Under an agreement with Brazil, the British authorities have 60 days from the date of arrest to formally request his extradition said the Turks and Caicos Islands’ (TCI) Attorney General’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

“Michael Misick is the subject of an extradition request made lawfully and properly, in accordance with the relevant Treaty in place between the UK and Brazil, as extended to the Turks and Caicos Islands,” the Attorney General said . “As such, he is currently being held in accordance with the terms of this Treaty, under a provisional warrant of arrest.”

“It is intended that this request be submitted in Jan 2013,” the statement said.

“Following this Mr. Misick

Michael Misick will have the opportunity to consider whether he wishes to contest his extradition.”

“If he does not contest the extradition, and there are no other outstanding issues, then everything possible will be done by Turks and Caicos authorities, in collaboration with his legal advisors and the Brazilian authorities, to ensure his speedy return to face questions in relation to alleged crimes during his time in office and to face trial in accordance with our laws.”

Misick,46, is being sought

in connection with a corruption investigation by the Sir Robin Auld Commission of Inquiry from 2008-2009, which found a “high probability of systemic corruption in government and the legislature and among public officers” in TCI. The findings of the commission led to the suspension of democratic government in the territory.

The first elections since the suspension were held in TCI in November, with Dr Rufus Ewing becoming the territory’s Premier.

“We have received assurances that during his time in custody Mr Misick will receive consular assistance from the British Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro, who will work to ensure that Mr Misick receives the same level of treatment as other British prisoners in Brazil, and is treated in accordance with international minimum standards,” the TCI said.

“The consular staff in Rio will provide the same level of consular assistance offered to all British Citizens in Brazil.”

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Friday January 11, 2013

Obama lacks clear edge in next fight with GOP WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama had a clear political edge in his fight with Republicans over the fiscal cliff, and used it to his advantage. In the upcoming battle over federal borrowing and spending, the leverage will be more evenly divided and the outcome less predictable.

In the fiscal cliff fight, Obama wanted to block automatic New Year’s Day tax increases on everyone but the country’s highest earners.

Republicans were trying to protect upper-income people from those tax hikes, but eventually gave in because they didn’t want to be blamed for the higher middle-class taxes that a stalemate would have triggered.

Next come three deadlines that will almost certainly become entwined.

The government will run out of cash in about two months.

The Obama administration will need congressional approval to borrow more money or face a first-ever federal default, threatening global, economyrattling consequences.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have said they won’t agree to a debtlimit extension without an accord to cut spending. Just as adamantly, Obama says the government’s debt ceiling must be raised and he won’t negotiate over it, though he says he would bargain over spending cuts and tax increases to reduce federal deficits.

At around the same time, automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs are due to begin after winning a twomonth reprieve in the fiscal cliff deal. And in late March, money financing federal agencies expires and new legislation will be needed to prevent a government shutdown. Republicans are sure to use both those measures to try forcing Obama to accept more spending cuts.

Here’s a look at the political pressures each side brings to the battle.

Q: Would Republicans or Democrats really force a federal default just to get their way in a fight over spending?

A: Most wouldn’t and it seems unlikely. But they came close two years ago.

Barack Obama As the government neared its debt ceiling in the summer of 2011, the two sides battled to the brink. They finally agreed to about $1 trillion in 10-year spending cuts and created a congressional “supercommittee” to find an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. The panel produced nothing, triggering a like amount in automatic, across-the-board cuts that Obama and many lawmakers are still trying to find a way to skirt.

That 2011 fight created plenty of worry that the White

House and congressional Republicans could become so deadlocked and adamant that they would plunge the government into default. That concern hasn’t receded, especially with a fresh infusion of conservative Republicans to join the GOP’s tea party-powered 2010 freshman class. That group has proved hard for party leaders, especially Boehner, to control.

This time, many in Washington see threatening default as an empty tactic. The potential consequences are too dangerous, including higher interest rates and tighter credit that would wound the economy and make it costlier for the government to borrow money for a long time.

Q: Then what’s the problem?

A: Both sides have reason to think the other will have to cave in. And each has core supporters insisting that this time, their leaders must not yield.

Conservatives angry over the New Year’s Day fiscal cliff deal, which boosted income taxes on top earners, want the GOP to block further tax increases and force deep spending cuts, including on costly federal benefit programs like Medicare.

Liberals eager to cash in on Obama’s re-election say it’s time to push hard for his

agenda of protecting federal programs and to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans even more.

Q: What leverage does Obama have?

A: Far more than in the 2011 debt limit fight.

Back then, Obama was worrying about getting reelected in 2012 and had no interest in a stalemate that could destabilize an already frail economy. Republicans had high hopes of capturing the Senate, hopes that might be enhanced if the economy weakened further. And Boehner’s new House majority had momentum and was throwing its weight around.

Yet when the smoke lifted from that fight, polls showed the public largely unhappy with Republicans, considering them too inflexible. Now, Democrats are on offense following Obama’s re-election, Democratic gains in the House and Senate and an economy that continues gathering strength, though slowly.

Also helping Obama: The fiscal cliff fight left the GOP divided and Boehner weakened. Most Senate Republicans backed the final compromise between McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden while most House Republicans defied Boehner and opposed it, raising questions about his

effectiveness in leading them this year. In addition, the business community, an influential contributor and constituent of the GOP, strongly opposes a federal default. Powerful groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are already making it clear to both parties that lawmakers must raise the debt ceiling, and Democrats think that pressure will be felt by Republicans.

Q: What makes Republicans think they can prevail?

A: They are united around the goal of shrinking the budget.

Insisting on spending cuts in return for a debt limit extension is exactly what the GOP wants to make the upcoming fight about.

Polling suggests that on those issues, voters seem more inclined to back Republicans. Surveys show most people don’t like the idea of extending the government’s borrowing limit and back the concept of cutting federal spending, at least until specific programs are targeted.

In addition, after the 2011 debt limit fight, Standard & Poor ’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating for the first time and indicated it might do the same if lawmakers didn’t find additional deficit reduction. Republicans say this puts further pressure on Obama to yield.

Images of a dead bin Laden still dangerous: U.S. lawyer

WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Twenty months after U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden, the United States told a court yesterday it is not ready to release images taken after the al Qaeda leader’s death because they still might lead to violence.

A federal appeals court heard arguments in a lawsuit over whether the government must release the images under the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government records.

President Barack Obama’s administration points to an exception in the law that covers documents classified in the interest of national defense.

“They’ll be used to inflame tensions. They’ll be used to inspire retaliatory attacks,” Justice Department lawyer Robert Loeb told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Riots or other forms of violence could threaten American soldiers as well as civilians in Afghanistan, Loeb said.

Osama bin Laden The government has 52 photographs or videos - the medium has not been revealed - from the May 2011 raid in which U.S. special forces killed bin Laden after more than a decade of searching.

The images show a dead bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the transportation of his body to a U.S. ship and his burial at sea, the government has said.

Some of the photographs were taken so the CIA could

conduct facial recognition analysis to confirm the body’s identity, according to court papers.

Two of the court’s three judges, Merrick Garland and Judith Rogers, asked questions indicating they were inclined to defer to the judgment of officials in sworn court affidavits advising against release.

“They’re telling us that could result in death - not just the release of secret information, but death,” Garland said. “Is that not something we should defer to?”

Michael Bekesha, a lawyer for Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group suing for the images, said the government failed to show the danger of releasing the lessgraphic burial images.

Judicial Watch also claims that CIA officials might not have followed procedures when they classified the images as secret.

A decision from the appeals court is likely in the next few months. A lower court judge sided with the government in April.

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U.S. intervention on EU Bombings kill 115 people in Pakistan opens rift in UK leadership QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A series of bombings in different parts of Pakistan killed 115 people yesterday, including 69 who died in a sectarian attack on a bustling billiard hall in the southwest city of Quetta, officials said.

The blasts punctuated one of the deadliest days in recent years in Pakistan, where the government faces a bloody insurgency by Taliban militants in the northwest and Baluch militants in the southwest.

The country is also home to many enemies of the U.S. that Washington has frequently targeted with drone attacks. A U.S. missile strike yesterday killed five

of the dead and wounded were from the minority sect, said another police officer, Mohammed Murtaza. Many of the people who rushed to the scene after the first blast and were hit by the second bomb, which caused the roof of the building to collapse, he said.

Police officers, journalists and rescue workers who responded to the initial explosion were also among the dead, police said.

The sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack to local journalists.

One of the group’s spokesmen, Bakar Saddiq, said the first blast was carried

Radical Sunnis groups often target Pakistan’s Shiite minority, whom they believe hold heretical views and are not true Muslims.

Earlier in the day, a bomb targeting paramilitary soldiers in a commercial area in Quetta killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 others, said Shakeel, the senior police officer.

