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January 13, 2013

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Privatisation deals…

Sale of GuySuCo lands nets $1.1B from 2003, Govt Ministers among buyers - opposition parties laud to make deals public Spontaneous Doctors to combustion amputate

arm of electrical burn victim - relatives

The driver of this car claims that he had just purchased gasoline from a gas station and was almost half way over the Demerara Harbour Bridge when the car stopped moving. It was on fire.

A Guyanese cricketing icon…

Basil Fitzherbert Rohee's participation Butcher is a in Parliament is Govt's ‘Special political risk - Moses Nagamootoo Person’

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Privatisation deals…

Sale of GuySuCo lands nets $1.1B from 2003, Govt Ministers among buyers - opposition parties laud to make deals public

AFC’s Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo

Head of NICIL/PU, Winston Brassington

The Government-owned Privatisation Unit (PU) conducted 159 transactions since 1993, collecting over $17B in proceeds, according to a report released by President Donald Ramotar.

Of these, there were 27 sale of shares or trade sale; 67 real estate sales; 34 real estate leases and 31 restructuring.

The release of the details is contained in the “Privatisation In Tables, Phase 11-1993-2011”, prepared by Winston Brassington, Executive Secretary and Head of the Privatisation Unit.

The report was released to the media on Friday during President Ramotar’s first press conference of the year.

The government has been under pressure for a number of years now to release details of the privatizations with the Opposition parties leveling accusations of secrecy and corruption involved in the deals.

Ramotar, as part of his campaign promises, has committed to making public the deals, some of which were contained in the 2008 report.

This new report has given a more thorough analysis, although it has not yet been presented to the Opposition

in the National Assembly.

NICIL and Brassington have both come under the spotlight for the billions it handled but despite this, there was a seeming reluctance to release details.

Government’s decision to spend US$20M to build a Marriott Hotel using NICIL’s funds was also criticised with details as to the other investors still to be made known. There has been an ongoing quarrel for government to come clean.

While the PU and its controversial sister company, National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), raked in over $25B from privatization and other areas, like leases, it was the question of how the deals were made and whether Guyana was getting its monies’ worth that was most pressing.

GOVT. RECEIVES… Of the $17B in proceeds, $6.4B was related to capitalizations; $8.8B was paid to Government and $0.4B paid to NICIL. Real estate transactions realised $5.8B in proceeds of which $1.2 B was paid to GOG,and $3.4B to NICIL. There were 34 properties leased by PU which grossed $1.2B. Some $300M was paid to GOG and $900M to NICIL.

The sale of this strip of land in Diamond, East Bank Demerara, where a number of banks are was handled by NICIL/PU. Of the $25.5B in total the PU handled in proceeds, $11.7B was paid over to the government; $4.8B to NICIL with $6.4B going back to capitalization.

PU would have also handled transactions for the number of industrial estates.

At Eccles, there are 84 plots while at Coldingen there are 36. PU also is in charge of the Ruimveldt Industrial Estates.

Meanwhile, PU would have conducted 21 transactions between 20032011 for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuC) to the value of $1.1B. MINISTERS Lands were sold in Diamond to the Demerara Distillers Limited; Guyana Beverages Inc.; Demerara Bank Limited; Republic Bank; Guyana Bank For Trade and Industry; Housing Minister Irfaan Ali at Leonora and Prime Minister Sam Hinds at Farm, East Bank Demerara.

Meanwhile, A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change both gave their thoughts of the release of the reports.

The 10-party coalition which has 26 seats in the National Assembly said it “applauds any move by the PPP/C government to bring to

light the many dark and shady deals of the last two decades.”

APNU made it clear that it has always advocated for, and campaigned in 2011 on a platform demanding transparency in government.

“In our manifesto, APNU stated that in economic and

financial deals there should be a “nothing to hide approach”, especially with public expenditure processes.”

However, APNU stressed that it has serious reservations about the “method” and “intent” of the releases. “APNU questions

the seriousness of the Executive, seeing there was enough time and resources available to the President, to have made the document public, prior to the press conference or at the time of the press conference.

“APNU has not seen this (Continued on page 11)

Sale of GuySuCo lands by Privatisation Unit

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Doctors to amputate arm Murder accused found of electrical burns victim hanging in prison cell - relatives Doctors were yesterday preparing to amputate the left arm of 39-year-old Asgar Mohamed, who suffered severe electrical burns on Friday after coming into contact with a burst wire in the Stabroek area.

Mohamed was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s operation theatre yesterday afternoon shortly after being visited by his mother, brother and other relatives. The patient’s brother told Kaieteur News that they were informed that the injured limb would be amputated.

Mohamed, called ‘Jesus’, of South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, collapsed outside Demico House around 13:00 hrs on Friday after clutching the dangling wire.

Eyewitnesses said that the mishap occurred when a passing vehicle snagged a wire which stretches from an area near the Stabroek Market to a pole near Demico House.

A woman who operates one of the Digicel and GT&T booths near Demico House said that she heard a ‘booming’ sound shortly after 12:00 hrs. “Then we see a wire fall on a car and light it on fire.”

She said that ‘Jesus’, who performed odd jobs in the area, was attempting to remove the wire from the vehicle when he was hit by volts of electricity. However, other eyewitnesses said that Mohamed was attempting to pick up the wire from the ground when he sustained his injury.

Mohamed was rushed to the GPHC and admitted to the High Dependency Unit.

A relative alleged that no officials from the Guyana Power and Light Corporation (GPL) had spoken to the family or visited the injured man.

Some eyewitnesses blamed the power company for Mohamed’s injury. They claimed that a GPL crew arrived before the handyman was injured, but did not

Police are investigating the circumstances that led to the apparent suicide of murder accused, Deodat Sookhoo, who was found hanging in a cell in the New Amsterdam Prison around 15: 45 hours yesterday.

Sookhoo’s lifeless body was discovered hanging by a prison warder who was at the time carrying out lock-down duties.

Sookhoo, 41, who hailed from Bloomfield Village, Corentyne, was admitted to prison on November 1, 2007, charged for the offence of murder. He was committed to

stand trial on December 13, 2010.

“The Prison Administration regrettably announces the death of committed inmate Deodat Sookhoo, who was found hanging in his cell in an apparent suicide…” the prison management said in a statement yesterday.

According to the prison administration, preliminary investigations have revealed that the prisoner, who is usually located in the remand dining hall during the day, was taken from the said dining hall and locked alone in his cell on the Number

Three Landing of the main Prison Block at approximately 15:15h. When the rank responsible for lock-down duties returned to the cell with Sookhoo’s two other cell mates, the lifeless body was found hanging with a bed sheet from the ventilation above his cell door.

The police were immediately informed of this incident and an investigation commenced. “The Prison administration extends sympathy to the family of the deceased and awaits the conclusion of the police investigations.”

Officials at the West Demerara Regional Hospital have launched an investigation following the sudden death of a 15-year-old boy at the institution yesterday.

The lad, identified as Shemar Miggins, reportedly passed away about an hour after receiving an injection.

A health official told Kaieteur News that the police were called in since the circumstances of Miggins’s demise were unclear.

The official said that police took statements from staffers. A nurse

who was treating the patient is reportedly at the centre of the investigation.

Kaieteur News understands that Miggins had suffered a puncture injury to one of his feet on New Year’s Day and he was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital some days later after the limb began to swell. According to a relative, the teen was given an X-ray examination and the injury was treated. The relative said that from Wednesday to 13:00 hrs yesterday Shemar appeared to be ‘okay’. However,

around 13:00 hrs, a nurse allegedly administered an injection and by 14:00 hrs he was dead.

But information suggests that the patient might have injected himself since he was reportedly given a syringe with the drug that should have been taken orally. The report was that the nurse asked Miggins to hold the syringe while she attended to another patient.

Officials at the hospital have ordered a post mortem which is expected to be performed tomorrow.

Hospital launches probe into teen’s death after injection

Asgar Mohamed at the hospital

Asgar Mohamed at the scene immediately cordon off the scene or attempt to repair the damaged wire.

However, one woman stated that several people continued to walk in close proximity to the wire despite appeals by the police.

A Guyana Power and Light (GPL) release stated that a truck came into contact with an overhead guy wire, causing it to snap and fall to the ground. The release said that a section of the wire came into contact with a 13.8 KV

feeder, and this caused the guy wire to become energized.

“The police and fire service responded immediately and cordoned off the area in which the incident occurred to prevent persons from coming into contact with the live guy wire.

Inexplicably, a male civilian forcefully breached the cordon and came into contact with the live wire, which resulted in his electrocution.”

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

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

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8491, 225-8458, 225-8465 Fax: 225-8473 or 226-8210

Editorial

Equality The accusations fly fast and furiously. Depravities and crimes are the new ‘normal’. The civilian criminal fraternity numbers are swelled daily by youths from depressed background recruited by political types that believe their path to power is stymied by the rules of the game. The police reflect the populace from which they are drawn. The politicians are no better: corruption has metastasized and taken over the body politic. Even the relations between ordinary folks in the society are marked by distrust and an “every man for himself” ethos.

It is obvious that there has been a breakdown in our moral order, not just in a minority of lawbreakers, but in the society as a whole. We emphasise, as we have done before, that this breakdown has not suddenly burst upon us. It is the result of a steady disintegration of morality precipitated by a succession of ideological adventurism: first in “cooperative” socialism and now market fundamentalism.

The first premised on the utopian notion that we are inherently “cooperative” and the second dystopian assumption that if every man is for himself and the devil takes the hindmost: the resultant order of the “haves” and the “have nots” is the best that we can do.

A community is nothing if not a moral order: for us to survive as a nation, there is unquestionably much that has to be done. But if those measures are not accompanied by a recommitment by our people to a set of core values that can all share and which can be a guide not only in our daily activities but as a standard for evaluating the policies and programmes that impact so heavily on our lives. Where do we begin? What about the value of equality?

As the ongoing debate on the 1823 rebellion reveals we are a people that came out of slavery and indentureship: relations typified by inequality. We should have no quarrel with equality being the sine qua non of our national well being; indeed we should consciously insist that it becomes the essence of our moral compass.

Can we deny that our national quest for equality has consistently been stymied and this refutation has contributed to acts that could be defined as “anti-social”?

Right after the abolition of slavery, the British denied the promised equality by a slew of measures designed to keep the freed slaves tied to the plantations and its unequal social order.

Indentured labour was imported to undercut their bargaining power for a living wage; land purchase laws were changed to prevent them from forming a wider independent peasantry and credit was denied to them thus killing any hope of equality through commerce. Any wonder that we developed “centipedes”?

The indentured labourers – the Portuguese, the Indians and the Chinese – while by some measures performed somewhat better – were placed in an untenable position by unwittingly being imported to compete with the freed Africans.

Under the rules of the political game that promised to deliver “equality” to each group, they all became rivals in trying to share a pie that was always too small to begin with.

The struggle for equality became a zero sum game where if one won another lost. We are still playing that zero sum game.

So we suggest that even as we bemoan our loss of our moral anchor, we can begin to regroup by starting our reconstruction of our moral community by insisting that equality be our talisman. Some will say that equality is already promised by our laws and courts. Well if that is so, how is it that we are so far away from the ideal – and in fact are drifting further from it? The market alone will never deliver equality either.

That leaves us – the people – to buttress the other means by using the normative measures of education, leadership, consensus, peer pressure, pointing out role models, exhortation, and, above all, the moral voice of communities to insist that we be all treated equally. Let us remind our political elites of the path towards which they must lead us.

Sunday January 13, 2012

Send your letters to Kaieteur News 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown or email us kaieteurnews@yahoo.com

The truth about the Lotto Fund cannot be more different DEAR EDITOR, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Mr. Anil Nandlall has taken to the airwaves over an oral decision handed down by Justice (ag.)

Madame Diane Insanally in the case of Desmond Trotman versus Attorney General, popularly known as the Lotto Funds case.

The Government, principally through Mr. Nandlall, has been claiming that Justice Insanally decided the case on its merit, finding that “the deposit of the monies in the Development Fund of Guyana (Lotto Fund) is in

accordance with Article 216 of the Constitution, the provisions of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act and the Lotteries Act, thereby vindicating the Government’s position.” The truth cannot be more different.

Perhaps a bit of background might help. The action was initiated in April 2010 by Mr. Desmond Trotman, a political activist and now Member of Parliament for the APNU. Essentially, Mr. Trotman asked the Court through his attorneys (Mr. Miles

Fitzpatrick, S.C and Christopher Ram), whetherthe share of the revenue received by the Government from the Guyana Lottery Company Limited, a private company incorporated under the Companies Act 1991, is required to be paid into the Consolidated Fund in accordance with Article 216 of the Constitution and sections 21 and 38 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003. And as a consequence, whether the expenditure by the Government of those moneys without the authority of

Parliament is unconstitutional and illegal.

On June 2, 2010, Mr. Ashton Chase S.C. and Ms. Pauline Chase, on behalf of the Attorney General did not respond to the issues raised but instead asked the Court to strike out the plaintiff’s action on the following grounds: a) that the action failed to comply with the rules of the High Court; b) that Mr. Trotman had shown no right, legal or equitable, to seek any order by the Court; and c) that Mr. Trotmanused the wrong procedure.

Continued on page 6

Sunday January 13, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur M@ilbox Kaieteur M@ilbox can speak but we’re not Sanasie once again seeks Rohee acting on anything he says to mislead cricketing public DEAR EDITOR, I read Anand Sanasie’s lengthy narrative with the caption “GCB Offers Sound Clarity To The Sports Minister” which seeks to justify the untenable situation of the injuncted GCB Executive violating the orders of the Court, and openly confronting the Government and the genuine stakeholders of cricket.

My first concern deals with the fact that Sanasie seems to feel that the GCB Executive is an authority unto itself; he fails to recognise that the GCB is essentially a membership of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) and Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) and the fact that neither the BCB nor the DCB recognise the socalled GCB Executive that he represents. His posture represents the tail wagging the dog.

On the issue of Government’s interference in cricket, Sanasie must understand it cannot be termed “interference” if the government is requested by Cricket Stakeholders to intervene when a crisis has

evolved especially in financial management. The very ICC rules cater for this “intervention”. The Guyana Government only came into this sordid cricket affair after the Berbice Board, the Georgetown Association and the East Coast Board requested their involvement.

Secondly, on the question of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and its achievements, Sanasie and his acolytes were all invited to join the IMC and to attend meetings of the stake-holders, but refused while encouraging and promoting a total disruption of this worthy process. The Sanasie gang was always against any sincere attempt to resolve the cricket impasse unless it was totally in their favour.

I reject the repeated and unwarranted attacks by Sanasie on Dr. Clive Hubert Lloyd, our esteemed cricketing icon and distinguished global diplomat who gave up all his accomplished comforts to return home and try to resolve the cricket problems in his native land. Sanasie is a cricketing nonentity and has

never played the game nor properly conducted the game and his only fame is that in 1991 he was charged with treason for plotting to overthrow the PNC Government. He was imprisoned but escaped from lawful custody and fled Guyana and only returned when the PPP got into government.

His entry into cricket administration began with the overthrowing of Harnarine Tiwarie as president of the West Demerara Cricket Association in 2003.

Since then he has been present at every cricket Board election that has been controversial including the ousting of Chetram Singh as president of the Demerara Board which he orchestrated.

Sanasie does not have the standing to attack the qualities and capabilities of the eminent Clive Lloyd CCH. He lacks the remotest of moral authority.

Sanasie should explain to the public what part he played in flying in from Canada and return Rovin Stanley on a first-class flight for the sole purpose of voting at the contentious DCB Executive

My criticism of the APNU was simultaneously a form of Self Criticism DEAR EDITOR, There has understandably been some degree of unease among the APNU faithful over my criticism of the coalition on a Plain Talk television program aired on Sunday January 6.

After all, I am an APNU member by virtue of the WPA’s membership of the coalition. But our political culture, as Professor Nigel Westmaas recently reminded us, does not take kindly to criticisms from the inside.

The big problem for some APNU people is my allocation of a failing grade to the coalition while giving the AFC a passing grade. But in the usual haste to pronounce on my comments, it seems as if some commentators have missed what the grades were allocated for. Maybe they have not watched the program, which is available on my website guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com and on demerarawaves.com, or carefully readthe news report on the program by GT Online News.

I have read comments to the effect that I gave the APNU’s parliamentary work an F grade. Not true. While I alluded to the coalition’s ineffective use of its

parliamentary clout as a bargaining tool, the F grade was given specifically for the APNU’s failure to pursue its platform promise to work for a Government of National Unity and not for its overall parliamentary work.

By the same token the passing grade was given to the AFC for more effectively pursuing its platform promises.

Let me reiterate what I have said publicly before. I commend the APNU and the AFC for using their parliamentary majority to improve parliamentary oversight of the executive.

But I continue to believe that those who voted (the majority of voters) for these two parties did not vote just for parliamentary oversight of the executive branch of government.

More importantly, they, particularly those who voted for the APNU, voted for an end to One-Party Government. This is what was put to them by the APNU and they endorsed it with their energies, passion and votes.

That the APNU, after a year, has not taken up this cause either in parliament or outside of it is more than a minor mistake.

Contrary to what some political people have contended, as Brother Eusi Kwayana has recently pointed out, we do not need constitutional reform as a prerequisite for a National Government.

Such a government is essential to the political solution that we have all spoken about since 1955. And the opposition parties do not have to wait on the PPP to start the process. I have argued before that any extraparliamentary dialogue or parliamentary cooperation with the executive government should be premised on movement towards a National Government.

As for the charges that I am washing dirty linen in public, I can only plead guilty.

But I don’t think it’s a vice.

Those who bothered to watch the program should note that I placed the primary, though not total, responsibility for the APNU’s failure to take up the cause of a National Government on the party to which I belong— WPA. In other words, my criticism of the APNU was simultaneously a form of Self Criticism David Hinds

Meeting. Where did that money come and whose is paying for the array of lawyers and the many fullpage advertisements.

I expect that the Government, the Opposition and indeed all Guyanese would condemn this most reprehensible attack on our national hero.

No one could be more concerned over our cricket than Clive Lloyd. If Sanasie was genuinely interested he would have taken the time to meet the stakeholders and make every effort to bridge the cricket divide instead of consorting with the self-servicing WICB directors to deliberately disrespect and disregard Guyana, its people, its courts, its government and its cricket.

I call on the Government of Guyana to enforce all laws that have been broken by this illegal and presumptuous group that calls itself the GCB Executive and to let our glorious game be returned to the bona fide stake-holders.

Dowlat Samaroo

DEAR EDITOR, The ruling by Chief Justice Chang affirms that as an elected MP, Rohee could not be gagged. I share this opinion and, indeed, no one objected or protested when Rohee voted on issues, which is a form of speech in Parliament.

Whether he could speak as Home Affairs Minister in the face of the no-confidence motion touching and concerning his discharge of that portfolio is another matter. He may speak but we will not hear him or act upon any thing he may say, which is a political risk for the government.

When Rohee was not in play, we saw less rancour and greater cooperation amongst the parties. He could aid these positive vibes by staying under wraps until the Privileges Committee

disposes of the contention.

As for the APNU motion for an inquiry into violence during 2004 and 2010, we feel that though it focuses on a period when Guyana experienced the greatest danger of becoming a narcostate, any meaningful probe must be wider and ought to begin from the immediate post independence period. It must include rigged elections, attacks on press freedom, political violence and House of Israel thuggery, etc.

Most of all a comprehensive inquiry must help to bring healing, after the example of South Africa. It is late in the day but we need light to shine on our divisive past of almost 50 years of PNC-PPP rule, and our version with a Truth Commission may help.

Moses V. Nagamootoo AFC Vice-Chairman

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2012

Kaieteur M@ilbox Kaieteur M@ilbox The garbage situation in Georgetown would be resolved within four weeks if…

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 sections 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 since in 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 Things that went wrong regarding the Landfill: 1. 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: 1. 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 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 non- technical Senior Officers of the Council pressed for acquisition and running of its own fleet of vehicles. There are 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 MCC ran into maintenance problems.

The council took back from the contractors the two largest and most challenging sections of the 10 sections especially the one that includes Queenstown, Alberttown, Kingston, North and South Cummingsburg.

These areas are most visible and are a mixture of Commercial and residence and garbage were collected twice per week. The first sign of failure is when the Council due to maintenance’ problems with its garbage trucks change to once per week waste collection. There was not much thought in this movement since business

activities have increase in these areas but the council was going in the opposite direction of reducing the waste collection frequency the result in an increase waste on the street.

4. As council grapple with its maintenance problems the other areas taken back from the contractors were also affected and hence piles of garbage started to appear on Mandela Road, etc (imagine the inner areas most people not seeing in areas such as West Ruimveldt, La Pennitence, East Ruimveldt, Castello Housing Scheme, etc).

Solution: 1. The Landfill could open a special section to accept the night waste to cater for the Commercial Zone Waste.

2. Mayor and City Council should immediately hand back to the Contractors these two sections (moreso the section that include Queenstown, Alberttown,

Kingston, North and South Cummingsburg).

3. 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.

4. Mayor and City Council using its vehicles for minimal task would help in enhancing the streets and city in general and at the same time giving its technical staff time to build up they technical competence which would better serve them over the next 5 years if they should then decided to be more adventurous and decided 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, Mr. Editor our garbage situation in Georgetown would be resolved within four weeks.

Basil Britton

From page 4 On November 16, 2010, Counsel for the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, on behalf of the Attorney General, deniedthe allegations and legal arguments and asked the court to strike out the matter on two principal grounds: failure to follow established practice; and failure to show that Mr. Trotman had any legal or equitable right to bring such an action. He also took objections to the court being referred to as humble.

On February 7, 2011 attorneys for the Attorney General submitted Skeleton Arguments in which they emphasised what they considered breaches of the Rules of Court and procedures and the question of Mr. Trotman’s standing, placing heavy reliance on a

judgment given by Ramson JA in the case Trotman et al v. The Attorney General (Civil Appeal No. 79 of 2006). They also referred to the Government Lotteries Act, Cap. 80:07; and, referring to the “preliminary points” raised in the submission, asked the Court to dismiss the action.

On April 5, 2011 Attorneys for Mr. Trotman submitted their own Skeleton Arguments, and citing a number or cases, orders and rules, challenged the principal submissions made by the Attorney General.

Specifically Mr. Trotman’s Attorneys pleaded that the fiscal provisions of the Constitution are not intended for the protection of parliamentarians alone and that where parliament will not act and the constitutional

official responsible for the protection of the Consolidated Fund fails over years to seek the assistance of the Court, any citizen has a legitimate interest in ensuring compliance.

On April 28, 2011 Mr. Chase submitted a “Brief Response to Arguments for Plaintiff” stating thatthe Skeleton Arguments had not addressed the important issue of Mr.Trotman’sright to bring the action, claiming court was bound by the ruling in Trotman et al v. The Attorney General (Civil Appeal No. 79 of 2006).

By way of response, an Affidavit dated June 14, 2011 from Mr. Stephen Fraser, lead counsel in the Trotman case, outlined the circumstances of the case to establish that that part of the decision on which the attorneys for the Attorney General relied had been wrongly arrived at.

On December 28, 2012, Justice Diane Insanally in a brief hearing in Chambers delivered her decision on the arguments, ruling against Mr. Trotman on the procedural points, but NOT on the merits of the case.

Subsequent efforts by Counsel to obtain a copy of the decision were unsuccessful, prompting Senior Counsel Miles Fitzpatrick to write the Judge requesting a written decision.

Through his Attorneys, Mr. Trotman has lodged an appeal from the decision of the Court.

Christopher Ram

The truth about the Lotto...

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Sunday January 13, 2013

Dem boys seh...

Brazzy getting diarrhea When Donald ask Brazzy fuh prepare de report on dem privatization deals was like if he was putting cat fuh watch milk. But is de same trick de American judge, Aunty Dora pull pun Ah Mad. She ask he fuh go home and count how much money he think he thief and come back and tell she.

Brazzy produce de report but he didn’t believe that Donald woulda share it wid everybody. Donald mek de report public but that is just wha he do. And is Ash Knee who tell he wha fuh do and wha fuh hide. People already checking de report and dem got nuff question and Brazzy sweating.

Dem boys already see how he sell land to he kavakamites. Irfaat buy; Sam buy and all dem friends buy.

He got to explain when he advertise de land and how come nobody else couldn’t buy. That is why from de time Donald announce that he releasing de document Brazzy

send fuh sleeping tablets and something fuh stop diarrhea.

But he ain’t de only one.

Some of dem who get property wondering if dem got to give it back because de law seh that if you get something illegal is not you own. If that was de case all dem people who thief woulda get to keep de money.

Donald know that ain’t got nutten in dem deal. De thing that dem boys know is that some of dem buy de property in other people name but even that gun expose. Is de same way people know that Brian buy a property and Bharrat using it.

De report also show how de money share. It also show that dem ain’t got no record of de money that dem pay GuySuCo fuh de land. Brazzy know wheh de money deh but he can only keep he mouth shut fuh suh long.

Sweat Brazzy; sweat.

Talk half and get a big towel fuh Brazzy.

The People’s Progressive Party seems intent on obstructing any attempt to investigate criminal violence during Bharrat Jagdeo’s 12year presidency. Despite its majority in the National Assembly up to 2011 and its current occupancy of executive office, the PPP has never attempted to account to this nation for the hundreds of lives lost during that terrible period known as the ‘troubles.’

The PPP has failed to conduct inquiries into the assassinations of its own Minister of Agriculture in La Bonne Intention; of the head of the Police Force’s Target Special Squad on the LindenSoesdyke Highway; of the deputy head of the Customs Narcotics Unit in Buxton and of the attempted assassination of the Director

of Public Prosecution at Nathoo’s Bar in Kitty.

It has refused to conduct inquiries into the massacres in Bagotstown-Eccles, Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek. The PPP even refused to conduct an inquiry into the killings of its own Progressive Youth Organisation activist and two policemen at the close of its own 27th Congress at Rose Hall, Corentyne.

There is no doubt that the ‘troubles’ were the result of the rise of drug cartels and the flood of illegal narcotics and firearms which brought an unprecedented wave of criminal violence into this country during the first decade of this millennium.

The consequence of this narco-trade has been a bloody battle to extend the drug lords’ empire and to eliminate anyone who resisted them.

The Head of the Presidential Secretariat – who is also Chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee – made a significant statement only three months after five wanted men escaped from the Georgetown Prison on 23 rd February, 2002. He declared that the crime wave was “drug-related.”He went on to explain that the original members of the ‘gang of five’ escapees were not the only ones responsible for the surge in crime. He announced then that there was “plausible evidence to suggest that there is a body out there that is involved in criminal activities and that it is not the escapees and those who have been associated with the escapees.”

The HPS himself introduced the expression ‘phantom’ force to describe the gangs responsible for the perpetration of execution murders.

Any mystery about the ‘phantom’ gangs evaporated in October 2003 when a former gang member made the startling decision to expose

the gang’s links to a government minister. Before he could appear at a commission of inquiry to investigate those allegations, however, he was shot dead in his bed on the night of 24th June, 2004.

The drug war and the ‘phantom’ gangs were the work of a single mastermind.

At his trial in the United States, the crook was described as controlling the cocaine trade in Guyana largely because “he was backed by a paramilitary squad that would murder, threaten and intimidate others at his directive. His enforcers committed violent acts and murders on his orders that were directly in furtherance of his drug-trafficking conspiracy.”

A self-confessed former member of the ‘Phantom’ gang and a Drug Enforcement Agency informant told the US court that the mastermind admitted that to run the ‘phantom’ gang and to pay all of his gangsters, he would have to land 500 kg of cocaine per year into the US and Europe!

The mastermind had been allowed to recruit several serving or former policemen into his organization and made no attempt to conceal his activities and his connections with the authorities. As part of his enforcement operations, he was allowed to acquire intercept equipment which enabled him to listen to the conversations and determine the locations of his intended victims.

The cellular intercept equipment had been sold to the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana by the UK SmithMyers Company!

A Guyana Defence Force patrol, in one case, intercepted and searched the mastermind’s vehicle on Wednesday 4 th December 2002 at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara. The

mastermind was accompanied by a serving member of the Police Force. The vehicle contained an arsenal of weapons including M-16 assault rifles with night vision devices; Uzi sub-machine gun with silencer; Glock 9mm pistols; 12-gauge shotgun; other small calibre weapons; bullet-proof vests; helmets; a computer and other electronic gadgetry with digitised electronic maps and plans of Georgetown and certain targeted East Coast villages.

In another case, the mastermind’s accomplices were arrested on 1st September 2004 when the police raided a business enterprise. The police seized ammunition, guns, millions of dollars in local currency, a pair of female police uniforms and wig, a flashlight, a computer and communication equipment and a gun-cleaning kit. Again, a magistrate’s court dismissed the charges against the crooks.

Next came the mastermind’s cocky publication of a whole-page ‘Statement’ in the newspapers on 12th May 2006 boasting of his exploits.

The mastermind fled to Suriname where he was arrested, accompanied by a serving member of the Police Force, on 15th June 2006. He was expelled from Suriname and, on 30thJune was arraigned before court on a charge of “conspiring to import cocaine” into the USA, by 29th June 2006, bringing this phase of his criminal career to an end.

Jailed for fifteen years, he leaves many unanswered questions about how many lives were lost in the killing fields of Guyana.

The PPP now owes the nation a detailed and an accurate account of its ministers’ links to the mastermind and a record of the hundreds of lives lost during that terrible period known as the ‘troubles.’

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

The day seven died at Rose Hall, Canje in 1970

By Winston Felix It was indeed a sad day in Canje 43 years ago.