The United Baluch Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack on the soldiers in calls to local journalists.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb in a crowded Sunni mosque in the northwest city of Mingora killed 22 people and wounded more than 70,

Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg LONDON (Reuters) - An outspoken intervention by a senior U.S. official who said Britain should not leave the European Union opened up a new rift between Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy yesterday.

Cameron played down any suggestion of a disagreement with Washington over his country’s membership of the

EU, but Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, his junior coalition partner, said U.S. concerns over Europe were spot on. Both men were reacting after Philip H. Gordon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, told a media briefing in London the previous day that Washington feared a British exit from the EU would

run counter to U.S. i n t e r e s t s . G o r d o n ’s intervention, a rare and unusually strong diplomatic foray into an emotive domestic debate, made front page news in Britain where Cameron is preparing to deliver a speech setting out his plans to try to renegotiate the country’s relationship with the EU and then put the deal to a vote.

(Reuters) - The head of the German parliament’s influential European Union Affairs Committee warned Britain yesterday against trying to “blackmail” other countries in its push to fashion a new relationship with Europe.

Gunther Krichbaum, an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also said British Prime Minister David Cameron risked isolating the UK and paralysing European integration if he held a referendum on relations with the European Union.

The comments were the second significant foreign

intervention over Cameron’s EU strategy in two days after the United States on Wednesday said it wanted Britain to remain in the 27member bloc.

Cameron is expected to deliver a major speech on Britain’s EU ties later this month and is already under intense pressure from his own Conservative party and increasingly eurosceptic voters to repatriate powers from Brussels or leave the EU entirely.

He has repeatedly threatened to veto EU initiatives he does not see as being in Britain’s interest and has hinted he could use such

threats as a bargaining chip to achieve his aims.

“You cannot create a political future if you are blackmailing other states.

That will not help Britain. It needs a Europe that is stable.

It needs markets that are functioning,” said Krichbaum, leading a delegation from his committee on a two-day visit to Britain.

“In the broader sense of negotiating a new treaty, it is neither wise nor useful to open Pandora’s box, because every state in the EU, not just Britain, would again try to get their interests in,” Krichbaum added.

German parliament group warns Britain against “blackmail” on EU

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier and local residents gather at the site of bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan, yesterday. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) suspected militants in the seventh such attack in two weeks, Pakistani intelligence officials said.The billiard hall in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was hit by twin blasts about 10 minutes apart yesterday night, killing 69 people and wounding more 160 others, said senior police officer Hamid Shakeel.

The billiard hall was located in an area dominated

by Shiite Muslims, and most

out by a suicide bomber and the second was a bomb planted in a car and detonated by remote control.

said senior police officer Akhtar Hayyat.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

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U.S., Afghanistan have reached “last chapter” in war aim – Panetta

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (R) listens to remarks by President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai (L) before their meeting at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, yesterday. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst.

WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday that the two countries had reached the “last chapter” in their effort to establish a sovereign Afghanistan that can provide for its own security.

After a formal welcoming ceremony at the Pentagon, Panetta told Karzai that 2013 would mark an important turning point in the war, with Afghan forces due to begin taking the lead role in providing security across the country while coalition troops offered support and training.

“We’ve come a long way towards a shared goal of establishing a nation that you and we can be proud of, one that never again becomes a safe haven for terrorism,” Panetta said in remarks at the start of meetings in his office.

“Our partnership, forged ... through almost 11 years of shared sacrifice, is a key to our ability to achieve the final mission.”

Karzai’s three-day visit to Washington follows a year of rising strains on the U.S.Afghan partnership, including a spate of incidents in which Afghan military or police attacked and killed U.S. or coalition troops. U.S. forces were involved in a series of incidents that enraged Afghans, including burning Korans, which touched off days of rioting.

Karzai’s visit comes as the two countries are in the midst of discussions on an agreement that would govern the role of any U.S. forces in Afghanistan after most combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014.The Obama administration has been considering maintaining a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in

Afghanistan to conduct counterterror operations while providing some training and assistance for Afghan troops.

But the administration said earlier this week it did not rule out the possibility of a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 2014.

While Karzai has been critical of U.S. troop activity in Afghanistan, it is unclear how Afghan troops would perform without U.S. helicopters, medical facilities, intelligence and other military support activity, of which Afghanistan has very little.

Karzai, in remarks in Panetta’s office, said he was confident that during his trip Afghanistan and the United States would be able to “work out a modality for a bilateral security agreement to ensure the interests of Afghanistan and also the interests of the United States.”

Friday January 11, 2013

Jobless claims rise, but jobs market recovery intact WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, the Labor Department said yesterday, but details of the report suggested the jobs market continued to grow at a moderate pace.

Other data suggested the economy remained on a steady growth path, with sales at wholesalers rising by the most in more than 1-1/2 years in November, keeping inventories balanced.

Initial claims for state jobless aid increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 371,000.

The prior week’s figure was revised to show 5,000 fewer applications than previously reported.

Claims tend to be very volatile around this time of the year because of the holidays and seasonal layoffs, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market’s health.

While claims increased last week, there was nothing

in the data to suggest a deterioration in labor market conditions.

“Jobless claims data continue to suggest steady but modest U.S. employment gains,” said Robert Kavcic, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, increased 6,750 to 365,750, still at a level consistent with steady job gains.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data.

A Labor Department analyst said there was nothing unusual in state level claims data and that no states had been estimated. He noted, however, that jobless claims on an unadjusted basis tend to peak in the second week of January and the rise in the week ended January 5 was a build-up to that.

Economists said it would take several more weeks

before the data are free of seasonal distortions.

The labor market has been gradually improving, with job gains last year averaging 153,000 per month, little changed from 2011. That has not been enough to significantly cut the unemployment rate which ended the year at 7.8 percent.

A second report from the Labor Department showed job openings were unchanged at 3.7 million in November. Layoffs, however, declined and there was an increase in the number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs — both signs of improving labor market conditions.

Job growth has been hobbled by uncertainty over fiscal policy. Economists said a last-minute deal by the U.S. Congress to avoid some of the $600 billion in deep government spending cuts and higher taxes, or the fiscal cliff, only eliminated part of the uncertainty.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria denounced international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi as “flagrantly biased” yesterday, casting doubt on how long the U.N.-Arab League mediator can pursue his peace mission.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry was responding to remarks by Brahimi a day earlier in which he ruled out a role for President Bashar al-

Assad in a transitional government and effectively called for the Baathist leader to quit.

“In Syria...what people are saying is that a family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long,” Brahimi told the BBC, referring to Assad, who inherited his post from his father Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in 1970 and ruled for 30 years.

“President Assad could take the lead in responding to the aspiration of his people rather than resisting it,” the veteran Algerian diplomat said, hinting the Syrian leader should go.

The Foreign Ministry in Damascus said it was very surprised at Brahimi’s comments, which showed “he is flagrantly biased for those who are conspiring against Syria and its people”.

The ministry later said it was nevertheless still willing to work with the envoy to find a political solution to the crisis.Brahimi has had no more success than his predecessor Kofi Annan in his quest to resolve the 21month-old conflict in which more than 60,000 people have been killed.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that violence in Syria might worsen and said the international community must “step up” its response if it does.

So far regional rivalries and divisions among big powers have stymied any

concerted approach to the upheaval, one of the bloodiest to emerge from a series of revolts in the Arab world.

Russian and U.S. diplomats, who back opposing sides of the war, will meet Brahimi in Geneva on Friday. Ahead of the meeting, Russia repeated its insistence that Assad must not be pushed from power by external forces and that his exit must not be a precondition for negotiations.

“Only the Syrians themselves can agree on a model or the further development of their country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

Syria’s al-Watan newspaper said Brahimi had removed his “mask of impartiality” to reveal his true face as a “a tool for the implementation of the policy of some Western countries”.

On Sunday Assad, making his first public speech in six months, offered no concessions and said he would never talk to foes he branded terrorists and Western puppets.

As peace efforts floundered, rebels battled for a strategic air base for a second day, pursuing a civil war that had briefly receded for some Damascus residents who set aside their differences to play in a rare snowfall that blanketed the city.

Syria denounces peace envoy who hinted Assad must go

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Murdered insurance executive…

Accused to stand trial in High Court Clive Knights, who was in August 2012 charged with the murder of insurance executive Bert Whyte, was yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court. Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry who presided over the Preliminary Inquiry (PI), informed Knights that a prima facie case had been made out against him.

The charge states that on May 14 last year, Knights stabbed Whyte to death.

During the PI, Prosecutor Steven Telford stood for the state and was able to convincingly present evidence that linked Knights to Whyte’s demise.

Police witnesses were presented in the case, with a few relatives of the deceased also testifying.

At Knights’ first court appearance, prosecutor Denis Griffith stated that on the day in question, around 19:25 hours, Whyte and Knights, who were said to be friends, were in the vicinity of Main Street when they ended up in a misunderstanding that turned into a scuffle.

Murdered: Bert Whyte Clive Knights being escorted to court The accused reportedly stabbed Whyte several times before running away. Whyte fell a few yards from where the incident occurred, in front of a popular night spot, before he was transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Knights had been on the run for a little less than three months after the fatal stabbing of the 45-year-old former Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Life (GTM) Insurance Company employee. The accused was said to have

narrowly escaped police officers in Cow Dam Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, when he was reportedly spotted in the victim’s car which bore cardboard licence plates.

A few weeks later, Knights was caught when a routine police operation which was conducted at Yarrowkabra on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. He had given a false name, but was taken in for questioning, where he finally gave his real name and was detained. Police sources said that the accused had reportedly given a confession statement.

Friday January 11, 2013

Human Services Ministry gears to expand WOW initiative With the aim of providing more economical opportunities for single parent women, Government, through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, is gearing this year to expand the Women of Worth (WOW) initiative. This was recently disclosed by Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster.

Introduced in 2010 during the tenure of former Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand, the WOW programme was designed to be an avenue of financial assistance for single parent women, with a mandate to help them improve their livelihood through small business ventures.

Although the programme has been serving a wide cross section of single parent women, evident by the more than $16 million in micro loans which were disbursed last year, Minister Webster said that there are plans for expansion. “We feel that there is a need to provide more opportunities for our single parent women, especially to help them be able to expand business opportunities.”

The moves will entail the Ministry initiating training

programmes for the recipients who have already benefited from loans. The loans are disbursed by the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) which has been working in collaboration with the Ministry to fulfil the mandate of the WOW initiative. The total number of loans disbursed since the establishment of the programme has significantly increased, Minister Webster asserted, as she disclosed that “in 2012 we disbursed $16.424 million to various beneficiaries.” She also highlighted the fact that there were 61 new borrowers during the course of last year, added to the approximately 67 single parents who were granted second loans. There were two third-time borrowers and another received a fourth loan.

The vision for expansion will see the Ministry seeking to embark on partnership ventures with a view to helping the recipients of loans find market for some of their produce. According to Minister Webster “we feel that access to markets will help them to expand their businesses and the whole issue of placing greater emphasis on the role of women in the

economy, which is important.”

During the course of 2012, loans were disbursed to single parent women to engage in business operations including: clothing and garment manufacturing, poultry-rearing, agriculture, catering, bakery operations, cosmetology, retail clothing and vending, packaging of spices for overseas export, leather craft and manufacturing of bottled and package juices. The total number of loans that have been granted to date is 977.

Minister Webster asserted that the WOW programme is also aimed at offering economic stability to women who would have endured abusive relationships. She made reference to the fact that some abused women are still of the view that they have no hope and therefore in many cases, opt to return to abusive relationships.

“We have to change that, by providing more safe houses for the victims,” said the Minister as she revealed plans for the construction of one such facility in Region Three. She explained that there is private funding available for this project.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

NCN CHANNEL 11 03:00 hrs - Movie 05:00 hrs - Inspiration 05:30 hrs - Newtown Gospel 06:00 hrs - NCN Late Edition News(r/b) 06:30 hrs - BBC 08:00 hrs - Bollywood Hits (R/B) 09:00 hrs - Stop the Suffering 10:00 hrs - CCTV 11:00 hrs - History 12:00 hrs - CNN 12:30 hrs - NCN Newsbreak 12:35 hrs - Oral Tradition (r/ b) 13:05 hrs - Movie 15:30 hrs - Feature

16:00 hrs - Cartoons 17:00 hrs - Anderson 18:00 hrs - NCN News Magazine – Live 18:30 hrs - Pulse Beat 19:00 hrs - Al Jazeera 19:30 hrs - Feature 20:00 hrs - 3d/daily millions/ play de dream/lotto draw 20:05 hrs - NCN Newsbreak 20:10 hrs - Grow with IPED 20:40 hrs - Between the Sticks with the GCA 22:05 hrs - NCN News Late Edition 22:35 hrs - Caribbean Newsline 23:00 hrs - Movie

DTV CHANNEL 8 08:55 hrs. Sign On 09:00 hrs. GMA 10:00 hrs. Live! With Kelly and Michael 11:00 hrs. The Ricki Lake Show 12:00 hrs. The View 13:00 hrs. Prime News 13:30 hrs. The Young and the Restless 14:30 hrs. The Bold and the Beautiful 15:00 hrs. The Talk 16:00 hrs. MacGyver 17:00 hrs. The Ellen DeGeneres Show 18:00 hrs. World News 19:00 hrs. Greetings and

Friday January 11, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) You may be growing tired of putting out so much energy, especially if you are busy at work. This is an ideal time to re-evaluate your career path as today’s goal-oriented Capricorn New Moon activates your 10th House of Public Status.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Today’s Capricorn New Moon falls in your 4th House of Emotional Security, raising stressful issues on the home front. You may feel that no matter what you do, someone in your family is going to be on your case for not having done something else.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Follow the path that is opened by new opportunities now as the ambitious Capricorn New Moon lands in your inspirational 9th House of Adventure. You know that exciting changes are just around the corner, but you might want to wait a bit longer before committing yourself to a new project.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) It may feel as if the resistance you are encountering originates from the current circumstances in your external world. However, the Capricorn New Moon occurs in your 3rd House of Communication, indicating that your immediate environment is a reflection of you.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) You might as well go along with the plans of the day while the rational Capricorn New Moon energizes your 8th House of Deep Sharing. However, it’s not wise to become too entangled with other people’s long-term goals today.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) The calculating Capricorn New Moon stimulates your 2nd House of Possessions, encouraging you to be practical in your approach to managing personal resources.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) You may need to grit your teeth and do what’s expected of you since today’s serious Capricorn New Moon emphasizes your 7th House of Relationships.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) Even if being practical isn’t normally your strength, your friends and family may rely on you now to hold things together with the stabilizing Capricorn New Moon occurring in your 6th House of Self-Improvement.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) You might have a tough time talking yourself into a lighthearted mood today, unless you have already completed your work.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) Today’s New Moon in your sign starts a new emotional cycle that allows you to leave the past behind.

Accept your current feelings, even if they aren’t consistent with last year’s plans.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) Fantasy plays a significant role in your life now as the Capricorn New Moon falls in your 12th House of Dreams. You might feel as if reality is dissolving into the mists of illusion, but don’t get so caught up in your ethereal visions that re-entry to your world is difficult.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) You take your relationships very seriously now because the responsible Capricorn New Moon emphasizes your 11th House of Groups and Friends.

Page 27

Announcements 20:00 hrs. Channel 8 News 21:05 hrs. Movie: The River Wild 23:00 hrs. Sign Off MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 Sign on 06:00 hrs - Islamic perspective 06:30 hrs - News Update 07:00 hrs - DAYBREAK – (live) 08:00 hrs - Dabi’s Variety music break 08:30 hrs - Avon Video & DVD 09:00 hrs - BBC World News 09:15 hrs - Top Notch music Break 09:30 hrs - Caribbean temptation Music Mix

10:00 hrs - Amanda’s Costume jewellery Musical 10:30 hrs - BBC World News 11:00 hrs - National Geographic 12:00 hrs - The View 13:00 hrs - Village Talk 13:30 hrs - The Young and the Restless 14:30 hrs - Days of Our Lives 15:00 hrs - General Hospital 16:00 hrs - The Bold and the Beautiful 16:30 hrs - Cartoons 17:00 hrs - Birthdays and other greetings 17:15 hrs - Death

Announcement/ In Memoriam 17:30 hrs - Sitcom 18:00 hrs - Charran’s Radiator Video Hits 18:30 hrs - Kingdom Voice 19:00 hrs - Soul Melodies 19:30 hrs - News Update 20:30 hrs - Clear Water Music Hour 21:30 hrs - Music request Hour 22:30 hrs - Sitcom 23:00 hrs - News Update 23:30 hrs - Movie: Robin Hood: Ghost of Sherwood Sign off

Guides are subjected to change without notice

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Friday January 11, 2013

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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FIFA intervene as GFF, GFA reach agreement During private meetings held at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday, officials representing Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Georgetown Football Association (GFA), CONCACAF and FIFA agreed to a set of statutes that should see an end to the longstanding dispute.

Acting President, Franklin Wilson and General Secretary, Noel Adonis represented GFF while GFA President, Vernon Burnett and General Secretary, Christopher Matthias, carried their position into the meetings and according to an official press release coming out of the closed-door meetings, “agreed to move beyond their past grievances under CONCACAF and FIFA recommended provisions”.

“In an effort to regenerate an environment of trust, we are in accordance with the resolutions rendered today provided all parties comply with the agreement. We thank CONCACAF and FIFA for coming to Guyana in order to re-establish a good atmosphere and cooperation

among all football stakeholders,” Wilson is quoted as stating in the release.