Thousands of Guyanese flocked to Rose Hall Estate to determine what happened at the factory. They wanted to know what had happened to their loved ones who had dedicated their lives to the sugar industry in Guyana.

Their siblings left for work early on January 13, 1970.

Seven of these workers did not return home alive. The sequence of events which led to the death of these men has been analyzed by several individuals for the specific purpose of avoiding similar industrial accidents.

At the factory, everything was normal between 7AM and 8AM. Two men were assigned the task of cleaning the No.3 clarifier. They were supervised by Process Foreman, Abdul Gafoor.

However, shortly after 8AM, shouts were heard, and several workers were seen running to and from the clarifier. Gafoor emerged from the No. 3 clarifier and ran to the No. 4 quad where a switchboard was located. At the switchboard, he obtained a drop cord with a bulb at the end. He used this device to see what was going on in the

clarifier. He saw the two workers unconscious.

He then descended into the clarifier for the express purpose of rendering assistance to the workers. He fell on the scroll of the clarifier while descending. Gafoor lost his life in a brave attempt to save the lives of both of his workers.

Another Process Foreman by the name of Peters was informed that Gafoor had fallen into the clarifier. Peters took the precautionary measure of having a rope placed inside the clarifier. The rope was tied to a 6" pipe.

Peters then entered the clarifier. After descending about four feet, Peters found his nostrils burning and breathing was difficult. He then pulled the rope and was barely pulled out of the clarifier.

He lost consciousness shortly after, but was able to survive.

Yassim Khan, a welder, was able to pull him to safety. He was only about forty feet from the clarifier.

Carron, a porter employed by the factory came on the scene. He tied a rope around himself with the intention of rescuing the workers.

However, before he could enter, Dhanpaul Baijnauth

pushed him aside and hurried through the manhole. As Dhanpaul was going down, he shouted out that there were six or seven men at the bottom of the clarifier, including three other workersParboo, Seepersaud Sarjudas and Ranjeet Boodram. In fact, he became the seventh victim.

These men died in an effort to save the lives of their fellow workers. Their actions represent bravery on the part of all of the workers.

An extensive investigation was launched into the underlying causes of the accident.

As a result of the fatal accident, Edward Luckhoo, the acting Governor General of Guyana, ordered a Commission of Inquiry.

Kenneth Stoby headed the Commission.

The Commission issued its report in May 1970. It concluded that the men died from the dangerous gases in the clarifier such as hydrogen sulphide. This gas was caused by fermentation that existed from the presence of mud and other matter in the clarifier.

The Commissioners pointed out that there was no uniform system in place

to clean the clarifiers and there was a failure to comply with the provisions of the Factories (Safety) Regulations of 1953. These regulations clearly stipulated that workers must be provided with breathing apparatus and/ or safety belts and ropes when cleaning the clarifier.

The Report also faulted the company for other failures.

For instance, the process foreman and cleaners did not

ensure that the mud valve was dismantled. This was a necessary step before the workers entered the clarifier, as required by established procedures.

The Report called for, inter alia, adequate training for workers who are charged with the responsibility of cleaning clarifiers; written instructions to workers on proper procedures for the cleaning of equipment and a record kept

of the individuals who have been issued these instructions; and more frequent factory inspections by qualified officers of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

There has been no similar case in any of the sugar estates but that does not erase the fact that there was a time when the sugar factory could be a death zone.

GNBS intensifies surveillance, inspection of commodities - textiles, garments and footwear to be tested

By Rabindra Rooplall For 2013, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will commence the testing of textiles, garments and footwear while intensifying surveillance and inspection of commodities monitored by the bureau at sale outlets, in order to ensure that quality products are offered to consumers and to address cross-border smuggling.

Also, the GNBS will be moving to strengthen the monitoring mechanism at Springlands, Charity and at Lethem in order to effectively scrutinize commodities which are imported through these ports. There has been an increase in the importation of commodities through these ports during 2012.

Underscoring that there are indications that the importation would be further increased over the next few years, the GNBS is seeking to employ inspectors in all the ten Administrative Regions.

In addition, the bureau would be working to have its inspection activities certified to the IEC 17020 QMS Standard and to complete the reviewing and upgrading of the GNBS Act and the development of Regulations.

COMPLAINTS For last year, 98 consumer

complaints were received by the GNBS, predominantly for electrical appliances and cell phones. Ninety-five percent of the complaints received were favourably resolved, five complaints were referred to the Competition and Competitiveness Division of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce for further investigation.

According to the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), the Department would continue its routine activities based on the Annual Work Programme for 2013, in addition, the bureau will be working closer with the Consumer Affairs Division, the Competition and Competitive Commission and Commerce Department of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, in order to effectively address consumer complaints relating to substandard quality of commodities purchased and to effectively monitor the quality of commodities locally manufactured.

It was further noted that since much cooperation was not received from suppliers and local manufacturers during 2012, GNBS would be working through the National Standards Council to revise existing National Standards, with the view of incorporating

quality parameters and making them Technical Regulations, in order to facilitate effective enforcement.

2013 PLANS This year there will be special emphasis placed on the further development of the Weights and Measures Programme in the various Regions. There will be the verification of tanker wagon compartments primarily for private operators, the verification of water and electricity meters and the completion of the reviewing and upgrading of the 1981 Weights and Measures Act and the development of Regulations for the said Act, in an effort to strengthen the Weights and Measures Programme in the new year.

GNBS noted that the execution of these activities is critical to improve the effectiveness of the Weights and Measures Programme countrywide by ensuring transparency in the electricity, water and petroleum sectors.

In addition, enactment of the completed Metrology Act and the Regulations would be vital for the effective execution of Weights and Measures activities in Guyana, thus ensuring consumer protection and equity in trade.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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WHAT DO DRUGS, NIS AND THE 1823 MONUMENT HAVE INCOMMON?

By Ralph Seeram My article today would be of a rambling nature, a sort of rants, if you may. I am a little depressed, that might be too strong a word, a melancholy mood might better describe me. Sometimes you have to be careful what you write or predict.

Last week I wrote of the uncertainties of life, wealth and happiness. I was worried that some of us may not be around to celebrate the dawn of 2014. Five hours after I submitted that article I got the dreadful news that a close family friend, a businessman in Jamaica was robbed and murdered.

His death is a classic example of a “Catch 22” situation that faces many Guyanese businessmen who hold U S residency or citizenship. Doing better at home in terms of accumulating wealth, but facing the high level of risk of being robbed and murdered is happening in Guyana almost daily.

My friend knew the risks; he expressed that to me so many times, and for so many times I suggested he take a simpler and happier life in Florida for his family and himself. He gambled and lost.

He left to mourn a wife and two young kids. He worked so hard to prepare a better future for his family. Life can be cruel and very unfair. We need to enjoy the moment.

Speaking of enjoying the moment I spend most of my evenings reading stories to my three-year-old grandson while putting him to bed. In fact, he demands that I read

him stories. I have gone through dozens of story books. Recently I started reading him short stories written by Guyanese author Maureen Rampertam. She has a two-book collection of children stories, well written, which I would recommend parents and grandparent to purchase.

If you are interested in purchasing the collection you can contact Maureen at Maureen.rampertab@gmail.com or connect with her on Facebook. It would be nice if those of us in the Diaspora support our local authors. I am taking full advantage of the “moment” with my grandson, snuggling in my arms as I read to him. I know as he gets older he is going to tell me “Papa I am too old for you to read to me.”

Coming to my main topics, NIS, Drugs, and the 1823 Monument, the commonality is the PPP Government, which cannot seem to get anything right, at least in the eyes of the public. Can anybody tell me why Dr. Roger Luncheon is still head of the NIS? Considering the downward slide of that institution under his watch, any self respecting person would have relinquished the position. Luncheon has outlived his usefulness there.

In fact I think the good doctor has outlived his usefulness in government. If I were him I would retire completely from public life and focus on my health and happiness. Enjoy the “moment”; Doctor it may not be around later. There is no tomorrow.

The PPP regime is mired

in one scandal after another; it does not seem to go away.

Now that the opposition is in a position to demand accountability, so many things are coming to light. The latest is the revelation the Government paying for drugs years in advance of delivery.

There seems to be an element of criminality here.

From the beginning there seems to suggest an incestuous relationship between New GPC and some in the PPP government. Now tell me who in the world pays hundreds of millions of dollars years in advance for goods not supplied.

Conventions dictate you pay on delivery. The nonsensical excuse but there was no bond or warehouse to store the drugs is complete rubbish. A bond can be built in a month.

Something more sinister is at work here, and the opposition needs to dig deeper into this relationship between New GPC and some in the government.

There is a suggestion or allegation going around that the money when advanced coincided with a large purchase of an entity by that company.

The opposition needs to dig deeper into this affair to see if there is evidence of criminality, and if so insist that the offenders be prosecuted. I have no tolerance for people misusing or stealing taxpayers’ dollars.

This seems to be a recurring problem for the PPP government which emanated from the Jagdeo regime.

To his credit the current President Donald Ramotar has opted for more openness, resulting in some of the exposures. The question is how is he going to solve the problem? Would he support

Sale of GuySuCo lands nets...

(From page 2) document/report and therefore we are unable at this time to comment on the specifics regarding the content of the report.”

Long overdue Alliance For Change (AFC), which has seven seats in the National Assembly and with APNU commands a one-seat majority, was even more scathing.

“For nearly two decades, NICIL has been tricky as a riddle wrapped in a conundrum. No clues were given as to the billions of dollars of the people’s monies in the iron-clad coffers of NICIL. Now, with what must be a magical wand, President Ramotar plucked out plenty glossy reports of almost $26B raked in by NICIL from selling state assets alone,” AFC’s

Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo said.

“These reports were due for near to 20 years. Why they were not released periodically much earlier is an indictment of the governmentcontrolled entity and admission of serious malfeasance on their part. It took one year to produce reports for a 20-year period, so there could be no excuse for the delay.

“In ordinary circumstances, officials would have been booked for criminal negligence.”

According to Nagamootoo, a former senior PPP/C executive, Ramotar has buckled under severe pressure to disclose NICIL’s dealings.

“The AFC has been and continues to be in the front trenches of this campaign to

unmask NICIL... during televised debates, exchanges in Parliament, street-corner exposures, etc.

The political dart of exposure has finally hit bull’s eye and it is good to know that the Ramotar regime could no longer duck away from responsibility for NICIL’s failure to come clean.”

But the AFC official relented that the move by the President is one in the right direction. “…but it by no means puts to rest, as Ramotar may wish, concerns over what NICIL has and is doing with our monies and generally over accountability.

Now that we know that NICIL has raked in… $26B between 1993-2011… the treasure hunt must continue to find the remaining missing billions.”

criminal prosecution of a Government minister if there is evidence of criminality against him or her? Just asking.

Controversy seems to follow the PPP even in their good intentions. Now I will give the Government full credit for their initiatives in erecting the 1823 monument to commemorate the 1823 slave rebellion, which along with the death of Rev. John Smith was the impetus for the emancipation of slaves.

Now this was a very important slave rebellion and considered the largest at the time in the British Colonies.

There seems to varying opinions as to where the monument should be located.

One of the suggestions I totally disagree with, that it should have maximum exposure that is pure rubbish, it should be the least criteria.

Some time ago I was in down town Orlando, Florida, doing business in an office complex. Having lunch in the garden area of the complex I could not but help notice a monument in the middle of the garden. It was the site of a previous Fort and a famous battle between the native Indians and white troops/

settlers two centuries ago.

Regardless of the modern development that engulfs the area the monument was built on the actual area the events occurred. And so with other historical sites I encountered in my travels around the US, plaques or monuments were located in the area that had the historical significance.

Visibility or exposure was the least of the criteria.

So the question remains, where should the1823 monument be located?

Having researched the 1823 rebellion for a previous article, it is pointing me in the direction of Plantation Le Ressouvenir and Plantation Success. The rebellion has its origins from those two estates. Quamina, the alleged leader kept meetings on both estates a precursor to the uprising.

Let us also not forget John Wray who was based at Le Ressouvenir and who was accused of inciting the uprising. Smith paid with his life and his death was the springboard that ultimately led to the emancipation of slavery.

While the slaves were murdered throughout the East Coast, one must keep in

mind the origins where events fermented. It was on Pln. Success and Pln. Le Ressouvenir. One must also bear in mind that it was on Plantation Success that Quamina, a Deacon of the church named as leader of the rebellion, had “his dead body dragged to the front of Success Estate and there between two trees, he was gibbeted, the corpse bound with chains allowed to swing in the breeze many months after, to the terror and disgust of every passerby”.

A powerful argument can be made for the monument to be located on either of these two estates. It would be a win/ win situation for the Government and its critics. It’s not where the Government wants it, not Parade ground where some have argued for, but it’s a location which both the Government and its opponents can find common grounds for agreement, again the issue should not be one of visibility, but on history, and history suggests Le Ressouvenir or Success estates. Anybody wants to compromise?

Ralph Seeram can be reached at email ralph365@hotmail.com

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Sunday January 13, 2013

TEN GRADUATE FROM STERLING PRODUCTS LITERACY PROGRAMME

The graduates with SPL and Education officials In its continued efforts to facilitate the growth and development of employees, Sterling Products Limited

(SPL) held its annual Literacy Graduation Ceremony on Friday. Ten staff members received certificates and

tokens for the successful completion of the Sterling Products Literacy Staff Development Programme.

The programme was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Education Adult Education

Department.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SPL, Ramsay Ali, said that the organization was pleased to facilitate such an initiative, which is geared towards enhancing the abilities of employees, and aid them in their personal development.

Ali said that SPL has always recognized the importance of such programmes in the workplace which serve to benefit both the employees and the organization.

He congratulated the participants and urged them to continue striving for personal development and success.

Ali also recognized the integral role of the Ministry of Education’s Adult Education Department, which has partnered with SPL over the last four years to make this initiative possible.

The Adult Education Department provided initial training for trainers who were then able to conduct the programme at SPL. The department also provided all the necessary training manuals and other materials to conduct the

programme.

Assistant Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hudson, who delivered the feature address, underscored the importance of education, not only in the workplace, but also its role in life. He said that education is the most potent tool against ignorance, racism and antisocial behavioral traits.

Hudson said that many successful people started out at the lower levels of organizations, but through hard work and perseverance went on to become senior managers. A deep desire to grow and excel, he said, is key to personal success.

He urged the graduating class to continue striving for greater academic achievements.

He lauded SPL for its efforts to facilitate the advancement of its employees and expressed his desire to see this initiative continue.

He said the Ministry of Education will continue to work with the organization is this regard.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Rohee’s participation in Parliament is Government’s political risk —Moses Nagamootoo

By Rehanna Ramsay “The ruling by Chief Justice Ian Chang affirms that as an elected Member of Parliament, Rohee could not be gagged. I share this opinion and, indeed, no one objected or protested when Rohee voted on issues, which is a form of speech in Parliament.

“Whether he could speak as Home Affairs Minister in the face of the no-confidence motion touching and concerning his discharge of that portfolio is another matter,” said Alliance for Change (AFC) Executive Member Moses Nagamootoo.

His comments came in response to last Friday’s ruling by Chief Justice Ian Chang on the no confidence motion against Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.

The AFC Member of Parliament added that while Rohee may speak, the Parliamentary opposition will not hear him or act upon any thing he may say, which is a political risk for the government.

“When Rohee was not in play, we saw less rancour and greater cooperation amongst the parties.” Nagamootoo said.

His advice to Government is, “Rohee could aid these positive vibes by staying under wraps until the Privileges Committee disposes of the contention.”

“As for the APNU motion for an inquiry into violence during 2004 and 2010, we feel that it focuses on a period when Guyana experienced the greatest danger of becoming a narco-state. However, any

Carl Tudor told the court last Friday, that he is guilty of stealing. Tudor is accused of stealing a length of hose, a fire extinguisher, a security light and other items property of Veer Rahaman, the proprietor of Rent –A- Tent.

The defendant however claimed that the allegation against him was cooked up by the plaintiff and the police.

“Yuh worship you know that it got some people when dem lose a spoon dem say is the whole spoon set gone.

This Mr Rahaman is one such person I ain’t gon lie; I am guilty of stealing but only one article and that is a length a hose that was in a yellow plastic bag,” Tudor said “I was wandering about de place and I see the thing in de plastic bag and I tek it fuh

sell it and see if I could mek a money pun it”.

He related to the court that he was convicted at least three times before.

“I get convict for robbery and so and drugs but I realize they killing people now so I stop cause da aint mek sense.”

He said apparently oblivious of what his disclosure could possibly do to his case.

“Dem de hold me with a spliff and I do two years and come out last year”.

However the Prosecution told the court that the accused was found in possession of the articles on the grounds of Rent-A-Tent at Lot 1 Rahaman’s Park.

Tudor could not provide the court with an address and as a result he was remanded to prison until February 14.

Confessed convict remanded to prison

Scrap metal dealer remanded on drug charge An Albouystown Scrap metal dealer, who reportedly had in his possession a significant quantity of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking, was denied bail when he faced the court last Friday.

Police say that Gary Nurse, of James Street, Albouystown, had 85 grams of marijuana in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Nurse pleaded not guilty before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrate.

However, Police Prosecutor Burgette Grant asked that the accused be refused bail.

Grant told the court that Police were on mobile patrol in Albouystown on January 9, last, when they observed the accused acting in a suspicious manner.

When police ranks conducted a search on the defendant the drug was discovered in the right side pocket of his trousers.

Nurse was arrested, the substance was weighed in his presence, and amounted to 85 grams. Thus Nurse was charged and brought before the court.

The accused will make his next court appearance on January 15.

meaningful probe must be wider and ought to begin from the immediate post independence period. It must include rigged elections, attacks on press freedom, political violence and House of Israel thuggery, etc.”

“Most of all, a comprehensive inquiry must help to bring healing, after the example of South Africa. It is late in the day but we need light to shine on our divisive past of almost 50 years of PNC-PPP rule, and our version of a Truth Commission may help.”

In his ruling the Chief

Justice described the motion against Rohee as faulty and unconstitutional.

He explained that on the matter of pure law, Rohee has the right to speak as an elected Member of the National Assembly. He noted that Rohee’s position as Minister of Home Affairs is irrelevant to the matter.

The main opposition parties had argued that Rohee was incompetent for the position of Home Affairs Minister, citing his lack of administrative skills on the basis of national security following the deaths of three

Lindeners during protest action on July 19, 2012 in the mining Town allegedly at the hands of rank of the security force.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, on November 27, 2012 moved to the High Court to dispute the legitimacy of the no confidence motion against Minister Rohee.

In doing so, the Minister also challenged Opposition Leader David Granger and the Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman who had placed a temporary bar on the Minister until the

issue was resolved by the House’s Privileges committee.

The Opposition parties have made it clear that they do not intend to recognize Rohee in the National Assembly as the Minister of Home Affairs. Just last week when Opposition Member of Parliament, Winston Felix, questioned the Prime Minister in the Assembly about the new Security Strategy and the Prime Minister said that Rohee would have to answer, Felix refused to ask any question of the Home Affairs Minister.

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Sunday January 13, 2013

Mining and farming clash, - Which takes precedence?

Cassava flourishing in one section of Sidhu’s farm Despite the Caribbean and the rest of the world seeking ways to improve food security, it would appear that in Guyana, once there is mining, farming may be secondary. At least that is the notion of Goldie Sidhu, a Guyana-based foreigner who has been living here for the past 16 years and farming for the last seven.

She is fighting for an existence that most persons would reject in an instant; spending everyday tending to plants, and engaging in backbreaking labour. Less appealing, is that 68-year-old Goldie D. Sidhu known as “Goldie” is farming in a location miles away from any major settlement, and where her next door neighbour may very well

be an Anaconda or Jaguar.

Sidhu is passionate about what she does and would not think about giving up her 15acre farm on which she has commenced a lifestyle which she said, seems to make perfect, everyday that comes.

She however has a problem, which one on the outside looking in, could easily describe as “corporate bullyism.” According to her, a major mining company wants the land she is occupying and is forcing her off her piece of paradise, “all in the name of mining”.

This, she said, is despite being given permission and being presented with a letter of residency by the Chief of the Amerindian Reserve on which the land is located.

Now while Sidhu says she has no problem with moving, she is asking whether the acres of food that were planted are not valuable enough to be saved.

“Millions worth in food is at stake and no one seems to care.” Seven years ago, the woman said that she was given permission to settle at Kurubuka Creek, located between Kwakwani and Arima. She said after visiting Guyana 16 years ago on business, “I absolutely fell in love with the country and the people.” Ever since, she said, she got involved in the logging business but is now deeply engaged in farming and has hired other persons to assist with the work.

Sidhu said that it is a

Ms Goldie Sidhu picks from the smaller plants of her farm. pleasure to plant a seed and then watch it grow and tend to it as if it were a child. What is even better, she said excitingly, is being able to eat that which you have grown.

“But it seems like none of this means anything to some.

They are going to destroy all this food and deform the land.

I mean, they prefer to destroy all of this just for a few dollars?” Sidhu quarreled.

Apart from this Sidhu said, “I have no problem with leaving, but it was agreed upon that I would be assisted in moving.” The company promised me to clear a new spot for me so that I can continue my farming and they promised monetary assistance, but has so far only given $300,000 which she said is nothing compared to the food that was planted.

The woman said that energy has been placed on the farm and there are workers to be paid. She said she can’t afford to abandon what they have done without any compensation. But apart from

the reimbursements, Sidhu is most disappointed at the loss of the crops. She feels that more should be done to protect forest, natural vegetation and landscape since she sees the preference of mining over farming as a downfall.

When Kaieteur News made contact with the relevant authorities, the Natural Resource Ministry said that Sidhu, a national of Nepal, is occupying land for which Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) (RUSAL) is paying a monthly lease. The company has donated $300,000 and tarpaulin to Sidhu and has offered to clear another 15 acres of land to which they will transport her cash crops and her personal belongings.

With documentation from BCGI, the Ministry revealed that Sidhu had been occupying land that was originally slated for mining.

The management said that Sidhu had been advised that farming would be unwise in

such a location since the unoccupied land could be used at any time by the mining company.

With clear indications, the Ministry said that the aim is not to destroy the crops but agreements and the necessary authorization have been granted to the mining company. The elders of the Amerindian Reserve are also aware of the arrangements and are in agreement with the mining works.

Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy said that although he is not aware of the situation, he could try to assist, especially if Sidhu could make contact with his Ministry. He said he was willing to investigate the matter and grant the relevant assistance.

He however mentioned that if is a situation of illegality, there may not be much one could do. “We could ask or even beg them to wait a bit to relocate the food but there is nothing much that could be done.”

Magistrate must make statements available to defence lawyer—Chief Justice Following his earlier ruling which ordered magistrate Adela Nagamootoo to show cause why she should not make statements available to defence Counsel Mursalene Bacchus in the Ramdhani Persaud Preliminary Inquiry, Chief Justice Ian Chang on Friday made another ruling.

This time he quashed the ruling of the magistrate that defence counsel is not entitled to see the statements of a witness who had refreshed his memory from those statements before going into the witness box.

After listening to further arguments the Chief Justice concurred with Attorney at Law Mursalene Bacchus in his arguments that compel the prosecution to make the statements of a witness available to the defence for inspection and cross examination. He said that this is on the basis that the witness had refreshed his

memory from those statements.

Attorney Bacchus had moved to the High Court after requesting the statements of the Prosecution star witness Ravindra Persaud in the ongoing preliminary inquiry of US Citizen Ramdhani Persaud called ‘Prackash’ or ‘Prack’, 47 of 1071 New Area Canefield, East Canje.

Persaud is accused of murdering his wife, Bibi Shameena Deen, on March 20, 2012 at their Canefield home. Persaud is alleged to have shot the woman during a dispute at their home around 23:00hrs.

The lawyer had moved to the High Court after his request to have the statements made available to the defence was denied. That was after the witness had admitted under oath during his evidence in chief that before he entered the witness box to commence his evidence he refreshed his

memory from his statements.

Defence counsel had then made an application that since the witness had the opportunity to refresh his memory from the statements, the said statements or a copy should be made available to the defence, so that he can cross examine the witness.

This was denied by the magistrate.

The Chief Justice had then ruled that the Magistrate should show cause why the statement should not be made available. He had also ordered that his ruling be served on the Director Of Public Prosecution, the Commissioner of Police and his subordinates, including the prosecutor.

The Chief Justice had also ordered that an order Nisi directing the magistrate to cease hearing on the matter until the determination of the application unless sufficient cause can be shown it should not be so.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 15

Major disaster averted at Shirley Field-Ridley Square

as a burnt out electrical connection

Quick action by the Guyana Fire Service yesterday morning helped save the home of a Shirley Field Ridley Square family.

According to reports the fire started sometime around 04:00hrs.

the badly damaged ceiling.

Home owner, George Scotland, told this newspaper that he noticed the smoke in his room which was at the back of the house. He said that he came out of the room and made several checks around the house.

Scotland said that he saw fire coming from the ceiling, exactly where there was an electrical box.

The man said he summoned for the fire service, which arrived promptly.

Occupants noticed

thick smoke in the house and quickly exited the building. Scotland said that he could not estimate the damage since according to him the entire ceiling sustained extensive d a m a g e . He said that a

refrigerator was also damaged. There was some amount of water damage too, Scotland said.

Scotland and his wife complained that about nine houses are all hooked up to the same connection. They

opined that the Guyana Power and Light should definitely do something because the circuit could be overloaded.

Efforts last evening to contact a GPL official proved futile.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Feasibility study, design this year for Grove to Timehri road - material shortages caused delays to roads, bridges construction in 2012 Government has announced major plans this year for its long term programme to deal with the country’s traffic situation.

Speaking during a recent press conference held by the Ministry of Public Works to review its 2012 work programme and plans for this year, engineer Ron Rahaman disclosed that preparations are on stream for a feasibility study for the public road between Grove and Timehri, East Bank Demerara.

Timehri is where the country’s main airport, Cheddi Jagan International Airport, is located. Grove is one of the most populated villages along East Bank Demerara which has one of the busiest public roads in the country.

Not only does the East Bank road lead to the airport and to the West Demerara area, but it has arteries to Linden, the gateway to the interior. From Linden, there are roads to Kwakwani, Upper Berbice, and to Lethem, Region Nine.

Despite the construction of a four-lane highway which started at Ruimveldt and ends at Providence, the traffic

situation has become almost intolerable for the thousands that commute daily.

There are currently several contracts in progress to extend the highway from Providence to Diamond.

Initially, this four-lane US$20M extension was to have continued to the neighbouring village of Grove. However, a decision was taken to stop at Diamond because of the enormous work it would have taken and possible costs.

Grove has seen an explosion of growth on the main road for a number of years now, including Bounty Farm Supermarket and several hardware stores and taxi services.

According to Rahaman, the feasibility study and design will be embarked on this year.

Whether Government continues the four-lane project through Grove or seeks an alternative route behind Diamond as is one of the suggestions, that will come out in the feasibility study.

Already, a section of the Timehri roadway from the airport to the junction is under

The Grove public road, East Bank Demerara, that government is hoping to possibly extend into a four-lane to Timehri.

construction.

Meanwhile, in addition to invitations for proposals for a new Demerara River crossing to help ease the traffic on the aging Harbour Bridge, Government is also looking to complete a feasibility study and designs for Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue. Both roads link East Coast of Demerara, which leads to Berbice, and to the East Bank Demerara road.

However, it has been rapidly deteriorating for some time now.

Similar works are also being done this year on the East Bank Berbice Road, the state of which has sparked protests from drivers and residents.

Constructions are also expected to start this year on the West Coast Demerara Public Road which runs from Vreed-en-Hoop to Parika.

Meanwhile, Public Works officials said that of the $6.38B provided last year in the budget for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and bridges in the country, only $4.61B or 72 per cent was disbursed.

This was as a result of problems with contractors, shortages in construction materials, relocation of utilities as in the case of

the East Bank Demerara f o u r- l a n e h i g h w a y, a n d encroachments including vendors and structures.

The delays and shortages were clearly highlighted in projects funded by InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Development Bank. Some $3.47B was approved for roads and bridges but only $2.3B or 68 per cent was disbursed last year.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

ImmigrationINFO

Page 17

Gunmen rob Mon Repos jeweller

Immigration News F or For Our Community

How to Avoid Paying Immigration Filing Fees?

Given the economic hardship that is faced by many in the United States and worldwide, Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly INS) has a process in place where certain filing fees can be waived (meaning exempt from being paid). In order to qualify for a fee waiver, the applicants must disclose their income level or financial condition through a formal Request for a Fee Waiver.

The applicant must first review these three steps to determine if he or she is eligible for the Request for a Fee Waiver: Step 1. Are you receiving a means-tested benefit?

There are various acceptable means-tested benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp, etc. that are acceptable to prove an inability to pay immigration filing fees. Certain family members will be considered as eligible for a fee waiver based upon the primary applicant’s receipt of a means-tested benefit.

If you are receiving a means-tested benefit and you have provided sufficient evidence with your fee waiver request, your fee waiver will normally be approved and no further information is required.

Step 2. Is your household income at or below 150 per cent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines at the time of filing?

In order to determine household income, generally you must submit your recent tax return or income earning statement (such as Form W-2 or Form 1099).

If you have provided sufficient evidence that your household income is at or below the 150 per cent threshold, your fee waiver will normally be approved.

Step 3. Do you have some financial hardship situation that you want considered when determining eligibility for a fee waiver? An applicant is allowed to list any special circumstances that should be considered in addition to income such as extraordinary

expenses and liabilities.

Financial hardship may include unemployment or disability.

A Request for a Fee Waiver MAY be submitted with the following applications or petitions: 1. Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card; 2. Form I-131, Application for Travel Document can be waived for those applying for humanitarian parole; 3. Form I-192, Application for Advance Permission to Enter as Nonimmigrant; 4. Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion; 5. Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. A fee waiver is only available if you are applying for lawful permanent resident status based on: o “T” nonimmigrant status (victim of human trafficking) or “U” nonimmigrant status (victim of certain crimes who has assisted in prosecution); o Asylum status in the United States; o Approved status as a battered or abused spouse, child, or parent of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or for a special immigrant juvenile; o Special Immigrant Juvenile status based on an approved Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant; o An adjustment provision that does not require you to prove that you are not likely to become a public charge, such as the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, or similar provision; and o Continuous residence in the United States since before January 1, 1972, (“Registry”).

6. Form I-539, Application to Extend/ Change Nonimmigrant Status; 7. Form I-601,

Gail S. Seeram Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility; 8. Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence; 9. Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization; 10. Form I-817, Application for Family Unity Benefits; 11. Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status; 12. Form I-881, Application for Suspension of Deportation or Special Rule Cancellation of Removal; 13. Form N-300, Application to File Declaration of Intention; 14. Form N-336, Request for Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization; 15. Form N-400, Application for Naturalization; 16. Form N-470, Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purpose; 17. Form N-565, Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document; 18. Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship; 19. Form N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322; and 20. Biometric services fees in connection with any application or petition, regardless of whether it is listed above.

Gunmen escaped with an undisclosed sum of gold and diamond jewellery around 16:00 hrs yesterday after holding up a stall owner at the Mon Repos Market, East Coast Demerara.

Owner of the jewellery establishment, Bissoon Pulchan, told this publication that he and a female employee had just finished attending to a customer when the two robbers attacked. Pulchan said one of the men was carrying a gun and first fired a shot, clearing the way for

his accomplice to enter the stall.

“After the man fire the shot the other one take off he helmet and start grabbing things out the glass case and then he run away and then the one with the gun come in crank he gun and then grab some more stuff and run away.”

Pulchan said he was told that the men fled on a motorcycle. The frustrated man said that he is thankful that no one was injured.

“After he shoot I pull in

the corner and it (the bullet) pass through a book and go in a wall in a lady stand. Is a good thing the lady ain’t went in she stand.”

Police visited the scene but this publication was told that the ranks were unable to uplift any fingerprints from the scene as the robbers were wearing gloves.

The businessman said that this is not the first time he has been attacked by gunmen and he is concerned about his safety.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

NDIA sharing account with Agriculture Ministry is against the law - Ministry officials liable to jail time/fine under the Audit Act—APNU Jaipaul Sharma Even though the law - Act 10 of 2004- provides for the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to be termed “a separate legal entity,” the Ministry of Agriculture continues to handle monies appropriated to the entity by Parliament.

This, according to the Auditor General (AG) report of the year 2011, has resulted in a “failure to have related financial statements for the years 2005 to 2011 prepared and submitted for audit.”

The matter was raised in the last parliamentary sitting

by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Member of Parliament Jaipaul Sharma.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, told the National Assembly that the issue is being looked at by the Cabinet.

However, when contacted by this newspaper yesterday, Sharma asserted, “Cabinet cannot look into the matter of NDIA sharing an account with the Ministry simply because it is a breach of the law; therefore it is not a

Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy Cabinet matter. It is either they come to Parliament and amend the law or they comply with the law.”

The concern was noted in the AG’s report under the heading “prior year matters which have not been resolved”; this means that the issue has been ongoing and has been before pointed out by the Auditor General.

However, as to how long ago the Ministry was first advised to separate the account could not have been verified as efforts to contact the AG proved futile.

The AG report stated,

APNU Member of ParliamentJaipaul Sharma “The Ministry continued to expend amounts voted as subvention and capital provision for the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).

For the year under review, amounts totaling $4.037B were expended on these provisions with $2.809B being used from the current provision. Similarly, for the provisions reporting period, amounts totalling $2.982B were expended, with an amount of $1.957B being used from the current

provision.”

Further, it was noted that “NDIA is a separate entity created by Act 10 of 2004 and is required to maintain its own accounting records and is subject to separate reporting and audit. It therefore follows that it should have been in receipt of the subventions appropriated by parliament.

This situation resulted in a failure to have related financial statements for the year 2005 to 2011 prepared and submitted for audit.”

Sharma pointed out that the AG has the power to hold the necessary Ministry officials accountable and

those can, under the Audit Act, become subjected to jail time or a fine.

The AG also noted in his report that “a similar situation existed in previous years”, where the Ministry expended the NDIA allocations.

Sharma quoting the Audit Act, said that “If the Auditor General has reason to believe that an offence was committed, he shall request the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action and prosecute the offender if necessary.”

The Parliamentarian also noted, again from the Audit Act, that “A person who is convicted of an offence

under section 38 is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not to exceed $200,000 and to imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years; an entity or body of persons which is convicted of such an offence is liable, on summary conviction, to fine not to exceed $1 million.”

Sharma said that NDIA, “having its own accounting records and being subjected to separate reporting audit, is a lawful requirement and the Ministry’s failure to comply is an offence.”

“The Auditor General should say why is he not using his powers and enforcing penalties,” said Sharma.

New management approach touted for health sector

With a focus on human and material resources, a needful reform is required if the Ministry of Health is to better its current mode of operation. This is according to the Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary, Joseph Hamilton, who during a recent Health Ministry forum at the Grand Coastal Inn, East Coast Demerara, sought to highlight the need for such a move.

Hamilton told a gathering of mainly health care managers within the public health sector that “unless we operate differently our strategies will just be nice words on paper...All the people – the economist and management people – they say that it is man and material...those are the means of production and it is how you manage them that will determine whether you get results.”

He emphasised that it is crucial to address how persons at the level of senior management relate to each other as well as how they cooperate, collaborate and relate to the people they supervise.

“Do you make them feel comfortable? Do you make them feel wanted? Do you make them feel as part of what you are attempting to do? It is those persons who would have to effect the various programmes,” said Hamilton of lower level staff members within the health sector.”

According to the Parliamentary Secretary, “All I was seeking to do was refresh people’s minds to the fact that we have to manage our human resources and our material resources differently...If we fail to deal with these we will be unable to deliver the service that we are attempting to provide.”

He pointed to the fact that it is the doctors, nurses, x-ray technicians, phlebotomists

Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary, Joseph Hamilton among others who are on a daily basis delivering the services at various health care facilities “so how we treat them is fundamental to the delivery of that service they offer.”

Hamilton contended that if persons are going to lead effectively, they must embrace and practice the five crucial Cs – Compassion, Care, Consideration, Courtesy and Conciliation. According to him if leaders’ framework of management does not include these factors they are in fact just wasting their time.

“People must feel part of you...you can’t have staff who are afraid of you; all they will do is bear the burden of being around you for the eight hours and then they are ready to go home....so we have to change that in my view,” Hamilton asserted.

Materials management, according to him, is equally important even as he alluded to instances when effective management was not evident within the health sector.

According to him although the Ministry is healthy financially “we have had difficulties with how we manage the system and that

is what we have to correct. We have had difficulty with how we procure and how we manage and distribute the resources and so it is useless in my view that we have all the monies and when I go to Paramakatoi and somebody says ‘we have a shortage of drugs’ when I know we have it in abundance in Georgetown...we have to do things differently,” he warned.

In the final analysis, Hamilton noted that it is imperative to improve the operations of the heath sector with a view of ensuring that citizens are given value for their tax dollars when they seek to access medical care from public health facilities.

The Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister of Health are the two officials within the health sector who are mandated to ensure that health policies are implemented effectively. In this regard, Hamilton said that efforts will be made to ensure that accountability is manifested because “we are accountable in the National Assembly...we have to be accountable to the nation,” he insisted.

Sunday January 13, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 19

Rights groups condemn Media worker slain in crackdown on Venezuela TV Trinidad & Tobago

Guardian Media Ltd was plunged into mourning Friday after a 50-year-old employee was shot dead outside his Mentor Alley home in Laventille. Junior Valentine was a senior supervisor at the Guardian’s production department and the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union’s former branch vicepresident at the company.

A father of four and grandfather of eight, he was killed by gunmen two feet from the front of his home. A candlelight vigil was held outside the T&T Guardian’s office on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, Friday evening in his memory. When a Guardian team visited the crime scene, Valentine’s body lay on the ground outside his house.

His cellphone, which was still on him, could still be heard as it rang several times.

Valentine’s 76-year-old mother Marjorie Carrington was distraught and had to be comforted by relatives. In an interview, Carrington said: “I have three children. They take

one. He was a lovely boy, he was a loving child. He was a nice child.” Carrington said it was her birthday last week and Valentine had brought her pizza and other things to eat.

“For Christmas he give me $1,500. When Curtis (Valentine’s brother) work, he would take care of me, and when he (Valentine) work, Curtis would take care of me. They don’t leave me alone.

“I sent him food and juice this morning. It was ochro and rice, his favourite,” she said.

Carrington said Valentine did not want to go to work yesterday.

“He wanted to rest his body, so I told him don’t force yourself,” she said. Carrington said Valentine did not have any enemies. “His mouth was hot but he would not tell anybody anything. He ent easy,” she laughed. Curtis Valentine, the victim’s brother, said he took him the pelau to eat early.

Jameel Archer, meanwhile, said Valentine raised him from childhood and was like a father to him. “I never know my father. He raised me as a son

from small. He is the only man I know,” he said. Michelle King said she and Valentine had two children, Afiesha and Sapphire, and had been in a relationship for 25 years before they separated. A neighbour said Valentine texted her at 6.30 am yesterday and wished her happy birthday. “He text me early and gave me greetings and said God bless me,” she said.

ASP Forde, Insp Maharaj and Cpl Charles Budri visited the scene. Cpl Harvey and PC Smith of the Region One Homicide Bureau are probing his killing, which took the murder toll for the year to seven. Guardian Media Ltd managing director Gabriel Faria yesterday extended sympathy to Valentine’s family on behalf of the company. He said Valentine’s death would be a huge loss to the Guardian family, praising him for his loyalty and commitment.

Valentine interacted with Faria and other managers not only as an employee, but also as a representative of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union.

Valentine stood out, Faria said, for his ability to see both sides. While he always spoke his mind, Valentine remained cordial and approachable even while he and the company’s management were apparently at odds on sensitive issues or during difficult negotiations. Faria said Guardian Media Ltd had offered to help Valentine’s family with funeral expenses and arranged grief counselling for staff distressed by the news of his death.

Trinidad Express - In an effort to not burden the Trinidad and Tobago consumer who is now faced with a 9.5 per cent increase in the price of cement by Trinidad Cement Ltd, Government plans to approach CARICOM for a relief of the 15 per cent duty on cement imported from outside the region.

Bharath said TCL is requesting a waiver from the National Gas Company of its

escalation clause for the next eight years. TCL also wants to be reclassified as a middle user which will entitle the company to a lower gas price.

Cabinet has also mandated that Government — particularly the Ministries of Trade and Energy — sits with TCL to look at the possibility of negotiating lower gas prices for the company, “with the proviso that any decrease in the cost of gas would be passed on to the consumer”.

So said Trade Minister Vasant Bharath as he addressed the issue of the increase in cement prices which became effective from Wednesday.

He was speaking Friday at the post-Cabinet press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.

Bharath said Government wanted to help TCL, which is 80 per cent locally owned, in its efforts to become more productive.

Vigil

T&T to seek waiver of 15% duty on imported cement

Brazil: Indigenous squatters resist eviction RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police in riot gear are surrounding a settlement of indigenous people next to Rio de Janeiro’s storied Maracana stadium.

The police commander on site, Lt. Alex Melo, says they are waiting for an eviction order. However, after a tense,

day-long standoff, the order was not in hand.

The indigenous group includes people of about 10 ethnicities.

They have been squatting for years on the site of an old Indian Museum abandoned since 1977.

The residents say the law

is on their side. The land was donated by a wealthy Brazilian to the state in 1847 to become a center of indigenous culture.

Now, however, the area around the stadium is being refurbished in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and authorities say the compound must go.

Nicolas Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Rights groups are condemning an order by Venezuela’s broadcast agency for a television channel to stop showing clips that question the legality of postponing President Hugo Chavez’s inauguration.

The organizations Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders criticized the government’s actions against the country’s only staunchly anti-Chavez channel, Globovision.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement yesterday that the Venezuelan government is attempting to censor critical public discussions and intimidate its critics. Globovision had been showing clips in which it replayed remarks by Chavez, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, and Venezuela’s attorney general.

In them, the channel questioned the constitutionality of putting off the ailing president’s scheduled Jan. 10 inauguration for a new term while he remains in Cuba more than a month after undergoing cancer surgery.

The opposition had also opposed such a delay, but the Supreme Court ruled that Chavez can be sworn in later on.

The National Telecommunications Council on Wednesday opened an investigation aimed at imposing sanctions against Globovision.

Pedro Maldonado, the agency’s director, said that the channel had manipulated information and that it’s illegal for TV stations to show

programming that “generates anxiety in the citizenry or disturbs public order.”

It’s the eighth such investigation that the regulatory agency has opened against Globovision in recent years. Maldonado said the news channel could face sanctions including being shut down for 72 hours or being fined up to 10 percent of its annual gross income.

Reporters Without Borders called the measures against Globovision excessive.

“Is debate not allowed?” the organization said in a statement on Friday. “These proceedings are disproportionate and absurd.”

Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch, said “there is nothing in the content of Globovision’s broadcasts that could remotely be described as incitement or a threat to public order.”

Venezuela’s opposition has similarly called for the government to stop such measures against critical news media.

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Sunday January 13, 2012

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez not in coma – brother (Reuters) - Venezuela’s cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez is recovering in Cuba and is not in a coma as some have rumoured a month after surgery, his brother, Adan Chavez, said after a visit to Havana.

The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen or heard from since his December 11 cancer surgery his fourth such operation after the disease was detected in his pelvic area in mid-2011 leaving Venezuela in a state of national suspense.

But older brother Adan

Chavez, who is governor of the family’s home state of Barinas, said the president was improving daily, according to a press release day from his office.

“The head of state continues to assimilate treatment well and his recovery is advancing daily,” read the statement.

“Information on social networks and in other places, saying the president is in a coma and his family are discussing the supposed disconnection of life support equipment, are totally false,”

it added.

Chavez missed his own inauguration into a new, sixyear term last week, though Venezuela’s top court ruled that he remains in power and Vice President Nicolas Maduro can deputize until there is clarity over the president’s condition.

The rumours were stoked when Chavez did not send a message to Thursday’s progovernment rally. the day he was supposed to be sworn in.

And unlike past trips to Cuba for medical treatment, no images have been released of

him.

Peruvian and Argentine Presidents Ollanta Humala and Cristina Fernandez, both friends of Chavez, visited Cuba this week. Humala left apparently without seeing him, while Fernandez arrived wanting to visit him but has not confirmed that yet.

The saga has enormous stakes for Venezuela, a nation of 29 million people with the world’s largest oil reserves, as well as for the wider region.

Cuba and a handful of other leftist-rule nations depend on Chavez’s economic aid.

Adan Chavez, a physicist by profession who has been a political mentor for his brother and is viewed by Venezuelans as a hardliner, said foreign media were in league with local opposition activists to promote lies about the president.

“We know this is part of a dirty war by the necrophilic opposition,” he was quoted as saying. “We are sure that with the support of God, science and the people, our president will triumph in this new battle.”

Venezuela’s opposition leaders are furious at what they see as a Cuban-inspired manipulation of the constitution by Maduro and other top “Chavista” figures aimed at preventing the naming of a caretaker president due to Chavez’s absence.

Should Chavez die or have to step down, a new election

would be called and would likely pit Maduro against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state.

He and other mainstream opposition leaders have criticized secrecy over Chavez’s condition but have taken a wait-and-see attitude, preferring to prepare behind the scenes for a possible new vote.

Jamaica Gleaner - As Jamaica eagerly awaits the results of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Arun Kashyup is reassuring Jamaicans that the UN is committed to assisting the Government in tackling the deep economic crisis facing the country.

“A major challenge currently faced by the country is to find a solution with the IMF to (address) the country’s high debt-to-GDP ratio with consequent limited fiscal space that adversely influences employment, trade deficit and capital flows,” he said.

“The policy agenda in 2013 would be led by finding sustainable solutions to address … a high public-debt burden, poor economic growth, and issues of citizen security, while creating livelihoods and decent jobs,” he added.

Kashyup was speaking

yesterday during a courtesy call on Governor General Sir Patrick Allen at King’s House.

The UN official also pointed to what he described as the under-representation of women in the decision-making process and highlighted various shortcomings within the education and health sectors. “‘There is a low representation of women in Parliament and in other areas of decision making with a significantly higher rate of unemployment for women, despite their educational gains,” he said.

“On behalf of the United Nations, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to cooperate and work with the Government of Jamaica and the Jamaican peopl e t o identify and implement sustainable and inclusive solutions to meet the human-development needs of Jamaicans,” Kashyup stated.

Barbados Nation - To function at full capacity and help the region to safeguard against the impending threats of climate change, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) needs more than US$200 million.

Outlining some of the organization’s challenges, programme manager of the CCCCC, Joseph McGann, told the SATURDAY SUN that the centre required a significant amount of investment “and that investment is not available on the shelf”.

“We have to go out and solicit. Right now we have a portfolio of projects worth about US$200 million that we are trying to mobilize resources for.

That is projects within the Implementation Plan and there are others that we have not included yet in that portfolio,” explained McGann.

The Implementation Plan is one component of the overall European Union (EU)funded Global Climate Change Alliance Project launched in the region in July 2007.

Adan Chavez

UN vows to stand by Jamaica during tough times

US$200M needed to cope with climate change

Sunday January 13, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Atkinson: OCG statements IMF economists say reforms drive hurting Jamaica’s reputation economic turnaround in Suriname Jamaica Observer Attorney General Patrick Atkinson says that uncontrolled media releases from the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) will only serve to hurt Jamaica’s reputation internationally.

He made particular reference to two recent statements by the office that Cabinet had “been reported to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for criminal prosecution” and that “Cabinet is in flagrant violation of the rule of law”.

“When you use that kind of language, that will cause some international speculation and this is at a time when we are looking forward to foreign investments and so it certainly does not help when you have that kind of inflammatory language being used,” Atkinson said, in responding to questions from journalists attending a People’s National Party press conference at its Old Hope Road headquarters on Thursday to launch a oneyear progress report.

Earlier this month, Acting Contractor General Craig Beresford accused Cabinet of obstructing his probe of major State projects.

As such, he requested of the DPP that criminal charges be pursued against members of the Cabinet for failing to comply with the OCG’s “lawful statutory requisitions”

Patrick Atkinson

relating to its investigations into and its monitoring of, at least, four major projects being undertaken by the Government.

But this week, the attorney general bluntly told Beresford, via a media release, that the Cabinet reports to Parliament, not to the OCG and they would not release documents required for the probe until the Supreme Court ruled on the powers of the OCG. At Thursday’s press conference, Atkinson would not say much more on the matter when pressed as to whether the issue would come up for further discussions at the three-day Cabinet Retreat, which ends today.

Atkinson, in the release, had also accused the OCG of insisting on a right to issue media releases concerning its

investigations, “even before it reports to Parliament”, under what he described as “unsubstantiated discretionary powers”.

“As I indicated, it was with some reluctance that I issued the release as it centred around the fact that there is some judicial review of certain issue concerning the Contractor General Act, but because of the media release that was issued (by the OCG) and the way it was done I felt obliged to say something,” Atkinson said.

“I took it as far as I could without going into the issues to be decided by the court and I do have an inherent reluctance to go any further,” he added.

The Government last year requested a judicial review to define the powers of the OCG in its pre-contract monitoring because of the OCG’s probe into the award of contracts for the North-South Link of Highway 2000 and the Gordon Cay Container Transhipment Hub. The OCG filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in July last year in response to an earlier application by Transport and Works Minister Dr Omar Davies seeking to have the court restrain the OCG from securing information from the Independent Oversight Panel, which was set up by the Government to oversee the award of its contracts.

Chavez opponents to challenge Venezuela ruling CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition plans to present a case before a regional human rights court to challenge a Supreme Court decision that allowed the indefinite postponement of President Hugo Chavez’s inauguration.

The case is being prepared by a group of lawyers for the country’s opposition coalition, said Gerardo Blyde, a lawyer and opposition politician. He told reporters yesterday that it’s not yet clear when the case will be brought before the Costa Ricabased Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The opposition’s announcement came three days after the Supreme Court’s decision. Despite opposition claims that the constitution requires the inauguration to be held on January 10, the proChavez congress approved delaying the swearing-in and the Supreme Court endorsed the postponement, saying the president could take the oath

Gerardo Blyde

of office before the court at a later date.

The government says the 58year-old president, who is starting a new term after being reelected in October, is fighting a severe respiratory infection in a Cuban hospital. Chavez underwent his fourth cancerrelated surgery on December 11, and he hasn’t spoken publicly or been seen since.

The opposition has demanded more information about Chavez’s condition, and some have called for a

medical team to be formed to determine whether he is fit to remain in office.

Blyde, a district mayor, spoke to reporters at an outdoor gathering in a city plaza where leading Chavez opponents denounced the Supreme Court’s decision before a small crowd.

One woman held a sign demanding of the government: “Tell the truth.”

The court’s ruling made impossible any appeal within Venezuela, so the opposition decided to seek relief from the regional tribunal. Blyde said the Supreme Court ruling violated democratic rules laid out in the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Chavez’s government has repeatedly clashed with two regional human rights bodies.

It began a process of pulling out of the human rights court in September when it notified the Organization of American States that it was renouncing a regional convention on human rights.

Despite the ongoing global slowdown, Suriname has put in place a strong, homegrown adjustment program that is helping to turn around its economy.

A recent conference paper

by IMF economists reviews the measures taken by the authorities and highlights the country’s key achievements—a unified foreign exchange market, price stability, and significant fiscal gains.

Suriname’s recent experience with macroeconomic stabilization also presents a positive example for the Caribbean region of how meaningful and comprehensive adjustment is possible, provided that it is well designed, properly sequenced, and implemented by the government with commitment and resolve.

The three-day conference, hosted by the Central Bank of Suriname, focused on the Caribbean’s challenges and policy options.

According to the IMF’s most recent assessment of Suriname’s economy, economic activity remains strong, and inflation

pressures have abated considerably. Suriname is estimated to have grown by 4 percent in 2012, buoyed by the oil and gold sectors, as well as public investment, the IMF said.

Suriname was not completely immune from the global financial crisis.

Following a period of fast growth and favorable commodity prices, the recent crisis impacted Suriname primarily through the trade channel.

Suriname, located on the northeastern coast of South America with a population of 530,000, is highly dependent on three commodities: gold, oil, and alumina. Together, they account for about 95 percent of total exports.

During 2008–09, GDP growth slowed due to weaker external demand and international price declines. At the same time, the fiscal position deteriorated markedly—tax collections fell and spending surged, mainly on wages. In effect, fiscal policy played a countercyclical role. Loose monetary policies accommodated the resulting deficit.

In early 2010, pressures from higher international food and fuel prices pushed up headline inflation to double digits. Moreover, reflecting excess liquidity and the heightened uncertainty associated with the upcoming 2010 elections, the spread between the fixed official exchange rate and the parallel market rate gradually widened to almost 40 percent. This caused a serious disruption in the market for foreign currency, with inflows bypassing the commercial banking system and going to the informal sector, and the government being deprived of the full value of revenues that are collected in U.S. dollars.

The new administration elected in mid-2010 took up the exchange rate imbalance as a high priority, in the context of a comprehensive adjustment program. With inflation on the rise and foreign currency scarce in the commercial market, the policy package aimed at restoring domestic balance and price stability.

The authorities also saw the need for tight monetary and fiscal policies in order to avoid an inflationary spiral.

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Sunday January 13, 2012

Americans feel austerity’s bite as payroll taxes rise WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Americans are beginning to feel the pinch from Washington’s decision to embrace austerity measures aimed at bringing down the nation’s budget deficit.

Paychecks across the country have shrunk over the last two week due to higher federal tax rates, and workers are already cutting back on spending, which will drag on the economy this year.

In Warren, Rhode Island, Ben DeCastro got his first paycheck on Friday in which taxes on his wages rose by 2 percentage points. That works out to about $30 a week.

“You sit back and do the calculation, and that’s $30 I’m not going to spend at a restaurant,” said DeCastro.

He said he worries that people hit by higher taxes will spend less at the chain of furniture stores where he works as a marketing manager.

Politicians in Washington made much hubbub last week about a bipartisan deal to soften or postpone some $600 billion in scheduled tax hikes and government spending cuts. President Barack Obama said the deal would shield 98

percent of Americans from a middle-class tax hike.

Nevertheless, for most workers, rich and poor alike, taxes went up on December 31 as a temporary payroll tax cut expired. That cut - a 2 percentage point reduction in a levy that funds Social Security - was put in place two years ago to help the economy, which was still smarting from the 2007-09 recession.

About 160 million workers pay this tax, and the increase will cost the average worker about $700 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

“It stinks,” said Beverly Renfroe, an accountant for a realty firm in Jackson, Mississippi. “I definitely noticed a decrease.”

The pain will trickle through the economy over the next few weeks. Already, the new rate of 6.2 percent has trimmed paychecks for about half of the 200,000 employees whose paychecks are processed by Advantage Payroll Services, a payroll firm based in Auburn, Maine.

Economists estimate the payroll tax hike will reduce

household incomes by a collective $125 billion this year. Some households could reduce contributions to retirement accounts or other savings, but most are also expected to cut back on spending.

That alone could reduce economic growth this year by about 0.6 percentage point, said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York City.

“The headwind to growth should be noticeable,” he said.

Most mainstream economists say the government should still be trying to stimulate the economy by lowering taxes or raising spending to help bring down the 7.8 percent jobless rate.

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said Congress could consider short-term stimulus measures if they can be coupled with a plan to tame the deficit over the long run.

But a consensus has emerged between Congress and the White House that the federal government should step up the pace at which it

cuts the deficit, which ballooned during the recession.

That decision is having repercussions across the country.

In Bergenfield, New Jersey, Evelyn Weiss Francisco has put off plans to upgrade her cell phone and thinks she might go to fewer music concerts. A director at a public relations firm, she thinks the higher payroll taxes will cost her about $1,000 this year.

Some Americans will also pay higher income taxes this y e a r. C o n g r e s s a n d Obama let income tax rates rise for households making more than $450,000 a year, a partial repeal of tax cuts put in place under President George W. Bush. The wealthy will also pay a new tax to help fund a health insurance reform passed in 2010.

These will have a smaller impact on the wider economy

because they affect fewer people. But taken together, this year’s tax hikes could subtract a full percentage point from growth, Feroli said.

Most economists see economic growth of roughly 2 percent this year, a lackluster pace held back by the government’s austerity measures that is likely to do little to reduce unemployment.

Failure to postpone government spending cuts due to begin around March would slow growth more, further frustrating the economic recovery.

The blow to the economy from the tax hikes will hurt the most during the first half of the year as people adapt to their smaller paychecks.

Consumer spending, which drives more than two thirds of the economy, will likely grow at a mere 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter, and 1.5 percent in the second, said Sven Jari Stehn, an

economist at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Nicki Hagen, who received her first reduced paycheck on January 4 and then another on Friday, estimates the higher taxes will shrink her paychecks by about $10 a week.

She has already started holding back from coffee-andbagel runs made by coworkers at the home improvement company where she works as an office administrator in New York City.

She expects a much bigger hit to her family’s income when her husband gets his first paycheck for 2013 on Tuesday.

The two will then sit down and figure out how to budget their money.

They might cut cable channels, or take vacation days when their daughter is out of school to save on babysitter expenses.

“This is going to affect our lives,” she said.

Canadian native chief will continue hunger strike

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence pauses after making a statement on Victoria Island before the start of a meeting between chiefs and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa Friday. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian aboriginal chief will continue her hunger strike despite meetings on Friday between native leaders and government officials, as a Canada-wide protest movement gets ready for more demonstrations and a day of action later this month.

A spokesman said chief Theresa Spence would continue her strike in an effort to force new meetings to discuss Indian rights.

Spence, from the remote northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, has been surviving on a diet of tea and fish soup since early December as one of the most visible faces of a protest

movement called Idle No More that wants more money from resource development and better living conditions.

She refused to participate in a meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other native leaders, arguing that Governor General David Johnston should also participate.

Johnston, who hosted a later ceremonial meeting with native leaders including Spence, is the representative of Queen Elizabeth in Canada.

“The meeting with the Governor General ... was not a triumph, it was simply a time to send a strong message to the powers that be,” Spence’s

spokesman Danny Metatawabin said in an email.

“The hunger strike continues.”

Harper agreed on Friday to pay more attention to native demands and to work more closely with them. But he made no promise about their demands.

Many of Canada’s 1.2 million natives live on reserves with unsafe drinking water, inadequate housing, addiction and high suicide rates.

But the aboriginal movement is far from united, and it includes chiefs who say they are prepared to damage the economy unless Ottawa acts, and others who are ready

Sunday January 13, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Russia rejects Assad exit as precondition for Syria deal MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia voiced support yesterday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country’s conflict.