“We very much welcome this intervention. In the interest of the development of the game, GFA would like to contribute to football by agreeing to the developmental proposals made by FIFA and CONCACAF in this agreement,” Burnett said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the following points have been accorded by both parties, where each party respectively undertakes the following responsibilities: 1. GFA agrees to permanently withdraw all legal actions lodged before the ordinary Courts of Guyana against the GFF by 14 January 2013; 2. GFF agrees to immediately reinstate all membership rights to the GFA upon withdrawal of all aforementioned legal actions; 3. Upon the signing of this Agreement, GFA agrees to offer to reinstate all membership rights to Alpha United FC, Western Tigers FC

and Pele FC. The aforementioned clubs will be granted until 16 January 2013 to accept reinstatement and to make nominations for the upcoming GFA Executive Committee elections; 4. GFA agrees to hold an Electoral Congress on 19 January 2013 for the election of its Executive Committee and that such Congress will be monitored by the GFF; 5. GFF agrees to hold its annual Ordinary Congress by 15 April 2013, at which elections for its Executive Committee will be held; 6. GFF shall take all necessary steps to create as soon as possible, but no later than 31 January 2013, an Electoral Commission comprised of 3 independent persons to oversee and supervise its electoral process in accordance with the principles of the FIFA Standard Electoral Code.

Such nomination will be confirmed by FIFA; 7. GFA agrees to reimburse to GFF all reasonable expenses associated to the May 2011 annual Ordinary Congress,

United we stand, divided we fall! From left, FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb, acting GFF President, Franklin Wilson, GFA President, Vernon Burnett and FIFA Director of Members Associations and Development, Thierry Regenass join hands after briefing the media last night on the agreement on the GFF/GFA impasse. upon presentation of the respective invoices. In case of dispute in relation to the relevance of a presented invoice, the matter will be submitted to FIFA and CONCACAF for a decision; 8. GFF agrees that it will offset all amounts owed to the GFA from the aforementioned expenses linked to the May 2011 annual Ordinary Congress; 9. GFF and GFA acknowledge that recourse to ordinary courts is prohibited under the provisions of FIFA, CONCACAF and GFF Statutes and expressly guarantee not to seek such recourse to ordinary courts to settle their disputes in the

future. GFF and GFA are aware of the potential sanctions that could be imposed by FIFA and CONCACAF in case of breach of the aforementioned provision.

The Agreement will be submitted to FIFA for review and endorsement. FIFA and CONCACAF will work together with the soon to be elected GFF Executive Committee in order to ensure the proper implementation of the governance and judicial principles contained in the GFF Statutes.

Given that all associations should conform to the FIFA Statutes, both international governing bodies have made

clear that any future infringement will not be tolerated and further actions will be taken in accordance with FIFA and CONCACAF Statues in the case this agreement is not fulfilled.

The CONCACAF and FIFA officials have also held meetings with all nine GFF regional associations and a delegation of the Guyana National Team in order to include all stakeholders involved in the decisions that took place during the official visit. An early-morning meeting with the Minister of Sports, Dr. Frank Anthony, to talk about the development of the sport in Guyana moving forward was also held.

‘Lightening Struck Assassin’ goes after ‘The Sniper’ as Friday Night fights resume Kwesi ‘Lightening Struck Assassin’ Jones’ sensational knockout of Cleveland Fraser had sent an ominous message to his detractors that he is not prepared to leave his fortunes in the hands of the judges.

The feat, though commendable, turned out to be counterproductive as ever since, opponents have shied

away from and he has since been starved from competition.

All this will now end when Jones dons gloves against Barbadian, Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox in a 10 rounds non-title catchweight scrap when the Guyana Fight Night boxing cards, under the patronage of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control

GCA\Noble House Sea Foods 2nd Div tourney schedule for this weekend A number of matches in the Georgetown Cricket Association\ Noble House Sea Foods 2 day 2nd Division competition are schedule for this weekend.

At GNIC, Everest Cricket Club will play Ace Warriors with Hortence Isaacs and Khemraj Sookdeo officiating,

GDF will host GYO with Ashok Bridgekumar and Ryan Banwari in charge. DCC and MSC will do battle at GYO under the watchful eyes of Delvin Austin and Clyde Layne, while MYO will host UG with Mario Nicholls and Saeed Mohamed umpiring.

(GBBC), resumes at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Friday January 25 next.

Mark Austin will go after the local junior/middleweight title when he faces unbeaten pugilist, Gladwin Dorway over 12 rounds while Charlton Skeete will match gloves with Delon Allicock in a 4 rounds super/bantamweight fight.

The night’s opener will witness Berbician, Richard Williamson opposing Orlan Rogers in a 6 rounds super/ bantamweight affair.

The boxers are scheduled to convene this afternoon at the Avenue of the Republic offices of Abdool and Abdools Insurance Brokers for the contract signing ceremony.

The admission price is $1,000 while children will be allowed in for $500.

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Kaieteur News

Friday January 11, 2013

Radwanska soars in Sydney, Ferrer struts in NZ SYDNEY (Reuters) Agnieszka Radwanska needed eight match points to finish off Li Na on Thursday but confirmed her fine preAustralian Open form by maintaining her perfect start to the year and reaching the final of the Sydney International.

The Polish top seed was well worth the 6-3 6-4 win over her Chinese opponent and will face Dominika Cibulkova in Friday’s final after the Slovakian stunned German second seed Angelique Kerber 6-2 4-6 6-3.

“I think I was really playing good tennis the last couple of days,” said Radwanska, who also won the Auckland Classic last week and has started the year with eight straight wins. “I hope I can continue playing at this level.”

David Ferrer has played six fewer matches than Radwanska this year but really hit his stride on Thursday when he swept aside Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-1 to remain on course for a fourth title at the Auckland Open.

The Spaniard, who like

Radwanska will be seeded fourth at Melbourne Park next week, needed just 54 minutes to beat his Slovak opponent and set up a semi-final against France’s Gael Monfils, who later beat Tommy Haas 3-6 75 6-3.

The fifth seed in the men’s draw for the year’s first grand slam, Tomas Berdych, had a less enjoyable day down at Kooyong where he was humbled 6-3 6-2 by Australia’s resurgent former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt, now 31 and ranked 82nd in the world, beat Milos Raonic in his first round robin match on Wednesday and his 88-minute victory over Czech Berdych puts him into the final of the exhibition event.

There he will meet either Argentina’s world number seven Juan Martin Del Potro or Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who face off at the Kooyong Classic on Friday.

“I’m just thrilled to be able to perform like this against quality players and on backto-back days,” Hewitt told reporters. “I’ve had five tough sets in two days and that will hold me in good stead

for next week.”

DEJA VU Although Radwanska has had a busy schedule, Li was clearly tired after playing nine times in 10 days as well as flying from China to Australia after winning last week’s Shenzhen Open.

The Pole broke on Li’s first service game and rarely looked back before stuttering to close out the match as she had in beating Yanina Wickmayer in Auckland last week. “It was kind of like a deja vu from Auckland final,” she said. “I’m really ready for the Australian Open. I will do of course everything to win that match tomorrow as well, and we’ll see.

I hope to win 16 matches in a row.” Cibulkova added world number five Kerber to her list of top 10 victims in Sydney this week having already beaten Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani.

Like Hewitt, Australian young gun Bernard Tomic proved he was a player to be avoided in Friday’s draw for the Australian Open with a quarter-final victory.

The 20-year-old came

Agnieska Radwanska of Poland hits a return to Li Na of China during their women’s singles semi-final match at the Sydney International tennis tournament January 10, 2013. REUTERS/ Daniel Munoz

from a set down to beat defending champion Jarkko Nieminen 6-7 6-4 6-2 and extend his winning streak to five matches this year, including his stunning victory over Novak Djokovic in Perth last week.

“I’m really confident now, and I got a shot to get into the final for the first time in my career,” said Tomic, who will play Andreas Seppi in the

semi-finals after the Italian third seed beat Marcel Granollers 6-4 7-5.

Frenchman Julien Benneteau earlier cruised past American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-2 and will play Kevin Anderson for a place in the final after the South African had an equally emphatic 6-4 6-3 win over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Men’s top seed John

Isner, who lost to Harrison on Wednesday, pulled out of the Australian Open on Thursday because of a knee injury, leaving Sam Querrey as the only American men’s seed at Melbourne Park.

Querrey overcame Canada’s Jesse Levine 6-4 76 in Auckland and will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the semi-finals after the German beat Xavier Malisse 7-6 6-4.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Two killed in Dakar rally Ansa McAl presents WDFA Stag Beer League prizes crash involving British team

Marketing Assistant for Stag Beer, John Maikoo hands over Championship Trophy to O’Neil Heywood of the Den Amstel Porknockers FC as representatives of the four top teams in the WDFA 2012 Stag Beer League share the moment.

Ansa McAl yesterday held a prize giving ceremony at its head office at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara for the winners in the West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) Stag Beer League, which recently concluded.

Den Amstel Porknockers FC were crowned the 2012 League champions after they had defeated Uitvlugt Warriors FC on penalty shootout. Young Achievers FC and Stewartville United were the third and fourth place clubs respectively.

The teams received

monetary awards, including $200,000, $140,000, $90,000 and $50,000 for finishing in the top four. Forward, Andre Hector was awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, while Jeffery Perreira won the Highest Goal Scorer prize and keeper, O’Neil Heywood copping the Best Goalkeeper award.

Under the Stag Beer brand, two football associations’ senior football Leagues were sponsored and the results were heralded as satisfying. The League witnessed a resuscitation of football after a five-year

period and an overwhelming support from fans of the nine participating clubs.

Marketing Assistant for Stag, John Maikoo, thanked the clubs for an incident free League and pledged his company’s commitment in continuing the support of the League. He noted that the League was good for football in Guyana.

Heywood, on behalf of the WDFA and the participating teams, thanked the sponsors for a timely support and pledged to continue to win under the Stag Beer Brand.

Windwards score 42 run win over CCC Darren Sammy cuts during his innings (WICB)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Windward Islands scored a 42-run victory over Combined Campuses and Colleges yesterday in the eighth game of the Caribbean

Twenty20 tournament at Queen’s Park Oval.

CCC won the toss and opted to field and held the Windward Islands to 129/7 off their 20 overs. Keddy

Lesporis 33 and Darren Sammy 32 were the top scorers for the Windwards with Jason Holder 2-26 and Raymon Reifer 2-14 were the lead wicket takers for CCC. In reply, CCC were dismissed for 87 in 18.5 of their 20 overs. R. Reifer 17 and Kyle Corbin 17 were the best batsmen for the CCC. Sammy 3-17, Garey Mathurin 2-24 and Liam Sebastien 2-8 destroyed for the Windwards. Sammy was named man-of-the-match for his all-round effort.

Scores: Windward Islands 129/7 (20/20 ov) Lesporis 33, Sammy 32; Holder 2-26, R. Reifer 2-14; Comb C&C 87 (18.5/20 ov) R. Reifer 17, Corbin 17; Sammy 3-17, Mathurin 2-24, Sebastien 2-8. Result: Windward Islands won by 42 runs.

BBC Sport - Two people have been in killed in Peru in a head-on collision involving a support vehicle for the Dakar rally. The victims were travelling in a taxi which hit a Land Rover from a British team of injured army veterans.

Seven people - three of them Britons - were injured in the crash. Peruvian police are investigating the circumstances of the accident. The Dakar is billed as the world’s toughest race.

It has been staged in South America since 2009.

Three members of the British team, Race2Recovery, were flown to hospital in Lima.

They are reported to be “stable and conscious” with injuries described as “nonlife-threatening”.

The men were named as Justin Birchall, 40, a team driver and civilian volunteer from Burnley, Lancashire, whose vehicle retired earlier in the race, former Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer and Gulf War and Falklands war veteran Lee Townsend, a team mechanic, from Yate near Bristol, and retired Army Major John

One of the vehicles that crashed during the Dakar Rally Winskill, 42, the team logistics expert, who is from Durrington, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Four passengers from the taxi are also being treated in hospital.

Another taxi overturned while swerving to avoid the crash wreckage, but no-one in this vehicle is thought to have been seriously hurt.

Race2Recovery, which raises funds for military charities, said their vehicle had been travelling a convoy of support vehicles. The team leader, Captain Tony Harris, said: “Our hearts go out to the families and relatives of those who have died in this tragic accident and we offer them our condolences and sympathy.”

Captain Harris, who lost a lower leg while serving in Afghanistan, said that the team had agreed to continue the race. “The team decided before we even started that we would continue our endeavour.

This is obviously a huge shock but we know that we have the blessing of the injured. They want the team to finish.”

The rally began in Lima on Saturday and will finish in southern Chile on 20 January.

It was moved to South America after the 2008 race along the former route - from Paris to Dakar - was abandoned because of threats to the competitors from armed groups in North Africa.

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GCB senior 4 day inter-county tourney

Kaieteur News

Friday January 11, 2013

Chanderpaul hits half century for President XI, Demerara in control against E’bo Tagenarine Chanderpaul plays a defensive stroke during his half century knock yesterday

President XI opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul slammed a fine half century against Berbice, while Demerara were in a comfortable position in their

match against Essequibo as the Guyana Cricket Board Senior 4-day Inter-County tournament got underway yesterday with two matches.

At DCC, the President XI

won the toss and elected to bat. Tagenarine Chanderpaul and fellow opener Krishna Arjune got them off to a bright start adding 80 for the opening stand with solid

Shemroy Barrington drives through point

batting.

Arjune after hitting six fours and two sixes fell one short of a half century when he nicked a delivery from pacer Keon Joseph and was caught by wicketkeeper Jason Sinclair in the 23rd over.

Joseph then trapped Kevon Boodie for 04 to make it 86-2.

Clinton Pestano soon got into the act when he removed Jitendra Sookdeo without scoring as the President slipped to 91-3. Chanderpaul and skipper Eugene La Fleur put together 30 for the fourth wicket as they brought up their team’s triple figure in the 37th over in 157 minutes.

Chanderpaul soon reached his fifty with consecutive boundaries through backward point before he was caught behind off left arm spinner Gudakesh Motie Kanhai without addition to his score. His half century came off 126 balls and contained five fours and a six.

The president then lost Devon Clements who was caught at the wicket off Eon Hooper for 03 and La Fleur caught off Kanhai for 37 which came off 63 and included six fours. Raj Nanan and Anthony Bramble saw them to tea without further loss at 155.

Upon resumption Nanan was run out for 03 to leave the score on 173. Bramble soon followed caught off Kanhai for 22 before Seon Daniels edged Pestano behind for 04 and Gilford Moore had his stumps knocked over by the same bowler for a duck as President XI were bowled out for 182 in 70.4 overs. Kanhai 3-28, Pestano 3-55 and Joseph 237 were the main wicket takers

Shemroy Barrington drives through the off side yesterday

for Berbice who commence their innings today.

At Everest, Essequibo were flawless at the toss and decided to take first strike.

Norman (21) and Royan Federicks (07) put together 21 for the opening stand, however medium pacer Kellon Carmichael removed them both in the space of 10 runs to leave the score on 31.

Dillon Heyliger and Ricardo Adams took the total to 57 before Adams was caught off Robin Bacchus for 18.

Essequibo then lost a few more wickets including that of Heyliger for 20 (2x4) before Vijay Surujpaul and Anthony Adams featured in the biggest partnership of their team’s innings, 47 for the 8th wicket.

Left arm spinner Totaram Bishun then removed Adams for 25 (3x4, 1x6) while Surujpaul went for 40, inclusive of four fours.

Carmichael 3-35, Bishun 3-28 and Amir Khan 2-32 were the men mainly responsible for Essequibo being bowled for 167 in 48.3 overs.

Demerara were off to a bright start with Robin Bacchus and Shemroy Barrington putting together 66 for the first wicket. Bacchus who stroked six fours was the first to go when he trapped in front by off spinner Royan Federicks for 35.

Rajendra Chandreka joined Barrington and took the score to 78 before Chandreka was leg before to Anthony Adams for 28(3x4) who also trapped Barrington for 19 (1x4) at 97. Chanderpaul Hemraj (06*) and Vishal Singh (03*) safely negotiated the closing overs as Demerara ended the day on 103-3 in 41 overs.

The competition continues today.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 33

Australia v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI, Melbourne

SRI LANKA SEEK ONE-DAY REDEMPTION ESPNCricinfo - The great mystery of Sri Lankan cricket is how they can be so disappointing in Tests and yet so impressive in the shorter formats. In part it comes down to personnel, for bowlers like Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis are not in the Test setup but are consistently dangerous in limited-overs matches. Part of it must also be a down to attitude: at times during the Test series, the Sri Lankans clearly lacked the kind of patience that could have helped them challenge Australia, but across 50 overs such a mindset is not a bad thing.

Part of is simply a matter of confidence. Sri Lanka deserve to be bullish entering this five-match series. Last time they played a bilateral one-day series in Australia they won, and in last summer’s triangular series they took Australia to a third final.

They have also won their past three one-dayers at the

MCG, the venue of this first game.

On paper, Sri Lanka appear a much stronger side than in the Tests, and not just because of Malinga and Mendis. Thisara Perera is a fine limited-overs allrounder, Akila Dananjaya is a spinner of potential and mystery, and men such as Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, who came in for the Sydney Test, should be in their element.

Australia’s squad is a mixed bag. There are four uncapped men - Phillip Hughes, Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja and Ben Cutting but all four are very fine players who deserve their opportunities. At 35, Brad Haddin is back for his first international match in nearly a year, and the team will be led by the T20 captain George Bailey. Their lack of experience is glaring. Missing from this squad are Michael Clarke (221 games), Shane Watson (154), Michael Hussey (185), as well as the

Aaron Finch has been in remarkable one-day and T20 form domestically © Getty Images

less experienced but firstchoice David Warner and Matthew Wade.