Some 60,000 Syrians have been killed during the 21month-old revolt and world powers are divided over how to stop the escalating bloodshed. Government aircraft bombed outer districts of Damascus yesterday after being grounded for a week by stormy weather, opposition activists in the capital said.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement following talks on Friday with the United States and Brahimi reiterated calls for an end to violence in Syria, but there was no sign of a breakthrough.

Brahimi said the issue of Assad, whom the United States, European powers and Gulf-led Arab states insist must step down to end the civil war, appeared to be a sticking point at the meeting in Geneva.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said: “As before, we firmly uphold the thesis that questions about Syria’s future must be decided by the Syrians themselves, without interference from outside or the imposition of prepared recipes for development.”

Russia has been Assad’s most powerful international backer, joining with China to block three Western- and Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed to pressure him or push him from power. Assad can also rely on regional powerhouse Iran.

In Geneva, Russia called for “a political transition process” based on an agreement by foreign powers last June.

Brahimi, who is trying to build on the agreement reached in Geneva on June 30, has met three times with senior Russian and U.S. diplomats since early December and met Assad in Damascus.

Russia and the United States disagreed over what the June agreement meant for Assad, with Washington

Lakhdar Brahimi

saying it sent a clear signal he must go and Russia contending it did not.

Moscow has been reluctant to endorse the “Arab Spring” popular revolts of the last two years, saying they have increased instability in the Middle East and created a risk of radical Islamists seizing power.

Although Russia sells arms to Syria and rents one of its naval bases, the economic

benefit of its support for Assad is minimal. Analysts say President Vladimir Putin wants to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the U.N. Security Council to bring down governments it opposes.

However, as rebels gain ground in the war, Russia has given indications it is preparing for Assad’s possible exit, while continuing to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers.

Opposition activists say a military escalation and the hardship of winter have accelerated the death toll.

Rebel forces have acquired more powerful antitank and anti-aircraft weapons during attacks on Assad’s military bases.

President Assad’s forces have employed increasing amounts of military hardware including Scud-type ballistic missiles in the past two months. New York-based Human Rights Watch said they had also used incendiary cluster bombs that are banned by most nations.

Democrats urge Obama to be ready to bypass Congress on debt cap WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Top Democratic senators urged President Barack Obama on Friday to be ready to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval in order to avert a damaging debt default.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his leadership team said Obama should use “any lawful steps” under his authority to “ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis.”

They urged Obama to act on his own if Republicans insist on a debt limit extension that is coupled with “unbalanced or unreasonable” spending cuts.

Democrats are anticipating another possible deadlock over the debt limit in Congress and hope a unilateral move, or the threat of one, by Obama would avoid a replay of the 2011 fight that pushed the country to the brink of default.

Obama has vowed not to negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling.

Republican reaction to Reid’s letter showed no willingness to back down from their demands that spending

cuts be part of the debt limit debate.

“The Democrat leadership hiding under thei r d e s k s and hoping the president will find a way around the l a w o n t h e n a t i o n ’s maxed-out credit card is not only the height of irresponsibility, but also a guarantee that our national debt crisis will only get worse,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, said, “The American people will not tolerate an increase in the debt limit without spending cuts and reforms.”

Some analysts and Democrats believe the 14th Amendment of the Constitution gives the president the authority to raise the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling unilaterally.

That provision states the validity of government debt shall not be questioned. But the White House has so far ruled it out. One Senate Democratic aide said other legal options were being explored.

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Sunday January 13, 2012

Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The battle to retake Mali’s north from the al-Qaida-linked groups controlling it began in earnest yesterday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists from a town seized earlier this week.

Nations in West Africa yesterday also authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali, fastforwarding a military intervention that was not due to start until September. The decision to begin the military operation was taken after the fighters, who seized the northern half of Mali nine months ago, decided earlier this week to push even further south to the town of Konna, coming within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Mopti, the first town controlled by the government and a major base for the Malian military.

Many believe that if Mopti were to fall, the Islamists could potentially seize the rest of the country, dramatically raising the stakes in the nearly yearold conflict. Yesterday, French

said Islamist militants were driven out of Konna, but that the city captured by the extremists on Thursday was not yet under government control.

“We are doing sweeps of the city to find any hidden Islamist extremist elements,” said Lt. Col. Diarran Kone.

“It’s too early to say that we have fully recovered the city.”

In a statement published on an online jihadist forum, a fighter belonging to one of the Islamist groups in Mali, the Movement for the Unity and Jihad in West Africa, known as MUJAO, vowed their fighters would soon conquer the capital, Bamako,

according to a transcript provided by Washingtonbased SITE Intelligence.

Contributors to the forum called for fighters to attack French interests in retaliation for the air raids, and began discussing possible targets, including the French embassy in Niger.

The sudden military operation is a reversal of months of debate over whether or not Western powers should get involved in a military bid to oust the militants, who took advantage of a coup in Mali’s capital in March to capture the north.

As recently as December, United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon cautioned against a quick military operation, warning that it could open the door to human rights abuses.

Diplomats said that September would be the earliest the operation could take place.

All of that changed this week when the fighters pushed south from the town of Douentza, which demarcated their line of control, located 900 kilometers (540 miles) from the capital. By Thursday, they had succeeded in pushing another 120 kilometers (72 miles) south, bringing them nearly face-to-face with the ill-

equipped and ill-trained Malian military in a showdown that couldn’t be ignored by the international community.

In a statement released Saturday, the bloc representing nations in West Africa, ECOWAS said they had authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali.

ECOWAS commission president Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said they made the decision “in light of the urgency of the situation.” He did not provide details on which countries would supply soldiers, but Burkina Faso’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Djibril Bassole said that his country would send at least 500 troops into neighboring Mali.

Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa in the Pentagon, said that officials in Washington were in all-day meetings on Friday, trying to chart a course of action. The United States has previously said it will provide logistical support to the military intervention.

A U.S. official confirmed Saturday that the U.S. has offered to send drones to Mali.

The official could not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Despite the worst bout of violence in years along the disputed Kashmir border, Pakistani and Indian officials have kept tension from spiraling out of control. It’s an example of just how far the archenemies have come since relations were shattered by the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Risk of escalation remains, but senior officials from both nations have sought to limit the potential damage to relations between the nucleararmed neighbors, which have slowly warmed since Pakistani militants killed 166 people in the Indian coastal city of Mumbai.

“The violence may have a negative impact and slow down the reconciliation process, but it will not end the

process because, despite the incidents, the two governments at the official level are not in favor of escalation,” said Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. Private Indian media has hyped the Kashmir violence, which killed two soldiers on each side, but the response in Pakistan has been more muted, even among Islamic hard-liners who are opposed to better relations with India and have suspected ties to the Pakistani military, Rizvi said.

“That indicates the army generally wants to improve relations with India,” he said.

“These groups make noise, but the noise stays within limits.”

India and Pakistan have been rivals for decades. The

two have fought three wars since they were carved out of British India in 1947 — two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The region is divided between the two countries, but each claims it in its entirety.

They suspended peace talks after the Mumbai attack, but both countries have reasons for wanting better ties. Pakistan desperately wants increased trade with India to help turn around its stuttering economy. The country’s powerful generals cannot afford conflict with India at a time when the army is bogged down in a battle against Pakistan Taliban militants — a fight that could get even more complicated with the drawdown of foreign forces in Afghanistan.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Police say 16 officers have been injured in street clashes after about 1,000 Protestants marched on Belfast City Hall to protest its decision to reduce displays of the British flag.

Violence broke out yesterday as Protestants passed Short Strand, the only

Irish Catholic enclave in east Belfast. Masked, hooded Catholic youths tossed bottles, rocks and other makeshift weapons at the protesters.

A running street battle ensued with heavily armored police in the middle.

Amid chaotic scenes, police used water cannons,

shields and occasional shots of plastic bullets to force the Protestants away from the Catholic district.

Protestant extremists have mounted illegal protests and road blockades for the past six weeks in protest at Catholic council members’ decision to fly the flag only 18 days annually, not year round.

Soldiers from a Malian army special unit stand atop pick-ups mounted with machine guns, following a training exercise in the Barbe military zone, in Mopti, Mali. AP Photo/Francois Rihouay)

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the potential outcome as “a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe.”

Le Drian confirmed that the French aerial assault, which started Friday in the former French colony, had succeeded in dispersing the Islamists who had seized Konna. He also said that a rebel command center outside the city was destroyed.

However, in a sign of how

hard the battle ahead may be, Adm. Edouard Guillaud said that a French helicopter was downed in the battle and the pilot died of his wounds while he was being evacuated to safety. The Islamists are using arms stolen from ex-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s arsenal, as well as the weapons abandoned by Mali’s military when they fled their posts in the face of the rebel advance.

A military official in Mali

Pakistan, India seek to ease tension over Kashmir

16 Belfast cops hurt in Catholic-Protestant clash

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

An ambitious attitude backed by a keen sense of intuition has been the driving force that has kept former Queen’s College student, Elson Low, focused and passionate about his studies.

Having secured a grant to study at Amherst College, one of the better learning institutions in the United States of America, the 19year-old is certainly not a disappointment to his sponsor.

In fact he has recently been accepted to the13th Annual Spring Public Policy Leadership Conference (PPLC) at Harvard Kennedy School, a feat which according to him “was really tough to get into.” The PPLC is designed especially for first and second year undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing professional careers in the public sector.

Moreover, it is intended to encourage them to prepare for graduate study in public policy and international affairs, as well as to provide information on financial support through various

fellowship programmes.

This programme is especially ideal for Low, who has plans to complete a Masters degree in Economics before returning home to hopefully render his acquired expertise to the public sector.

The Harvard Conference will be held over the course of three days (February 21-24) and according to Low, it caters specifically to minorities “to help them get a better idea of what it is like to be involved in public policy. I think Bill Clinton spoke there a few years ago so I’m pretty

excited,” said an elated Low during a conversation with this publication.

He was admitted to the programme after submitting a resumé, personal statement and transcript.

A recommendation was also necessary. Candidates, according to him, were selected on their commitment to service as demonstrated in their essay and extracurricular activities, and on whether the conference would benefit them as they look to explore jobs in public policy and government administration.

“The programme will make me miss two days of school, but that should be fine, because my academics have gone well. I’ve had lots of work to do and sometimes it’s been tough, but I’m sitting on an A-average,” said a somewhat sleep-deprived Low. Currently in his second semester at the Massachusetts College, he predicts that with the new opportunities becoming available, he will probably have to double major in economics and political science.

(From page 27) Society has collaborated with the One Laptop Per Family programme, where the GSB trains its members and the computers are made available.

Most notably, Singh disclosed, a few months ago the Society started its first ever Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) programme.

“We have embarked on this CXC programme where we started offering classes to blind and visually impaired persons in five subject areas - Human and Social Biology, English A, Mathematics, Social Studies and Office Administration.”

Singh explained that the facilitators for this project will be using a different methodology, in that every session will be done electronically.

“The tutors for this programme are being provided by the Ministry of Education and everything is done on computer. However the classroom sessions are mainly for queries, discussions and interaction.

Everything is being done electronically and we are planning to have the session run via the internet so that students across the country can follow us or through some other conference facility.”

Currently the CXC programme has 14 persons

registered, three of whom are not visually impaired but suffer from other forms of disability.

Singh, who can been seen as an inspiration to those students, has also recently completed two CXC subjects and gained Grade Ones. Ironically, when Singh first wrote CXC, he was a student of St. Rose’s High School and was diagnosed with glaucoma and was losing his sight rapidly. At his first sitting his Grades were nothing to shout about, but last year Singh gained a Grade One in English A and a Grade One in Social Studies.

He is now a first-year Social Work student at the University of Guyana.

Singh vows that he will now dedicate more of his time to assisting his fellow visually impaired friends in this endeavour since he feels he is a living example to them of what the unlimited possibilities.

In addition to the aforementioned, the organization in its aim to have its members well rounded, has them actively involved in other extracurricular activities including steel pan playing and cricket.

The society has a very close relationship with the Blind Cricket Association.

The 150 members to which

the GSB caters enjoy free, routine medical check-ups by a doctor who is assigned to them by the Ministry of Health on a monthly basis the second Wednesday of every month. Medication is also administered, if needed, free of cost. The members are also exposed to workshops through the National Commission of Disability and other organizations.

Despite the need for funding - as there are some areas which need development the organization’s President Cecil Morris says their doors are always open, not only to visually impaired persons but those who are genuinely willing to make a meaningful contribution to society.

F u r t h e r, it was emphasised that while some are of the opinion that the GSB only serves Georgetown and its environs this is not the case, as over the years, calls are being made for visually impaired persons from other regions to get involved in the activities which are being pursued and the elements for advancement on offer.

Morris lauded the private sector - which he said has been “one of our major supporters” - and asked for those with the means to “bear us in mind as donations of any kind are always welcomed”.

By Sharmain Grainger

Elson Low

Low is believed to be the first Guyanese student to benefit from the Amherst College grant programme, which covers all the studying costs for suitably qualified applicants from around the world. The grant, he explained, during an interview last year, offers accepted applicants a stipend, covers the cost of books and stationery, and amounts to about US$55,000 annually.

His candidature to the university was also based on the fact that his parents’ – Sandra and Elton Brandon Low of Lamaha Gardens, Georgetown – income fell within a specified bracket. He said that not only is his tuition covered, but every possible cost associated with his edification is financed through the grant offered by the college. Even his vacation trips back home to Guyana are covered, Low revealed.

According to him “I want our Guyanese students to really appreciate that these opportunities are out there, and this is really a chance to get into some of the best institutions in the world for free. There is no restriction to

Sunday January 13, 2013

subject areas…you can study in any field,” he emphasised.

However, the catch is that it may be difficult to gain acceptance as more people are becoming aware of the available grants.

“As far as I know I am the only person from Guyana that has gotten into this. I’ve heard that there are about 20 students from Jamaica benefiting and of course this is a great disappointment, because there is nothing to suggest that Jamaican students are better than Guyanese students,” Low mused.

He expects that in the near future, a few Guyanese graduates would seek to take advantage of such available grants, even as he alluded to the need for more guidance for students, pointing out that “there is not a lot of guidance…even I found it very difficult to find out about these schools. That to me is the main barrier for students.”

Additionally, he pointed out that it would be helpful if there was a standard Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) programme in Guyana, since in order to be accepted at these schools, applicants

must write the SAT in addition to completing the common application, writing an essay, and other requirements. The process of application has a December 31 annual deadline, Low noted.

And while he admits that he didn’t have the highest SAT marks, Low pointed out that his acceptance was not merely linked to good grades, but rather the fact that the schools are known to accept people based on “you as an individual…on a holistic basis. They look at your extracurricular activities, so students need not be discouraged if you are not the highest achiever.”

Low, despite having a disability, has been involved in a number of extra-curricular activities throughout his high school life including sports, debating, impromptu speaking and conferences, and was even a youth parliamentarian for one year.

He is an avid writer of both fiction and non-fiction, an ability that has transcended to his new school life at Amherst College, where he has been writing a few articles for the institution’s newspaper.

The Guyana Society for the Blind - A truly...

Three members practicing on the steel pans.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 27

The Guyana Society for the Blind - A truly inspiring unit

By Jenelle Willabus The Guyana Society for the Blind has been around for decades, and while it can be logically deduced that the name of the organization denotes who it essentially represents, one may still ponder what else the entity actually offers. Well, it has had and still has many important functions and the benefits of being a part of this noble and generous unit are quite uplifting.

The Guyana Society for the Blind (GSB) was established on October 8, 1955. According to those au fait with its genesis, the Society was actually brought into existence in 1950 by a group which included several visually impaired individuals.

The current President, Cecil Morris, indicated that as far as he could recollect, the organization was founded by Jacob Moe, Ella Phillips, a gentleman who he only remembers being a Prison

In addition to self sustenance, the GSB was given a minimal subvention from the government.

Fortunately, back then most of their products were sold to ministries and that kept muchneeded funds coming in.

However, as the years went by, the demand for these traditional items began to dwindle bringing pressure on the organization which by then was fully established and was serving not only visually impaired persons, but persons with other disability.

In 1986, through a grant from Canadian International Development Agency, an addition was made to the initial structure. This is the very building that now stands at Lot 46 High Street, St. Phillip’s Green, Georgetown.

The extension was timely.

“In the early 90s we were still running the workshop, and Guyanese were introduced to the foam mattress, so what we found was that there was not the demand for what we were

Ganesh Singh, Executive Member of the GSB, is the driving force behind the Information Technology programme. whole transition process and for many it’s not an easy adjustment, so we train each member to counsel new

years, the Society has reshifted its focus in an attempt to make visually impaired persons more equipped to

members.”

Today, the Guyana Society for the Blind has changed in keeping with the new era. Over the past five

deal with advancing technology. To this end, one of the organization’s youngest members, Ganesh Singh, has

The organization’s High Street compound

Officer, and a few others.

Morris, who is also visually impaired, recounted that a building to house the GSB was erected in the early 1960s. The edifice was erected at a cost of $25 and was funded through a gift from the government of the day.

“It was a simple structure with mesh around it with low concrete walls and it was small, but the members made the best of that very building which was just a fraction of the structure we now have. It also housed a workshop,” Morris said. Initially the building was opened to members three half-days a week and this was eventually changed to every day.

“Back in the day we did pottery and basketry to maintain the organization, so as the demands for our products grew we were forced to open every day of the week.”

According to Morris, from that small building abundant craftwork was produced, including manila rope mats, coconut fibre mats and mattresses and other creative products, made from scratch by visually impaired persons.

making (fibre mattresses) so eventually we had to stop…but occasionally we would make stuff when we got an order.”

In terms of basketry, Morris said products started coming out of the North West District at a cheaper cost, throwing “a wet blanket” on the GSB’s efforts to sustain itself.

“We soon had to look for other stuff to keep our organization flowing, so we started doing stuffed toys and tie-dying, but that too only lasted for a short while.”

Despite all these challenges Morris said the entity kept its doors open with a renewed focus as its members were depending on the services. There was concerted capacity-building.

The then members benefited from home economics classes, cookery, sewing and training in mobility skills.

Further the inception, each member was trained to assist each other to cope with a life without sight. “While not all our members are blind, we place special focus on our blind members, since it is very difficult for a person who was once able to see but then goes blind. Going blind is a

President of the Guyana Society for the Blind, Cecil Morris. been the driving force behind a number of initiatives for visually impaired members to come up to speed in what he describes as the “information technology age”.

Being visually impaired himself, Singh asserted that the GSB is currently doing a lot regarding the empowerment and development of blind persons. “The computer is important and over the years there has been a widening gap regarding information for blind people. They can’t read the newspaper, very few can read Braille, and very limited material is available for those who can read Braille. We see the computer as being a good way to bridge the gap.”

According to Singh, so far they have been able to do some work with the

computers, thanks to a special programme called ‘JAWS’ (Job Access With Speech). This software he explained “talks out aloud allowing a visually impaired person to utilise every feature on a computer”.

Among programmes which the Society has embarked upon include one for computer training, which began three years ago.

“Since 2010 we have started computer training with blind persons, and ever since we have had an increase in population of visually impaired persons who are using the computer. We now have members who are eager to access the Kaieteur News online, which is one of the most easily accessed papers online.”

Singh said that the

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Sunday January 13, 2013

Sunday January 13, 2013

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Brazil’s once-envied energy matrix a victim of “hubris” (Reuters) - Just five years ago, Brazil’s mostly “green” energy landscape was the envy of nations dependent on dirtier sources of power and the pride of a government that believed it was leading the country to economic superpower status.

Three-quarters of electricity came from renewable hydro power and the main automobile fuel was home-grown sugarcane ethanol. Plus, Brazil had just found massive oil fields off its coast, putting it on a path to become the world’s No. 3 oil producer after Russia and Saudi Arabia by 2020.

Today, the outlook is much darker. Oil output is falling, ethanol production has plunged, and fears have recently returned of electricity rationing that could further depress a stagnant economy and embarrass President Dilma Rousseff.

WHAT WENT WRONG? Analysts and investors say the current troubles were bred from an excessive optimism during the rosy years, when Brazil’s government tried to take greater control of the energy bonanza and ended up scaring off investors.

“Brazil has become a victim of the politics of economic plenty,” said Christopher Garman, LatinAmerican director of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk and economic consulting group.

“When things were going so well for Brazil, and after they discovered oil, the administration was infused with a sense of hubris,” he said. “They thought they had more room to conduct an active industrial policy and change the regulatory landscape.”

Rousseff recently dismissed fears of energy rationing as “ridiculous,” despite some energy analysts and investors who say the possibility is quite real. One of the root problems is beyond her or any government’s control: one of the worst droughts in decades in parts of Brazil depriving dams of the water they need to generate electricity. Brazil’s recent efforts to diversify its electrical grid - which have earned it plenty of criticism from environmental groups may in fact end up protecting the country from the widespread rationing most recently seen in 2001. Hydro power now accounts for about two-thirds of electricity generation, down from about 80 percent in 2005.

Yet the troubles go much deeper than just a few impaired dams. Brazil’s whole energy sector is riddled with inefficiencies and investor anxiety, from state-owned colossus Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, to the recent multibillion-dollar losses in valuation at

electrical companies such as Cemig and CESP. The stakes are particularly high for Rousseff, who was elected president in 2010 in part because of her perceived competence in managing the energy sector.

As energy minister from 2003 to 2005, she was charged with making sure Brazil never experienced a big shortage again and with paving the way for the country to become an oil superpower in decades to come.

The problems in the sector also reflect a broader complaint from investors that heavy-handed government intervention under Rousseff has increased the role of the state at the expense of the private sector.

As a result of that and other problems, Brazil’s economy likely grew less then 1 percent in 2012, one of the lowest rates in Latin America.

GOOD INTENTIONS GONE BAD In recent years, Rousseff oversaw the rewriting of a decade-old legal framework for oil production, blocked efforts

by Petrobras to raise gasoline and diesel prices, and forced Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, a state-led utility, to cut power rates in exchange for hydro concession renewals.

Nearly all those measures backfired in one way or another. The new oil law, passed in 2010, sought to maximize the government’s control of the bonanza expected from the socalled subsalt fields, one of the world’s largest recent oil finds with as much as 100 billion barrels of oil buried underneath a New York-state-sized area along Brazil’s coast near Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. At current rates of consumption, that would provide enough oil for all U.S. needs for 14 years and all of Brazil’s for a century.

Rather than immediately exploiting the oil and reaping the benefits primarily through royalties, the government hoped to use the subsalt fields as an opportunity to build an entire offshore oil industry.

It raised requirements for minimum Brazilian content in oilfield development and required that Petrobras increase its already dominant share of exploration and production. It also wanted to ensure the royalties were used for long-term purposes such as education, and avoid “Dutch disease” - an overvaluation of the local currency as a result of oil and other commodities exports that devastates local manufacturing industries.

In practice, the uncertainty generated by the law has halted, since 2008, what had previously been annual oil-rights auctions.

Leases sold through such auctions helped more than

double Brazilian output from 1997 to 2008.

“The government took a law that worked, that was responsible for our oil industry’s success, and changed it anyway,” said Adriano Pires, head of the Brazilian Infrastructure Institute, a Rio de Janeiro energy research group. “The result is a mess.”

The law’s changes in royalty rules touched off a dispute between oil producing states and the rest of Brazil that could block auctions planned for this year.

The law also gave Petrobras the exclusive right to run all future exploration and output in the most promising areas of Brazil’s Campos and Santos Basins, home to nearly 90 percent of Brazil’s output.

Companies that had considered long-term commitments to Brazil such as Devon Energy and Exxon Mobil Corp have since scaled back Brazilian plans or left. In the case of Devon, easier- and cheaper-to-produce shale gas and oil in the United Sates seemed a better bet than Brazil’s complex offshore options.

MISSING TARGETS This has placed more responsibility on Petrobras and it is already unable to meet its production and expansion goals under a $237 billion five-year plan, the world’s largest corporatespending program.

Petrobras output has dropped for eight straight months. That has crimped cash flow just as the government is pushing it harder to build hundreds of ships, dozens of drill rigs and production platforms, and five new refineries needed to develop its new reserves.

Arguably the most damaging action, though, has

been the government’s fuelpricing policies. The failure to allow Petrobras to raise domestic gasoline and diesel prices in line with world prices prompted its first loss in 13 years in the second quarter of 2012 and added more than $8 billion in 2012 losses at its refining unit.

The government has kept fuel prices low in an effort to control inflation in the wider economy. Inflation is already running above 5.7 percent on an annual basis, near the top of the central bank’s target range, as a tight labor market and historically low interest rates push prices higher.

While saying fuel prices are likely to rise this year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega - who is also Petrobras’ board chairman has not set a date.

The impact on Petrobras shares has been significant.

They now trade for less than they did before Petrobras made its first giant oil discoveries in 2007.

In 2008, Petrobras’ discoveries helped make it, along with General Electric, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft, one of the world’s 10 biggest companies by market value.

Today, despite the discovery of billions of barrels of reserves and a $78 billion share sale in 2010 - the largest sale of new stock in history - Petrobras’s valuation on the stock market is about the same as Cia. de Bebidas das Americas SA (Ambev), a Brazilian brewer.

Artificially cheap gasoline has had another major, unintended side effect: it has hurt ethanol by making it uncompetitive. Sugar cane farmers responded by cutting production, and ethanol prices soared.

Ethanol demand peaked in 2009. Since then prices have

more than doubled, even as sales plunged 41 percent.

Ethanol, which once made up more than a fifth of all Brazilian fuel sales and was more widely used than gasoline, was competitive on average in only two of Brazil’s 27 states in each of the 12 months through November, Brazil’s fuels distributors’ association said.

But because ethanol also made up a quarter of all gasoline blends, the higher ethanol price also raised the pump price of regular gasoline. In response, the government cut the amount of ethanol in gasoline to 20 percent in late 2011 to prevent it from boosting the inflation rate.

With its refineries running at full capacity, Petrobras was then forced to import gasoline at world prices and sell it at a loss. “You get the feeling that the government is improvising,” said Luiz Pinguelli Rosa, a physicist and director of postgraduate engineering studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and formerly president of state-led utility Eletrobras under the previous government.

“These policies have hurt both Petrobras and the ethanol industry, which are important to our development,” Rosa said.

FORCING ELECTRICITY PRICES DOWN The other big chill in the energy industry has resulted from Rousseff’s recent plan to force a decline in electricity prices. The measure was supposed to help stir the broader economy, but may prove to be a low point in her relationship with the private sector. Brazil’s electricity prices were until recently the world’s third-highest, according to some studies.

Rousseff announced a plan

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff last year to push them down 20 percent. The high prices are largely a result of taxes, which the government has had little success cutting.

Lower rates will help consumers but could also make it hard for utilities to invest the tens of billions of dollars the government wants them to spend to expand service and build new dams to meet Brazil’s growing electricity needs, Rosa and Garman said.

Brazilian officials have said electricity companies will simply have to operate with lower profit margins than before to help make up the difference. Investors have responded by selling utility stocks.

Declines over the past year in the stock of Eletrobras, Latin America’s largest utility, have wiped out two decades of investors’ gains.

“The government is in a tight spot. Energy is now their Achilles’ heel,” said Oswaldo Telles, an energy analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank in Sao Paulo. “The price moves are the last card up their sleeve. If they don’t work, they will have to try something more drastic or give up on more goals.”

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Set goals for the New Year!

By Krista Brooks A very pleasant and prosperous 2013 to all of you!

Nursey and I have been taking some time to relax over the holidays and enjoy ourselves. We are back and ready for action in 2013!

There are a lot of health topics to cover but thankfully we have another year to share out more things that Nursey has to say. Whenever a new year starts, people think about making some positive changes in their lives. Any time is a good time to make a positive life change, but many people think: New Year, new you.

Goal setting can be difficult because sometimes we don’t know how to reach them or set goals that might be too big to complete. Goal setting can be complicated!

Nursey does have some tips to set manageable goals for ourselves so we can see how far we’ve come and feel good accomplishing them.

You can start planning your goals by creating a list of “wants.” These can relate to things you want personally, things you want in your career, or things you want in relationships. Don’t worry too much about if your “wants” are possible or if they seem selfish. They are your wants. Next you can pick your top 5 “wants.” They are the wants you think are most important to you. Really consider each of these 5 “wants” and pick 2 or 3 that you want to turn into goals for the year. If some of your “wants” might take you longer than a year, then focus on the parts that you could accomplish this year.

Nurses create plans for each of their patients. Nursey

Krista Brooks stresses that these plans need to be SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. You can take each of your goals and make them SMART. Make sure you have a specific thing that you want to accomplish and that you can measure your success when you do reach your goal.

For example, if you want to lose 10 lbs this year, you will know if you met your goal at the end of the year by measuring your weight.

You can tell if your goals are attainable or realistic for you. If you said you want to exercise for an hour 7 days a week and you HATE exercising, it might not be realistic for you. Start with something a little bit smaller like exercising for 30 minutes for 3 days a week. Time is an important thing when it comes to setting and reaching your goals because it helps to guide us. You can set a time when you will start, you can set a time where you will look at the progress you are making, and of course you will also set an end time to reach your goal.

After you have made your goals SMART, it is good to

create a purpose for each goal. It should be a purpose that is important and meaningful to you. This purpose also helps keep us motivated while we are trying to reach our goal. For example, “losing weight will make me look good” might not be strong enough to keep you motivated. “Losing weight will keep me healthy so I can live a long and more active life,” might really give you a strong sense of purpose.

For each goal that you set for yourself, create a list of small steps that you can take to help you reach your goal.

You can make steps that you accomplish weekly or every few weeks depending on how long they might take you. For example, “By January 18, I will have walked at least 30 minutes two afternoons. By January 25, I will have walked at least 30 minutes 3 afternoons.”