Australia have made no secret of the fact that this squad has been chosen with tours of India and England in mind, as well as the 2015 World Cup. But in the

meantime, are they good enough to beat a dangerous Sri Lanka team picked as much for the present as the future?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Aaron Finch has been in irresistible limited-overs form this summer and has a chance

to make his name as an ODI player. The leading run scorer in the Ryobi Cup this season with 497 runs at 99.40 and in the Big Bash League with 309 runs at 77.25, his powerful striking has been one of the major reasons the Melbourne Renegades have been the dominant team in the Twenty20 tournament.

He even hit the roof at Etihad Stadium with one enormous stroke in December. Finch has played three Twenty20 internationals and performed well, and now he has his chance in the 50over game. Finch will open the batting and his home crowd will be hoping to witness something memorable in his first ODI. Just as Finch is the BBL’s top run scorer, Lasith Malinga is its leading wicket taker with 13 at 10.69 for the Melbourne Stars. He mesmerised the Perth Scorchers with 6 for 7 and Sri Lanka hope he will carry that kind of form into this series. His slingy action disguises his accurate,

swinging yorkers, deceptive slower balls and dangerous bouncers and along with the spinner Ajantha Mendis, he could be the most important player in the series.

Australia have confirmed their line-up, with Cutting and Steven Smith the men to sit out of this game. Finch and Hughes will open, with Khawaja at first drop, while Glenn Maxwell is expected to bat in the top six.

“We haven’t finalised [the team] but the two quicks who had the niggles, Kulasekara and Eranga, both are pretty fit, both bowled yesterday so we’ll let them go through their bowling routines today and make a call after that,” Mahela Jayawardene said on Thursday.

PITCH AND CONDITIONS There was a little more pace and bounce than expected during the MCG Test and the pitch should be dry, given Melbourne’s forecast of 37C for the day of the match.

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Friday January 11, 2013

Guyana beat Barbados in low scoring contest Port-of-Spain, Trinidad Guyana beat Barbados by 42 runs in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament at Queen’s Park Oval here last night.

Chasing 109 to win, Barbados were bowled out for 66 in 17.2 overs.

Shane Dowrich topscored with 18. Medium-pacer Christopher Barnwell took two for 11, off-spinner Steven Jacobs, two for 13 and skipper and left-arm spinner

Veerasammy Permaul, two for 14 to send the Bajans crashing out.

Barbados won the toss and sent Guyana in and they were bowled out for 108 off 19 overs.

Opener Shivnarine Chanderpaul topscored with 23 off 27 balls with two fours.

Medium-pacer Smith took two for 14 and left-arm spinner Benn, two for 22, both off three overs for the Bajans.

Trevon Griffith was

bowled by pacer Best for 16 (29-1; 4.3 overs); Ramnaresh Sarwan, cutting, was bowled off the inside edge by seamer Carlos Brathwaite for one (362; 5.4 overs). Chanderpaul was well caught at long-off by Mayers off off-spinner Ashley Nurse (63-3; 10 overs); Deonarine was leg before wicket by Smith for 13 (63-4; 10.2 overs).

Royston Crandon came in and was leg before wicket by a yorker from Smith for

nought (63-5; 10.3 overs); Jonathan Foo, driving wildly, was caught at slip by Smith off Benn for 11 (85-6; 14.4 overs); Jacobs, trying to play through the onside, was caught at extra-cover by Fidel Edwards off Benn for nought (85-7; 14.5 overs).

Barnwell was then caught at long-off by Mayers off leftarm spinner Ryan Hinds for 12 (89-8; 16 overs); captain Veerasammy Permaul was run out for five (100-9; 18 overs)

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Steven Jacobs

and Derwin Christian was caught at point by Smith off fast bowler Edwards for 12 to end the Guyana innings with Devendra Bishoo not out on two.

When Barbados replied, Guyana made early inroads to stay on course for their hard fought victory.

Skipper Dwayne Smith was bowled by off-spinner Steven Jacobs for nought as he pushed forward (0-1; 0.4 overs); Ryan Hinds was run out for one (4-2; 2 overs); Justin Brathwaite was caught and bowled by Jacobs for three (4-3; 2.2 overs).

Shane Dowrich tried to rebuild but was given out leg before wicket as he swept at off-spinner Narsingh Deonarine for 18 (42-4; 10 overs). Jonathan Carter, who supported Dowrich, was caught at long-off by Shivnarine Chanderpaul off medium-pacer Christopher Barnwell for 17 (44-5; 10.4 overs); Kyle Mayers was run out for one (54-6; 12.4 overs);

Ashley Nurse was leg before wicket on the back foot by Barnwell for nought (54-7; 12.5 overs) and Carlos Brathwaite was run out for ten (56-8; 14 overs).

Sulieman Benn was caught Sarwan off Permaul for 9 (66-9; 15.2 ov) and Fidel Edwards stumped by wicketkeeper Derwin Christian off Permaul for 0 (6610; 17.2 ov) to herald Guyanese celebrations.

Steven Jacobs was named man-of-the-match for his bowling effort.

The action continues today with Leeward Islands Vs Jamaica in the first match at Queen’s Park Oval and that will be followed by Combined Campuses & Colleges Vs Barbados in the evening game.

Guyana next play Trinidad and Tobago in a big evening game tomorrow that has been reportedly sold out.

The earlier contest pits Windward Islands against Leeward Islands.

Buxton United $1M richer as Alpha President delivers on pre-tournament promise The pundits had already envisaged one of the more established teams like Pele FC or Alpha FC winning the 23rd edition of the K&S Football tournament. This was not to be as the Buxton United FC rose from virtual obscurity to defeat both giants and emerge victorious when the championships concluded on January 1 last.

Prior to their sterling achievement, President of the Alpha United FC, Odinga Lumumba, had promised his team a bonus of one million dollars should they win the tournament. The Buxtonians disrupted those plans when they defeated, first Pele FC and then Alpha United FC. Lumumba was forced to make alterations to the initial plan when he diverted the gift to the eventual winners and yesterday morning he handed over the prize to the

management of the Buxton United FC at a simple ceremony at the Water Shris Hotel, Waterloo Street, Georgetown.

The gift consisted of $600,000 in gears, which was previously handed over, and $400,000 in cash, which was handed over yesterday morning.

Shortly before handing over the gift to Coach Herbert McPherson, Lumumba congratulated the team while pointing out that the victory had impacted positively on the East Coast village.

Mr. McPherson expressed gratitude to his benefactor, on behalf of the club while pointing out that the gift would assist greatly in the onward development of the ball weavers.

The team is currently preparing for the continuation of the Super League which resumes on January 15 next.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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India v England, 1st ODI, Rajkot...

INDIA AIMING TO AVERT SLIDE ESPNCricinfo - There seems to be no bottom to the abyss India are hurtling into.

It seems like only yesterday when they had to just turn up, and a home series, Test or ODI, was theirs. Now they have lost a series in each format in succession, to England and Pakistan. It also seems like only yesterday when India whitewashed England 5-0 in successive home bilateral ODI series. If you are gullible enough to bet on a similar result in this five-match ODI series, you might as well wager on a flood in water-scarce Saurashtra in January.

It is supposedly a side in transition but, apart from Ajinkya Rahane, all the batsmen in India’s ODI squad have been around for years now. The same cannot be said of their bowling attack, but that has more to do with the continuing injury sagas of their fast bowlers than anything else. And it was the batting that let India down in all three ODIs against Pakistan.

By no means can you call England’s pace attack for this series experienced, but they don’t lack in either skill or speed. For an India line-up

that was exposed by Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan, with a collective 15 ODIs between them going into the series last month, England’s pace battery led by the impressive Steven Finn will pose an equal, if not a bigger, challenge.

The visitors are looking forward to building towards the Champions Trophy at home later this year and ultimately the World Cup in 2015 but, before that, they have their woeful record in their previous three ODI series in India to correct. One win in 16 games does no selfrespecting modern side justice, especially one of England’s calibre and meticulous planning. Their new limited-overs coach Ashley Giles had no insignificant role to play when England drew an ODI series here in 2002 and, despite defeats in their two warm-up games this time, he’ll sorely want to improve on that finish from a decade ago.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT With Virender Sehwag dropped, Ajinkya Rahane should get to open the India innings along with Gautam Gambhir. The amount of time Rahane’s spent on the bench

can be gauged from his solitary ODI appearance in all of 2012. Even that came as an afterthought in Sri Lanka after the series had been won. Still, England are a side Rahane must be pretty familiar with.

They were the opposition in the first 10 of his 13 ODIs and he’s already played a few eyecatching knocks against them, including a 91 in late 2011 in Mohali.