Finally, it is good to tell others about the goals you would like to accomplish this year. They can help support and motivate you to reach your goals!

I hope you are able to use some of Nursey’s tips to set some great goals for yourself to help improve your health, wellness, and happiness for 2013. I will be back next week to tell you more things that Nursey says. Until then!

If you have any questions about setting goals or any other health issues please em a i l nurseysaysguyana@gmail.com.

Krista Brooks is a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer working with the School of Nursing, which trains Nursing Assistants, Professional Nurses, and Midwifery Students.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Almost one in six couples face infertility: study (Reuters Health) Close to one in six U.S. couples don’t get pregnant despite a year of trying - after which doctors typically recommend evaluation for infertility, according to a new study.

Those data are based on a nationally-representative survey of more than 7,600 women - including 288 who were trying to become pregnant - but don’t provide an explanation for what may be causing the couples’ infertility.

Researchers analyzed information from in-person and computer interviews conducted across the country in 2002 with women ages 15 through 44.

Germaine Buck Louis, from the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, and her colleagues estimated infertility rates in two different ways.

First, they calculated the number of infertile couples as a fraction of all pairs that could or could not have become pregnant, based on their sexual behavior resulting in a rate of seven percent.

Then they looked specifically at women trying to get pregnant, not including those who were using contraception or had very recently given birth, for example. That strategy showed 15 to 16 percent of couples couldn’t get pregnant after at least a year of unprotected sex.

The finding is similar to smaller studies showing between 12 and 18 percent of women may have trouble getting pregnant, the researchers wrote in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

According to the Society

for Assisted Reproductive Technology, women received close to 150,000 cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 2010, with male factor infertility and diminished ovarian reserve being the most frequent infertility-related diagnoses.

Dr. John Collins, a professor emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who has studied infertility, said there is a need for accurate measures of how widespread it is - but also that the rate may have risen in the last decade since this data was collected.

According to the Canadian census, he told Reuters Health in an email, the rate of infertility there rose from 8.5 percent in 1992 to 15 percent in 2009-2010.

Infertility specialist Dr. Sacha Krieg from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City agreed that infertility rates may be on the rise - possibly due to women waiting longer to try to have children or, more controversially, to the possible effects of

environmental toxins.

“What this study showed, I felt, was a little bit higher infertility rate than we typically quote patients,” Krieg, who wasn’t involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.

“Many in the field feel like the rate of infertility is increasing, and (this finding) seems like a more accurate reflection of the actual infertility rate,” she added.

Krieg said some couples who have been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant for a while may still go on to conceive on their own, without the help of IVF. Each cycle of IVF runs for about $15,000, and may or may not be covered by insurance.

Krieg recommended that people get checked out after a year of trying - or six months, for women over 35 to make sure there aren’t underlying problems, such as a blocked fallopian tube or low sperm count, preventing them from conceiving.

Lung infection identified using “breath-print” Identifying the “smell” of different types of lung bacteria could lead to a simple breath test to diagnose infections, a study on mice, in the Journal of Breath Research, suggests.

Breath analysis could reduce lung infection diagnosis times from weeks to minutes, the Vermont researchers said.

Scientists have already researched breath tests to diagnose asthma and cancer.

An expert said breath

analysis was “an important and emerging field”.

Diagnosing bacterial infections traditionally means collecting a sample that is used to grow bacteria in the lab. This bacteria is then tested to classify it and see how it responds to antibiotics, which can take time. Doctors see breath analysis, in contrast, as a fast and non-invasive method of diagnosing diseases. Breath analysis is

an emerging field and is likely to take off across the board.”

For the study, researchers from the University of Vermont analysed volatile organic compounds (VOCs) given off in exhaled breath by different bacteria as well as different strains of the same bacterium. They infected mice with two bacteria that are both common in lung infections Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and sampled their breath after 24 hours.

‘USEFULTOOL’ The compounds in their breath were analysed using a technique called secondary electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (SESI-MS), which is capable of detecting

extremely small elements of the chemicals present in their breath. The researchers said they found a “statistically significant” difference between the breath profiles of the mice infected with the bacteria and the mice that were uninfected.

They also said they were able to differentiate between two species of bacteria and two different strains of the same P. aeruginosa bacterium.

But Jane Hill, co-author of the study, from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, said there were still some challenges to overcome with “breath-prints”.

“We are now collaborating with colleagues to sample patients in order to

demonstrate the strengths, as well as limitations, of breath analysis more comprehensively,” she said.

Richard Hubbard, professor of respiratory epidemiology at Nottingham City Hospital and a spokesman for the British Lung Foundation, said breath analysis

was already being used to diagnose children with asthma.

“Breath analysis is an emerging field and is likely to take off across the board. It could be a very useful tool for children with cystic fibrosis, for example, as a guide on how to treat them,” he said.

Sunday January 13, 2013

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We all have been experiencing blackouts almost daily in Guyana. We are becoming known as the “Blackout Nation”. Many have complained that even with good internal wiring, surge protectors and other protective equipment, our properties are still being destroyed, from TVs to computers, to other assorted electrically, powered appliances and equipment, at our businesses and homes.

We pay our electricity bill every month as a contract that GPL must provide electricity for us on demand 24/7. How many of you have experienced this? How many of you have lost major

Kaieteur News

appliances due to the power surges?

How many businesses lost customers?

Those of you who can afford it have to buy generators and fuel to replace GPL. We are not compensated for this and the fuel adjustment clause in our bill only works in one direction, that is, upwards, even though fuel prices have dropped significantly. GPL spent millions renting generators from friends, but constantly claims it has no money to upgrade its systems in a timely manner.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGYWHY THE FAILURE BY OUR GOVERNMENT? The PPP Administration has failed miserably in

developing a viable energy program for our nation. We all pay the price everyday with the high cost of electricity and fuel prices. One would think that developing a comprehensive energy plan for Guyana would have been a priority item. Such a plan for Guyana would focus on an increased role for renewable energy in Guyana’s energy mix, with hydro-power being considered to be a renewable energy source.

An energy plan for Guyana also has to consider the importation of hydropower from our neighbours, as well as the role of ethanol.

A major driver of decisions on Guyana’s

energy future has to be a focus on low carbon which is good for Guyana. However, the low carbon perspective must be driven by Guyana’s self-interest first and maintaining our right to choose our sustainable development path.

Thus, an essential component of an energy plan for Guyana is the role of renewable energy. In this area, technologies using wind and solar power are immediately applicable to Guyana. The lack of an interconnection policy by GPL for net metering is an indication of the slow pace at which the government is moving in relation to encouraging investment in wind turbines and solar panels for generating electricity.

Guyanese entrepreneurs and citizens nevertheless are going forward with renewable energy projects to supplement the intermittent electricity supply.

The high price to customers of electric power supplied by GPL makes renewable sources of electricity very viable in Guyana. However, even with lowered prices, renewable energy would still be a viable option.

With an interconnection protocol, established customers should be able to sell their excess renewable energy to the GPL to supplement its output. Also these renewable sources are ideal for some of the dispersed communities and individuals in Guyana’s interior.

Guyana can also seek to develop large scale hydropower which is also seen by us as a renewable source of electricity. The challenge for the project which would

Sunday January 13, 2013

change Guyana is the flooding, and possible population relocation that would be necessary. Guyana would also need to develop a national grid to distribute the power generated to current population concentrations as well as to potential population concentrations.

As the grid is built out and the dam is being constructed we might be able to negotiate agreements to get hydropower from Brazil. Given Venezuela’s territorial claim getting hydro-power from that country seems a long shot and not currently in Guyana’s best interest.

In relation to wind power, the option of having turbines offshore needs to be examined carefully. Offshore wind power can help especially in the context of supplying power at peak times. This is one of the options for Guyana to explore in relation to decentralized electricity generation.

Offshore wind has the potential to deliver substantial quantities of energy at a price that is cheaper than most of the other renewable energies. The bottom line is that this must be one of our immediate energy policy initiatives to supply power before large scale hydro power comes online.

Development of our renewable energy sources is also insurance against future rises in the prices of hydrocarbon. It also reduces foreign exchange outlays in the absence of domestic supply of fossil fuel and fosters energy independence.

What really does this PPP administration do for a living?

THE AFC PROPOSES A 10POINT ENERGY PLAN: As discussed above,

Guyana’s Energy Plan has to be underpinned by investment in climate-friendly energy development and deployment. We understand as has been recognized in many countries that Guyana needs to rely on green technologies to help solve the critical energy and environmental problems facing the country. The AFC sees these as the key elements of Guyana’s energy plans: 1. Help create new green jobs by strategic policy choices to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

2. Within 10 years reduce oil imports by 50%.

3. Encourage use of fuel efficient cars for Guyana, including prohibiting the import of cars older than eight years.

4. Ensure 25 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2015.

5. If oil and gas is found in Guyana’s territory, have a national discussion on whether Guyana’s best interests will be served by the development of a Guyanese oil and gas industry.

6. Promote all renewable energy sources.

7. The promotion of ethanol production.

8. Development of a smart grid linking the major population centres of the country 9. Prioritize a feasibility study of the option of developing large hydro facilities in Guyana as against importing electricity generated from hydro power from our neighbours.

10. Encourage energy efficiency; including the establishment of green building standards for Guyana to help Guyanese reduce energy use in their homes and businesses.

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WHERE ARE THE LOCAL GOOD OFFICERS? It is regrettable that it had to take the presence of a delegation from FIFA to reach an agreement which it is hoped will finally bring a resolution to the impasse within the administration of football in Guyana.

One has to ask why such an understanding as was reached last week when the FIFA delegation visited, could not have been reached through the good offices and good officers in Guyana.

Why did it have to take the presence of the governing body of world football to bring the two sides to some form of understanding?

In this regard, however, one must commend the efforts of Mr. Odinga Lumumba, who was instrumental in having the FIFA team come to Guyana and who had tried very hard over the years to bring about a resolution to the impasse.

He must be very pleased with the outcome of the talks so far and credit must be given to his own efforts, including proposing the option of organizing a new administration in football, for finally allowing the contesting bodies to reach an agreement that would

hopefully bring an end to the crisis. In Guyana, we have to learn to settle our own differences through mediation, arbitration and the work of good officers. We have to learn to do this both in sport and in politics.

There are many good men and good women in Guyana, many who are respected across divides, who can act as mediators and good officers to resolve local conflicts. We know from experience that the protraction of these conflicts is detrimental to the country and often creates conditions which are exploited for nefarious ends. We know for example that crime waves are often associated with periods of political strife and conflict.

Even if the crimes committed are not themselves political in nature, they often arise in the context of local political strife.

We have to therefore begin to settle our differences.

The parliamentary political parties have been at loggerheads following APNU’s abandonment of the agreements it had reached with the government during last year’s Budget talks. Since then there has been little

progress in terms of bringing the sides together, and this is not good for the country, especially considering that no party enjoys a majority in the National Assembly.

The positions adopted by the parties also do not lend themselves to any agreement between the sides. The opposition has clearly tried to make the government a scapegoat for what happened in Linden and the government in turn has been not as flexible as they may be in terms of consultations on the Budget. The vast majority of Guyanese would love to see nothing better than the political parties reaching some sort of working understanding. The people understand that the sides will not see eye-to-eye on everything, but even if agreement can be reached on six or seven items of major significance, this would represent something of a major political victory.

It is however clear that the antagonisms between the sides would not at this stage allow for even such a limited agreement. There is a great deal of bitterness between the sides and it is asking too much for them to simply sit

down and reach agreement on the Budget, for example.

What is needed is either a good officer or a group of good officers that could intercede to not just bring the sides together, but to be part of mediating an agreement in the same way as FIFA has come in and finally gotten the sides to make some binding commitments.

These agreements, it must be conceded, do not occur overnight. They are often the product of many months and even years of behind-thescene discussions, negotiations and pressure.

Reaching an agreement through mediation and through the work of good officers is a painstaking and time-consuming exercise, but this is often the groundwork that is necessary if compromise is to be had. It is therefore hoped that it is still not too late for mediation and good offices intervention to stem the crisis that exists in our parliament and over the Budget. The idea of a tripartite Budget committee is not going to be acceptable to the government because it wants to ensure that its right to decide on policies for the country is not compromised.

A tripartite committee speaks to joint development of a Budget and this is clearly a non-starter, because it means that the whole process of preparing the Budget will have to commence from scratch.

A good start was made last year and agreements were reached in tough negotiations before the whole thing was scuttled. A format therefore exists which can be built upon. However this time there is a great deal of acrimony between the sides over what has transpired in parliament.

This is where the presence of good officers can help and there is no need for the Commonwealth or the OAS to be invited to be part of this process. We here in Guyana should be able to produce our own mediators and good officers that can bring resolution to the many issues that afflict our body politic.

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NIS’s General Manager, Doreen Nelson (right) and Chairman, Dr. Roger Luncheon.

SUNDAY SPECIAL GUYANA’S MARRIOTT COSTS THREE TIMES MORE THAN JAMAICA’S Construction cost of the Guyana Marriott hotel is more than three times the comparative cost of Jamaica’s Marriott. The cost for constructing the Guyana Marriott Hotel and Casino is projected at almost US$60 million, while the Jamaican project has been announced at US$23 million. Guyana projects to build 197 rooms while the Jamaican project is 130 rooms.

Using the Jamaican cost, the comparative cost for Guyana project should be in the vicinity of US$35 million.

Taking the average cost per room, if one were to use the overall cost in Jamaica and divide it by the projected number of rooms, it would mean that the cost per room is US$176,923.

The comparative price in Guyana should be the same. But, Guyana is building a room for US$294,416. International construction companies peg an average cost for a 130-room hotel at US$22.8 million which matches the Jamaica project cost.

JUDGE DISMISSES OPPOSITION’S CHALLENGE TO GOV’T’S DEPOSIT OF MONIES INTO LOTTO FUND Justice Diana Insanally has dismissed legal proceedings filed by APNU Member of Parliament, Mr. Desmond Trotman, against Attorney General Anil Nandlall and has ordered him to pay $50,000 court costs.

Trotman had challenged the constitutionality and legality of the government’s deposit of proceeds from the lottery into a Developmental Fund popularly referred to as the “Lotto Fund”. According to court documents, Justice Insanally ruled that the motion which was filed was misconceived and struck it out. Mr. Trotman was represented by Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick, S.C. and Mr. Christopher Ram.

MONDAY EDITION AUDITOR GENERAL RECOMMENDS DISMISSAL OF NDIA ENGINEER Despite recommendations for his dismissal or resignation, a controversial senior section engineer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) remains on the job. The recommendations were made by the Auditor General’s office, which confirmed an earlier finding that the Engineer, Aneel Chowbay, was in a position of conflict of interest.

The probe by the Auditor General was undertaken after an initial report by the NDIA’s internal auditor on the operations of the NDIA had recommended the immediate dismissal of the entity’s boss Lionel Wordsworth and the Senior Section Engineer, after several instances of fraud and conflict of interest were unearthed.

That report on fuel consumption and equipment operations and maintenance, was conducted between May and September 2012 and was completed and submitted to the Chairman of the NDIA Board of Directors on September 26 and carbon copied to President Donald Ramotar.

REIGNING CALYPSO MONARCH WINS NATIONALCHUTNEY

COMPETITION 2013 Mashramani 2013 kicked off last week Saturday evening (January 5) with its National Chutney Competition which was held at the National Cultural Centre, and saw the first ever Afro-Guyanese winning the first prize and a chance to compete in the much anticipated International Chutney/Soca Monarch Competition in Trinidad and Tobago for TT$1M. Young Bill Rogers, the reigning Calypso Monarch copped the first place prize of $550,000, a trophy, and is guaranteed US$10,000 to represent Guyana in the Twin-Island Republic.

Rogers’ performance was about a man coming from India to sing a chutney song for his “larki” (Hindi word for girl). His song was titled “Chutney for my larki”.

TUESDAY EDITION $1.2B NEW GPC CONTRACT… PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE TO REVIEW SYSTEM The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), with its mandate to review the annual Auditor General (AG)’s Report and public accounts, is set to question the Ministry of Heath on the measures it used to award a $1.2B contract in 2010 to the medical supply company, New Guyana

Chinese couple at their first court appearance

Sunday January 13, 2013

Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) Inc. Questions arose as the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, stated in his report of 2010, that “a system of competitive bidding was not followed in the award of contracts to the New GPC totaling $1.252B.” The Ministry of Health is considered to have violated section 26 and 27 of the Procurement Act. The committee was supposed to have reviewed the Health Ministry’s 2010 spending as audited by the Auditor General, last Monday. However, time did not permit, and the review has been postponed to next Monday.

WEDNESDAY NIS BOSS QUITS AFTER CLASH WITH BOARD In a signal that all continues not to be well at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), its head, Doreen Nelson, Wednesday resigned after reportedly refusing to accept a recommendation from its Board of Directors.

Both government and NIS’ officials remained tightlipped over the issue. Nelson declined to comment and senior NIS officials either did not return calls or remained unavailable. An official at the Office of the President would only say that Nelson failed to implement a number of directives from the Board and despite requests, refused to do so. During an engagement with the Board Wednesday, Nelson who is one of the longest serving NIS employees, again reportedly refused to carry out the directives. She, instead, reportedly tendered her resignation.

CHINESE COUPLE IN COURT OVER ASSAULT OF GIRL, 11

The Chinese couple accused of assaulting an 11year-old girl appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, Wednesday. Jiang Pen Ren, 42, and her husband, Jun Zhang, 32, faced assault charges when they stood before Magistrate Judy Latchman. The couple pleaded not guilty. Attorney at law Satesh Kissoon who represented the two accused, said that the woman became scared after she found the young girl dressed in a kemar in her living quarters. The couple was subsequently placed on $80,000 bail each.

THURSDAY EDITION MAJOR DONOR NATIONS UP PRESSURE FOR 2013 LOCAL GOVT. POLLS Guyana is coming under increasing pressure to hold local government elections.

This time around, the pressure is from the international community - from four of Guyana’s largest donor countries. In a joint statement issued Wednesday by the local diplomatic missions — the US, Canada, Britain and the European Union— all said that it was a campaign promise by political parties leading up to the November 2011 General and Regional Elections to hold local government elections soonest.

The statement underlined the growing discontent over the functioning of the local government arm of Government which has been a source of criticism from stakeholders over the years.

Government has been moving to replace a number of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and even townships with Interim Management Committees (IMCs). It has met

with some resistance, like in Kwakwani, Region Ten. Residents have been blaming the state of especially NDCs and town councils for failing infrastructure, garbage problems and other critical issues. It is no secret that some chairpersons have been holding offices for years, becoming powerhouses within their communities.

NIS BOSS RESCINDS RESIGNATION One day after she suddenly submitted her resignation, General Manager of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Doreen Nelson, is set to resume her duties. The NIS boss on Wednesday withdrew her resignation after reportedly clashing with her Board of Directors on Tuesday over a number of decisions taken at the forum.

A short statement from the government Wednesday merely said that Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance, has “just received and accepted Ms. Doreen Nelson’s letter withdrawing the notice of her resignation as the General Manager” of NIS. The statement offered no other explanation why Nelson, one of the longest serving employees of the state-owned social fund, resigned.

Government sources said she had refused to carry out directives issued by the Board over time and during a meeting Tuesday, the matter came to a head and she handed in her resignation.

FRIDAY EDITION GOLD BARS SEIZED IN PUERTO RICO U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico have confiscated 11 gold bars sent by mail from Curacao, officials said (Continued on page 37)

The child, her grandmother and Mark Benschop outside the store

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Ravi Dev Column

MODERATION AND COALITION David Hinds recently awarded APNU an “F” grade for its evident abandonment of its pre-election commitment to a ‘national government’ platform.

While the grade might be deserved for other reasons, we thought it was a tad harsh in light of the fact that politics is not noted for altruism as its driving force. APNU senses, with good reason, that it can have the whole enchilada on its own. Our position is that the ‘grand coalition’, such as APNU had advocated, will not become reality in the absence of some constitutional stipulation that compels it.

In our 1990 call for ‘a new political culture’ we’d suggested: “that future governments of Guyana be comprised of a party or a coalition representing a minimum of two thirds of the electorate of Guyana.” If the constitution can permit (as it does now’) a government formed by the party able to squeeze out just a ‘plurality’ (receiving the largest bloc of

votes) we don’t see why it can’t demand a ‘super majority’ one in the future.

With no one ethnic group commanding an ‘inbuilt majority’ any longer, this is the only device to possibly offer us stable governments in the present and foreseeable future.

The two-thirds representational requirement, in Guyana, would guarantee accommodative behaviour; compel coalitions and remove the drive for consolidation of the ethnic bases so that no one ethnic group would dominate any government.Since neither of the two major ethnic blocs approach this percentage, in mobilisation drives, their political representatives would be forced to appeal to all ethnic groups so as to be acceptable “partners”. They would have to seriously tailor their programs and appeal to transcend their particular ethnic base. Some may point out that this is precisely what the “multiethnic” parties have

attempted to do. However, experience has shown that while true multiethnic parties are almost impossible to sustain, multiethnic coalitions, such as the Alliance in Malaysia, are possible. People want to pick their own representatives to “bat” for them.

We suspect that now it has been tested, most Guyanese are dissatisfied with the ‘plurality’ rule, introduced in 1980, for securing the executive. Well, if we’re going to change that rule, why not make it best suited to our demographic imperatives? In several instances, the Constitution already demands a “super majority” - to approve decisions deemed to be of significance to the integrity of the system itself. For example, to change certain Articles of the Constitution requires 66.33% (2/3) of the National Assembly’s approval for passage.

How did the fifty per-cent “majority” rule come to be

THE BACCOO SPEAKS When I spoke of the electrocution I was talking about the incident outside the Stabroek Market.

The situation could have been much worse but for the lack of attention by the Angel of Doom.

The truck driver came out of the blue and not because he had not used the route before. It was because he was supposed to be there.

This would not be the worst incident involving electricity. Far from it. A child is going to be involved in the next, simply because of youthful enthusiasm.

** This is the period of fires.

Another is going to strike just outside the capital and it would be no fault of the home owners. The reason is that something is always on the cards for the people of this land, not because they are

bad but because there is something called retribution. Some of the victims did things that they wanted to keep secret and these are things so shocking that I am amazed that these people could. ** A money making scheme is going to surface and people would be attracted. However, there is a saying that if something is too good to be true then it is. People beware because nothing comes easy. Those who are tempted would be on the road to losing what little they have.

associated with “democracy”? There is nothing mystical about the number fifty. The essential point is that those dissenting from the decision must believe that they have an equal opportunity of being in the “majority” at some later date on some other or the same issue.

In Guyana the “fifty percent majority” might not accomplish this result; the sixty-five per cent stipulation certainly would. The major obstacles to the grand coalition in Guyana are that both major parties want to have their cake and eat it too.

They would like to retain their ethnic bases while trumpeting to the world that they have multiethnic support. They both purport to find ethnic bargaining distasteful while they yet engage in ethnic mobilization.

For the Grand Coalition proposal to be successful there would have to be a commitment from the leaders to form a coalition after each election, with bargaining and public agreement necessary on all issues affecting ethnic group members. Both of these conditions are addressed by

the two-thirds “majority” rule.

As with other proposals in constitutional engineering, there are no guarantees in electoral innovations “solving” ethnic hostility. In tandem with other techniques, such as Federalism, however, there is no doubt that we may begin to climb out of the morass in which we have been struck since 1957.

The goals of the coalition would be to: reduce tensions between the supporters of each party and form a Government representative of the widest possible cross section of the population. For the proposal to work, the parties would have to support a common presidential candidate and agree on a common program. In context of Guyanese politics this would be problematic since most parties claim to be multiethnic, leaders have

Ravi Dev

presidential ambitions, and there is wide ideological divergence between parties.

The benefits of this arrangement are that: relationships of intimacy develop between leaders as they work together; if flank parties develop, as they inevitably will, the ethnic components of the coalition can address their concerns or alternately the flank parties can be brought into the coalition and the chosen representatives of each group explicitly represent their interests.

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A strange man…an equally strange death

By Michael Jordan He apparently had no close friends. No women in his life…few photographs of himself. He seldom confided in anyone….not his family, not his colleagues. So no one could quite fathom how and why he ended up dead and naked as he was born, on a bushy dam.

On Saturday, July 4, 2010, a man looking for bird-seed on a dam near D’Aguiar Housing Scheme, Ruimveldt, spotted something that made him hurry away from the area.

He kept this information to himself until the following day, when he eventually confided in a friend. The friend went to the same area to confirm the report. He then contacted the police.

Accompanied by the man, a police rank trekked down the muddy, bushy dam. After walking half-way down the dam, the cop came face to face with what the other men had seen. Hanging from a low tree branch with a belt around his neck, was the nude body of a man. There was a cut on one

of the victim’s hands.

Acting on information they had received, the police contacted officials from the GEB Security Services.

The officials accompanied some of the police ranks down the dam.

They took one look at the

dead man, and immediately confirmed that the victim was one of their employees.

He was 43-year-old Lynden Collins, a company driver, and a resident of Princes Street, Lodge. Collins’ colleagues revealed that they had last seen him on Saturday,

July 4, 2010. At the time Collins was driving one of the firm’s buses. But that very afternoon, some staff spotted the same vehicle parked near the dam where Collins’ body was eventually found.

According to reports, the keys were in the ignition and

a GEB uniform was in the vehicle. There was no sign of Lynden Collins.

The GEB staffers took the vehicle to the security firm’s headquarters. But then they reportedly noticed bloodstains in the vehicle and took it to the Ruimveldt Police Station.

Telus Collins, one of the victim’s brothers, said that he last saw his sibling on Wednesday, June 30, 2010.

He was driving the GEB bus and did not seem to be worried about anything. The brother said that he was later told that Lynden left for work on Friday night and failed to return home.

He was later informed that the bus his brother was driving had been found. A worried Telus Collins said that he then checked at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, but failed to locate his brother.

Shortly after, he spotted a GEB vehicle and stopped the

staffers to enquire whether they had any information about his missing brother.

One of the staffers then informed him that Collins’ body had been found.

He told me that his brother did not appear to have any problems.

But he also revealed that his brother seldom confided in anyone. Lynden Collins had fathered two children, but the brother had no idea there were any women in his life at the time of his demise.

Around the same time that Collins’ body was found, police also found the corpse on the seawall aback of the NIS Sports Club.

The body bore two gaping wounds to the throat. The victim, 42-year-old Claudine Inniss, called ‘Ann’, of Leopold Street. At first, investigators wondered whether the two cases were somehow (Continued on page 39)

Sunday January 13, 2013

From page 34 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 midDecember 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 Rico, the source said.

GOVT PAYS OVER $50M IN RENT FOR TEMPORARY COURT 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

Kaieteur News

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 alternative, 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.

SATURDAY EDITION PRESIDENT RAMOTAR TACKLES CORRUPTION, TRANSPARENCY QUESTIONS Since taking office back in December 2011 and in one of his most significant moves to address lingering questions of transparency and accusations of corruption within the government, President Donald Ramotar has released details of privatization deals done between 1993 and 2011.

The release of the reports comes after years of pressure on the ruling PPP/C to come clean on details. There have been questions in the National Assembly and in the media, but the answers were long in coming.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) assumed

continuous power from 1992.

It was following the November 2011 General and Regional Elections that Ramotar became President, immediately signaling his intentions to address the accusations of corruption that faced former and current ministers and other senior officials.

Speaking at his first press conference for the year, the President made it clear that the transparency issue has been a sore one for a while now. At the heart of the problems is the operations of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and its sister company, Privatisation Unit (PU). Both are state-owned agencies tasked with the management and privatisation of government assets.

The manner in which NICIL had sold properties had seen Government again and again coming under fire.

The deals include the New GPC deal with the Sanata complex and the use of monies to fund a Marriott Hotel.

The release of the reports would clearly be seen as substantial and strategic move by President Ramotar to clean the image of his administration, and separate it from that of Bharrat Jagdeo government which has been tinged with corruption accusations.

According to President Ramotar Friday, the reports are in-depth and should “end a lot of speculation” regarding transparency.

Probably the most important of the report would be the “Privatisation In Tables, Phase 11-1993-2011”, prepared by Winston Brassington, Executive Secretary and Head of the Privatisation Unit.

GOVT SUING HAND-INHAND FOR SYNERGY’S NON-PERFORMANCE The battle between the Government of Guyana and Synergy Holdings has gone up a notch with the Ministry of Public Works, through Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, now suing Hand-inHand Insurance Company in the wake of its failure to effect payment on a Performance Bond to the tune of in excess of US$1.5 million.

According to a Writ filed

by Nandlall, on March 31, 2010, Hand-in-Hand executed a Bond/Guarantee No. PB 2009/008 in favour of the Government whereby Synergy Holdings Inc. of 951 Sansbury’s Way, Suite 204, West Palm Beach, Florida 33411, United States of America, had undertaken the construction of the Amaila

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Falls Road and Transmission Line Clearing Project.

The contract was intended to cater to works from Linden to Amaila Falls in Region Eight.

Based on the contract the contractor should have furnished the Plaintiff with a security Performance Bond issued by a duly licensed and reputable guarantor for the sum specified as security for compliance with the contractor’s performance obligations.

As such Hand-in-Hand of Lot 1-4 Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown, Guyana, had agreed to give the contractor a security.

However, the Writ went on

to note that by letter dated January 11, 2012, the Government was forced to terminate the said Contract since Synergy Holdings Inc. did not duly perform the terms of the said contract, or execute and complete the works set out in the contract and within the time prescribed thereof.