Steven Finn began and ended the Test leg of the ongoing tour with injuries but his lone outing in Kolkata was enough to serve another reminder of his talent, and the unique combination of pace and bounce his gangling frame brings. India have long suffered at the hands of those attributes and, if Finn manages to stay clear of another breakdown, will be put to the test again.

TEAM NEWS He may have made a double- and a triple-century in his previous two Ranji Trophy games, but it is unlikely that Cheteshwar Pujara will make his ODI debut in front of his hometown fans in Rajkot. Transition or not, the batting line-up looks far too settled at the moment.

With the new ODI rules

Basil Sukhram Memorial Golf tourney set for Saturday

Basil Sukhram Members of the Lusignan Golf Club (LGC) will honour the late golf pro Basil Sukhram at a special tournament arranged in his name on Saturday at the Lusignan course.

The Basil Sukhram Memorial Tournament is sponsored by Alfred Mentore Reality of North Road, Bourda.

Mentore, a former Guyana Open golf champion and realtor has teamed up with the executives of the club to

organize the tournament.

Approximately 35 golfers are expected to participate in the tournament, the first organized by the Club for 2013.

Dave Mohamed, Secretary of the LGC that it is a wonderful way to start activities for 2013 in honouring Sukhram who died following a heart attack in 2009 after teeing off at the fifth hole at the Club.

Sukhram, the father of national ladies champion Christine Sukhram served as coach at the LGC for many years and participated in several overseas tournaments.

He also coached in Grenada.

Among the players expected to be in action are

Club President Jerome Khan, Avinash Persaud, Kishan Bacchus, sponsor Alfred Mentore, Patrick Prashad, Chatterpaul Deo, Christine Sukhram, Sookram Deosarran, Clifford Reis, Mark Lashley, Troy Cadogan , Maurice Solomon, Carlos Adams, Rawle Moore, William Walker, Colin Ming, Mike Gayadin, Dr. Ram Singh, Muntaz Haniff, Fazil Deo, Gavin Todd, Joaan Deo, Mohanlall Dinnanauth, Mike Mangal, Brian Glasford, Imran Khan, Roy Cummings, Brian Hackett and Robert Hanoman.

Tee off is at 12:00 hours.

Members of the LGC will also observe a minute silence in honour of former Club Captain Sydney Cummings who died two weeks ago.

making it tough to manage with just four frontline bowlers, India could stick to the side that won the final one-dayer against Pakistan.

With James Tredwell and Finn likely to be the frontline spin and pace choices, England have a couple of fast-bowling places to fill.

Jade Dernbach, with his variations, is an important option in India, while Stuart Meaker’s extra speed could push him in front of Chris Woakes.

PITCH AND CONDITIONS The Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Khandheri, outside Rajkot, is making its international debut. The city has hosted 11 ODIs at the Madhavrao Scindia ground owned by the municipal corporation. The grounds may be different but if it is Rajkot, indications point to bucket-loads of runs.

The Challenger Trophy, India’s premier domestic oneday competition, produced five totals of 300-plus in four

MS Dhoni could be feeling the heat if India don't do well against England © BCCI games at the SCA stadium in late 2012. The most recent fixture here was the Ranji Trophy match between Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh, a match the hosts needed to win to make the knockouts. Accordingly, a dry, slow, and low pitch was prepared, but don’t expect

anything of the sort for an ODI. Winter in Rajkot isn’t as unforgiving as it is in north India. Evenings are cool and pleasant, while it gets warm during the day. Nights can turn slightly chilly, but with a noon start, we won’t get that far.

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Friday January 11, 2013

Guyana Boxing Board of Control delighted with - Plans broad based strategies Guyana Fight Night results for new dispensation President of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), Peter Abdool, is adamant that local pugilists have progressed satisfactorily over the past year. Notwithstanding, he believes that the Guyana Fight Night (GFN) initiative has transformed their fortunes and by extension, achieved its initial objectives. “I believe that success of the GFN has impacted on the dynamics surrounding boxing and the sport has evolved quite dramatically during its three years existence,” he posited.

The GBBC boss feels that the success story has been enigmatic and perplexing, producing its own set of dynamics. He said that administrators have not just enhanced the fortunes of young fighters but have made it possible for intermediate fighters to compete for regional titles while those that were regional titleholders are now perched to challenge for world titles.

“All three levels must operate simultaneously if they are to be effective,” exhorted Mr. Abdool. He

pointed out that such achievements stemmed from the hard work of his executives in the promotion of debut fights right up to championship bouts.

Additionally, the GBBC boss said that this requires a special skill that culminates with the fighters attaining world ranking while minimizing the risks.

Mr. Abdool said that boxing officials are currently contemplating a much wider range of objectives starting with the GFN. He said that the initiative is geared to

ultimately produce world champions and must evolve to meet the changing needs of the sport if the momentum is to be maintained and the objective met. Among some of the immediate aims and objectives are enhancing the fortunes of World Boxing Council, Caribbean Boxing Federation (WBCCABOFE) champions in the acquisition of lucrative ratings in that and the WBC World Titles. To improve the lot of intermediate and local champions by arranging fights for regional titles even as officials retain the core principles of GFN. Boxing administrators also plan to continue the high activity level in order to enhance the records of local pugilists, while providing much needed exposure and experience, not only for them but for their auxiliary staff including handlers, cut men, coaches, referees, judges, supervisors, commentators, announcers, ringside physicians, film crews as well as reporters.

Amateur boxers also

stand to benefit from the largesse of the GBBC as those officials plan to continue with the arrangement in collaboration with the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) to include their charges on the GFN cards while supplying nutritious hampers for them.

The projection is broad based and incorporates several other initiatives all geared to enhance the fortunes of the boxers.

Mr. Abdool intimated that the GFN initiative is costly but administrators are cognizant of the eventual benefits that can be derived by the boxers. He said that the programme is being run at an average cost of $1.4M for the monthly card, while the cards that stage CABOFE fights and national titles are staged at an average cost of $5.5M. He also said that ever since the cards commenced nearly three years ago there has been an estimated turnover of approximately $76.4M. “Virtually all of this money goes directly back into the boxing community through

Peter Abdool boxers’ purses and peripheral costs,” said Mr. Abdool while pointing to the distinct economic benefit to the boxing community.

After approximately three years of activity which included 154 professional, and 109 amateur fights, Mr. Abdool said that he is extremely delighted with the progress made. “The boxers’ successes reflect the benefits derived from the Guyana Fight Night Programme; the explicit intent of which was to produce World Rated Guyanese fighters,” boasted Mr. Abdool. “Virtually 100% of these fighters’ records are built on the GFN programme,” he concluded.

Valentino Rossi can win races in 2013, says Dorna chief

Valentino Rossi BBC Sport - Valentino Rossi has been tipped to return to winning ways in 2013 by the head of MotoGP’s organising body.

Rossi, 33, has returned to the factory Yamaha team for this season after a two-year spell with Ducati. The seventime MotoGP champion has won 79 races in the top class, but none since the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2010.

Carmelo Ezpeleta, head of rights holders Dorna, told BBC Sport: “He thinks he can still win and I am completely sure that he can.”

Rossi will partner defending champion Jorge Lorenzo in the Yamaha team this season, and is hoping to challenge for the title again

after two fallow years with Ducati.

Rossi - who won four titles with Yamaha between 2004 and 2009 - managed just three podium finishes in 35 races for the Italian manufacturer but Ezpeleta believes he still has the talent to compete at the very top.

Ezpeleta said: “I’m completely sure he can challenge, with all the talent he has and all the experience he has. “When he took the decision to go back to Yamaha it was because he wants to come back to the front. He was winning with Yamaha before and he can be at the front again.

“Of course it is good for the sport if he can do it.

Valentino is a big name, he is a hero to many and one of the greatest riders in MotoGP history. If he is coming to the podium and winning races it will be very important for the championship.”

Ezpeleta also backed British rider Cal Crutchlow to continue his impressive form.

Tech 3 Yamaha rider Crutchlow became the first British rider in 12 years to step on to the podium last season and Ezpeleta hopes to see him compete at the front again in 2013.

“Cal has been one of the biggest talents we have seen in the last few years,” Ezpeleta said.

“We have been surprised by his performances in many races. He has not had good luck but in principle he is one of the most important assets of the championship.

“Britain is one of the most important countries in motorcycling, with a terrific history, and in motorsport in general. To have a big hero as a rider is very important.”

The MotoGP season begins with testing in Sepang at the start of February, with the first race in Qatar on 7 April.

Friday January 11, 2013

Kaieteur News

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T&T cruise to 95-run victory as Jamaica also win ESPNcricinfo - Trinidad & Tobago’s second victory of the Caribbean T20 was a crushing one, their batsmen amassing a formidable total before their bowlers stifled Leewards Islands at Queen’s Park Oval. T&T opener Lendl Simmons made 62 and Darren Bravo contributed 65, both batsmen hitting five sixes in their innings to lead their team to 187 for 4.