It was noted too that by letter also dated on January 11, 2012, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications wrote to the Defendant Company in accordance with Article 10 – BONDS AND INSURANCE Sub-Clause 10.2 demanding that it honoured its obligation.

Despite the aforesaid letter, the Writ states that the “Defendant has failed, refused and or neglected to effect payment of said sum USD 1,540,000.00 (one million five hundred and forty thousand United States dollars) or at any sum at all.”

The government is also seeking interest at a rate of six per cent per annum from the date of filing to the date of judgment and at the rate of four per cent until fully paid.

Additionally it is claiming costs in the sum of $797,137 and any other court cost.

The matter is set for Wednesday February 20, 2013, at the High Court, Georgetown, Demerara.

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Sunday January 13, 2013

Reforms drive economic turnaround in Suriname

By Gamal El-Masry and Mario MansillaIMF Western Hemisphere Department WASHINGTON, USA — Despite the ongoing global slowdown, Suriname has put in place a strong, homegrown adjustment program that is helping to turn around its economy.

A recent conference paper

by IMF economists reviews the measures taken by the authorities and highlights the country’s key achievements — a unified foreign exchange market, price stability, and

significant fiscal gains. Suriname’s recent experience with macroeconomic stabilization also presents a positive example for the Caribbean region of how meaningful and comprehensive adjustment is possible, provided that it is well designed, properly sequenced, and implemented by the government with commitment and resolve.

The three-day conference, hosted by the Central Bank of Suriname, focused on the Caribbean’s challenges and policy options.According to the IMF’s most recent

assessment of Suriname’s economy, economic activity remains strong, and inflation pressures have abated considerably.

Suriname is estimated to have grown by 4 percent in 2012, buoyed by the oil and gold sectors, as well as public investment, the IMF said.

IMPACT OF GLOBAL SLOWDOWN Suriname was not completely immune from the global financial crisis.

Following a period of fast growth and favorable commodity prices, the recent crisis impacted Suriname primarily through the trade

channel.

Suriname, located on the northeastern coast of South America with a population of 530,000, is highly dependent on three commodities: gold, oil, and alumina.

Together, they account for about 95 percent of total exports. During 2008–09, GDP growth slowed due to weaker external demand and international price declines.

At the same time, the fiscal position deteriorated markedly—tax collections fell and spending surged, mainly on wages.

In effect, fiscal policy played a countercyclical role. Loose

monetary policies accommodated the resulting deficit. In early 2010, pressures from higher international food and fuel prices pushed up headline inflation to double digits.

Moreover, reflecting excess liquidity and the heightened uncertainty associated with the upcoming 2010 elections, the spread between the fixed official exchange rate and the parallel market rate gradually widened to almost 40 percent.

This caused a serious disruption in the market for foreign currency, with inflows bypassing the commercial banking system and going to the informal sector, and the government being deprived of the full value of revenues that are collected in U.S. dollars.

STABILIZATION MEASURES The new administration elected in mid-2010 took up the exchange rate imbalance as a high priority, in the context of a comprehensive adjustment program. With inflation on the rise and foreign currency scarce in the commercial market, the policy package aimed at restoring

domestic balance and price stability. The authorities also saw the need for tight monetary and fiscal policies in order to avoid an inflationary spiral.The adjustment program, which the IMF endorsed, was quickly implemented, starting with a 20 percent devaluation of the Suriname dollar in January 2011. The authorities raised taxes on domestic fuel, gambling, alcohol, and tobacco, while introducing temporary subsidies to protect the most vulnerable.

However, they kept other spending under tight control, especially on goods and services and wages, in order to open space for higher investment in human capital and infrastructure.

The authorities also cleared the backlog of domestic arrears that had built up over the previous 12– 18 months. On the monetary front, they raised the reserve requirement on foreign deposits to better control liquidity in the commercial banking system.

The authorities’ policy package has been quite successful, allowing Suriname to (Continued on page 48)

Sunday January 13, 2013

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== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

I saw the fragility of everything last year In its New Year’s Day edition, the Stabroek News listed a number of prominent Guyanese who died in 2012.

Left out was one the most famous names in Guyana in the sixties. We all make little mistakes and I don’t think the Stabroek News was even aware of this person’s death.

When I saw that omission I thought of the fleeting nature of all of us. We come, stay for a while, pass on, and are forgotten.

When famous, powerful people just fade away from our memory, the philosophical quote from Shakespeare just flies like powerful wind into our mind.

Macbeth said; “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more” In August last year, Vivian Lee died. In the sixties he had status and influence and was one of the big socialites of Guyana. Tall, rich and handsome he made movies and produced big local singers (of which Johnny Braff was his discovery) with hit tunes.

He owned at the time, one of the tallest buildings in Guyana (named ACE at the corner of Robb and King Streets).

Models, fashioner designers and singers lined up to secure an opportunity with Lee. South Georgetown youths flocked to the Globe cinema to see the shows that Lee put on mostly featuring star of the day, Johnny Braff.

So that is life. He died last August and no one paid any attention. Just like Peter Taylor a few years ago. Think of Adam Harris, Glenn Lall,

Enrico Woolford, Anand Persaud and David de Caires of the Stabroek News today and Peter Taylor was far, far more powerful in the media than any of those personalities. His name was equal in reverberation with Burnham, Jagan, D’Aguiar in the sixties.

The Premier and Government of Guyana in the sixties feared Peter Taylor.

When an attempt was made on his life, the theory then, which still holds today, is that it was a State conspiracy.

At his funeral, you could have counted the attendees.

He just passed from the memory of Guyana.

I will never erase the memory from the inner layers of my mind of what I saw at the burial site in Le Repentir cemetery many, many years ago for the father-in-law of the editor of the Catholic Standard, Colin Smith.

There was no place to walk to get to the actual place of burial, so persons had to step on tombs to get there.

And there I was standing on the dilapidated tomb of the Chief Justice in the fifties.

The structure was in a demolished state. The Chief Justice of British Guiana was part of the crème de la crème of society back in the fifties.

Next to the colonial governor he would have been the second most powerful man in the land. Look at the state of his remains in today’s Guyana.

Last year I took my nephew to the medical wing of the Georgetown Public Hospital where literally hundreds and hundreds of patients sit for hours waiting for their names to be called.

There was this gentleman in a wheelchair leaning his heads towards the ground. He

A strange man…

From page 36 connected.

There also rumours that Inniss was seen entering a GEB minibus outside of a car wash on Hadfield Street on Friday, July 2, 2010. However, investigators eventually concluded that there was no connection.

To date, investigators have found no leads which indicate that anyone murdered Lynden Collins.

They seemed to have leaned towards suicide, but they have unearthed nothing to show why Collins would have taken his own life.

One of the unanswered questions is this: Why would the security guard have removed his GEB uniform, then proceeded to walk stark naked down a dam to hang

himself?

His family believes that someone murdered Collins.

But because of his reclusive lifestyle, what happed to the GEB guard almost three years ago may remain a secret that is never revealed.

If you have any information about this or any unusual case please contact us.

You can write to us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location, or contact us on telephone numbers: 22-58465, 2258491 and 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.

You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address mjdragon @hotmail.com.

appeared to be in a sickly condition.

I said hello to his wife and went up and conversed with him. Persons would pass and say, “hello Freddie, hi Freddie” as I chatted away with Laurie Lewis, former Police Commissioner and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Burnham.

There and then I knew I was looking at the fleeting nature of human talent and the fragility of everything in Guyana.

Laurie Lewis was

Guyana’s longest serving Police Commissioner. Many analysts hold the view that after Burnham, he was the second most powerful man in Guyana in the seventies and even under Presidents Desmond Hoyte, Cheddi and Janet Jagan. He was head of state intelligence.

Social activist Malcolm Harripaul, who was an officer in the GDF, told me that Lewis compiled a dossier on the most important political activists and powerful politicians in the opposition and in government.

He was not a person to be messed with because he could have made public the skeletons in the closet of so many powerful persons.

When Lewis died he took to his grave a virtual encyclopedia of national stories and mountains of facts of dark conspiracies with him, including the deaths of Walter Rodney and Monica Reece. I know Laurie knew who either planned or did the killing in both situations.

I couldn’t help looking back as I walked away from

Frederick Kissoon him and out of the hospital. I was looking at the fleeting nature of life, of everything.

Five days after, the news was made public that Laurie had died.

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Sunday January 13, 2013

Sunday January 13, 2013

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Planning beyond Hugo Chavez

By Sir Ronald Sanders Hugo Chavez, the populist leader of Venezuela, could not turn-up on January 10 for his swearing-in ceremony as President for a fourth consecutive term.

Quite naturally, the doubt that this has created over the governance of Venezuela has thrown the country into turmoil. It has also caused alarm among Caribbean governments that have become dependent on discounted oil and concessionary financing under the Venezuelan-financed Petro-Caribe programme.

The question on everyone’s mind is: what will happen with Chavez’s policies domestically, regionally and internationally, and how will change affect them?

What is certain is that there will be change whoever succeeds Chavez, who is very ill in Cuba after undergoing surgery four times for cancer. For the time being, the Venezuelan Supreme Court has ruled that Chavez’s swearing-in ceremony can be postponed.

This means that, effectively, his party remains in power with him as the nominal President while the government is run by the Vice

President he named before his last surgery. The Vice President is Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro.

There is a huge constitutional debate in Venezuela not only about whether the Chavez government can continue without his taking the oathof-office, but also over who should be the Acting President.

Lawmakers have argued that the constitution says the Speaker of the National Assembly should be in charge. The Speaker is Diosdado Cabello who is also a member of Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela and who appears to have accepted that the government continues with Maduro in charge. Opposition party arguments, that Chavez is not in power since his last term has ended and he was not present to be sworn-in for his new term, have been scuppered by the Supreme Court ruling which has effectively given Chavez time to recuperate.

Not surprisingly, the Opposition party leaders have described the decision of the Supreme Court as a “Coup”.

Technically, the National Assembly – consisting mainly of representatives of Chavez’s party – can

continue to grant him leave from the country and so not violate the Constitution. The problem will arise should President Chavez succumb to his illness while he is in Cuba.

At that point, the current Supreme Court ruling would become irrelevant, and, on the face of it, the Speaker of the National Assembly would have to assume the office of President and elections for the Presidency would have to be held.

In the meantime, undoubtedly, Vice President Maduro would seek to carry out the policies that have been put in place by President Chavez. He is in the delicate position of carrying out the duties of President without being elected President.

Therefore, he will proceed cautiously. Both at home and internationally, he is unlikely to take any actions that will bring heat to the government.

For as long as President Chavez lives, countries that have become reliant on the generosity of his Petro Caribe and ALBA programmes can continue to breathe easily.

A huge problem would arise for them if the opposition parties were to win a post-Chavez election. Cuba would be particularly troubled, but so too would be those countries of the

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that joined Petro Caribe or ALBA. The reality is that Venezuela is facing its own difficult economic circumstances and revising oil assistance programmes, such as Petro Caribe, represents a certain source of additional income. While it is true that a large-scale revision is more likely if any of the Opposition parties win elections, it will also become a consideration for any new leader of Chavez’s party. Lacking Chavez’s popular standing with the mass of people, who will expect to continue to receive the benefits they did under Chavez, a new leader will be less inclined to spend money in the Caribbean that he can spend at home. Since 2004, poverty in Venezuela has been reportedly cut by half and extreme poverty by more than 70 per cent.

According to Mark Weisbrot, the co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, “millions of people also got access to health care for the first time, and access to education also increased sharply, with college enrollment doubling and free tuition for many. Eligibility for public pensions tripled; and in the past two years the government has built hundreds

of thousands of houses”.

Still, the Venezuelan economy is now in real difficulty. The fiscal deficit is approaching 20 per cent (the US ‘cliff” was 7 per cent), inflation is in the high 30s (compared with a Latin American average of 7 per cent), debt is rising, there is a huge black market in US dollars, and the state-owned oil industry is inefficient.

According to the Financial Times, Venezuela is now importing (at a higher price) two barrels of oil refined abroad for every ten barrels of crude it sells to the US. Caribbean countries that have benefitted from Hugo Chavez’s policies in relation to Petro Caribe and ALBA have much for which to be grateful.

Without the deferred payment deal under Petro Caribe, many of their economies might have ground to a halt. They have simply not earned the foreign exchange that is necessary to pay for oil to sustain their manufacturing, agricultural and tourism industries.

But, at the same time, many of them have built-up an enormous debt to Venezuela. The full extent of that debt is not clear, but such public information as is available suggests that in

Sir Ronald Sanders some countries, it represents their single largest debt.

At some point Caribbean governments will have to repay that debt, whoever succeeds Hugo Chavez as President.

Caribbean governments will also have to face the reality that neither Petro Caribe nor ALBA will continue delivering benefits in their present form. Hugo Chavez deserves the prayers of the Caribbean people in this hour of his illness. He has been a remarkable friend to the region. But, the time has come for regional governments to plan for a different Venezuela – one that will be preoccupied with fixing its internal problems, whoever succeeds Mr. Chavez.

(The writer is a Consultant and Visiting Fellow, London University) Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com

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Art and Book Review Akin Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby Akin to No One is an existential masterpiece. It is vintage story telling that moves, provokes, and instructs.

Haitian playwright and author, Nicole Titus, takes a page out of Victor Frankl’s playbook, exploring the depth of human potential amid adversity and circumstantial blight.

“Akin” is more than a tale chronicling a girl’s doggedness to succeed. One is easily tempted to relate the experience of the protagonist Grace to today’s struggle for gender equality. But Titus is hardly a literalistic, and the esoteric subplot of her work is more stirring, transcending female empowerment.

Grace and her family, like every poor Haitian are absorbed by an apparent archetypal curse that smothers the individual will.

In sociological, even theological terms, it is a generational nightmare, a kind of fatalism that infects the poor, casting a blanket of oppression over the most

able of individuals.

Threatened with eviction, and seeing her vicarious efforts evaporating, Grace’s mother, Therese, laments to a benefactor: “Even this child, madame, who I was placing my hopes on, now that we’re moving to...to the ...backwoods, she won’t be able to go to school anymore.

She was my only hope, madame! It’s as if the devil reached his hand into my life like this, and ransacked everything, everything that I have...”

It is this will to meaning, the will to realize one’s potential, despite a looming destiny of hardship that forms the thematic underbelly of Titus’ complex work. Titus’ characters are dignified, proud, but with different approaches to their lot in life.

Therese’s determination to educate her daughter, borders on obsession laudable and equally disturbing. It is a consummate passion that can easily turn on its head. And it does.

Therese becomes a mental tinderbox, eventually losing grip on reality. She is consumed by dashed expectations.

Juxtaposed to that grinding drive to succeed is Grace’s father, Mondestin, a sympathetic and likable figure who raises the most telling discourse of this work.

Predestination and freewill collide during his frequent exchanges with his wife.

When Grace inquires about school and her willingness to enroll, her father balks, questioning the decision with clearly unpopular, but hardly dismissive opinions: “People don’t need to pass through school to live.....What this child learns right here no school can teach it to her...It’s all those people who’ve passed through school, all of them with knowledge, who’re destroying the country.”

Of course, Mondestin loses the argument, won over by his tenacious wife and daughter. Yet, his simplicity cannot be slighted. As anachronistic as he appears, his words ring with validity.

Mondestine surrenders to the will of God, to Fate. When eviction seems imminent, his wife bemoans: “When they put us out, where are we going, eh?”

Sunday January 13, 2013

to No One Fate and free will collide in Haitian drama

Wherever God send us,” he retorts. Later, Grace recalls her father’s emotional litanies, thanking God “for everything, from the land, the children, good health, and the deep blue sea.”

Grace is sensitive, quiet, reflective, and gifted attributes not shared by her older sister Julienne, who wilts to the culture of poverty What ignited Grace’s spark to learn, to achieve the highest award in academia? She is steeled by her mother’s gnawing demise and by adversity at school, rising above the taunts, the emotional bullying at the hands of well heeled, but socially bankrupt classmates. Grace and her sister Julienne are so markedly different. Here, the author invites an ontological enquiry.

This is the philosophical depth of Titus’ undertaking.

Yet, her work remains fluid, vivid.

She creates a stage of contrasting and complimentary characters. A naturalist, her attention to artistic detail and characterization are stark.

“Akin” underscores the travails, the challenges of life.

From the ashes of hopelessness, Grace uses education to overcome social inequality and injustice. She delivers an inexorable lesson in grit and personal transformation.

It is a lesson worth telling and experiencing.

Akin to No One lays bare the struggles that bedevil Haiti. While Grace was fortunate to have had a Madame Bonhomme to lend support, many Haitians become victims of the restavec tradition, seen by many as a form of child slavery.

Clearly, class, race, and colour are entwined into Haiti’s socio-political matrix, a system disfigured by nepotism, corruption, and the wiles of tin gods. They comprise Titus’ existential hell. Her characters must surmount these onerous challenges, or, have Fate thrust upon them.

Email me on

glenvilleashby@gmail.com.

Follow me on Twitter @glenvilleashby.

From page 38 unify the foreign exchange market, restore price stability, resume robust growth, and realize significant fiscal gains.

Moreover, the central bank has continued to accumulate reserves at a healthy pace, while total debt remains below 20 percent of GDP. Credit to the private sector has become more dynamic, and the regulation and supervision of the financial sector is being strengthened, following the enactment of the new Bank Supervision Law in 2011.”In recognition of these achievements, two leading ratings agencies, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, last year upgraded Suriname, even as other countries in the region and beyond faced serious downgrades of

their foreign debt,” said Gillmore Hoefdraad, Governor of the Central Bank of Suriname, in a speech in March 2012.

CRUCIAL STRUCTURAL REFORMS With stability now in place, the authorities are turning their attention to structural reforms that will allow Suriname to be more resilient and grow in a sustainable way.

An important mediumterm objective would be to strengthen the structure of the budget by reducing the nonmineral deficit to at least precrisis levels.

This would provide additional buffers and help protect the fiscal accounts against future price shocks.

To this end, revenue diversification measures,

such as the implementation of a value-added tax, will help broaden the tax base and stabilize revenues.

The authorities also continue to keep a watchful eye on public finances.

Spending should be kept in check, while providing sufficient space to invest in infrastructure and human capital with the view to better integrate and diversify the economy.

Meanwhile, given that the export capacity for commodities, particularly gold, is expected to expand significantly in the medium term, the authorities are working on establishing a sovereign wealth and stabilization fund to help them manage and save the expected increase in revenue for future generations.

Akin to No One by Nicole Titus Xlibris Corporation www.Xlibris.com Order@Xlibris.com ISBN: 1-4134-4908-5 Rating: Highly Recommended

Reforms drive economic...

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 49

MY COLUMN

Life’s enjoyments are just there Enjoyment is a tiny package packed with moments of intense pleasure.

Everyone knows this and that is why some of us have pleasant memories of things that might have otherwise been insignificant.

There was a lot of enjoyment these past holidays, and I did not have to do a night club or even try to be with people who are known to light up any place they happen to occupy.

I had been planning for the holidays because in my head, there were many fun things that I wanted to do. I do enjoy a bit of the booze and I stocked up a fair amount because I expected company who would help me dispose of the assorted liquids I had. Then I had my mother, my sisters, nieces and nephews. I couldn’t hope for anything better.

There was the food and suddenly I had no appetite.

For some strange reason whenever there is a lot to eat people suddenly feel hungry.

I promise to have some friends over and I will put out a lot of food. But I will have to pick the time because I have some friends who would

eat me even after they had a huge meal a few minutes earlier.

But there was a strange moment during the period of my enjoyment. Two of my overseas-based sisters wanted to see the casino at Princess Hotel. They had been to casinos all over the place—Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Jamaica, The Bahamas. So they wanted to see what Guyana had to offer.

I am not a gambling person but if they wanted to try their luck then so be it. At the casino I saw Guyana-based Guyanese who managed to enter, but there was this receptionist who knew me.

The child was scared that I would write something about entrance to the casino. She was right.

The child asked me for some form of American document to prove that I was foreign-based. I had my social security card. Then she wanted a picture identification. I gave her one.

Then she said that I had to speak to the manager. By then my sisters and I had lost interest. The manager did say “Come on in” but the drinks

on the other side beckoned.

The man said that once inside the casino I would not have to buy things; I preferred to because that heightens my enjoyment.

It gives me the right to cuss the following day when my head is beating like a drum and to think that I had to pay for the discomfort. But the good thing is that I drank my money rather than give it away trying to win what I did not put in the casino.

During the holidays I saw firsthand how things people once took for granted suddenly became something most desired. My parents moved out of my native Beterverwagting in 1969.

My sisters were very young, so when we went back there to reconnect they found a lot to shout about. The old school had them oohing and aahing.

Then I had to hear how things that appeared to be very large then, were so small.

They found the streets too narrow; the playground they once occupied was nothing and fruits that they once tossed around were gems.

They made for my enjoyment.

There were other strange

things. My friend Roopan Ramotar, an Essequibian called Fowl Cock put a smile on my face. Fowl Cock once told me that he invited a friend to fly in his private aircraft.

The friend, a foreigner, wanted nothing better than to see the Essequibo Coast from above.

By the time he landed he was certain that he would have been looking down on the whole of Guyana from Heaven.

Ramotar took him up and flipped the plane, stalled it, and did just about everything that people would not normally do. His friend left a stench in the cabin before long. This friend also developed a new respect for life on earth, literally.

Ramotar was in the city to do some business. He collected a five-million-dollar cheque, bought some material for another couple millions and had one million dollars in cash in a bag in his vehicle.

Someone must have followed him because when he stopped at Cornelia Ida, a car pulled up and someone removed the bag with his passport, the cheque, the receipts, the money, and identification cards.

Poor Ramotar decided to beg for his passport which had a United States visa and his identification card. He promised a reward.

Lo and behold, someone went to a law firm and dropped off a bag with the cheque, the passport and just about everything else except the one million dollars.

Ramotar was in hog’s heaven.

Had I lost a million dollars I would have been crying to this day.

Believe it or not, Ramotar wanted me to thank the person for returning his things and he begged them to use the million dollars to good effect, hopefully for the rest of their lives. He forgot that this is not the 1950s when a million dollars would have lasted for life. His actions made for my enjoyment.

But it was not all enjoyment. Then there was the 19-year-old homosexual who was found dead. A survey found that gay prostitutes are more likely to die violently in homophobic Guyana. There was the aunt who begged him to stay at home, who actually found a regular job, but who could not get the boy to comply.

She spoke of the fellow

Adam Harris telling her that he was not going far because he had not put on make-up, but there he was, dressed in skirt and panties.

The death made me realize how precious little life means these days. It also made me realize how intolerant we are of people who appear to be different in outlook.

An adopted brother of mine was found on the seawalls with his throat cut.

He was gay and only he knows why he was there.

This young man who was killed either late Thursday night or early Friday morning was on an empty plot, removed from view. Like my brother, he had a cut by his neck. Is there a serial killer out there targeting gay men?

Page 50

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

A Guyanese cricketing icon…

Basil Fitzherbert Butcher is a ‘Special Person’

By Michael Jordan The old-timers still speak of the century he made against the Aussies while batting with an injured hand.

And they still remember the day he got a letter from his wife with sad news from home—then went on to pull the West Indies from the jaws of defeat.

Back then, we had no television sets to let us view the exploits of our heroes.

But somehow, with ears glued to radio sets, we got an insight into their personalities.

Sobers and Kanhai were the stroke-players extraordinaire. Lance Gibbs was the wily bowling wizard. And we knew that Basil Fitzherbert Butcher was the mentally tough one, the immovable rock of the West Indies team; the man who we felt would possibly collapse on the field rather than see his side lose.

He was born on September 3, 1933 at Port Mourant, Berbice, to Mr. Ethelbert Fitzherbert Butcher, a Barbadian who migrated to British Guiana, and his Guyanese wife, Mrs. Mathilda Elizabeth Lowe.

His father worked at the Port Mourant Sugar Estate while his mother ran a

bakery.

Young Basil attended St Joseph Anglican and Corentyne High School.

Back then, there was no television, no video games and certainly no internet to distract a boy. But there was cricket. Lots of it, and the young man from Berbice was fortunate that the back fence of his home was right next to the Port Mourant Community Centre.

“We had nothing else to do. My back fence eventually became the fence for the community centre ground. All I had to do was jump that back fence and I was in the community centre ground at the sugar estate.

We played volleyball, football, a lot of table tennis, draughts…but cricket was the main thing. Everybody played cricket. We played every day. There were 24 cricket teams on the estate.

“We made balls out of wood, we played with coconut and monkey apple bats, we played with soft and hard balls.”

Basil believes that this unorthodox kind of cricket, without helmets and other protective gear developed good traits in cricketers of that era. If you failed to concentrate, that wooden ball would crash into your

leg, and you would go home with badly bruised shins.

But in that colour and class conscious colonial era, not one of those 'country boys' dared to even dream of playing cricket for British Guiana or the West Indies.

“Where I was born and where I grew up, that could not be achieved,” the former right-handed batsman said.

“We were not right for that kind of dream. We never thought of cricket at any other level than at the Port Mourant cricket ground.

When John Trim (a fast bowler who had played for Port Mourant) was selected to play for Guyana, we felt

eyes…the first time we went into the junior staff club was with Christiani. Those were things outside of our world.”

By another stroke of good fortune, in the mid 1950s, Barbados and West Indies batting star Clyde Walcott was sent to British Guiana to coach and organize cricket on sugar estates.

“One of the first things that Walcott did was to improve the facilities. He gave us groundsmen and gave us all the equipment that we needed. He also organized competitions between sugar estates.

Butcher, who was by

“I played my first test match in Bombay; five against India and three against Pakistan, and in the first six test matches I made 50 and above, including two centuries. This feat was never repeated by a Guyanese.” very excited that a man from Port Mourant had represented British Guiana, but we never thought of emulating him.”

By the age of 18 he was on the Port Mourant Estate cricket team. It was around then that former test cricketer Robert Christiani was appointed Personnel Manager at the estate.

“He actually opened our

Basil Butcher bats, Middlesex v West Indies, 1st day, Lord's, July 20, 1963 (Cricinfo photo)

then captain of the Port Mourant Club, and other 'Port Mourant boys' like Rohan Kanhai and Joe Solomon, benefited immensely from Walcott's stint in British Guiana. So much, in fact, that the 'country boys' could finally dream about representing their homeland.

“We started getting called for trials in Georgetown and playing trial matches for Guyana.

Clyde Walcott used to carry up a Georgetown team to Berbice and we started playing against national cricketers like Lance Gibbs, 'Bruiser' Thomas, Colin Wiltshire and Norman Whyte, the Guyanese players and potential Guyanese players. They were coming up to Berbice every weekend. Ninety-five of the players were from sugar estates. There was also the inter-county cricket, with Berbice and Demerara being the main rivals.”

“When you started playing against these guys, you stated to assess yourself to see how much you had to do to catch up with them.

After the first year, around 1954, myself and Kanhai got picked in the Guyana team and that opened the gate for the other Berbice players.

“People started playing cricket with an objective to play for Guyana. But we still didn't think of playing for the West Indies. People like

Basil Butcher

Clyde Walcott and Christiani were playing for the West Indies; we were nowhere near there. Those guys were the big men.”

Basil first donned pads for British Guiana in 1954, playing two games against Barbados in his father's former homeland. The following year, Butcher and Kanhai were in the British Guiana team that played against Australia when the men from 'Down Under' toured the West Indies. In 1956 he played in the Quadrangular tournament (involving British Guiana, Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica). Some of those teams comprised cricketers who would become legends.

“Garry Sobers was playing his second game for Barbados; he was 16 or 17 then; Conrad Hunte was playing, and those were the guys that came for the Quadrangular tournament and we gave them a hiding.

That told us that once you can do that to Barbados, the other teams would be 'mashed up' easily. We played against Australia and I got 48. Then we went to Antigua and I made 96 against Roy Gilchrist (a fearsome West Indies fast bowler) in Jamaica. Then in 1956, we won the quadrangular tournament.

And now he could truly dream of playing for the West Indies. The team was touring England that year, and young Basil had high hopes of being selected. But to his disappointment, that was not to be.

“They didn't change the team. All the old fellows went. Kanhai, Sobers and Smith were the only youngsters that went on the tour.”

SELECTED His break eventually came when the West Indies returned from England and the Pakistan cricketers came

to the West Indies. “Myself and Joe Solomon made hundreds against the Pakistani team in the Guyana versus Pakistan match, and we were picked to go to India in 1958-59.”

In his first Test against India at Bombay (Mumbai), the reliable right-hander, batting at number six, made 28 and 64 not out. In the four-test series he complied 486 runs, including his maiden century (103), batting at number five, in the third test at Calcutta, and 142 ,three weeks later, in the fourth test at Madras (Chennai).

“I played my first test match in Bombay; five against India and three against Pakistan, and in the first six test matches I made 50 and above, including two centuries. This feat was never repeated by a Guyanese.”

“There were some very poor umpiring decisions and matting wickets which we were not accustomed to playing on, but we were not going to come back to Port Mourant not having done well, we had to come back with something to show our p e o p l e . We d i d n o t disappoint them.

“We lost to Pakistan, but beat the India side three-nil.

Roy Gilchrist destroyed them. “ And what was it like seeing those huge crowds?

“The first time I saw 110,000 people was in the first test in Karachi, Pakistan. There was a crowd of 90,000 in Calcutta in the third test and 70,000 at the Bradbourne stadium in Bombay. The people were so close to us that when the spectators started making noise it scared the life out of you. But once you started playing, you forgot that they were there.”

He remembers with a rueful laugh being (continued on page 53)

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Interesting Creatures...

Page 51

(Chelonoidis carbonaria)

The Red-footed Tortoise T

he Red-footed T o r t o i s e (Chelonoidis carbonaria) is a tortoise native to South America. It has also been introduced to many islands in the Caribbean. It draws its name from the red or orange scales visible on its limbs, as well as its head and tail.

The red-foot has a larger cousin, the yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulata), also known as the Brazilian giant tortoise.

Many older references use the genus name Geochelone in place of the newer term Chelonoidis for all four South American tortoises. It is locally known as the savannah tortoise, in Brazil as jabuti, and in Venezuela as morrocoy, among other names.

Red-foot Tortoises have red scales on the limbs, as well as red, yellow, and/or orange facial markings. Redfoots will normally reach between 10 and 14 inches (25.4 - 35.6 cm) in carapace length, although in rare cases may grow up to 16 inches (40 cm). Red-foot males are larger than females in carapace length and weight, but are not wider or taller.

Males can easily reach 20 pounds (nine kg) or more, while females weigh a bit less.

As with other tortoise species, male red-foots have a concave plastron. As redfoots mature, both sexes develop a unique mid-body constriction (some have referred to it as a "waist") that, from a top view, gives the tortoises a decidedly hourglass appearance. This "hourglass" figure is much more developed in males than in females. Mature males also have longer and wider tails than females.

A red-foot tortoise generally lives 40–50 years.

This creature can be found throughout extreme southern Central America, and central and northern South America including the countries of Panama, C o l o m b i a , Ve n e z u e l a , Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

They are also found on Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Lucia etc. and have been introduced to many other islands in the West Indies.

The red-foot occupies a number of habitats within this extensive range. It occurs in all types of forest habitat (rainforest, temperate forest, and dry thorn forest), and also dwells

in savannah areas, including man-made grasslands resulting from ranching and slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Forest edges and savannahs seem to be the preferred habitat for this species, although there is some disagreement over this.

Red-foot tortoises are omnivores, though they eat more plant-derived food than meat by far. In captivity, red-foots should be fed a mixture of high calcium greens, fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

In every country in its range, the biggest threat to the survival of red-footed tortoises is overhunting by man. Interestingly enough, tortoises are considered "fish" by the Catholic Church and during holy week, red-foots are consumed in huge numbers.

Red-foots are collected and shipped to many different South American cities to be sold as a delicacy. The fact that red-foots can tolerate long periods of time without food and water, otherwise an evolutionary advantage, makes this species both easy and profitable to transport.

Another threat facing red-foot populations is the omnipresent habitat loss and disturbance. Although it has been observed that redfooted tortoises can live on land that has been converted to agriculture, their densities are much lower than they are in natural, unaltered habitat.

To r t o i s e s l i v i n g o n agricultural lands are much easier to locate, so higher hunting rates may account for this difference.

Exportation for the pet trade also has a negative effect on red-footed tortoises, although it is much less of a threat to their survival than either hunting or habitat loss. The natural history of the red-foot tortoise provides insight into two areas, the susceptibility of this species to overhunting and habitat loss, and captive husbandry and reproduction.

Conservation efforts include the establishment and protection of wildlife reserves and national parks, where red-footed tortoises and other animals are protected from hunting. Due to a protection law through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), it is currently illegal to transport a red-footed tortoise from its home

country without proper certification and permits, although some facilities have obtained permits for breeding purposes.

In the wild, the red-foot tortoise lays clutches of five to 15 eggs between July and S e p t e m b e r. T h e y a r e generally buried in a nest in the ground in typical tortoise style.

However, some authors report that locals in Panama have observed eggs laid in leaf-litter on the forest floor.

Eggs are oblong (about 2" x

1.5") and have brittle shells.

The hatchlings are round and

flat, and are about 1.5" in d i a m e t e r. ( S o u r c e :

Wikipedia – The Free Online Encyclopedia)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Bob Marley's famous vehicle goes under restoration M O N T E G O B A Y, Jamaica -- Less than a month away from what would have been his 67th birthday, restoration work has begun on reggae legend Bob Marley's 1977 Series III Land Rover Defender – arguably one of the world's most iconic vehicles.

Leading Caribbean hotel group, Sandals Resorts International, announced a renovation project on the famous vehicle which had fallen into a state of disrepair following his death in 1981.

The van had been on display for several years in his home-turned-museum located at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, which is dedicated to the Jamaican singersongwriter.

According to Rohan Marley, “We are very happy with the work that has transpired so far in restoring our dad's car to its original condition.

It has been a very technical process to locate all the parts from various countries, including an

original 1977 engine from Ethiopia. We look forward to completing this project with the ATL Group in early 2013.”

Marley was regularly seen driving his Land Rover around the s treets of Kingston, the city that inspired such hits as 'No Woman, No Cry', 'Three Little Birds' and 'I Shot the Sheriff', using it to transport his famous band, The Wailers, and their equipment to gigs throughout Jamaica.

International star

L-R: Brent Murphy, ITC GM; Adam Stewart, CEO andals Resorts International and ATL Automotive; Mauro Frateschi, sales and marketing manager, Latin America and Caribbean for ITC; and Steve Rapley, regional sales and marketing manager for ITC musician Julian Marley, son of the reggae king, recalled fond memories of the vehicle, commenting, “I have always loved my father's Land Rover and I remember driving in it from where my family lived, to nearby Hope Road and from Kingston to Nine Miles, St Ann (in North Eastern Jamaica) where my father was born.”

Julian Marley continued, "I love what the team is doing and would love to take the refurbished Land Rover for a test drive when it returns home."

Expert Land Rover master technicians at ATL Automotive, Sandals Resorts' Jamaica-based sister company who are overseeing the work, will kick start the two month long project by carefully dismantling the vehicle piece-by-piece before completely restoring the vehicle's chassis, drive and power trains to full working condition.

The Land Rover's body panels will be replaced or returned to their original condition as well as a complete electrical rewiring and replacing of electrical components throughout.

Marley's Land Rover will also receive a replacement engine chosen from an Africa-based military vehicle that perfectly matched the engine of the original vehicle when the singer owned it.

Adam Stewart, chief executive officer for Sandals Resorts International and AT L A u t o m o t i v e , commented, “It is a tremendous honour to help return such an extraordinary automobile to its former glory. This project has been a long time in the planning and we can't wait to play our part

in history. There are few people in the world who Bob Marley hasn't inspired through his music at some point so it is only right that we ensure his legacy continue to inspire for many years to come.”

Brent Murphy, general manager for ITC, regional distributors for Land Rover, whose partnership with S a n d a l s a n d AT L Automotive helped bring the renovation to fruition, said, “Bob Marley's Land Rover is one of the most famous vehicles in automotive history and we are delighted to announce its restoration.

It's a well-known fact that, such is their durability, 75% of all Land Rovers ever made remain on the road today and the team of experts at ATL Automotive, along with Land Rover's support, will ensure that this great exhibit rides once again.

Soon music-lovers around the world will be able to experience a part of this great man's life.”

The vehicle's interior will undergo complete 'family' reupholstering, an element of the project, undertaken by Marley's first born daughter and internationally acclaimed fashion designer and musician, Cedella Marley.

Miss Marley, was recently credited worldwide for designing the Jamaican Olympic Team uniform worn by record-breaking athletes Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake at the London Olympics earlier this year, will personally design and upholster the Land Rover's three-seat bench.

The renovation project is expected to be completed by January 2013 and will return to the public eye in The Bob Marley Museum, Kingston, Jamaica.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 53

Basil Fitzherbert Butcher From page 50 'bamboozled' by the legendary Indian spinner Subhash Gupte during that 1958-59 tour.

“He sent me to school.

He is the best leg spinner I have ever seen, and if they had given him better wickets to bowl on, the series would have been a different one. I didn't pick him (read his bowling) then, I couldn't pick him now. If you played to four deliveries you missed them all.

“I can remember after the first innings, we came in for lunch, and I took off my gloves and I sat down 'propping sorrow', worried about what this man was doing. You could laugh now, but I couldn't smile or laugh then.

“I said to our manager Berkeley Gaskin: 'Mr. Manager, I don't know what that man doing, I play to four balls and I miss all four,' and he say 'Butch, if you in doubt, push out,' and that was all he had to tell me.”

Then came the 1963 England tour.

“England is the country where everybody wants to do well. I remember during the first team meeting, Frank Worrell, our captain, said to us, 'I want to let you gentlemen know that only two of us in this team are recognized as good cricketers, that is myself and (spin bowler) Alfred Valentine. Garry (Sobers) made 365 in Jamaica but that isn't recognized here, the Englishmen only recognize you for what you do in England.

“I was determined to do something in England. We started playing seriously, and our team had some young people who were ready to fight for what we wanted. We all came from the same background, no rich man's child; (so) if you don't do well you will suffer.

You had to put your best foot forward every time. We benefited from that attitude.

The cricket was not like it is today. It was a glorious thing, your success brought glory to yourself and your country, not that anything was wrong with money.”

The English team included fast bowling icons Fred Truman (a former record holder for most wickets) and Brian Statham.

But the young Berbician had already faced far more hostile bowling from the fearsome Jamaican Roy Gilchrist. At the time, the temperamental Gilchrist was considered by many to be the fastest bowler in the world.

His career was also sadly cut short following an altercation with a Pakistani

Butcher leaves the field after scoring an unbeaten 129 on the third day of the 2nd Test between England and West Indies, June 22, 1963. He added only four more to his score when play resumed. (Cricinfo photo) on the field.

“We were fortunate that we began our professional life with Gilchrist. 'Gilly' played against us in 1955, Jamaica against Guyana; then he came and played in the Quadrangular tournament in 1956. 'Gilly' was the fastest bowler I have ever seen. So when Statham and those (English) guys were bowling, they weren't bowling at any pace to scare anybody.

“Gilly was a serious cricketer. I remember I pushed this ball past 'Gilly' at Bourda, and 'Gilly' took off and saved one run. Gilly and Lance Gibbs had the same competitive mentality.”

It was on this tour that Butcher displayed the mental toughness that would become a hallmark of his career.

BATTING THROUGH BAD NEWS Butcher, who was then a Public Relations Officer at the Port Mourant Estate, had left a pregnant wife back in Guyana when he departed for the 1963 England tour.

The young couple was expecting their first child.

During the second innings of the Lord's test, Butcher was in the pavilion during the lunch break when he received a letter from his wife. She had suffered a miscarriage.

A deeply upset Butcher went to the crease with the West Indies at 15 for two.

Not only was he burdened by the loss of his first child, but also by the thought that his test career was in jeopardy.

“I had not made many runs in the first test or in the first innings, and this letter came at a time when I might

have been dropped.”

Somehow, the resolute Guyanese managed to stay in his crease and make a memorable 133, saving his team from defeat in the process.

West Indies won that series by three tests to one, with Butcher scoring two centuries, including the one at Lord's.

Wisden Magazine noted: “Butcher emerged as the most dependable batsman. He alone never appeared to be out of touch during the whole tour and his record of only two hundreds can be attributed to the fact that he was never average conscious.

His 133 in the thrilling Lord's Test was a most valuable effort and emphasized the soundness of his methods.”

He then played against the tough Australians in 1965, scoring a total of 405 runs, including 117 at Port of Spain in the second Test. His exploits resulted in former Australian captain Richie Benaud rating him as “the most difficult of all the West Indians to get out”.

Butcher followed up with more heroics during the 1966 tour of England. In the second test at Trent Bridge, West Indies appeared to be down and out at 65 for two in the second innings, still 25 runs behind England's first innings total.

It was at that point that the familiar “immovable object” named Basil Butcher joined his fellow-Berbician, Rohan Kanhai at the crease.

Batting for seven and threequarter hours and sharing in three successive partnerships, Butcher made 209 not out (with 22 fours). It was the highest innings of his career, and according to Wisden magazine, “effectively won a

match that had the appearance of being lost when he faced his first ball seven and a half hours earlier.”

He would enjoy more success in Australia in 1968/9 with another 405 runs, including two centuries. In the short England tour in 1969, he headed the batting averages with 984 runs, including three centuries. And the second time he was allowed to bowl in a test, Butcher took five English wickets for 34 runs, during a high-scoring game at Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1967/8. He bowled again in two other tests – in the next test at Bourda and a year later at Lords.

He also had the distinction of batting with an injured hand in a Guyana versus Australia match and scoring a century. He was v o t e d Wi s d e n ' s 1 9 7 0 Cricketer of the Year. Though he still had lot of cricketing left in him, Butcher made his final tour to England in 1969.

By then he had an average of 3,104 runs from 44 test matches, including seven centuries. His first class career, spanning 1954 to 1972 comprised 11,628 runs, including 31 centuries.

Butcher is full of praise for the captains he played under, particularly Sir Garfield Sobers and the late Sir Frank Worrell.

“Garfield Sobers and Frank Worrell were excellent captains. The difference was that one was a tactical expert (Worrell) and the other was a gifted expert. Garry Sobers was a man who would set the field and put himself in a position and the next thing you would see him diving and picking up a catch. He was extraordinary. He was a

bold, positive man; he never thought that anybody in the team could fail.”

Basil remained busy after retiring from test cricket, playing a major role in developing cricket in Mackenzie, where he now resides. He was influential in developing the careers of cricketers such as Keith Cameron, Clayton Lambert and Vibert Johashen.

He is a former national cricket selector, a former Chairman of the West Indies team selection committee, in 1968; Vice President of the Guyana Cricket Board and also its Assistant Secretary.

Along with Rohan Kanhai, he was among the first inductees into the Berbice Cricket Board Hall of Fame.

There is also a Basil Butcher Tribute Trophy.

The father of seven has a son (Basil Jr.), a fitness expert, who helps to coach the US women's cricket team. Like many of the cricketers of his generation, Butcher is unhappy with the present state of Guyana and West Indies cricket.

“There are a number of things that some of us have done, and we feel it is our responsibility to put back into the game. But the atmosphere today is not conducive. We are lucky to have (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul, (Chris) Gayle and these guys to stay with the ups and downs they have had to go through. I take my hat off to them for still playing for the West Indies and doing so well.”

He blames the decline in Guyana and West Indies cricket on the fact that many of the individuals in managerial positions have little cricketing experience.

“The whole problem with our cricket is administration. They (the administrators) didn't bring anything to the table; they took everything off the table.

Sport is not something from a book; you have to have the experience. It would take our cricket (locally) two to five years to get back where it was.

We don't even have good cricket grounds to play on.

Every other country uses the experience of people who participated in the game.

Here, we find some people and you're saying 'who the hell is that guy?”

“When cricketers and sportsmen go back into the administration of the sport, they take back to the table the experience they accumulate from the development of the sport, and that goes for cricket like any other sport.”

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

The Abigail Column A friend in transformation

DEARABIGAIL, One of my dearest friends has been living abroad for the past three years teaching English. I am proud of her for all she’s accomplished, and so thrilled she’s been able to see the world.

The problem is, every time she return home for vacations, I’ve noticed she thinks a lot more highly of herself, and it’s not a healthy sort of confidence so much as a big fat ego. It’s “her way or the highway,” and I always used to think of her as so easygoing and understanding. She’s made some insensitive, rude

comments.

The parts of her I love are still there, but I don’t know how to reconcile them with these new elements of her personality. She probably has no idea she’s behaving this way, but I don’t know how to call her out on it without causing drama. It’s not like there are specific instances I can point out to her; it’s more of an overall shift in her tone.

How can I get my friend back?

Friend Dear Friend, You’re “proud of her” — so you raised this friend yourself?

That whiff of condescension, and your hint of entitlement to have your friend in the form you prefer, and the suggestion that “easygoing and

understanding” are the traits you miss the most, are three threads I’m going to embroider into a hunch: Even if you’re peers in the eyes of the world, there’s a masterprotégé element to your friendship. Is this someone who has looked up to you in the past, and sought your approval accordingly? And who is now road-testing her own sense of herself?

Maybe, maybe not. But it does appear as if you’re appraising her ego display from the position of the disappointed elder, and she’s displaying said ego with the (perhaps subconscious) intent of busting out of the child role in the most timehonored way: thumbing her nose not just at you, but also at the version of herself that you value so much. Ask parents of teenagers whether that sounds familiar to them.

Sunday January 13, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) You may feel the electricity of the highfrequency Aquarius Moon that insists you move into the future. But you’re also listening to the beat of a notso-distant drummer with a more traditional rhythm.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Interactions with others may lure you into uncomfortable places today, yet you don’t want anyone to know what’s going on behind your stoic appearance.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) This isn’t an easy time because the planets continue to hold your feet to the fire and your words to the law.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Intimate communications with significant others are emphasized today. You may think that you have to be very precise in what you say because people are hanging on your every word.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) An encounter with a close friend or family member can leave you confused, especially if others are relying on feelings more than intellect.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) This is the start of a productive cycle of communication for you. Your thoughts are lighter and more speculative now.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Your memories could drift back to your childhood today as you seek the original source of your current feelings. You may be certain that your emotional habits were formed at an earlier time in your life and now you want to dig up the root cause.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Although you are being required to be more actively engaged in various forms of communication, you’re not inclined to simply fill the empty spaces with noise.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) This is an odd day energetically because on one hand you’re growing excited about the future. You might even feel that your dreams are on the verge of becoming real. make the best of both worlds.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) Your biggest dilemma now is how to stay positive while you are exploring deep in the well of pragmatic thought. But endless analysis doesn’t lead you anywhere productive; it just takes you around in circles.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) You’re probably quite moody now that the evocative Moon is back in your sign.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Although your energy is just beginning to settle back down, your imagination is still stirring up exciting new recipes for life.

DTV CHANNEL 8 09:25 hrs. Sign On 09:30 hrs. Touching Lives 10:00 hrs. Pair of Kings 10:30 hrs. Crash and Bernstein 11:00 hrs. Movie: My Family’s Secret 13:00 hrs. House 17:00 hrs. Family Feud 18:00 hrs. Catholic Magazine (Faith in Action) 18:30 hrs. Know Your Bible 19:00 hrs. Greetings and Announcements 21:00 hrs. Once Upon a Time (New Episode) 22:00 hrs. The Good Wife (New Episode) 23:00 hrs. The Mentalist (New Episode) 00:00 hrs. Sign Off NCN CHANNEL 11 05:00 hrs - Inspiration 05:30 hrs - Newtown Gospel 06:00 hrs - NCN News (R/B) 06:30 hrs - Tomorrow’s World 07:00 hrs - Voice of Victory 07:30 hrs - Voice of Islam 08:00 hrs - Lifting Guyana to Greatness 08:30 hrs - President’s Diary 09:00 hrs - Ravi D Show 10:00 hrs - Homestretch Magazine 10:30 hrs - Weekly Digest 11:00 hrs - Documentary 12:30 hrs - GRA in Focus 13:00 hrs - Dharma Vani 14:00 hrs - Feature

14:30 hrs - Catholic Magazine 15:00 hrs - The Naked Truth 15:30 hrs - Gina Presents 16:00 hrs - Feature 16:30 hrs - Family Forum 17:00 hrs - Farmers’ Connection 18:00 hrs - NCN Week in Review 18:30 hrs - Guysuco Roundup 19:00 hrs - Round Table 20:00 hrs - Kala Milan 20:30 hrs - African Moves 21:30 hrs - Movie MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 Sign on 06:30 hrs - Prayag Vanie 07:00 hrs - MTV Gospel Break 07:30 hrs - CNN News 08:00 hrs - Christ for the Nation 08:30 hrs - Puran Brothers: Shiva Bhajans

09:00 hrs - Muslim Melodies with Al Madina Exclusive 09:30 hrs - Teleview Kutbah 10:00 hrs - DJ Stress Indian Movie 13:00 hrs - Garam Geet 14:00 hrs - The Variety Show with WR Reaz 15:00 hrs - Sitcom 16:00 hrs - Bollywood Sensation with Kavita 17:00 hrs - Birthdays & Other greetings 17:15 hrs - Death Announcements/ In memoriam 17:30 hrs - BBC World News 18:00 hrs - Entertainment Buzz with Shivanie 18:30 hrs - DNA TV Show 19:00 hrs - JKS TV Show 19:30 hrs - BBC World News 20:00 hrs - Sangeet Mehfil 21:00 hrs - BBC World news 22:00 hrs - 70th Golden Globe Awards Ceremony Sign Off

Guides are subjected to change without notice

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 55

Hapless Kiwis collapse against South Africa pace Dale Steyn and Rory Kleinveldt ripped out New Zealand’s top order batsmen as South Africa took control on the second day of the second and final Test at St George’s Park on Saturday.

New Zealand were reeling at 47 for six at the close, a massive 478 behind South Africa’s first innings total of 525 for eight declared, needing another 279 to avoid the follow on.

There were three centurions in the South African innings, with Faf du Plessis (137) and Dean Elgar (103 not out) joining first day hero Hashim Amla, who added only four to his overnight score before being dismissed for 110.

Steyn, bowling his fastest spell of the summer, had Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson caught in the slips in his first three overs.

Then the strongly-built Kleinveldt, who replaced the injured Vernon Philander, produced a snorter of a delivery to have Dean Brownlie caught behind off his

gloves. Kleinveldt followed up with a full ball which trapped Daniel Flynn leg before wicket.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum survived the pace bowling onslaught, only to succumb to the second ball of spin.

He played a loose drive against leftarm spinner Robin Peterson to be caught at slip for 13, eked out over 98 minutes and 61 balls.

New Zealand’s woes continued when debutant Colin Munro was out first ball, caught at short leg off Peterson. New Zealand were 39 for six and in danger of being dismissed for fewer than the disastrous 45 all out which doomed them to an innings defeat in the first Test in Cape Town.

But that humiliation was avoided when BJ Watling cut Steyn for four in the last over of the day.

South Africa were made to struggle for runs early, adding only 65 runs in 29 overs before lunch.

The first 11 overs produced only 11 runs for the loss of Amla’s wicket

as Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell bowled accurately in overcast conditions. Du Plessis and Elgar played through the difficult period and lifted the tempo during the afternoon.

The pair shared a sixth wicket stand of 131, a record for South Africa against New Zealand as the home side added 105 runs between lunch and tea. Du Plessis, stuck on 99 at lunch, reached his century when he hit the first ball he received after the interval, from off-spinner Jeetan Patel, for six.

The left-handed Elgar, struggling to establish himself in a strong South African batting lineup, played some fine attacking shots, particularly against off-spinner Jeetan Patel, and hit left-arm pace bowler Neil Wagner for a soaring six over long-on as he attempted to reach his maiden century before tea.

He was on 91 at tea and the declaration was delayed until he reached his hundred in the sixth over after the break.

Dean Elgar

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Administrative calamities continue to affect Rugby

By Rawle Welch When compared with the period 2006-11, the performances of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) and the national teams last year could best be described as one of disappointment for the sport for some time.

No one in their right mind could refute the fact that much of the blame for the drop in performance by the national

teams was due largely to the lassitude and bungling of the Union after a successful phase during which time the country dominated the sport at the regional level and performed creditably on the international stage.

The question on everyone’s lips is how could all the successes that included a large collection of regional titles for both the men’s and women’s sides in addition to being voted the

most outstanding association at the national sports awards suddenly slip away in just twelve months.

It is not to say that an eventual end to the long run was not expected, but what was unpredictable was the manner and time in which it happened.

However, after dominating the region in the previous year, and with a new nucleus of players coming through the junior system to

augment the established players and with a 2015 World Cup qualifier on the line many opined that had all the necessary steps been put in place to ensure that the team gets to the tournament in Canada well equipped and in the right frame of mind to give it their best shot despite the quality of the opposition, the results might have been better.

Instead, there was a plethora of administrative

calamities that first affected the mood among the players and then the inadequacy of funding that saw the nonparticipation of the women despite the acquisition of visas to travel.

There have been similar instances in the past where the administration was found wanting in team preparations and travel issues, but last year it really manifested itself in the open with players visibly irritated by the whole episode.

Unless the current administration get their act together and understand that the sports landscape calls for a more proactive and aggressive approach, it would be difficult for the sport to regain the lofty status it enjoyed for close to seven years.

First, it must ensure that women’s participation is enhanced because last year saw no tournaments run off for them due to the inability to field teams, while in the men’s segment, it continues to be a three-team affair between Hornets, the GDF and Yamaha Caribs.

The sport despite the long and successful run at the regional level remains out of the mainstream and many attribute this to the lack of adequate advertising of the game, while the present administration seems not to understand how important social networking has become.

In many disciplines that have seen growth and elevation, social interaction has become imperative, it is where deals and sponsorship

John Lewis approval has been secured and until the move is made within the rugby fraternity for the hierarchy to make itself more visible, the sport will continue to decline.

Previously, many of the deficiencies were camouflaged due to the corporate connections of a few, but with their exodus, the faults are now coming to the fore.

The players’ commitment was always guaranteed and they rallied in spite of the frustrations that never seemed to cease, but many have quietly expressed disappointment at the continued lethargy of the Union.

They felt that unless a move is made to engage the Government and more directly the Ministry of Sport to assist in the further development of the sport at all levels and a similar budge made towards the corporate sector, the game will continue to languish which is the case at the moment.

This year is a defining one for the sport and one could only hope that last year was a minor impediment and not the start of a major tumble.

Only time has the answer.

Wakenaam Cricket Committee had fruitful 2012 The Wakenaam Cricket Committee for the first time in the history of cricket organized by the Essequibo Board, managed to win a senior competition; the island was victorious in the ECB 40 over tournament in 2012.

The WCC managed to run off two Twenty\20 tournaments which were sponsored by Safraz Sherifudeen (Mac) and Feroze Amin, with Sans Souci Jaguars winning the former, while Sans Souci SC was the successful team in the latter.

The other tournaments which were streamlined for 2012 had to be postponed due to the inclement weather.

A number of players from the island was selected to the

various ECB inter county teams some of whom went on to represent Guyana. Kemo Paul was the captain of the U-15 team, while Ricardo Adams recorded the first century by an Essequibian at the regional U-19 level.

Additionally Wayne Osborne and Adams were selected to represent the county in the GCB T\20 competition which was not played due to rain.

The Committee is expressing many thanks to its sponsors, Safraz Sherifudeen and Feroze Amin. Secretary of the WCC Nazeer Mohamed in a brief remark said the Committee is looking to organize more competitions in 2013.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 57

Anthony satisfied with outcome of football impasse

By Edison Jefford Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony has expressed his satisfaction over the mediation process between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) that seemingly brought an end to the long-standing impasse between the two factions.

Anthony addressed the issue on Friday during a visit to the Synthetic Track and Field Facility at Leonora where a modern football field is also being laid in the centre. He said that the process is good for the development of football in Guyana.

“We are very pleased this has happened. It should have happened a long time ago.

This is good for the development of football in our country,” Anthony stated, adding that the field at the track at Leonora will be a “world class field” when completed. The grass for the field has already been planted.

“We have already spoken to the GFF about this (the field at Leonora) and the goal

Dr. Frank Anthony project to see how these facilities will be utilised,” the Minister continued, adding that he has had some healthy discussions with CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb, last week.

According to Anthony the intervention of CONCACAF and FIFA in a domestic matter gives the rest of the region a good example of how international bodies ought to operate.

He said he hopes the West Indies Cricket Board paid keen attention to what is considered mediation,

From left: Thierry Regenass, Vernon Burnett, Franklin Wilson and Jeffrey Webb attempting to draw a parallel with the current cricket imbroglio involving the GCB and the Government-linked Interim Management Committee.

During private meetings held at the Pegasus Hotel last week, officials representing the GFF and the GFA, CONCACAF and FIFA agreed

to a set of statutes that should see an end to the long-standing dispute that engulfed the GFF and GFA for the last two years.

Mainly among the Agreement was GFA permanent withdrawal of all legal actions lodged before the Courts of Guyana against the GFF by 14 January 2013; and GFF’s immediate

reinstatement of all membership rights to the GFA upon withdrawal of all aforementioned legal actions, which has to include GFA’s right to vote at the GFF Elections.

Acting President, Franklin Wilson, and General Secretary, Noel Adonis represented the GFF

while Vernon Burnett, and General Secretary, Christopher Matthias, represented the G FA i n talks that included CONCACAF President and FIFA Vice-President, Webb and FIFA D i r e c t o r o f Member Associations and Development, Thierry Regenass.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Blatter: Football must bring people together Lionel Messi, Abby Wambach, Vicente del Bosque, Pia Sundhage, Miroslav Stoch and Franz Beckenbauer were bestowed with individual awards at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala for 2012. They were not, however, the only people praised by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter as he addressed the audience during the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala.

Kevin-Prince Boateng recently led his AC Milan team-mates off the pitch after he was subjected to racist taunts during a friendly away to Pro Patria.

Blatter saluted the Ghanaian midfielder’s bravery, though he warned a solution must be found to prevent similar incidents.

The FIFA President said: “If a player walks off the pitch because he has been racially abused, just as Kevin-Prince Boateng did, it is a strong and courageous signal, a way of saying, ‘This has gone this far, but it goes no further’.

That is praiseworthy.

“But it cannot be the solution in the long term. We have to find other sustainable

Joseph Sepp Blatter

solutions to tackle the problem at its roots.

Otherwise, such stands will be made in isolation and lost in the heat of general controversy. Football must not separate people. Football must bring people together.”

It is also a source of joy

and hope to those affected by conflict.

Indeed, governments of countries in which war zones exist or have existed use the sport as a means to unite and inspire their people.