Pollard’s cameo was vital too; he made 29 off 12 balls.

Tonito Willet, who took 2 for 18, was the only Leeward Islands bowler to go at less than six runs an over.

No T&T bowler, on the other hand, had an economy rate of more than six runs an over. Legspinner Samuel Badree, who opened the bowling, Yannick Ottley and Kieron Pollard took two wickets each, pegging Leeward Islands back at regular intervals.

Badree struck twice in the first over and Leeward Islands

Darren Bravo hits one of his five sixes (WICB)

Krishmar Santokie bowled three batsmen (WICB) never recovered from 4 for 2.

Later on, they lost three wickets for four runs to slip to 66 for 7. Chesney Hughes was the top scorer with 20 and only two of his team-

mates got into double figures as Leeward Islands were restricted to 92 for 8 in 20 overs.

Scores: Trinidad & Tobago 187 for 4 (Simmons 62, Darren Bravo 65*) beat

Cricket match in honour of former sports personality Berbicians will have an opportunity to see some of the past and present cricketers in action together on a cricket field when they engage in the first Lennox ‘Bruckup’ Allicock Memorial Over-35 20/20 cricket match which will be played on Sunday at the Port Mourant Community Centre Ground.

Allicock, who died a year ago, was a onetime all round sports personality and sports enthusiast who participated in a multiplicity of sports during his hay days including cricket, football, athletics, Table Tennis, bodybuilding and basketball among others.

In his later years he was a part of many sporting organisations including cricket, football and athletics and was described as an ardent sports fan,

administrator, organizer and critic.

He was an integral part of the once feared Port Mourant Cricket Club and was instrumental in them winning many national titles. He was also credited with the upbringing of players such as Guyana’s most successful youth Captain Andre Percival, the Nagamootoo brothers, Mahendra and Vishal, the Dhaniram brothers, Sudesh and Sunil, the Fingal brothers, Robert and David among many others. The match will be contested between a New Amsterdam/ Canje line up and a team from the Lower Corentyne.

Among those expected to take part are former national players Hubern Evans, Andre Percival, Anil Beharry, Romesh Munna, Mark Lyte jr, Rawle Lyte, Rawle Perreira,

Shawn Grant, Eon Gibson, Muniram Lallbeharry, Renwick Batson and eldest son of the honoree, Rawle Allicock.

Prizes will be awarded to the player of the match, best batsman, best bowler, and best fieldsman. Tokens of appreciation will also be given to all players in the match.

A number of sponsors are on board including Archway Snackette and Fish Shop, Allicock wild meat establishment, Bobby and Sons Boutique, Imran Hamid and Sons and Daughters Establishment, Balram Shane General Store, Rudy’s Boutique, Neeta’s Lumber Yard, Sharmella Beauty Salon, Orin Boston, Tribuwan Jagdeo, George Gomes, Leon Crawford and relatives.

The match is slated to commence from 13:00 hrs.

Queen’s College Inter-class Softball Cricket competition on for Saturday The Queen’s College Allied Arts Sports Committee will be hosting their 8 overs Softball Cricket Inter-class finals on Saturday 12th of January 2013 at the softball ground commencing from 09:30 hrs.

The first game will see 2 A coming up against 2 B boys which will be followed by 1 D vs 1 B girls at 12:30 hrs and 1 D vs 1 B boys.

At stake are trophies

donated by Trophy Stall, Bourda Market and P and P insurance. The competition is being organized by Johnny Barnwell.

Meanwhile, the South Turkeyen Sports Committee and Bannas Foundation will be holding a 5-a-side small goal and penalty shoot out competition on Sunday 13th of January 2013 at the National Cultural Tarmac from 09:30 hrs.

Among the teams participating are Lodge, Sophia A, B, C and D field, Tiger Bay, Vryheid’s Lust and East Ruimveldt. Trophies and cash prizes are being donated

by Trophy Stall Bourda Market, Melbourne Inn, retired Brigadier David Granger and Ms. Vidya Lewis of Vidya’s Enterprise.

Organizers are Johnny Barnwell and Kevin Walcott.

Leeward Islands 92 for 8 (Badree 2-13, Pollard 2-6) by 95 runs.

Meanwhile, Jamaica earned their first victory of the Caribbean T20 by defending a moderate total in a shortened match at Queen’s Park Oval. Having made only 116 for 6 in 17 overs, Jamaica derailed a Windward Island chase that was progressing smoothly at 65 for 2.

Tamar Lambert, the sixth bowler Jamaica used, took three wickets in the 11th over to reduce them to 66 for 5.

Windward Islands wicketkeeper Lindon James scored an unbeaten 24 off 15 balls but got no support from the lower order and they finished on 104 for 9 in 17 overs.

Jamaica’s total had been built around Danza Hyatt’s 44 after they were sent in to bat.

Only two other batsmen got into double figures, Lambert making 16 and debutant Andre McCarthy 19.

Garey Mathurin took 2 for

Tamar Lambert took three wickets in an over (WICB) 18 and there were two more run-outs as Windward Islands kept Jamaica to 116 for 6, but the total proved a few too many.

Scores: Jamaica 116 for 6 (Hyatt 44, Mathurin 2-18) beat Windward Islands 104 for 9 (Santokie 3-24, Lambert 3-10) by 12 runs.

t r o Sp

Voting rights restored, injunction - FIFA / CONCACAF promise to to be withdrawn monitor process to its completion

CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb ( third left) addresses the media in the presence of GFF President Franklin Wilson (second left), GFA President Vernon Burnett (second right) and other FIFA representatives yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel.

T

he diplomacy and respect exhibited by the previously

warring factions, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Georgetown

Football Association (GFA) had many wondering at the Pegasus Hotel last evening

why it took a FIFA / CONCACAF team to settle the disagreement between the two adversaries.

At the end of the media briefing that saw remarks from CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb, FIFA Director of Member Associations and Development, Thierry Regenass, GFF President, Franklin Wilson and GFA President Vernon Burnett, a binding agreement was reached that will see the restoration of voting rights to the GFA, the withdrawal of the injunction in the civil court as filed by the GFA against the GFF and the reinstatement of the three clubs Western Tigers, Alpha United and Pele to t h e G FA w i t h a l l membership rights.

It was also agreed that the GFA hold its Electoral Congress by January 19 with the three clubs having until January 16 to accept the reinstatement and make nominations for t h e G FA E l e c t o r a l Congress, while the GFF was mandated to hold its Annual Ordinary Congress by April 15 at which elections for its Executive Committee will be held.

Webb, who was the first to speak, said that the day represented a rebirth and success story for football in Guyana, informing that they were able to meet with the two bodies, the Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony,

stakeholders, the national team, before arriving at a joint agreement that was accepted by both parties.

He spoke of the concerns raised by Wilson at the FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland last year pertaining to Guyana’s football and had promised to vist the country to mediate in the process and arrive at an amicable solution that will be honoured by both parties.

“We accomplished that today and both parties approached the Meeting with the eagerness to move Guyana’s football forward.

Whenever there is a dispute there must be compromise and this situation existed since May 2011,” Webb stated.

Regenass, who in his remarks reminded all present that his emphasis is more on development agreed that it cannot occur if there are wranglings, and commended the two parties for reaching an amicable settlement for the good of the game.

He pointed to the outstanding performance of the national team during its World Cup campaign, adding that perhaps much more could have been achieved if there weren’t all those issues.

He closed by saying he would be happy to return once the process is implemented, especially to w o r k w i t h t h e F I FA Development Programme.

Wi l s o n e x p r e s s e d profound gratitude on behalf of the GFF to FIFA for putting together such a highpowered team to mediate in the process.

“Today is a big day (yesterday) for football in Guyana, for charting a new course for the sport. The fact that we could sit together means it could only get better,” Wilson remarked.

According to him, they have to work as a team with the occasional bump along the way, but as long as they continue to work together, the success they wish could be achieved.

Burnett, in his presentation, welcomed the intervention of FIFA and CONCACAF in bringing resolution to an issue that should have been settled a long time ago.

“We believe we have arrived at an agreement that is comfortabke to both parties and will abide by all that we’ve agreed to until the end. We’ve both agreed that football development is a priority.”

Burnett congratulated the GFF for being openminded and finding a solution.

“Our openmindedness was manifested today (yesterday) by the parties involved because we were able to come to an amicable solution within a few hours,” t h e G FA P r e s i d e n t mentioned.

We b b w h e n a s k e d whether the matter, which has reached the Courts of Guyana will see the parties being sanctioned, responded by saying that it had not reached the F I FA D i s c i p l i n a r y Committee and the reason for that is unknown, but they have agreed that no sanctions will be implemented.

He promised that FIFA / CONCACAF will work together to assist in the restoration of credibility in Guyana’s football, while they will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the agreed process is completed.

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