Blatter explained: “Our game is still played in places

where life has come to a shuddering halt, suffocated by acts of war – in Syria, for example, whose national team won the West Asian Championship in December and where football is still being played, just as it was in Baghdad during the Iraq War,

just as it was in Libya, and just as it was and is in Afghanistan. Football is the last bridge when society has broken down, but it is also the first bridge when life begins to bloom again.

“Thanks to the men and women who will be on the stage here this evening. A beautiful pass, a stunning shot into the top corner, and the trials and tribulations of daily life, as hard as they have been, are forgotten. Football is hope. Football is life.”

Many of the footballers Blatter was referring to left Zurich Kongresshaus emptyhanded. The FIFA President nevertheless believes they are all champions.

“There can only be one winner – you have to accept that some people have to win and others have to lose,” he explained. “I have seen many stars come and go, but only those who had the winner’s gene truly left their mark.

When I talk about a ‘winner’s gene’, I don’t mean the victories that these exceptional talents celebrated. Instead, I am talking about the quality that

made them true champions: namely the ability to also accept defeat.

“It is all about respect, discipline, fair play. After all, it is easy to celebrate victory, but much harder to accept defeat with dignity. This is exactly where many supposed stars differ from the true champions we are honouring here this evening.”

Blatter concluded by expressing his satisfaction over the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala outlining the importance of enjoyment.

“Football is a great spectacle, like movies,” he said. “We have movie stars and producers here tonight to show that football is also culture. Overall, what we are showing tonight is the fascination with football, what it is bringing to the world, and bringing compliments to players and coaches.

“Enjoy every day in life, because tomorrow can only be better if you believe in football. Enjoy the game, enjoy this evening, and more importantly, enjoy life.”

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 59

Down to PCB to convince other nations - Richardson Dave Richardson, the ICC CEO, has said the ICC has a limited role to play in the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan and it will be down to the PCB to convince other nations that it is safe to play cricket in the country.

“Security is not something that is taken lightly by anybody,” Richardson, who was in Pakistan for the PCB awards ceremony, said.

“Making a decision as to whether it’s safe or not involves a serious assessment of the risk. The ICC is not in a position to do [security assessment]. It’s up to the member countries to decide. They have to take advice from their own security advisors and make decisions themselves.

“The bottom line is that the ICC views Pakistan as a very important part of international cricket,” he said.

“Pakistan is going through difficult times through no fault of the PCB. It’s our role to support Pakistan in its efforts to make sure that international cricket returns to Pakistan. As soon as possible is what everyone would like, but it’s difficult to say exactly when and I

think that’s about as much as far as we can go at this stage.”

Pakistan has remained a no-go country for international teams since the attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009. In the past three years, Pakistan have played their ‘home’ series mostly in the UAE. Though the PCB has been desperate to revive international cricket, the efforts so far haven’t yielded any positive results.

The PCB relies heavily on the government to arrange security for the visiting teams, but last year it sanctioned the purchase of bulletproof buses. Apart from working on security protocols, the PCB has been working on identifying potential new venues across the country and upgrading them to international standards. The board is also lobbying hard to win back the confidence of the teams.

“Coming from a country [South Africa] which was out of international cricket for a very large period of my career, I know that if you concentrate on your domestic cricket and you make sure you encourage people to play the game

even if it’s at first-class level you can reap tremendous rewards and in fact negative can turn into a positive and at the end of it all you might find that Pakistan cricket is much stronger than it was even before these difficult times.”

Richardson also visited the National Cricket Academy where he was briefed about the developments in Pakistan cricket and PCB’s plans with regards to promotion and management of the game in the country. “The initiatives that PCB has put in place over the last 12 months or so I think it’s the correct way to go,” Richardson said and added that the recent “revival of ties with India” is a step in the right direction as the ties between the two countries are critical for world cricket. “The announcement of the Twenty20 competition [PSL] where foreign players will be entitled to come and play if available, again that is, I think, an initiative on the right path because what you’ve got to do is to regain the confidence of cricketing world and I think that’s a very sensible step in the right direction.” (ESPN Cricinfo)

Dave Richardson

Page 60

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Serena plays down favourite tag ahead of Australian Open Serena Williams has dismissed the widely-held view - shared by defending champion Victoria Azarenka that she is the woman to beat at this year’s Australian Open.

The American comes into the season’s first grand slam event in blistering form. The winner of 52 of her past 54 matches, Williams claimed the Wimbledon crown, the gold

medal at the London Olympics and the US Open title in a stunning second half of 2012.

She also started the New Year in imposing fashion, cruising to victory in last week’s warm-up event in Brisbane. When asked if Williams was the main threat to her chances of defending the Daphne Akhurst

Memorial Cup, world number one Azarenka admitted: ‘Yes, I think so.’

Williams, a five-time winner in Melbourne, offered a different view. ‘I feel like I have to win seven matches.

Everyone in this draw has to win seven matches. They have the same opportunity to do it as I do,’ she said. ‘(But) If I can do it, then that would

be great.’

Williams is the bookmakers’ favourite and she conceded there were pros and cons to being so being so heavily fancied.

‘I’ve been the favourite so many times and I’ve been the ultimate underdog several times,’ she added. ‘I like being the underdog, you don’t have so much pressure.

Great form: Williams won Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open in 2012

‘Being the favourite is fun too because then you feel like you’re the one to beat.’

Having taken her time to return to full fitness from a serious foot injury and a pulmonary embolism discovered in March 2011, Williams is now looking in the form of her distinguished career.

And while the 31-year-old accepts she is playing well, she refuses to compare her current fortunes with previous periods of dominance. She said: ‘I just feel like I am in the moment right now.

‘For this moment, I’m playing well. I really hope I can keep it up and continue to play well. I feel really calm and relaxed, I feel really good.

‘I don’t feel like I am panicking, I don’t feel like I am doing anything over the top. I think for me that’s key.’

Azarenka is sure to lead the challengers, although prospects of a mouthwatering final showdown were dashed yesterday when they were placed in the same half of the draw. The Belarusian is now fully fit after withdrawing in Brisbane, ahead of a semifinal clash with Williams, due to a toe infection.

Cynics suggested she had pulled out to avoid the possibility of a moralesapping defeat so close to Melbourne, claims laughed off by the 23-year-old from

Minsk. ‘There is nothing I could do to make it happen,’ she insisted.

‘I think I made a good choice by the way. I’m feeling good right now.’ The main contender from the bottom half of the draw, Maria Sharapova, comes into the tournament under a fitness cloud.

A collarbone injury, detected last month, forced her to Miss Brisbane although she is confident she has made a full recovery. ‘I am feeling really good,’ she said.

‘Obviously I would have loved to have gone to Brisbane and play that. But sometimes circumstances don’t allow that, and that’s okay. ‘To me I’d rather be going on to the court knowing that I’m healthy. Yes I might be a little bit rusty but I’ll work my way through it.

‘I’m experienced enough to know the adjustments I have to make in these types of circumstances.’ Sharapova is also experienced enough not to be overawed by Williams’ form.

‘I think everyone reacts to it a little bit differently,’ she said. ‘But there’s a reason why everyone’s playing here and everyone’s in the draw.

‘You can’t worry about somebody else that’s not even close to you in a certain part of the draw. You have to take it a step at a time. ‘That’s certainly my goal and my job here.’

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 61

“CT-20 2013 - First week of tremendously exciting cricket but disappointingly low scores!”

Colin E. H. Croft Yesterday’s game, one greatly anticipated, and reflecting winners of this competition since its inception, Trinidad & Tobago v Guyana, marked the midpoint of this fantastic exhibition of color and tremendously exciting CT-20 2013 cricket. But scores have been decidedly, disappointingly low!

Was it that, for once, bowlers were actually holding their own, or were batsmen simply poor? Or were batsmen not coming fully to terms with the always tricky, but not treacherous Queen’s Park Oval pitch?

Up to last Friday’s game, Barbados v Combined Campuses & Campuses, 11th of 13 games played in Trinidad & Tobago, almost 22 full innings, there had been only three scores over 150.

Not good at all!

Given that any full T-20 innings is 120 legal deliveries, allowing for additional wides and no-balls, most T-20 innings consist of at least 130 deliveries. That alone should almost guarantee a minimum of 150 in every innings, if not 160. To get there, at just over one run per ball, batsmen need intelligent cricket!

In game No. 3, Guyana just managed to cross the line, in the very last ball, against CCC, very fortunately getting 160-8 after CCC had made 1593, with Chadwick Walton making that truly magnificent 99 no. Guyana’s skipper, Verasammy Permaul, erred especially badly with the use of his bowlers, using himself at the very end, instead of perhaps Narsingh Deonarine who had bowled two overs for only eleven runs.

Some suggest that ends justify means. Guyana did win eventually, Permaul actually redeeming himself

with a colossal free-hit six, after Jason Holder had bowled a no-ball at the very wrong time. CCC was close then, as I suggested they would always be. They really should have won against Guyana. Eventually, CCC did dent Barbados’ aspirations, who seem, in that old parlance, to have started the race very quickly, not realizing that this race is long; that only those who survive well along the way, will win!

Trinidad & Tobago’s 1874 v Leeward Islands; more like what is required; was the 3rd 150+ score, and highest score up to Friday last, Lendyl Simmons and Darren Bravo; 62 and 65 not out respectively, playing with the ease, confidence and cricket knowledge that their international experiences bring.

Barbados, my silent 2nd favorite, after joint favorites T&T and Guyana, has been a very interesting study of selfimplosion, perhaps a team much too much caught up in its own ebullience, confidence and hype.

Bim’s boys started brilliantly, blowing away both Leeward Islands; for 87; and

a so far surprisingly under achieving Jamaica; for 72; while the Bajans themselves only lost six wickets in both games. The irresistible Tino Best, showing maturity that playing for West Indies regularly brings, looked awesome!

Barbados’ innings of 66 against Guyana was easily the poorest so far in the tournament. Their patience and probable disregard of Guyana’s bowling attack allowed them to go headlong into oblivion. Barbados then continued its ignominy, losing to CCC, which consists of mainly Bajans and Jamaicans!

Individually, Tino Best has been a real revelation, getting two well-deserved four-wicket hauls to date. He has bowled fast, furious and of a full enough length to seemingly actually scare some of the batsmen.

In any form of cricket, at any level, there is not a better sight than a real fast bowler, not one of those ubiquitous, medium dobblers, racing up to the crease in full flow, slinging Exocet missiles Tino delivered!

As things stand, with

following games set for Beausejour Stadium in the stunningly beautiful St. Lucia starting later this week, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago are the obvious, if surprising, form teams.

Continued consistency in SLU should see them both to the semifinals, but that is not

a shoo-in. Any of five or six teams can still win the competition, and I am sure that further upsets are still on.

Guyana’s Narsingh Deonarine has done himself proud with both bat and ball, and Shiv Chanderaul has hung in, even if he has not yet scored really big. At least, he is still contributing well.

Not so Ramnaresh Sarwan.

He has looked out of sorts and most times; out of position.

He is finding that batting in club cricket in Guyana is not the same as playing against really determined bowlers.

Guyana should certainly be commended for its overall efforts. After all, it was quite possible that they could not have been involved at all, so late was their team submitted, after the continued impasse between Guyana Cricket Board and some politically headed, and wrongly advised, Interim Committee.

Especially Jamaica and even Barbados will have to up their efforts considerably to

Colin E. H. Croft appear in the semis.

Jamaica has missed Chris Gayle much, even as no-one understands the explanation given by Jamaica’s Cricket Association about his absence. Its bowling does, at times, look better than expected, Krismar Santokie taking plaudits. Tamar Lambert has also led with aplomb, given his team’s batting problems.

CCC, Barbados, along with Windward Islands, playing at home, could still feature, especially CCC, since each can cause further upsets.

This next week could be even more exhilarating in CT-20 2013. Enjoy!

Page 62

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 13, 2013

Murray to begin Australian Open bid on Tuesday against Dutchman Haase Andy Murray will start his quest for Australian Open glory on Tuesday against Robin Haase. World No 1 Novak Djokovic will be the first of the big guns to kick off his campaign when he plays Paul-Henri Mathieu on Rod Laver Arena in Monday’s day session.

Murray, like Federer, is in the opposite half of the draw to Djokovic and will have to wait until the following day to start his bid to win the first grand slam of the season.

British female No 1 Heather Watson will play her firstround match on Monday against Alexandra Cadantu.

Watson is third on Court 13 but Laura Robson, like Murray, will have to wait until Tuesday.

Scottish qualifier Jamie

Baker is also in first-round action on Monday as he takes on Alex Bogomolov Jr. The big match of day one sees home favourite Lleyton Hewitt, who won the Koolong Classic exhibition event in Melbourne, take on Djokovic’s compatriot Janko Tipsarevic in the evening session.

Maria Sharapova will start proceedings on Rod Laver Arena against fellow Russian Olga Puchkova. Murray is looking to win back-to-back grand slam titles after his dramatic success in New York last autumn.

He said: ‘Obviously last year was by far my best on the court. ‘I had my first Wimbledon final, the Olympics was a great experience and then my first

Thomas United FC Meeting Members of the Thomas United Football Club are invited to attend a special members General Meeting today at the GFC Pavilion starting at 13:00hrs. Members are asked to make a special effort to attend this important meeting.

grand slam title after that. I also finished with my highest ranking.

‘So there were a lot of firsts for me last year, and that’s pretty important. ‘I kept saying that once you get to your mid-20s it’s important to try to find things to improve on and do things that you’ve never done or things you haven’t achieved before.

‘So it was great to have been able to have done those things. And I’ll try to build on that this year.’

Djokovic is favourite to win his fourth Australian Open title but he spoke highly of Murray’s chances.

‘He has become a grand slam and Olympic champion.

It’s not something that many players in history have done,’ the world No 1 said.

‘He’s great. I think something mentally switched in his head and he just started believing much more in his abilities, even though he was always a great player and a contender to win a major title.

‘Now that he has done it he’s definitely right up there,

MOVES: Djokovic and Serena Williams perform the Gangnam Style dance one of the favourites for any tournament he plays.’

Second seed Roger Federer comes to Melbourne having played no warm-up events but the 17-time grand slam champion denied it was a risky strategy.

‘I went to South America and played some matches there which was good for me after a few weeks of vacation,’ said the Swiss.

‘Now I feel fine. I purposely didn’t play a leadup tournament so that I’d be

fresh for the beginning, hopefully going deep into the tournament. That’s the goal obviously.

‘It’s nice sometimes doing it slightly differently than every year the same thing.’

(Mail Online)

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 63

Chelsea cruise, Reading turn it around Chelsea moved up to third in the Premier League courtesy of a 4-0 win at Stoke, with the unfortunate Jonathan Walters scoring two own goals and missing a penalty. Walters gifted Chelsea the lead in first-half injury time when he dove to head a right-wing cross beyond his own goalkeeper.

And the striker was also in the wrong place at the wrong time on 62 minutes to nod Juan Mata’s cross beyond Asmir Begovic under pressure from Frank Lampard.

Lampard himself scored the Blues’ third just three minutes later, hammering home a penalty after Mata had been brought down by Robert Huth, while Eden Hazard fired in a superb fourth with a leftfoot drive from 25 yards.

Walters had the chance to make some kind of amends with a late penalty, but saw his spot-kick clip the bar on the way over as Stoke surrendered the top flight’s last unbeaten home record.

The three points lifted Rafael Benitez’s team above London rivals Tottenham after they could only draw 0-0 against

QPR at Loftus Road.

That point in the day’s early kick-off lifted Harry Redknapp’s side off the bottom for a few hours, only for Reading to then come from 2-0 down to beat West Brom 3-2 at the Madejski Stadium.

Romelu Lukaku was left with the simple task of converting James Morrison’s cross in the 19th minute and had another goal disallowed before making it 2-0 on 69 minutes.

But Jimmy Kebe pulled one back eight minutes from time, Adam Le Fondre equalised from the penalty spot in the closing stages and Pavel Pogrebnyak grabbed a dramatic winner in the last minute.

Wigan climbed out of the bottom three with a 1-1 draw at Fulham, leaving Aston Villa to fall into the drop zone on goal difference. Giorgos Karagounis gave the Latics the lead at Craven Cottage with a well-taken shot which went in off the post, but Franco Di Santo equalised on 71 minutes when he cut in from left and curled a shot into the far corner. Villa will feel doubly aggrieved after a

Walters headed in his second own goal under pressure from Lampard controversial penalty saw them lose 1-0 at home to Southampton. Enda Stevens was penalised for a foul on Jay Rodriguez although there did not appear to be any contact, with Rickie Lambert

converting confidently from the spot after Villa’s protests were waved away by referee Mark Halsey. Sunderland moved further away from trouble with a 3-0 win at home to West Ham, with Sebastian

Larsson opening the scoring after 12 minutes with a stunning left-foot half-volley from long-range. Adam Johnson doubled the lead after the Hammers defence failed to clear a loose ball and

James McClean sealed a convincing win at the Stadium of Light 15 minutes from time.

The games between Everton and Swansea and Norwich and Newcastle both finished goalless. (FIFA.com)

Page 64

Kaieteur News

Taylor guides Windies to crucial win The West Indies Women’s team recorded a crucial 8-wicket win over South Africa yesterday (Saturday) at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica in the third of the fivematch One-Day International between the two countries.

After winning the toss and inviting the visitors to take first strike, the Windies bowlers struck at regular intervals to bowl out the South Africans who are leading the series 2-1 for 120 in 47.1 overs.

Top scoring for the South Africans was Mignon du Preez with 20, support came from Susanna Benade (17), Shandre Fritz (15), Sunette Loubser (15*) and Chloe-Lesleigh Tryon (10) the only other batters reaching double figures.

Doing the damage with the ball for the home team were Stafanie Taylor (9.1-2-22-4), Shaquana Quintyne (10-3-14-3) with one wicket each for Shanel Daley (9-2-26-1) and Anisa Mohammed (10-2-24-1).

Wickets fell at: 1-5, 2-41, 3-51, 4-52, 5-66, 666, 7-85, 8-86, 9-104, 10-120.

In reply, player-of-the-match Taylor blasted a well composed 71 to set the foundation for a comfortable win for the Windies Women as they ended on 121-2 from 29.2 overs.

Taylor featured in an opening partnership of 75 with Kycia Knight who made 24.

Sunday January 13, 2013

GCB senior 4-day Inter County tourney...

Demerara beat E’bo by 8 wkts; GT&T Berbice in control against President’s XI

Stafanie Taylor (WICB Media Photo/ Johnny JnoBaptiste)

Guyanese Shemaine Campbelle was unbeaten on 17 along with Deandra Dottin (4) when victory was achieved.

Taylor was second wicket to fall at 111 but by then the writing was already on the wall for the South Africans.

South Africa Women won the first two games by 80 runs and 4 wickets, respectively.

Anthony Bramble

Gajanand Singh

Delbert Hicks

By Zaheer Mohamed

slammed six fours along with Vishal Singh with 21 not out saw their team to victory in the 26th over just after tea, finishing on 97-2. Anthony Adams and Herry Green were the wicket takers for Essequibo.

Meanwhile, Gajanand Singh and Anthony D’Andrade began the day on 57 and 02 respectively, with GT&T Berbice on 267-3 at DCC against the President’s XI. Singh was the first to go when he was trapped in front by pacer Gilford Moore for 65

Daniels was the leading wicket taker for the President’s XI with 3-82, while Collins Butts had 2-60; Nanan, Clements and Moore took one each. The President’s XI, needing to score 241 to make Berbice bat again, found themselves in early trouble in their second innings, losing the wickets of Krishna Arjune (01) and Tagenarine Chanderpaul (08) to be at 20-2.

Jitendra Sookdeo and Anthony Bramble carried

Demerara defeated Essequibo by 8 wickets, while Berbice are 4 wickets away from victory when play in the Guyana Cricket Board Senior four-day Inter County tournament continued yesterday.

At Everest, Essequibo resumed on their overnight total of 72-1 with Norman Federicks on 33 and Dillon Heyliger on 25, they took the score to 83 before Federicks was bowled by pacer Andrea Stoll without addition to his score.

Leg spinner Amir Khan removed Ricardo Adams for 14 (2x6) and Herrell Green (00), while Kellon Carmichael accounted for Wayne Osborne (00) to leave Essequibo in trouble at 1164. Heyliger however continued to play his shots and soon reached a well deserved half century before he was caught off Totaram Bishun for 57 (8x4) at 129.

Essequibo then lost Anthony Adams and Kenzo Baksh in quick succession to be at 132-8.

Surajpaul and Herry Green however added 18 for the 9th wicket with Surajpaul reaching his fifty which included six fours. Green was then run out for 06 before Surajpaul departed for 54 leaving Roopesh Motilall not out on 02; Essequibo bowled out for 187 in 55 overs.

Bishun grabbed 3-48, Amir Khan 3-61 and Carmichael 2-24. With 96 required for victory Demerara lost Shemroy Barrington for 10 (27-1) and Chanderpaul Hemraj for 01 (37-2).

Robin Bacchus who

Eugene La Fleur plays a forward defensive stroke (7x4). Pacer Seon Daniels had D’Andrade leg before for 13 at 328 before Delbert Hincks and Jason Sinclair put together 54 for the 6th wicket stand with sensible batting.

Hincks eventually departed for 68 with the score 382, he stroked nine fours and two maximums.

Sinclair added a further 26 with Clinton Pestano before the latter went for 20. Eon Hooper soon followed without scoring as Berbice declared their first innings on 424-8 with Sinclair unbeaten on 26 and Gudakesh Moti Kanhai on 02.

Football veterans invited to practise today All Guyana veterans are invited to a practice match at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) Ground at 8am today in preparation for the Compton Julian, Birdette

Marshall and Godfrey Norville benefit competition during February 24-26. All veterans are kindly asked to attend these very important practice sessions.

them to 47 before Sookdeo was caught and bowled by Kanhai for 17. Keon Joseph then removed Kevon Boodie for 03 and Kanhai accounted for Clements for 05 to leave the total at 85-5.

Bramble who looked rock solid and Eugene La Fleur put together 50 runs for the 6th wicket but just when they appeared to be taking their team to stumps without further loss, Berbice skipper Assad Fudadin asked part time spinner Sewnarine Chattergoon to deliver to bowl the last over of the day and the decision paid dividends when Chattergoon had La Fleur caught and bowled off the first ball for 13; the President’s XI closed the day on 135-6 after facing 43.1 overs with Bramble unbeaten on 78 (13x4). Kanhai has so far taken 2 wickets, while Joseph, Pestano, Hooper and Chattergoon have one each.

The game continues today.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Kaieteur News

A TRIBUTE TO CLAIRE HARRIS-THOMAS

By Mike Baptiste Just over a month ago Guyana lost one of its table tennis stalwarts, the indomitable Claire Harris-Thomas. After a prolonged illness, Harris-Thomas succumbed at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital on December 12, 2012.

Her death, although a shock to close relatives, went virtually unknown to many in the local table tennis fraternity. Former national table tennis champion and National Coach, Mike Baptiste in a glowing tribute to his former colleague described her as the pioneer in local female table tennis area.

To purists, Claire Harris might not have appeared to possess the style or grace of movement that makes a great table tennis player. But her self-confidence, determination and the ability to reach deep down inside for that final winning effort, whenever the chips were down, more than compensated for any inadequacy, and made her our first truly great female table tennis player.

Many were the times that these qualities served her in good stead and took her from the jaws of defeat and into winner’s row.

Claire’s career as a National player began in 1960 and ended prematurely, perhaps in 1965. During those six years, she carved a name for herself and her country at the Caribbean level.

Like most tennis players at that time, Claire learnt the game on a piece of particle board under her home on Church Street, and not long after represented her school, St. Joseph’s.

Born January 24, 1945, she got her first taste of top-level tennis at the National Championships in 1960, but she lost in the women’s final to Audrey Shonelkar of England, who was based in Guyana at the time.

That same year she made her international debut at the third Caribbean Championships in Barbados, where, despite not winning a title, she managed to impress with her fighting qualities.

The following year, at the same championships, this time in Trinidad and Tobago, Claire showed that she had learnt from her previous tour. She reached the Women’s Singles final, but was beaten by Trinidadian Petal Lee Loy, the best player in the Caribbean at that time.

Undaunted however, Claire returned to Barbados for the 1962 championships and in tandem with her elder sister Margaret, won the Women’s team title to give Guyana its first title at these games in any category.

At these championships, Claire achieved stardom. She won the prized Women’s Singles crown, defeating Monica De Souza, and completed the triple by teaming up with Margaret to take the Women’s Doubles making a clean sweep of the ladies’ titles.

Come 1963, in Jamaica, Claire, now a fully matured racquet wielder met Joy Foster, who is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest National player. Foster was to become her biggest foe for the next two years.

Foster made her debut in 1960 at the age of eight, and like Claire, developed into a top class player.

At the championships that year, Guyana had to settle for the runner-up spot in the team event behind Jamaica - Joy Foster being Jamaica’s trump card in this victory.

Foster also went on to take the Women’s Singles that year, after getting past Claire in the semi-finals. But the Women’s Doubles crown went to Claire and Margaret, who demolished Foster and De Souza in the final.

Representing her country on home turf for the first time in 1964, at Queen’s College, when Guyana hosted the Caribbean Championships,

Claire Thomas Claire gave local fans a frightening display of power tennis.

She smashed her way to the Ladies’ Sing1es crown, disposing of De Souza in the semi-finals and her sister Margaret in the final.

Margaret had earlier ousted Foster in the other semi-final encounter.

The two later came back to win the Women’s Doubles for the third consecutive time, by beating the Jamaican pair of Foster and De Souza. However, Jamaica had the distinction of winning the Women’s team title.

Claire’s final appearance for her country was in Trinidad and Tobago and despite losing to Foster in the semi-finals of the Singles, she played unbeaten in the team event to steer Guyana to the crown. She also once again teamed up with Margaret to claim the Women’s Doubles.

For her outstanding performances, Claire was voted Sports-woman of the Year on no less than three occasions, 1961, ’63 and ’64.

But what were the secrets of this player’s success? Unlike most, she had great determination, and was never one to distress herself over any mistake she might have made during competition, instead, she always kept thinking about the next point.

She also possessed an uncommon quality.

The fear of defeat has led many a player down the wrong road, but this motivated Claire. The more scared she was of losing the better she performed.

Surprisingly, Claire was never as dominant on the local scene as she was at Caribbean Championships. At home, she more often than not played second fiddle to Margaret and Barbara De Abreu (Barbara Jekir). She won the National crown only once, in 1963.

After voluntarily ending her tennis career, Claire turned to badminton, and as in tennis, immediately made an impact. She was crowned National Singles champion four times before calling it a day in 1970. She also won the National Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles during her stint in this game.

Claire married to Winston Thomas and was the proud mother of three daughters, Barbara, Jeanette and Beverley. She did a stint teaching blind children at the Unit for the Visually Impaired, at St. Rose’s High School.

Claire’s tennis career was short but sweet.

Her achievements as a tennis and badminton player have made this nation’s sports history richer, and for this we say thank you.

Rest in Peace Claire.

Page 65

t r o Sp

K&S hosts impressive prizegiving ceremony

- Buxton United SC carts off lion’s share of awards

WE ARE THE CHAMPS! Buxton United SC celebrates with K&S directors following the presentation ceremony. (Obrey James photo)

T

hey had defeated two giants, Alpha United FC and the Pele FC, en-route to their inaugural attainment of the prestigious K&S football championships on January 1 last.

Yesterday afternoon, residents of the Buxton community trooped from Golden Grove to the Buxton playfield to celebrate the momentous achievement

even as their heroes collected the Lion’s share of the accolades that defined them among their peers when the organizers of the K&S football organization hosted the prize giving ceremony at the Buxton Community Centre Ground, Buxton ECD yesterday evening.

The victory marked the second by a team from the East Coast, emulating

Vi c t o r y K i n g s i n t h e 2001/02 edition of the tournament.

The victory becomes more meritorious when one examines the fixtures and notes that of the 16 teams that participated, Buxton United were matched against tough contenders the likes of BK International Western Tigers, who they defeated 1-0 before inflicting a similar 1 nil

defeat over Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United FC. They started their march to the top, brushing past Winners Connection 3-1 before taking the championship match against Amelia’s Ward 65 on sudden death penalty kicks.

Their Captain and National player, Dwayne Jacobs, who was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable

Player (MVP), drove off with a brand new Toyota Allex 2200CC motor car donated by Edward B. Beharry and Company Ltd while coach, Herbert McPherson was adjudged the best among the lot and won a 125CC motorcycle while Jason Cromwell, also a player of the winning team, was adjudged the Most Promising Player.

Travis Waterton received

a special award for netting the most spectacular goal while Marlon Phillips won the prize for being the best defender.

Odel Allicock won the Best Goalkeeper’s award and was also adjudged the most improved p-layer.

President of Pele FC Carey Jacques also presented him with a goalkeeper’s glove for this accomplishment. Alpha United striker, Dwight Peters, won the award for the most goals scored (7) while Buxton United FC was awarded the Fair Play Award. Meanwhile, CoDirector of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, Kashif Muhammad, hailed this year’s tournament as one of, if not the best since the event started in 1989.

He lauded the demonstration of support, especially by residents of the Buxton community and other East Coast villages.

“The support was truly overwhelming and I wish to express deep gratitude to you all,” Mr. Muhammad told the large gathering.

He further said that the Buxton United victory is indicative of hard work, perseverance and commitment demonstrated by the club.

“Big names don’t win matches; it’s the performance of the players in the actual matches,” he concluded.

Shortly after the prizes were issued the Buxtonians proudly sang their battle song before the festivities commenced.

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